By ALEX YOUNGEditor-in-Chief

Small rectangular bits of orange paper, 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches in size, began to materialize on campus last year.

They were hall passes, brought to DHS by new principal Winfred Roberson, who is now the superintendent of the Davis Joint Unified School District.

But then Roberson left, a summer passed by, and a new school year brought a new principal. It seemed that the once ubiquitous hall pass seemed to be falling into disuse.

Loyla Vogel, who is in charge of distributing the hall passes to teachers, has noticed a decline in requests for hall passes this year.

And Vice Principal Sheila Smith says that more teachers have been using more generic hall passes, written out to “TA” or “Jane Doe” this year.

“It really bothers me. I check the hall pass to see who the student is, and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? I can’t even tell what this means’,” Smith said.

Some teachers have stopped issueing passes alltogether. Senior Josh Merritt says he has been out of class numerous times without a hall pass, and has never been stopped by a campus supervisor.

“I’ve walked past a yard duty without a pass, and I’ve never been asked to show them my pass, or anything,” Merritt said.

Social studies teacher Tracy Stapleton admits to sometimes letting his students out of class without a hall pass.

“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t—it really depends on the moment,” Stapleton said. When he does, on occasion, let a student go to the bathroom without a pass, it will usually be to preserve the fluidity of the day’s lesson.

“Ultimately,” he said, “my job is to teach.”Still, there are others, like Angela Cheung and Scott

Richardson, who continue to fight the good fight. Richardson meticulously fills out each hall pass and attaches a piece of masking tape to its upper edge, giving each student that needs to venture across the hall to the bathroom the same parting instructions: “You will wear this on your chest at all times like a name tag.”

Cheung says she is careful to have her students fill out individual passes to be signed because she is concerned for the safety of her students.

“When I write out the pass, I’ll know what time they went out. If they just walked out [with a generic pass], I might not know,” Cheung said.

Smith agrees that the hall pass is primarily to insure student safety.

“The purpose of the hall pass is really as identification […] It’s for the safety of the students.”

But she feels that enforcement this year has been lax compared to last year, and has especially fallen off in the last few months.

But according to a study conducted by psychologists from George Mason University and the Berlin Institute of Technology, people have great diffiiculty changing long-term behavioral patterns

“I think we as an administrative team need to meet to discuss [enforcing the policy more stringently],” Smith said.

And on a sun-washed mid-winter’s afternoon on Jan.14, a student ambles down the L building stairs, directly across from the glass walls of the administrative building. In his hand, an empty plastic badge holder swings from a thin black lanyard. There isn’t a speck of orange in sight.

THE HUBDavis Senior High School www.bluedevilhub.com

January 19, 2011 Volume 85, Issue 6

INDEXNews 1

Features 3

Op-Ed 5

In-Depth 8

Entertainment 9

Sports 11www.bluedevilhub.com

Dying for a new home

By DANIEL TUTTHUB Correspondent

In comes a dog with a small shaved area on its arm. A veterinarian has already inserted a pre-injected needle into the dog’s flesh.

In comes the veterinarian wearing plastic gloves and clasp-ing a large needle filled with light purple liquid. The needle fits into the narrow hole of the pre-injected needle, finding its way silently and without pain to an artery under the skin.

While the veterinarian pushes the thumb rest, an overdose of the anesthetic sodium pentobarbital surges through the veins of the dog.

One second: normal.Two seconds: slightly drowsy. Three seconds: almost asleep. Four seconds: eyes closed.Five seconds: dead.The veterinarian slowly extracts the needle. The animal is

carried away.The life of an animal is sucked away because of an abun-

dance of available pets and a lack of available homes. This end befalls an estimated 810 animals in Yolo County that are euthanized each year.

EUTHANASIAcontinued on 2

Hall pass use declines at DHS

DHS considers new approaches to AP courses

Check www.bluedevilhub.com soon for sports “signature moves” videos.

than last year, which could imply more stress, but it’s eustress,” Jin said. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines eustress as “positive” and “healthful” stress.

Clara Fannjiang, a junior, has more than three honors and AP classes this year

She says she does have “some stress” but she believes that “we live in a competitive society and competitive job market, and to get anywhere you’re going to have to work.”

Fannjiang also adds that she loves most of her classes and questioned, “If a student’s interested in a subject, why hold him or her back from it?”

Tessler believes that many students don’t know the extent of the work and time that AP classes, and that those students are often the ones who suffer the most

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Senior Camille Dunn uses a hall pass while walking the halls during third period on Jan. 14.

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An ounce of prevention can save thousands of lives

This 8-week-old puppy, who does not have a name yet, is currently being fostered by sophomore Anny Huang, a volunteer for the Yolo County SPCA, which does not euthanize adoptable animals.

By KALANI RATNASIRI AND MONICA LOPEZHUB Staff Writers

Science teacher Wayne Raymond passed out a survey before break, asking his Physics Honors students questions about student stress levels in weighted classes. Most of his students are seniors and juniors who take multiple honors and AP classes.

The survey showed that, of the students taking more than two AP/ honor classes, 33 percent of the felt “enormously pressured” and another 33 percent felt “significantly pressured” to take more honors and AP classes. Fifty-four percent of the survey group felt “enormously” and “significantly stressed.”

Perhaps in response, DHS is implementing a new method of informing students about honors and AP classes.

According to counselor Courtenay Tessler, the 2011-2012 class catalogue will include a section called “Stress in high school,” specifically for students planning on taking these rigorous classes. The section will include a homework calculator and individual class descriptions. The intent is to give students more information on homework,

which can be assigned even on weekends and holidays in honors courses, and time expectations.

Students who plan to take weighted classes next year will also receive a contract that has to be signed by students and their parents or guardians, to make sure that there is a clear understanding of how much work and time that course will require.

Tessler hopes that providing this new information, along with having an AP/honors ROP workshop, will help students make more informed choices about the rigor of their class schedule.

Students “can handle it”

“Managing AP and honors classes is brought up every year,” counselor Courtenay Tessler said, with many students loading up their schedule with the difficult classes.

“We have those kids [at DHS] who can do music, play a sport and take four AP classes all at once,” Tessler said.

Sophomore Benjamin Jin is taking five honors and AP classes this year. These classes have made him a bit busier than last year, but he says he is not any more stressed than last year.Students like Jin enjoy weighted classes as a challenge.

“I have more homework

from crowded schedules.“These classes should be

based on [your] interest, because if students don’t like the class, they aren’t interested, and they don’t do well,” Tessler said.

However, senior Peter Wang thinks that at this point in school, “if kids can’t handle the pressure, they can always drop the classes.”

“I think the students taking a large amount of these ‘difficult’ classes are quite adept at time management (most of the time), and I am sure they have some ideas about their limits,” Wang said.

More to school than APs

Students like sophomore Iona Seritan feel the constant pressure of getting good grades.

APcontinued on 2

ENOR-MOUSLY PRESSURED

SIGNIFI-CANTLYPRESSURED

NOTPRESSURED

Legos for big kids! The up and coming computer game for all ages.

Can guys and girls be just friends?

Features | Page 3

Puzzle pages: Take a study break from finals!

Puzzles | Page 6 - 7

DHS snowboarders share their passion for powder

Sports | Page 11

33%

33% 34%

Survey distributed to science students in Fall 2010

Page 2 January 19, 2011

By ALANA DE HINOJOSA

Editor-in-Chief

Students flooded the counseling office the Monday after winter break, only to find chaos at the department’s front desk due to a new sign-up procedure. As students fumbled over the multi-step process, several students spent twice as long signing-up for an appointment due to the slow and confused line of students.

“If you know how to sign up for an appointment go right ahead, cause I sure am confused about how to do it,” counseling office secretary Odie Landreos said to struggling students during third period break on Jan. 3.

The DHS counseling department had revised the 14-year-old student sign-up procedure that day, changing the procedure to what the department called a “streamlining student sign-up system” in a Naviance email news letter. Counseling seeking students may still sign up to see their counselor, however, that day the process involved two steps: scheduling a class period to meet and filling out a brief itent form that specified reason for the appointment.

According to head counselor Courtenay Tessler, the department

New counseling procedures cause confusionchose to start the new year with a fresh system because “the old system made it so we couldn’t keep up with our jobs and priorities.” Tessler credits the ever-increasing demands of the counseling department-which include student meetings, weekly study teams, monitoring 504s (an alternative form of education for students with disabilities), responding to 50 plus emails a day, and more - to the change.

“The whole job has increased and increased. It got so it was really hard to do it the old way,” she said. “Something had to change so we could serve the needs of students.”

The new system, however, has imposed nothing but confusion among both DHS students and the counseling department office staff.

“I was super confused when I tried to sign-up,” junior Nina Pierto, who met with her counselor earlier this week, said. “It’s new and still really complicated. They haven’t figured it out yet.”

Counseling office secretary Nikki Lavern said she was more confused by student questions regarding the process than the process itself.

Just two days after being in service, the counseling department met to revise the procedure yet again. The second version was set in motion the following Thursday.

This version discarded the step of filling out an intent form. Instead, the department office would send out call slips to students.

According to Tessler, the counseling department chose to scrap the intent form because it wasn’t absolutely necessary for managing their calendars.

“They’re still trying to work out the kinks. They’re going to be twikning with it until they get it right,” a counseling department staff said of the second revised version.

However, the following week the department altered the system again, mirroring it to Sacramento’s John F. Kennedy High School’s online counseling sign-up system except in paper form.

“If we haven’t already drivin’ people nuts, we’re going to drive them over the edge,” Tessler said of the third change.

If the third version recieves postive feedback, the department plans on implementing an online version of the system on DHS’ official website.

Despite all the changes, Landreos has seen some progress.

“I’m getting unconfused, it’s getting gradually easier,” she said. “I don’t know if the new system has been helpful to [students], but it sure seems easier to me.”

Finals calendar frustrates, baffles studentsBy SAGE PURKEY

AND ELSIE FULLERTON

HUB Staff Writers

After two weeks of relaxing and thinking about everything other than studying, DHS students are back at school and forced to prepare for the fast approaching final exams.

Unlike nearby schools in the area, DHS’s academic calendar has the end of the semester scheduled in mid-January, which means that finals week comes shortly after winter break.

Senior Taylor Leuschen feels that having finals after winter break negatively affects her performance.

“Break is not supposed to be spent studying. People are relaxing and seeing family and going on vacation. Seniors are dealing with college applications; they’re not thinking about school,” Leuschen said.

Keira Nocetti, a senior at Saint Francis High School in Sacramento, where finals are over before winter break, said that completing finals before break helped her stay focused and motivated.

“The material was fresh in my mind during testing, which is what

finals are supposed to be, refreshers of the whole semester,” Nocetti said.

Nocetti felt that a break before finals wouldn’t have benefited her even if she were to study for the two weeks off.

“I didn’t need the two weeks to study. If you were doing what you are supposed to during school, you shouldn’t need break to cram [for] the whole semester. Plus, it made the break more relaxing and teenagers […] need more breaks because of all the pressures [they] are under,” she said.

According to Davis Joint Unified School District board members Sheila Allen and Susan Lovenburg, the calendar for this year was based directly off last year’s schedule.

When dates for furlough days were being set, the issue of changing the calendar was brought forward. However, these suggestions were brought forth too late to impact the 2010-2011 school year.

Still, the school board is considering scheduling changes for upcoming school years.

“We have heard from staff, students and parents that completing the first semester at the winter break would make good educational sense and I support this idea,” Allen said.

For this issue’s“The Devil’s Den,”

check out The HUB’s website at

www.bluedevilhub.com

ANIMALS: San Francisco provides better model to followcontinued from 1

HONORS/AP: APs not “everything”continued from 1

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A student signs up for a counseling appointment using the new appointment system during third period break on Jan. 13.

“I think euthanasia in animal shelters is part of what the pub-lic expects us to do,” said Vicky Fletcher, Yolo County chief ani-mal services officer.

But an increase in education, spay and neuter programs and foster homes could help achieve an epoch in Yolo County when no animals are unnecessarily euthanized.

PreventionA cat that isn’t spayed or neu-

tered can give birth to three litters a year with six or seven kittens per litter. This quickly amounts to an overwhelming source of animals.

Jill Souza works mostly with low income families. She is a spay/neu-ter staff member for Yolo County Society for the Prevention of Cru-elty to Animals (YCSPCA).

Spaying or neutering often costs between $200-300, making it too expensive for some people, accord-ing to Fletcher. Providing financial support to families who own pets but do not have the means to spay or neuter them may help.

The YCSPCA has constructed a system of clinics that will spay or neuter a cat for a much lower cost for lower income families.

Even then, the organization can-not prevent unwanted litters with-out education.

There are a lot of people who think that it’s fine to allow pets to reproduce as long as the owners find homes for the kittens or pup-pies. This is false. When an owner gets people to adopt their kittens, those people can no longer adopt kittens from shelters like the YC-SPCA, according to Jill Souza.

Souza suggested to DHS students who wanted to volunteer that put-ting up flyers in apartment com-plexes or spreading the word about spaying or neutering pets is a good way to get started.

“The key to preventing [unnec-essary animal euthanasia] is to edu-

cate the public on the pet overpop-ulation problem and to encourage the spay and neuter of all compan-ion animals,” YCSPCA Executive Director Kim Kinnee said.

The addition of more foster vol-unteers also diminishes the amount of animal euthanasia, according to Anamarie Urrutia, YCSPCA vol-unteer coordinator.

“If we can reduce the number of homeless pets in our community, then in turn, fewer animals will end up in our shelters, and then fewer will be euthanized,” Kinnee said.

Foster homes can manage the populations already in the shelter but can’t change the numbers of unwanted animals coming in.

“Now, with the economy not doing so well, we don’t see any people breaking down doors to get kittens,” Fletcher said.

“It all comes down to the fact that we can’t have more animals end up in the shelter than are want-ed in the community,” UC Davis professor of veterinary science Kate Hurley said.

San Francisco SPCAThe San Francisco SPCA has

achieved the goal of almost no ani-mal euthanasia.

The San Francisco organization formed an agreement in 1994 with the local government based on pre-venting all unnecessary euthanasia.

They then began to invest be-tween $1 million and $2 million a year to subsidize surgery at its spay and neuter clinic. This spurred free surgery for San Francisco’s feral cats and a 60 percent reduction in the price of the surgery at their clinic, according to Ed Sayres, former president of the SFSPCA.

The San Francisco organization now spays or neuters 7,000 animals each year and has spayed or neu-tered more than 100 thousand ani-mals since it began keeping records in 1988.

The amount of animal euthana-sia has been dramatically reduced, from 61.2 percent in 1990 to 2.4 percent in 2009.

If the YCSPCA can follow the steps of its San Francisco counter-part, but on a level appropriate for Yolo County, then they may be able to reach the same end, accord-ing to Fletcher.

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“If you don’t work hard at the high school level, you don’t get into a college. You hear [this] from counselors, teachers, parents, older siblings, adult acquaintances, the president, college deans, future employers… Everyone knows it. But, I don’t know if AP classes are the only way to show that you’re worthy,” Seritan said.

Seritan takes Zoology/Botany which is not an AP class but one that “most people at DHS think is a joke.” Nevertheless, she believes that classes like Zoology/Botany will showcase her interest and give her the upper edge on transcripts when she applies to college for as biology major.

“It’s going to mean that I have a deeper background in biology than someone who just took the required biology class. When I choose my classes, I try to balance weighted classes with unique classes that I love.”

Seritan believes that there shouldn’t be a limit on weighted classes because “if you want to kill yourself taking all AP and Honors classes, it’s your choice,” she said.

AP/Honors classes prepareRecent DHS graduate and Har-

vard University freshman Jane Seo believes that the AP and honors classes are for the best way to get ready for college.

Seo, who took “a lot of AP classes” in her high school years, remembered that she “enjoyed learning” from her AP and honors classes rather than just doing them for college.

Looking back on her high school years, “the AP classes made me well prepared for college and they were worth the stress,” Seo said.

She believes students should be responsible for their own stress.

Colleges look at more than grades

UC Davis reports that the mid-

dle 50 percent of its 2010 Freshman Profile had a GPA of 3.85-4.21. That means that, if a student fol-lows the school’s suggestion to limit his or her schedule to three honors and AP classes, a student could still fall into this GPA range.

The University of California, as well as numerous other colleges, has a limit to the amount of extra grade point classes that it calculates in a student’s GPA. For UC admis-sion, students can earn up to eight semesters of honors points, which doesn’t include honors courses in ninth and 10th grades.

Darlene Hunter who is Associ-ate Director of UC Davis Under-graduate Admissions said that UC Davis looks “beyond test scores and grades to evaluate applicants’ academic achievements in light of the opportunities available to them and the capacity each student dem-onstrates to contribute positively to the intellectual, social and cultural community [of] the campus.”

In other words, schools want to see “how you love life outside of school, whether that manifests it-self through sports, music, research, writing, competitive yo-yoing, fashion design, whatever,” Fannji-ang said.

“Whether the school staff should meddle in student stress levels, or just leave it up to the students, I think teachers do have a role there as well. Wouldn’t you rather have a Dumbledore in charge than a Dolores Umbridge? Students like Hermione will still be able to chal-lenge themselves,” Raymond said.

For now, it’s up to students to decide whether or not they will load themselves up on weighted classes, but with the added infor-mation in next year’s catalog and a workshop on the issue scheduled for Feb. 16, Tessler believes that students will be better prepared to choose what’s best for them.

News

SPEAK of the DEVILFeatures

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Best friends regardless of gender

Mirror, mirror on the wall

By Nelly NapalitHUB Correspondent

In the United States, 10 out of 100 teenage girls look in the mirror and don’t like what they see, ac-cording to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychia-try. “Girls are never happy with how they look,” sophomore Mo Xu said. Teen anorexia or extreme diet-ing are widely discouraged, but a definitive solution has yet to be found. “[Being] hypercritical is part of natural development,” said Patrick Akos, a school counselor for the University of North Carolina. In Akos’ study about promoting a healthier body image in school, he said body image was influenced by several factors, including physi-cal changes, peer pressure and the search for one’s identity. Most teenage girls are still grow-ing, and although this is often ac-companied by weight gain, many girls are unhappy with their bod-ies. “Most of the time I’m just joking [when I say I am fat], sophomore Sofia Bolanos-Kellison said. “Girls diet because they are self conscious, and they want to be pretty and look like every other girl,” Da Vinci sophomore Kundan

Malik said. But dieting can be damaging, es-pecially to a growing adolescent’s

body. Dieting pills, laxatives, ex-cessive dieting and self-induced vomiting are just a few of the ways

teens try to look like every other girl. According to Akos, eat-ing disorders such as anorexia or bulimia pose threats like hormonal imbalance, dehy-dration, nutrition deficiency and organ damage. Help is usually avail-able from school counselors, from dependable parents and supportive friends, but girls

continue to pressure them-selves.

“People diet because they compare themselves to other people… [but] it’s in their own mind,” junior Moniqueka Lee said. Malik says she

sees the opposite of the positive things

her friends say about her when she looks in

the mirror. “I feel like I need to be

perfect for people to like me… I don’t know. I’m

very self conscious.” she said. Striving to look a celeb-

rity, Malik wants to achieve their “perfect skin, perfect body, perfect

hair and perfect makeup”. Peer pressure encourages girls to attain a perfect body, but the me-dia is the most at fault, according to Davis parent Jill Duman. “It’s harder to be self confident because there are so many more ways to see famous movie stars who have impossibly perfect bod-ies… with seemingly perfect skin and hair,” Duman said.

Sophomore Nora Kasapligil, Duman’s daughter, agreed that the media was the culprit; she claims the media gives both girls and boys unrealistic expectations. DHS senior Joseph Liu criticized how people commonly think that being skinny is the only way to be beautiful. He disagrees that girls should “only look like models.” These values hold even when teenagers graduate and move on to college. Emma Lam is a senior in college and the president of the UC Davis sorority Delta Kappa Gamma. While in high school, Lam had trouble with her body image, and although she improved, she claims some girls in her sorority still have issues with weight or dieting. “No matter how old people get, there’s still going to be eating dis-orders because of media and stuff, and people will be unhappy with themselves, even in college,” Lam said. The issue of body image seems like an unbreakable circle, cycling between the media, who sets the norm, and the people, who strive to uphold these unreasonable norms. Akos believes there are sure so-lutions to body problems, but that they will be different for each girl. Some may need changed peer or family relationships, some may require professional help, but oth-ers may just need to accept them-selves. “Everybody is different, you have a body, and it’s your’s forever, so why not accept it,” Xu said.

By Kelly GossHub Staff Writer

We’ve all seen that movie: where girl meets boy and boy meets girl, and while overcoming life’s obsta-cles they become best friends. They can confide in one another, support eachother and enjoy the benefits of having a friend of the opposite sex. And before we know it, the two have fallen madly in love and live happily ever after.

But is every friendship between a guy and a girl destined to be a “When Harry Met Sally” love story?

Seniors Hannah Stombler-Levine and Graham McDaniel don’t think so.

Although sparks flew between the two when they first met dur-ing a summer camp before seventh grade, the friends bonded over their core GATE classes at Holmes Junior High School, and they have stayed just friends ever since.

“If we dated it would have been that junior high thing where you break up in a week and then you wouldn’t be friends,” McDaniel said.

The two made the decision in seventh grade to keep their rela-tionship as just friends. Although this agreement initially crushed Stombler-Levine, she believes now that this agreement benefited their relationship long term.

“We always joke that we’ll get married in the future but both of our feelings for eachother are just as friends, and we love eachother to the point where it’s everything but the [dating] relationship part,” Stombler-Levine said.

Best friends and seniors Maya Abramson and Adam Drown be-came friends when they sat next to eachother in AP Music Theory

Teenage girl obsession with their looks

a year ago, and they bonded over their similar interest of music.

Abramson believes that “gen-der isn’t a big deal when it comes to best friends. It just depends on who you like to hang out with,” she said.

Between playing music, the oc-casional bowling night and grab-bing In-N-Out for lunch, the two have experienced the benfits of having a strong relationship with the opposite gender.

“If I want to ask someone some-thing that a girl wouldn’t know, I can talk to Adam and it won’t be awkward,” Abramson said. “Some-times girls can be a little over ana-lytical and he can just listen.”

Drown also believes being good friends with Abramson allows him to “get the inside scoop” when it comes to dating and girls.

But along with their close friend-ships comes questions from peers.

“I’ve had people ask me if I like him before but I just say ‘no he’s my best friend.” That’s just how it works,” Abraham said.

Stombler-Levine and McDaniel also were confronted by friends and family as to their relationship sta-tus in seventh grade when the two first became close. But now the two “have been around the same people forever so they just know,” Stombler-Levine said. “My par-ents still think we’re going to get married though. They joke about it all the time.”

While McDaniel and Stombler-Levine, and Abramson and Drown, plan to keep their relationship as just friends, juniors Stacey Perron and Jimmy Yo decided to take their friendship to the dating level.

The two first met through mu-tual friends in eighth grade at Uni-versity Covenant Church’s youth group “Edge”. During Feburary of their sophomore year the duo be-came more than friends.

From the start people “were rooting for us to date and when we told them they were like ‘I’ve been waiting for this day,’” Perron said.

But Perron believes their rela-tionship as a couple does not differ that much from when they were just friends.

“We still talk a lot and share ev-erything with eachother. And we hang out the same amount we did when we were friends, so it’s not like we’re clinging to eachother now,” she said. “Dating just puts an official label on [our relationship].”

Both Yo and Drown believe that being friends before getting into a dating relationship with some-one has lots of benefits when it comes to communication and openness.

“I know [Stacey] a lot better and she’s more open with me then she probably would have been if we weren’t friends be-fore,” Yo said.

Drown also agrees that be-ing friends before a romantic relationship allows the couple to skip past the initial steps in a relationship that create trust and understanding.

“It’s better all around be-cause you know how to treat them and what their limits are,” he said. “And a lot of the time when a relationship starts, there’s always the awkward do’s and don’ts, but if you go into it from a strong friendship, you can bypass a lot of that.”

But with the benefits also come the worries of getting in-volved with your best friend.

“If something goes wrong would you be able to forget the hurt with that relationship and go back to when you were just friends? I don’t know if you can get over that,” Stombler-Levine said.

McDaniel also cautions that the situaton “could get really messy.

You’ve been counting on that per-son for so long and go to them for advice and you could lose that,” he said.

Despite the concerns, Yo and Perron are confident in their lasting friendship no matter the end result of their dating realtion-ship.

“One thing we talked a b o u t b e f o r e w e started d a t -

ing was if we do go into a relation-ship like we have, that no matter what, we’ll still be best friends,”

Perron said.

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Juniors Jimmy Yo and Stacey Perron have been BFFS since ninth grade and started dating sophomore year.

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Page 4 Januaray 19, 2011Features

By mcKeNzie seatoNHUB Staff Writer

Senior Craig Snipes awoke one morning before school to the sound of his mother’s voice. She flicked on the lights as Snipes rubbed his eyes and stretched out, still laying in bed.

“Early admission results are in, go check,” she said anxiously.

Slowly, he rose from bed, yawn-ing as he walked slowly to his com-puter. Just as Snipes logged into his email account, he was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a pop up video congratulating him on his early acceptance to CSU Cal Poly.

Snipes is among the handful of DHS students accepted early de-cision to their preferred college, leaving their final semester of high school without the need to impress or need to stress over their college fate. While these students run the risk of developing senioritis and feeling pressure about their binding agreements, one thing is for sure: no more questions about where they’re headed come Fall 2011.

“With the early acceptance it is a lot harder to stay motivated and put in enough effort to finish high school. I definitely notice that I have less stress and anxiety about schoolwork now too. I’m already looking forward to meeting new friends and all the fun times I’ll

Stress-less seniorshave in San Luis,” Snipes said.

Like Snipes, senior Hannah Stombler-Levine was also accepted early to Cal Poly, but the two plan on pursuing different paths. While Snipes is anxious to be a part of the business programs offered, Stom-bler plans to pursue a major in Graphic Communication.

“It has the best program in the west, and has a lot of things I want in a school like a Greek system, beach friendly environment, cheap-er tuition and isn’t as competitive as other schools I was looking at; it’s like a dream school in my eyes,” Stombler-Levine said.

Senior Esumi Fujimoto learned about her early acceptance last month.

“I was leaving my sixth period, picked up my phone and saw an e-mail notification from NYU. I freaked out for probably 30 sec-onds in the parking lot alone be-fore opening it to see my results. I celebrated by avoiding all my homework that night, since I could check “get into college” off my to do list,” Fujimoto said with a laugh.

Fujimoto credits her acceptance to all the hours she spent slaving over applications, essay and supple-ments, along with the extracurric-ular activities she took part in that inspired her essays.

“There’s no place in the world like New York City. You can never say you’re bored. Profession-ally, there are so many opportuni-

ties to get your hands dirty and get involved. Since I eventually want to work abroad with a non-profit agency as a nurse practitioner, the clinical experience NYU has to offer its students at major hospi-tals around the city is unrivaled. What really sold me though, is the dual-degree program they have for nursing students where I can begin putting credits towards my Masters degree during undergrad, and reach my goals faster,” Fujimoto said.

While Fujimoto has an obliga-tion to maintain her grades and stick with her AP classes, she is still anxious to “relax and enjoy the rest of senior year without having to panic” about her college fate.

Senior Jenifer Palmer logged into her email recently to learn she had been accepted to the University of Oregon. While Palmer’s acceptance is not binding, she still feels relieved to know she’s been accepted to her top choice school.

“The school just feels right. It’s a good school, I really like Eugene, and it’s not too close or too far away from home. It’s a big school, but not huge, and their tremendous amount of school spirit is really a plus. Basically, it’s just awesome,” Palmer said.

While all early decision students have different paths, they all are in agreement that second semester will come with much more ease and much less stress, and they all are excited to finish out high school and enjoy their friends.

All in the familyBy emily GaoHUB Correspondent

Nothing is ever new. Sophomore Linda Wogulis tried

to expect something different such as a simple “yes” or “no” when she asked to go to a sleepover. Instead, she got the usual sibling compari-son from her parents that includes the typical phrases such as “Why do you go out with friends? [Your older sister] Danielle wasn’t like that. Why aren’t you more like Danielle?”

Like some other parents, Wogu-lis’ compare her to an older sibling and expect some similarities. How-ever, Wogulis notes that this is not the case between her and her sis-ter.

“My parents expect me to be the exact same as my sister and they are dead wrong. My sister and I are to-tally polar opposites. She is studious and shy, and I’m just not,” Wogulis said.

In sophomore Gunjary Ray-chaudhuri’s case, she not only feels pressure from parents, but from teachers as well.

“I’m sure [teachers] have expec-tations for me since my sister was very smart. It is a little daunting on first day of school when they all say, ‘oh, you must be Blossom’s sister!’” Raychaudhuri said.

Wogulis and Raychaudhuri are not the only students to be frus-trated and annoyed with sibling comparisons. “My parents expect me to be perfect like my sister!” sophomore Natalie Ho said.

All the pressure can be discour-aging and challenging.

“It is really hard to get people to realize that I am not my sister and they can’t expect the same things,” Wogulis said. She also gets discour-aged from trying her hardest since whenever she does try, she feels she won’t live up to her sister’s stan-dards.

Ho had a similar problem. Both Ho and her sister had David Van Muyden as their AP Chemis-try teacher. “At first, I felt like I needed to be as good as [my sister] Catherine, but after the first quarter I talked to [Mr. Van Muyden] and now I’m just doing my personal best,” Ho said.

This sibling competition leads to what Katherine Conger, an Asso-

ciate Professor of Human Devel-opment at UC Davis, described as deidentification: when siblings choose different interests to distin-guish themselves.

Ho demonstrated exactly this. Her sister is involved in academics and clubs, while Ho is more athlet-ic, participating in two high school sports: soccer and cross country.

Raychaudhuri, however, feels like she receives the most pressure from herself, constantly pushing herself to excel.

“Sometimes…the pressure sort of gets to me and I have a little meltdown. But I realize that no one wants me to be a clone of Blossom,” Raychaudhuri said.

On the other side of the spec-trum, even though many people make the connection that sopho-more Sean Maroney is “Erik’s brother,” Maroney doesn’t feel any pressure socially or academically. “I don’t really care, I just do what feels good for me,” Maroney said.

Many siblings set a positive repu-tation for the succeeding sibling, but this is not always the case. When the older sibling engages in delin-quent behavior, “it is very difficult

for the younger sibling to establish their own identity at school” and break away from the previously set reputation, Conger said.

Fortunately, with disadvantages come benefits.

At a new school with a new rou-tine, sophomore Anna Pan said that starting high school as a sophomore can be hard without any prior knowledge. She appreciated having her older brother to advise her.

Conger adds that an older, ex-perienced sibling can help the younger take advantage of the high school opportunities. Whether that is explaining how to access various resources or simply sharing places to study, “the older sibling can clue you in on how things work at [the] high school,” Conger said.

Maroney concurs, saying that because of his older brother, he knows the teachers with good rep-utations and what to expect from hard classes.

Wogulis adds that because of her older sister, she knows the layout of the school, specific advice on classes, and most importantly, un-derstands what school is like so that it is not as terrifying and new as it is for completely new students.

How does it feel to know where you are going?

It’s a big relief. I am no longer panicked about getting into college.New York University

It feels good and very relieving. It’s like a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders.University of Oregon

It is such a relief to know that I already know where I am going, but stressful because I have to maintain the same GPA.Cal Poly

Esumi Fujimoto

Jenifer Palmer

Hannah Stombler-Levine

By HaNNaH levieNHUB Staff Writer

While some seniors say slacking off is inevitable, counselors warn it can be dangerous.

“Seniors think that the grades in their senior year don’t count for college. That’s absolutely wrong,” head counselor Courtney Tessler said.

Notification of admittance to a college during the mid-fall semes-ter can prove daunting for some seniors. “My mindset mainly is just ‘get through high school, go onto college.’ Now high school is kind of done, I did all that work, I’ve been accepted. It’s a struggle to think about the present, when all you’re thinking about is col-lege, next year,” senior Simone Aldredge said.

Tessler admits that seniori-tis, slang term for seniors who are ready to move on to college and leave high school, is prevalent.

Aldredge is currently taking five weighted classes. “When I was do-ing my program planner—I wanted to take lots of AP classes to have a high GPA. I did kind of give myself a heavy load,” she said.

Senior Joey Bashore views his senior classes differently, perhaps with more of the “slacker” view-

point. “Yeah, I definitely tried to get my schedule so I wouldn’t have to do that much home work but it definitely didn’t work out that way,” he said.

Tessler advises against any and all slacking: “I don’t understand why you would make it this far and blow it off senior year,” she said.

Bashore sees senior year not sim-ply a time to stack up on AP classes but to “take classes that you actu-ally think will be kind of fun, Id rather do slightly more work in a class I like than less work in a class I hate.”

Despite their differences in inter-ests in maintaining a number of AP classes both seniors agree on one thing: lack of motivation.

“I’ve never really had that much motivation I might even go to neg-ative motivation even lower than it is now,” Bashore said.

“I have the mindset of a slacker second semester, but still want to keep up my GPA. School means a lot to me. But there’s still the ‘ah I don’t want to do my home work right now. ”Aldredge said.

Tessler warns against that. “Ev-ery year since I’ve been here there has been at least one student who has gotten their admittance re-scinded because they’ve received a D or below,” Tessler said.

Seniors slow down

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Sophomores Hannah and Sam Chastain surround brother Josh, who gradutated from DHS in 2009.

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Letter to the editors

Page 5January 19, 2011

DEVIL’S ADVOCATEOpinions & Editorials

By Madie delMendoHUB Staff Writer

Junior Erin Leary walked to fifth period after the lunch bell sound-ed. She skillfully dodged a couple saying good-bye before class and maneuvered around a group of giggling girls before, slam! she was pushed into a bank of mud by a group of boys conversing about football.

“Our hallways are like a death-trap. There is no natural flow to them. You could be walking smoothly and then someone comes around the corner and practically kills you,” Leary said.

A study from researchers at Ari-zona State University and Princeton University states that ants are more rational than humans. According to the study, ants are much better at organizing themselves as a collec-tive group compared to humans.

An ant has 250 hundred thou-sand brain cells. A human has 10 thousand million brain cells. So, a colony of 40 thousand ants has ap-proximately the same brain size as one Blue Devil student.

Yet, the insects are outsmarting us. DHS students cannot seem to organize themselves to accomplish the easy task of walking from class to class.

Leary comments that she can’t believe the California Department of Motor Vehicles issues licenses to students who can’t even walk in their school hallway.

Maybe what the Blue Devils re-ally need is a few lessons from Hall-way Traffic School.

Lesson one: speed violationsWalk at the speed of traffic. It

is as easy as that. You have a six minute passing period, so sprinting

One afternoon I had a friend tell me that she loves this

column. She loves that it’s “raw” and “deals with the human ele-ment.” After puzzling over what she meant, I decided that it was all balogna, and that I disdain the hu-man element.

The human element is what’s wrong with the world. Instead, what we need more of is the robot element.

As far as I’m concerned, peo-ple are highly overrated, a tragic evolutionary misstep – one that’s ended up costing Earth millennia in its race for galactic supremacy. The best cosmic intelligence re-ports indicate that 51 Pegasi b (also known by the ominous moniker “Bellerophon”), a planet 150 times as massive as Earth, and a mere 50 light years away, has no organic life forms.

This can only mean that it is populated entirely by robotic ar-tificial life 150 times as large as a human being. These robots are ca-pable of feats of incredible strength (some grainy footage taken by the Hubble Telescope show what is supposedly a Bellerophonian robot bench pressing 357 trillion pounds, the equivalent of lifting Mt. Ever-est.)

There are those who say robotic life would be a bad thing, and they can be more or less divided into two camps. The first camp is comprised of “non-believers.” These are the people who say, “Alex, don’t be silly, robots could never have hap-pened naturally.” And I tell them, “You’re dumb!”

The elements necessary to create inorganic life are, and were, pres-ent on Earth, just as the elements necessary to create life were pres-ent, and continue to be present. In fact, the modern day human body functions via a network of various chemical reactions, much the same way that a hypothetical robot might have functioned -- one or two mil-lion years ago.

By elsie FullertonHUB Staff Writer

I want to go skiing. I used to go all the time, but between sports and school I haven’t been able to make it up the mountain as much as I’d like. So I’m a little rusty, okay?

This means that I don’t want to navigate my way down a slick mountain surrounded by hordes of people. Which makes, say, a Tuesday or Wednesday the perfect day to head over to Tahoe. And I should be able to, shouldn’t I? I’m a good student and, if my dad wants to take me skiing for the day, it should be my, and his, perogative. But here’s the catch: unless I want to receive five automated phone calls to my house droning on about my lack of appearance in class and if I do want the chance to make up my work, I have to ask my parents to lie for me. Ask them to say things like: “Elsie was at an appointment,” or “she was feeling ill.” Eric Bastin, a science teacher at DHS, jokes about his reaction to students skipping school for unsanctioned reasons. “See this

before the sprint bell is unnecessary and potentially hazardous.

You have your hallway mad dashers, who should be hunted down on a high speed chase, and then you have the students on the other end of the spectrum: the hall-way slugs.

So you might have gone to bed a little late, or you might just not be an enthusiastic walker, but nothing is an excuse for dragging yourself to class in front of someone who wish-es to walk at the normal speed.

And for the slugs out there, if there is a line of more than six Blue Devils trailing behind you, pull over to the side of the hallway.

Lesson two: blocking an in-tersection

There are so many great plac-es around campus to meet your friends and talk in a huge circle. The hallway is not that place. Find a table. Stand on the grass.

THEATERof the

MINDAll the World’s

my Stage

“People just stand around and talk to their friends and they stand in big groups in really inconve-nient places. If people cleared off to the side and walked a little faster, it wouldn’t be such a problem,” Leary said.

Lesson three: Protruding Objects

One word: Umbrellas. Our school has about 2,000 stu-

dents. Walking in the crowded halls with an umbrella is not the greatest idea.

Furthermore, if you do decide to bring an umbrella to school, you have lost your right to walk under an awning. You have coverage, get out of there. What does an umbrel-la even accomplish if you are not in the rain?

Just leave the umbrellas at home. Nobody cares what your hair looks like. Buck up.

The problem with humans, the pinnacle of organic life, is that our soft organic tissues have an unac-ceptably low capacity to withstand physical pressures and exert force. At the very dawn of life, did or-ganic matter seem like a better idea than it is now?

Perhaps, because it would have taken robotic life much longer to get started (think about how long a rock, even unimpeded and unop-pressed by humans, would take to form itself into even a basic circuit board).

However, I think Earth’s man-agement made a major mistake in playing for the short term with or-ganic life. It plateaus much earlier than robotic life, which once it gets going, advances at an exponential rate. It took only thirty years to go from the V2 rocket (which killed more people while it was being de-veloped as a weapon than it killed while it was in use as a weapon) to the nuclear bomb.

And that was with humans in charge. Imagine what machines could have done for themselves. We probably would have discov-ered the secrets to nuclear fusion and traveling faster than the speed of light by now if we were all ro-bots.

The second camp of anti-ro-botisists are the “pro-humanists.” These individuals have deluded themselves and brainwashed their children into thinking that humans are actually better than robots. That just beats all.

They argue that humans have the unique ability to create works of art that a souless robot could never hope to equal. Now, I’m not conceding that this is true, but even supposing that it is (I’ll give it to the pro-humanists as a pity point given that the robots are winning on ev-ery other score), so what?

Try handing a Mozart concerto or a Georgia O’Keefe water paint-ing to the invading Bellerophoni-ans, and see if they give a hoot.

Students ski-pping schoolscorpion? We take their hand and put it in the tank for five minutes.” But, in all seriousness, Bastin believes that “as long as [students] are responsible and attend to business when they get back, I’m totally supportive.” And other students feel they must employ this ruse too. The other day, sitting in class, I overheard a girl saying that she was “going to be sick next Friday.” Hmmm. You get notified about illness in advance? How fortunate for you. Oh wait, but I could too. That is, if illness and appointments are the only way to be excused.

So why can’t our parents excuse us when they feel it’s reasonable?

As of now, there are limited state sanctioned reasons to miss school. According to Carmen Schnathorst, an attendance secretary, illness and appointments are the main excuses.

There are, however, other more obscure yet legitimate reasons to miss school. Funerals, religious holidays (although only a certain number per year), school sanctioned activities, pre-approved college visits, court appointments and theatrical performances (though only five per year) are allowed.

But, barring independent study, which requires considerable advance notice, vacationing during the school week is not allowed.

But everyone is raised differently, and, ultimately, our parents, not our educators, are those making the big calls in our lives. For that reason, it should be within their power to excuse us based on reasons they feel are legitimate. And, even now, iff I want to go skiing with my dad on a Tuesday, I can make it happen.

But, really, I don’t want to lie about it. And I truly feel I shouldn’t have to. After all, I’m not doing anything bad. Of course, I understand why the regulations are there. I understand that they are there so that some irresponsible parent won’t excuse their child for an unreasonable amount of time. But couldn’t this easily be regulated? A quota, per month or even for the school year, of days available for parents to excuse students without a school approved reason? Life happens, and sometimes one can’t make it to school for reasons besides illness, appointment or a funeral.

Check your facts

In the last HUB article “Re-membering Twenty Ten,” the Varsity field hockey team was mis-represented. We were honored to have been a part of the spread, but the blurb stated that we placed sec-ond in league overall. In reality, the varsity field hockey team claimed the league championship this year. Although we understand that errors happen, we would like to be recog-

nized for all of the hard work and effort we put into our season. Our team puts a lot of time into training and we are a very close knit team, so earning first place was a huge ac-complishment. Next time, if you would check your facts more close-ly, we would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Sarah Riesenberg, representing the 2010 varsity

field hockey team, senior

Editors-in-Chief: Alex Young, Alana de HinojosaCopy Editor: Kelly GossNews Editors: Chloe Kim, Monica LopezFeatures Editor: Jordan SouzaOp-Ed Editor: Amanda ZastrowEntertainment Editor: McKenzie SeatonSports Editor: Hannah LevienIn-Depth Editor: Caitlin GlassmanWebsite Editor: Elsie FullertonArt Director: Kayla McCarty

Graphic Artist: Charlotte ChenPhoto Editor: Max GuidaPhotographers: Ceci Cajandig, Lauren Blackwell, Jenny PengIllustrator: Catherine HoRadio Director: Madie DelmendoBusiness Manager: Harman KaurHUB Staff Writers: Sage Purkey, Emily Glass, Kelsey Ewing, Megan Schaap, Rubia Siddiqi, Mimi Yu, Webmaster: Yang LiuAdviser: Kelly Wilkerson

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Write a

letter!The HUB appreciates its readers and enjoys hearing feedback. If you want to write us a letter, submit it to L-20 or dhshub@gaggle.net. Your opinion matters!

The HUB PolicyThe HUB is written, edited and typeset by members of the DHS HUB class. It is a non-profit publication paid for by advertisements and donations. The HUB was established as an open forum of student ideas and expression. Our content reflects the interests and ideas of students but not necessarily those of the Davis Senior High School administration and faculty. Staff opinions are the majority opinion of the HUB staff. This publication is not subject to prior review. The administration of Davis Senior High School should not be held responsible for The HUB’s content.

The HUB 315 W. 14th St.

Davis, CA 95616

Learn how to walk

Organic life evolutionary folly

January 19, 2010Page 6 Puzzles

Spot the DifferencesFind nine differences between the two photos

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(1)eye (2)bottle (3)pinecone is now a conch shell (4)bite in apple (5)two paint tubes switch (6)paintbrushes are replaced with scissors (7)flower (8)paint on painting (9)glue

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Sudoku!Just when you thought finals were hard....

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RING RING RING!

It’s lunch time and it’s your job to get to your friend’s car before they leave for lunch without you. You have two choices: run to the new parking lot to snatch a ride to In-n-Out or run to the old parking to get swooped by your friends who

are going to Chipotle. Starting from the quad, you have one route to the new parking lot and two routes to the old parking lot. You better hurry! Good luck!

Zoom, zoom, zoomFind your way through the DHS maze to catch a ride to lunch

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Who’s who in stud gov?BA

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ASB Vice President

Break the record night committe head

In charge of youth in government

Sophomore Class President

ASB Treasurer

In charge of rent-a-senior

A: Adam King, sophomore class president; B: Veronica Andrade, rent-a-senior; C: Yasmeen Nahal, ASB Treasurer; D: Sarah Owens, ASB Vice President; E: Clara Bonetti, Break the record night; F: Kristen Lee, Youth in government

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ski hug Facebook coffee dance jog movies shop sleep text eat roadtrip

U Z T L Y I N D X M N B N G F S J M G T T Z K Z F Q I W E O O K B N V H O L K Q X X M O C P X U E C R T X L J R E P B A B P O V V E S S J E B L I E B K S C G O N A Q F E I I F B A I Z A Q R E I P L C T F G W D K B R D C U R D Y A N Q E L O C R G H L M O U S L M T G G I P T O A A I Z O K S Z Y L U N K O G P B J Z C V P Y D Q C N G S C R Z L Q H P H G H G K F O E K D N K A V Z V C B C I J B W E T Q G V L T O J X I Y Z B O B P W Y E A D E R D Z G T I K E J G M R F F K U R J F D O O M E F O Z R C X H U P X E Y F O T O Z O B S O Z N Q H S V K V P Z N Y Z Q H V A J W U C M B C R L F S P L N I S H Q A Q Q N S P V Z T Q G Z J H H E H L G G R U D W N L P F L B B N V E E A C I Y B H G E W L X I I G K X I M N D P Z O X D H E R F E L H E C I P H E J A O J Y B W I Y T L D S K I B Y I E P X M K Y Z R G T O A O T W Z X C W A Y V E P S H Z F J E B Z A M M U B Q T W N E F I N E S R I I I N Y P T Y S E N L E E E R V Q E T R G G V T I E X D S W Q Y R A C W Y E C C U V W I L W A H P O T Y J J G Y V X D B T R O T T A O P O H S J D Q C Q B W M E C O F F E E N P I U H F N H E U H B P J F U K L W K E K H N T G K K V A I G N V O P M X S I W D C M E J B N K X C Y Q V S B P G V X S E J O H C A S X L K G G S J P W H N P O D E I U I F T I V Q Q E W C B X A P Q B F S O R H V L O I U P H Z R P P E W B I W L Q D I R E V M Z M T M U U P R D B F V A A Y F H T Y R

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Word search: post finals plans

Where in DHS?By: Harmen Kaur

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Finals got you feeling puzzled?

ADAM KING

YASMEEN NAHAL

CLARA BONETTI KRISTEN LEE

SARAH OWENS

VERONICA ANDRADE

Page 7PuzzlesThe HUB

Movie CryptogramLONGFELLOWTYFUBVTTYP

One letter stands for another. In the example, T is used for the three L’s, Y is for the two O’s etc. Single letters, apostrophes, the length and formation of the words, are all hints. Your objective is to work out the decoding table and determine the quotation. Quotations will be from a famous movie. After you have detrmined the quote, guess what movie the quote is from. The name of the actor who said it is given.

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Actor: Clark Gable

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Actress: Keira Knightley

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Actor: Russell Crowe

Answers: Gone with the Wind, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Gladiator

Across1. Avoiding studying.4. Dress for __________.6. A stimulant that helps you stay awake.9. The school year is divided into two of these.10. A place filled with books to help you study.11. Studying last minute.Down2. The subject that includes chemistry, biology and physics.3. People who give finals.5. The thing you do to get good grades on finals.7. Doing bad on finals.8. The subject that includes Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus. S

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Finals crossword puzzle

Match the HUBster to their baby blanket

Answers: Panco, Madie; Finger, Hannah; Meme, Max; Blankie, Kayla

“FINGER”

KAYLA MCCARTY

MADIE DELMENDO

MAX GUIDA

HANNAH LEVIEN

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“BLANKIE”

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Finals got you feeling puzzled?

What top 40 Radio hit are you?

When you wake up in the morning, who/what do you feel like?a) like P. Diddyb) like a G6c) like a plastic bag

What do you do in your free time?a) pull up to the partiesb) fly jet planesc) set off fireworks

What’s your life moto?a) “ain’t got a care in the world”b) “ladies love my style”c) “let it shine”

What’s your biggest pet peeve?a) when the party starts before you walk inb) when you don’t feel so flyc) when your colors don’t burst

Mostly A’s: Tik Tok - Ke$haYou love to blow your speakers up.Mostly B’s: Like a G6 - Far East MovementYou like to keep it gangsta.Mostly C’s: Firework - Katy PerryYou’re even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.

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Page 8 January 19, 2011

NAVIGATING YOUR DRIVING TEST By Genny BennettHUB Correspondent

One of the milestones in a teen-ager’s life is passing his or her driv-ing test. For some, it is harder than for others.

Junior Emma Phillips did not pass the first time taking her test in Davis. Before taking the test, she had heard from friends that it was “really easy” so she “wasn’t ner-vous,” she said.

“It wasn’t really hard but I’m an awful driver so I wasn’t surprised that I failed,” Phillips said after tak-ing the test.

Maurice Arce, a former Depart-ment of Motor Vehicles driving examiner for 30 years who now works as a driving instructor, says that the test only lasts about 13-15 minutes.

Arce says the main skills that test examiners look for on the test are defensive driving, scanning and traffic checks.

“Ninety percent of the driv-ing test is on scanning and traffic checks, lot of head movement,” Arce said.

Sophomore Kelly Chuck recent-ly received her driver’s license. She heard before the test that “it was really easy but you had to be careful not to make an automatic fail.”

An automatic fail is what caused sophomore Monica Berry to fail her test the first time. “The first time I took it my hands started shaking, and I forgot to breathe a few times,” Berry said.

“I didn’t expect to fail my first time, especially because the guy said I was a good driver and I only had an auto-fail because I was so nervous,” Berry said. Berry passed the test soon after in Fairfield.

The examiner that gave Berry her test, John, also gave Chuck hers. The DMV does not give out the last names of test examiners.

Chuck had a different experi-ence than Berry; she passed despite making a mistake. “In the begin-ning when I had to pull back into the road after backing up 50 feet, I stepped on the gas to go forward,” she said.

Senior Jack Ramirez also had John as his test examiner. Ramirez says that he and John were talking about their favorite cars during the test so he wasn’t really paying at-

tention and almost turned left into oncoming traffic on the way out of the DMV.

It was raining the day of Ramir-ez’s test and he was almost positive that he had failed.

After the test, the examiner kept him anxiously waiting in the car for half an hour. But Ramirez did pass.

John did the same to Chuck, al-though he had her convinced until the very end that she wasn’t going to be driving home with her license that day.

Chuck and Ramirez both passed

their test in Davis with John despite making mistakes.

Phillips also took her test in Davis but was given her test by a newer examiner. “I had this lady instead of John, who passes everyone even if they should fail,” Phillips said.

Previous DMV examiner Arce always tried to make his applicants feel comfortable. “I always made the applicant feel relaxed and him or her at ease, and be friendly,” he said.

The main tip Arce would give any student who is going to take the driving test is “scanning, scan-

ning, and more scanning,” he said. Scanning is looking left and right

for traffic or pedestrians while go-ing through intersections or pulling into traffic.

According to Arce the test is not all about how sharp or wide you make every turn, but overall how comfortable and safe your driving is.

Advice from the experts: students who passed on their first try

Junior Chrysten Santos passed the first time she took the test. She prepared by driving a lot, espe-cially around the downtown area. When the test day came and she met her examiner, his jokes and suggestions to “take deep breaths” made her more nervous than she already was. She advised future test-takers to “practice, be pre-pared, and be cautious” in order to calm their nerves.

Senior Nikka Tahan took the test while sick with swine flu. Despite her illness, Tahan still managed to pass on her first try. Ironically, she said she was so distracted that it eased her nerves. She thinks it is essential to hide nerves from the driving examiner.That will help make him more comfortable while you are driv-ing. “Make sure you definitely don’t run red lights!” she added.

According to six students who took the driving test in Davis, this is a possible test route. The route includes an unprotected left turn, at least two lane changes, bike checks and pulling into traffic after backing up 50 feet.

Kelly Chuck celebrates with friend Natalie Serdahl and test examiner John after passing her license test on Nov. 29, soon after her 16th birthday.

To apply for a provisional permit, you will need the following: • Must be 15 ½ years old and under 18 years old. • Pass a vision exam• Pass the traffic laws and sign test; you must answer 39 correct ques-tions out of 46. If you fail, you must wait a week before taking it again. You have three chances to pass the test under one application fee.

Before your driving test you need to…• Receive a completion of six hours Behind the Wheel Drivers Educa tion• Be at least 16 years old and have had your permit for at least six months.• Have completed 50 hours of practice with an adult 25 years or older. At least 10 of the 50 hours must have been done at night.

To take your driving test, you must: 1. Make a driving test appointment. 2. Provide proof of insurance3. Provide a safe vehicle for the driving test.

If you fail your driving test, you must wait two weeks before you can take it again. You have three chances to pass.

Source: California DMV Website

Additional reporting by Monica Lopez, HUB Staff Writer

Junior Cara Meadows-Smith was worried before her test be-cause the person before her had failed. Although at first she was nervous, the tester helped ease her worries because of his easy-going attitude. She was sure she had failed when her driving instruc-tor ended the test after only a few minutes, but she passed. “The [examiner] wants you to pass. Just be safe,” she said.

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Junior Jimmy Yo was actu-ally calm and collected before and during his test because he was “confident in [his] driving skills.” He described his exam-iner as “super chill.” He advised other students to not worry about the test, not make dumb errors, and “make sure you are looking over your shoulder often.” This is especially crucial when you are making a right-hand turn.

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Unprotectedleft turn

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January 19, 2010 Page 9

DEVIL’S FUNHOUSEEntertainment

By RUBIA SIDDIQIHUB Staff Writer

American Idol, the na-tionwide phenomenon that has made stars out of ordi-nary people for the past eight years, inspired DHS to come up with its own version: Da-vis Idol. The competition, which started in 2006, has since impressed community members and high school students alike. As always, the Advanced Treble Choir is in charge of running this year’s Davis Idol. Junior Hannah Her-rera, an ATC member, be-lieves Davis Idol plays a posi-tive role at DHS. “I think it’s good for students because they can show off their tal-

ent to the community,” she said. ATC and Madrigals Di-rector Karen Gardias, who is the head organizer of the event, has been working with her ATC students to prep for the two preliminary shows, which will take place on Jan.21 and Jan.22, and for the final show on Jan.29. Twelve high school students will perform on each of the preliminary nights, and then judges will cut them down to 10, who will then per-form on the final night. The judges are usually a mix of returning winners from past years and DHS teachers who have some type of association with the music division at DHS. “Judges are looking for

good technique in singing, good performance and how well song choice goes with the singer’s voice. For exam-ple, a classical voice would sing classical, not a pop song because it wouldn’t go with their voice,” Herrera said. This year, the judging as-pect is a little different from previous years. Judges will listen to all 24 performanc-es for the two preliminary nights, and not cut anyone until the second night, as compared to last year, where they cut people each night. Herrera describes the per-formances as a collection of different types and genres of songs. “There are old classi-cal songs, some Beatles songs, recent pop songs, and there are some that you might not

know, because there’s some I’ve never heard of. Basi-cally, it’s all personal choice, so you’ll get a variety,” she said. Junior Christina Burns, who is also a member of ATC, has been preparing with her classmates for the big show. “We are selling tickets, we’ve made T-shirts for all the members so they can advertise, and we’re just working hard to make sure everything goes well,” she said. ATC meets during class time to make important de-cisions and assign jobs like who is in charge of tickets, lights, etc. “It’s all a joint ef-fort that we put on togeth-er,” Herrera said.

Spotlight on the stage

Senior students for saleBy MIMI YU HUB Staff Writer

DHS students who are bored of a market where movies, cars and even wom-en’s purses are available for rent should mark their cal-endars for Feb. 3, when they will be able to get their hands on a fresh novelty: DHS se-niors.

Student government will be hosting a live auction titled Rent-a-Senior where underclassmen and teachers will have the opportunity to purchase a senior of their choosing.

About 20 seniors will be “for sale” at the auction, which will be held the night before Break the Record Night. Seniors will also de-cide on what service to offer as a part of the purchase.

“It can be as silly as dress-ing up in costume for a day to taking a sophomore to lunch,” senior Veronica Andrade said, a member of the California Association of Student Leaders Fundraising Committee that is oversee-ing the auction. “People should talk to each other and give the seniors ideas,” she said.

“The purpose [of the event] is to make money for our school and start a new tradition,” student govern-ment member Kelly Chuck said. Chuck’s father has experience in auctioneer-ing and may be MCing the

event. Buyers will be given pal-

lets with numbers to use during the purchasing pro-cess, which will begin at 7 p.m.

“We want the auction to be as authentic as possible,” Andrade said.

Live music and refresh-ments will also contribute to a “classic” atmosphere for those attending, which Andrade hopes will not be limited to prospective buyers but will involve the whole student body.

Though the list is still growing, confirmed partici-pants include: Emily Brown,

Anieli Ruiz, Esumi Fu-jimoto, Drew Kelly, Emma McNeil, Lillian Krovoza, Emily Glass, Jenifer Palmer, Sarah Owens, Spencer Bo-wen, Clayton Jimenez, Tim Mohr, Bryce Thompson, Dillard Brown, Courtney Williams, Alex Young, Ian Rock, Cyrus Ghaffari and the school mascot Diablo.

According to Andrade, the auction is more than a fundraising event. “We want to blow up the spirit for Break the Record Night,” she said.

Junior Christine Tak, also a member of the CASL Fundraising Committee,

hopes an amplified sense of school spirit will increase unity among DHS students.

“Even though seniors are, in a sense, ‘superior,’ I still think it’s important for them to reach out to the under-classmen,” she said. “We should be proud to say we’re Blue Devils.”

Senior Clayton Jimenez agrees. “I think it’s good to increase mingling among the grades,” he said.

Participant Cyrus Ghaf-fari’s hopes for the night al-ready show promise of inter-class mingling.

“I hope to be rented by someone I have never met

before, so I could make a new friend,” he said.

Although specifics such as the full list of seniors auc-tioned, location, and en-trance fee are yet to be deter-mined, enthusiasm runs high among the participants, some of who have already chosen their offered services.

“People were really in-trigued by the idea, and half of them had never heard of it happening at other schools,” Andrade said. “One partici-pant said he would be going all out.”

Dillard Brown, for ex-ample, plans on treating his underclassman to a full day

of royal treatment. “I’ll show them a great time,” Brown said. “I plan on picking them up for school, blasting music and making a big entrance. I’ll be waiting outside their classes, ready to link arms and walk them from class to class all day long. I’ll take them to lunch with their friends, and maybe we can end the day with a sleepover and gossip. Whatever they want to do, I’m down.”

Others are unsure of what they will do for their renters, but know who they would like their renter to be. “I hope Paul Mohr rents me. He’s like a little brother to me,” senior Tim Mohr said.

Jimenez has no preference and simply looks forward to the event. “I’m hoping to start a fun new tradition at DHS that will last forever. I believe it will be an event to remember for months after-ward,” he said.

Andrade hopes the tra-dition will grow to be as famous as DHS’ Mr. Blue Devil. I hope this will be-come an event where soph-omores will wait to become a senior so that they can be a part of the event,” she said. She encourages those inter-ested to visit room C-4 or talk to a student government member for more informa-tion.

MENU

For more on this story visit www.bluedevilhub.com

davis idolWHO: DHS students

WHEN: Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22 (preliminary nights) Saturday, January 29 (�nal night) 7:00 p.m. each night

WHERE: Richard Brunelle Performing Art Building (IPAB)

TICKETS: Presale tickets - $6 for preliminary nights - $10 for �nal event OR Advance purchase of all three nights for $20 At the door - $8 for preliminary nights - $12 for �nal show *Available from ATC members andat Watermelon Music (207 E Street) PERFORMERS: 10th, 11th, and 12th graders from DJUSD

*FINAL NIGHT: Red Carpet Event!

Contestants for this year’s Davis Idol competition have been busily rehearsing for the Jan. 29 final event. JE

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The HUBPage 10 Entertainment

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By KELSEY EWING

HUB Staff Writer

In its first 24 hours on sale, Call of Duty Black Ops took in more than $360 million in sales, accord-ing to the Associated Press. While teen boys around the world are working hard to earn the highest “kill-death” streak, their girlfriends are getting impatient.

For some DHS students, play-ing video games like Call of Duty builds barriers in a relationship, but for other couples, it is a harmless pastime and even a bonding op-portunity.

But when a guy would rather no-scope a stranger from across the globe than go to a movie with his girlfriend, obsession crosses the line.

“Sometimes if I’m busy trying to finish a game, I can’t give [my girl-friend] my attention,” DHS senior Anthony Humphrey said.

Humphrey plays Call of Duty and World of Warcraft for a few hours every night.

To cope with his girlfriend Jor-dan Souza’s discontent, he has taught her to play.

Ideally, Souza would not mind that Humphrey dedicates time ev-ery night to “prestige” or “pwn n00bs” in Azeroth.

The reason that many girlfriends object to their guys playing often

is that it encourages unlikable be-havior.

“This may be due in part to people identifying with the vio-lent character in video games and adopting the view that aggressive behavior is the best way to solve problems,” said Joel Johnson, UC Davis psychology professor.

DHS senior Alex Wilson plays from two to three hours of Halo a day. Wilson says that how a girl re-acts to his video game habits reveals a lot about how the couple will get along.

“I found that girl [who plays vid-eo games] meant a lot more to me than the girls who try to stop me from playing,” Wilson said.

Key components of a relation-ship include maintaining a balance between a companion and other entertainment, according to Kansas State University’s website.

Da Vinci senior Stephen Burt manages to keep equilibrium be-tween his girlfriend and video games by making time for both.

“I usually play late at night when she is sleeping so I have all day with her,” Burt said.

Burt plays video games, usually Call of Duty Black Ops, one or two hours every day.

Although Burt and his girl-friend “haven’t bonded over video games,” he said. “She doesn’t really care that I play so it doesn’t cause a problem.”

DHS junior Nikki Kong says that video games like Call of Duty and FIFA don’t pose a problem in her relationship with Tom Nolan.

“Tom’s actually pretty good at not ignoring me while playing video games, unlike most other people,” Kong said.

“When I’m not there, he pauses the games a lot to text me back, and when I am there, he still tries to carry on conversations with me,” Kong said.

While not solely devoting time to a girlfriend is an imperative as-pect of a healthy relationship, Burt says it is important to know what comes first.

“My girlfriend is always a higher priority [than video games],” Burt said.

However, part of a guy’s at-traction to video games is “kick-ing back after having to listen to [my girlfriend] go on and on […] about how I don’t spend time with [her],” Wilson said.

According to Wilson, the very foundation of a healthy relationship is understanding.

“[Video games] are only a hurdle if she has a problem with it,” Wil-son said. “You have to understand that a killing spree is very impor-tant.”

Girls vs. video gamesGirlfriends abandoned by Xbox obsessed boyfriends

Junior Nick Howell shows off his Xbox skills in this photo illus-tration.

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January 19, 2011 VOLUME 85, ISSUE 6

SPORTING DEVILAthletics

The whistle blows, and the two wrestlers circle each other slowly, each surveying his opponent.Their bodies are tensed, waiting for the right moment to strike. Seconds pass as the two continue to circle. Suddenly, they pounce, and the wrestling begins. The DHS wrestling team has been practicing and competing for the past two months in preparation for league competition at the end of their season. The wrestling team has only participated in one league meet so far and defeated Grant. At this competition, only seven DHS wrestlers participated despite the 14 weight classes available. However, every DHS wrestler pinned his opponent. In addition to facing opponents on the mat, wrestlers face questions from students, particularly concerning weight loss. However, these misconceptions hold little to no substance, according to head coach Ty Brown. “One of the biggest misconceptions about wrestling is that we are just trying to make the wrestlers skinny by having them los[e] weight,” Brown said. “But this is not the case. Losing weight in wrestling is shedding good fat that needs to be off their bodies in order to make them better athletes.” Senior Blair Kittle, joined the wrestling team because of his inability to play basketball due to an injured knee from football. Kittle was not required to lose weight, but says the weight loss is a good thing.“Fat doesn’t help you win matches,” Kittle said. “Having the least amount of fat on your body can be your best advantage, since

you will most likely be competing against guys who also have the least amount of body fat.” According to Brown, there is a weight management rule which states that no wrestler can cut down to a weight below 7 percent body fat. “We’re out of the dark ages of kids cutting five pounds an hour to make weight,” Brown said. “Instead, we try to control weight reduction, with the kids losing around one to three pounds a week.” Kittle has lost 25 pounds since the beginning of the season, and is attempting to lose more before the

season ends. In order to accomplish this, Kittle must adjust the eating habits that he developed during football. “In football, we eat to gain weight,” Kittle said. “I just had to stop doing that and switched to more healthy foods,” he said. Kittle has also started to run. So far in the season, Kittle has had 13 wins and five losses. In his first year of high school wrestling, Kittle won a third place medal at the Ceres Invitational, the first invitational of the season. Senior wrestling captain Philip Toy, who began wrestling as a freshman, has developed a weight

plan over the years, in which he can easily maintain or accomplish a certain weight before a weigh in. “Because of this, I am able to outlast my opponents during a match,” Toy said. “I like getting the first take down, and then I always try to stay on top so I don’t get pinned down. Eventually they get tired, while I’m still fresh, and I beat them.” Toy has done exceptionally well, winning the 112 pound championship at the Ceres invitational. Senior Andrew Olivas needed to drop the weight that he had gained while he was inactive with

an injured knee. “I was at 140, and I wanted to wrestle in the upcoming meet so I dropped around five pounds in three days,” Olivas said. “Even though it was easy to drop it, being mostly water weight, it affected my energy output greatly. It also affects how you are able to cool down, and saps the energy from you.” Junior Andy Schmidl said, like Kittle, that Brown has never asked anyone to drop weight, and that all the weight he dropped was entirely by personal choice so he could perform his best at tournaments and matches. “If you want to be on varsity you usually have to beat someone in wrestling to do it, and it is easier to wrestle a smaller opponent,” Schmidl said. According to Schmidl, only three or four kids on the team actually watch their weight at all. “I don’t even have a weight loss regiment. Every week I set a goal and I gradually lose weight until I reach it by controlling my intake of food and drink, not by stopping eating,” Schmidl said. “We are supposed to lose our weight in chunks and not masses, and to maintain our weight or else it messes with our actual end result, which is the competition,” Olivas said. In order to mold the wrestlers into better athletes, coach Brown has implemented a strong training regiment into their practices that, according to Brown, is centered on drills and incorporates technique into the training. “We exhaust them during the first half of practice with drills, then force them into situations in which they have to make quick decisions, as with live wrestling,” Brown said.

Wrestling team weighs in on new season

For more on early decision acceptance, tune into “The Dirt on Davis” on 90.3 FM or www.bluedevilhub.com.

www.bluedevilhub.com. Watch DHS wrestlers weigh in as the team competes for league title

www.bluedevilhub.com. View exclusive Davis Idol interviews, and behind the scene footage.

Devils reach for the rebound

By MEGAN SCHAAPHub Staff Writer

On their journey to successful seasons, both the men’s and women’s, members of the DHS varsity basketball teams have faced a few bumps in the road.

For the Lady Blue Devils the challenge involves changes in the head coaching position.

New DHS varsity women’s basketball coach Dennis Foster was in the new gym after school. Dressed in jeans, sneakers and a DHS track and field sweatshirt, he slightly shoved players who worked on layups around him. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Keep moving. Here we go,” Foster yelled to his players during practice.

Foster, also the DHS athletic director, took over the head coaching job after the dismissal of former coach Jeff Christian. The past few weeks have been a rollercoaster for both the team and coaching staff.

However, Foster is trying to help all of his players move forward and start playing basketball. “The biggest things are to attempt to give everyone room to heal through open communication with players, parents and community members, and focus on basketball to move on a little quicker,” Foster said.

Foster says team camaraderie is vital to team success: “The culture of the team is like a family. They treat each other like a family of young women, which I think is important to the healing process,” he said.

Foster has coached high school

basketball since 1995, but he has never coached women before.

“There are some differences [when coaching women], but the bottom line is we’re playing basketball,” Foster said.

Player Khaliya Wilkins said that the whole team is enjoying Foster’s presence. “He’s hilarious. He turns everything into a positive,” she said.

One new tradition Foster has implemented to end each practice is the “Dollar Shot.” The first one

to make a half court shot gets a dollar.

“It’s not about the competition. It is about the dollar,” Malika Wilkins said. She won the first “Dollar Shot” on Jan. 7 by making her third attempt at the half court shot.

Malika, the twin sister of Khaliya, also seemed impressed by Foster’s charisma: “I love how we can have a serious practice and still have fun,” she said.

While Foster said his goal is, “to

By EMILY GLASSHub Staff Writer

BASKETBALL CHALLENGES continued on 11

ensure that the young ladies have a good experience to finish out the year, develop skills and achieve consistency,” Malika and Khaliya said their goals are, “to win league, go to playoffs and have a home playoff game as well as continuing to learn basketball and its power as a team.” Their male counterparts have recently been riding a losing streak. After an undefeated streak, the men’s basketball team has now lost eight games in a row.

An injury to senior Tim Mohr, has affected the Blue Devils’ performance. “We’re obviously missing [Mohr’s] defensive presence. Offensively, he is a good inside out guy. We are probably missing a few points and a few possessions that we aren’t defending as well,” coach Dan Gonzalez said. Mohr is out with a fractured wrist until next week so he could

LEFT: Senior Malika Wilkins moves the ball down the court during the DHS 77-24 victory over Laguna Creek. RIGHT: Senior Graham McDaniel defends Grant player Eddie Sparks in DHS’ 67-62 loss against Grant on Jan. 12.

Senior Philip Toy (left) and Navid Fani (right) practice in the DHS dance room last weekin preparation for an upcoming match.

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Basketball teams ac-cepts changescontinued from page 12

Water splashed on the pool deck as the coach called out times and splits. Gasping and coughing, the young swimmers darted for their water bottles and Gatorades as they waited for their next instruction.

These children are members of the Davis Aquadarts, and have committed to a year round sport.

Jeff McCormick, a physical therapist at Sutter Health, believes that playing a single sport or pursuing dance with repetitive motions early on in life, as well as not alternating between sports, can cause injuries from overuse.

By KATIE VANDYNZEHUB Correspondent

Athletes pushed to the limit, face injuries“Kids are choosing a sport earlier

and being asked to play year round earlier than five to 10 years ago. As a result, growing bones, muscles and joints are being over used and not given a chance to rest and recover,” McCormick said.

McCormick believes that the reason that physical therapists see so many overuse injuries is because children are being asked to play one sport year round as early as eight years old. Even if a child is playing two sports, rather than alternating between sports, the child will play two sports at once causing the injuries normally seen in adults.

Sophomore Kallie Gregg has been swimming her whole life and has been playing water polo

since fifth grade. She developed an injury in her shoulder from repeated motion.

“It happened the summer of 2008. I was swimming double workouts, along with water polo most days and I was used to being sore. One day, after a brutal butterfly set, I could barely lift my arm,” Gregg said.

Since that summer, Gregg has seen four doctors and two physical therapists. The doctors still do not know exactly what is causing the pain in her shoulder. She has received diagnosis of tendonitis, impediment syndrome, muscle tear and scarred tissue, all of which are examples of overuse injuries.

Though Gregg has yet to find

a treatment for her injury, she still does stretches and uses therabands (elastic band/tubing), in hope of improvement.

Like Gregg, McCormick also uses a variety of equipment to treat injuries including modalities, (scheduled workouts) and exercise equipment.

This was the case with sophomore Marea Newell. Newell, a dancer for the Applegate dance company, developed a stress fracture in her left tibia. She has been dancing for more than 10 years.

McCormick thinks that rest is the key treatment for an overuse injury like a stress fracture. There are also precautions to be taken because, “in order to effectively prevent re-

injury we need to determine the cause.”

Da Vinci senior Carly Gohring is also a dancer at Applegate Company. She, like Newell and Gregg, developed an injury from repeated motions.

In the beginning of her junior year Gohring had to stop dancing due to a hip injury; which was later diagnosed as iliopsoas tendonitis. Gohring also developed sartorious tendonitis, also in her hip due to dancing.

Gohring did not dance for four months, and during that time she iced two to three times a day. Her physical therapist recommended pool therapy to take the pressure off her hip.

It took her two months to start dancing full classes without break. When she returned to normal classes, she got to class 15 minutes earlier to warm up. She is now trying to strengthen both hips. She feels that she is in a better place than ever because, now, she is aware of how to prevent further injury.

Despite their injuries, all of these athletes and dancers are still competing and dancing after their injuries and some of them still have to endure the same pain on a daily basis.

Newell is now dancing with no damage from the injury, and is now preparing for her “collage” show, a show with a variety of dances with different stories, later in the year. Alongside her, Gohring is also preparing for the same show, but with a new sense of caution and knowledge of what her body can and cannot handle.

Unfortunately, Gregg has yet to find a treatment for her shoulder injury, but is still playing water polo through the pain year round, without a complaint.

Avid amateurs boarding since boyhood

Seniors Shane Lillya and Vinnie Zacha-Herthel share a passion for cruising on snow. Lillya and Zacha-Herthel are two of many members of the DHS snowboarding team who hike up the slopes each year to compete for Davis.

Lillya has been on snow since he took his first steps as a baby.

“I skied as soon as I could walk. I was skiing rather early. My parents are avid skiers and they said I had to be a good skier,” Lillya said.

But when he was 11, Lillya abandoned his skis and bought himself his first snowboard. He has “been a snowboarder ever since.”

Lillya prefers snowboarding to skiing for multiple reasons.

“I’ve always wanted to snowboard. It’s a lot more fun [than skiing] for messing

around and doing tricks,” he said.

Lillya said he also enjoys

the rivalry between snowboarders and skiers. “I have friends who ski so it’s fun to rival with them. Snowboarding is more socially cool [than skiing],” he said.

Lillya has been a member of the DHS snowboarding team for four years.

Snowboarding gives Lillya a chance to be a daredevil. “Every time I go snowboarding, there’s a new crazy thing I have to try,” he said.

He has a long list of recollections of past tricks. “I’ve gone through some train tracks and things like that. I’ve tried to snowboard over ponds and things.”

“My first 360 degree flip, the challenge of landing back flips; they’re all nice big challenges,” he said.

Lillya takes pride in his snowboarding accomplishments. “Last year, I finished second on the team for slalom and fourth for giant slalom,” he said. “I got sixtieth at states, which isn’t too great, but making it to states itself was an accomplishment.”

For Lillya, though, racing really

comes down to the feeling of snowboarding.

“The best part about it is the when you get to the bottom and the feeling that you did welll,” Lillya said.

Teammate Zacha-Herthel started out with wheels on pavement: skateboarding. But when he was 9 years old, he discovered the smooth glide of a board on snow.

“It’s soothing, but it also gives you adrenaline. I really love it,” he said. “It just automatically puts me in a good mood.”

Zacha-Herthel has been on the DHS snowboarding team for three years.

This year, he achieved a goal of his: doing a backflip on a snowboard.

“It was the last day of winter break,” Zacha-Herthel said. “I tried it last year, but it didn’t work out.”

Zacha-Herthel is eager to experience something dufferent. “I want to learn how to ski this year,” he said.

not play in a Jan. 12 league opener versus Grant. “We’ve been on a big losing streak so it was easy to get discouraged but I thought we showed a lot of heart,” Mohr said of the 62-67 loss. The Blue Devils are looking forward and both Mohr and Gonzalez have goals of winning as many games as possible, being competitive in league, and making the playoffs. “With the energy I saw today we’re really encouraged and we’re moving forward. I have really coachable guys and we’re working hard every day,” Gonzalez said after the Jan. 12 game.

By CHLOE KIMHUB Staff Writer

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