PrintGoesDigital

the black and white. jan. 2013. volume 21 issue 6. 5152780449. 6501 NW 62nd ave.

johnston, ia

www.jhsblackandwhite.com

the b&w index

The Black and White is published solely by the Johnston High School newspa-per staff. Its goal is to inform, enlighten and entertain Johnston students. It is an open forum. In accordance with Iowa law and board policy, students assign and edit material and make all decisions of content. The paper is published ten times per school year. The paper will avoid material that is libelous, obscene or an invasion of privacy. The law does not require parental permission to use student quotes. Ethically, we believe students can speak for themselves. Staff editorials represent the opinion of a majority of the editorial board. Editorial and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the adviser, school officials or the district. Letters to the editor must be signed. Like all material, letters may not be libelous, obscene or an invasion of privacy. Bring letters to room 413 within one week after publication to be considered for the next issue. The Black and White strives to report accurate and timely information. If you believe that an error has been printed, please contact the editors at jhsblacka-ndwhite@gmail.com. The Black and White is a member of CSPA, NSPA, Quill & Scroll, and IHSPA. Recent issues of the paper earned these honors: Colum-bia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medalist, National Scholastic Press As-sociation First Class rating, Quill & Scroll Gallup Award, IHSPA state placings and sixth in the National Best of Show.

PHILOSOPHYLaura Scieszinski

Austin BuschClare FarrellNiki FergusonMonica GagneAaron GrayMollie GreenwoodMyles GlandorfTaylor JoensKatelyn LundersEthan MarshallCourtney Mithelman

Staff writersmeet the staffEditorial boardHannah Soyereditors in chief

Paige Cramerdesign editorKenzie Foldessub-editorsSarah Margolin- CopyAnne Rogers- SportsSarah Ross- Feature

Zoe WilsonJeremy Caracci Kevin WuSenad BesicDaisha McAvaddyEllen BennettAmra DevedzseMedina Jusufobic Carly KinningAshleigh Edwards

Mallorie Goodale- News

in this issue

]january 2013ne

ws 3 Photo Essay

preview of the B&W online website photo collections

4 New Mascotstudent’s mom creates new dragon costume

5

Rumor Busters- Wiley bought styluses- GPS tracking on iPad- AP honor roll

To Bear or Not To Bear

feat

ure

Asthmatic Athletes

Colors, letters and numbers

what it means to be in sports with a breathing condition

Leanna McAllister talks about synesthesia, where words have colors

edito

rial

Scared to Askwhy you should not be afraid to ask for help

12

opin

ion

Life Hacks

CustodialConversations

11

random tips and tricks to help you through the day

the story behind the people who keep the school looking great

back

page

ente

rtain

men

t

9

10

spor

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76 Sci-fi Series

students and even a teacher share how they show their obsessions with the most popular Sci-fi series

Coat DriveHarrison Kruse won an award for his volunteer work

8 iPads should be usedmaking announcements on iPads would be more efficient

[

feat

ure

the b&w photo essayp.3

Junior Jay Knuth shoots a free throw at the basketball game against Indianola Jan. 15. Knuth scored 27 points in the 51-44 win.

Executing a perfect dip, senior Heath Danen and sophomore Abby Puk dance to “Too Darn Hot” in a Synergy performance put on for parents and students Jan. 17.

Aiming his bow and arrow, senior Joe Dailey attends the archery team practice Jan. 18. The team shot over 3,000 points at a competition Jan. 26. They also won five of the six individual awards given that day.

Seniors Connor Ward and Andrew Schwaderer shave sophomore Max Culbert’s head for swimming Jan 18. The varsity boys placed 2nd for conference which was Jan. 19.

ASneakPeak

of the B&W online photo collection

Look online to preview the rest of the photos at

www.jhsblackandwhite.com

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layout Kenzie Foldeswords Daisha McAvaddy

Daisha McAvaddy/BW

Daisha McAvaddy/BW

Daisha McAvaddy/BW

Daisha McAvaddy/BW

the b&w newsp.4

The school does not know where a student and his iPad are at all times and the current iPads are not very well enabled for such a feature. “Tracking was an additional feature for the iPads that we decided to go without,” iPad Specialist/ PC Technician Ryan Witt said. “Find My iPad is something we are in the early stages of testing for our environment.” This app helps people find their lost iPad, but has not been recommended for use in a school situation.

GPS tracking on iPads

Lock screens on the iPads are to remain as the original setting of the fiery J. The screen contains a number that is needed to iden-tify the iPad if it needs to be sent in. Many students have changed this screen without knowing it was wrong but it can be fixed easily. The screen can be changed to the original fiery J screen without resetting the iPad. “You won’t get in any trouble,” iPad Specialist/ PC Technician Ryan Witt said. “It only takes 30 seconds to fix it.” Students who have changed their lock screen should bring their iPad to iPad HQ for the quick fix to be applied.

Fiery J iPad lock screens

Students were handed an iPad and a stylus during the 1:1 Ini-tiative. ”We had originally planned to go without styluses, but I was the one who encouraged for the purchase of them,” Instructional

Technology Coordinator Ann Wiley said. Wiley ordered about 2,000 sty-luses for around $1 each. The money came out of the school account, con-trary to the rumor circulating that Wiley paid for them herself. The decision to

buy the styluses came in December. Additional styluses can be paid for in the accounting office and picked up in the library. Stu-dents are also allowed to buy their own stylus outside of school.

Ann Wiley bought stylusesBUSTED:

words & layout Ellen Bennett

For the past five years the school has used the same mascot costume in every game, at every event. One parent recognized the wear and tear on the uni-form and decided to do something about it. “I thought it was looking very worn and in need of an update,” Miriam Yocum, mother of senior Erin Yocum said. She began making a new costume.

“I took economics in high school. I have created costumes and used sewing as a creative outlet,” Yocum said. Her past sewing experience pushed her to update the current state of the mascot.

“Once I was granted permission to redesign or update it, I just took ideas from anyone who had input,” Yocum said.

Yocum worked for more than three weeks,including evenings and weekends throughout football and basketball season. She started with a Hulk Halloween costume, and began to resew the muscle lines to look more muscular than the previous one. She added wings. The wings have yet to have been revealed, and will not be seen until football season.

The new costume has already been in use for two girls’ games, the first before winter break and the sec-ond on Jan. 15. The basketball manager wore the new costume.

Unfortunately, he can only wear the costume for girls’ games. In the meantime, Gary Ross has posted announcements and asked cheerleaders but no one has shown interest.

People interested in the being the Dragon should contact Gary Ross in the athletic office.

Rumor

BUSTERSOUT

WITH THE

OLD INWITHTHE

NEWThe

mascot gets a new look

layout Kenzie Foldes

words Zoe Wilson

you get ‘em, we bust ‘em

BUSTED:

CONFIRMED:

1Purchased two king sized blankets, sequins, foam, a Hulk costume, wire, spray paint and glitter.

2 Cut apart the old Dragon cos-tume and lengthened the legs and arms.

3 Sculpted the talons and outlined the pecks and the eight-pack ab lines in the chest.

4 Used large winter gloves for the hands, and cut out holes for the feet.

5 Created a tail, formed it with wire and sewed the spikes to it.

6 Added new purple fur to the head using adhesive spray and hot glue.

7 Placed magnets under fur on the head for the head gear.

8Added magnets to the retro jersey for basketball, hidden underneath-the purple spikes.

TH

E MASCOTMAKEOVER

dAB

A

the b&w featurep.5

Even when the text is black, senior Leanna McAllister sees her letters in color. “The uppercase ‘I’ seems like it can be yel-low sometimes but the lowercase “i” has to be white, if that makes any sense,” McAl-lister said. “ The ‘u’ used to be pink and now its like more purplish. ‘M’ in general is usually dark grey but next to some pinkish things it looks purplish.”

McAllister has a condition called synes-thesia, which is what makes her see her let-ters in colors. AP Psychology teacher Sue Cline defines synesthesia as “when some-body has two or more senses that are cross wired so their senses work differently than ours do.”

Along with seeing colors when she reads, McAllister also occasionally sees colors when she is reading music for band. “A major chord triad would be C, E, and G,” McAllister said. “So then C would be yellow, E would be blue and G would be orange.” She said that sometimes playing a C major chord results in her seeing a “bright-looking flash” in her head.

There are two main subcategories of synesthesia: associators and projectors. “Associators see things in their mind and projectors see things in front of them,” McAllister said. She is an associator, and in her opinion, sometimes being a projec-tor can be dangerous. “There was a story

A colorfulperspective

about a guy that was walking on a sidewalk and he walked past a construction site and it caused too much color and he couldn’t see where he was going.”

One synesthete (someone who has syn-esthesia) who is getting a lot of attention is an autistic savant (one with autism who has an unusual or gifted skill) named Daniel Tammet. “He does crazy math and he does it by looking at the shapes and colors of the numbers in his head,” Cline said. On a YouTube video, Tammet is quizzed by hav-ing to divide 13 by 97. His decimal calcula-tion of up to 100 place values goes beyond what even a scientific calculator can do.

McAllister estimates that she discovered her condition around the age of 7 one day while she was playing a game with her dad. “I was like ‘Just name a letter and I will tell you what color it is’ and my dad was all like ‘OK?’ but he played along,” Leanna said. Her brother, who had heard of synesthe-sia before, was listening in on the game. He brought up that this condition could be a possibility for McAllister. “I am self-diagnosed, but there isn’t really any sort of doubt,” she said.

Cline said that synesthesia can often come up in her class, since it deals with the senses, which are talked about in AP Psy-chology. “All of the senses except smell go through a very certain brain structure called the thalamus,” Cline explains. “All of your senses send your primary nerves through there and then they split to go to their own sections of the brain for processing. So, I don’t even consider it all that odd that some people’s stuff does get a little miswired since it’s such a small area we’re talking about.”

Cline has noticed a common trait in most synesthetes she has known. “Almost every-body that I have had contact with who has a touch of it (synesthesia) is what I would consider a highly creative individual.”

McAllister deems herself a relatively creative person. “I think I’m a creative per-son, but I think that isn’t just because of

the synesthesia,” she said. “I think it’s mostly due to being exposed to music at a young age.”

McAllister has no trouble reading. “It’s not like I have to be really particu-lar about being attentive with reading,” McAllister said. “I mean if a person with-out synesthesia saw a page and it had colored letters, they would still be able to read it.”

Cline wishes she had more students in her classes with synesthesia. “I can understand though that for a synesthete they don’t know anything different so it’s probably just as hard for them to under-stand how our systems work, as for it is for us to imagine theirs.”

Senior Leanna McAllister sees letters with colors, leading her to the self diagnosis of the condition synesthesia

words Mollie Greenwood

layout Kenzie Foldes

perspective

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”

the b&w custodiansp.6&7 january 2013

Custodians save the dayBeing at the school five days a week, sometimes six or seven, has to lead to some in-teresting events. We asked the custodians to share some stories of the craziest things

that had happened while working here.

“It was eight years ago, I believe. It was a homecoming prank that some students, seniors, turned baby pigs loose in the building and let them run about and we had to police them up. It was quite inter-esting to try to catch baby pigs in the halls of JHS but we got ‘er done.

“

”

Students and teachers are not the only ones here in the school. ‘Round the clock, cus-todians are here making the school the best it can be

I believe it was four or five years ago now on a warm spring morning that the front office called us on our radios telling us that several staff mem-bers were outside the window to room 204. There was a mom duck and two or three of her ducklings on the ground, and five or six more of her ducklings were standing at the edge of the roof getting ready to jump. The staff were con-cerned they would be injured if they jumped so Dan and I were asked to go up on the roof and try to catch or stop the ducklings from jumping off. So

Last year as I was “covering” for Dean, the head custodian of the 8/9 middle school, I got a call on my radio that a student was trapped inside a lock-er. Well no one ever receives training for extract-ing a student from a locker but all the staff and students gathered around this locker looking at me to “save the day”. The student was all the way -Jay Nikolish

Get to know your custodiansCATCHING UP ON THE CUST DIANS

10 CUSTODIANS33 bathrooms

90 Air Conditioner Units20 Air Handling Units

40 Heat Pumps75 Exhaust Fans

100 Fire Extinguishers

With a school of 1,348 students, 150 staff and 102 classrooms, the job of a custodian is no easy task. We racked up the stats to show you everything the custodians take care of in our school.

I heard them [two kids] on top of the big gym. Then the cops came. I asked [the cops], ‘Well what hap-pened?’ The two cops told me they were building snowmen. Then they jumped off the roof and ran across the street. You know kids, they’re just having fun.

-John Wasson-Dan Golbuff

For one year, Sabahudin Okic, an afternoon custodian, lived as a war refugee in Italy. Beforehand he spent half of his life living in Bos-nia and Croatia before moving to Illinois. As a refugee, Okic had an option to live in certain places around the United States and he chose Chicago. Later, Okic and his family decided to move closer to rela-tives in Des Moines. For the last four years, he has been employed at Johnston.

Okic is an after-school custodian from 3:30 to 11:00 p.m. in the empty high school. A typical routine includes picking up garbage, vacuuming, and cleaning classrooms, bathrooms, tables and white-boards. If there is a game or sporting event that night, then this all happens after setting up tables, chairs and preparing for the activ-ity.

Students are not the only ones being affected by the new improve-ments and regulations to the high school. Previously, anyone had ac-cess into the school during his shift. “Now they are going to a new security system,” Okic said. “We used to have all doors unlocked and people coming in and out.”

The new iPads even affect the custodians. “They are saving me a little more work,” Jose Pimentel, a custodian for 12 years, said. “Be-fore, I had to pick up all the pencils and paper. Now, there’s not as much.”

For night custodian John Wasson arriving home from work at 7:30 a.m is normal. Wasson has been a night custodian at Johnston for 20 years, 40 years total at other schools. For Wasson, this is the job for him. “You can do things without having anyone around and you can get your work done,” said Wasson.

Being at the school from 10:00 p.m to 7:00 a.m wouldn’t be a work schedule most would consider ideal, but after Jerry Johnson has done it for eight years, he has his own schedule to follow. “I have a short nap about ten in the morning and then a long nap from 5:30 to 10:00 at night, then [I] come to work,” said Johnson.

The two night custodians take care of all the athletic facilities. This includes the fitness center including all the equipment, the wrestling room, the big and small gyms as well as all the hallways.

Right: Dan Golbuff and Jay Nikolish start off the day by working on the VAV in the commons to help regulate the temperature. This is what is considered the air conditioning system through out the school.

we went up on the roof and as we tried to quietly approach them they all jumped off at once. Now the spring grass was nice and tall where they landed and provided a nice cushion of protec-tion. None of the ducklings were injured and we watched from the roof as the mom duck wad-dled off with all of her ducklings following close-ly in a straight line. Some of the staff members stopped traffic on 62nd Ave. by the tennis courts so the ducks could safely cross the road and I believe they ended up in the pond by Pioneer.

inside the locker but he/she had his/her hand pushing out on the top of the door so I was able to get my finger tips on the edge and yank it open. It made me re-call many episodes of “Saved By The Bell” when “Screech” ended up inside a locker and had to be let out.

Saving the ducks

Saving the student

Saving the pigs Saving the snowmen

Afternoon custodians

Night custodians

Middle: Dan Golbuff shuffles down the hallway after school with his equipment and tools to end the day of work. Golbuff is condidered the head custodian, but his job also consists of many maintaince and electric jobs as well.

Left: Alex Johnson works his afternoon shift sweeping the engineering room. Part of cleaning the rooms includes wiping everything down and making sure everything is in place for the next day.

the b&w editorialp.8

Announcements should be on the iPads

Technical Coordinator Ann Wiley and the iPad team have created a high school app that will allow access to the school’s daily announcements. How-ever, the office announcements such as guidance office secretary Sarah Marckmann’s are not currently on this app. In order to be the most efficient, a way should be found for this to happen.

Several students such as senior Jiahui Huang cannot always hear the an-nouncements in the halls. “I miss a lot of important things,” Huang said. On top of this, if students are outside of the school for a free period or a class on a different campus such as DMACC or Central Campus, they miss the announcements.

Depending on where you are in the building, Marckmann’s voice may be clear as crystal or muffled to the point where you cannot understand what she is saying. Crowded halls with students talking all at once makes it nearly impossible for one to clearly understand the announcements.

There is also the confusion of which office is calling students. “When you hear your name you don’t always know which office to come to,” Marckmann said. “If the office announcements were on the iPads as well, then it would be much easier for students to know when their name is called. If I could send a message to the iPad that said come to office, then it would be much better. It would be a lot easier to send info[rmation] over to individuals instead of listing 20 names.”

The 1:1 initiative has made several aspects of school easier. However, now that we have iPads, they should be utilized as much as possible. Marck-mann agrees. “In general we need to take advantage of every technology opportunity,” she said. This means using the iPads to get information out to students so that they all can access it.

Even though students may have to put extra effort in pressing a button to open the announcements, it would certainly be a lot easier than trying to hear over all the commotion in the halls. The iPad team is working on more buttons for this app. These buttons may include current news, guidance, student council and the student school board representative. The current news and guidance app are being revised so the students will be informed of almost everything that goes on around the school that they need to know as soon as possible.

It will be about a month until this app is introduced to the students. The overall goal is communication and using resources to achieve that goal with a balance as to not to overwhelm the students with information.

The editorial board votes on the opinion behind the editorial. A simple majority is needed to pass. This month’s vote was 3-1.

Principal Brent Riessen’s hopes are that the school’s intercom announcements will become less frequent and consistent throughout the school day. This does not necessar-ily mean that the announcements will be eliminated from the intercom completely. There will be the occasional announcement when any office or the principal will need to speak to the students directly via intercom. This is how it should be.

The iPads are great tools that the high school is lucky to have. But it is silly and inef-ficient to not put them to their full use. Having announcements on the iPads would benefit everyone involved.

Calling students on the intercom is not effective, use the iPads instead

NOT

the b&w opinionp.9

Starting in sixth grade, I was convinced there some-thing was wrong with me. Trivial things such as a scary story or image would scare me so much that many of my nights ended in me crying and being too ashamed to say why. Disturbing thoughts would overtake me even when I tried my hardest to ward them off. Oftentimes, I thought of harming myself, even though I never did. I thought that if I were to reach out and ask for help, someone would lock me up in a mental institution for being so unstable. I distinctly remember looking at myself in the mirror and swearing that I could get through this without the help of anyone or anything.

I was wrong. I am 99% sure that if I had not asked for help and began seeing a counselor, I would not be here to-day. This is not a sob story. I’m not sharing this to make you feel bad for me. I’m sharing this because I know that when I was in my darkest hours, I never felt more alone, and I thought I was the only person in the world going through this. But I wasn’t, and chances are, someone else is going through the same thing right now.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Preven-tion, an estimated one in 10 adults in the U.S. suffer from depression, and yet for those going through it, it seems as if they are the only person in the world. Why? Because people don’t discuss what depression is with children until they think they can handle it; that is, once they get to late

Asking

middle school. However, for many people going through depression, this may be too late. By the time they figure out that the feelings they’re having are similar to the symp-toms of depression or anxiety disorder, they may already be too scared to ask for help. And even if they can work up the courage to, asking for help is often accompanied by a sense a shame.

For some reason, society has this view that if people ask for help, they are weak. It proves that they are incom-petent and cannot do things on their own. But really, who can get through life without the support of at least one other person?

The sign of a truly strong person is one that recognizes their need for help and asks for it. There is nothing shame-ful in needing help (after all, doesn’t everyone?) and there is nothing shameful in asking for it.

When I finally admitted to my mom that I thought some-thing was wrong with me and I needed help, she told me that there were many people who have gone through de-pression as well, listing names of my relatives and family friends. For many, the fact that other people had dealt with the same thing as I had may seem obvious, but to me, it was as if suddenly the dark shell that had been closing in around had started to crack and I could glimpse through the opening a score of other people that were just like me.

My mom told me about my cousin, who is now in her

mid 20’s, and how when she was my age she used to cut herself and had a really hard time with things. My cousin never seemed anything but happy to me, even radiant, and when my mom told me this about her, I first started to feel that there might be hope for me.

I cannot begin to tell you how difficult it was to go to the counselor for the first time, and how scared I was that the moment I told her what was going on with me she would nod her head before calmly telling my mom it would be best to send me off somewhere where I wouldn’t be a danger to myself or others. But, of course, this was not so. After finally choking out what I going through and the feelings and thoughts I’d been having, she assured me that I was not crazy and that I could get better. This translated into one thing: hope.

People should be denied this hope because they have been made to feel too ashamed to ask for help. The solu-tion to this includes multiple things, but the stigma behind mental disorders must be removed if we hope to move forward. If you have a story similar to mine, I urge you to share it. You never know who you might help. And if you are seeing yourself reflected in the words above, know that you really are not alone, no matter how grave your situation might be or how messed up you think you are. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

words & layout Hannah Soyer

for HELPis

shameful

the b&w opinionp.10

BATTLE OF THE SERIES

words & layout Mallorie Goodale & Carly Kinning

During sophomore year after taking her ITBS, teacher Jane Behrens came up to junior Audrey Kaus and sug-gested that she read The Hunger Games, because of her resemblance to the main character, Katniss Everdeen. “I read it and I could not put it down,” Kaus said. “I ended up reading it at my family Christmas instead of socializing. I got hooked pretty much instantaneously.”

Kaus wanted the second book, Catching Fire, directly after The Hunger Games. “I got back (to school) and I

Science teacher Chris Siewert fell in love with Star Wars as soon as he saw the explosion of the Death Star at the end of the first movie. Siewert saw Star Wars as a child a couple weeks after its premiere. His family may or may not have been with him. “I remember when I was at that movie theater I had no clue that they were even there,” Siewert said. “I was so into the movie and to this day I still can’t remember but I remember the explosion at the end and just being wowed after that.”

Not long after seeing the first movie in 1977, as a present Siewert got to go to JC Penny where he purchased his first Star Wars toy, an X-wing starfighter and the pilot, Luke Skywalker. “Ever since then I’ve just enjoyed it,” Siewert said. “I used to play with the little figures and then as I got older they had books that came out so I kept interested in that way and then lo and behold

three more movies.”Rumor has it that Siewert has a room devoted to Star Wars mem-

orabilia, which is not entirely true. “I do have a Star Wars Christmas tree,” Siewert said. “That’s why a lot of people think I have the whole room. I have stuff that probably fill up a room but right now I have it in boxes.”

Siewert has Star Wars collectibles from games to stuffed animals. Nine to 11 tubs full actually. “I have a whole bunch of the things that fly around, like the spaceships,” Siewert said. “Yeah I know I sound dorky saying this but it’s all there, it’s in the collectables, ready to be displayed someday in a room.”

Siewert is not concerned about the future of Star Wars, now that Disney bought them. “I think they’ll take it where it needs to go,” Siewert said. “I’m just excited to see another movie.”

Chris Siewert

got the second one, that one I also couldn’t put down,” Kaus said. Finally she got the books for herself, and has read them multiple times since.

Kaus did not have a chance to make it to the pre-mier, but she had planned to dress up like Katniss. She also has a Hunger Games shirt, a backpack, three post-ers taking up half of her wall, even a bow and arrow.

Kaus enjoys the movie, but the differences between the movies and the books bother her as she watches it.

Audrey Kaus Hungry for The Hunger Games

The Force is stronger with Star Wars

However, Kaus feels they did a very good job filming the movie. “I was kind of upset, but I was really happy that they had decent actors.” Kaus said.

So as Kaus falls asleep tonight, and most nights, she will turn on The Hunger Games to keep her up for Catch-ing Fire, coming out late November 2013.

Juniors Abby Dockum and Millie Varley decided to go in elaborate costumes for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hal-lows: Part 2. “We didn’t know but the theater that we were going to, the Merle Hay Theater, they had a costume con-test,” Dockum said. “We ended up getting second place in that and then we got a poster so that was pretty exciting.” In the theater, the people who dressed up were judged by the amount of cheers from other people in the theatre. The winner of the contest was dressed us as MadEye Moody.

For the premier, Varley dressed up as Voldemort and Dockum dressed up as Quirrell. “We had a robe that we

could combine our costumes,” Dockum said. “We would walk back to back but then we both had costumes under-neath so we could actually watch the movie.” Because the costume required Varley and Dockum to stand back to back, when they went in to watch the movie, under their cape they were still dressed up as their characters.

Another member of their group, junior Lydia Sinclair dressed up as Draco Malfoy. “We made a rule that no one could dress up as Harry, Ron or Hermoine,” Sinclair said. “We tried to think of characters that were not as popular in the books that no one would expect.”

Juniors Lydia Sinclair (far left) and Abby Dockum (next to Sinclair) dressed up for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 midnight premier.

Spellbound by Harry PotterAbby Dockum, Millie Varley &Lydia Sinclair

Carly Kinning/BW

Provided/Katie Landy

Provided/KT Galloway-Menke

the b&w sportsp.11

I ran almost every day in the summer be-fore my sophomore year with my team. We met at the fitness center at 7:30 a.m on the weekdays and ran different workouts to build endurance and speed. I loved every day of it, until I noticed it was harder to breathe.

I told my mom after a couple of days, and I started sitting out of a few practices here and there. That summer it got really hot, so we thought it was just the heat. After it cooled down a bit, I went back, and it was even hard-er. I couldn’t take a deep breath. The cross country season came along, and I was still finding it harder and harder to breath.

I decided to go to the doctor, and he gave me an inhaler, which helped for a while but it was not working like I had hoped. Then, I started to get asthma attacks when we would specifically run hard workouts. One moment I am running and all of a sudden I cannot breathe. I start to panic and I hyperventilate, then I cannot even stand up anymore and collapse to the ground.

What do the people around me do? They do not know, so they run to get help. One per-son tries to get me to take my inhaler, to get some air, but it is hard to.

There was one time, when I had such a bad attack, my coach had to call the ambu-lance for help.

My teammate, senior Nicole Ackerman, also has asthma. “It’s not that I’m out of shape, it’s just that I can’t get the air in my lungs,” Ackerman said.

She was diagnosed with asthma her freshman year, and has been running with it all four years of high school. “I just have to deal with it,” Ackerman said. “I take medicine

“We are fortunate to have an outstanding trainer (Melanie Mason) on staff. I’d get her in the room immediately, we’d ad-minister the inhaler, and take the proper steps to remedy the situation and get the athlete breathing normally again. Our athletes know to follow the same protocol should their teammate have an attack.

“

- Aaron Tecklenburg, varsity wrestling coach

““What I’ve done in the past is give someone a racing buddy. I say, ‘For the next race you’re not allowed to pass this person.’ It’s usually a person who I know the athlete can keep up with, without hav-ing an attack.”

“-Patrick Hennes, girls’ cross country coach

““If an athlete is having an asthma attack, the first treatment should be getting them to use their inhaler if they have one. If this doesn’t help, or the athlete doesn’t have their inhaler on hand, someone needs to go for help right away. Work with the athlete on slowing down their breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth. If they can’t slow their breathing down, they’ll need an ambulance. Stay calm, and don’t panic.”

“

-Melanie Mason, athletic trainer

battle

during the season for it, and before I run I take an inhaler.”

Ackerman has had her share of asthma attacks, and one thing she hates is when people panic and gather around her. “I don’t want people to gather around [when I have an attack]” Ackerman said. “Just give me space and let it pass.”

She had her first attack her freshman year, after a cross country race. “The first time was really scary, and I cried,” Ackerman said. “I didn’t know why it happened, and I knew it wasn’t normal.”

After my incident with the paramedics, my parents decided to take me to the doc-tor again. This time, I was able to get a pre-scribed asthmatic steroid, one that helped to prevent asthma attacks. The next day at practice, I noticed I was feeling a lot better.

Having asthma that I could not control for the first part of the season made me feel ter-rible. It was as if I was losing the ability to do the one thing I loved to do. Now, I felt like I would be able to learn how to control it. Of course, that will take some time, and a lot of patience, but it can be done.

I may not be the fastest on the cross coun-try or track team. In fact, I’m far from it. I just want to do what I love to do, and that’s run-ning. When I run, I feel like I belong some-where. Like I can finally just get away from everything and run. Asthma makes it hard to do that. But so many other people have learned to control their asthma, and I can soon be one of them. I do not look at asthma as an obstacle. It’s just another competitor in a race, and my attitude is to beat it, to over-come it.

Athletes

asthma layout Kenzie Foldeswords Anne Rogers

What would coaches do?

Tested tips and tricks that add practicality or ease to everyday life

words Aaron Gray

the b&w backpagep.12

A chip off the old blockA tasty alternative to salt and pepper? Grind your favorite chips well and put them in a shaker for an extra kick to your meal. On the same note, most chips are excellent fuel for fires due to their high amounts of fat, making them a good substitute for that next campfire.

Ice, ice babyIced coffee to go? Pour coffee in an ice tray and let it freeze to add to your next cup of joe. Save some money and a trip to Starbucks.

Got to get that boom, boom, boom

Want speakers for your iPhone but don’t want to shell out the cash for it? Cut a small hole in an empty toilet paper roll and put the bottom of your iPhone in it. It’s not fancy, but it works just fine.

Cheesey goodnessTurn the toaster sideways and put a slice of cheese on top of the bread for grilled cheese without the sticky mess. Make sure and be careful though!

Need a universal mute for your electronic de-vice? Break off the headphone jack from an old or unused pair and plug the nub into the audio port. Most, if not all, sounds will be muted even if the jack isn’t connected to anything.

Silence is golden

Keep from boiling overTo avoid a pot boiling over, put a wooden spoon over the pot to keep the foam levels from erupting.

Going upIn most elevators, pressing the button to the desired floor at the same time as the close-door button sends the elevator straight to that floor, regardless of any floor buttons already pushed.

layout Kenzie Foldes

Helpful hints