Vol. 2 Issue 2 thetroyindependent.org

Troy High School, 4777 Northfield Parkway Troy, MI 48098

theTROYINDEPENDENTOctober 12, 2012

Free!

THS crowns homecoming queen and...kings?For the first time ever, there was a tie in votes for homecoming king: seniors Mike Barto, left, and James Heichel were crowned kings, along with Jennifer Stencel as queen. See page 2

A new policy was added to the Troy School District this year which states that under reasonable suspi-cion, administration can detain and search a cell phone for illegal data.

The fear of getting a phone taken away has started to rise recently, and the “sexting” trend is not helping. Students are worried that their teachers will search their phones and report what they find to parents or police. Some districts have implement-ed policies allowing them to search their students’ cell phones for anything as long as they have probable cause.

An important thing to remember is unless a per-son is at least 18 years old and is paying for their phone themselves, it is not their property but their parents’ or guardians’. They may seize the phone whenever they wish. If a student is on school grounds, then school au-thorities also gain the right to search with reasonable suspicion. A student can deny the search, but the phone will then be handed to the police, no questions asked.

Troy High School has implemented this policy for years. The only change is that now it’s on the dis-trict books.

“With the number of cell phones that teachers bring to the office every day, we [administration] don’t have time to search them all, nor do we want to,” Mark Dziatczak, prin-cipal, said.

“Any student that has some fear about this, the bottom line is that the pol-icy endorses what we’ve always done,” he said. “We’ve never just grabbed people’s phones or bags and searched them. We don’t want to cultivate that kind of relationship with students.”

Explaining the TSD ‘sexting’ policy

BY TOMMY ROWBAL AND ALEX ROETTENBERGER

Translation program helps break language barriers

Learning a foreign lan-guage is hard. It’s even hard-er when you’re learning the language to survive. Fortunately, most kids in

Troy don’t struggle to com-municate. There’s hope for the few that do, however, in the form of a translation service, Troy Newcomer Supporters (TNS), started by senior Lawrence Kim and junior In Chan Lee. Last year, the duo tried to start TNS as an individual project, but couldn’t get a sponsor because of lack of funding. Undeterred, they asked their counselor for ideas, and were directed to counselor Jessie Allgeier, adviser of the Troy Diversity Project (TDP). Though nei-ther Kim nor Lee was heavily involved in TDP, TNS turned into a subgroup of TDP. The two were inspired by their own experiences in elementary school. Kim was born in California, but spoke Korean from birth. Lee moved to Troy from Korea in 2002. “I cried for the first three

months,” Lee said. However, a Korean ESL teacher came to his school and translated a conversa-tion between Lee and his peers. “It was the first time I could understand anything,” he said. “We started talking about soccer, and that in-spired me to play. I wanted to help kids like me, because Troy is a wonderful commu-nity. We want to make the transition easier.” “Even though I was born in America, Korean is my first language, so I was put in the ESL program,” Kim said about his inspiration for starting TNS. “I just really wanted to help others who were in a similar situation.” TNS primarily targets ele-mentary schoolers. However, it is not to be mistaken for a language tutoring program. It’s more akin to a Big Broth-er, Big Sister program, since the main goal is to help kids develop relationships with their peers. Only four people volun-teered regularly last year, most of them Asian. There are many new volunteers this year who speak new lan-guages, such as French and Spanish. Lee and Kim have high hopes for TNS and ex-pect it to last many years.

INDEXfeature.....page 2

sports.....page 6opinion...page 8

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Dr. Mykee Fowlin visits THS

Picture a man standing alone on a stage, with noth-ing but four chairs and a couple of shirts. This isn’t the start of an average ‘stop bullying be-cause it’s bad’ presentation.

Dr. Mykee Fowlin gave a presentation on Wednesday, September 26 that targeted the prejudices and masks people, especially teenag-ers, carry around with them through portraying differ-ent characters: a child with ADHD, a homosexual football captain, an angst-filled teen and a biracial girl. Through them, Fowlin discussed sen-

sitive issues, including sui-cide, depression, bullying, isolation, eating disorders and personal stress. The personas are a result of Fowlin’s personal pain and experience like his de-pression. By being open with the audience, he encouraged many to take off their masks,

Junior Jay Darish always wanted to do something big for his homecoming date.

And that’s exactly what he

did. He made a huge poster

saying “Danielle, Homecom-ing? #4.” The student section held it up during the Pon-tiac football game while ju-nior Danielle Mukomel was cheering.

Junior Kyle Leonard asked senior Jennifer Stencel to Homecoming by putting sticky notes all over her car. He got the idea when he and his cross country teammates

Say yes to Homecoming

covered the girls’ cars in sticky notes as a prank when they were at a sleepover.

He got together almost 20 people to help him distract her. After sixth hour he ran out to her car with about ten of his friends and put all of the sticky notes on her car. He stood on top of it holding six roses.

It’s not every day that you get asked to Homecoming in sign language, but that’s how

senior Syed Murtaza asked junior Abby Green.

He knew she wanted to be asked in a very special way but he didn’t know what, so he asked her best friend, ju-nior Rachel Loken. Murtaza learned that she wanted to be asked in sign language. He then looked online to fig-ure out how to say “Will you go to the dance with me?” to which she signed back, “yes.”

Senior Blake Dagenais re-

cruited the help of his mom to figure out the perfect way to ask Britney Freisen to Homecoming. They decided to put a note next to a stuffed bear. The note read “I’d be beary glad if you went to Homecoming with me.”

Senior Christian Prz-eslawski asked senior Ellen Donabedian to Homecom-ing the traditional cross

A piece of Troy High lore started in summer 2003, on a routine moving day. Just before a Troy family moved to Chicago, Alex Maz-zenga—a 2004 Troy gradu-ate—saw a deer head lying around at their house. He decided to take it, but when he got home, his mom told him he couldn’t bring it in the house. Mazzenga put it in the trunk of his Jeep Wrangler so everyone could see it. At halftime of a football game

early that season, some-one in the student section thought the stadium needed a little pep. People told Maz-zenga, a member of the TC Line, to go get the deer head out of his car. “I ran back in and peo-ple started chanting, ‘Deer Head!’” Mazzenga said. “It became a fixture.” “We’ve never had school spirit,” longtime Troy wres-tling coach Don Hill said, “like we’ve had with that deer head.” Nine years later, Deer Head, as it’s now called, is still at Troy High. The stu-dents pass it around at foot-ball games as a tradition. Thousands of students have come to and left Troy High. Deer Head has been here the whole time. Well, that’s not entirely

true. Three years ago, Ath-ens stole Deer Head. Like other aspects of Deer Head, various stories float around about how it happened. It was taken at a hockey game. It was left behind at an event. Somebody left it in someone’s car. Some-one took someone’s keys and took it from the trunk. Someone left it at someone’s house. The someones and some-bodies are unclear. No one can really trace back the his-tory of this enigma. Deer Head was missing from winter of the 2009-10 school year until graduation. That day, principal Mark Dzi-atczak had a special surprise for the 2010 graduates. “You should know that the loss of Deer Head has

Deer Head: a history of the enigma

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Programs targets elementary school

students new to America

BY LIZA BURAKOVA

BY ANNA LARSON

THS students found creative ways to ask

dates

See Dates, page 3

See Fowlin, page 3

BY MARISSA CECCATO, ANNIE CHEN, KATIE SCHLAFHAUSER AND IN CHAN LEE

New district policy states that with

reasonable suspi-cion, administration can search student

phones: but do they want to?

bothered me deeply since it occurred,” D z i a t c z a k told gradu-ates. “I could not help but wonder what happened to this stuffed head imme-diately after I learned of its loss in Feb-ruary. “So it was in Febru-ary 2010, g r a d u a t e s , that I began my top-secret mission: the mission to find Deer Head. ‘Why would he do this?’ you may ask. The simple answer, Class of 2010: You.” Dziatczak soon took Deer

Head out from a chest, and the graduation crowd erupt-ed. The principal had contacts at Athens from his tenure there. He said he could not

BY JAKE LOURIM AND ERIN WRUBEL

See Deer Head, page 5

Deer Head at the Oct. 5 football game

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The Troy Independent - thetroyindependent.orgOctober 12, 2012 - page 2

“We have a tie,” the announcer said. “Con-gratulations to this year’s Homecoming Kings, James Heichel and Mike Barto.”

The stands erupted with applause as Barto and Heichel each received a silver football and scepter.

“I was shocked,” Barto said. “I didn’t think it was possible to have two Kings.”

Heichel agreed. “I was really surprised…not only that I was King but that there were two of us,” he said.

Recounting, recounting and recounting

Student government adviser Ryan Werenka has advised at Troy High School for nine years; as part of his duties, he has counted Homecoming Court ballots every year. During this time, there

was never a tie, although in some cases, the King or Queen won by a single vote.

“We always kind of joke about having a tie,” said Werenka. “It’s happened to other schools. And this year it happened to us.”

After final Homecom-ing Court nominations are made in mid-September, Werenka and the Student Government executive board count ballots over two days. To keep Homecoming King and Queen a secret, no one is allowed to count the same grade both days, and We-renka recounts everything to ensure accuracy.

“As soon as we realized there was a tie, we recounted three times,” said Werenka.

To further complicate things, the third place se-nior boy was one vote be-hind Barto and Heichel and fourth place, three votes behind. (Girls were not as close—Jennifer Stencel won Queen by “a large margin.”)

Although Werenka briefly considered doing a runoff between the two, he felt that the votes overall were so close that it would be unfair not to do a runoff with all

five nominees. “It’s a pretty rare occur-

rence,” said Werenka. “That was the will of the

voters. If that’s who won, that’s who won. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Putting it all together

In a normal year, the only two who know the King and Queen before they are an-nounced are Werenka and

Remo Roncone, vice prin-cipal. However, because of complications regarding two Kings, juniors Jessica Moore, student government president, and Lexi Adamski, public relations officer, knew

that there were two kings, but did not know who.

Werenka and Moore said the hardest part about the kings was figuring out logis-tics.

“We had to order another scepter,” said Moore. “It end-ed up being another $25 plus $20 for rush shipping.”

Usually, the past year’s Homecoming King awards the silver football and scepter to the new king. This created problems as Werenka did not want Jesse DuBay, 2011 King, to give away the secret by walking out with two foot-balls and scepters.

So, Moore brought out the second set in a box. She snuck behind the parents and as soon as they announced it, she ran out with the second scepter and football.

“It should have looked fair-ly seamless,” said Werenka. “But it was pretty hectic try-ing to pull it off.”

Werenka said it was excit-ing, but stressful.

“Would it have been easy to just

pick one? Absolutely. But

that’s not the way we do things.”

Ryan Werenka, student government adviser

Members of the senior Homecoming Court and their parents look on as Heichel, left, and Barto fist pump after being named Kings. “I was happy because James and I are really good friends,” said Barto.

BY CAROLYN GEARIG On a beautiful Friday night two weeks ago, the Troy Colts football team played its Homecoming game against West Bloomfield. During halftime, members of the Homecoming Court walked across the field in dresses and suits, arm in arm with their parents. Soon, it was time to announce the 2012 Homecoming King and Queen.

Crowning the Kings

“I know there’s a rumor that we rigged things, but why would we rig it that way?” said Werenka. “It just caused problems for us. That should be the ultimate proof to knock that down.”

A happy endingHeichel and Barto are

“really great friends,” as de-scribed by Barto.

“I love Barto,” said Heichel. “In a way it was almost better that we tied.”

Although Barto said he felt a “little bit less” of a King then those in year past, he said he was happy with the outcome.

“Since we’re friends, it’s cool that we get to share that,” said Barto. “I don’t think it’s necessary to have a tiebreaker. If we both won, we both won.”

“Would it have been easy to just pick one? Absolutely,” said Werenka. “But that’s not the way we do things.”

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The Troy Independent - thetroyindependent.org October 12, 2012 - page 3

even just for a moment. Fowlin said that the

show has come a long way since he started years ago when he first performed for a summer camp upon the request of his college professor.

“In the beginning it was just doing these charac-ters,” Fowlin said. “I’ve made the show more per-sonal where I’ll talk more about my own depres-sion and stuff that I went through.”

Over time, his show continued to develop and gain popularity. He now does over 300 shows per year, some of them over-seas. Senior and Troy Diversity Project (TDP) executive board member Wayne Shu attended one of his shows in 2010.

“He’s just a great ac-tor and [he] makes you think,” Shu said. “Because one second you’ll be like laughing like, ‘oh ha ha ha like this person’s like that’ but then you’ll be like, ‘but wait I’m laughing at this person and they’re deal-ing with these issues that are making them suffer as human beings.’”

TDP advisor, Jesse All-geier, also saw Fowlin be-fore he came to Troy High.

“It’s funny, it makes you cry, and all of those things,” Allgeier said, “It’s very good.”

The best responses, though, came from the Troy High student body. Almost everybody found some way to connect themselves with the pre-sentation.

“It really was an eye-opener that some people are going through some stuff that you don’t know about,” sophomore Caitlin Ferber said. “It makes you stop and think.”

Different parts of his performance spoke to dif-ferent people.

“I think, he was really

funny (and) it was enter-taining, but most of his sto-ries... they connected with people,” sophomore, Karen Cao said.

A story of a man who killed himself because no one smiled at him inspired junior Alex Marshall.

“We went to Home De-pot after [Homecoming] float building,” he said. “I said ‘hi’ to pretty much ev-eryone there, and smiled at them. Most of them said ‘hi’ back. One asked how I was doing, and that’s pretty much it. Some were a little creeped out.”

However, not everyone got the impact of the pre-

FROM FOWLIN, PAGE 1

country way. After the Holly Invitational meet he and his friends wrote “Homecom-ing?” on their stomachs. They were waiting at the fin-ish line.

Junior Lauren Miller is an amazing puzzle maker and that’s how Zack Hall asked

her to Homecoming. He made a personalized a puz-zle for her that said “Lauren HC?”

“She started making the question mark first so she figured out what it said,” said Zack.

Junior Martin Frey asked junior Carlie Wirebaugh to

Above: Junior Kyle Leonard sits on top of senior Jen Stencel’s car, holding flowers. He asked her to Homecoming by covering her car with sticky notes. Left: Stencel said yes. The two pose before the Homecoming Dance Sept. 29.

Homecoming by making a huge sign. While she was waiting in line, he and his friends unrolled it and he stood in front of it and asked her.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special an-nouncement to make to-wards the lucky lady, Me-gan Sacco. Our captain, #14 Brandon Riddle, would like to accompany her to this year’s Homecoming. Please come to the press box and reveal your answer to the crowd,” announced the soc-cer team manager at a game.

Riddle’s brother was wait-ing for Sacco, a senior, at the press box with flowers.

Junior Jj Podsiadlik asked Kaila Wiktor, of Ann Arbor, as they were coming down the Ferris wheel at Troy Daze. As they finished the ride Jj’s friends held up a sign.

Sophomore Casey O’Brien asked sophomore Melissa Rowley over the announce-ments. His friend, sopho-more Harrison Lourim, suggested that he use the picture he took of them and ask her over the announce-ments.

And she said yes.

FROM DATES, PAGE 1

Above: Fowlin speaks un-der the persona of a bullied victim. Right: The four chairs on the stage repre-sent four viewpoints Fowlin took for his presentation.

sentation.“There’s a duality of

things,” senior Won-Bae Seo said. “Sometimes peo-ple lie to protect other peo-

ple, not just themselves. So I agree with the fact that a lot of people like hide what their true feelings are, but sometimes there’s a need

for that.”Despite how the presen-

tation left people feeling, many students felt impact-ed in some way. Fowlin’s

performances showed that students can make a differ-ence by doing things as sim-ple as saying you’re beautiful or smiling at someone.

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His reason for the quick transition from student to star director?

“I just lucked out, like in-sanely,” he said.

The early yearsBabas found his first job

scrolling through Craigslist during a computer technol-ogy class his senior year— directing and filming a music video for Frequency Fifty Four, who had just fin-ished touring. The day af-ter the video was released, Frequency Fifty Four was signed to a major record company—Warner Records.

Still in his senior year, Babas shot a few rock and hip-hop videos. Right before graduation, a film festival in Florida screened one of his short films, landing him first place. He was the youngest one at a rooftop party for the film, surrounded by success-ful people and paparazzi. The name Sean Babas start-ed becoming well known, both at Troy High and in the

film industry. By graduation time, Ba-

bas had proved himself to his peers, winning the “Most Likely To Be Famous” Gim-mee Award—and famous he would be.

A semester in Chicago

He began college at Co-lumbia College Chicago, studying film with a sub-stantial scholarship. Class-es were Monday through Wednesday, and Babas’s weekends were spent out of state filming. It was difficult to travel between Los Ange-les and Chicago every week, and his trips used up the last of his allotted absences. If he missed any more classes, he would fail, regardless of his grades.

One night at LAX while waiting for a flight back to Chicago, he was talking to a 50-year-old woman. She told him that before, she had wanted to be a singer, and now—halfway through her

life—she regretted that she hadn’t taken a risk and gone for it. He sat on the floor of LAX, holding back tears, thinking about his choices. So he dropped out of college,

even though his father told him that he would be finan-cially on his own, but would still “support [him] in spirit.”

Technically, he didn’t drop out—he just stopped

showing up. “I’m not really sure if I

failed out or what. But it was the best decision I’ve ever made,” said Babas.

Soon enough, he had vid-

eos on BET and E! and was living in a luxury apartment in Chicago.

One night, he went to buy cereal and used his debit card. It was declined.

“I thought to myself, Oh my God, is this really it? I was voted most likely to be famous in high school, and I’m about to be home-less instead,” Babas said. “But I decided to keep at it. Slightly over a year later, I moved to California, and the Hollywood sign that was on the plaque I was given in high school [now is] off my balcony in the distance… A fair amount of people that are going to read this are ¼, maybe 1/5 through their life. You’ve got time to mess up. Really. When you grow older, you won’t regret the things you did, but the things you didn’t do.”

“Make your own work”

Babas’s biggest words of advice?

“Don’t work for some-one,” he said. “Make your own work.

“Here’s a great example: You just graduated from Co-lumbia University. You’ve

got a great degree and a plethora of possibilities ahead of you… There’s this super nice building down-town and you know you can easily walk through the doors [and] whip out your degree which in turn will land you a job. Great, you’ve got a job paying 80-120 thousand dollars a year, that’s pretty secure. You start right away.

“Or, as you walk up to that building, you notice a vacant lot. Nothing’s been done with it, the building was considering putting a garden there. But you buy that plot of land. For an extended amount of time, you start digging, you’re getting your hands dirty. It’s no fun; but what you’re doing is building a founda-tion, because we all know the tallest skyscraper re-quires the deepest founda-tion. It’ll be laborious, take longer, but soon, you’ll start building, and after that you’ll have a building far taller, and who’ll have the entire top floor? You.”

“When you grow older, you won’t regret the things you did, but the

things you didn’t do.”

Sean Babas

Sean Babas: at 20 years old, already a star directorBY ERIN TEPATTI Working with Christina Grimmie, Baron Davis, Big Sean, Monster

Energy, Doritos, Chevrolet Camero and others, 2010 Troy High graduate Sean Babas has earned an incredible reputation as a film and commercial director, especially for someone only 20 years old.

Above: Babas is interviewed in April 2010 at a rooftop party in Orlando. He won first place at a Florida film festival, jump-

starting his career. Left: Babas shoots in California. He has shot short films, commercials and music videos for a variety of com-panies and artists. Below: Christina Grimmie is pictured in the

music video for her song “Advice.” The video, directed by Babas, was released in 2011. Grimmie was also featured in a Doritos

commercial directed by Babas.

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If you are thinking of donning one of these ‘classic’ costumes this Halloween, think twice! The Troy Inde-pendent surveyed random students during Homecom-ing week asking, “What is the most over worn Halloween costume of all time?”

Out of 275 responses, below are the top five over-used Halloween costumes.

1) ‘Cute’ Animals (101 votes): Animals such as cats, bumblebees, and bunnies aren’t so cute anymore.

2) Nerd (75 votes): We can conclude that the big glasses, high-waisted pants, and suspenders are not so-cially acceptable during Hal-loween this year. The “Urkel” look is a cliché trend people are sick of seeing!

3) Vampire (45 votes): With 45 votes it is safe to say a bloodsucking, pale-skinned demon does not win the hearts of Troy’s students.

4) 80’s Girl (30 votes): Neon-colored leggings and crop tops, along with the infamous scrunchies are a thing of the past that Troy High has voted should stay there.

5) Pirate (24 votes): We reccomend leaving the peg leg and eye patch at home. Students agree that Captain Hook is the evil villain that should walk the plank, not the halls.

This year on Halloween, break away from the main-stream costumes everyone loathes. Be original: flaunt a new style. Try something different, but as a majority of students have requested: keep it classy. Make sure you aren’t another average trick-or-treater.

reveal the sources. “It’s part of the spirit and fabric of Troy High School,” he said. “That’s why I thought it would be such an amazing feat if I could get it back for graduation.” One condition of Dziatc-zak repossessing Deer Head was that he had to return it right after graduation. The students, however, quickly regained Deer Head, as Dzi-atczak knew they would. Deer Head took off from its inception in 2003, but it caused massive controversy in the first month of school. The administration took it away because it had pointed antlers that could have hurt someone. Tension exploded. “It made it more signifi-cant that [the administra-tion] didn’t like it,” Mazzenga said. “Maybe that was why it became so cool.” Mazzenga, a soccer player on the 2003 state champi-onship team, talked to The Oakland Press picks fore-caster Kosmo about the in-cident. Kosmo wrote in the next week’s paper demand-ing that the administration return Deer Head. Social studies teacher Dave Aldinger remembers that event as the one that drew attention to Deer Head. “Deer Head was not a big deal until it was gone,” Aldinger said. “Then every-body was behind it.”

Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Par-kinson’s.

Cures for these diseases and other major diseases were researched this sum-mer by THS students.

$100,000 scholarships, learning about the world around you, and making a contribution to human un-derstanding are components of research, a popular sum-mer activity. Students do research at places like Henry Ford Hospital, Wayne State and MIT.

“We get to work around 9 in the morning, have an hour lunch break, and leave around 3,” senior Ally Liang said. Liang researched at Henry Ford Hospital along with senior Jason Qin.

“You basically follow your mentor and help finish the [procedures] he needs done,” Qin said. “Every day is differ-ent.” These activities include several types of purification, extraction, and staining.

David Wu, freshman, did research at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. He spent his summer trying to stop pancreatic cancer

Research done at MIT, hospitals

BY PETER HAO

Students take part in scientific research

cells using curcumin from the Indian spice turmeric. He specifically used CDF, a curcumin analog, to overex-press of microRNA 194 and underexpress microRNA 21 to inhibit the growth, migra-tion, and survival of pancre-atic cancer cells. Many re-search projects are similarly discovering possible meth-ods to cure diseases.

After spending a sum-mer at research, students can submit to prestigious competitions such as the Sie-mens competition and the Intel Science Fair. At these events, students compete nation-wide for scholarships and unique opportunities.

“After doing so much work, these competitions were a fantastic experience,” said senior Lawrence Kim, a successful researcher. “How-ever, they were very nerve-wracking as I had to present to several very accomplished judges in the field. Every-thing from the plane trip to the hotels was complimen-tary and I would love to do it again.”

Kim had a chance to par-ticipate in the Research Sci-ence Institute at MIT where he would go to the Massa-chusetts’s general hospital, a part of the Harvard Medical School System, every morn-ing to do research. He said this was one of the most re-warding experiences of his life.

These students believe that research, although sometimes challenging, is a rewarding experience.

The students got in-volved also, turning their shirts inside-out and writ-ing “Free Deer Head” on them. One Friday—Maz-zenga thought it was the day of the Clarkston game Sept. 26—200 students or-ganized a massive rally in front of the main office to get the icon back. That day, the administra-tion returned Deer Head, antlers clipped off, in time for the Clarkston game that night. There’s one more story that only Mazzenga remem-bers. That night, there was a dance after the football game. Mazzenga dropped off Deer Head in his car and tried to get a Clarkston student into the dance. Without identification, the student wasn’t allowed, and when Mazzenga returned to his car, Deer Head was gone. Mazzenga heard all kinds of rumors about what Clarkston’s plans were for Deer Head that night. The main one was that the stu-dents were going to burn it. But Mazzenga called an ex-girlfriend living in Clarkston, who stole it back and returned it to him. Since then, Deer Head has been passed down ev-ery year. Mazzenga came back from college for the first football game in 2004 and passed it down. The back of Deer Head lists ev-ery senior who has had it

since Mazzenga: Stu Givens (Class of 2005), John Lu-rie (2006), Steve B (2007), David McGrail (2008), Lyle Parks (2009), Bobby Karam (2010), Ray Campise (2011) and Joe Pritchard (2012). Senior Anthony Wilson has it this year, and it’s been at every game. As Deer Head goes around the student section for the tenth straight year, no one really remembers how it started, how it’s been passed down, or most notably, why it’s here. “Deer Head is almost in-herently an enigma,” Dzi-atczak said. “It has noth-ing to do with the mascot, nothing to do with the high school. It’s an arbitrary ral-lying item. “If it causes students to be enthusiastic about their high school, then I love it. There’s another side of me that doesn’t get it. I do get somewhat bothered by the fact that it has no relation to the school.” The principal said he would prefer cheers that support the athletes and performers on the field, but he’s not against Deer Head because of the school spirit. Sometimes nobody knows why something hap-pens. Things just happen. “I don’t really know,” Mazzenga said, “why it be-came so popular.” It just started on a rou-tine moving day in 2003, and the TC Line did the rest.

This Halloween, avoid nerds, vampires

BY ERIN WRUBEL AND SARAH CHMIELEWSKI

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The Troy Independent - thetroyindependent.orgOctober 12, 2012 - page 6

Erich Hagen: 2 sports, 1 season

The football team had just polished off a 24-14 home win over Pontiac. Besides a practice the next morning, most players’ game week was over. Not Erich Hagen. He was back out the next day for a soccer game. H a g e n , a junior, faces the pressure of participat-ing in two high school sports with-in the same season. He goes to both teams’ prac-tice every day in ad-dition to school work. In the Pontiac game, Ha-gen kicked a 51-yard field goal before it was called back for a penalty. The football team plays Athens tonight before an OAA Cross-over game next week, while the soccer team begins the state tour-nament next week. H a g e n loves each sport, but if he had to choose one, he said it would be soccer. “Soccer is my life,” he said. “I’ve been playing for about 10 years now and I can’t imagine life without it. Hagen also said soccer was his religion. His coaches had nothing but good to say about this hard-working athlete. “We know it is really hard

BY AMANDA MCCAFFERTY AND SARAH REGAN

to manage both sports and the athlete has to be disciplined,” soccer coach Brian Zawislak said. “Erich does a great job of planning ahead and really tak-ing the time to prepare for his schedule. He tells us when he has a conflict and we deal with it from there.” “I think it’s great Erich can put in the time to play both sports,” football coach Gary

Griffith said. “We realize football is his second sport and he goes out of his way to put in the best effort for each team. Of course some c o n f l i c t i n g schedules come in to play but Erich is good about coming to me first and letting me know

beforehand his schedule.” Hagen has no complaints about his busy schedule. His daily routine consists of school and then football around 3 p.m. Straight from

football Hagen goes to soccer practice at 6 until 7:30. S o c c e r games are 1-2 days during the week, and the football games are on Fridays. He has football practice Satur-day mornings and sometimes soccer games

Saturday afternoons. With no practice on Sun-days, Hagen officiates soccer games in the area. Hagen has even thought about playing football in col-lege, hopefully at Michigan. “I would definitely play in college,” Hagen said. “I believe that if I focus on it and work hard that I can get there.”

Brett Forman spent al-most two years without hammering forehand shots past his opponents, polish-ing off easy wins. Two years without pounding an oppo-nent with his timing and movement.

It’s been two years since his teammates mobbed him in Midland after a state championship as only a sophomore.

The plan was set for For-man after that day. His leg-acy was born: he’d win an-other state championship or two, win Mr. Tennis and play at a big-time college.

“Everything was going right,” Forman said. “I was mentally in the right place. I was physically in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I was just playing great ten-nis, and I was on a roll.”

Forman wasn’t three months off his state cham-pionship when he learned he had a stress fracture on both sides of his back. The recovery was six tedious months.

When he was finally cleared to play, he didn’t get very far. He suffered more back pain and rehabbed it for another month. Just two weeks after that return, doctors told him he would need arthroscopic hip sur-gery.

“It was definitely the worst experience I’ve ever had,” Forman said, “not having any control over my tennis.”

He missed his entire junior season and the en-tire winter and spring. The

major colleges that had been looking at him—Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State—had shied away. These inju-ries were supposed to ruin his career.

But nobody told Brett Forman.

The stress fracture took him until July before his junior year. He rehabbed his back for seven total months—very tedious for a player once ranked No. 18 in the country—then needed hip surgery and six more months of physical therapy.

“What else could go wrong?” Forman recalled thinking. “Everything that could go against me was going against me. There were times when I couldn’t have been more upset. It’s definitely up there as being one of the most frustrating things.”

It was two more months before he had the surgery in January. He didn’t recover until July.

The surgery was a suc-cess, but seven months of physical therapy are what they sound like, a grueling period of tedious workouts.

“I think the middle to end was what was hardest,” For-man said. “At the beginning, you feel like you’re making a huge improvement. After that, you’re like, ‘I’m still not running well, I’m still not moving well.’ It just takes a lot longer to improve then than at the beginning.”

Forman ended 2010 on top. Now, he’s trying to get back there. It’s taken a few losses in the process,

though, which didn’t go over very well for the former state champion.

In the next two weeks, he gets another chance for glo-ry. The regional tournament is this weekend, then the state tournament next week-end in Midland, back where his journey started two years ago. He won the league tournament last week.

Just three months into his return this year, he and coach Brian Miska are opti-mistic Forman will make a full recovery.

“He works his butt off,” Miska said. “If he works as hard as he has, which he will, absolutely.”

Some of the college at-tention has returned since Forman returned. He’s con-sidering only Michigan and Michigan State for now.

This season, Forman and Miska have taken Forman’s playing schedule day-to-day. Forman knows how easy it is to reinjure himself, so he stretches and ices religious-ly.

Miska is a first-year head coach but assisted Eric Stur-gis for two of Forman’s first three years, so he gives For-man a day off when he needs it.

“When he thinks he needs the day off, he can have the day off,” Miska said. “He’s not going to be the kind of kid who says, ‘I don’t want to play tennis today, I’m hurt, I’m sore.’”

Last month, Forman played Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood. He ended up winning, 6-4, 6-2,

but waved his racket in frus-tration after some points. It’s points like that, Forman said, that are the toughest. The ones he would have made two years ago, before this nightmare happened.

“I’m just frustrated I wasn’t playing anywhere near my best,” Forman said after that match.

His profile on Tennis Re-cruiting Network lists only one tournament this year—Labor Day weekend, when he won the tournament without dropping a set. But the profile illustrates his bad luck.

In 2010, his recruiting ranking reached No. 18 in the country with a Ratings Percentage Index of No. 1 be-cause of his strong schedule. In 2011, he was still at No. 19, with an RPI of 1.

Now, he is No. 78.After that day in Midland,

Forman sat at No. 18. Two years later, his goals are still intact.

“I don’t have any dreams—not yet, at least—of becoming a top-ten tennis player in the nation,” Forman said.

Not yet, at least.“I just feel like it’d be fool-

ish of me to think about that at such a young age,” he said. “I’m not concerned with the wins and losses right now.”

Not yet, at least.“I just hate losing, to be

honest with you. Especially to kids that I know I’m bet-ter than.”

He may not be losing much longer.

Erich Hagen, soccer player

The Comeback Kid: Brett Forman’s long road to recovery

BY JAKE LOURIM

Forman, center, is mobbed by teammates after winning the state title in 2010. After two years of injuries, he will com-pete for the title again this year.

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Troy senior Terrance Cherry runs the ball against Clarkston. Cherry has been the Colts’ leading rusher this year.

Football playoff updateBY JAKE LOURIM

The math is simple for the Troy varsity football team: Four wins, six needed, two games left.

The Colts enter this week at 4-3 (3-3 OAA), needing a record of 6-3 to make the playoffs. They host Athens

(1-6, 1-5 OAA) this week.Troy coach Gary Griffith

said his team will have one thing on its mind this week: Revenge.

Athens finished off a 7-2 regular season last year with a 31-13 win over Troy, its first since 2006. That the Colts need a win to stay in playoff contention should only add intensity to the ri-

valry.It’s in Week 9 that things

get murky. Troy plays an OAA Crossover game against the team in the OAA White (second-highest) Division with the same rank in the league as the Colts.

Right now, Troy is fourth in the OAA Red, just be-hind Rochester at 4-2 in the league and tied with Roches-ter Hills Stoney Creek at 3-3. The Colts win the tiebreaker

over Stoney Creek because of their win Sept. 7.

Rochester plays Stoney Creek this week, and if Roch-ester wins and Troy beats Athens, Troy would end up in fourth. If Stoney Creek beats Rochester and Troy beats Athens, the three teams tie for third.

The opponent won’t be announced until Sunday. But all Troy needs to focus on now: Two games, two wins.

OAA Red Standings

Lake Orion 6-0

Clarkston 6-0

Rochester 4-2

Troy 3-3

Stoney Creek 3-3

Athens 1-5

Pontiac 1-5

West Bloomfield 0-6

OAA White Standings

Oak Park 6-0

Farmington 5-1

Oxford 4-2

Southfield 3-3

Harrison 3-3

Adams 2-4

North Farmington 1-5

Lathrup 0-6

The Troy Independent - thetroyindependent.org October 12, 2012 - page 7sports

Every day people run, whether it be to catch a bus, talk to a friend or ask a teacher a last-minute ques-tion. If you are at Troy High after school, you will notice a different type of running: cross country running.

This sport has had much success at Troy High as many athletes are able to further their career into col-lege.

One Troy High alumni who has been able to further his running career is Uni-versity of Michigan student, James Yau.

“At the collegiate level, we’re not training to be satis-fied with being complacent,” Yau said. “We’re training to win championships and to be the absolute best in the country in our sport.”

Graduating from Troy High School in 2010, Yau says he has a ‘shout out’ for Troy’s Cross Country Coach Eric Prowse.

“Prowse was able to instill in me a sense of responsibility, dedica-tion, pride and ambi-tion to chase after my goals of becoming a col-legiate athlete,” he said.

Aside from running, Yau is also currently en-rolled in the Air Force ROTC military program at the University of Michigan.

Representing the girls running alumni is Michelle Moriset. This runner gradu-ated in 2010 and is currently

running for Northwestern University.

“Coach Matthew Richard-son’s dedication and devo-

James Yau, left, and Mike Atchoo lead the way in a five-kilometer race at the OAA Red cross country jamboree in Sept. 2009. Yau now runs for the University of Michigan and Atchoo, for Stanford University.

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tion is why I am where I am today,” said Moriset.

Moriset stresses that when managing academics

and athletics there are more freedoms and chances for failure.

“There are so many resources for anyone to utilize to help priori-tize their time and get ahead,” she said.

Moriset hopes to be a recreational runner for her whole life.

“As for goals, I take things day to day,” she said. “I am just grateful that I have been given this amazing opportu-nity to do something I love in college.”

Another male rep-resenting successful Troy High Alumni is Mi-chael Atchoo. Atchoo, a student at Stanford Uni-

versity, says there are simi-larities between high school and college running.

“I still have to put one foot in front of the other and run around a 400 meter oval, but beyond that, not so much,” he said.

Future goals for Atchoo include being in the top sev-en runners on his team, as well as achieving success in races; like Moriset and Yau, Atchoo graduated from Troy in 2010.

“My teammates have al-ways been my best friends and always will be,” said Atchoo. He said the bond be-tween teammates is a spe-cial one. Without them many people wouldn’t be where they are today.

“[They] make the hard days easy,” Atchoo said, “and sometimes the easy days hard.”

THS alumni further running success to college2010 graduates run for Stanford,

Northwestern, Michigan

BY SARAH CHMIELEWSKI

Alex Farrar: Water PoloFarrar has been playing

Troy water polo for three years. He chose to play water because of his past swim-ming experience.

“It’s pretty much soccer in water but more aggres-sive,” Farrar said.

The senior recalled his favorite memory: Junior sea-son, rival Athens game. Troy triumphed with a buzzer beater that the water polo players will never forget.

Lexie Pullen: VolleyballPullen has been playing

volleyball since sixth grade. She pursued volleyball be-cause her mom was a coach and her sister played.

“It’s a family thing,” Pul-len said.

This year’s team has seven seniors and Pullen ac-knowledged that next year will be a big change. She loves how her team is al-ways working hard and that there’s never a dull moment. Pullen’s favorite memory is how they beat Athens this year.

“It was just great to know that my last year of vol-

Spotlight: senior athletesBY ERIN WRUBEL AND SARAH REGAN A few weeks: that’s all fall season senior athletes have left in the athletic careers. Here are three to watch out for.

leyball we just kicked their butts,” Pullen said.

Christian Przeslawski: Cross Country

Cross Country captain Przeslawski has been run-ning since his freshman year. Stepping into a leadership role makes this year differ-ent from those prior.

“I have more of a say in what we do,” Przeslawski said. His favorite memory of all three years is the annual team sleepover because the team stays up all night and does crazy stuff.

Lexie Pullen: volleyball

Alex Farrar: water polo

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Boys’ soccer prepares for tough district

The boys’ soccer team heads into the district tournament Monday, where it will run into some familiar foes

Four OAA Red powerhouses. Four teams once ranked in the state. That’s what the Troy boys’ soccer team will run into next week when it starts the district tournament. But the Colts are also a top OAA Red team and were also once ranked in the state, making for some tough com-petition. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect. The semifinals and finals are at Rochester, while the opening round games are at the designated sites.

Rochester

Rochester Adams - 7:30 p.m. Monday, Rochester

Utica Eisenhower

Troy - 7 p.m. Tuesday, Swinehart Field

Troy Athens

Utica - 7 p.m. Monday, Swinehart Field

Rochester Hills Stoney Creek

Bye

vs. Troy: Win, 1-0, Sept. 11vs. Other teams: Lost to Athens, 2-1; Def. Stoney Creek, 2-1; Lost to Adams, 2-0 (1-2)Highest Ranking: Honorable Mention (Sept. 3, Sept. 10)Note: Scored while down a man against Troy.“They just have a really hard-working team,” senior captain Ian Fox said. “They’re a very determined team.”

vs. Troy: Win, 2-1, Sept. 18vs. Other teams: Tied Stoney Creek, 1-1; Def. Rochester, 2-0; Lost to Athens, 3-2 (1-1-1)Note: Lost to Troy, 3-1, in last year’s district opening round.“They just have a good overall team,” senior captain Brandon Riddle said. “It’s definitely going to be a tough challenge.”

vs. Troy: Win, 2-1, Sept. 21Highest Ranking: No. 9 (Sept. 24, Oct. 1, Oct. 8)Note: Started season 13-0. Won Macomb Area Conference title.“I think it was us more than them,” Fox said of the loss. “We weren’t doing too well. We didn’t have our heads in the game.”

vs. Troy: Win, 2-0, Sept. 25vs. Other teams: Def. Rochester, 2-1; Tied Stoney Creek, 1-1; Def. Adams, 3-2 (2-0-1)Note: Clinched OAA Red with tie vs. Stoney Creek last week.“We weren’t playing our game,” Riddle said, “which is keeping the ball on the ground, moving around, getting it to our play-makers, [including] Zac Doepke in the middle.”

vs. Troy: Tuesday (inc.)vs. Other teams: Lost to Rochester, 2-1; Tied Athens, 1-1; Tied Adams, 1-1 (0-1-2)Note: Only team in OAA Red who did not lose to Athens.“They have pretty good team chemistry back,” Fox said. “Their players have been playing together.”

The Colts come into their best time of the year at 13-4-2 through last weekend. Senior captain Zac Doepke has been their top goal-scorer. They should also be at full strength, with junior forward Jake Meissner returning from a knee injury and perhaps even senior right back Danny Pikulas from an ankle injury. They have had tremendous success in the postseason lately, reaching the state semifinals last season before losing to Grand Haven, 1-0.

BY JAKE LOURIM

The Troy Independent - thetroyindependent.org October 12, 2012 - page 8

PETER’S PALETTE by Peter Mansky

“Perks” is authentic, touching

The official student newspaper of Troy High Schoolwww.thetroyindependent.orgtroynewspaper@gmail.com

Carolyn Gearig, editor-in-chiefJake Lourim, editor-in-chief

Peter Mansky, cartoonistSarah Regan, advertising managerErin Wrubel, advertising manager

Anna Larson, social directorAmanda McCafferty, social director

Marcey Shehata, social directorBrendan Battle, staff writerLiza Burakova, staff writer

Marissa Ceccato, staff writerAnnie Chen, staff writer

Sarah Chmielewski, staff writerPeter Hao, staff writer

AuJenee Hirsch, staff writerIn Chan Lee, staff writer

Katherine Maher, staff writerAnnie Pappageorge, staff writerAlex Roettenberger, staff writer

Tommy Rowbal, staff writerKatie Schlafhauser, staff writer

Erin Tepatti, staff writerJennifer Doptis, adviser

The Troy Independent is the official student newspa-per of Troy High School, produced by students in the third hour Writing for Publication: Newspaper class. The Troy Independent is an open forum and thus encourages members of the school community to submit letters to the editor and guest columns. Interested in joining our staff? Sign up when you complete your 2013-2014 scheduling cards.

THE TROYINDEPENDENT

Dear Miranda,Hey I need help! My

friends are talking about an-other friend behind her back and I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to be mean to

her, but I think something must be said about it. Please help! Thanks!

-Anti Gossip GirlDear Anti Gossip, Do you remember our

assembly a few days ago? Instead of doing what you are suppose to do, do what you NEED to do! Follow your heart. Have your two friends talk it out. Tell them you

don’t like being in the middle of their disputes and

true friends don’t gossip be-hind each other’s back.

-Miranda

Dear Miranda,My friend is being imper-

sonated on Facebook and has been dragging his name through the mud and getting a lot of us in trouble. What should we do?

-Facebook FriendDear Facebook Friend,This type of imperson-

ation can be classified as cyber bullying. Remember that once something is on the internet, anyone can see it. First off, print off the com-ments from this anonymous impersonator. Next, report the bully. If you give the print off account of this imposter to an adult you trust, they can help track down this bully. Best of luck to you and your friends!

-Miranda

Dear Miranda,There is so much PDA at

this school! I get depressed because I don’t have a boy-friend. What do I do?

-Concerned PDA ObserverDear PDA observer, I understand where you

are coming from; nobody enjoys PDA. Since you can-not change other people’s actions, ignore them or at-tempt to take a different route. Also, you can talk to

an administrator or teacher and ask them to enforce a rule against PDA. Ask to put up posters around the school to keep people aware of their unwanted affection.

-Miranda

Have a question for Mi-randa? E-mail queries to askmiranda.newspaper@yahoo.com. All submissions will be kept anonymous.

Ask Miranda

Advice

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is the story of Charlie, a freshman in high school. Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a loner: on his first day of school, his only friend is an Eng-lish teacher. He is still reeling from the suicide of his best friend, Michael. But his life soon changes when he meets step-siblings Sam and Pat-rick.

Sam (Emma Watson) is

beautiful, fearless and funny. Patrick (Ezra Miller) is quick-witted, happy go lucky and gay. Together they transform Charlie.

The movie is based on the bestselling young adult novel of the same name. Directed and written by au-thor Stephen Chbosky, it

retains the charming and slightly retro feel of the novel (set in 1991) but also takes on a different edge. Aunt Helen, who died on Charlie’s seventh

BY CAROLYN GEARIG

The Perks of Being a WallflowerNow playing at Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak

birthday, shows up in flash-backs throughout the movie, creating a dark undertone. The truth comes out at the end of the movie when Char-lie falls apart and Lerman proves he can truly act.

“Perks” follows actions of Charlie, Sam, Patrick and their friends throughout a typical year at a subur-ban Pittsburgh high school. There are drugs, drinking and partying but they are portrayed honestly as Char-lie learns through trial and error. He gets a girlfriend and falls in love, though not with the girlfriend.

The novel is told through

letters written to an unnamed recipient; the film features voiceovers of the letters that reveal the nature of Char-lie. He is quiet, but there is a lot beneath the surface as he constantly analyzes the world around him. Patrick calls him a “wallflower” because he “sees things, keeps quiet about them, and understands.”

“Perks” is realistic and heartfelt but it is not perfect. In some scenes the acting seems forced, and the story is far from revolutionary. But it is thoughtful and well done, well worth a twenty minute drive to Royal Oak and a $7 student ticket.

“Perks” stars, from left, Logan Lerman as Charlie, Ezra Miller as Patrick and Emma Watson as Sam.

Movie review

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