The WarriorNiskayuna High School December 18, 2009 Volume 36, Issue 13

a student-run publication since 1974, now weekly

Inside this issue...“Twilight” con-test,page 6

Skiing season starts,page 8

Suspensions are despicable,page 5

DECA helps make dreams come trueby Maggie Jordan

news

In the weeks before win-ter break, DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) members at the high school are selling paper angels in front of the Old Cafe during lunch mods, as well as in the business department. For a one dollar donation, purchasers receive an angel to sign their name on and hang up in a hallway display.

DECA, under advisor and business education teacher Jan-ice Lindsay, pledged to sell all of the 300 angels they purchased this holiday season. Said senior and club member Julia Kosines-ki, “I love doing community ser-vice. It’s a really great program, especially around the holidays.

The Adopt An Angel program is part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, sponsored by Disney and several other major corporations. Students and faculty members at the high school have been donating to this very worthy cause to make the dreams of terminally ill children in the capital region come true.

Make-A-Wish began in 1980, when the granting of one young boy’s wish inspired the forma-tion of a foundation to continue the mission. Seven-year-old Christopher Greicius was under-going treatments for leukemia, while maintaing the ambition of becoming a police officer.

Chris’ dream came true when the Arizona Department of Pub-lic Safety took him for a private helicopter ride, and a tour of the headcourters and gave him the honor of being selected as the first honorary policeman in the history of the state. Four days later, Chris

passed away, after seeing his deepest desire come into fruition.

Make-A-Wish president David Williams said, “A wish granted has a deep, life-affirming impact on the wish child and family, creating the hope, strength and joy so greatly needed. What makes each wish even more remarkable

is the power to enrich so many others’ lives – from friends, vol-unteers and donors to sponsors and even entire communities.”

Several local children afflicted with life-threatening diseases have had dreams fulfilled as part of the Make-A-Wish foundation,

aided by the donations of high school students. This year, the recipients include Tyler, age four, from Whitehall. He suffers from a mitochondrial disease and dreams of going on a vaca-tion to Walt Disney World Resort.

Twelve-year-old Regina, from Ravena, will also have her dream

made possible by Make-A-Wish and donations from students. She has severe aplastic anemia and hopes to receive a new violin.

Samantha, a ten-year-old from Clifton Park, asked for a Hawaiian themed birthday party. She plans on celebrating her remission from non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Other participants include Do-menico, who dreams of meeting the Pittsburgh Steelers and Troy, who would like a room makeover.

In 2009, Make-A-Wish granted wishes for 13,465 children, making it their most success-ful year yet. In the United States, a wish is fulfilled every 40 minutes. More than 75% of the money raised goes di-rectly to aiding children in need.

Said senior and club mem-ber Julia Kosineski, “I love doing community service. It’s a really great program, espe-cially around the holidays.”

The fundraiser will be contin-ued through Dec. 22. For a low price, the Make-A-Wish founda-tion makes big dreams become a reality, with the help of even the smallest student donations. DECA co-president and senior

Kyle Briggs stated, “We appreciate the support from all the students and staff from the high school. We have not met our goal yet, but we are doing all we can to sell the angels. We need your support.” DECA thanks the community for the continued contributions.

Warrior Photo / Kelly JenningsWISH UPON AN ANGEL: The windows outside the Old Cafe are decorated with the angels purchased by students as a symbol of hope and a brighter future.

2 The WarriorNews December 18, 2009

Debate helps out by gift-wrappingby sohaib syed

news

The holiday season is right around the corner, and most people cannot wait. Ev-eryone loves getting presents from parents or loved ones and relaxing during the winter break that comes with the seasonal festivi-ties. Unfortunately, most of us forget the true meaning of the holdiay season and simply look forward to the winter break.

Luckily, there are a few who still remem-ber the true Holiday spirit. The Speech and Debate club, run by administrator and Nis-kayuna alumnus Sohail Syed, is spreading the holiday spirit by wrapping presents at the Barnes and Nobles Mohawk Commons.

Syed states, “We are trying to raise more money for the debate team through FONSD [Friends of Niskayuna Speech and Debate] so that we can compete at more tourna-

ments and hopefully fund our debaters so they can attend prestigious tournaments such as the TOC, NFL Nats, and NCFL tournaments. Barnes and Nobles has kindly offered us tables and wrapping paper so we can set up the station and gift wrap.”

The team has an exceptional record of doing well at various tournaments and qualifying to go to states and other higher competitions. The limited budget provides a problem for the team; debaters end up having to pay additional money out of pocket that the budget does not cover, making it difficult for some of the members to attend tournaments.

In order to allow more opportunities for the fellow debaters to attend the tour-naments, Syed contacted Barnes and Nobles who offered the team an opportu-nity to increase funds by wrapping gifts.

Upon asking Syed about who these gifts

are for he replied, “We are wrapping them for private [paying] families. It isn’t really a char-ity scenario. We are offering services to fami-lies who are interested in getting the presents they bought for their loved ones wrapped.” The team will go out to Mohawk Commons on Dec. 21 and 22 and will be there from 2pm to 4 pm and 5pm to 8pm respectively.

This winter, Speech and Debate is trying to help out their community. In return, the team is able to give their de-baters the opportunity to excel and not be hindered by the limiting budget. In this way, everyone benefits, and the holiday spirit spreads as the team “gives back”.

As debater Vishnu Adi so put it, “Wrap-ping gifts for other families is a great way to help out the community. Some people are busy, and don’t have the time on their hands to wrap presents, so we do it for them!”

Are you SADD about destructive decisions?by Jackson MontryM

news

Drinking underage, doing drugs and smoking are all very bad decisions. Many high school students, unfortunately, choose to take those actions. Luckily, there’s a club at Niskayuna High School which discour-ages students from making these pernicious choices SADD. SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions. Right now, the club is trying to encourage students to be safe over the holidays and avoid drinking and driving.

The holiday season is the most dangerous in terms of drinking and driving due to the increase of special parties which means more alcohol. In fact, 1,000 people die annually from drinking and driving accidents between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day in the United States according to suite101.com.

There are many ways to pre-vent these tragic occurrences. First, if you notice that anyone who is driving has signs of intox-ication such as slurred speech or slow reaction; tell them not to drive before they get in the car or tell them to pull over if you

are with them. Secondly, make sure there is a designated driver or that someone at the event is going to limit their drinking so they can drive home safely.

Every Friday, until winter break, SADD is airing an-nouncements to discourage drinking and driving. Have

vigilance over the holidays to make sure that your family doesn’t fall into a DWI trap. These messages can be very important for students. Accord-ing to the website www.SADD.org, “students in schools with an established SADD chapter are more aware of and informed

about the risks of underage drinking, other drug use, and impaired driving.” Niskayuna students are sure to have an active chapter of SADD for years to come. Enjoy your upcoming holiday, and be sure to be safe and be smart because you don’t want this holiday to be your last.

REMINDER!Lockers in A-hall and old C-hall must be cleaned out be-fore Winter break. To get a new locker assignment stu-dents must see Mrs. Seda in

the Counseling Center.

3December 18, 2009The Warrior News

Musicians shine at All-State by Marcelle tuttle

news

Last weekend, talented mu-sicians from all over the state converged in order to take part in the annual All-State festival. Participants were at the top of their games. The high school was honored this year to have eight students in the festival and two alternates. Six of the eight students that attended the festival were in the orches-tra, and two were in the chorus.

The requirements are very steep to paricipate in the concert. 6,500 students apply through the state in hopes of being accepted. Out of those, 900 are chosen to partici-pate. Only sophmores and juniors are allowed to apply for the next year because there are so many

applicants that they are unable to process the added applications freshmen would submit. To apply, students must audition with a level six NYSSMA solo. NYSSMA stands for the New York State School Music Association. The organization puts on this festival and the Area-All State Festival that took place earlier in the year. Also, Area All-State is comprised of students from the area, while All-State is the entire state.

The judges who decide the participants for the festival are generally current or retired music teachers specially trained to look for certain elements in the music. They quickly get very critical of a solo because there are many different choices for each instru-ment and only so many ways to

receive a perfect score. Many students have felt the wrath of an unhappy judge when getting their score back. Also, to per-form a level six solo, they must have all the major scales memo-rized, which is a daunting task.

The students are then recom-mended by the judges to attend the festival if they receive a score of a 98 or above. Gener-ally, depending on the instru-ment, students need to have a score of 100 to be accepted.

Once they get to the festival, the musicians in the orchestra must audition for their seats. They are given the music before the festival in order to practice. This means everyone is not only almost equal-ly qualified, they are equally pre-pared. To choose the best of these

students must be a difficult task. This year, Niskayuna was well

represented by Teresa Spinelli who was the concert master for the festival. Everyone else was at the front of their section.

Everyone agreed that the festi-val was a wonderful experience, “I was a little nervous to room with two other people I hardly knew, but we got along well together. We got in nearly fifteen hours of practice time. I had a great time” said Senior Alyssa Pyle of the ex-perience. Spinelli agreed saying, “I had a great time, both during re-hearsals and just having fun with all my friends from Niskayuna and ESYO. I’m glad that so many Niskayuna students had this great experience, and I think we represented the high school well.”

Toys collected for an honorable cause

Warrior Photo/ Kelly JenningsSANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN: Toys for Tots distributes toys to children in need every holiday season.

by eMily o’brien

news

This holiday season , the high school faculty and students are doing their part to give back to the local community by con-tinuing the annual tradition of sponsoring a Toys for Tots donation box at the high school.

The foundation is run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. The foundation collects new, unwrapped toys and distrib-utes them to children in the local community. Along with toy distribution, Toys for Tots accepts donations by giving money through its website, through Coke rewards found on the bottle caps of all Coke products and through donating a portion of the profit made through selling items on ebay.

Along with the donation of toys and money from the millions of Americans who participate in the drive each year, Toys for Tots has several corporate sponsors including Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Hasbro, Scholastic books and UPS. Each of these companies is considered a four star sponsor, meaning they have donated 1 million dollars in cash

or 2 million dollars in toys.Since its start in 1947, Toys

for Tots has distributed 400

million toys to 188 million needy children across America. In 2008, there were 657 local campaigns

in all 50 states in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Do-minican Republic. Last year alone, the foundation collected and distributed 16.2 million toys to 7.6 million children. The foundation also sponsors a lit-eracy program that’s run like the original toy collecing program, except books are collected and bought with 1 dollar donations.

Unlike many charities, Toys for Tots uses 97 cents of every dollar they make to provide toys for children. The other three cents goes towards op-perating and promotional fees.

The Marine Corps Reserves continue the program with the hope to “Deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a mes-sage of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.”

The memories of receiving presents over the holidays stick with people through adulthood. Help children who are in need this season by bringing new and unwrapped toys to the main office where there is a drop box or any other participating local buisness.

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.

4 The WarriorOpinion

Editor-in-Chief:Anagha TolpadiJulie Slotnick

News:Marcelle Tuttle, EditorMaggie Jordan, EditorEmily O’Brien, EditorNaji Simmons, Asst.

Opinion:Nick Farina, EditorKaela Bamberger, EditorArchith Murali, EditorDaniel Zhao, Asst

Entertainment:Chris Murphy, EditorLucas Lobe, Editor

Sports:Jason Xu, EditorTalia Salenger, Editor

Magazine:Caroline Brown, EditorAnnie Schwendler, EditorJackson Montrym, Asst.

Additional Staff:Kelvin Lin, Copy EditorSohaib Syed, Copy EditorBrian Vedder, Business ManagerAbhinav Adi, Advertising ManagerNina Santiago, Distribution ManagerKelly Jennings, Graphics Editor

Advisers: James Edgar Russell McDowell

December 18, 2009

The Afghan war: worth i t?by Matt habib

opinion

On Dec. 1, President Barack Obama gave a speech at West Point University to address his plans for Afghanistan. Those attending were students at the academy who were potential soldier that might end up going over seas. They did not seem too enthused to say the least. There were even a few accounts in which some of them were seen sleeping. What exactly was the goal of the United States in staying in Afghanistan?

This “conflict” has been going on for some time now and very few people actually knew what the mission was. The Presi-dent cleared that up. Obama reminded the American people of how we were attacked in 2001, and how al Qaeda was responsible for these attacks. Our mission is simple, defeat al Qaeda so that not only the United States feels safer, but also so the whole world feels safer as well. The Taliban, which rose to power through corruption, refused to hand over Osama bin Laden and needed to be removed. When the US sent troops, the Taliban government fell apart, and al Qaeda was dispersed. There has been progress since the conflict started. President Obama said in his speech, “we’ve made prog-ress on some important objec-tives. High-ranking al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed, and we’ve stepped up the pressure on al Qaeda worldwide. In Pakistan, that nation’s army has gone on its largest offensive

in years. In Afghanistan, we and our allies prevented the Taliban from stopping a presidential election, and — although it was marred by fraud — that election produced a government that is consistent with Afghani-stan’s laws and constitution.”

Obama said numerous things to try to captivate the audience. One of them being that at that very moment al Qaeda was making new plans of terrorism. For this reason, “we must keep the pressure on al Qaeda.” In order to do this, Obama outlined three objectives that must be completed: deny al Qaeda safe haven, reverse Tali-ban momentum, deny its ability to overthrow the government, and strengthen Afghan security forces so they can take over. In order for this to be carried out, the president plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghani-stan. This, the president hopes, will help train Afghan security forces to make a transfer from American to Afghani hands. Obama insured that the US is not alone in its efforts. Many of the US’s allies will be right there with it, although no one has committed troops as of now. Everyone will be there, the president reiterated, because the security of the world is at stake. For the other objec-tives to happen there must be a civilian surge. The cur-rent president of Afghanistan, President Karzai is doing a great job combating corrup-tion, and the US will help to ensure that. Obama talked directly to the Afghani people

when he said, “I want the Af-ghan people to understand — America seeks an end to this era of war and suffering. We have no interest in occupying your country. We will support efforts by the Afghan govern-ment to open the door to those Taliban who abandon violence and respect the human rights of their fellow citizens. And we will seek a partnership with Af-ghanistan grounded in mutual respect — to isolate those who destroy; to strengthen those who build; to hasten the day when our troops will leave; and to forge a lasting friendship in which America is your part-ner, and never your patron.”

Lastly, Obama really em-phasized having an effective partnership with Pakistan. Both countries chare a com-mon enemy, so why not? If both countries don’t work together, then Pakistan will continue to act as a safe haven for al Qaeda. The US has full intentions of remaining friends with Pakistan after this conflict.

There has been much criticism about the conflict in Afghanistan. Even though Obama did not start the war, he addressed the problems. Some people say Af-ghanistan is very similar to Viet-nam. This is not true, however. Unlike Vietnam, Afghanistan had full support from everyone after the 9-11 attacks. Not only that, but there is broad coalition from other countries aiding the US. Other critics have harassed Obama about keeping the num-ber of troops in Afghanistan the same. The President explains

that the reason he waited so long to make a decision was because he wanted to make the right deci-sions to end this conflict as soon as possible. Many people have also said that the war has not been open-ended with no time frame. Obama conquered this criticism by setting an eighteen month time until the troops start to leave, and the power shifts back to the Afghani people.

The part of the speech ev-eryone really cared about was the cost of the plan. This ad-dress was no more than a few sentences long, which makes sense because people do not want to hear about that during a recession. “Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly $30 billion for the military this year, and I’ll work closely with Congress to address these costs as we work to bring down our deficit.” This money is necessary, because it will end the conflict which, if it ran longer, will cost even more.

Obama closed by describing the present situation to that of the FDR. Even though the situations are similar, tough economic times war with, the president needs to be careful with the comparison of him and one of the most accomplished presidents. This attempt to rally the American people was pretty successful and the most excit-ing part of the speech. The rest of the speech was not the best compared to his normal speeches where the people are rallied and uplifted. Obama even said that he didn’t want to give this speech, and it clearly showed.

5December 18, 2009The Warrior Opinion

ALL OPINIONS expressed on the op-ed pag-es represent the individual viewpoints of their authors. The content does not necessarily repre-sent the views of The Warrior, the high school, the school district, or the Board of Education.

Detentions are counter-productiveby kevin dai

opinion

“You’re in big trouble. As your punishment, you can’t go to class.”

“ Wa i t a m i nute… d id you just say punishment?”

Now, disregarding the judg-ment of whether or not a sus-pension is actually merited, what kind of punishment is it exactly? It means that you are not allowed to go to class and, if you’re lucky enough, not only can you not go to class, but you can’t go to school.

So what do you do when you have this “punishment” of staying home? Well I’m by no means an expert of this subject, but I’d most likely sleep in, wake up at 11 am, break out my Xbox 360, and start pwning noobs on Halo 3.

To me, suspensions are al-most paradoxical. It’s almost like a mind trick that school administrators will play on you. “Sorry, but now you have to stay at home tomorrow.” Your first reaction to that state-ment is “NOOOoooooo! Please don’t make me stay home from school!!!” And then right after you finish that sentence, you think “Wait… what am I saying?” It’s like reverse psychology and it seems to be very effective.

Now, what’s confusing to me is whether or not the school actually thinks that this is a punishment. This is debat-

able because some students actually want to go to class to learn, while others would much rather miss as much class that they could get away with. What does this mean then? It means that the students that are more academic get punished, while students that are less academi-cally inclined to go to school have a nice reason to stay home.

Students that don’t actually care about learning are more likely to make trouble and receive a suspension. Because they don’t care about the learning process when they are given a suspension, they are not actually being punished since missing classes has no negative consequences to them.

However, when you give a suspension to a “good” stu-dent who doesn’t want to miss class, you indeed are pun-ishing them by barring their right to learn. Thus suspen-sions are in a way, reward-ing students that it intends to discipline and penalizing students that don’t deserve it.

It is unfathomable how a suspension would be, in any way, beneficial to a school and a punishment to a student. First of all, when a student misses classes, he or she either has to make them up or fall behind. Second, a student might not be able to attend a sports game or a music performance, which af-

fects the team/ensemble much more than it affects the student. It’s shameful that any school administrator would think that giving a suspension to anyone would be a form or punishment, much less a good form of pun-ishment. Moreover, it is more troubling when it isn’t even justified – because you are in-excusably depriving students.

Possibly the only way that a suspension punishes students is how it affects their future col-lege decisions. Although I origi-nally intended to leave this out, this impact cannot be ignored. Colleges may overlook some students that drink because it is so common, but are much less forgiving when it comes to students that are supposedly violent, racist or sexual offend-ers. Which college would want a “sexual deviant” on campus?

What good does an in school suspension do according to the school? It is so that the “student can not cause any trouble in the community, something that could be an issue without in school suspension.” Basically, it means that the student must have done something that can be only interpreted as troubling. This means that suspensions are viewed by the community as a serious punishment, war-rantable by serious offenses.

So whenever a school admin-istrator goes out of his or her

way to make an offense appear like a larger offense, he or she does three things. First, he or she makes it seem like the student must have done some-thing that was actually bad – something having to do with violence, drugs or something that actually offended someone, rather than something that might have offended someone. Second, he or she “punishes” the student by making them stay home and sleep-in for a few extra hours. Above all, it may make the student look ex-tremely bad depending on what they may be accused for. I’m not saying that this happens, but when it does, it’s ridiculous and appalling at the same time.

Suspensions look bad-- not only on the school, but on the United States as well. What kind of country believes that the best way to punish a student is to take away their right to learn? I seriously weep for our future. If we as a nation really think that teaching “manners” to misbe-having students means pulling them out of school and allowing them to play some video games, I can’t wait to in what direction we are heading. See, if we were in China or some Asian country, there would be no suspensions. Instead, you’d get repetitively smacked by a ruler. Now THAT is an actual punishment.

A n d s o I w a s l i k e ,by andy chan

opinion

Recently, there’s been blatant abuse of the word “like”. Quite frankly, it’s mak-ing me sick. Each class has posse of “like-abusers” that dilute the realm of academia. But I must admit, their dia-logue makes me feel oh-so edu-ma-cated.

Being a native Californian, I blame the Valley Girl for this mess. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the term “Valley Girl” was once (and still is) a term used to describe upper-middle class girls in the area surrounding San Fernando Valley, California. Valley Girls made their first me-dia appearance in the 1980’s show called

Valley Girls, a precursor to today’s Gossip Girl. The rest is history. Their walk, talk and swagger has evolved into the epitome of attractive- especially their ubiquitous and unorthodox use of “like” as a filler word. Both genders have caught on to “Like-Fever” and it has spread like wildfire, transform-ing today’s kids into horrible orators.

Using the word out of context detracts from the overall appearance of of a speaker. No matter how smart a person may be, the quality of a thought or idea is just as important as its deliverance. When author-ity figures give speeches, do you ever hear them use annoying filler words? Hillary Clinton would never speak to a foreign

ambassador like this; “The United States, thinks that, like, Global Warming, is, like, an issue.” No one would take her seri-ously because she would sound like a ditz.

Don’t be a Valley Girl. When you speak, be mindful of how you do and make a conscious effort to articulate your ideas in a like-free manner. In doing so, you will sound more intelligent and distinguish yourself from a generation of rhetorical failures.

6 December 18, 2009 The WarriorEntertainment

Bad TV: It is inside your very home!by sohaib syed

entertainMent

Do you remember the good old days of television? The days where there were shows like “Recess” and “Catdog,” shows that were so good that you would know everything about them? Everyone remembers “Rocket Power” and “Hey Arnold!,” and I can’t help but wonder what happened to those days.

Recently, cartoon shows have been going downhill. They are no longer as awesome as they once used to be. Honestly, shows like “The Penguins of Madagascar” and “The Mighty B” are simply horrible. They aren’t funny and they aren’t unique. I can still go back to an episode of “Hey Arnold!” and watch it over and over again without getting sick of it.

Another example of a bad show is “iCarly.” I cannot bear to watch more than a minute. The jokes are horrible, the plot is unoriginal, and the

acting is horrid. The reason why the old shows were better was because they did things right!

“Doug” was a fantastic show because the characters were unique and you could relate to them. Doug was the kid who was also very quiet and kept to himself. Skeeter was the goofy friend who was always laid back but always helpful as well. The show was also unique on how it transitioned from scene to scene, using a mixture of beatboxing and ran-dom sounds that were always fun to listen to.

You also had “Hey Arnold!”, with Ar-nold being the nice kid trying to stick up for everyone. His best friend Gerald was the cool cat and Helga was the bully who was secretly in love with Arnold.

These shows incorporated multiple ele-ments from other shows such that not only would it be non-repetitive, but it would also be worth watching. It saddens me to see car-

toons today because of the lack of originality. It saddens everyone to know that shows

like “Doug,” “Recess,” “Pinky and the Brain,” “Animaniacs,” etc. are no longer aired because the shows have finished. At the very least, the fond memories of waking up at seven in the morning just to watch a new episode of Digimon and the old Power Rangers still exist. I can still remember the theme songs for most, if not all, of the shows that made up my childhood.

Don’t you want to be the very best that no one ever was? Don’t you want to do same thing you do every night—try to take over the world? Don’t you say HEY what a wonderful kind of day where you can learn to work and play and get along with each other? These are just a few of the morals that old shows try to convey in their theme songs and with the termination of these shows, what will our future generations learn from these new television programs?

Have a Kranky Chr i s tmasby swati Mehrotra

entertainMent

With Christmas less than two weeks away, it’s time to snuggle up with a copy of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and soak in that warm glow of Christmas cheer. However, for every timeless classic, a holiday disaster is born. Such a disaster is “Christmas with the Kranks,” an undoubted lump of coal in all of our stock-ings. The stale humor and painfully predictable plot of “Christmas with the Kranks” will leave viewers thinking that this movie must in fact

be the work of the Grinch!“A mirthless movie about as

fresh as last year’s fruitcake,” was “Rotten Tomatoes”’s re-view of “Christmas with the Kranks.” When Luther and Nora Krank’s only daughter decides to go abroad, they both choose to skip the holi-days. But when their daughter calls the day before Christ-mas to announce that she has decided to come home, the Kranks have 12 hours to put together a holiday party. Highl ights (or lowl ights I should say) include the heav-ily anticipated fight for the

last ham, electrocution by holiday lights and several bulky Christmas decorations spontaneously falling off of the roof. This flimsy plot line and lame attempt at humor MIGHT be enough to entertain a five year old, but it fails to captivate the interest of the majority of its viewers. Writ-ten by John Grisham, “Christ-mas with the Kranks” shows that even an admired author can conceive such a fiasco.

I can’t decide which is worse: the actual storyline of the movie or the actors themselves. An aging Jamie

Lee Curtis and T im Allen star in this cinematic fail, predictably giving completely uninspiring per formances. They both appear to finally be “losing it” as they dash from place to place throughout the movie, adding a frantic edge to the already hectic plot.

So when it is time for your family to sit down with some eggnog and bond over a charming holiday movie, here is my advice to you: Stick with the classics, and if you hap-pen to come across “Christ-mas With the Kranks,” run far, far, far, far, far, FAR away.

ENTER THE WARRIOR“TWILIGHT”CONTEST!entertainMent contest! exclaMation point!

WHAT: Send us your best Twilight fan art (or hate art). Drawn, painted, computer-painted, BUT NO PHOTOSHOP! IT’S ALL GOTTA COME FROM YOU! Also, should be appropriate for publication in such a classy newspaper as The Warrior.

HOW: E-mail your entries to thewarriorentertianment@gmail.com. OR, deliver the physical copies of you art to the Warrior Homeroom at D103.

WHEN: All entries are due by Wednesday, December 23rd. DO IT BY THEN! NOT LATER!

PRIZE: You win! Your art will bein The Warrior! And, FIVE DOLLAR CO-OP SHOPPING SPREE!Never before has there been anything so exciting in The Warrior! Enter today!

7December 18, 2009The Warrior Sports

Fun in sports is undervaluedby talia salinger

sports

There was once a time when sports were played just for leisure, but in today’s culture, playing sports for fun may only happen once you get past fifty or so. People today play sports for other reasons: prestige, money, and the chance to get somewhere in life. There is enormous pressure in any sport, especially when you are young. This pushes ath-letes to their limits, and to extend those limits, they may resort to doing things like taking steroids to boost their performance.

America’s youth feel this pressure to suc-ceed in their sport more than anyone else. They are pushed to excel in sports with the goal of getting athletic scholar-ships to colleges and maybe even reaching the pros someday. Peers, parents and coaches urge them to compete at very high performance levels.

The truth is, only a handful of young ath-letes will ever play at the professional level. Not every person is, say, a Michael Phelps, a Wayne Gretzky, a Tiger Woods or a Kobe Bryant, however much they may want to be one.

Competition in even high

school sports has increased from several decades ago. Kids who try out for a team later than seventh or eighth grade often are cut from the team because it is too late for them to gain the skills other athletes

have honed since fourth or fifth grade. Coaches generally look for the kids who have been playing the sport year-round. Many kids without this type of

dedication are cut, no matter how much they like the game.

Another problem with the intensity of sports lately is that younger athletes are often engaged in the sport all the time. This causes injuries from

over-exertion. As pressure in athletics has increased, so have these injuries. Kids dedicate themselves to one sport all the time, and they lose the ben-

Winter season brings start to skiingby hannah wistort

sports

Even without the snow, mid-November winter sports have started at the high school. This means that the skiing season has begun, and this year’s team includes seven girls and nine-teen boys. The team began the early season with two practices per week at the high school in order to establish good fitness for each of the team’s members. The conditioning training con-

sisted of running, core work and even some ultimate Frisbee. The team will have one practice at Gore Mountain this December to prepare for their single race during this month. Once the mountains are open to the public and the snow is good, the ski team will have one prac-tice a week at West Mountain.

The first race will be dur-ing the holiday break at Royal Mountain in Johnstown, but the real action starts in Janu-

ary. The races will continue through January and Febru-ary at West Mountain and Willard Mountain one or two days every week. The season will wrap up with the Sectional Championships at Gore Moun-tain in the middle of February.

John Sharkey, who has been the ski coach for the past seven years at Niskayuna High School, is unfortunately unable to coach the team this season as he is gradually recovering from

injury. So in his place, his son, Patrick Sharkey, took over the job and is now coaching this year. He is the perfect replace-ment, having abundant experi-ence in ski racing himself. Shar-key graduated from Niskayuna High school in 2003 and was one of the members of the ski team at the high school.He also

was a skier for Gore Mountain

Continued page 8[SKi]

www.cramersportsmed.comPRESSURE ON ATHLETES: Parents, peers, and coaches may expect too much from young athletes. Overwhelming pressure to succeed can eliminate the fun of sports.

efits of cross-training or doing something else. Cross-training prevents the same muscles from being worked again and again, and allows them to recuperate in the off-season.

Even worse than no cross-training is too much train-ing. These days, coaches often hand out intense work-out schedules that athletes are expected to follow daily in order to keep them strong for the coming seasons, which would take place in another seven or eight months. How can kids be expected to do this when they also have to balance school, homework and a bunch of other activities, not to mention time for relaxing?

No matter how much you love a sport, there is a point where it can become too much. As high school athletes, kids should be allowed to just play for the love of the sport, without feeling compelled to be the best, stand out to college scouts, or make a name for themselves. Pushing kids too hard in a sport can make them lose the enjoyment of playing it, and they may

view it as a job or something in which they have to prove themselves, instead of what it really should be: a fun activity.

December 18, 2009 The WarriorSports

Nis

ky

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Boys Basketball

12/08 vs. ShakerLost 48-53

12/11 vs. Burnt HillsWon 47-38

Girls Basketball

12/08 vs. ShakerLost 54-60

8

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

Continued from page 7[Winter]

and went to the State Championships two times as a high schooler. The team feels Patrick and John are very intense coaches but also encouraging and kind to the members of the team. With Patrick and John’s guidance, the team will hope-fully be just as successful as past years.

All of the members on the team have plenty of experience skiing and are quite advanced skiers. Skiers such as junior

Dominic Weeber have been skiing for most of their lives. Most of the kids on the team have raced for Niskayuna before, and many race for Gore, West Mountain and Whiteface.

There are no uniforms and no school equipment; sophomore Emma Mil l-spaugh stated simply, “you supply yourself.” This includes fitted helmets, boots, skis, and poles. As for the cloth-ing aspect there are no specific rulings, but many choose to wear a speed suit.

The ski team has been very successful

Photo Credit / Dominic Weeber

D. WEEBER DOMINATES: Junior Dominic Weeber skiing at Belleyre.

Ski team starts off wellin the past years. Every year that Sharkey has coached, at least one kid on the team has made it to the State Championships. This year, the coach looks to Weeber for qualifying for the tournament again and thinks his brother, Philip, a freshman, also has a good chance. The girls’ team mainly consists of freshmen. Sharkey thinks that they will improve a lot over the season and cannot wait to see how they do by the end of the season. The boys’ team also has numerous young racers who race

for mountain teams, but it also has many other experienced racers. Sharkey believes that they will have an excellent season.

Sharkey says, “the high school race team’s goal is to make good skiers even better racers.” He encourages other experienced skiers to join the team in order to get more people involved, especially some more girls.

With another experienced coach and many advanced skiers on the team, the ski team looks quite promising this year and hopes to have a season to remember.