Vol. XLVI Issue 4Elk Grove High School December 7500 W. Elk Grove Boulevard, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

The GuardianRead to find out about freshman Kristen Fidler’s unique and interesting hobby.

See Page 6

Features:

‘Music must be country wide’: Fans live through music

Country music is not just a genre of music, it is a way of life for some students here at Elk Grove.

Elk Grove is located in the good old suburbs that cover Illinois. We are far from the heartland and roots of country music and yet EGHS contains some of the most passionate followers of country and even some country folk of our own.

Some country lovers grew up sur-rounded by this genre of music; some are newcomers.

“I really got into country music in third grade when my aunt came back from a country fest with tons of tapes from all different country stars,” junior Maddie Siebert said.

Some were forced to listen to it by family members and friends and it grew on them.

“A year ago, my brother always made me listen to it so I just started liking it too,” freshman Casey Majer said.

Junior Celina Wlodarski has seen more than 25 country artists perform this year alone.

“I cannot describe how many times I’ve been left breathless by country mu-sic, and how I fall in love with so many songs over and over again,” Wlodarski said. “Yeah, there are songs about trac-tors and trailers but it isn’t just a song. That’s a person’s life. That’s what they’ve been through and that’s what they love.”

Senior Emily Wary could not agree more.

“I love country music so much be-cause every song tells a story.”

Country music artists are very unique. Many fans appreciate their low key lifestyles and down to earth attitudes. With fantastic live shows and true talent, country artists never disappoint.

“I love how passionate these guys are about their music and how they actually are musicians,” senior Thomas Nickel-son said.

For some, country music goes be-yond the lyrics. They live them.

On the other hand, some country lovers feel they are out of place.

Julianne MicoletaEditor in Chief

DreamWorks vs. Pixar. Which one makes the better animated mov-ies?

Entertainment:Various students offer to coach different sports like cheerleading. Read to find out the benefits of it.

Sports:

ON THE JOB: Principal Nancy Holman works with sophomore Ryan Baird and graphic arts teacher Jay Wha-len in the graphic arts room on Dec. 3. Holman plans to retire at the end of the school year, and District 214 is on a search for a new principal.

See Pages 7 See Page 12Check out our website at: www.eghsguardian.com

Photo by Alex Ostrowski

Every morning, Principal Nancy Holman wakes up at 4 a.m., answers her emails for three hours straight and then heads to work where she is responsible for a building filled with 2,000 kids and more than 200 faculty members. However for Holman, this is all about to end.

“Or well, it’s the beginning of a new chapter,” she said.

After six years at Elk Grove, Holman plans to retire as principal at the conclu-sion of the 2012-2013 school year.

“You’re never really ready [to retire] to be honest with you, but at a time where we’re recognizing that the pension system has its own set of difficulties, I just thought that we’d better take advantage of these benefits and enjoy life a bit,” Holman said.

Currently, the Illinois Teachers Re-tirement Fund is being plagued with issues that could result in the Illinois’ teacher pension system going broke if the state does not figure out a way to fully fund the system soon, according to Teachers’ Re-tirement System (TRS).

“TRS absolutely will be able to meet its obligations to retired teachers in the near future, but we cannot guarantee re-tirement security for future generations of teachers unless the state meets its total ob-

ligations,” Dick Ingram, executive direc-tor of the TRS, said in an interview with watchdog.org.

And according to Holman, in order to receive some of these benefits that are de-pleting, she made this decision almost four years ago.

“In Illinois and in district 214, if you’re going to receive and appreciate the benefits that come with the Illinois Pension system, you actually have to put in for re-tirement three and a half years in advance if you’re going to receive certain benefits,” Holman said.

Yet with three and a half years to pre-pare, Holman still does not consider her-self “ready” to retire.

“It just seems like a foreign concept to me,” Holman said, whose energy level ev-ery day is still noticeably high, “so I think what happens is at the right time you kind of gradually get into that ‘OK, what will that next chapter look like?’ mentality.”

For Holman, right now this next chap-ter in her life consists of three parts: vaca-tioning with her husband, investing time in volunteer efforts and carving out some sort of professional experience.

“Because even with retirement, you can still, if you desire, work in private schools, work in the private sector,” Hol-man said.

And if she’s going to work anywhere,

it’ll be in the education sphere “because it’s what I’ve known all my life,” Holman said.

In the meanwhile, in her role as a retiring principal, Holman will assist the transition in the support for someone new.

“I want to assure that I put a new principal in a place where they can just take off running,” Holman said. “Elk Grove High School is at a wonderful place right now and my little private wish is that I want that new principal to just love it as much as I have and for them to devise their own course while, celebrating and continuing some of the proud traditions that we have in place while as well as con-tinuing to support our kids and making the gain they have met in recent years.”

Spearheading the search for a new principal is Associate Superintendent of Human Resources Kurt Laakso, who re-cently held input forums to gauge what students and faculty members would like in a new principal.

“Overall they’re addressing the prin-cipal as someone that’s collaborative, sup-portive, approachable, caring person that’s committed to quality and is going to be able to lead the school in a positive direc-tion while continue to sustain the success that Elk Grove has been experiencing,” Laakso said.

Holman retires, search for new principal continues

Kaylinn EsparzaNews/Feature Editor

Continued on Page 2

Christine JuhasStaff Reporter

Continued on Page 4

The debate team’s previous tourna-ment on Nov. 10 at Stevenson High School ended up being a fourth place all around victory against 50 other competing schools. However, a rather extensive amount of time lapses between the previous tourna-ment and the next; so in the meantime, the team has been working hard on receiving a higher place for the next big competition on Dec. 15 at Prospect High School.

This month, the team is working dili-gently by consistently practicing many sets of skills. Some skills are already down pat. They’ve been practicing in groups, work-ing through different tournament scenar-ios, discussing debated issues, perfecting their delivery and doing research on their bills. Sophomore Yasunari Sakuma was even awarded the upcoming tournament’s best novice researcher.

The team is also collaborating togeth-er and mixing practices that include both novice and varsity members, therefore pro-viding a lot of unity and stitching together the team’s whole entity complex. In fact, according to debate coach Rebecca Jor-dan, an average of 10 to 20 novices attend or participate in every tournament, includ-ing Sakuma.

"I have only spoken in one tourna-ment before, and I am attempting to get a four out of six for the scoring average,” Sa-kuma said. “I'm hoping to get about three speeches in for the next tournament.”

Like Sakuma, sophomore varsity

member Nida Fatima also has high hopes for the upcoming tournaments, although she has very specific destination in mind.

“I definitely want to be able to win the award for best P.O [Presiding Officer] and basically just improve my speeches and get as many awards this year. But definitely get best P.O," Fatima said.

As far as winter break goes, the ap-proaching holidays will not affect the team’s performance in any bad way. Ac-cording to Tim Phillips, the debate team’s head coach, the team will definitely be practicing on their own time. According to the students’ schedules, they may even have a team meeting over the two-week down time. The debate team has a tour-nament right after break, so therefore they will be having to access their own research and practice efficiently.

“It shouldn't have a negative impact on us that we have vacation,” Phillips said.

Even though it is a dormant period in the debate team’s schedule, they are not at rest. Regarding the Nov. 10 tournament at Stevenson, the team suffices to practice even more than they have before, consid-ering the fact that that particular tourna-ment shocked most of the team.

"It was probably the toughest com-petition," Phillips said. "We found some things we really needed to work on and practice. We looked at the ballots that the judges gave us that give us clear indication on what we needed to improve on."

The Speech season has barely start-ed, but things are looking good for the team so far. The season officially started Nov. 3 with the Downers Grove North Invitational, where the team placed 14 out of 30 schools, but many members had been preparing since October.

"It's been amazing, senior Nellie Sampang said. "Our team has been do-ing pretty well overall and we're gearing up right now for some of our toughest tournaments. We've all been working pretty hard."

On Nov. 17, the team placed fifth out of 33 schools at the Shaumburg In-vitational.

At the Conant JV and Novice Invite, also on Nov. 17, the team had several winners. Freshman Kathryn Riopel

placed fifth in Special Occasion Speaking, sophomore Nathan Pohl-man placed fourth in Radio Speaking. Sophomores Abbie Lim and Jay Baccay placed fourth in Humorous Duet Acting. Baccay also placed third in Impromptu speaking.

The Nov. 10 meet at Fremd also had many winners. Junior Katie Kozak placed third in Oratorical Declamation. For her, personally, the season has started really well.

"I'm expecting some more success. This is just the beginning.

Sampang says that her goals are to do as well as she can at every tourna-ment, but she and the team also have long term goals in mind.

" I think everyone's goal, including mine," Sampang said, "is state."

NEWS2 December 7, 2012

In particular, freshman Vanessa Aguilar is hoping that the search will lead them to a candidate that is able to in-teract with the students well.

“I would want the new principal to be involved with the students,” Aguilar said. “Like for them to be at more school events or to just stand out in the hallways and say ‘Good morning!’ to everyone. I think it’ll show how much they care.”

Currently, Laakso is in the process of collecting and screening applications and will then proceed to the first round of interviews with a pool of six to ten candidates conducted by an interview committee that consists of ad-ministrators, teachers, parents and students in the building. After, there will be a second round of interviews with a

smaller pool of candidates which will result in the finalists of the search.

“The superintendent and I have identified a timeline that should have us, if everything goes well, able to make an announcement about the new principal before the winter break,” Laakso said. “And if it doesn’t work and if we don’t find a high quality person that Elk Grove High School deserves, then we extend the search.”

However, according to Laakso, this may not be the case as District 214 seems to peak interest from many qual-ified candidates.

“District 214 is a very strong district, and Elk Grove is a very good school,” Laakso said. “So we are fortunate to always have high quality candidates in almost every posi-

tion that we post and that is true of principalships in the district, so we're very confident that we’re going to have good people for this job.”

Laakso also reiterates upon the atmosphere of change at Elk Grove that Holman also noted.

“I think that there’s an awareness happening outside of the school of all the changes happening at Elk Grove,” Laakso said. “And there are extraordinary people studying and working in this building and we want to give them the best principal they deserve.”

Morgan LoxleyCopy Editor

Debate aims to improve performance

Continued from Page 1

Students, staff talk about desired characteristics of new principal

Speech off to successful start Musical comes early to Elk Grove

Elk Grove's annual musical is swinging by early this year, but don’t fret – “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is go-ing to be a sure fire hit.

“Putnam” will be running tonight and tomorrow with a start time of 7 p.m. Tick-ets will be able to be purchased during lunch periods and at the door for all performances.

Centered on over-achieving quirky ad-olescents competing in a local spelling bee, Putnam is a Tony-Award winning humorous tale that puts forth the idea that losing does not have to be terrible, while winning is not all it is cracked up to be.

“Being in the musical has been one of my favorite activities in high school,” said ju-nior Brandi Weik. According to Weik, stay-ing from the end of the school day up until 9 p.m. is tiring, but worth the effort.

“The [Bee] is set in your not-so-typical

junior high school,” said stage manager Olga Triantifilitous. While the musical is set in a gym, building the set was no easy feat.

From a scoreboard to moving risers, creating the elaborate set was a chal-

lenge for the Tech Crew. However, their ef-forts prevailed. “This is the most prepared we’ve been for a musical. It gives us extra time to perfect tiny nuances to make the mu-sical good.”

“By the end of the musical I really feel like I’ve improved a lot” senior Grace Allen said, who is performing cello in the pit for this production. “It’s really fun music to play – playing show tunes is so different than any other type of music.”

Sophomore Zoe Tingas is also excited-about this year’s production. “Mr. Wolfe, our director and choreographer, is so cheerful! It’s really helpful.”

Ellie PapadakisDigital Editor in Chief

Paige CrenshawStaff Reporter

news 3december 7, 2012

Volunteering provides holiday spirit for students, children

DoSomething.org club provides service for the school, community, world

Katie WeberStaff Reporter

Christine JuhasStaff Reporter

Best Buddies provides students with unique opportunity, friendshipsMarki Kaim Staff Reporter

GIFT OF GIVING: Juniors Taylor Socha and Jenna Caragiulo bond with their shopping buddy on Dec. 1. WACO provides students with the opportunity to volunteer and help out kids in need during this time of year.

Senior Madeline Vanko is no stranger to the glowing feeling of charity felt by her peers after participating in WACO.

“It just makes you feel so good inside to see some-body smile because of something you did for them,” Vanko said.

On Dec. 1, students throughout Districts 214 and 211 participated in WACO, an event where students help needy children shop for Christmas presents for their fami-lies. In addition to this event, students at Elk Grove have found numerous ways to give back to the community throughout the year.

Junior DeAnna Duffy was thrilled for the opportu-nity to participate in WACO.

“You know that you’re giving back to the community and you know that little kids idolize older kids,” Duffy said. “It’s nice to see them having fun and going out and getting presents for themselves.”

This chance to give back to the community was met by stunning enthusiasm from students. Students were so eager to give back that volunteers had to be turned away due to a limited number of young kids. Duffy understands why the demand to participate in the event is so high.

“It was really awesome. You get to spend time with a little kid, which is always fun, but at the same time you know that they are less fortunate than you and Christmas is all about giving to the less fortunate,” Duffy said.

The spirit of giving is not limited to the holidays for many students, including junior Shivani Patel.

Patel can see the impact of her volunteer work on the lives of others in a very direct way. She volunteers at Alexian Brothers, where she helps direct patients through-out the hospital. In one instance, Patel’s work very liter-ally impacted a man’s life.

“Somebody was having a heart attack in front of me, and we had to walk him down to the ER,” Patel said.

Other Elk Grove students, such as sophomore Elias Zenkich, still manage to touch the lives of others during through their volunteering.

Zenkich volunteers at Asbury Court, a retirement home. When Zenkich spends time with the seniors, he can see the impact he is having on their lives.

“The people are always happy once you’re there,” Zenkich said.

Freshman Tianna Hagens’s volunteer work as a dance teacher at Buhler YMCA provides her with experi-ences that she hopes to use in both future service work and her career.

“I want to continue to dance and teach dance to younger kids, and also be able to play with them and help them with life,” Hagens said.

Whether helping the young, the old or the sick, each

volunteer embraces the feeling that comes from truly giv-ing back and encourages others to experience this inde-scribable feeling.

“You should give out of the goodness of your heart; you should give out of the love you have. You should never give and expect something in return,” Vanko said. “That feeling that you get when you give and expect nothing in return is a feeling like no other. It lifts you up, and there’s nothing that can touch you. Unless you go and do it, it is a feeling that you will never experience.”

Photo by Katie Weber

Some people are born with it: the pas-sion for helping others. Junior Kayleigh Duff has been running with that passion for some time now. Duff is the founder of a new club here at EGHS -- the DoSomething.org Club.

“In junior high, I was involved in Ac-tions for Others...a group of students who did community service such as volunteering at retirement homes, the YMCA and more. I also work at Elk Grove Bowl where I help run a Clearbrook league, which is where 200 special needs adults bowl every other Satur-day for two hours,” Duff said.

She came across DoSomething.org be-cause it was advertised all over MTV. It’s one of the largest organizations in the United States for teens and social change.

The organization is all about the power of young people, so anyone under the age of 25 can sign up to be a member and Do-Something.org will give them ideas and help involve them in projects to help others, their communities and the world.

They tackle issues facing people in the U.S. everyday: diseases, homelessness, and bullying. They even reward grants and awards to clubs and groups who are partici-pating in events and service projects.

“I thought our school and community could greatly benefit from it,” Duff said.

At the beginning of the school year Duff contacted Valerie Norris, the Assis-tant Principal for Student Services, and she agreed to sponsor the club. The first meet-ing was Nov. 15 and many project ideas were discussed.

The focus of the club is to do at least one project per quarter. For the second quarter, the club is going to team up with the school’s leadership council to run a Hurricane San-dy/Red Cross “Pictures with Santa” fund-raiser that will be held on Dec. 9 at EGHS.

Looking forward, some of their future projects might consist of a cell phone collec-tion drive for domestic violence victims, an anti-bully project, “Jeans for Teens” and a thank you to the Armed Forces.

“Our goal for the club is to provide service to the school, community, and the world. I hope to give the students a voice in the projects they want to do, yet work to-gether as a group and create lasting friend-ships and memories,” Norris said.

Duff is equally excited for the start of the club and looks forward to a successful first year.

“[I] hope this club can continue for many years. It truly does have great poten-tial,” Duff said. “It’s really a great feeling to know you’re making a difference in someone else’s life.”

Students interested in joining the DoSomething.org Club should contact Nor-ris at val.norris@d214.org.

Students will now get the opportunity to help out special need students by spending time with them with the new program, Best Buddies.

“Fostering friendships between students who normally wouldn’t cross paths, that’s what we’re about,” says Jim Pfieffer, Elk Grove’s sponsor of the Best Buddies peer group forming as the charter for the district.

The international or-ganization starting at Elk Grove aims to help special needs kids with intellec-tual and developmental problems and eventually branching into a wider pro-gram.

The group will provide both leader-ship and career experience opportuni-ties for the peers, especially upperclass-men interested in the field.

The program begins during lunch periods on Dec. 5, and there

are tons of opportunities and skills to gain with the chartering of the club. Pfieffer encourages students to “Come on out” for the group will help not only those with special needs but the student peers as well.

Cartoon by Morgan Loxley

Features4 December 7, 2012

On the other hand, some coun-try lovers feel they are out of place.

“I have the mindset of a city girl but the heart of a country girl,” Wlo-darski said. “I have always wanted to live in the country. I think something got screwed up 17 years ago and [I was born] in Chicago instead of Ten-nessee or Kentucky.”

Even more, some people around school won’t let the suburban life change who they are. Senior Bran-don Lindell drives a Chevy, wears cowboy boots, listens to nothing but country music and loves going south.

He goes hunting in Nebraska and goes off road with ATVs and dirt bikes.

Senior Eddie McGuire would also consider himself a southerner.

“I kind of feel like I grew up in the wrong place most of the time. I love to fish, hunt, ATV and snowmo-bile. I love to shoot my guns and have fun,” he said.

Although no one around here can go ride off on their “Big Green Tractor” and disappear behind an “Amarillo Sky” they do their best to bring their southern style and passion to Elk Grove. Many have plans to move when they are older so they can fully embrace country music and the country lifestyle.

“All I know is I’m going south,” Lindell said.

Sophomore Alexandra Clausen would also like move in that direction. “I’d love to live in the country or like Tennessee. That would be awesome.”

Even socioiology teacher Joe Bush passes down his love for country music to his three year old son. “My

son loves Carrie Underwood. He thinks she is the most beautiful wom-an in the world. Whenever a Carrie song comes on he smiles and says, ‘I hear something.’ ”

“Music is the soundtrack of life,”Bush said. “I can always remem-ber the time in which I heard a good song and I have positive memories.”

Country music has its heart-breaks but it also has songs about partying and letting your hair down: about “getting down in that Georgia clay” and celebrating what you have in life. Those types of songs are all about having a good time, getting lucky and making memories :happi-ness and struggles in life that every-one experiences.

Most fans of country develop a lifelong passion for this music. Wheth-er going to every concert possible, sporting a camo and cut off flannel shirt or driving around in their pick-up truck caked in mud, country guys and gals alike are their own breed of people and proud of it.

While many can’t get enough of the sweet music from down south others don’t seem to understand the fascination.

“I hate country because so many songs are the same banjo twang in the background,” senior Aidan Cloherty said.“The guy talking about how they lost a girl and they are sitting alone in an old bar drinking.”

One of the biggest country con-certs around is Country Thunder and any fan would jump at the chance to go, but there are exceptions.

Cloherty is looking forward to the “country lightning concert” this summer.

Seniors Laura Sullivan, Austin

Amann and Cloherty all have the same opinion when it comes to coun-try music. The music is too slow and repetitive. It doesn’t get them excited. On the contrary, it puts them to sleep.

“Country songs now are so pre-dictable and pointless; it’s as if they were all given the same topic and told to cry about it,” Cloherty said.

In Cloherty’s opinion, anyone familiar with the English language could write a country song. Rap, al-though it has its faults, is more up his alley.

Not everyone who loves country music know the real meaning of be-ing a Southerner. Like any genre of music, people, especially teenagers, only know what they see or hear on TV. Stereotypes are the main reason teenagers believe they really know the lifestyle of an artist or genre.

“I feel like the songs all talk about losing a girl and being sad about it or driving down a dirt road with a girl who for some reason ‘makes him want to roll his windows down,’Cloherty said. “Real Southern lifestyle is deep-er than that.”

Country fans go above and be-yond to prove their love for the music and the lifestyle, but when does it be-come too much?

“I think they act that way be-cause they have no arguments of why it is good or why I call it bad,” Amann said.

Although Sullivan doesn’t quite agree with the new fad in music taste, she keeps an open mind.

“ I guess I understand what they see in it,but it is just not appealing for me,” Sullivan said.

Country music fans express love, bring Southern passion

Last year during an assembly in front of the entire stu-dent body, junior Eddie Ishaya forgot the words to a rap that was supposed to celebrate good behavior and ironi-cally blurted out an expletive in frustration to his embar-rassment.

“At first, I was like [forget] hip hop!’ But then I went home, cooled down and got comfortable rapping in front of huge crowds, “ Ishaya said.

And just last week on Nov. 26 in Joliet at Bobby Mc-Gees, he did a freestyle concert in front of 250 people and was given two encores to stay on stage for another hour.

“The DJ was throwing words my way and I rhymed with them,” Ishaya said. “He threw me an encyclopedia and I was like: ‘In a second, I’ll finish the entire encyclope-dia while smacking you in the face with a box of pizza.’”

However, that silly line is in no way a true reflection of what Ishaya hopes to accomplish with his rapping. He hopes to battle the criticism over negative rap lyrics.

“I want to make people laugh, stand up for themselves and speak their minds, “ Ishaya said. “I want to get them to emotionally feel my views, to help people who are go-ing through trials and tribulations and just to be that voice when no one is there.”

And if that isn’t a lofty enough goal, he also wants to be “revolutionary” and to “awaken the masses.”

“The events that have occurred in our history as a nation, the racism, animosity, violence, and the brutality that I’ve seen through my eyes or someone else’s can tell a story,” Ishaya said. “Even in my childhood, I’ve seen these things unfold, but people think it’s not there. I want to tell them it’s still here, and it’s not going away unless we do something about it.”

However, to truly understand why Ishaya wants to

pursue these things, it is first important to note how he grew up in the south side of Chicago.

“I was once on welfare, saw the gang-bangers slang crack cocaine to kids, the cops rolled around everywhere and, to me, these events are stories waiting to be spoken through song.”

And even more, he’s been bullied, mocked for his views and looked down upon, but he refuses to let that faze him.

“I want to represent the underdog and go against tyr-anny, injustice and violence,” he said.

Which he can relate to with his parents who are from Iraq in the Middle East.

“There wasn’t any ‘No, he can say this and she can say that’,” he said. “It was either follow Saddam [Hussein], or it’s your head. Not a lot of people stood up for what they believed in there.”

Therefore, even from a young age, the importance of free speech was ingrained in his brain, contributing to the reason why Ishaya calls himself a lyricist.

“I write raps about how lyrically advanced I am, like I can say ‘I unleash metaphors that pierce your soul like 80 flaming swords,’ but then I’ll say something like ‘We need to stand as one before we all fall, have the reality of political brutality hit you so hard it almost broke your jaw,’” Ishaya said.

He even has a distinct style of rapping.“An anaconda rapping itself around your mind and

constricting it with truth, lyrical zest and a story-telling ses-sion,” Ishaya said.

In order to be the best lyricist he could be, according to Ishaya, who has read the Bible, Quran, Hindu Vedas and other historical texts and who reads the dictionary ev-ery day, knowledge is key.

“The possession of knowledge is far superior than anything and should be used for the better of mankind,” Ishaya said. “And I just want to make sure I have every-

thing in check before it’s showtime.” However, there are those who are critical of the kind

of violent lyrics typical of today’s rap music and their ef-fect on young people’s lives and behaviors.

In the last decade, scientists have examined whether there’s a link between rap and violence. In a 2003 study, Iowa State University researchers concluded that “violent lyrics exhibit short-term effects by heightening precursors to aggression,” according to the Center on Media and Child Health.

A similar study, published in 2006 by the Pacific Insti-tute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, Calif., found that “listening to rap music was significantly … associated with alcohol use … and aggressive behaviors.”

Senior Nick Zak, an avid hip hop fan and someone who raps as a hobby, notes that the evolution of rap has also changed the lyrics.

“I think old-school rap set a better influence, because it talked about fighting struggles and how to overcome ad-versity,” Zak said. “Nowadays, it could be a negative in-fluence because violence is being talked about, as well as money, girls and cars.”

However, that’s not at all what rap should be about, according to Zak.

“The real rappers try to influence the world,” he said. “So, I think that the meaning is really to give out a mes-sage that anybody can be in a spotlight no matter how far below the ground you are. You can always rise above.”

And this is essentially what Ishaya hopes to do.“I want to not just be a rapper, but to be a voice of

the people of the world,” he said. “To change the way how people view things and to dig deeper and fight for life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Rap it out: Ishaya aspires to inspire with his lyricsJulianne MicoletaEditor in Chief

CITY COWGIRLS: Seniors Emily Wary, Kelly Naughton and Kari Czeszewski are at Wrigley Field for the Brad Paisley con-cert in July.

DIRT, TRUCKS, ATVS: Senior Eddie McGuire rides ATVs up in Michigan with family. He lives the country life by enjoying the outdoors.

Continued from page 1

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Features 5December 7, 2012

10 Things aboutSenior Nicole VanDenBosch

Dedicated dancer

1. Natalia Zych and I have been best friends for 10 years now, and we’re still going strong.

2. I currently own more than 30 bras; perks of working at Aerie!3. I can recite every line from “Bride Wars,” “Bridesmaids” and

“Mean Girls.”4. I hope to go to Louisiana State University and major in Fashion

Merchandising. Geaux Tigers!5. I haven’t deleted any of my text messages since July. 6. My friends bribe me with food. It’s pretty sad, but it works.7. My eyes change color. One day they will be green and blue the

next.8. I have a bucket list of more than 100 things. After I show people,

they think I’m a freak.9. From the time I was in kindergarten until now, I’ve tried every

sport I possibly could and failed at them all. I’m that unathletic.10. Freshman year I got a doctor’s note to get out of math. My coun-

selor still has it to this day and plans to frame it.

Every day at 2:35 p.m. when the bell rings, students make their way to their eighth period classes. However, senior Demi Demo-poulos leaves school and heads to the train station with her younger sister, freshman Lia Demopoulos, to catch the 3:40 p.m. train down to the city.

By 4:15 p.m., the girls make it into the city where they meet their mom, who takes them down to a studio where they begin dance classes by 5 p.m.

Demopoulos began dancing at four years old. She started off with ballet and eventually tried out all the other styles such as jazz, contemporary, modern, hip hop and tap, but ballet is still her passion.

Upon reaching fifth grade, Demopoulos realized her love for dance and stopped all other activ-ities to continue pursuing dance.

“I like a challenge and learn-ing from other people” she said when talking about her favorite thing about the fine art.

Once dance became num-ber one in Demopoulos’ life, she

began taking classes at the Joffrey Academy of Dance which is con-nected to the well known Chicago based company.

All of her hard work at the academy will hopefully pay off. Mondays through Fridays she has class from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Demopoulos’ dance train-ing doesn’t stop on the weekends however, as she is still at the stu-dio on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

With all this time dedicated to dance, unfortunately Demo-poulos has had to deal with losing contact with good friends, though she has been lucky to have people who stick around.

“It’s definitely been hard, es-pecially on my friends,” she said. “I don’t know how they deal with it, but I have some pretty good friends who have stuck around.”

Aside from dealing with bal-ancing a good social life, Demo-poulos still has her future to wor-ry about. She has applied to a few colleges, but her first plans are to try to make it as a professional dancer. If that doesn’t work, she will attend college and then hope-fully dance afterwards.

But before thinking about life after college, Demopoulos

still has grades and homework to worry about.

“It’s actually really hard,” she said. “I do homework on the train or during my lunch peri-ods.”

She has attempted to take honors classes, but felt it was nec-essary to drop them in order to stay on top of schoolwork and her dance schedule.

However, as of now you can find Demopoulos training with the academy to put on their own version of the Nutcracker suite.

She has been performing the Nutracker since she was in sixth grade. In this classic winter ballet, she will be playing a polichinelle - little clowns who emerge from Mother Ginger’s hoop skirt and perform a dance.

Performing is one of De-mopoulos’ favorite things about dancing, as well as the costumes. Performing the Nutcracker will prepare Demopoulos for what she has coming for her as a pro-fessional dancer.

“I want to try to be a profes-sional,” she said, “or at least get into a trainee program or an ap-prenticeship.”

Staff ReporterCodi Oehlerking

“It’s what I love to do, simple as that,” Taylor Matos said about her profound love of singing. Matos is only a freshman but has already accomplished so much in such a competitive field. She has acquired the status of being a triple threat, meaning she has a strong foundation in acting, singing and dancing.

Of course, if she could only choose one out of her many talents, singing would be her path. Involved in local singing com-petitions, Matos took the title of “Elk Grove Idol” twice. Her hope is to be on “Ameri-

can Idol” when she meets the required age. R. Kelly’s ex-manager, Daren Hous-

ton, discovered Matos on YouTube and invited her to become a part of the girl group he was forming. But undeniably put-ting a group of girls in one contained area can cause some drama. So after the split of Matos’s group, the manager picked her up as a solo artist. She has recorded four original songs and in the upcoming future will produce an album.

There’s a long road ahead of Matos and singing is in her plan. The goal is to not only be successful but to gain fans who really want to listen to her music. Having showcased her talent in the “Dwayne Wade

Performance” at the Chicago Theater in front of more than 3,000 people, stage fright is obviously not a factor in her career. Already trying to write her own music, she plans to possibly give songwriting a chance to be a singer and a songwriter. Obviously a versatile artist, Matos sings without limit crossing into country, pop, soul and R&B genres.

She only has room to grow and ex-pand with her strong voice and multi-faced talent. Clearly it is only the beginning of Matos’s performing career.

Information and photos compiled by Tom Scearce

Staff ReporterMarki Kaim

Big Dreams:Matos pursues performing arts career

Photo courtesy of Demi Demopoulos

CENTER STAGE: Senior Demi Demopoulos uses the ballet barre to stretch as she prepares herself for a pointe class. At the Joffrey Academy of Dance, Demo-poulos spends her time dedicating herself to dance.

Demopoulos on her way to become professional ballerina

Features6 December 7, 2012

There probably won’t be a zombie apoca-lypse any time soon, but that hasn’t stopped peo-ple from preparing for Doomsday. On the one hand, look at the disasters, natural or otherwise, that are happening all around the world. It never hurts to be legitimately prepared for the worst. So let’s put aside our zombie-fighting weapons and our undead escape plans. Here’s how to actually prepare for whatever disasters are to come.

Have shelterFind a place in your home that has suitable

protection from the disaster outside. Remember, find high ground for major floods, and stay away from the windows in the case of a tornado. In the case of a tornado, if you live in a home with a basement, go there. Find a safe place away from electrical outlets and glass, and make sure you protect your neck and face from flying objects.

Have a safety bagUse a backpack or a box and pack basic sur-

vival and safety items. Here are some items to include: flashlights, batteries, candles, bandages, ointment to clean any wounds and whistles in or-der to alert people of your location. Make sure the bag is kept in a safe place and that the whole family knows where it is.

Food and waterBuy food and water in advance. Once disas-

ter strikes, the store shelves will be polished clean very fast. Make sure you buy nonperishable food items and packs of bottled water. Protein bars are a good source of energy. Granola bars, canned fruit and soup are also good items to have.

Cooperate with othersThis is perhaps the most important thing to

remember. When times are tough, it is important to be thoughtful of others. If you see someone in need, share what you have. In return, others will help you. After all, when people don’t have anything, the one thing they will always have is others to help them.

Stepping out into an archery range amongst the competition of archers of every age and skill level, freshman Kristen Fidler aims for a bull’s-eye the size of a silver dollar. Not a typi-cal hobby for a young girl to have, but for Fidler it is nothing out of the ordinary.

“I just really wanted to try archery. So one day I asked my mom and she was like, ‘Ok sure why not’ and that’s how I started,” Kris-ten Fidler said. However, starting to shoot was just the beginning of the chal-lenge.

According to Karen Fidler, Kristen Fidler’s mother, finding a place for her daughter to shoot was quite difficult, since Kristen Fidler’s request was before, what her mother calls, the “Hunger Games” craze.

“When she expressed

interest, I immediate-ly set about trying to find an outlet for her. For over a year I was unsuccessful.” Karen Fidler said.

However, one summer as Kristen Fidler attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., Karen Fidler came across an ar-chery store. After bringing Kristen Fidler to the store, the store owner offered to let her shoot.

“After an hour and a half, he [the store owner] turned to us [Kristen Fidler’s parents] and said, ‘She has Olympic po-tential. Get her a coach,” Karen Fidler said.

The store owner pro-vided the family a website they could try out, where they ultimately found Kris-ten Fidler’s current coach. After a month of emailing back and forth, they finally

agreed to meet up at an outdoor course.

That was about two and a half years ago and now Kristen Fidler has come so far. Not only has her skills grown, but she has also proved that she truly excels at archery.

In a competition

amongst archers all over Il-linois, Kristen Fidler placed first place in her age group. She also managed to beat half the people in the next level and some individuals in the Master over 50 (age) level. Her score was 464 out of a possible 600.

On the weekend of

Nov. 17 and 18, Fidler placed second on the first day, missing first place by three points. But on the second day, she placed first.

However, with being a typical stu-dent, it is not easy for Kristen Fidler to juggle all of her extra-curricular activities as well as her school work. Not only does she do archery but amongst other activi-ties, she also performs in both Irish and hip-hop styles of dance.

To practice her archery, Kristen Fidler belongs to a private club in Boling-

brook, Ill. called Chicago Bow Hunters. According to the weather, Fidler shoots outside at DuPage County Forest Preserve’s Blackwell Archery Range in Whea-ton. She also shoots once a week at Birchwood Rec-reation Center in Palatine

through the Palatine Park District.

Watching both Kris-ten Filder’s beginnings and now big accomplishments, her parents are extremely proud of their daughter.

“My husband and I can never express in words just how proud we are or how impressed we are with our daughter’s abilities in every aspect of her life. But most importantly, we ap-preciate that she is a good, respectful person. We rec-ognize how unbelievably blessed we are to have her as our daughter,” Karen Fidler said.

When asked to describe what it feels like to step out onto a shooting range Kris-ten Fidler responded, “It’s really calming. You have to get into a certain rhythm and once you start shoot-ing it’s just relaxing,” Kris-ten Fidler said. “Archery is zen.”

Ellie PapadakisDigital Editor in Chief

Doomsday tips for survival

Olympian potential foundFidler accomplishes great feats at range

Did you know PSY has been a pop phenomenon in South Korea for about 10 years prior to “Gangnam Style”? How did he become so popular in Europe and America, though? Because people spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for his video on YouTube. With more than 5,073,314 likes, “Gangnam Style” has recently been inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most liked video on YouTube. Ever.

YouTube is an amazing place to shut off your brain for a couple hours and watch videos of cats and song cov-ers on the ukulele. YouTube is better than TV entertain-ment, but what if we stopped looking at YouTube just for the cats, and started to look at it as an educational tool?

No really. It’s actually kind of cool.

The first YouTube Educational summit was held Aug. 1. Content creators from all around the world came to the YouTube headquarters to discuss the ways that the video site could help education.

Many of these channels focus on math and science. Michael Stevens, the creator of VSauce, answers ques-tions like, “What color is a mirror?” and “How much does the Internet weigh?” Henry Reich, the creator of MinutePhysics, takes topics like the Higgs Boson and the origins of quantum mechanics and explains these com-plicated topics through drawings.

Of course, Hank and John Green from the Vlog-brothers have also branched out into the educational side of YouTube in their channel, CrashCourse. John Green just finished his segment on World History and is now working on a mini-series about literature. Hank Green just finished his segment on Biology and is now teaching about “The Origins of the Universe.”

These people have figured out how to teach com-plicated topics while still keeping it interesting for the viewers. Their high quality videos are filled with different graphics and interesting tidbits of information sited from different professional sources.

Educational videos are becoming more popular as YouTube keeps on funding more channels. Many teach-ers are starting to use these channels as supplements in their classrooms. They’re great reinforcers and they hold students’ attentions better than a classic power point. There are so many content creators to choose from; they love what they’re doing and want to make educational videos that will be used in the classroom.

Pause your cat-falling-off-the-shelf video and take a second to search up ViHeart’s videos about math. Who knows, you could learn something.

Entertainment, education available in interesting graphics

Yumi MiyazakiCartoonist

Ellie PapadakisDigital Editor in Chief

BULL’S-EYE: Freshman Kristen Fidler practices archery. She competes and has won first place in her age group. Fidler feels calm and rhythmic at the shooting rage. She still bal-ances her time with school, extra-curricular activities and archery.

Photo by Karen Fidler

Entertainment December 7, 2012 7

In the grand scheme of things, we’re all incredibly small--we’re almost powerless, really. So, who wouldn’t love the chance to control the lives of others? To control the destinies of people, families, nations--even worlds?

This is why god-complex games are so fantastic.Hold on a minute, though--what is a god-complex,

anyway? Well, to put it simply, someone with a god-complex

lives under the impression that they can accomplish any-thing no matter what, and that they are ultimately in con-trol.

I’m sure a lot of us--while maybe not outwardly ex-pressing it--have a god-complex to some degree. God-complex games allow us to channel that inner control-freak and those masochistic desires into video games.

Great, right? Right.Perhaps the ambassador of all god-complex games

is “The Sims” franchise, produced by Maxis (2000-2008) and The Sims Studio (2008-present). “The Sims” is a fa-

miliar name to many people, but for those people who are unfamiliar, check this out:

Originally released in 2000 for the PC, “The Sims” quickly became popular. As a life simulation game, it al-lowed players to control the lives of fictional people called Sims. Sims delighted players with their tendency to urinate on themselves and burn the house down when using the microwave.

It sounds silly, and in many ways it is, but “The Sims” was also very intuitive. A Sim, just like a person (or, more closely, a pet) thrives on being in a good mood and social interaction. If a Sim’s needs are not met, he may throw a fit and pee everywhere.

If a player was in a particularly masochism-inspired mood, they could remove things such as toilets and show-ers and pool-ladders from a Sim’s world, causing it to be-come angry or, in the second case, die.

Of course, a player could also provide a Sim with its basic needs. Honestly, though, where’s the fun in that?

Currently, there are three major “The Sims” titles with myriads of spin-off games and multi-console releases.

A vastly different game of the same kind is Ubisoft’s “From Dust,” which was a multi-console title released in

2011. In “From Dust,” players are allowed the privilege to

act as a god to a tribe of nomadic people. While not as free-form as “The Sims,” “From Dust”

introduces a variety ways for the player to complete tasks and missions, which will eventually aid the tribe is discov-ering the mysteries of their old tribe.

The player may manipulate the landscape and inhibit natural disasters from injuring the tribe, though a player may allow the tribe to perish (which is probably not ideal).

There are two modes to this game-- Story and Chal-lenge.

Story mode allows for the player to experience the plot and shape the world through various plot-related missions, while Challenge mode allows for plotless, fast-paced game play.

There are a variety of games available that are sure to satisfy the masochistic and self-centered desires of any gamer. The majority tend to be older, but that doesn’t mean they’re any worse than any current title.

So keep your eyes peeled for your favorite god-com-plex and life simulation title-- they’re all sure to please.

Whether it be an ogre falling in love with a princess, a clownfish searching for his son, a fluffy pan-da with aspirations of becoming a Kung Fu master or a rat trying to make it big on the French cuisine scene, animated movies are a delight to watch.

Back before the 21st century, the name that would have come to mind when talking about animated movies is Disney.

In the present though, there are two big animation companies that battle it out every year. I’m a huge fan of DreamWorks Animation. Unfortunately, I have to admit that Pixar (which is owned by Disney, so apparently they’re still in the anima-tion game) is winning the war for the animation crown.

They’ve launched consistent hits, only stuttering a little bit in the last year or so.

Pixar released an instant classic in 1995 with “Toy Story.” It sported an incredible voice cast with Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump,” “Saving Private Ryan”) as Woody, Tim Al-len (“Christmas with the Kranks,” “Home Improvement”) as Buzz Lightyear (yes, he was somewhat popular back then) and Don Rick-les (“Casino,” “Zookeeper”) as Mr. Potato Head.

After “Toy Story,” the cash kept coming in with successive hits such as “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.” But while Pixar raced ahead, DreamWorks’ engine seemed to stall and sputter as it tried desperately to get back into the race.

DreamWorks enjoyed very small success with films like “Antz” and “Chicken Run”(can anyone else believe an animation that atrocious made it to the big screen?), but it wasn’t until “Shrek” was released

that they were able to bask in the same glory that Pixar had been hog-ging. Then they became hungry for more.

DreamWorks released consecu-tive hits with “Shrek 2” (which is every bit as good as the original), “Shark Tale” and “Madagascar.”

Pixar was not to be outdone though, and they turned on the af-terburners.

They dropped what is perhaps the A-bomb of all animated mov-ies, yes, they made “Finding Nemo.” “Finding Nemo” is so good that it can be defined as a classic even though it was released less than a decade ago.

Its awards include the Academy Award for Best Animated Film.

“Finding Nemo” seemed to knock the wind out of Dream-Works and they flat lined for a while with forgettable films like “Flushed Away,” “Over the Hedge” and the “Bee Movie” (huh, apparently no-body’s creative juices were flowing when they brainstormed for that title).

Even when they went back to a property that was well known and loved, they couldn’t execute and in-stead produced “Shrek the Third,” which most people wanted to forget.

Meanwhile, Pixar manufac-tured Academy-Award winners “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Wall-E,” “Up” and, more recently, “Toy Story 3.”

Fortunately DreamWorks used a new, awesome franchise to breathe life back into itself: “Kung Fu Pan-da.”

The film used a charming pro-tagonist, menacing antagonist, an incredible voice cast and gorgeous visuals that made audiences want to believe there really was a China filled with animals that know martial arts (well, sort of).

Then they made another two

movies that nobody really cared about, “Monster vs. Aliens” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.”

In a smart move though, DreamWorks got back on track with the smash hit “How to Train Your Dragon.” Then they went off-road shortly with “Shrek Forever After” and “Megamind” and then again came back with the Oscar-nominees “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Puss in Boots.”

Things still seem to be in DreamWorks favor as their latest ef-fort, “Rise of the Guardians,” will go largely unopposed into the Os-car race for Best Animated Film this year.

It also helps that Pixar only re-leased one film this year and it re-ceived mixed reviews.

DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenburg announced that the stu-dio was about to enter sequel-mania with more sequels for “Kung Fu Panda,” “How to Train Your Drag-on” and “Madagascar.”

Some may criticize the move as a pure money-making scheme, but they should go and take a look at “Kung Fu Panda 2” before they re-ally state their opinion.

If DreamWorks can keep pro-ducing sequels that are as good or better than the original, then by all means they should go for it.

The animated movie market seems to be swinging DreamWork’s way for the moment and things look to stay that way as even their upcom-ing original films look promising.

If they stay away from more “Shrek” sequels, then they should be clear. While Pixar is down at the moment, they shouldn’t be under-estimated, as they are a formidable opponent in the movie making in-dustry.

DreamWorks may be catching up, but Pixar still holds the lead by a long shot.

Andrew NoonanOpinions Editor

Something with Pixels by Abby Ray

Music that’s so badIt’s goodDreamWorks vs. Pixar

Animation titans duke it out

Simulation games allow players to satisfy masochistic desires

EA

Why does everyone like“gangnam style”?

Kathryn RiopelFreshman

“Because one person likes it, and everyone follows along.”

Alex DiezSophomore

“I think people want something different. ‘Gangnam Style’ has a catchy beat, and it’s in a different language.”

David PlataJunior

“I personally like it because the sound reminds of a club set-ting, which puts me in a good mood.”

Jessica MorrillSenior

“It’s a viral video, and it’s trending. People like trends.”

Information and photos compiled by Yumi MiyazakiInfographic by Abby Ray

SIMULATION GAMES: "The Sims" and other similar games provide players with an outlet for their rage and their inner masochists.

In-Depth 9december 7, 20128 december 7, 2012

“The kissing disease,” or so it is most commonly referred to as, has been an ap-parent virus throughout Elk Grove High School. Unfortunately, it’s a widespread phenomenon across the nation, mostly infecting teenagers and young adults in the midway.

Winter is here, and immune systems are becoming vulnerable and fragile. “The kissing disease,” or mono, dangerously approaches. Note that it does not strictly take place in winter, however.

Mononucleosis, or mono, is a virus that severely infects the lymph nodes— glands in the body’s immune system that help fight off disease and infection. However, it’s not limited to just that; Mono can also infect the throat, salivary glands, liver, spleen and blood.

Mono spreads through the sharing of saliva, and therefore people automatically assume that it’s spread through kissing or close sensual contact. While this might be true, this isn’t always the case. Since mono is spread via saliva, small gestures such as sharing silverware, drinking glasses and chap-stick can scatter the virus.

As already stated, mono most commonly occurs amongst people in their adoles-cent through young-adult stages. But again— mono tends to be random, and there-fore it can attack at any age. Caused by EBV virus (Epstein-Barr virus, also known as human herpesvirus 4), carriers of mono can exhibit all sorts of different symptoms and side-effects such as swollen tonsils, swollen neck lymph nodes, sore throat, fever, drowsiness, loss of appetite, fatigue, muscle aches, swollen spleen, hives and coughing. Uncommon yet possible symptoms are, according to PubMed Health for the U.S. National Library of Medicine, anemia and inflammation of testes. Confront a doctor if these apply to you.

Junior Loredana Lappano got infected with mono in January of last year, right around her birthday.

“You couldn’t really eat. I couldn’t really eat. I was on a liquid diet for a few days, and you’re really fatigued,” she said. “It’s kind of like a long recovery process and I couldn’t do any activities. I was pretty much home... in my bed... I missed pretty much a week and a half of school.”

Human geography and world history teacher Rob Shepard was also a host for the mono virus.

“I was tired 24 hours a day for an entire month,” he said. “The fatigue was by far the number one thing that I remember.”

Shepard says that everything became worse with mono: coughing, colds and tiredness. Anything anyone could have regularly was all enhanced by the virus.

Besides receiving a vaccine, the only way to properly treat mono is through self-care: spending quality time home resting, for it goes away on its own.

“Your body has to run its course with it, but I did take really strong medicine,” Lappano said. “It can take up to six months for it to go away completely.”

In order to avoid mono, school nurse Kathie Sczepanski says to “definitely not be sharing drinks and eating utensils, because it spreads your saliva. If you’re sick, you shouldn’t be kissing. And of course, take care of yourself. Because your immune system is low, you tend to get a lot of viruses.”

Basically, stay germ-aware and refuse sharing anything that touches the inside of your mouth or the surface of your lips.

Sczepanski stated that every year, she sends home four to 10 students because of mono. Though that may not seem like a lot (considering that there are more than, 2000 students at EG) think of the summer seasons, the kids who go to school anyway and the kids who don’t even know they have it and just assume that it’s a bad fever.

Mono is currently scraping the streets from host to host, and it’s a virus that is best kept at a distance. People who have already experienced it clearly stated: “it sucks.”

With the cold winds of winter and snow forecasted, it is not out of the ordinary to feel the longing for summer and its warmth. However for some people, this longing turns into a serious case of depression.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is the official

name given to what most people refer to as ‘winter blues,’ a type of depression that is caused by the seasonal change of temperature and weather.

Like many other forms of depression, the symptoms include but are not limited to feeling hopelessness, less energy and lack of concentration, loss of interest in work and/or other activities, sluggish movements, and social withdrawal.

Unlike common forms of depression, however, some symptoms of SAD could be increase in appetite and in-crease in sleep.

The majority of the people who suffer from SAD are affected during the winter, but that is not to say that SAD does not affect people in the summer.

What causes SAD?Like with many and almost all types of depression,

the cause for it is not certain. However through extensive psychotherapy a cause can be found. It may have to do with childhood trauma or even genetic background.

What is the treatment?The most popular form of treatment for SAD is light

therapy. The routine of soaking Vitamin D into the skin during winter is quite relevant in treating SAD.

Artificial lamps that transmit rays of Vitamin D are placed in patient’s rooms and they soak the light from the lamps at certain times in the day.

What makes you happy this winter?

‘Kissing disease’ plagues students, staff

Freshman Sanae Kato Sophomore John Paul Barlow Senior Ralitsa AleksandrovaJunior Shannon Gara

“Going iceskating.”

“Swimming season.”

“Christmas.”“Goingskiing.”

Defeating SAD: How to conquer winter bluesYumi Miyazaki

Cartoonist

Winter is rapidly approaching, and with it comes multiple sick seasons. One of the more prominent illnesses is influenza.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Influenza, more commonly known as the flu virus, is a disease that is common in birds and mammals. The virus can inflict any-body, but it most commonly affects senior citizens, children and people with chronic health condi-tions. However, this does not mean that the com-mon high school student can’t get the virus, and it can potentially be deadly.

Flu season truly reaches its peak January through February, but it can also occur as early as October. It typically spreads when an infected in-dividual coughs, sneezes, or even speaks. A person can also get the virus by touching a surface that has been touched by infected germs.

The first step is to learn to spot the symptoms. The symptoms of the flu are similar to the com-mon cold, and it can be difficult to tell the differ-ence between the two, however the flu is much worse than the cold. These symptoms include a fever, a cough and/or sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.

“I try to remind students to wash their hands,” school nurse Kathie Sczepanski said. “I also try to remind people to sneeze in the crook of their arms instead of their hands. If a student has a fever, they need to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school.”

Another step is to get a vaccination as soon as possible. Walgreens typically gives out free flu vaccinations during the season, or a doctor can ad-minister it.

When caring for a sick individual, make sure they follow the guidelines given by their health care provider. Also, try to isolate the individual from common areas of the home to reduce the chance of anyone else getting sick. If necessary, take an-tiviral medications administered by a health care provider.

If infected, try to drink plenty of fluid and plenty of rest. Gargling salt water can help with a sore throat and using a cool washcloth to relieve aches from a fever can also help when dealing with symptoms. If needed, use over-the-counter medi-cation or get prescription medication from a doc-tor.

Possibly the most important step, as men-tioned before, is to stay hygienic. A person who washes their hands after using the bathroom is less likely to get the flu than a person who never wash-es their hands. Shaking someone’s dirty hands is more than enough to spread the virus. Always use soap or an alcohol-based rub when washing.

The flu season is rapidly closing in on Elk Grove High School. Staying healthy and taking certain precautions can help stave off the virus.

‘Tis the season’: Flu fluent during this time of year

In an effort to assess the health of the air in our school, Krista Glosson’s third period APES (AP environmen-tal science) class set out on a short journey through the school.

On their journey, the students placed small petri dish traps in spe-cific areas of the school in order to collect data on much dust settled in each specific area.

The traps, which were fitted with a quarter-sized (5mm across) layer of vaseline, were allowed to sit through two-full school days, meaning they were exposed to a good amount of daily activity.

After collecting the petri dishes after the two-day testing period, the dust particles trapped in the vase-line were counted. To the right is a chart depicting the results of the ex-periment. Look to see how dusty your hangout spots are.

As with every experiment, this one did come with room for experi-mental error. For example, the dish set up near door 35 was subjected to an occassional influx of particles from the outisde, as the door was opening and closing.

However, the school’s air quality seems relatively healthy.

ExperimentAPES class investigates air quality at schoolAbby Ray

Entertainment Editor

Alex OstrowskiPhoto Editor

Morgan LoxleyCopy Editor

Flu season reaches its peak during January through February

In-Depth 9december 7, 20128 december 7, 2012

“The kissing disease,” or so it is most commonly referred to as, has been an ap-parent virus throughout Elk Grove High School. Unfortunately, it’s a widespread phenomenon across the nation, mostly infecting teenagers and young adults in the midway.

Winter is here, and immune systems are becoming vulnerable and fragile. “The kissing disease,” or mono, dangerously approaches. Note that it does not strictly take place in winter, however.

Mononucleosis, or mono, is a virus that severely infects the lymph nodes— glands in the body’s immune system that help fight off disease and infection. However, it’s not limited to just that; Mono can also infect the throat, salivary glands, liver, spleen and blood.

Mono spreads through the sharing of saliva, and therefore people automatically assume that it’s spread through kissing or close sensual contact. While this might be true, this isn’t always the case. Since mono is spread via saliva, small gestures such as sharing silverware, drinking glasses and chap-stick can scatter the virus.

As already stated, mono most commonly occurs amongst people in their adoles-cent through young-adult stages. But again— mono tends to be random, and there-fore it can attack at any age. Caused by EBV virus (Epstein-Barr virus, also known as human herpesvirus 4), carriers of mono can exhibit all sorts of different symptoms and side-effects such as swollen tonsils, swollen neck lymph nodes, sore throat, fever, drowsiness, loss of appetite, fatigue, muscle aches, swollen spleen, hives and coughing. Uncommon yet possible symptoms are, according to PubMed Health for the U.S. National Library of Medicine, anemia and inflammation of testes. Confront a doctor if these apply to you.

Junior Loredana Lappano got infected with mono in January of last year, right around her birthday.

“You couldn’t really eat. I couldn’t really eat. I was on a liquid diet for a few days, and you’re really fatigued,” she said. “It’s kind of like a long recovery process and I couldn’t do any activities. I was pretty much home... in my bed... I missed pretty much a week and a half of school.”

Human geography and world history teacher Rob Shepard was also a host for the mono virus.

“I was tired 24 hours a day for an entire month,” he said. “The fatigue was by far the number one thing that I remember.”

Shepard says that everything became worse with mono: coughing, colds and tiredness. Anything anyone could have regularly was all enhanced by the virus.

Besides receiving a vaccine, the only way to properly treat mono is through self-care: spending quality time home resting, for it goes away on its own.

“Your body has to run its course with it, but I did take really strong medicine,” Lappano said. “It can take up to six months for it to go away completely.”

In order to avoid mono, school nurse Kathie Sczepanski says to “definitely not be sharing drinks and eating utensils, because it spreads your saliva. If you’re sick, you shouldn’t be kissing. And of course, take care of yourself. Because your immune system is low, you tend to get a lot of viruses.”

Basically, stay germ-aware and refuse sharing anything that touches the inside of your mouth or the surface of your lips.

Sczepanski stated that every year, she sends home four to 10 students because of mono. Though that may not seem like a lot (considering that there are more than, 2000 students at EG) think of the summer seasons, the kids who go to school anyway and the kids who don’t even know they have it and just assume that it’s a bad fever.

Mono is currently scraping the streets from host to host, and it’s a virus that is best kept at a distance. People who have already experienced it clearly stated: “it sucks.”

With the cold winds of winter and snow forecasted, it is not out of the ordinary to feel the longing for summer and its warmth. However for some people, this longing turns into a serious case of depression.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is the official

name given to what most people refer to as ‘winter blues,’ a type of depression that is caused by the seasonal change of temperature and weather.

Like many other forms of depression, the symptoms include but are not limited to feeling hopelessness, less energy and lack of concentration, loss of interest in work and/or other activities, sluggish movements, and social withdrawal.

Unlike common forms of depression, however, some symptoms of SAD could be increase in appetite and in-crease in sleep.

The majority of the people who suffer from SAD are affected during the winter, but that is not to say that SAD does not affect people in the summer.

What causes SAD?Like with many and almost all types of depression,

the cause for it is not certain. However through extensive psychotherapy a cause can be found. It may have to do with childhood trauma or even genetic background.

What is the treatment?The most popular form of treatment for SAD is light

therapy. The routine of soaking Vitamin D into the skin during winter is quite relevant in treating SAD.

Artificial lamps that transmit rays of Vitamin D are placed in patient’s rooms and they soak the light from the lamps at certain times in the day.

What makes you happy this winter?

‘Kissing disease’ plagues students, staff

Freshman Sanae Kato Sophomore John Paul Barlow Senior Ralitsa AleksandrovaJunior Shannon Gara

“Going iceskating.”

“Swimming season.”

“Christmas.”“Goingskiing.”

Defeating SAD: How to conquer winter bluesYumi Miyazaki

Cartoonist

Winter is rapidly approaching, and with it comes multiple sick seasons. One of the more prominent illnesses is influenza.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Influenza, more commonly known as the flu virus, is a disease that is common in birds and mammals. The virus can inflict any-body, but it most commonly affects senior citizens, children and people with chronic health condi-tions. However, this does not mean that the com-mon high school student can’t get the virus, and it can potentially be deadly.

Flu season truly reaches its peak January through February, but it can also occur as early as October. It typically spreads when an infected in-dividual coughs, sneezes, or even speaks. A person can also get the virus by touching a surface that has been touched by infected germs.

The first step is to learn to spot the symptoms. The symptoms of the flu are similar to the com-mon cold, and it can be difficult to tell the differ-ence between the two, however the flu is much worse than the cold. These symptoms include a fever, a cough and/or sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.

“I try to remind students to wash their hands,” school nurse Kathie Sczepanski said. “I also try to remind people to sneeze in the crook of their arms instead of their hands. If a student has a fever, they need to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school.”

Another step is to get a vaccination as soon as possible. Walgreens typically gives out free flu vaccinations during the season, or a doctor can ad-minister it.

When caring for a sick individual, make sure they follow the guidelines given by their health care provider. Also, try to isolate the individual from common areas of the home to reduce the chance of anyone else getting sick. If necessary, take an-tiviral medications administered by a health care provider.

If infected, try to drink plenty of fluid and plenty of rest. Gargling salt water can help with a sore throat and using a cool washcloth to relieve aches from a fever can also help when dealing with symptoms. If needed, use over-the-counter medi-cation or get prescription medication from a doc-tor.

Possibly the most important step, as men-tioned before, is to stay hygienic. A person who washes their hands after using the bathroom is less likely to get the flu than a person who never wash-es their hands. Shaking someone’s dirty hands is more than enough to spread the virus. Always use soap or an alcohol-based rub when washing.

The flu season is rapidly closing in on Elk Grove High School. Staying healthy and taking certain precautions can help stave off the virus.

‘Tis the season’: Flu fluent during this time of year

In an effort to assess the health of the air in our school, Krista Glosson’s third period APES (AP environmen-tal science) class set out on a short journey through the school.

On their journey, the students placed small petri dish traps in spe-cific areas of the school in order to collect data on much dust settled in each specific area.

The traps, which were fitted with a quarter-sized (5mm across) layer of vaseline, were allowed to sit through two-full school days, meaning they were exposed to a good amount of daily activity.

After collecting the petri dishes after the two-day testing period, the dust particles trapped in the vase-line were counted. To the right is a chart depicting the results of the ex-periment. Look to see how dusty your hangout spots are.

As with every experiment, this one did come with room for experi-mental error. For example, the dish set up near door 35 was subjected to an occassional influx of particles from the outisde, as the door was opening and closing.

However, the school’s air quality seems relatively healthy.

ExperimentAPES class investigates air quality at schoolAbby Ray

Entertainment Editor

Alex OstrowskiPhoto Editor

Morgan LoxleyCopy Editor

Flu season reaches its peak during January through February

If you leave school through the front en-trance and cross the boulevard at the start of the drop off, you may have ran into an elder gentleman handing out copies of the New Testament earlier this school year. I don’t think our non-Christian students were pleased.

Many people have misconceptions about religion in public schools, so let’s clear some of that up.

“Students have the right to express their religion and as principal I need to protect that right as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others or create disruption in the school environment,” Principal Nancy Hol-man said in a written statement.

This is 100 percent accurate to all prin-cipals in public schools. Teachers still have to educate students about religion and may do

so in a neutral manner, not promoting or de-moting any religion, even their own.

However, students are free to express their spiritual beliefs through prayer, clothing and study groups. The First Amendment of the Constitution has been used to combat op-position to religious expression. The Reagan-signed Equal Access Act is generally sought after if a controversy arises over the creation of a club that studies the Bible, Vedas, witch-craft etc.

If you didn’t know, Elk Grove has a reli-gious based group: Uprising.

When I first heard about Uprising, I was confused because I was not aware of the in-formation previously stated. I personally don’t have any problems with the Bible, despite my urge to throw the New Testament back at that disrespectful old guy, but how was this Bible study being mentioned in the morning an-nouncements without anyone questioning it? Here’s why it shouldn’t be despite what fed-

eral law says.Regarding the use of the Bible, group

member Dennise Kuchar says, “We use the Bible for reference and to reinforce some points. It’s not just Catholics. We allow any denominations and you don’t have to be Christian to join.”

Students simply discuss the stresses of high school, eat snacks (I personally recom-mend the chocolate cupcakes) and listen to music. Not a bad choice if you need to ful-fill that extracurricular activity requirement. They meet Thursday mornings in room 148 if you are curious about joining.

Whatever your opinion is on this issue that still faces high schools today, these stu-dents are a group of kids who genuinely want to support each other and are brave enough to talk about their problems in front of their peers. I respect that and am glad we are given the chance to do so.

Opinions10 December 7, 2012

The G u a r d i a n

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The Guardian is printed by Son’s Enterprises in Skokie, Ill. Distributed 10 times a year, this award-winning stu-dent publication welcomes a free exchange of ideas. Let-ters to the editor are encour-aged. To contact the staff, stop by room 131.

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Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

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Mission Statement

The primary purpose of The Guardian is to encour-age, protect and enhance free speech and a positive exchange of ideas within Elk Grove High School and the community.

CartoonistYumi Miyazaki

Jack Kaup

Staff Reporter

Dec. 21, 2012. This date signifies the of-ficial beginning of the winter season. It also, according to the Mayan calendar, is the day the world ends.

This date is rapidly approaching in two weeks. Some people genuinely believe the world will end on this date and they are pre-paring for the coming apocalypse.

But is the world actually going to end?Doomsday predictions have been circu-

lating for the past decade, from the turn of the millenium computer outage in 2000 to the Rapture, which supposedly was going to oc-cur on May 21, 2011, and Oct. 21 that same year.

So, these past predictions have obviously been false. So, if those predictions were not true, then why do people suddenly believe this

2012 predictions?Let’s get one thing straight: sooner or

later we will all die. That’s just fact. There is no use in freaking out over something that is inevitable.

Let’s think logically. Even if the world were to end, should we not enjoy the last mo-ments of being on Earth rather than panick-

ing? Let’s all calm down.With all the hype about the world end-

ing we think it’s safe to say that the world will experience another baby boom a short nine months after December. There will also be a lot of apocalypse survival kits for sale on

Ebay; people will have to finally pay those bills they neglected to because, hey, why pay bills when the world was going to end?

Everyone was so worried about the apocalypse a couple of months ago, but the closer the day comes the more people seem to lose interest. December 21st is going to be a strange day. People will be waiting for disaster and when the clock turns over a new day and the sun rises on the 22nd there is going to be lot of angry disaster preppers. The local news will still come on at 5 p.m., “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” reruns will still be playing and McDonalds will still be selling McFlurrys. Life will go on just the same.

If the world does end, however, please en-joy this last issue of The Guardian.

Staff Editorial

World’s end loses its flare; preppers to be upset

‘Uprising’: Bible study group should not spark controversy

Dance is not a sport. I know that. I am re-minded of that every single day. However, that does not mean dancers get injured any less than the guys on the football team or the girls in gym-nastics.

In fact, sometimes we are putting ourselves in as much danger as any other contact sport.

We are lifting other dancers, throwing them around, attempting cra-zy jumps that if all done wrong, one bad landing could break a leg or an ankle.

Yet, Orchesis mem-bers are not allowed access to the athletic trainer.

According to Head Athletic Trainer Mike Porters (although it wasn’t his decision), Or-chesis members are not allowed to receive treat-ment only because it isn’t a sport.

I admit, it some-times sucks watching every other sport get recognition during pep assemblies as we are practically on our knees

begging our friends to come see our show in February, but the one thing we should receive on the same level as ev-ery other athlete is treat-ment from the trainer.

I may be being bi-ased, but I do have to say that Orchesis mem-bers put in a lot more commitment to this pro-gram than most sports. For one, Orchesis is an all year program. There is no official “season,” though our heaviest months are November through February.

On top of that, it is our eighth hour. Along with ballet at 6:30 a.m. three days a week, there are coronation rehears-als and other side perfor-mances. Once Novem-ber comes, we practice after school every day until 6:30 p.m.

The point is, we work hard. It is not fair that we aren’t provided with the same care in-case our members get injured.

A few weeks ago, se-nior Annie Dixon dislo-cated her shoulder dur-ing class.

Two years ago, alumna Alison Geary

got a concussion during rehearsal for a dance. Once she was able to re-turn to class months lat-er, she fractured her foot.

These are major injuries that have oc-curred, but on a daily basis Orchesis mem-bers deal with sprained ankles, pulled muscles, blisters and other minor hazards to their body that need to be taken care of.

We may be a fine art, but we work hard and put ourselves in the same dangers as any oth-er athlete.

The health of our dancers are just as im-portant. Actually, instead of having ten games in a season, we prepare four long months for only three shows. Not hav-ing the proper treatment available for our inju-ries could really take a toll on the entire group and have an effect on our show that we put so much time into.

Just once, Orchesis should be on the same level as the sports in this school. Our health mat-ters too.

Codi OehlerkingStaff Reporter

Photo by Codi Oehlerking

DANGERS OF DANCE: Senior Megan Heller is lifting freshman Allyssa Martinski during an Or-chesis practice. The risks these dancers take can-not be recognized by a trainer, however.

Dangerous dancing: Injuries need trainer’s attention

Opinions 11december 7, 2012

After school while heading to the bathroom, I was about to enter the stall when I noticed cardboard boxes carelessly thrown inside the toilet, paper was everywhere and the floor was wet.

The bathroom was a mess. Were we raised in a zoo? It’s disgusting to see our own school being treated like

this. OK, so we all hate school, but this is not the most ma-ture way to show it. And cardboard boxes do not belong in the toilet; they belong in garbage cans uniformly placed throughout the school.

This act shows immaturity and disrespect to the school and the staff who run it.

The definition of immaturity is acting childish (not your age) at the wrong time and place.

We’re highschoolers, young adults. Act like it!That means not shouting across the hallway to get

your friend’s attention, not being disruptive in class, giving your teachers the respect they deserve and not bothering other students.

Students need to understand when it’s a good time to be silly and funny, but also a good time to act like mature, young adults.

During class, there are people who disrupt the class because they want to show how funny or silly they can be while other students are trying to learn.

This results in students not being able to learn prop-erly and making the teacher more stressed than usual.

Acting silly may be fun to some people, but the other students disagree. Being silly and funny can turn into an-noying and immature. There is a time and place to be silly and funny; during class is absolutely not the right time and place.

Yes. You can still crack jokes, laugh and act carefree, but you also need to assess if it’s the right time.

The bathroom incident resulted in giving the custodi-ans more work than usual.

Who do you think keeps the school clean after school? The cleaning fairy?

To keep our school a clean and environmentally safe area, the custodians work hard to achieve that goal.

To a student, it’s disgusting to clean bathrooms, but

custodians push away that thought and do their job.The easiest way to fix this situation is to throw away

your garbage properly and in the right place. We have been taught that before we even attended elementary school. A simple act like that wouldn’t have been hard.

A way to resolve this immaturity problem is, surpris-ingly, to be mature.

How, you ask?First, act appropriately during the right times. Teach-

ers will appreciate it and other students will too. Think be-fore you act. It will help yourself and other people.

Second, remember the etiquette you were taught dur-ing elementary school. They were taught for a reason. Re-spect others and they will respect you.

Remember that being in high school means being one step closer to being part of the adult society, where man-ners and etiquette are a requirement.

To be mature is to know when to be immature.

“This is real, this is your life in a song, yeah this is country music,” sings Brad Paisley, one of country music’s A-list singer/songwriters.

The issue with today’s “country fans” is grow-ing daily, and it is because of those who just adore country music, but in truth only know what plays on the 99.5 FM country station.

Believe it or not, there is more depth to this genre than Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan. While they are amazing and deserve all they have worked for, let’s try to look past the fame and ap-pearances and remember the songs that got these singers started and the stars who inspired them. These artists made it possible for country music to become a wide- or “Country Wide” genre.

Reba McEntireShe started off singing with her sisters at rodeos

where her dad competed as the “Singing McEn-tire’s.” Reba McEntire, also known from her show “Reba” and currently “Malibu Country,” is also a talented artist who got her Nashville break with “You Lift Me Up” in 1980 and her album, “Rumor Has It,” sold Platinum three times over. She is still going strong more than 30 years later with songs like “Turn On the Radio.”

Dolly PartonOf course the origin of the music is dedicated

to this founder of music. She was and still is so sig-nificant; there is even a DollyWood theme park. She sang songs as a solo artist like “I Will Always Love You” and as well teaming up with artists like Loretta Lynn. To be honest, if you’ve never heard of her then there is no way you can pretend to be a hick.

Loretta LynnShe in fact was a “Coal Miner’s Daughter,”

which explains where the song and movie came from. She is just one more founder of the genre.

Other artistsAside from the genre’s founders, country music

has a long timeline of dedicated musicians who have stuck with the industry for the majority of their lives.

Alan Jackson, along with George Strait, are still making music. Straight has more than 50 number one hits, and if you can’t name more than one then there is a true problem.

Then we have artists that started in their young age and are still making music, such as Tim Mc-Graw with songs like “Way Back When” and his wife, Faith Hill.

Johnny Cash, Alabama and the Charlie Daniels Band are beyond notable artists that sometimes go unappreciated.

And don’t pretend you know George Jones just because Jason Aldean sings about him in “Dirt Road Anthem,” in fact, you probably don’t know that Brantley Gilbert wrote that song.

Liking country music when country wasn’t cool is key in proving you are not a wannabe country lover. This year everyone tuned in for the CMA’s but even last year very few individuals watched. The change is significant.

For those who are hardcore fans of the country lifestyle, get ready for Country Thunder, four days of pure country in Twin Lakes, Wisc.; it is four days of mud, trucks, the national guard and music head-lined by Dierks Bentley, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Lady Antebellum.

Country Music 101More depth exists in genre

Abbie Gail LimStaff Reporter

Marki KaimStaff Reporter

Students must learn balance between immaturity, fun

Saul Leob/KRT/MCTNicolas Khayat/Abaca Press/MCTHahn-Khayat/Abaca Press/MCT

SOUTHERN BELLES: While country music continues to evolve, legends such as Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn stay true to the genre, rather than today’s A-list country wannabees.

Sugarland- “It Happens”

Tim McGraw- “Way Back When”

Kenny Chesney and Uncle Kracker- “When the Sun

Goes Down”

Carrie Underwood- “Last name”

Toby Keith- “God Love Her” and “Should Have Been a Cowboy”

Justin Moore- “Flyin Down a Back Road”

Jo Dee Messina- “I’m Done”

Sara Evans- “Suds in the Bucket”

Rodney Atkins- “Cleaning this Gun”

Luke Bryan- “Do I”

JT Hodges- “Hunt you down”

Marki’s iPod Playlist

Sports12 December 7, 2012

Most high school students struggle to keep their composure when deal-ing with one younger sibling. Senior Jackie Noto is a notable exception; she has spent countless hours over the past four years coaching squads of young cheerleaders.

“I like kids and I thought it’d be a fun thing to do because I love danc-ing,” Noto said. “I loved it, so I never stopped.”

Many Elk Grove students spend their time volunteering to coach young, aspiring athletes. In doing so they not only provide a memorable experience to these kids, but also gain useful life skills.

Volunteer coaches make a huge time commitment. As a gymnastics coach for young Special Olympians, junior Amelia Rafferty assists in weekly practices that prepare the athletes for their competitive meets.

Noto is no stranger to this time commitment. During football season, she spends two nights a week lead-ing practices for her squad. She then coaches them through their halftime performance every Saturday. Addition-ally, Noto spends time choreographing

routines for the girls.Like Noto, freshman Sarah Riton-

dale also coaches cheerleading for the Elk Grove Park District.

After participating in the program for seven years as an athlete, Ritondale decided to stay involved as a coach. This role has offered her a new set of challenges.

“The most difficult thing about coaching the kids is their attitude and not listening to me,” Ritondale said.

Junior Amelia Rafferty faces these same challenges as she coaches Special Olympians in gymnastics.

“Sometimes it can be hard to stay patient, but it has made me more ac-cepting of people,” Rafferty said.

Ritondale has also seen personal benefits from coaching.

“It helped my cheerleading to know what the coach expects of us,” Ritondale said.

Although these coaches are devel-oping useful skills, the real winners are the kids whose lives they impact.

“Last year I had an eighth grade squad, and afterwards a girl wrote a paper on me about how I was her role model,” Noto said, “That was one of my most favorite things I’ve been told in my life.”

Katie WeberStaff Reporter

Most alumni don't come back to their high school for awhile once they graduate. Alumnus Devin Neill (‘12) isn't one of those people. Just months after graduation, Neill is back already acting as sophomore assistant bas-ketball coach under Rick Divito. Neill, who played for the Grenadiers for the past four years, is excited for this new experience.

"Going from playing something you love to coaching

it a year later is an odd but exciting adjustment I just have to get used to," Neill said.

Coaching isn't all Neill is up to. He hopes to become a teacher and a coach after college graduation. He plans on earning his Associate's degree at Harper College then transferring to Illinois State University.

Many think that Neill seems like a great choice for the job. Not only does he know the game well, he also won the school spirit award last year and helped build what is now "The Nation," so his heart is in it no doubt. He is looking for work outside of EG and hopes to work

a summer camp next year.The team got off to a slow start but is starting to re-

ally show improvement, according to Neill. Sophomore player Tyler Ingebrigtsen had good things to say during the Thanksgiving tournament.

"We are doing all right," he put simply. "Devin makes us work and is honest when he has to be."

The sophomore team's next game is at Hersey next week Dec. 14. The team is pumped for the rest of the season.

John KaupStaff Reporter

Coaches Corner

HELPING HANDS: Junior Amelia Rafferty (far right) coaches at Special Olym-pians in gymnastics. Raferty is among the many students who have offered to help coach various sports such as cheerleading, gymnastics and events like Special Olympics.

Photo by Lee Rafferty

Alumnus Devin Neill helps coach boys basketball

Athletes are performing rehabilitation exercises, others laying on heating pads or resting their muscles in a freezing ice bath. Some are getting ankles and wrists taped up for their big game and some just stop-ping by to say hello. Where are we? Elk Grove High School's own athletic training room, also known as "the trainers."

As a competitive athlete, you almost hope you don't know this place too well-it is the oasis of the injured, the bruised and the broken.

If athletes are fortunate enough to know the trainers around there though, they know they're in good hands. Head athletic trainer Mike Porters and new-comer Katie DuSell take care of student athletes all year round.

Athletes are natural born competi-tors. They push themselves to their lim-its-whether against opponents or against themselves. Anything to be the best.

When they get hurt, though, athletes will be the last to admit it. No one wants to risk missing part of his/her season.

"I think that’s just the culture of be-ing an athlete is you want to work through it," Porters said. "You're kind of compet-ing with yourself to see what you can put up with."

Athletes train all year round to per-form at their peak once their season is in full swing. When accidents happen or in-juries occur and athletes are hurt, no one wants to miss the season they have been working so hard for and looking forward to.

Therefore, some athletes wait to get injuries diagnosed until after a couple of weeks or even after a season is over. Wait-ing to get injuries checked out increases the chance that those injuries can become worse.

With some injuries, the quick fix might just be some preventive measures like proper stretching, icing or doing strength-ening exercises. When athletes continue to push themselves to their limits while injured, those quick fix solutions can turn into surgeries, physical therapy and even more time and money spent on recovery if the injury gets worse.

Many don’t want to see the trainer for

fear or being confined to the bench. The trainers aren't someone to fear though.

"I think a common misconception of what we do is that we want to hold people out, when really our goal is to keep our student athletes in the game and in prac-tice safely,” Porters said. “If there's some-thing we can do to keep them on the field we'll find a way to do it, but when they get to that point when they are not safe to do so, that's when we hold them out."

DuSell, the newest athletic trainer here, knows firsthand the damage that can come from not getting injuries checked out. In high school, she suffered a shoul-der injury while in softball season and never got it looked at. Still today she has trouble with her shoulder and experiences pain. Otherwise, this newcomer says she really likes EG and feels very welcome here.

Also a new face in the trainers is vol-unteer student athletic trainer senior Re-becca Siwicki. Any student can volunteer to be a student athletic trainer; they just have to go down and talk to Porters or Du-Sell. It is a learning as well as hands on experience.

“I chose to be a student athletic trainer because it will be good experience for my career path in physical therapy; It’s really interesting because I get to witness reha-bilitation firsthand. Also Mr. Porters and Ms. DuSell explain why they have athletes do the exercises that they do.”

The biggest requirement for volun-teering is a minimum of 15 service hours a week but the experience is well worth it and the time isn’t hard to acquire. The trainers sometimes stay at school as late as10 p.m. Student trainers learn skills like taping and preparing ice baths.

“We teach them how to do it and then they can practice and when they feel like they’re ready, we’ll sign off [on that skill],” DuSell said.

In-season student athletes who have signed a consent-to-treat-form are allowed to be seen by a trainer. Without that form, students who get hurt, like in gym classes and Orchesis, are sent to the nurse to be treated. These students can still use the trainers’ facility, if they need something, they just aren’t allowed to be checked out by a trainer.

Christine JuhasStaff Reporter

Athletes wait to see trainers, causes higher risk of injury

Students volunteer to coach in Special Olympics, cheerleading

Sports 13December 7, 2012

Swanson settles in as new girls basketball coach

High hopes for bowling team despite small size

This year, the girls bowling team has the bare minimum of 14 girls. This could either be a good thing or bad. But as of now, it has been nothing but good news.

On Dec. 1, the bowlers had their first tournament of the sea-son. The fact that they had few players did not affect the way they bowled.

The team placed in fourth place and this was an accomplish-ment due to the fact that they were going against strong teams. Junior Kayleigh Duff placed sixth with an average of 198 points and junior varsity player Jackie Peters finished second with an average

of 186 points.“We placed right up there

with them so it was a good feel-ing,” Duff said.

This win has placed the team in a good spot. They are now in first place for conference and are now an undefeated team.

Head coach Jason Svehla has high hopes for the season even though they are small team.

“At the beginning of the sea-son, I don't feel like our small team will have much of an im-pact on how the girls perform. Towards the end of the season it might catch up to them but that's why we focus of conditioning during practice as much as we do," Svehla said.

Being part of a small team

does have its advantages and dis-advantages.

“Some of the advantages of having a small team are that I get to know the girls more. I have the opportunity to see how each girl performs and give them advice on how to improve their game,” Svehla said.

Svehla also mentioned the fact that they have the exact num-ber of bowlers in order for every-one has an equal chance to bowl in every meet and tournament.

"Some of the disadvantages of such a small team are that we cannot afford for girls to be sick or injured. Since we have only 14 girls, if even one girl is sick or in-jured, it impacts the team nega-tively and doesn't allow us to bowl

up to our capabilities," Svehla said.

Duff agrees with her coach.“The fact that we are a small

team doesn't necessarily put pres-sure on any of us individually but it's hard because if more than one of us were to get sick or injured, our lowest level team would have to forfeit,” Duff said. “But I could definitely see us benefitting from it because in a sense we know we have to bowl our best to help our team out because there aren't many people to take our place.”

Senior Abby Nix is a return-ing varsity member. She says that she is "excited for the season to of-ficially begin."

Svehla is hoping that the re-turning varsity players can help

the newest members of the team and at the end become more united as a team since they are all hoping to reach the ultimate goal of going to Conference, Section-als and State once again.

He also mentioned that if one player is ever feeling an off day another player could help. He says that those are one of the many perks of being part of a very small team.

“I do believe having a smaller team does make us more united. It is something our coaching staff is working hard to accomplish," Svehla said. "We would like our varsity members to encourage and mentor our newer bowlers in order to help make our team more unified."

Yesenia CruzManaging Editor

The difficulty of swimming and diving is underrated. Many people think that it’s an easy way to stay in shape, but anyone who has sprinted (swam at full speed) down a lane competitively will say different.

“Swimming takes a lot of effort and dedica-tion,” sophomore Chris Doruff said. “It’s one of the hardest sports because of all the work you put into it.”

Senior Kyle Phillips agrees with Doruff on the difficulty of swimming.

“It’s not as hard as water polo, but it’s more tiring and time consuming,” Phillips said.

Swimming is a full-body exercise and in-cludes four different strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Swimming has been an Olympic sport since the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Olympic gold medal-ist Michael Phelps, at his peak, trained five to six hours a day, six days a week, all the while consum-ing 12,000 calories per day. In short, staying in shape for swimming requires long hours of train-ing at all times of the year. If a swimmer slacks off, he feels the effects in practice.

“I didn’t swim in the offseason this year, and I’m kind’ve regretting it because I’m not in as good of shape as I would have been,” Doruff said.

Other swimmers have different motives for joining the swim team.

“I joined swimming to get faster and be in bet-ter shape for water polo,” Phillips said.

Swimming has become more popular in recent years in what may be a result of the Phelps phe-nomenon. Both men and women’s swimming were some of the most viewed competitions during the Olympics this past summer. Kids everywhere have been hopping into pools hoping to repeat the suc-cess of idols like Phelps, Ryan Lochte and new star Missy Franklin, who, by the way, is still a senior in high school and is competing at a high school level.

“I think the Olympics has helped swimming’s reputation and has made more people join,” Phil-lips said.

Phillips won the All-Conference award for boys water-polo last season and has been swim-ming competitively since his sophomore year. “Swimming is real fun,” Phillips said, “the races and meets are fun to be at.”

In the meantime, the boy’s swim team has the beginning of the season to look forward to and along with it their own personal goals.

“I’d like to break the school record for medley race with [senior]Bart Kosciarz, [junior]Krystian Szczepaniak and [sophomore]Colin Williams,” Phillips said.

If Phillips, Kosciarz, Szczepaniak and Wil-liams are successful then they would join girls swimming in breaking a school record this year.

Swimming’s popularity has risen but only the future knows if the popularity will last. And while the next Olympics won’t take place for four years, the upcoming boys swim season should be reason enough for excitement.

Some underestimate swimming’s intensity, popularity begins to riseAndrew NoonanOpinions Editor

With the coming of winter, the varsity girl's basketball team is already tearing through their new season. Spearheading the team this season is new coach Kathie Swanson, and from Libertyville High School, she brought her own set of goals and expectations for the team.

"They're getting used to my style of how I coach," Swanson said. "Every day is a learning ex-perience for them. They're learn-ing a lot of new concepts."

For senior varsity player Dia-mond Boyd, the adjustments are tough, but rewarding.

“Working with Coach Swan-son is a lot different from work-ing with Coach Kirkorsky,” Boyd said. “She has bigger goals for us to achieve and really pushes us a lot more when it comes to how we play the game.”

The rewards of this work ethic come with perseverance and confidence throughout the team.

“She is also more strict than our past coach, but we appreci-ate that as a whole,” Boyd said. “It makes us want to do better in-stead of settling for less than we can give.”

While the team is adjusting to a new coach, Swanson said coaching at EGHS is similar to coaching at Libertyville.

At their game on Nov. 17 at EGHS, the team played Lake Park and won with a score of 58-27.

"I thought we played really well," Swanson said. "We're see-ing improvements in every single game."

On Nov. 20, the team beat out Harlan 59-29, but resigned a 28-35 loss to Hoffman Estates on Nov. 24.

The team has a small hand-ful of upcoming games before the school lets out for winter break. Two games will be played here-- one against Mundeline and one against Hersey.

If there are questions about when varsity, or any other EGHS girl’s basketball team, will be play-ing, check out their schedules at www.elkgrovegirlsbasketball.com.

With each game, Swanson is continuing to settle into her posi-tion as coach.

“Personally, I think she fits in more and more with us every-day,” Boyd said. “Coach Swanson is going to take Elk Grove’s pro-gram to new heights.”

Abby RayEntertainment Editor

“God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple,” martial artist Jean Claude Van Damme said. Senior Dylan Edwards won't argue with that, since he admires Van Damme greatly.

Edwards can be seen toting a giant “lunch box” with shelves stuffed with chicken and Chipo-tle leftovers around the school. His 5,000 to 6,000 calorie-a-day routine was hard at first, but he finally got into the swing of it.

Edwards, the charismatic senior, is not bulking up for kicks and, unlike most, isn’t going to compete for awards.

Edwards swears he’ll never step into a match anytime soon. Torturous head injuries from football have kept him from traveling down that path, and experts agree. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports a four-fold increase in hospital visits related to teenage football injuries over the past ten years.

“Since I was a kid my grand-pa always had a lesson to show me,” Edwards said. As Edwards grew, those lessons became tougher and tougher to master.

Edwards’ grandfather end-ed up qualifying for the Olym-pics as a boxer when he was 16, but missed it by an inch. He broke his hand and ended up not being able to attend. This isn’t a

sob story though as martial arts are still an imperative part of his life.

Besides Edwards’ grand-father, his fascination with Bel-gian martial artist and film star Van Damme and action movies helped push him along.

Interestingly enough, his grandpa was the one who mainly urged Edwards to stay out of the ring. “He saw lots of guys who suffered from brain and head in-juries,” Edwards said.

Unlike most, Edwards is satisfied with training for fun and to, in some way, “honor” his family. “It’s a family thing that I’ve always wanted to do. And now I’m doing it,” he said.

Badge of honor: Edwards sticks to strict fitness regimen

LUNCHBOX LUCHADORE: Senior Dylan Edwards’ diet calls for 5,000 to 6,000 calories per day, which includes a large

Paige CrenshawStaff Reporter

Photo by Christine Juhas

Sports

The S.S. Kura

My dad

Senior Matt Villegas

Gymnastics Basketball WrestlingGren Grid

Who is the king or queen of Try Hard

Friday?

If you were the captain of a ship, what would you

call it?

What’s the heaviest thing you can lift?

Senior Joey Ellery

Buoys in the Hood

A car

Senior Daniel Kim

Solo

Bruno Mars

My dad

S.S. Bruno

“Two, count them, two...marshmallows.”

FreshmanMia Loxely

Sophomore Dan Hadler

Information compiled by Patrick O’Malley

SeniorTyler Klicka

Junior Mel Solorio

Basketball

Wrestlers find healthy ways to cut weight

Last year when sophomore Dominic Stacey lost his challenge match for the 106 lbs. starting match, he had one week to drop six pounds to wrestle at 100 lbs. So for one week this meant waking up early in the morning, running three miles, omitting carbohydrates, soda and red meat from his diet, working extremely hard at practice and then running again after dinner. Why?

“Because I love to wrestle,” Stacey said.

Stacey is among the wrestlers at Elk Grove and throughout the nation who cut weight, the practice of shedding pounds in a matter of days before competition in or-der to compete at a lower weight class and theoretically have an advantage over their opponents.

However, according to varsity coach Phil Winter, the decision to cut weight is entirely on the wrestler.

“We leave that up to the athletes them-selves,” Winter said. “If they decide that they want to try to drop down to a lower weight, then they can.”

And this is exactly what Stacey did as he went on last year to only lose four matches. Now, after growing quite a bit over the summer and spending five weeks at a wrestling camp at Prospect, Stacey is looking to compete at 126 lbs.

Though with this come regulations set by the Illinois High School Association on how to cut weight properly.

“The state mandates how low a stu-dent can go, and they also mandate how quickly they can drop the weight,” Winter said.

Out of concern for the safety of the young people who participate in wrestling programs, the IHSA Wrestling Weight Control Program is designed to determine the minimum weight class a wrestler may participate in throughout the season. The

establishment of a minimum weight class is based on a body fat measurement of 7 percent for male wrestlers and 12 percent for female wrestlers.

At the beginning of the season, each wrestler is required to see the athletic trainer and take a hydration test which will determine if they are able to take the skin-fold testin their adomen, triceps and back, which determines each wrestler’s body fat percentage.

“Then we put them into the IHSA website and it does all of the calculations for us and then it spits out information on what points during the season can certain wrestlers wrestle in certain weight classes, which is good because it prevents wrestlers from having to cut 15 lbs. three days be-fore to make weight,” athletic head trainer Mike Porters said.

Porters also adds that it is beneficial for the safety of other wrestlers as well because then future opponents are not going to wrestle others who weighed 180 lbs. three days ago who now weigh 165 lbs.

For proper weight loss, Porter recom-mends that losing weight over a period of time is key.

“Avoid excessive dehydration for any

kind of weight loss,” Porter said. “It’s usu-ally best to do it slow and if you’re looking for more permanent results, slower is al-ways better because when you drop weight fast you’re most likely going to gain it just as fast or faster.”

A conscientious diet and hard work is also a simple way to shed the pounds, Win-ter said.

“You just got to eliminate the pop and the junk food, but really we try to encour-age the guys to be eating as much of the healthy food that they want,” Winter said. “And if they’re working really hard in the practice room, the weight just naturally comes off.”

Someone who is looking to cut weight in the near future is senior Jon Ebert, who recently won first place at the Garrent Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 25, is looking to drop 12 lbs., from 182 lbs. to wrestle in the 170 lbs. weight class.

However, Ebert isn’t one for a strict diet regimen or specific work outs.

“Just don’t eat anything from a restau-rant or fast food and just do workouts that work every single muscle in your body,” he said.

Or as sophomore varsity wrestler

Franco Grecco says “just go hard at practice.”

Grecco, who has had expe-rience jumping around weight classes, emphasized losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean that a person needs to stop eat-ing.

“You just eat smaller meals and drink more water before a meet or a tournament,” Grecco said.

Aside from the weight fac-tor, other elements that the wrestlers have been focusing on this year is their technique.

“Were still developing a lot of the fundamentals that we want everybody to have down,” Winter said. “We probably won’t reach that

point that where where we feel fully de-veloped until almost until after Christmas break.”

Among those who are on their way to being well versed in those techniques are Ebert and senior Mikey Maize.

“Both of these guys are really coming along really quickly,” Winter said. “They’re like sponges. Every new little piece of tech-nique that we throw at them they drill very hard on and we see them in the room im-mediately trying to implement it in their matches.”

Because according to Winter, like weight and like techniques, small differenc-es in wrestling can make all the difference in the world when it comes to the outcome of a match.

And for Stacey, running that extra mile or passing up on that bag of chips is what will put him in a better position to defeat his opponent in the ring.

“When I wake up in the morning I do think that I should just lay back down and sleep for another hour,” Stacey said. “And I sometimes would want something to eat, but then I think ‘This is all so that you could wrestle.”

Julianne MicoletaEditor-in-Chief

SLIM-FAST: Sophomore Dominic Stacey (right) practices hand fighting after school. Wrestlers keep a strict diet and exercise regimen in order to cut weight.

Photo by Alex Ostrowski