News pages1-3

Centerfoldpages8-9

Page12

Sports pages13-16

Page14

Features page12

Editorial pages4-6

A&E pages10-11

•Rodriguez wins first at the Talent Show

•The woes of the new scheduling system•Do AP recs make sense?

•Radtrocity: time with parents should count as service learning hours

•Global Intiatives exchange

•Cheerleading and poms squads win City

•BeresandBorndebateCreed’sbestsong

Mustangs get psyched for Cubby Walk

•Drinking parties-- with your parents

by Aliy MarkowskiNorthside tops the charts

for the sixth year in a row in the statewide ranking of high schools’ performances on the Prairie State Achievement Exam. Northside ranks number one in the state with 98.3 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards on the stan-dardized test, followed by Walter Payton College Prep at 95.2 percent and Whitney Young at 93.7.

Before the scores were released this March, rumors had been flying that Northside had dropped from its top spot. Jill Swanson, Adv. 702, says she was relieved to see North-side remain number one.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to be part of the class that brought the rank down,” Swanson said, referencing the fact that the March results reflect the performance of the class of 2007.

Although Northside still man-aged to clinch first place for the percentage of juniors meeting state standards, the number of Northside students exceeding standards in sci-ence and reading decreased in 2006, continuing a steady trend of decline in all three subject areas since 2004.

“I don’t think the PSAE is the standard by which we should hold our students,” Tim Devine, Social Science Chair, said. “We know we have students who are excellent test takers from the day they walk in the door. The question we need to be asking is why aren’t 100 percent of our students exceeding state standards?”

The percentage of students exceeding standards in reading dropped from 63 to 60.5 percent this year, while in science only 46

Is number one good enough?Northside tops state charts in PSAE results

Piotr Maniak, Adv. 701, reads about genetic mutations, taking advantage of the library’s wide selection of free magazines.Photo by Aliy Markowski

by Molly McAndrewSpring teams across the

board are furious at one of Northside’s most recent construction projects: the grass replanting in the field behind the school. The school, usually tight on budget, has found money to assist spring sports teams by providing them with an ap-propriate playing field. The teams most immediately affected by this makeover are women’s soccer, men’s lacrosse, and women’s lacrosse. Other teams have

had their gym time cut to make room for the homeless teams that usually rely on the field as a place to hold practices.

Although they realize that this reconstruction is meant to help them, many players say they are an-noyed with inconveniences that the field reconstruction has brought to their practic-ing and training, Hannah Shier, Adv. 900, said.

“They chose to do this at the wrong time. It’s stu-pid,” Shier said.

Shier’s lacrosse team has had to settle with prac-ticing in the gym and train-ing throughout the school.

“It’s not very helpful when we have to practice in the gym,” said Hannah Basil, Adv. 907, who plays for the women’s soccer team. “It’s obvious the gym is much smaller than the field.”

Aside from practices in the gym, teams can practice on the small portion of the field behind the shed that has been left untouched

by the reconstruction. Although this is better than practicing indoors, it is still harder for teams than using the entire field they have had in the past.

“It puts us at a disad-vantage when we are play-ing teams that have a whole field to practice on every single day,” Patricia Mazur, Adv. 701, said.

Mazur, Captain of Northside’s Women’s Varsity Lacrosse Team, says the team would have had more opportunities to work

on stick skills before the season began if the field had been available.

Spring sports play-ers like Mazur say it seems unfair that they have to practice in the gym while spring sports are the sports most played outdoors on fields.

“Playing lacrosse in the gym is really different than playing outside,” Mazur said. “It’s a whole different feel and it’s practically impossible to practice ground balls effective-ly on the wood floor.”

When teams prac-tice in a place smaller than their playing field, they have to curb their practice agenda to fit the constraints of the area. Basil

says she thinks the school should have tried to start the project at a time when it would have interfered less with school sports.

“I don’t know why they couldn’t have done it during the summer,” Basil said. “No teams use the field regularly then.”

The school chose to redo the field this spring, however, because it was the only plausible time. School officials say it would have been nearly impossible to do landscaping in the winter with a frozen ground. Snow was another concern that ruled out the winter pos-sibility. If the process had been done over the summer, spring sports may still have been unable to use the field to accommodate the long time period necessary to complete the project.

Despite this reasoning, some spring athletes still believe that the disadvan-tages of not having a field to practice on outweigh the advantages in the future.

“I get that it’s going to be a good thing for the fu-ture,” Mazur said. “But it’s hard especially for those of us who are seniors because it’s our last year and it’s affecting our season. I just hope that once it’s done it can be maintained for a while so they don’t have to go through this again.”

Field of shattered dreamsGrass replanting disrupts spring sports

percent of students exceeded stan-dards, compared to 49.5 percent last year. Although the percentage of Northsiders exceeding standards in math increased from 26 percent last year to 29.9 percent this year, scores have still drastically declined from 52 percent of students exceeding math standards in 2004.

“The most important way to use these results is to figure what is the best way to prepare students,”

Devine said. “There are more im-portant standardized tests than the PSAE for Northsiders like the ACT and SAT.”

Devine says the school should use the PSAE results to determine what areas need improvement. If students aren’t exceeding state standards, something is not right, Devine said.

Stephanie Levine, Adv. 805, is

also unimpressed by the news that Northside is number one again.

“I feel like these test results just reaffirm our sense of being better people every year,” Levine said. “We take an achievement test to get into Northside, so we were accepted to begin

Continued as “PSAE” on pg. 3

Smooth moves at “Groove

Thang”

•Men’s varsity baseball team has high hopes

Unlike the spring sports teams, the Men’s Varsity Soccer Team was lucky enough to practice on their home field last fall.Photo by Kana Yoo

oof

ea

tT

heH

BVo

l. 8

No.

7

Nor

thsi

de C

olle

ge P

repa

rato

ry H

igh

Scho

ol M

arch

200

7

Page 2 News The Hoof Beat

Northside CollegePrep High School

5501 N. KedzieChicago, IL 60625Tel: (773) 534-3954Fax: (773) 534-3964

Principal: Dr. James LalleyAdvisor: Mr. Chester Tylinski

Editors-In-Chief: Aliy Markowski, Damon BeresCopy Editors: Maxwell BrownManaging Editor: Kana YooAssistant Managing Editor: Rachel Hautzinger

News Editor: Ashraf AbbasFeatures Editor: Elizabeth JoseCenterfold Editor: Abir UsmanEditorial Editor: Muamera HadzicArts and Entertainment Editor: Patricia RadkowskiSports Editor: Geethi AbrahamPhoto Editors: Neha Alam, Zenobia GonsalvesArt Editors:Vasiliki Mitrakos, Michelle ZacariasPolling Managers: Shoaib Ali, Mohammad Kahleelullah Satire: Liz Born, Damon Beres

Reporters: Zainab Bilfaqi, Sejla Dizdarevc, Muhammad Acktar, Mohammad Khaleelulah, Nadir Rashid, Sonya Dekhtyar, Sejla Dizdarevic, Ahmed Imtiaz, Zahra Lalani, Farrukh Mukhtar, Zlatana Alibegovic, Andrea Ljevar, Mohammad Rahman, Riaz Shaikh

Junior Reporters: Sarah Jose, Helen Liutongco, Bridget Illing, Jordan Garcia

The Hoof Beat is a monthly publication produced by the Northside Prep Journalism Class. As a student-run newspaper, your opinions are important to us. If you have any comments, corrections, critiques, or questions, please e-mail Mr. Chester Tylinski at ctylinski@northsideprep.org.

by Zlatana Alibegovic

Students showed off talents as diverse as the student population at the annual Tal-ent Show, held on Friday, February 9. Talents ranged from singing to dancing to poetry recitation, as each student contrib-uted something unique.

The show was sponsored by Key Club and directed by officers Tyler Johnson, Adv. 907, and Kana Yoo, Adv. 707. The time and dedication put in by both Key Club and Stage Crew were evident when the show began. Despite minor technological issues, everything ran smoothly and on schedule.

“Many hours of work were put into casting the MC and per-formers, finding judges and running through the per-formances several times to make sure everything ran smoothly for the big day,” Johnson said.

Johnson maintains that this success-ful show was a group effort, while giving much recognition to Co-Director Yoo.

“Of course, this enormous task could never have been accomplished without the leadership and guidance of the Key Club president, Kana Yoo,” Johnson said. “Throughout all of the technical difficulties, bad rehearsals and hours of organizing she was always there to keep the leadership team on task and enthusiastic.”

This year, the Talent Show consisted of seven more slots than last year, thus requiring more time and dedication on the part of the entire Key Club. Because there were only 30 slots available, Key Club officers had to turn away four acts, reassuring them that it was merely a time issue.

Perhaps the best act of the evening came before the show ever began. MC Mike Jao, Adv. 805, was chosen from four candidates for his humor and fearlessness on stage. He kept the crowd entertained as he serenaded the audi-

ence, told jokes, and even free-styled. His comedy was well received while the backstage crew set up for the next act.

“[Mike Jao] did a great job of enter-taining the audience during the numer-ous times they had to fix the technologi-cal glitches,” Preston Buehrer, Adv. 809, said.

The technical difficulties were not Stage Crew’s fault, merely dilemmas that could not have been prevented, nor anticipated, Johnson said.

“The three main speakers which hang above the stage blew up; therefore, we had to rely on the two old speaker monitors that were on stage,” Johnson said. “Also, the lights in the auditorium were broken, and we could not turn them off, so it was really bright and dis-tracting, especially for the performers.”

Each act received the wild applause it deserved, sometimes in the midst of hitting a high note or a clever dance stunt. For the performers, this applause meant everything, as their confidence grew and the thrill overtook them.

“It’s really awesome performing live, in front of a bunch of people,” Theodore

Kalaw, Adv. 900, said. “It just makes me want to do it again.”

In the end, the four judges had the task of naming a winner. The panel included an actor/singer, a brand man-ager, a modern dancer, and a local news-paper editor. Performances were graded based on stage presence and profession-alism, technical ability, appearance/cos-tume, difficulty of selection/creativity and appropriateness for audience. The judges awarded a third place tie between Zach Rivera, Adv. 708, who sang a medley and the tango, danced by Fabian Flexsas, Adv. 900, Carla Ortiz, Adv. 902, Isabel Yanes, Adv. 804, and Jose Choto, Adv. 804. Second place went to singer Marisa Buchheit, Adv 701, and Steven Solomon, Adv. 810, who accompanied her on the piano. Finally, first place was awarded to singer Joel Rodriguez, Adv. 808.

“It was such a pleasure putting on the show, working with people and di-recting,” Johnson said. “If this year was this good, I can’t wait to see what next year has in store for us.”

Yeah, we’ve got talentAnnual Talent Show a roaring success

by Rachel HautzingerOn March 3, 2007, a tiny

group of Northside students stood in front of a crowd of screaming teenagers and really riled up the crowd. It was not a dance competi-tion as one expects, no, it was a poetry reading. The Slam Poetry team won the two preliminary bouts of “The Louder than a Bomb” competition at Columbia College and continued on to semi-finals, which took place on March 5. Adam Gottlieb, Adv.807, made it to the finals as an indie poet (an individ-ual performer). Finals were on March 10, and Gottlieb ended up making it to the All-Star team. The Northside team as a whole consists of Gottlieb, Natalia Emmanuel, Adv. 808, Jesse Welch, Adv. 810, and Claire Niederberger, Adv. 016.

According to Gottlieb, Poetry Slam is a poetry com-

petition in which poets are judged by the audience, not by a panel of judges. To the average audience member, a poetry slam consists of teen-agers from all over the city competing in two prelimi-nary bouts, each consisting of three or four competing teams. In each bout, poets from each of these teams jump on stage and perform a dynamic poem as emotion-ally as they can. There are judges that rate each poem, but audience members can dispute and possibly raise their decisions by shouting, “Listen to the poem!”

“Slam poetry is an abso-lute blast,” Emmanuel said. “There comes a point where you’re no longer reciting or performing the poem, it’s simply running through you and frankly that’s a great feeling.”

“It’s [A slam poem] something that’s built around

being performed instead of read off a page,” Welch said. “So both your words and your stage presence have to be strong.”

After performing each of their individual poems to the audience, all the team members come together to perform a unified piece. This year the team did a comical piece over the fact that they were white, nerdy, and Jew-ish. The poem began with the members doing an imitation rap while shaking their rear ends and trying to break into a more urban style. The performance and words of the group poem, along with the individual scores, helped the team when first in both of their bouts and then advance onto semi-finals.

“Afterwards, people asked me if I was really white because they didn’t believe white girls could shake their butt,” Emanuel said. “For

this reason, it became less embarrassing and more changing. Although it still re-mains mainly embarrassing.”

This year many changes were brought to the team. The previous team sponsor, Mr. McRaith, left Northside and was replaced by Ms. Ebikepreye Porri. Two spots were also opened up this year to be filled by Welch, who was the team’s alternate last year, and Niederberger, the freshman member of the team.

“Slam for me is about expression of human feeling and the formation of a tight knit community,” Emanuel said. “It ends up not being about the points or about winning, but instead about the poetry from our lips and from our hearts.”

“I can’t think of the po-etry slam team because they blew my mind!” Jane Bialek, Adv. 808, said.

Northside slams the bomb

Zachary Rivera, Adv. 708, sings his favorite tune to an eager audience.Photo by Zlatana Alibegovic

March 2007 News Page 3 Page 2 News The Hoof Beat

with based on how much we already knew. I’m pretty sure it’s nature not nurture.”

Dr. Lalley doesn’t seem to disagree.

“The kids come to us bright and we don't screw them up,” Lal-ley told the Sun-Times.

Student Council President John Holler, Adv. 705, says that

he thinks students feel too strongly attached to the label of being the number one school.

“Community is really what defines Northside,” Holler said. “Northside is not defined by one test score. It doesn’t mean any-thing. The school is about the people: the students, the teachers, and the administration who make

Northside a place where you actu-ally want to be.”

The gap between CPS top selective enrollment high schools, which claimed the top three slots in the state ranking, and Chicago’s next highest performing school, Jones High School at 29th, startled CPS officials this year. Jones fell 21 spots from its number eight posi-

tion last year. Even Northside students see a problem with the discrepancy in performance that exists even among CPS se-lective enrollment high schools.

“I’m really surprised that Jones isn’t up there too,” Jes-sica Galang, Adv. 708, said. “There’s clearly some kind of flaw in the system that we need to address if the scores are drastically different between Chicago’s top schools.”

And the scores are drasti-cally different. While well over 90 percent of students met or exceeded standards at Northside, Payton, and Young High Schools, only 67 percent of Jones students met state standards. Only 31.5 percent of all CPS students met the PSAE standards, a statistic significantly lower than the 54.3 percent statewide. Critics are concerned that the develop-ment of selective enrollment high schools strips the rest of the system of bright students and hinders the performance

of other CPS high schools. Devine disagrees.“It may be true that selective

enrollment schools have a dense population of bright students that might otherwise go to their neigh-borhood high schools,” Devine said. “But I think the fact that the top three schools in the state are Chicago Public High Schools is tremendous. It means there are great schools in the city, a higher

degree of choice for Chicago families, and it brings a number of families into the CPS system.”

Devine says all of these things bring positive attention to CPS.

“We have to look at CPS as a total system,” Devine said. “Hav-ing such great schools adds to the robustness of the school system. It’s a good thing for everyone and the positive light is a good thing for the city of Chicago.”

“PSAE” Continued from pg. 1

Courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Mr. Devine says 100 percent of Northsiders should be meeting state standards.Photo by Ashraf Abbas

Page 4 Editorial The Hoof Beat

by Muhammad AkhtarThe American democracy faces

a new threat, one that is far more dangerous than anything else seen in recent years. It is not a failing presi-dency or an increasingly unpopular war. It is not even the prospect of a full-fledged attack against the axis of evil. This problem is instead that of the “vanishing voter”. Democracy functions on the fundamental prin-ciple of voter participation; unfortu-nately, with an increasing disinterest in national affairs, it seems that the American empire may be brought to its knees by its own citizens.

Although historically there have been several spikes and falls in voter turnout, the past forty years have seen a tremendous decline in nearly every form of political participation. In 1960, about 63% of the eligible voting population actually voted, compared to less than 50% in 1996. The numbers for local and guberna-torial elections are even bleaker. The

substantial rise in turnout for the last national election was considered an anomaly by many analysts and not a clear indication of a reversing trend. It was simply caused by a passing passion brought about by the War in Iraq, September 11th, and hot issues like gay marriage.

Although many explanations can be given, the media is the prime culprit behind the negative turnout trend. This reasoning seems to be counter-intuitive for many. After all, shouldn’t mass media heighten voter turnout, with its infinite potential to inform and educate? The mas-sive media boom of the 20th century blessed the world with inventions such as the television, internet and radio that could easily enlighten and thus mobilize the electorate. Then why has turnout plummeted instead of soaring at what some predicted to be exponential rates?

The reason, quite unsurprisingly, is profit maximization. The media,

specifically the television, revolves around one main objective nowa-days: ratings. Ratings arise from a public interest in programming. Thus, major news corporations, such as CNN and CBS, adopted a phi-losophy of “giving the people what they want”. Naturally, Americans prefer scandalous and sometimes trivial reports over positive cover-age on anything, including electoral candidates; this, of course, leads to biased and overwhelming down-beat reporting. Negative coverage, however, is nothing new. In fact, its roots date to the years when political participation first began to decline.

Media corporations began the era of such coverage in the early 1970’s, almost immediately follow-ing the Watergate scandal. It intensi-fied over the years and transformed into the monster known today. Every news program seems to be driven by partisan hackery or a political agenda, be it liberal or conserva-

tive. The majority of air time regarding candidates is devoted to mudslinging in lieu of intelligent discussion about political stances. For example, 63% of the media coverage for George W. Bush was negative in 2000. The rates were even worse for Al Gore. Such a sig-nificant amount of negative news leaves the public feel-ing unsure of the political system; it persuades them to keep their distance from the corrupt and unfair world of politics. Many Americans have simply lost faith in the system, leading to another phenomenon of political inefficacy. That is, many people choose not to vote because they feel isolated and insignificant.

Voting registration programs also contribute to a decrease in turnout. In numerous cases, eligible voters forego voting because they are not registered. For instance, 41.9% of 18-20 year olds, 40.5% of 21-24

year olds and 33.9% of 25-29 year olds were not registered to vote in 1997. To combat this, the govern-ment implemented the Motor Voter Act of 1993, allowing citizens to register when they received their licenses; this did little to amend the situation.

It is undoubtedly true that citizens are the backbone of the American democracy. Thus, it is imperative that measures be taken to ensure active voter participation in the political process. In addition, some of these measures need to be targeted for two very specific demo-graphics: young adults and the lower to lower-middle class.

Research suggests that those aged between 18-21 years old are least likely to vote out of any other age group; the same is true for the lower/lower-middle class in socio-economic groups. In other words, these two demographics are disproportionately represented in the voting electorate.

To increase voter participation from these two groups, it is vital to consider pragmatic approaches that guarantee results. Enticing vot-ers with incentives is one of such options. Programs that offer small monetary compensations for voting would effectively mobilize the lower middle class and perhaps even teen-agers. The sum could be something small, paid by the government to voters on Election Day. Revenue for this could be generated from private organizations that currently fund failing voting initiatives (like MTV’s Rock the Vote). If this policy still seems financially unfeasible, leg-islators could implement measures similar to the one being considered in Arizona, where a random voter could win a large sum through a lottery.

In order to fully reverse the declining turnout trend, more drastic measures need to be taken. First and foremost, the media needs to be addressed. Although no direct regulations can be placed on the programming news channels provide (infringement of 1st Amendment rights), already existing laws can

be further enforced. For example, the equal-time rule, which specified that equivalent air times be given to political candidates by television and radio stations, has been largely ignored by major news corporations. If it is more stringently regulated, the electorate would be better informed about the political opinions of both candidates and thus more like to vote.

Another more extreme measure would be to reinvent public televi-sion (at least around election time) to grant more coverage to candidates and their campaigns. An American version of BBC would be an attrac-tive choice. Again, funding could be provided by private organizations that already fund public television.

Finally, as stated earlier, many people do not vote because they are not properly registered. This is because voter registration is complicated and somewhat lim-ited, despite the measures recently undertaken by the government. Many times, people register to vote but lose interest as time passes and elections approach. In other cases, people are prohibited from register-ing due to residency laws in different states. There is an obvious solution to this: Election Day registration for all voters and looser residency laws. Critics are reluctant to accept same day registration, primarily because it requires large amounts of fund-ing. This money, however, can be extracted from existing registration initiatives, like the aforementioned Motor Voter Act. If all is done correctly, large increases in turnouts should result.

Aristotle once stated, “If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democ-racy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” With Americans lacking the means or in-terest to “share in the government”, our democracy appears to be on the brink of destruction. Only through new, innovative measures could the American democracy be guaranteed a lasting lifetime, with liberty and justice for all.

The vanishing voterRecognizing and reversing the dismal trend in voter turnout

by Damon Beres We don’t really like books, do we? They’re time-consuming, intimidating, don’t have pretty pictures, lack the instant gratification of a video game or movie, and so forth. It’s telling that Borders is glutted with teens in the manga, DVD, and periodical sections, yet more often than not completely empty elsewhere.

I should know; with a Borders right across the street and “Rewards Card” lodged next to my house key, I practi-cally keep the place in business. Though Borders is a multi-million dollar corpora-tion, I get the sense that DVD coffee sales are as integral to profits as books, and even then, I’d bet that age has something to do with their revenue. It’s probably the 24-and-over group that’s snatching up the novels, leaving a younger crowd, a crowd most sought after by marketing firms, to buy up the other stuff. Perhaps fondness for literature comes with age, or perhaps youths are just turning their interests elsewhere.

An older, more cynical columnist might be outraged at this. It’s true that, as an age group, we should probably be reading more, and not just pulp, neo-Goth stuff like Palahniuk. There is so much to be found in the written word that people are missing out on. James Joyce is an incredibly hip dude – read him.

On the other hand, there are positive unintended consequences spinning out of this decline in literary consumption. I’m a huge proponent of what I like to call illus-trated media, a flowery term to give some

credence to comic books. This, more than any other by-product of pop culture, has caused a generational rift. I can see why; the comics of yesteryear had about as much lit-erary merit as a dead fish. Stan Lee, though

deserving of acclaim for other reasons, had such little tact with his writing that it’s no wonder old folk rip on the funny pages. Flip to any Spider-Man comic from the 1970s and you’ll find dialogue that’s about as deep

as a “Power Rangers” episode.It’s a different story in 2007. Just re-

cently, the death of Captain America made the headlines on major news brackets, and it was featured on some primetime news programs. Similarly, Marvel’s “Civil War” mini-series garnered serious mainstream attention, just as the 2004 DC Comics series “Identity Crisis” drew attention because of its morose themes and controversial rape scene.

These stories aren’t making the news for nothing. Suddenly, comic books aren’t targeting small children, but are instead becoming meaningful commentaries on today’s political atmosphere and pop cul-ture tastes. This, in turn, is attracting more serious, talented writers. Brad Meltzer, New York Times best-selling author, regularly lends his talent to DC Comics’ “Justice League of America” series (and was the au-thor of the “Identity Crisis” series). Frank Miller is becoming a household name with “300” and “Sin City.”

Literature, it seems, is evolving. Even video games (arthouse favorite “Shadow of the Colossus” chief among them) are beginning to offer meaningful stories and symbols. Young folk are turning to comics, movies, and games not because they don’t want to read literature, but because these new mediums are becoming literature. Just as Dickins’ “Great Expectations” was once viewed as the disposable entertainment of the moment, Ennis’ “Preacher” is what our generation is turning towards. While we must never leave the novel behind, it’s time to embrace the evolution of “text.”

BeresouffleIlliterate generation?

by Andrea Ljevar and Zlatana AlibegovicHere’s a question for every Northsider:

how much did you drink last weekend? A glass? A bottle? A keg!? The truth is it’s prob-ably more than many outsiders would think.

All studies indicate that young students, and in many cases even adults, are not ready to handle the responsibilities associated with alcohol consumption; for instance, 12.8% of all fatal traffic crashes were alcohol-related, and 40% of that number involved teens driving while drinking alcohol as reported by KeRo Corp. Yet evidence indicates that few things will actually prevent them from drinking.

“The more limits there are for something, the more appealing it becomes,” Kristine Ciruelas, Adv. 904, said.

The truth is, few parents realize what their children are doing when they’re not looking, and even fewer can prevent anything from happening to their kids. I have been witness to several family parties where the teens in attendance took a shot or two while their parents were around. These children, remarkably enough not Northside students, aren’t able to make smart decisions when sober, much less intoxicated. So, inevitably, they will be the ones that are speeding down the street at all hours of the night.

“A lot of these students are striking out in their independence, but they aren’t equipped to deal with the dangers and responsibilities of drinking,” Barry Rodgers, future North-side principal, says.

Just because this is Northside College Prep—a collection of the best and the bright-est—students aren’t in any better shape to handle the impediments of intoxication. In fact, it is the very nonchalant attitude towards drinking that many Northside students hold

that shows that Northsiders may be much less prepared to handle drinking than you’d even expect.

“Alcohol is a social thing, you do it to have fun,” an anonymous Northside student source said.

While Northside students may pos-ses book smarts, it is obvious that in many areas of social life, Northsider’s lack plain logic. Many students expressed that alcohol consumption at Northside comes as a result of peer pressure, depression, or the rebel-lious idea of creating a new reputation for Northside. Sadly, none of these rea-sons provided any proof of safe practices while intoxicated. Most students choose, on a regular basis, to put their lives and the lives of their friends at risk, by driving drunk, or getting in the car with a drunk driver. The grim truth is that alcohol has the same effect on everyone, no matter how well they perform on standardized tests.

Yet there seems to be a very viable solution for the problem: parent su-pervised drinking. Many parents have already begun to practice this new safety mechanism, though it remains illegal. In an attempt to better supervise their son, a Rhode Island family threw an after-prom party where they served alcohol, on the condition that each attendee surrendered their car keys when they arrived at the party. But what was meant to help prevent the teens from making bad deci-sions such as driving drunk, doing drugs, or having sex, ended up leading to a jail sentence for the parents.

The debate and criticism that erupted was absurd, as this family probably did more to keep children off the street and

keep them safe than any single organization claiming to fight drunk driving and underage drinking. In our opinion, it is people like those parents who deserve praise for facing the reality of teenage drinking and keeping children safe and supervised, rather than ignoring the problem at hand.

So, Northside, the point is that you aren’t any smarter than an average teen when it comes to alcohol, and you are just as likely to do something mind-numbingly stupid while

intoxicated. If you absolutely must experi-ment with drinking , do it in a safe atmo-sphere with a sober friend (or even parent) who will knock some sense into you before you get behind the wheel, or do something equally idiotic. If you plan on taking part in the mass murder of your brain cells with alcohol consumption, at least be sure to pre-serve the one thing that may help you in the future: your life.

Page 4 Editorial The Hoof Beat March 2007 Editorial Page 5

Solving inequity with discrimination: the trouble with affirmative action

Mark My Words

by Aliy MarkowskiAs college admissions letters begin to

flood our mail (or more frequently e-mail) boxes this spring, the taboo topic of the role of race and ethnicity in admissions decisions begins to creep into conversa-tions. The touchy discussion of affirmative action creates an underlying tension among students at a time that is already so stress-ful as our futures are held in the hands of a few individuals sitting around long wooden tables in a land far, far away. I don’t believe that affirmative action is entirely wrong; I would never want to find myself trapped on an entirely Caucasian campus. Achiev-ing diversity is a worthy goal. Bringing a mixture of people together is part of the college experience and an introduction to the real world. Yet the means by which college admissions officers work to achieve this goal, by lowering the standards for applicants of underrepresented minorities, has unintended but drastic consequences on the psyche of today’s youth.

Most ironically, affirmative action sepa-rates people based on the color of their skin. The practice essentially tries to solve past racism by making the same mistake of clas-sifying individuals based on their physical appearance yet again. In an attempt to level the playing field for people from all different backgrounds, the process alienates different racial and ethnic groups even further.

Perhaps this is because race and/or ethnicity are not actually the characteristics of college applicants that schools should be considering. A better method to try to compensate for a lack of opportunities would to be for college admissions officers to consider applicants’ socioeconomic back-grounds and to work to diversify student populations from there. Yet we see this less frequently, and often the opposite is apparent as wealthy students are a shoo-in at some universities. Maybe this is because the strat-egy would not only become more compli-cated for schools than simply a checked box for racial or ethnic group, but it would also take a toll on schools’ wallets. So instead, colleges and universities across the country make the lazy correlation that race and ethnicity indicate socioeconomic position in the U.S.; the idea of diversity becomes only

skin deep.Maybe the admissions officers aren’t

entirely wrong. Your average American white student does have more money and greater access to educational opportunities than his underrepresented minority coun-

terpart. But this is a vast generalization; not every Caucasian student is better off than every Hispanic, African American, or Native American applicant. College admissions officers take the easy way out: they make an assumption knowing their oversimplifica-tion will wind up keeping some deserving students from underprivileged backgrounds out, while letting less-qualified students from more affluent backgrounds in because of the color of their skin or their ethnic origin.

The real problem with affirmative action is not that it denies equal opportunities to hard-working white students or members

of other racial groups that don’t qualify as underrepresented minorities. Any diligent student will get into some college and will prosper wherever he goes. What I find more alarming is the way of thinking that affirma-tive action encourages. Lowering standards

for underrepresented minorities sends the message that these minority students are in some way less capable than everyone else. It tells the next generation of leaders that people are so inherently different based on the color of their skin or their ethnic background that schools and employers need to use divergent standards (an oxymoron which actually seems to detract from the very meaning of the word ‘standards’). This is clearly incorrect. Caucasians, Asians, or other racial and ethnic groups not included in affirmative action procedures are no more capable of performing well in school than

any underrepresented minority group. In fact, I think it is blatantly offensive to hard-working and capable students to say they need a leg up in school admissions or career placement just because of their skin color or ethnic background. There is no smart gene passed through white or Asian blood that other races or ethnicities are missing.

The danger of continuing affirmative action is that it reinforces the misconception that this mysterious genetic trait exists. Our society needs to move away from this delu-sion that some people are better than others and the way to make up for it is to differenti-ate individuals based on the color of their skin or their ethnicity. Instead, we should solve the problem of a socioeconomic gap in academic achievement or disproportion-ate opportunities by making an effort when students are young so they actually have the opportunity to succeed.

Our government should spend more dollars on elementary and pre-school educa-tion and improving schools in impoverished neighborhoods instead of focusing on mak-ing sure the upper class doesn’t have to pay too much in taxes. Students from under-privileged backgrounds should be provided with the resources to level the playing field, and at an early age, so by the time they’re 17 they are just as high-performing and just as capable of gaining college acceptances. By the time students are applying to colleges, this kind of academic gap between socioeco-nomic strata shouldn’t exist.

Politicians, admissions officers, and employers must stop pretending to solve the crisis of socioeconomic inequality by pro-moting the absurd notion that one racial or ethnic group is more capable than any other. They must start taking action to develop a real solution that actually addresses the problem of America’s economic disparity. This approach may take time. Affirmative action policies may not be eliminated right away (although they did it at the University of California’s nine campuses in 1998), but we should at least strive for a future when Americans of every race, every ethnicity and every income level have equal access to op-portunities and the means to succeed.

Northside’s underage drinking tendenciesLet’s drink to that

by Liz BornFriends, it is time to grip

your iPods more tightly than ever before, and above all else, beware the radio, for the noise it spews nowadays can hardy be called music. Let’s face it: the songs that top the charts just aren’t what they used to be. Grazing the frequencies, one might think that DJs nation-wide have gone completely and utterly insane: when songs like “Make It Rain,” Fat Joe’s seemingly nonsensical (or perhaps incredibly vulgar) ode to the weather, Gwen Stefani’s ridiculous “Wind It Up,” a Julie Andrews-inspired train wreck, and “This Is Why I’m Hot,” the latest from New York rapper, Mims (I'm hot cause I'm fly [fly!], You ain't cause you're not [Mims!]) play simultaneously, the gods of music must weep uncontrollably (perhaps this is the rain that Fat Joe has so graciously provided).

It is time for a radio revolu-tion. It is time to rid our fre-quencies of this filth. Why can’t we return to the good old days, when bands of epic proportions graced our ears so read-ily? It is time that those greedy radio moguls listened to the people.

And the people want Creed.We long for Scott Stapp’s soaring vocals

and Mark Tremonti’s screaming, yet taste-ful, guitaritry. With tears in my eyes and a soaring heart, I put it to those awful radio DJs: When will you stand up and fight this new-fangled garbage? When will you bring back Creed? And most of all, when will you recognize “With Arms Wide Open” as the ultimate magnum opus of rock?

Because ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what it is. “With Arms Wide Open,” Creed’s third single from their sophomore album, Human Clay, is not only the best song Creed has ever written, but also the best song any musician has ever dreamt up since the

dawn of time itself. The track opens softly, with a gentle

pitter-patter of guitar strings that gives way to a robust and visceral set of chords that shake the very heart of every listener. That’s what the song is about: emotion, passion, and innocence. The innocence of a virgin baby. “Well I don't know if I'm ready,” Stapp Croons, “To be the man I have to be/I'll take a breath, take her by my side/We stand in awe, we've created life.” Creed’s powerful po-etry addresses the very core of what it means to be human…clay.

In this sex-crazed, anything-goes world, where one’s ears are assaulted daily by the ra-dio’s sinister clamor, we must find solace not in the music of arrogant rappers, but instead in the humble words of Scott Stapp. If we are going to survive this musical wasteland, we must embrace Creed, with arms wide open.

October 2006 Editorial Page 7 Page 6 Editorial The Hoof Beat

Fill in the grid at the left so that every column, row and 3 x 3 box

contain the digits one through nine without repeating.

Think you solved it quickly?Be featured in the next issue

for your fast time by emailing it to hoofbeat@northsideprep.org.

Stampede sudokucreated by Aliy Markowski

by Damon BeresCreed. Gracing the world with their

musical presence for nearly 10 full years before returning to their heavenly kingdom, they are, more than any other, the band that has influenced the youth of America and inspired millions. They are without doubt the Beatles of our generation, mixed in with a healthy smattering of Black Sabbath (for the hardened edge, though Creed might dis-agree with their demonic image) and Frank Sinatra (a hint of sensitivity). They outshine even that trinity.

When asked which of their blessed songs – hymns, really – are the best, one would say, without question “Higher,” and certainly not “With Arms Wide Open.” Based on the cold numbers alone, “Higher” launched dear, sweet Creed from the toils of obscurity and into the big time. It was this single that drove millions, billions even, towards Creed’s second album “Human Clay,” allowing it to top the Billboards. Though “With Arms Wide Open” would also enjoy such popularity, that came later.

Forget, for a moment, the zillions of dollars that Creed made from their exalted

odes. From a lyrical standpoint, “Higher” is rather obviously Creed’s magnum opus, their finest effort. “So let’s go then,” lead singer Scott Stapp belts through his gravely voice. “Let’s make our escape,” he urges, “Come on, let’s go there, let’s ask can we stay?”

To me, this lead-in to the earth-shatter-ing chorus is about so, so much. In my best estimate, the song is about Thanksgiving. “Let’s go then,” is probably an abbreviated way to say, “Let’s go then to grandma’s house, where she has a lot of turkey and sweet potatoes.” And once there, Stapp wants only to ask if we can stay. What a good host he is.

Despite this, some have concluded that the song is about drug hallucinations and lucid dreaming. That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose, and the fact that one could draw even that alternative conclusion speaks to the resounding depth of Creed. Music snobs are so apt to suggest that meaningful lyrics are found only in the independent stuff, wherein “true artistry” can really shine. I guess they aren’t familiar with Creed.

Who can dispute the merit of the most powerful chorus in history? “Can you take me Higher? To a place where blind men see. Can you take me Higher? To a place with golden streets.” Oh, Mr. Stapp, take me to your glorious euphoria, save us from this barren wasteland. You are the golden ewe on the black, parched farmstead of this wretched planet.

If Creed’s “Higher” is not the best song ever com-posed by man – ever – then I’d like to see what is.

A “Higher” calling Embracing Creed, with arms wide open

October 2006 Editorial Page 7 Page 6 Editorial The Hoof Beat

Page 8 Centerfold The Hoof Beat

by Zainab BilfaqiEvery Northside student took a placement test to prove

their level of intelligence before entering the school, yet stu-dents are still required to receive recommendations for many Advance Placement College courses, a procedure which seems to question student capability.

Although some students do not take AP courses because they consider them too challenging, others take them to strengthen their college applications. Many of these students want to take an AP course, but are not recommended because they did not do well enough in the prerequisite course.

To be recommended for an AP Mathematics course, the student needs to receive an A or B in the prerequisite course, unless they are going from Pre-Calculus to AP BC Calculus. In that case, the student must receive an A in Pre-Calculus.

“With classes like math you need to do well to receive a recommendation because if you slacked off in another math class, you probably don’t know some concepts that you’re

AP recommendations Are they really necessary?

New schedules, is change always good?

going to need to know to take the AP,” Amanda Perez, Adv. 801, said.

Some students do not believe that AP recommendations are necessary for certain classes because the prerequisite class and the class they wish to take the following year are unre-lated.

“I don’t think AP recommendations should be required for certain classes,” Arteshia Walker, Adv. 809, said. “For example, if someone doesn’t do well in US History, that shouldn’t determine whether they should be able to take AP Psychology because those classes aren’t related.”

The Social Science department has a wide variety of courses offered to students, and many of those courses are AP classes. Although there is not an exact grade that students must have to take the AP classes, there are certain charac-teristics a student needs to portray “through their overall performance,” Timothy Devine, Head of the Social Science

Department,said. “We are looking for students who consistently show

analytical writing, thinking, reading comprehension, and a general interest in the subject matter,” Mr.Devine, said.

According to Devine, the goal of the Social Science De-partment is for the right student to be in the right class at the right time. If a student does not get recommended for a course they wish to take, he or she should go and speak to the teacher who did not provide the recommendation. There is an appeals process in which Devine would speak to the student and the parents to establish a curriculum suited for the student.

“Two years ago I wrote the Magnum Opus intended for students and parents to liberally educate themselves,” Devine said. “There are numerous ways for students to develop them-selves, and at Northside there are a plethora of opportunities.”

The English Department has a different way to determine whether a student is eligible to take the AP course. To be qualified to take an AP English course, students must submit an essay that demonstrates their current level of analytical thinking and writing. Submitting an essay guarantees students a recommendation.

“The English Department believes that any Northside stu-dent who seriously wants to take an AP English course can be successful,” John Hahm, English, said. “We prepare our AP students extremely well. But nationwide studies have shown that even students who don’t pass the AP exam do better in college classes than their peers who did not take this class, so we accept all who complete our application process.”

The Science Department, similar to the Mathematics Department, requires that prospective students receive at least a B in the prerequisite course. The grade still does not ensure a student’s admission into the class, though. Based on previous years’ grades and overall effort in science courses, teachers can deny students the opportunity of taking and AP science course. The Foreign Language Department says each student must receive at least a B in a prerequisite course and some courses, like Spanish, require the student to take a written and oral exam to make sure they are prepared to take the course. The Fine Arts Department also requires the student to receive a B or higher in a prerequisite course and show consistency as well as effort in previous Fine Arts courses.

“I honestly think that AP recommendations are here to help us,” Nimrah Haque, Adv. 806, said. “AP recommenda-tions are necessary because they reflect what teachers think the students are capable of managing. After all, these teachers are trained professionals and for the most part they know what they’re doing, so I think we should trust their instinct.”

by Andrea LjevarWith the second semester of the 2006-

2007 school year underway, the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have already chosen classes for the 2007-2008 school year. During this process, students have the opportunity to take classes, not already offered at Northside, online with the Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS) program.

The IVHS program was introduced by the Board of Education and has since been imple-mented in 350 high schools in Illinois. The purpose of IVHS “is to use new and emerging technologies that expand the boundaries of space and time to provide Illinois students and their teachers with increased equity and access to the highest quality educational opportuni-ties.” (www.ivhs.org)

IVHS provides a wide-variety of classes in eleven subjects: Computer Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Business and Econom-ics, Fine Arts, Mathematics, Study Skill and Review, Career Planning, Health, Science, and World Languages. Both honors and AP level classes are offered. Students earn half of a credit for one semester and a full credit for a year of an IVHS class.

Aral Johnson, Adv. 904, signed up to take Astronomy for the full-year term in the coming school year.

“I took IVHS because I thought it would be easier to learn at my own speed,” Johnson said.

However, not all students like the fact that they are allowed to work at their own speeds and would prefer more teacher attention.

Syeda Haider, Adv. 707, is currently enrolled in Advanced Placement Human Ge-ography for the full term.

Can’t take it at Northside? Take it online

“My teacher rarely replies to my emails and rarely checks my assignments. Most of the teachers on IVHS teach at actual schools and do IVHS on the side, so it gets hard for them to keep up with the workload,” said Haider. “It is hard enough to keep up with all of Northside’s classes but on top of that, now I have to be the student and the teacher for IVHS.”

If students wish to apply to one IVHS course, the fee is covered by the school. If they plan to take more, however, fees range from $175 to $300 depending on the amount of classes. There are scholarships available for students based on federal aid and reduced lunch.

Sophomores and juniors with a GPA of 3.0 and a 90 % attendance rate qualify to take IVHS courses. Students also need approval from Ms. Medina, Director of Counseling. Northsiders can choose to take one or two classes simultaneously in addi-tion to regular Northside courses.

Students interested in signing up for the Spring 2007 semester submitted applica-tions as early as April 4th, 2006 up until February 13th. Students may also sign up for IVHS classes in the summer in addition to taking them during the school year. The summer term lasts from June 18th until August 10th, equating to the duration of a semester. Registration has been open since February 15th and closes on June 15th.

Potential students and parents are en-couraged to visit the Illinois Virtual High School website, www.ivhs.org, to learn more about the classes and download applications to participate.

March 2007 Centerfold Page 9

New schedules, is change always good?

High school vs. college, Northside in-between Comparison of college and high school scheduling

by Molly McAndrewA large concern for Northside students

this year was the new scheduling system and the process of signing up twice this year. However, what came as a surprise to many was that problems arose in the first round of scheduling, which is a system that has been used at the school for many years.

“I thought it would be easier because of last year,” Elizabeth Cairns, Adv. 904, said.

For instance, problems occurred for many student while signing up for Advanced Placement English courses. Only the AP courses that had been pre-approved by their current teachers in the subject showed up in student accounts this year, as a way to prevent students from registering for classes they could not take. Students planning to take an AP English course next year had to fulfill certain requirements for the class they planned to take. They were then surprised to find the other option available to them instead of the class for which they had ap-plied. Student who had this problem had to talk to the school programmer, Mr. Lim, and resolve the issue individually before programming ended. This did not work well for those students who waited until the last day to register.

Another problem with the scheduling was that students were not informed that the anatomy course will not be offered next year due to a lack of CPS funds. The announce-ment came after students had finished registering for classes.

“We all had to go back and completely re-work our schedules,” Stephanie Levine, Adv. 805, said.

Levine says cutting the class has left many students with few appealing science course options.

“It was the only science class that really

Registering for disasterScheduling system has apparent blunders

gives us a better understanding of ourselves and our immediate environment,” Levine said.

The news hit hardest for students who need science courses to better prepare them-selves for college.

“It’s hard to find something to replace it and work into my schedule now, and it’s especially difficult since four years of science is really important to most of the colleges that I’m going to apply to,” Levine said.

Some students also struggled because they did not realize that they had to sign up with their first and second choices in respec-tive order. Counselors visited advisories only after registration closed to remind students of the rule.

“I was really confused when I began to register,” Caroline Mills, Adv. 012, said.

This posed a potential problem for freshmen who did not have experience with registration in the past.

A potential problem for the school is that some students may change their minds by the second round of registration. Although this is highly discouraged, so far there is nothing that could stop a student from choosing a class in April that they had not chosen back in January. Not only will this affect the school, but some students may be locked out of a class in which they thought they had secured a spot.

“I think it’s expected that there will be problems when you first create a new sys-tem,” Levine said. “But the problem is, the whole point of a new system was to elimi-nate all the scheduling issues. Now, I guess, it’s just that students and the Counseling Department just have to deal with it instead of a single person programming.”

by Vasiliki Mitrakos Expectations for a college preparatory school are usually

high. Northside’s curriculum aims to prepare students for education beyond high school. To accelerate this preparatory process, the administration has introduced a new system for scheduling where students can construct their own schedules similar to how college or university students do.

In comparison to the selection of classes in college, this new system will better fulfill the students’ preference. The only difference between high school and college scheduling is the timing and array of courses. Although Northside does offer

a multitude of challenging courses from which the students can choose, the timing of the classes revolves solely upon the lunch desired. College students can choose their classes based on what time they wish to begin the day, and have the freedom of deciding when to bring the day to an end based on their classes. All uni-versity schedules follow a variation of the block system where the classes would be around one hundred minutes, but without a colloquium. Although the high school block system is seen as a major positive change to the traditional teaching, it does present a few problems when it comes to scheduling.

“The block schedule is always difficult to program and find available classes,” Mr. Leon Lim, Northside’s scheduling programmer, said. “We offer more electives than other high schools which create programming difficulties.”

The different levels at which freshmen enter due to credits is another factor that makes the process more difficult. This

new program was implemented in order to reduce these issues and make scheduling easier.

“The new program has many benefits; it gives the schedule more flexibility to offer more challenging courses for the whole school. It helps reduce program conflicts better than before. Students can select classes based off college schedul-ing, and helps prepare the students for a similar college procedure,” Mr. Lim said.

No other CPS high school has adopted this new pro-gram so far. As for the block system, only a few selective high schools follow this system, including Walter Payton and Lindblom. Walter Payton has a combination of modified and block scheduling. Their advisory takes place after period one and the students are dismissed by 2:54. Their equivalent to Colloquium takes place on Thursdays and is called “Re-structured Thursdays.”

Most other Chicago public schools follow the traditional schedule of eight periods a day. In comparison to the block schedule, some students from other high schools explain how the eight-period-day can prove to be inconvenient.

“I love having eight periods a day, but having eighth pe-riod lunch and a ninth period after becomes very bothersome,” Anna Salapatas, sophomore from Lincoln Park Magnet High

School, said.An added bonus to the new system is the ability for

students to choose the lunch period they prefer. Prior to this new system, students would have one week in the beginning of the year to fix any problems, but only if they had a legiti-mate reason. At Niles West, schedule changes can be made

based off of the desired lunch period. At the same time, students whose classes do not fit into their schedule must at-tend “early bird” classes every morning at seven twenty before school starts. The capacity and the availability of the classes for an eight period schedule in a large high school like Lincoln Park may also pose many problems.

“Some students are forced to take a language like Arabic because of scheduling conflicts and limited classroom space,” Nick Salapatas, sophomore from Lincoln Park High School, said.

This new system has yet to be tested, but promises im-provement in the scheduling of new courses.

Page 10 Arts & Entertainment The Hoof Beat

by Molly McAndrewIt seems like everyone who

lives in LA believes that he has the talent to become famous. LA’s newest creation, or disaster waiting to happen, is 2XL. 2XL, two twin brothers, think that they could quite possibly be the next “big thing.” They are sadly mistaken.

2XL is made up of Ben-net “Laze” and Justin “Royal” Talmadge Armstrong. Accord-ing to the duo’s website, http://www.2xlonline.com, their father abandoned them during early child-hood. When their mother became sick in 1996 they were “forced to essentially raise themselves.” Perhaps they would shed this com-mon image of the “underprivileged gangster” turned rap star if they were, by some miracle, able to make a name for themselves.

So far the team has had some success in smaller media like the internet and mix tape circuits. Their song “Kissing Game” has also found some radio time in a couple of cities, i.e. Detroit and Minneapolis. On their demo, 2XL talked all about their nice lifestyle partying in LA, and even dedicated a song to their car. It is easy to see that 2XL is probably in it more for the money than the music since it seems to be the only thing on their mind.

2XL’s featured track on their debut CD “Neighborhood Rapstar” is “Magic City.” The only decent part of the song is the female vocal accompaniment for the refrain performed by Cherish. Had it been the boys alone, with faulty lyrics and awkward beats, it probably would have been dropped from the CD.

Fortunately for 2XL, they have one thing working for them: they truly think they are larger than life. On their demo track, they con-stantly refer to themselves as if they were the next big thing. And maybe

they are. After all, America has gotten a lot less picky when it comes to rappers. A giant ego ap-pears more in rap than criminal re-cords and actual talent.

For instance, the lyrics for “Bedrock” are not only perverse, but completely expected and typ-ical. The verses look like they have been taken from Three 6 Mafia, filled with graphic descrip-tions and crude imagery. It has been said before, but rap depends too keenly on using women for sex. Even worse, women are sup-porting them by purchasing and downloading these songs.

Surpris-ingly, however, there is a hidden diamond on the CD. “Mama of Mine” was writ-ten as a tribute to their mother. The song has received recogni-tion from many DJ’s who feel that 2XL showed courage by talking about cancer. The duo has gained a lot of fans through this song, mainly because many Americans can relate to los-ing family members from illnesses. Not many people buy CDs because

of one song, however.Overall, 2XL is nothing to brag

about. With the quality of their CD, they may get radio time for some tracks, but they are likely to vanish before becoming anything

big. It’s not that Hollywood isn’t ready for 2XL; it’s more like Holly-wood has had too much 2XL. Rap is a booming industry, but there doesn’t seem to be anything new coming out of it. Laze and Royal

are both only sixteen years old. They have time to fix their bigger errors. If the 2XL brothers want to be more than neighborhood rap stars, they need to invent their own image and drop the 50 Cent act.

2XL, too trueThey should have stayed neighborhood rappers

“2XL” CD cover.Courtesy of www.amazon.com.

by Molly McAndrewThe biggest downfall

for a successful teenage band today is not drugs, not alcohol, but, instead, a terrible follow-up album. It is the same old story: a band

produces the CD of their life and is rocketed to fame and fortune. The problem occurs when the follow-up album is released and it is so “last year.” One question has haunted fans of many

bands. Should a group stick to their old music as a tactic to keep their fame, or should they change their style for the sake of originality? What usually seems to hap-pen is a band will take the

safety route and stick with the themes and beats that were popular in their first album, with unfortunate consequences. Fall Out Boy (FOB) has set out to prove that this is not always true.

FOB became an over-night sensation with their album “From Under The Cork Tree,” released May 3rd, 2005. The album in-cluded songs such as “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and “Dance, Dance,” which were instant hits with the teenage public. Now, almost two years later, they have released a new CD, “Infinity on High.”

Many FOB fans won-dered if they would have a new sound for their latest CD. Fortunately, fans can sleep peacefully at night: FOB seems to have found a middle ground.

“Infinity on High” has some great prospects for new, soon-to-be-overplayed, radio hits. Already MTV has publicized their song, “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and has predicted awards for the song in the future. The lyrics are relatively easy; anyone who can repeat “this ain’t a scene it’s goddamn arms race” over and over can sing along. But since when has MTV known anything about music, anyway?

For better songs, skip to

numbers five (“Hum Hal-lelujah”) and seven (“Thnks fr th Mmrs”). “Hum Hal-lelujah” sarcastically, but accurately, depicts teenage love and everything it really is. “Thnks fr th Mmrs,” has a good beat and an unusual beginning, which starts in a round.

For another unusual sound, listen to FOB’s num-ber ten, “The Carpal Tunnel of Love.” The group seems to have experimented with the combination of punk rock and heavy metal to get a disaster of a song. Their true calling is obviously not hard-core rock and roll.

Sure, the themes of the songs are generally the same, but that’s hardly unexpected as most bands like FOB are dedicated to singing about sex, drugs, and heartbreak. Those looking for something different should probably gear away from the punk rock genre. What is sur-prising in their new CD is that there is a small hint of deeper topics. The song “Golden,” for example, has some religious references in it, which is risky since that’s not what people think of when they think of Fall Out Boy. Other songs also touch upon ideas outside the nor-mal topics of partying and falling in love scenarios that are common among bands like Panic! At the Disco and

All American Rejects.FOB’s music is generally

the same. They have their fast paced songs and their intended rock ballads. The problem with FOB is that when it comes to danc-ing, their songs are very unpredictable. For instance, “Dance, Dance” from their last album was projected for just that and there are plenty of songs in “Infinity on High” that have the same rhythm and tempo. The only things one can really do for songs like “Sugar, We’re Go-ing Down” are to listen and sing along. The tempo may be fast, but there is no dance beat to it.

A band should produce one of two things (if it can’t do both): dance songs, or songs with some kind of meaning behind them. Oth-erwise, musicians shouldn’t be paid the amount that they make. FOB’s last album was mediocre at best. This time they’ve done something right. The songs are better and there are hints of deeper themes. If FOB continues putting out albums like “Infinity on High,” they shouldn’t have to worry about being the kind of band that has only one good album followed by a line of disappointments.

Falling out of the trend Is Fall Out Boy another one hit wonder?

Fall Out Boy’s new CD.Courtesy of www.amazon.com.

March 2007 Arts & Entertainment Page 11 Page 10 Arts & Entertainment The Hoof Beat

by Andrea LjevarThe sisters that make

up the Everlife trio are yet another rock/pop ensemble trying to ap-peal to the pre-pubescent crowd and the main-stream market. Sadly, the girls who opened up for “The Cheetah Girls” and have been featured on the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack aren’t going to make fans out of the older siblings who are dragged to shows by their 10-year old sisters.

Everlife’s first video is a mellow song about falling in love called, “I Could Get Used To This.” The vocalist, Julia Ross, has a raspy voice like Michelle Branch. The fast guitar riffs in the chorus create a sweet, addictive song. An-other song on the album, “Where You Are” is so similar to “I Could Get Used To This,” however, that the two could be easily confused with each other. Yet the same addictiveness is found in this song as well. This is where the trio loses their appeal, as the songs begin to mesh together and the sweetness leads to a toothache.

The Everlife CD opens with “Faded,” a song about losing one-self in a relationship. In this song, Julia resembles Avril Lavigne in her 2003 hit-song,“Complicated.” Though her voice lacks the edge that Lavigne has, it has Mandy Moore’s sugar-coated vocals which places its label as a “rock/pop” CD in ques-tion. If it weren’t for strategically placed guitar riffs at the beginning of their songs, the group would sound like “The Cheetah Girls.”

Everlife stresses female em-powerment in numerous songs, including “Daring to be Different” and “Find Yourself in You.” Both of these songs clearly indicate that one should be happy within one’s skin. The song “Faded” spews a similar message, but because of the judgmental nature of modern society, maybe the constant, yet

annoying, reminder to ‘be true to yourself ’ isn’t so bad. In “Find Yourself in You,” the girls sing, “Don't let anybody tell you who you are/It's okay to let go, you're that shooting star.” Now if that isn’t enough incentive to go take the world by storm, Everlife then continues repeating the message through multiple other tracks with the same theme.

The girls promote individual-ism, yet their debut contains three covers. The first being the inces-santly recycled and reused “What I Like About You,” originally by The Romantics. Though not quite as good as the version by Lillix, Everlife still manages to perform a decent version with an odd country twang. This country influence may be explained by the fact that Everlife relocated to Nashville, the center of the country music industry, to jumpstart their career. This twang is more present in the Josie and the Pussycats cover, “Real Wild Child.”

It’s hard to picture these girls as

wild, even though their torn jeans, choppy black hair, and mounds of eye shadow may suggest otherwise. Their last cover song is a misplaced rendition of Phil Collins’s, “Look Through My Eyes.” Collins is an odd artist to cover, especially by a group that gets most of their airplay on Radio Disney and the Disney Channel. Parents might gain some quality time with their children and maybe their tweens will open them-selves up to a fascinating new genre of music by the likes of Collins, Michael Bolton, and the Bee Gees - adult contemporary. Maybe not.

Everlife even dabbles in Chris-tian contemporary on the last track, “Angels Cry.” “When you break and you yell and there's no one left to tell/ you have the tears of heaven and his grace will come to you.” The song begins like a lullaby with soft vocals and acoustic guitar cords and then leads into a crescendo of guitars, drums, and vocals imitating the Dixie Chicks. “Angels Cry” is a

ballad likely found at the end of a tele-vision movie just short of making it to the big screen. In the same way, the song falls short of leaving you with an ever-lasting impres-sion of Everlife.

Everlife may lack in originality and their lyrics may resemble seventh grade poetry, but their catchy melo-dies and choruses overshadow their mediocrity. Everlife may make a splash with preteens who are hoping for something a little more “alternative” that the “High School Musical Soundtrack.” Everlife may be lucky enough to be a one-hit-wonder, soon to be forgot-ten amidst the Jesse McCartney’s and Hilary Duff ’s vying for the same spotlight.

Everlife is anything but everlasting

RadtrocityTapping into your storage of storge*by Patricia Radkowski

Teens are adept at spending time with their peers, yet they are equally skilled at excluding their parents. It’s perplexing that so few students engage in substantive conversations with the folks that created them. Cliché after-school conversations between parents and children are a reality for too many people. “How was school?” “Fine.” The end.

Don’t assume that you are the fruit of some wild night of passion. When your parents look at you, they are probably not re-minded of the good times that manufactured you. A lot of boring planning and preparation might have enabled your conception. You could even be a product of chance, an expensive accident. Regardless of how you came into being, your parents love you.

Some teenagers claim that they simply cannot find a common tongue with their parents and wouldn’t know what to discuss if they did. You don’t have to labor through an awkward discussion of your life if it truly makes you uncomfortable. Sometimes, par-ents are perfectly content with talking at you instead of with you. A lot can be learned from their past mistakes and successes. Who knows, you might even meet the individuals who are your parents, or get a glimpse of who they used to be.

If you think that your parents know what they are doing with you: you’re wrong. You didn’t come with an instruction manual. They’re just guessing what good parenting should be. Parents have no clue if they are making some huge mistakes in your upbringing or if you are indeed turning out as the good child they hoped for. Cut them some slack and show them some love. It really won’t hurt you.

Did you know that your parents used to be young and free? It’s true. They had (and many still have) dreams, aspirations, and hopes; that is, until you came along and devoured their life. Your parents likely sacrifice a lot of their life for the betterment of your existence. And even if your parents haven’t given up their lives for you, they still finance your expensive behind. Do you know how much you cost every year? You’re a risky investment. They watch you gorge on thousands of their dollars every year and you don’t even have the consideration to show them a little love. Your par-ents could spend all of that money on themselves: trips to Mexico, Armani outfits, a new Ferrari. I’d take the stuff.

If that’s not enough to motivate you to spend some time with your parents, consider the answers to the following ques-tions: Who wiped your bottom? Who held a tissue in front of your nose, patiently waiting for you to blow into it? Who cleaned and bandaged your first boo-boo, assuring you that it wouldn’t hurt? (Liars.) Who called you Picasso when you colored your sky purple? Who called you Mozart when you attacked the keys of the family piano? Who didn’t hear a word of the valedictorian’s speech (unless it was you) at your junior high graduation because they were too busy taking pictures? Most likely: your parents. So, who should you love and adore?

Mother’s Day is on May 13th and Father’s Day is on June 17th. But, you should celebrate your parents all year long. Show-ing love to your parents is not that difficult.

Go out to lunch with them. Take them to a movie. Get cul-tured together at a museum. Have a meaningful conversation. Let them give you a talk about the importance of a good education. Listen to their childhood stories. Wash the dishes or unload the groceries without being asked. Give them a hug or a kiss on the cheek. Tell them you love them.

Even these small expenses pale in comparison to what they give you. Showing your parents that you care about them is the easiest type of service learning. You really should be able to get hours for it. You give a little of yourself to make them smile and remember why it was that they had you in the first place. The time has come to go back to the storge.

*ARE YOU NOT GREEK? AN EXPLANATION OF THE TITLE: Anyone who has taken a course with the mysterious Mr. Randy Snow, English Department, can recite the three types of love found in ancient Greek works: agape, eros, and phillia. Agape refers to love in general. Eros is romantic, sexual love. Phillia is friendship or brotherly love. Another Greek word for love is storge, love in the home. It refers to a natural affection, like one felt between parents and children.

Everlife, a new pop music group that is not quite up and coming.Courtesy of www.amazon.com.

The cover of Everlife’s their new self-titled CD.Courtesy of www.amazon.com.

Page 12 Features The Hoof Beat

Take the initiative!by Rachel Hautzinger

So many issues occur in the world today, it is like a breath of fresh air to see high school students getting actively involved. Global Initiative became a new addition to Northside’s extensive list of clubs on Monday, January 25, due to the work of Sophie Guerriero, Adv. 016, and Leah Feiger, Adv. 014, in collaboration with Mr. Rob-ert Blease, a language teacher at Northside, as the sponsor. Accord-ing to the Global Initiative website, the newest addition to Northside’s homepage, Global Initiative is all about thinking globally while acting locally.

“We [the club leaders] hope that this club will make people more aware of important global issues,” Feiger said. “However, we don’t want people to just be aware; we also want them to help out with the issues.”

“We hope to extend what Global Initiative has done in col-loquium,” Blease said.

Since Global Initiative is a brand new club and only had two meetings, members have only dis-cussed what the club is about and membership. However, they plan to work on projects regarding the genocide in Darfur, AIDs aware-ness in youth, medical facilities in Zimbabwe that need attention, and fundraising for possible trips.

“I believe the club will make me more aware of current world issues,” Jennie Ceisel, Adv. 800, said, “which is part of the reason I joined.”

Global Initiative began as a col-

loquium headed by Mr. Blease. The club members attempted to start things locally when they decided to form a club, which also opened it up to more students. Mr. Blease states the club was formed partially to fundraise, for the global initiative program is in dire need of money.

“Leah and I decided to form the club because we were in the colloquium, and after learning about some of the major global issues we became highly inter-ested and felt that there was more that we could do,” Guerriero said.

“The club needed to be added to the Northside community because of the impact knowledge has on the cause,” Feiger said. “So many horrible things are going on in the world right now, and if many people know about the cause, they can help spread awareness, and with awareness comes empathy, and with empa-thy comes action.”

So far, club members have been divided into groups pertain-ing to which project they are most interested in. A fundraiser is in the works to give each group some money to pursue their service project. Another bonus of being a club member besides feel-ing good about the work is that members receive service hours for the projects they do with the club.

“Global Initiative is a cool way to get service hours,” Jesse Speth, Adv. 906, said.

“This club really interested me because it is a fun group of people with great ideas for ser-vice,” Ceisel said.

The club is actively trying to educate and interest all Northside students in many ways, including a new feature on the Northside homepage. The website offers service projects, information about Northside exchange programs,

outside organizations one can get involved in such as Amnesty Inter-national, and even just important community reminders, such as miss-ing person Paul Shuman-Moore. The website gives more information for anyone hoping to join the club

or just get more globally involved. “This club will open student’s

eyes to the world,” Blease said. “It will show a side of the world the media doesn’t show, because the media can be biased.”

Members of the Global Initiatives club pose for a picture.Photo Courtesy of Senor Blease

by Elizabeth JoseStudents from other

schools joined Northsid-ers to display their dance skills at “Groove Thang.” Although the dancers performed advanced rou-tines, only a small number of people attended the production. The program ran smoothly with very few interruptions besides the raffling off of T-shirts and informing the audience of a couple of cancellations. Most of the acts simply fol-lowed the one before with-out an MC. Ms. Martha Mulligan was the director of the program and has been for the past few years. The program lasted from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

“I was very surprised that there were so few people,” Valentina Ange-lova, Adv. 804, said.

“Buena Suerte” was the first performance and started the night with a wild bout of applause.

The crowd went wild with screams of “GO Z!” and “GO AMANDA!” as AKA gave their perfor-mance. The upbeat music and quick movements of the dancers had everyone cheering. Their perfor-mance received a great deal of applause from the audience.

Breana Winters, Adv. 010, had a solo perfor-mance entitled “Black Jazz.” Her performance thrilled the audience and the lighting effects that created a silhouette effect at times only served to heighten the excitement throughout the auditorium.

Following this there was a slight pause between the performances so that the raffle tickets could be drawn. The three prizes were shirts designed by Jessica Galang, Adv. 708. The hula hoop contest won by

Kamaria Massey, Adv. 802, took place later in the night when shirts were given out.

People eagerly applauded and hooted as the program resumed, after the hula hoop contest, with “Latin Flavor.” The quick pace and swaying bodies kept the audience

mesmerized. Sabor Latino dancers made up the majority of this group.

“We’ve been practicing since before Latino Fest,” Jose Choto, Adv. 804, said after the show.

“Connect Force” replaced any sorrows with its upbeat and intricate break dancing. The performers

themselves knew how to rile up the crowd, and encouraged their ap-plause with more break dancing.

“The break dancers were really good,” Amanda Radcliffe, Adv. 806, said.

Many classical forms of dance balanced out the number of modern

dances.Theresa Banasz-

kiewicz, Adv. 700, amazed everyone when she tap-danced with no ac-companiment. The audience became more invigorated as she increased the speed and ended on a high note.

Almost as quickly, the crowd silenced and gazed in wonder at the almost regal Jane Bialek, Adv. 808, as she stood silhou-etted against the red background in a black tutu. A young girl whispered, “How’d she do it” in amazement as Jane flew through the air. She danced to Kitri’s Variation from Don Quixote.

“I was so nervous and so excited,” Jane said, “But I loved it.”

The perfor-mance ended with a bang. “Groove Thang” executed their performance with great care and after extensive practice.

“I loved it very, very much,” Mrs. Kowar, a Northside parent, said, “There is so diverse a group of performances,

from classical ballet to modern dance.”

“It [the dance show] was ter-rific,” Mr. Bob Solomon, LSC member, said.

Though the length of the pro-gram resulted in mixed reactions, the performances received applause and resulted in an enthused audi-ence.

“Groove Thang”Northsiders show off their talent in the annual dance showcase

A performer from “Connect Force” break dances.Photo by Kana Yoo

Page 12 Features The Hoof Beat March 2007 Features Page 13

by Muamera HadzicMr. Gregory Dahlberg, Northside’s

newest addition to the Mathematics Depart-ment, often jokes with his calculus classes about what his life might have been like had he become an engineer instead of a teacher. However, Dahlberg says that other than a brief interest in the Marines, he has long dreamed of becoming a teacher and helping his community by doing something posi-tive for society. In college, he discovered an academic passion that correlated with his desire to serve his community: mathematics. After attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied pure mathematics, Dahlberg obtained his Master’s Degree of Education at DePaul Univeristy in Chicago. After student teaching and teaching at a number of schools, Dahlberg was offered a position this year in Northside’s Mathemat-ics Department to teach AB and Multivari-able Calculus.

According to Ms. Martha Mulligan, Math Department Chair, Mr. Dahlberg’s course load does not include the traditional Inte-grated Mathematics Program courses offered at Northside because he has not undergone the proper preparation.

“New teachers are usually placed to teach levels and types of classes they feel most comfortable with, and IMP is something that requires some preparation,” Mulligan said.

Unlike many new teachers, Dahlberg’s classes are mainly comprised of Northside’s upperclassmen. However, this had very little effect on his teaching and overall adjustment.

“I am still feeling it out day-by-day, but I really like all of my classes and my students this year,” Dahlberg said.

According to Emily Hohenstein, Adv. 700, Mr. Dahlberg has added additional amusement to the Mathematics Depart-ment because his quirky behavior adds to his lesson plans. “He is able to still convey a deep knowledge of calculus, other fields of mathematics, and even physics while uninten-tionally making the class laugh,” Hohenstein said.

Additionally, because AB and Multivari-able Calculus are not IMP courses, the frame-work is less defined. This leaves room for a varied lesson plan, as opposed to incorporat-ing mathematical knowledge into a cohesive

story or IMP unit.“Teaching calculus is actually somewhere

in-between teaching a regular mathematics course and an IMP course in that, like IMP, I can fuse together mathematical concepts with real life situations, as calculus is based on principles of physics,” Dahlberg said.

“I am in his AB Calculus class and I real-ly like it because of its relation to physics and Mr. Dahlberg knows both subjects extremely well,” Andrew Hastings, Adv. 708, said.

“Considering that he teaches one of the higher levels of math at Northside that isn’t like IMP, he does a good job of compensating for what we didn’t know previously,” Patricia Mazur, Adv. 701, said. “He teaches us some more advanced principles of algebra and more difficult concepts.”

Northside differs greatly from the other schools where Mr. Dahlberg taught. Al-though he would willingly teach anywhere where he could make a difference, Dahlberg enjoys Northside’s math students.

“He is a very bright, talented mathemati-cian and is so enthusiastic about his job of teaching calculus,” Mulligan said.

“You can really tell that Mr. Dahlberg enjoys his job because he will spend as long as he needs to on a single problem, without getting bored or annoyed, until there are no questions left,” Charisse Eschmann, Adv. 700, said.

Eschmann says she recalls innovative attempts on Mr. Dahlberg’s part to teach calculus. According to Eschmann, the most popular of these would be the “Math Game,” an activity that requires the students to com-pete to solve math problems in preparation for upcoming exams.

“Well, there’s the ‘Math Game,’ and then there’s random anecdotal bursts during class that are all extremely funny but still allow us to focus on our ‘Do Now,’ the problem we do at the beginning of class.” Maggie O’Connell, Adv. 807, said.

“Mr. Dahlberg’s unique teaching style and classroom personality have made him the talk of the school,” Benjamin Ortiz, Adv. 702, said.

“I really like teaching here and I’m just taking it step by step and trying new things out and definitely hope to continue to do so,” Dahlberg said.

Integrating at NorthsideCalculus teacher Mr. Dahlberg gets to know the school

Dahlberg practices his chess skills after school.Photo by Aliy Markowski

by Kana YooStudents from Mr. Timothy

Devine’s AP Government and Poli-tics course loaded onto a big yellow bus on Wednesday, March 28th to travel to the law offices of Mayer, Brown, Rowe, and Maw, located at 71 S. Wacker Drive. After months of working with the Supreme Court case, Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS) vs. the Seattle School District, students were able to meet Maree Sneed, who drafted the Supreme Court brief for Seattle.

The case of PICS vs. Seattle deals with the issue of whether using race as a factor in noncom-petitive, public school enrollment is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amend-ment. In order to win, the Seattle side would need to convince the Justices that the Seattle School District Plan passes strict scrutiny, meaning that it has a compelling state interest, and is narrowly tailored.

Ms. Sneed reviewed with the students what the general issues were of the case, and also answered specific questions, like how the 15 percent range was developed for de-termining balanced racial composi-tion. She flew in from Washington, D.C. for the sole reason of meeting the students.

“Because she was a former teacher and principal, she was very interested in schools and consid-ered this event as part of educating everybody about the importance of this issue,” said Ms. Pat Sharkey, attorney, who helped coordinate the event.

Following Ms. Sneed was a friend of hers, Therese Obringer, a former civil rights lawyer. Ms. Ob-ringer attended the oral arguments, which took place on December 4, 2006. According to her description, crowds of people, mostly those supporting affirmative action, stood outside the Supreme Court build-ing. Inside the courtroom, the Jus-tices continually fired questions at the attorneys. Ms. Obringer stated that it seemed like the Justices were using the lawyers to argue amongst themselves.

“I had always thought of the Supreme Court Justices as these towering, majestic people, but [Ms. Obringer’s] re-telling of her experience there made them into human beings in my mind,” Andrew Foertsch Jans, Adv. 707, said. “Like hearing about Justice Scalia’s mannerisms with his chair.”

The third speaker was Sherry Thornton Pierce, for-mer lead counsel for Chicago Public Schools under the CPS Federal Desegregation Consent Order.

“The fact that we got her to come was great because we got to see how this affected institu-tions we are familiar with and how it’s not just a theoretical thing,” Tholin said. “It means a lot to regular people.”

Under the Consent Decree, CPS uses race-based lotter-ies for magnet and selective school admissions, and in compensatory program fund-

ing to “racially identifiable” (80% or more minority) schools. Many other school districts use race as well. If the Supreme Court decision were to rule against Seattle, school districts across the nation would need to revise their plans.

“I knew a few facts about the PICS case, but the meeting put them into a better context for me. I learned how the case affects real life,” said Alex Poniecki, Adv. 804,

who defended Harris in the other Supreme Court case AP Govern-ment students worked on, Scott v. Harris.

This unique experience was made possible through connec-tions that Northside parents had. Northside parents Melissa Reardon Henry and Maryanne Hayes volun-teered to work with student groups in the Constitutional Law Program. The former, a CPS attorney, invited

Sherri Thornton for the panel discussion, and the latter is a friend of Ms. Therese Obringer, who then contacted Ms. Sneed.

“It was wonderful to be able to talk to someone who was directly involved in the case that many of us had been studying for four months,” Robin Tholin, Adv. 801, said.

The Fourteenth Amendment comes closer to homeAP Gov students attend a panel discussion

AP Government students volunteer to answer Ms. Sneed’s questions at the “PICS v. Seattle” panel discussion.Photo by Kana Yoo

Page 14 Sports The Hoof Beat

Women’s cheerleadingContinued from back page.

“They were alright, but I guess good enough to win first,” Conor Camp, Adv. 800, said.

The squad also participated in the Chi-cago Twister Challenge Competition. Twister was a private competition with all different types of squads: Chicago, suburban, all-star, and private high school squads.

Northside competed in the smallest divi-

sion (20 and under). The two schools that they were up against were George Washing-ton High School and Mather High School.

Northside finished first, followed by George Washington, and then Mather.

Senior Captain Jill Swanson also com-peted in a jump competition at Twister, and she placed first.

“It was exciting that Jill was able to do

so well in the jump competition because she was competing against all-star girls,” Barbara Battaglia, Adv. 805, said.

After finishing this year on top, the squad is hopeful for next year.

“Next year, we’re not sure if our coach is coming back. However I think our squad has definitely improved over the past year, and we have all learned a lot so hopefully we can

only do better next year, Barbara Battaglia said. We are losing a lot of important people next year like our two senior captains and the four other seniors, but we are hoping for the best.”

“I have faith in the girls to continue to succeed next year even after the seniors graduate,” Co- Senior Captain Jenna Wit-kowski said.

by Andrea Ljevar On March 21st, Northside held its annual

Cubby Walk Pep Rally to get students excited about fundraising for the school and earning a free ticket to come watch the Cubs play on May 4th against the Washington Nationals. This year the Science Department and the 2007 City Champion Cheerleaders and Pom-Pons teams served as the main attractions for the rally.

The Science Department, sporting white lab coats, walked out onto the center of the gymnasium first. Mr. Michael Coy, Science Department Chair, felt that it was their time to “step up” and help the school.

“Last year, the Math Department did a great little dance skit that the students really seemed to enjoy,” Coy said. “That got them off the hook for this year, so somebody else had to step up. When Mrs. Murray asked us, we couldn’t say no, could we?”

Coy says that the event is about fundrais-ing for the school.

“We are under-funded by the board, and at some point, everybody needs to do what they can to help out,” Coy said. “If making fools of ourselves for five minutes helps get the students motivated for a fundraiser, then it’s a no-brainer. We’re game.”

After getting the students excited, Dr. Ana-Maria Vites and Mr. Steve Arnam took the stage, equipped with safety gear, bal-loons, and a lighter. As Mr. Arnam held the balloons, Dr. Vites put a lighter to them. The balloons popped, spraying what appeared to be water. Students were a bit uncertain of what was going on.

“At first I was confused because I didn’t know what they were going to do,” Geoffrey

Gould, Adv. 014, said.Originally the balloons were

to be filled with hydrogen and oxygen. When put under the fire, they would have made a loud popping noise that would resonate in the whole gymnasium. Since the Science Department did not have hydrogen or oxygen they used methanol. Under optimum conditions, flames would have dripped from the balloon and quickly disappeared. This did not happen, leaving students puzzled. But what followed soon after led to a gigantic uproar.

Mr. Coy walked out with a bed of nails and set it on the gymna-sium floor. He then proceeded to lay on the board, and allowed Mr. Johan Tabora to place another board loaded with cement bricks on his abdomen. Mr. Tabora pulled out an axe shortly after, making the crowd go wild. The gymnasium erupted with excitement when Zachary Rivera, Adv. 708, rushed out from the stands as soon as volunteers were requested.

“The bed-of-nails was a lot of fun,” Coy said. “Mr. Tabora was hilarious in building the tension. As I was lying there on the nails, I could hear the students getting very worked up. That was exactly what we wanted.”

Coy says the crowd went crazy when Zach Rivera came out to swing at Mr. Coy with the axe.

“It was perfect,” Coy said. “Except he

swung pretty hard, and that actually hurt just a little bit. But you have to suffer for your art, right? No harm done.”

The 2007 City Championship Cheer-leader and Pom-Pons teams performed after the Science Department’s display. Each team performed its own routine, but the two squads closed the performance together. They then spread out to the four different classes, seated

in separate sections, and helped Mr. Jeff Solin

of the Computer Science Department with the next activity. While Mr. Solin beat out a rhythm on a drum set, each of the classes got a chance to cheer, “Cubbies, Cubbies, they’re our team, we’re the [class name] hear us scream!” The class demonstrating the most volume and spirit was tossed candy or plastic balls. As screams echoed the gymnasium, it was difficult to tell who had the most class

pride as each class believed they had the most spirit. Mr. Solin kept the spirit go-ing with his double-jointed limbs as he helped the students spell out Cubs. Mr. Solin’s MC skills were a favorite of many, including himself.

“Based on the unbe-lievable performance of the MC, it was a complete success,” Mr. Solin said “They should have that guy MC everything at North-side....like lunch and tardy swipes.”

Mr. Solin encouraged students to raise at least $50, which in term would earn them a free ticket to go and watch a Cubs game. Raising money for the school comes with many prizes. For the students who bring in the most money, prizes include: the Cubby Star parking spot, clothing store certificates, locker pri-ority, first-pick colloquium and double or triple print audit.

The Cubby Walk Pep Rally served as a reminder that the actual Cubby Walk is soon approaching. Students were given manila envelopes in advisory con-taining information about Cubby Walk, the permis-sions slip and the fundrais-ing form. Cubby Walk will take place on Friday, May 4th, when Dr. Lalley will throw the first pitch at Wrigley Field.

Cubbies, Cubbies, they’re our team!Pep rally preps students for Cubby Walk

The senior class is loud and proud during the spirit competition.Photo by Kana Yoo

Mr. Coy lays beneath a bed of nails as Mr. Tobora gets ready to strike him with the axe.Photo by Kana Yoo

March 2007 Sports Page 15 Page 14 Sports The Hoof Beat

by Mohammad KhaleelullahThe IHSA Playoffs kicked off February

26, 2006 and continued through March. Northside was placed in the Niles North sectional, ranked at 12.

First up was Sullivan High School, ranked 21st in the Northside regional. Northside got off to a good start, taking a lead into the first half.

“We had great play from our players in the first half,” Saif Rahman, Adv. 806, said. “We even came out strong in the third going up by 17. But our execution began to suffer and we let them back in the game.”

Northside’s wobbly play in the fourth quarter allowed the Sullivan Tigers to get back in the game and tie at the end of regu-lation, forcing overtime. The teams traded baskets in overtime, and once again near the end of regulation the scored tied at 75 with seconds to go in the game. Northside gave the ball to sophomore John Kinsler, Adv. 907, who beat his defender off the dribble and was able to put up a shot before the buzzer. The basket scored gave the Mustangs a buzzer-beating victory 77-75.

“It was amazing,” Ikram Khan, Adv. 800, said, talking about the game winning shot. “You always envision those types of big game moments. The best part was we were on the winning side.”

Kinsler scored 17 points and starting forward Mackenzie Rivers, Adv. 806, added 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The vic-tory allowed them to advance and play Senn High School.

Next up was fifth ranked Senn High School. Northside got off to a terrible start turning the ball over eight times out of their first nine possessions. Things only got worse from there. The Bulldogs were just too much for the Mustangs as they outscored them in the first quarter 20-4.

“We just did not hit any of our shots,” Munir Ahamed, Adv. 709, senior, said. He also offered a prediction for next year. “It’s sad, but next year it’s basically the same team. They should win conference.”

Again in the second quarter

Northside was outscored 26-15 as Senn went on a 10-1 run in the middle of the quarter. 6’7 center for the Bulldogs, Byron Pickens, showed off his skills by dunking four points, including an alley-oop from teammate Jeramiah Moore on a breakaway. Pickens finished with 14 points.

Kinsler came alive in the second half

of the game scoring 28 of his game high 32 points, including 13 straight for the Mustangs in the third and fourth quarter. Mackenzie Rivers added 15 points and eight rebounds in the loss.

“The way Kinsler took over the game in the second half was amazing,” Joseph Kani-kanal, Adv. 807, said. “If he and the rest of

the team just played like that in the first half, we would have had a chance.”

But the Mustangs could not overcome a 36-point deficit.

With the 86-65 loss, Northside was eliminated from the tournament.

Thrilling victory, humbling defeatIHSA State Playoffs

Mustangs get ready to take the rebound at one of their last home games.Photo by Mohammad Khaleelullah

by Aliy MarkowskiNorthside’s Men’s Varsity

Baseball Team started out with a bang this spring, winning their first game against Quigley High School by slaughter rule and defeating Steinmetz 9-1 in game two.

“The first two games have been

full of success,” Emanuel Rios, Adv. 701, said. “We won the first game by a landslide even though it was basically our first time hitting outside with live pitching. Our second game was against a little better of a team, but we still came out strong and had a great game

defensively and offensively.” Slaughter rule means the score

stops being recorded if one team is winning by at least 10 runs after five innings. The Mustangs beat Quigley 23-2.

“Our team is comprised of ma-jor-league talent, ranging from Pe-ter Paramadilok to Jonathan Rios,” Elliot Rembert, Adv. 704, said.

Rembert says the Mustangs have high hopes for the rest of the season.

“We have not only created a goal of winning city, but also whole-heartedly expect to compete for and a capture a state title,” Rembert said.

The team has had a hard time preparing for the opening games this year because of the poor weather, Emanuel Rios said.

“We have relied a lot on work-ing on proper mechanics,” Rios said.

But Rios says this year practices have been more effective for varsity players since the sophomore team is now coached by Ed Cox, so coaches Doc Kusch, Eric Wicklund, and Robert Berry can focus solely on varsity.

“We are able to get a lot more done by practicing separately,” Rios said. “We still have an issue with not having a home field, but we are working on finding a place closer to Northside.”

Much of Northside’s success in the second game was due to the pitching skills of Tito Garza, Adv. 703, Rios said.

“Tito threw most of the game against Steinmetz,” Rios said. “He has really

improved and is now a dominant pitcher.”

Garza, who says he’s 90 percent sure he will be playing baseball at Concordia University next year, says he thinks the chemistry between the players will lead to a successful season.

“I think as a team we're going to mesh really well this year,” Gar-za said. “A lot of us have played for four years together, and it seems like this year we can pull something great together.”

Garza says he wasn’t surprised the Mustangs won the first two games so easily.

“The start of the season is always pretty good,” Garza said. “We tend to have a weaker sched-ule to start off with.”

But Garza says he still thinks the team will increase their number of wins this season.

“Last year we won over 20 games and this year we definitely

look to improve on that,” Garza said.

Rios agrees.“Compared to last year, I

would say the team is much bet-ter,” Emanuel Rios said. “We lost a little power in our lineup but gained a lot defensively. The team doesn’t hit the ball as far as we did last year with seniors like Michael Burke and Michael Kennedy, but in the field we’re much better with Rob ‘Baby K’ Kennedy and Jorge Saldarriaga.”

Rios seconds Rembert’s claim that the Mustangs have a shot at winning city.

“Once everyone is fully healthy we will have a great team for city,” Rios said.

The Mustangs take on North-town High School April 9th and continue their season throughout the rest of April and the beginning of May.

Mustangs swing for City this year

Jorge Saldarriaga, Adv. 811, takes his base to watch the next pitch.Photo by Geethi Abraham

Men’s Varsity Baseball season begins

by Geethi AbrahamWeeks of preparation finally paid off for

Northside’s cheerleaders when they finished first at the annual city championship com-petition. The squad of twelve competed in the smallest division (12 or fewer). The team had held try-outs to select members from the school team that wanted to compete.

Northside competed against fourteen other Chicago Public high schools including Mather, Roosevelt, Kelly, Whitney Young, and Marie Curie High school. The squad was most concerned about competition from Roosevelt.

“Roosevelt High School won city champi-

onships last year. Their performance was very clean in terms of coordination and synchron-icity, but the difficulty level was not that high. Because of that, we tried to make sure that we were very clean this year. The routine was difficult as well however, so we hoped that, that would give us an advantage,” co- senior captain Jill Swanson, Adv. 702, said.

The Mustangs worked hard to correct their short falling from last year.

“Last year we had a gap where there was no coach, and the current coach stepped in right before city championships last year. She did what she could, but she came in late so was at a disadvantage in training the girls,”

Swanson said. “We were able to put together a fairly difficult routine, but we were not that coordinated, so we didn’t place in the top three.”

Despite the squad’s hard work and intense preparation, there were still some unexpect-ed drawbacks that the squad had to work through.

“We had a situation where one of our Captains, Jenna Witkowski, Adv. 705, had hurt her back during the week prior to competition and so Nikki Duarte, Adv. 701, had to step in and serve as an alternate,” Swanson said. “We were really nervous as to how well we would be able to coordinate with such a major last minute change, but it all worked out in the end.”

The Mustang girls were filled with excitement as the judges announced them city champions.

“I cried like a baby!” Junior Captain Tatiana Karpouzian, Adv. 801, said. “A lot of the other schools were rooting against Northside winning, and it felt so great when we were able to prove them all wrong.

We worked extremely hard, and I think all the girls really

deserved this win.” “As a senior having been on the squad

for four years, I was really happy to end off this year as city champions. I think overall as a squad we have definitely improved and are starting to slowing gain more respect,” Swan-son, Adv. 702, said.

Mustang supporters joined in their excite-ment.

“The girls rocked it out,” former cheer-leader Ben Ortiz, Adv. 702, said. “I am proud of them all.”

Page 16 Sports The Hoof Beat

No Mo’, Ali or Nothing

by Mohammad Khaleelullah and Shawn Ali

After another early exit in the IHSA State Tournament, Northside’s Men’s Basketball Team finds itself again in the lowly blue division for next season. The Mustangs always seem to find a way to win games against a few of the poorer basket-ball programs but can never compete in games against high schools that sport even a somewhat decent team.

Northside is known across the city and state, and even nationally recognized as an institute with great academics and high test scoring achievers. Yes, we came in first in the state, again beating out Pay-ton and Young high schools. But beyond this, Northside still lacks a real identity to outside schools. When Northside is men-tioned, most people think, “Oh yeah that school’s full of nerds.” Are we just a school full of nerds? How do we change this im-age? I suggest we change this by building one of the finest basketball programs in the city.

We all know Northside hasn’t been capable of sporting a football team, so why not put all of our effort in creating a daunt-ing basketball program? Northside does have some good athletics like our swim-ming, softball, and baseball teams. But what sport would most give our school an identity to outside schools? Basketball.

How do we build this program that I

envision? One word: recruiting. We grant admission to Northside College Prep to a few of the top eighth graders in the city. Two to three athletes can come in, com-pete, and add some more depth and com-petitiveness to our program. These players would help us compete with some of the best programs in the city and maybe even make some noise in the state tournament.

Now, you’re probably thinking that this isn’t fair to the rest of the school or to the recruited 8th graders, as they would not be able to compete at Northside academically. I am sure Northside can afford to grant two or three spots to these recruits, as it really won’t take anything from the rest of the school. Let’s grant admission to a few students who have a decent academic re-cord and could compete at Northside. This would in no way take a toll on Northside’s academic record or even test scores.

For instance, every year New Trier is able to make quite a bit of noise with their basketball program, as they beat our girl’s basketball team in the regional champion-ship (a few years in a row now; sorry girls). Not only that, New Trier’s Men’s Basket-ball Team is able to compete and even win games against some of the best teams in the city and state. Yet, New Trier is ranked fourth in the state behind Northside, Pay-ton, and Young. This is a perfect example of a great basketball program and strong academia coinciding with each other. If we can have the best of both worlds, why not go after it?

Let’s shake things up and have people talk about us for having the best team in the city and the smartest students.

Have suggestions or comments? Email hoofbeat.sports@gmail.com and be fea-tured in the Hoofbeat.

Shake things up

Cheer victoryNorthside Cheerleading Squad wins City

Northside’s Varsity Cheerleaders perform to take first place at Chicago Twisters Competition.Photo by Geeth Abraham

Keeping the tradition aliveNorthside Poms Squad takes first again

Northside’s Pom’s Squad wins City.Photo by Geethi Abraham

by Geethi AbrahamFor the second year in a

row, the Northside Varsity Pom Pon Squad secured the title of city champions. The squad placed first at the 2007 City Champion-ship Competition. The girls competed against nine other Chicago Public High School squads. With a squad of 12, the girls competed in the smallest division.

“We encouraged all the girls on the Poms squad to come out and compete, but some could not make it because of other obliga-tions,” Co-Captain Kristina Mascarenas, Adv. 806, said.

The squad had been fine-tuning their routine since December.

“The routine was less hip-hop than previous years,” Katherine Rivera, Adv. 706, said. “The routine had a lot more traditional Poms moves.”

Despite the girls’ thor-ough preparation, they still ran into some unexpected drawbacks on competition day.

“Our biggest concern before-hand was the music,” said Mascarenas. “When we arrived, the judges said that tiny single words in the music were not ac-ceptable. We had words like ‘oh’ and ‘yeah’ in our music so Ms. Mulligan ended up turning the volume down every time there were words like that. This made some girls lose count, but even with that mishap all the girls

preformed really well.”The Mustang girls were filled

with excitement as the judges named them City Champions.

“When the judges called Northside Prep for first, I was completely shocked!” Mary Koh, Adv. 705, said. “We all thought that having to turn the music on and off would totally eliminate our chances of winning.”

“It was so cool!” Katherine Rivera, Adv. 706, said. “It was my first and last year on Poms, and I’m a champ!”

“The girls were great, even though I didn’t get to see much of it,” Coach Martha Mulligan said.

Now the girls look forward to another successful season next year.

“I’m really sad that it is over,

but we had a great season,” Cap-tain Stephanie Arias, Adv.703, said. “I’m completely confident that Kai is well-prepared to do a great job as Captain next year.”

“I am really proud of all the girls, and I am really excited about next year,” Mascarenas said.

Continued as “Women’s cheerleading” on pg. 14