The voice of Prospect

since 1960

801 West Kensington Road, Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056

Volume 52, Issue 1 Friday, September 14, 2012

To find out how Prospect goes green and to read a profile of AP Environmental Science,

see...In-Depth, pages 8-9

Campaign recap

While President Obama prepared to run for his second term, Republicans looked for their nominee. For a timeline and commentary on the Republican campaign, go to...

Opinion, page 6

Movie hits and misses

During the summer, blockbusters like “The Amazing Spider-Man” produced hype. To find out whether this and other movies delivered, turn to...

Entertainment, page 12

Do football games lack student spirit?

Find out if we match other schools’ enthusiasm on...

Sports, page 15

See THEATER CLOSING, page 2

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Community affected by closing

See GYM CLASSES, page 2

By Maddy MoloneyAssociate Editor-in-Chief

For the seven months senior Claire Pfohl worked at Arlington Theaters there had never been a mandatory meeting, but a notice read that there would be a meeting the following night and that all crew must attend. At the meeting Pfohl’s worst fear had come true; her manager broke the news that the theater would be closing, leaving 25 workers jobless.

Due to a struggle to renegotiate their lease and dwindling funds, Arlington Theaters, located in downtown Arling-ton Heights closed their door Sunday, July 8, after 12 years of business.

The theater’s landlord also wanted to update from traditional film prints to digital technology, but the high costs were too much. The estimated cost per screen was $65 thousand according to

Jem Movies. Pfohl noted plenty of signs foreshad-

owing the closing: the air conditioning in the lobby broke in June and was nev-er repaired; the theater couldn’t afford to put a float in the Fourth of July pa-rade, a long standing tradition; and the theater often couldn’t afford to replen-ish stock.

“We knew it was coming,” Pfohl said. “We just didn’t want to believe.”

Surprisingly, the cause of the close was not a lack of business, but rather the prices were too low to make a profit.

“We were giving more than we were receiving,” Pfohl said.

Pfohl presumes they did this in order to keep up with monster chain cinemas such as the neighboring AMC.

With the fall of the theater, the rest of downtown Arlington Heights is

By Nabi DresslerExecutive News Editor

Senior and varsity swimmer Taylor Arndt waived out of first semester gym; she swims three miles a day and is one of the top freestyle swimmers on the team.

However, second semester, Arndt will have to run twice a week and participate in a cardio workout once a week in a regular gym class because of her low fit-ness score.

Arndt passed all but one part of fitness testing: running. She is knock-kneed and flat-footed, condi-tions that make running painful.

“To say, ‘You’re not physically fit because you can’t

run, [so] let’s make you run [two] days a week,’ that’s extremely counter-productive,” Arndt said. “I swim three miles a day. I’m not going to run because you tell me to.”

This year, regular gym students with fitness scores under 70 will run twice a week and participate in an-other cardio activity once a week, while students with scores over 70 can choose other sports instead; they are not required to run.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, all students get to participate in electives of their choice.

According to P.E. teacher Carrie Black, the curric-ulum of the activities will be similar to what has been done in the past, but P.E. teachers will teach different students every day.

The activities offered each period depend on stu-dent choice.

“We think that if you are doing stuff that you want to do, then you’re more motivated to participate, so we’re not in the fight of ‘I don’t want to do this, why

do we have to do this?’” Black said.While gym classes will incorporate many activi-

ties, Arndt does not believe getting rid of specific elec-tives will motivate students.

“Kids who wanted to be in those [elective] classes were in those classes because they were going to try,” Arndt said.

Senior Olivia Churchill, even though she has a fit-

sTHANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: Arlington Theaters’ current bilboard displays nostalgia rather than movie titles. The theater’s closing on July 8 took a toll on other local businesses, too. photo by Ian Magnuson

I PLAY, YOU WORK: Students play softball during gym. Under

the new rules, students with high enough fitness scores will choose an activity every day while others can only choose activities twice a week. photo by Ian Magnuson

s

ROSPECTOR

New P.E. rules run students ragged

prospectornow.comSeptember 14, 2012News2

THEATER CLOSING: Shutdown takes toll on businesses

-ness score of 76 and doesn’t have to run, also dislikes the elimination of many elective gym classes. She wanted to take Advanced Racquets.

“If I wanted to play racquets and the gym teachers say that they’re not offer-ing that today, then I don’t actually get to play it,” Churchill said.

Last year, when Churchill heard of the gym changes that were going to be made, she worked hard during fitness testing to avoid running this year.

Churchill believes it is fair that stu-dents with higher fitness scores do not have to run because they work hard to earn their scores.

However, Arndt believes fitness testing is an unfair method of judging fitness, as some students’ low fitness scores are not because they don’t try.

“The kids that are getting the benefit of [choosing activities] are the ones that don’t need to be motivated to exercise,” Arndt said. “The ones that really need to be told, ‘You need exercise,’ are being forced to run and a lot of kids may be

physically fit but they just can’t run.” Black believes there will be a “huge

jump” in fitness scores due to running. She hopes giving students more running opportunities will help them naturally improve their scores.

Senior Inho Kook disagrees. He doubts students in the running classes will try their hardest because “it’s still gym” and they won’t want to participate.

However, Churchill agrees with Black.

Churchill believes since many stu-dents don’t want to run, they’ll try harder on fitness testing to get into the non-running group.

With this year’s combination of run-ning, cardio and elective choice days, Black hopes to see students’ gym experi-ence improve.

However, Arndt, Churchill and Kook all wanted to take now-eliminated elec-tive classes.

“You take away all these classes and say, ‘Either you play sports or you run.’ it’s like [saying], ‘Obviously [students] can’t be motivated to exercise so we have to motivate you for you,’ but that’s not the way to do it,” Arndt said.

GYM CLASSES: Students react to new running policy

Comparing costs

Theater: Adult Ticket Price: Arlington Theater $7.25AMC $10.50

Prices according to Claire Pfohl and the AMC phone hotline.

The aftermath

After Arlington Theaters closed, the employees all pitched in to help officially close down the theater. The employees had to clean out all the remaining stock that wasn’t used which was sold back to the original company, clean out the storage area behind the movie screens and recycle all of the movie posters.

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to try to survive without the area’s biggest attraction. When Noodles and Company, manager Ben Hogle

learned of the theater closing he knew it was going to hurt business. He estimates the company has lost between 10 to 15 percent of business.

“Mostly nights and weekends were really short,” Hogle said. “It’s just families aren’t coming out to go to the theaters, so they’re not coming in here.”

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) has also suffered from the ripple effects in sales.

“The Arlington Theater benefit[ed] from us and we benefit[ed] from them, so we knew we were going to see a decrease in business once the theater closed down,” CPK manager John Satinover said.

Junior Abby Owens was upset when she heard about the closing because of much more she would have to pay since all other surrounding theaters charge nearly double the price of Arlington Theaters’ $5.25 student ticket.

“We don’t even have money in the first place,” Ow-ens said. “How are we going to spend $12 on a movie for one person and then food?”

Owens is also upset about the sentimental value left behind with the theater.

“[It makes me feel like] nothing is special and that [Arlington Theaters] had been there forever and ev-erybody talked about it all the time,” Owens said. “Now it’s not there. It makes it feel like nothing can be saved, really.”

Unlike Owens, the hardest part for Pfohl wasn’t the closing itself, but what the closing meant for the bond of the employees.

“It’s a loss in so many ways, not just the money as-pect,” Pfohl said. “I think what meant the most to each other was that we were all leaving each other. We were all kind of like a family. Everyone was friends with everybody there; we all hung out outside of work. We got to meet all these really nice people, and we were all literally best friends.”

The group was close enough that when it came time to close the theater, almost all 25 employees came in to help.

“We got paid a little bit for coming in and helping, but I think we all just wanted to go in and help any-ways, regardless of the money,” Pfohl said.

As for the future of the empty theater, the Village Board of Arlington Heights is working hard to find a new cinema to fill the void downtown.

“We were disappointed with the closing of the the-

ater,” said director of planning and community de-velopment Charles Witherington-Perkins. “We don’t want to see an empty theater downtown; that’s really not a good image for the community or for the down-town.”

The village board is in constant discussion each week with the landlord and real estate brokers trying to get a new theater to take Arlington Theaters’ place.

“All I can say is that we are cautiously optimistic that another theater will at some point in time re-locate into downtown Arlington Heights,” Wither-ington-Perkins said.

No matter what takes the spot of Arlington The-aters, the wonderful memories of growing up with the theater will not be forgotten.

“I’m just really thankful I was able to work there during its last few months of business because it was really a great place to work,” Pfohl said.

s FLYING FRISBEES: Sophomores Dominic Connolly, Ernest Kiseliovas and Raj Pathak (top, left to right) practice frisbee during their lunch period. Connolly jumps to catch (bottom, left) and sophomore Trey Compton (bottom, right) throws. Frisbee has gained momentum in part due to Ultimate Frisbee Club. (Photo by Ian Magnuson)

CONTINUED from front page

CONTINUED from front page

To read student profiles, blogs and reviews, visit... ProspectorNow.com

September 14, 2012 News 3prospectornow.com

By Maggie DevereuxEditor-in-Chief

For the first time in Illinois, student performance data is required to be in-cluded in teacher evaluations as stated in the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA). District 214, however, will not make this change until 2016.

This year, the district will have a new teacher evaluation system, but not the one required through PERA (See “What is PERA?”). According to Principal Kurt Laakso, last spring the district submitted an alternative teacher eval-uation plan that was approved by the state.

This plan allows for teacher evalu-ations to still be based on professional practice, such as how the teacher pre-pares, teaches, collaborates and works with students. It also allows Prospect and the other district schools four years to research the best factors to measure student growth data.

One of the major components of PERA that will be implemented is the structure for which reduction in forces (RIF) occurs. Under the old sys-tem, tenured teachers had the highest ranking. Under PERA, the evaluation ranking will determine which teachers keep their jobs, causing the evaluation stakes to be much higher.

In order to efficiently determine these rankings, every teacher must be evaluated by either a principal, asso-ciate principal or assistant principal along with their division head. The to-tal process must be completed and their final ranking submitted to the state by Feb. 1. While teachers were evaluated in

the past, this is the first year for such a formal process.

Math and science teacher Greg Troy-er, who has been teaching at Prospect for 29 years, thinks the formality of the new system will emphasize the point of evaluations.

“It used to be the division head could walk through, stick his head in, wave at you, and then you’ll see an evaluation on your desk two days later,” Troyer said. “[Now] there’s a little more checks and balances. It’s an evaluation system but it’s really a staff development to keep each teacher moving forward. I think it’s better than anything the state will come up with.”

Teachers will receive one of four possible rankings in their evaluation: Excellent, Proficient, Needs Improve-ment and Unsatisfactory. So under the new RIF guidelines, a tenured teacher who scores a proficient will rank under a first year teacher that scores an excel-lent.

Troyer believes that despite the changes to the RIF process, it really won’t have an effect on Prospect or the district.

“The way that we are grouped into each of one of the four categories is dif-ferent. Is that going to have a huge im-pact on our district? No,” Troyer said. “Our district is so large with six schools and the faculty we have [in] such big numbers.

“You still have to go with seniority within that category. So unless you’re a Needs Improvement or an Unsatisfacto-ry-- well listen, if you’re in District 214 and you need improvement or you’re unsatisfactory, maybe that’s not the

kind of teacher we want here at District 214 anyways. [But] our population is so predictable and so large that we’re go through a huge big RIF process.”

According to Laakso, one of the greatest advantages of the new sys-tem is more uniformed evaluations

throughout District 214. “Across the district, we’re going to

have more informed conversations about staff performance [and] there’s going to be more interrater reliabili-ty,” Laakso said. “We need to have very high interrater reliability to make sure we’re making good decisions.”

Those good decisions about teacher performance are what will eventually benefit students. Math and Science Di-vision Head Keith Bellof agrees with Laakso that more observations will lead to a clearer picture of what is hap-pening in the classroom and thus better conversations on how a teacher can im-prove.

“Everyone has something they can work on. You might not see it if you’re only in there one time but if you’re in there multiple times, you can be on the lookout for ways to improve,” Bellof said. “Better teaching should lead to better learning.”

New evaluation system for District 214

-Coronation-Football game v.

Hersey-Karaoke during lunch

-Color day-Knightgames-Bonfire Dance

-Volley for the Cure-Boys’ soccer game v.

Wheeling

-Knightimes dance“New York, New York”

LOOKING ON: English and Fine Arts Division Head Adam Levinson (right) is responsible for evaluating all teachers in his department this year. In addition, all teachers must be evaluated by a principalship. The District implemented a new eval-uation system approved by the state this year. (Photo by Ian Magnuson)

s

What is PERA?

The Performance Evaluation Reform Act signed by Governor Quinn in Jan. 2010 mandates;• Performance evaluations of the principals/assistant principals and teachers of the school district or other covered

entity must include data and indicators of student growth as a “significant factor.” • The first year data must be 25 percent of the evaluation. The second year and on student growth data must be a

minimum of 30 percent of the evaluation. • By Sept. 1, 2012, principals, assistant principals, teachers in contractual continued service (i.e. tenured teachers)

and probationary teachers (i.e. nontenured teachers) be evaluated using a four rating category system (Excellent, Proficient, Needs Improvement and Unsatisfactory).

• Anyone undertaking an evaluation after Sept. 1, 2012 must first complete a pre-qualification program provided or approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

Info courtesy of the Illinois State Board of Education and Kurt Laakso

Monday, Oct. 1

Homecoming is just a few short weeks away and we’ll have coverage of all events and activities. To keep up to date make sure to check out ProspectorNow.com. We’ll

have stories, interviews, videos, photo albums and more!

Tuesday, Oct 2. Wednesday, Oct. 3 Thursday, Oct. 4 Friday, Oct. 5 Saturday, Oct. 6

Empire state of mind

September 14, 2012News prospectornow.com4

Out with the old, in with the newNew additions made to PHS this yearBy Danielle ChurchNews Editor

The truck driver was perfectly fine carrying the load of spotless new win-dows on Highway 53 until IT came. The loop of the four-leaf clover proved to be too much for the truck’s weight and then crash! Suddenly, the truck was on the grass, not the road, with its cargo compromised.

Since the new windows were broken, the front of the building has temporary windows in place. Associate Principal Greg Minter has asked teach-ers to keep themselves and their stu-dents away, in order to take safety pre-cautions. The permanent windows are expected to be put in starting on Sept. 15 and will continue the following week-end.

Along with the new windows coming soon, other changes have been made to Prospect this year. This in-cludes a new curtain wall, bathrooms in the northwest corner of the building, turf, pipes and a new ventilator.

The turf has not only been ben-eficial for athletes, but it has also been significant for students who do not play sports. The marching band practices on the turf now instead of in the parking lot. This has caused 142 parking spots to be opened this year according to Dean of Students Patricia Tedaldi-Monti. As a result, for the first time ever juniors were able to buy parking passes.

However, with new rules also comes new restrictions. All students with parking passes can park in the newly opened parking spaces, painted with red to indicate parking is only allowed in those spots until 5 p.m. Cars parked past this time will be towed to a differ-ent spot of the lot, at least at the begin-ning of the year.

According to Minter, the cost of the new turf was well worth it. Since the new field has been added, it has been used more frequently. In past years,

the field was used 10-12 times a year for football or soccer; this year, since being finished in August, it has already been used more than 60 times (see back page).

Later, students will get tickets for failing to move their cars. So far there have not been any problems with people parking in the red spots.

Rachel Scott is one junior who bene-fits from the new rules and enjoys that she can buy a parking pass this year.

“It’s so much easier than having my mom drive me to school or taking the bus,” Scott said.

Prospect was able to get all of the new additions based on the decision making of the district and Minter. During the school year, Minter prepared a list of priorities or needs that Prospect needed to accomplish. According to Minter, the district had their own list too.

However, the district prior-itized things on a much larger scale.

They focused on certain things such as the exterior of the building and the infrastructure, which includes the heat-ing and cooling systems.

Minter and the school focused on such things as the bathrooms and turf.

During the decision-making, Minter and the district had to figure out how to pay for everything. The bathrooms and the exterior part of the building, the curtain wall, cost roughly $1 million and were paid for by the dis-trict.

According to Minter, the mon-ey comes from different kind of bonds that might have been issued or bor-rowed money.

Prospect was able to afford the new turf because although it cost a little over $1 million, the school made a deal when they entered into a part-nership with the Mount Prospect Park District. The deal was the park district would pay for half the cost.

Even though many people like the turf and the new parking changes, some say they still aren’t as great as having the new bathrooms.

According to Teladi-Monti, the old bathrooms were “pretty raunchy.”

“Oh! The bathrooms were..phew! They definitely got some face lifts,” Tedaldi-Monti said.

Munao agreed saying that the boys’ bathrooms were the worst. There was writing on the walls before and they were not very clean. According to Mint-er, the bathrooms were 50 plus years old and it was about time that they were modernized.

Overall, Minter said everything the district has added to the school has helped to modernize Prospect because the school is the oldest one in District 214.

“Instead of building a brand new school, we are trying to make what we have better and seem like it’s new,” Minter said.

Hopes for the future Minter: ~a fine arts building~finalization of the exterior part of the building~bathrooms by cafeteria/in field house foyer/next to concession stand ~renovated theater~new fitness center~new concession stand/ticket booth~poolTedaldi-Monti:~lobby by each one of the doors~parking lot reconfigured

sSECOND TIME’S THE CHARM: Temporary windows can be seen from the front of the building. The new windows will be installed the weekend of Sept. 15 and on the following

weekend of Sept. 22.

Drew Peterson was found guilty of first-degree murder on Sept. 6 for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio in 2004. Peterson now faces up to 60 years in prison, ac-cording to ABC news.

Savio, who was drowned in her bathtub, was not the only victim of Peterson. Both of his first two wives accused him of abuse prior to divorce and he is suspected for the disappearance of his fourth wife Stacy Peterson in 2007, who is presumed dead. It was when Stacy disappeared that police re-exhumed Savio’s body and ruled her death a homicide.

That last juror to find Pe-terson guilty struggled with the amount of hearsay used during the prosecution. Hear-say is when a witness pres-ents statements not based off their direct knowledge.

In 2008, Illinois passed a law specifically tailored to the Peterson case allowing hearsay evidence, making it

the first case in Illinois to al-low that type of evidence.

The law, which came to be known as the Kathleen Savio hearsay law, allowed statements Savio made to her family and friends before her death into court testimony. It also allowed s t a t e m e n t s Stacy had made to her divorce attor-ney and pastor before her dis-appearance.

Her pastor testified Stacy had told him that Peterson had left their house around the time of Savio’s death and returned to put women’s clothes in their washing ma-chine. Her attorney stated that Stacy had told him she knew Peterson had killed Savio.

According to the New York Times, some jurors admitted the hearsay evidence played a crucial role in their deci-

sion to convict Peterson, and Peterson’s defense lawyers plan on appealing the verdict, relying heavily on their argu-ment that the hearsay fails to remove doubt.

Due to the decisive role of hearsay in the Peterson case,

we ,The Pros-pector, believe that students should always think before they speak. The law gave Savio and Sta-cy the chance to “speak from

the dead,” conversations they had long before the trial.

However, hearsay can be very negative at times too. In high school, people believe and spread statements with-out any proof that something is actually true. Rumors are easy to share and easier to start. Without direct knowl-edge if something occurred, hearsay could end up being a bunch of lies.

It’s amazing the value peo-ple put in “I heard from her, who heard from him, who was sitting by her when she said that.” And the more peo-ple abuse that trust, the less reliant other people are for information.

Savio’s family finally got the justice they have waited eight years for, and hopefully Stacy’s will come soon. How-ever if it weren’t for valuable conversations prior to their deaths, justice may have nev-er come. In high school, its very easy to hurt friendships or relationships over hearsay. When something is said, it’s a lot harder to prove it didn’t happen than to believe it did. A harmless rumor could turn into a fight between best friends.

Whenever possible, stu-dents should think about the consequences of what they’re going to say, because a con-versation could come back to help or haunt them at any time.

The StaffEDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Maggie DevereuxMiranda Holloway

MANAGING EDITORSKatie Best

Ian Magnuson

COPY EDITORKyle Brown

ONLINE MANAGINGEDITOR

Jenny Johnson

ASSOCIATE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Maddy Moloney

NEWS EDITORSNabi DresslerSpencer Ball

Danielle Church

OPINION EDITORSAnna BoratynChris Kivlahan

FEATURES EDITORSAndi HayesEllen Siefke

IN-DEPTH EDITORSKhrystyna Halatyma

Brian Park

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Kelly Schoessling

SPORTS EDITORSAungelina Dahm

Peter Fusilero

ONLINE EDITORJack McDermott

ADVISERJason Block

Some material is courtesy of the American Society of Newspaper Editors/MCT Cam-pus High School Newspaper Service. Published by students in Journalistic Writing courses, the Prospector has won, most notably, the 2004-05 and 2006-07 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker and the Gold Crown from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2006.

Mission Statement

The primary purpose of the Prospect High School Prospec-tor is to report news as well as explain its meaning and signif-icance to our readers and the community. We, the Prospector, hope to inform, entertain and provide a school forum for the unrestricted exchange of ideas and opinions.

AdvertisingFor ad rates, call (847) 718-5376 (ask for Kate Schroeder), fax (847) 718-5306 e-mail or write the Prospector, 801 West Kensington Rd., Mount Prospect, IL 60056, prospec-tornow@gmail.com.

Letters to the EditorDrop off letters to the Prospec-tor in the box in the library, in Rm. 216 or email letters to prospectornow@gmail.com. All letters must be signed. Please limit letters to 400 words. The Prospector reserves the rights to edit letters for style and length.

Sta

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dito

rial

Voting results of the Prospector staff in regards to this editorial.

20Against For

1

“Honors for Dummies”: District 214’s modelYou know those signs you see in the hall-

way sometimes when you’re not staring at that cute girl walking in front of you? The ones that say District 214 goals on top of

them? If you can pay attention and read all those tricky words all the way to the bottom, once you’re done con-gratulating yourself, you’ll see that one of the district’s goals is for “50 percent of stu-dents to receive a pass-ing grade on an AP final.”

The harsh truth, however, is that 50 percent of students

shouldn’t even be in an AP class. AP classes are supposed to be for the best and bright-est, for students who are willing and able to go above and beyond the traditional curric-ula.

However, according to English teacher Teri Buczinsky, the division of students in honors freshmen lit is closer to 50/50 this year than it has ever been in the past.

English/Fine Arts Division Head Adam Levinson confirmed that the split is near-ing 50/50 in sophomore and junior English classes as well, in an effort to comply with the district’s goals.

Levinson said that this district goal came about because of a desire to pro-vide students with “a more collegiate high school experience”. However, this means that the students who actually desire a col-legiate level experience while they are still in high school will be forced to deal with all of the students who have been tracked into higher classes to comply with the district goal.

T h o u g h many students will be fine in Honors Written and Oral Com-munications as freshmen, they’re on track to be in AP En-glish Language as juniors, and many will not be up to the challenge.

AP English Language is an incredibly rigorous class that is designed to cover a variety of subjects. “The goals of an AP English Language and Composition course are diverse because the college composi-tion course is one of the most varied in the curriculum.” according to the College

Board website.The main issue with overzealous honors

tracking is that with so many students in what should be the highest classes is that the students who are actually qualified to learn at an AP level are forced to wait for

everyone else to catch up. And this means that the children who ac-tually are our fu-ture may become disillusioned, over time, with the ed-ucational process.

Another is-sue, according to Buczinsky, is the students who used to pull up the regu-lar english classes

are now being moved up into honors, so the overall level in regular classes is being low-ered as well.

So not only are we boring the smarter kids out of their minds, we’re creating the stigma that everyone in regular classes is stupid. Levinson admits that he is aware of the rumor, but he said that there is nothing he can do about it.

Furthermore, both Buczinsky and

Levinson said that the students who would normally bring up the level and pace of a regular class are now being moved up to honors classes, thus lowering the level of discourse and slowing the pace in regular classes.

Half of all students are, by definition, below average. A running segment on the NPR talk show “A Prairie Home Compan-ion” is the news from Lake Wobegon, a fic-tional town in which every child is above average. As nice as this would be in theory, it is simply impossible. That’s not the way averages work.

It doesn’t matter how special your par-ents thought you were; some people out there are dumb, and that’s fine. There is no problem with being stupid – the world always needs more bricklayers and burger flippers. But if half of students are below average and half of students are in Regu-lar Written and Oral Communications as Freshman, it doesn’t take too much of a stretch of the imagination to assume that those are the same half.

I cannot be the only one who feels this way. As noble a purpose as this effort to put everyone in an AP class may seem, it is cheating the top 10 or 15 percent of stu-dents out of the high-level education they deserve. Not everyone can be special.

5September 20, 2012 Opinionprospectornow.com

Chris KivlahanOpinion Editor

p Everyone’s a Winner!: This is a real certificate that actually exists. There is someone who say down at their computer one day and said to themself “I’m going to make a Triers Certificate!” And that’s terrible. This is the reason the other countries are beating us. The fact that a student can be praised just for effort, no matter how incapable they may be of what they are attempting, is just one more effect of the “Everyone’s above average” culture that exists.

It doesn’t matter how smart your parents thought you were; some

people out there are dumb, and that’s fine. There is no problem with being stupid – the world al-ways needs more bricklayers and burger flippers.”

Hearsay a dual-edged sword

September 14, 2012Opinion prospectornow.com6

Running Republican

I initially began this story with the notion that Prospect allocates drastically more money to the things Prospect is famous for– like Prospect March-ing Knights– and far less to small activities like Chess Club and Bass Fishing Club.

To the contrary, the majority of the funds Pros-pect Marching Knights has is money they raise them-selves. Conversely, Chess Club and Bass Fishing Club

don’t fundraise and mostly de-pend on the district for money.

Despite this reassuring in-formation, I found sources were hesitant to talk about finances. Money isn’t something that’s easy to talk about. However, Prospect’s activities should be more transparent about how much money Prospect has and what it’s being spent on.

Money isn’t awkward. Mon-ey is a means to an end, and the goal of one activity – be it win-ning marching band trophies, taking an opponent’s king, or

pulling up bass after bass – is a goal the whole school should support.

Technology teacher Tim Schaap runs Bass Fishing Club. It relies on a mini-grant of $300 or less, called the TPC mini-grant. The mini-grant is sponsored by the Teacher-Parent Council and occasionally gets in-fusions of money from District 214.

Schaap would like more financial support. The club doesn’t fundraise because the amount of mem-bers it has fluctuates from the beginning of the year to the end, making it very difficult for Schaap to arrange fundraising, though he acknowledges he should.

Bass Fishing Club lets students fish for free, but its easy to go through $300 dollars while shopping for equipment for the expensive sport, buying lures, poles, jerseys, tackle and boat parts.

An average beginning bass fisherman would have to pay around $100 in equipment just to get started.

Like Bass Fishing Club, Chess Team doesn’t fund-raise. Chess Coach Don Barrett, a Technology and Media Services Technician at Hersey, hasn’t applied to Prospect’s TPC mini-grant or done Prospect conces-sions because he’s only at Prospect two days a week and sponsors Hersey’s Chess Team.

Luckily, Chess Team is not particularly dependant on money. Barrett usually just asks Prospect to foot entry fees for tournaments, and Chess Club had its boards, pieces and clocks replaced last year by Pros-pect’s fund. Most of the time, Barrett requests less than $200 for Chess Team.

However, more money would certainly be welcome. Barrett would use money for food at state, on fancy chess equipment and for a chess grandmaster to train the Chess Team members.

Barret gets money from Prospect’s activities, which consists of an activities and scholastic side.

Both Chess and Bass Fishing, though mostly de-pendent on the school for money, seem to be using money responsibly.

Band, an activity mostly independent from school financing has a large portion of its funding every year come from fundraising, which is used for sheet music, instrument repair and purchases and uniforms. The band fundraises in a multitude of ways: carwashes, the “Knight of Champions” competition fundraiser and the “A Day as A Knight” fun fair. This seems more than legitimate. However, PMK, amongst other activi-ties, hesitated to release financial information

What I noticed most aside from the relative fair-ness when it comes to finances in our district, was a troubling lack of financial transparency. As soon as I brought up finances in most interviews, sources– even the most well-meaning ones– got defensive.

Perhaps the real issue isn’t how much money Pros-pect, District 214, or individual clubs are spending, but how willing they are to communicate.

Two shameless liberals summarize the Republican race

Awkward dollarsPointless opacity surrounds

school activity finances

Jan. 3: Iowa Republican caucuses declare first a Mitt Romney, then a Rick Santorum victory.

Jan. 4: Michele Bach-mann suspends her cam-paign after coming in sixth in Iowa.

Anna: Michele Bachmann just ended up being clob-bered by her own extreme image. According to ABC news, Iowa was her home state – a “must win” swing state.

She couldn’t have won. She has an uncompromis-ing stance against gay marriage – she and her hus-band own a “pray the gay away” Christian clinic. She’s also the proud owner of a damning “I am not a witch” gaffe. Also, she just seems frenzied.

Chris: Bachman was insane. She believes God Him-self told her to run for president. You have to wonder how he contacted her. Was she on a crazy acid trip? Did she get a spam email and take it too seriously? The world may never know...

Jan. 19: Rick Perry drops out of the race, endorsing Newt Gingrich.

Anna: This was just the strangest political move. Why would anyone endorse Gingrich? If you’re not going to play, bet on the winning team.

Chris: Perry had all the key components of a suc-cessful Republican: racism, a disbelief in science, advanced dementia and inability to form a coherent sentence. It’s still a mystery to me why he didn’t go further.

Early April: Mitt Rom-ney’s super PAC “Restore Our Future” reaches the $40 million mark in spending.

Anna: Money has played an excessive role in this election. For perspective: according to BBC, the Lon-don 2012 Olympic budget was $14.6 billion while the projected cost of the U.S. election is $ 5.8 billion. The UK’s 12 major parties use around $49 million.

Chris: Super PACs allow anonymous donors to give as much money as they want to groups that run brutal attack ads for and against candidates. They’re a bad thing.

Aug. 27-30: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are nominated at the 2012 Republican Na-tional Convention in Tampa, Fla.

Nov. 6: Election Day

Anna: It is currently 52 days until Election Day. Se-niors, get your voting face on.

Chris: Unless you support Romney. In that case, have you considered not voting?

Aug. 11: Paul Ryan is an-nounced as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candi-date.

Anna: Romney chose Paul Ryan to both “human-ize” him and energize his base. To some degree, I think Romney succeeded. Ryan is a charismatic, (po-litically) youthful 42 years old, with policies a touch more conservative than Romney’s to appeal to the Re-publican base.

The descriptors above could easily apply to Sarah Palin, with one key difference – Paul Ryan is shrewd, and he won’t get typecast by the public so easily.

Chris: Mitt Romney managed to select the only politician in American more white and less interest-ing than himself. Like a boss.

Late July: Mitt Romney goes to London for the Olympics.

Anna: This was the most humorous diplomacy I have ever laid eyes on. First, Romney expressed res-ervations as to how capable the UK was of running the Games.

BBC reported that Prime Minister David Cameron responded with: “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities any-where in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.” Romney had held the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Ouch.

Romney also blabbed to the world that he had met the head of the M16 (the UK’s extremely clandestine national defense organization), a gaffe comparable to saying the word “Voldemort” instead of “You-Know-Who” in “Harry Potter.”

It also didn’t help that British newspapers fully em-braced the rhyming capabilities of “Mitt” and “twit.”

Chris: His horse was in it too, because he owns a horse. Just an everyday guy like you and me!

April 25: The Republi-can National Committee declares Mitt Romney the nominee.

By Anna Boratyn and Chris KivlahanExecutive Opinion Editor and Opinion Editor

Anna BoratynExecutive Opinion Editor

Anna went to a Democratic political rally and

wrote about it. Read “How to go to a political

rally” on Prospectornow.com

Gra

phic

by

Ian

Mag

nuso

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Want all Prospect, all the time? * Check out our online publication: www.ProspectorNow.com * Follow us on Twitter: @ProspectorNow * Like us on Facebook: ProspectorNow

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By Ellen SiefkeFeatures Editor

Senior Claire Perkins was sit-

ting in the fourth row at Olym-pic Stadium and waiting for the men’s 200-meter finals to start. Usain Bolt made his appearance, the noise and flashes increased immediately.

“Even if you couldn’t see Us-ain Bolt, you could tell it was him,” Perkins said. “It was just crazy loud.

While watching the race, Per-kins experienced a rush of pure adrenaline, the kind that can only come from witnessing the fastest man in the world himself. The Jamaican sweep of the med-als, with Bolt finishing first, Yo-han Blake second, and Warren Weir third, added even more to the excitement

Perkins is one of a few lucky souls at Prospect who went to the London Olympics this past summer.

In order to go, one must ob-tain tickets around a year before the games. The process begins with placing a bid, similar to entering the lottery. If success-ful, one will receive the ticket or tickets requested.

Perkins was lucky in this re-gard; her dad is from England, so her family was able to use her grandparents’ address and names for a bid. Since immedi-ate priority was given to British bids, the family received tickets for several events, including two days of track and field and div-ing.

Social studies teacher Brad Rathe also visited London; he and his wife decided to go to the Olympics as part of their honey-moon.

Their process of getting tick-ets was much harder. Unfortu-nately, only British citizens and natives of the European Union countries were able to buy tick-ets online. Being Americans, the couple resorted to using Co-Sport, an organization assigned with the task of selling tickets to a group of countries that in-

cludes the United States. They were able to obtain tickets for four basketball games.

Like Perkins and Rathe, P.E. teacher David Wurster ventured to the land of the Brits. However, he was not so lucky in terms of tickets. In his experiences at the 1992 Barcelona and 2008 Beijing Olympics, there was one central area where tourists and natives bought and sold tickets, often for great prices. He therefore as-sumed that London would be the same and did not attempt to buy tickets beforehand.

Unfortunately, his assump-tion was wrong; he found no such area and was only able to find tickets for a women’s bas-ketball semifinal between the United States and Argentina. He obtained these through the fian-cé of a former athlete of his.

Other than the long process of travel-ing, Per-kins has no com-p l a i n t s about the e v e n t s t h e m -s e l v e s . She and her fami-ly watched two days of track and field, a men’s soccer semifinal, synchronized swimming, canoe-ing, diving, and water polo.

Out of all the events, the 200-meter final was by far her favorite. According to Perkins, there is “no competition” to the event.

“The atmosphere and energy of the crowd was just awesome,” Perkins said. “I personally don’t like Usain Bolt’s personality — very cocky — but you can be like that when you’re the fastest man in the world.”

Rathe and his wife also got up close and personal with some athletes. The newlyweds attended the four men’s basket-ball quarterfinals; they watched the Americans against Austra-lia and other countries such as Spain and France face off. The Rathes sat 15 rows behind the

American bench and were able to closely view the players as they entered the arena through the tunnel.

“I told my wife it was the sec-ond best day of my life, besides getting married,” Rathe joked.

Besides the basketball, the couple’s hotel was conveniently located near the triathlon. The two walked around four blocks to catch the start of the swim-ming and then spread out a little

to view the bik-ing and running.

A l -t h o u g h Wu r s t e r did not a c t u a l ly see the e v e n t s

like Perkins and Rathe, he still scored a victory. He was able to gain access to the Visa VIP Lounge. Around 15 different TVs were set up for viewers, and Wurster spent most of his time there.

In the evenings, the lounge reserved one room exclusively for track and field, a bonus for a running coach like him. Ac-cording to Wurster, the average attendance was 150-200 people.

For him, picking a single fa-vorite event was too difficult.

It’s like having kids,” Wurster said. “You can’t pick one favor-ite. I’ve seen so many different races that there’s no ‘wow mo-ment’ from anything.”

As for the rest of us who sat at home, Perkins, Rathe and Wurst-er all believe that we missed much.

“More than anything, you miss the worldview,” Perkins ex-plained. “You only see the things the U.S. is good at or the people with a good story.”

“Americans are short-changed,” Wurster agreed. “You only see what the broadcasters want you to see.”

“You miss that rare oppor-tunity when the whole world comes together for an event,” Rathe said. “There’s nothing like it.”

Rathe and Perkins added that the Olympic atmosphere is unique.

“You’d think that people would want the other countries to lose,” Perkins said. “But it’s not like that at all. Everyone is supporting everyone, and you just get this electric feeling.”

“I’ve been to a lot of sporting events,” Rathe said. “It’s differ-ent when it carries that kind of weight-a different sense of pride.”

Overall, Rathe believes the trip was a huge success that pro-vided a fantastic experience.

“I can certainly check it off my bucket list,” Rathe said. “Af-ter having gone to [games] in the states, it’s so different to see [the athletes] competing at that lev-el.”

Wurster ranks the London Olympics last on his list only because he had tickets for one event. In terms of organization and feel, however, he scores it a perfect 10.

Perkins believes the experi-ence was the trip of a lifetime.

“I will always cherish the memories,” Perkins said. “It was just an awesome experience.”

London wants your money When it comes to the Olympics, almost nothing is ever free. This year, however, the Brits took the concept to the extreme, according to World History teacher Brad Rathe. Temporary walls were built around lakes for the canoeing and rowing events to ensure that those living in the surrounding houses could not see the event. In this way, the organizers forced everyone to pay. “They did a lot to make sure people paid,” Rathe said.

7September 14, 2012 Features

s GO USA: Social studies teacher Brad Rathe and his wife pose for a picture at a men’s basketball game. The Rathes went to the Olympics as part of their honeymoon. (Photo courtesy of Brad Rathe)

Knights hop pond to XXX Olympiad

s IT'S THE BRITS (NOT): Senior Claire Perkins and her brother, Geoffrey, stand in front of the Olympic Stadium, the location of the track and field events. Perkins and her brother were able to watch the men’s 200m final from the seventh row, a superb spot.(Photo courtesy of Claire Perkins)

s FAMILY TIME IN LONDON: Senior Claire Perkins and her family gather together for a shot in front of Olympic Stadium. The family witnessed several events, including synchronized swimming and diving. (Photo courtesy of Claire Perkins)_

s IN THE MIDST OF A LEGEND: Senior Claire Perkins and her brother, Geoffrey, pose in front of a poster of Mo Farrah, the British gold medalist in the men’s 10,000m run. (Photo courtesy of Claire Perkins)

I will always cherish the memories. It was just an awesome experience.”

- CLAIRE PERKINS, senior

s CITY SIGHTS: The Tower Bridge with the Olympic logo is shot by P.E. teacher David Wurster. He viewed most of the events in the Visa VIP Lounge, with a special focus on the track and field. “I’m kind of a half-spectator and coach,” Wurster said in reference to his viewing strategies. (Photo courtesy of David Wurster)

s LOVE ALONG THE WATER: Social studies teacher Brad Rathe and his wife pose for a picture with the Olympic rings in the background. (Photo courtesy of Brad Rathe)

s GOD BLESS AMERICA: The U.S. men’s basketball team listens solemnly as the national anthem is played just before its quarterfinal against Australia begins. Social studies teacher Brad Rathe sat just 15 rows behind the American bench. Rathe humorously described the day as the “second best day of my life.” (Photo courtesy of Brad Rathe)

Multiply your monthly electricity and gas bill by 105.

Multiply your monthly oil bill by 113 (if you don’t use gas or oil enter zero). Multiply your total year-ly mileage by .79.

Multiply the number of flights you’ve taken, four hours or less by 1,100 and any that have lasted more than four hours by 4,400.

Do you recycle alu-minum? If yes, add zero. If no, add 166.

Do you recycle newspa-per? If yes, add zero. If no, add 184.

Add all your num-bers together and you get your carbon foot-print.

The number you got is reflected in pounds per year. A number below 6,000 is excel-lent. Good is anywhere from 6,000 to 15,999 and average is anywhere from 16,000 to 22,000. If you got over 22,000 it may be time to re-eval-uate your environmen-tal choices.

By Brian ParkCo-Executive In-Depth Editor

As freshman Anthony Huayamave walks around Prospect’s hallways, he makes sure to pick up trash to keep Prospect clean with every opportunity he has. Be-cause he realizes the importance of the environment, he tries to recycle and save energy.

“If we don’t save energy, the world is not going to last much longer,” Huayamave said. “So we have to start looking for alternatives now, so when we do run out of that stuff, we still have energy to use.”

Prospect, like Huayamave, is striving to go green. With the addition of new energy saving features with the ones already in place, like new windows and light bulbs, Prospect is working to cut electric, water and other bills, while still working to save money to be spent on more building improvements and other things that increase the success of the learning environment. In fact, space heating, cooling, and lighting together make up nearly 70% of school total energy use, according to Touchstone Energy Cooperatives.

According to Energystar, the 17,450 K-12 school dis-tricts in the nation spend more than $6 billion each year on energy, costing more than the combination of computers and text-books. As much as 30 percent of the energy is wasted.

Over the years, As-sociate Principal Greg Minter thinks Prospect has decreased its ener-gy usage. During the summer, new windows were installed to the front of the building, having Pros-pect save energy.

The difference between the old and new windows is that the older windows are only single-paned, new win-dows are double-paned and insulated, maintaining the temperature of the building without having to waste more electricity.

Energy efficient light bulbs were also installed, which help to save energy throughout the building as well as the occupancy bathroom sensors that turn the lights on and off whenever people enter or leave.

However, refitting and reconstructing existing sys-tems to others that are more energy efficient extremely expensive, according to Minter. But by saving energy, it will allow Prospect to save money, which could allow for other improvements.

“You have to weigh the costs and benefits of it,” Mint-er said. “But it is a priority of the district to try to be more eco-friendly and to reduce its carbon footprint.”

For the cooling system in the building, ice is used to thwart the heat. Chilled water flows through pipes, then cool air is blown through the ventilators to keep students and teachers from out of the heat. It is more energy ef-ficient than using many kilowatts of electricity to cool the building.

Currently, the temperature of the building is set between 74-76 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and between 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. It was raised a few years ago by the Energy and Environmental Committee, who suggested this temperature to the board of Education, according to Administrative Assistant Janice Serafini.

Unlike the maintenance of the building, there are opportunities for both students and staff to help Pros-

pect environmentally. Some of the ways staff can help the building create less waste, according to Building and Grounds Supervisor Oscar Acevedo, is to bring micro-wavable bowls and reusable containers. Students gener-ate lots of waste in the cafeteria, so they can bring their own lunches from their own containers to help out.

You will still have a few students and staff, including myself, [when]sometimes you accidentally throw some-thing in the garbage, but I’ll grab it,” Acevedo said. “It’s still a learning thing, but we’re definitely have come a long way in pushing the recycling [part].

Acevedo is also pondering the idea of putting out garbage containers outside of the building, such as the fieldhouse foyer, in addition to all the garbage cans in the hallways,commons, fieldhouse, and cafeteria. Cur-rently, there are no recyclable cans out in the foyer.

“There’s no reason we can’t do better,” Acevedo said. “We’re doing very well, but we can always improve on that area[recycling].”

In addition, the average American uses 100 gallons of water per day, according to Illini Union, so conserving water is another option to help Prospect save money. Ac-cording to a recent government survey, at least 36 states are expecting local, regional or statewide water shortag-es by 2013.

Regarding Prospect’s carbon emis-sions, most of the emissions actually come from the three main steam boil-ers in the building. They are current-ly not in use, but will be activated as soon as the building needs to be heat-ed.

Sophomore Paul Dufaj contrib-utes to Prospect’s energy saving pro-cess through his own methods. Some examples include: not wasting food

in the cafeteria, printing duplex, and keeping his spot at the lunchroom clean.

Both Huayamave and Dufaj agree that the majority of the students at Prospect seem to them that they do not contribute much to saving energy.

“They could care, but they probably wouldn’t do a lot of things,” Huayamave said. “I know a lot of people from all over; they care about the environment. They say they are going to do stuff, but they never do.”

With recycling, Huayamave thinks other students should recycle. He tries to finds things he can use again and uses them until they can’t be used. However, recy-cling can be considered both good and bad, according to Dufaj.

“We waste more energy for recycling,” Dufaj said. “But on the other hand it also saves the environment.”

Some other ways that students can support Prospect by conserving energy is also by turning off lights and appliances.

“People have to be self-motivated,” Minter said. “People have to take the time to separate their gar-bage from the recycling, and things like that. I think it’s gotten better, but there are certainly still some things we could do.”

Lastly, Acevedo mentions that helping the envi-ronment depends on the actions we take to sustain the environment.

“This is going to be your world,” Acevedo said. “I truly believe that we have some issues with glob-al warming. Look at the summers, they’re hot, the winters are warmer; there’s something happening out there. It’s important for students to really care. Ultimately, you guys are the young generation and you’re going to have to make sure this world is still around.”

People have to be self-mo-tivated. People have to take the time to seperate their

garbage from recycling, and things like that.”- GREGORY MINTER, Associate Principal

Gar

bage- 40-50 tons/

Water- $36,532.91/

By Miranda HollowayEditor-in-Chief

Follow these steps to find out how to be a part of saving our planet

How to find your carbon footprint

1

2

3

4

5

6

ACKNOWLEDGING ENVIROSeptember 14, 20128 In-Depth

7

prospectornow.com

What is Prospect’s carbon footprint?

Paper products such as card-board boxes, magazines, news and office papers, paperboard used for cereal and snack food boxes, junk mail, phone books

and juice cartons can all be re-cycled. Just make sure to wash off any food that might be in the cartons.

Those styrofoam packing

peanuts and trays can be recycled, but only in some areas and only if there is

no food left over.

Any food waste, such as a plate with leftovers stuck to it,

cannot be recycled.

By Khrystyna HalatymaExecutive In-Depth Editor

Senior Meredith Kee enrolled in AP Envi-ronmental Science (APES) because she wants to major in environmental studies.

“[My dad] is my inspiration for being so en-thusiastic and really caring about the environ-ment,” Kee said.

Her father, Wesley Kee, grew up on a sheep farm in Ireland, where the majority of his life was environmen-tally friendly. The healthy hab-its stuck with Wesley when he moved to the U.S. 28 years lat-er. Around seven years ago, Wesley purchased some land because he missed his home-land.

“[Recycling is] not a big task [or] a big bur-den that you’re imposing on anybody,” Wesley said. “It’s almost as easy to do the right thing as not [to]. It’s just a way of living.”

The Kee family wanted to have a crop that did not need to be tended to regularly and so they decided on trees. Along with her parents, Meredith went to the farm one day and planted about 1,000 trees.

APES studies how nature works and how we and nature affect each other. It attempts to fig-ure out ways to live on this earth more sustain-ably.

According to science teacher Mollie David, one of the main purposes of APES is to have students be educated on what the environmen-tal issues are. These issues include pollution, water usage, climate change and endangered species.

“Whatever solution comes [to help the en-vironment] is one where everyone is going to

want to do it, it’s going to have to be in their own best interest,” Wesley said. “You can’t make anybody do it.”

Throughout the year APES takes several field trips. This year David is hoping to take her students on trips to a wetland, a prairie and a forest. There they will test the water to study living organisms, seeds and attempt to calcu-late how much carbon trees store in a forest.

David got the idea of taking her class on a field trip to the forest from her time in Costa

Rica with Conservation International this past summer.

Even though Kee has just spent a few weeks in the class she is already en-joying herself.

“I love it, [APES] is great,” Kee said. “I really like learning about how things work together.”

One of the main topics APES focuses on is human overpopulation and industrial food production.

“[I try] to make sure students understand what’s going on all over the world,” David said. “We live in a very privileged part of this coun-try and in the world. You have to realize other countries are struggling with population, lack of good water and lack of farmable land.”

David also hopes her students will come away with a new political awareness.

“[The students need] to understand that a lot of environmental problems need wide support,” David said. “And some of [that support] comes from voting for the right candidate. Hopefully students will come away with a world view of environmental issues, not just what you do by not running the water when you brush your teeth.”

“Our world is a beautiful place; It’s some-thing to cherish and love,” Kee said. “I just feel this thing inside of me that I am here to protect our environment. I have a passion.”

Our world is a beautiful place; It’s something to cherish and love. I just feel this thing inside of me that I

am here to protect our environment. I have a passion.”

- MEREDITH KEE, senior

Just because light bulbs

and batteries cannot be thrown in the regular recycle bin doesn’t mean they can’t be recycled. There are places that these items can be brough to be disposed of safely.

Believe it or not many elec-tronics and their parts can be recycled. Keyboards, monitors, photocopiers, printers, phones,

and cell phones can all be recy-cled if dealt with properly.

Toss glass bottles and jars into a recycling can, but be careful, some thicker and rarer forms

of glass cannot be recy-cled.

Information courtesy of www.livegreen.com graphic by Khrystyna Halatyma

Electricity- $284,504.76/year

(2,816,387.00

ACKNOWLEDGING ENVIRO NMENTAL AWARENESSSeptember 14, 2012 In-Depth 9prospectornow.com

THE GUIDE TO WHAT CAN OR

CANNOT BE RECYCLED By Miranda HollowayEditor-in-Chief

It’s easy being green

Top Baby Names of 2011

Boys Girls

1. Jacob 1. Sophia2. Mason 2. Isabella3. William 3. Emma4. Jayden 4. Olivia5. Noah 5. Ava6. Michael 6. Emily7. Ethan 7. Abigail8. Alexander 8.

Madison

By Maddy Moloney Associate Editor-in-Chief

There’s nothing worse than hearing your name in the hallway only to turn around and realize the person calling your name was calling somebody else. However, for some students this is more than just a daily occurrence.

At Prospect there are 42 students named Michael and 31 students named a variation Kathryn, placing them as the top names for boys and girls, which can cause a bit of confusion for both stu-dents and teachers alike.

“I like the name, but sometimes it’s a little annoying because there are too many of us,” sophomore Mike Charnota said.

“Sometimes it can get kind of awk-ward if somebody yells out ‘Mike’ and they aren’t talking to you, it gets weird,” sophomore Mike Piotrowski said.

Class got weird for health teacher Mi-chele Burnett when she realized on the first day of school she had five Michaels in one class.

“That’s never happened in 20 years of teaching,” Burnett said. “ I’ve never had five of one name in a class.”

Burnett says at the start of the year it took some getting use to, but she even-tually found a way to avoid confusion.

“They all wanted to be Mike, not Mi-chael, no one wanted to be something different,” Burnett said. “So I just said alright you are all going to be last names because the first couple times I called ‘Mike’ they all turned to look at me, so I [thought], ‘That isn’t going to work.’ So now I just do last names or make eye contact.”

With students having between two and three Michaels or Kathryns in each class, it can be tough to separate from the pack. To embrace their individuali-

ty, many of the Michaels or Kathryns go by nicknames instead. The nicknames often stem from their first or last name.

Senior Mike Mannix approximates around 75 percent of people call him by his last name, rather than his first, and sophomore Michael Zalinski was known by his friends as “Ski”, which he says was a long-standing nickname up to this year.

Not all Kathryns and Michaels want to change their name; in fact, many em-brace it. Freshman Katherine “Katie” Dinsmore, who has both a great-aunt and a cousin named Katherine, believes her’s is a pretty name and says if given the choice, she doesn’t think she would change it.

Sophomore Mike Mariani also likes his name, and although he says the popularity of it can be bothersome, he admits he likes the way Michael flows. Piotrowski feels most Michaels are all “good people,” although he admits he is a little biased.

“It’s almost like one big family,” Pi-otrowski said. “I see a Mike in the hall-way that I’m friends with and I just high five them.”

September 14, 2012Features10

CRAZY QUANTITY OF KATIES: Left to right back row: Katie Lorenzini, Kathryn Szukalla, Katie Zombo, Kathryn McCormack, Katie Olsen, Kathryn Brooks Middle row: Katherine Nejdl, Katie Porwit, Katy Quezada, Catherine Sherwood, Katie Villano, Kate Speedy First row: Kit Fitzgerald, Kate Dinsmore, Katie LaCost, Katie Penner, Katie Doherty, Katie Gravagna. (Photo By Maddy Moloney)

prospectornow.com

MANY MICHAELS: From left to right back row: Michael Gray, Michael Stolarz, Michael Diaz, Michael Cahill, Mikey Deutsch, Mike Philips, Michael Clark, Michael Rasmussen, Michael Gattuso, Mike Lipinski, Mike Mannix, middle row: Michael Almisry, Michael Anderson, Mike charnota, Michael Kosla, Mike Piotrowski, Michael Zalinski, Mike O’Malley, Mike Ott, Michael Morikado, Mike Mariani, front row: Michael Cardamone, Michael Brown, Michael Poulos, Michael Weigand, Michael Doyle, Michael Schwingbeck. (Photo by Maddy Moloney)

Mikes, Kates make up mass

September 14, 2012 Features 11prospectornow.com

By Miranda Holloway and Aungelina DahmEditor-in- Chief and Executive Sports Editor

As a football player, ‘11 graduate Anthony Babicz loved to see the fan section, the Underground, before his games.

Seeing all of his friends and class-mates cheering and “goofing off ” be-forehand motivated him to play well.

“People don’t know, but it really helps having that support while you’re competing,” Babicz said.

At the end of football season, Babicz switched roles by joining the crowd at basketball games and cheering for his classmates just as they had cheered for him.

But, despite the participation he saw, he admits that attendance at games fluctuated throughout the years and the seasons.

The Underground goes through ups and downs as a student-run organiza-tion and relies on the enthusiasm of students. The organization is most suc-cessful when students come up with their own ideas such as white outs and t-shirt designs.

The Underground began to support the basketball team in their first ap-pearance in the MSL championship game in February 2009.

The idea was established by teach-ers and coaches Mike Sebestyen, Frank Mirandola, John Camardella and Brad Rathe, who were hoping to rally stu-dents around the team before the game.

Although the original organization was run by teachers, it was driven by and for students. In its infancy, the Un-derground was not an organization that teachers participated in or even agreed with.

“Part of the fun of the Underground was that it was student-driven and that it was a bit, when it first started, ta-boo,” Sebestyen said. “There were some [adults] who were not really thrilled by it.”

The students who were central in the start of the Underground led to their peers becoming more spirited and in-volved at games, sometimes at the cost of good behavior.

“Those guys got excited and got people to be involved,” Sebestyen said. “Sometimes they were over the top. They’re kids; they aren’t always going to make the best decisions but they made people involved.”

As the Underground lost some of its secrecy, Sebestyen believes participa-tion began to fluctuate.

Participation is at its highest when led by a positive attitude by the upper-classmen.

“The best ideas and the most ac-cepted ideas come from the juniors or seniors because they have a little more status,” Mirandola said. “If so-and-so says it’s going to be a white out, it’s go-ing to be a white out.“

The importance of having this lead-ership is crucial considering that the Underground is run solely and success-fully off of student ideas.

Senior Dan Sweet brought his ideas to the table this year after having en-joyed making t-shirts that read “Get On Our Level” for the basketball season

last year.Seeing a lack of spirit at the begin-

ning of this year, Sweet is planning some new events to add on to the spirit he has seen dwindle since his freshman year.

He is planning to have more events for sparsely attended sports, such as a barbecue for girls’ tennis to “get people to go there and get a nice environment.”

“Just because you’re in tennis or vol-leyball doesn’t mean you’re not work-ing... trying to be really good in your sport,” Sweet said.

Along with expanding the Un-derground’s reach, Sweet also sees more underclassmen in-volved in the cheering sections and he is not the only one.

Senior Megan O’Keefe start-ed a Facebook group for football games to try to get the school spir-it back to how she remembered it being back in her freshman year (see “Alumni Advice”).

“I just did it to get the school

more connected,” O’Keefe said. “I want-ed to make sure everyone showed up wearing the same stuff and so people would be more excited to show up at the games.”

Both O’Keefe and Sweet saw tra-ditions from their freshman year die down, but are hoping as seniors to build up that tradition for coming years (see “Between the Lines with Aungelina Dahm”on page 15).

“I think the most important thing for older kids to take is to pass the tra-dition on,” Sweet said.

Who Knows You BetterJack

Mannix

The Boyfriend

Katie Lorenzini

Hannah Rose

The Best Friend

The subject Katie’s favorite band?

Katie’s dream vacation place?

Katie’s favorite store?

Katie’s favorite ice cream flavor?

Katie’s favorite color?

Katie’s favorite TV show?

The results

Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie

Ireland

Ireland

France

Forever 21

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters

Purple

Purple

Purple

Mint Chocolate Chip

Mint Chocolate Chip

Cookie Dough

Skins

Skins

Skins

Winner4

4

4 4

4

4 4

44

Alumni Advice

The success ‘11 graduate Anthony Babicz experienced with the Underground student spirit section has fallen in recent years. To increase attendance at games and better school spirit Babicz offers these two pieces of advice:

• Have a theme for the game. In Babicz’s experience, having a theme for a game where everyone dresses up makes the experience more interesting. One memorable theme for him was during basketball season in a game against Elk Grove where everyone in the stands wore suits and ties for the game. “It makes an interesting experience, not just for the fans, but it’s also pretty

funny for the people who are playing to see their buddies wearing something goofy,” Babicz said. “It’s just funny.” • Communication between classes ensures success. Whether through the

morning announcements or just talking to one another, keeping the entire school in the loop lets more people know what’s going on and attracts them to the games.

“It’s nice when the upperclassmen have a nice relationship with the underclassmen,” Babicz said. “That really helps.”

Jump Around Inspired by the University of Wisconsin’s tradition of celebrating to the song “Jump Around” by House of Pain, senior Dan Sweet has added the song to the school’s playlist that is used during home game. To see a video of the Wisconsin’s stadium dance, go to Prospectornow.com

Going “Underground”GO TEAM: The schools’ spirit section, the Underground, cheers on the football team take on Conant on Aug. 31. The fans held a “white out” for that weeks game. The group thrives with student involvement rather than teacher ideas. “Teachers, they don’t really know what’s going on; students, the know what they want,” senior Dan Sweet said. (Photos by Ian Magnuson)

s

The Big Bucks

Box Office Successes of the summer: “Amazing Spider-Man”-$258,355,827

“Dark Knight Rises”-$422,255,218

“Total Recall”-$55,173,773

“Bourne Legacy”-$85,522,220

”Step Up Revolution”-$33,703,321

Budgets

We all know you have to spend money to make money, but these films take it to the extreme!

“The Amazing Spider-Man”-$230 million

“The Dark Knight Rises”-$230 million-$300 million

“Total Recall”- $200 million

“The Bourne Legacy”-$130 million

“Step Up Revolution”-$33 million

September 14, 2012Entertainment12 prospectornow.com

The movies of summer 2012

The last installment of the famous “Batman” trilogy came together this summer into one breathtaking, epic finale. The conclusion of the series features a new villain, Bane (Tom Hardy, “Warrior”), a jacked-up, Darth Vader-sounding monster looking to destroy Gotham City after break-ing free out of prison. Batman (Christian Bale “The Fighter”) thinks he can wipe Bane out easily, but instead finds him-self broken and left to rebuild himself so he can rise up again and finally save the town from destruction. The film feels like a rollercoaster ride taking audience members up and down with emotions, and left and right with surprising twists and turns. The ending left fans with chills, tears and a bittersweet smile as director Christo-pher Nolan proved that Batman’s legend truly lives on.

“The Dark Knight Ris-

I did not see the original 1990 “Total Recall” film, and after this movie I do not want to. “To-tal Recall” is a sci-fi thriller about Douglas Quaid

(Collin Farrell), a man living in a post-apoca-lyptic world where only two territories are left on the earth. Quaid is going through a slump in his life as he wonders about his reason for exis-

tence. When Quaid decides to go to ReKall, a program that involves injecting yourself

with fake memories, he is attacked by a SWAT team and left on the run for

his life with Melina (Jessica Biel). The film continuously plays around and questions whether Quaid is still back at Rekall or in reality. Though the film does

have nice moments, it felt like a combination of different movies like “Star Wars”, “The Matrix”

and “Inception” all jumbled into one confusing storyline. Noth-ing about the film seemed to differentiate itself, making it forgetable and boring.

“Total Recall”

This summer brought epic supheroes, action packed thrillers and highly anticipated sequels. Some proved to be well worth the wait, while others were a horrible mistake. These summer blockbusters are evaulted and given their deserved rating.By Kelly SchoesslingEntertainment Editor

When Sony Pictures announced the original Spider-Man, Toby McGuire, would not be re-turning along with the rest of the original cast, fans and critics were skeptical. Despite strong opinions, this summer’s complete reboot of the franchise lived up to its name, proving the new storyline and actors are definitely

worth watching. The film took a dif-ferent tone to the beloved story by exposing a younger, more humanized version of Peter Parker played by Andrew Gar-field (“The Social Network”). Garfield brought a different atti-tude to the character by making awkwardness look cute and funny in a Michael Cera way as

opposed to a weird and creepy Kristen Stewart way. The visual effects in the movie were amazing, and made the fanatical action somehow look realistic and

“The Amazing Spider-Man”

I like to think of the “Step Up” movies like the “19 and Counting” family; you just want it to stop already. Though I was

a fan of the original “Step Up” with the hunky Channing Tatum, I’ve

come to hate the series because of all the terrible sequels. This installment follows Sean (Ryan Guzman), the leader of a Miami flash mob fighting to keep his home and neighborhood from be-ing destroyed by a greedy, CEO hotel owner. Things get more complicated when Sean falls for Emily (Kathryn McCormick, “Fame”), the daughter of the man in charge of tearing down their homes. Not only was the

storyline for this movie cheesy, but the acting proved to be worse. The film did feature great dance moves, but after four movies I understand the underlying message in these films. You can dance. I can’t. I get it.

“Step Up Revolution”

“The Bourne Legacy”Audiences thought the cur-

tain of the “Bourne” franchise had closed five years ago when “The Bourne Ultimatum” pre-miered and shut the storybook on Jason Bourne. This sum-mers smart, action thriller “The Bourne Legacy” ripped that same curtain open by creating new characters, storylines and conflicts to intertwine with the three prior films. The film takes a different twist by stating the super-spy program Jason Bourne was a part of, Tread-stone, was only one of many different programs including the program Aaron Cross (Jer-emy Renner, “The Hurt Lock-er”, “The Avengers”) originates from, Outcome. Once the ripple effects of the past three films hit the Outcome agency, Cross finds himself frantically running for his life. The movie stayed consis-tent throughout with the same quick pace and clever dialogue made famous in the previous films, but also maintained a fresh new look to the series.

See FLU, page 2

The movies of summer 2012

By Katie BestManaging Editor

Nestled on the corner of Davis and Dunton, Evol Cakes makes its pastries. While the little store may be difficult to find, it is quite literally a “hidden gem.”

Evol Cakes, which opened June 1, is not the only cupcake bakery in Illinois. Sprinkles Cupcakes, lo-cated in downtown Chicago, also is famous for their sweet treats. They even Facebook and tweet a “word of the day,” and the first 50 people to whisper it get a free cupcake.

However, Sprinkles is in a tiny, cramped shop where not a lot of people can fit.

When I first stopped in Evol Cakes, I was expect-ing a cyber bar-like atmo-sphere much like Sprin-kles Cupcakes. However, I found that when I walked into the tiny cupcake shop was more like a pink cafe than a cramped store.

Evol Cakes is more than just a cupcake bak-ery, one of its main at-tractions is the fact that the owner, Matina Konto-gianis, also bakes and decorate cakes (see “Q & A”). With handcrafted cakes, a rotating cupcake menu, cake pops galore, not to mention cookies and choco-late covered pretzels, there is something for everyone to sink their sweet tooth into.

While I did not get the chance to try all of Evol Cakes’ cupcake flavors (see “What’s Your Flavor?”), my two personal favorites were the Chocolate Peanut

Butter (topped with a Peanut Butter Cup, to boot!) and the Caramel Apple.

However, it’s not just the large selection of flavors that makes Evol Cakes so good; their cupcakes are thick and wholesome, which makes them perfect for a filling, sweet snack.

Not only that, but Evol Cakes’ homemade frost-ing rivals anything I have tasted so far, including my mother’s.

Quite possibly the best part of this experience (besides the de-licious cupcakes and close loca-tion) is the bang you get for your buck. Compared to Sprinkles’ $3.50 for a single cup-cake, Evol Cakes offers cupcakes just as good — if not better — for a mere $2.35. Not only that, but the large display case filled with the different cup-cakes of the day provides an easy way to pick out a cupcake flavor.

The one pitfall of Evol Cakes is its lack of seating. However, it does have a few metal tables and chairs, which gives the store a boutique-ish vibe that suits the tiny, pink atmosphere.

Despite this, Evol Cakes is still the place to go for a sweet tooth that needs fixing with treats that are “evol”-ly delicious.

prospectornow.com

Evol Cakes: “love” at first biteBakery in Arlington Heights offers

delicious treats, more at sweet priceQ & A with owner Matina Kontogianis

13September 14, 2012 Entertainment

What’s Your Flavor?

Everyday:Chocolate ChocolateChocolate VanillaVanilla Chocolate

Vanilla VanillaRed VelvetChocolate Peanut ButterMocha ChocolateStrawberry Vanilla

Speciality Cupcakes:Chocolate BananaKey Lime PieSalted CaramelStrawberry Lemonade

LemonberryBanana SplitPina ColadaChocolate RaspberryLemon CremeIrish Car BombMaple French ToastBanana CremeCaramel ApplePeach CobblerCookies & CremeBanana FosterChocolate CoconutChocolate Mint

Q: What are the most popular flavors?

MK: Probably Red Velvet, Cookies & Creme

and Vanilla

Q: Why did you originally decide to open a

cake bakery?

MK: Because I like decorating cakes and

enjoy baking.

Q: What is one of the coolest/ craziest cakes you have

ever decorated?MK: There was a couple that had their wedding right

around Halloween, and they wanted a cake with the

theme of “A Nightmare Before Christmas.” It turned out

really cool.

Q: What makes your treats so good?MK: They are made with love... and are just deliciously “evol.”

Want all Prospect, all the time? * Check out our online publication: www.ProspectorNow.com * Follow us on Twitter: @ProspectorNow * Like us on Facebook: ProspectorNow

(Photos courtesy of Matina Kontogianis )

By Kyle BrownCopy Editor

There are two main obsta-cles the girls’ tennis team will have to overcome this year: following up their 10-1 season with three state qual-ifiers and doing it on the strength of only five r e t u r n i n g varsity mem-bers on a team of 15.

“ E v e n though we have a small number [of r e t u r n i n g m e m b e r s ] , we still do have a lot of experi-ence,” head coach Mike McColaugh said. “Expe-rienced kids [are] coming back and they’re doing a good job.”

With 10 rookies on the varsi-ty squad, there are quite a few adjustments the team needs to make to acclimate to a higher stage of competition.

“The kids who are coming

up from the JV team, they know what we’re trying to do, so they’ve blended in nicely,” McColaugh said.

“We try to keep things light at practice,” said junior and re-turning varsity member Chris-

tina San-tiago. “We work hard, but make it fun also, and [we] make sure to try hard at matches to make sure that posi-tive attitude t r a n s f e r s over to the other team-mates.”

A chal-lenge of tennis as a team sport is matching the intensity of the whole group with the intensity of each play-er.

“With tennis, it’s kind of hard sometimes because it’s a team sport, but also an individ-ual sport,” Santiago said.

What’s more is that there aren’t enough spots for each

girl on the team to play in ev-ery match, so keeping a team mindset is crucial.

“I think everyone’s there for the betterment of the team, so the people who aren’t com-peting in every match are still there to help support us and play some tennis and have

fun,” Santiago said.This support comes from

the team’s shared goal: win-ning the MSL East, something McColaugh would like to do in just his second year as head coach.

“We always want to be play-ing our best tennis at the end

of the season, so we want to continue to compete through-out the year and we always want to compete for the East Division title and to finish as high as possible in the MSL tournament,” McColaugh said.

“We definitely try to think about [winning the MSL East],” Santiago said. “It keeps us motivated [to] practice hard and always get better during matches, even when it’s not your best day.”

This goal is something the squad sees completely attain-able with the resources avail-able to them and their overall drive as a team, especially af-ter finishing second in the East last year.

“I think we’re hungry,” Mc-Colaugh said. “We had a lot of success last year and I think the girls have a mindset that they expect it to continue, so it’s been positive and we’re re-ally excited about the upcom-ing conference matches. We’re really eager and we’re eager to prove last year was more the norm than the exception.”

The girls agree that getting excited about doing well and striving to do better is what is going to push them to success this season.

“We have had team success in the past,” Santiago said. “Last year we had a good re-cord and we all just basically want to repeat that kind of suc-cess, so we are focused on help-ing each other and winning as a team, not just winning as in-dividuals.”

2012 season snapshot

Season record• 4-3 on the season • 2-2 against MSL

Top players• 1st singles: Freshman Natlie

Lysik • 1st doubles: Senior Katie Best

and junior Christina Santiago • 2nd singles: Senior Jordan

Pollock • 2nd doubles: Junior Lauren

Saiki and sophomore Alexandra Gorodiski

Returning varsity membersSeniors Katie Best, Jordan

Pollock and Monica Rishko and juniors Lauren Saiki and Christina Santiago

Sports September 14, 2012 prospectornow.com14

Experience spurs on spirit, supportReturning members alleviateacclimation to varsity intensity

s PSYCHO SAIKI: Junior Lauren Saiki returns a shot while warming up before a win against Fremd on Tuesday, Aug. 28. “[With] every drill that we do and every talk that we have, we try to focus on the big picture,” head coach Mike McCalough said. (Photo by Ian Magnuson)

To catch up with all your favorite Prospect sports,

click to...ProspectorNow.com

Read up on how boys’ soccer prepared to defend

their MSL Title!

Girls’ golf was the best in the state last year. How

are they following it up?

Find out how boys’ golf kicked off their

season!

Check out some photos of cross country, exclusive online!

Friday, October 12 - Game 8 - Home - vs. Wheeling @ 7 p.m. - Theme: 2002 State Championship Night

“We will do something at halftime to acknowledge the ‘02 team for their 10-year anniversary,” Sebestyen said. “We hope it will be fun for them to come back and see this year’s team play.”

Friday, August 31 - Game 2 - Home

- vs. Conant @ 7 p.m. - Theme: Youth

Football Night ~ Win 42-21

“We just try to get the young kids

involved around the program and around

the school,” Sebestyen said. “They’re

all going to attend at some point so we

want them to get the experience.”

Friday, October 5 - Game 7 - Home

- vs. Hersey @ 7 p.m. - Homecoming -

“Homecoming’s just homecoming,”

Sebestyen said. “We can’t really get

any bigger than that.”

Friday, A

ugust 24 - Game 1 - H

ome

vs. Glenbrook South @ 7:30 p.m. Theme:

Senior Night ~

Win 55-41

“That night w

as about honorin

g the

14 young men who have gone through

our program, and who have stuck out

our program,” S

ebestyen said. “Because

it’s not easy to

spend four years playing

football at th

is high school.”

Friday, S

eptember 21 - Game 5 - H

ome

- vs. B

uffalo Grove @ 7 p.m. -

Theme: Staff

Appreciation Night ~

First Divisional G

ame

“Our seniors are going to

pick one teacher

[who] they want to

acknowledge, and that

has been influential in th

eir lives,” S

ebestyen

said. “We want to

invite all staff t

o come and

to be supportive of th

eir athletics and of th

e

students they are teaching.”

Band is next to use turf

Even though soccer and football are the only sports currently using the turf, another Prospect program using the turf for competition is the marching band. Just like the athletes, the marching band feels the turf has its downsides and benefits.

“The Mount Prospect Park District owns part of the turf; they get to use it whenever they want,” said junior trumpet player Adam Klaus. “Sometimes we end up in the parking lot again.”

This year, Prospect has allowed students to park their cars in the parking lot where the marching band

used to practice in past years. However, in cases when the park district has to use

to the turf, the band is forced to go in the old parking lot where they have to take the time to ask people to move their cars so they can rehearse.

Despite the aggravation of asking people to get their cars out of the lot, the band appreciates the new turf because it makes practicing even more realistic.

“Five out of the six competitions this year [are] on artificial turf,” Klaus said. “It’s important this year to adjust to being on [the new field].”

September 14, 2012 Sportsprospectornow.com

Friday night football games are supposed to be the thing that starts your school year off right.

This year, it has been anything but.I love writing about sports, but I love watch-

ing them even more. Participating in them? Not so much, but you’ll read about that later on this year.

Our football team is one of the best in our division so it’s always a joy to watch. However, nobody would know because of the lack of our school spirit.

Pride, integrity, respect. Isn’t that what our school is supposed to be all about? Why don’t we take any pride in the guys out there on the field representing us?

Last Friday night I decided to get the best experience I’ve ever seen in a student section: a Hersey football crowd.

Both Prospect and Hersey’s fan section were USA-themed, but Hersey took the liberty of spreading a mass rumor around the school that there were scheduled colors. Freshman of course need to stand out so they wear blue. Girls wore red and guys wore white. Of course there were some people who didn’t get the memo, but still, it couldn’t get any more clever than that.

On the track in front of the crowd, a group of seniors rally up the crowd by using a tall ladder with a podium they call “the throne” with a loudspeaker and microphone. Hersey seniors Colin Clarke, Connor Watters, Nick Schneider, Chris Pateras, Nick Heeren and Ni-kola Vukovic were all involved, with Vukovic on “the throne” with the loud speaker (check out prospectornow.com for pictures and vid-eo). I stood there and couldn’t help but smile and laugh with envy.

Orange Crush has been around since the ‘80s but made its impact in the district around four years ago when ‘10 Hersey graduate Mar-tin Diaz started the tradition of “the throne”. He stood on top of the podium at every game he could.

“Hersey was madness,” Diaz said. “I’m glad it’s still like that today.”

Once a touchdown was scored, they went crazy. There was chanting, screaming and the waving of five orange flags in the crowd. Al-though our record is 2-1 which comes out on top of their 1-2, they beat us by a long run with school pride and appreciation. So instead of complaining about it, why don’t we take initia-tive and change our student section?

Freshmen, JOIN THE CROWD. At our last home game I noticed a lot of you weren’t even in the stands! Trust me, a lot of the sopho-mores and upperclassmen would rather you participate in our activities more than acting like you’re not even part of the school.

Sophomores, we just need to be more sup-portive. We’re always the ones that feel that since we aren’t freshmen anymore we’re just the coolest things ever. Sorry to break it to you, but guess what? We’re not.

Juniors and seniors, you’re supposed to be leading the school! It’s your guys’ job to rally us all up and get everyone involved. Take a few suggestions and resemble something like “the throne” at Prospect, but make it our own!

“Just get people to bond over it,” Diaz rec-ommended. “If they do, you’ll have something really exciting by the end of the week.”

There isn’t one person at this school that isn’t capable of getting a group together to do something memorable. Dress up in a blue suit, come up with a unique theme, anything to get the Knights back on the horse.

15

Let’s Talk School Spirit

CONTINUED from back page

TURF: more positives than negatives

What’s the

Theme?

field; it would probably be worse,” Lussow said. “You’re always going to look good on turf.”

The only problem Lussow has with the turf is that the little black pellets get all over the locker room and his living room floor.

Along with football, soccer has had practices and games on the new turf. Senior varsity soccer player Zach Tuczak believes the new field benefits them in dif-ferent aspects of the game.

Tuczak appreciates the new turf because it speeds up the game and it feels better to play on.

“I feel like it’s better on my joints,” Tuczak said. “I feel like I can move faster; I feel like I can maneuver around better,” Tuczak said.

The biggest reason why Tuczak, Lussow and a lot of the other athletes and coaches like the turf over the grass is because they know the turf is not going to get destroyed.

“It’s hard to beat a good grass field,” Lussow said. “But the problem is after playing a game or two on it, especially for football and soccer, it’s not the same any-more.”

This year, every home football game has a significance. Here’s what head coach Mike Sebestyen has to say. Come out and get excited, Knights!By Aungelina DahmExecutive Sports Editor

On Prospectornow.com...check out pictures and video from a Hersey game to see Orange Crush in action, and what The Underground should be resembling in the near future! . . . .

Anyone with a student ID will receive a 10 percent discount on any order!

WIITH AUNGELINA DAHM

Between the Lines

With Aungelina Dahm

SPORTSFriday, September 14, 2012 On Prospectornow.com ...

Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country both won their meets on Thursday Sept. 6. Head online to see results and photos from the races.

By Peter FusileroExecutive Sports Editor

As senior running back Stevan Isteefanos walked off the field to do interviews after the Knights’ first home win on Aug. 24 against Glenbrook South, dozens of black rubber pellets covered his face, hair and jersey.

Those little black pellets clinging to Isteefanos came from the new artificial turf field that Prospect installed into George Gattas Memorial stadium this past summer.

Prospect partnered with the Mount Prospect Park District to cover the expense of the $1.2 million turf along with other maintenance projects.

Prior to installation, Berger Construction did the under-ground work excavating the field, adding all of the drain-age pipes, electrical work, and prepping for the foundation of the new turf.

After 60 loads of dirt were removed from the stadium, compacted gravel and fine sand went into the field.

After the workers laid the base down, they applied

the turf which building and grounds supervisor Oscar Ace-vedo describes as a rubber mat.

The turf was installed by In-ternational Sport Services and was manufactured by Field Turf.

The turf itself comes in rolls, and once each roll of turf is laid out, it gets sewn and glued together.

Acevedo also pointed out that parts of the turf were cut out to make room for the num-

bers, hashes, yard lines and the midfield “P” logo, all of which needed to be sewn in as well.

Once the field itself was ready, the black pellets were laid down all over the field. The pellets are used for compaction to hold up the grass and act a padding for the players.

The field was finished on July 30 and practices on the turf began Aug. 8.

Since then, fall athletes have spent time practicing and com-

peting on the turf, and it has al-ready made an impression.

“When you’re running on the turf, you feel faster; the ground’s a little bit more springy,” said junior and var-sity football player Jack Tuttle. “[The turf] definitely helps be-cause it’s easier to make differ-ent moves and cuts on the field and it helps with the speed of the game, which makes it more fun.”

However, there are certain

aspects of the turf that Tuttle doesn’t like.

“Even when we play our games at 7 o’clock at night, the turf itself is still hot from the sun during the day,” Tuttle said. “[Also], when the grass was nice, it was a lot softer, so getting tackled on that was a lot nicer than getting tackled on the turf,”

Despite the uncomfortable feeling of the turf, it still holds some advantages over the pre-vious grass field.

“[The grass] would always get muddy and torn up,” Tut-tle said. “It also got uneven so there were always hills and div-ots at some points.”

Coach Nick Lussow has his different reasons why he likes the new turf.

“The conditions obviously are pretty good,” Lussow said. “You really don’t have any wasted practices, and if the weather is bad, you don’t start to lose productivity in terms of what you can do.”

Lussow likes coaching with the turf because most of the other schools are playing on turf, too.

“It would be a bigger prob-lem the other way if you were constantly playing on turf and then going to play on a grass

Grass no more at Gattas StadiumTurf impacts action on field

See TURF, page 15

For full coverage of the football teams 2-1 start, including their season opening 55-41 win over Glenbrook South and photo albums, head to ProspectorNow.com!

Football dives into 2012 season

By Miranda HollowayEditor-In-Chief

The girls’ golf team contin-ued their record-breaking ways early this season by breaking the 9-hole record shooting a 147 on Sept. 6 in a dual meet against Hersey. The girls broke the record of 151 set by the 2007 team.

In that same meet, junior Ki-ley Walsh shot 2-under-par to tie the 9-hole school record of 33. To add to the team’s impres-sive start, earlier in the season junior Bridget Brassil shot a hole-in-one. The team has an undefeated conference record so far.

These achievements come in a season where the team is faced with an incredible chal-lenge: defending a state cham-pionship.

“There isn’t a tougher task than being the defending champs,” head coach Jim Ha-mann said. “Everyone is ex-cited to have you in their tour-nament and everyone wants a chance to beat you.”

The pressure that comes with having to defend their state championship has not phased the girls, and they’re “having fun with it,” according to Hamann.

“We just handle the pres-sure and take [it] each meet at a time and not worry about who else is there and focus on what we are going to do as a team,” said Noelle Johnston, senior and member of last year’s championship team.

Pressure on the team does not come solely from outside sources, however. The team’s depth makes the girls more competitive with one another. In order to make the lineup, the girls must perform well in practice and while that compe-tition can be rough, it has its benefits.

“If you look at our... players, they are competing for the last couple spots to play and lineup decisions are tough,” Hamman said. “At the same time, each girl is becoming a better golfer and I think that can be some-thing they can carry with them

for the rest of their lives.” The variety of girls that

make the line up from meet to meet also allows more girls on the team to play and do well.

“It’s a really great program when everyone has a chance to play and a chance to score,” Johnston said.

With more girls getting play-ing time, Hamann said that the team’s main goal is to be play-ing their best golf by the end of September as the team paces themselves through their long season.

“We are taking baby steps to fix things and, by the end of September, hit the ground run-ning,” Hamann said.

The team hasn’t gotten caught up in their champion-ship glory and has been prac-ticing the same as they always have. While the girls do have time to work on what they need to improve on individually, the team is focusing on their short game at this point in the sea-son.

“Our theme this year is a ‘100 and in to Win,’” Hamann

said. “What that means is that we want to practice our closer shots and that’s really what we want to focus the bulk of our time on.”

As the team practices, they are keeping perspective for what is coming up and what to concentrate on to carry them through their long season.

By taking the season step by

step the girls are keeping the season manageable and keep-ing their goals in reach.

“Right now we are focusing on conference and the dual meets we have left, but obvious-ly doing as well as we did last year would be nice,” Johnston said. “But doing what’s ahead first and getting down there is more important.”

Girls’ golf keep season in perspective

SHORT GAME: Noelle Johnston putts in pratice on Sept. 7. As the girls’ golf team moves through their long season the team is working on their short game and other individual aspects. (Photo by Miranda Holloway)

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photo by Ian Magnuson

photo by Ian Magnuson