The FBA Lions had another momen-tous season in 2014, coasting to an im-pressive 20-7 record. They were pretty much unstoppable on their home turf. At one point in the season the Lions were in the top 150 teams in Florida, and they defeated one of the top 50 teams in the state, Gibbs High School. The Lions were able to keep it together in key district games and completed the season undefeated within the dis-trict. Lorenzo “Doobie” Jenkins led the team in points per game with a stag-gering 13.4. Freshman Ryan Chlebek has been all the talk at FBA and many believe he may be the future of FBA basketball. He has had 90 points over the course of the regular season.

The Lions started off strong in the playoffs with an absolute beatdown against ECS. FBA managed to hold the Sentinels to a single point in the second quarter and 8 in the third.

The Lions road to the state title con-tinued after a commanding 55-34 vic-tory against the Canterbury Cougars on the road. The Lions coasted past the cougars with a stellar first quarter performance holding the Cougars to a mere three points. The Lions have played lights out in the second quar-ter in the playoffs; scoring 23 points in both of the two games and only allow-ing an average of six points.

The FBA Lions are back to back dis-trict champs and FBA is proud to call them our own.

March 4, 2014Students pursue many different activities.

Find out what.Page 5

Quarter 3, Edition 3, 2014

3000 Orange Blossom Drive, Naples, FL 34109 www.fbalions.org 239-597-2233

The Lions Varsity Boys Basketball Team

Back to

Jared Crespo

NEWS PRESSFirst Baptist Academy

District Champs

Back

4HG

The Lions returned to the Regional championship confident, thinking that this year was going to be the year they made it to the state semifinals. But first, they would have to get past the Shorecrest Prep Chargers who had an astounding 8-1 record when they were on the road. The Lions had only been defeated twice in their 11 home games. The first quarter got off to a slow start but the Lions seemed to be able to control the Chargers offensive attack by holding them to seven points. The second quarter seemed to shift the momentum. The Chargers scored more than double the points they had in the first quarter. At halftime the Lions had a slight lead, 24-22. The game had been living up to the hype, and it was just the beginning. The third quarter was completely dominated by Shore-Crest, scoring a staggering 29 points while holding FBA to just 13. The score was 51-37 and the game appeared to be all but over until, the Lions had an inspired 4th quarter run, matching the 29 points that the Chargers scored in the 3rd quarter. But, it was too little too late. When the final alarm rang out, the Shorecrest Preparatory Chargers were Region Champions winning 72-66. This was a disappointing loss, but by no means a disappointing season. The FBA Lions were Regional Finalists for two years in a row. This may be the end of the road for the Lions Basketball team this year, but this isn’t the last time you will hear the Lions roar.

It’s all about J-Term

Pages 2- 3

Fine ArtsConnection

Page 7

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 2

The Difference...

Creative Non-Fiction Writing J TermThis year had many interesting J-Term options to choose from. One of these J-terms was Creative Non Fiction Writ-ing, which was taught by Mrs. Lopez. This J-term was of-fered for a half day, both in the morning and the afternoon. Students were able to write about topics given to them by Mrs. Lopez. They were able to expand their creative writing skills,while writing about topics that interested them. Stu-dents wrote things such as narratives, personal memoirs, and short essays. The students were also able to go to Starbucks and Vineyards Park, where they were able to write about the people and experiences they encountered. Throughout the class, the students learned how to increase their writing abilities, while writing about experiences that were important to them.

Service Through the CommunityThis year offered as a full day J- term, was Service through the Community. It was taught by Mr. Rosen and the students were able to do various things to better their community around them. They traveled to places such as Immokalee, and Saint Matthew’s House in Naples. While at these places they were able to help out wherever they were needed. The students were able to experience how life would be if they weren’t so fortunate. This J-term not only taught the students how community service can help those around you, but also how the simplest favor can brighten a person’s day.

History Through FilmMovies are a great way to understand our past from an inter-esting perspective. Movies have been around for a hundred plus years, and with each year there are movies that represent and address what is going on in the world at that moment. This J-term class offered the opportunity to explore histori-cal events through the eyes of film. Students watched films of historical significance and then examined how Hollywood may have changed events, whether to add interest or to slant the viewers’ perspective. The films that were watched in-cluded events relating to the space race, slavery, Lincoln’s assassination, prisoners of war and World War 2, early pio-neer days, the 70’s, discrimination and racism, and genocide.

J-term MilitaryThe military class was one of hard knocks. The classes did some of the things that the actual military does, including drill and ceremony, map reading, rope climbing, and a rope-bridge! On certain days we did PT or Physical Training. We had to do two PT tests. We had to do so many push-ups and

sit-ups in one minute, and had a timed mile. Kids who got the most push-ups and sit-ups, and ran the fastest mile, aced that test. The second day they doubled it, two miles and 2 min-utes of the other 2 portions of the test. At the end of that day everyone felt victorious, yet extremely tired. The class even took a field trip to the special operations center or spec-ops center by the airport. We got to see some top secret things and also blew up a bomb! The coolest thing had to have been posing on the armored car. Before we left the sergeant gave each of us a pin and congratulated us on coming and taking an interest in the military.

J-term Video Production.“This year’s class by far has been the best and most pro-ductive J-term class I’ve ever had,” says Coach Jansen. This year the class did quite a bit. They learned about the editing and filming sides of video production. The class had a crash course from Logan Hendry’s step-dad, and he also helped out a couple of straggling groups trying to finish their final project. There was one day when the class went over to the green screen room and learned how to do some crazy things. Coach Jansen invested in a GoPro camera to use for action shots. This camera was placed on remote controlled cars, and even on Tyler Brecher, to film while crossing the One Rope Bridge for the military class. Over all, this class was able to benefit the school with some promotional videos and the students had a great time along the way.

PinterestPinterest Class = Happiness for All Crafty People.During J-term students were given the opportunity to fulfill their DIY dreams. Mrs. Lines provided her students with two to three projects a day. These projects ranged from canvas art to mason jars, and crayon art to blankets. Students dis-played their painting skills on canvases that can be found in classrooms around the building. Mrs. Lopez and Mr. Rosen both have student-made canvases in their rooms. Students created designs on canvases and melted crayons into them using hair dryers. Matthew Rose was especially proud of the flower vase he created (this can be found on Mrs. Radcliffe’s desk). Students also created string art and covered mason jars in chalkboard paint. On one memorable occasion the circuit breakers blew and power was lost. Students finished the two-week class by making blankets for the Pregnancy Resource Center. There was never a dull moment in the Pinterest class!

JInternshipsCommunity ServiceHands On Learning

Blaine Nicholas, W James, Chandler Jones, Devon Powers

Term

J-Term consists of a two week period just after Christmas break where High School students return to school to experience learning in a different way then merely their normal classes. Students choose from a variety of options including internships, community service opportunities, and a variety of hands on classes.

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 3

JIf you ask the average student here at FBA about the month of January at school, J-term will probably be the first thing that comes to mind. J-term has become a very strong tradition for FBA, mostly because of the awesome opportunities the school provides for us, varying from a great books club to scuba diving lessons. But the best J-terms may actually belong to the juniors/seniors of First Baptist, the internships. The possibilities are endless for interning during J-term. I went out and interviewed three of our students and asked where they interned and how their experience was. The first student I interviewed was FBA junior W James. Q: “Where did you intern over J-term?”A: “I interned at the comic book warehouse.”Q: “Wow, that’s pretty cool! What were some of your jobs that you had to do there?” A: “I would take a few of the hundreds of comic books and organize them into sets because the value for them went up when they were in an organized set, and if I had an incomplete set I would put it back in the box.”Q: “Was this comic book store nearby? Or was it a bit of a drive to get there?” A: “It’s in Naples, but a little ways away from FBA, and I believe it was in a storage facility on Airport Road.”Q: “Sounds like your job was pretty exciting. Would you like to pursue a career in comic books?”A: “Yeah I would! It’s pretty fun and I would most cer-tainly look for a career in comic books.”Q: “Ok, last question. Did you take home any souvenirs from the warehouse?”A: “Yup, I did. I got a really rare 3D cover joker comic.” I also interviewed FBA Junior Devon Powers Q: “Alright, I’ll start simple. What did you do for an in-ternship over Jterm?”A: “I went to PhysioFit, a physical therapy office.”Q: “What were some of the responsibilities there?”A: “I observed the physical therapists and helped out with some of the patients.”

Q: “If you could sum up your whole experience over the two weeks in a few words what would it be and why?” A: “It was interesting, because I got to use the anti gravity treadmill, that was fun. Also the ultrasounds were pretty cool.”

Q: “Sounds like you had a lot of fun, would you like to have a career in physical therapy in the future?”A: “Probably not, but it was really interesting two weeks.”

My final interview was with FBA senior, Sandra PimientaQ: “First off, what did you do for your internship?”A: “It was at the district 20 medical examiner’s office.”Q: “That’s pretty cool. What were some of your respon-sibilities there?”A: “I had to examine some of the autopsies with Doctor Coburn, the Chief Medical Examiner there.”Q: “Where was the office located?”A: “It was located off of Airport Road”Q: “What was your personal overall experience there?”A: “It was fantastic. I will never forget this experience. Everybody at the office was so welcoming.”Q: “So,you would say this is a career that interests you?”A: “Absolutely! I always knew I wanted to be a doctor but initially wasn’t sure in which specific field. While those two weeks were a blast, this field wasn’t quite for me.”Q: “So you were just narrowing down the fields?”A: “Exactl. This wasn’t a waste of time at all.”

After these three interviews I learned that the students here at FBA are serious and passionate about making an impact in the world using their careers, whether that be striving to fabricate adventures about super heroes to entertain people around the country, help someone with a physical struggle and change their life, or examining autopsies to find out how someone died. After school, these students hope to enter these careers and truly make a difference.

Book CluB

OpportunityDiscovery

Responsibility

Term

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 4

Considering the challenges we had to overcome, and the adversity we faced, it has been a pretty fantastic season for the 2013-2014 FBA boys varsity soccer team. With a new coach, new system, and loads of new players, it took some time for the team to adjust early with plenty of inex-perience and without the help of some key starters. Most of the boys playing in our first game of the season were playing their first high school soccer game, and for a large amount, this was their first time playing a high school sport. After around 1000 miles of sprinting over the course of the year, first year head coach Benji Works had run the team into possibly the best shape of our lives, and with the return of about seven starters coming in from football, the team was finally ready to put their best cleat forward and come away with some wins, after a few awful losses, to start off the season. In our first match up with despised rival CSN, the game was tied 2-2 until Vinnie Panipinto put away the winning goal with merely 2 minutes to spare. This victory, combined with a 5-1 win on the freezing cold senior night vs Canterbury and a 3-2 victory against the big 6A public school Palmetto Ridge made up the high-lights of the regular season, and the Lions went into the district tournament with a record of 7-6-3. Coming into the district quarterfinal, we were prepared to face a SFCA team we knew would give us problems, but even with some questionable calls and a field that was about 60 yards long and filled with ant piles, we were able to come away with the 2-0 win, moving on to the semi-finals, against ECS, where we devastatingly went down 1-0, and were un-able to come back, thus ending our season. In the end, it was an incredible ride, and the friendships made, les-sons learned, and memories forged will never fade away.

Never WalkAlone

Seniors: Hezron Edwards, Marko Susnjara, Blake Smith, Howard Murrell, Vinnie Pa-nipinto and Benjamin Ritter were selected to the Florida All Star Game in St Peters-burg on Saturday, March 22nd.

Marko Susnjara

What’sOur Job?LoveEach Other.

The center of mass…everyone has one; it’s just about finding it. In Physics Mr. George helped his students do just that through a series of experiments. First, they tried to get a dollar bill to stand up straight and then balance a quarter on it. Next up in the running was the soda can trick. The students left a little bit of water in the can and found the center of balance of the can by setting it on its side and watching how it stood up and stayed up by itself. The last event in the Physi-lympics was a fork and toothpick creation where everyone had to balance a bunch of toothpicks through a fork and get the whole creation to stand. The students may not have performed well enough to receive gold medals…or any medals at all…but they sure had fun!

The Center of Mass

Savannah George

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 5

There are many students who attend FBA who par-ticipate in sports, or other activities, that are outside the school. These actities enable each student to use his or her gifts to glorify God, as they learn new ex-periences and develop new talents.

These students include Blaine Nicholas, who does motorcross, Sarah Sistrunk and Rachel Caprio who participate in rodeo, and Grayson Berry and Re-bekah Maciques who par-ticipate in Air National Guard.

Sarah SistrunkUnless you know Sarah

well you would probably not know that she partici-pates in rodeo activities regularly. These include events like goat tying, breakaway roping, barrel racing, and pole bending. She has been riding for nine years and recently has taken up rodeo. Her sport

is competitive and is usu-ally judged according to best time. Sarah practices an hour and a half each day and practices goat tying a few hours a week. Accord-ing to Sarah, “I plan to compete on a rodeo team in college in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo As-sociation.”

Blaine Nicholas:For those who don’t

know, Blaine races dirt bikes in his free time. He competes in races all around Florida. His races usually take an hour and a half to complete. Each race

is an eight to nine mile course. Blaine has been riding a dirt bike for seven years and has been racing dirt bikes since he was 15.

Blaine has owned a 2005 Honda Crf250R. “I have had this bike for two years and it is the best bike I have owned so far”.

Rachel Caprio:Rachel also participates

in rodeo activities. She said that she heard about the sport and “wanted to try it.” She has been partic-ipating in these events for nearly a year and specifi-cally participates in bar-

rel racing. She spends a few hours a week practicing with rodeos on the weekend.

Rustle, Ride, Relax?

In 16 Seconds...

They Fly!

Less than a month ago, I competed in a dirt bike race lo-cated outside the town of Bartow, FL. It was the first race of the season, and all the racers were excited to compete.

Florida Trail Riders is an organization that travels around the state, hosting events throughout the race season. The race sea-sons usually start in August or September, and end in May or June. The organization contains over 2500 members, many of whom are riders, and volunteers. There are different classes for all age groups. A few of these classes are the mini class, which is for 8-14 year old, Juniors- which is for

14-17 year old, and then open class, which is 18+. These races are a great way to have fun and spend time with fam-ily and friends. I only wish that we were able to start racing sooner.

It’s aWorld

Blaine Nicholas (Editorial)Florida Trail Riders

MUDDY

Rebecca Maciques and Grayson Barry both par-ticipate in the Civil Air Patrol program in south west Florida. Weekly they attend club meetings. At these meetings they train physically and learn about flight and aerospace. Re-becca and Grayson are provided with a uniform and learn all about what life is like in the Air Force. Grayson states, “Flying is really fun. Camp Bland-ing Boot Camp was a chal-lenging experience.” Recently Rebecca had the opportunity to fly a Cessna

W James

airplane, and landed it her-self. Rebecca states, “It was awesome, and I can’t wait to fly again.”

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 6

It’s almost spring time, which means it’s time to prepare for baseball season. Over the off-season there have been some major changes in the baseball pro-gram, including an entirely revamped coaching staff, helmed by none other than athletic director, Billy Sparacio. Coach Sparacio is leading the staff with assistants Coach Garner, Coach Callas, and Coach Howell . These well quali-fied coaches coach the pitchers, outfield, and infield respectively. With most of the key players returning, and plenty of senior leadership to work with, this is an extremely promising year. There are plenty of new elements coming into play this season that will undoubtedly take some time for players and coaches alike to adapt to. The baseball program expects nothing but the best. The season has begun with several non-conference matchups and the team looks forward to taking on their district opponents.

W James

A New Season

It’s in the Swing

Run for the Finish, Throw the Distance

This year’s track and field team has grown in numbers. With the baskektball team finally joining their ranks, the team is now ready to compete in each event. Returning athletes, sophomore, Hannah Sparacio and senior, Vinnie Panipinto represented the team last year in the state finals and are hoping to repeat this performance, and improve their final results. In the field events, Coach Jansen hopes that there will be at least three throwers from shot and discus move on to regionals. The athletes work diligently throwing and lifing weights in preparation. Coach Kantner is predicting a strong running team. He believes many more runners should make it to regionals this year then have made it in the past. There are a number of school records which were set last year that this year’s team is hoping to break. Ari-eana Koonce recently broke the high jump record, Christian Bates, the triple jump, and Remy Santos came close to breaking the 100 meter, with an 11.60 time. The relay teams are practicing their baton passes to whittle seconds off their times. The great thing about being on the track team is the ability for each individual athlete to strive to set his or her own personal record, and if in the process they break a school record, even better. The next track meet is on March 6th at Moore Haven. Come out and support the team.

Chandler Jones

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 7

Fine Arts TraditionsLogan Kirkpatrick

The spring play is back this year to carry on the tradition with Fiddler on the Roof. The musical will include a strong cast, great directors, and a beautiful set. Leading the charge is Tony Tomkins as Tevye, the father who struggles with faith and fam-ily. With a full cast and an amazing story, the group pushes to perform the great story this April. Lani Mastrangelo commented, “We hope that every one in the cast and

crew gets acclimated with the new char-acters, new costumes, and new set. This is a new show with new faces alongside old veterans. We hope most that every-thing will go well in terms of preparation and performance.” First Baptist Academy gives their support to those participating in this year’s spring musical for supporting FBA’s Fine Arts Department.

EnsembleMadelynn KaufmannElizabeth FincherPriya HansenMorgan FrenchElizabeth Bradley ChorusElizabeth AkersKaylee AttwellAlexis Baker -CIsabella BurnhamAvery CrawfordAva DiamondAlex PortaroAnnabelle RenaudRonan SchurigAmy Valdes

Back Stage CrewCecilia AtrozskinAndrea BubickDaniela BonillaJack HeeremaLogan KirkpatrickSarah LezgusAndrew ManchesterNatalie McGriffMcKenzie PeacockChristin ReedJosh RoetteleGrant SherlesAnibel Sumner

Tevye: Tony Tompkins Student Director: Meaghan KirkpatrickGolde: Christine Barnes Stage Manager: Adam ReiterTzeitel: Danielle Sblendorio Hodel: Victoria Stearns Tevye: Quinn Schurig Chava: Danielle Bradley Golde: Madelynn Kaufmann Shprintze: Audrey Berlie Bielke: Allie Vallieres Motel: Noah NemniPerchick: Jeremy Giovinazzo Lazar Wolf: Brendan Fernandez The Fiddler: Meaghan Kirkpatrick Yente: Sara Carlton Constable: Jordan Elser Fyedka: Quinn Schurig Mordcha: Cole Heath Yussel: Zach Gibson Rabbi: Zach Gibson Mendel: Ronan Schurig

The Cast

Fine Arts

On Thursday, February 27th the Fine Arts Department at FBA put on an Extravaganza. The individual musical groups, including strings, worship team, and the bands, each performed at different times and in different ven-ues during the evening. A large crowd was in attendance to enjoy the musical presentations, and the junior and senior classes opened the cafe. They served coffee and cookies to those in at-tendance. The cast of “The Fiddler on the Roof ” per-formed a vignette of the music and choreography of the opening song for the play. While the musical per-formances were ongoing, several art students drew live. The art department also had a display of a number of art pieces for audience enjoyment.

Extravaganza

The Academy NewsPress March 4, 2014Page Number 8

It started with only a few students, and now the FBA cricket club has quite a following with its own equipment, coach, and com-petition. Cole Heath, the captain of the club here at First Baptist, was hoping to get the idea of a cricket club started near the spring, but it came sooner than ex-pected. Mrs. Bates approved the club right off the bat, and now the cricket mania is be-ginning to spread to high schools all over Southwest Florida. Schools like Es-tero and Barron have started their own teams, as well, and will participate in matches throughout the year.

FBA’s new cricket coach, Coach Dion Edwards, has been a part of the Lions’ soccer program for years and is now helping to train the students here at First Baptist in the art of cricket.

He brings his knowledge of the sport to the field every practice and shows the play-ers how to bowl, bat, and protect the wickets. Coach Edwards also shows them good sportsmanship and how to win on and off the field. The boys are looking forward to having a great time this season and hope to carry on this new tradition to future classes.

The club expects this year’s season to last until early spring, with schools like Gulf Coast trying to start up teams as well. Cole would like to thank FBA for all the support this year as they try to get the cricket program on its feet. FBA would like to encourage our newest club to persevere this season and to pursue great seasons in future years.

Rebekah Sperry

Reach Your GoalThis soccer season for the varsity girls was a

time of rebuilding and improving. This year the team had nine freshmen join and they were great assets to the team. There were also three middle school students who provided much strength. Even though the soccer team did not have a winning sea-son, they learned many new skills to use in years to come. Brooklyn Crawford said, “I feel like we played our best during the last game of the sea-son.” The last game of the season was our best game because we really came together as a team and we all gave 100% of our effort. While winning may be important the girls certainly learned that it is not everything.

Lovely Sixer

ChallengesOur 2013-2014 winter season overall was a great challenge. Losing last year’s four dominant seniors, who had been playing together since the start of the team, was a rough start to our season. Katarina Meffen and Jordan Beaubrin were the only two seniors returning. This left three return-ing varsity players and a hefty number of underclassmen. The season would not have been the same without Coach Lines and Coach Kirkpatrick. Having their coaches pa-tience and encouragement physically and spiritually picked the girls up after every hard game. Coach Lines gave every Lady Lion the challenge of going into each game, no mat-ter who the opponent, to compete their hardest consistent-ly, every game and, buzzer to buzzer. The team did have some successes. junior Emily Lines scored her 2000th point and was named 3A Female Player of the Year. Although the lady lions did not make it to Regionals as they had in previ-ous years, they are looking forward to a competitive next year with their newly gained experience as a team.

Jordan Beaubrin, Katerina Meffen, Ellie Merrell

Logan Kirkpatrick

Senior Rebekah Sperry signs with Ave Maria University to play soccer at the next level.