2400 Lindbergh Drive

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Friday, Mar. 18, 2011 Volume 29 Issue 7

Idil Jama, junior, reconsiders go-ing to University of Cairo due to turmoilPg. 2

Tess L’Heureux, senior, goes to state for gymnastics Pg. 15

Smitha Mur-thy, junior, performs tra-ditional Indian dances Pg. 7

Skyzone comes to the Minneapolis area Pg. 12

ROYALthe page

What’s the appeal?A look at the increase in fights, why they’re happening,

and what is being done about it.

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Royal shorts

AP social studies ap-plications due soon

Students wishing to take AP World or European History next year must turn in their completed applications and pre

course assignments by Tuesday, March 22. Ap-plications and pre course assignments can be found on the school website. Applications must be turned into W151 and pre course assign-ments must be turned in to turnitin.com

HHS welcomes new hall paraprofessional

Students and staff have seen a new face walking

around the halls re-cently. � at face is Mr. Marcus LeVesseur, the new hall parapro-fessional.

LeVesseur is hop-ing to some day be-come a gym teacher and becoming a para is part of that journey. “[I’m trying to] take it to the next step to pursue my teaching career,” LeVesseur said.

LeVesseur heard about the position and knew right away he had to apply. He has al-ready worked here as a wrestling coach, but has never been a part of the school day. Being a hall para will allow him to learn the way the school works.

Having gone to school at Minneapolis Roosevelt and Bloomington Kennedy, LeVes-seur is familiar with schools with diversity to HHS. “It’s easy to fi t in with students no matter what race or gender,” LeVesseur said.

He’s excited to help students make right decisions. “I want to oversee my wrestlers to make sure they’re doing the right thing and make a diff erence in the non-wrestlers to make the right decision,” LeVesseur said. He thinks HHS has potential to keep growing, and he wants to be a part of that.

Getting to know the students here, is some-thing he looks forward to, and he feels very comfortable here. If everything works out the way he would like, LeVesseur hopes to stay for a long time.

“Home sweet home, fi nally made it in, how long can I stay,” LeVesseur said.

Visit royalpage.org for more HHS news including the new Hopkins Apps program.

At a time of devastating political instability and unrest occurring in the Northern African state of

Egypt, Idil Jama, junior, is setting the political chaos aside in her choice to at-tend the American University of Cairo.

On Jan. 25, demonstrations at Cairo’s Tahrir Square escalated into a popular uprising. � e revolution that took place at Cairo was vital to Jama’s decision be-cause located on the eastern side of the square is the elegant former campus of the American University of Cairo.

Before the violent demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule in the capital city where the university is located, Ja-ma’s decision was interesting - now its become an issue of safety for both Jama and her parents.

“[When] I decided I wanted to at-tend that university my parents were very supportive but now, after my par-ents saw the city completely change from its peaceful ways, they are really worried,” Jama said.

Jama choosing Egypt from a wide range of international institutions comes from a long time desire on her part. Go-

Club encourages healthier routes to schoolMaddie Johnson Staff Reporter

Molly Moy, sophomore, helps Earth Club promote green ways of transportation to school.

For many years, HHS’ Earth Club has been taking on the challenge of making the school a cleaner and “greener” place. � ey’ve

started up events that include Earth Jam, plant-ing a garden outside of school, and encouraging recycling. Now, the club is looking to start up a new program called Safe Routes to School.

Safe Routes to School is a nationwide pro-gram that is funded by the Federal Highway Ad-ministration. � e program is also supported by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. � e main goal of the program is to encourage students to walk or ride bikes to school.

So far, Earth Club has been doing some pre-liminary work to verify that this would be a good program for HHS. � ey have coordinated with the city of Minnetonka to acquire maps that show good walking paths and streets in neigh-borhoods around the Hopkins area.

“I think that it would be great to tell our stu-dent body the safest ways to get to school by foot or by bike,” said Erika Bloomdahl, sophomore, a member of Earth Club. “I think that if Earth Club posts maps and makes them available to students, people might be more eager to walk or ride bikes knowing that they have safe routes to travel on.”

An additional way that Earth Club wants to support students riding bikes to school is to pro-vide a good location for them to park their bikes when they arrive. To accomplish this, they plan to install a bike rack near the Lindbergh Center doors before the end of the school year.

One other thing they are trying to coordinate this year is to work with the construction class to

build a bike shelter over the Lindbergh rack, pro-tecting students’ bikes from the elements. While Earth Club is planning to get a bike rack installed this year, the Safe Routes to School project is ex-pected to be completed next year.

“I was surprised to fi nd out that HHS has so few good locations to secure bikes,” said Molly Moy, sophomore, an Earth Club member. “I

think that with safe routes to get to school and with more convenient parking locations for bikes, more people will ride [bikes to school].”

While walking or riding a bike to school may not be an option for those who live more than a few miles away from school, the Earth Club hopes to inspire those who live near school to participate in Safe Routes to School.

Jama weighs international college choice following Egyptian revoltsMona Omar Staff Reporter ing to the American University in Cairo

will be just another chapter in Jama’s globe-spanning story.

Jama was born in Mogadishu, So-malia, where she was infl uenced by the rich Arabic culture. In addition to the Somali culture she still retains, Jama is also familiar with the sub Saharan and Dutch culture as well. � is familiarity helped push Jama towards the American University of Cairo.

“I’m a person open to many cultures,” Jama said. “But considering my Islamic background and how well I know the Arabic language and of course the pa-rental experience, I just thought Egypt was well fi t for me.”

However, the outbreak of revolu-tion has forced Jama to reevaluate her decision to go to school in Cairo. “Back then I was so certain that the Ameri-can University of Cairo was the one, but now, I’ve actually began responding back to other international schools by the Egyptian borders,” Jama said. Jama is now considering schools in Lebanon and Australia among other places.

“Until I am certain that nothing like that is ever capable of happening, Egypt will not be my top choice,” Jama said.

Senior speaker appli-cations due March 22

Seniors who would like to speak at grada-tion must turn in their applications by Tuesday, March 22. Speaker auditions

will be held following spring break. Speech guidelines can be found on the school website. Speech proposals can be turned into the main offi ce. Students with questions should contact Mr. Hogan or Mr. Kocur in W261.

Photo by Maddie Johnson

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District signs off on new advisory programMichael Newcomer Staff Reporter

The daily schedule at HHS the last two years has been an exception to previous years with the absence of Royal Links or a homeroom period. However, after the secondary study

committee recognized the need for some advisory component a new advisory program will be implemented next year.

Royal Links was abandoned two years ago because the goals of the program were not met. It didn’t meet frequently enough and was mainly used for registration.

� e new model will consist of the addition of a 10-minute ad-visory period every Monday between fi rst and second block and an additional 25-minute Teachers and Students Connecting period (TASC) between fi rst and second block on � ursdays.

� e advisory portion would be used as a way to get information to students including grade specifi c information or information about registration as well as an extended time slot for any state testing or other needs. TASC time can be used for students to see one of their current teachers and get extra help or make up missed work and tests. Additionally, it can be used for students to collabo-rate with other students in their class or to fi nish homework.

At the Mar. 17 school board meeting, Superintendent John

Schultz, Ph.D., said, “I believe that an advisory program at any school where you give that opportunity for a student to have a relationship with another adult in their life only improves achieve-ment in learning.”

� e advisory groups would be formed by grade level and last name and students would retain the same advisor all three years so they can have the opportunity to develop a strong relationship with that teacher. Mr. Rob Fuhr, Technology, said, “It’s good that students get the chance to meet with someone they have a strong relationship with.”

� e new advisory model will provide a way for those students who can’t stay after school to get extra help or work with a group. It will also provide a quiet place and time for students to complete homework.

During TASC time, the media center will be open for use. It will be open to 24 students, 12 on computers and 12 at tables. A system of obtaining a card that will let students into the media cen-ter will be used to fi ll all the spots on a fi rst come, fi rst serve basis.

A group of teachers, the advisory task force, have been meeting since August of last year to build this program. � ey visited other schools, talked to student groups and talked to parents during the

planning phase. While presenting to the school board on behalf of the task force, Ms. Patty Johnson, assistant principal said, “looking at feedback from staff and students and researching and looking at what other schools do as well, I think we’ve come to a wonderful advisory model.”

� e task force came up with three models and discussed the amount of time needed for each. “We have decided this is a healthy balance between having a shorter advisory and then a little bit lon-ger TASC,” Johnson said.

During the fi nal stages of the planning, the task force ran through all of the problems that might occur with the new model. � ese included what would happen if a teacher’s room fi lls up, or what to do with students caught in the halls. It was decided that students should have a back-up class in mind and if students are late to their class they will receive a sweep pass.

� e current advisory task force will be kept through next year, and will meet at least once a quarter to review how things have been running and adjust anything if needed. � ey will solicit input from staff , students, and parents on their thoughts as well.

“It’s good that teachers get to evaluate and tweak it [the advi-sory model] as it goes,” Fuhr said.

Pink sport coats, tight spandex, tutus, and footie pajamas were common sights at school on Feb. 14. � e tradition of Heart-

o-Grams, an occurrence students look forward to every year, was a hit, as it always has been.

“Heart-o-Grams dates back to even the 70s,” said Mr. Philip Brown, Director of Choral Ac-tivities. “Parents of students remember the tradi-tion from when they attended HHS.” Even some of the staff that currently teaches here remember the festivities.

“� ere was a ‘Winter Games Week,’” said Mr. Rick Rexroth, Social Studies. “� ursday and Friday were half days, set aside for Heart-o-Grams and other festivities, such as snow soccer,” Rexroth said. Rexroth sang in Heart-o-Gram groups all three years he was at HHS.

� e overall idea of Heart-o-grams hasn’t changed through the years, but some specifi c as-pects have. “Back then, the girls being sung to would sit on the group’s knees, and at the end of the song, we would kiss them on the cheek,” Rexroth said. “It was a bit more risque.”

Mr. Erik Swenson, Social Studies, also re-members diff erences throughout the various groups. “� ey were all boy or all girl,” Swenson said. “� ey did a lot of barber shop quartet songs, and it wasn’t as large as it is today.”

� ere were a lot less groups back then, and they all sang the same three or four songs. “� e songs were assigned and decided by the choir director,” Rexroth said. Now, groups are able to choose their own melodies.

� e fl owers they used were also more special and personal. “A white fl ower meant you wanted a friendship, pink meant you wanted passion, and red meant you wanted love,” Rexroth said.

While the particulars of Heart-o-Grams have changed, they remain as popular as ever.

Heart-o-Grams were so popular this year that selling and promotions had to be stopped before the end of the sell-cycle, a fi rst for Heart-o-Grams. “� is was the fi rst time we sold on a Friday,” Brown said. “� e extra day made it easier to sell a lot, but many people probably waited un-

Heart-o-Gram tradition remains strongMadeline Rauma Staff Reporter til the last day to buy, which made it hectic at the

selling table.”“We needed to get them all out to students,”

Brown said. “With so many being sold, there was no way we could [keep selling].”

A total of around 1,400 Heart-o-Grams were sold throughout the week prior to Valentine’s Day, resulting in profi ts between $3,200-3,500. Profi ts went towards Heart-o-Gram expenses like lunch for participants and carnations. � e rest of the funds will go towards Choir expenses like purchasing music and busing to festivities.

Heart-o-Gram auditions, which took place during the end of January, helped to implement and prove which collection of students would perform on Valentine’s Day. “Most [groups] make it through, but there is always a few that don’t. We want the delivery to be good, so quality is important,” Brown said.

� e massive number of Heart-o-Grams put a lot of pressure on the 14 singing groups and their student assistants. “We probably walked or jogged around school about fi ve miles that day,” said Abby Whirtenour, junior.

“Fourth block was the hardest, everyone was just so exhausted,” said Mykenna Yesnes, senior.

Many people aside from the singers assist every year to help the tradition remain a qual-ity experience. “We purchase the carnations from Hopkins Floral in downtown Hopkins,” Brown said. “� ey give us the best rate they can while still doing their job.”

Fortunately, there were not many issues this year. “� ere was only two Heart-o-Grams that needed to be rewritten because they were inap-propriate. We just didn’t know whether or not the students would take off ense to them, and after being rewritten, they were sent,” Brown said.

Luckily, this year was a lot healthier in that regard. Past years, the messages have held more profanity.

� is custom will continue to live on, unless there is reason to bring it to an end. “If students begin to send them to be mean, they could be cancelled, but until then, I see no issues,” Brown said.

Heart-o-Grams: Then and Now

1990

2011

Photo from “The Regalia” 1990

Even as the tradition evolves, Heart-o-Grams remain as popular as ever. Top: Darin Szabo receives a Heart-o-Gram in 1990. Below: Michael Fishman, junior, gets a Heart-o-Gram sung by seniors Daisha Lewis and Marli Komarek and junior Jeremy Steinman this year.

Photo by Bridget Bennett

Better Ways is made up of students at HHS that chose to live their lives drug and alcohol free. � e

group is run mainly by students but su-pervised by Mrs. Marit Lee-Dohse and Mrs. Jane Kleinman, Health Science.

Students in the group are faced with the choice everyday, how to live their lives. � e members chose to be in the group and to instill knowledge into their peers at HHS. Better Ways is not a group to re-cruit more students or to try to get people to change their way of life; this group is here to provide a place where students who chose to be substance free can make a diff erence and feel welcome.

� e students in Better Ways partici-pate in many diff erent projects through out the year.

Lee-Dohse has connections with Brenda Badger who is the coordinator for Hopkins Community Coalition: One Voice Reducing Youth Chemical Use (HHC: One Voice). One Voice is the chemical awareness organization used by the Hopkins district. Once Voice sup-ports and guides students with their deci-sions to resist drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Better Ways is currently preparing for Mar. 23. Kick Butt day, or better known as � e Great American Smoke Out, which is a part of the American Cancer Society

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The editorial represtents the opin-ion of the newspaper staff. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the administration, the student body or the advisor. Signed view-points represent the view of the writer. The Royal Page operates as an open forum student publication, and student editors make editorial decisions regarding content.

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Annual Subscriptions are available for $20.

The Royal Page encourages let-ters to the editor. Letters are not guaranteed publication, are subject to editing for content and length, must be signed and meet dead-lines. Compliments and sugges-tions are also welcome.

Editor in ChiefDanielle Fink

Managing EditorLissa Martinez

News EditorRyan Levi

Opinion EditorsBill GreggConnor Hinck

Feature EditorLissa Martinez

Variety EditorJasmine Geschwind

Sports EditorsSaxon DorshowMichael Frey

Back Page EditorMarlee Gotlieb

Business ManagerSonja Muus

Editors in TrainingMaddie RaumaSonja Muus

Staff ReportersQuinn AndersonJoel BenjaminDerek BrueskeSam BumstedWill BurntonKatie CeraPercy ChismMichael FieldsCydney FroehlichBetsy GansTarina GartnerJacob GredvigCorbin GyswytMaddie JohnsonMichael LarsonKelly LovelockAustin LuteMike NewcomerMona OmarNora ReedMegan RoesslerMegan ShawJason ShowersSarah Ungerman

AdviserMr. Kocur

The Royal Page 2010-2011

Katie Cera Staff Reporter

As many seniors are fi nalizing their college choice, major things that colleges look for are extra curricular

activities. HHS off ers a lot of extra curricu-lar activities to their students. One student, Mattan Comay, senior, is taking full advan-tage of all of the extra curricular options.

“I am one of those people who feels better doing things,” Comay said. While being involved in the large amount of ac-tivities Comay enjoys making new friends and having a good time with the other members.

“I am amazed by how much he is able to take on and accomplish,” Rachel Dieter, junior, said. Comay is involved in LMPM, Drum Line, Geoff choir, NHS, Better Ways, Operation Smile, and theatre.

A major reason why Comay got in-volved in some of the various activities was because of encouragement from his friends already members of the activities and additionally through self-motivation from interest in particular activities.

Although Comay is just an ordinary member in Operation Smile and Better Ways, he takes the form of a leader for a number of his other activities. He is the section leader for the base drums in drum line and a co-publicity offi cer for NHS.

As a section leader for the base drums he has to go to all the practices for the drum line and LMPM. For NHS his role

Comay leads life at a fast tempo

As a member of LMPM and drumline, Comay participates at school sports events such as state games and pep fests.

as an offi cer includes going to the meet-ings, encouraging people to volunteer for the NHS sponsored events, and volun-teering for diff erent things outside of the organized events. � is past Feb. the club held a carnival to fundraise for a local or-ganization that helps provide school sup-plies for students in need in the district.

“He somehow fi ts everything into his schedule,” said Shai Comay, senior and Comay’s twin. LMPM and drum line, which has additional practices without the other sections of the pep band, together take up most time of his time. Between practices and games this activity takes out four to six hours a week from Comay’s schedule.

Another activity that takes a lot of time out of Comay’s schedule is Geoff , an all male singing group. � e group practic-es a total of three hours every week in the morning, which according to Comay does not cut into his busy schedule only takes away from extra sleep.

With so many activities, meetings sometimes take place at the same time. NHS meetings, which occur once a month on � ursday mornings, confl ict with one of the Geoff practices. Comay then chooses to go to the NHS meeting because it occurs less often.

“I try to go to every meeting that I can,” Comay said. He always tries going to the activity that is more important at

that point in time. For example, he is not going to go to a practice if he is going to miss a theatre performance.

“It’s hard… [and] a lot of work,” Co-may said. He tries to come with it as goes and participate to the fullest of his abili-

ties in the activities he is involved in.Looking into the future Comay is un-

sure of where he will be next year, but one thing he is sure of is that he wants to get involved in his college community in more ways than one.

Alternative lifestyle with Better WaysKelly Lovelock Staff Reporter

Photo by Joel Benjamin

encouraging smokers to create a plan to quit, taking a step closer to a healthier life style. In April, Better Ways is participat-ing in Sticker Shock, posting stickers on multiple liquor bottles as well as prepar-ing for Prom and encouraging students to have a safe and sober weekend.

� e group meets every other Friday, alternating with Operation Smile at 7:10 am in S248. � ere are 17 members this year, with ten students that show up regu-larly to meetings and events. “� e group focuses on all levels of education, from el-ementary to HHS,” Lee-Dohse said.

Better Ways has encountered obstacles with students and peers accepting their choice to stay alcohol and drug free. Even with the struggles, like criticism from students in the school and group mem-bers feeling comfortable to express their thoughts on substance free lives without being mocked by peers. More students this year are aware of the group and what they stand for.

Better Ways group members are very passionate about what they believe. � e group allows students to feel comfortable in speaking their mind and opinions on their chosen way of life.

Better Ways has given students in HHS a place to feel welcome and free to speak their mind about the choices they make and educate young teens on living a substance free life.

Photo by Kelly Lovelock

Better Ways is planning their participation in The Great American Smoke Out on March 23 to promote a smoke free lifestyle.

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Trials, triumphs caused by Brittle Bone diseaseQuinn Anderson Staff Reporter

Murthy brings Bharatanatyam to America

Photo provided by Smith MurthyMurthy preforms a traditional Indian dance in costume. She won fi rst place in the 2010 Vibha Dance competition.

Tarina Gartner Staff Reporter

Smitha Murthy, junior, is bring-ing one of the world’s oldest dances from India to America.

She is learning a classical dance form from India that is called Bhara-tanatyam. � is specifi c dance form is more than 3000 years old.

Bharatanatyam is broken down into several words; Bhava is expres-sion, Raga is music or melody, � ala is rhythm, and Natya is dance. Bhara-thanatyam means the expression of music or melodies in rhythm forming a dance.

“Bharatanatyam is a beautiful and interesting multi-dimensional art form that integrates the elements of music,” Murthy said.

Ever since Murthy was a toddler she had been interested in dancing. “I got the opportunity to see the perfor-mances of many professional Bhara-tanatyam dancers as well as other dance forms,” Murthy said.

When dancing, Murthy needs a lot of concentration, meditation, stretching and bending movements, coordination for her hands, eyes, neck, feet and other parts of the body. Your body moves with the rhythm of

the music and each movement has its own meaning.

With diff erent facial expres-sions, which are also called “Nava Ra-sas” which is a Sanskrit word which means Nine Expressions, one can tell diff erent stories and themes that can be expressed while dancing. Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world.

� e “Nava Rasas” are love, laugh-ter, or compassion, anger, courage, fear, disgust, wonder or surprise, and peace or tranquility. Bharatanatyam can be performed for various types of songs and be used to express and kind of story or theme.

An ancient text that describes the dancing can be interpreted to say where the hands are, go the eyes; where the eyes go, goes the mind; where the mind goes, there is an ex-pression of inner feeling and where there is Bhara, mood or sentiment is evoked.

Murthy performed a semi-clas-sical dance to the song Charishnu, which means the desire to move, at the POPS concert in Feb. “I think I did well, I heard a lot of positive com-ments from the audience,” Murthy said.

Murthy has also competed in dance competitions. She has compet-ed for two years in the Vibha Dance Competition. � e Vibha organiza-tion is an organization that helps under privileged children around the world. She had recieved second place in 2009 at this competition, and fi rst place 2010 competition.

Bharatanatyam is usually per-formed at competitions, cultural events and for diff erent fundraising events. Murthy performed at India Fest, in the summer of 2010.

Murthy took lessons two years ago directly in India. She also is taking lessons at Nritya Kalakshetra Acade-my of Performing Arts in Woodbury.

She tries to practice at least every day for an hour, and her lessons are over the weekend. “Dance lessons are fun, I sometimes take private lessons and I also dance in groups,” Murthy said.

Dancing is something she likes to do during her free time because of how important it is too her.

“[Bharatanatyam] is a part of a dynamic living tradition that off ers an infi nite scope for understanding the body, mind, and spirit,” Murthy said.

Osteogensis Imperfecta, also commonly know as Brittle Bone Disease, is a genetic disorder characterized by bones that break

easily, often from little or no apparent reason. Will Hamilton, sophomore, has lived with type three of this disease his whole life, but that hasn’t stopped him from living his life to the fullest.

Hamilton’s case of Osteogensis Imperfecta was diagnosed as a type three, which is more common and less severe than many other types of Osteogensis Imperfecta. In type three, only Hamilton’s bones and height of his body are af-fected, whereas in other types, more areas are af-fected such as Scoliosis on one’s back.

Type three is not nearly as bad as type two or one. In type two, for example, there is a higher risk for injury, even the slightest push could break bones.

Both Hamilton’s mother and father both have Osteogensis Imperfecta, so it was genetically passed down to Hamilton. It was highly probably that Hamilton would contract the disease from his parents, especially since someone who has the disease has a 50 percent chance they will passing it on to their off spring.

Originally from Wyoming, Hamilton is en-joying himself here, although, “the classes are harder here, but I like the variety of the classes at Hopkins a lot more,” he said.

Although kids are friendly, there are some who aren’t. Hamilton, however, disagrees. “A lot

of the time, people will hold doors open for me and help me with my things,” Hamilton said.

HHS is very supportive having him at school. Students love him, as do teachers. “Me being in a wheelchair doesn’t really change the way people think of me, it’s not that the students are mean, they just don’t know me, so they don’t know how to act when they’re around me,” Hamilton said.

Although some people don’t know how to act around Hamilton, some people like to help and make his way through the school a lot easier.

“Whenever I see Will in the halls I go and open the door for him,” said Lucas Bates, senior. Bates is just one of the many that stop to help Hamilton out if he needs something. “He is the nicest person ever, it is really fun to just talk to him, and get to know him,” Bates said.

Yet, one thing Hamilton likes is playing bad-minton. “It’s a lot of fun to play and is simple,” Hamilton said. He really enjoys interacting with others in all of his classes. “It’s the diff erence be-tween a mental disability and a physical disabil-ity,” Hamilton said.

Although, living with Osteogensis Imperfecta type three hasn’t had as drastic of an aff ect on Hamilton’s life as other types. Hamilton is unsure of the future, but he is still only a sophomore with plenty of time to decide. With everything that he has he likes to make the most of it.

Hamilton has found friends at HHS and has also found that his physical disability, Osteno-gensis Imperfecta, does not disable him from liv-ing his life.

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Arneson, HHS’ own karate kid

Photo provided by the Arneson family

Joel Benjamin Staff Reporter

Mr. Firouzi and his students bow out of respect for the sport, each other, and the classroom.

Nibbling away at The Neutralist for spring competition

HHS has it’s own karate kid, and his instructor isn’t Mr. Mi-yagi. His name is Sam Arneson, sophomore, and his in-structor is Hamed Firouzi. Arneson has been instructed by

Mr. Firouzi at National Karate in downtown Hopkins for about eight years.

Karate is Arneson’s sport of choice, so when he doesn’t have other sports in season, like lacrosse, soccer, or Nordic skiing, he tries to go to National Karate anywhere from three to fi ve times a week. In comparison, Mr. Firouzi said that the average student of his only goes to two or three classes a week.

Arneson has been training since he was fi ve and had always wanted to try karate before that. “One infl uence in my decision was watching Power Rangers as a kid,” Arneson said. After he started, Arneson talked about how much he loves it and says he hopes to practice karate for the rest of his life, and maybe even compete nationally.

Once the karate sessions begin, the atmosphere quickly changes from the students casually talking to a serious and intense lesson. When the class gets their well-earned rests, the room is fi lled with heavy breathing. Even though the sessions are hard, both Mr. Fir-ouzi and his students are very supportive of each other, and give positive feedback if something is done correctly, or words of en-couragement and advice if someone has fallen or is not doing something right.

Not only does karate improve physical health, but it also im-proves emotional health. “It taught me to be respectful of others and to carry myself with honor,” Arneson said. Adam Jensen, se-nior, also thinks that karate helps him emotionally.

“It made me a more stable person and gave me more confi -dence,” Jensen said. “To be a successful person outside of karate, being able to control your emotions is important. Being able to do that in a karate lesson, especially when students are sparring, is also just as important.”

When the students spar, they fi ght using a point system, which is where, if you hit the other person with your fi st, you get one point,

Jacob Gredvig Staff Reporter

and if you hit them with your foot, you get two points. You win by getting a certain number of points ahead of your opponent.

“He’s a good match for me, and we’ve gotten to the point where we can teach and train each other a lot,” Jensen said. When some-one does get a hit for points, it can’t have been blocked. � ere are also four people, one in each corner, plus the ref, who decide if the point counts or not.

When the students spar, the also have to wear protective gear. � is includes a helmet, mouth guard, and four other pieces of pro-tective gear. � is is because if students fear injury, they will not be as successful in their training.

Modern point fi ghting karate has been around since the 60’s and 70’s, and karate in general has been around since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Modern karate today is considered a

semi-contact sport, which means that the students use techniques with limited power, and cannot knock their opponent unconscious. During karate tournaments, the combatants fi ght using semi-con-tact fi ghting and the point system mentioned earlier.

When people take up a sport like karate, they hold on to the important values they learned and use them to better themselves and others. “Sam embodies the martial arts spirit. He’s focused in his training and studies, and respectful to everyone he meets,” Mr. Firouzi said.

Karate can make people, and even a community, a place with values and respect.

“I think that if everyone practiced a form of martial arts, it would teach them honor discipline and respect, and would make the world a better place,” Arneson said.

The Hopkins Robotics club is not only building careers, but a robot. � eir robot is prepar-

ing to to play the game LogoMo-tion in upcoming tournament over spring break, Mar. 31 through Apr. 1 at University of Minn. Mariucci Arena.

Skai Plotnick, senior and program advisor of robotics, along with the rest of the robotics team have been hard at work for the past few weeks. � e team consists of two parent volunteers, more than 15 students, and over nine EV3 mentors.

As a leader, Plotnick has experienced the successes of the team, as well as the trials of mentoring her own classmates. “[Plotnick] should have had more re-spect,” said Max Tuthill-Preus, senior.

Plotnick agrees a role of superiority isn’t always easy. “It’s uncomfortable to tell one of your peers, they’re out line, when you are a peer,” Plotnick said.

Plotnick and the team were able to overcome those obstacles though and “communication between the team got better this year,” Plotnick said.

� at communication has led to the team’s accomplishment, a robot named “� e Neutralist” along with it’s minibot

“Nibbler.” “It’s tradition for the robot to be named after something from Fu-

turama,” said Colin Travis, senior. � e robot was built to play a game,

Logomotion. � e robots run around in an arena and need to get three infl ata-bles on three levels. � e more levels they complete, the more points they will ear. Also, in the competition where it needs to release a minibot at the end to climb up a pole to get an extra thirty points.

� e team has been working the ro-bot with their sponsor EV3, and nine mentors this school year. “EV3 has been the sponsor since 2006, and the team reformed itself under the name Tech-nocrats,” Travis said. EV3 has visited the school a few times in past month to look for an update on Technocrats robot.

Adam Tschida is one of the main ad-visors, who works for EV3. “We’re stew-ards of science searching for the most eff ective techniques and technologies,” EV3 advisors said.

Plotnick felt that this year has be-come more productive this year due to “the ability to work together.” � e team looks forward to their competition later this month.

For more information on Hopkins Robotics, visit hopkinsrobotics.com.

Photo provided by Hopkins Robotics

Robotics club, with their sponsor EV3 is preparing to bring their robot to a tournament over spring break.

Throughout the country within the

last 20 years, the num-ber of fi ghts in public

high schools has been on the rise. � e number of stu-

dents involved in fi ghts has been increasing to more than a

third of the student population in the U.S. as a whole, according

to keepschoolssafe.org. � is year at HHS, the number of violent interac-

tions have continued to support that trend.

In the 2009-2010 school year, there were 30 out-of-school suspensions due

to fi ghting. As of Mar. 9 of this year, there have been 47 out-of-school suspensions and if the trend continues at this rate, there could be over 70 suspensions due to fi ghting alone this year. Although, these numbers do not refl ect the number of fi ghts, only the number of students involved who received suspension.

� e reasons for the rise in fi ghts is unclear. “I can’t really explain why, probably part of it is the economy. Kids don’t have as much,

parents don’t have as much, there’s more stress at home, there’s more stress at school, it kind of all comes together, but that’s just a guess,” said Offi cer Dustin Stenglein, liaison offi cer.

As a generalization, the most common reason for teens to fi ght is due to insults and disrespectful behavior which causes a reported 54 percent of fi ghts in high schools, according to keepschoolssafe.org.

� e staff members are still fi guring out ways to prevent the fi ghts. As of now, prevention is encouraged to students by having a relationship with a teacher or another staff member in the building to help resolve the issue and discussing the handbook rules at the beginning of the year.

For example, if the administration hears gossip of a potential fi ght from a student, they will step in before anything can happen. “We’ll do mediation, we’ll pull people in. We will not identify

who leaked the information…

But there have been moments where we’ve heard that so and so have an issue or a confl ict and we go fi nd those two students and say, ‘hey, let’s talk,’” said Mr. Willie Jett, Principal.

Although the administration is able to stop many fi ghts before they happen, fi ghts during school hours still occur.

� e most frequent time for fi ghts is during passing time. When students fi ght during passing time, it makes it more diffi cult for administration and hall paras to hinder the situation.

“People always want to stop and look, and so the thing that we as an administration would ask students to do is keep moving. Get yourself to class, get to where you need to be,” Jett said, “We as an administration would ask that students stay away, not get involved, not egg it on or instigate it.”

Another common time for fi ghts is during lunch. One fi ght this year occured during third lunch near the Garden of Eatin’. “� e two students exchanged a few words before the fi ght, but they didn’t know each other that well,” said Marvin Singleton, senior.

Spencer Jones, senior, and Singleton witnessed the fi ght and decided to stop it. “One hall para tried to stop it but was overwhelmed…me and Marvin didn’t plan on breaking it up. One student was out of control and it was getting too rowdy,” Jones said.

Since Jones and Singleton eased the situation, the administration bought them Jimmy Johns subs for lunch as a reward. Although Singleton and Jones were rewarded for their eff orts, HHS strives to keep students and staff safe. Becoming involved in the fi ght, even breaking it up, is not encouraged for students or staff .

“Staff are not supposed to place themselves in harms way…� e staff , in no way, is under orders to intervene, they’re not recommended to intervene, but the one thing is that the staff is supposed to alert administration,” Jett said. “But the one thing I’ll say is adults in this building, they want students to be safe. So, you will see staff intervene.”

Mr. Mike Harris, Science, has broken up several fi ghts in his 12 years of teaching at HHS. “I feel obligated to break up a fi ght, I don’t mind it,” Harris said. “I have never been hurt breaking up a fi ght but I had one kid bleed on me purposely.”

Harris explains he follows up on the situation after the fi ght but there are lots of components to the results. “We’re going to investigate, so we’re going to talk with students, we’re going to talk with staff , we’re going to talk with anybody who witnessed the incident,” Jett said.

� e next step is to talk to the students involved and notify his or her parents. “From there we’re going to go ahead and apply school and district policies for disciplinary actions,” Jett said.

� e consequences can range from a three-day suspension to a ten-day suspension. It may also lead to recommended expulsion by the district.

“If the students are coming back to school, we’re going to mediate and have the two individuals have a conversation. We’re going to talk about what the repercussions are, if there is another incident in their high school career,” Jett said.

� e students who are involved in the fi ghts also have the opportunity to talk to Offi cer Stenglein. “I’ll see if the kids want to make a statement to me, which is something separate from what they do with the school. But I give them a chance to tell me what happened, their side of the story,” Stenglein said.

� e school procedures will still occur no matter the student’s age. If a student is 18 and gets into a fi ght, there are legal responsibilities Stenglein has to carry out. If the student is convicted of a crime, it stays on his or her permanent record.

“As an adult, once it’s on your record, its pretty much public information. Anyone who wants to pull your criminal history, it’s going to be there,” Stenglein said.

If a juvenile commits a crime, like fi ghting, Stenglein will write a ticket and it goes to the court system. If Stenglein witnesses the fi ght he has to write a report and send it to an attorney to review and the attorney makes the judgment if the student should be tried in court as an adult.

� e school’s consequences have no connection with Stenglein’s responsibilities. “� e school can suspend or expel whether I charge someone or not…sometimes we may look at what one or other is doing if it’s an appropriate punishment for them,” Stenglein said.

While the administration handles the aftermath of the fi ght, rumors spread around the school, so in an eff ort to deter these rumors, the distrcit uses a program called ConnectEd.

On Feb. 11, 2011, Jett sent out a ConnectEd message regarding a fi ght that occurred in the mall that day. “I wanted the parents, families, and the community to know exactly what happened and not be in the rumor mill of what happened,” Jett said.

Students aren’t the only ones dealing with rise of fi ghts and the ensuing punishments. Every school is unique in terms of the demographics of the student body, which can impact the number of fi ghts.

“I think it depends on which school you compare us to, if you compare us to Minnetonka, its not a good comparison. � e school demographics are very diff erent, but I would think probably fairly similar to Cooper or Armstrong or some schools that have a little more diversity, more our size. I think we’re pretty much on par with them as far as fi ghts go, we may have a few more, we may have a few less. I just know what I know from talking to other offi cers who’ve worked in schools,” Stenglein said.

Although fi ghts have been on the rise in high schools across the country, there are procedures in place to become more proactive about combating the issue. “Fighting never resolves anything. If there was more talking and communication, we wouldn’t have as many [fi ghts],” said Veronica Bennett, hall para.

Danielle Fink is the Editor-in-Chief & Lissa Martinez is the Feature editor for the Royal Page

Knowing the law

If fi ghts occur anywhere on school grounds or at school

functions, school conse-quences will be enforced.

By the numbers Juveniles & Adults

If charged as a juvenile (under 18), the record is sealed once one turns 18.

If charged as an adult, the case is public information.

School consequences have no connection

with the court system.

This is what happens when words turn to

violence.

2009-2010 school year

2010-2011 school year*

10th grade

11th grade

12th grade

Males Females

14

23

16

10

5

14

11

19

14

28

The data below shows the out of school suspensions due to fi ghting broken down by grade and gender.

*As of March 9, 2011

Throughout the country within the

last 20 years, the num-ber of fi ghts in public

high schools has been on the rise. � e number of stu-

dents involved in fi ghts has been increasing to more than a

third of the student population in the U.S. as a whole, according

to keepschoolssafe.org. � is year at HHS, the number of violent interac-

tions have continued to support that trend.

In the 2009-2010 school year, there were 30 out-of-school suspensions due

to fi ghting. As of Mar. 9 of this year, there have been 47 out-of-school suspensions and if the trend continues at this rate, there could be over 70 suspensions due to fi ghting alone this year. Although, these numbers do not refl ect the number of fi ghts, only the number of students involved who received suspension.

� e reasons for the rise in fi ghts is unclear. “I can’t really explain why, probably part of it is the economy. Kids don’t have as much,

parents don’t have as much, there’s more stress at home, there’s more stress at school, it kind of all comes together, but that’s just a guess,” said Offi cer Dustin Stenglein, liaison offi cer.

As a generalization, the most common reason for teens to fi ght is due to insults and disrespectful behavior which causes a reported 54 percent of fi ghts in high schools, according to keepschoolssafe.org.

� e staff members are still fi guring out ways to prevent the fi ghts. As of now, prevention is encouraged to students by having a relationship with a teacher or another staff member in the building to help resolve the issue and discussing the handbook rules at the beginning of the year.

For example, if the administration hears gossip of a potential fi ght from a student, they will step in before anything can happen. “We’ll do mediation, we’ll pull people in. We will not identify

who leaked the information…

But there have been moments where we’ve heard that so and so have an issue or a confl ict and we go fi nd those two students and say, ‘hey, let’s talk,’” said Mr. Willie Jett, Principal.

Although the administration is able to stop many fi ghts before they happen, fi ghts during school hours still occur.

� e most frequent time for fi ghts is during passing time. When students fi ght during passing time, it makes it more diffi cult for administration and hall paras to hinder the situation.

“People always want to stop and look, and so the thing that we as an administration would ask students to do is keep moving. Get yourself to class, get to where you need to be,” Jett said, “We as an administration would ask that students stay away, not get involved, not egg it on or instigate it.”

Another common time for fi ghts is during lunch. One fi ght this year occured during third lunch near the Garden of Eatin’. “� e two students exchanged a few words before the fi ght, but they didn’t know each other that well,” said Marvin Singleton, senior.

Spencer Jones, senior, and Singleton witnessed the fi ght and decided to stop it. “One hall para tried to stop it but was overwhelmed…me and Marvin didn’t plan on breaking it up. One student was out of control and it was getting too rowdy,” Jones said.

Since Jones and Singleton eased the situation, the administration bought them Jimmy Johns subs for lunch as a reward. Although Singleton and Jones were rewarded for their eff orts, HHS strives to keep students and staff safe. Becoming involved in the fi ght, even breaking it up, is not encouraged for students or staff .

“Staff are not supposed to place themselves in harms way…� e staff , in no way, is under orders to intervene, they’re not recommended to intervene, but the one thing is that the staff is supposed to alert administration,” Jett said. “But the one thing I’ll say is adults in this building, they want students to be safe. So, you will see staff intervene.”

Mr. Mike Harris, Science, has broken up several fi ghts in his 12 years of teaching at HHS. “I feel obligated to break up a fi ght, I don’t mind it,” Harris said. “I have never been hurt breaking up a fi ght but I had one kid bleed on me purposely.”

Harris explains he follows up on the situation after the fi ght but there are lots of components to the results. “We’re going to investigate, so we’re going to talk with students, we’re going to talk with staff , we’re going to talk with anybody who witnessed the incident,” Jett said.

� e next step is to talk to the students involved and notify his or her parents. “From there we’re going to go ahead and apply school and district policies for disciplinary actions,” Jett said.

� e consequences can range from a three-day suspension to a ten-day suspension. It may also lead to recommended expulsion by the district.

“If the students are coming back to school, we’re going to mediate and have the two individuals have a conversation. We’re going to talk about what the repercussions are, if there is another incident in their high school career,” Jett said.

� e students who are involved in the fi ghts also have the opportunity to talk to Offi cer Stenglein. “I’ll see if the kids want to make a statement to me, which is something separate from what they do with the school. But I give them a chance to tell me what happened, their side of the story,” Stenglein said.

� e school procedures will still occur no matter the student’s age. If a student is 18 and gets into a fi ght, there are legal responsibilities Stenglein has to carry out. If the student is convicted of a crime, it stays on his or her permanent record.

“As an adult, once it’s on your record, its pretty much public information. Anyone who wants to pull your criminal history, it’s going to be there,” Stenglein said.

If a juvenile commits a crime, like fi ghting, Stenglein will write a ticket and it goes to the court system. If Stenglein witnesses the fi ght he has to write a report and send it to an attorney to review and the attorney makes the judgment if the student should be tried in court as an adult.

� e school’s consequences have no connection with Stenglein’s responsibilities. “� e school can suspend or expel whether I charge someone or not…sometimes we may look at what one or other is doing if it’s an appropriate punishment for them,” Stenglein said.

While the administration handles the aftermath of the fi ght, rumors spread around the school, so in an eff ort to deter these rumors, the distrcit uses a program called ConnectEd.

On Feb. 11, 2011, Jett sent out a ConnectEd message regarding a fi ght that occurred in the mall that day. “I wanted the parents, families, and the community to know exactly what happened and not be in the rumor mill of what happened,” Jett said.

Students aren’t the only ones dealing with rise of fi ghts and the ensuing punishments. Every school is unique in terms of the demographics of the student body, which can impact the number of fi ghts.

“I think it depends on which school you compare us to, if you compare us to Minnetonka, its not a good comparison. � e school demographics are very diff erent, but I would think probably fairly similar to Cooper or Armstrong or some schools that have a little more diversity, more our size. I think we’re pretty much on par with them as far as fi ghts go, we may have a few more, we may have a few less. I just know what I know from talking to other offi cers who’ve worked in schools,” Stenglein said.

Although fi ghts have been on the rise in high schools across the country, there are procedures in place to become more proactive about combating the issue. “Fighting never resolves anything. If there was more talking and communication, we wouldn’t have as many [fi ghts],” said Veronica Bennett, hall para.

Danielle Fink is the Editor-in-Chief & Lissa Martinez is the Feature editor for the Royal Page

Self-defense If students throw a punch they are considered to be a participant in the

fi ght.

If a student doesn’t throw a punch, the school will review the situation and talk to witnesses to determine if someone

acted in self defense.

Juveniles & Adults

If charged as a juvenile (under 18), the record is sealed once one turns 18.

If charged as an adult, the case is public information.

School consequences have no connection

with the court system.

Liaison duties

In extreme circumstances, liaisons have the ability to use teargas or pep-

perspray in order to break up a crowd. Also, they are allowed to

physically move people by pushing or pulling them out of the way.

“Usually when police show up, kids scatter, people scatter, but not always. So we’re allowed to do what’s reason-

able” -Offi cer Dustin Stenglein

Fellow classmates, recently in newspaper class, we have been discussing being more purposeful with what we write about. � is

got me wondering if what I do on a day-to-day basis is purposeful.

� e answer, resoundingly, would be that a large part of the things I do aren’t purposeful. � ey do not leave any lasting impact on any individual or community.

� is thinking led me to ponder about Face-book and the impact that it has left on society. Facebook, by the way, is very popular with the kids these days.

� e truth is, whether unbeknownst to Fa-cebook or not, it has left a defi nite impact on society. Facebook, with the help of digital pho-tography, has helped morph the photograph into what it is today.

Before the days of digital photography, the photograph was a way to capture a memory and save it forever. People would often take pictures of the scenery for trips they were on. People even made scrapbooks containing hun-dreds of photos.

At the time, cameras operated with fi lm, and had a limited amount of photographs that it could take. Buying fi lm was time consuming and costly, and so people were often more pur-poseful with their photography. On top of all that, you needed to pay to get the photographs developed.

Today, however, digital photography uses memory cards that far surpass the amount of pictures a roll of fi lm could contain. Pictures can now be uploaded to a computer with ease and shared with anyone at anytime.

� is ease, combined with the extensive so-cial networking capabilities of Facebook has reshaped the way we view the photograph. Ul-timately, this has led to a relative decline in the purposefulness of photographs. A good portion

of the photos on Facebook are those of youn-guns sitting on couches or standing arms over shoulders with each other.

To what purpose do these photographs serve? � ere is nothing awe-inspiring about a photograph of a group of friends standing to-gether in a room, unless the décor of the room is exceptional.

Now it can be argued that those pictures help cherish memories from that particular night. If that is true, shouldn’t one big group photo suffi ce? To me, the purpose of a photo-graph is to cherish a moment in time, a place, or a memory.

� e main issue that I take with this devel-opment in photograph is the very self-centered nature that is behind it. Today, it seems that the purpose of a photograph is for the sheer pur-pose of having other people seeing it. When you get your photograph taken, how often do you think to yourself, “Great! Now I can cher-ish this photograph forever and share it with my children when I get older.”

� e truth is, whether sub-consciously or not, everyone desires a little attention. � e so-cial networking of Facebook has turned photo-graphs into an outlet for attention.

I am not about to say that I am above it, for I am human. I too enjoy having my pictures on Facebook so that my acquaintances can share their feedback of them. I am just ready to admit the truth.

When pictures can truly encapsulate a par-ticular moment in time, one you cannot get back, it is truly worth 1000 words. When it’s a picture of a group of friends, it’s only worth about 65 words.

One word, yelled across the mall.“FIGHT!”It is without a doubt the easiest and quickest way to as-

semble the entire HHS student body in an instant. But why?Why are we all so excited when a fi ght breaks out during pass-

ing time? Why are we so ticked off if we miss a fi ght or don’t have a good vantage point? We should be appalled yet instead we can’t turn away.

I am no diff erent than anybody else. Earlier this semester, I was giddy as ever when I walked into school and saw a fi ght form right before my eyes. I was elated to have an excellent view of a complete fi ght and I couldn’t wait to tell my friends who had missed the fi ght all about it. Even after I write this I still fi nd myself inexpli-cably compelled to watch the fi ghts.

So why are we so drawn to fi ghts at school? Part of it may be instinctual.

As humans, aggression is in our nature. We fi ght to defend our-selves, we fi ght to defend our honor, we fi ght to attract a mate, and when we fi ght, our systems release pleasure-inducing hormones known as endorphins. So perhaps watching these fi ghts is our way of vicariously achieving that animalistic endorphin high without placing ourselves in actual danger.

Or maybe it’s the cavalier attitude towards violence that exists

on television and in the media. Because of the staggering amount of death and destruction in our world, broadcast and cable news often show scenes of unspeakable violence and horror on a nightly basis. � ese continual depictions of brutality have raised our threshold for being shocked by violence.

Violence in movies and video games has long been the target of attacks from those who feel that the fake violence can have a nega-tive eff ect on children who see it, yet little has changed. Violent movies and video games are still made, teenagers still love them, and they still make boatloads of cash.

My concern is not that kids who see violence in movies and vid-eo games will repeat the actions they see, but rather the nonchalant attitude towards violent these movies and video games create. � ey make us see violence as a regular part of life and not a big deal.

� e same can be seen in the sports world as well. Violent sports have always been popular from boxing to professional wrestling. Now it is Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) whose brutal violence has captivated Amer-ica.

UFC and MMA have found massive followings across the country especially among young males. Between 700,000 and 750,000 people purchased the Feb. 5 UFC fi ght between Ander-son Silva and Vitor Belfort on pay-per-view producing over $3.5

million in revenue for just one night of fi ghting. � e popularity of these sports prove that many of us enjoy and are willing to pay money to see people beat the crap out of each other.

But there is a distinct diff erence between watching news foot-age of war half way across the world, watching computer generated violence, or watching two consenting adults get paid to beat each other up and watching two of our classmates duke it out in the hallway.

I don’t necessarily see anything wrong in watching violent mov-ies or sports. Too often people use the violence in movies and sports as an excuse for their own violence or the violence of those around them. People don’t fi ght because they see it in a movie or because they purchased a the latest UFC bout on pay-per-view.

However there is a case to be made that our constant exposure to violence creates an atmospher of desensitization and acceptance of violence which makes us incapable of being appalled at the sight of our classmates and our friends fi ghting right in front of us.

So why do we love to watch fi ghts? � ere are a lot of possibili-ties but no concrete answer. All I know is that I wish we were less entertained and more disgusted when we saw our classmates fi ght-ing and that we could learn to turn away.

opinionWhy can’t we look away from all of these fi ghts?

1

8

6

4

2

0

Spring Vacation

Going to a Third World country in order to exploit the lower drinking age limit

Discussing the history of stagfl ation in the US with Mr. Stahl

Playing baseball in sunny Iowa

Slowly becoming attached to the couch

Catching up on all your daytime Soap Operas

10 :opT9

7

5

3

1

10page

theROYAL

Picking up a habit of giving up habits for Lent

Going to an opera at the Guthrie featur-ing that one sub that sings opera

Random pat downs by TSA Agents

Ryan Benjamin Levi is the News editor for the Royal Page.

Activities

Starting the countdown to the WNBA season opener

Spend 24 hours at Perkins eating pan-cakes all day

Photographs not what they were, Facebook is to blame

Connor William Hinck is the Co-Web Tsar for the Royal Page

As I see it, there are few things more incon-venient than traveling.

Booking tickets and lodging, fi nding a ride to or parking at the airport, going through security, waiting to board, stowing your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment, getting comfortable in the seats, fi nding ways to pass the time during the fl ight, getting the luggage in the overhead compartment and getting off the plane, going through customs (for an international fl ight), fi nding transportation to the lodging, and getting settled in the rooms is an abridged laundry list of everything that is stressful about traveling by plane.

I don’t need to go into detail about road trip traveling do I?

As many of my fellow comrades prepare them-selves to depart for Spring Break vacations, I chuckle to myself just thinking of all the undue stress they will place (albeit willingly) on them-selves.

I will not be joining them in the rat race to leave the state or the country; I will be kicking back and relaxing. I have a long week of sleeping in my own bed till noon or later, playing video games, eating what and when I want, playing baseball with my teammates who just so happen to also be my friends, and then spending each night just how I please.

Why would I want to leave? So many things could happen if I went somewhere on vacation.

I could lose sleep because of the uncomfort-able bed that feels nothing like my own. I could get sick because my immune system isn’t used to the bacteria in the foreign environment. I could hurt myself doing all the tourist activities like swimming or surfi ng.

Worst of all, I could be kidnapped—Or worse, sunburned.

We all know that the real reason people travel south of the border is to drink potent alcohol

while their 18 years old, a fun feature that staying in the ol’ US of A doesn’t provide. And teenagers wonder why parents think we’re up to no good.

One might think that I’m simply angry that I can’t travel because I have to stay in town for baseball and that I’m writing this as a coping mechanism. I’ll be the fi rst to tell you that I am more than happy to stay around and take my game to the next level rather than bathing in aloe vera to try and ease the pain of my third degree sun burns.

I will never forget last Spring Break. I was in town for baseball as always but to my surprise, the weather was identical to that in sunny Florida. � e weather was high 70’s, which is downright balmy for Minnesota, especially for the begin-ning of April.

So I broke out the shorts, kicked back in my lawn chair and chuckled smugly to myself. I was enjoying the very thing that people had gone out of town to enjoy and I didn’t waste one red cent, toil over what to pack, or lose function of my legs after sitting in a cramped plane for three or four hours.

While my classmates get stressed out by leav-ing Minnesota, I will be completely relaxed and in charge of my destiny. If I want to stay in my pajamas the entire day, I can do it. If I don’t want to get out of bed until four, I don’t have to.

Sure, I may not be able to see the sights from my house, but I do have a computer, and I was just informed that there is a live Web Cam feed of Shamu at Sea World. I can enjoy the wonders of the majestic beast and I don’t even have to get wet to do it.

I’m not even close to being dissappointed I’m staying in town, I’m happy that I don’t have to travel.

A few evenings ago, I was taking in a news broadcast from a respected television network. On this night, the main guest was Charlie Sheen, talking about his alleged drug binges

and the cancellation of his show “Two and a Half Men” on CBS.As I watched, disinterested, I noticed along the ticker at the

bottom of the screen the words “Breaking News: Libyan Govern-ment Forces Open Fire on Anti-Government Protestors.”

I was immediately stunned at the ridiculousness of the picture on the screen before me. Charlie Sheen, a mediocre actor and con-tinual screw-up, was garnering more media attention than a group of people in Libya literally giving their lives for the chance to be free.

As I fl ipped through the other channels, I saw updates on Justin Bieber’s haircut, an ‘American Idol’ recap, a preview of the Oscar’s, and, infuriatingly, another segment on Charlie Sheen, but I was un-able to fi nd a major segment dedicated to the situation in Libya.

I was shocked. At fi rst I thought this sad display refl ected on the state of the American news industry. Was this really what the fabled American press, the engine of democratic thought, had

come to?Did the news companies really think that any “news” about

Charlie Sheen, of all people, mattered?And then I remembered a sad reality I had learned from my

newspaper advisor: � at news companies are a business, and they will present the news that people want to see, whatever it may be, in order to gain more of an audience.

And that’s when it hit me. � e news companies are not to blame for our the deterioration in perspective on what is important American society. � ey merely refl ect the fact that we, the Ameri-can public, have completely lost sight of what matters and what doesn’t in the world.

Don’t believe me? How many of you can name one of the Jonas Brothers? Okay, now how many of you can name the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives?

Believe me now?Our society is obsessed with things that don’t matter. It is al-

most as if the more pointless, the more we care.� e reasons for this are hard to pinpoint. Perhaps we have just

become mentally lazy. Perhaps we genuinely have no idea of what matters anymore.

But I don’t think that’s the case. In my humble opinion, I be-lieve that our obsession with the trivial stems from the fact that we live in a diffi cult and frightening world, and its much less distress-ing to ignore it than to deal with the diffi cult issues we face. So we bury or heads in the sand and distract ourselves with celebrity gossip and the like.

Our generation is hardly to blame. Our parents and grandpar-ents created this phenomenon, and have simply passed it on to us.

Yet, this is a luxury that we simply cannot aff ord. We are grow-ing up in an exciting, yet dangerous time. In this age of globaliza-tion, we simply cannot allow ourselves to be ignorant of the world around us.

We owe it to ourselves to become educated citizens of the world, if for no other reason than to keep ourselves safe. In today’s world, is ignorance truly bliss? Hardly.

1opinion 1page

theROYAL1ROYAL1Americans need to get a grip on what really matters

Saxon Stone Dorshow is the Sports editor for the Royal Page

Cartoon by Daniel Raskin

Inconvenience of travelling prevents intended relaxation

William Foley Gregg is the Opinion editor for the Royal Page

So many students feel the need to get away from it all, but the stressful nature of travelling reminds many that they can’t escape.

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Aji brings ‘good taste’ to HopkinsStaff ReporterWill Burnton

Staff ReporterPercy Chism

The Royal Page polled 100 HHS students on what social networking sites they prefer.

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Facebook vs. TwitterMany people across America are constantly up-

dating where they are, who they’re with and what they are doing. All this is being done

through two of the most popular social networks Twitter and Facebook.

Many schools, including HHS, block Facebook on their wireless network, and not Twitter. Lots of peo-ple have questioned why students can access Twitter at school but not Facebook as many believe they are the same type of social networks.

Sid Voss, Director of Educational Technology, Me-dia Services, and Information Systems for the Hopkins School District said, “� e school has to follow the In-ternet child protection act.” � is act is required by the U.S Federal Government and states that schools have to block websites that show explicit language, photos, and to block social networking sites, but the act doesn’t state that they have to block Facebook. “� e school blocks Facebook because there is no educational use for it in school and that it can be a distraction,” Voss said.

Mrs. Terri Osland, HHS Media Specialist & District Technology Education Specialist, believes that there is

no educational value with Facebook and that Twitter has educational and professional values. She said, “Many teachers at the school like Twitter because it allows them to share and communicate with students and parents on upcoming work, tests, and projects for their class.”

She said, “Mr. Franke follows Twitter feeds to get ideas for his next class.”

Voss said, “� ere would have to be an educational rea-son for Facebook to become unblocked on the school’s Wi-Fi.”

Facebook can cause a decline in productivity in stu-dents,” Osland said, “Facebook causes kids to be distract-ed and to lose train of thought.”

Voss said, “� e new program, Hopkins Apps allows students to connect with their teacher through their Moodle account and to receive Twitter like updates about upcoming assignments and things that are going on in class the next day.”

In a recent survey of 100 HHS students, 83 percent use Facebook while only 17 percent use twitter. Osland said, “� e educational value of twitter is that it can pro-vide students with updates that recently happen and events that are going on in school.”

Aji’s, the new Japanese restaurant on Hopkins Main Street, is bringing good taste back to Hopkins. Literally, Aji’s means “good taste” in

the Japanese language. Owner Alex Chen chose the name Aji’s because

he wanted “to let people know there’s a new restau-rant with great Japanese food in the area.” Aji’s brings an upscale restaurant that’s mainly unfamiliar to the downtown Hopkins area, but Chen is keeping the prices low.

� e restaurant brings justice to its name, with its all inclusive sushi bar with every dinner. � e sushi bar is one of the main attractions at Aji’s and provides a large variety of sushi and sauces. “� e all you can eat sushi bar is what makes people come back, because of the great deal it is,” Chen said.

Lunch at the restaurant has lower prices, with prices ranging from seven to 15 dollars. Dinner has a 16 to 30 dollar price range, but this includes the sushi bar. “I wanted to bring a high class restaurant with middle prices,” Chen said.

Ever since the restaurants opening in January, it has received rave reviews from customers. “� eir sushi is amazing, this is exactly what downtown Hopkins needed,” said Sam Marshall, sophomore, who went there last weekend.

� e hibachi grill and bento boxes also provide a good meal for those not interested in sushi. � e rice bowls and noodle soup bowls are also a main Japanese meal. Take-out is also available, making the restaurant even more accessible.

Sky zone, the biggest indoor trampoline park, has just recently opened in Plymouth, MN. Sky

zone is a place where kids of all ages can go for a couple hours and jump around with their friends.

From the outside it looks like a plain, boring warehouse but on the in-side it’s much more. Four large tram-poline courts envelop the inside of the building along with an eating area and a party room.

When entering sky zone there are plenty of happy faces there welcoming all who enter. � e staff is extremely hands-on and plays a very important role in making sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to, and making sure everyone follows the rules. � ey are very good at making a safe and fun environment for all who enter.

Sky zone is open Tuesday-Sunday at diff erent times depending on the day and comes at a very low rate. Custom-ers pay per half hour starting at eight dollars for the fi rst half hour up to 20 dollars for two hours. � ough, it may seem like 20 dollars is a lot, many tend

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Chen also owns a Chinese buff et called 98 pounds in Bloomington, but he decided to make a switch to Japanese food. He wanted to provide an urban Japanese restaurant so people wouldn’t have to make the trip all the way to downtown Minneapolis.

Aji’s “good taste” also refers to its decor and at-mosphere. � e colorful sushi bar makes the food look delicious, and even the tiling on the fl oor looks retro and modern. Chefs are seen diligently working on their colorfully created sushi.

Everything about this restaurant is Japanese. Aji’s bright, oriental lights shine in the nighttime, and light the restaurant up through Main Street. Even the menus have a golden, elegant appeal to them.

As Aji’s is taking off , it’s attempting to bring in more business during its lunch hours, attracting busi-ness meetings and locals going out for lunch. � ey are planning to get advertisements out, and are also look-ing into Groupons, an online coupon company.

Aji’s brings a new, exciting addition to Hopkins, and it guarantees a night full of fi ne dining and exciting options to choose from when eating there.

An upscale restaurant with lower prices is the sort of place that fi ts right into the local scene of downtown Hopkins. Families looking to try something new for a low price will need to search no further, for Aji’s is truly bringing good taste to Hopkins.

The sushi bar at Aji’s is a colorful attraction and a highlight of the restaurant..

Photo by Will Burnton

Staff ReporterMegan Shawto leave after an hour or so due to the high workout you get from jumping.

Sky zone is an upcoming and pop-ular place, many people are checking it out. Sky zone made it fairly easy for its customers to buy tickets ahead of time, and simply pick them up at the front desk when entering. Buying tickets is highly recommended, and it lowers your wait time at the front desk when you arrive.

Upon arrival, shoes are provided to jump in. � e shoes are given to ensure everyone has a clean environment to jump in.

When it comes to safety sky zones motto is concrete: “Know your limi-tations, Follow all rules”. Along with these rules comes a safety waiver that has all the terms and conditions of Sky zone that must be signed by a parent or guardian.

At Sky zone there are activities and events for everyone from toddlers to adults. Certain events are held on the same night each week such as skyma-nia and skyjam. Skymania is an 11-15 year old event held on Friday nights from 9pm to 11pm, and skyjam is a 16 plus event held on Saturdays from 10pm-12pm. Information compiled by Percy Chism

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Vegan and Vegetarian restaurants in the Twin Cities

With their relaxed, healthy and organic environment, Ecopolitan is a complete-ly vegan restaurant. It is located in Uptown on 2409 Lyndale Ave South, Minneapolis.

� e restaurant serves 100 percent-uncooked plant based meals. � eir ingredients are also 100 percent grown organically.

Ecopolitan off ers 15 kinds of smoothies, nine kinds of fresh juice, nine kinds of teas and exotic drinks, appetizers, salads, pizza, breakfast, soup, entrees, and desserts. Items on the menu range from four to15 dollars.

� e fruits and vegetables they serve are cleansed with purifi ed water and food grade hydrogen peroxide. � e water served is reversed osmosis purifi ed drinking water. � ey also have an air fi lter in the dining room.

� e restaurant is big into recycling and uses all organic hemp napkins. Even the building is made out of recycled construction supplies.

� e parking ramp is free, and they have a bike ramp easily accessible.Ecopolitan has the option of dining in at the restaurant or a take out menu for when

people are on the go. Reservations are not needed, but they are recommended.

The Bursch family established Birchwood Café in 1926. � e business originated as a dairy, and then in the 1940’s it was converted into a neighborhood grocery store. � e store was then handed over to the owners of today and was made into

the Birchwood Café.Keeping the traditions of community and freshness alive, the Birchwood Café is a

café with fresh unique food and a great place to meet up with friends and family.Serving vegan and vegetarian meals. It is a great place to try new types of foods.

From the crepes, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast, to the greens and pizza for dinner they serve a wide variety of food.

Birchwood Cafe, as is, has been open for 13 years, generating a loyal following of customers.

It an inexpensive café with prices ranging from eight to 15 dollars. Located in Min-neapolis, 3311 East 25th Street.

� ey have great friendly service with a nice relaxing setting. With the Mississippi nearby, the Birchwood Cafe is a great place to bike to on a sunny day. � e café is nice for a casual lunch or even a date night.

Geoff and Midori select only best

Whether they are singing the Star Spangled Banner at a sporting event, showing their Valentines Day spirit through songs on

Heart-o-Gram day, or performing at Hopkins Ro-tary, Geoff and Midori are two well-known choirs at HHS, and both of them perform soley a capella.

� ese choirs attract the best singers at the school, and getting into them is not easy.

Students are required to go through an audition process and must be chosen in order to participate in either choir. Both groups have auditions coming up sometime before spring break.

In a typical year anywhere between 20 to 25 stu-dents will audition for Geoff and between 25 and 40 will audition for Midori.

� e audition is a lengthy process including lots of group singing so both the current choir mem-bers and Mr. Philip Brown, choir director, are able to evaluate the singers and how their voices sound together.

In the end, though, only 8 students are chosen for each group.

“It’s a fair, artistic audition,” Brown said, “Geoff and Midori members have input in who makes the group, but the decision is ultimately mine.”

On the day of auditions, the students beginin the theater, and are given time to practice their parts with the current Geoff or Midori members. Brown is only present after the students are warmed up. Next, the students move into the choir room, and there, both Brown and the current Geoff or Midori choir members listen as they sing for the offi cial audition.

Students begin by singing in their sections,

starting with the second altos moving up to the second sopranos. Once this is completed, Brown mixes up diff erent parts and listens to how various student voices sound together.

By the end of the audition Brown has mixed enough groups of people in order to hear what voices blend together. “Everyone who tries out is a good singer, that’s not what its about. Its about who blends with who,” said Susan Flynn, senior and Midori member.

Even though Brown has the fi nal decision, some still don’t like the idea of including current members in the process Shira Lavintman, senior, chose not to audition last year because of the audi-tion and selection process.

“I think the old Midori should not have a say in who makes Midori the following year because then the auditions become a popularity contest,” Lavintman said, “I believe the old Midori members do want what’s best for the group, but it’s hard to put aside personal bias.”

Lavintman is involved with Bel Canto, Cham-ber Choir, and Concert Choir.

In reality, both the current choir members and Brown have a say in who makes the choirs, but Brown has the ultimate decision. Lavintman is not the only student who is unsure of the fairness of the process.

“I don’t want to be associated with Midori be-cause [I think] it is purely a popularity contest,” said Ebonee Shahid, junior and Bel Canto member.

As a member of Midori, Flynn does not agree that popularity has anything to do with it.

“� e [current] Midori kids involved in the au-dition process know things about how the students are in other classes, like their work ethic, that Mr. Brown doesn’t, so it’s good that they have a say in

Student Choir Options (by grade)

10thWomen’s Chorus

Men’s Chorus

11thand

12th

Concert Chior

Geoff Midori

Chamber Choir

Kantorei

Bel Canto

who gets chosen to be in Midori the following year,” Flynn said, “We worked hard for our spot in the choir and its nice to have input in who gets to take our place next year.”

Sam Olson, senior and current Geoff member, also believes that the audition is fair.

“We have input, but the fi nal decision always goes to Mr. Brown. All of Geoff could be vot-ing for one person to be in it next year but if Mr. Brown doesn’t want him to…he won’t be,” Olson said, “Ultimately it comes down to the skills of the singer, and if Mr. Brown thought there was bias [in the audition process] he would sort it out.”

Flynn explained that the girls have a strong attachment to the idea of being in Midori before they even audition, so it is crushing if they don’t make it.

Regardless of how emotionally prepared a stu-dent is for the audition, Brown gives every student a chance to be musically prepared. “� e expecta-tions for the audition are communicated clearly prior to the audition itself,” Brown said.

� ere are two pieces of music chosen for the audition: one is lighter and upbeat and the other one is slower and more diffi cult. Olson compared the lighter one to a song from the popular TV show, Glee, and the more diffi cult one is often in a diff erent language like Latin.

� e pieces chosen are designated to show dif-ferent sides of a student’s musicianship. Both pieces are released a few weeks before the audition itself so that students will have time to prepare.

Brown said this year’s audition will be consis-tent with other years.

“It all depends on who shows up to the audi-tion and what voices sounds good together,” Brown said.

Birchwood Hours

Mon-Fri: 7am-9pm

Sat: 8am-9pm

Sun:9am-9pm

Ecopolitan Hours

Sun-Thurs: 9am-10pm

Fri-Sat: 9am-11pm

Staff ReporterBetsy Gans

Staff ReporterSonja Muus

Information compiled by Percy Chism

sports14page

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Jason Showers Staff Reporter

On gameday, HHS athletes rely on good old fashioned superstition

The unlucky player who talks to a pitcher in the middle of his potential no-hit bid will be shunned and admonished by teammates. He or she who mentions the word “shutout”

in a hockey locker room before a game will face more hatred than the opposing team. � e one who forgets to wear that lucky shirt under the team uniform will undoubtedly have the worst perfor-mance imaginable in the upcoming contest.

� ese sports rituals are not ridiculous; they are religion for the athletes who participate in them.

An athlete usually has his or her own unique quirks; the myths that he or she believes in or the little habitual things done to im-prove performance.

For example, basketball superstar Michael Jordan always wore the shorts of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, under his Chicago Bulls game shorts because he believed that it would help his great college career carry over into the NBA. Hall of Fame third baseman, Wade Boggs, ate only chicken as his pre-game meal; he said it helped him focus. Boggs would refuse to step on the fi eld if he did not have his poultry.

� ese rituals may seem odd to the average outsider, but when an athlete gets entrenched in his/her own personal ritual, to them it would seem a self-condemning act to break it. “I always put bows in my hair before every game, the exact same way, and use the same number of bobby pins in my hair. I did it one time when I was little and had a really good game, and ever since then I thought it was good luck,” Hayley Nybo, senior, and an All-American catcher on the softball team said.

Others associated with the team support Nybo and recognize the importance of her personal rituals. “Hayley does these rituals before every single game, and that is why she never has a bad game. � at is why she is an All-American,” said Allison Rolandelli, junior and softball manager.

Nybo believes in luck and karma, and will continue these ritu-als as she takes her softball skills to the Division One college level at Drake University. “Once I started doing these rituals, I got stuck in it, and I am too scared to stop because I think I will play bad then,” Nybo said. She shows how these superstitions can inspire fear as well as confi dence.

Kyle Russell, senior, a starting off ensive lineman for the football team and a successful member of the wrestling team, chews gum

before every game or match. “It has to be peppermint or some-thing,” Russell said, “I really believe the freshness of it helps calm my nerves.”

He also believes in luck. “I believe having certain personal ritu-als can help you perform, maybe swing the little things your way,” Russell said.

Superstitions can create fond memories, and bring on nostal-gic feelings of pride for retired athletes. Mr. Rick Rexroth, Social Studies, was an off ensive lineman and football captain in his senior year at HHS. He went on to play for St. Olaf College.

“I always taped my right ankle fi rst on game day,” Rexroth said. “In high school and college I always wore the same Hopkins Football t-shirt under my pads every game. My senior year in high school I wore the same towel all year, it is framed now.”

Sports rituals mean diff erent things to all who participate in them, because each ritual has its own unique importance. Rexroth said, “If someone’s superstition makes them more relaxed and fo-cused, then great. Most of my game day routines had to do with honoring or remembering people who helped me with that sport, and paying that respect helped me keep the game in perspective.”

For a sport that is dependant upon height, there are many professional basketball players that do not meet this requirement.

Despite their small size, they have managed to excel by compensating with their speed, athleti-cism, and agility.

Some of the shortest NBA players have made surprising accomplishments. For example, Spud Webb a 5’7” former point-guard for the Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Orlando Magic won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1986. Yet Webb is only the third shortest player in the NBA behind the current 5’5” Milwaukee Bucks point guard Earl Boykins and the shortest player

to ever play 5’3” Muggsy Bouges.� e average height in the NBA is 6’3” and

it is extremely challenging for shorter players to undertake the sizeable opponents or own team-mates. � e game itself is built around technique and a variety of fundamentals in which shorter players face many hardships.

Outside of the NBA, players at many diff er-ent levels face the disadvantage in lack of height as well. For example, Jordan Stewart, junior, 5’8” has been playing basketball since sixth grade and has faced these hardships throughout his time playing. “Some of the challenges I face are get-ting points, shooting, and not getting dunked on,” Stewart said. Although an advantage Stew-art has over others is his speed, which allows him to get by defenders.

Ladairio Sorrell, senior, 5’9” agrees that get-ting points is defi nitely hard but says rebounding is the most diffi cult when being short. Sorrell, having played since second grade, never really viewed his height as impediment to his game until getting to high school. Like Stewart, Sor-rell has the advantage of speed and has less of a problem driving the ball to the basket.

Coach Ken Novak said that he has seen many smaller players in his years of coaching and some of his best players in the past have been small. In the United States, considering the average height in males is 5’9”, and less than one percent of males are 6’8” it is not uncommon to have a smaller player. “Shorter people can play, and height is overrated,” said Novak. “Quickness and skill are the keys to basketball and although tall players

have an advantage, there are many shorter players that can be more skillful than taller players”.

Depending on the circumstance it shouldn’t matter the amount of playing time for smaller players. “When it comes to games, I don’t look at height, I look at production, skill, and who can win us the game,” Novak said. Novak thinks in order for a shorter player to compensate with his lack of height, he must be aggressive and smart.

Coach Novak quotes Pete Carrill (former head coach of Princeton University and current assist. Coach for the Sacramento Kings) in say-ing, “Strong take from the weak, and the smart take from the strong”. � e skill is in the hands of the player, and while height plays a large fac-tor in the game, one can be successful if they are motivated and skilled enough to win.

Sarah Ungerman Staff Reporter

Smaller players insist that height is luxury, not necessity on the basketball court

Michael Frey Sports Editor

The work ethic and team chemistry of this years wrestling team has driven them to their fi rst state tournament in 23 years,

along with six individual state participants. “We work well together and feed off each other’s suc-cesses,” said Mike De Jolsvay, senior captain. � e wrestling team has had a season to remember this year, with each wrestler winning the major-ity of their matches, which is the reason they made it to state.

“� is means more to me than making to state individually because it’s something we’ll all share as a team for the rest of our lives,” De Jolsvay said. He has made it to state as an individual wrestler the last two years as a sophomore and junior, but now making it as a team in his senior year, he has accomplished his career long goal, aside from actually winning state.

� e Royals were up against a tough team in the fi rst round having to wrestle Albert Lea, a higher ranked team so the Royals were the under-dogs and had to wrestle at their highest level of the season to come out on top. Austin Haecherl, senior, and Tre Goeman, sophomore, both won their matches but they were the only ones, and all of the sudden, the team was eliminated from

the state meet.“After making it to state with the team, I defi -

nitely felt more pressure to make it as an indi-vidual,” De Jolsvay said. Although De Jolsvay has made it to state the last two years, making it as a senior this year has been his toughest and one of his most important tasks of this season. He has worked hard all of his life at wrestling and to end his career in state will be a great accomplishment for him.

No matter what match it is, if it’s a regular season match or a state meet at the Excel Energy center in front of thousands of high school stu-dents from all over Minnesota, De Jolsvay warms up and prepares the same way. Him and his warm up partner, Henry Wolfbauer, junior, start off by doing their usual running and stretching while listening to the same ten song play list of typi-cal pump up songs. In the week leading up to a big match, they work on specifi c things that the coaches think they need work on; maintain their weight and once that’s all done, they can relax and mentally prepare for the match.

� ese two, along with Haecherl, Kevin Rus-sel, senior, Romar Daniel, and Jake Price, juniors, competed in the individual state tournament. Still, all of the wrestlers are more excited about team state because everyone is going. “After mak-ing it to team state, it relieved some of the pres-

sures of making it as an individual,” Price said.Having six individual state competitors on the

team was a big help this season. “In past years, we have had some weak spots and some strong spots, but this year we have a solid team throughout

each weight class and also some stronger spots,” Price said.

� ough the team lost in the fi rst round, and none of the individual wrestlers placed, this is a season no HHS wrestler will soon forget.

Wrestling team makes run to state for fi rst time in 23 years

Romar Daniel, junior, wrestles in the section meet. Daniel qualifi ed for the state meet as an individual.

Photo by Megan Roessler

15sportspage

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Michael Larson Staff Reporter

The world of sports has progressed greatly in technology in the last decade. Who would have thought that instant replay would be used in baseball, training programs would become

a massive market, and pro football players could swallow pills that would monitor their body temperature to prevent overheating.

While these advancements have brought the world of sports into a new era, other parts of the games have been left the same. One part of sports that has seemingly become worse, or at least received more attention, is the issue of head injuries. Recent stud-ies have shown that former players are suff ering in retirement as a result of brain injuries suff ered during their playing days.

In the last year alone, megastars such as Sidney Crosby, DeSean Jackson, Justin Morneau, and Kurt Warner have spent signifi cant time out of commission as a result of concussions. In fact, Morneau’s return is still questionable and Crosby has missed almost half the season. Leagues are trying to fi nd ways to protect their players, such as the NFL cracking down on helmet-to-helmet hits, or the NHL creating better helmet technology, but the injuries continue to pile up with no end in sight.

What’s scary about these injuries is that head injuries can per-manently aff ect a person’s memory, their ability to think properly, their moods, and can cause chronic headaches and dizziness. It has led some players to the point where the pain doesn’t go away and strong painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin, and Oxycodone have little to no aff ect.

Concussions aren’t just a problem in pro sports. In fact, they may be an even worse problem in youth, high school, and college athletics where the brain is still developing. Studies have shown that, in the past decade, twice as many kids have been admitted to hospitals for serious head injuries.

I have personally experienced some of the pains caused by concussions. Last season, while batting for the JV baseball team, I was hit in the cheek by a pitch that I didn’t move quick enough to avoid. After falling to the ground for a couple seconds, I got up and ran the bases.

I shouldn’t have kept playing, but everyone spectating thought the ball hit my helmet and not my face. I don’t remember run-ning to fi rst base or the time until I got back to the dugout. In the dugout, teammates noticed a large bruise and the laces from the baseball embedded into my cheek.

I played a couple more innings in the fi eld and batted once more before the nausea forced me to take myself out of the game. In one inning, Chris Code, senior, said that I asked him the score six times even though there had been no runs scored. After the

game, I went to the hospital, where I waited in the emergency room until 3 A.M., when I was diagnosed with a concussion.

After looking at x-rays, doctors found two broken bones in my cheek and minor nerve damage, but I think of myself as lucky. I didn’t need reconstructive facial surgery and other than headaches, slight bleeding, and a mark in the shape of laces, I had no lasting post-concussion symptoms and was able to return to the fi eld after missing only one game.

Some concussion related stories of other HHS athletes:

Libby Fransdal, seniorSoccer is not typically known as a contact sport, but at times

it can be as physical as any other sport. During the second half of the season fi nale at Wayzata, Fransdal went up for header, and met an opposing player head on, taking a blow to her nose. “I’ve broken my nose before, so I thought that’s what had happened,” Fransdal said.

When play was stopped, Fransdal was attended to and stum-bled off the fi eld. After apparently passing several tests, Fransdal actually reentered the game. “� at was probably not a good deci-sion,” Fransdal said.

It was not until several days after that she suspected something serious. “I was walking down a hallway, and I ran into the wall,” Fransdal said. Her mother brought her to TRIA, where she under-went several balance and memory tests, confi rming the concussion suspicions.

Doing normal activities were harder during the next weeks, as “sound was 10 times louder” and “focusing for more than fi ve minutes was impossible”. For several weeks, Fransdal was forced to sit out of athletic activity, unable to pass clearance by both TRIA and Westermann. “I had built up so much endurance from soccer that for hockey it was really diffi cult to start from scratch again,” Fransdal said.

Leah Chase, sophomoreEven though Chase plays hockey and soccer, two sports where

head injuries are quite common, the injury did not occur on the fi eld or on the ice. Last year, while driving to school with her sister, Olivia Chase, junior, was rear ended.

Even though Leah was wearing a seat belt, the impact caused a signifi cant blow to her head. She doesn’t remember certain parts of the event, including the accident and the time until the police arrived.

She underwent tests to determine whether she was ready to go back to school.

“� ere was a mental test with a lot of memory involved, and

I needed to be in the 75th percentile to go back to school,” Leah said, “� e fi rst week I got a one percent, and the second a 13 per-cent, before fi nally passing in the third week.”

Leah said that other than pain when heading a soccer ball, she has had no lasting repercussions from the accident.

Shane Mogan, seniorEarlier this season, Mogan, a defensive back for the football

team, reacted quickly to a wide running play, making an eff ort to break through the off ensive line to reach the halfback. "I met an off ensive lineman head to head and we both went down," Mo-gan said, "But he was 150 lbs. heavier than me so I took most of the hit." Mogan said that initially it wasn't incredibly painful, but when he tried to get up, Mogan stumbled back to the ground.

In the next days, headaches were a constant, along with sensitiv-ity to light, and slightly altered vision. Along with these symptoms was a constant ringing in his ears and after recovering in several days and passing tests, Mogan was allowed to play in the game the next week. "I didn't play scared because I realized injuries happen," Mogan said. "� ey are part of the game."

Ben Christopher, senior Against Edina this season, Christopher was running a post

pattern across the middle and was thrown a pass where he needed to extend and therefore expose himself to a hit. � e hit was deliv-ered by Gophers recruit, Nick Rallis. “It had been a pretty physi-cal game throughout, but this was a clear helmet to helmet hit," Christopher said, "if a pro does that, he gets a huge fi ne."

Like Mogan, Christopher attempted to get up, but was quickly told to stay down by trainer Scott Westermann. "He took me off the fi eld, and the fi rst thing he did was hide my helmet," Christo-pher said, "I looked for it the rest of the game, but it was defi nitely a good thing that I was taken out."

Christopher had many of the same symptoms as Mogan, in-cluding headaches and sensitivity to light, but some other ones as well.

"For a while, my memory was kind of messed up, like I couldn't remember the president or my address," Christopher said, "When I was walking off the fi eld, the green Edina jerseys looked maroon...I could read numbers on my cell phone just fi ne, but all the num-bers and tick marks blurred together on regular clocks." Prior to this injury, Christopher had never missed a game, but the con-cussion caused him to be sidelined for Senior Night at home vs. Minnetonka.

Concussions a growing concern for HHS athletes

Tess L’Heureux, senior, was not at all surprised when she heard the news of the change for her fi nal gymnastics season: a

new head coach. In fi ve years on the team, she has endured four

diff erent head coaching changes.L’ Heureux’s friend and fellow captain Kate-

lyn Magney, senior, was also frustrated by the programs lack of stability. “I wonder what it would be like if we had one steady coach,” Mag-ney said.

An assistant coach off ered some reassurance. “I love my assistant coach, Molly [Miller]…She helped stabilize the program,” L’Heureux said.

Despite the volatility of the coaching posi-tion, the program has remained strong, including team berths to the state meet in 2007 and 2008. L’Heureux qualifi ed for the individual portion of the state meet in 2009 as a sophomore, and en-tering her senior year, had the goal of making it back.

However, L’Heureux’s main priority has never been her results. “� is is the biggest team I’ve

ever had, and we have a new coach. I just want to have fun,” L’Heureux said.

L’Heureux, along with fellow captain Katelyn Magney, led the team to a successful regular sea-son. � e team was confi dent going into the sec-tion meet, but not all went as planned. “Person-ally, sections went really well, but we had a girl fracture her ankle fi ve minutes before competi-tion,” L’Heureux said.

Mykenzie Stegeman, freshman, was the vic-tim. “Mykenzie loves gymanstics so much, it was so hard to see that happen to her,” Magney said.

� e team fought through the distraction and earned a sixth-place fi nish at sections, with L’Heureux qualifying for the state meet in the all-around event, as well as the balance beam and fl oor exercise events.

“Minnesota has the best high school gymnas-tics in the country, so I’m defi nitely proud of get-ting [to state],” L’Heureux said.

� e state meet was held at the University of Minnesota’s Sports Pavillion on February 26, and L’Heureux was confi dent that her practice would pay off . “I worked really hard to have my routine be consistent, so I knew I would do to the best of

my ability,” L’Heureux said.In the all-around event, which combines the

competitors’ scores in the balance beam, fl oor ex-ercise, vault, and uneven bars events, L’Heureux fi nished twenty-eigth. She also placed thirty-fi rst in the fl oor exercise, but her best performance came on the balance beam, where her routine earned her a twelfth-place fi nish.

L’Heureux’s road to the high school gymnas-tics team was far from the typical athlete’s. She took up gymnastics at the age of three, but de-cided to quit the sport during fi fth grade.

In seventh grade, she decided to try out for the high school gymnastics team, and earned a spot on the JV squad. “When I tried out, I found my love [for gymnastics] again,” L’Heureux said. She made the varsity team the next year, and is now in her second year as a captain.

Magney believes that L’Heureux’s successful season will help the team for the future. “[Tess’ state berth] is really good for the younger girls, because they see how hard she works and how it all paid off ,” Magney said.

Michael Fields Staff ReporterL’Heureux shines in state meet, serves as an example to younger gymnasts

Tess L’Heureux, senior, fi nished 28th in the all-around event at the state meet, 31st in the fl oor exercise, and 12th of the balance beam.

Photo provided by Tess L’Heureux

The Need for

HHS ranks amongst the top when it comes to varsity athletics. � e boys

varsity basketball team has won state two years in a row, the girls track team won state in 2010, and the boys wrestling team re-cently participated in the state tournament. HHS is fi lled with many athletes who are capable of competing with the best in their sport.

It may seem obvious, but hours of practice have helped HHS athletes to excel. Most athletes participate in about two hours of practice every weekday, some participating in practice on Saturdays as well. Even athletes who aren’t ranked at the top of their respective sports continue to put lots of time into practic-ing as they try to improve.

Leah Chase, sophomore, par-ticipates in both hockey and soc-cer at the varsity level, and has put in many hours of practice in her high school career. “It’s hard and takes up a lot of time, but I guess it’s worth it if you want to do well,” Chase said.

Students that end a long day of school followed by hard hours at practice know just how tiring this can be.

Bri Stein, junior is a varsity dancer for the HHS dance team. She is among the 30 dancers on the team who attend practice six days a week with a minimum of three hours per practice. “In pre-vious years it was fi ne, but this year [the amount of practice] was overwhelming. It really tired

out our bodies. � ere were a lot of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein said.

� ere is no Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) set limit to how long a practice can run or how much practice can be held, although, practice can never be held on a Sunday.

To balance out homework and practice, Stein looks ahead at the homework she will have and tries to plan out her week. “It’s tricky. When we have a compe-tition, I get stuff done the night before. After practice, I come home and get stuff done right away. I can’t just chill at night at all,” Stein said.

Stein is just one example of the many athletes who divides their time between practice, homework, and any other activi-ties. Mr. Dan Johnson, Athletic Director, has noted how well HHS athletes are able to balance their schedules.

“It is evident that students do a great job of creating their own balance from the academic success of the athletes,” Johnson said. “We don’t want our stu-dents to just be athletes. � at’s why they’re called student ath-letes; they have to be a student before an athlete.”

Practice requirements vary among sports, depending on the season, game or meet sched-ule, and so on. Several HHS sports even require practice at-tendance during district wide breaks. Dance team, basketball, and hockey, for example, all held

mandatory practices over this past winter break, with conse-quences for missing.

For boys hockey, the conse-quence for missing practice was sitting one period during a game. For dance team, the consequence was more severe, as a dancer was benched for the rest of the sea-son if she missed practice. � is meant the dancer still had to at-tend every practice but couldn’t dance at the competitions.

Mr. Ken Novak, Social Stud-ies and Boys Basketball Coach, said this past winter break they held practice most days, except for four days off around the holidays. “� ere is some conse-quence for missing practice, but it has really never been an issue,” Novak said.

Novak is also mindful of the players’ abilities to balance their schedules. “� e players are very disciplined,” Novak said. “� ey stay on top of things. If someone does get behind, school comes fi rst.”

Clearly, coaches and athletic staff are aware of the importance of balancing sports with other activities. “We talk with coaches about balancing activities all the time. Most coaches are good about not only creating balance, but promoting it. We don’t want a student athlete so focused on an activity that they lose sight of everything else,” Johnson said.

Normal PracticeAfter school from 3-5:30.

Game DaysGames usually start at 7:15.

SaturdaysGenerally the team watches fi lms of games. Sometimes practice or

games as well.Captains practice

None just open gym.Winter break

Practice for around two hours most days over winter break.

Boys Basketball

Normal Practice After school from 4:45-6:15.

Game Days Either Tuesday, Thursday, or Sat-urday with no practice on game

days.Saturdays

Sometimes practice early in the morning.

Captains practice Roughly two hours once a week

for a month or two.Winter break

Required practice most days with consequences for missing.

Boys Hockey

Normal PracticeAfter school from 3-5:45.

Game DaysBatting practice and pre-game infi eld/

outfi eld. Saturdays

Sometimes morning practice or games.

Captains PracticeThursday mornings at 6 and Sunday

evenings from 5-7.Spring Break

The team will be traveling to Iowa.

Baseball

HHS ranks amongst the top when it comes to varsity athletics. � e boys

varsity basketball team has won state two years in a row, the girls track team won state in 2010, track team won state in 2010,

out our bodies. � ere were a lot out our bodies. � ere were a lot out our bodies. � ere were a lot out our bodies. � ere were a lot out our bodies. � ere were a lot of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein of injuries and sicknesses,” Stein said.

� ere is no Minnesota State � ere is no Minnesota State � ere is no Minnesota State � ere is no Minnesota State � ere is no Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) High School League (MSHSL) High School League (MSHSL) High School League (MSHSL) High School League (MSHSL) set limit to how long a practice set limit to how long a practice set limit to how long a practice set limit to how long a practice set limit to how long a practice

mandatory practices over this mandatory practices over this past winter break, with conse-past winter break, with conse-quences for missing. quences for missing.

For boys hockey, the conse-For boys hockey, the conse-quence for missing practice was quence for missing practice was sitting one period during a game. sitting one period during a game.

Balance

Every sport, depending on the sea-son or activity, has its own unique

practice schedule. Some with prac-tice on Saturdays and some with practice over school wide breaks,

the practice schedules of four HHS sports are given below.

“I think the

amount of [practice] time is perfect because we

always have a lot of stuff that needs to get done and it helps us

prepare for our games.”-Nick Jorgensen,

junior-Nick Jorgensen,

“I think the

amount of practice time is fi ne. I usually go

to practice, go home, do homework, eat dinner, go to bed; I don’t have a lot of free time.

-Andy Wicklund,junior

Girls BasketballNormal Practice

After school from 3:15 to 6:15.

Game DaysThe team goes through a walkthrough

before the game. Varsity games usually start at 7:15.

SaturdaysEither practice is held from 9-12 or the team will shoot free throws and watch

fi lms of their games.Captains Practice

Takes place one week before the season starts. Before that, there is open gym

during the fall.

to bed; I don’t have a lot of

After school from 3:15 to 6:15.

Game DaysThe team goes through a walkthrough

before the game. Varsity games usually start at 7:15.

Marlee Gotlieb is the Back page editor for the Royal Page

Photos provided by Marlee Krietzman