Volume 103, number 9 December 20, 2011 Salida high school Salida, Colorado 81201 voice of the salida Spartans

Writing a novel isn’t the easiest task. It requires a lot of patience, work, and determi-nation just to begin. Finishing is a whole different animal.

The author is in a constant writing mode, developing, cre-ating and understanding every piece of her work. Sometimes a writer is in need to have a little kick start and encourag-ing push as a way to begin and work through her piece.

A website by the name of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) created a na-tional writing competition to give people across the nation a competition not meant for the better writer, but to help writ-ers finish their novels. It chal-lenges its participants to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

The competition takes place during one month, November, which incidentally is National Novel Writing Month.

Nanowrimo began in 1999 with 21 participants, and has now grown to an Internet based writing competition. Last year there were 200,500 people participating in the

competition. This year, Jessica Adamson,

freshman, whom some may know as junior Jacob Adam-son’s little sister, was one of the many who competed in Nanowrimo.

Only a select few finish their novels, and those who do are rewarded with being known as a winner, have their stories posted on the Nanowimo web-site, and get some additional paper copies for viewing.

The competition is only a month long so preparation is made months before, or when the required 30 days begins. Adamson found the website last year when searching on-line for writing competitions. This early knowledge gained her time for necessary prepa-rations to begin writing her novel.

Once November of 2011 began, Adamson started the first chapter of her book. For her writing process she used a booklet provided by the Nanowrimo website which helped her with goals to stay on track with her story, how much writing to do each day and planning pages for her novel to unfold correctly.

A requirement of the or-ganization is to not do major revisions on the projects, but to instead just keep writing as ideas flow into the writer’s heads.

By the end of November Adamson had written her 50,000 words with 152 pages in the novel. Her book wasn’t fully finished at the time, but it didn’t matter, she was able to be recognized as a winner on the website and to tell people she wrote a book.

Her book was a science fiction novel based in 3030 during a world economical downfall. The main character is a girl who lives in this fu-ture world as the government is re-booting the economy as a mad scientist is trying to take it down.

Adamson said she is plan-ning on doing this competi-tion in the future, but is taking a break next year. She thinks others should try this compe-tition if they are interested in writing.

Her book has finally been finished and we, here in the Salida Community, may soon see this young writer’s work published.

Isaac StackonisStaff Reporter

Adamson authors novel in November

KAITI DAVIS, SENIOR Spanish IV student rolls a tamale on Dec. 12. The class made the delicious tamales to meet the Spanish standard of learning about Spanish-speaking cultures.

Photo by: McKinnley Witty

Juniors utilize colledgeincolorado.com to plan their careers

Salida High School students are being more thoroughly in-troduced to a program that helps them get a jump start for college. Collegeincolorado.org is a website that allows stu-dents to explore careers and research colleges and is a way to start looking for financial aid, scholarships, and grants.

It allows each student to have milestones that will try to keep them on track from the start of their high school career till the end of it. It is a website for all students. Teachers were trained on the website by the College in Colorado Represen-tatives in late October.

The site allows students to create a profile (ICAP) with all their information. It has inter-est and career surveys, a port-

folio to keep your resume, and college admission information. The ICAP is being used in an advisory class Salida High has every other Thursday and is a state ecucational standard.

The juniors completed ca-reer projects in English 11 class that called for research about themselves and find careers that interest them.

They can also find require-ments for jobs they are looking to pursue, such as the number of years of college required, average salary, and what an undergraduate student needs to pursue as a major in order to go into a specific profession.

“This project made me real-ize that [getting an education for] the career takes more time than I thought. I’d say that’s a good thing in a way so I can always have time to second- guess myself,” said Alexis

Cardenas. The English 11 teachers

have assigned this project in the past, but did not empha-size the use of collegeincolo-rado like they have this year.

They decided to do the project earlier, rather than as a final project second semester, so students have more time to think about choosing a ca-reer and college. They invited guest speakers to share about their careers.

This project presents an op-portunity for students to get valuable information about their desired major and col-leges. It forces students to look into the future, whether they are planning to attend or not.

“The project was useful be-cause. . .it allowed me to look into many different colleges and discover a variety of op-tions,” said Micaela Lowe.

“Everyone has a broad idea of what they want to do, but this project made us look at specific qualification,” said Tim DeVos.

Many students do have an idea of what their interests are, but this project helped them elaborate on their ideas and fit them to a potential profession.

Chance Odgen said, “I think

it’s. . .helpful. It helps you find out stuff about something you might want to do.”

There’s something for ev-eryone whether it’s a nurse or President of the United States.

This project was an oppor-tunity that the juniors took advantage of and the teachers hope will help them during their last years of high school.

NICK KESERICH PRESENTS his career project, about being a sports’ agent, in Kate Clark’s English 11 class on Dec. 14.

Photo by: Justin Giorno

School Progress: Page 9

Sports: Pages 10 & 11

Justin GiornoStaff Reporter

“Some people are meant to stay in your life while others are just meant to make an ap-pearance.”

Many say that they have a best friend, but it wasn’t until recently that I started to con-sider one of my long-time friends my “best friend.” We have known each other for al-most ten years and have been friends, but it was the summer before eighth grade that we became really good friends. We hung out all day everyday. Those days were spent riding

bikes, drinking tea, and laugh-ing our heads off. I have never met a person like her. She is one of the funniest, kindest, and sparkliest people I know.

.She can make me laugh at the worst of times,such as a stupid commercial, or simply a bad joke. She is one of the few people who can tell if I am upset without asking.

After she knows something is wrong, her whole attitude changes. She cracks jokes and acts completely ridiculous. There isn’t a time when we hang out that we don’t laugh, and it can turn into flopping-around-on-the-floor laughing so hard we can’t breathe.

Every time I have been to her house in the past few weeks, she turns on her fa-vorite new CD, Justin Bieber’s Under the Mistletoe. Then she continues to dance around her room like a maniac.

She adores Justin Bieber more than anyone else. She knows practically everything

about him, whether it’s his first song, or his birth date and time. Her crazy admiration for him makes me admire her courage for adoring someone that is not always well-liked.

Eighth grade was her first year in public school, and my first year back in Salida. It didn’t seem like her first time in public school because she blended right in and made friends easily. She seemed like she had known everyone since first grade. She is one of the few people that I can tell anything to without the fear of it getting spread around.

Melissa, I am so thankful to have you in my life and don’t think I could live without you.

You make me the person who I am and wouldn’t have it any other way. My friendship with you has made me closer with all of my friends. My life would be drastically different without you and it wouldn’t be the same. You really are my other half.

Opinion Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 2

Yay Nay-To winter break!

-To colorful and warm winter coats!

-To gift exchanges!

-To everyone visiting from college! -To family get-togethers!

-To soup!

-To boosting someone’s confidence!

-To warm fires at night!

-To a super-short break.

-To getting up when it’s still dark outside.

-To slipping on ice.

-To runny noses.

-To the stress of finding the perfect gift.

-To cold toilet seats.

-To not doing the annual penny drive.

-To scraping windshields.

Editorial opinion in Tenderfoot Times does not represent that of the administration or faculty of Salida High School. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the editors and/or editorial board. Signed columns are the opinion of the individual writer. The Times is an open forum for student expression. Letters to the editor from anyone are welcome and should be kept within 250 words. Letters must be signed and may be edited for style, brevity, obscenity or libel.

Tenderfoot Times is a member of the Colorado High School Press Association. Publication is monthly by journalism classes at Salida High School, 905 D St., Salida, Colorado 81201. Publications department telephone is 719-530-5415. Publication costs are paid by advertising sales only. Tenderfoot Times is printed by, and as a supplement to, the Mountain Mail, Salida, Colorado.

Member Since 1977

PRODUCTION INFORMATION: Tenderfoot Times is produced using iMac computers and a HP LaserJet printer. Software includes Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. News body type is 9.5 pt. Palatino, editorial page type is 10 and 12 pt. Helvetica. Basic headline type is Big Caslon. All makeup is done entirely in the computers with line art and photo prints scanned onto pages with an Epson perfection 4490 photo scanner Layout and design is done by the editor-in-chief and, if applicable, the assistant editor.

Editor-in-chief........................................................................................................Ashlyn Stewart

Editorial Staff.....................................................................................Ashlyn Stewart, Reh Vanatta

Layout and design................................................................................................Ashlyn Stewart

Copy Editor......................................................................................................................Reh Vanatta

Advertising Manager...................................................................................Michaela Weber Reporters...................................................................................Daniel Archambeau, Riley

Donavan, Danyel Enz, Orion Gamber, Isaac Stackonis, Bailee Gardunio, Reh Vanatta, Justin

Giorno, Michael Ricci, Savanah Lee-Sobal, McKinnley Witty, Robin Petersen, Ashlyn Stewart,

Ashley Potts, Lexi Trujillo, Michaela Weber, Demi Vanatta, Catie Wilken, Brooke Love

Photo Editor............................................................................................................McKinnley Witty

Photographers..........................................................................McKinnley Witty, Michaela Weber,

Michael Ricci, Riley Donavan, Ashley Potts, Ashlyn Stewart, Catie Wilken, Robin Petersen

Graphic Designer......................................................................................................Ashlyn Stewart

Adviser....................................................................................................................................Deb Bass

Computer consultants.........................................................William Stokesberry & Jeff Blondeau

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Tenderfoot Times

Robin PetersenStaff Reporter

Funny, kind, and sparkly BFF

We are halfway through senior year. In five months, I, with the rest of my class, will be officially done with Salida High School. I am hopeful that we have learned everything we need for the next step in

our lives.A few things that I, person-

ally, have learned are …1. MLA Citation. It is so use-

ful but so tedious, it is used in college for sure. A quick tip: use citation generators to make your time worth it.

2. There are two sides to every story. All of the drama in high school doesn’t just sprout from one single person. It takes two and no matter which side the balance is tipping toward, there is a combined fault.

3. Prepare for college as much as possible ahead of time. College will not wait nor will the future.

4. Be kind to everyone. My parents always told me that the golden rule is “treat others the

way you want to be treated.” It pays to be genuinely kind. High school isn’t about leaving a legacy or who can have the most drama or be the mean-est mean girl, it’s about show-ing others that you are kind in a real way. It changes other people, and, to all the girls, it pays off senior year.

5. Don’t let high school define you. High school may change things and help form our opinions, but it doesn’t de-fine us or make us who we are in the future. There is a whole world before us, and there is so much beyond Salida.

Good luck to every Salida High School student, absorb everything, be yourself, now and in the future.

Five tips on making it in high school

Lexi TrujilloStaff Reporter

It’s simple: Yes I can

When I was little, I would often get in trouble for say-ing the word “can’t”. My par-ents would always say some silly remark like “‘can’t’ isn’t a word” or “we don’t have ‘can’t’ in our vocabularies” or even “‘can’t’ is a bad word”.

I remember how I would try not to use the word or I would try to think of some other word to take its place. Truth is, it all ends up in the same place with the same dull meaning.

Now that I’m older, I’ve realized it’s not that “can’t” was ever a bad word or that it ever lacked existence in the human vocabulary. No, it was said so that I wouldn’t get down on myself. It was more of a reminder to keep my head up and never doubt my capabilities.

Now, sometimes, I look back and wonder why that word ever came out of my

mouth in the first place. I mean, it seems like when we’re little, the biggest prob-lem we face is not having the color crayon we want or having to share our toys with someone else. Life seemed so simple and carefree as a child.

Today I constantly tell my-self and other people these phrases that I once took for granted. As the daily strug-gles of balancing a healthy life continue to weight me down, I can turn to these re-marks and have a sense of hope.

I like to reminisce about the times when I said “I can.” If I told myself “I can’t”, I would never be skiing double black diamond runs down some of the best terrain a skier could ask for or be able to throw back tucks and kick twist bas-ket tosses on the cheer mat. I wouldn’t be accomplishing anything exciting or useful.

Saying “I can” has gotten me where I am today, and will continue to take where I will go in the future.

The two things that hold us back in life the most are probably fear and lack of confidence. We have to be-lieve in ourselves to be able to achieve our goals. We have to motivate ourselves to succeed, because if, even for the slightest moment, we have doubt, our fear of failure can become a reality.

There is a quote that says, “A pessimist sees the diffi-culty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

No one in history has ever gotten anywhere by looking at the difficulties in life and doubting themselves, and I promise that that is never go-ing to change.

Reh VanattaCopy Editor

“Saying ‘I can’ has gotten me where I am today and will continue to take me where I will go in the future.”

Page 3 December 20, 2011 Tenderfoot Times OpinionRiding the Rockies

When you live in a place like Salida, you have no excuse to not be a skier or snowboarder. We have mountains everywhere we look, just waiting for us to en-joy them. So, why wouldn’t you want to experience the wrath of the Rocky Moun-tains?

I have been shredding up the mountain tops since I was five and I started skiing in my back yard when I was three. Skiing was in my blood and still is today, I guess you could say I’m a natural.

Being raised by a hard-core, soul skier you learn to love the snow and you learn to really appreciate what the mountains have to offer, and most of all you learn that there are no friends on pow-der days.

There is no other feel-ing like standing on top of a double black diamond in a blizzard, not able to see anything, and the wind is blowing so hard that you are fighting with all your might

not to get blown off the edge of the mountain, but you aren’t complaining, you have a smile on your face from ear to ear, and you are just looking over the cornice and thinking to yourself “I am in paradise.”

Memories like this are what stick with you forever, and the best part is that you get to relive and create new memories every time you go skiing.

Skiing’s not about how fast you can go or what tricks you can do, but it’s about the line you take and the feeling you get on your way down.

Skiing is my passion. It’s what I do on my free time. Most of all it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Who needs Prada and Gucci when you can have The North Face and Burton? Who needs flashy cars and pricey shoes when you can have skiis and boots? And who needs fancy airplanes when you could be helicop-ter skiing?

Warren Miller once said, “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do.”

And I say, “If you don’t do at all, you’re really miss-ing out.” If you never try it then you’ll never know what you’re missing, and trust me you’re missing an experi-ence of a lifetime.

For me skiing is my life, my passion, my hobbie, and hopefully, someday it will be my career.

Demi VanattaCopy Editor

I woke up to the fire alarm on 11-11-11. It was an abrupt start to the supposedly lucki-est day of the century. In two hours, the situation went from a matter of thinking my brother was just making another piti-ful attempt at cooking bacon to firemen dragging hoses into our home, taking a chainsaw to the walls, and calling for more backup.

The cause, a flaw in the construction of the fireplace, seemed pretty inconsequen-tial, but the fire it started was not. And while the fire was fairly small - mostly contained to the living room and the mas-ter bedroom - the smoke and chemical damage, deemed “catastrophic,” is not. The re-pairs - walls being rebuilt and

repainted, new flooring, repair-ing electrical wires, replacing appliances, installing new fire-places, and more - are expect-ed to take months. The house is unlivable.

While the fire seemed like it would be something that was just sad and inconvenient, the effects too are bigger than that. Like smoke seeping into everything in our home, the re-percussions of the fire spread to every area of our lives.

Aside from sentimental or important items and furni-ture, which the the restoration companies are attempting to clean, everything we owned is to be thrown away - but not be-fore it’s inventoried. Recording and putting nearly everything I owned and that just days ago had been a regular part of my life into trash bags to be taken away forever felt surreal.

Everything looks the same, feels the same, and holds the same memories. Their smell, however, is a different story.

While the fire had a huge ef-fect on our material items, the emotional toll is even larger. During the first few weeks, our family of four people and five animals lived in our guest room over the garage, a space no larger than our old living room. It was like a combination of a dorm room, camping, summer

camp, and an adventure filled with mattresses on the floor and an abundance of Ramen noodles. We quickly found that this brought out some inter-esting family dynamics, not to mention sleep deprivation and short tempers.

That thankfully ended after a few weeks. Now my laundry basket of possessions and I shuffle between the garage, a vacation rental, and a friend’s house - usually my mom and I sleeping at one place and my dad and my brother stay-ing somewhere else with the pets. The adventure is gone, replaced by a feeling home-less with divorced parents.

At first, we all made our best attempts at staying posi-tive, searching for upsides to an event that turned our lives inside out. Everyone got out of the house safely. We were home during the fire, so help was able to come before the whole house burned down.

Possessions are replace-able, and this called for a huge shopping trip. We have amaz-ing people around us who are willing reach out to help with everything from inventorying, cooking us meals, and loaning their house to us.

However, we soon found that most of these “upsides” are bittersweet. The shopping

spree, fun in theory, turned out to be a daunting, overwhelming task to complete. The house didn’t burn completely down, but with all the damages, it al-most might as well have.

As the situation deterio-rated, our morale followed. My dad’s favorite “Well on the bright side, we do have it bet-ter than the Hurricane Katrina victims because...” reminders stopped being merely annoy-ing and have become more sad. At the end of the day, we all just want to go home.

The inconveniences and emotional strain that come with the fire are manageable by themselves, but having to continue going to school and work as normal seems like a cruel joke. Being without a home and my possessions feels like being a fish out of the water, and having to carry on responsibilities feels like someone is telling the fish to keep swimming.

Having people sort through every nook of your home and take pictures of it, underwear drawers and all, is an inva-sion of privacy to say the least. The stress that it adds is like some bad pop music playing in the background - ignorable enough when it’s busy or when things are going well, but un-bearable when a bad mood or

silence comes.One thing the fire did suc-

ceed in was allowing me to personally realize numerous cliche “life lessons.” When you think a situation can’t get any worse, it always finds a way to do just.

The more awful the situa-tion is, the more you appreci-ate the times that are good. You can get by with less than you knew, and you really are stronger than you think.

Everyone has a breaking point, and you’ll probably reach that point at a very inconve-nient time, such as the middle of art class. A situation so sur-real in the end makes you feel utterly helpless. A house and what it holds do their most im-portant job when they make you feel at home.

We’ve always been told to be kinder than necessary to peo-ple because you never know what they’re going through, but it goes beyond that: even if you’re aware of what some-one is going through, you can never know all the little hidden effects that hold the most dif-ficulties.

But what I found most sur-prising was that in a helpless and unexpected situation, the ones you’d least expect to be there are the people that offer the most help.

Smoke blankets every aspect of family life with a house fire

Catie WilkenStaff Reporter

Stackonis struts a second time

The overall experience was exhilarating. Being a girl on stage to make money, that’s not exactly a title I ever expected to make. Sorry, that sounded a little bit disturbing, what I meant was I was a drag queen in a general sense.

I mean, I’m no transvestite, I just wanted 200 dollars, and all I had to do to get it was be funny. Being funny is easy, you just act like silly, or like me: act like a woman. I also did this twice, in two years both for the same reason.

My first year I spent about a week or so in the prepara-tion of dancing to the Single Ladies. For the choreography practice of the dance I would be in my room by myself, so you can probably imagine how strange it was for my family when they walked in.

Rehearsals for the prepa-ration of the show were a whole new thing in itself; fif-

teen or so guys, dancing and acting like girls. There was no certainty between us about what was going on.

Friday pulled up faster than Mario Andreti. The night of the show everyone was on their “A” funny game, being goofy and cracking quick-wit-ted jokes. The show rolled through quickly in the begin-ning: dance song into bath-ing suit modeling. Right after these the talents began. My talent, as described before was the “All the Single La-dies” dance by Beyonce.

The curtain opened to me standing on stage in a leotard with a full house contained of the Salida community scream-ing. The voices were roaring so I couldn’t hear the music, so I began dancing with the beats I could comprehend.

From what I’ve heard many of participants liked the talent; the judges definitely did, as they asked Dillon Granzella (Senior) and I to step forward to break the tie of points be-tween us. What was required of us was to perform a dance off, and then lead into a final questionnaire.

So now, not only was one man dancing in a women’s outfit on stage, but two of them. To give Granzella some credit here his question answering skills were off the charts, but unfortunately I, as a sophmore at the time, was intended to take the crown.

Year two rolled around. I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to partake in the show again, even though everyone was pushing me to. I didn’t have a talent or any of the clothes necessary to compete.

My mom and I trialed on what I was going to do, and wear. It eventually came to wearing a red dress and sing-ing Tomorrow by Annie while presenting jokes on white pa-per. Something that we saw Zach Galifinaikis do on SNL.

Finally I decided to do the show, more or less the Thurs-day it was supposed to hap-pen. My clothes were ran-domly gathered and the easel and paper used for my talent were both borrowed from the art class.

This show went just as well as the year before. At the con-clusion of the show it came down to the top three: Dillon Granzella, Garret Lundberg, and me. I was to be put in my place by the seniors, and this year, I placed second.

In all honesty I feel alien-ated, I was a woman twice on stage. It was a fun experience though. Lot’s of funny people doing a funny show.

At the end of the day the competition is thrown out and we all just hope to make a good show, and for the most part that happens.

So for anyone looking to do it next year definitely do, is an... intriguing experience.

Isaac StackonisStaff Reporter

Mr. Salida High’s second-place finisher recaps the night

Opinion Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 4

What can be worse than a bad haircut? Having to pretend not to be completely mortified when the hairdresser turns the chair around, and what do you see? Your hair looking like it did when you were 7.

I have been blessed with getting all of my bad haircuts out of the way before I hit 13, (knock on wood). In the sixth grade though, I got quite the cut. I looked like a popular children’s T.V. character, that famous explorer, Dora. But really, who had good hair in middle school.

And what’s worse than hav-ing to go out in public with your new do, somehow the looks on your friends’ faces when they see the ugly beast that is your new hair.

They pull the “Oh, no, it looks nice” crap on you. Normally you’re already upset about the tragedy, but when your friends try to spare your feeling, when you know it looks like a gorilla cut it, that really puts you over the edge.

My dad probably had the

worst luck with haircuts, but considering his hair is always self cut he has no one to blame but himself.

Just before Thanksgiving this year my dad decided to lose his comb over. So he got the scissors out. It was most definitely short, but it was bet-ter than the old man hair he had before. Regardless, he wasn’t happy with it, there seemed to be a few stray hairs in the back. So after complain-ing about the few rouge hairs all Thanksgiving day, he got the clippers back out. He went to our front porch and started to clip away.

“ I think the clippers are bro-ken,” he said.

“What?” my mom said, “let me see those.” She took the clippers away, so he wouldn’t cause any more harm. Turns out my Einstein of a father had the clipper length set on one when he needed them to be on a nine.

“Is it that bad?” he asked, turning around to show three stripes of missing hair on the back of his head. So my poor old dad was force to shave his head. All that’s left of his hair is about a millimeter of black hair resembling a Chia Pet.

The only comfort I can offer anyone with a horror film of a haircut is that hair grows, no matter how slowly, or how god- awful of a cut you got it will return to its formal glory. And it could be worse, you could have a Chia pet for a hair-do, or maybe look like a popular Latin explorer.

Can’t hide bad haircut

Bailee GardunioStaff Reporter

Bah-humbug: the holidays turn into a fight for low prices

Homemade Christmas presentsAshlyn Stewart

Editor-in-Chief

Shorter days, colder weath-er, hot chocolate and a deco-rated “S” Mountain; I smell the holidays.

Holiday season is great, but

it sometimes makes me feel like the Grinch.

I don’t see why stores find it necessary to play “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” all through November and De-cember. Honestly, I’m not big on holiday tunes; they’re more annoying than jolly. I just needed some more pencils and milk, not a burst of the holiday spirit the entire time I walk through the store. I’m also irked by the fact that the Christmas decorations stay up almost year round, with a short break for Halloween, but the holiday season doesn’t last that long.

I think we may as well just

veto Christmas and celebrate Black Friday instead.

It looks to be heading that direction anyway. What’s not to love about fighting off cra-zy ladies in Santa jumpsuits to get to the fifty percent off Snuggie’s first? ‘Tis the sea-son, right?

I don’t think discount prices are something that would drive me to pepper-spray, or even shoot people. I don’t need anything that badly, even if it is much cheaper than normal. It’s the thought that counts, but I just can’t tell what the thought is, aside from greed.

Some people take their holi-day decorations a little over-

board. I love it when I can’t fall

asleep at night because the neighbors have set up twenty-six blow-up snow globes and motion censored Christmas carols outside my window. I imagine that’s why Ebenezer was so grumpy during the holi-days. I wake up feeling pretty “bah-humbug” myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Christmas. I could watch Elf every day of the year and never stop laughing. I watch The Year without a Santa Claus twice a year and I could quote the entire Charlie Brown Christmas special.

I couldn’t get through a year

without gingerbread cook-ies, and I love decorating our scraggly fake Christmas tree with hundreds of ancient orna-ments.

That’s what the holidays are really about. I don’t get why they’ve become a stressful-fight-to-the-death-Black-Fri-day-craze. I can’t understand the joy of beating the crazy lady to a ten dollar Easy Bake Oven, but I think the good in-tentions are hidden in there somewhere.

In the midst of the Christ-mas craze, I think it’s impor-tant to remember those good intentions. Even the Grinch enjoys Christmas in the end.

Ashley PottsStaff Reporter

The smell of frying food. The sight of hundreds of peo-ple lining up in the dining room as the lunch rush starts. The sound of fryers and Otis yell-ing back to the cook, “Takin’ a

ten piece in extra crispy.” The headset bings in my ear.

“Hi welcome to KFC Taco Bell, my name is Michael, how may I help you?” I say, without even thinking. With so many people wanting fast food, I have to get to work if it’s taking orders, packing meals, collect-ing money, or all three.

Taking orders at the drive-thru is not difficult, except when it’s 9:30 at night and I am trying to clean and close and there is a sudden rush. At least it is better than cleaning sewers or something like that.

Another aspect of the job that makes it fun is the people.

Unlike the widely-known ste-reotype that people who work at fast food are dull and don’t have lives, I think differently. After working at KFC for five months, I have noticed each of my co-workers have their own personalities.People don’t give them enough credit for what they do behind the counter.

Whether it is Otis and his shiny white teeth that he is never scared to show, or J.B. and his hatred for having to make Taco Bell twelve taco party packs.

To me that restaurant is a great place to start in the work-ing force, even if not a teen.

Michael RicciAssistant Photo Editor

Making more than money at KFC

When I was in Elemen-tary school, my mom would take me to Kaleidoscope for Christmas presents. I knew exactly what they wanted, probably a figurine horse or craft kit, and I loved seeing their faces when they opened their presents.

I still love giving people presents, though they have changed to clothes, music, and books. I’m still good at fig-uring out what people want.

This year, my best friend Maddie and I decided to try something new. Rather than make a list and walk around town trying to fulfill it, we de-cided to make our presents.

As anticipated – by the

people we informed of our plan – we went overboard quickly. It seemed all the crafts wouldn’t be too hard, but we were wrong.

I covered the floor in my living room with old maga-zines (newspapers do not go to waste under my watch) and set up stations of paper, Mod Podge, scissors, glue, fabric…you get the idea.

I’m not a big crafter, real-izing my lack of visual art abil-ity in middle school, but when Maddie and I get together, we get pretty darn creative.

Soon enough we were whipping out the pieces to our projects (I can’t say what they are yet…not all of them have been delivered). But perhaps the best part of the whole en-deavor was that we got to talk

the entire time. I haven’t lost touch with Maddie since she left for college, but now we had time to truly swap stories and make enough mistakes to have more to tell others.

Based on the huge rush I worked on Christmas Eve at Kaleidoscope last year, I’m betting not all of you have finished your Christmas pres-ents. A piece of advice: if you haven’t, don’t go online and cross your fingers there won’t be a major blizzard and your gifts will get here on time.

Don’t get your heart set on a certain gift and find that Sal-ida doesn’t have it. Instead, get together a group of fel-low procrastinators and make something. If you get in over your head, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Running through the snow, there is a burly man outfitted in a helmet and robes, near his waist rests a sheathed sword. He stops to catch his breath.

Shhhnk!!! an arrow flies through the air where his head had just been. He twists around, and notices an elf. A smirk spreads across the elf’s face as he notches another arrow on his bow. The man spreads out his fingertips and unleashes a bolt of fire that en-gulfs the would-be assassin. The charred corpse collapses to the ground, and a plume of smoke begins to fill the air.

A scream erupts to the left of the man. He moves to a nearby tree and hides, ready for anything. Suddenly, the large copse of trees that had hidden his body from view, becomes crushed. There now stands a dragon.

He unsheathes his sword and runs toward the foul beast. It opens wide and a fountain of fire erupts straight towards him. He dodges the blast of fire and sprints toward it’s head. He ducks and drives his blade right through its skull. It roars out in pain, he drives his blade further and its legs and arms buckle underneath its

weight. He pulls his blade free and a source of energy starts emanating from the dragon. This energy circles around the man, it then starts to pour into his body, and above his head read the words; Dragon Soul Absorbed. This is but a small taste of the new Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game.

It is the newest installa-tion in the series. Skyrim’s main story revolves around the player’s efforts to defeat Alduin, the firstborn of Tam-riel’s primary deity Akatosh. He is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion (the last game), the game takes place in Skyrim, it is the northern-most province of Tamriel. It is plunged into the midst of a civil war after the assassina-tion of the High King.

The non-linear game-play system makes a return as well as the debut of Bethesda’s new Radiant Story system.

Character development is the primary element in Sky-rim. This is portrayed through the actions the player dictates, and is also reflected in choice of the player’s race, and gender. By utilizing certain weapons, magic, and talents, a player starts to increase his/her skill.

However, if you’re not a big role-playing game gamer, and

are more of a shooter fan, this game is probably not for you.

There are only a couple of other flaws in the game. Some-times, the high level of graph-ics stall and glitch out, and non-playable characters don’t follow their motion paths, but this can be fixed with future updates.

I give Skyrim a 10 out of 10. Bethesda’s hard work is genu-inely reflected in the game itself. It’s no surprise that it’s universally acclaimed, and the winner of titles and awards! I would highly recommend this game to fans of the Elder Scrolls series, RPG lovers, or anyone searching for a new, fun game to play.

Wonderfully cheesy, de-lightfully cliche, the Muppets. Those furry little puppets have the amazing ability to have the most worn out jokes, but they still have you falling out of your chair laughing. Their star-studded movie proves that in any decade the Mup-pets are still popular.

The movie is about two brothers from Small Town, U.S.A, Gary, and Wilson. Muppet wannabe, Wilson’s (a puppet) one dream is to meet Kermit, and the rest of the Muppets. Gary plans an anniv-erisary trip with his girlfriend, Mary, to visit Los Angeles and invites Wilson to come along to see the Muppets’s studio.

While taking a tour of the now dilapidated Muppets’s studio, Wilson overhears an evil oil baron’s plan to buy the studio, tear it down, and drill for oil. He is crushed, and begins the search for Muppet leader Kermit.

After cajoling him to reunite the Muppets gang, the team of Gary, Mary, Walter, and Ker-mit search across the U.S.A. and France to find the rest of the musical group.

The Muppets believe only way to save the studio is to raise $10 million dollars to buy buy themselves out of the oil baron’s contranct. They decide to put on the best-ever Muppets telethon.

Sadly, the group struggles to secure air time because T.V.

executives fear no one remem-bers who the Muppets are. This embraces the fact that the Muppets have, in fact, been away from the big screen in recent years.

With Hollywood stars such as, Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Jack Black, Selena Gomez, Neil Patrick Harris, and so many more and endless refer-ences to the original Muppets and the goofy humor that the Muppets are famous for, the Muppets are wonderful at any age.

This new movie just shows that you don’t need big-bud-get action movies to entertain the masses. You just need a few catchy songs in this (case written by Flight of the Con-cords, Bret McKenzie), some funny jokes, and those ador-able, lovable Muppets.

Page 5 December 20, 2011 Tenderfoot Times Feature

The controversy of the death penalty even leaves a mark on the just-released documentary,

Into the Abyss, directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, focused on a murder case in Texas from 2001 where three lives were taken plus another from execution, Her-zog intensely reveals what wasn’t shown in national me-dia and explores the issue of capital punishment.

The murders that Her-zog defines as “senseless” spurred from the motive of stealing a local woman’s car. The two convicted men, Mi-chael Perry and Jason Burkett, were both only eighteen at the time of their crime. Perry, twenty-eight, at the time of film-making had only eight days until his execution date; Burkett was not convicted as a death-row inmate.

Herzog includes inter-views with Perry, Burkett, victims’ family members, and state executioners and pastors who are present dur-ing death-row inmates’ ex-ecutions. During these in-terviews, Herzog discusses with each why people and the state kill. A very enthusi-

astic Perry faults Burkett for being the brain of the triple-murder, while Burkett faults Perry. The victims’ daughter and sister faults both and wit-nessed “justice” being served at Perry’s execution.

By the end of the docu-mentary, closure seems to found for the victims’ family towards the convicts. How-ever, the documentary itself leaves a profound question of whether or not capital pun-ishment is right or wrong.

Into the Abyss premiered in general theaters, Nov. 11. However, the “City Lights” students who went to the Tel-luride Film Festival, were the first American audience to view Into the Abyss. Junior Kyle Fowler, said of the mov-ie, “Usually a movie like this makes the people on death row seem like soulless blood-suckers. They had no future. They just aren’t good people.

But this movie had them in interviews that made them seem human. You almost for-got what they had done to get there because you saw their raw emotions.”

Senior Joe Coffman, said, “How it was put was so pro-found.”

I definitely give Into the Abyss four out of four stars; it is a must see documentary.

Lexi TrujilloStaff Reporter

Into the Abyss review

Steampunk fad: old-fashioned sci-fi

“So what is it?” asks Tom Roberts, sophomore, as he looks at a recent drawing of a jet packed warrior in a full three piece suit. Steampunk is a fad that refuses to die. Recently, it has been gaining traction in the young adult fiction books and in popular culture in movies.

Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are considered to be some of the founding fathers of the genre. Verne’s book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was published in 1870. Wells wrote his book The Time Ma-chine in 1895.

The term “Steampunk” came in to prominence in the 1960’s and the 70’s when an author named K. W. Jeter was trying to find a term to de-scribe works by James Blay-lock and other authors of the era. The term Steampunk was invented and a new genre was formed.

Sophmore Michael Procko says that steampunk can be a kind of art that uses old ob-jects to make a different new object,” where he refered to the art of Jimmy Descant, a local Salida artist who makes rocket sculptors.

Technically it is a sub-genre of science fiction and alternative history. It has been described as a version of the world set in Victorian Eng-land, but with inventions from the future seen through the

eyes of what Victorian people thought the future would have been like.no electricity And a lot of brass and gold; airships (or zepplins, blimps and balloons) are common types of transport; and steam is used to power machines.

But this rule has been bro-ken by authors such as Scott Westerfield who wrote the steampunk series Leviathan. A story about World War I in a Steampunk twist were they have walking machines and airships made of fabricated whales who breath hydro-gen.

The genre has also been transformed to movies. The movie The Golden Compass

and the movie 9 were consid-ered Steampunk.

Too often teenagers feel that they are in the wrong world and Steampunk allows them to go to a totally differ-ent place. Some people take it to the next level and dress in steampunk clothing. Sopho-more Jacob DeKing thinks “Steampunk is just crazy.”

To identify the strange genre, it helps to familiar-ize yourself with it. Reading books that other people sug-gest can help you learn more about the subject, and maybe even learn about a new genre to read over the long Christ-mas break. Even though you probably won’t.

SALIDA ARTIST JIMMY Descant creates rocket sculptures using recycled materials for a living using recycled metals and other salvaged materials.

Photo by: Riley Donavan

Riley DonavanStaff Reporter

Gamber gives Skyrim ten out of ten

The Muppets are back

Orion GamberStaff Reporter

THE LATEST EDITION of the Elder Scrolls series - V: Skyrim - debuted Nov. 11.

Photo by: Danyel Enz

Bailee GardunioStaff Reporter

THE MUPPETS MOVIE poster is displayed outside Storyville Cinema on 1st Street in Salida.

Photo by: Danyel Enz

Page 7 December 20, 2011 Tenderfoot Times FeatureFeature Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 6

Custodians: the cleaning force that keeps the high school tidy and up-to-date when all the students are in class or have left the building for the day. Wheth-er it’s mopping, wiping, peel-ing, or any other cleaning task, the students and staff of Salida High School can count on the crackdown custodians to help them out.

“Over the past two years, budget constraints the remain-ing staff has worked very hard and I’m very proud of the job the janitorial staff can accomplish in one day due to their numbers,” Maintenance director Walt Sneddon said.

Due to recent budget cuts, the janitorial staff has suffered numerous personel losses. Sal-ida High School went from five custodians to three and the dis-trict lost six as a whole. The poor economic times and the cuts to the crew are the perfect circum-stances to make a situation dif-ficult to fill the empty spaces for such a tough job.

One might not think of it so hard, but think about the teens seen in the movies with messy rooms and litter policies. It is quite natural to bring it school with one from home. Now with that think about how many messy teenagers coagulate in Salida High School. That makes the school like a house with sev-eral messy rooms, but luckily we have more than one parent

looking out for the residence of Salida High School.

The Salida High School cur-rently has three custodians and a groundskeeper. They each have a specific set of jobs that they accomplish each day to keep the school running smoothly.

Custodian Jeanetta Davis maintains Larimer Gym, the An-dreas Field House and the In-dustrial Arts wing. Linda Aichele covers the academic wings and the restrooms. Scott Beach works as a groundskeeper and cleans the cafeteria after lunch. At night, Rory Taylor works in the academic wing, bathrooms, offices and John Held Audito-rium.

Taylor’s shift is full of difficult tasks and cleaning jobs such as cleaning the bathrooms, offic-es, cafeteria and the academic wings. He arrives at 1:30 p.m. when he starts mopping and cleaning up the cafeteria.

After, he does miscellaneous jobs like straightening the tables and cleaning the bathrooms. “You know, whatever needs cleaning until 4:00 p.m. when school is over,” said Taylor. He closes school at 10:00 p.m.

Taylor works forty hours a week and on Friday’s when the rest of the school has a day off. In addition, he stays at school for an hour to an hour and a half after a big game, dance, meet-ing or dinner.

“Despite popular belief, the custodians’ main job is cleaning, not maintenance.” Taylor says. The hardest task for a custo-dian is to clean the restrooms. “Bathrooms acquire attention because of sanitation factors as well as other messes students make,” said Sneddon facilities director.

The custodians open the school and work until lunch. And with only a 30 minute lunch break and two 15 minute breaks, each janitor has an eight-hour shift. That’s as long as we are at school, so just imagine just how much time these caretak-ers spend at this school.

Salida High School principal Tami Thompson said that the new school will be better for the janitors because it is smaller in square footage, and is made of low maintenance materials that will still require cleaning, but less long term and labor inten-sive maintenance. That means at leas some relief to the custo-dians next year.

“The students of Salida High School need to take more pride in their school and clean up af-ter themselves so that the new school lasts a while and we are proud of it for years to come,” Thompson said. The new school will be opening next year; this school my be old and on it’s way out, but with the new one in sight everyone needs be sure and take care of it. Remember that no one takes care of this school more than the Salida Custodians.

When walking in the high school, different styles of peo-ple, clothes, and accessories can be noticed, including what students are carrying around to their lockers and classes. Their bags come in many different styles too.

With his large green back-pack, Kelly Cannon, sopho-more, can go to his classes with-out ever visiting his locker. He claims his heavy duty backpack is easy to carry anywhere, even up the numerous staircases found within the school.

“I use a green backpack that is made by the Black Hawk company,” he said. He received his bag from his dad. It was a military outfitter-designed backpack, so can go anywhere without too much trouble.

Cannon can often be seen roaming through the waves of students in the hallways dur-ing passing periods, recogniz-able by the backpack he carries, which holds his entire locker’s contents, including books, binders, pencils, lunch, a watter bottle, and sometimes shoes.

“My backpack was designed for lots of stuff [to fit] in it, so it has good supports, I can fit everything in it with room to spare, and I don’t have to cram my books in it.”

Cannon uses his backpack for purposes other than carrying his books and lunch. “I some times take my backpack on field hikes or backpacking trips when they come up.” Cannon said.

Tris Golden, senior, often walks into her classes with one thing missing: her backpack. To most of her classes she carries merely a pen, and possible a

binder or book.“I don’t have a backpack, so

it makes me look like a slacker, but I’m really not. Plus, I’m a senior, so not having backpack makes me cool,” Golden said.

Golden has few classes where she actually needs any-thing but skill, like band and her TA (teacher assistant) hours, where no paper or binders are required.

She also doesn’t need her pack to carry anything to and from her house, so her theory is: why carry a backpack if it’s not needed?

Golden used to use a back-pack, and isn’t a chronic no-pack-er. She used her pack through out freshman, sopho-

more and junior year. Her last year in high school is when she decided to ditch the pack, and go with condensing her binders to make life easier.

“You have to be organized to not lug around a pack.” Golden said, “There are some downfalls of having no backpack, though. I used to carry around a bunch of pens and stuff, but now if one of my pens run out [of ink], I have to borrow one from some-one. I don’t think a lot of people could pull it off.”

With all the different views on backpacks, it could be hard to figure out which side is bet-ter. Many students have to fig-ure out what works best for them.

Organizing riots, meet-ing friends, making enemies - there’s no denying social me-dia has had an unusual effect on our society. Beneficial or not, technology has made it possible to communicate in an entirely different way.

Sites such as Facebook, Twit-ter, and Tumblr have made a huge impact on how high school students socialize. Students said they mostly use it to follow celebrities, get their news, keep up with school drama, chat with their friends, and connect with long-distance friends and family.

While convenient, the lack of face-to-face communication can be detrimental. “[Students on Facebook] are tough behind the keyboard…it’s turned into a site that other people have dra-ma on,” said sophomore Sammi Sharrar.

Less accountability, faster communication, and being able to control who sees information can encourage bullying and the creation and spreading of ru-mors on the internet.

Overuse and Facebook “ad-dictions” aren’t uncommon among teenagers. Usage ranges from checking the sites once a month to constantly following, posting, and tweeting through their phones. Some students said they spend less time hang-ing out with their friends than they do on Facebook.

“When the power goes out, they might die,” said sopho-more Ellie Gilmore.

Not only does social media allow people to communicate easily, it aims to make people seem more desirable to com-municate with. Profiles, posts, pictures, preferences all build a person’s “identity.”

But how much does their on-line identity affect the way peo-ple look at them in real life?

“I do kind of judge someone on what they have on their Face-book I guess. It’s pretty much impossible not to blend what you learn about them on there and what you see in real life,” said one Salida student.

Because technology advances every day, it’s hard to tell where social media will go. It contin-ues to grow steadily, but when, if ever, will it reach its peak? Is

this a fad, or is it the future way of communication?

“I think they’ll make some sort of lasting change, but I don’t know if they’ll stay the way they are,” said Gilmore.

Some students thought that social media would eventually diminish, while others thought it would continue to grow un-til it replaced business letters, newspapers, and most commu-nication by phone.

People who aren’t on social media sites have become the minority. Students said they

expect people who have grown up using social media will be different from using those who didn’t because they’ll be more dependent on technology, won’t communicate face-to-face as well, will be more computer literate, and won’t be as skilled in other areas because they’ve spent more time on the com-puter than those who don’t use social media sites.

Not much else has spread to such wide demographics with such magnitude as social me-dia has, and everyone seems to

have a reason why. Students theorize that people

want to be connected to other people all the time, society is addicted to gossip, and it makes socializing more convenient as humans get lazier.

Student Melissa Belmonte said, “I don’t think people actu-ally want to [use social media]. . . everyone else does it, so they think they should, too. I didn’t get one to talk to people out of state. I got one because every-one had one, so I wanted one too.”

A look inside Salida High. . .A day in the life of a Salida High custodian: the work never ends

Michael Ricci, Riley Donavan, and Danyel EnzAssistant Photo Editor & Staff Reporters

CUSTODIAN GENO GUCCIONE repairs yet another leaky ceiling tile outside of the girls’ restroom in the senior hallway after a pipe burst, leaving the tile sagging.

Photo by: Michael Ricci

RORY TAYLOR, CUSTODIAN responsible for the academic wing, bathrooms, offices, and John Held Auditorium, mops up the caf-eteria after all the students have eaten lunch.

Photos by: Michael Ricci

Many backpacks in Salida High halls

SOPHOMORE PACK-RAT KELLY Canon models his massive Black Hawk backpack, which easily holds “everything [he needs] with room to spare.”

Photo by: McKinnley Witty

Brooke LoveStaff Reporter

Social media allows for easier, but weaker daily communicationCatie Wilken

Staff Reporter

Mr. Salida High is an annual contest between the toughest guys in Salida High School. This battle of glitter covered gladiators is for the ultimate prize of 200 dollars. In order to achieve these winnings, the men must put on dresses and show off their feminine side - a feat not easily achieved. “It says easy, it’s not easy!” said Justin Giorno.

On the evening of Dec. 1 the champions met in John Held Auditorium for the face off. It was held by the Le Resume to raise money for the year-books. For two, long hours of sweat drenching battles these men fought until only one was named a queen.

The previous year ended with a surprise, a tie between Dillon Granzella and Isaac Stackonis. This resulted in the first ever Mr. Salida High dance off. Stackonis won by a few hip thrusts and claimed the title and crown of Mr. Salida High.

This year’s competitors were: freshman Derek Scott;

sophomore Michael Procko; juniors Jacob Adamson, Isaac Stackonis, Caleb Lowe, Matt Manchego; and seniors Garrett Lundberg, Dillon Granzella, and Justin Giorno.

Not only was there new competition, but there were new judges. This year’s judges were Cari Beasley (Salida High and Middle School nurse), Bill Donavan (parent), and Bryan Lamont (Salida Middle School Math teacher). The show con-sisted of swimsuit, talent, and evening wear with a Q&A.

It was emceed by the Math Master Duo, Josh Bechtel and Fred Maxwell. They kept an exciting feel for the crowd, which was a near total of 700. Even though their purple suits caught the crowd’s attention, it was the competitors who held their eyes. “They all put their pants on one leg at a time,” said Maxwell. Well, he didn’t help Lundberg get ready for the competition or he would know that it’s not true.

In the swim portion there were many colorful suits, but nothing quite like Procko’s Daisy Dukes or Lundberg’s

little mermaid swim. If anyone can look at the swim portion and think that it was bad, sev-eral others in the crowd were able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there were no Speedos.

The talent was overwhelm-ing this year; everyone had their personal favorite. The mu-sic, the dancing, and the acting, it was all another great show by the Mr. Salida High guys. “The talent is my favorite part,” said Bechtel. He was guaranteed a good show this year, even dis-agreed with Deb Bass, English teacher, who thought that the previous year had been better.

The evening wear is always a great sight, but sadly some of the men’s feet were in too much pain and couldn’t take much more in the heels; however, we always so do love to hear those snippy answers to the ques-tions. They were all spontane-ous answers and came directly from the heart.

After the parade of swim-suits, mullets, and sequined gowns, a winner was picked. The third place was Lundberg, second place, Stackonis, and

first place, Granzella. This is Granzella’s last year at Salida High School, and his last Mr. Salida High competition. His advice for this competition was, “Don’t be too serious.”

Never forget: “If it takes a chicken a day and a half to lay and egg and a half how long does it take a squirrel to kick a hole in a pickle?” Maxwell said.

Senior Dillon Granzella finally claims Mr. Salida High crown

SENIOR GARRETT LUNDBERG flashes a smile to the crowd during the talent portion of his Mr. Salida High routine.

Photo by: Riley Donavan

Danyel EnzStaff Reporter

When Asked: Do you think it’s risky to text while driving?

93% of Salida High School students say...

YES!

FYI: IN Colorado, texting while driving is illegal for ALL Drivers regardless of age. If you are under 18, using a cell phone while driving is also illegal. Drive Smart!

Feature Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 8

Ten Ways to Boost Holiday Spirit

1. Watch a Christmas mov-ie. Turn on the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Elf, or any other holiday movie and enjoy relaxing and watching a film full of happiness and cheer. Enjoy the wonderful 25 days of Christmas on ABC Family. This is the best way to kick off the holiday season.

2. Drink hot chocolate, tea, or hot cider. Indulge in a warm, tasty drink that will be soothing. Try adding some different flavors into your hot chocolate such as peppermint or caramel to make things in-teresting.

3. Bake. Get creative with baking. Make sugar cookies with icing and add some cute colored sprinkles. Include cin-namon and nutmeg to add some spice to your goodies.

4. Light some candles. Who needs anything more than the lights from the Christmas tree and a few festive candles to brighten your holidays? There’s nothing better than the sweet cinnamon smell or the perfect Christmas candle.

5. Decorate with holiday accessories. Putting up the tree, hanging the window decorations up, mounting the stockings onto the window sill, dusting off the Hannuk-kah menorah, and adding some lights to the house will all brighten the Christmas mood.

6. Turn on some Christ-mas music. “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!” This is the last rule of the code of the elves from the movie Elf. It’s as true in real life as it is in the movie. What better way to get in the mood than to turn on the Christmas tunes and sing like no one is listening?

7. Send out holiday cards to friends and family. It’s not only an excuse to remind your old friends and family that you are still alive, but it is wonderful gesture that you can feel good about. Adding a family holiday picture on the front and personal message in-side adds special cheer.

8. Play in the snow. Every-one is dreaming of a white Christmas so why not take advantage of it and have some fun playing in it. Whether it is skiing, snowboarding, sled-ding, snowman making, or any other snow activity, you are never too old to enjoy a little cold, wet fun.

9. Curl up by the fire with a blanket and a good book. This is perfect especially after spending a long, fun day in the snow. Just breathe, relax, cuddle up, and enjoy time to take in the warmth of a fire and the joy in a good book.

10. Break out the scarves, hats, and sweaters. Forgot about those ugly Christmas sweaters that you have collect-ed over the years? It’s time to take those out again! The holi-days are no time to be getting sick so bundle up in fantastic winter fashion.

Reh VanattaCopy Editor

Boost holiday cheer

Awkward Christmas

The holidays are full of cheer and warm spirits, but they have awkward moments at awkward family gatherings with awkward people.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith are too old to know what’s happening at the hosts’ home. While everyone is en-joying the turkey and ham, they are arguing about what happened in Vietnam.

Uncle Jerry tries to hit on cousin Jim’s new girlfriend, Lara, who by the way, is 20 years old. Awkward. She doesn’t talk, instead, she texts on her new iPhone, and com-plains about the struggles of being a chick-etarian (vegetar-ian who only eats chicken).

Sally, being the only teenag-er, sits alone, the oldest person at the kids table, eating mac ‘n cheese; she is too old to be playing hide and seek, but too young to be with the adults drinking wine.

The adults ask about her fu-ture plans for college, neglect-ing the fact that they received an email saying that she had been accepted to Harvard.

Aunt Pam asks Sally who her latest boyfriend is, but ev-eryone knows Sally just got out of a relationship with her

boyfriend from first grade.As if it couldn’t get any

more awkward for Sally, her dad, Dave, comes downstairs, dressed in a Santa Claus cos-tume. All of the kids rush to-ward him, screaming “SAN-TA!!!” While Sally sits, shaking her head at the awkward di-saster about to unfold.

All the kids line up, each sharing what they want for Christmas, when Aunt Cindy’s demon child, Walter, sits down and notices how “Santa” doesn’t look jolly. Walter leans in to whisper what he wants for Christmas in Santa’s ear, slips slightly off of “Santa’s” lap, and grabs on to the closest thing to him: the beard.

The beard falls to the floor and little Walter stares up at the Santa impersonator, Un-cle Dave. An ear-shattering scream exits Walter’s mouth, and suddenly Walter feels warm; he had wet himself. Awkward. Uncle Dave stands up in disgust and races out of the room to change; the rest of the kids are scarred.

Aunt Cindy grabs Walter and asks her husband if they can leave. Within five minutes all of the guests are gone, tak-ing the pies with them. Per-haps next year everyone will feel the same “warmth” that Walter felt.

Lexi Trujillo & Michaela WeberStaff Reporter & Ads Manager

HANDMADE HOLIDAY GIFTSFor the past few weeks Art Club has been meeting in Janine Frazee’s Art Room to create Christ-mas presents for family, friends, and anyone else you can think of. The projects they have been working on mainly are soap dishes, but they also had the option of making incense holders and spoon dishes. Each of these gifts are handcrafted in clay by the Art Club, and make excellent presents for mom or dad. If you’re looking for something to do or to make a present for some one near and dear, head down to the Art Room and talk with Frazee.

Photo by: Danyel Enz

Hot chocolate is the go to drink during the cold winter season, but the original milk chocolate hot cocoa gets old after a few cups. How can you still enjoy this wonderful chocolate drink but in a new way? These are eight ways to spice up your hot chocolate.

1. Cookies and cream hot chocolate: Take a cup of some either homemade or from the package hot chocolate and take two Oreos and crunch them up and put them in your hot cocoa.

2. Peanut butter hot choc-olate: Chocolate and peanut butter are an excellent combo so take a mug of hot coco and take a couple mini Reese’s

and put them in your hot coco and let them melt. And, voila, you have peanut butter hot chocolate.

3. Peppermint hot choco-late: This sounds harder than it is. Take a mug of hot cocoa and take a candy cane and stir it in your hot cocoa for a pep-permint taste.

4. Butter scotch hot choco-late: Take some butter scotch chips and stir them into your hot cocoa till they are com-pletely melted then for a nice final touch put some whipped cream on and sprinkle it with crushed up Heath Bar.

5. Maple hot chocolate: mix some maple syrup into your hot coco and mixa until it is completely dissolved then add some whipped cream. This isn’t your usual mug of cocoa but it sure is a simple

and unique cup of Paradise.6. White chocolate hot co-

coa delight: Now it’s time to put milk chocolate hot choco-late to shame. Take a cup of your favorite hot cocoa mix and heat it up then take some white chocolate chips and mix until they are melted. To fin-ish, add some whipped cream and sprinkle some white chocolate shavings on top.

7. Caramel lovers hot choc-olate: Take your hot cocoa and add either caramel syrup or take some caramel candies and stir them till melted. Then add some whipped cream and drizzle caramel syrup on top.

8. Hot chocolate ice cream float: Switching things up. Take some vanilla ice cream and add it to your hot cocoa and you’re done. You have a cocoa float.

Spice up your holiday hot chocolateDemi Vanatta

Staff Reporter

Melissa Lee-Sobal Massage Therapy

Christmas gift certificates available for $65

Call 539-4112

Savanah Lee-Sobal unwinding after a day at pre-school

Page 9 December 20, 2011 Tenderfoot Times News

This year the Longfellow Elementary School Moun-tain Lions started will have an online newspaper. The publication is put together by a select group of about nine fourth graders outside of class time.

Newspaper supervisor and Longfellow Librarian, Schuyler McAllister, said that the group is thinking they might put the paper on the Longfellow web page so parents, teachers, and com-munity community mem-bers can access it easier.

Penny Kitson, technology teacher, has also helped the students by searching for an online format suitable for the publication.

The young newspaper staff is already making goals for the future. They hope to get the newspaper printed as well as on the web, and want to have their paper come out every month. They are shooting for their first newspaper to come out on-line before winter break.

The students have brain-stormed some name ideas for their paper, such as, “Moun-tain Lion Times”, “Longfel-low Times”, and “Longfel-low Legends”. They have decided to let their fellow schoolmates make the final decision.

They hope to have comics, photography, book reviews, and many different types of writing in their paper. They have already gotten experi-ence in interviewing, some-thing they are definitely ex-

cited about.The students are very ex-

cited to have the opportu-nity to be a part of writing an actual newspaper that the community is able to ac-cess and read. They realized that this will help them in high school and college, give them more experience in journalism, and teach them to turn in their assignments on time.

They think this will be a fantastic opportunity for the students’ parents and for every one in the community to learn more about what is going on at the elementary school.

The students who report for the paper will get a lot

of one-on-one time with their teacher or supervisor to work on writing and to work on improving their writing skills.

The staff from the “Ten-derfoot Times” met with the elementary school reporters and talked to them about the different types of writing that goes into a newspaper. They also explained some of the rules and guidelines for newspaper writing.

Now that Longfellow will have a school paper, the staff hopes the community, par-ents, and students will be more aware of what is going on at the elementary school, and that the students will enjoy reporting.

Longfellow’s online NEWspaper

Photo by: McKinnley Witty

FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS Kaela Earhart, Sabine Nel-son-Pyle, and Maddie Patch discuss an issue of the Tender-foot Times on Dec. 1 with the help of Tenderfoot students. The select fourth graders are initiating an online newspaper.

Demi VanattaStaff Reporter

Photo by: McKinnley Witty

Cold threatens new school concrete

As winter sets in, Monarch opens, and students prepare for Christmas break.However, the construction of the new high school continues. The winter snow presents no prob-lems, but the cold creates new issues.

Concrete and other build-ing substances such as mortar, need to be kept at a certain temperature to harden cor-rectly.

Workers have also finished the steel skeleton of the build-ing. The heavy lift crane has done its job and has moved on to other Diesslin Construction projects. With the skeleton up and the roof being finished, the walls are beginning to as-cend.

“The workers may have a full classroom done by Febru-ary,” Principal Tami Thomp-son said.

The plan is that by January students will be able to write their names on the gym walls and possibly on the floors be-fore they are sealed in and fin-ished.

The classrooms of Math

teachers Jon Bailey, Josh Bechtel, and Rob Gilchrist will be moved later in the school year. They will be teaching in

other classrooms around the school as the Kesner building part of the current high school will start its renovations.

Ten to attend medical shadow daysThe Salida Administra-

tion team proposed the idea of shadow days for students who have ideas of what they want to do after high school.

Rob Tressler, counselor, set them to take place in January. Preference will be given to upperclassmen, but anyone is welcome.

The days will be used for gaining knowledge of pro-fessions only. No high school credit will come from them.

“The concept is to gain some knowledge before you go to college and can make an educated decision re-garding your future,” said Tressler in an email.

Right now, the main op-tion is going to the hospi-tal. However, if students show interest in other areas, Tressler will try to get those set up as well. Other possi-ble professions are engineer-ing, police detective, fine arts, psychology, and radio.

Any career field will be ap-proached if students show the interest.

There will be an informa-tional meeting Jan. 13 from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. The shadow day will be Friday, Jan. 27, at the same time. Ten students will be attending the medical shadow day: Brooke Love, Kayla Gobin, Kendra Berndt, Jennifer Wentz, Rio Wintz, Micaela Lowe (juniors), McKinnley Witty, Amanda Lewis, Kealy Weber, and Lexi Trujillo (seniors).

The students seem excited about the hospital shadow days. “I want to go into. . .Physical Therapy or Medical Surgery,” Lewis said. Gobin said, “I want to be an X-ray tech, so it will be a glimpse of what I’d be doing.”

Anyone interested in the shadow days can contact Tressler, via email (rtressler@salida.k12.co.us) or by visit-ing his office.

During the next few months, the high school student coun-cil will be doing some things to cheer up the students and help the community during the holiday season.

Last year, they bought tur-keys and donated them to the local grainery and bought a few of the Tree of Hope tags off the Christmas trees at Safeway and the Heart oft he Rockies Medical Center. This year, they hope to do the same thing to help families in need during the holidays.

Some of the members have begun to start a new project within the school. The idea for a spirit wall instead of locker

posters has been tossed around for the past few months, and will soon be started.

A spirit wall will be a des-ignated place to recognize the sports teams of Salida High. They hope to have it located on one of the walls in the caf-eteria and have the outline be in the shape of a Spartan head. Senior, Dominica Alloy, said, “It will be a place to have locker posters, just not on the lockers.”

For more information about anything happening with the Student Council, contact the sponsor, Susan Matthews, Sal-ida Middle and High School librarian.

Student Council initiates spirit wall

TIM MANCHEGO, SOPHOMORE, dissects a fetal pig in Christi Delaney’s Biology class on Dec. 1. Biology is required for all sophomores, and the pig dissection helps them understand mammalian anatomy, such as the respritory and circulatory systems. Students that are absent on the dissection day must make it up by completing a virtual dissection.

PLASTIC HANGS AMONGST steel beams of the new school skeleton on Dec. 15. The plastic helps protect the construc-tion, and workers, from the frigid winter air. Tami Thompson, principal, says workers could have an entire classroom com-pleted as soon as February.

Photo by: Riley Donavan

Michael RicciAssistant Photo Editor

It’s been a busy few weeks for the twenty girls on the Sali-da High School swim team and their three coaches. They’ve been training hard in prepara-tion for their 2011-2012 season, with tough practices including early morning weight lifting twice a week.

“Practices are really hard, but there’s no way to get better without that,” said sophomore Sammi Sharrar. Senior Aman-da Lewis said, “It gets me in the best shape of my life. I’ve never been in better shape. Ever.” After all their hard work, they are finally ready to show what they’ve got.

Their first meet of the sea-son was cancelled due to snow, leaving them even more anxious to test the waters.

On Dec. 3, they finally got to it. The meet in Gunnison was a succes, even though both teams were short on swimmers due to weather and grades. Not all the meets

include diving, but this was one that did. Salida girls were in the top three for diving; Brooke Love in first, Gabby Filter in second, and Antonia Seitz in third. The rest of the meet turned out to be the good start the girls were looking for. The Salida girls took the meet by about 300 points.

The next meet was in fa-miliar waters, but there was added pressure due to the fact that more teams showed up. The meet hosted Platte Can-yon and Manitou at our very own Salida Hot Springs.

Salida leashed the Platte Canyon Huskies easily, taking the win between the two. It came down to the nitty gritty between Salida and Manitou, but the Spartans saddled the Mustangs, taking that portion of the meet by two points and coming out with an over all win.

After their wins, the lady Spartans raced to a meet with Cheyenne Mountain. This meet wasn’t in the shallow end anymore. With around 470 swimmers competing,

mostly from 5A schools, it was one of the biggest meets Salida has attended.

Regardless of the stature of the meet, the Spartans dove in. Both of Salida’s relay teams made it into the finals, with the 200 meter free style relay only seven tenths of a second

away from the state time. Robyn and Sammi Sharrar

both qualified for the finals in the 50 meter free event.

These girls aren’t going to let their hard work go to waste. This is only the begin-ning, and they’re prepared to make a splash.

Sports Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 10

I stand on the blocks in front of the pool full of water so smooth that I can see the ceiling reflected onto it. I try and calm my thoughts as I stand exposed three feet above everything. There are five more swimmers on the blocks in a line.

All heads turn towards us. Everything is silent save the whistling wind outside of the building. Someone coughs and breaks the tension. This is the 200 meter IM. I must complete 50 meters each of butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, and finally, free-style. A sharp beep sounds through the air. All six of us hurl our bodies off the blocks. There is a pause as all of us fly through the air. Then everything explodes with sound as the race be-gins. This is the epitome of swimming.

Swimming is what I live for. I’ve been doing it for my entire life. It seems like ev-erything I do leads back to swimming. It’s the one thing that I care about most. Just being able to know how to manipulate water with my hands and feet makes me comfortable in it. I can’t stay out of the water. Swimming is my passion: the one thing I could never live without. Everyone should have one.

Without swimming, I would hate my life, so I can’t imagine how some people feel when they don’t have something they love or couldn’t live without.

Yet, like all good things, there are some faults with swimming; like choking on water, hitting your head on the wall, and pure frustra-tion when I can’t get a stroke fast enough to cream the competition. No matter how hard it gets, I will never give up. I will never try and make excuses for not doing my best. Even if I end up being the worst in the pool, and to-tally humiliate myself, I will still feel proud of myself, be-cause I know that swimming is what I do, and no one can take that away from me.

I’ve heard of people who feel the same way about writing, skiing, art, math, and countless other activities. I feel lucky to have found my passion when I am young, so that I can pursue it.

I can only hope that all the people who haven’t found their passion yet won’t give up hope.

Takingthe dive

Brooke LoveStaff Reporter

Cheerleaders take 4th

Salida cheerleaders took fourth at the state competition on Dec. 10 in Denver, where they competed against other co-ed 3A teams.

The competition ended the team’s season in which they won a league competi-tion in Manitou Springs and an NCA/NDA Western Colo-rado Spirit Championship in Grand Junction.

Valley High School came in first place, Strasburg High School second, and Peyton High School third.

The team had prepared for the competition for seven months with practices during the summer, after school, be-fore school, and on the week-ends during the weeks leading up to competitions. A profes-sional choreographer helped them plan their routine.

Cheerleaders said this sea-son held many difficulties in-cluding losing members due to ineligibility or injuries, and having to re-choreograph their routine numerous times. Soph-omore Mellissa Rodriguez de-scribed the season as “really rough, hectic, and stressful.”

The competition in particu-lar held challenges. Cheerlead-ing coach Sandy Gardunio said that being from a small

town and performing in front of such an unusually large crowd can be nerve-wracking, and many of the cheerleaders were anxious. The team also found out they had to change their pyramid because it didn’t meet the safety standards min-utes before competing.

Points were deducted when a stunt went wrong and Re-becca Massey was forced to step off the mat to catch the flyer, freshman Demi Vanatta. “She was bleeding through the rest of the routine, but she didn’t miss a beat, so I was really proud of her for that,” said Gardunio.

The team described their routines as one of the most complicated 3A routines they’ve seen because it had many involved stunts and tumbling. Gardunio said they didn’t have trouble hitting the stunts alone, but the hardest part of the routine was timing them with the music.

Cheerleaders said while they didn’t win, competing brought an already tight-knit team closer together. Junior Emily Dewberry said, “We have our ups and downs, but in the end, we’re each other’s best friends...This season’s taught me that no matter how bad it gets, you can always make it work or push through it.”

Catie WilkenStaff Reporter

Dear Editor,We are writing in response

to the recent behavior by a portion of the student body, in an assembly held for the Spartan Cheerleaders. As coaches, we were sad and disappointed for our team.

They were so excited to showcase their routine in front of their peers. It was not their best performance, but after being met with yet an-other obstacle 15 minutes be-fore their performance, they did very well.

While we don’t expect the student body to understand everything this team has gone through, we do demand respect for them.

We tried to prepare the team for the performance by letting them know that the student body would be their harshest critics, but we were in no way prepared for the immature, disrespectful reception that we received: laughs, finger pointing, and mean-spirited comments.

What was more shocking is that the majority of this be-havior came from fellow ath-letes – those who also wear purple uniforms and work hard every day in practice – who have earned the honor of being called Spartans.

If you thought that you were going to make your-selves look better by criticiz-ing this group of young peo-ple, let us be the first to say, you failed.

The cheerleaders are proud of their team. They have worked hard, become very close, and yes, are a fam-ily. Why is that a bad thing?

I’m sure in your everyday lives as teenagers; the amount of negative you are faced with

outnumbers the positive. This team has chosen not to let the negative define them, accent the positive and have grown as individuals.

This season has been all about the journey for this team – from the injuries, to re-choreographing that rou-tine for the 50th time. Each time they became stronger and more determined.

To the students of Salida High School who chose to judge and criticize the cheer-leaders, remember that these will be the same individuals standing on the sidelines of your games. They will cheer you on, win or lose, and won’t laugh or joke at missed shots, dropped passes, or serves that don’t get over the net.

Athletes of Salida High School, we challenge you to be proud of what you do while being respectful of your peers are doing.

Whether you are a football player, basketball player, a wrestler, or yes - a cheerlead-er – you are working hard, sweating and bleeding for a greater cause.

The ultimate reward comes in knowing that you have done your best, and those individuals who are on that team with you will have your back no matter what.

Just like it is impossible to understand what went into hitting that lib heel stretch, or kick twist basket toss, we may not know the work put into sinking that 3-pointer, or football pass.

It’s about mutual respect for each, and as Spartans, you should expect nothing less.

Stacy Lowe & Sandy Gar-dunio (SHS Cheer Coaches)

MIKE HARRIS, LPC, LACProfessional Conseling Services

SANITY. PSYCHOTHERAPY. PERSONAL GROWTH.

Helping you revitalize your life!

719-966-7135www.mikeharrislpc.com

A letter to the editor

Hard work will pay off for Spartan swimmers

SENIOR KAITI DAVIS gasps for air while finishing her butterfly race during the home meet on Dec. 13.

Photo by: Ashley Potts

Ashley PottsStaff Reporter

Page 11 December 20, 2011 Tenderfoot Times Sports

“Coaches coach, players play, and spectators spec-tate.” Basketball announc-ers say this before every tip-off to encourage good sportsmanship. I agree with this, but the day I met a spe-cial individual, it changed the way I look at it.

This player has taught me more than any coach or teacher. He didn’t teach me math, or how to shoot a perfect jump shot, but more important things in life. Peo-ple wouldn’t believe me if I told them the best teacher I ever had was a 15-year-old sophomore with a disability, but they have never met Dillon Phillips.

Dillon has a disability that doesn’t allow him to walk properly, but the still plays his favorite sport in the world: basketball.

I’ve practiced with Dillon for two years and this kid eats, sleeps, and breathes in basketball. The heart and the determination from Dillon would almost puts a pro to shame. No matter what the task is, whether it’s shooting free throws, or even conditioning, which is extremely strenuous on Dil-lon’s legs, I never hear him complain. As long as he is on the court, he is happy.

Dillon has taught me is to never let anything stop me from doing the things I love, and how far one can trav-el on pure heart and love. Dillon could have stopped playing basketball after his surgeries, but that would be too easy for him.

From the first time Dillon and I stepped on the court for practice, he always would make it a competi-tion to see who could shoot better. I snuck in a win here and there, but Dillon would always out-shoot me.

His competitive edge would kick in. It doesn’t mat-ter if I am a better shooter, he has a heart of gold that will not allow anyone to beat him. After practice, no mat-ter if it’s the hardest of the year, he will ask the coach to play him one-on-one as if we didn’t even practice.

I am honored to be a friend of someone who, no matter what happens, will always have faith and a heart beating louder than ever. Whether it’s sports or the real world, I will never forget what Dillon taught me. You can go a long ways as long as your heart is in the right place.

Lessons

Justin GiornoStaff Reporter

Lack of athletes affects winter sports’ teams

To have a sport you need a handful of things: coaches, uniforms, a place to practice, and most importantly, play-ers.

Basketball needs five on the court. Right now girls’ var-sity has about twelve players. Take into account injuries, eli-gibility, and the various other problems that handicap teams and they’re in trouble.

Captain, senior McKinnley Witty, said that they’ve been affected by past players grad-uating and thinks that they have a lack of motivation from girls to join the team. “It’s re-ally affecting us,” she said. She is the only senior playing girls’ basketball.

Boys’ basketball has fifteen

varsity players, which may sound like a lot considering that’s three times as many a those who play on the court. However, in reality, they need more players. Senior Jared McDonald said athletes aren’t coming out due to people get-ting lazy and wanting to ski and play other sports more.

Also graduated players not being there anymore has im-pacted both boys’ and girls’ varsity teams.

To athletes who aren’t com-ing out, McDonald said, “Just try it, give it a chance. Don’t just sit around being lazy.”

Junior Daniel McFarland, said that he thinks less people are joining because basketball season is such a long season. Also, he said people don’t want to practice everyday.

Another sport that has de-

creased in size is wrestling. Currently SHS has eleven boys on the wresting team. Senior Anthony Muth said that peo-ple have trouble committing and thinks others are afraid to try it. Muth encourages those who might be thinking about joining to go for it.

“You don’t know until you try,” he said. Muth also said, “wrestling has become less of

a mainstream sport,” so they have fewer participants.

One team not having a problem recruiting athletes is swimming. This season they have a total of twenty girls. This may be because they combined the Buena Vista and Salida team, adding three swimmers. Captain, senior Kaiti Davis said, “this season is going to be really fun.”

Savanah Lee-SobalStaff Reporter

Lady Spartans start basketball with young team

Lady Spartans tip-off their season with a preseason scrim-mage Nov. 26 at Peyton High School. There was no score keeping, but these games were just to get the ladies back in the basketball atmosphere. Due to the low numbers of girls, Salida only took one team. The scrim-mage was a starting point for the ladies. Even though there was no recording of the score, some team members said they felt like they did well.

“Playing my first minutes was what I dreamed of since my older sister started in high school. Basically, I just felt re-

ally accomplished and pleased to play with my team. It was such a great feeling,” said Freshman Jaime Granzella. Granzella is amongst many other freshman on the varsity squad.

The ladies than traveled to James Irwin for a two-day tournament. The JV girls played hard for two games, but fell short. Varsity, howev-er, secured a spot in the cham-pionship by beating the Love Christian Kings.

Although this wasn’t the best competition, the girls would then be faced with the James Irwin Jaguars. The Jag-uars were an older more ex-perienced team with multiple

seniors. Salida, with only one senior, still held their ground and battled it out. The game was close until the last min-ute when the girls had to start fouling to stop the clock. The Jaguars made a couple free throws that would steel the game. The ladies came out with a second place trophy.

Their next match was against the Gunnison Lady Cowboys at home on Dec. 1. Close throughout the whole game, Salida put themselves up by one with under a min-ute left. The ladies played amazing defense allowing the time to expire without Gun-nison scoring. The ladies ran away with a one point victory.

Freshman Lauren McDonald led the team with ten points.

“I was so nervous at first. . .our first home game, and me being a freshman. The only thing that was going through my head the whole game was to never let up and to simply win,” said McDonald.

Lady Spartans traveled to Centauri High School on Dec 15. to take on the Falcons. Looking to stop their flight, the ladies let the Falcons slip away. Spartans lost 39-60.

The next game was against an experienced Pagosa Springs Pirates on Dec. 17. Pagosa jumped up early and held the throttle down. The ladies suf-fered a 20-58 defeat.

Wrestlers start seasonMuth signs at UWYO

Whether it’s placing in the 3A high school state tour-nament, going to national wrestling events, or just practicing on a mat in his ga-rage, Anthony Muth has an incredible drive and desire to wrestle.

After sitting down and talking with the young as-piring athlete, it could be said that he has high hopes for this year’s season. He would be the first to tell you, he’s going into this season ready to give it all he has. Muth wants to beat out the defending state champ Zach Shank of Olathe, a feat that won’t come easy.

State champ this year, or not, he loves the sport and hopes to continue his wres-tling career into college at the University of Wyoming.

When asked what has brought him to this success-ful point with wrestling, his response was, “Commit-ment to the game, and hav-ing a solid, supportive group of people backing me up. “ He has been investing much

of his time into the sport of wrestling; lifting constantly, studying his opponents on film, and practicing hard on lots of school nights.

Anthony’s achievements in wrestling, as great as they may be, are only the part of who he is. His drive and determination for success learned on the mat has given him strength in the class-room, in jobs, or any situa-tion thrown his way. There’s no doubt his results in this year’s season are going to be great.

The wrestling team had their first tournament at Air Academy in Colorado Springs on Dec. 2. It was a nerve-rack-ing first outing for a young Salida Spartans team.

The seniors on the squad are Anthony Muth, captain and returning state qualifier, Eric Glovan, and Tony Belmonte.

Muth said, “We’re going to need our upperclassmen to step up and fill roles, helping the younger less experienced wrestlers. That and having everyone eligible, healthy and determined, is key.”

With weight classes missing at the Air Academy meet, the team had a score that didn’t show how well they wrestled.

Missing weights ends in for-feits, something that doesn’t help when other classes are filled by players who are work-ing for a win. Wrestling for Salida at Air Academy were freshman Chance Trueblood at 106, Jacob Schoenfeld at 120, Nate Lowe at 126, and Nick Mann at 285, with a strong ju-nior class of Brandon Coleman at 138, Chance Ogden at 152, Thane Smith at 184, and Tyler Martin at 171.

Pulling a win at this com-petitive, 3A and 4A mixed di-vision tourney were Coleman, Schoenfeld, Smith, and Muth.

Salida wrestling team took seventh at the BV Demons’ duals tournament, Dec. 10. Yet again, forfeits would hurt the Spartan team. The Spar-tans beat out Clear Creek and Gunnison while losing the other three rounds. Muth and Schoenfeld, both had a suc-cessful day at B.V. going un-defeated.

While many of the Salida wrestlers’ dedication and suc-cesses can be seen, the overall team score lacked.

The reason for the current forfeits seems to be ineligibil-ity, not having enough athletes in the program, and having multiple wrestlers at the same weight.

On Dec. 16 and 17, Varsity wrestled in the Southern Col-orado Team Tournament in Pueblo West. Muth went 3-0 and won the over-all title in his weight class.

Schonefeld went 2-3, tak-ing fifth overall. Lowe went 1-2, and Ogden went 1-3 in the tournament.

Their next meet will be Jan. 7 at Rangeview high school in Aurora.

Daniel ArchambeauStaff Reporter

Daniel ArchambeauStaff Reporter

Justin GiornoStaff Reporter

SENIOR ANTHONY MUTH takes a break from practice.

Photo by: Michaela Weber

News Tenderfoot Times December 20, 2011 Page 12

Smith makes next Boettcher round

Senior, Brandon Smith, is not just your ordinary senior applying for ordinary schol-arships; Smith is applying for the incredible Boettcher Schol-arship. The Boettcher provides a full-ride scholarship to any Colorado University/College.

Founded 70 years ago by Claude Boettcher, which has donated over $54 million to over 2,000 undergraduates to fulfill the Boettchers’ vision for Colorado having many educated leaders.

Smith is in the second elim-inating round, having already completed and been accepted for submitting the original ap-plication and as he refers to it, “[the] 20 page resume” that consists of many academic and life achievements.

Around 200 semifinalists will be accepted from the ini-tial pool of applicants which usually has between 900 and 1200 students.

In the current stage of the Boettcher process, Smith has had to submit letters of rec-ommendation; if he is chosen to continue to the following round, he will be among the 70 finalists and will then have to proceed with the interview process.

After the interviews, the chosen 40 Boettcher Scholars will receive their award let-ters.

Shane Baldauf, class of 2009, was the last Salida High School student to be awarded the Boettcher Scholarship. Ri-ley Johnson, 2011 alumni, was a semi-finalist for the scholar-ship. Her mom, P.E. teacher, Jane Johnson said, “It’s a

humbling experience. Getting it [the Boettcher] was one of Riley’s goals. . .and having the opportunity to even be in the top 70 was an honor.”

Good luck, Brandon!

Lexi TrujilloStaff Reporter

SENIOR BRANDON SMITH strikes a thinking pose in the SHS library. He is currently in the second elimination round of the Boettcher scholarship.

Photo by: Lexi Trujillo

Knowledge Bowl group takes second place in Matchwitz

Photo by: McKinnley Witty

FRESHMAN RICCI SERRANO and junior Sergio Reyes stand with an Ecuadorean weaver that presented her traditional dress and weaving skills to Spanish classes on Dec. 16.

Some people seem to know the most random facts, and could be seen winning Jeop-ardy. There’s not high school level Jeopardy in Salida, but there is, in fact, a team of stu-dents who enter competitions against other schools to an-swer questions that wouldn’t normally be known to the av-erage person.

Questions such as: “The treaty of Paris in 1783 ended which war?”, the answer is the American Revolution, is an ex-ample of one of the questions the team would be asked.

Knowledge Bowl consists of around 15 members. It is sponsored by Social Studies teacher John Archambeau.

This year, the Salida High School Matchwitz team won

second place in the televised tournament. The team con-sisted of juniors Jay Peterson, Thane Smith, and Ashlyn Stewart, and seniors Hayden Anderson (captain) and Sarah Simko.

In a Knowledge Bowl com-petition, “there are three [four-man] teams competing against each other at the same time,” said Varsity member Jay Peter-son, junior.

Meets in Salida’s league take place at Adam’s State College in Alamosa in once a month. “It lasts all year long, and we can have up to eleven meets per year.” Salida com-petes against schools like Ala-mosa and Sargent in the “large school” division.

Each correct answer in

Knowledge Bowl earns the team one point. There is one written round, followed by multiple oral rounds, in each meet to give the team a rank-ing based on their grand total.

There is also a select group of Knowledge Bowl members that compete in Matchwitz, which takes place in the fall.

Unlike Knowledge Bowl, though, Matchwitz only has three people competing per team, and there are two teams competing against each other instead of three. Each correct question is worth ten points, and there are three rounds of play.

“I’m extremely proud of the team. We worked really hard the whole time we were in the competition. The questions just didn’t fall our way in the final,” said senior Hayden An-derson, team captain.

The team as a whole has many skills, and can often be seen “buzzing” in to answer the question before it’s been asked all the way, which, un-derstandably can intimidate the competition.

“We can answer questions correctly when only some of the question had been asked. Our captain knows when one of us had the right answer in mind, and is good at urging us to say our answer even if we doubt ourselves.” Simko said.

The team has many strengths, and can generally know most topics. Peterson said they do well in biology and history, along with pop culture. They do have some weaknesses, though.

“We are a well rounded team. Thane is good at biology and I am good at history and dates; not with girls though,

with history. Our biggest weakness, though are litera-ture and the constitution.” Pe-terson said laughingly.

There are many facts that the team knows that most people wouldn’t even think about. Here are the most ran-dom facts some of the team members know:

“The guy who designed the Oscar also received it three times. “-- Simko

“A slang word that means both [to] completely destroy and microwave [is] nuked. It was a question asked last year.” --Anderson

“The measure of the acute angle formed by analog clock hands at 2 o’ clock is 60 de-grees.” -- Stewart

“The saroriuos is a muscle in the human body that runs down the back of the thigh.”-- Smith

Brooke LoveStaff Reporter

Salida High School Drama Club took their one act play The Eden Echo to the Colo-rado State Thespians Confer-ence on Dec 9.

This was the Salida cast’s first year entering a competi-tion like this, with students Dominica Alloy, Stormy Rob-erts (seniors), Jessie Pascarel-li, Orion Gamber, and Aman-da Cahill (sophomores). Other students, including juniors Annie Deveney and Isaac Stackonis and sopho-more Michael Ricci, attended the conference to participate in workshops.

Students were invited to watch the plays while not performing, and majority of the Salida High School dra-ma department attended.

The students performed their one act play in front of a panel of judges. The plays were ranked on a scale of fair, good, excellent, and superior.

The actors were only allowed to wear black or white.

“I think [the judges] really wanted to judge us on our acting not just on our cos-tumes and sets. It also gave everyone a level playing field,” Alloy said.

The play Salida performed was given the award of ex-cellent, “We received a lot of superiors on certain catego-ries, and. . .didn’t receive any fairs or goods,” Alloy also said. Salida competed against some well-known perform-ing arts schools in Denver.

“I think we could’ve im-proved the play by fixing some blocking issues and elaborating on the set-up of the ending of the play. Other than that, everything was the way it was supposed to be,” Gamber said.

“By performing in a com-petition like this it helps peo-ple learn new assessments of skills like improvising on the spot, accents, and develop-ing your character,” Gamber said.

CO thespians gatherMichaela WeberAdvertising Manager

Juniors attend CASB conference

During the weekend of Dec. 8 through 10, Salida High School students attended the CASB (Colorado Association of School Boards) conference in Colorado Springs, it was held at the Broadmoor Hotel. The conference is about school board members and student representatives coming to-gether to brainstorm ideas, and learn new methods of im-proving their schools.

CASB was established in 1940 to provide the structure through which school board members could convene in efforts to promote the inter-ests and welfare of Colorado school districts.

Today, they advocates the interests of local boards of education to groups both within and outside the edu-cation community. Also, they provides information, services and training programs to sup-

port school board members as they govern their local school districts. CASB represents more than 1,000 school board members and superintendents statewide.

Daniel McFarland, junior and conference attendee said, “I learned that statewide school board members care about the students, if they didn’t care the conference would never exist. I built relationships with our board members and it was really enjoyable.”

The conference holds sig-nificance in the Salida schools and community. It targets education in the community and in the classroom. Salida school board gained signifi-cant knowledge in helping the school and improving re-lations with the students and learn about being leaders in their communities.

Junior Alexis Cardenas found the conference interest-ing and informational. “Lead-ership derives from being a

good listener as well as leading by example. The conference taught us a very important thing. How to present an issue to the school board, whenever one arises.”

McFarland said, “I was in-terested in the conference, I heard from previous students that attended the conference, that it was fun.

My favorite part of the con-ference, was when we listened to the speakers, Garrison Wynn and Richard Gerever. They talked about leadership and I derived my favorite les-son from them. To be a good leader, you must be a good leader.”

The CASB conference is al-ways looking for school repre-sentatives and board members to attend. If you’re interested and want to get involved, talk to principal Tami Thompson, or visit the website for more information. The website is http://casb.worldsecuresys-tems.com/.

Orion GamberStaff Reporter

Salida school board members collaborate with student leaders