A publication of Douglas Southall FreemanHigh School, Henrico, Virginia 23229

Vol. 60, No. 3 December 2012

Commentator the

In this issue:

News: Is Regency Safe? (2)

Opinions: Mayan Cal-endar (3)

Features: Mrs. Man-ning (5)

Center Spread: New Years Resolutions (6-7)

Sports: Off-season workouts (9)

A&E: Burger Bach (12)

Honors and Awards

Outstanding Delegate for UVA Model UN Conference:Peter BrodzikMcLain FaettAustin Miller

State Latin ConventionSecond Place in Latin Oratory:Simone Stein

First place in Virginia Counicil on Economic Education:Steven Zanetti, Social Studies teacher

their job each day and feels great about the direction the show is going. “It’s more technologically advanced,” said Munni. “Mr. C is a wonderful teacher,” said Ariana, “he is pushing us to do more…and is good at teach-ing us how to use the equipment and work together; we are trying stuff that they wouldn’t even try before.” When first starting out on the show, all of the members admit-ted it was a little nerve-wracking to be on camera, but they all seem to enjoy different aspects of it. “I like it,” said Caroline, “It’s different because as an anchor you don’t see yourself except in the monitor so you can’t see ev-eryone’s reactions or anything.” Others get their own celebrity moment when students will ap-proach them in the halls and talk about the show. “People come up to you, and they’re like ‘I saw you on the show,’ and you know people are actually watching. It’s very satis-fying,” said Ariana. Some of the staff members, including Ariana and Caroline, enjoy working in the studio so much that they would consider something along similar lines as

Gabe HauariStaff Writer

The morning announcements have gotten a face lift. Under Freeman’s new photography teacher Jason Ciaschi, or more commonly called “Mr. C.,” there has been a new energy brought into the daily announcement team, with the formation of a Freeman High School “Morning Show.” In past years, teachers seldom made airing the morning an-nouncements a priority, with some students unaware that they were even being broadcasted across the school. However, the morning show staff is putting their best foot forward to make it more inviting and student-ori-entated. A typical day on the morning show can be described in two words: chaotic and exciting. Af-ter taking care of everything for the show they just “hope that everything works properly,” said staff member and senior Ariana Taylor, “It’s definitely a learning process.” There are nine people on the show’s staff who arrive at the studio by 8:15 a.m. to turn on all of the equipment and make sure the teleprompter is ready with the morning’s announcements. “The news casting is pretty much off the cuff,” said Mr. C. referring to the fact that the an-chors have such little time to learn the information. With only 30 minutes to as-sign positions, practice a couple run-throughs, and then have the director make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing, they manage to get ev-erything done on time. The staff has encountered a few issues with technology. Having previously been using the eMacs, the staff switched over to their Dells to work on the introduc-

tion in particular, but they hope the school will place an order for new iMacs to use instead. Staff member and sophomore, Caroline Forrest mentioned that they have also started to use Google Docs where the teacher submits the announcements, so they can have a bit more time to familiarize themselves with the script. “There are about seven roles,” said staff member and junior Munni Pramanik. “You need someone taking care of the sound board, the video board, the teleprompter, the introduc-tion, a camera man, the two anchors, and a director; jobs are always rotating.” Mr. C puts a strong empha-sis on student involvement and making sure that everyone is familiar with the processes for each position, so if a staff mem-ber is not there, they can still run the show smoothly. At the end of each broadcast, the crew gets to-gether to critique each other and talk about how they think they did, figuring out how to better their performance for the next morning With the show started only a little over a month ago, there are still some kinks to work out, but Mr. C has loads of fresh ideas. Along with more stu-dent involvement, like the past “Favorite Faculty Dance” poll, one hope of his is to report the weather with the studio’s green screen, and have someone actu-ally announce the forecasts for the week. “He’s really serious about covering all of the games,” said Caroline. This ties in with Mr. C’s idea to have a separate news desk where an anchor would re-port on recent school events. “A student would go to a game and make a ‘highlights’ video and talk about what happened,” he said. The staff is well enthused for

a career. “I’ve considered it,” said Car-oline “I really enjoy using the cameras...it would be interest-ing.” It’s unanimous that the major-ity of the support for the show is coming from the school faculty, while the student body is less en-thusiastic. Senior Christina Loper doesn’t see that much of a change be-tween the old and new shows. “I would make it more recent and entertaining, for example they keep showing the same clips in the beginning,” said Christina. There are students who are ex-cited about it though. Both Caro-line and Ariana mentioned that people will give them advice, or tell them parts of the show to change somehow, giving a direct source of feedback. “We still have a long way to go,” said Munni, however the new morning show added some-thing unique to the beginning of everyone’s day. As for those who are considering joining it’s staff, Mr. C welcomes all who are gen-uinely interested to come to the studio in the morning and get a feel for the equipment.

Mary PraughtStaff Writer

Extreme morning show makeover

This year the Henrico Christ-mas mother collected more canned goods than would fit in Santa’s sleigh. On Dec. 3, Free-man students collected 30,771 cans filling the foyer of the gym with donations. The Christmas Mother is an organization designed to help those in need during the holi-days. According to their web-site, the non-profit organization, which helps low income families with children, qualifying seniors, and adults with disabilities, origi-nated in 1942 when George Nel-son, a Henrico County teacher, asked students to fill Christmas baskets with food for local fami-lies in need. Since, Henrico County schools have held canned food drives to donate to the Christmas Mother before the holiday break. This year, the SCA and the adminis-

tration surprised the faculty by suggesting that teachers provide an incentive for students who do-nate cans. “The extra credit was involved to increase student participation as much as possible,” said Sam Peterson, Spanish teacher. “We’ve been very successful in my six years as principal, but mostly because of the focus on a few teachers. We wanted to get more teachers involved,” said Anne Poates, principal. There was some debate about whether offering extra credit was the right thing to do. Art teacher Rebecca Field decided not to of-fer her students any extra credit. “I didn’t think it was morally right,” she said. Mrs. Field points to her favorite quote from Elie Wiesel which she has hanging in her classroom, “’There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.’” Despite not offering any extra credit, her classes still gathered

72 cans. “I wanted to teach my students that charity should be selfless,” said Mrs. Field. Some students admitted that paying for cans in exchange for extra credit was unfair. Junior Madi Murphy partici-pated in the drive, but had to weigh the incentive against the cost of the cans. “I only brought 35 cans because it cost a lot of money, and I had to go into my savings account to buy cans” Madi said. She elaborated: “There were other classes that I could have gotten extra credit for, but I had to choose which classes [in which] I needed it the most be-cause I calculated that it would have cost me an extra $10 to 20 to get the extra credit.” Madi also said some rewards seemed more fair such as the ability to use notes on a quiz in exchange for 5 cans instead of offering points towards a quiz or test average with no maximum. “It upset me because some of

Students collect cans for a cause

those people could afford it, and some people didn’t need the ex-tra credit, and I thought it was re-ally unfair that some people that couldn’t afford it couldn’t get the extra credit if they needed it” she said. Junior Aljia Jusic agreed. “It’s pretty much paying for ex-tra credit,” he said. Other students benefitted and enjoyed being offered the extra credit. “It’s a good idea to offer the ex-tra credit in order to get students involved,” said freshman Abedin Dzamdzic. Some teachers felt pressure to offer credit, while still maintain-ing the spirit of charity. “I really don’t like to offer extra credit, but I’m ok with it because it’s a great cause,” said Richard Timme, math teacher. The teacher who collected the most cans was Rob Peck, social studies teacher, with a grand to-tal of 5,070. He’s been crowned the winner of the canned food drive 8 of the last 10 years. “I’ve been successful with it in

PHOTO: LEAH MARTINStudents directing the morning announcements behind the scenes.

The collection of 30,771 cans from Freeman students sitting in the Big Gym foyer.

Left: Senior Mikel Hana carries Mr. Fabian’s cans from his second period into the big gym on collection day.

Below: Students from Mr. Fabian’s 1st period help load cans.

PHOTO:LEAH MARTIN

the past, so my students are now self-motivated to win in order to maintain the tradition,” said Mr. Peck. Seniors Ryan Densley and Lau-ren Marshall collected money from their fellow classmates and purchased 716 cans. “Mr. Peck is really good at persuading people to do some-thing. Our incentive was the fact that we didn’t want to be the first group of seniors to not get Mr. Peck the win,” said Ryan. “Incentives are not a bad thing,” said Mr. Peck. “We need to be careful to make equity of opportunity and make the incen-tive appropriate to the activity,” he added. While Mr. Peck’s class brought the most cans, many Freeman students believe the real winners are the recipients of the dona-tions. “I hope that people take away a lesson in selflessness and char-ity instead of simply remember-ing they received extra credit for their donations,” said Señor Pe-terson.

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

PHOTO: CHELSEA GLOWACKI

PHOTO: CHELSEA GLOWACKI

Proposed calendar change may cause homework on Labor DaySchool starting and ending later next year at Freeman? 2 News

Hannah GemmellStaff Writer

A silence fell over the gym as students gathered for second Rachel’s Challenge Program on Nov. 27, called Rachel’s Legacy. The PTSA discovered the Ra-chel’s Challenge program after a Hanover High School presenta-tion several years ago. It was fea-tured in Richmond Times Dis-patch and at the Virginia PTA convention. Cheryl Pacious, PTSA parent and mother of sophomore Gen-evieve Pacious, initially introu-

duced the idea to Freeman PTA. “What we experienced ener-gized us to think about bringing the program to Freeman as our children moved to high school,” said Mrs. Pacious. “The PTSA hopes the students were inspired and encouraged to love each other unconditionally, despite all of our differences and frailties,” she said. Rachel Scott was the first vic-tim of the Columbine Shootings on Apr. 20, 1999. Although she died, her legacy lives on through this program run by her parents. “Rachel’s story encourages every person to understand that they have the power to make

a permanent, positive, cultural change in their schools and com-munities by accepting the chal-lenge to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion,” said Mrs. Pacious. The program presented five challenges: Leave a Legacy of Kindness, Show Compassion, Practice Pre-Acceptance not Pre-Judice, Learn from your Mistakes, and Forgive Yourself and Others. Rachel “went out of her way to show a little kindness” said Tor-ski Dobson-Arnold, the present-er, and she encourages students to do the same. “It made me want to be a better

person and have more compas-sion for others,” said sophomore Will Singleton. Fellow student, freshman Abby Donelson said, “I thought it was really intense and really inspiring too.” Despite much positive feedback from students and faculty, some had differing opinions. Seniors Tuscon Vanloo and Ci-ara Heslope felt that “it should be more about the message and less about Rachel herself.” Junior Danny Rios said, “They only said stuff about Rachel and what she did, and they barely mentioned anyone else that died that day.” Junior Haley Ferguson said, “The drama took away from the message.” Sophomore Jack McCall felt similarly saying, “I understand that it is a good cause and has helped a lot of people, but some of the parts of the story are a little grey.” However, an avid member of the Friends of Rachel (FOR) club, junior Emily Self said, “We don’t have to be exactly like Rachel to make a difference. Hopefully Rachel’s acts of kind-ness will inspire others to do the same.” After the Rachel’s Legacy program, there was a FOR club training session for students in-terested in joining the club. In the session, students iden-

tified the type of bullying that occurs at Freeman and how to stop it. This year, the FOR club passed out flowers with inspira-tional messages, posted positive thoughts around the hallways, and thanked the custodians. “Our club tries to acknowl-edge that sometimes people need someone to express any form of kindness towards them. Bullies often feel as if they are ignored, and to gain the attention that they need, they bully,” Emily said. Bringing the Rachel’s Chal-lenge and Rachel’s Legacy pro-gram to Freeman cost the PTSA over $3,000. “It may cost the school a lot of money, but .... a life that presentation could have saved is priceless. While we may not see the direct influence Rachel’s Challenge had on our commu-nity, it may have changed people internally and that is worth every penny,” said sophomore Annie Goodman. “Everybody wants to be loved and accepted for who they are, in whatever challenges they face, and I feel the program puts a face on a person who was able to do this within her school and com-munity,” said Mrs. Pacious. Anyone interested in joining the FOR club can attend the meetings are in Mrs. Hunnicutt’s room, room 121, on the second Thursday of every month.

Rachel’s Challenge returns to Freeman

Taste testing reveals the student’s opinions Hannah Buckley

Staff Writer

The speaker talks to the student body about the legacy that Rachel Scott left, encouraging students to stand up to bullying.

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

Asher Thornton Staff Writer

To create healthier school lunches that are also tasty to stu-dents, Henrico County held taste tests at two high schools and one middle school. Ninety students were involved in the sampling of pizza and French fries. Henrico County School Nutri-tion Services explained the pur-pose of the testing: “Since pizza and French fries rank at the top of the list for the most popular foods for teenagers, we wanted to make sure our students had a voice in choosing their favor-ite products. Students are our customers and we want to of-fer foods they enjoy,” said Roni Wiedmann and Jamie Jerabek,

registered dietitians in HCPS. Teachers for Tomorrow stu-dents from Freeman were select-ed to sample the food items on Oct. 12 during first period in the cafeteria. “I decided that the Teachers for Tomorrow would be a good group since they are in a course that prepares them to work in schools. Additionally, I felt that they would approach this ma-turely as a class endeavor,” said Mrs. Poates. Louisa Mauck, junior, was in-volved in the food testing. “They would show us what each pizza looked like, and we would rate them on appearance. Then they gave us samples of each of the pizzas, and we rated them on the taste. Following that we did the same thing with the French fries,” Louisa said.

“They wanted us to think to ourselves, ‘did it look like it was going to be good? Would an av-erage student who buys school food want to eat this?’” Louisa said. Student feedback was posi-tive. The Teachers for Tomorrow students generally agreed that the food met the standard to be placed in school cafeterias. How-ever, two ways to improve the next taste test have been brought to attention.

“I think it’s a good idea that they are trying to make school lunches healthier to benefit the students but I think they should have had fewer options because it was overwhelming to be eating the same foods so many times,” said junior Ivana Jonjic. “It was a lot to take in; you could only eat a few bites be-cause there were so many sam-ples,” said senior Katherine Roundtree. “A change in the time of the testing would be beneficial; it was really early in the morning to be eating those types of food,” said junior Claire Luxton. Nutrition Services hold stu-dent feedback as a top priority when making changes to school menus. “We used the feedback and ratings from the taste testing

surveys to choose the top cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza and French fry. These products are now being tested in all of the high schools and eventually into middle and elementary schools. In order to get valuable student feedback, we are providing high school students with a survey on Thurs., Dec. 6,” said Ms. Wied-mann and Ms. Jerabek. In regards to changes Henrico County is attempting to make, Ms. Wiedmann and Ms. Jerabek said, “Henrico will be offering a wider variety of fruits and veg-etables, more whole grains, lean-er proteins, less fat and sodium all while staying within calorie, grain, and protein minimum and maximums. We still strive to provide a student driven menu and encourage student feedback to help us with this process.”

Students’ unlocked items at risk of being stolen

Freshman Destiny Garcia places her phone in her locker in the girl’s gym locker room.

During the first marking pe-riod of the school year, locker room thefts were the hot topic of conversation. Items were stolen from the locker rooms while stu-dents were at practice. Student valuables stolen in-cluded iPhones, wallets, cash, watches, and even speakers tak-en from the boys and girls cross country locker rooms as well as the JV and varsity football locker rooms. According to Campbell Hund-ley, school resource officer, there have been five reported thefts this school year. “I’ve heard of a lot of things being stolen, girls and boys, and I think that Freeman needs to do more to prevent people’s stuff from being stolen” said freshman Caroline Plashal.

While Caroline was at cross country practice, her iPhone 4s and $20 were stolen from her bag in the girls cross country locker room. Senior Malik Lawrence left his Droid unlocked in his locker during football practice this fall. He said that he didn’t lock his phone in the locker because the field doors are usually locked, and he didn’t think it would be taken. When he returned to the locker room, it was gone. “I don’t think it was anyone on the football team,” Malik said. Junior Sam O’Connor said that his watch was stolen from his bag in his locker, which he had locked in the cross country locker room. He said that it was returned to his locker days later. “Nobody reports their stuff getting stolen because they’re not going do anything about it. They won’t do anything until too many things are stolen,” said Sam.

Anne Poates, principal, said that it is difficult for the school to do very much when there is very little evidence to go on and no locks are broken. Officer Hundley also noted that the many student complaints in-volve unlocked posessions. Although there are lockers and lock space available for students, many students do not put locks on their lockers. According to Officer Hundley, none of the items reported stolen were se-cured in a locker. “We’ve never had any cases of items being stolen from a locked locker,” said Officer Hundley. Although this may seem like old news, students continue to forget to lock their lockers and end up paying a price. According to Mrs. Poates, ad-ministrators are working closely with the Physical Education teachers as well as students to piece together a report. “It’s everybody’s duty to help

protect the stuff in the school. If you see someone stealing, let someone know. Don’t wait for you to become the next victim,” said Officer Hundley. “Many of the arrests that are made here more often than not involve first offender juveniles or ones with no prior arrests. In these cases the court system han-dles them through Intake / Di-

version instead of a formal court hearing especially when the item has been recovered and returned to the victim. This may give the appearance that nothing is done since no court appearance for the victim is required. And due to juvenile laws, we cannot open-ly give out who is arrested and what punishment they receive,” Officer Hundley said.

Student witnesses gunshots at Regency Square MallRachel CobleStaff Writer

A shot was fired into the wall of the Regency restroom hallway directly next to the food court entrance on Oct. 8, causing two injuries and a sea of hysteria. The Regency Square Food Court was anything but orderly on that fall afternoon as custom-ers and employees chaotically ran in search of safety. Many employees, including Chick-fil-A employee at the regency loca-tion, junior Dzelila Mujcic, wit-nessed the event.

“When I heard the shots fired, I was handing someone their drink, and my manager told all of us to run to the back of Chick-fil-A, so that is where I took cov-er,” said Dzelila. Based on NBC 12’s account of the event, there were 20 to 30 people running for safety at the sound of the shot while individu-als on the other side of the mall had no idea what was going on. Secille Siverio, Marketing Man-ager of Regency Square mall, said that this was the first time that shots were fired at Regency. Although the shots didn’t di-rectly injure anyone, Dzelila said that she saw a woman get

pushed down by the suspect as he fled the building. The woman was injured, and the Chick-fil-A manager was the first to call 911. “I saw a bunch of people run out from that hallway in attempt to catch the suspect, but after 20 minutes my manager allowed his employees to go home if they felt too unsafe to work, so I called my mom and went home,” Dzel-ila said. Later that night, Dzelila tweet-ed, “6 police cars are at Regency. That gunshot sound has to be the scariest moment of my life.” Her tweet was later publicized on NBC 12 News. Dzelila said business has re-

sumed normally, and the mall has not lost customers since the shooting. For shoppers who are wary of returning to the mall, she also said there are more se-curity guards on the mall prem-ises than before the incident. Despite suffering from a hap-hazard shooting, Ms. Siverio said “Regency is absolutely a safe place for Freeman students to shop at!” Due to its unexpected nature though, the event poses the ques-tion of safety for Freeman stu-dents. Just as Campbell Hundley, school resource officer, always says “you can be safe in and un-

safe environment and unsafe in a safe environment.” Regency mall was an example of students being unsafe in a safe environment. For students to avoid similar unsafe situations, Officer Hund-ley offered a few recommenda-tions to practice while shopping. “Always be aware of your sur-roundings: do not have your face in your phone while walking, do not walk with both headphones in, park in an area where there are other cars and it is not dark, walk with confidence, put pack-ages in a trunk that is locked and covered, and never shop alone.”

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

They wanted us to think to ourselves, ‘did it look

like it was going to be good? Would an average student who buys school food want to eat this?’”

“ ”

The CommentatorVol 00, No.0 Date 2010 3Opinions

110° Over 37,000 cans of extra credit

90° New movies: “The Hobbit“and “Les Mis-erables”

70° Lewis Ginter Light Show

50° Christmas music before Thanksgiving: One holiday at a time 98.1!

30° Later Winter Break: not enough time to do holiday activities

-10° PDA: ew.

Hot or Not?

The Commentator Staff

Editors-In-Chief:Holly Fleming and Trent Singleton

Copy Editor:Johnny RebmanNews Editor:

Abby Wall and Micki CoorOpinions Editors:

Jackie Cilley, Matt Hedrick, Stephanie LugbillSports Editors:

Megan Bagli, Henry Cheney, Alex Caton, Alex JoynesSpecial Features Editors:

Kendall Gilman and Lizzie MossArts and Entertainment Editors:

Lacey Eubank and Jodie EhlersFeatures Editors:

Grant Brown, Anne Rusher, and Luke ParisPhoto Editors:

Chelsea Glowacki and Leah MartinDesign

Kirby Collett

Staff Writers:Kara Adams, Ayah Al-Zubeidi, Laura Anderson, Peter Barkey-

Bircann, Natalia Bell, Hannah Buckley, Rachel Coble, EJ Donelson, Eliza Duckworth, Cagan Friend, Lillian Gaerther, Hannah Gem-

mell, Jack Gerstenmaier, Hunter Gingras, Caroline Hann, Gabe Hay-an, Julia Henning, Tom Jacobs, Emmie Lacy, Alec Loughran, Mason

Loughran, Ellie Manspile, Madeline Slough, D. Graham Stephens, Matthew Stopkey, Mary-Kate Parkhurst, Mary Praught, Asher

Thorton, Sean Trent, Allison Turner, Janie West, Will Wintery, Mac Wood, Trent Young

Jackie CilleyOpinions Editor

Matt HederickOpinions Editor

Letter to the Editor:Student concerned over can drive

Dear Commentator: Like many others, the canned food drive was first brought to my atten-tion with the words “Ex-tra Credit” written on the board. I discovered that extra credit would be given for providing cans for the food drive. If five cans were brought in extra credit would be given, and if 10 cans were brought in even more would be awarded. I understood the essen-tial idea: the more cans brought in, the more free points that would be avail-able to us. It didn’t take more than a couple class changes for me to real-ize that every teacher had adopted the same require-ments, and if you were lucky, 15 cans for triple the original amount, or the equivalent of a test grade. The fact that every teach-er had adopted the same system was not a coinci-dence, and the teachers had been, as described by a faculty member, strongly encouraged to reward stu-dents this way. The next day, in first period, I stared again at the words written on the board, and for the first time saw them in a new light. I was going to be re-warded for the number of cans that I was economi-cally capable of providing. It didn’t matter how hard I worked in any of my classes; if I wasn’t ca-pable of providing cans, I would be at a disadvan-tage. While the opportu-nity was for a good cause, it was not at all an equal opportunity. What kind of message does that send to the near-ly 25 percent of Freeman students recieving reduced lunches? Their families may not have the luxury to buy 35 to 105 cans to bring in for extra credit. Last week Freeman sent a message to students that it did not matter how hard they worked in school; they’re economic instabil-ity was a factor in their education. They would not be given the same opportunities to succeed because of their family’s income level. It was as simple as that. But what

worried me the most was the unwillingness to ac-knowledge this concern. I raised my hand and said to my teacher, “In a way, isn’t this a little unfair? Aren’t we essentially buy-ing our grades?” Although I did not expect everyone in the room to agree with me. I expected neither the glares I received from my classmates, nor the blunt statements made towards me such as, “What are you thinking?”, “It’s okay to think that, but don’t say that out loud!”, and “Keep that to yourself.” Dysfunction occurs in every community. The key is how a community han-dles it’s dysfunction that speaks on behalf of that community’s ethics. If we are not constantly being encouraged to ac-knowledge dysfunction in our school, how will we learn to acknowledge dys-function in our own com-munities? To be capable of voicing our opinions productively is one of the most important skills a student, and citizen, can possess. I am overjoyed that the Christmas Mother Food Drive was so successful. The fact that Freeman alone raised over 37,000 cans is simply astonishing. However, we are now faced with questions. Did we raise enough cans to justify giving students who can afford to buy cans higher grades? Did we raise enough cans to justify creating an envi-ronment of unequal op-portunity, even for a week, where students’ economic class was obviously re-vealed? To what extent will we go to reach a goal, and what does this say about our community? In the end, I hope that the canned food drive can become a learning experi-ence for Freeman. I hope we may learn to succeed in a way that enables success to be shared by all in the community, regardless of financial situations. And most of all, I hope that we may learn that diverse views are opportunities for growth and improvement.Sarah Ashman

The Mayan calendar “ends” on Dec. 21 2012. Given that the Mayans were the sort of highly advanced and intelligent society that did not not make it past the year 900, it obviously makes sense that people 1100 years later would trust their pre-dictions. The case for impending doom is also supported by That Loud Girl Who Sits Behind You In English so you know it’s gotta be le-git. I personally have chosen to prepare for the fauxpo-calypse by creating a list of things I’d like to do before the scientifically guaranteed rapture:

1. Use only the center bathroomsAssuming you’ve decided to spend your last days within the hallowed halls of Douglas Southall Free-man, why not take advan-tage of the luxury of a private bathroom?

2. Eat fast food everydayIn order to stand a chance at surviving the coming rapture, you’re going to need to be in top physi-cal condition. The same scientist who informed us of the Mayan apocalypse also tipped me off that Chipotle is an extremely healthy meal. (There is no need to check the nutri-tion label, it’s science.) A burrito a day keeps impending doom away.

3. Go see “The Hobbit”The Hobbit: An Unex-pected Journey comes out on Dec. 14. The world ends on Dec. 21. This should give you enough time to watch the whole thing just about once.

Before we die...4. Celebrate the HolidaysI refuse to let four little days get in the way of the way of my cookies, carol-ing, and consumerism.

5. Avoid Cleveland Statistically speaking, 0 out of every 100 people in Cleveland are happy. If you live in Cleveland, the world ended for you years ago, when Lebron left. If you or any of your family members are there now, get out. I recommend you go to the happiest place you can find instead: Disneyland. 6. Go ice skatingThis is one of the many activities made much more difficult after be-coming a zombie. Or after dying.

7. Stop watching The History Channel You already have one apocalypse to worry about, is there any other reason to watch the His-tory Channel?

Is it a queen? A king?The royal wedding frenzy is being replaced by a royal baby mania

Forget the royal wed-ding, there’s a baby on the way. Prince William and the Duchess of Cam-bridge have officially an-nounced that they are ex-pecting. But why are we so excited? The real question is, who wouldn’t be excited?

1 . This is the first time in history that the gender of the baby does not mat-ter. Poor Prince Harry will never be king. This new kid will automati-cally be the new King or Queen of England after William. 2. It’s a baby. Everyone loves a good baby. 3. We now have a chance to make a new game! Make a competition with your friends to guess the baby’s name. If you need to entertain yourself in class, this can be your way to pass the time. 4. This baby is likely to be the most beautiful hu-man being ever. So, we need these few months

to prepare ourselves. I mean, just look at his/her parents. 5. We all saw the royal wedding, and how ex-travagant it was. Think about all the grand parties for this kid we get to look forward to seeing as well. 6. We get to see how Kate dresses to impress with her baby bump. We all know Kate is the lat-est fashion icon, but will she keep her cool? Let’s go ahead and answer that now; yes, yes she will. The Will and Kate ob-session isn’t going to just go away, and who knows, maybe someday we are going to be watching the new hit series Will and Kate Plus Eight.

4 Features

At a glance, Sylvia Richman does not seem to bear scars of the past. Her eyes are filled with kindness, her face wrinkled with a smile, yet despite her ap-pearance, she has lived through worse than many can imagine – the holocaust. The step-grandmother of soph-omore Gideon Kinnard, Sylvia was born in Krakow, Poland, just when WWII was about to be-gin. She recently came to Steven Payne’s period English class, which have been studying Night by Elie Wiesel, to share her story. At a young age Sylvia’s Jewish family was forced into a Lem-berg ghetto. “The neighborhood was very small, surrounded by barbed wire, and guarded entrances” Sylvia said. Just as Sylvia began to get ac-customed to Ghetto life, things began to change. “Soon my father got a construc-tion job, we later learned that he was building the very camp he would be imprisoned in, Janows-ka. My mother worked in the ghetto, making gloves and pocket

WIll WintoryStaff Writer

books for the German soldiers,” she said. Soon the Jews began to be rounded up, including Sylvia’s father. Sylvia and her mother hid with several other women and children in an attic. “I remember the attic that night. My mother had found us a place to hide, but it was very full. The others were angry with my mother, for bringing me. They were afraid that I would make noise, that I would give them away. I remember, she told me, if she ever tapped my hand, I must be quiet, it was very serious. In the end, it did not matter. We were found that night, but not by the Germans, we were found by the Jewish police, who were meant to turn in whatever Jews they found to the Germans. It is only through great luck that my mother and I survived. It turned out that my uncle’s best friend was the head of the Jewish po-lice,” she said. The friend, who recognized Sylvia and her mother, decided to let them escape rather than turn them in. Had he followed orders, Sylvia and her mother would have been taken to the camps. “I still remember his last words

to me that night, ‘Today I may be able to do something about it, but tomorrow I may not be able to save myself.’ That man is the reason I am alive today.” Sylvia was soon given to a social worker, who was able to smuggle her into a Christian con-vent. “I was given a new name, I became Araina Holestka, I was taught to behave like a Christian, to never speak of my heritage” she said. Sylvia stayed in the convent un-til after the war, when her aunt reunited her with her Father. “He never stopped looking

for my mother. We traveled to Romania, and still he was deter-mined to find her.” she said. Sylvia’s father eventually found her, after three years of separa-tion. After their reunion, the family decided to move to Amer-ica. Sylvia volunteers at the St. Pe-tersburg Holocaust Museum in Florida, teaching younger gen-erations the horrors of genocide. “In my faith there is a word, tikkun olam, it means repairing the world. I encourage each and every one of you to be the up-stander, not the bystander” she said.

Laura AndersonStaff Writer

Yamin Alam has quite the head for history. As a member of the Freeman Academic Team, he competes to test his knowledge “of anything that could be taught in high school,” said Yamin Alam, ju-nior. Yamin joined the Academic Team during his freshman year. “Mrs. Boyles, who was the head of the Academic Team, showed all of her students some questions, and I really liked it. I asked her more about it, and she said that I would be great if I joined the team,” Yamin said. Dave Porter, the current unoffi-cial sponsor and former member of the Freeman Academic team, is proud of Yamin’s successes. “Yamin brings an exciting com-ponent to the game, as he studies the materials that may come up in questions, and is outstanding on history questions. As a fresh-man in 2010, he quickly became

a leader in competitions,” Mr. Porter said. Each member of the team fo-cuses on a specific area of study to help the team during the com-petitions. “On the team, I am generally the history guy. I’m the guy who knows the most mythology and I know a few reli-gions well,” Yamin said. Junior Alanna North, is one of Yamin’s teammates who focuses primarily on music and science. “[Yamin] possesses general knowledge and [knowledge of] current events,” she said. The Academic team partici-

pates in compe-titions held on weekends. For each com-petition, “you go to a school and teams come from all over. There is a preliminary round, which has about 20 ques-tions. After that, whoever has the most wins goes up a rank, and

start another round, like a brack-et system,” Yamin said. Each contestant is given a buzzer to answer pyramid style questions. These are “big ques-tions…that start with some-thing really hard, but at the end, there is something that everyone would know,” Yamin said. Success on the Academic Team is not about how much a person knows when he or she begins, but instead, “what makes you get better is studying on your own [and] you start paying more attention in class,” Yamin said. “Right now we are probably better than Godwin and Deep

Run, the schools everyone knows about. But there are schools at the top, like Thomas Jefferson Governor’s School [in northern Virginia] and Maggie Walker, and we want to be on their level,” Yamin said. In order to improve, the team agrees that new members need to join, especially since the team lost two leading seniors from last year. “We really want to expand the team. It doesn’t really matter who joins, we would love fresh-man and sophomores to join…to keep the team solid. Any time in the year, we are fine with you coming and joining the team, be-cause we are really looking for new members,” said Yamin. “Right now the team is com-posed primarily of just the elev-enth graders, and Alex Caton, one twelfth grader,” Alanna said. Yamin is not only focused on the future of the team at Free-man, but also possibly continu-ing on an Academic Team in college. “The stuff in college quiz bowl is much harder. They ask hard-

Julia HenningStaff Writer

The person responsible for cap-turing the memories of the 2012-2013 school year is not a senior, but a junior. Brooks Daughtrey is the newly appointed yearbook editor in chief. “[Brooks] has great leadership skills, is personable, extremely creative, and a great photogra-pher” said Megan Corker, Eng-lish teacher and yearbook advi-sor. “She has a lot of dedication and cares about what she is doing,” said Haley Riggs, senior. “Leadership comes naturally to me. Being a leader is something I don’t think can be taught,” Brooks said. Over the summer, the year-book staff attended workshop at the University of Virginia. The workshop taught them skills such as writing effectively and using a creative style to take pictures. There was also a competition that took place at the workshop. The yearbook staff won second place for this year’s yearbook cover design and layout. They were awarded $250. “We also got $15 for winning the photography category!” Brooks said. As yearbook editor, Brooks su-pervises and helps staff writers. She also designs the pages and themes for the yearbook. This year’s theme has yet to be an-nounced, but last year’s theme Freemanstrong earned second place at camp. “I create the templates on the computer and I teach the staff

how to use those templates,” Brooks said. Brooks has assistant editors with whom she collaborates with to make assignments and share ideas. However, everything that goes into the yearbook is ul-timately her decision. As much as Brooks enjoys being editor, she admits it can be stress-ful at times. “Being editor-in-chief is a big time commitment. I work on the yearbook for many hours outside of school,” said Brooks. The fact that Brooks is a junior also adds to the pressure and stress. “Since Brooks is a junior puts more pressure on her because usually a senior is editor. It is only her second year as a part of the yearbook. She is definitely learning as she goes,” Miss Cork-er said. One helpful tool that helps Brooks stay organized and man-age her and time wisely is online software called Studio Works. This program also keeps the yearbook staff on task. “On [Studio Works] you put a deadline date and if the deadline date isn’t met, then it requires

money. I remind the staff of how important it is to turn in assign-ments on time,” said Brooks. “People don’t always under-stand how stressful and impor-tant being editor can be. I some-times feel like I’m being bossy,” Brooks said. Brooks’ enthusiasm and cre-ativity has prompted her to make some changes to the yearbook. The yearbook is cutting down on stories written by the year-book staff and adding more pic-tures and quotes. “This year it’s mainly picture-based. Each story is told through the pictures and quotes instead of writing a paragraph about it,” said Halle Kennon, junior. Brooks wants to emphasize the voice of the entire Freeman com-munity. “The yearbook is going to have other people’s opinions, not just the yearbook staff ’s” said Haley. With the new ideas and con-cepts Brooks has contributed as yearbook editor-in-chief this year, there is much anticipation for her in the future. “I can’t wait to see what she has in mind for next year,” said Miss. Corker.

“She was very calm, willing to share her stories of rough times” said sophomore Jermaine Dw-yer. Sophomore Nancy Gonzalez enjoyed the lecture as well “I re-ally like the way she told her sto-ry, she was not overly emotional, she got to the point, she told us what happened, and let us feel what she felt.” “I thought she was an excellent and compelling storyteller” said Mr. Payne “The most compelling part for me, as a parent, must have been what her parents felt and went through. They sacrificed every-thing for their daughter, trusting strangers to keep her safe when they could not. It was a wonder-fully lovely story” he said. “She also ended with a chal-lenge to us, to be agents of change, where I am sure a lot of students are wondering why they bother studying what they study. It makes the story come to life, makes it interesting, it really in-spires me to continue teaching, and it reminds me how impor-tant it is to continue teaching these literary masterpieces, they are ultimately human stories, the truths of life, the challenges hu-mans face to become better hu-man beings” he said.

er stuff, just in general, and it’s much broader, Yamin said. Although he is looking toward the future, Yamin still has to fin-ish out his career as a star mem-ber of the Freeman Academic team. He has enjoyed his past three years on the team. “The fun part is hanging out with the guys on the team. It’s also fun doing the questions. It’s really satisfying to beat another team to the question,” he said. So far, Yamin’s favorite mem-ory from being on the team was “the New Kent Tournament be-cause that was the tournament I did the [best] in. In that one, I was the seventh top-scoring play-er out of about 40 people there,” he said. “Yamin is regularly one of our leading scorers. He has lettered twice,” Mr. Porter said. Not only is Yamin a successful Academic Team competitor, but also an example of a good team-mate. Junior Colin Berry said, “I like having Yamin on the team because you can always tell he is trying his best the whole time.”

A Day in the Life of

8:00 – 9:00: Stalks the student parking lot, searching for offenders

9:00 – 10:00: Nobody escapes the little white note un-der the windsheild wiper...I will find you

10:00 – 11:00: Patrols the school for conduct violations and busts students walking about aimlessly

11:00 – 11:30: Escorts students to lunch and brings them back to class

11:30 – 1:30: Watches out for students booking it to Einsteins like a jailbreak

1:30 – 2:00: Finally eats lunch

2:00 – 3:00: Patrols the school in pimped out cart

3:00 – 3:45: Looks for those students that simply can-not take another second of sitting in a desk. What the extra 45 minutes does for anyone is beyond me.

3:45 – 4:15: Back in the parking lot hoping for no fender benders or fowl language

Mr. Donald Stowe

Junior captures memories

Yamin uses his intellect to make the opposing teams history

Holocaust survivor speaks to Freeman students

Yamin Alam training for competition

Brooks Daughtrey helping Julianna Hill in Yearbook

PHOTO: C. GLOWAKI PHOTO: A. RUSHER

“

”

I was given a new name, I became Ara-in a Holestka, I was taught to behave like a Christian, to never speak of my heritage

PHOTO: L. MARTIN

5Features

Motivated by the idea “I can do it better,” physics teacher Kirsten Manning has developed the Manning Method, an excep-tional approach to teaching. Sitting in a physics classroom as a Louisiana Tech sophomore majoring in biomedical engi-neering, Mrs. Manning said “not one student was paying attention to the professor” but rather “do-ing everything else but listening,” and it motivated her to be a bet-ter educator than her professor. After switching her major to chemistry and physics educa-tion at Louisiana Tech and later earning a masters in physics edu-cation at UVA, Mrs. Manning became a teacher at Cavespring High School in Roanoke before bringing her expertise to Free-man. Since her arrival this year, colleague and science depart-ment chair, Carol Campfield said, “She’s joined right in” and positively contributed “her team player attitude” to the science department family. Since day one Mrs. Manning has “put the students first.” Early in her career, a superintendent advised her to “take the time to know her students,” said Mrs. Manning, and it stuck with her. The first few days of her class now have nothing to do with physics, but rather Mrs. Man-ning uses that time to get to know her students through a personal-

ity quiz that determines who the highly organized owls, easygo-ing koalas, social peacocks, and steadfast lions are in the class. “Mrs. Manning is really re-spectful of the work load that we have…but she isn’t a pushover. She expects good work from us,” said senior Kathleen Kelso, a cur-rent student in Mrs. Manning’s AP Physics class. Kathleen later added though last year’s physics teacher, Mrs. Shea, was “more intense,” she suspects “that may be due to the fact that we needed more practice since we were new to physics.” “As a teacher, [Mrs. Manning]

does a great job of working with each student on an individual basis to ensure everyone under-stands the material,” said fellow Senior Mayes Gillespie. Both students agreed that Mrs. Man-ning’s encouragement to be in-tellectually curious has improved their problem solving abilities. In the classroom, Mrs. Man-ning makes herself available before and after school for any and all of students’ questions because she values the learning process, long or short. Similarly, outside the class-room, Mrs. Manning also val-ues the long process of creating

a particular dollhouse over the past 10 years. Mrs. Manning is not a collector nor crafter of dollhouses, but she is building this one dollhouse. Prior to the Civil War, her fam-ily inherited land in Louisiana, and ever since, it has been home to many generations of Mrs. Manning’s family. However, with the house over 100 years old, it was a natural decision to tear it down because of its state of disrepair. Although before doing so, Mrs. Manning’s father drafted blueprints for a keepsake as if to rebuild the house; and, in essence, Mrs. Manning is doing

just that in building the house in a much smaller scale, as a doll-house. They expect the house to be three feet long and 2.5 feet tall when it is complete, but for now it is still relatively small. Trans-porting it through Mrs. Man-ning’s many moves, as her hus-band served in the Air force, is down to a simple science of fold-ing the back seat and carefully placing the dollhouse in their hatchback. Mrs. Manning said the experi-ence is like “driving with a thou-sand raw eggs in your backseat.” Mrs. Manning doesn’t even want to guess how long the proj-ect may take to complete. She said that the dollhouse “may be a project for [her] grandchildren to complete,” and, for now, she is content with that. To her, the process of constructing the doll-house and making family memo-ries, especially with her father, who has helped her throughout the experience, is more impor-tant than the finished product. The way Mrs. Manning ap-proaches her dollhouse is very much like her method to life and teaching. Just as Manning doesn’t care so much that the dollhouse is ever finished in her lifetime, she said, “At the end of it all, I’m ok if you don’t remember physics. Learning is not only fun, but also it is important. It is important to learn not only what I’m passion-ate about, but also what you are passionate about. Whatever you do, keep learning. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”

Senior Ellee Winston spends her Saturday mornings in a base-ment. More specifically, in the radio broadcasting booth located in University of Richmond North Court basement.

folk, indie, jazz, alternative, and electronic,” said Ellee. “The Wild Tchoupitoulas” name comes from Ellee and Caroline’s elementary school YMCA Indian Princess tribe. The real Tchoupitoulas were a rhythmic group of Mardi Gras Indians from the 1970’s: African-American Carnival par-ticipants who dressed in Native American-inspired costumes for festivities. Like the carnival revelers, El-lee’s colorful personality comes through in her mixes and on-air commentary: “She [Ellee] is able to say almost whatever she wants, and she is completely herself behind the microphone,” said senior and loyal listener Em-ily Adamson. Ellee and Caroline got their ra-dio start as volunteers at WRIR on Broad Street (Richmond In-dependent Radio) where Caro-line’s dad has a regular show on Monday nights. “Then we in-herited an open spot at WDCE at U of R and now The Wild Tchoupitoulas broadcast every Saturday there,” said Ellee. The U of R program, WDCE, has

been student run and operated at UR since 1960. “Some DJs are from the com-munity too. A lot of them are alums or even teachers at UR. I like meeting people at the station and listening to their shows,“ said Ellee. “Being behind the microphone where people can’t see me gives me the confidence to say things and be opinionated,” said El-lee. The show is “mostly music, but we often discuss Richmond events and festivals.” “The events we talk about are great ways to strengthen the community and provide infor-mation to anyone who may be interested. We try to carry this over to the show at U of R also. Richmond is such a great place, and there’s always so many won-derful free things going on that people deserve to know about!” said Ellee. Ellee and Caroline get com-munity service hours for their radio work. ”I do get service hours for my work at WRIR but not at WDCE (at U of R). The radio is such a powerful tool for communication, and it can reach

Ellee broadcasts her radio show, The Wild Tchoupitoulas (chop-ih-too-las), every Saturday morning from 9-11a.m. on radio channel 90.1FM. Ellee does the show with her best friend, Caroline Illnickys, who goes to St. Catherine’s School. The duo churns out an eclectic “mix” (the word “playl-ist” isn’t allowed on air) of “rock,

so many different groups of peo-ple,” said Ellee. Listeners play a distinct role in The Wild Tchoupitoulas’ broad-cast: “I like it when people call in; there is one guy who calls in every week to talk to us but never tells us his name. He keeps it in-teresting,” said Ellee. Ellee does not take the calls on-air. She is not a big 98.1FM Delilah or 100.9FM Dana & Jeffrey fan. “My favorite radio show is Mr. Jazz at WRIR on 97.3FM- he’s a cool DJ, kinda old school,” said Ellee. The Wild Tchoupitoulas intend to keep active on the radio scene going forward. “I want to continue my radio involvement in college, though maybe not beyond that- I’m kind of technologically-challenged sometimes,” said Ellee. Students interested should tune in to the Wild Tchoupi-toulas every Saturday morning from 9-11a.m. on 90.1FM. (Be warned if you’re driving through Mechanicsville though: there’s some channel crossover with a Christian rock station in that area.)

For junior Sara Goel, Israel has become a home away from home. Sara is studying abroad this year in Israel at the Mosenson Elite Academy. Students come from places such as Poland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Kenya, Belgium, France, Russia, Iran, and Japan to attend and must have good understanding of Hebrew and English. Though Sara was originally looking for a semester program, she ended up finding a year-long boarding school. Her interest in Israel was sparked by attending summer camp two years prior. “I fell in love with Israel [be-cause of] the culture, the people

and the overall sense of commu-nity. I feel a connection to this country, a sense of belonging,” said Sara. The beginning of the new school year was not a smooth transition at first. “For a while she even thought about coming back to the U.S. because she was scared she’d fall behind,” said Amy Goel, Sara’s mom. It took some time to adjust, but now Israel has become like Sara’s new home. “There is not a day I regret com-ing; of course it’s hard at times but the experiences I’m gaining will be with me for a lifetime and the friends I’ve made will be with me forever,” said Sara. A typical school day for Sara starts at 8 a.m. and lasts any-where between 3:20 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. She goes to school six days a week and every day is different because she studies 12 subjects,

so her schedule changes daily. Sara’s school is a boarding school where she lives with roommates. On free weekends, when she does not have Shabbat ceremo-nies or group activities planned, she goes to stay with her family friends who she refers to as her “second family.” Sara has grown so close to them that “she got some of her close family friends there to come be her ‘parents’ at parent teacher conferences,” said junior Max Nachman. Sara stays in contact with her family and friends daily through talking on the phone, email, Sky-pe and Facebook. The atmosphere of the Goel household is very different with-out her presence. Their house is “a lot quieter and a lot more boring because she brought a certain quality that no one else in my family has

much of,” said freshman Shai Goel, Sara’s younger brother. Overall, her experience abroad has opened her eyes to the world around her. “I think it will help her by taking her out of her bub-ble here [in the U.S.] and let her

see a broader view of the world,” said Shai. “I love the country as a whole, but the sense of independence that is attained by studying abroad is indescribable,” said Sara.

Kara AdamsStaff Writer

Natalia BellStaff Writer

Emmie LacyStaff Writer

Senior Ellee Winston is a DJ for a morning show on WDCE.

Dollhouse that Mrs. Manning is in the process of building from blueprints her father created.

Junior Sara Goel and her family in Israel.

Junior calls Israel home for a year while studying abroad

Senior disc jockey hosts Saturday morning radio show

Science teacher brings fresh style to physics

Man on the Street: What is your dream destination?

“Heaven”Marquel Crump

Grade 11

“Nepal”Ram Upreti

Grade 12

“Australia”Madeline Simpson

Grade 9

“Africa”Iya Ibrahim

Grade 12

“Hawaii”Mitchell Funk

Grade 11

PHOTO: MRS. MANNING

PHOTO: ELLEE WINSTON

PHOTO: SARA GOEL

6-7Special FeaturesHOROSCOPES:

What’s in your fu-ture?

MAN ON THE STREET:

What’s your New Years Res-olution?

MAN ON THE STREET: What is

your New Years tra-dition?

“Get better grades.”

- Avery Rich-ardson (10th)

“Be the best senior that I can

be!” -Ian Mc-Donald (12th)

“Perform solo singing for cho-

rus.” - Keely Burn (11th)

“Live a better life and find

my inner self.” - Ryan Bryson

(10th)

“We drink apple cider in champagne glasses

and watch the ball drop.” - Sarah Sliwin-

ski (9th)

“We always watch the ball drop and go

to church.” - Brandon Morgan (11th)

“I always go to my grandma’s house.” -

Malik Lawrence (12th)

“I like doing some-thing different every

year.” - Principal Anne Poates

After indulging on candy -canes, gingerbread, egg nog and glazed ham, stu-dents may need to to make a resolution to get back in shape. Here is some advice. Tip #1 - Exercise: Doug Clements, PE teach-er, has been teaching PE for nine years, was a personal trainer for six years, and is a certified strength and con-ditioning specialist with the National Strength and Con-ditioning Association. Coach Clements recom-mends that beginners exer-cise for about 30 minutes when they first start for three to four days per week. For those who are more fit, working out can last up to two hours for no more than five days a week. “You always want a com-bination of exercises,” said Coach Clements, “You want cardio to get to your target heart rate and some type of weights exercise.” A combination of exercis-es will increase your muscle mass and speed up your metabolism. Tip #2 - Staying Focused: When people start work-ing out because of a New Year’s resolution, they of-ten quit within a few weeks. This is common because

people try to work out too hard too quickly and burn out. Nobody said exercising was easy. Suzanne Criswell has been a PE teacher for 34 years. “Be realistic. You’re not going to be anywhere in two weeks, it is going to take six weeks or more before you see a positive change,” said Mrs. Criswell. Setting realistic goals is a key part of exercise. Tip #3 - Nutrition: People often overlook nu-trition as part of getting in shape. “Dieting is not healthy,” said Coach Clements, “Di-eting has a negative conno-tation, and it’s seen as tem-porary.” Senior Tyler Murray works at American Family Fitness in Short Pump. “Eating whole grains, lean protein, such as fish or chicken, and drinking lots

Technology time should be limited to an hour a day. “An hour a day should include everything—TV, computer, and everything else,” said Coach Clements. “A good idea would be to do crunches or push-ups during commercials,” said Tyler Murray. “Getting enough sleep is very impor-tant too. It will keep your stress levels low,” he said. Resting and recovery are nearly as important as the actual exercise. Tip #5 - Enjoy Yourself: There are great things that come out of being in shape. Challenging yourself mentally, with activities such as weightlifting and long-distance running, will give you more confidence. Gradually, muscles will tone and your metabolism will speed up, which will result in burning calories without even exercising. Finding an activity you enjoy doing is a great way to enjoy getting in shape. “If you find an activity you enjoy, you’ll want to do it more often” said Coach Clements. “I don’t recommend de-priving yourself of things that you enjoy,” said Mrs. Criswell. Fitness has to be a prior-ity; if you push it off until tomorrow, then it won’t get done.

Tips and tricks to help you successfuly keep your new resolutions

Not every family can get along like the Brady Bunch, but it is a good idea to try. Freeman families gave their thoughts about how they are going to improve family relationships in 2013.Tip #1 - Spend more time with your family: Make an effort to put room in everybody’s sched-ule every now and then for family bonding time. Soph-omore twins Mary Peyton and Campbell Baskin both agree that they have a close relationship. “We spend a lot of time together by doing things like Christmas tree hunt-ing,” said Campbell. Biology teacher Carol Campfield has two sons, Matt Campfield, who is in-volved with Freeman’s spe-cial education, and Chris Campfield, a senior at Free-man. Mrs. Campfield said that the Campfield family is doing well but they often have conflicting schedules. “The 20-year-old has ma-tured and Chris is so busy he is never there,” said Mrs. Campfield. Try to set aside specific dates to do a fun family ac-

tivity. It doesn’t have to be lame; it can be something as simple as eating dinner together as a family every night. Tip #2 - Ignore small things that lead to fights: Foot tapping, gum pop-ping, and rude remarks can stimulate nasty arguments. Prevent huge blow ups by ignoring insignificant things. Mary Peyton and Mrs. Campfield said their fami-lies mainly fight over small things now and then. Mary Peyton is going to avoid conflict by “not get-ting mad over stupid stuff.” Junior Neil Metcalf said he and his 14-year-old brother Ross fight about nothing all the time. “I am going to try to ig-nore the little things,” Neil said, “and focus on the good.” Fights over small things, like breathing too loudly, are usually caused by stress. Do not take out frustration on family and try to find a creative outlet to release personal tension to avoid hurt feelings.Tip #3 - Focus on main-taining a healthy relation-ship with your family: It may be tempting in the moment to tease your sib-ling, but doing so may lead

to emotional trauma later on in life. Junior Josh Jackson said “my three siblings and I don’t fight, we have a good relationship,” but sopho-more Hannah Jackson said that she does not get along well with her sister. Hannah said that she is going to improve her rela-tionship with her sister by not provoking her and Josh will be keeping his good family relationship. Make it a goal to keep all cruel comments to yourself no matter how funny they may seem at the moment.Tip #4 - Work on effective communication: Properly communicating with family and planning cooperation each day can help settle, and prevent, dis-putes. Guidance Counselor Beth Metcalf said that her family makes a list of chores and organizes them on a calen-dar in order to avoid daily squabbles. “The list acts as a silent prompt and cuts down on the snapping,” said Mrs. Metcalf. Syncing everybody’s plans together avoids conflicts and makes it easier to enjoy each other’s presence. If everybody knows what is going on, then it leaves

more time for talking about everybody’s day instead of bickering about how no-body was in the right place at the right time. Tip #5 - Respect each other and remember what family means: Sometimes the meaning of family gets lost in argu-ments and separation. Your family is there to help you, not bring you down. To Mrs. Campfield, “fam-ily means a group of people who contribute to help one another.” Josh defines family as “people who look out for you.” Mary Peyton believes families are “people who love and care for you and I know they will always be there.” Mrs. Metcalf describes family with the words “ac-ceptance, caring, safe envi-ronment, and love.” So when you go to yell at your brother/sister/moth-er/father for not turning off the lights when they left a room or for forgetting to unload the dishwasher, stop yourself and replace the an-gry thought with a cheerful thought about how much you love them, even if they are really annoying.

Many Freeman students acknowledge that they throw away money. After spending too much on un-necessary items and buy-ing on impulse, Rebels have resolved to be more conscious. A common New Year’s Resolution this year is saving money. Tip #1 - Take advantage of money management classes: Something to consider this year is enrolling in a class that can expand your knowledge of saving money. One of the classes Freeman offers is Econom-ics and Personal Finance, taught by Laura Hollowell. “We learn about budget-ing, making informed de-cisions, and doing what is best for the long run,” Mrs. Hollowell said. The class also teaches stu-dents about banking, man-aging accounts, spending, and saving wisely. It is important to be con-scious of saving money in the upcoming year. “With the economy being what it is, you never know when you are going to need the money,” Mrs. Hollowell said. Tip #2 - Don’t buy on impulse:

Think about the items you buy on a weekly basis. How many of them are worthy purchases? “Teenagers need to think about what they really want. Do not make impulse buying decisions,” said Mrs. Holloway. Freshman Abigail Cawley shares her mother’s advice on how to save money this year. “My mom usually says to avoid spending money on unnecessary items such as toys or little things that only give momentary pleasure,” said Abigail. An easy way to save this year is to think about the long term benefits of a pur-chase. Tip #3 - Save pennies now, and you’ll have dol-lars later: “Every penny I make in high school will go into a savings fund for college, and that way after I graduate all the leftover money can go toward living expenses. This way I won’t have to waste time after finishing my education before I can start building a reputation,” said Abigail. As part of her New Year’s resolution, Abigail has de-cided to cut back on spend-ing and save more of her money. This money will accumulate and will benefit her in the future. Junior Jess Wooten is

the IT manager at Dorsey Wright &Associates. He sets a budget for his recre-ational money to limit him-self so he is able to save. “I am saving my money for college so I can get a good education,” said Jess. Junior Adam Golfman works at Panera Bread and gets paid every other week. “I take $100 out of every paycheck and put it in a sav-ings account. The rest I get to spend how I please,” said Adam. Tip #4 - Limit your fast food intake each week: Abigail and many other students spend a large por-tion of their money on fast food. “I want to spend less money on things like junk food. Sometimes you just get a craving and splurge on something you don’t need,” said Abigail. Like Abigail, senior Jef-fery Bailey spends most of his money during the week on food. “I spend most of my money on breakfast at Ein-stein’s,” said Jeffery. To save money this year, Jeffery plans on waking up earlier and eating at home instead of buying it every day. “Too much of my money is wasted on food. I eat ev-ery time I go out, even if I’m not hungry,” said fresh-man Michelle Saiyed.

------

------

A way to save, which is also a healthier alternative, is to eat at home more fre-quently. Tip #5 - Consider getting a job: Between school and social activities, many students also juggle a part time job. Becoming employed may require the sacrifice of a Saturday night, but a source of income makes saving money much easier. Abigail has been look-ing for a job so that she can have money in the future. “All of my money will go into a savings account that I could use later in three cat-egories: college, a car, and potential expenses,” she said. However, some students are not able to work during the school year. Something to consider is getting a sum-mer job in 2013. Jeffery worked at Ledo’s Pizza over the summer but was not able to continue during the school year. “Since school and foot-ball started, I can’t leisurely spend my money the way I used to. I won’t be able to until I get another job,” he said. Jeffery and many others have resolved to save this year. “I’m going to start being smarter with my spending,” he said.

of water is really good for you,” said Tyler. Eating healthy all the time will make exercising easier on your body. “It’s only simple changes, such as eating wheat bread instead of white bread,” Coach Clements said. “Stay away from over-starching yourself, and avoid fried foods,” said Mrs. Criswell. It is important to eat after exercising. Students at Freeman are often seen drinking protein shakes after working out, but eating real food is better for you. Tip #4 - Down Time: If you spend a lot of time exercising, you will learn to enjoy it. However, there is always the desire to sit down and watch TV or play on the computer. It’s a good mental break from focus during school and exercise.

How to stay on top of new strength and endurance How to limit spending and save hard earned money

How to add love to your brother-sister relationships How to improve grades without adding to the books

Jack Gerstenmaier & EJ Donnelson

Staff Writers

Matthew Stopkey &Trent Young Staff Writers

Mary-Kate Parkhurst &Ayah Al-Zubeidi

Staff Writers

Sean Trent &Josh SpacekStaff Writers

Are your grades where you want them to be? If you an-swered no to this question, there are many things that can improve your studying. Tip #1 - Make flashcards: Flashcards are a great way to review for a test. They make memorization easier and provide a quick and easy way to review. www.quizlet.com is a website where anyone can create a free account, make online flashcards, and share them to the website. Stu-dents can also use the flash-cards that their classmates have made. “Quizlet is a very valu-able resource when study-ing vocabulary, or trying to memorize anything,” said sophomore Carson White-hurst Flashcards make study-ing vocabulary or key terms for history and English, and memorizing formulas for math or science easier.. Tip #2 - Copy your notes: It is hard to retain infor-mation after simply reading over a page of notes. Copy-ing the notes enhances your information intake. It may take more time but it will be

more time studying the ma-jor definitions or formulas and you should be able to come up with an answer to any question. “I want my students to un-derstand the main themes of the books they read and the lectures I give; I feel like it gives them knowledge they can apply to the real world,” said Steven Payne, English teacher. Focus on the main themes, formulas, and ideas instead of worrying about the smallest details. Tip #5 - Just do the work: Believe it or not, the work that your teacher is assigning is there to help you learn. Classwork and homework may seem bor-ing, tedious, and pointless, but they keep you from for-getting what you took notes on in class. “Teachers assign work leading to a test to pre-pare you for that test. You need to take advantage of those pretest assignments so you can do well and are not stuck cramming,” said Amanda Carretto, English teacher. Classwork and home-work, despite their tedious nature, give easy points to boost your grade and they help you learn the material.

worth it in the long run. “I like to redo my math problems from homework and classwork assign-ments,” said junior Muni Pramanik. Tip #3 - Study with friends: Studying with friends en-sures that you stay on track. Be sure to pick a quiet place and a group of friends that will help you concentrate on the subject, not just dis-tract you. Try to pick a group of people that are strong in the subjects that you are weak in. You will be able to ask questions and have them answered correctly. “I like to study with a group of my friends so we can help each other out with difficult questions or ideas,” said freshman Gabe Fountain. Pick a quiet place, such as a library, to meet. Make sure you create a study plan

before you go. “There should be an agen-da. Set questions that you need to have answered,” said Lauree Kaplan, Eng-lish teacher. Studying with friends is great, as long as you chose the right friends and the right place. Tip #4 - Keep a list of main ideas: While this is more of a note-taking technique, it is also a way to learn what you need to know and dis-regard the rest. Take notes on the big-picture subjects and avoid agonizing details. With most literature, the authors are trying to dis-play a theme or moral to the reader. To get the most out of the books you have to read, make a list of the ma-jor themes and make a note when they are referenced or displayed in the novel. This can help with math or science as well. Spend

Aries (3/21-4/19) You will regain your foothold in school as well as in your personal life. You'll enjoy good health and your vitality will remain high. Con-sider 2013 as the time to reorganize your life and reset your priori-ties.

Taurus (4/20-5/20) In 2013 you will con-tinue enjoying favorable influence of the plan-ets. You'll come across situations which will challenge your pres-ent strengths and help you acquire new ones. You'll have to take a new approach towards your life and school work.

Gemini (4/21-7/22) 2013 is going to fetch you the result of your efforts from the previ-ous year. It's the time to enjoy the fruits of your efforts. Your mind will be cleared and you'll get a better view of life.

Cancer (7/23-8/22) 2013 is going to have impacts on all aspects of your life. Your life will start to give you tangible results. As the year proceeds, new op-portunities will come your way which will further push you to achieve greater heights.

Leo (7/23-9/22) The year may de-mand a more rational approach towards life from you. You will con-tinue to enjoy a highly active social life. The ef-fect of Saturn will make you face the realities of life. But irrespective of its downsides, life will continue throwing op-portunities of delight towards you.

Virgo (8/23-9/22) Virgos must prepare themselves to lead a fast life in 2013. You need to lose your cautious approach towards life and start living more freely. Your efforts will be recognized in your workplace and reward-ed.

Libra (9/23-10-22) Organize your thoughts and prioritize the mat-ters that will demand your attention more than others. This is the time to affirm your val-ues and stick to them. 2013 is going to be the time to evaluate your professional life and if necessary, fine tune it.

Scorpio (10/23-11/21) The planetary posi-tions will force you to withdraw into seclusion even when your life is teeming with activities. You will find yourself busy dealing with is-sues in your social, love and school life.

Sagittarius (11/22-12/21) You might experience a rocky start in 2013 but after a few months of hard work you will be rewarded. Stay posi-tive this year and good things will happen to you. School looks promising and your so-cial life will soon flour-ish.

Capricorn (12/22-1/19) Life will sail smoothly for you. According to Capricorn’s 2013 horo-scope, the year will give you more opportunities to widen your scopes and diversify. You will thrive in school.

Aquarius (1/20-2/18) After a slack 2012, it is time to gear up to take on the world. However, too much action may also make you impul-sive at times. You'll find new directives in your school life. 2013 is the time you need to focus on your long-term ca-reer objective.

Pisces (2/19-3/20) Your many moods will keep you busy. You can expect a success-ful and fulfilling year in 2013. You will have better control over your situations and won't be driven by impulses. You may find it a difficult task to balance between your saving and spend-ing.

PHOTO: KENDALL GILMAN

PHOTO: KENDALL GILMAN

2013What does have in store?

8 Sports

Preseason preparation is key to the boys’ basketball team’s suc-cess. To get ready, Freeman host-ed the Rebel Invitational, an an-nual tournament held at the start of the season. “We invite the best teams we can find. It helps teams to see where they are and what they need to improve on before start-ing their district play” said Larry Parpart, boys’ basketball coach. The Rebel Invitational began in the 1970’s and has become one of the top high school basketball tournaments in the Richmond area. This year’s participants in-cluded Freeman, Mills Godwin, Atlee, Benedictine, St. Christo-pher’s, and Banner Christian. “It’s a big tournament with a lot of good teams. It shows us our competition in the region, which is a great preparation tool for the rest of the season” said senior Chris Campfield. The team is not just using the tournament to learn about oth-er teams, they are also taking

Hunter GingrasStaff Writer

Super Bowl Predictions

Person: Mark Faglioni (history teacher)Teams: Giants-PatriotsFinal Score: 20-14MVP: Jason Pierre-Paul

Tournament sets the tone for seasontheir experience to improve their chemistry and execution. “It’ll give us a chance to put in our offense and get ready for the season, especially for John Mar-shall in the first district game” said freshman Clayton Leep. This year’s team returns al-most all of its top players from last season, including Chris and fellow seniors Jimmy Marshall, Asa Scott, John Lutkenhaus, and Mack McDowell. Clayton and junior Sinclair Farinholt will also be playing important roles. “With four returning start-ers, we should have a very good team. If we play hard each and every night and stay away from injuries, we have a good chance of competing for the district championship” said Coach Par-part. John Marshall, Thomas Jeffer-son, and Godwin should all have strong teams and are the main opponents on the Rebels’ path to a district championship. However, Coach Parpart wants his team to play hard in every one of their games. “Any team in our district can beat you if you are not ready and do not play hard” said Coach Parpart.

He believes that if the team plays hard, plays together, and plays smart, they can go very far. “We have the potential to go pretty far. We could definitely make it to regionals” said Chris. Freeman finished the Rebel In-vitational in third place, defeat-ing Godwin 56-53 in a thrilling game capped off by a go-ahead three-pointer from John. Bene-dictine won the tournament, beating St. Christopher’s 71-58

in the final. “I think it was a pretty big mo-ment. The victory over Godwin will help us get to know their style of play so we can have an even better game-plan for our next game against them”, said John. In their first game after the Rebel Invitational, the Rebels defeated defending Colonial Dis-trict champion John Marshall 69-59.

Senior Luke Rosman goes for a layup against Atlee

Money from pricey tickets goes to...Ellie Manspile

Staff Writer

It’s a September, Friday night and the line for varsity football tickets extends into the student parking lot. Students in line are grumbling about the $6 tickets. “Why are tickets so expensive? Where does my money go any-ways?” “Ticket money probably goes to sports equipment,” said ju-nior, Jasmine Hinson. Revenue from football game tickets is managed by the Free-man Athletic Department. The proceeds are split between Free-man and the opposing team. In all other sports, 100 percent of the revenue goes to Freeman. “We use ticket money to pay for officials, workers, ticket sell-ers, police officers, maintaining fields, and purchasing all of the equipment,” said Drew Bright, Director of Student Activities. “Even JV and freshman games have to pay officials – people get upset [about ticket prices], but of-ficials still cost us money –some schools don’t pay them, but we think it is important. If some-one is doing a job, they should be compensated,” Coach Bright said. Some students wonder why ticket prices vary between sports. “It should all be the same,” said

Jasmine. However, Freeman has no con-trol over ticket prices. “The Colonial District decides what will be charged, so all schools are the same,” he said. Tournament ticket funds, such as games at the Siegel Center, do not go to Freeman. They go “to the district, region, or state, depending on the level,” said Coach Bright. While tickets play a key role in funding Freeman sports, the DSF Booster Club helps with some of the costs. “Their ability to help depends on their ability to raise money. They get money from mem-bership fees, the Rebel Run, and concession stands,” Coach Bright said. “So far this school year the club has raised over $45,000 in mem-berships,” said Leon Shadowen, President of the DSF Booster Club. “Because the passes [pre-sold tickets] take away from individ-ual ticket sales, the club writes a check to the athletic department. This year that amount is budget-ed at $20,000,” Mr. Shadowen said. “The Booster Club helps us out with a lot of purchasing equip-ment and uniforms. They are there to help us out,” said Coach Bright. “Each spring the coach for ev-ery sport identifies something

for the next school year that they would like the club to pay for. Coach Bright and the club’s of-ficers go through the list and do their best to accommodate all the requests, and usually do, as long as there is enough money to go around. This year, we budgeted $17,400 for these types of re-quests,” said Mr. Shadowen. “When people join the Booster Club, that money goes into vari-ous projects around school. For example, the new banners, paint-ing the press box, and cleanup,” said Coach Bright. “This year we’ve done some ex-tra things because over the years, the club had saved up some extra money and we thought of ways to put it to good use,” Mr. Shad-owen said. Many of these new items have been crucial to the ease and suc-cess of Freeman sports this year. “A number of members spent a number of weekends this past summer cleaning up around the athletic fields. The club also paid for the football field scoreboard and press box to be repainted and upgraded the sound system. We paid most of the cost for a new net system for the volleyball teams, and paid for banners and a trainer for the lacrosse teams be-cause they can’t play their games on campus. We just bought an additional utility vehicle for the trainer to get around campus and are paying for a new shed to

store it in,” said Mr. Shadowen. Henrico County covers some athletic expenses too. “The county pays coaching salaries, the wanders at the gates, and gives us a certain amount of money for police. Emergency things like light problems, score-boards, etc. are paid for by the county,” said Coach Bright. Individual teams are encour-aged to raise money for them-selves through fundraisers. “The teams are asked to help out because we have to support so many teams. It stretches our dollars further and they get to spend the money they raise spe-cifically on themselves,” he said. “If you know all of your hard work goes to your team, you won’t mind working a bit hard-er,” Coach Bright said. This year, it was convenient for the boys’ volleyball team to play at the Siegel Center because it is a 15 minute drive. “If States were in Blacksburg we would have to pay for travel, hotels, and meals. The state re-imburses some expenses, but we are fortunate that the central re-gion is a compact area,” he said. Next year, with a larger VHSL area, the budget will have to change. “Redistricting will add to expenses,” Coach Bright said. “We can always use more par-ents’ help!” said Mr. Shadowen.

Junior wrestler drops weight to drop opponents

Tom JacobsStaff Writer

Junior wrestler Robert Dil-lard lost 25 percent of his body weight over the last 7 months. Between April and October, Robert lost 50 pounds to prepare for this year’s wrestling season. During the offseason, Robert decided he wanted to become a

better wrestler. This pushed him to join a travel wrestling team which he says was essential in helping him lose weight. “[Losing weight] wasn’t for wrestling; it was how out of shape I was. Once I started wres-tling travel over the summer, it naturally came off,” said Robert. Losing so much weight has moved Robert into a new weight class; he is currently registered for the 152 lbs. class. Although

Robert still retains his varsity spot, Preston Ailor, wrestling coach, said it was not a strategic decision. “Now he wrestles guys more appropriate for his level. He is wrestling very tough, and his big-gest issue now is that he is used to wrestling bigger, slower guys, now the lighter guys move fast-er” said Coach Ailor “Getting in shape definitely helps; I’m so much faster than I used to be. In losing the weight, I lost hardly any muscle, only fat, so I’ll be the same if not stronger than most kids I’ll see this year” said Robert. Managing and being respon-sible for weight is an important part of the wrestling season. All athletes are categorized by weight; as such the sport revolves around it. Each wrestler must ac-count for how much they weigh before each match and develop healthy habits throughout the season. This is done by eating healthily and practicing. “I manage my weight mostly by eating healthily, cutting down on carbs. Instead of sandwiches, I eat only the meat and cheese like finger food. We also do a lot of weights and cardio during practice to stay fit” said senior wrestler and captain Andrew Donchez. Robert lost weight by staying dedicated in the offseason and continuing to wrestle on travel

teams throughout the summer. “I ran a lot, which got me in better shape. I also wrestled a lot over the summer and because it is such a physical sport, the weight just came off. From April through October, I was almost al-ways wrestling five days a week” said Robert. Coach Ailor emphasizes that it is most important to stay healthy during the season when manag-ing weight. “Weight management is a mis-nomer. I don’t like my guys to cut weight; I want them to con-centrate on wrestling issues, not weight issues. It’s more impor-tant that they eat healthy, stay fit, and I’d rather have them wrestle up a weight class. Robert Dillard lost weight the right way, over time, with the proper diet, and through wrestling. He stayed healthy, exercised, and cut out the junk” said Coach Ailor. Robert has also been a positive example for the team. His dedi-cation to the sport has spread to his teammates. “I admire his ability to get down to his desired weight and stay motivated. Plus it helps us fill a varsity spot we would not have otherwise had” said An-drew. “Robert shows he is a hard worker in practice. He’s a good motivator and inspires the team” said senior Matt Lankford. Robert admits that staying ded-

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

icated is not always easy. Bal-ancing school and wrestling has its challenges, but Robert looks to his coaches for support. “Coach Ailor is one of my big-gest motivators. This year is re-ally our year to show our talent, and the team wants to succeed for him. Showing what we have as a team has been essential in building this program” Robert said. The team has also helped moti-vate Robert in the offseason. “I’m always trying to work and be better than Jonathan Philips. If the best person I am going to wrestle this season is in the same room as me every day, it’s going to make me tough” said Robert. Robert and the rest of the team are looking forward to the rest of what should be a successful sea-son. “I hope to become district champion for my weight class, and finish in the top eight of the region at least. Our goal as a team is to qualify all 14 varsity wrestlers for the regional tour-nament at least. We’re looking forward to the rest of the season and to meeting our goals” Rob-ert said. The season continues af-ter Winter Break with a tough match against J.R. Tucker on January 9th. Districts is sched-uled for Saturday, February 2nd.

Person: Hana Hecht (history teacher)Teams: Patriots-PackersFinal Score: 24-18MVP: Tom Brady

Person: Jenny Davis (senior)Teams: Redskins-BroncosFinal Score: 24-18MVP: RGIII

Person: Ches Bowden (junior)Teams: Falcons-PatriotsFinal Score: 24-21MVP: Roddy White

Person: John Lutkenhaus (senior)Teams: Ravens-49ersFinal Score: 23-20MVP: Ray Lewis

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

Junior Robert Dillard squatting during wrestling workouts

9Sports

There is more to being a good athlete than simply attending the regular-season sports practices. In order for athletes to reach their full potential, they must apply themselves off the play-ing field in addition to the team practices. Players from all differ-ent sports go to off-season work-outs to improve their abilities. Just as different sports have dif-ferent rules and objectives, they each also require a specific type of workout for their players in order to improve the skills and abilities demanded by that par-ticular sport. The Colonial District is home to some talented competitors of Douglas Freeman, so keeping the athletes of this school in tip-top shape is integral to their suc-cesses. “Anyone who is bigger, faster, and stronger will perform bet-ter,” said Blake Derby, Health and P.E. teacher and weightlift-ing coach. Junior Miller Trevvett, base-ball and football player said “for baseball, I usually lift, run, and throw about three times a week.

Lynch. Student athletes often partici-pate in another sport during the off-season of their main sport in order to get in better shape. Two students who do such preparing are Kevin McCroan and Junior Enisa Sehic. “I wrestle during the winter to get stronger mentally and physi-cally for the upcoming soccer season. Wrestling should really improve my endurance, which is essential in soccer,” said Kevin. A soccer player as well, Enisa said: “I do track to get my endur-ance up for the soccer season. I also go to the soccer workouts for school.” Attending the workouts during the off-season “improves the ath-lete’s mental side of the game in addition to the physical aspect. As you gain confidence mental-ly, you can bring more and con-tribute more to the team,” said Coach Clements. To students wanting to create their own workouts, both Coach Derby and Coach Clements rec-ommend seeking the advice of a professional, such as themselves, before creating any routine.

Athletes condition outside of the seasonCagan Friend

Staff Writer

For football, I do mostly weight-lifting.” “When we design a workout, we look at the actions used in the sport, and then try to make a workout that enhances the mus-cles used in those actions,” said Doug Clements, health and p.e. teacher and weightlifting coach. Mr. Clements also said that this year, they hired an outside con-sultant, Jason Elkin, to help in designing the workouts. Sophomore soccer player Kevin McCroan said “I play soccer for Strikers during the off-season. We do a lot of running, passing, shooting, and other improve-

ment skills. The workouts we do help with my endurance and also improve skills that need more de-veloping.” “Students should workout four times a week. This includes both weight training and cardiorespi-ratory exercise,” said Coach Cle-ments. Coach Clements listed senior Jonathan Phillips senior and junior Buck Elliot as two of the most dedicated and hard-working athletes during the off-season. “I go to workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays and try to run every day,” said freshman Molly

Having swag is the key ingredi-ent to being a phenomenal ath-lete. Although, there are more aspects to style than people think, so I’m here to tell you how to put the je ne sais quoi in swag. 1. The Simplicity of Socks Nothing will ever be wrong with the traditional Nike Dri-Fit socks. So wear them, black or white. The most important rule is to never wear ankle socks. However, the only athletes who are allowed to wear ankle socks are cross country and track run-ners. Other than that, the act of wearing ankle socks should be banned. I mean, who wants to see the Detroit Lion’s defensive tackle Ndamukong Su wearing Champion® low cuts while he is sacking the tar out a quarter-back? No one wants to see the Las Angeles Clipper’s Blake

Griffin wearing them while literally dunking on Timofey Mozgov from the Denver Nug-gets. It would just look wrong. Also, I think his ankles would be cold from being so high in the air. I want all of you to be safe and please wear high socks. When wearing high socks, there is the issue of wearing two socks on one foot. Yes, it looks outra-geously cool when done well, however; the player wearing them should earn it. If I see a noob wearing two socks on each foot, he doesn’t start, and his ex-cuse for wearing them is that it gives him ankle support then I hate that person because he’s a randy loose cannon who thinks he can do whatever he wants. No. Take a lap. 2. Numb3rs There are some numbers out there in the world that represent such legendary athletes: 1, 22, 23, 99, etc. To have swag while playing sports, you have to know what number to wear. To me, the golden numbers are from one-10. Any number in that range con-notes that you’re a speed demon that won’t take no for an answer. Secondly, any number that has the same digits for both units, like 11, 22, 33, and so on is defi-nitely acceptable. Those numbers represent a hardworking, I’m-go-ing-to-beat-the-snot-out-of-you team player. I feel number 23 is meant for the real deal, down-town, straight out of Compton

ballers; to have Michael Jordan’s number, you have to be the best of the best of the best. Howev-er, above all numbers, the num-bers zero and 99 are meant for the players that rush for more than 150 yards a game, have at least three triple-doubles in two weeks, and can knock a ball out of the park at least once out of every six times at bats. When it comes time to pick your number please choose wisely and avoid getting terrible numbers like 78 or 46; it is for your own good, so God help you. 3. It’s the wizard not the wand Lastly, the most memorable part of an athlete will be his atti-tude and character on and off the field. Yes, players and athletes will be remembered for always wearing the same bandanna while playing tennis or wear-ing Superman

game. It is the player that drops $14,000 on food and toys to give to kids for charity. It is the man who changes the game, not let-ting the game change him. Real swag is the calmness and collec-tiveness that a player has while an opponent is talking the worst case of trash that anyone has heard. So, before going out and spending hundreds on clothes and what you look and the out-side, take a second and think about what really matters for the team, socks or dedication? Don’t get me wrong, it is a great thing by itself to be flashy because it represents your own style and no one can recreate that, however; it is your own de-cision to how much you express yourself. Whether you choose to enhance that swag by buy-ing the most expensive stuff in

the market then that’s fine, but remember that your swag can most important-ly be measured in your deter-mination and respect that you give to yourself and your team. The amount of

respect and drive that you put in to being a great athlete is entirely up to you, so make it count.

You just ‘gotta swag and surf

Henry CheneySports Editor

“We are family” is a phrase heard often in the halls of Free-man. Especially in sports, each team is a family. Freeman ath-letes pride themselves on team-work, respect, communication and commitment to one another on and off the court. Several Freeman teams find that getting together to share meals is “one of the best bond-ing moments for a team,” said David Calvert, boys varsity vol-leyball coach. The number of American fami-lies who sit down for meals to-gether is decreasing, however several Freeman sports teams have made a tradition of sitting down together for a meal before games. “Any opportunity to strengthen the family is an opportunity to perform better on the court” said Coach Calvert. However, making these dinners happen takes time and planning. “This year one of the senior’s mothers took on the role of as-signing team meals” said Terry Gingras, mother of junior vol-leyball player Hunter Gingras and Team Mom to the boys’ vol-leyball team.

Family dinners make the teamLillian Gaertner

Staff Writer

These meals provide time for the older and younger students to spend time together. “For home games the varsity guys drive us to Regency Food Court for dinner, but for away games the parents come in and set up subs or pizza and we just sit down and eat before we get on the bus” said freshman Sam An-derson, JV volleyball player. “Doing stuff outside of prac-tice brings us all closer together and being friends off the court helps us get along and work to-gether better on the court” said sophomore McKenna Epperson,

varsity volleyball player. The volleyball teams are not the only ones working to further their relationships. While the volleyball teams of-ten go out to eat or have a meal in the gym before a game, the girls’ basketball team has a different approach to team bonding. “We are trying as often as we can to do any sort of team bond-ing after practice; we all got to-gether and painted the bench in the locker room” said senior varsity basketball player Hannah Shadowen. “Especially with girls you have

to like each other to play well to-gether” she added. “We had a team dinner at my house and it was a taco night. My mom and I cooked and we all ate and had a good time” said junior Naeemah Morris.The girls take advantage of any time they can spend together to further their team bond. “They’re a very close-knit group of girls who just enjoy spending time together whether it’s playing basketball, eating a meal or just riding the bus to and from the games” said Avery Mack, coach of the girls varsity basketball team.

GoldMedal

AthletesNoelle DaviGymnastics

“ I’m looking forward to watch-ing her development into an exceptional high school gym-nast,” said gymnastics coach, Sharon Kelly.

Jonathan PhillipsWrestling

“If there’s anyone to press you to be at practice, to work harder, to stop slacking off, he’s your man,” said senior Grant Sylves-tri

Jimmy MarshallBoy’s Basketball

“He can play guard or big-man which makes it harder for teams to guard him because its a constant mismatch,” said senior Asa Scott

Nelli CalkinsGirl’s Winter Track

“I love running with Nelli becu-ase she’s so quirky and is always a good teammate,” said senior Kate McCreary

Kelsey McLaughlinGirl’s Basketball

Juniors Nicole Byrne and Caroline Williams doing sit ups to get ready for lacrosse

“Kelsey is really great on offense and always has composure. We can depend on her consistently,” said senior Hannah Shadowen

Jamal MenziesBoy’s Winter Track

Having swag is the key

ingredient to being a phenomenal

athlete.

“

”

socks that have a cape on the back. Yes, people will re-member the man who does a backflip into the end zone or cha-chas after scoring a touch-down, but those are all temporary, outershell as-pects of swag. An athlete’s real swag is the humbleness that a player has after putting up 81 points and congratulating the team for their effort after the

“He puts a smile on everyones face when he comes to practice. The other hurdlers in the district better watch out,” said senior Zach Weiss

Seniors Asa Scott and John Lutkenhaus prepare for their upcoming basketball gamePHOTO: CHELSEA GLOWACKI

PHOTO: LEAH MARTIN

10 Sports

People have the chance to make a comeback in all aspects of life. Last year, when senior basket-ball player Clara Coker, tore her ACL, she knew it was never go-ing to be easy. Clara tore her ACL last year during a game against Tucker. It happened while she was in the process of doing a jump-stop. Her rehabilitation process was very lengthy. “[I had] a lot of rehab. Five days out of the week. I still do a couple things for my knee,” said. Clara. However it looks like things may be looking up for the four-year varsity girls’ basketball guard. According to Avery Mc-Gilvary, varsity basketball coach, Clara will be vital to the team. “[She will be] very integral. She is one of the girls who must play well defensively and offensively. She sets the tone for the team and will get them to perform at a high level,” Coach McGilvary said.

“She did have a setback with the ACL tear. In the years that I’ve had her, she has improved tremendously,” he said. In her junior year there were a lot of injuries to the varsity girls’ basketball team. Forward Mari-ah Chilemi, sophomore, also tore her ACL last year. Accord-ing to Mariah, being injured with Clara provided her with a drive to recover. “We have a good friendship because we both tore our ACLs. She motived me,” said Mariah. Clara is also seen as an influ-ence on the court by Mariah. “She’s a good player. She makes a big impact on the team. She’s a good ball handler,” said Mariah. Both Clara and Mariah have high expectations for this year’s team. “We’re looking forward to this year. We have a lot of new play-ers. I think we can go to districts [at least],” said Clara. They also agree that the com-petition this year will be stiff. “I think Hermitage is our big-gest competition because they have a great girls ‘basketball team. They are usually district champions and they are return-

ing most of their team,” Clara said. “[Our biggest competition will] probably be Deep Run and God-win of course,” said Mariah. Clara is a fan of the sport as well. Her favorite teams include UNC, Duke, and the Los An-geles Lakers. She also hopes to continue playing basketball after high school.

Athlete conquers ACL injuryAlec Loughran

Staff Writer

Sports Honors and

AwardsFootballFirst Team All District:Kevin Cabas, RBSinclair Farinholt, WRMason Wells, TEChris Conti, OL

Second Team All Dis-trict:Sinclair Farinholt, DBTrent Young, LBJeff Bailey, DL

Honorable Mention All District:Malik LawrenceConnor FadScott FathBuck Elliot

Cross CountryAll District:Ian McDonaldRonnie CalkinsKevin McCarthySam O’ConnorPeton ArtzMatt Heinicke-PeartStone DysonRachel SmithLacey Eubank

All Region:Ronnie CalkinsIan McDonald

All State:Ronnie Calkins

Field HockeyFirst Team All District:Holly FlemingLauren MarshallAbbey ThornhillSarah Thornhill

First Team All Region:Abbey ThornhillSarah ThornhillHolly Fleming

Boys VolleyballFirst Team All District:Chris CampfieldMicah BullerJoe Kreisa First Team All Region:Joe KreisaMicah Buller

Second Team All Dis-trict:Dylan Hicks

Second Team All Re-gion:Chris Campfield

Honorable Mention All District:Robert Wiebe-KingRyan StuckeyNathaniel Bruny

Girls VolleyballFrist Team All District:Elizabeth AhrensHonorable Mention All Central Region:Elizabeth Ahrens

Second Team All Dis-trict:Evelyn Harper

Honorable Mention All District:Alex JoynesElizabeth Johnson

Clara passes the ball to her teammate during the John Marshall game.

Senior chooses new path to follow

Holly FlemingEditor- in -Chief

When you have played sports for as long as I have, the word “commitment” becomes and important word in your vocabu-lary. As a freshman playing three sports I made it a goal of mine to stay committed to each one…until this year. I decided to do something spontaneous for once and do winter track in between field hockey and lacrosse season instead of gymnastics. I had been on the Tuckahoe Middle Gym-nastics team all three years and competed for DSF my freshman, sophomore, and junior year, but after six years I was tired. I knew

I could not endure another sea-son of getting home from meets at 10 p.m. and beating myself up over not being good enough in my own eyes. I had been do-ing gymnastics on and off since I was five years old and I had hit a dead end. I was raised by parents who were really adamant about their children playing a sport in the fall and spring season. I didn’t need any convincing, though, because I jumped right in to whatever sport I tried. I played soccer for the entirety of my el-ementary days and played for Tuckahoe Middle. I decided to try field hockey and lacrosse my freshman year for something dif-ferent, and that was the second best decision of my life. Call me shallow, but I didn’t mind the at-tention I got as a newcomer to those teams. It was fun to see myself improving visibly and getting to play with more experi-enced players. I always had an itch to run track in the winter, but people always talked me out of it. They

told it was miserable, and that I would hate myself for doing it. I’m sad to say that I succumbed to reverse peer pressure. It was not one of my finest decisions. When a few of my field hock-ey teammates told me this past season that I should run track I seriously considered the option. I had already submitted my Wil-liam & Mary application and so the fact that a college would see my lack of commitment was not stopping me. I wanted to stay committed to gymnastics, but I also wanted to do something that would make me excited. I even talked to my old assistant gym-nastics coach and she told me do whatever makes me happy even it wasn’t gymnastics. I felt obli-gated to stay committed, but that was not a good reason to stay on the team. I had to go against my initial goals and try a new sport. The first day of track I started getting butterflies in my stom-ach. I had not been scared of try outs since freshman year. It was not even a real “try out,” but rather a placement. I was ei-

ther going to be on sprinting or distance. This decision created another conflict in my mind. I was torn even though it was the coach who would pick between the two teams for me. I was even more nervous for the first day of distance practice the next week than I was for try outs. I missed being a veteran and knowing ex-actly what I had to do. I was so confused by all the runner jargon and felt like a guest appearance on a talk show. I wanted to feel like a part of the team, but it was hard because most of the girls have been running for at least three years. Even though at times I miss the feeling of being inside a gym in-stead of freezing my fingers off in the cold, I am very glad that I decided to do something new. I felt guilty for not sticking to my goal of commitment, but I have realized that sometimes I need to make decisions based on what is best for me.

Freshman gymnast is one to watchTrent SingletonEditor -in -Chief

Freshman gymnast Wizzie Christopher takes Freeman gym-nastics to new heights. Wizzie is one of the five experi-enced freshmen that join the Var-sity gymnastics team along with Noelle Davi, Hannah Crowley, Harper Ward, and Dana Gil-lespie. “[The gymnasts] are a nice addition because most of them have gymnastic experience. We only had two seniors last year. There was not a lot to replace but they add to the team,” said head gymnastics Coach Sharon Kelly. After losing two key seniors, the team appreciates the addition of the experienced freshmen.

“They have made our team more competitive because most of them bring a lot of superior skills,” said senior and team cap-tain Natalie Newton All of the freshmen were on their middle school team to-gether. Noelle and Wizzie also participated in a club outside of school together. Wizzie is among the most ex-perienced on the team “I’ve been competing since I was 8 years old,” she said. “Wizzie is really focused and self-motivated and really talent-ed. She has natural talent and puts forth a lot of effort,” said Natalie. As an all-around gymnast, Wiz-zie competes in all four events: bars, beam, floor, and vault. “I do all four events. My fa-

PHOTO: C. GLOWACKI

“I want to play college basket-ball” said Clara. For Clara, basketball has been a learning experience for her. “It has taught me to be a leader and to show people that you do not always have to do what ev-eryone else does. You can be dif-ferent” she said.

vorite is floor because I like to tumble,” she said. Wizzie does gymnastics be-cause it allows her to spend time with her friends and participate in a sport she loves. “I enjoy gymnastics because I’ve been doing it my whole life and most of my friends do it with me,” she said. Coach Kelley has high expec-tations for the team this season and was encouraged by positive results from the first meet. “I expect improvement in the team score each meet as we go through the season…[the first meet] went surprisingly well. It is different from practice because you don’t know how they’ll per-form, but they did very well,” she said. The team’s scores improved in

their first meet compared to last year. The five freshmen have al-ready made an impact in the first meet. “In our first meet we placed third out of fourth and improved by maybe 10 points compared to our points last season, so we’ve already made improvements to get better,” said Natalie With abundance of experience ranging from freshmen to se-niors, the season looks successful for the gymnastic team. “I think we’ll have higher overall scores than last year and have a better chance of winning more meets because all of us have grown and improved,” said Natalie.

Gymnasts warming up at practice

PHOTO: A. CATON

11A&E

Madeline Slough & Caroline Hahn

Staff Writers

Lincoln movie hits home in Richmond area

Lincoln Movie Proves Suc-cess in the Box Office and in the Richmond-area. The crunch of popcorn and crinkling of candy wrappers filled the theater as movie trail-ers scrolled across the big screen. We chose our seats, front row, in order to be the closest to Lincoln and his contemporaries. The lights lowered and a Civil War camp appeared on the screen. We suddenly felt like we were sitting alongside these soldiers. The much anticipated and criti-cally acclaimed “Lincoln” makes you feel as if you are traveling back to the nineteenth century. Big time actors flooded to Rich-mond in order to tell this histori-cal tribute to our sixteenth presi-

dent. While it was being filmed, whispers of sightings of Steven Spielberg, Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field floated around the Richmond area. The movie, although lengthy at times, un-folded on the screen beautifully. The actors in “Lincoln” tell a story of a time of major change in American History. It is cen-tered on the passing of the thir-teenth Amendment during the Civil War which would make all men equal and abolish slavery. The film emphasizes Lincoln’s struggle to hold strong to his be-lief in a divided and conflicted country. Daniel Day Lewis embod-ies Abraham Lincoln perfectly. The make-up and costume were identical to Lincoln and his char-acteristics were historically on point. According to historians, his voice was even accurate. He illustrates Lincoln’s honesty, wis-dom and passion. Although the portrayal of Lincoln is histori-

cally correct, the dialogue seems draining and extensive at times. Steven Spielberg set the movie in Richmond and called for RVA natives as extras in the film. With his distinct long hair and ponytail, our very own Brian Durrett, English teacher, got the chance to work alongside these big-time Hollywood names. Mr. Durrett was Republican representative number 30. “Anything that went on in the House of Representatives, I was there for. But I never got to see Daniel Day Lewis because, as president, Lincoln would not have been present in these meet-ings,” said Mr. Durrett. “We were by the staff told sternly not to mess with the pro-fessional cast,” said Mr. Durrett. Mr. Durrett agrees with the characters’ excellence. His most memorable impression was of Sally Fields who played Lin-coln’s wife. “[She was] extremely radiant

Virginia Museum of Fine Art is fun for all

Rather than confronting Jack Frost on Friday nights this win-ter, a social outing for high schoolers to consider is a trip to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). The VMFA has a variety of attractions for teens to combat the cabin fever that can occur over the holidays. The VMFA offers a variety of programs, exhibits, and din-ing experiences that appeal to a teenage audience. Many of these attractions are free of charge, as there is no general admission

Allison Turner & Janie WestStaff Writer

fee. The museum lends itself to a night of enjoying the culture of downtown Richmond because it is located in the Fan and close to many restaurants. There is also a restaurant, Amuse, located on the upper level of the museum. The prices are reasonable for teenagers, and could offer a change from the usual fast food restaurants. The VMFA is located at 200 North Boulevard and is open from 10 am to 5 pm daily, but closes at 9 pm on Thursdays and Fridays. The exhibitions in the VMFA commonly provoke interest in teenagers. Sophomore Annie Ward Love, a former Rebel who now attends Henrico High, fre-quently visits the VMFA. “The museum’s permanent col-lection is amazing, but they also have a few special exhibitions that are awesome,” she said. “It seems that very popular modern and contemporary art-ists attract teens the most. Pi-casso, Chuck Close, and Chihuly have all been big hits,” said Jes-sica Bauserman, Teen Activity Coordinator at the VMFA. The current special exhibition is the Chihuly showcase, which is a display of iconic glass struc-tures by the artist Dale Chihuly. It has been a successful attraction that has inspired a teen program. These programs designed for teens are the primary source of high school activity. Fashion de-sign and art classes are available year round. “Teen Stylin’” is the most recent class inspired by the Chihuly exhibit. In this class, students created fashion that depicted works of art similar to the Chihuly art-work. The designs were present-

ed Dec 9 in a fashion show run by the students. Annie Ward won best in show in the Teen Stylin’ fashion show with the help of her friend Heidi Ulrich who modeled her spunky design. “It is cool and modern and is a great place to go get inspired,” Annie Ward said. Teen Talent is an upcoming showcase where students from all over the Richmond area will participate in a display of their talents. Activities include sing-ing, dancing, reading an original poem or story, or presenting an original film. Participants will rehearse during the upcoming months and the showcase will take place on May 24, 2013. The VMFA also offers aca-demic enhancement opportuni-ties, including the Scholastic Art Awards and Museum Leaders in Training (M. Lit). Senior Chel-sea Glowaki has participated in one of these programs. “There are programs you can apply for, and I applied for the Museum Leaders in Training program. I basically practiced speaking and making a tour of the artwork in the museum,” she said. “Teen Stylin’, M. Lit, and Teen Talent are awesome programs that are totally free! Studio art classes cost from $8 to $135,” said Jessica. Any students interested in more information about becom-ing involved in the VMFA can visit their website, www.vmfa.state.va.us, which has an entire section devoted to teen activity.

Local artist inspires Freeman art studentsEliza Duckworth

Staff Writer

Local artist uses his skulls to tap into students’ brains. The art department has been working hard on a project modeled after local artist Noah Scalin’s Skull-A-Day project. According to his website, No-ahScalin.com, Scalin created a new skull every day for a year, using different media. His book “Skulls” features 150 of his 365 skulls. Rebecca Field’s student teach-er, Meghan Sadler was inspired to bring this project to Freeman. “The kids are doing the same thing. They had to pick a theme, so for three weeks they have made a piece relating to their theme,” said Mrs. Field, art teacher. The themes range from facial expressions to fish. Senior Kevin Williams said he learned “experimenting with different medias. The purpose was to do different elements and principles in each one.” Mrs. Field says that this project is a “creative challenge.” “I learned a lot of new tech-niques and how to look at things differently,” said Senior Connor Fad.

“I think that it is challenging because they haven’t been spoon-fed. I want everyone to own their own learning, and I want ev-eryone to help each other,” said Mrs. Baker-Neal, art teacher. Junior Reed Gibson found this difficult because “You ran out of ideas after the third one,” said Reed. Many of the students have used Scalin as an inspiration. “He used a lot of different things and went outside of the box, and I tried to do the same,” said Reed. “I never really thought about how you can expand on a subject in that depth,” said Connor. Scalin spoke to Freeman artists on Dec. 4. He shared stories and gave tips on how he made his project successful. One subject Scalin spoke about the role of restrictions in art. “I thought the restrictions would stifle creativity but it did the op-posite,” said Scalin. Scalin had to work under re-strictions such as the one day deadline. He could not repeat materials and had to make a skull. There are only 115 existing skulls of his original 365. Scalin documented his skulls through photography which took two to three hours a day. “Restrictions incite the doing of stuff,” said Scalin.

both on the screen and in per-son,” said Mr. Durrett. Although the older audience in the theater enjoyed Lincoln’s witty sense of humor, the young-er generation may find his nu-merous stories excessive. This is a historical film, but rather than explosives and bloody battle scenes, the greatest fighting takes place in the House

PHOTO: ALLISON TURNER

PHOTO: ALLISON TURNER

PHOTO: CHELSEA GLOWACKI

of Representatives, where one of the greatest debates in American history is discussed. Lincoln was a success but your level of enjoyment depends on your age and historical aware-ness of the time period. It is a history-lovers movie but can still be enjoyed by others. In our book, the movie received two thumbs up!

An example of the glasswork in the Chihuli exhibit at the VMFA

A Joseph Scalin origional skull (left)Laura Mertz chose to do fingers for her object a day project (up)

Visit Noah Scanlin’s blog at: skulladay.blogspot.com

There you can see his origional 365 skulls. He also puts up a blog post

everyday of other people’s skulls that they have created.

12A&E

On the outskirts of Carytown there is a small burger shop that brings a new style to a classic meal. Burger Bach, which took the place of the old Elwood Thompson coffee shop, has mas-tered the traditional burger with a New Zealand twist. Burger Bach (pronounced batch) has made it its goal to bring the customer the best tast-ing and most humanely raised beef. Burger Bach brings together a timeless meal with all organic ingredients and zesty flavors. When we first arrived, the res-taurant was packed. The seating was atypical compared to the av-erage burger joint. There was a big bar as well as a long table in the center for family style seat-ing, which gave the restaurant an earthy yet no-nonsense feel while maximizing the space. Although there were a lot of seats for how

small the restaurant was, it was so crowded we were only able to snag an outdoor table after a cold, 15 minute wait. As we sat down we were greeted by an ex-cited young waiter who seemed to know our orders just by look-ing at us. We ordered two burg-ers made with 6 oz. of all organic beef— the Original ($10), which came with bacon and the basics and the Hangover Cure ($11), which came with a fried egg, ba-con, American cheese, sautéed onions, green chili sauce, and hot sauce. Along with the burgers we or-dered a large plate of fries, which came with a lot, and they were extremely tasty. However, unlike most restaurants, the fries were a separate order and cost $5 for a large fry. If you do not want to spend as much money, we recommend getting a small fry for $3 and the Basic burger for $7. The large fry came with 2 sauces of our choice. We chose two ketchups, one barbeque sauce, and an on-ion dip, which were all organic.

We found the organic ketchup to have an odd flavor, and the bar-beque and onion dip were not enjoyable. The barbeque flavor was too strong and the onion to dip ratio was way off the mark in the onion dip. The burger was then accompanied by a disgust-ing salad that neither of us even thought to touch. Seriously, this is a burger joint; do not feed us a salad. Within 20 minutes our food was in front of us. We both agreed that the Original was the best thing to ever touch our taste buds. The Original was the perfect burger. It all started with the warm bun, and then came the New Zealand certified grass-fed angus beef which in-troduced our mouths to a whole new world of tastes and juices. Next came one single freshly cut tomato, complemented perfect-ly by lettuce and diced onions which reminded us of eating a homemade veggie salad. Just when we thought it could not get any better we encounter the organic New Zealand ched-

Mason Louthon & D. Graham Stephens

Staff Writers

“The world will end in 2012,” said Grammy Award-winning musician Lil Wayne. The truth of Lil Wayne’s statement, which is vehemently opposed by every-one with a bachelor’s degree, will be known to all on Dec. 21. According to some, the ending of the multi-millennia old Ma-yan calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 will bring about the end to the world - or at least the world as we know it. According to histo-rians and scientists from NASA, the Mayan calendar ended Oct. 28, 2011. That doesn’t stop Freeman stu-dents from fantasizing about the end of the world. “I think the nebula will ex-plode,” said freshman Nicholas Rega. “People will rise to heaven and the whole Earth is going to burn,” said freshman Michael Ebra. “It’ll rain, just rain,” said Coach Jones. Playful attitudes toward the subject are common. History teacher Ben Fabian and some of his friends are “actually having a

Mac Wood & Peter Barkey-Bircann

Staff Writers

world ending party” even though he knows “there is no historic or scientific evidence that anything is going to happen.” “The current date that is set is not even accurate,” he said. “Mayan scholars say there are no predictions of actual doom, [Mayans] just had a set point to the end of the calendar,” said Mr. Fabian. Freeman Rebels aren’t the only people playfully taunting the end of the world. The iPhone app Zombie Nombie will cam-ouflage users as zombies in any world ending event. By holding the phone in front of their faces, waving it back and forth, and making moaning sounds, iPhone users increase chances of being spared on the day of reckoning. User Frannie-Mom calls the app “bad.” Underneath these playful atti-tudes, however, are an array of hidden fears and anticipations. Junior Rachel Elliot called the possibility of the end of the world “really scary.” “I don’t think it’s going to hap-pen but the idea scares me,” she said. As doomsday draws nearer, students and teachers are begin-ning plans for their last days of civilization. Rachel said she is going to “sky-

dive, save a life, and go to Aus-tralia... a couple things on my bucket list.” Mr. Jones said he is going to “make sure all of my affairs were in order and handle the small de-

tails.” Sophomore Davon Williams said, “If it does happen, I’m just going to stay at home and play Skyrim.”

Carytown’s Burger Bach exquisite, but expensive

Students react to Mayan calendar predictions

The Original burger at Burger Bach with the side salad and fries

PHOTO http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/49/1647453/1066979/richmond-burger-bach-original-burger-fries-photo?page=1

PHOTO: http://www.crystalinks.com/mayancalendar.html

Q: When did you get interest in Art?A:I remember being interest-ed in art early on in elemen-tary school

Q: What is your favorite type of art to do?A:I paint and make jewlery, but I mostly draw.

Q: Are you hoping to pursue an artistic field in college? If so, where are you looking?I’m applying for VCU art and a couple other schools to study illustration

Q: Who inspires you as an artist?A:My uncle inspires me, because he just quit his day job to become a full time art-ist. His stuff is really really cool, and I feel like he found his craft. I hope I can do that too. Q: Do you do any art outside of School?A: I do museum leaders in training at the VMFA. I go there twice a month and we do projects for the museum and write tours. and take classes at the visual art cen-ter of Richmond and go to open studios.

Q:What was your latest art project?A:I am starting a drawing of Ophelia, where I will use ink and water color. Ophelia is a lady in Hamelot who went insane and drowned in a brook and they covered her in flowers.

Lacey and Jodie’s PicksWith the Holidays around the corner, you might actually have a chance and the time to make the treats you pinned. Here a few tasty desserts that we think might be worth your time.

Cupcake Icecream ConesIt’s as simple as 1, 2, 3. Whip up your typical boxed cup cake mix and put it in ice cream cones! Just spooning the batter into a cone works great, but if you want to get fancy about it you can fill a baggie up with batter, cut the corner off, and squeeze it out in a systematic fashion. Same goes for the icing; if you are feeling extra culinary you can use the baggie trick! Also, sprinkles are always a great ad-dition, and you can make them red and green for the holiday season.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese

FillingTo go along with the ever pres-ent pumpkin theme for the holi-days, we suggest everybody try these pumpkin cookies. The big-gest piece of advice we have to offer is to use the Betty Crock-er pumpkin spice cookie mix. This makes the entire process a million times easier! For the ic-ing, use the traditional cream cheese icing recipe. It calls for cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar. It is super easy and ex-tremely yummy. Not only are these cookies appropriate for the holidays, but once you start you won’t be able to get enough!

Yogurt Covered Blueberries

Tired of all the fattening holi-day food? If so, this tasty treat is just right for you. First pick up some blueberries, or any other fresh fruit, from the grocery store. While you are there, buy some vanilla yo-gurt. Honey greek yogurt is what the recipe calls for, but really any flavor of yogurt would work. Dip your fruit into the yogurt, place them on a cookie sheet (we would sug-gest putting wax paper down first) and then freeze for a few hours. Enjoy!

Nutella Pie Crust Cookies

These wonderfully delicious cookies take about 5 minutes to prepare, and about 7 min-utes to cook. All that you have to do is buy a pie crust and cut it up into small sliv-ers (we found it easiest to use a pizza cutter). Spread a dash of nutella on each slice, and then roll it up from the wide end. Next, spread some melted butter and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top of your nutella masterpiece and voilà you have yourself heaven.

Morgan created a differ-ent flower still life every day for the object-a-day

project.

````PHOTO: CHELSEA GLOWACKI

dar cheese that seems to absorb every flavor on the burger. When we thought it could not get any better, the three slices of crisp, savory bacon perfect the burger. If you are willing to drop up to $20 for the best burger in Rich-mond then this is your place. But if your pockets aren’t overflow-

ing with cash, then try walking just one more block to Carytown Burgers and Fries, where you will not be crying when you get the check.

The Mayans originated in Mesoamerica be-tween Mexico and South America. They were the first in Mesoamerica to keep any histori-cal records and the Mayan Calendar was then born. The Mayans used stone monuments to keep track of their civil events, calendars, and

astronomy knowledge.

Artist Spotlight:

Senior Morgan Klasset