The Green Pride February 20123

The Green Pride

In this Issue:

www.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

-See Page 6 -See Page 9

State Consider-ation for Arnold

-See Page 12

@DHSgreenpride

Page 1

Student Prom Fundraiser hits the Runway

Shooting Stars: Best of Best

Scholars Bowl team is on the road to success, again

Wonderland Royalty

By Kelsea Burns staffreporter

As most students know, Prom is quickly approaching, and fundraising efforts have been put into action. On Jan. 13, the De Soto High School Prom Committee raised $1,153.05 at the Natalie M. Fashion Show as one of the many fundraisers they will be doing.

Natalie M. has sponsored numerous fashions shows that have raised funds for many dif-ferent causes including the Su-san G. Komen Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Wounded Warrior Project and Children’s Mercy-St. Luke’s Neonatal unit.

Many local schools partici-pated in the fashion show, and each worked to raise money for the fund of their choice. With over 600 models participating in the show, the fashion show raised over $68,000 for educa-tion.

“It’s kind of crazy how much Prom costs. We’re hoping to raise

at least $6,000. We’ve been do-ing biscuit sales, we did cookie dough, we’ve done the fash-ion show, we’ve done so many things,” said junior sponsor and math teacher Melissa Stone. “We were hoping to raise at least $700 [from the fashion show], and we surpassed that goal.”

DHS students had the chance to model prom apparel of their choosing designed by world-renowned fashion designer Tony Bowls after selling a minimum of 20 tickets at $5 each prior to the show.

“A lot of kids want to know what it’s like to be a model. This kind of puts them on the spot-light and makes them feel pretty special,” Stone said. “It’s the big-gest Prom fashion show that the U.S. has and to be involved in that is a huge deal.”

Many high school students dream of becoming a model and the fashion show is just one way that they can get a taste of what it would be like and help out a great cause at the same time. However, this is not the first

time modeling for all DHS stu-dents. “It was really fun,” junior participant Meaghan King said. “It was a really cool idea to ac-tually let us borrow those really awesome dresses.”

Students who participated in the show received a gift bag, 20 percent off of their apparel and an experience to remember. After selling the most tickets for the second year in a row, se-

nior Olivia Cline also received a prom dress from Natalie M. for free.

“I really think they enjoy it. The kids who do it have a really good time,” Stone said.

SENIOR LAURA MEYERS models her dress from Tony Bowls’ 2013 Prom Collection. Mey-ers participated in the show as a junior, in order to raise money for Prom, and decided to participate again, as a senior, on her own. PhotobyTomKuhn

By Jordan Wolf staffreporter

The De Soto High School Scholars Bowl team has won the State Championship for the past two years. The team is hoping to repeat its success again this year, with the Regional meet is ap-proaching.

With aspirations for the team set high from the beginning, head coach and English teacher Philip Hamilton believes that

the team can move closer to bringing home a third-straight State title.

“I believe we can make it to State. I’m excited for us to finish strong and accomplish the goals we set out to accomplish,” Ham-ilton said.

The varsity team has been having a successful year so far. The team has competed in sev-eral meets, in which they have won or finished near the top nu-merous times.

During a typical Scholars Bowl meet, the teams answer questions from several categories such as: math, foreign language and social sciences. Ten points are awarded for every correct an-swer, and no points are deduct-ed for an incorrect answer. If a player interrupts the moderator and answers wrong, the team loses five points.

One key to the team’s success is the way they practice. Stu-dents practice with question-an-

swer flashcards that ask similar questions to what students are asked in real-life meets.

The DHS team has won the Regional meet several times be-fore. However, it will require a top-three finish from DHS out of the 15 competing schools in attendance in order to place the team in a position to qualify for the State tournament.

The journey to a third-straight State title will not be easy. In or-der to finish in the top-three at

Regionals, Hamilton says the team has some preparation to do.

“We’re going to have to work hard in practice, and use and study the notecards we’ve been making,” Hamilton said. “Ev-eryone is just going to have to show up and perform like they have all year.”

The Regional meet was on Jan. 31 at Perry-Lecompton High School. The results of the meet were not available at time of publication.

Page 2 February 6, 2013 Vol. 40

NEWS @DHSGreenPride Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

Visit us Online!

www.dhsnews.org

DHS logs into technologyBy Tyler Bell

managingeditor

New technology has emerged at De Soto High School. Stu-dents and faculty members are now starting to acclimate to new Macintosh computers and tech-nology for a 21st century learn-ing environment.

Prior to Winter Break, tech-nology teachers Ali Shaffer and Tom Beyers received their fair share of technology updates. Their desktops, now powered by Windows 7, have more memory which allows students to power through their work to the teach-ers with little to no interruptions.

After students and faculty re-turned from winter break, they

found new iMacs in the Fine Arts and Digital Media Labs. Media teachers including Shaffer, Mi-chael Sullivan, Tim Mispagel, Mark Bradford and Scott Ledbet-ter were also assigned Macbook Pros.

Students that participate in the Newspaper and Yearbook classes also have access to Mac-books. This gives students an opportunity to use the industry standard in Digital Media and Design careers.

Students also received their newly activated email accounts, that Lisa Lund and the K12tic technology team set out to estab-lish at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year.

The goal for the email ac-

THE GREEN PRIDE staff is one student group in particular that is appreciative of the new technology. All writing, editing and formatting for the paper is done digitally, therefore the technology is especially helpful during publication. PhotobyLauraMeyers

counts are for students, teachers and administrators to communi-cate in a “21st century learning environment.”

This environment is created with the newly implied Com-mon Core standards that Gov. Sam Brownback installed in 2012. The standards set educa-tion guidelines to a certain cur-riculum, allowing students to transition to a new school or into upper level education easier.

Many schools, such as Blue Valley, have had this technol-ogy already, but now students at DHS will have the ability to exer-cise the technology that they will be expected to have and use in most modern careers and upper level schooling across America.

By Kaylee Asher featureeditor

De Soto High School has been making significant prog-ress with the new addition to the west end of the school. With the new addition came a brand new gymnasium, wrestling room and concession stand that are currently being used.

“These additions will benefit our school substantially. The gym is more than adequate. It provides more practice space for sports teams, benefits physical education classes and provides a better environment for fans,” principal Mark Meyer said.

However, what many stu-dents do not know is that with this addition will come a new weight room, multipurpose room, lifetime fitness room and a black box theatre. In addition, DHS will also gain a Federal Emergency Management Agen-cy approved shelter. This can

be utilized by all classrooms on the western end of the school building during tornado drills.

This addition is expected to be ready for occupancy by March 25.

“Overall, this addition will give our school a huge advan-tage as we move forward into the future and our population increases,” Meyer said.

Once all of these additions are completed, there is talk of beginning another phase of construction on the eastern end of the school. Phase three would add more classrooms as well as a large, new media cen-ter. The current media center would be turned into a counsel-ing suite and the office would be revamped.

These upcoming additions will enhance the school signifi-cantly. As student population rises and the school grows, the building needs to be prepared to accommodate to the growth.

THE NEW ADDITION was broken in Jan. 8, when the De Soto basketball teams held a home game inside the newly finished gymnasium. PhotobySophiaTemplin

New addition in use

Issue 5 February 6, 2013 Page 3

vs. Issue 5 February 6, 2013 Page 3

OPINIONwww.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

Gun control laws need to be reformed

By Laura Meyers newseditor

Banning firearms violates second amendment

I hate gun control debates. It’s like grandparents on Facebook. If you don’t know the rules, don’t play the game, or comment on every picture in all-caps.

I am no Clint Eastwood, al-though I do know enough about firearms to know that most gun control arguments end up in a mess of ignorant opinions.

I prefer arguments based on facts. Facts speak the truth, and the truth rocks.

So the next time you hear a Johnson County soccer mom

at the grocery store say, “People shouldn’t be able to just walk around with those big, scary, machine guns, you know,” real-ize that she is so very wrong, and probably late for yoga.

For example, a federal license to own a fully-automatic firearm is permitted in Texas, duh, but in the crime-filled city of Chicago, concealed carry licenses are pro-hibited, and if one wishes to own a firearm, he or she must store it unloaded, inside a locked safe.

Meanwhile, the total annual homicide count in Chicago has increased by nearly 100 people from 2011 to 2012.

Look, if progressives and greenies had their way, the deadli-est weapon Americans could own would be their BPA-free salad fork. However, there is a little, big thing called the Constitution.

Yes, the Constitution allows Americans the right to bear arms, and that is where the argument

should end, but come on, that would just be too easy.

The purpose of this right is to allow Americans to defend them-selves against danger and against an over-reaching government. Yeah, I know, I’m such a crazy radical.

I like to think, however, that the men that created this country had the best of intentions, and if anyone understands over-reaching government, it would be the people that risked their lives to escape it.

On Jan. 28, 2012, Stanislav Mishin, a writer for the Russian newspaper, The Pravada, titled an article “Americans never give up your guns.”

His piece starts: “These days, there are few things to admire about the socialist, bankrupt and culturally degenerating USA, but at least so far, one thing remains: the right to bear arms.”

The rest of his piece describes the takeover of the Soviet Union and the slow disintegration of

their society, specifically because of gun control.

“At one point, Russia was one of the most heavily-armed soci-eties on earth. Weapons, from swords and spears to pistols, rifles and shotguns were everywhere, common items. People carried them holstered,” Mishin writes.

He then explains how the take-over began. It started with regis-tration, then once the govern-ment knew who owned firearms, it had a system ready for whenever it decided to disarm citizens.

That’s how it always starts: reg-istration. Germany experienced similar steps to communism. His-tory repeats itself, and so many people are close-minded to the fact that the “nice guys” could very easily become the bad guys.

Speaking of bad guys, during World War II, when the U.S. heard rumor of Japan construct-ing an atomic bomb, what did our military do?

We scrambled. We pulled every string possible to make sure we had a bigger, quicker, stronger bomb than Japan. See my analogy?

Anyone that suggests the ban-ning of semi-automatic rifles or firearms requiring magazines be-cause they are “just so unneces-sary” is a silly, silly goose.

Stronger defense defeats weak-er offense. Simple. Concept. I’m not going to pull a .38 Special on two intruders with AR-15’s.

If you question the Second Amendment, let me ask you a question.

Do you really need religion? Or the freedom to not practice religion? Do you really need free-dom of speech? Do women really need to vote?

Oh, and if we’re going to regulate firearms, someone really needs to regulate spoons as well, because this ice cream is seriously going to clog all my arteries and kill me if I keep eating.

In the past few months, gun control has been made the center of media attention. While many people continue to deny that such reform is needed, I strongly disagree with them.

Currently, there is no fed-eral law requiring a background check at private gun sales which means that any person of mental health and/or criminal record can acquire a firearm. According to Time magazine, an estimated 40 percent of gun transactions are done privately. By requiring back-

ground checks for private vend-ers, criminals can be kept from acquiring those weapons.

Another flaw in the current system is that there is no federal limit to the amount of guns some-one can buy in a specific time pe-riod. I think that people should be required to wait 30 days between each gun transaction and venders should report those who break the law. This could help prevent future mass shootings by keeping a person from quickly stocking up on weapons.

Also, the amount of rounds per magazine should be banned because these are prevalent in mass shootings. According to politico.com, in every mass shoot-ing between 1984 and 2011, the gunman used a clip that carried more than 10 bullets. If these gunmen had a smaller clip then they would have had to spend more time reloading, which would have given the police more

of a chance to stop shooters.For example, at the Tuscan

shooting in Arizona the gunman was tackled and stopped only be-cause there was a break in the fire when he reloaded his gun.

Assault weapons should also be outlawed because these weapons are actively involved in mass shoot-ings. Curbing these types of guns, will lower the amount of attacks.

Australia demonstrated this in 1996 when they illegalized assault rifles. Since then, researchers in British Journal of Medicine have shown that Australia was followed by more than a decade of mass-free shootings, and the amount of firearm deaths declined.

However, some people say the criminals would not be disarmed with restrictions. Yet, the Newton, Conn. shooter received his rifle from his mother. If she did not have her rifle, neither would he.

Still, many people vehement-ly disagree with imposing these

weapon restrictions on Americans. Many people refer to the Second Amendment and say they can own any gun they want. Yet, it actually says that people must have access to a gun but not every gun. It does not say that the government can-not regulate guns or gun use. These same people go on to incorrectly say that restrictions are the start to losing the right to own a gun.

However, banning one type of gun is not banning all firearms and the government will ensure this will not happen because our congressmen and women would be against that very idea. Fur-thermore, if banning one gun led to the loss of all firearms than the first semi-automatic ban we had, should have resulted in us having no firearms today.

Some people say that allowing more weapons are beneficial, but according to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, more guns are negligible because only

a small percent of the population will carry a gun and generally this group of people are old, ru-ral, white males who are not the most susceptible to crimes.

Another argument that many people say is that guns are inani-mate objects, they do not kill, the people do. However, there is sta-tistical evidence, according to fact-check.org, that more guns relate to more gun related homicides.

In other countries, they have stricter gun laws and all of them have seen a decrease in gun-related homicides. In Japan, only 11 peo-ple died in 2008 from firearms, compared with nearly 12,000 in the U.S. according to the nytimes.com. From these statistics one can easily infer that more gun laws re-sults in less deaths.

The government needs to take a hint from the Aurora and New-ton incidents, and statistics and add more gun regulation to our current system.

By Rebekah Burgwegeropinioneditor

OPINION @DHSGreenPride Wednesday , February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

The month following the new year is a time to reflect on

Teen pregnancy is too romanticizedthe past, and during this time most people start to see that many things have changed over the years. One of the most ob-vious changes that has taken place in the past few years has been the increase in teenage pregnancy acceptance.

Up until recently, teenage pregnancy used to be something that was shunned. Now it is widely accepted across the U.S. It’s even romanticized on TV shows such as, Teen Mom, Teen Mom 2, 16 and Pregnant and High School Moms.

The ABC Family teen drama,

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, was the first show to romanticize teen pregnancy. To state the obvious, this show is absolute trash. There is no value in it what so ever, but thankfully it is ending this June. Hopefully the other shows that glamorize teen pregnancy will be canceled soon as well.

This romanticism, of what has now become a common is-sue, is not only giving kids false impressions of motherhood, but it also convinces kids that they need to grow up as soon as possible.

Too much time is spent on social media sites

The Green PrideDe Soto High School35000 W. 91st St.De Soto, KS 66018

Phone: (913) 667-6250Fax: (913) 583-8376

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF» Sophia TemplinMANAGING EDITOR» Tyler BellNEWS EDITOR» Laura MeyersOPINION EDITOR» Rebekah BurgwegerFEATURE EDITOR» Kaylee AsherSPORTS EDITOR» Maddie TorlineARTS EDITOR» Makenzie HillADVERTISING MANAGER» Ryanne MercerSTAFF REPORTERS» Michael Buffkin, Kelsea Burns, Emily Herrington, Jacob Jen-nings, Xena Moore, Erin Sullivan, Jordan WolfCARTOONIST» Ben PattonADVISER»Michael Sullivan

EDITORIAL POLICY The editorial policy of The Green Pride is (1) Letters to the Editor must be typed, signed, and less than 300 words in order to be published and (2) the staff reserves the right to edit all copy. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in The Green Pride do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Green Pride Staff, De Soto High School, the DHS administration or the De Soto Unified School District #232 Board of Education.

CENSORSHIP POLICY Kansas Senate Bill 62 guarantees the same rights for student journal-ists as are given to professionals. These rights include, but are not limited to, all First Amendment rights, including the right of freedom of expression, insofar as published items may not contain libelous, slan-derous or obscene statements, may not incite or promote illegal conduct, and may not cause a substantial disruption to normal school activity. This bill does not allow the adviser, administrators or any other faculty to censor the paper in any way.

Most high school students feel the need to be “in the loop.” Hearing gossip is one way to stay informed, but the best way is to be actively involved nowa-days is online.

Social media sites are every-where. I only have a few of the

many accounts such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and Snapchat. But I know some people who have these accounts plus more. Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Faces, Google+, LinkedIn, Blogspot, Playfire and even Vampirefreaks.

The only importance of all of these is to eat away at hu-man emotions and physical lives as they sit on their butts all day, not even realizing that there are indeed living, breathing people that exist outside of a computer screen. I will be the first to admit, I spend too much time on Tum-blr and Facebook. Before I go to bed, I spend two hours scrolling through posts. In one week, that is the equivalent of 14 hours of sleep that the bags under my eyes are yelling at me for.

Not only do these pointless

sites eat away at my physical appearance, but they are also just one big competition. Who can honestly say that they have never gotten on Facebook and compared how many likes you got on a status or “happy birth-day” posts on your birthday. These sites provide the perfect opportunity for people to get emotional over stupid things.

These sites not only make it hard on people through lack of sleep and hurt feelings, but they also force people into solitary confinement. That is weird considering that I have over 500 friends on Facebook while in reality, I only talk to of few of them face to face. With all of these social networking sites, people lost a need for hu-man contact. People start to get

By Kelsea Burns staffreporter

By Maddie Torline sportseditor

Being young should be cher-ished. From the time you are born to the time you leave for college, you should live your life selfishly. That doesn’t mean that you should be a selfish person necessarily. It means that dur-ing this time, you should focus on yourself. Your life should re-volve around you because once you become an independent adult, you will take on more responsibilities than you may even realize.

It seems more and more like the media is trying to take this away. It encourages kids to rush into things like pregnancy and marriage by making it seem glamorous.

The fact of the matter is par-enthood is not glamorous. It is not easy. It is not something to be taken lightly. Most teenagers simply aren’t prepared to take on that kind of responsibility.

Children should not be rais-ing children, and they certainly should not be subliminally en-couraged to do so through the media, simple as that.

nervous with just the thought of having to look someone in the eye. In addition, they forget that they actually have to see these people which causes them to say things that they will later regret.

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter serve the exact same pur-pose. The only difference between the two is the term, “socially ac-ceptable.” On Twitter, it is ac-ceptable to post numerous tweets. Now, do the same on Facebook and you may get yelled at.

Compromises for all of these devastating problems are:

1) Sleep. Set a time limit on how long you are allowed on each site.

2) Be social. Not online, but with actual people.

3) Choose one, maybe two sites that you enjoy the most.

Cartoon by Ben Patton


OPINION

Part-time prevents high academic standards

By Kaylee Asherfeatureeditor

Students at De Soto High School have recently been bom-

barded with a new Seminar poli-cy for the Spring of 2013.

According to Principal Mark Meyer, a special Seminar com-mittee composed the new Semi-nar with an intent to stop stu-dents from using Seminar as it isn’t intended.

Now, students must have a signature from a teacher prior to Seminar, students may only travel to one Seminar, no one can travel after 2:30 a.m., no locker visits and Seminar is closed on Fridays.

The passes lay out a place for the date, destination of student (requiring a signature), what time it is when they leave Semi-

nar and a signature of the Semi-nar teacher allowing the student to travel and vice versa for the time and signature of when the student arrives at their destina-tion along with a column en-titled “problems.” When absent, students may use an “Absentee Multi-Pass” when they return to school so that they can get their late work from all their teachers and not just one.

To me, these new Seminar passes are insulting. The main reason students at DHS were forced into these new policies is due to a few students leaving Seminar all together. Every stu-dent is being punished for the

New Seminar policies insult studentspoor judgment of a few students.

Instead of imposing such harsh restrictions on our previ-ously relaxed policy, I feel like there are other options that could have solved this problem. Many schools have Seminar where our nutrition break is– between first and second block. This place-ment would require students to stay in school and would elimi-nate the issue of students skip-ping Seminar.

Students should not be re-quired to get the teacher’s sig-nature prior to Seminar, just a signature from their Seminar teacher should suffice.

Locker visits should also be ac-

ceptable. If the point is to make Seminar a more academic time then why shouldn’t we be able to grab our calculators from our lockers if we were to forget?

Having a morning Seminar would make it far less tempting for students to leave. The restric-tions imposed on students are also far too strict for many students’ preferences. A senior could theo-retically vote, sign a legally bind-ing contract, open a bank account, buy tobacco products, get married, buy a lottery ticket and go to jail but within the boundaries of DHS their hand has to be held walking to the bathroom during Seminar: that needs to change.

By Sophia Templineditorinchief

For the second semester of the 2012-13 school year at De Soto

High School, the school has began to offer a part-time student sched-ule for seniors. This schedule allows seniors to take minimum amounts of classes if they have all of the nec-essary credentials to graduate.

Students that are involved in sports merely have to take five classes in order to be eligible to participate in their sport. This helps athletes clear up some of their schedule to do homework and achieve good grades so that they are eligible to play.

Only having five classes limits the education that one can obtain. With more classes comes more knowledge that can be utilized in the future.

Part-time schedules limit intel-lectual progress which restricts the students using the program from achieving their full, aca-demic potential.

The part-time schedule is also beneficial for students who maintain a job during the school year. Getting out of school early allows them to take more shifts and make more money for their college funds or other endeavors.

However, many students are not utilizing this time to do so. Several students have used this extra time to procrastinate, sleep, play video games or sim-ply skip class.

“I have been late to math class

pretty much every single day be-cause of this schedule,” senior Elise Miller said.

In addition, part-time students no longer have Seminar to get help on assignments for teachers.

“I think I’m just not on top of it this semester because I don’t have Seminar. When you’re part-time you’re not supposed to be here, and I can’t get help when I need it,” Miller said.

I personally do not see why se-niors need a part-time schedule. If the school required all students to take on a full- time schedule, students would be more likely to learn and retain more informa-tion in courses that they other-

wise would not have taken. This information can be utilized in their future.

Although I do agree that a part-time schedule is beneficial to many students, I think that the program needs to be revised so that people can not manipu-late it.

Students should be held re-sponsible for showing up to school, school activities and team practices on time consider-ing they have the luxury of go-ing home. If they cannot com-plete these simple actions, the part-time schedule should be revoked or some sort of conse-quence should occur.

www.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5VO

ICES Are the

new Seminar rules too radical? “No [they were not a necessary

change], I think we were more responsible with the older Seminar

rules than the new ones.”

“ I think yes because it is punishing the entire student body for the reck-less acts of a few, and in the end it is not really helping because restricting

me to one Seminar could end up negatively affecting my grades.”

“I think the new Seminar rules are fine because we have the best inter-

est of the students to help them succeed.”

“I think they are a bit too radical because having to use a Seminar

pass prior to Seminar is a bit ridicu-lous and what is most ridiculous is

going to one Seminar per day.”

Junior Shelby

Philbrook

Sopho-more Tyler

Wollum

Spanish teacher Nancy Perry

Freshman Ravenne

King



FEATURE www.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

Above: SENIORS TAYLOR SAUCERMAN and Isaac Leuth were crowned Queen and King of Winter Sports during halftime of the boys’ varsity basket-ball game by former King and Queen Maddy Wolfe and T.J. Crow. The team played Basehor-Linwood High School and won 56-51. The girls’ team were also victorious over the Bobcats in overtime 45-38.PhotobyShelbyPhilbrook.

Right: RYAN STALLBAUMER, BRAIDEN Turner and Isaac Leuth were nominated for King. Taylor Sau-cerman, Kori Henderson and Paige Williams were nominated for Queen. PhotosbySophiaTemplin.

Wonderland Royalty


FEATURE www.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

By Laura Meyersnewseditor

Recently, three De Soto High School band members earned their way into two nationally prestigious musical groups. Ju-nior Ethan Aubrey-Mitchell and sophomores Brenton and Alex-ander Michalek were selected to join select audition-based marching bands.

Aubrey-Mitchell auditioned and was chosen to be a mem-ber of the drum and bugle corps marching group, the Colts. The Colts are based out of Dubuque, Iowa, and they are a Division I drum corps group.

Division I drum corps groups travel the nation every summer and are composed of the most elite brass musicians, percussion ensemble and color guard.

“My former section leader, Derek Smith, previously tried out, two years ago and made it. I got the chance to go and see one of his home shows, up in Dubuque, and got to see them

warm up also. It was just so cool to see them all so involved. It’s truly an elite group,” Aubrey-Mitchell said.

Aubrey-Mitchell decided this was something that he wanted to do. Last fall, he be-gan the audition process.

“There are two auditions, mildly formal, in Dubuque. Basically, you pick any piece, based on your skill level, play it down, along with a chromatic scale. Then, there is a visual audi-tioned, mostly based on how fast you learn,” Aubrey-Mitchell said.

Aubrey-Mitchell got news of his admittance during winter break, and is excited to start performing.

“Once a month, for every month, until May, I will be driv-ing to Dubuque for four days at a time to practice. Basically, I eat, sleep and live with the corps. Then, on May 27, I leave for three months to travel and per-form with the corps,” Aubrey-Mitchell said.

The corps will be perform-ing during the summer 2013 in

Olathe. The dates for the nation-wide tour have yet to be posted, but can be found on colts.org at a later date.

Both Brenton and Alexander Michalek were also honored with their selection into the Bands of America Honor Band.

On Jan. 1, the band marched in the Tournament of Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. The boys auditioned last March, and submitted an online musical audition, along with a recommendation from DHS band director Matt Bradford.

“We rehearsed there four days before the parade,” Alexander said.

Millions of people watched the parade. People watched the parade both in person and on na-tional television.

“The most exciting part was marching and knowing that we were on national television,” Brenton said.

“I am very proud of all three of them. Those [bands] are a very big deal, and are not easy to get into,” Bradford said.

Students in esteemed bands

Alec Mackay is finally getting relief from injuryBy Sophia Templin

editorinchief

For the first time in over eight months, senior Alec Mackay is able to walk down the De Soto High School halls without a boot, crutches, scooter, etc.

“Jan. 5 (2012) was the last time I went on a run and that’s when I knew I had really hurt myself,” Mackay said.

In February, Mackay saw a doctor about the pain in his right foot and was put into a boot and had to use crutches. Mackay still had severe pain by May and was referred to a surgeon. The sur-geon suggested Mackay do phys-ical therapy for two months be-fore any surgery was decided on.

In July, after another MRI an extra bone was discovered in Mackay’s foot. “We went to sur-gery and cut the extra bone out

thinking that it would relieve some of the pain,” Mackay said. “It made things worse.”

In an effort to finally get Mackay walking again, he and his family met with a panel of 15 doctors. Each had a different idea of what was wrong with him. The ideas were nerve damage, hernia-tion, a blood clot and one doctor even suggested that Mackay was making up the pain and should see a psychiatrist.

The Mackay’s ended up choos-ing surgeon Jeff Johnson who thought there was some type of damage to the plantar fascia but suggested a cut and check type of diagnosis. Once they opened his foot up, the surgeons discov-ered the dense connective tissue resembled cobwebs in Mackay’s foot and his plantar fascia was shredded.

“To actually find that [shred-

ded plantar fascia] they have to use a sonagram and they couldn’t find anything,” Mackay said. “I was just fed up at that point so I took the scanner from them and put it on my own foot and found the problem.”

The surgeon made an inch long cut around the plantar fas-cia and Mackay was on a scooter for two weeks. When he finally got the stitches out he was able to take his first steps in over eight months.

Since his accident, Mackay’s right calf has shrunk four inches. He missed playing soccer his se-nior year and couldn’t golf last year. Now, Mackay swims every Wednesday, Saturday and Sun-day for physical therapy and is starting to work into leg exercises again in weights. Whenever he feels comfortable, Mackay can start running again.

SOPHOMORES BRENTON AND Alexander Michalek prepare to perform in the Rose Bowl Parade. WildcatPhoto

SENIOR ALEC MACKAY maintains a positive attitude regardless of the lengthy turmoil he underwent in order to relieve the pain after his plantar fascia injury. WildcatPhoto

SPORTSwww.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 41, Issue 5

By Jordan Wolf staffreporter

This January, De Soto High School opened its doors to a completed new gymnasium for all to see; the prime feature of the construction that has been going on for months.

The addition of the new gym gives the basketball teams a sec-ond set of hoops to practice on. It also allow another venue for games throughout the winter.

Boys’ head coach Matt Rice believes that the new facilities will improve the entire basketball program as a whole.

“Hopefully, it will help gener-ate more interest in the program from little kids and youth com-ing to camps and becoming a part of what we’re doing,” Rice said. “Also, it can hopefully attract big-ger crowds with more seating.”

The new gym opened on Jan. 8, for a series of games against Spring Hill, including a win by the varsity girls.

When it comes to practice schedules, Rice says that the new gym will definitely help.

“Having two gyms is nice. It lets us have more early practices so guys can get home early and hopefully are able to work on homework,” Rice said.

By Maddie Torline sportseditor

The De Soto High School wrestling team has had an im-proved season so far according to its members, all thanks to the hard work put in at each practice.

At the beginning of each prac-tice, the wrestlers do a simple warm up, usually consisting of jogging, jumping rope, and loos-ening up their muscles.

After warm ups, that is when the real practice begins. The boys partner up and practice all sorts of different drills including dou-ble-leg, single-leg, take down, stand up and the switch. These

sorts of drills take more mental effort than maybe expected.

When asked to compare wres-tling practice to football practice, two wrestlers agree that it takes more stamina to get through each wrestling practice.

“Conditioning wise, [wres-tling] is a whole lot harder,” sophomore Devon Freeman said.

Senior Christian Zwahlen agreed with Freeman.

“You have to have a whole lot more mental toughness to get through,” Zwahlen said.

At the end of practice, to cool off, the wrestlers may run, go live, condition or play games such as shark bait. This game in

particular is when you have a few wrestlers in the center of the mat and the rest do whatever they can to take them down.

“It’s terrible,” Freeman said. Even though practices are

hard and tiresome, none of the wrestlers would stop wrestling.

“[Wrestling] builds charac-ter,” Freeman said.

When asked about their favor-ite part of wrestling, many wres-tler agreed that finally winning is the best part.

“When you break someone, that moment when you know that they are just done and you won,” Zwahlen said.

Sophomore Isaac Stevens also

The new addition will allow the girls and boys to have an entire gym to themselves rather than having staggered practice schedules after school because of the need to share one gym.

Along with the new gym, the construction is adding, among other rooms, a new weight room. Currently, the weight room is located in the small gym which is taking away an entire

court from the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams.

“The new facilities will give us more space, especially in the summer with having the gym available. Last summer, we were

unable to utilize all of the gym space because we had the weight room in there,” Rice said.

The construction is expect-ed to be completed some time around spring break.

agreed that the best part was fi-nally winning.

“[The best part is] when you get your hand raised,” Stevens said.

JUNIOR WADE SCHULER and se-nior Drew Stephens battle it out during wrestling practice. PhotobyErinSullivan

New gymnasium opens its doors to more opportunities for basketball teams

Wrestling practice behind the scenes: Takes more strength than expected



By Erin Sullivanstaffreporter

This season the girls’ basket-ball team has gone through more than the its fair share of injuries. With multiple girls recovering from injuries the team has had to work hard to keep up with main-taining their winning record.

“It is a struggle. We are trying to figure out who fits where [and] when, but we are making do,” sophomore Tori Marshall said.

Even though the majority of the injuries are minor, the play-ers are still not able to preform to their full potential. This has led others to have the opportunity to step up and take their place. This has eased the team’s mind set and stress of having team mem-bers fall through because they have not been able to physically

By Makenzie Hill artseditor

Power lifting is a sport not usu-ally brought to many people’s at-tention on a normal basis, but at De Soto, even though this team is small, to its participant it is still important.

The team has never been very big, but its individuals have still done well.

For participants such as senior Lauren Mabe, who has excelled in the sport, power lifting is a worth-while addition to the school.

According to Mabe, the se-niors from last year were big mo-tivators in the weight room. Even with them gone the team is still strong and will perform well with their absence.

“I think it will be good, I know I’ll do good. We have a lot of good things going on,” Mabe said.

Coach Brian King is also op-timistic about the upcoming season.

“We’ve got a good combina-tion of older lifters and younger

By Ryanne Merceradsmanager

The De Soto High School bowling team has started its sec-ond season and is going strong already. The players are on a roll and their spirits are far from be-ing in the gutter.

The players have two first place finishes so far and the coaches agree that both the teams have gotten better, in comparison to last year.

To improve from last year to this year, more bowlers par-ticipated in various off-season leagues to raise their scores.

DHS has four meets left un-til the regular season is complete and the next round begins.

“Our goals are for everyone to improve and get them to bowl their best games in Re-gionals. Then hopefully we can get some to State,” head coach Ed Wilcox said.

Seniors are a very big part of every team, because they mo-tivate the underclassmen to do

preform as well.The coaches have had to work

around the injuries to create an environment that is protected against the possibility of more injuries and that stimulates the quick recovery. They have been careful to not push each injured player over their limit and allow them to heal so they can return to playing.

The thoughts and prayers from teammates work to encour-age each person to do their ab-solute best and work as hard as they can. The bond between the players has become a special as-set to the struggles of each injury that they are overcoming. Each person’s attitude creates a posi-tive influence on everyone who is recovering.

“It absolutely sucks [being in-jured]. It’s tormenting my mind

sitting on the sideline thinking that I could be doing something to help, but the best thing that I could be doing is sitting here

lifters,” King said. “We will do very well. We have some kid who could set State records this year.”

The team does not have a set practice time, but many partici-pate in weights class, and they all participate in after school weights in order to train for their upcoming meets.

These times allow the team members to get to know each other. The team also meets other individuals from other schools through power lifting.

Mabe has had this exact ex-perience.

“I have friends that I see at the meets,” Mabe said, “I hang out with them.”

These meets allow the partici-pants to interact with others from other schools. These interactions help students meet people from all different situations in life.

The team will be training to-gether until its first meet. This meet will take place at Basehor-Linwood High School on Feb. 9. The team is expecting to do well in its first meet.

well each year.“There were lots of people

who came back and the senior leadership motivates the kids to perform [at] their best,” assistant coach Jake Lorenzo said.

Wilcox agrees that the upper-classmen are a big influence to the team.

“Our varsity boys have some upper class men that are a posi-tive influence on the team. Also, we have really good young adults on our team, it is a pleasure to see them each day for practice or a meet,” Wilcox said.

For freshman Austin Smith, his first year has already been a success. His average score is 175, which is the highest on the team.

He has been bowling for sev-en years on a league team at Park Lanes.

“My goals for the rest of the season are to make State and get the highest average on the team,” Smith said.

Smith and junior Nate Hess have been battling back and forth for the first place spot on

the team score wise.“If [Hess] bowls well, it pres-

sures me to bowl better,” Smith said.

He decided to be on the bowl-ing team because it’s fun, and he described himself as good at it. He enjoys the great competition and “getting strikes.”

Regionals start on Feb. 22 and with State following the next week on Feb. 28 in Wichita.

healing myself,” Marshall said. Even though this is the mind

set of many players, the injuries that have taken over the team

Girls’ basketball team over comes multiple injuries

Lifters power up for season

SENIOR PAIGE WILLIAMS goes up for a lay-up at the game on Tuesday, Jan. 8 against Spring Hill. The girls pulled out a win with the score 43-27. DHS’ record is now 9-6 overall and 4-2 in league. PhotobyErinSullivan

seem to take a back seat to the season’s overall success that is be-ing presented by the team as a whole in games and practices.

Bowlers would be lost without upperclassmen

Bowling Schedule Feb. 06- De Soto QuadFeb. 07- @ Leaven- worth High SchoolFeb. 11- @ Leaven- worth High SchoolFeb. 19- 4A Regional ChampionshipsFeb. 28- 4A State Championships Wichita Northrock Lanes




By Rebekah Burgwegeropinioneditor

On Jan. 18, seniors Shelby Stephens and Sarah Churchwell, and sophomore Meredith Wolfe and graduate Jordan Kline par-ticipated in a half-marathon race, stretching from Topeka to Auburn.

Kline brought the idea to the girls in the beginning of the winter, and because it wasn’t much longer than their maxi-mum they had ever ran, they decided to do it.

“We thought it would be a good challenge and it gets us in shape for track season,” Ste-phens said.

The girls believe that this race will have other benefits for track beside getting them in shape.

“I think it has prepared us a lot better because by setting this

By Emily Herringtonstaffreporter

The De Soto High School swim team has started the year with both successes and losses for the team.

Freshman Miles Arnold has received a State consideration time in the 500-meter freestyle. In order for an automatic qualifi-

cation, he needs a 5:55 time.Although it is the school’s first

year having a swim team, it is not Arnold’s first year swimming. He has been swimming competitively since he was in the seventh grade.

“I wanted to swim for our team, for the school and beat my [best] time,” Arnold said.

For Arnold, it is not about just winning the race against the

other competitors. His main goal is to win the race and achieve a new personal record.

“I just like racing the clock and beating my times. It doesn’t matter where the other people are. I just want to race the clock,” Arnold said.

Although his goals are to beat his own time, Arnold still enjoys the competitive part of the sport.

Underclassmen have had to pull their weight this season due to the lack of seniors on the team.

Arnold also enjoys getting to meet and race against other peo-ple. He is happy to have had such a successful season this year.

Arnold has not only achieved his personal record this season, but he placed first in his heat against Olathe Northwest, Blue

Valley West, Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission Northwest swimmers at the in-vitational on Jan. 24, where his time was 6 minutes flat.

He believes that it has been a very successful first season overall for the team and himself and that they have set themselves up to make even more successful goals next year.

Arnold has plans to continue swimming for the rest of his high school career. He enjoys being able to work and improve with the team.

“They are all really supportive and we all cheer for each other,” Arnold said. “I’ll definitely swim for the school next year.”

goal we’ve gotten out and ran a lot more miles. So I think we’re more prepared and our work-outs are now becoming easier,” Wolfe said.

The girls prepared for the race by having a long run once a week and they gradually worked up from six miles to 12 miles during the winter. During this time the girls prepared mentally by talking about their goals for the run.

On the day of the race, the girls got up early to leave for Topeka. They had a light breakfast and got in the mind set for the race.

“I am excited, I’m glad to run it, we have never really done something like this before,” Churchwell said.

During the race, the girls ful-filled their goal for the three of them to run together and not stop to walk.

“For the most part we wanted to run under an hour and 50 minutes, and if we could run in under an hour and 45 [min-utes],” Stephens said.

The girls were hoping to keep their mile pace less than eight minutes, if they could. After the race, they found out their aver-age mile time was 8:29, how-ever, they were still happy with the results.

Overall the girls were able to finish with a time of one hour and 51 minutes, almost fulfill-ing their goals.

“It’s a huge accomplishments, and I think it is also really cool that I can say I have ran a half-marathon,” Wolfe said.

Churchwell, Wolfe and Ste-phens finished holding hands and together they received third place in their age division. They also finished 16th overall.

Arnold’s previous swim experience pays off

Cross country runners accomplish a half marathon

FAR LEFT: ARNOLD participates in the relay race as a back stroke swimmer at a meet in Bonner Springs on Jan. 30. The DHS team placed seventh out of 17 teams in the relay race. Along with back stroke, Arnold competes in free-style races. Left: Arnold poses for his individual picture.

WOLFE, CHURCHWELL, AND Kline continue their even pace at the thir-teen miles mark. Each runner was excited for the opportunity to par-ticipate in a half marathon and was psyched for the challenge. PhotocourtesyofMissyWolfe


ARTS www.dhsnews.org Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 5

Diamonds shine at recent dance competitions By Xena Moore

guestreporter

The De Soto High School Diamonds dance team proved to be a tough competitor in two competitions in January and all together took home eight team awards, three captain awards and various other small group awards.

Both head coach McKenzi Crow and assistant coach Emily Allen are recent addition to the DHS dance team.

Although under new leader-ship this year, the Diamonds seem unaffected by the change and still won multiple awards at competition. The team competes in team routines of jazz, hip-hop and novelty, but girls can also compete in solos, duets and trios. They was successful in all areas they participated in.

At the Miss Kansas compe-tition at Olathe South High School Jan. 11-12, the team reeled in four team awards. They were also one team out of nine chosen to perform in the Show-case in which they performed their hip-hop routine again. This is the first time making Showcase for the team.

At the Kansas Spectacular competition at Olathe East High School Jan. 18-19, the girls took three teams awards for their routines. The team was within a tenth of a point from taking home the first place Academic Achievement Award.

Even in smaller groups the girls still excelled. Junior Callie Lane took multiple awards for her jazz and lyrical solos. Three separate duets won awards, and the team’s trio performed were

also ensemble winners. “We did really well, both indi-

vidually and as a team. The girls

THE DE SOTO DIAMONDS perform their competition routine for audience at Queen of Winter sports game. The dance team went on to win multiple award at two different competitions. They also made Showcase for the first time. The team has been doing well at all their events. Photo by Xena Moore

By Makenzie Hill arteditor

Every year music students from De Soto High School’s have the chance to audition for KMEA (Kansas Music Educators Association) bands and choirs.

Before auditioning, pieces of music are given to all who wish to audition by the KMEA officials.

Five band students make KMEA State Band

By Emily Herrington staffreporter

Auditions have ended and re-hearsals have just begun for the De Soto High School spring mu-sical. Students will be preforming Joseph and the Amazing Technicol-or Dream Coat on March 6-9.

The show stars the biblical character Joseph, who is being played by both senior Jonny Hodges and junior Ethan Rid-ings. Joseph is viewed as his fa-ther’s the favorite of Jacob’s 12

A closer look at the upcoming spring musical

On the date of auditions each group of musicians is told which sections of the prepared piece they will play for the judges.

The actual audition is blind so the judges will pick the best musicians based on their sound. Then all the students who make the district honor band then have the opportunity to audition for the state band.

did an awesome job,” head coach McKenzi Crow said. “They work very well together and they want

to be the best they can be, so it’s nice to work with girls that want to constantly improve.”

Competition for these bands is high, and students must pre-pare well for these auditions. For State, musicians once again, audition in front of an unseen judge. Again, a specified part of a practiced song is played for the judge. Students sit in the hallway until it is their time to play.

“You are really nervous until you audition,” said Maria Pileski,

a senior mad e State band. After auditions, a list is sent

out containing the names of peo-ple that made the band.

Many student do not make the state level band. Some tryout multiple times, hoping to make it at least once. This is Pileski’s first time making state band though she has auditioned in past years.

Seniors Rhiannon Caldwell,

Emily Churchwell and Pileski, junior Madison Kerr and sopho-more Connor Kennard all had the musical capabilities and tal-ent to make this prestigious band.

These students will travel to Wichita on Feb. 21. They will be there until they perform on Feb. 23 in a concert with fellow qual-ified musicians for Kansas music educators and their parents.

sons. He can interpret dreams and bears the amazing multicol-ored coat. His brothers sell him to slavery because of their envy. The rest of the musical follows Joseph and the story behind him reuniting with his family.

The cast has only been re-hearsing for one month and they are already looking forward to the performances and enjoying the ability to work with some new material.

“It’s definitely different than a lot that we have done in the past.

And it’s an interesting musical in general. It has a very wide range of music styles; country, French ... Elvis, it’s just all over the place.” said senior Lindsay Everson who plays one of the narrators. “I think we have some strong actors and actresses in the leads and it’ll be fun for everyone involved. I’m pretty excited for it.”

The directors, drama teacher Erin Purifoy and choir teacher Mary Etta Copeland, tradition-ally take the most active the-ater students into consideration

while picking out what musical the students will be performing. They choose the musical through a process of looking at which of the individuals talents they want to showcase.

“We looked at the group of stu-dents that typically had been in-volved and were planning to be in-volved,” said Purifoy. “And we tried to find a show that we thought would help showcase all of their various and different talents.”

Everson and juniors Kas-sidy Forshey, Makenzie Hill and

Maddie Torline will be playing the narrators of the show.

Other members of the class in-clude a rich captain and his wife, a pharaoh, Jacob’s family, a dance ensemble, singing ensemble and the wives of Joseph’s brothers.

With a successful start the cast and directors are looking forward to a successful show. They have high expectations for everything and everyone involved.

Tickets will be available to buy online in February and the show will follow a month after.


ARTS @DHSGreenPride WednesdayFebruary6,2013 Volume40,Issue5

Left: Seniors Jordan Whitaker and Emma West working on their projects for their Advanced Placement Studio Art portfolios. Automaton drawing by Jordan Whitaker using graphite, draw-ing was a work in progress. pho-tograph by Tim Mispagel.

Below: A Two-Dimensional piece by Emily Churchwell. The piece was used for the Shooting Stars portfolio and will be used for her AP Studio art portfolio, which will be submitted May 2013. Eye photograph by Emily Churchwell.

2012-13 De Soto High School Shooting Stars Applicants By Tyler Bellmanagingeditor

The Shooting Stars Visual and Performing Arts scholarship is un-derway, and this year five students at De Soto High School are in the running for a scholarship.

This year, seniors Rhian-non Caldwell, Makayla Cross, Emma West, Jordan Whitaker, Emily Churchwell, Dylan Fos-ter and Linsday Eversson are all representing DHS at this year’s Awards Gala.

“This is a prestigious award, and any student that goes through this experience needs to turn it out and be on the top of their game,” Whitaker said.

Schools can be represented by one participant per category.

From literature to photography each student has to put together a portfolio or an audition that will be displayed at the Awards Gala.

Applicants that place first in their category will win a $1,400 scholarship, second place appli-cants will receive a $700 scholar-ship and honorable mentions will win a $350 scholarship.

Each of the five students are placed into a unique category, as listed below:

- Rhiannon Caldwell - Winds & Percussion

- Makayla Cross - Literature- Emma West - Thee Dimen-

sional - Jordan Whitaker - Two Di-

mensional Art- Emily Churchwell - Photog-

raphy & Design

- Lindsey Everson - Vocal- Dylan Foster - ActingEach student’s representative,

teachers Tim Mispagel, Mary-et-ta Copeland and Mark Bradford, select their elite students that will

have the best chance winning a scholarship and also that will best represent DHS.

The awards Gala will be held April 7, where the applicants will find out who has won a scholar-

ship in their category.Final results will be posed on

the DHS Green Pride website (www.dhsnews.org), and Mispa-gel will post results on twitter @MispagelArt.

Documents

The Green Pride February 20123