March 2012

Will Economy successfully secede?

Economy students to possibly join Freedom

In this

issue...

“How do you like me now?”

Jon Bittner reviews his

favorite terrible TV shows.

See page 8

Leap into action with NHS

Leap Games.

See page 3

Track team: lunging to

victory.

See page 9

―Nothing is set in stone,‖ according to Superintendent Dr. Ron Sofo, con-cerning the potential merger with Econ-omy Borough.

Ambridge‘s recent tax evaluation predicted a major tax increase for the upcoming school year.

―The residents of Economy Bor-ough were upset, believed that increase was excessive, and [were] wondering if Freedom would be interested in Econ-omy Borough coming and being part of the Freedom Area School District,‖ Sofo said.

The Freedom school board re-sponded with open-mindedness and is currently waiting for more events to un-fold with this issue.

Because of the process for merg-ing, the Freedom board will not take part in the process until the second or third step, Sofo said.

In this instance, Economy Borough needs to circulate a petition, which needs to be signed by at least 50 percent of the tax-paying residents.

This signed petition must then be deemed legitimate by courts in order to proceed to the next step of the merging process.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education will receive this request from

Economy Borough, where it will be voted upon and accepted or denied. If the suggested course of action is ap-proved, the Pennsylvania Department of Education will set out to collect data concerning the potential of merging.

This data collection, in the form of questionnaires, will be given to both Economy Borough and the Freedom district in order to gauge residents‘ thoughts.

―That‘s when we directly get in-volved in responding to the [merger] request,‖ Sofo said.

There are several pros and cons to this potential merger for both Freedom and Ambridge.

If Economy were to leave Am-bridge, a portion of the district‘s debt would follow Economy and be distrib-uted within Freedom.

Because Ambridge‘s debt currently sits at approximately $80 to $90 million, Freedom, merged with Economy, would add about $40 million of debt on top of the district‘s current $5 million debt.

―[The acquisition of debt is] where things get really rocky,‖ Sofo said. ―If [Economy brings] that debt and that has to be spread across the entire district,‖ he said, noting that a resulting property tax increase for Freedom residents would be a ―very hard sell.‖

Another potential downfall with the merger has to deal with capacity. By

practically doubling in size, Freedom would not only be concerned with bus-ing routes, class sizes and food service capacity, but also the negative effects for Ambridge.

―Ambridge would possibly not be able to function if half of their student body would leave,‖ Sofo said.

Economy Borough is 60 percent of Ambridge‘s tax revenues and 50 percent of its students, according to Sofo.

However, there are several changes that could be positive for Freedom.

―[Merging with Economy] may be a long-term financial gain to Freedom,‖ Sofo said. With problems of declining enrollment and decreased government funding, Freedom is in a difficult mone-tary situation.

In addition to this, more students would move the district from double A to triple A, according to Sofo. More electives would also be created as the student body increases.

According to Sofo, the decision to merge is still undetermined. The process would take at least 16 to 24 months, if it happens at all.

Sarah Choflet Managing Editor

Anna Patsch, Photo & Design Editor

After the American Id-

iot show Feb. 28,

Emalee Sekeley, Gigi

DeWeese, Emily Croll,

and Raylen Shannon

enjoyed ice cream at

Penn State Creamery

along with other atten-

dees of the trip.

Comments? E-mail Sarah at [email protected]

Interested in seeing Mrs. Burger, Mrs. Corris or Mrs. Boyd on stage, in a dress and singing show-tunes? This year‘s Drama Club performance, ―The Music Man,‖ will provide such an op-portunity.

There are roughly 80 members in the cast and crew this year, but the cast isn‘t just high school students. Many middle school students and high school faculty members will be involved in a few scenes of this year‘s musical.

Staff such as Dr. Staub, Mr. Rosa and Sherry Blinn will all be participat-ing in different parts of ―The Music Man.‖ They will either be regular scene members or parts of cliques within the town.

The teachers are not the only thing different with those who are participat-ing this year. The stage crew has added subgroups within itself.

There is now a set design crew and overall stage crew. Mrs. Haggerty, Mrs. Bourque and the art club have been helping with set design. Along with these new subdivisions within the group, there are also new adults helping out.

Mr. Fitzpatrick has also joined and will be the stage manager. His part re-quires working with the stage crew and running everything behind the scenes the night of the show. ―I enjoy the thea-tre,‖ Mr. Fitzpatrick said.

Professor Harold Hill, the Music Man, will be played by Zachary Mali-nak. Marian the Librarian, the sassy love interest of the main character, will

be portrayed by Andrea Cary. ―I think [the performances] will go

well, ‖ Malinak said. Mr. Kovalic is no longer the direc-

tor of the play. He is now the producer, which involves more control of the fi-nancial aspect of the production.

Mr. Kovalic says that he is produc-ing, but at the same time directing. He has a team made up of individuals that help with different parts of the play.

Mrs. Debra Williamson is in charge of choreography and part of placement on the stage in conjunction with Mrs. James.

Mrs. James is not only helping with blocking, but is also assisting Mr. Kovalic with vocals. Mrs. Boyd is lead-ing the dialogue sessions that are needed to help the students learn their lines and perform them in their charac-ter, along with helping with the costum-ing.

―Everybody is doing a little of the pie, and it‘s working... exceptionally [well],‖ Mr. Kovalic said.

The month of March, for the cast, is when they spend several hours daily at the school reviewing, rehearsing and polishing the show, so they can get it as perfect as possible. Although they spend countless hours at the school, most enjoy it. ―It‘s stressful, but the people make it worth it. Sometimes I just can‘t stop laughing,‖ Sophomore Hunter Bonzo said.

For those who don‘t know what ―The Music Man‖ is about, there are a few different points to keep in mind when seeing the show. Professor Harold Hill likes a challenge, so when other salesmen on a train going west tell him

that Iowa is the biggest test of a sales-man's ability; he gets off at River City, Iowa.

It is in the mid 1900s, so many in the town don‘t know how to handle a salesman.

Marian, the town‘s librarian, does-n't buy the professor's sales pitch, but he convinces many of his other poten-tial customers that the new pool table that has just been placed in the billiard parlor could mean "trouble in River City." And how do they keep the youngsters "moral after school?"

They form a boys marching band.

Things don‘t go as clearly as he thought it would when he has fallen for the li-brarian.

The play will be March 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m., and a matinee will be April 1 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are cur-rently available and can be purchased from Mrs. Baker or Mr. Kovalic.

FHS Press 15 March 2012 2

Margaret Herzog Staff Writer

Comments? E-mail Margaret at [email protected]

Left: Tae Marks, Brianna

Haglan and Josh

Battaglia rehearse their

scene together.

Right: Josh Battaglia and

Nicole Cummins rehearse

their book routine.

Freedom’s Musical:

The Music Man

Photos by Desiree Davis, Asst. News Editor

A few musical members practice the steps to the “Shipoopi”

routine.


Thought the 2012 Olympics were happening in London? Well, you‘re wrong. On Feb. 29, the National Honor Society hosted the very first Leap Games.

The Leap Games are a collection of games, including dodge ball, a hockey shoot-out, corn hole and a bas-ketball relay. They are named after a day that only appears on the calendar every four years: leap day.

Teams of four grouped together to participate in the Leap Games. The entry fee was to bring in a gently used article of clothing for the Beaver County Salvation Army. Jake DeWeese, Keith Braun and David Kiefer came up with the idea, but eve-ryone from the National Honor Soci-ety contributed.

The National Honor Society chose to donate to the Salvation Army after donating to them for their last fundraiser; a canned food drive.

There were a total of eleven teams participating. The four events had to be moved inside the gym due to rain. Even teachers participated in-cluding Mr. Glass, Mrs. Burger, Mr. Prigorac and Mr. Guerra. Each of the games added points to a final score that decided the winner. The games started with dodge ball where teams were assigned evenly to one side of the gym. Each of the two sides faced each other.

―I had a lot of fun. I liked dodge ball the best because it got everyone

involved at once, so it was exciting‖ Senior Francis O'Connor said.

Then it moved on to a hockey shoot-out. Each member of the teams got a chance to shoot a ball into a net from the middle of the gym, having to move further back each round.

The number of remaining players dwindled down until only Anthony Mohrbacher and Mr. Prigorac were left. Finally, Mohrbacher came out on top.

Then teams all played a game of corn hole. The final winner‘s scores came down to the last event, a basket-ball mini-game. Teams spilt up into pairs and then had to find a way to get their basketball down the gym, switch-ing with their other teammates at the end.

The only trick is that members couldn‘t use arms or hands. Shya Moon, Carly Arbes, Alexis Challis and Courtney Busse ended up winning this game, which led to them winning the Leap Games.

For winning, each member got a $25 gift card to Giant Eagle. Two large bags of clothing were donated to the Salvation Army at the conclusion of the event.

―I think it went really well; every-one that came really enjoyed it,‖ NHS sponsor Ms. McCune said.

Natalie Snow Staff Writer

Photos by Brianna Haglan, Staff Writer

The Leap Games were a charitable and fun success.

Comments? E-mail Natalie at [email protected]

Mrs. Russell, NHS sponsor, announces the start of one of the

competitions at the Leap Games .

Five of Freedom‘s students com-peted at the state level for DECA Feb. 22 through Feb. 24.

The competitors included Nikki Wallis, Stacey Wallis, Tippin Harkins,

Emily Majors and Mason Fischer. Nikki Wallis was the only student

to place, earning fifth in Automotive Services Marketing.

She will be attending the national competition April 28 through May 1 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

According to Wallis it will cost ―roughly $6,000‖ for her to compete.

Wallis plans ―to contact companies in our area and national or state DECA sponsors and ask if they would like to sponsor our trip.‖

In addition to this Wallis said she will be ―personally going to com-panies in the automotive industry.‖

Although Wallis has a lot of work to do, she said ―It is going to be an adventure trying to get money for our trip; I just hope that we are able to get support from the teachers and students in our fundraising efforts.‖

Despite the difficul-ties she ―cannot wait [because] it‘s going to be awesome and so much fun.‖


Nate Kusich Staff Writer

DECA makes it to states

Comments? E-mail Nate at [email protected]

Photos submitted by Mrs. Majors

Out of the five DECA members who

made it to states, Nikki Wallis will be

the only one continuing to nationals at

Salt Lake City, Utah.

A new building, more debt, more electives and more students are just a few of the possible aftershocks of 1,500 students being evenly distributed throughout the buildings of Freedom.

Due to Ambridge‘s current finan-cial predicament involving debt and budget cuts, residents of Economy sug-gested extraction from Ambridge and the possibility of joining with Freedom. A decision of this magnitude has both positives and negatives for everyone involved. While this decision may seem a little daunting, there is a light, or a few for that matter, at the end of a very long and crowded tunnel.

The students who live in Economy contribute to nearly half of Ambridge‘s student population. Adding Economy students to Freedom would take care of the declining enrollment issue that the district has faced for many years. While this would turn out to be a great im-provement for Freedom, there are many repercussions where more than just one set of people are affected.

Because Economy is such a vital part of Ambridge, Ambridge would suf-fer greatly if Economy was taken from the district. Without the Economy resi-dents, Ambridge would definitely plum-met farther into debt than they already are without the contribution of the Economy taxpayers.

On the other hand, sports would see a great improvement. Freedom would also move up at least one divi-sion. If more Economy students are in-terested in participating, then the chances of Freedom being more suc-cessful increases.

Another benefit from the possible conjoining of schools could be a chance to meet new people. A vast majority of Freedom attendees have been sur-rounded by the same faces since the dawn of elementary school.

Class sizes and overall enrollment could also see a positive change if these recent talks carry through. An increase of students could lead to the possible creation of more diverse electives that wouldn‘t have been considered by the district otherwise. A new building would most likely be needed to accom-modate such a large number of students.

Overall, school board members of Freedom and Ambridge have a lot to consider when it comes to a large deci-sion such as this one. There is a sub-stantial amount of debt that Economy Borough would bring with them if the merger were to take place. There are a handful of positive and negative effects that would spring from this merger that would affect Freedom and Ambridge for quite some time.

Editorial Policies: FHS Press is the official student newspaper serving students and staff at Freedom Area High

School, in Freedom, Pennsylvania. The views presented herein are not representative of the school, faculty, or admini-

stration; they are solely the views of individual student writers. The staff editorial is written based on the majority

opinion of the student editorial board. The newspaper accepts and strives to publish signed letters to the editor under

250 words, which can be sent to [email protected]. To submit comments, questions, or press releases, or to

purchase advertising in the paper, e-mail [email protected], or contact Mr. Hartman in Room 114.

FHS Press — Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief ~ Emily Bittner

[email protected]

Managing Editor & Writing Coach ~ Sarah Choflet

[email protected]

News Editor ~ Sarah Choflet

Asst. News Editor ~ Amanda Hryckowian

Asst. News Editor ~ Desiree Davis

[email protected]

Features Editor ~ Emily Bittner

Asst. Features Editor ~ Jon Bittner

[email protected]

Sports Editor ~ Costa Barlamas

Asst. Sports Editor ~ Evan Stiger

[email protected]

Copy Editor ~ Megan Szatkiewicz

Photo & Design Editor ~ Anna Patsch

Web Editor ~ Deanna Edwards

Business Manager ~ Emily Majors

Asst. Business Manager ~ Nathaniel Kusich

Asst. Business Manager ~ Natalie Snow

Staff Writers:

Brianna Haglan, Margaret Herzog,

Taylar McCoy, Melanie Socash,

Multimedia Content:

Section flags provided by Dan Waldrop,

Christian Edder, and Autumn Hunter.

Newspaper Adviser:

Mr. David Hartman [email protected]

Editorial Staff

Just a small town girl, livin‘ in a lonelyyyyy worldddd. I can‘t help but sing that song every time I hear it, which is sad news for my chemis-

try test. Recently, it seems that the music that plays in the halls during class has gotten louder and louder.

For most of the year, my classes have been bombarded with hits from the ‗70s, ‗80s, ‗90s and more. Admit-tedly, it is really funny watching a teacher try and give a serious lesson while smooth jazz is blaring; but at the same time, it is super distracting.

I can‘t even take a power nap in the nurse‘s office anymore. Okay, I‘ve never tried to take a power nap in the nurse‘s office, but I do send my re-gards to any ill students that had to put up with the loud tunes while trying to rest.

I guess what‘s grinding my gears most about the hallway tunes is that I don‘t understand it.

The music gets loud at such ran-dom times that I often think someone has to be messing with the volume. Even the fact that it‘s playing during class in the first place is confusing.

I miss the good old days when songs like Ring of Fire would play on your way to class and it wasn‘t such a big deal to make a scene belting out the words with your friends. If I try and do that when the music plays now, I‘d probably look crazy, due to the fact that the only time I hear music at all is during classes. Not to mention my teachers would yell at me.

I definitely wouldn‘t mind the distraction in class so much if I could at least hear the music during the 10 minutes in between classes.

Comments? E-mail Emily at [email protected]

Emily Bittner

Editor-in-Chief


Sometimes simple choices we make end up having a greater effect in the end. As teenag-ers, we really can‘t do a whole a lot to give back,

but there are choices we can make, such as answering questions on Free Rice, using GoodSearch instead of Google, buying Toms‘ shoes or sunglasses or purchasing water bottles from Wa-ter.org. There is always a way to give back.

Free Rice is a website that many students enjoy using, as well as many teachers. There are six categories you can choose from including Math, Eng-lish, Geography and Literature. Every time a question is answered correctly, 20 grains of rice are donated to a coun-try in need of food. But that isn‘t the only goal of this site.

They are also providing a source of education to everyone for free. The site is sponsored by the United Nations Food Program, who understands this crisis at hand. But food isn‘t the only

thing people lack in this world. Toms is another organization dedi-

cated to helping others. Every time a pair of Toms shoes is purchased, they send a pair of shoes to a child in need. Granted, the process takes four to six months to get the child their shoes, but they still receive them.

They chose shoes because they realize that the poverty in some coun-tries is so bad that they can‘t afford a pair of shoes. Without shoes, many children are plagued with infections, injuries and soil-transmitted diseases. Children in many countries are also not permitted to attend school without shoes. But Toms doesn‘t donate just shoes.

The Toms organization also sell sunglasses. Every time they sell one pair, a person in need receives sight. The profits go toward medical treat-ment, prescription glasses or sight-saving surgery for someone. Approxi-mately 90 percent of the visually im-paired live in poverty stricken, develop-ing countries where they cannot afford treatment. Without sight, education is a challenge. Toms is looking out for those people to give them a chance to get out of poverty. They believe this is the way to create a better tomorrow.

Another way to create a better to-

morrow is instead of using Google or Bing as a search engine, use Good-Search. One penny is donated to differ-ent charities every time you search on this site.

It‘s powered by Yahoo and the pennies donated go to 100,000 plus charities and schools in need. On Good-Search, features such as GoodShop and GoodDining can be accessed.

Searching for coupons to popular stores is another benefit of using Good-Search.. GoodShop‘s proceeds benefit the designated charity or school, and the amount donated starts at three per-cent of the total purchase and continues up from there. GoodDining has 10,000 restaurants nationwide, including take-out or dine-in options, that sends six percent of the bill to a charity or school of choice.

We have been given so much that we take for granted and this could be our way of giving back. These four ex-amples are only the beginning when it comes to ways of giving back. All you have to do is GoodSearch it.

Comments? E-mail Deanna at [email protected]

With Free-dom‘s cur-rent system, it seems to me that the only people that get rec-ognized in the newspaper are sports students.

Very few of those students who play in a sport at a high school level will go on to become a professional athlete.

However, with that being said, it‘s hard to comprehend why the school only cares about those students. Why doesn‘t the newspaper care about the students that will go on to college, or the students that will go on to the work-ing class?

Collectively, we do not pay atten-tion to any students besides the sports students. Rather than fantasizing over dreams that are statistically improbable, the student body should be learning about the achievers like CTC students and Honor students.

To begin with, let‘s start with the students that go to the BCCTC (Beaver County Career & Technology Center).

There is a small amount of Freedom students—roughly 40—that attend the technical school every day, and some of whom I can say are very talented. Now, I‘m not sure if the newspaper thinks that they shouldn‘t get recognition be-cause they aren‘t ―full-day‖ students here, or if they are under the impression that the specific talent these students produce isn‘t worthy enough?

The fact is that the CTC students are still students at Freedom, they still participate in school clubs, and they still will graduate in the exact same fashion as a non-CTC student. All I‘m saying is that everybody has their spe-cific talents, and in terms of the techni-cal and physical aspect, the CTC stu-dents can shine.

With that being said, there are still students in Freedom that do not get proper recognition.

For example, what about the stu-dents enrolled in the rigorous Honors and Advanced Placement courses? Does the newspaper honor them in any way? What about the students taking evening courses at the local institutions for college credit?

Some of the students that graduate Freedom this year will have the better part of their freshman year done in col-

lege, but yet, the entire school is oblivi-ous because the newspaper doesn‘t care. Maybe the student isn‘t the best at throwing a football or kicking a soccer ball, but should that dictate whether or not they get recognition? The answer to all of the semi-rhetorical questions posed above would be no.

The outlined predicament is some-thing that should be changed with the school newspaper. Coming from a school where jackets are awarded to people enrolled in band, I don‘t think it would be hard to feature a student who has a talent besides throwing a ball. Everyone has their own special talents, and for some students, their talents lie within the school setting.

For other students, they may be great at building a shelf or creating a drawing on CAD (Computer-Aided Design). Personally, I think it makes more sense to feature ―tomorrow‘s workforce‖ rather than a student that has a very little possibility of becoming a professional athlete.

Keith Braun

Concerned Student

Letter to the Editor: FHSP coverage is unbalanced

‗Wazzzzzzzzzzuuuuup!‘ Recently

I‘ve taken a trip down old memory lane, recalling old and ridiculous phrases that have passed though our mouths over the years. We‘ve all fallen prey to them, those annoying sayings that for some unforeseeable reason we found cool at the time.

Whether it‘s an obnoxious greet-ing or an embarrassing nickname, we‘re all guilty of using these popular phrases a few times in our lives.

Generally these sayings are used in place of adjectives, and they usually adopt a meaning opposite of their real one. For instance, when someone says that a TV show is ‗sick‘ it does not mean that it is in desperate need of cold meds; it means that it‘s ‗awesome,‘ ‗gnarly‘ or ‗sweet,‘ dude.

Sometimes our culture adopts the weirdest ways to express our feel-ings. Instead of saying that something is interesting we would say that it‘s ‗dope,‘ ‗cool,‘ or ‗boss.‘

I can see you rolling your eyes now, probably telling yourself that you would never say something that lame. Denying it will do you no good.

Does anyone remember when the phrase ‗like a boss‘ came around? How about, ‗take a chill pill,‘ ‗cool beans‘ or ‗cool story, bro?‘

When the era of texting rolled around, the phrases got even more an-noying. Not only did the teenage popu-lation adopt more ridiculous ways of expressing their angst, but they have now begun abbreviating it. For exam-ple: ‗LOL,‘ ‗BRB,‘ ‗ROFL,‘ ‗OMG‘ and ‗TTYL,‘ are all phrases abbrevi-ated for the convenience of the modern day texter.

And what happens to these phrases? They‘re popular for a few months, get used entirely too much and then get used in an embarrassing at-tempt by your mom to connect with a younger crowd. Then, that‘s the end of them.

Listen ‗bro,‘ I‘m not saying we should bring these bad boys back into circulation, just that we should take recognition. The next time you hear a ‗Yeah buddy!‘ around the hallways, take a moment to think about some of the ridiculous sayings that have circu-lated in years past.

Deanna Edwards

Web Editor

Anna Patsch

Photo and Design Editor

Comments? E-mail Anna at [email protected]

Have a complaint or suggestion like for the FHS Press? Send your Letter to the Editor to [email protected]

During our elementary years, we learned a lot of little facts surrounding holidays. For Thanksgiving, teachers would tell us all about the pilgrims and Indians; for President‘s Day, we would do activities surrounding Presidents. One thing that didn‘t seem to be covered his-torically is St. Patrick‘s Day.

It‘s definitely not a scarcely cele-brated holiday. Stores are filled with green memorabilia covered in four leaf clovers, ‗kiss me I‘m Irish‘ sayings and leprechauns. But who is St. Patrick and why do we celebrate him?

First of all, St. Patrick wasn‘t Irish; he was born in Britain around 390 A.D. During this time, the Roman Empire was collapsing, which gave Ireland a chance to invade Britain. In doing so, the Irish captured many people, including St. Pat-rick. He was 16 at the time and was taken back to Ireland where he was forced into shepherd slavery for the next 10 years.

At this time, St. Patrick wasn‘t even known as Patrick. His real name was Maewyn Succat.

While in Ireland, Succat had a vi-

sion that urged him to escape, return to his homeland and become a priest. He managed to escape, and he did exactly what his vision told him. After entering priesthood, Succat changed his name to something a little more Christian: Pat-rick. He also had another vision that told him to return to Ireland and convert the sun-worshiping Pagans to Christianity.

St. Patrick managed to convert most every Irish citizen to Christianity, just as his vision told him. From then on he has been honored every March 17 – the anni-versary of his death. A traditional St. Patrick‘s Day celebration in Ireland in-cludes a morning church service, fol-lowed by a feast and the drinking of a pint or two of ale.

The symbols of St. Patrick‘s Day come from a variety of misconceptions. The shamrock was allegedly used by St. Patrick in order to teach the holy trinity, although many sources claim this was a myth. St. Patrick was always adorned in blue. Ireland‘s landscape is covered in green and is even known as the ―emerald island.‖ Because of this, the holiday took on its unofficial color.

It would seem that this strictly Irish celebration shouldn‘t be a national holi-day in the United States, but that is not

the case. Like most things in America, the holiday came to us from immi-grants. The potato famine brought mil-lions of Irish who celebrated St. Patrick‘s Day. Eventually, the holiday stuck.

Comments? E-mail Emily or Jon at [email protected] or

[email protected]


Emily Bittner & Jon Bittner

Editor-In-Chief & Asst. Features Editor

Illustrations by Evan Stiger & Emily Bittner

Guilty pleasures: Bad TV Everyone has probably watched TV at some point in their life; there are some shows on the air right now that I love, and then there are

some shows out there now that I can‘t imagine anyone watching, but people do. All I‘m asking is, why are some bad T.V. shows actually good?

There are plenty of shows that are good, and I‘m not bashing TV in gen-eral.

I have just come to realize that these reality shows that people, includ-ing myself, watch are actually really dumb. Despite the fact that these shows are , I can‘t bring myself to stop watch-ing them.

For example, ―Call of the Wild-man‖ is just one of these horrible, but so entertaining shows. If you haven‘t seen this show yet, I‘ll give you an overview.

―Call of the Wildman‖ follows this man, nicknamed Turtle Man, in Ken-tucky and he goes around rescuing wild animals with his bare hands.

For instance, in one of the epi-sodes, he was called by a farmer who had a wild turkey running around in the farmer‘s corn maze, and it wasn‘t turkey season!

Now the farmer said to Turtle Man that the turkey was scaring away the kids in the maze.

Not only does that sound com-pletely fake, but practically impossi-ble. If anything, the turkey would run away from the scary children, not to-wards them.

Nevertheless, Turtle Man searches the maze for the turkey, and eventually ends up finding, and catching the wild turkey with his hands. I think the pro-ducers of the show staged this whole episode. I have chickens at my house and even though they are used to me, most of them won‘t let me pick them up. So I can‘t imagine this guy actually caught a wild turkey, it just doesn‘t seem possible. My point here is that even though this show is probably fake,

I can‘t stop watching. I love seeing Turtle Man go out and catch a wild ani-mal. There are plenty of other shows like this; terrible shows that are point-less and probably fake.

Again, I‘m not bashing TV, be-cause there are a bunch of good shows. I‘m just wondering how these shows stay afloat season after season, even though they aren‘t good. I could only come to one conclusion; we as Ameri-cans are entertained by stupid and pointless things.

Taking advantage of dual enrollment

Dual en-rollment: no, it isn‘t a group of students who fight with large broad-swords. Dual en-rollment, or college in

the high school, is just an easy way to be in college for a shorter period of time and spend a lot less money.

There are summer, winter and spring classes offered by Penn State Beaver and CCBC. RCI, the Re-gional Choice Initiative, will pay for students to take one free class each year, which can total up to 12 college credits come graduation. In addition, if a student has a 3.0 GPA or higher, the fee for additional classes taken with the program will be sliced in half.

You can actually graduate from high school and already have many college credits. ―I‘ll have [about 30 credits]. I‘ll basically be a sopho-more in college,‖ Senior Keith Braun said. Braun is one of the 304 students in the past seven years who has taken advantage of the opportunity. ―I‘ve gained $30,000 in education for about $5,000.‖ Braun has taken 10 classes in his high school career.

Just by taking the four college

classes offered by Freedom during senior year, up to 12 credits can be earned from CCBC.

I have personally taken classes from Penn State Beaver as well, and I will be graduating with around 24 college credits. Some classes you take as a college freshman will be required courses, and you can actu-ally take them now to get them over with for free.

Penn State Beaver offers an Ef-fective Speech class - a freshman requirement in most colleges. Many students have taken advantage of it, including Juniors Kevin Herbert and Evan Stiger along with Seniors Keith Braun and Emily Croll.

―I feel like it was a great experi-ence because I got to interact with people that I normally wouldn‘t have, and it forced me to go out of my comfort zone. Speech class also helped prepare me for my career as a lawyer because I‘ll need to be able to communicate my ideas in an intelli-gent way,‖ Croll said.

You pay less than half the origi-nal price for a class and the credits will transfer over to the college you end up attending. Who wouldn‘t want to have less college debt?


Jon Bittner

Asst. Features Editor

Taylar McCoy

Staff Writer

Green

Irish

Clover

Leprechaun

Saint

Shamrock

March

Luck

Ireland

Rainbow

Emerald

Charm

Beards

Patrick

St. Patrick‘s Day word search

Turn this in to Mr. Hartman,

completed, for a chance at a

Starbucks gift card!

Name: ____________________________________

Comments? E-mail Taylar at [email protected]

Comments? E-mail Jon at [email protected]

Illustration by Melanie Socash

Starting Feb. 21, many track members devoted one hour and 30 minutes every weekday to op-tional conditioning for the 2012 track season. Since conditioning is optional, some athletes don‘t at-tend.

―Conditioning helps you to get ready for the season and to get you the right form for your events, so that you can look good while doing [your event],‖ Freshman Draek Boggs said.

The track team consists of sprinters, distance runners, throwers and jumpers. With a selection of 18 events, each athlete is able to compete in up to four of them. There are also six total coaches: one for sprinting, one for distance, one for pole vault, one for jumping, one for hurdles and one for throwing.

Each coach is dedicated to different types of events, which is very beneficial to the athletes. In middle school, the coaches help with all of the events. If someone needs help with triple jump, a coach will be there. If other athletes need help with hurdling, they have to go help those people.

Junior Noah Marks thinks having multiple coaches is beneficial because ―[the distance run-ners] build a relationship with Tink.‖ Marks isn‘t

alone in this opinion. ―[Having multiple coaches] helps you because

they are able to show you what you‘re doing wrong and fix it,‖ Sophomore Tyler Shingleton said.

Practices from Monday to Friday really pay off in the end. In 2009, the girls team won first place in WPIALs and have been section champs for the last five years. Last year, both boys and girls teams went to WPIALs. This year, Senior Sara Al-lego expects nothing less from the team. There are high hopes for the team to go to championships and WPIALs.

A different thing about track is that the team doesn‘t really compete, unlike team sports such as soccer or basketball. The athletes compete and win or place individually by event. They don‘t really do many fun things together as a team besides prac-tice, but Marks said ―succeeding is celebrating enough.‖ What they all have in common is that they do track and love it.

Therefore, sometimes people consider track as the athletes winning for themselves. ―You cannot only work to achieve your own goal,‖ Sophomore Jen Wallis said, ―but you can also try to win as a [team].‖

Anna Patsch, Photo & Design Editor

The long distance runners do leg warm-ups be-

fore running the miles around the high school

campus that coach Steven Tinker assigns to

them.

Comments? E-mail Costa at [email protected]

At the end of the year comes a time for students to make decisions about their futures. For Freedom, it means it‘s time to win some games. The results are in, and the teams with the most suc-cessful seasons are the spring sports teams. Despite the lack of wins in the previous seasons - win-

ter and fall - the spring sports are usually above aver-age.

Spring sports have the same amount of teams as winter sports, but three less than fall. Only two teams in the fall and winter season won half of their games. Boys‘ soccer and wrestling both won over half of their games and made it to playoffs. Girls‘ soccer only made it to playoffs.

Even though these two teams did magnificently well, some teams did very poorly. Out of the total 85 games played in the fall season, only 29 of them were won, making the fall sports teams have a 34 winning-percent.

The teams that almost won half of their games were the Cross Country Teams, Girls‘ Soccer and Golf. Nonetheless, Girls‘ Soccer made it to playoffs and the Boys Cross Country team made it to states. Proving that winning records aren‘t always accurate.

The winter sports had a little more than half of that percent.

Out of their 58 games, only 10 were won. Six of these came from the wrestling team. The other four came from the basketball teams, totaling to a 17.2 per-cent of games won.

One factor that completely sets the spring sports apart from the other seasons is experience. Whether it be player experience or coaching experience, the spring sports are loaded with it.

Many kids started playing baseball or softball - more commonly known as tee-ball to the youngsters - at the age of three. With track it becomes a little more difficult, but the coaches really know how to train for greatness.

Other sports like volleyball and basketball, the first time one can compete in them isn‘t until their mid-dle school years; thus, allowing for a maximum of four years preparation before the high school stage.

In the fall and winter sports alone, there have been at least five new or second-year coaches at Freedom.

In the spring sports, both the softball and baseball coaches are welcomed back for their second year. Even though the softball coach is new to some, the baseball coach is known by all of the players. Coach Dan O‘Leary has been an active coach in the New Sewick-ley Baseball programs since his son was three years old, and that was 17 years ago.

It takes awhile for a coach to become experienced, but for now the spring sports will continue to dominate

with their knowledge of the games. Hopefully, all Free-dom sports will continue to improve and make the school proud.

Spring sports dominate in number of victories

Costa Barlamas

Sports Editor

Desiree Davis Asst. News Editor

Comments? E-mail Desiree at [email protected]

Freedom‘s very own baseball team is throwing embers on the fire that is Freedom‘s passion for striving athletics.

Coach Dan O‘Leary has ―great expectations and high hopes‖ for this year‘s baseball season. These hopes are exemplified in the goal set by O‘Leary for the 2012 season. These goals are ―as they are every year, to make it to states,‖ O‘Leary said, ―And with this team, absolutely, no doubt in my mind.‖

These goals don‘t only matter to the coaches, but the entire team as well. Junior Samuel Beckey‘s goal for this year‘s baseball season is to get a WPIAL title and believes this is abso-lutely achievable.

Senior Collin Allego has many goals and aspirations for his team this year as well. ―I hope we make it to at least playoffs, hopefully win our sec-tion and maybe even go further,‖ Al-

lego said. To help meet these expectations,

the 20 players on the team started prac-ticing in November and hold practices five times a week. Practices usually start with stretching and running, then go into specialized areas such as throw-ing, fielding and hitting.

With all the practices and games, team players have developed a real close friendship with one another and the sport.

―It‘s fun. I know I‘m going to miss it after this year,‖ Senior Jordan Price said.

―This is the best time you will ever have in your life,‖ Senior Riley Schwertz said.

Leading the team are the nine Sen-iors, Zeke Stroupe, Kenny McClain, Francis O‘Connor, Derek Fajtak, Jor-dan Price, Collin Allego, Connor Yar-zebinksi, Josh Herdt and Riley Schwertz, who will take turns serving as captain. New players on the team this year are Freshmen Andrew Baker & Patrick Baker.

―We have a great group of seniors this year that was a pretty mature group of juniors last year,‖ Coach O‘Leary said.

With all this excitement Coach O‘Leary makes one thing clear to his players. When it comes to game time: Focus, focus, focus.

This motto will be carried out on the field for the first baseball game of the season March 20 at 4 p.m. home against Western Beaver.

Looking forward to their first game, the baseball players keep an ever hopeful and spirited attitude.

―I think we are going to do pretty good; there‘s no reason we shouldn‘t win it all. I think we are about to have a real good season,‖ Sophomore Mat-thew Feits said.

Brianna Haglan Copy Editor

Comments? E-mail Megan at [email protected]

What most people do not know is that at Freedom there is a hockey team. Not a team affiliated with our High School, but with Quigley Catholic. Just like every other winter sport, these students practiced and condi-tioned hard, but they did it under the Quigley name.

To end the regular season, the Quigley Spartans had three losses and one tie, but 19 wins allowed them to advance to the Nailer Cup Championship. Skating against the Har-borcreek Huskies Tues., March 6, Sopho-mores Nate Lundy and Kristian Skogsholm took the ice. The Spartans proved victorious in a game that ended 8-4, permitting them to advance to the state competition. Last year, the Spartans were knocked out by the Hus-kies in overtime, but this year they made sure that it wasn‘t going to happen.

On Thurs., March 8, two Freedom stu-dents competed in the Pennsylvania Inter-scholastic Hockey League or PIHL champi-onships. The team that the Spartans played was the victor of the Greensburg-Salem and the Indiana Chiefs Cup. It turned out that the Indiana Chiefs were victorious and the Spartans would be facing off against them.

Late into the third period, the Spartans tied the game, sending the game into over-time. Both the Spartans and the Chiefs scored

a goal in overtime, causing a second over-time. Finally, the game would end with a winning goal by an Spartan striker from Am-bridge, with a score of 5-4.

Quigley‘s team isn‘t just composed of Quigley, Freedom and Ambridge kids, but also includes OLSH, Shenango and South Side. The majority of the kids come from Quigley and Ambridge, and they receive the most ice time.

Quigley and Ambridge have a combined ice hockey team where the freshmen play for Ambridge‘s junior varsity team and the rest play for Quigley‘s varsity team.

―I hope Freedom gets a team, but it de-pends on the school‘s involvement,‖ Lundy said.

Two years ago, Freedom tried to get a team, but they were not very successful. There were meetings and some kids seemed interested; however, there was not enough interest to create a team. It will be harder now than ever, especially because of declining enrollment and budget cuts.

Lundy has played hockey for four years now and this is his first championship. ―I think [the season] went really well consider-ing we won states,‖ Lundy said.

Freedom’s best kept secret


Swinging for the fences

After doing well at playoffs and sections, seven wrestlers were given the chance to compete at WPIALS Feb. 24 and 25. The WPIAL competition took place at Chartiers Valley High School, where wrestlers Boe Bonzo, Tyler Cousins, Kurt Kitzman, Matt Pav-lick, Heath Nye and Zeke Stroupe competed for the first through sev-enth places necessary to move on to the regional competition.

With more than 15 schools competing at WPIALs, the follow-ing Freedom wrestlers took their place at WPIALs: Bonzo placed second, Stroupe placed third and Cousins placed seventh. These wrestlers all qualified for the re-gional competition at Johnstown High School. Stroupe and Bonzo made it to states and competed in Hershey, PA.

All the wrestlers aspired to do well, but one in particular, Cousins, exceeded his goal.

Cousins‘ initial goal was to win at least one match at WPIALs since he didn‘t have any wins last year. To his delight, he won two

matches, took seventh place and made it to the regional wrestling competition.

―As a team we raised the bar again, winning the co-section and being section runner-ups. Also as a team, it was the first time in a while we have had kids ranked in the state,‖ three-time WPIAL competitor, Stroupe said.

A unique occurrence hap-pened this past wrestling season when Sophomore Matt Pavlick was in a match against an oppo-nent, losing 10-4. The funny thing was that Pavlick thought he was winning with a six-point cushion, so he decided to stall time. Conse-quently, Pavlick lost that particu-lar match, but was able to redeem himself when he faced with the same opponent at WPIALs.

―Yeah, that was not my finest hour,‖ Pavlick, who had strep throat and pink eye days before the match, said, ―but I re-bounded.‖

Costa Barlamas Sports Editor

Megan Szatkiewicz Copy Editor

Comments? E-mail Costa at [email protected]

Comments? E-mail Megan at [email protected]

Junior Colin Macon practices

batting.

Evan Stiger, Asst. Sports Editor

Not tapping out


One word about you: ―WOW‖ Favorite beverage: ―Apple Juice‖ Favorite Season: ―Summer because it‘s hot.‖ What do you do in your sport?: ―I play outfield.‖ Why is your sport the best?: ―Because it‘s fun.‖ What do you do in the offseason?: ―I don‘t have an offseason, because I play travel.‖

One word about you: ―Outgoing‖ Favorite beverage: ―Lemon-Lime Ga-torade‖ Favorite Season: ―Baseball season, my favorite sport.‖ What do you do in your sport?: ―I am a pitcher and I play first base.‖ Why is your sport the best?: ―Why isn‘t it?‖ What do you do in the offseason?: ―I do medicine ball work and other work-outs.‖

One word about you: ―Ostentatious‖ Favorite beverage: ―Sweet Tea‖

Favorite Season: ―Summer because it‘s warm.‖ What do you do in your sport?: ―I pole vault, because it‘s really fun and triple jump because I have to.‖

Why is your sport the best?: ―Because we‘re winners.‖ What do you do in the offseason?: ―I have soccer and indoor soccer, and I hang-out with my coolest friends.

One word about you: ―Different‖ Favorite beverage: ―Grape Soda‖ Favorite Season: ―Summer because it‘s warm.‖

What do you do in your sport?: ―I long jump and do the 100 meter dash.‖ Why is your sport the best?: ―Because it keeps you in good shape.‖ What do you do in the offseason?: ―Eat, lift and sleep.‖

Salena Ritorto Matt Feits Niki Vargo Kahlil Character

The softball diamond is ―my home,‖ Sopho-more Hannah Mavrich said. On it, Freedom‘s faith-ful softball team has experienced injuries and victo-ries, but how can they be expected to do this year?

―I think we‘ll do well,‖ Freshmen Mariah Forsythe said. This is a common opinion among most of the girls. The girls‘ are in a good position to succeed, with two experienced seniors, seasoned juniors, sophomores and a group of healthy young freshmen.

―We‘ve got a good group of girls. And I think we‘re really competitive,‖ Junior Brooke Petcovic said. According to Head Coach Mike Braddock, a competitive nature fueled the team through three weeks of practice.

Another new addition to the team was the en-trance of seven new freshmen and one sophomore. ―The freshmen that came up were good,‖ Junior Leah Moldovan said.

―They‘re going to do well... They‘re better than I was when I was a freshman,‖ Senior Kelsie Ral-ston said. Plenty of the new players such as Sopho-more Hannah Mavrich were eager to test their skills in the first game of the season on March 12.

According to Maddi Lewis and Catie Bohach,

softball demands not only 100 percent effort and high expectations, but also plenty of collaboration. Such collaboration must also include freshmen and their upperclassmen teammates. ―[The upperclass-men] are pretty supportive and they‘ll teach [the freshmen] how to do things they don‘t already know how to do.‖

Even with their improvements however, there are some obstacles that they must still hurdle. Last year the girls were hindered because they ―got nerv-ous,‖ Ralston said. ―We‘ll be winning and then I just don‘t know what happens.‖

Another opportunity the girls have this year is an experienced coach. Braddock coached for a long time before beginning at Freedom a year ago. ―He understands what we can do and he pushes us,‖ Forsythe said.

Last season‘s statistics weren‘t as desirable as the softball team would like to do, but there‘s one big difference between then and now. ―Our confi-dence,‖ Petcovic said.

This confidence is apparent in the way the girls practice and speak. ―We will have a better record than last year because we have a lot of potential,‖ Moldovan said.

Comments? E-mail Evan at [email protected]

Evan Stiger Asst. Sports Editor

Player bios: spectacular sophomores

Junior Brooke Petcovic practices her sliding

technique inside before getting practice

started.

Evan Stiger, Asst. Sports Editor


Documents

March 2012