As the ball rolls slowly to first, off the end of the batter’s bat, the first baseman slides over and gloves the ball. The pitcher sprints to the first base bag to make the grab and get out No. 21. The second base-man dives in and wraps his arms around his team-mates, and the dogpile begins. Fans storm the field and join in, jumping onto the pile of newly crowned spring state baseball champions.

The celebration was a major turnaround from the team’s loss less than 24 hours earlier against Millard South May 15, when Millard South scored 10 runs in a 10-0 rout. Helping the team flip the outcome at the state championship game was sophomore Mike Wal-dron, who threw a complete game at Werner Park, al-lowing only six hits while striking out six batters, help-ing the team to an 8-0 victory.

“I’m just glad that it happened when it did,” Wal-dron said. “Pitching a game like that is a lot more fun than any other game.”

Head coach Bob Greco was impressed with Wal-dron’s command of the ball, but it’s something he has come to expect.

“You can’t believe how Mike can spot the ball,” Gre-co said. “Mike can put the ball where he wants more than anyone I’ve ever had — and that was big in that game because we were getting a little extra on the out-

thelance

May 24, 2013

8701 Pacific St. Omaha, NE 68114 Volume 57 Issue 9

STATE CHAMPSBaseball wins for first time since 2009

By Aren RendellEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

side corner, and we were looking at it, and he kept hit-ting it.”

The team put on a big show offensively, as well. In the first inning junior center fielder Devin Stueck, who had three hits in the game, started the scoring by hitting an RBI single to bring home junior right field-er Jake Meyers. Two batters later, Waldron brought Stueck home with an RBI single. The team ended up scoring five runs in the first inning.

“After we scored five in the first and had a good de-fensive play by [junior] Luke Biggs, it was pretty much we had shut them down,” junior Allen Rosenblum said. “[Millard South] acted like they knew and they didn’t want to be there anymore. All the momentum was on our side.”

Greco thinks the key to the team making it to the state championship, getting off to a big lead and even-tually winning was the guidance the older players pro-vided.

“When you have a leader or leaders that are repeat-ing and modeling what the coaches are asking, and doing the same thing the coaches are, the kids pick it up so much faster,” Greco said. “I don’t think we’ve won many championships in the spring and summer where we haven’t had good leadership.”

Leadership was especially key on a team consist-ing of mainly juniors and sophomores, and even one freshman. This young team loses only its start-ing catcher and a starting outfielder to graduation,

and will look to defend its title this summer and next spring.

“It feels great knowing that we have a bunch of young players and it could happen again this summer and next year,” Waldron said.

The team does have a major obstacle to overcome, though.

“What really is very difficult is...now all these kids are being told how great they are and ‘Wow, you’re all young, you could win it two or three more times’ — and when you start to believe that, then all of a sudden you stop working hard and stop trying to get better, and it happens a lot,” Greco said. “That’s why it’s so difficult to win the spring and the summer.”

The championship was Westside’s first since 2009 and its sixth overall.

86 mph: the top fastball speed of sophomore Mike Waldron, who struck out six in seven innings.

25-6: The base-ball team’s final record.

TheStats

Rector departs, joins nonprofit organization

Swear in conversation with English instructor Amy Rector, and you’re likely to elicit a curt “Stop cussing,” but beyond that you won’t pay much of a penalty. In fact, if you pay close attention, you’ll notice that she doesn’t actually bat an eye, and when you ask her about it, she’ll tell you point-blank, “I just say it be-cause I’m supposed to.”

Rector always establishes a decidedly informal at-mosphere in her classrooms. Establishing a comfort-able relationship with students has become a core te-net of her teaching, but it is one she will soon be ap-plying to a different group of students.

Rector will be leaving Westside this year after 12 years as a teacher. She was once a Westside student herself, and later a student teacher here as well. She enjoys working at Westside, but with two kids at home she would like to spend more time with, her years teaching at Westside are starting to wear.

“I’m excited to try something new, a new challenge, something different,” Rector said. “This is all I’ve ever done, work at Westside.”

Rector will be working at Avenue Scholars, a non-profit organization aimed at bringing children out of poverty through education. She will be working alongside former Westside drama instructor Terry Fischer.

“[The] goal, basically, is through intervention, to break the cycle of poverty for individual students,” Rector said.

This will involve teaching two classes at Ralston, one class of juniors and one of seniors, but will consist primarily of acting as a mentor to certain students, en-suring they graduate and continue their education.

“The class that I teach I don’t know everything about yet, but it’s more like life skills and high school management skills, and career exploration,” Rector said.

To be eligible for the program, students must be living below the poverty level and have a grade point average below 2.5, but still want to graduate and go to college.

“My job is to help kids graduate, so I will teach a class,” Rector said. “I also will be a mentor and an ad-vocate for them, and work with their teachers.”

By Tom SchuenemanMANAGING EDITOR

Photo by Mady Bridwell

continued on page 2

English instructor Amy Rector teaches Honors American Literature Tues-day, May 21 in room 131. The class is currently working on the explication of postmodern poetry. Photo by Estella Fox

Check out page 8 for our list of things to do to cure your summer boredom.

newsMay 24, 2013 2

BRIE

FLY Even as the year wound down, many students were

hard at work with AP tests. AP testing has increased over the past decade at Westside. In 2003 119 tests were taken by Westside students, compared to 2013, when nearly 650 were taken. In 2003 only 11 AP classes were offered, compared to today’s 24.

The increase in AP courses and testing is just one of the reasons Westside is considered one of the more academically challenging schools around the country. It was recently distinguished as one of the most rigor-ous in the nation by the Washington Post.

“We’re a very tough school academically,” said guidance counselor Melissa Hansen, who oversees AP testing.

Not only do Westside students take a lot of AP courses, but they also have a great passing rate as well. Last year, they earned a 72% passing rate.

“We’re very pleased with our AP results,” Hansen said.

In the April, 12, 2013 issue of the Lance the front

Westsiders take over 600 AP exams

Next year’s class officers elected

Tragedy at WestsideCommunity remembers, honors life of student

Graduation held at newly built venue

Wednesday, May 8, it was announced during the beginning of third mod that junior Landon Muller had died by suicide that morn-ing. Students and teachers reacted with shock and sadness.

But rather than focusing on his death, the community has been more focused on honoring Muller’s life.

Muller found enjoyment mainly in being a part of the band at the high school, and playing video games. He participated in marching band and had played the clarinet since fifth grade.

Muller’s cousin, senior Alysha Abraham, thinks band was an ac-tivity he enjoyed, and it also gave him a place where he could meet many people who had similar interests to him.

“He did really love band — it was the only thing he stuck with in high school,” Abraham said. “I think band kids are more inclusive and are really open to everyone.”

To pay tribute to her cousin, Abraham wants to put a plaque on Muller’s band locker, so he can permanently be remembered in a place he loved. But even without the plaque, right now Muller is still being remembered. Many students in band were embracing and comforting each other after the news of his death.

Junior Matthew Saucedo was good friends with Muller ever since the two were in elementary school. He remembers his friend as be-ing a fun, genuinely good person.

“He was a really funny guy,” Saucedo said. “He loved to play around with other people. He might seem quiet and shy at first, but

he was a really fun person to hang out with.”Saucedo played various video games with Muller, including

computer games like Minecraft and Xbox. Recently, Saucedo fin-ished building an arena in the virtual game Minecraft that Muller began building himself, but never had the chance to finish.

Saucedo also created a Memorial Wall in Minecraft to allow other users to post messages and memories about their friend. The memorial notes, “This memorial stands as a testament to Landon Muller. May his heart & soul forever be in our memories.”

Landon’s older sister Skylar also remembers her younger broth-er as being cheerful, and a likable person.

“He always had a great sense of humor,” Skylar said. “Everyone always mentions how great of a smile he had. He just liked to be a little jokester, and usually he was pretty happy.”

Although Landon’s death was a tragic event, Skylar thinks there has been strong support both from Westside students and the community to commemorate Landon’s life.

A family friend of the Mullers, freshman Eliza Jasa, also created a yellow rubber bracelet that says “Remembering Landon Muller” on it. Yellow is significant because it is the color of suicide preven-tion. Bracelets can be bought from Jasa.

While the support from the community for Landon’s family and close friends has been incredible, Skylar thinks a way to pre-vent such tragedies is for individuals to always remind each other much they appreciate one another, and how important they are.

“We should care for the ones we love, and always let them know that they are loved,” Skylar said.

By Kellie WasikowskiDESIGN EDITOR

Junior Landon Muller poses for his school photo. Rather than focusing on his death, friends and family members are remembering his life. Photo courtesy of 2013 Shield

RECTOR: instructor joins Avenue Scholars

Above left: English instructor Amy Rec-tor grades a poetry explication May 21 in Honors American Literature. Photo by Estella Fox Above: Rector poses in the 1996 yearbook. Photo courtesy of 1996 Shield

She will be working exclusively with juniors and se-niors, but the program will follow these students be-yond graduation.

“The program takes them after high school to at least two years into [college]—usually Metro, or some sort of training or an associate’s degree,” Rector said.

Rector believes the prospect of helping these kids will be an exciting change of pace, as she fears that her familiarity with Westside, and her desire to spend more time with her children and less time working, may get in the way of her teaching.

“This year for the first time I started to feel [tired]. I’ve taught here for 12 years, I’m still really excited about my curriculum, I’m still really excited about my students, but I don’t ever want to bring a negative feel-ing, or a feeling of burnout into my classroom,” Rector said.

While a change of pace is what prompted the move, the prospect of working closely with these stu-dents is what really excites Rector about this new op-portunity.

“I feel like I’ll be able to do even more, and I’ll have fewer students,” Rector said, “So I’ll be able to really get to know them well, and be an advocate for them,

be a part of their life. That’s what I like about teaching right now.”

Rector’s approach to teaching will be uniquely ap-propriate for this more personal setting.

“If you don’t remember all the characters in The Grapes of Wrath, I don’t care, but if you remember that you had a positive experience reading that book, or that you were able to think about it, and that you had a teacher who fostered that enjoyment of think-ing and trying to figure things out, to me that is what matters more,” Rector said.

Rector herself describes this personal approach as “a big hippy answer.” It can sometimes come across this way in class, but it is effective nonetheless.

“I grew to like her,” said junior Reneé Stewart, one of Rector’s Honors American Literature students this year. “At first I was like ‘This lady thinks she’s so cool—she thinks she’s still a teenager but she’s not,’ but she’s really down to earth. At first I thought she was put-ting up a front, trying to be cool, but then she really is cool.”

Although Rector isn’t necessarily concerned with being “cool”, she cares very deeply about her relation-ship with students.

“What I’ve realized the longer I’ve taught is that it’s the relationships with the students that mat-

ter the very most,” Rector said. “What a kid is going to remember is his or her relationship with you, and whether they felt like they learned something in your class and whether or not they felt good when they were in your class.”

While Rector is excited about establishing this re-lationship with her new students, she is not excited to leave her current students.

“I will miss many things about Westside. I love my students, I love the people I work with, I really like the curriculum I teach, [and] I’ll really miss my home-room a lot, so I’m not excited about leaving Westside,” Rector said. “But I am excited to try something differ-ent.”

page story dealt with how many kids on free/reduced lunch take AP and honors courses; 175 students fall in this category, out of 1,112 students taking honors courses.

After this year’s prom, no time was wasted in elect-ing eight new class officers for next school year. Posters lined the hallways as students watched officer speech-es and voted. The results were announced May 10.

For the junior class, Max Slosburg was elected president, Reece Watanabe vice-president, Daniel Coyle secretary and Carter Ruff treasurer. The senior class elected Jacquelyn Hogan senior class president, and Drew Gerber, Caroline Luther and Cora Wata-nabe will all be vice-presidents. Slosburg is excited for his new role.

“I’m really looking forward to working with the other class officers and planning a great prom,” Slos-burg said.

Graduation is a time most high school students remember forever. This year, for the class of 2013, graduation was held in a new venue, the Ralston Arena, which opened in October 2012. The arena served as an excellent venue for the seniors’ big day. The switch from the CenturyLink Center to the Ralston Arena was brought on by the difference in cost, as the Ralston Arena was significantly cheaper than the CenturyLink Center, and because the dates available at the Ralston Arena worked better for the district.

At the ceremony, seniors Jenna Hager, Erica North, and Hannah Battafarano gave inspirational speeches to send their class off into the real world.

The Westside orchestra and band played the processional and recessional music. Seniors walked across the stage and received their diplomas, mark-ing an end to four years of hard work.

continued from page 1

Emma Johannings-meier, Lance

3May 24, 2013news

Journalism program wins state championship; editors announced This year, Westside journalism won the NSAA Class A state championship, with 41 points in the preliminaries. The next highest-scoring team, Millard West, had 27. “I normally don’t put a high priority or desire on [winning state], but this year being my last year, I was hoping it would happen,” journalism adviser Rod Howe said. “I was kind of surprised by the margin of victory.” The student journalists from around the state who did the best in each event — news writing, editorial writing, et cetera — competed in write-off competitions at the state championships in Lincoln May 13. In all, Westside won 19 top-six medals in 13 categories, including four first places. Although Howe himself is retiring this year, he said he has no doubt the award-winning program he’s helped set up will be maintained. The new journalism adviser, Jerred Zegelis, will be coming to Westside from Benson. He will advise newspaper, yearbook and magazine. “I have no doubt that with the returning staff members the standards of excellence will be maintained,” Howe said. “The new adviser is very willing to adapt to the skills and processes that are already in place.” Zegelis will have the advantage of the experienced

staff members, some of whom will be editors next year. At the recent end-of-year journalism banquet, Howe announced the new Lance and Shield editors-in-chief and managing editors for the last time. For the Shield, juniors Shannen Pickering and Katie Zetzman will be editors-in-chief, and juniors Sarah Carlson and sophomore Courtney Strayer will be managing editors. Lance, editors-in-chief will be junior Emma Johanningsmeier and sophomore Aren Rendell, and managing editors will be sophomore Estella Fox and junior Tom Schueneman. This means next year will be the second year in a row the Lance has had one junior editor-in-chief, a development Howe said will hopefully help the journalism program by adding continuity to the leadership. For WTV, the four executive producers for next year will be juniors Emily Glazer, Caroline Luther, Cassie McCormick and Laurel Oetken. Associate producers will be juniors Olivia Beier, Dilnoza Inoyatova and Hannah Miller. The editor-in-chief of Westside Wired will be junior Tyler Siegel. The magazine program will be changing next year. Administrators briefly said it was going to be eliminated altogether, but as of now, magazine staff members will be enrolled in a class in which they work on the newspaper or yearbook for three mods

Aren Rendell, LanceShannen Pickering, Shield

Katie Zetzman, Shield

Eva Phillips, magazine

Emily Glazer, WTV Caroline Luther, WTV Cassie McCormick, WTV

Laurel Oetken, WTV Tyler Siegel, Westside Wired

and magazine for another two mods. The magazine editor-in-chief will be junior Eva Phillips, and the managing editor will be sophomore Lia Hagen. As for the leadership of his staffs, Howe, who has been at Westside for 23 years, said he’s chosen wisely throughout his career here. None of the editors he’s picked have ever really disappointed him. “I think some more than others have really grown into the leadership role, and gone above and beyond what I expected,” Howe said. “Those are the greatest successes and occurrences that really make me feel good about what publication leadership can do for a young person.”

Next year’s editors-in-chief and produc-ers were announced at the journalism banquet. For the third year in a row, the list includes a junior.

opinionMay 24, 20134

The Lance is a school-sponsored publication of Westside High School, Westside Community Schools, 8701 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68144. The Lance office is located in room 251. Phone: (402) 343-2650. The Lance is an in-house publication.

The paper is distributed every month to all students, except in vacation periods. Subscription rates to others are $25 prepaid. The Lance is printed by White Wolf Web, in Sheldon, IA.

Advertising rates are avail-able upon request. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit all ads for clarity and grammatical errors. The edito-rial staff reserves the right not to publish any ads that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance editorial staff also reserves the right to nullify contracts at any time without prior notification. The Lance also refuses ads that promote activities illegal to a majority of the student readership.

Reader response is wel-comed in the form of letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words, signed by the author and sent to room 251. Names may be withheld upon special request. Lance editors will decide whether to honor such requests.

The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff also reserves the right to not publish any letters that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill & Scroll Society.

The Lance staff recog-nizes that the administration of Westside Community Schools controls the curriculum and, thus, sets the parameters of the production process of school publications. The Lance staff also recognizes its own responsi-bilities to inform, enlighten and entertain its readers in a way that reflects high standards of journalism, morals and ethics.

Editors-in-Chief Emma Johanningsmeier, Aren Rendell; Managing Editors Estella Fox, Tom Schueneman; Design Editor Kellie Wasikowski; News Editor Connor Flairty; Feature Editor Grace Fogland; Sports Editor Tim Graves; Staff Writer Sophie Clark; Photo Editor Sarah Lemke; Adviser Rod Howe.

lance

I’m going to South Korea for a conference between Korean and American ge-ography teachers.

LONNIE MOORE instructor

What will you be doing over the summer?

I’m going to running camp!CATIE THULL junior

I’m going down to Lin-coln for summer foot-ball conditioning. HARRISON JORDAN senior

I’m practicing for color guard.ALLY STARKS sophomore

warrior voice

During the passing period between 13th and 14th mod Thursday, May 16, five senior boys attempted to run through the landing wearing nothing but Speedos, plus t-shirts covering their heads. Three of them made it.

One of the seniors was grabbed by a bouncer, and fell down. The other, Quentin Bishop, said he was “football tackled” by a District 66 administrator. He tried to get away at first, but once he was down on the ground, he stopped struggling.

“In the case on [Thursday] there was a safety issue on our landing with students running through the area with their heads/eyes covered,” principal Maryanne Ricketts wrote in an e-mail. “[The administrator] was trying to protect our students. He went down when the student tried to jump over or around.”

No matter what happened first, though, the administrator sat on Bishop to hold him down. Bishop was fine, and said he has no ill will toward the administrator. Nonetheless, the public use of force has provoked many questions.

While we understand there may have been a small risk of people being injured as the boys ran through the landing, we believe using this type of force was not only unnecessary, but also an inappropriate way to deal with a basically harmless senior prank.

But what is more ambiguous is the role of technology in this whole situation. Of course, the students present on the landing during the episode pulled out their cell phones and took pictures and video of the prank and of Bishop and the administrator. Several of these pictures made their way onto Twitter, including one of the administrator holding Bishop down.

Responsibility in the digital age is a question young people, in particular, are constantly faced with. What’s ethical and what’s not? We’re constantly reminded that posting things online that reflect badly on other people is wrong and will damage people’s reputations.

This leaves us with a unique situation. Ricketts is concerned about the school’s reputation and that of the administrator himself — and with good reason. But how far should our concern as students go in a situation like this?

To be fair, some of the tweets became offensive, and as Ricketts says, students need to exercise critical thinking when using social media. Should you really retweet that offensive meme? Probably not. But is there anything inherently wrong with tweeting a picture of something that happened in

an open area at school, in full view of hundreds of students?

This question happens to be especially pertinent to Westside because two years ago, the administration implemented a policy whereby students are allowed to use phones in non-instructional areas. It’s been in place ever since.

This policy was an admirable move on the part of the administration — a move consistent with Westside’s reputation for being up-to-date with technology. We appreciate this. To be sure, there is a downside to allowing phones in school — in the past, cell phones have been used to help instigate fights, for example. This goes to show that some people will abuse any privilege, and continued tolerance of phones requires responsibility from students.

However, taking and sharing a simple picture of an administrator tackling a student in the landing, as long as it’s not done maliciously, can hardly be classed as irresponsible on the part of a student.

This does serve as a reminder to students, though, that no matter what your intentions in using social media, people really do see what you post online. In this situation, those people included administrators. According to a dean, the district was aware of the social media posts regarding this senior prank.

The dean, who met the day after the prank with the boys who were caught, said Monday that the tweets did not factor into the administration’s consideration of how to punish the pranksters. (The boys suffered virtually no consequences.) According to one of the boys, the administration briefly considered whether the seniors should be disciplined in any way for the Twitter posts, but they weren’t. The administration wisely chose not to punish the perpetrators of the prank for something separate that not only is not their fault, but also is not covered by district policies.

In a general sense, though, this might be a time for the administration to reevaluate its reaction to senior pranks. If the school’s image is so essential, why bother cracking down on harmless practical jokes such as this? The prank would probably be over and in the past if it wasn’t for the tackling part, which is what gave the prank its notoriety.

“Since I got tackled and everyone got all the pictures, it spread and became a bigger deal,” Bishop said. “I went to swim practice the next day and people from other schools said they heard about it, and teachers were telling them about it.”

More importantly, the incident did serve as bad publicity for the district and the administration. Ricketts pointed out that social media posts often give “snapshots” of situations and don’t show the full story. If the administrator really was trying to protect students, that isn’t shown in the photos.

Regardless, the pictures show what they show, and let’s face it: an administrator sitting on top of a kid does not look good. Just because something doesn’t give the full story doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taken seriously. Our hope is that the district can learn from this situation, because the solution to a conflict like this is not to preach about the importance of being responsible online, or to prevent students from using their phones at school. The solution is to prevent such incidents from happening in the first place.

To be sure, students are accountable for what they post and tweet, and what may seem funny at first may turn out to be callous and inappropriate. At the same time, the use of Twitter in this situation helped call attention to a quite possibly unethical action that might otherwise have been easily brushed aside. Hopefully this incident will remind administrators of the importance of acting properly in the first place, knowing that when anything like this happens, students are watching — and so are their cell phone cameras.

SPEEDO RUNIn light of incident, tweets createaccountability

Photo illustration by Estella Fox

feature May 24, 2013 5

Seniors to continue with music education

For some graduating seniors in band, this is the end of the road for their music careers. But for a few others, it is just the beginning. Seniors Russ Riley, Josh Martinez and Eli Hershiser all plan on majoring in music during college.

Riley is a drummer in band and has taken up the many different styles of drumming that Westside has to offer. Riley has played in the marching band, in various jazz bands, and in other bands outside of school. This year, he received a $20,000 multi-year music scholarship to Hastings College in Nebraska. Riley auditioned before judges for the music program.

“I had to play a concert snare solo, a marching snare solo and a marimba solo,” Riley said.

Riley said the judges were surprised at how many percussion instruments he was able to play. He said he felt prepared thanks to his private lessons and his experience at Westside. He had planned to look at other colleges, but when he got the scholarship, he knew he wanted to go to Hastings. As a music major, he will participate in the Hastings marching band, concert band and jazz band. He will also have a week-ly private lesson with an instructor.

“Not only did music help me get into Hastings, but it helped me get a scholarship,” Riley said.

Martinez plans to major in music education at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. His musical ex-perience at Westside includes playing alto saxophone and clarinet. He has been a part of Westside’s stage band, concert band, and marching band. In addition to study music education he plans on playing clarinet at UNL.

Not only does Martinez play an instrument, but he is also in charge of the sound for Westside’s the-ater productions. He plans on studying theater tech-

nology to become a sound engineer. He hopes this will open him up to theater sound and also handling sounds for bands.

When he was accepted into the program, Marti-nez also received several academic and music schol-arships. He said there is no doubt Westside’s music program has helped him prepare for college.

“I learned to take on responsibility in band, and it was the part of my day I always enjoyed most,” Mar-tinez said. “Marching band was my favorite experi-ence.”

Hershiser auditioned at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. He said he wasn’t too nervous — that is, until his tenor saxo-phone broke just an hour and fifteen minutes before he was scheduled to arrive at the audition.

“I had to quickly search for repair shops, take a cab all the way uptown, get it repaired, and take a cab to the New School,” Hershiser said. “I arrived just in time.”

For the audition, Hershiser was required to pre-pare three jazz standards and play with the top stu-dent rhythm section. He said practicing was the key. He got accepted to the school and ended up getting a scholarship. This scholarship will cover a little more than half of his tuition.

Hershiser’s studies will mostly involve intensive jazz study. He will take classes like music theory, im-provisation, piano and music history. He is also guar-anteed placement in at least one ensemble. He said his music education at Westside has been a huge part of his success.

“Bob Jenkins [Retired band director] at the middle school convinced me to switch to baritone sax, and was a great teacher who loved his job,” Hershiser said. “He made me want to practice.”

Hershiser made All-State Band as a sophomore with baritone sax, and then switched to tenor sax for

more solo opportunities. He said playing in the high school jazz bands had a huge impact on his music ed-ucation. Former band instructor Roger Groth was his biggest inspiration.

“He [Groth] put me in higher level groups as a younger kid, so I was exposed to people who were bet-ter than me, and that really helped me grow,” Hersh-iser said. “Mr. Groth is one of the reasons I decided to major in music.”

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Preparing Westside Students for the ACT and SAT for over 12 years...

www.JohnBaylorTestPrep.com

132404-JBTP-Westside10x8.indd 1 10/17/12 1:34 PM

By Sophie ClarkSTAFF WRITER

Senior Eli Hershiser practices his tenor saxophone. Hershiser will be attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Art in New York City in the fall. Photo by Estella Fox

May 24, 20136 sports

Spring Sports Wrap-Up Boys Golf

The boys golf team’s season ended at the district tournament, placing fifth and falling 27 strokes short of making it to the state tournament. The team was four strokes above their season average, which head coach Brett Froendt thought could have been lower.

“Our average tournament score was 337, which was not as good as we were hoping to have,” Froendt said. “We didn’t compete in as many tournaments as I ex-pected us to, so from that standpoint we could have scored a little bit better.”

Junior Tom Stegman also thought the season could have gone better.

“We were really inconsistent,” Stegman said. “We could never really play [well] together on the same day. I didn’t know what to expect going into the season, but I feel like we could have done better.”

The team will return three varsity golfers, includ-ing Stegman, who averaged an 81 in competition.

Girls SoccerThe girls soccer team came into this season with

high expectations. They returned 12 of the players who led the Warriors to a state tournament appearance last season.

This year the team advanced to the state tourna-ment after winning its district in Kearney, beating Ke-arney High School. In its first game at the state tour-nament, the team faced No. 4 seed Millard West, and lost 2-0, ending the Warriors’ season. Millard West went on to win the state tournament.

“I thought it was a great season,” said varsity head coach Nathan Moseley. “We had some great wins.”

Sophomore Michelle Xiao led the team in goals

and assists, with 15 and five respectively. Xiao and 14 others return for next season.

Girls TennisExpectations were lofty for the girls tennis team a

year after winning the state championship. The team featured reigning No. 1 doubles state champion junior McKinney Harwood, but her partner from last season, Andrea Kinnerk, graduated. The team also returned No. 1 singles second place winner sophomore Sydney Harlow.

“We did really well,” head coach Kim Gradoville said. “Second place in the state is a great accomplish-ment. We had three individual medalists as well. So, we were happy to collect some hardware at the state tournament this year.”

The team lost to Marian by 8 points. It was ahead of Lincoln East by 5.5 points. McKinney and her new partner, her sister freshman Lizzie Harwood, got sec-ond in No. 1 doubles, and Harlow placed second in No. 1 singles, once again. Senior Kate Slosburg was fourth in No. 2 singles.

“Obviously our goal at the beginning of the year was to win state,” Gradoville said. “We knew that we had to play a great match and Marian just played a better one in both of those spots.”

The team loses one varsity player for next season.

TrackThe boys track team finished in 14th place at the

state track meet. Two competitors placed individually at the meet for the team, and five placed total. Junior Tom Young placed third in shot put, which earned six out of the 16 points for the team. Senior Craig Tim-

mons placed fifth and sixth in the 200 and 100-meter dashes, respectively. He earned seven points for the team. Also placing was the 400-meter relay team con-sisting of Timmons, senior Josh Payne, junior Lane Yates and sophomore Njali Kowa.

The girls team finished in 21st place at the state meet. It accumulated nine points during the meet. The majority of its points came in the triple jump event, where senior Olivia Baker and sophomore Hay-ley Krumwiede placed fourth and sixth respectfully. Baker and Krumwiede were responsible for eight of the team’s nine points. The other point came from the 400-meter relay team, consisting of Krumwiede, Baker, and sophomores Annie Bradford and Regan Johnson.

Combined, the team will return six of 10 medalers.

Editor-in-chief Aren Rendell and sports editor Tim Graves contributed to this article.

Sophomore Sydney Harlow plays a match against Marian High School at the state tennis tournament on May 15. Harlow took second place in singles. Photo by Sarah Lemke

It’s two weeks before the race. Westside Middle School social studies instructor Derek Fey hasn’t run a step in preparation. Although he usually runs daily, the only training he has done the few weeks leading up to the race has been running 10 miles before high school track meets, and running 30 miles in six hours.

“I wasn’t well prepared to run that long of a dis-tance,” Fey said. “The weather was bad the leading weeks to the race, and I have a 1-year-old son that kept me pretty busy.”

Starting line. It’s May 6, 2013 at 7:30 am, and Fey is mentally preparing himself to run the grueling 81 miles it takes to complete the Badwater Salton Sea Ul-tramarathon. The course is tough, with a total eleva-tion gain of 9,000 feet. There are cement roads, steep hills, and dirt trails to run on.

“I have a friend who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2001,” Fey said. “I wanted to raise money for awareness, and ended up raising $1,500 for the Ameri-can Cancer Society.”

Fey’s friend traveled with his running team, acting as their crew, providing water, Coke, and peanut but-ter sandwiches.

Mile one. The starting line is at the Salton Sea in California, about an hour and a half from San Diego. The water and sky are a sparkling blue, and there are cactuses sticking out of the ground. Beside Fey stands his coach, Jay Birmingham, and his other friend Chris Twiggs. Soon, the starter pistol sounds, and they’re off and running.

“I started out in good shape,” Fey said. “The first stretch of the race felt pretty great.”

Mile 25. The route goes along the Borrego Springs Seaway from the edge of Salton City to the Borrego Springs Resort. As Fey is running, he is listening to

sports May 24, 2013 7

Coach runs 81 miles, raises $1,500 for cancer awarenessTwiggs’s chattering. Twiggs recalls countless stories from his life, which Fey appreciates because they keep him focused. However, he is tiring.

“I had a bad spot during that mile,” Fey said. “I felt out of energy.”

He pushed on, though, knowing that his efforts towards raising money would have gone to waste if he quit.

“My high school track long-distance girls also kept tabs on me throughout the run,” Fey said. “I didn’t want to quit and have them see that.”

Mile 45. The most brutal part of the race has hit. It’s a trail section through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, then a 4,000-foot climb up the side of a mountain. Birmingham, who is 67, is struggling to make it.

“I had to literally push my coach up the moun-tain for four hours,” Fey said. “Chris pulled him with a bungee cord. It was the hardest part in the race.”

Break. The runners have a half-hour break where they eat, drink, and rest. It is the only time they have to re-energize for the whole run. It passes quickly, and soon Fey is up and running for the remainder of the night.

“I was exhausted,” Fey said. “After the short break, we got right back on the trail and jogged and walked for the remainder of the race without any more stops.”

Mile 70. It’s dark and quiet. Night has fallen, and Fey is jogging up a mountain on a road, his head a little foggy. He’s run all night in total silence, listening to the sounds of nature.

“It was four in the morning,” Fey said. “I couldn’t tell if I was tired or sleepy, and that was the point where I asked myself, ‘Am I going to quit?’”

Mile 79. Two miles to go, and Fey is relieved. He knows that he and his team are going to finish the race. The Pacific Ocean is visible on the horizon, and Fey is in the middle of a 5,000-foot climb.

By Grace FoglandFEATURE EDITOR

Girls long-distance track coach Derek Fey crosses the finish line May 7 at Mount Palomar with his friend Chris Twiggs. Fey ran an 81-mile race in California to help raise money for testicular cancer. Photo courtesy of Derek Fey

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Mile 81. It’s 7:30 am on May 7, 2013, and Fey crosses the finish line at Mount Palomar with four hours to spare. Twenty-eight hours is the cutoff time, and Fey finishes running 81 miles in 24 hours and 33 minutes.

“I was very emotional when I finished,” Fey said. “However, immediately after I stopped running, my body hurt. I had hit a cactus on the trail part of the race, and about 20 little spines were embedded in my thigh, each about an inch deep. The pain was worth it, though, since I accomplished my goal of finishing the race.”

After crossing the finish line, Fey went immediate-ly to Paradise Bakery to get a macaroni and cheese. His legs hurt, especially the right one, but he was proud and satisfied that he finished the exhausting race.

“It’s amazing what our bodies and mind can do when humans can run 81 miles,” Fey said. “Everybody who was in the race completed, and I just think that’s really cool.”

arts & entertainmentMay 24, 2013 8

With summer break quickly approaching, students are starting to count down the days. We’re all looking forward to the heat and free-dom. However, after the first week of break, some excitement is lost and boredom sets in. Going to the pool gets old quickly and spend-ing the whole summer on your computer isn’t a great idea either. What are you supposed to do with so much time on your hands? Thankfully, we have the solution.

ALBUMSThe Black KeysGenre: Blues/rock, alternative

The Black Keys have been keeping busy. They go from touring to playing at festivals to interviews, and all the while they hint at a new album. During an interview a year ago, The Black Keys’ drummer, Patrick Carney, said they were going to start making a new album in January. Their plan was to have it done by the end of spring. It is not uncommon for this band to be constantly releasing new material. The band has released seven albums in the 10 years it has been together. The new album, a follow up to the Black Keys’ most commer-cially successful album, El Camino, is definitely something to look for this summer.

Kanye WestGenre: Rap/Hip-hop

After the unusual “June Eighteen” tweet by Kanye West, journalist Elliott Wilson quickly

posted on Twitter: “Chris Atlas at Def Jam confirmed. Kanye West. New Album. 6.18.13.” Soon after, Wilson retracted his tweet by ex-plaining that the album release date has not yet been confirmed. Although the release date is undisclosed, there is much excitement for West’s next solo album. His new album follows his popular and highly acclaimed My Beauti-ful Dark Twisted Fantasy, released in Novem-ber 2010. It has been speculated the new album may feature Daft Punk, Odd Future, Skrillex, John Legend and more. West has been debut-ing new material in performances throughout May, and judging by what he’s done so far, his new album is should prove to be as impressive and innovative as his previous.

AlunaGeorgeGenre: R&B/Electronica

London-based electronic duo AlunaGeorge has yet to disappoint its fan base. It released its first single, “Your Drums, Your Love”, on Sept. 10, 2012, and has since attracted fans from all over the world. In January 2013, they announced its first album, titled Body Music, would be released in June 2013. AlunaGeorge has a mix of catchy electro-pop and R&B sounds, and the lead vocals are piercing and strong. It has a unique and sophisticated style that is hard to match. AlunaGeorge is definite-ly a group to look out for.

Earl SweatshirtGenre: Rap

Earl Sweatshirt is hard to miss. Whether you see someone wearing a “Free Earl” shirt or you hear talk of a vulgar, smooth-rhyming rapper who casually refers to vivid experiences

with women and disrespecting government of-ficials, he is bound to work his way into some conversation. Earl and his rap group, Odd Fu-ture, have made a big impact in the alternative-rap community. There is no doubt he is an ex-tremely talented artist with a distinctive, albeit offensive flow. His debut studio album, Earl, was released for free on the Odd Future web-site on March 31, 2010. It was given extremely positive reviews. However, Earl Sweatshirt took a leave of absence from the music indus-try because, as the rumor goes, he was sent to Samoa by his mother because of his trouble-making tendencies and offensive lyrics. His return promises a highly anticipated new al-bum, Doris, which has no scheduled release date. Nevertheless, Earl has premiered three impressive, mature-sounding songs off of the album recently, so it is expected to come out soon.

MOVIESMonsters University

The major box-office success and heart-warming childhood movie Monsters, Inc. is a modern day classic. Although it is a children’s movie that came out in 2001, it is popular among all ages. The upcoming prequel, Mon-sters University, shows the origins friendship of the two main characters friendship, Mike and Sully. Monsters University is scheduled to be released June 21. This movie is both highly anticipated, and is expected to bring familiar and new fans to this famous series.

Elysium

With the recent rise in popularity, it seems as though dystopian movies are getting in-creasingly worse. Elysium is set in 2154, where two distinct classes, the rich and the poor, are highly seperated from each other. The lead, a roll played by Matt Damon, is asked to per-form a risky mission to save himself and bring equality to the classes. Directed by Neill Blom-kamp, Elysium is anticipated because it is a fol-low-up to the well-known and popular movie District 9.

CONCERTSEvery teenager loves music, and summer

is a prime time for the music scene. Summer-time is filled with music festivals and concerts. Pitchfork Music Festival, held in Chicago’s Union Park, is a three-day festival that goes from July 19 to July 21. Pitchfork Music Festival is massive, with three stages simultaneously playing live music, and 46 bands in the line-up. Some major bands and artists making ap-pearances include MIA, Foxygen, Torro Y Moi, R. Kelly, and Lil B. Three-day passes cost $120,

and individual day passes are $50. Another popular festival that lives right

here in Omaha is the Maha Music Festival. This independent rock music festival will in-clude bands such as Matt & Kim, The Flaming Lips and Digital Leather. The concert is Aug. 17, at Askarben Village. Tickets will be $45 pre-sale, and $55 at the gate.

AMUSEMENT PARKS

Another major highlight of childhood sum-mer was always going to amusement parks. Unfortunately, for thrill-seekers, Omaha isn’t the best place to be. Luckily, Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, located in Kansas City, MO, are only three and a half hours away. With a size of 235 acres, and 43 roller coasters, there’s plenty of excitement for anyone who attends.. This year a brand new coaster called the GateKeeper was added. One-day tickets for entry into both parks start at $38.99.

If that’s too far, there is another option: Ad-ventureland, located in Des Moines, IA. It has rides and water just an hour and a half away. The park is 180 acres and contains over 100 rides. The only downfall is that the rides aren’t as amusing and tickets are even more expen-sive than Worlds of Fun. One-day tickets start at $40.

NATUREOmaha isn’t the first place you think of

when you want to go on a hike. However, there is an abundance of places to go to experience the outdoors. Some of the most popular places include Fontenelle Forest, Neale Woods and the Wildlife Safari Park, just to name a few. A single membership for Fontenelle is $35, which includes the cost to be a member of Neale Woods. There is also the option of going on a road trip to Indian Cave State Park, located near Brownsville, NE. In this state park, you can view preserved prehistoric petroglyphs.

MISC.If out-of-town activities and trips aren’t an

option, there are still several things you can do in Omaha. Bowling, Defy Gravity indoor tram-poline park, downtown shopping and Louis-ville Lake swimming are just a few options. You could have a bonfire with friends, or even go camping in your backyard. Many of these ac-tivities are free of charge or reasonably priced. Something to get you out of the house will be sure to make your summer more interesting and keep you free of boredom. No matter your price range or parents’ strictness level, you are sure to find something to do this summer.

By Estella Fox, Sarah LemkeMANAGING EDITOR, PHOTO EDITOR

Graphic by Estella Fox