The WarriorNiskayuna High School May 28, 2010 Volume 36, Issue 30

a student-run publication since 1974, now weekly

Inside this issue...Pokemon is for everybody.Page 5

Murphy’s hus-band passes away.Page 6

Nisky Lacrosse standing strongPage 8

Sunshine and smiles on Niska-day by Camila Grande

news

Niska-day is a long-standing tradition in Niskayuna. The days leading up to it are filled with anticipation. Everyone begins to hear things such as, “Next Saturday is Niska-day.” Often there’s talk such as, “I can’t wait for Niska-day!” Not only does it signal that summer is just in reach, it is also looked forward to because there is so much fun that can be had there.

This year, Niska-day was western themed, which added some spice to the day. The main event to go along with the theme was the mechanical bull, but the western theme was contin-

ued throughout the parade and other booths and events offered. Sophomore Coral Szumiloski had this to say, “I felt that it was an amazing touch to Niska-day, and it was a lot of fun to watch people get owned by the bull.” There was always a crowd around the tent with the bull, everyone wanted to watch the riders, especially the ones who were thrown off. Along with the bull, there was country music and other touches of country flare added to the day.

A lot of what made Niska-day so enjoyable was the social-izing. Many people just went to hang out with friends and meet up with people they have lost contact with. Beyond the

rides, booths, and food tents there were places where people could just relax with their peers.

There were rides and the usual set-ups of games and other booths; school clubs or girls and boys groups ran many of these. Sophomore Bridget LeMon said “Niska-day was so much fun, especially winning three fish!” The company tent is a destina-tion that everyone should go into. You can get anything you would ever need in there, from frisbees

to highlighters and countless Tootsie Rolls. The vendor tent was filled with jewelry and, of course, Niskayuna clothing.

The food was tasty and the strawberry lemonades were to die for. One of the positive aspects about Niska-day is that there’s always something for everyone.

continued on page 2[coMMunitY]

Photo Credit / Annie SchwendlerSMILE AND WAVE: The high school choral group Studio Singers posed in front of their float before the start of the annual Niska-day parade. The group sang a variety of songs to hundreds of onlookers.

Photo Credit / Brendan HaganSOAK UP THE SUN: Niska-day attedees took advantage of the open fields overlooking the celebration and the nice weather to take a break and talk with friends.

2 The WarriorNews May 28, 2010

Language scholars are commended by JaCkson montrym

news

On Tuesday, May 18, in addition to the bud-get vote, the school hosted another major event. That event was the foreign language awards night. Many students received awards for their performances in foreign languages this year, including certificates of merit for hard work for juniors and seniors, and for impressive performance on the national French, Latin and German exams. There was also an award given to the senior in each language who has displayed the most devotion to their studies.

The event started out with a brief speech from Edward Alston, the director of foreign languages for the district. He spoke about how he has been very impressed by the work of foreign language students this year. Then, for each language, two seniors pre-sented a speech. One of them spoke in the language they study, and the other student would translate what they said into English for the understanding of the audience. For example, senior Atosa Gharispoor spoke in French and senior Laura Manor trans-lated into English. Atosa talked about how French is a great language and how she had a wonderful time stuck in France in April!

There were also some great antics with those speeches. For example, senior Julie Slotnick, who spoke in Latin, said that Latin helped her learn the etymology of Harry Potter spells. Senior Rebecca Tishler, the Russian speaker talked about how she wanted to learn Russian because the girls in her dance locker room constantly spoke in that “beautiful lan-guage”. When she could understand them, she found that they were admiring her tights!

Then, one of the foreign language teachers would read off the names of those who won certain awards. Certificates of Merit were given to juniors and seniors, who, by the consent of their foreign language teachers, were decided to be the best students of foreign language. Also, for the National French Exam, students who scored in the top fifteenth percentile re-ceived certificates for their merit. Additionally, there were a great number of students who won awards for their performance on the Na-tional Latin Exam. The program for the awards ceremony contained several pages of names, which was very impressive. Unfortunately, at the end of the ceremony there was an incident with the microphone. While Latin teacher Meghan Miller was announcing the recipiants of the Spanish awards, the sound became

garbled, which was quite annoying to hear. At the end of each languages awards, there

was an award given to the senior who has shown the most effort in the study of foreign language. Each language has its own name for the award in that language, such as Prix d’honneur for French. This year, one person won two major awards for French and German, senior Caroline Brown. Usually, only one se-nior wins each award, so the fact that one per-son won two awards was quite unusual. Brown said, “It was a great honor. Language is my passion and I plan to continue studying foreign language in college and throughout my life.”

The foreign language teachers were very proud of their students’ performance this year. French teacher Jane Ainslie said, “It’s a special night because it’s a chance for us to recognize our foreign language students for the outstanding work they do. We have an exceptional program with some excep-tional students who are really passionate about language study. This is not the kind of program usually found at a public high school, therefore the achievements are all the more admirable.” The foreign language awards ceremony is an excellent way to honor a great year of foreign language study.

Community gathers at Niska-daycontinued froM page 1

[SunSHine]A fourth grader attending

Glencliff elementary school was able to have just as much fun as a junior at the high school. The little kids took to the rides and activities such as sand art while their parents had the opportunity to socialize with each other. Often times the older kids would shop around or hang on the grass, but that is not to say they did not enjoy other activities as well.

One thing everyone could have been seen participating in was waiting in long lines for the food stands. There are always so many. It takes time to decide what food you want and after that it takes more time to get it. One downside is that often times the food isn’t the healthiest, and along with that sometimes it’s

pricey. Some people chose to hit up stands such as the Model UN stand that sell meals for a lesser price than other food stands.

Another downside was that the only accessible bathrooms were the portable toilets. Many people opted out on those. However, it was very convenient that they offered Purell wipes. For instance, the wipes came in handy if you spilled your gigantic lemonade all over. It was quite a lot of paper wasting though, and recycling bins would have come in handy. Garbage cans were overflowing onto the ground and several people were not even using them.

One thing everyone can agree on is that the weather this year was beautiful. Sophomore Elyse Stewart said, “The weather this year was perfect, I had a great time!” In past years Niska-day has frequently landed on a rainy

day. It seems like Mother Nature has it out for us Niskayunaians because its usually ugly weather for Niska-day. This year she de-cided to take pity on us and give us a gorgeous summer-like day.

A lot of people enjoyed Niska-day. Whether they were there for the food, shopping, rides, or western experience, everyone had fun and cannot wait for next year’s festivities to come around.

Warrior Photo / Maura GriffithOUT WITH A BANG: As per tradition, the Niska-day fireworks drew a large and appreciative crowd.

3May 28, 2010The Warrior News

New budget goes into reviewby kevin bibiCoff

news

The voters of Niskayuna passed the proposed 2010-2011 budget of $76,453,731 on Tuesday May 18. The final vote was 1,908 yes votes to 1,235 no votes, a 61% approval rating.

The 2009-2010 budget was $74,489,303, making the new budget only a 2.64% increase. This is the lowest increase in over a decade, beating out the previous low from last year’s budget, which was an increase of 6.28%. This is a huge difference of 3.64%.

Also some of this increase can be contributed to inflation be-tween 2009 and 2010, which has been calculated to be 1.6% , leav-ing very little additional spending.

There were 500 more votes this year than last year. This was part-ly due to some current seniors who turned 18 in time to vote. Many seniors seemed excited

about their first chance to vote, even in a smaller local election.

Also contributing to the amount of votes was the wide-spread locations residents could vote at, including the high school and other public buildings.

The majority of these new votes were for passing the budget.

Most of the new money will be spent on Niskayuna Schools Program costs. These include teacher salaries and benefits, textbooks, instructional equip-ment, extracurricular activi-ties, and student services like health class, the media cen-ter, guidance, and athletics.

The program costs also cover transportation expenses. It is likely that of these areas, most of the money will be for the transportation costs, as voters also passed the proposition to buy 11 new buses with a vote of 1887 yes votes to 1,240 no votes.

The money is also being spent

on state-mandated increases in teacher benefits and pensions required by law through con-tracts with the teacher’s union.

According to John Rickert, the high school’s principal, “It was a hard budget [to pass].”

It was a huge collective effort between all parts of the district to keep the budget low. With a hurricane of an economic climate and the loss of state aid, it was incredibly difficult to create a budget that cov-ered costs and was something that the taxpayers could pay.

Even in these harsh condi-tions, the district has been able to add a few new electives it has been planning, as well as some new programs in the elementary schools. But it was not a com-plete success. Some positions had to be cut, including Aquatics Director and Asst. Middle School Principal, adding more responsi-bility to the positions surround-

Congratulations to senior Lianna Potrikus on her first

plaCe finish in the 21st DistriCt Congressional arts

Competition. her pieCe,“CurLing Conundrum,” will be on Display for 11 months in the Cannon tunnel leaDing to the

u.s. Captiol builDing.

ing them. While there were a few people who were laid off due to the budget, some were saved due to the process of “attrition.”

“Attrition” is moving people from a position that doesn’t exist anymore because of cutbacks to one that has been opened by someone who has retired or quit. Luckily the people that were laid off were not left to fend for themselves in these rougher economic times, as the district is assisting them in gaining new jobs elsewhere as part of previous negotioations.

On a side note, all three previ-ous officials on the Board of Edu-cation ran unopposed and all three were re-elected with 2467 votes for David Hudson, Jeanne Sosnow finished with 2431 votes, and 2412 for Debra Gor-don. They each have a new three-year term which will start July 1.

4 The WarriorOpinion May 28, 2010

by kevin bibiCoff

opinion

I recently heard of a new pro-gram moving into public schools that splits classes by sex. This program suggests that boys and girls learn in different ways and at different rates and therefore should be separated to fully reach their maximum potential. This, in my quite frank opinion, is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. I won’t deny the studies that show that boys and girls are different, which we all know. What I am saying is that it is wrong to separate them in classes.

One of the reasons they say boys and girls should be separated is that they have different social needs. But that is beside the point, as school is there to prepare chil-dren for life and adulthood, which

happens to include the opposite sex. So wouldn’t it be a good idea to integrate boys and girls in the same class so they learn how to re-late, converse, and have a healthy relationship with the opposite sex? One of the proposals in one of the separation programs calls for an area of study in each gender class to learn about the opposite sex: what they like, how they talk, what they like to do, and how to work with them well. This seems almost pointless because they could learn the same thing just working in the same class as them and without wasting precious class time which could be better used getting America up to the same educational level as other nations.

Another reason there is such a push for separation of classes is that boys and girls can often

be a distraction to one another. While this is true and can cause problems and conflicts in classes, it can also be seen as a learning experience itself. High school is full of conflicts and awkward, problematic situations, but we can learn from them and use that information to avoid or more eas-ily end a similar situation in the future. It would be better to learn this lesson in school because it is a controlled environment which can stop a situation from scal-ing to too high of a point. In the outside world, control like that does not exist to such a degree.

While there is some merit to separating classes, shown by in-creased scores on tests in newly separated classes, I’m worried about what’s to come next. Will the next study say that differ-

ent races learn differently? Will there be an Asian male class, an Asian female class, a black male class, a black female class, a white male class, a white female class, a Latino male class, and a Latino female class, and others? Will the future be a world where everyone learns individually and has no social skills at all? I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to live in a world like that. This program, while seen as a step forward, is actually a huge step backwards or even a step in the wrong direction. When the world has fought so hard to create equal opportunity for ev-eryone, why would they want to take it away and create separate classes? Even if they’re separate, they ought to be equal, although I think we’ve all heard that before.

S t o p g e n d e r s e p a r a t i o n !

by Gabriel Holodak

opinion

I’m sure that almost every high school stu-dent has a Facebook account. Facebook has become the preferred method of communica-tion for many people. A study in January 2009 listed Facebook as the most popular social networking site in the world. In the U.S, it is now second only to Google. It is about to surpass 500 million users, half of whom use the site every day. I don’t deny that Facebook is very useful and an excellent tool. Unfortu-nately, most people don’t consider the possible negative side effects before joining Facebook.

Recently, Facebook has come under criti-cism for its privacy policy. According to the New York Times, users must manage more than 50 different privacy settings, with a total of over 170 different options. In addition, Face-

book’s privacy policy has grown to 5,830 words (the United States Constitution has 4,543) and its Privacy FAQ has more than 45,000 words. Privacy settings for ads are not even located in the Privacy Settings page. Many of these settings are set to public by default, so us-ers who don’t want to scroll through the long list may be unwittingly sharing information. Some information, like school or hometown, will always be shown to “community pages” for that town or college. The only way to prevent this information from being shared is to delete it from your account. Finally, even after an account is deleted, the informa-tion is not actually deleted from Facebook’s severs. After coming under some criticism for this, Facebook started to permanently delete accounts, but only on special request.

One recent project that has gained lots of

attention is known as Diaspora. It was started in April by four college students from NYU look-ing to change social networking, and in only a few weeks has raised more than $150,000 (proof of the massive support for their con-cept). Their software will be open source and free to download. Users can have full control over all of their information. Unfortunately, they must either have their own server or pay to use an online service. Diaspora is not fin-ished yet, but it may be interesting to follow.

Some people may not want to switch over or stop using Facebook, and that is perfectly understandable. It is still a good service, even if it has its shortcomings. However, everyone should realize that Facebook, Inc. is a com-mercial company and is after your money, and there may be other options in the near future.

Privacy threatened on Facebook

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the school community, and can be delivered toWarrior staff or sent via

email to: thewarrioropinion@gmail.com. The Warrior reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, length, and content.

Signed opinion articles express the opinions of their creators. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, consisting of the Opinion section and the Editor-in-

Chief.

The op-ed pages are a forum for students’ opinions and ideas.

The WarriorNiskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY, 12309

http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/warrior

For a one-year subscription to The Warrior, please send a check for $25.00 to: The Warrior, c/o Niskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY 12309.

Editor-in-Chief:Jason XuMaggie Jordan

News:Emily O’Brien, Chief EditorSarah Miner, EditorGrace Strong, EditorJackson Montrym, Asst

Opinion:Jason Kasman, EditorDaniel Zhao, EditorTim Rice, Asst

Entertainment:Bhavya Narala, EditorJacob Stewart, Asst

Sports:Michael Held, EditorGeorge Jiao, Editor

Magazine:Inga Bagepalli, EditorShikha Dharia, Editor

Additional Staff:Gabriel Holodak, Copy EditorMaura Griffith, Photo EditorSohaib Syed, Graphics EditorKaitlin Hungershafer, Business ManagerHope Vedder, Distribution Manager

Advisers: James Edgar Russell McDowell

5May 28, 2010The Warrior Opinion

by kaela bamberGer

opinion

Recently the orchestra room was full of smiling adults who nodded me in different directions, promising that “this will only take a second.” The priviledge of being 18 was never so important, or ex-hilerating. My first vote, complete with secretive booths and strange machines! For a moment my pen hovered over the bubble. It didn’t seem like a difficult decision. Could there be a better use of public money than educational funding for the schools in Nisk-ayuna? Walking away from the smell of public policy, I began to think about our high school and its priorities.What comes to mind is the music department’s end of the year concert, this year being Candide. I think the end of the year effort to have a musical extravaganza is a rewarding and fitting end to a year of hard work on our peers’ part. What could be better than to showcase the educational development during the course of the year by all the

kids in the music department? Even more important is that the graduating seniors have the op-portunity to showcase their four years of musical training and education at the high school. But do they? As it turns out, Ni-skayuna’s tax dollars seem to be funding the hiring of ‘ringers’, i.e. professional musicians, to come and sing the solo parts that the hardworking, well trained, gifted seniors should be performing.

I have heard it said that the music department strives for ‘professional’ performances. I was under the impression that the high school venue is educa-tional in nature, not professional. Shouldn’t we give our talented student body the opportunity to audition for and perform the solo parts? There is also the argument that the solo parts in Candide are too challenging for the high school level singers to handle. The music educators should be choosing music that is at once challenging but within the reach of the high school vocalist - both chorus and

solos. By hiring professional solo-ists, what is the music department telling the student body? That they are not capable of singing solos? That they are not devel-oped enough to put on a fabulous

performance? Is it possible that Niskayuna High School is putting the accolades of a ‘professional’ presentation before an incredible, cumulative musical concert in the student’s high school careers?

“Why don’t the students get a chance to audition for the solos?” Oscar Chen, a senior who participates in high school choral groups, had some words to say about the subject. “I mean I thought the purpose of these performances was to showcase Niskayuna school district’s high

standards for musical education, not how much talent we can buy.”

The money being spent to hire professional soloists could be used elsewhere, with more benefit to students in the music depart-ment. Perhaps the money could go toward the music scholarship program. This annual program funds lessons or camps for stu-dents who are highly motivated in music. The money could be spent on new musical instru-ments, which would be truly helpful to the budding student musicians in band and orchestra.

When the next school budget vote comes up, it is important to look very closely at how the money is being spent in the district. Blind-ly trusting our administration is a naïve assumption. Look closely, do your research. Question.

Bon voyage, student soloists

by bobby dai

opinion With the recent release of the

newest Pokémon games, Pokémon Heart Gold and Pokémon Soul Silver, there has been a dramatic increase of procrastination in my life. The obvious culprit, Pokémon. And with new footage of the next generation of Pokémon, the video games Pokémon Black and Poké-mon White, there will be more procrastination in the future.

The Pokémon games have evolved rapidly since the first re-leases in 1996. Hundreds of new formulas and game mechanics have been added for enjoyment of both children and adult, and yes, I mean adult. For children, the most basic things would please them, such as trying to beat the game, or showing off their level 100 Articuno to their friends. But then there are the older generations still playing

the game, who develop a cut-throat lineup, intended to bash through other trainers’ lineups online through Wi-Fi connection. That is the kind of thing I prefer, and spend my free time doing.

Many people ask why I play it, why I have w a s t e d currently 87 hours of my life on a stupid video game. But what they don’t realize is that they themselves have used up 250+ hours of their lives on games such as Call of Duty, or World of Warcraft. Pokémon seems like an equal amount of time spent, but I think it is less distracting. You can’t play Call of Duty, or World of Warcraft while you do your home-work, no, only Pokémon gives you the pleasure of doing that.

The 150 different species that

you know and love have now multiplied to 493. Almost quadru-pling, Pokémon have claimed to be losing their “touch”. Some people say that they are beginning to be a bit pointless, such as a hot air bal-loon based Pokémon name Drif-

blim or a com-pass based P o k é m o n , Nosepass. I agree, they are getting a bit out of hand, but

it only brings diversity onto the games. Many people believe that Pokémon is a child’s game, that it has a basic concept, and that anybody could play it. But what people don’t know, is that there are many hid-den values, and secret formulas weaved into the game which en-hance and complicate game play incredibly. For instance, Effort Values and Individual Values

boost the stats of your lineup, and varies the way everybody plays. And then of course, there’s the breeding, egg moves, na-tures, abilities, happiness, shiny Pokémon, STAB and move types which deepens the rift between “perfect” and “childish” lineups.

As for the formulas, they get very complex. The formula for damage alone is Damage = ((((2*Level /5+2)*AttackStat*AttackPower /DefenseStat)/50)+2)*STAB *Weak-ness/Resistance* RandomNum-ber/100.And that is one of the simplest formulas in the game.Pokémon, originally developed by Game Freak, is deeply seeded into the society’s culture. It is an absolute classic, known by every-body since the late 1990’s. And now, it has grown so popular, it owns its own company, With over 600 episodes of Pokémon aired, everyone’s heard of Pokémon!

Pokémon gets better with age

Warrior Art/ Jason Kasman

ALL OPINIONS expressed on the op-ed pages represent the indi-vidual viewpoints of their authors. The content does not necessarily represent the views of The War-rior, the high school, the school district, or the Board of Education.

“Why don’tthe students

get a chanceto audition

for the solos?”

6 May 28, 2010 The WarriorEntertainment

Murphy’s husband found deadby bHavya narala

entertainment

Sad news arrived in the world of entertainment. In the midst of new movie releases, the season finale of Lost, and much more, the death of a producer looms over us. Simon Monjack was found dead in his Los Angeles residence on Sunday, May 23.

Many of you may not know who he is, but his wife might ring a bell. Actress Brittany Murphy married Simon Monjack back in 2007. Murphy was famous for her roles in movies such as “Clue-less”, “8 Mile”, “Just Married”, and “Uptown Girls”. Many of her movies earned great reviews and set the top box office records. She was a beloved actress in the realm of Hollywood. Along with acting, she also modeled and sang for various soundtracks, such as “Happy Feet”. However, her time came to an end as well. Unfor-tunately, she was found dead on December 20, 2009. Police officers investigated the cause of death and concluded that it was accidental. She had col-lapsed in her bathroom floor and

was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Murphy went into cardiac arrest and died upon arriving to the hospi-ta l . A f te r an autopsy was done in February , doctors de-cided that the cause o f d e a t h was due to pneumonia, mixed with anemia and drug intoxi-cat ion. I t was truly a sad loss for Hollywood.

A s i f this wasn’t enough, her h u s b a n d was found dead yester-day. Simon Monjack was an English screen-writer, director, and producer. He wrote the movie, “Two Days,

Nine Lives”, in 2000. He was also executive producer for the movie, “Factory Girl” (starring Sien-

na Miller), which was released in 2006. Ap-parently, a woman rec-ognized as M u r p h y ’ s m o t h e r , S h a r o n , had called the emer -gency room late Sunday night after she found the thirty-nine year old dead in his home. When in-vestigators looked into the case, they said no foul play

was found. Monjack had died of natural causes. Back in Janu-ary, Monjack’s mother, Linda,

had stated that Monjack was slightly ill and had health issues. He suffered a minor heart attack as well. Despite this, an autopsy may be done in the near future to further check out the specific cause of death. However, for now, we will just have to live off of the fact that Hollywood has lost another writer/producer.

So, is it strange that Simon Monjack died only five months after Brittany Murphy? Of course deaths happen everyday, but isn’t it slightly creepy that two people who were married died within six months of each other? I mean in Hollywood, anything is possible, so I am not one to judge. It is quite the unfortunate event, though, that these two such talented people have passed away. Mon-jack had planned to direct a movie called “White Hotel”, which was based on D.M. Thomas’s novel about Sigmund Freud. Murphy was supposed to be given the lead role. Sadly, none of this will ever happen. I hope we can all take a minute to mourn the grief of these two people in Hollywood. May they rest in peace.

http://www.cbc.ca/THE HAPPY COUPLE: Simon Monjack and his wife, Brittany Murphy, posed together before Murphy’s tragic death in 2009.

Apple vs . Google: It’s on!by soHaib syed

entertainment

As many of us have heard, Apple has gone from its intuitive inspirational innovator to a totalitarian warmonger of corporal giants. Steve Jobs has been quoted once stating, “Good companies copy, great artists steal.” Now, the king of filing suits files against any company that has the slightest patent infringement. For example, the whole HTC and Apple controversy: Apple filed 20 pat-ent infringements that HTC phone products had, which would cause total ban over HTC phone products. Interestingly enough, these were specifically products that ran Android, Google’s recently new mobile OS. Yet it was no coincidence that Apple had targeted them.

Apple and Google had been working side by side in the early years, releasing products that worked with each other. When iPhone came out, Google made an interface of their products that was suitable for those who used the iPhone. For example, Gmail was

reworked such that it fit in the screen, and it was more user-friendly. But as soon as Google released their own mobile OS and platform, things started getting heated be-tween the two. And to top it off, Apple had been getting significantly more strict over its products. Another well known issue is the whole feud between Apple and Adobe. Originally Apple allowed app makers to use Adobe’s SDK but eventually they decided against it. They want their developers to use specifically Apple’s SDK, called Objective-C. Although one could reason that it makes it convenient for Apple to monitor and use it as it is specifically for the iTouch/iPhone, it makes it extremely inconvenient for develop-ers as they have to force themselves to learn an entirely new language to create an app that they want. This caused a lot of controversy between not only the app developers, but the company Adobe itself. One of the developers of Adobe personally wrote an article that showed his discontent with Apple’s deci-

sion. As one can see, Apple has seemingly become more tyrannical over its products, trying to seize control in every aspect.

Due to Apple’s current attitude towards other companies, Google along with Sony, Adobe, Intel, and Logitech have teamed up together to work on Google’s newest prod-uct, Google TV. Essentially, its a software platform for television that runs the Android OS and allows interaction between several multi-medias. Of its capabilities introduced at the Google I/O conference, it can not only broadcast shows, but also allows users to conveniently connect with the Internet, An-droid phones integrate Google’s sophisticated search engine and allow the ability to down-load apps. In other words, all the companies that are against Apple are teaming up to cre-ate a system which overhauls Apple’s Apple TV. As is evident, Apple is taking a turn for the worse. Even though Apple continues to produce mind-blasting products, its current situation may lead to its eventual downfall.

7May 28, 2010The Warrior Sports

Nisky softball: young and strongby t.J. Goldstoff

sports

The Niskayuna girls varsity softball team fulfilled its Sec-tionals goal by beating Ball-ston Spa on May 20, clinching a first round berth. The girls will enter the tournament with a respectable 10-10 record.

Although they may not be able to match last year’s 16-8 re-cord, they have really shown their forti-tude this season. It has been an injury-ridden season for the squad, and the team has been forced to bring up younger players, including two eighth grade pitchers. Injuries hit the team hard, with players getting hurt throughout the season. Said senior player Jackie Tomis-man, “It’s been tough bringing up younger girls that we haven’t really played with but they ’ve been doing real ly wel l and its nice to have them with us. As a team, we’ve taken them in and helped them so they can be even better for the rest of the year and for years to come.”

Despite some inju-ries to key players, many good things have come out of this season, including several very excit-ing wins. The team had back-to-back walk off wins against Burnt Hills and Averill Park. During these games, both teams were evenly matched, neck and neck until the sev-enth inning when Nisky rallied to win. They defeated Burnt Hills 3-2 and Averill Park 6-5.

Unlike baseball, only seven innings are played in a var-sity softball game, and the

base paths are only sixty feet long, compared to ninety feet in baseball. There are also other small differences be-tween the two, such as the size of the barrel of the bat.

“We’ve worked really hard this year to earn our wins and work harder after we lose,”

said junior Serena Moroukian “We’ve had tough competi-tion but continue to do our best and give 110 percent.”

Tomisman added, “Our hit-ting had been good one through nine, and our defense is prob-ably one of the best in the Suburban Council. Defense wins games, and ours has proved that, and our hit-ting is there to back it up.”

Another exciting win was the Guilderland game, on May 3. Guilderland looked strong throughout the game. Nisk-ayuna had some trouble figuring out the opposing pitcher in the early innings of the game, but picked up the intensity during the fourth and fifth innings.

The Warriors’ lineup is full of strong hitters. Said Moroukian, “When we string hits together, everything goes in our favor.”

The team lost close games to Shaker and rival Shenende-howa. Its game against Shaker went into extra innings. The Nisky girls scored a quick run in the top of the first and held off their opponents until the bottom of seventh when

Shaker came back to tie it. The Shaker girls took the game in the bottom of the eighth.

The Niskayuna girls, coming off of their tough loss against Shaker, took on Shenendehowa, who they had beaten last year in Sectionals. Shenendehowa’s softball team has dominated

the Suburban Council and the rest of Section II this year. Through five innings, the game was a stalemate, with both teams scoreless. Unfortunately, Shen then took a 5-0 lead. Now, to this point, Bethlehem was the only team to score an earned run against Shenendehowa’s de-fense. Niskayuna’s of-fense kicked into gear. Senior Megan Price singled, and Moroukian followed with another single, moving Price to third. Price came in to score with eigth grader Ali Frary’s single. It was their only earned run, but the Niskayuna girls had become only the second team to score an earned run against Shen. “Hopefully when we meet Shen again, we will emerge victori-ous,“ said Moroukian.

So now the team looks forward to Sectionals. “We have the potential to go all the way this year, and I hope we do. This has been a great senior season and should be an exciting postseason.

I hope to end this season on a good note,” said Tomisman.

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s o n a very successful senior sea-son to the Softball Class of 2010: Lauren Giglio, Megan Price, and Jackie Tomisman.

The team is set to scrimmage Guilderland in order to prepare for Sectionals. Best of luck to the girls on the softball team as their postseason tournament begins!

Photo Credit / Laura Annello WARRIORS ON A ROLL: 8th Grade Pitcher Ali Frary leads the Niskayuna Varsity Softball team through a great game.

May 28, 2010 The WarriorSports

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Boys Lacrosse

5/18 @ Ballston SpaWon 11-2

5/20 vs. SaratogaWon 12-2

Girls Lacrosse

5/19 vs. S. Glens FallsWon 23-3

8

Don’t forget to recycle this issue when you finish reading it!

Niskayuna’s boys varsity lacrosse team continued its Section II dominance with a favorable win over Saratoga High School with a final score of 12–2. “The scene was so in-tense and us fans had a splendid time. I know that I will cherish this moment forever,” said freshman lacrosse fanatic Timi Elefontuyi. “The crowd really got into the game and that always helps us out a lot,” said JV defender and freshman Colby Vickerson. Those among the crowd were sophomores Ryan Burke and Matt Kellish. Burke later commented, saying, “When it comes to the potential of our Nisky la-crosse team, Guy is the limit,” refer-ring to senior mid f i e lder Guy Walt-man. “ I t ’s senior night, and they are c e r t a i n l y putting on a show for the town,” said Kellish.

The team had just de-feated Shen 8-7 and is b u i l d i n g m o m e n -t u m n o w f o r S e c t i o n a l s .

“A high was beating Shen at home, a low was losing to Shen for the first time since 2004. We always expect to be one of the best teams and because of the coaching staff and hard working players. Colin Foster on offense has really stepped up. This is his third year on varsity and only his first year starting, yet this year he’s getting a lot of time at both midfield and attack and he is a key component to the offense this year,” said senior attacker Justin McKinney. “Junior Brian Schlansker, a first year varsity player has also stepped up on offense. He is a leading scorer and a threat at all times on the field. This year our

effort on the field is key for our success just because we don’t have the superstars that we had last year. We need to want it and we have to work harder than ever to get to where we need to be by the end of the year.” And it’s true. The team must want it if it is to reach the same heights as last year’s team did. The competition has become much tougher and now Niskayuna is the team to beat.

Junior Alex Espina said, “I think they’re a well-organized, consistently dominating program from top to bottom.”

The lows were definitely the losses the team experienced. Especially the loss to Shen, which led to one of the highs of the team’s season:

beating Shen. Losing senior

Mark Panneton to a broken col-lar bone was a major low point, which showed some guys that they needed s omeone t o step up. Foster and Schlan-sker have both stepped up their game drastical-ly. Freshman Lucas Maloney, who was pulled up from JV be-cause of Pan-

neton’s injury, has been playing superbly as well. “I think the fact that we all have been playing with each other for four or five years is a huge reason that we have been success-ful this year. Also the fact that we always have maximum effort coming from every guy. We may not play very well sometimes, but we always give it our all in practice and in games,” said senior defender Lucas Carlson.

Despite its setbacks, the team has made a great run. Freshman players Tyler Panta-lone and Thomas Testa all said, “There is no question. Our varsity team wants it. We think they will win Sectionals easily, and advance to the state semifinals at least.”

Laxers prep for Sectionalsby CHristopHer Herman

sports

www.timesunion.comDOMINATING DEFENSE: Junior Nikhon Schuler teaches a lesson to a weak opponent.