Newtonite◆ Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 • Volume 89, Issue 2 Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Ave., Newtonville, Mass. 02460

Non-profi t org.US postage paidNewton, Mass.Permit no. 55337

Teddy Wenneker

Jambalaya: Sophomore Jessica Broussard serves jambalaya to history teacher Tom Barry last Friday in Pilot’s annual event.

Committee seeks nominationsfor names of places in new school

Board discusses proposal for voteBY REBECCA HARRIS

To advance the course assessment proposal that the Student Faculty

Administration is currently dis-cussing, senior Ezra Cohen and English department head Tom Fabian will develop the letter that is to accompany it.

If the proposal passes, the SFA will send this letter via email to all teachers at this school, encourag-ing them to issue mid-year course assessments to students.

Distributing the assesment to classes would be optional to teachers, according to Cohen, the SFA’s student co-chair.

The email would also include a sample course assessment, which Cohen described as “fairly adapt-able.” Teachers could change it however they wanted to fi t their classes’ needs, he said.

Principal Jennifer Price said that she thought the board need-ed to see a proposal in writing before they could vote on it.

She said that the proposal will be more likely to continue in future years if it is written out. The board also needed to work out the logistical aspects of the proposal, such as who would is-sue the email, she said.

In a straw pole vote, the major-ity of the board voted in favor of Cohen’s proposal.

Additionally, the SFA dis-cussed the transition to the new building, which faculty co-chair Gregory Drake said should be the board’s focus right now.

Librarian Kevin McGrath said that the librarians are working to develop a “learning commons” in the new building, which would combine traditional library ser-vices with ongoing events and presentations.

“It’s a totally different con-cept,” McGrath said. “I’d be very interested in working with you to fi gure out how to do it.”

Also, Riley housemaster Mark Aronson said that the SFA could draft a proposal to limit signs and fl iers to a specifi c part of the building, as opposed to all over the building.

“I think it would be great if we created kiosks where signs and notices would be,” he said.

Sophomore Gabe Dreyer said that the board might be able to fi nd a way to put signs and fl yers up on electronic screens as a way of saving paper.

BY HILARY BRUMBERG

Some areas of the new building will keep their current names, while

others will be renamed, accord-ing to history department head Jonathan Bassett.

Bassett, the head of the com-mittee, said the committee is currently collecting suggestions for names of parts of the new building.

Only names of people or geo-graphic locations will be con-sidered. The submission cannot honor a person currently em-ployed by the City of Newton.

Anybody who would like to suggest a name for a part of the building should email Bassett at Jonathan_Bassett@newton.k12.ma.us with “Naming North” in the subject line.

The Naming Committee will meet again in March or April to consider the submissions. At that time, they will recommend the best names to the School Com-mittee, Bassett said.

“If we get six entries and they

all seem really good, we’ll send all of them,” Bassett said. “But if we get 600, then we’ll weed through them and decide which ones are worthy of being recommended.”

The School Committee will then hold a public hearing and have a public vote.

Instead of having the School Committee select all of the names in the new building, it authorized the creation of the Naming Com-mittee. The Naming Committee’s 11 members include students, current faculty, former faculty, parents and parents of alumni.

“We can probably make better recommendations for names than the School Committee if they had to do it all by themselves,” Bassett said. “Their members are elected from all over the city, and they don’t know the school like we do.”

The committee hopes that recent members of the faculty as well as those who infl uenced Newton High in the past will be honored, according to Bassett.

However, the current student

body only “knows people that have been here recently” and are “not necessarily the best group of people to decide on names of people who may have had a lasting impact, but were not here recently,” Bassett said.

To remember the signifi cance of past faculty members, former principal Jennifer Huntington and a parent of a graduate from the ’90s are on the committee.

Athletic director Tom Giusti and fine and performing arts department head Todd Young are also on the committee, because they have several spaces in the new building that need to be named, according to Bassett. This includes the theatre, music wing and tennis courts.

According to Bassett, Theatre Ink students have suggested naming the theatre after Gary Elliott, the director of Theatre Ink in the ’80s and ’90s.

For the fi rst time, the School Committee is considering selling naming rights, according to Kurt Kusiak, chair of the fundraising

subcommittee of the School Com-mittee. This involves “putting a company or person’s name on a fi eld or a gym” to make a profi t, he said.

The Newton Schools Foun-dation would use the money to start a fund to “support teaching in the Newton Public Schools by developing a 21st century class-room,” Kusiak said. This involves buying “first-rate” technology for all classrooms, not just at this school, so teaching “can be enhanced by the technology available to us,” he said.

The Newton Schools Founda-tion is in the interview process to hire a professional fundraiser to help sell the naming rights of parts of the school, Kusiak said.

“We’re having a diffi cult time with the budget. We’re suffering under a large fi nancial defi cit,” he said, referring to the 2008 tax override that did not pass. “The state funding has dried up to a degree because of the poor economy.”◆SEE EDITORIAL ON PAGE 2.

Pilot extends deadline for Haiti relief fundraiserBY HILARY BRUMBERG

Pilot extended the collec-tion deadline for dona-tions to Haiti to today,

according to Pilot teacher Katie Cacace.

Right after a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, senior Jibrie Sylvester and junior Dan Winograd “were con-cerned about the people of Haiti and wanted to do something,”

Cacace said. This is the fi rst time Pilot has

orchestrated a collection. The program collected $1,000

as of Monday, Feb. 9. Because the deadline was extended, Pilot hopes to get more this week and today, Cacace said.

When starting the collection, Pilot created a “thermometer” to chart donations, Cacace said.

It was initially drawn with a $500 maximum. However, they had to add an additional two sheets of paper to make the ther-mometer grow as more donations came in, according to Cacace.

The donated money will be sent to the American Red Cross once collected.

Pilot chose the American Red Cross, because “they are a very

well-established organization that we can trust with our dona-tions,” Cacace said.

All Pilot students are involved in the collection, according to Ca-cace. They made fl yers and dis-tributed them to each homeroom teacher Tuesday, Jan. 26.

The students also created post-ers and made an announcement in homeroom.

Cacace said that the students plan to send thank-you notes to all doners once the collection is over.

According to Cacace, there might be a presentation of the donation after vacation.

Anyone who would like to contribute should bring money to the Special Education offi ce or 441 today.

See Deaf Culture Day — Pages 6 and 7

The Newtonite, founded in 1922, is the newspaper of Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Ave., Newtonville, Mass. 02460.

The Newtonite staff does all the reporting, production work and photography to produce 16 issues a year for a circulation of 2,500.

To place an ad in the Newtonite or contact us by phone, please call 617-559-6274. Yearly subscriptions cost $20. Readers can also reach us at thenewtonite@gmail.com.

To fi nd the Newtonite online go to www.thenewtonite.com.

Newtonite

Editors in chief — Marena Cole, Eli Editors in chief — Marena Cole, Eli Editors in chiefDavidowManaging editor — Teddy Wen-Managing editor — Teddy Wen-Managing editornekerNews editor — Hilary BrumbergSports editors — Jay Feinstein, Jacob SchwartzArts editors — Kate Lewis, Perrin SteinFeatures editors — Jacob Brunell, Fatema ZaidiOn campus editor — Meredith On campus editor — Meredith On campus editorAbramsNews analysis editor — Steven MichaelPhotography editors — Gaby Perez-Dietz, Ivan McGovernProduction managers — Katrina Barry, Ben HillsAdvertising manager — Emily Advertising manager — Emily Advertising managerGulottaBusiness manager — Dan SalvucciBusiness manager — Dan SalvucciBusiness managerCirculation managers — Alison Berkowitz, Caleb Gannon

Exchanges editor — Peter Taber-SimonianAdviser — Kate ShaughnessyProduction advisers — Sue Brooks, Tom DonnellanNews staff — Malini Gandhi, Ilana News staff — Malini Gandhi, Ilana News staffGreenstein, Rebecca Harris, Kayla ShoreFeatures staff — Emmett Greenberg, Features staff — Emmett Greenberg, Features staffGavi Kaplan, Jonah SchumerSports staff — Evan Clements, Sports staff — Evan Clements, Sports staffNicole Curhan, Jeremy GurvitsArts staff — Audrey DerobertNews analysis staff — News analysis staff — News analysis staff Kellynette GomezArt staff — Anna Kaertner, Maddie Art staff — Anna Kaertner, Maddie Art staffMacWilliams, D’Jaidah WynnPhotography staff — Ryne Duffy, Photography staff — Ryne Duffy, Photography staff Anna Gargas, Jaryd Justice-Moote, Edan Laniado, Isabel Meigs, Matt VictorCirculation staff — Spencer Alton, Stoddard Meigs, Omar Pinkhasov, Michela Salvucci, Stephanie VitoneProduction staff — Ross SwerlingProduction staff — Ross SwerlingProduction staff

opinion Friday, Feb. 12, 20102 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

‘Should studentsbe able to drop out?’BY JACOB SCHWARTZ

In Massachusetts, at the age of 16, students are allowed to drop out of school, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education’s website.

This proves to be a contro-versial topic as teachers and students disagree on whether dropping out should be allowed in the fi rst place.Teachers

History teacher Elizabeth Scharlack said, “I think people should be able to drop out be-cause we have freedom of move-ment. Slavery was abolished. The question is—at 16, are you old enough to make that decision?”

Spanish teacher Jane Mo-nahan has a different opinion. “I believe in freedom of choice, but I truly believe that to be success-ful and happy in life, you need an education.”

Science teacher Paul Martenis said, “I think it should be pos-sible, but only in highly unusual cases. I don’t think it should be a common thing, but there are cases where it would be ap-propriate.”Seniors

“It’s a bad idea fi rst off, and you need edu-cation,” said Christina Terrio. In most cases, she said, “You won’t be able to do much in life, but sometimes it depends on the situation.”

Sam Rossinow said, “I think dropping out is okay if they want to work and school isn’t their primary objective.”

Audrey Wittrup said she does not think it would be right to al-low students to drop out because “it’s in the best interest of the populous to have people that are well-informed in society.”Juniors

“If they’ve had parental con-sent, and their parents have dis-cussed it with their counselor in depth, they should be allowed to drop out,” said John MacGaffey.

Sarah Nunberg said, “Stu-dents should drop out only if they

have a good reason. It has to be solely legitimate that they have no other choice. There really aren’t any good reasons either, because teachers are here to mo-tivate the students. If the teachers fail at that, then the students will fail too.”

Hannah Herlich said, “If they’re mature enough, they should be able to do what they want and be able to drop out.”Sophomores

“Students should be allowed to do what they want—it’s their decision,” said Bobby Grimshaw. “But why would you ever want to drop out?”

Lia Mitchell said that students may have a desire to drop out because “they don’t think that it’s helpful, or they may have personal reasons as well. I think it should be their decision and not any government decision.”Freshmen

Rowan Sockwell also does not think dropping out should

b e a l l o w e d . “Especially in this economy, it’s not okay to drop out, and it’s also impor-tant to be able to get a better job. You need an education.”

Will Hefner said, “It’s their choice.

“If they decide to drop out and mess up their life like that, then so be it. I don’t know why anyone would want to drop out.”

Hefner said he has family members who didn’t fi nish school. “They’re not very well off at all, fi nancially,” he said.

“However, I believe if someone drops out of school, they’re not hurting anyone except them-selves.”

Matt Callahan said, “Educa-tion is important and people shouldn’t be able to drop out of school just because they don’t like school.”

Jacob Schwartz

In Introductory Physics: Freshmen Kira Liu and Madison Beatrice eat ice cream they made.

Help out naming processThe walls of the school are

lined with plaques, dedicating certain locations to those who have infl uenced this school in the past.

The Henry Lasker audi-torium, Reginald E. Smith gymnasium and the David J. Phelan world language lab are just a few examples of places that have been named after former faculty members.

And now, a Naming Com-mitee has been formed, which will help to determine what names will carry into the new school.

But most importantly, the creation of this committee allows members of the com-munity, including students, to suggest names for the new building.

We feel that often, students can feel disconnected to many of the names, which were named long before they were students at North.

Now that students can sub-

mit suggestions, this genera-tion of students an opportuni-ty to help pick names that will honor more recent employees of Newton Public Schools.

The naming of landmarks in the new school allows this generation of students to leave their mark, in addition to honoring the naming deci-sions made when this building was new.

So if you know of someone that impacted the school, sug-gest their name to the Naming Committee.

Take part in honoring some-one that made a contribution to this school.

Earlier this month, a poll was posted on the library’s website, asking students to vote on the name of the new school’s ceremonial drive.

Monday, Feb. 8, the School

Committee deemed Tiger Drive the name of the ceremo-nial drive, which pays homage to North’s beloved mascot.

Also, for other public areas of the new school, namely the gymnasium and theatres, the School Committee is discuss-ing selling naming rights.

Funds raised from the auc-tion would aid the Newton Public Schools in purchasing new equipment in the future.

With the state and city gov-ernments confronted with less tax revenue during this reces-sion, extra funding proves especially valuable.

Either solution would ben-efi t North students.

A compromise of the two scenarios would work best: naming some areas based on student input and others based on corporate sponsor-ships.

This scenario would give students a voice and raise funds for students’ benefi t.

Support Greengineering’s projects

LettersReaders are invited to submit guest articles and letters to the editor. Letters should be put in the Newtonite box in Beals House or emailed to thenewtonite@gmail.com. The Newtonite reserves the right to edit all letters, which must have the writer’s name, class and homeroom. The Newtonite serves as a forum for student opinion.

TO THE EDITOR:The Greengineers at Newton

North High School have been working on various projects this year.

The projects this year have included making biodiesel with waste grease from the cafeteria and making fashionable bags by fusing old shopping bags. All of this is done with the intent to save the planet and be more thought-ful and thorough.

Despite being a new class, the Greengineers have come across an incredible opportunity: To work with Save the Stuff (a re-cycling company here in Boston) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to make biodiesel from algae, and to re-invent the way science education is performed in New England and eventually the world.

We plan on doing this by bring-ing a Mobile Algae Lab to schools across New England.

Steve Chinosi, English teacher and Director of Greengineering at this school, says:

“The Mobile Algae Lab is a strategic partnership between Save the Stuff, Newton North High School and MIT that will offer cutting edge science and engineering curricula to schools

throughout New England.“Our vision is to have this 53-

foot (tractor trailer) mobile lab spend a few weeks or a semester at each school partnering with MIT and Newton North students and faculty.

“The algae lab will engage students through an integrated curriculum of biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental sci-ence and business of alternative energy.”

The only thing that stands in our way is money. To overcome this obstacle we have applied, and are in the running for, a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Company.

If we win the money it will be put towards things like getting the Mobile Algae Trailer/Lab up and running, developing curricu-lum and covering the transporta-tion costs. But to win the money, we need people to vote for our project at www.refreshevery-thing.com/algaelab.

We are merely one group out of 729 competing for grants.

You can help this idea suc-ceed, but only if you vote! Think

about it: your school could win $250,000 to help save the planet, and most importantly save the humans.

If you have any questions or if you just want to learn more, you can e-mail the NNHS Greengi-neers at greengineering1@gmail.com, or visit our website at www.greengineers.wikispaces.com.

If you would like to see a more detailed budget, you can fi nd one on the same side site on which you vote: www.refreshevery-thing.com/algaelab.

Thank you for your consider-ation! And remember, you can vote once every day!

—BRENDAN HATHAWAY ’10

editorial

letter

Newtonian

Paul Martenis

Newtonian

Rowan Sockwell

mass interview

newsFriday, Feb. 12, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 3

Academic teams, clubs compete in events

Gaby Perez-Dietz

Debate Team: Freshmen Aneesh Anand, Ryne Duffy and Jorden Ecker practice debating.

Jacob Schwartz

Math Team: Sophomore Isaac Feinhaus and math teacher Elisse Ghittelmen work on a math problem Wednesday, Feb. 3 in 437.

Conference recognizesModel UN delegatesBY HILARY BRUMBERG

For the fi rst time, Model Unit-ed Nations won seven awards at a conference of close to 3,000 people, said senior Ezra Cohen, an offi cer with seniors Ben Miller and Ken Landers, and junior Jared Kalow.

Landers is the Secretary Gen-eral and Cohen, Miller and Kalow are Undersecretaries General.

Students from around the world met at the Sheraton Hotel in Cambridge Thursday, Jan. 28 through Sunday, Jan. 31 for a conference hosted by Harvard College.

Miller and seniors Prateek Allapur, Jonathan Bressler, Max Fathy were recognized as best delegates.

Cohen was recognized as an outstanding delegate. Senior Ca-milla Jackson and Landers won an honorable mention as a double delegate. Kalow also won an indi-vidual honorable mention.

“There was a huge number of international students,” Cohen said. “The international piece of who’s there is one of the more appealing factors in terms of conferences.”

Every year, Model UN attends two conferences. However, this year, the other conference is scheduled for over February va-cation, and so the team will not attend, he said.Presentation, contentstrong for Mock TrialBY KAYLA SHORE

Mock Trial sees this year as a rebuilding season, according to sophomore Michael Dinsmore.

This year’s case involves a person who has invested his or her child’s college fund in a hedge fund with a fi nancial ad-viser at a brokerage fi rm.

When the market crashed and he or she lost a lot of money, he or she sued the brokerage company for fraud and several other charg-es, according to Dinsmore.

Because North lost at least one of the three preliminary tri-als, the Mock Trial competitive season is over.

“It really depends on the judge you get,” said senior Abby Weisberger, a captain with senior Ezra Cohen.

“Some are very harsh, and some are very generous. Some judge more on content, others on presentation.

“We excel in both areas, and I’m optimistic that it will be more apparent next year,” she said.

North won its third prelimi-nary trial against Lexington Monday, Feb. 8, 96-89.

Monday, Feb. 1, Newton South defeated North 105-99 in the sec-ond preliminary trial, and North lost the first preliminary trial against Belmont Hill Thursday, Jan. 28, 91-90.Debaters win awards, prepare to competeBY HILARY BRUMBERG

In its fourth season, the De-bate Team is focused on building the team and training underclass-men, said senior Ezra Cohen, co-captain with senior Caeden Brynie.

“I trust that in the next few years it will be a debate power house, given the intellectual ca-pability of our students,” Cohen said.

Saturday, Feb. 27, the team will compete in Needham “against all schools around the state who show up,” Cohen said.

Lincoln-Douglas debaters will debate jury nullifi cation at the competition while Public Forum teams will debate whether affi r-mative action in the United States is justifi ed.

To prepare for the competi-tion, the team will “discuss cases together, what we’re thinking of arguing, research and start run-ning rounds in house as soon as the cases are done,” Cohen said.

This school sent two doubles teams and one single novice team to a tournament Saturday, Jan. 30 and Sunday, Jan. 31 in Natick.

In a competition in early December at Lexington High School, Brynie and sophomore Michael Dinsmore went 4-0 and won third place. Cohen also won third place, fi nishing 3-1 in the competition.Ligerbots preparefor competition BY STEVEN MICHAEL

During the six-week building season, members of the North-South robotics team learned how to work together, according to ad-ministrative technology specialist

Phil Golando, the coach.Known as the Ligerbots, the

robotics team had its rookie season last year, qualifying for the national finals of the For Inspirational Recognition in Sci-ence and Technology robotics competition.

First, the team must pick its best design. “Once tested and proven, the chosen design will be built from lightweight and sturdy materials and connected to the robot,” Golando said.

Team members build the robot in multiple components, Golando said. This includes a chassis, a lift arm and a ball-shooting device.

Tuesday, Feb. 23, the com-pleted robot will be picked up and will not be seen again until competitions.

“In the time before the fi rst event and after the robot has been picked up, the team will prepare for the events by making buttons,

getting scouting teams organized and completing a new code for the robot to use at the event,” Golando said.

The Ligerbots will compete at their first regional event of the season Thursday, March 11 through Saturday, March 13 at the Worchester Polytechnical Institute.

Thursday, March 25 through Saturday, March 27, the team will attend another regional event at Boston University.

In the short term, the team hopes to create a competitive robot that will perform well and hopefully win at one of the two regional events, Golando said.

The team is currently looking for sponsors, Golando said.Math Team has group,individual eventsBY MARENA COLE

Talent and work ethic have been the Math Team’s strongest assets this year, according to ju-nior Dong Gil Shin, the captain.

“We work hard, practice hard and have a lot of talented people,” Shin said.

So far this year, the team has participated in four Greater Bos-ton Math League meets and is currently ranked fi fth out of 27 teams in the league.

During the meets, which are held monthly, members of the team each compete in individual rounds, answering written ques-tions, Shin said.

At the end, there is a team round where all of the team mem-bers work together to solve three problems.

Scores are tallied at the end, and the team with the highest score wins, he said.

Wednesday, Jan. 13, in a meet at Brookline, the team did “very well,” finishing fourth over-all, Shin said. The team was to have competed in another meet Wednesday, Feb. 10, which de-termined if they will move on to States.

Shin said that last year and in past years, the team has com-peted in States.

“We hope to do very well this year,” he said.

In October, the team also com-peted in the Mass. Mathematics

Olympiad, which is a written test members of the team took here individually.

Shin, sophomores Joseph Chan and Caroline Ellison and freshman Christina Chen fi nished in the top 100. This qualifi ed them for the second round, which will be in March.Science Team readiesfor upcoming BowlBY HILARY BRUMBERG

According to science teacher Barbara Gibson, the Science Team adviser, the team is prepar-ing for upcoming competitions.

Saturday, Feb. 27, North and approximately 30 teams from the Boston area will compete at the Science Bowl.

Hosted by U. Mass. Lowell, the Science Bowl tests students’ knowledge in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, technol-ogy and earth science.

“It’s a hard competition,” Gibson said. “We did really well last year. We’d like to take the top seat.”

The science team competed in the 13th annual Blue Lobster Bowl Saturday, Feb. 6 at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology.

Seniors Shira Bleicher, Niko-lai Klebanov, Jeffrey Luong and Austin Su and sophomore Cole Kerr competed.

North played four teams in the round robin: Bedford, Chelms-ford, Marblehead and North Andover.

Each round of the competition included 16 fast-buzz questions and two team challenges, Gibson said.

Placing fourth, North advanced to the elimination round.

The team defeated Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 114-56, in the fi rst elimination round.

In the second elimination round, North defeated Lexing-ton’s B-team.

Lincoln-Sudbury eliminated North in the quarterfi nals.

Overall in the Blue Lobster Bowl, placed third.

The team won a tour of the WHOI Labs, $300 for books for the school, equipment from the MIT Sea Grant, a trophy and a third place medal.

features Friday, Feb. 12, 20104 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Exchange students share about school in ChinaBY STEVEN MICHAEL

Exchange students from the Jingshan School in Beijing out-lined the differences between education in China and the Unit-ed States in a presentation last month.

Five students each gave a Pow-erPoint presentation describing an aspect of the life of a typical Chinese student—both inside and outside of school.

The January 27 presentation emphasized the Newton-Beijing Jingshan School Connection, the longest-running Chinese high school exchange program in this country, according to in-formation provided prior to the presentation.

Teachers and students from Jingshan spend the fall semester in Newton, at both this school and South. Teachers and students from Newton travel to Beijing to spend the spring semester at the Jingshan School.

Cindy Mi spoke about the Jingshan School and her experi-ence living in Beijing, China’s capital city.

“The Jingshan School was founded in 1960,” Mi said. “There are nine labs for chemistry, biol-ogy and physics in our school.”

The Jingshan School accom-modates 2,300 students, ap-proximately 400 more than at this school.

She showed pictures of the Forbidden City, a World Heritage site located near their school,

which was formerly an imperial palace.

Victor Li described the Chi-nese school calendar in relation to the calendar used in the United States.

The first day of the term is September 1. After a month of studying, beginning October 1 students have a few days off for the National Day holiday of the People’s Republic of China.

Students return to school on October 9. From January 18 to 20, students take fi nals in classes including Chinese, chemistry, English, physics, politics and history.

On Chinese New Year’s Day, which will be February 14, fami-lies often attend temple fairs, according to Li. At a temple fair, traditional Chinese goods are for sale and performers demonstrate martial arts.

Li explained how he was sur-prised when American students protested if teachers assigned homework over vacation because Chinese students study during vacations.

Miles Zhang talked about the standard schedule in Beijing.

“Unlike in America, we don’t move between classes unless for science labs and physical educa-tion,” Zhang said. “The teachers come to us.”

The number of tests students take differs greatly between the two countries. Zhang said Chinese students have monthly

exams, midterms and fi nals.“Examinations in China are

much more competitive,” he said. “Teachers will collect students’ grades and put them all in a table for students to see.”

Unlike at this school, where teachers encourage non-disclo-sure of grades, Zhang said in Chi-na, students “value themselves by comparing to classmates.”

Shengnan Wang discussed the extent of testing for students in China.

“You just have SAT or ACT, but we have much more pressure,” she said.

To enter middle school, high school and university students are required to pass a test. Gao Kao, the Chinese version of the SAT, is different in that it is only offered once per year.

“It shows your achievements of 12 years in two days,” Wang said.

There are two forms of Gao Kao with students choosing to take either the science or liberal arts version, she said.

The science version includes physics, chemistry and biology, and the liberal arts version in-cludes history, geography, politics and government. All students study for the core subjects of Chinese, English and math.

To demonstrate the pressure devoted to Gao Kao, she dis-played a picture of a policeman giving a boy a ride to the location of the Gao Kao testing. He had

arrived at the wrong location, so the policeman gave him a ride to guarantee he would arrive on time.

On a lighter note, Ricky Li conversed about what Chinese students do for leisure activities.

“Basketball is the most popu-lar sport in China,” Li said. “Soc-cer used to be the most popular

sport.”Girls play badminton and a

traditional game called Jian Zi, similar to hacky sack, he said.

The Chinese enjoy American media, video games and restau-rants, Li said.

“Some American fast-food restaurants are popular, such as McDonald’s.”

courtesy Donna Fong

From the Jingshan School: Chinese exchange students Miles Zhang, Cindy Mi, Ricky Li, Shengnan Wang and Victor Li stand in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Culinary students take prizein Best Candy categoryBY JACOB BRUNELL

For the second straight year, Newton North culinary arts students from the Tiger’s Loft won fi rst place in the Death by Chocolate fundraiser.

This year, the students’ “Choc-olate Lollipops,” won the top prize in the Best Candy category.

The lollipops had a solid choc-olate shell and were fi lled with either a caramel, espresso or banana-cheesecake fi lling, said senior Lydia DiPerrio, one of the program’s representatives at the event.

In last year’s fundraiser, the Tiger’s Loft took fi rst place in the Most Unique Dessert category with their “Chocolate Meringue Bliss” creation.

“Every year we participate in the event, the students fi gure out what we are doing,” said culinary arts teacher Lisa McKinney. “This year, I wanted to make bon-bons, and they all wanted to make cheesecake lollipops. But they are in charge.”

“From the beginning, I guide them, but it’s really all their do-ing,” she said. “They plan it and carry everything out.”

Death by Chocolate is a cu-

linary competition and fund-raiser put on by the Newton and Waltham Rotary Clubs, said senior Amanda Lau, a culinary arts student.

An annual event for the past nine years, this year’s Death by Chocolate fundraiser took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Newton Sunday, Jan. 31.

The Rotary Clubs give three scholarships to the Career and Vocational Technical Education Department to award to out-standing students at graduation. The scholarships are for $1,000 each, said McKinney.

“I do this event not only for the students, but also to do our part to thank the Rotarians and help offset the cost of the gener-ous scholarships they give us,” McKinney said.

In addition to DiPerrio, the ten students who represented the Tiger’s Loft at the competition were seniors Humberto Castillo,

Advertise in the Newtonite!

Call Emily Gulottaat 617-559-6274

courtesy Lisa McKinney

Death by Chocolate: Seniors Eddie McAuliffe, Aida Skelic, Ryan Tene, Humberto Castillo and Lydia DiPerrio stand with their fi nished chocolate lollipops.

Amanda Lau, Maxx Lyman, Ed-die McAuliffe, Kim Parra, Aida Skelic, Ryan Tene and Avery Thomas, and juniors Justin Agner and Jacob Plati.

Besides the Tiger ’s Loft, other local shops and organiza-tions created desserts for the fundraiser as well, including Ic-ing on the Cake, Double Dipped, Edible Arrangements and the Waltham and Newton Boys and Girls Clubs.

“Other than our lollipops, my favorite dessert at the event was the cake shots made by Icing on the Cake,” DiPerrio said.

Lau disagreed. “The best dessert was defi nitely the choco-late-covered strawberries and apples from Edible Arrange-ments,” she said.

The event cost $15 and was open to the public.

In total, the event raised nearly $22,000 for the Rotary Clubs, McKinney said.

culinary arts teacher Lisa McKinney“I do this event not only for the students, but also to do our part to thank the Rotarians and help offset the cost of the

generous scholarships they give us.”

artsFriday, Feb. 12, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 5

A caring mother: Junior Rosie McInnes, playing Kate Keller, watches confl icts unfold in her backyard.

Gaby Perez-Dietz

Childhood sweethearts: Seniors Robert Benner and Laura Swager, as Chris Keller and Ann Deever, share a tender moment together.

‘All My Sons’ a compelling family drama

Annual Boston Globe contesthonors 13 student artists

Anna Gargas

In black and white: Junior Anna Gargas’ photo shows “the contrast between masculinity and femininity.”

BY PERRIN STEIN

Thirteen students at this school received recog-nition in the annual Boston Globe Arts Awards.

Over 10,000 images in 16 different categories were submitted to the contest, but only about 2,000 pieces received awards. The winning Golden and Silver Key pieces have been on exhibit since Febru-ary 1 and will continue to be on display in the State Transportation Center until March 1. Students can view each other’s work at the awards ceremony Sunday, Feb. 14 at John Hancock Hall.

“The exhibit represents artwork from all over the state,” said art teacher Sandra Truant. “The art refl ects how students observe and imagine the world around them. These pieces are completed with great care, excellent technique and are very expressive.”

Students from North have participated in this contest for 18 years. Each art teacher selects up to 25 pieces to enter in the awards.

“It’s a regional contest, which means the entire state is represented,” Truant said. “Once work is submitted, it is then judged by a panel of artists from around the state.” The contest is meant to expose students to competition and see where they stand in relation to other high school artists, she said.

“Art is a visual expression and needs to be seen by an audience. Entering a student’s work into competition allows students to know where they stand among their art peers.”

Junior Anna Gargas was one of the 13 students to receive an award. She won a Silver Key for her submission of a high contrast photo of a girl.

“The photo hints at the contrast between mas-culinity and femininity,” Gargas said. “I wanted this photograph to question the belief that there is only male and female.

“It’s a fuzzy issue—not black and white. The photo is only black and white, but the issue I’m trying to portray is gray, which makes it ironic,” she said.

While fl ipping through a book, Gargas saw a photo of a man in a dress superimposed on the “ideal” female body.

From this, she said she got the idea that she wanted to show the blurry lines between male and female, she said.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for something I enjoy,” Gargas said.

A Golden Key award was given to junior Monica Reuman. Silver Key Awards were given to Gargas, juniors Tatiana Froehlich, and Marissa Troy, and sophomore Nellie Robinson.

Honorable Mentions were given to seniors Sa-mantha Alpert, Olivia Glennon, Maia Levoy and Abigail Weisberger, juniors Jessica Kramer and Tiffany Leung and sophomores Evelyn Golden and Lizzie Weisman.

Reuman’s work will move on to compete in New York City. If it wins, the piece will move on to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

BY PERRIN STEIN

Grass covered the fl oor of the little theatre, and a white picket fence bordered the stage. The back of a typical suburban house protruded from the wall, to show that “All My Sons” was centered on a family’s life.

The play, which was on stage Thursday, Feb. 4 through Satur-day, Feb. 6, “examines the result when the generation that started World War II meets the genera-tion that fought it,” according to senior directors Jordan Ascher and Jen Diamond.

As the show began, the sounds of wind and airplane engines rushed through the theatre.

When the lights came up, the tree in the corner of the yard had split into pieces. The small, unfortunate event set a high level of intensity for the show and symbolized the larger drama of the play.

This drama stems from the

deeply rooted conflicts in the Keller family. One conflict in-volves the Kellers’ two sons, Chris and Larry.

Chris, played by senior Robert Benner, returned home safely from the war, but Larry has been missing in action for almost three years.

Kate Keller, their mother, still believes that Larry will one day come home, although the rest of the family has abandoned hope.

Played by junior Rosie Mc-Innes, Kate is confl icted between her ties with her son and the pres-sure to move on with her life.

Eventually, her emotional bur-den becomes too much to bear and she breaks down, falling to her knees and screaming.

Her performance was realistic, and the audience was in awe of the pain emanating from her

voice.A second confl ict involves the

family patriarch, Joe Keller. Dur-ing the war, Joe ran a factory that produced airplane parts.

When his factory shipped parts that caused the deaths of 21 pilots, Joe and his partner were arrested. Joe narrowly avoided a prison sentence, but his business partner did not.

Junior Derek Butterton skill-fully portrayed Joe as a man who worked his way up in society, and he now lives comfortably with his wife and sons.

Throughout the show, he con-stantly reiterated the importance of family.

Even when arguing with Chris, Joe stood fi rmly with his beliefs. Butterton never wavered in his portrayal of Joe’s adamant phi-losophy, and his emotions only grew stronger during arguments with Chris.

Chris’s belief that all human

life is valuable clashes with his father’s belief that family comes fi rst.

This leads to a great deal of tension and eventually physical violence.

A fi ght scene between father and son captivated the audi-ence, Benner raised his voice for emphasis, and Butterton tried to control his son without success.

Chris’s love interest, Ann Deever, returns to her home-town to reacquaint herself with the life she left behind when her father, Joe’s business partner, was jailed.

Senior Laura Swager balanced Ann’s love for Chris and her effort to move past her father’s arrest.

As neighbors continually dis-cussed the events that led to Ann’s father being sent to jail, she displayed a strong will and dra-matically disowned her father.

From the beginning, Swager stood out from the rest of the cast.

Other characters were dressed in simple clothes from the 1940s.

Swager was wearing a bright floral dress, which helped to define that she was—in what turned out to be more than one sense—separate from the rest.

As the play progressed, the intense action grew. The family’s casual small talk escalated to loud arguments.

Some characters even resorted to violence to better portray their vehement convictions. At one point, Joe slapped his son to cre-ate an element of surprise and intensity.

The Kellers and their neigh-bors always remained steadfast in their convictions, and the ac-tors livened up scenes by bring-ing their conversations to life.

“All My Sons” presented a dramatic look at confl icting hu-man beliefs and the devastating effect that they can have on fam-ily dynamics.

review

on campus Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

Deaf Culture DayEDCO presentations raise deaf awarenessWednesday, Feb. 3 in the fi lm lecture hall

Teddy Wenneker

Service dogs: On the left, Tom Rich, a spokesperson for canines for Disabled Kids, presents during D-block. On the right, Millhouse, his service dog, demonstrates how service dogs can alert their owners with hearing disabilities to sounds around the home.

Deaf professionals discuss personal experiencesBY HILARY BRUMBERG

Education aide Sabrina Denni-son Weiner signs the word “Deaf” in front of her heart, instead of traditionally in front of her face, demonstrating how important Deaf culture is to her, she said.

Dennison Weiner, Sarah Fish, a student, and Terry Malcolm, a staff interpreter at the Mass Company for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, presented on a Deaf

professionals panel E-block.Senior Ketya Destin asked the

professionals questions in sign language, who responded also in sign language.

Translator Diane Schallear-Hough and EDCO head transla-tor Melissa Phair translated the conversation into verbal English for the audience.

Dennison Weiner, Fish and Malcolm shared their personal

experiences with being Deaf and hard of hearing.

“I was born Deaf,” Dennison Weiner said. “My mom had the German Measles in the 70s. Many people were born Deaf at the time.”

Malcolm said she is proud to be born Deaf.

“I really cherish my culture—signing,” she said. However, she is “curious to see what it’d be like

to be hearing.” For her, the hardest part of be-

ing Deaf was being forced to lip read. “It was really frustrating,” she said.

Malcolm said that she did learn to speak a little. “When I was six, I learned my fi rst word: ‘cow,’” she said.

Because Fish is hard of hear-ing, she can hear some things. She has learned from living in

“both worlds” that “the hearing ability doesn’t matter at all. What matters is your personality.

“I don’t wish I’d be fully hear-ing. Sometimes I’d prefer to be more Deaf,” she said. “But re-ally, I appreciate the diversity in people.

“I’m used to being the one who’s different and not neces-sarily having the same access to everything as other people.”

Service dogs assist Deaf owners at homeBY MARENA COLE

Service dogs can help owners with disabilities in their homes, according to Tom Rich.

Rich, a spokesman for Canines for Disabled Kids, spoke during D-block about how service dogs can help people with various dis-abilities lead their daily lives.

Rich, who is Deaf, said his dog Millhouse helps him daily.

“He gets me up in the morn-ing, and alerts me to anything from the telephone ringing to the smoke alarm going off to my wife calling me from another part of the house,” Rich said.

“He’s very alert. When the school bus stops 200 or 300 yards down the road, he comes and tells me.”

Dogs of all different breeds

can be trained for the program, as long as the dog is willing to work, Rich said. The program trains both rescued dogs and young puppies.

Once a dog has been deemed suitable for the program, it is placed for basic training, either with a family or with an inmate in a low or medium security prison.

“The prisoners enjoy working with the dogs, and it gives them a big feeling of accomplishment,” Rich said.

“The guards say they notice a change within the prison inmates when the dogs are there.”

After the dogs come back, they go through formal service dog training, and are then matched up with an owner, Rich said.

The dog and the owner then go through a two-week training process.

To end the presentation, Rich gave a demonstration with Mill-house.

Senior Nneamaka Mordi knocked on the door, and Mill-house ran back and forth be-tween Rich and the source of the sound, alerting him.

fi lm that she s a i d w o u l d demonstrate the ASL alphabet through sports.

On screen, a man panto-mimed playing various sports, w h i l e s u b t l y presenting each letter to the au-dience.

First, he played golf and pre-

BY MEREDITH ABRAMS

Audience members practiced their sign language during B- and G-block presentations.

Senior Kayonna Mitchell opened the presentation, which she said would delve into Deaf poetry, the American Sign Lan-guage (ASL) alphabet and hand shapes.

“Hand shapes, body language and expressions are the three aspects of ASL,” she said.

Mitchell then introduced a

tended to swing, hit and watch his shot. He demonstrated each ASL letter through a different, golf-related movement.

Next was football, and he was the quarterback as he broke from the huddle, received the ball and threw it for the touchdown while repeating the alphabet in ASL.

The basketball clip began with a tip-off, and ran through a defensive play before a player pretended to receive the ball and take a shot, still signing the

alphabet.Then he acted out a wrestling

scene, continuing to show the audience each letter of the ASL alphabet as he pretended to wrestle.

After the fi lm, members of the audience divided into groups and practiced their sign language, with an EDCO student leading each group.

To start, students practiced making each hand shape of the alphabet correctly, then moved

on to making words from the letters.

Then students began learn-ing signs for words and phrases such as “my name is” and “I love you.”

For the rest of the period, students remained in their small groups learning sign language.

To leave the fi lm lecture hall, students lined up and had to demonstrate one sign they had learned at the door.

Students learn American Sign Language alphabet

Newtonian

Kayonna Mitchell

courtesy of EDCO

on campus6 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

on campus Newtonite, Newton North ◆ 7 Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

Habits for aLifetime ofHealth

Keep active • Stay smoke free

www.nwh.org

Newton-Wellesley Hospital encourages you to develop healthy habits.

Eat a balanced diet •

Students discusslife being DeafBY STEVEN MICHAEL

Five students who are part of the EDCO program shared their perspectives on being Deaf or hard of hearing in a panel during F-block.

The panel included seniors Ketya Destin and Gilberto Rich-ardson, juniors Brandon Bailey and Andre Robinson and sopho-more Kellynette Gomez.

Sabrina Dennison Weiner, who works in the EDCO program at F.A. Day, moderated the panel.

Questions delved into how life is different for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing and how their families coped with learning of their child’s Deafness.

Robinson said his family al-ways supported him.

“My mom has always accepted my Deafness,” Robinson said.

“My mom is my advocate,” Gomez said. “She accepted me from day one.

“My mom is accepting, and my whole family is accepting.”

Richardson said he found out he was different from others af-ter he was already enrolled in a

Jacob Schwartz

Panel of students: Junior Andre Robinson, sophomore Kellynette Gomez, senior Ketya Destin and junior Brandon Bailey discuss their personal experiences being Deaf or hard of hearing.

school for the Deaf.“When I found out I was Deaf,

I accepted it,” Richardson said. “I was already at a Deaf school. I didn’t have experience with hear-ing people until fi rst grade.”

Members of the panel also dis-cussed life as a Deaf person.

In response to a question regarding whether the Deaf can drive, the panel responded with a resounding yes. Bailey added he even has his own car.

Acknowledging the diffi culty in communicating with hearing friends, the panelists said they used a combination of text mes-saging, writing and lip reading to communicate.

Robinson played football for this school along with other Deaf students. “We would teach the other players signs and write on paper,” he said.

Some panelists said they have received cochlear implants to aid their hearing, while others said they were content with their pres-ent level of hearing.

After, the audience asked the panelists questions.

Sound and Fury explores struggles with implantsBY MARENA COLE

According to various members of the Deaf community, opinions on cochlear implants vary.

During C-block, members of the EDCO program showed Sound and Fury, a documentary about a family that struggles to decide whether to get a cochlear implant for their daughter.

Cochlear implants are devices that can improve the hearing of a

Deaf person.The documentary, which was

made in 2000, followed a Deaf man, his Deaf wife, and his hear-ing brother and hearing sister-in-law.

Both couples have Deaf chil-dren and consider whether to get them cochlear implants.

In the end, the hearing couple decide to get an implant for their son, Peter, despite objections

from Deaf family members.“I want him to grow up with

all the opportunities his brother has,” said his mother Mari, re-ferring to the fact that Peter has a twin brother, who was born hearing.

However, the Deaf couple de-cided to wait until their daughter Heather, who was fi ve at the time, was older so that she could make a more informed decision.

After the documentary, stu-dents in the EDCO program shared their personal experi-ences and feelings regarding cochlear implants.

Sophomore Kellynette Gomez spoke about her decision to get a cochlear implant in sixth grade, after considering multiple op-tions.

Also, Gomez said she felt par-ents should wait to get implants

for their Deaf children until they are old enough to make the deci-sion themselves.

Senior Ketya Destin, who is Deaf and does not have an im-plant, said she did not want one because she identifi es as being a Deaf person.

“I was born Deaf, and that’s who I am,” Destin said. “I’m happy with myself and being Deaf.”

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Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 9

Talk of the Talk of the TigerTigerCritic’s Corner

Teachers’ PicksMr. Wood

◆Casablanca

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆The Simpsons

Ms. Carrillo

◆Pan’s Labyrinth

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆Fringe

Mr. Zhu

◆Avatar

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆ABC News◆ABC News◆

Culinary arts teacher Lisa McKinney graduated from New-ton North in 1981.

Senior year, McKinney be-came a culinary arts major, the first year that the major was available.

McKinney said she was plan-ning to go to Minuteman Region-al High School for its Culinary Arts program her senior year rather than attend Newton North. However, after the Newton North program was created, she stayed here instead

In 10th and 11th grade McK-inney ran track and played soft-ball.

Of returning to teach at North, McKinney said, “I like to call it the Peter Pan syndrome. I’ve never grown up. I’ve always been a Tiger my whole life.”

She said that since she at-tended, “having freshmen at the school has changed the balance

Newtonian

Did you know?

The Notebook (2004)Oh dear...get out the tissues

for this one. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, The Note-book tells the tale of Noah (Ryan tells the tale of Noah (Ryan tells the tale of Noah (Gosling) and Allie (Gosling) and Allie (Gosling Rachel Mc-) and Allie (Rachel Mc-) and Allie (Adams), two teens in the 1940s who fall madly in love. This movie is considered a staple of the romance genre, but not ev-eryone will enjoy it. While those who are love-story fans will go crazy for the passionate romance, those who want a little action and adventure and are not ready for a hardcore tear-jerker may want to steer clear.

-Rent

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

It’s a classic story: boy meets girl, girl is way out of boy’s league, boy devises intricate plan to get her to love him. Okay, so maybe it’s not something you hear every day, but with a plot de-rived from William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” and a fantastic ensemble cast, 10 Things I Hate About You is not to be missed. Julia Stiles and Heath

Ledger star as Kat, a sullen teen-age girl, and Patrick, the boy on a mission win her affection. The plot centers around another boy’s elaborate ploy to date Kat’s sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), and Patrick gets roped in along the way. A sweet mix of love, humor and teen angst, 10 Things I Hate About You is almost impossible to hate.

-Buy

Fever Pitch (2005)

Ben (Jimmy Fallon), a die-hard Red Sox fan, must decide between his two greatest loves: Lindsey (Drew Barrymore) or the home team. Hilarity ensues in Fever Pitch, a perfect com-bination of sports, comedy and romance. There’s something for everyone to love about this movie: guys will love the baseball theme, girls will love the romance, and both will laugh out loud over Ben and Lindsey’s wild antics. Even though the ending is predictable (everyone knows what happened to the Red Sox in 2004), the laughs along the way make Fever Pitch well worth it.

-Rent

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

This movie is, without ques-tion, the Annie Hall of our gen-eration. The fi lm follows the tu-multuous relationship between Summer (Zooey DeschanelSummer (Zooey DeschanelSummer ( ), who has lost faith in love, and Tom (Joseph Gordon-LevittTom (Joseph Gordon-LevittTom ( ), Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Joseph Gordon-Levitta hopeless romantic, through vignettes depicting their 500-day relationship. Mark Webb, in his debut, directs his actors through the screenplay with the mastery of a much more experienced fi lmmaker. All of the stops are pulled out in (500) Days of Summer, and they work to create a great fi lm.

-Buy—CALEB GANNON

AND KATE LEWIS

Happy Valentine’s DramaHappy Valentine’s Drama

D’Jaidah Wynn

of the school. It forces people to grow up too fast.”

Additionally, McKinney said another major change since she attended North is that some vocational programs have been eliminated, such as metal and electrical shop.

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advertisement Friday, Feb. 12, 201010◆ Newtonite, Newton North

3/31/10

sportsFriday, Feb. 12, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 11

Boys’ basketball to compete in tournament

Teddy Wenneker

On the ice: Wellesley sophomore Will Darcey and senior Ben Sauro battle for the puck.

Girls’ basketball sticks to strong defense, teamwork

Boys’ hockey ready for fi nal match-up

Boys’ gymnastics prepares for State Championship

Girls’ hockey tries to capitalize on puck possesion

BY JACOB SCHWARTZ

Senior Ben Sauro, the captain, said boys’ hockey, 2-15-1, still doesn’t know how to win late in games.

“It’s a little physical and a little mental,” he said.

“Mentally, we just don’t know how to compete in the third period.

“If we go into the third period and it’s a 3-2 game, we tend to go downhill because we’re not used to those situations.”

Coach Tom Ryan said, “When you’re not used to winning games in the third period and playing teams who are, it’s really hard to come out on top.”

For their last game of the sea-son against Needham, the Tigers are working on battle drills and one-on-one and three-on-three situations, in order to do well late in the game.

The Tigers are also working on their toughness and checking. “We’re practicing hitting guys in the corners,” Sauro said.

“Needham’s one of the top teams in the state, but we have our work cut out for us. It will still be very hard to beat them.”

Wellesley shut out the Tigers at home 5-0 Saturday, Feb. 6. Ryan said, “In my opinion, we didn’t compete hard enough.”

Ryan said that recently the team has stepped it up, but he was disappointed in the qual-ity and effort of play against Wellesley.

The Tigers lost 7-1 to Wey-mouth, Wednesday, Feb. 3. “We played a good game. After the fi rst period we started moving the puck and playing harder,” Sauro said.

At Dedham Saturday, Jan. 30, the Tigers won 4-1.

“We skated fast and we moved the puck well. In the third period, we managed to stay strong.”

Sauro said he was proud of the team’s chemistry.

“We’re a close together team. We bond really well.”

BY JACOB SCHWARTZ

Offense and puck possession have been the focus of girls’ hockey, 5-10-1, in order to ensure a good end to the season, said senior Kim Gillies, a captain with senior Hannah Jellinek.

“We’ve been trying different two-on-one and two-on-two situ-ations,” she said.

Tomorrow, the Tigers play

Needham, which according to Gillies, is considered their big-gest rival.

This will also be the last game of the season, and the team will be celebrating Senior Day.

“Although Senior Day will be really fun, we have to make sure we stay focused on the game and not get too distracted by the festivities,” Gillies said.

During vacation, the team will play in the Cougar Classic tour-nament, in which the Tigers will play Sandwich Tuesday.

“Sandwich is a strong team with a strong record, and we’ll want to play our top game if we want a positive result against them,” Gillies said.

The Tigers were shut out by Wellesley 6-0 on the road Sat-

urday. Wellesley scored one goal in

the fi rst period, two goals in the second and three in the third.

Coach Bob MacDougall said that the team still had problems getting the puck into the offen-sive zone and noted that Wellsley outnumbered the Tigers in terms of shots.

The Tigers shut out Weymouth

on the road, 3-0 Tuesday, Feb. 2. Saturday, Jan. 30, the Tigers

lost here to Dedham 5-2, in what was a close game to the end, Gil-lies said.

“We had some unlucky bounc-es,” she said. “But they also had a couple of goals, because we were slow on the transition.

“They also capitalized on a lot of our mistakes.”

BY ELI DAVIDOW At the Comcast Tournament,

tough competition will prepare boys’ basketball, 17-2 Wednes-day, for what is to be a challeng-ing post-season, said coach Paul Connolly.

“It’s a very prestigious tourna-ment that we’ve been invited to the last six years,” he said.

The tournament will take place at B.C. High Saturday and Sunday.

In the fi rst game of the tourna-ment, the Tigers will play Everett. Then the winner of that game will play the winner of the B.C.

High-Central Catholic game for the championship.

“Everett’s good,” Connolly said. “They’re competitive in the Greater Boston League, and they’ve got some really good athletes.”

After the tournament, the Tigers will look forward to the post-season.

“Our goal is to get one of the top four seeds,” Connolly said. “There are still some teams who need to qualify, but there’ll be some good teams in our bracket for sure.”

The Tigers need to focus on

how to react to challenging com-petition, Connolly said.

“We’re not responding to tough teams in the way we’d like to,” he said. “Some teams get hot, and then we get cold.”

The game at Brockton Sunday, Jan. 31 is a good example for the Tigers to learn from, Connolly said. The Boxers won 80-69.

“We got off to a pretty good start, but we had our ups and downs,” he said. “Then in the third quarter, they just kicked our tail.”

Connolly also noted how spe-cial this post-season will be, es-

pecially because it is senior Greg Kelley’s last season.

Kelley, a captain with senior Wynn Tucker, is a four-year starter for the Tigers and second all time for career points in the boys’ program. He is also one of 15 players in Massachusetts to be nominated as a McDonald’s All-American.

“Greg has played over 80 games for us, attending over some hundred odd practices,” Connolly said. “This season is special for us, along with the rest of the Class of 2010.”

In recent action Tuesday, the

Tigers defeated Brookline 68-43 in the season’s final home game.

Tucker said, “We came out hard, and we never gave them a chance.”

On Senior Night Friday, the Tigers topped Wellesley 73-63.

“It was an emotional game, especially just to see a lot of the alumni at halftime,” Kelley said.

Against Weymouth Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Tigers beat the Wild-cats 86-49 and Friday, Jan. 29, the Tigers defeated Dedham 66-39.

The Tigers were to have visited Needham yesterday.

BY JACOB SCHWARTZ

Boys’ gymnastics, 0-7, has been working hard in preparation for the State Championship Meet tonight, said coach Steve Chan.

“One thing I’ve noticed in their training is their willingness to keep working at their routines even when they’re physically and mentally tired,” said Chan. “That’s defi nitely a plus.”

Chan said in training the team has been trying to get past the

inexperience of the new gym-nasts.

“They’ve just been working hard and trying to pick up tricks that are easy for them to pick up in a short amount of time, so they can improve their routines which will contribute to their overall team scores.”

To do well in the meet, ac-cording to Chan, the team needs to make sure they’re as polished as possible.

“Their routines were not as smooth as they could be,” he said.

“That’s what we’ve been work-ing on, to make the routines as smooth as they can be.”

The Tigers competed in a State Coaches meet Monday, Feb. 8. Only individual scores were tal-lied.

Senior Justice Hedenberg, a captain with Senior Buzz Co-chran, received two metals at

the meet. One was for his perfor-mance on fl oor, where he came in fourth place with a score of 8.0. A second was for his vault routine in which he came in sixth place with a score of 8.0.

Junior Alex Pettiti also earned an all-around metal. He came in sixth and scored 27.6 points.

Cochran also said he thought one of the team’s biggest strengths was the excellent coaching by Chan.

Andover defeated the Tigers Friday, Feb. 5.

“We didn’t win, but we weren’t expecting to,” Cochran said. “We defi nitely pulled together some of our routines.”

“Unfortunately, the number of players on the team is a big weakness.

“We need more gymnasts to try out next season. There’s no experience necessary.”

BY JAY FEINSTEIN

Defense has been strong for girls’ basketball, 15-2, this sea-son, according to coach Hank DeSantis.

“People have been stepping up for the team,” he said.

Senior Lucy Abbot, a captain with seniors Sammy Alpert, Monet Lowe and junior Briana Hunt said, “We’ve been working well throughout the season.”

There will be a tournament at North Tuesday, Feb. 16 and

Wednesday, Feb. 17. First, the Tigers will play Burlington.

Abbot said she expects the Ti-gers to advance to the champion-ship round for a rematch against Wellesley.

Visiting Wellesley, Friday, Feb. 5, the Tigers lost to the Raiders, 52-35.

“We got frustrated really eas-ily and that made us play badly,” Abbot said.

“We need to stay more posi-tive. We started off well but then

it went downhill.” Cooperation helped the Tigers

defeat Brookline 54-33, Tuesday Feb. 9, Alpert said.

“We stepped up our effort and focused our energy and frustra-tion on the game,” she said.

“Brookline was talented, but we took out key opposing play-ers.”

According to Abbot, the Tigers didn’t start out the greatest, but they “had a really good second half so we didn’t let ourselves get

frustrated.” Shooting well also helped the

team claim the victory, Abbot said.

At Weymouth Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Tigers defeated the Wildcats, 51-43.

“We started the game off slow-ly but our energy picked up as the game progressed and we had solid defensive effort,” DeSantis said.

Sophomore Grace Rolfe and junior D’Jaidah Wynn did es-

pecially well, according to De-Santis.

Visiting Dedham, the Tigers defeated the Mauraders 54-23 Friday, Jan. 29 by playing good defense, according to DeSantis.

“We had a solid team effort,” he said. “We had tremendous contributions from everybody.

“Everybody played well and we did a great job overall.”

The Tigers were to have visited a solid Needham team yesterday, according to Abbot.

sports Friday, Feb. 12, 201012 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Boys’ track fi nishes undefeated in leagueBY JAY FEINSTEIN

Although they finished Although they finished Athe best in the league Athe best in the league Awith a record of 6-0, Awith a record of 6-0, Athe Tigers still need to work on individual state events, according to coach Jim Blackburn.

“We work on everything from jumping to throwing to running, speed and distance,” he said.

Previously, the Tigers weren’t the strongest in the hurdles but they have been getting better.

“We’ve improved a lot to keep

up our record,” said senior Hao-Kai Wu, a captain with seniors Conor Ebbs and Jake Gleason.

The Tigers will participate in the Division I State individual competition Saturday, Feb. 20.

Individuals qualify for the competition by earning certain times. “We don’t know who is going, but we expect to do well,” Wu said.

Wednesday, Feb. 10, the Tigers were to compete in the Bay State Conference all-star meet. The top

individual people in each event participated.

At the McIntyre Elite Relays, Sunday, Feb. 7, the Tigers placed second in the shot put relay.

“Having the big meet atmo-sphere and still being able to perform well was crucial,” Ebbs said.

As champions of the Carey Division Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Tigers competed in the Bay State Conference fi nals meet against Milton, the winner of the Herget

Division. They defeated the Wild-cats 60-32.

Junior Isaiah Penn came from behind, passing the Milton an-chor in the fi nal lap to win the 4x400 relay for the Tigers with 3:34.23.

The Tigers swept the shot put and junior Dan Ranti won the two-mile with 10:06.59.

Saturday, Jan. 30, individuals from the team participated in the State Coaches Invitational.

Most notably, junior Ezra Li-

chtman fi nished sixth in the mile with a time of 4:27.

Thursday, Jan. 28, the Tigers defeated Weymouth 68-18. “We did well in just about everything,” Blackburn said.

Notable in the meet were freshman Ryan Lucken, who fi n-ished third in the 300 with 37.90 seconds, senior Connor Ebbs, with a 14.55 meter throw in the shot put and senior Jake Gleason, who fi nished the 2 mile in 10:19, Blackburn said.

Wrestling, 15-5,has determination

Teddy Wenneker

Determination: Seniors Alex Westlund at 171 and Ed Campana at 135 practice wrestling.

BY JAY FEINSTEIN

Experience, execution and de termina t ion helped wrestling, 15-5,

achieve one of its best records in years, said coach John Staulo.

“We did really well this sea-son,” said senior Sam Shames, a captain with senior Alex West-lund. “We’ve improved and came really far from where we began,” he said.

Saturday, Feb. 6, the Tigers placed second out of 13 teams in the Team Sectional Wrestling Championship.

First, the Tigers wrestled Waltham, winning 47-28. “They’re a tough team, but we were able to be aggressive and win in the end,” Shames said.

Next, the Tigers achieved a win against Algonquin, 37-29. “We started out slowly, but we came back really strong,” Shames said.

In the fi nal round, Franklin de-feated the Tigers, 62-5. “They’re

one of the toughest teams in the state, so I wasn’t surprised by our loss,” Shames said. “People wrestled tough, but Franklin was tougher, so the match didn’t go our way.”

Visiting Brookline, Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Tigers defeated the Warriors 51-25. The Tigers earned more than twice as many points as Brookline thanks to great de-termination, Staulo said.

Saturday, Jan. 30, the Tigers defeated both Quabbin, 40-33, and Woburn, 48-14, in a tri-meet. When the Tigers were at 34-33 with Quabbin, sophomore Pat Bryson at 215 pinned a heavy-weight to secure the victory. Seniors Ed Campana at 135 and Jake Gannon at 145, and ju-nior Mike Atkinson at 160 also achieved pins.

Against Woburn, Bryson, Cam-pana, Shames at 119, Westland at 171, junior Ben Polci at 189, and freshman Steve Paton at 103 all won pins.

Girls’ track hopes to stay focused as season closesBY PERRIN STEIN

Girls’ track, 4-0, is hop-ing to “stay focused and maintain as high

a competitive edge as possible throughout the fi nal three weeks of the season,” according to coach Joe Tranchita.

Having won all of the regular season meets, the Tigers are working to achieve peak per-

formances at the state level, he said.

Saturday, Feb. 20, the Tigers will compete in the Division I State meet which is for all the Di-vision I teams in Massachusetts. Students can only participate if they have achieved certain time standards, Tranchita said. The top six students at each event will qualify for state fi nals to be held

Friday, Feb. 26.The Bay State Conference

League meet Wednesday, Feb. 10 included the top team in every league. For each event the Tigers were to have entered their two best members, Tranchita said. This event is only for individual competition, and the team as a whole did not receive a score.

At the McIntyre Elite meet,

Sunday, Feb. 7, the Tigers beat two school records. First, in the long jump, the three students’ combined length was 47 feet 4.25 inches. The second record was by freshman Carla Forbes, who jumped 17 feet, 11.5 inches in the long jump.

The Tigers won 62-24 against Milton, also undefeated, in the Bay State Conference finals

Wednesday, Feb. 3.Against Weymouth Thursday,

Jan. 28, the meet came down to the fi nal event: the 4x400 relay. Because the Tigers won this event, they won the league title for the 19th time in 23 years.

“It turned out to be one of the most competitive meets in the Bay State League history,” Tranchita said.

Teddy Wenneker

Co-captain: Junior Andrea Marzilli practices in the SOA.

Swimming fi nishes 3-4 overall

Girls’ gymnastics ends strong

BY PERRIN STEIN

Boys’ swimming has fi n-ished its season with a 3-4 record, according

to senior Aidan Breen, a captain with senior Sam Rolfe.

“It wasn’t the most successful season in terms of winning, but everyone learned a lot,” Breen said.

According to coach Amy Rich-ard, the team grew together.

“I am looking forward to next year, because the team has a good focus which will continue into next year,” she said.

Students participating in the South Sectional Championship Sunday, Feb. 14 and the Division I State Championship Friday, Feb. 19 will continue practicing over February vacation.

To qualify for these meets, students must have achieved a specifi c time in an event or diving score set by the MIAA.

According to Richard, five students will be attending States, and six students will be attending Sectionals.

Students partaking in these events are working on tailoring

their practices to prepare for ma-jor meets in the next two weeks, Rolfe said.

The Tigers came in fourth with 207 points at the Bay State Conference Championship.

Rolfe had the highest com-bined individual score of 32.

The meet, which was held at Brookline, also featured Brook-line, Framingham, Natick, Need-ham and Wellesley.

The diving and 500 freestyle occurred Thursday, Feb. 4, while the rest of the events were held Friday, Feb. 5.

BY JACOB SCHWARTZ

At least one girl has At least one girl has Aachieved a personal Aachieved a personal Abest in every meet girls’ Abest in every meet girls’ Agymnastics has participated in this season, according to coach Jim Chin.

“I’m proud of the fact that they have been working hard to achieve their personal bests,” Chin said. “I always told them if you look at it from a selfi sh point of view, it’s fi ne because their

individual scores will still contrib-ute to a higher team score.”

The Tigers beat the team record for total score at the Bay State Championship, their last meet, with a score of 136.15. The team came in second place, com-ing in only four tenths of a point behind Wellesley.

Junior Andrea Marzilli, a captain with senior Rani Jacob-son, said that the bars showed noticeable improvement from

past meets. “There were mixed emotions,” she said.

The Tigers lost in a fairly close meet against Dover Wednesday, Feb. 3, with a score of 139.55-134.65.

The team broke a school re-cord for total event score on the bars, with a total bars score of 33.5.

The Tigers beat Brookline on the road 131.55-115.6 Friday, Jan. 29.