@LibertyPublicat

www.pinterest.com/tyearbook November/December 2016Volume 23: Issue 2

6300 Independence Avenue, Bealeton, Virginia 22712

Patriot Press Page Guide

News............................1-2Features...........................3Sports............................4-6Entertainment..................7Back Page.........................8

Liberty Superstars Bring Their A-Gameby Tacey Corbin and Hannah Brinson

~Newspaper and Talon Yearbook Editors

Junior Bianca Ramirez

sings and plays the gutair at

the 2016 talent show. She

sang a song called “Angel’s Face” that she wrote herself.

Photo courtesy of Talon

Yearbook Staff.

The 2016 talent show auditions were held on Wednesday, October 26th. Around 31 people had auditioned and were spread out into 22 different groups. The people who made it had to practice on their own, and have one dress rehearsal day. Many of the performers have never done a talent show, so for them it was pretty nerve wracking. “This is the first time I had tried out for the talent show. I chose to do the talent show because I love to sing. I am confident in making it, but you never know how it will go,” said junior Boe Wentz. On November 22nd, the tal-ent show took place. The emcees of this show were seniors Abby Arft and Kort-ney Leazer. They presented the first performer, junior Josh Kolba. Josh per-formed a music mashup that was put together by senior Shawn Mitchell.The first singer of the morning was senior Kaleigh Tunell singing “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” by Twenty One Pilots, original-ly by Elvis Presley. “The song I chose was a comfortable ranged song for my voice, so I had more room to play with it! Aside from the little nerves I had, I loved per-forming in the talent show,” said Tunnell. The next to sing was freshman Keera Jones who sang, “Pretty Hurts,” by Beyoncé. After followed a duet by

senior Kirsten Kendall and junior Jus-tice Plymale. The two sang an acoustic spin on Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” “I was a little nervous because this was my first time in a talent show; being in it with someone else helped calm my nerves. I enjoyed singing with Justice and it end-ed up being really fun,” said Kendall. Patricia Montecinos sang, “Voic-es.” Sophomore Logan Ciaci sang his socks off to, “Hitorinbo Envy.” Next to perform was sophomore Nada Isma-el who sang a song she wrote herself called, “Love.” Alicia Keys’“Fallin’,” was sung by senior Catherine Estes. To shake things up a little from all the wonderful talent of singing, came a tal-ented dancer. Senior Brandon Hawkins car-ried on his tradition of dancing with a mask

during the talent show. This year, Brandon danced to “At The Break Of Dawn.” Se-niors Amanda Foote and Kayla Meriwether brought in alumnus Charles Brown. Charles played the guitar for Amanda and Kayla while they sang Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” To continue the singing portion, junior Kylie Welch sang, “Unsteady,” by X Ambassadors. “I chose this song because I really connected with it. It was really relat-able. I felt like I connected with the audience more. I felt like people were cheering for my voice rather than a popular song which gave me a lot of confidence,” said Welch. Junior Jonathan Felder sang “Say You Won’t Let Me Go,” by James Arthur while playing the guitar. Senior Sydney Gerena and Boe Wentz played and sang, “Someone Like You,” by Adele.

Although English songs are beautiful if you have not listened to a Spanish song, you are definitely missing out. Sophomore Braidy Arellano sang, “Te Robaré,” by Prince Royce. Junior Bianca Ramirez per-formed a song that she had written herself. “I have never done a talent show before so I was really nervous, I ended up practicing a lot to calm my nerves and it helped a little bit, but once I got out in front of everyone it ended up actually being a pretty unique experience,” said Ramirez. Following her was senior Emma Converse who sang, “Youth,” by Daugh-ter. The other dancer of the day was se-nior Sarah Peck dancing ballet to, “Sweet Nothing,” by Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch. Seniors Sydney Gerena, and Collin Perry, sang as a duet“Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” by Meghan Trainor ft. John Legend The second to last solo was senior Kate-lyn Rahrig singing, “Not About Angels,” by Birdy. The last song performance of show was senior Kayla Meriwether sing-ing, “7 Years,” by Lukas Graham, ac-companied by alumnus Charles Brown. To complete the show Liberty High School’s very own drumline finished the show off; the members included Josh Kolba, Hunter Lambert, Evan Riehl, Billy Tucker, Nathan Wilkins, and Zach Wilkins.

This year was a very big year. The United States is getting a new President. Barack Obama has been our President for the past eight years, which is as long as most students remember. With all of the con-troversy on this election our school had a mock election. “It is my understanding that Liberty High School (LHS) has a history of holding mock elections for presidential and midterm elections. The students that walk these hallways at LHS are the same indi-viduals that will be voting for America’s future political leaders. It is essential that the LHS student population is informed about how the United States political sys-tem works. This is especially true since the 2016 election only had 55% of voting age citizens cast ballots, which was the lowest turnout in nearly two decades. The

Trump Wins LHS Mock Election Held in November by Sheila Garcia~Features Editor

only way this trend can be reversed is by encouraging all high school students to be engaged in their local communities,” said government teacher Mr. Chad Patterson. Students in the government class-es were given a candidate that was running in this election. The people that were rep-resented were all presidential candidates to the congress members. Each student had to research their person that they chose and had to create a flier with their candi-dates beliefs on it. Not only did they have to do that but they had to create a poster and during their lunch period and had to sit at a table to represent their candidate and if anyone wanted to know about that person, they would have to answer the other student and teacher’s questions. A lot of people participated in

this mock election and thought it was a good idea. “I represented Gary Johnson by making a poster and a flier for him, and when we were able to start voting, I also voted for Gary Johnson simply because I represented him. I think our school’s mock election was very well put togeth-er and the way it was run was very intel-ligent,” said senior Anthony McFadden. “I ran with Amanda Newville and we campaigned for Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. We worked lunch shifts and brought awareness to the two candidates. I think they should have another mock election. It is al-ways good to know about your presiden-tial candidates,” said senior Kayla Emery. “Holding a mock election helps students understand the process of elect-ing officials while demonstrating the influ-

ence of voting in a community. It is also good way to bring awareness to the minor party candidates and local issues into the school community. The majority of the time the media is focused only on the two major political parties,” said Mr. Patterson. “I voted for Hillary Clinton be-cause I did not want to waste my vote on a third party, so I voted for the legiti-mate party more aligned with my political ideals,” said senior Matthew Schwindt. “I voted for Donald Trump be-cause I agree with most of his thoughts so to me he was the best candidate in my eyes,” said senior Amanda Maskell. Our schools mock elec-tion matched the actual election re-sults, with Donald Trump and Mike Pence winning the election.

2 News November/December 2016 3Starting The Year Off “Write”

by Amanda Bacon~Editor-in-Chief

This year a selected portion of students from Liber-ty High School’s publications classes went to the Fredericks-burg Expo Center located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The reason for this trip was because Virginia High School League (VHSL) hosted their annual workshop and awards ceremo-ny. The two publications class-es that joined their advisor were the Patriot Press Newspaper staff and the Talon Yearbook staff. VHSL offered many different types of workshops throughout the day. The first workshop started at 9:30 a.m. and the last one was offered at 3:30 p.m. “My favorite thing was how in each workshop they explained different materials that would help me learn new stuff, especially how to take pic-tures,” said senior Antasia Quinn.

Throughout the day ev-eryone that came along on the field trip attended many differ-ent workshops. There were three different types of workshops that were available. Each work-shop was set up for each publi-cation class, so that journalists could go to all of workshops that were made especially for them. “The three workshops that I went to were workshops that each publications could go to, and those three were “Just My Type”, “Photography Workflow”, and “Grid/Type”,” said senior Hannah Brinson. Once those workshops were over, VHSL hosted an amazing luncheon for everyone that came, and they announced all of the awards towards the end of the lunch. “I really enjoyed the lunch that VHSL served for us because it was something differ-

ent that I am not used to eating. It was nice because it actually made us feel appreciated and super fan-cy,” said senior Sheila Garcia. All of the publications from LHS won awards; the Tal-on Yearbook won first place, Forte Literary Magazine won first place, and the Patriot Press newspaper won second place . “My favorite part about the entire field trip was col-lecting our first place award,” said junior Mikaylah Groger. “I am very proud of all of my staff members for coming together and working with one another to put togeth-er some great publications,” said advisor Ms. Lisa Miller. Overall all of the mem-bers of the Patriot Press and The Talon enjoyed being able to go and be a part of VHSL’s luncheon and award cermony.

Photos courtesy of Publications

Advisor, Ms. Lisa Miller.

In these photos members of the

Patriot Press and Talon Yearbook

staffs were enjoying a nice lunch at the

VHSL award ceremony. Moments later, these editors were celebrating their wins in the

statewide competitions.

Washington International Horse

Show Brings Excitement to

D.C. Areaby Sheila Garcia~Features Editor

Every year in October the Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) is at the Ver-izon Center in Washington D.C and it lasts for a week each year. There are a lot of events that happen though a majority of them are English events. I went on Friday October 28th; they had the International Jumper Speed Final, Army vs. Navy Barrel Rac-ing, a horse trainer named Guy McLean, International Jump-er Puissance, and the mini trio. In the speed round they go around and try to clear the whole course without knocking a rail as fast as they can. If they do they knock a rail they get two time faults for each rail down. Barrel racing is where they run a clover pattern around the barrels as fast as they can, if you knock over a barrel you get five second time penalty. In the Army vs Navy, they had three pro barrel racers, three from the army, and three pro show jumpers on one team.

Guy McLean is a pro-fessional trainer. His horses were so smart and he made his perfor-mance funny and entertaining. The International Jump-er Puissance there were only six contestants. Puissance is where they jump a giant wall until the horse knocks part of it over and each time they make it over they make it higher and higher. Rid-er, Lauren Tisbo rode her horse without a bridle and she only had a piece of rope with a small piece of metal in the middle. The mini trio was two miniature horses and a jack rus-sell terrier that would ride on the horses. The mini trio was so cute the dog would just hop right on the backs of the horses. The dog even was on the back of one of the horses while he went over a jump. At the WIHS there is such a good atmosphere there. Ev-eryone is there for the same rea-son. Overall, the whole thing was amazing, I will definitely go again when it comes back next year.

The Patriot PressThe Patriot Press is a student produced newspaper published monthly during every school year. Every issue contains student written articles, and is designed by students. Our mission is to publish news, information, and opinion articles for the

school and for our community

Letter to the Editor Policy

Letters to the editor are welcomed and will be published as space allows. Letters must be signed, although the staff may withhold the name on request. The paper reserves the right to edit letters for clarity. All letters are subject to laws governing obscenity, libel, privacy, and disruption of the school process, as are all contents of the school paper. Opinions in letters are not necessarily those of the staff, nor should any other opinion expressed in public forum be construed as the opinions or policy of the administration, unless so

attributed.

The Fall 2016Patriot Press Staff

Amanda Bacon- Editor-in-Chief Sheila Garcia- Features EditorTacey Corbin- Sports Editor

Zoe Lowe- Entertainment EditorLizzy Brown- Editorial Editor Kylee Helm-Backpage Editor

Ms. Lisa Miller-Advisor

Holiday Features November/December 20163Gifting Tips From Our Reporters

by Tacey Corbin~Sports Editor With the holidays sea-

son coming up everyone is think-ing about Christmas and the other holidays. They also realize with the holidays coming up that means gifts, and ideas for gifts. Getting gifts for people can be very tricky and time consuming. With those issues of getting gifts, there are certain things people go with that you could get anybody, or just small things you know that person would like. “I like going on Pinterest, so I can make DIY things because it costs less and is not just something basic from the store,” said senior Amanda Bacon. Some of the people like to give things to people because they really like making peo-ple happy and feel good.“I like giving things that make people laugh, like things they would not expect because it makes them happy,” said senior Sheila Garcia. When shopping for somebody else it can get very frustrating because you never

know what they want or what they would like, but if you do know what they like then definitely get them that. “It usually depends on the person and what they like but usually shoes, clothes, or make-up is what I like to get them,” said freshman Lizzy Brown. Certain people always say they do not want anything because it may make them feel bad for having someone spend-ing money on them or they just simply just do not want anything. When somebody says that, many people choose to get someone something anyways be-cause they may say they do not want anything, but they would appreciate it either way. “When I buy something for someone who says they do not want any-thing, it makes me feel pretty good because I feel like even though they did not want any-thing, they still appreciate the fact

that you thought about them,” said sophomore Kylee Helm. When you have no idea what to get the person, the best thing to get someone is a gift card to a store they like or even just a generic gift card where they can use it anywhere, so that way they can choose what they do with it. “I think it is better to just give a gift card that you could use anywhere or just something small like their favorite candy, especially if they say they do not want anything. I like giving to people who say they do not want anything because I think it still makes them feel good, even if they can not give anything back,” said freshman Zoe Lowe. Throughout the years things change, especially find-ing gifts for people. No matter who you are shopping for, there is always something for every-one. No matter their age, every-one has their different things they want or things that amuse them.

Christmas time is when you set your Christmas tree up and decorate for the joyful times, drink hot chocolate, and enjoy on your favorite snacks. Two popular seasons are fall and winter and they are some of the most enjoyable seasons of the year. “My favorite thing to do around the holidays is sleep,” said sophomore Lynsey Wolfe. People love going shop-ping around the fall and winter holidays. Some people might go shopping for one season at a time and others may go shopping for them all at once. Fall and win-ter are on the more chilly side of things, so people buy warmer clothes. “Some of my favorite clothes I would buy around Hal-loween to around Christmas time would be joggers and long sleeve shirts,” said freshman Bryan Dahl. Being able to do your favorite things around the holi-days is what makes them special. This includes eating your favorite snacks, going your favorite places, and even doing your favorite activities. “One place that I would go around the holidays is New York City,” said junior Danny Minalek Decorating is also some people's favorite thing to do around the holidays. Christmas

decorations include the Christmas trees, lights, and sweet smells. “My favorite part of decorating the Christmas tree is getting to wrap the lights on the tree, start-ing from the bottom and ending at the top. Seeing the lights just helps me get in the Christmas spir-it,” said senior Brendon Lillard. Families sometimes gather around Christmastime to eat and have a great time around the dinner table, having a favor-ite holiday meal.“My favorite foods around the holidays are chicken and sweet potatoes,” said sophomore Isaiah Haley. Traditions play a big part in the holidays. Maybe you go to your grandparents or take trips, or even just sit around the house in your favorite holiday pajamas. “Opening a present on Christmas Eve is a tradition my family and I do every year,” said sophomore Brenna Cushman. The holidays are su-per busy, there is always so much to do. “I personally would buy sweaters around the holi-days to stay warm and cozy,” said freshman Victoria Bosarge. There is so much more to the holidays than buy-ing gifts; being able to spend time with your family and friends is what it is really about.

What’s On Your Wish List? by Lizzy Brown

~Viewpoint Editor

to send them money, or gift cards instead of a personal gift because then they can choose what they want on their own and save themselves from disappointment. Teens at the high school level have developed their own style and preference and if a family member or friend that does not know them very well buys them clothes they might not like, sometimes their parents will make them wear it so they do not offend the per-son who bought it for them and that can be tedious to some kids. Receiving money or a gift card is the easiest way to make everyone involved hap-py. “For Christmas, the thing that I want is money because I can buy my own thing and not have to depend on other peo-ple to get me what I want,” said sophomore Barbara Bolden. Additional wanted products this Christmas are clothes and shoes, which is typically a favorite of teens each year. Since teens with a part-time job on average spend 2,050 dollars on clothes each year, of course they would want to get clothes for free, when they can. Most teens are very conscious about what they

This year, Christmas is definitely a very anticipated holiday, like usual. Every year, people seem to be participating in the beloved season sooner, and sooner. With stores selling Christmas decorations and de-cor in early October and Christ-mas lights filling the streets around early November. Peo-ple enjoy the Christmas season to spend time with family and friends, but kids and teens also look forward to opening pres-ents on Christmas morning. In the last few months, plenty of new technology and gadgets have been put on the market that people want. One of these items has been, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus. Even though some complained about the new apple product not having a headphone jack like its previous models, it is still a high demand and much desired Christmas present for teens. “For Christmas, I want an iPhone 7 because everyone else has one and I want to stay current with everyone else,” said junior Danny Mihalek.. Another heavily requested item from teens is money. Teens with large fam-ilies, and with numerous dis-tant relatives would prefer them

wear. They want to fit in and be a part of the school community. They want to keep up with the latest trends and styles and not be chastised for their choice of clothing, so at this age, when teens can start working for their own money, and can pay for their own clothing, they value what they wear. Depending on one’s style preference, clothes and especially shoes, shoes can become one of the most pricey articles of cloth-ing that people will spend money on, so whenever there is a chance for teens to get free clothes of their liking, they usually take it. Students that play sports are especially likely to ask for any type of clothes that are sports re-lated for Christmas, as these items and brands tend to be generally expensive. “For Christmas, the things that I would want would be, some nice new clothes since the weather is about to change and about to get a lot colder,” said sophomore Lane Mullins. Overall, for the Christ-mas season there are so many different things that many different people would en-joy getting. Everybody has so many different types of opin-ions on things that they would want to enjoy for the holidays.

Cherished Holiday Ideas We Love

by Zoe Lowe ~Entertainment Editor

Treasured Holiday Movie Memories

by Kylee Helm~Backpage Editor

With the fall season coming to an end, everyone is preparing for the Christmas holidays. There are many inter-esting aspects as to what there is to do around the holidays, such as holiday movie nights. The Christmas season is most people’s favorite time of the year because that is when most of the best classic movies are on T.V. People’s favorite movies differ throughout age groups and what they mostly watched as children during the holidays.“I love be-ing able to watch the movie “Die Hard” during the Christmas sea-son because it is the best Christ-mas movie that has been created. I love watching this movie with my brother and close friends. This is a movie about a man who tries super-hard to recon-

nect with his wife for the holiday season,” said teacher Mr. Parks. There are multiple Christmas movies families could choose from to watch on any giv-en day but a movie that seems to really be a hit with people from various age groups is the mov-ie “Elf.” “Elf” is one of my favorite Christmas movies be-cause it is funny, even though I have seen it so many times. This is also one of my favor-ites, because it is a movie that most teachers let their students watch during the school year,” said sophomore Justin Mount. When it comes to the holiday season there is many things you could do, but get-ting comfy and cozy, with some hot chocolate and a holiday movie is what most people do.

Sports November/December 20164Going In For The Win

by Zoe Lowe ~Entertainment Editor

Taking a win against the Culpeper County Blue Dev-ils football team was a big deal with Liberty being 2-4. With no one from Liberty scoring in the first half, the second half is when it started. Liberty scored three second half touchdowns at Bro-man Field. With Quarterback Joe Glass returning from hamstring injuries, he scored a touchdown to guide the 21-6 win over the Culpeper Blue Devils. Next up the Eastern View Cyclones. With the Cyclones having an undefeat-ed season so far, they thought it was going to be easy to come to Liberty and just take the Ea-gles out. Even though Liberty may have lost, Liberty put up a fight, with the score ending 38-28. With Liberty putting up a big fight to stay on the scoreboard, we had a 28-10 lead and things were looking good for the Ea-gles. Until in the second half the Eastern View Cyclones scored a total of 21 points. The Cyclones took home the win by 10 points. “The team has done nothing but improve this season. Every game we get better,” said fresh-man varsity player Fred Harris. With Liberty work-ing harder and harder every week, they worked their hardest againsts the Brentsville Tigers. Liberty took a hard loss with a score of 20-28. “The team has grown and learned form errors. We have learned to work together and try to have the best possible outcome, even if it isn’t always a win, we’ve tried our hardest,” said sophomore junior varsity-Brian Pereira. Last but certainly not least was the Bird bowl. This is the game that so many people in Fau-quier county wait for. This game attracts over 3,500 fans. The Fau-quier Falcons, and the Liberty

Eagles went at it this year on Fal-cons’ territory. Liberty has won 14 years in a row, but this year was more of a struggle with a neck in neck game too close for anyone to call. In the fourth quarter the Fau-quier Falcons had the lead 27-21. Liberty had one minute to keep the trophy on their side. With one minute left Fauquier fumbled the ball giving the ball to the Eagles. Running the ball into Liberty’s end zone, there was a flag on the play, causing Liberty to kick a 35-yard field goal, with three seconds to go. This was the most intense game Liberty has had all season. The crowd was down on the sideline and the cheerleaders running up the sideline and cheer-ing the team on. The 35-yard field goal was good. Letting Liberty take the lead with a score of 28-17 for the win. Eagles brought home the trophy once again. “The game will go our way. I know the coaches have a gameplan for our biggest game of the year. Our team is stronger and faster than them. Catchin’ this dub,” said senior varsity player Michael Tapscott. Football is family, a lot of people say. To be a family you have to learn to work together. “This season I think I have done well because I have learned a lot more over the course of the season, and I ended the season knowing more then when I start-ed. The team has come a long way since the beginning because of practice in running drills, and because of the friendships we have built,” said freshman junior varsity player Markkel Newman. Everyone can always do a little improving in all plac-es. You may improve by running different drills everyday, working out, or even just running. “I got in the weight room to get big-ger this season,” said freshman varsity player Justin Lawson.

Second In The State for Cheer by Sheila Garcia

~Features Editor

Competition cheer has had a really good season this year. They practiced so much to perfect their routine. All of the hard work that each cheerleader has put in payed off. This year our school’s competition cheer team has made it to states. The season started with their first competition in Sep-tember at Kettle Run High School where they got a third place. The second competition was here at Liberty High School where we got another third place.The next competition was at Do-minion High School in Loudoun County and placed our first sec-ond place of the season. After that the next competition was at Brentsville District High School in Prince William County and they placed fourth. They then went on to conference at Kettle Run High School and finally got a first place! In October they had re-gionals at Rockridge High School where they placed third. They finished out the season strong on November 5th at Virginia Com-monwealth University (VCU) they placed second at states. “I was nervous during states I was most nervous about hitting my elite stunt because I fell in the second round at region-als so when we had advanced to the second round at states having no falls the first round, I was a little nervous for that but every-thing went fine. My favorite thing about this season was being able to gain and improve my skills and bonding with all the girls. I am really going to miss the seniors after when they leave. I was close to all of them especially Deonae she was always there for me no matter what,” said Competition Cheer member Kylie Bridges.

“I was so excited that we did so well at states. I was so ner-vous the whole time, but I could not have asked for a better season.

Photo courtesy of Talon Yearbook Staff.

Competition cheer is flipping Kylie Bridges around while doing their

intricate routine.

I’ve bonded so much with these girls and I am really sad the se-niors will not be here. I am real-ly going to miss the them. They gave me so much advice and it really helped me improve and also build my confidence for this season and hopefully other sea-sons to come. I am so excited for next season I hope we do this well again if not better next year, even though we will not have the seniors,” said competition cheer member Zoe Lowe. “I am going to miss all the fun times we had as a team, but I am very happy with how far we went this season. Being 4A State Run-ners up is a huge accomplishment

and well deserved for all the hard work the cheer team put in,” said competition cheer member Made-lyn Oiveri. “The thing I was most nervous about for states was where we would place. We all wanted first and knew is was pos-sible. We had to worked so hard and it felt that this was our year to win it all. I loved this season my favorite thing about this season was watching the team process as a whole. It was amazing to see how well we worked all together and got along in order to reach our goals. I am sad that our season is over because I am going to miss the seniors. It is hard knowing that they won’t be back next year. I have been cheering with them since my freshman year and now they won’t be there to give us ad-vice and better us through helping us and giving us tips and things to help us,” said competition cheer member Heather Lodge. “I am very proud of my team to get second in states, because we have been practicing throughout the summer and we put a lot of our effort into making the team good enough to make it to states and that is exactly what we did,” said competition cheer member Kitsten Kendall “I am very excited that we got second in states, I am also very proud of my teammates be-cause without them working hard we would not have made it. I am very thankful for the coaches too, because without them pushing us to better ourselves we would not have been as good as we are and may not have even made it to states,” said competition cheer member Sparkle Dantzler.

There are some students in Liberty that enjoy watching sports and like the concept of be-ing involved in them, but do not necessarily want to fully commit themselves to the sport. Some of these students have become in-volved and discovered managing. “I became involved in managing because my sister played on var-sity basketball and softball and I wanted to get involved without actually playing the sport,” said junior girls basketball and softball manager Jenica Garnett. When some people hear the term “manager”

Managing Their Hearts Out by Lizzy Brown

~Viewpoint Editorthey sometimes assume that per-son is not as dedicated or skilled as the other members of the sports team. It is not a matter of being just as skilled but just being interested in a different area of the sport. Being a sports manager requires focus and commitment, just like the other members of the team, but in different ways. Man-agers keep score in the gamebook during the game.. If the manag-ers do not pay attention during the game, they may get the score book wrong. “Managing football is a commitment. It is something you cannot just stop half way

through. It is our duty as manag-ers to continue to come to practic-es and games, not for ourselves, but for the team,” said football manager Hannah Wolozyn. “Managing football re-quires a lot of patience and time. It is our responsibility to mem-orize player’s numbers, collect their equipment sizes, run the clock during practices, and pre-pare uniforms for every football game,” said Wolozyn. When students make the choice to become a manager, they

need to make sure that they are ready to fully commit to the re-sponsibility. Managers are an es-sential part of the various sports teams and do not function very well without them. There are the fun parts of managing to look forward to, like bonding with the teams and going to the games, but if students are not prepared to take the most important as-pects of the activity seriously, then they should not manage. “My favorite memory from managing is from when it was my birthday and the girls sang to me and gave me gifts. I really

felt part of the team,” said Garnett. When a student be-comes a manager of a Liberty sports team, they start building relationships with the team that they would otherwise not have gained if they had never become a manager. The teams do not take the managers for granet since they are a necessity to the team. If it was not for the managers, the teams would have to take some time away from fo-cusing on bettering themselves to get uniforms organized and tend to other organizational tasks..

5 Sports November/December 2016

As the golf season comes to an end, the scores were com-ing closer and closer to getting a victory each time. Walking away with 2 wins this season out of a total of 10 matches is an improve-ment from their previous seasons.

This year Liberty’s golf team took a victory over Manas-sas Park High School with a score of 185-219. This was the first game that the golf team had won since the season started up back in August. The students of the golf team here at Liberty led us to another victory against Hylton High School on Septem-ber 21, 2016. The outcome score of this match was 194-201. The team was very proud to be able to have these wins against these two schools, although they were very excited for themselves they still stayed professional be-cause they also did have some losses this year, which always leaves room for improving.

The first match of the season was a little rough for the team. As the season progressed the team tried their best to bring home more wins for Liberty, but they came up a little short this year. Luckily for the girls, a few of them were given the opportu-

Swinging Out Of The Season by Kylee Helm

~Backpage editor

nity to compete in an all girls re-gional match during the end of the 2016 season. “This year the girls differed from the boys because we were invited to go and com-pete in an all girls regional match closer to the ending of the season, which was really fun and exciting for us,” said senior Amanda Mas-kell.

Many of the other play-ers on the team were proud that some of the girls were able to be invited to the conference, but they feel that the boys and girls differ many ways in strength and weaknesses. “The difference in strength really showed through-out this year’s golf season, but the girls really made up for it with quality shots which I be-lieve is what got some of them into that conference match this year,” said senior Montana Glea-son.

Having the girls being able to participate in that match made everyone very excited to see the girls from Liberty have a chance to show how good they are and how good they have become with all the games and practices they have been able to be a part of, but according to most of the team they claim they would never

had made it as far as they did if it wasn’t for all the help and support that the coaches put towards the team and betering one another.

“Both of our coach-es worked very hard to ensure that our practice time was uti-lized, and we as a whole team are very thankful for all their help, hard work, and support,” said freshman Nathan Lilly.

“I think that this year both of the coaches taught us what they were equally good at, while also teaching us ways to improve on our own. The team has made so much improve-ment since the beginning of the season and we owe a huge thanks to both of our coaches,” said junior Coleman McDaniel.

Overall the team is very proud of how this season ended and they all hope to do even bet-ter in future seasons here at Lib-erty and future competitions that the players compete it throughout the golf season .They all worked extremely hard to get where they ended up at the end of the season

Serving Over The Net by Kylee Helm

~Backpage Edtor

With the volleyball sea-son recently coming to an end, all the girls were sad to say their goodbyes to season that they worked so hard on. They tried their hardest to bring home a vic-tory each time but were unsuc-cessful with being an undefeated team. They did bring back a few wins for Liberty, many of the girls stated that it was a fun but rough season because they ended in a loss.“This season was a lot of fun but towards the end of the season things got rough for the girls be-cause we ended in a loss, so it was tough on most of us. But all of us had a spectacular year knowing that we were able to be a part of the team,” said junior Elizabeth Waln.

“I feel like the season was a lot of fun for me and the girls, yes we may not have won all of our games but we put our best foot forward and we did our best to make Liberty proud of the volleyball team this year,” said sophomore Kinsley Lewis. Junior Varsi-ty’s season started off by playing Milbrook High School but fell short with a score of 0-2. As the season progressed the volleyball team went on to play Milbrook two more times throughout the season, the Eagles were able to bring home a win with a score of 2-1.

They had won both of their games against Manassas Park High School, with the score of the first game being 2-0, play-ing that game on October 10, 2016. The girls went out to play Manassas Park again on 10/27/16, bringing home yet another victory with another score of 2-0. “Being able to win against Manassas Park not only once but twice was such a great feeling to all the girls on the team. we all managed to pull through and bring home the win. It made most of us girls on jv very proud of all the hard work that we had put into the game,” said soph-omore Natalie Gorham.

As varsity began their season with a game against Do-minion, got a loss 0-3. They went on to play Highland bring-ing home an impressive win 3-0. As the season tended to prog-ress they playing Eastern View bringing home another win of 3-0, which mad all the girls very happy. “While we played many hard games this season the games where we were able to score more against our opponents made us all jump with joy” said se-nior Heather Strong. This season has been a pretty good one for all of the girls who played and for the team as a whole , they have all learned from each other and helped each other grow and learn.

This year’s JV field hockey team’s scores overall this year have been pretty good with winning 7 games. Those 7 games include the first game against Kettle Run with Liberty winning 1-0 , Stonewall Jackson with Liberty winning 4-0 , Spot-sylvania with Liberty winning 5-0, King George with Liberty winning 1-0 , Osbourn Park with Liberty winning 2-0, first game against George Mason with Lib-erty winning 1-0, and the second game against Culpeper County. They have only lost 3 games. They lost to Eastern View with a score of 0-3. Orange County with scores of 0-1, and their sec-ond game against Fauquier with a score of 0-4. They ended up with 6 tied games against Orange County, Culpeper County, River-bend, second game against Kettle Run, Fauquier, and their second game against George Mason. “I feel that we did re-

Ending the Field Hockey Season Better Than Before by Tacey Corbin ~Sports Editor

ally well this season, I also feel that as a player I improved a lot. Near the end of the season I think we let the pressure get to us and we were tired, but over-all we had an amazing season. I will always be proud of my team win or lose because we all work so hard to accomplish what we do. I couldn’t be more proud” said sophomore Sydney Floyd The JV team consists of 8 freshman and 8 sophomores, all of whom work amazingly well together. Overall the girls are pleased with their scores. This years varsity team ended their fall season with a total of 4 wins. Those wins in-clude games against Stonewall Jackson with Liberty winning 2-0, Spotsylvania with Lib-erty winning with a score of 0-1, King George with a score of 3-1, and Osbourn Park 1-0. “The overall scores did not convey how our season

went. We definitely improved so much since last season and played hard against every team. Our performances were nothing to be ashamed of. This season we grew so much since last year regardless of the overall scores. Our skills have improved and we continued to work well together,” said senior Tessa Trowbridge. This season for both teams has not been perfect, but the teams are both still growing and bettering themselves. No mat-ter what, all the girls stay proud of their team, and themselves for getting through the season. “I learned so much, I have never played field hockey before and all the varsity girls helped me through my whole way, before I got moved up and after too. When my big sister was gone people stepped up, helped me learn the right from wrong and I love them all,” said freshman Daisy Jimenez.

Even with losses throughout this season, there is always next year to get all the scores up. Many loss-es were only by one point! “More scores in our column would not have hurt; the overtime losses were tough and many of our games were lost by one. I think that next sea-son we will have a strong team even though we will miss our seniors Sarah, Abby, and Tessa, we will keep improving every year,” said junior Sierra Lacey. Every season can be a growing season, where all the players better themselves and each other. Field hockey is not just about the scores, and wins or losses, but about learning and becoming better with each year. “The team continues to grow each year. Almost every game that we play now is a fight to the end. Many of our games were won or lost by only one point. It is

exciting to play so competitively. One team tradition that we start-ed this year and will continue in future seasons is having big and little sisters. Each varsity play-er was assigned to a jv player to guide them through the season. This ended up being a great way for the two teams to bond. This season was a learning year. As players learn more about the game of field hockey, they are starting to be able to play as a team and create success. I am already look-ing forward to next season. As we grow and build in the off sea-son, I know that next year will be even better,” said Coach Norman.

Coach Norman also won the coach of the year award by being voted by other coaches in the conference for the award. She was honored wth this title for being a strong coach and by show-ing positive attitude towards ev-eryone in the conference.

6 Sports November/December 2016

Marching Band Season Wraps Up by Amanda Bacon ~Editor-in-Chief

This season did not end up they way that the Marching Eagles had really hoped for, but that most definitely did not stop them from continuing to try their best at each competition that they were a part of, and in the end that was all that mattered to them. “Overall, I think that we had a very good season. We had a first and second place at two compe-titions and also an ‘excellent’ rating at another one,” said band director Mr. Patrick Neidich. “I think that the season went okay. I definitely did enjoy the season with all of my friends and just being together. In the end, we are all just one big happy band family,” said senior band member Kimberley Sak. “We did okay too, we did very well the first couple of compe-

titions and when we competed against very difficult bands, we did not come home with a trophy. But I am still very proud of color guard and band,” said assistant coach Mrs. Ashley Gustafson. Along with all of the members of marching band, col-or guard is a huge part of the band too. “The reason why I am going to miss being in color guard is be-cause I have became so close to a lot of the girls in my group, along with all of the friends I have made in band,” said color guard senior Katherine Wright. Since a big part of being in the Liberty marching band is performing at competitions and performing at our school’s home football games, it is definitely go-ing to change their perspectives on things for awhile. “One of my

favorite things about this season was going to the different com-petitions that we go to and also the Friday night football games. Those definitely are something I am going to miss participating in ” said senior color guard member Madison Grenke. “One thing that I am going to miss now that band season is over is being able to enjoy all the time with my friends,” said senior band member Richard Aube. Overall, being happy with the outcome of the season no matter what it might be, is what everyone is looking for and hopes for! “I really enjoyed this season because I loved working with all of the different people in my sec-tions and being able to have an-other successful year,” said senior band member Taylor Edwards.

Cross country has had a very good season this year; two of the runners on the team made it to regionals this year. Those two runners are senior Yago Pellon and senior Wyatt Potter. Wyatt has been on the cross country team since his freshman year. “I am very sad that this is my last year. I have really enjoyed my high school running career. I don’t want it to end and I will definitely miss competing against other run-ners,” said senior Wyatt Potter.

“I am sad that the sea-son is over. I had a lot of fun

Crossing The Finish Line by Sheila Garcia ~Features Editor

and I thought that the team was really good. My favorite part of being on the team was running in at the meets,” said senior Yago Pellon

This is Yago Pel-lon’s first year in cross country here at Liberty High School. He is a foreign exchange stu-dent from Spain. “This was my first time running cross coun-try. I have not done cross coun-try until this year,” said Pellon.

Doing this well means practicing a lot and taking a lot of your free time to get prepared . “I did a lot of out of practice work and during my practices. I would always make myself uncomfort-able and push myself to different levels to improve. I also really wanted to improve because it was my last year and I wanted to do my best,” said Potter. “I always tried to do my best and I always thought I did well in all of my races,” said Pellon.

Sadly neither of them made it to states this year. “I am upset that I did not make it to states I really would have liked to finish out my year by going to states. Since I am running in college hopefully I can make it to states in one of my college sea-sons,” said Potter. “I was sad that the season was over and that I did not make it to states, but I think I had a good season overall. I plan on run-ning track and field, and playing soccer, so I am excited for those

Senior Yago Pellon is running in a cross country meet that he

attended this school year. This is Yago’s first year in participating in a sport here at Liberty, because he is a part of the foreign exchange

program. Photo courtesy of Talon Yearbook Staff.

Senior Wyatt Potter is running in a cross country meet that he attended this school year during his final season in cross country. Wyatt has particapted in cross country since freshman

year. Photo courtesy of Talon Yearbook Staff.

seasons to start,” said Pellon. For all of the new peo-

ple that are thinking about join-ing cross country there are some things that some of the members that are graduating want you to know. “I want people that want to give cross country a chance to know that, you should put in a lot of hard work and put in high paced mileage and not to give up if you do not succeed, just get back up and try to do what it is you want to do again. Cross country is not easy, but it is worth it in the end,” said Potter.

Upcoming Games12/15: JV Wrestling @ Brooke Point 12/16 :Varsity swim FHS/LHS & Culpeper/KR @ WARF Varsity Wrestling @ Turner Ashby 12/17: Varsity Swim Freedom @ Claude Moore Varsity Wrestling @ Turner Ashby 12/22 : Boys Basketball @ Kettle Run Varsity Wrestling @ James Wood 12/23: Varsity Wrestling @ James Wood 12/227:Varsity Wrestling @ Damascus MD 12/28: Varsity Wrestling @ Damascus MD 1/4: Boys Baskteball @ Brentsville 1/6 : Boys Basketball @ Eastern View 1/7:Varsity Swim against Millbrook Varsity Wreslting @ Millbrook 1/9: Scholastic Bowl against Eastern View 1/10: Boys Basketball against Culpeper @ Liberty

7

Entertainment November/December 20167

“The Fifth Wave” is a science fiction novel, which is the first installment in the “The Fifth Wave” trilogy by Rick Yancey. This novel is about an apocalyptic times set in 2013. Aliens called, the others, invade earth, Though the others do not scour the Earth before causing death and de-struction first, without ever set-ting a foot on humans’ territory. When the book be-gins, the main protagonist of the book, Cassie thinking about her high school crush. As the teacher drones on as Cassie is focused in on her own little world, suddenly all power stops. Anything requir-ing any type of electricity source, fails. Thousands die in plane crashes and and automobile acci-dents. People on their way home suddenly notices a large circular ship hovering above in the Earth’s atmosphere. Later would they dis-cover that the foreign object float-ing about them was the cause of the first of five devastating waves. As time continues on, and four more causality causing waves makes it was through the world, everyone assumed that the others caused the waves to happen

The Thrilling Adventure of “The

Fifth Wave”by Lizzy Brown

~Viewpoint Editor

so that they could clear the Earth of all intelligent life. It became clear that the others had already made way to blend in with soci-ety, not knowing whether a per-son was human, or an other. Cas-sie had already lost her mother to the virus of the third wave and her father had been shot. She now had been searching for her brother that had been taken away on a bus full of children by soldiers claim-ing to take them to a safe place. Cassie does not know who to trust and where to start until she gets shot in the leg by a silencer and meets a boy, Evan Walker, who takes her back to his farmhouse to nurture her back to health. This book is a longer novel, with a few more than 450 pages, so to read this book, you probably want to have a good attention span. The author of the book uses two different main characters and writes-from two different viewpoints. “The Fifth Wave” was made into a movie in late Janu-ary of this year.This book, and its two sequels, are also available in the Liberty High School Li-brary, so it can be easily accessed

This month I decided that the two places that I want-ed to go were Panera and Great Harvest Bread Company. They are both located in Warrenton, Virginia so the drive would not be too much of a pain. Panera is located in the town shopping cen-ter between the Marshall’s and Chipotle. Great Harvest Bread Company is located down on one of the end corners on Main Street. From both places I de-cided that I would try a traditional turkey and Swiss cheese sand-wich. The first place that I went to was Panera and I ordered a reg-ular sized turkey sandwich. Since I wanted to get the same thing at both places I had to get the same toppings on my sandwich at both places too, the toppings I had got-ten on my Panera sandwich was of course turkey, Swiss cheese, sliced tomatoes, red onions, ro-maine lettuce, mayonnaise, chi-potle mayonnaise, and salt and pepper. I tried to get the same bread or something similar to what Great Harvest sells, so in the end the bread that I chose for my sandwich was honey wheat bread.Since I am only comparing sand-wiches, the sandwich was the only thing I had gotten from both places. At Panera, the end to-tal before tax was $7.79 and af-ter tax it was $8.67. To me, that is a little bit on the pricier side.

Food Wars: Battle of the Sandwiches

by Amanda Bacon~Editor-in-Chief

When you first walk into Panera it is a very relaxed environment where everyone just leaves you be. It is a very peaceful place where you can not only eat but you can also get some work done if you please. I actually really enjoy the envi-ronment at Panera because when I go there I can actually hear the conversations that I am having. Now, back to the sand-wich topic, overall I thought the sandwich that Panera provid-ed me was okay. The bread that they made the sandwich with was very crunchy, at first I was not too much a fan of but after awhile I got used to and I enjoyed it. The toppings that they put on the sandwich I was not a fan of. I was not too impressed on them becuase I thought they were lack-ing the flavor that I enjoy with those type of foods. The two things that they had put on the sandwich that actually sold me were the mayonnaise and the chi-potle mayonnaise that they put on it. They added a lot of the flavor that the sandwich was missing. The second place that I went was Great Harvest Bread Company, I tried their version of a traditional turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich and

let me get this out of the way right now, I liked their version ten times better than Panera’s. I have to be honest when I want-ed to review a sandwich from Panera it was extremely hard to figure out a place to go up against them. I had no clue about Great Harvest until one of my friends in my class had told me about it. Now that I have been there I will definitely go there a lot more, and to me more people should go there because everyone that works there is so sweet and so polite and that makes every-one’s experience so much better. Their version of the sandwich is made with lightly smoked tur-key breast and Swiss cheese. For the toppings I had gotten turkey and Swiss cheese, sliced toma-toes, red onions, romaine lettuce, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and white wine Dijon mustard. Which I have to say that the mustard was a special touch to the sand-wich because it added a different type of taste to the meal. Before tax the sandwich was $7.28 and after tax it was around $8.36, so comparing the prices from Pane-ra and Great Harvest there is not much of a difference but there definitely is a difference between the quality of the sandwich-es. Like I had said before Great Harvest took the win this month!

Kirsten Kendall-Senior

1.Grizzly Bear-“Two Weeks”

2. The Black Eyed Peas-“Where is the Love?”

3. The 1975-“Somebody Else”

4. Rihanna-“Love on the Brain”

5. Jhene Aiko-“Blue Dream”

6. Wale-“The War”

7. TLC-“No Scrubs”

8. The Wombats-“Jump Into the Fog”

Reese Pitt-Junior

1. Chief Keef-“Peep Hole”

2. Lil Uzi Vert-“Winning”3. Lil Flasn-

“Cappin Kirk”4. Cheif Keef-

“Faneto”5. Yo Gotti-“GMGB”

6. 21 Savage-“No Heart”

7. Famous Dex-“Copy Me”

8. Famous Dex-“Drip From My Walk”

Kylee Helm-Sophomore

1. Migos-“Bad and Boujee”

2. The Weeknd-“Low Life”

3. Montana of 300-“Wifin’ You” 4. PnB Rock-

“Selfish”5. Lil Uzi Vert-

“Erase Your Social”6. R. Kelly-“Ignition”

7. Lil Uzi Vert-“You Was Right”

8. DJ Khaled-“Do You Mind”

Cathryn Wolfe-Freshman

1. George Strait-“I Believe”

2. Garth Brooks- “Friends in Low Places”

3. Randy Houser-“We Went”

4. Craig Morgan-“Redneck Yacht Club”5. The Rolling Stones-“Midnight Rambler”

6. Tim McGraw-“Nine Lives”

7. Keith Anderson-“Pickin’ Wildflowers”8. Brooks and Dunn-

“Red Dirt Road”

What’s On Your

Playlist?

The Patriot Press November/December 2016

If you have an event you would like included on our monthly calendar; email the information to us at

libertyhspublications@gmail.com

Back Page

Ever done anything you felt your peers should know? Do you have some

peculiar talents or a special feat you can perform? Perhaps you have ties to a celebrity or have performed in some speical event. Well, my friends, now is your time to shine. This year, the “Did

You Know?” section in the Patriot Press will exclusively feature Liberty

students! Feel free to come find us any time during the day and tell us some amazing facts about you and we’ll be

happy to write down your unique story!This month’s topic: Holiday Plans

Maddie Thomas is going to visit her grandma in Flordia and

drink some eggnog.

Hunter Suter is going to visit his grandma in Flordia and go to

some Christmas parties.

Brian Pereira is going to Pennsylvania to go turkey

hunting.

Crystal Mensah is going to go to the Bull Run Festival of Lights, watch holiday movies, and is going to have a holiday

dinner with her family.

Amanda Bacon is going to skiing at Massanutten with her

family from Georgia.

Sarah Peck is going to stay home and relax at her house and

drink a lot of hot chocolate.

Bethanie King is going to watch a lot of Christmas movies and go look at Christmas lights

with her friends.

Kayla Carter is going to catch up on her sleep, enjoy her time off with friends and family, and exchange gifts with everyone.

Casey Edmonson is going to Maine to see his family that he

hasn’t seen since summer.

December 1- SOL Non-writing, LHS Girls Basketball vs. Fauquier (JV Only, LHS Boys Basketball vs. Fauquier (JV Only)

December 2- SOL Non-writing, LHS Girls Basketball vs. Fauquier, LHS Boys Basketball vs. FauquierDecember 3- LHS Varsity Wrestling @ King George, Mt. Carmel Cantata Rehersal, LHS Varsity Swim Fauquier @

MPRCDecember 4- Mt. Carmel Cantata

December 5- SOL Non-writing, Library Donation Tree, NHS Food Drvie, Senior Class Cookbook Sales, LHS Scholastic Bow vs. Brentsville

December 6- SOL Non-writing, Holiday Open House, NHS Meeting, VDOT Public Hearing for Road Project, LHS Boys Basketball @ Millbrook, LHS Girls Basketball vs. Millbrook

December 7- SOL Non-writing, Holiday Open House, LHS Indoor Track @ Fauquier High School, Church Room Meeting, LHS Freshman Girls Basketball vs. Woodgrove, Coffehouse Solo Concerts

December 8- SOL Non-writing, Holiday Open House, Apple Federal Credit Union Grand Opening, LHS JV Wrestling @ Stafford

December 9- SOL Non-writing, SOL Non-writing, LHS Wrestling NOVA Classic, LHS Boys Basketball @ Loudon County, LHS Varsity Swim MP/EV/CPEP @ Warf

December 10- Holiday Open House, LHS Wrestling @ NOVA Classic, Staff Holiday Party, Crossroads Christmas Gathering

December 12- SOL Non-writing, Block 5 Art Ceramic Fundraiser, Leadership Team Meeting, LHS Scholastic Bowl vs. Kettle Run

December 13- SOL Non-writing, Theatre Manhattan Pizza Spirit Night, VODT Snow Date, LJS Indoor Track @ Eastern View, LHS Girls Basketball @ Millbrook

December 14- SOL Non-writing, HR Visit, Cheerleaders Giftwrap, Churchroom Meeting, LHS Boys Basketball vs. John Champe, LHS Girls Basketball @ John Champe, Monologue/ Scene Night

December 15- SOL Non-writing, SHS Meeting, NHS Blood Drive, LHS JV Wrestling @ Brookepoint, Winter Concert

December 16- SOL Non-writing, Health/ Med Occupations FT to INOVA, Vriginia Readers’ Choice Meeting, LHS Wrestling @Turner Ashby, LHS Varsity Swim FHS/LHS/CPEP/KR @ Warf

December 17- After Prom Santa Event, LHS Wrestling @ Turner Ashby, LHS Varsity Swim Freedom @ Claude Moore

December 20- Exams Full DayDecember 21- Exams Half Day Afternoon TWD, End of Second Nine weeks, Church Room Meeting

December 22- LHS Wrestling @ James Wood, LHS Boy Basketball @ Kettle Run, LHS Girls Basketball @ Kettle Run

December 23- LHS Wrestling @ James WoodDecember 24- Crossroads Services

December 27- LHS Wrestling @ DamascusDecember 28- LHS Boy Basketball @ Parkview Tourny, Church Room Meeting

December 29- LHS Girls Basketball @ CulpeperDecember 30- LHS Boys Basketball @ Culpeper, LHS Girls Basketball @ Rockridge Tourny

December 2016