By the Numbers:

Number of seniors from NS who received their associate

degrees.

Number of seniors from NS planning on attending Snow

College in the fall.

Cruz Rodriguez’ rank in number of goals scored in 3A.

The number you should always choose when you pick

between 1 and 10.

Girls softball team plays well at state tournament, takes 2nd see page 6

Well Said:

It was our best season yet. I loved everything about it. Our team did really well and we pulled through when we needed to.Said by senior and pitcher Shelby Earl about the recent state softball tournament ftftwhere the team took 2nd.

It I

eded teded tpit h rpit h

Contents

A & E................9

Crossword.........10

Features.............4

News..................1

Sports................6

Upcoming events:

Today: Project day/night-

new gym

Thursday: Spring sports

award ceremony- 7:00 p.m.

Friday: Elemtary track

meet

Saturday: Miss Fairview

Pageant- 6:30 Auditoruim

BY CY ARLY CY HAPMAN

On May 7, the NS choir earned the highest possible

scores at the UMEA State Choral Festival. The choir went to the competition not knowing what to expect, but

left glad to compete success-fully.

“The students were al-ready loaded [on the buses]

when I got the scores,” said Carisa Hilton, NS choral di-rector and vocal coach. She decided to not yet reveal the scores, but gave one bus of students a somber speech on the importance of choir per-formance. When she felt the time was right, she unenthu-siastically told the students they earned perfect scores.

“I had to refrain from cry-ing,” said Karen Crosland, se-nior.

“They started scream-ing, screaming,” Hilton said. “They all just ran circles around the buses, scream-ing—ruining their voices.”

The judges commented that the choir was set apart because of the deep connec-tion students had to the cho-rister and music. Students noticed this connection aswell.

“We were really in sync

with the director and every-one there. That had never happened before,” said choir member Devin Shelley, se-nior.

Judges said the perfor-mance was captivating. They also noted the variety andgood diction of the choir, commenting that NS was the first group of the day they could actually under-stand. The choir performed three pieces: “Indescrib-able,” a contemporary gos-pel arrangement by Andy Albritton; “Je Le Vous Di-rai!” a 16th Century French gossip song; and “The Call”from the Five Mystic Songs by Ralph Vaughn Wiliams.

“I wasn’t going to takethem to the Region level be-cause we were having trouble with the [tempo],” said Hil-ton.

In effort to master the muffff -sic above, Hilton had to ar-range after-school and week-kkend practices.

“We ran the gauntlet ev-ery day,” Shelley said. He said the choir put in an enor-mous amount of extra timefor practices.

“I did feel some pressure because the band had donewell, and we had a goal that all of us would make it to state,” Hilton said.

Even though the choirworked hard every day to ac-complish this goal, Shelley said Hilton kept the class at-mosphere light and friendly.

“[Hilton] pushed us really.

BY AMYAA BY ANGERTER

With graduation just around the corner, most seniors at NS have made plans for the coming year. Even with the costs of college rising, most seniors are planning on continuing their education, with the majority staying close to home.

Forty-six percent of this year’s graduating class are planning on go-ing to Snow College. Twenty-three percent are attending larger univer-sities in Utah including BYU, Dixie, SUU, USU, UVU, Weber, and West-minster. Thirteen percent have select-ed schools outside of the state and 9 percent are undecided. For another 9 percent of the seniors graduating this year, going to college is not in their plans.

Many seniors going to Snow are also planning on rooming with friends from NS. Derek Erickson is on a full academic scholarship and will be living with Erik Johansen, Dyllon Tabler, and Brandon Mabey.

“I’m excited to be away from home and live with my best buddies,” Erick-kkson said.

Erickson is thinking about major-ing in engineering, and he plans to keep his part-time job at Cavaliers while going to school. Most of his family has gone to Snow and he is fol-lowing the tradition.

Nathan Aagard is also planning on not separating from his high school

friends.“I’m living with Pete, Cheese, JP,

Kaden, and Ham,” Aagard said.Aagard also has a full-tuition

scholarship and is planning on going to Snow for one year before serving an LDS mission.

Taleena Holgreen will be going to SUU in the fall where surprising-ly less than ten NS seniors are head-ed following graduation. Holgreen is anxious to move on in life and wants to major in photography.

Although the majority of seniors do know where they are headed, there are still many who are worried about

finding a job. Sixty-five percent areunsure of where they will work.

There are some who are planning on keeping their current jobs and others who say they will likely work for their family. Some seniors arehoping to find a job at a restaurant, a hospital, or work as a nanny. One thing is sure—almost every one hop-bgers for work on or near campus.

Shelsie Parish is going out-of-state to the Culinary Institute of Americain California. She hopes to find a jobon campus at a restaurant and to use student loans to pay for expenses.

“I love baking, and that’s what

made me want to go,” Parish said. “I fell in love with the school when I saw a picture.”

Parish is worried about being in California alone but she is excited to go somewhere different where no ffffone else is going.

Whether they are staying right next to home or moving miles away,seniors at NS are preparing to go out into the real world. Although most seniors are worried about money and the changes of being on their own, al-most all of this years graduating classare ready to move on and are doing so in confidence.

NS district protects summer band program See page 9

NS choir acheives straight I’s at State competition

Times takes 2nd in state

Photo by Py arkerPP Christensen

Seniors make future college plans, most choose Snow

Photo provided by Ay aron Jordan

SEE PAGE 3, STATE CHOIR

BY BY RANDI PEAHL

On April 30, four students from NSH graduated from Utah Valley University, be-fore graduating from NSH.

Lincoln Olmstead, Erik Johansen, Brandon Mabey, and Tori Egan earned theri associate degrees. Two oth-er students, Laurel Bailey and Elizabeth Fullmer, com-pleted more than half of the graduation requirements but

did not complete the pro-gram.

These students began tak-kking college classes in the sec-ond semester of their soph-omore year. They have gone through each summer taking classes as well as a full sched-ule throughout the school year.

In order to complete the program students must earn 60 credits from the school they choose

to graduate from. A major in-centive to finish the program in the past has been the New Century Scholarship.

“It’s fun when you’ve got all of your friends,” Olmstead said.

In order to qualify for this scholarship the studentsmust complete the associate degree and maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. The scholarship

2

BY SY ADIE IVIE

After 13 years of attending school and suffering through classes and homeffff -work, seniors may be happy to know that their time and hard work will be re-warded with a year-end senior trip. The senior trip that NS High sponsors con-sists of a day at the local amusement park, Lagoon.

Despite the opportunity to skip a day of school, ride rollercoasters and spend a day with friends, seniors at NS wonder if the trip is worth their time and mon-ey. The NS High trip is scheduled along with the NS middle school and many other schools throughout the state of Utah. Every year the park is crowded,has extremely long lines and is filledwith underclassmen.

“I’m not going,” said senior, Alisha Peckham. “It’s dumb because you’ll only get on one ride the whole time you’re there because there are so many

people.”Some NS seniors also feel that the La-

goon trip is boring and mediocre com-pared to other senior trips throughout the state. Some of these more exciting trips are Dixie and Juab High School’s vacation to California, Disneyland and Knottsberry Farm.

Although the NS Lagoon trip may seem boring or small compared to other senior trips, NS students may be grateful to know that they are one of only 5 out of the 12 surveyed schools who have a choice to even attend a trip. Many highschools throughout the region, like Del-ta and Emery, don’t offer seniors theffffchoice. And the schools in our region that do offer a trip, like Manti and Richffff -field, also go to Lagoon.

Many people think that the larger,richer schools in our state would take their students on a more elaborate, fun-filled trip. But they are wrong. Many of these schools, like Provo, Skyline, Lehi,

Cedar and Riverton High Schools, don’t offer their students any vacation at all.ffff

The faculty at NS only has the stu-dents’ interests in mind when they plan this trip. They plan it to offer the seniorsffffa reward for their hard work and one last opportunity to have a great time with your fellow classmates before everyone separates and moves for college.

“I think the senior trip will be a blast!” said senior Shyanne Ison. “It will be one of the last times all of the seniors get to be together and have fun, and I think everyone should take the oppor-tunity and go.”

Although most NS students have vis-ited Lagoon many times in their lives, including the 8th grade trip, Ison is not the only one who is looking forward to going.

“It’s Lagoon. It’s going to be fun for whoever goes,” said senior Jared Watts.

Senior trips rare among Utah schools

Photo from lagoonpark.com

BY KY IMBERLY LARLL SEN

After four years of hard work, NS seniors will soon take the final steps in their high school careers. The NS graduation ceremony will be held on their behalf on May 28 at 7:00 p.m.

Although this year’s graduation will bevery similar to those in years before, there have been a few changes made.

The greatest change is that the teachers this year are required to attend the ceremony andwear robes. They will be wearing the banners of the universities or colleges that they gradu-ated from and will be sitting up near the stu-dents. In years past, teachers and staff haven’t ffbeen required to come to graduation at all, let alone have to sit by the students.

There are varying opinions on this matter between staff members at NS. ff

“I think they’re going to be excellent, the changes that we make,” said Jim Bowles, the principal at NS. Bowles feels that by attend-ing the ceremony, teachers and staff members ffwill show support for those graduating.

Nan Ault, a senior class advisor, feels thatthe changes will help teahcers show greater support for the students. She said that hav-ing the staff members dress in robes shows ffthe audience that the graduation is a formal

and important thing. She pointed out that at graduation ceremonies at college and univer-sities, the professors dress in a similar way.

“We want to place a bigger emphasis on the academics at our school,” said Ault.

Not all of the teachers feel that the chang-es are for the best.

“It seems to me to take the focus off the ffkids,” said Shawn Ledingham, a math teach-er at NS. Ledingham feels that the changes will draw more attention to the teachers rath-er than the students, when the ceremony is for those graduating.

Some also feel that purchasing the robes is an unnecessary expense in these difficult times. The robes will cost the high school about $1000, and some feel that this mon-ey could be spent on something else. The robes though, will probably be used in years to come so the money may not be such a large issue.

There have been some small changes in the graduation ceremony, but there is still a lot of effort that goes into the preparation process. ffff

“There is a lot of work that goes into it,” said Bowles

Those who are in charge of graduation start preparing for it months in advance.

SEE PAGE 3, GRADUATION

Teachers, students preparing for changes in graduation ceremony

BY HANNAH ALDRIDGE

Next year’s seniors will have the opportunity to take a class that has never been offered at NS. However this class, which ffffwill be instructed by Nan Ault, is a competitive one. Only ten students will be accepted into it, and only after they have turned in an application.“This class will just be a way for students to express them-

selves,” said Ault. She hopes that this class will present NS

Documentary film fificlass available for next year seniors

4 seniors graduate with associate degree

Photo provided by Cy hristy By ird

SEE PAGE 3, DOCUMENTARY CLASS

SEE PAGE 3, ASSOCIATE DEGREE

3

BY SY ADIE IVIE

With this school year a step away from the finish line, preparations for the next school year have already begun. The first order of business was to electthe new Student Body Officers’, Presi-dent Ezra Hainsworth, Vice President Taylor Walker, Secretary Shane Mickel and Acitivity Agent Amber Mecham.

Winning the students over to get their votes was not an easy task. SBOcandidates had to endure the tough and hectic election week filled with cam-paigning, planning and little sleep.

“The hardest part of the week was

coming up with ideas for the assembly and the amount of time we had to put in,” Hainsworth said.

Campaigning was not the only diffi-cult task the candidates had to prepare for. There was also the interview, which counted for 30% of their vote that made some of the candidates nervous.

“The interview was the hardest part because I didn’t know what to expect,” Walker said.

Now with the elections finally over the new SBOs don’t have much time to rest before they begin work for next year. Throughout the summer they will be attending leadership conferences and

begin planning activities for their peers.“I’m excited for the activities we’ll do

next year,” said Mecham.All of the new officers are looking

forward to next year. They are excited to be involved with the students and teachers and host activities and assem-blies everyone will enjoy.

“I am stoked hard core,” said Hains-worth.

The theme the new SBOs have cho-sen for the 2010-2011 school year is,“The difference between a successffff -ful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather, a lack in will,” Vince Lombardi.

Photo by Sy adie Ivie

NS students elect ‘10-11 SBOsMany things have to be doneincluding reserving a loca-tion for the graduation par-ty, choosing speakers, orga-nizing the seating chart and also making up the diplo-mas.

Those who are chosen to speak at graduation are the seniors who have the highest GPA. This year they chose to speak on attitude, deter-mination, future, the retro-spect of school, and courage. These speakers have to pre-pare their speeches long be-fore hand and get help from teachers on editing during the last month before the ceremony.

The last month is also the time when the graduating

students start to practice as a group. During these prac-tices the students are taught the graduation song, how to march, and where they will be seated. They practice the ceremony many times. These practices are impor-tant. When students are late they are charged $3 and are charged $5 if they miss a practice completely. The school does this to show the student that puncuality is important so the real cere-mony can start on time.

Just as it is important forseniors to show up to the practices, it is important for the other student in differffff -ent grades to shoot for their own graduation.

Graduation,story continued from page 2

Editor-in-ChiefChana Thompson

Managing EditorsBrandi Peahl

Sadie Ivie

AdvisorBen Cox

NewsBrandi Peahl, editor

Hannah AldridgeWhitney Nafus

Chris LarsonSadie Ivie

FeaturesJesse Richmond, editor

Kim LarsenAlyssa Hall

Austin SandersAlexis Fryer

A&ECarly Chapman, editor

Amanda JohansenKim Larsen

SportsAmy Bangerter, editor

Paul CookAmanda Clark

LayoutSadie Ivie, editor

Chana ThompsonBrandi Peahl

PhotographyHannah Aldridge,

editor

NS Times Staff

covers 70% of tuition for two years following graduation.

All four students who graduated qualify for this scholarship, although after next year the scholarship sta-tus will be unknown. Budget cuts have had a huge impact on the future of the scholar-ship.

According to Christy Bird, Concurrent Enrollment Co-ordinator, the average num-ber of graduates is seven. The drop is attributed to the un-certainty of the New Centu-ry Scholarship.

Although the scholarship may be cut, students have found other benefits of com-pleting the program. These benefits include being two years ahead, spending time with friends, learning good study habits and pushing one another to excel academical-ly.

“Three of us dudes down here are always in competi-tion with each other,” said Jo-hansen, a senior from Spring City.

Pushing each other hashelped each of these students obtain this high honor. This program is not for everyonethough.

“[This program] is not for everybody,” Bird said. “It takes a lot of time and dedi-cation.”

Bird says that an individu-al needs to know if the pro-gram is right for them. Those who are looking at Junior College schools will not ben-efit as much from the pro-gram. Also those who plan on playing sports in collegewill not benefit.

Those who choose to par-ticipate in the program face many challenges. A lot of time is spent at the Ed-Net building, working with thesame people day after day. They also take many elective classes which do not focus on their intended major.

“It was totally worth it,” Bailey said. “I suggest to oth-er people to start taking col-lege classes now.”

Associates degree, continued from page 2

students with an opportunity that they have not had before. She has high hopes for the class. The film class will start “our own version of the Sundance Film Festival.” In this festival students will create their own short film and enter it in a com-petition that will be judged by a group of people. This festival will hopefully be judged by a group of film professors.

Ault believes that film is just another form of art that stu-dents can relate to. Her motivation for starting such a class was the desire to provide students with a new opportunity.

One may wonder where the funds for the program are com-ing from. Ault plans on buying the cameras with the money from a grant she has recently applied for. The class will take place in the NS library, and the movies will be created on thecomputers there. The filmmaking class is also very beneficial addition to a student’s schedule.

“[Enrolling in this class] is a competitive process,” said O’Dee Hansen, counselor. “Students have to apply.” Accord-ing to Hansen, the competiteveness of this class will help stu-dents understand how applying for things works. The class will teach students valuable research skills that will help them later in life. Hansen also believes that this class will become a way for they community to connect with students.

Documentary class,continued from page 2

. . hard, but it was worth it,” Crosland said. The class received outside choral help from Steve Meredith, Ross Christensen, and Roy Ellefsen. Hilton said the students had to learn todelve into the songs and perform each with emotion.

The choir also had inside help from their accompanist Shirley Hilton.

“She gives us suggestions and tells us what we need to work on,” said Crosland. “She’s really helpful in that way, because she knows what she’s talking about.”

The choir performed their semester concert the night be-fore State. Even with all this practice, Hilton has discovered that a “hyped-up” routine directly before performance pre-pares her and her students by calming nerves.

“We compare it to the Ramses pre-fight routine from Na-cho Libre,” Hilton said. She said the routine consists of a se-ries of inside jokes.

Choir members agreed their performance was relaxed but the songs energized, creating a Superior performance.

State choir,continued from page 1

BY AY LYSSA HA ALL

The time where popsi-cles are constantly in stock in your family’s freezer and barbecues become a regular form of family dinner is rap-idly approaching. With only eight school days left in the school year anticipation is in the air for the upcoming summer months. What most excites the students at NS about the summer season?

For obvious reasons a large portion of students feel that the best part of the sum-mer is being free from the clutches of school responsi-bilities.

“I’m most excited to be done with homework and to be able to sleep in,” said freshman Kaytie Nielson.

Not only is a well-de-served break from school-work much appreciated, but

the warm weather is also en-joyed immensely. The op-portunities to participate in numerous activities are much greater this season because of the fewer numbers of limita-tions due to weather interfer-ence.

Skyline’s outdoor swim-ming pool seems to be a big hit during the summertime. Those who enjoy events suchas four-wheeling, horseback riding, fishing, and camping trips also occupy Fairview and Spring City’s canyons on a regular basis during these summer months.

“Having campouts and barbecues is one of the bestparts of the summer,” said ju-nior Tyler Olsen. “The out-doors is the best place to be.”

According to senior Aus-tin McCulloch, the good weather also creates oppor-tunities to watch and partici-

pate in sporting events.“Being able to watch and

play sports during the sum-mer is my favorite part of the summer,” said McCulloch.

The cities are mostly re-sponsible for the summer sporting events. There are softball and baseball city league games played through-

out the summer for both youth and adult leagues.

Slow pitch softball games and tournaments for men, women, and co-ed teams are held throughout the summer months. There are also all-night tournaments that take place.

During many of the town celebrations there are also co-ed softball tournaments and volleyball tournaments held to encourage participa-tion. In past years these tour-naments have been a hit.

“I love playing in the co-ed tournaments during the town celebrations,” said ju-nior Amber Mecham. “I got to play with old people, and that was a fun experience for me. Except for when you mess up they get pretty ticked and you worry for your life.”

Along with these sporting events, there are also other traditions that take place dur-ing the town celebrations.

Spring City starts things off on May 29 with the Herff -itage Days festival and lat-er hosts a celebration on the July 24. Moroni holds their celebration on July 4 as well as Mt. Pleasant who has theirHub City Days celebration on the same day.

Fountain Green is next with their Lamb Day’s festiv-ities, which take place July 16 – 17, and Fairview City con-cludes with the annual Pio-neer day celebration taking place July 7 – 24.

Some of the events that happen at nearly every lo-cation include a fireman’s

breakfast, games at the park, and parades. Some townshost dances and fun runs, en-tertainment and food, suchas the mutton fry in Fountain Green.

Spring City holds its own with Heritage Days as they offer home tours and art exffff -hibits. Mt. Pleasant and Fairview both hold rode-os during their celebrations. According to freshman Emi-ly Johansen, this is her favor-ite part of Fairview’s festivi-ties.

“I like it because I love to watch the bull and wild horse riding,” said Johansen. “I se-cretly want to watch them get hurt. It’s intense.”

Along with Fairview’s ro-deo, they also host the an-nual demolition derby on the night of July 24, which is followed by a large firework show. Visitors from all over the state come to participate in this event. According to Fairview City, on average, Fairview hosts approximate-ly 4,000 spectators at this event every year.

Although some of the highlights of summer include these pre-determined town celebrations, there are also many fun and exciting thingsto do that can be self-orches-trated as well.

With the summer months being few, it can often feel like summer vacation is too short to many. This is why in many cases students at NS will be taking advantageof the summer events North Sanpete has to offer.ffff

4

Students anticipate summer fun and activities

Laptop questions answered for college bound seniorsBY JY ESSE RICHMOND

For the college-bound stu-dent, a laptop can be a great tool. Having your own com-puter beats waiting in line for a school-supplied machine, plus you can bring along all of your music and pictures from home. Desktops offer ffffthese advantages, too, but lack the ability to be carried around for note-taking in class.

Science teacher Dax Hig-gins says that he didn’t have a laptop until his last year of college. When he did have one, he says he enjoyed the freedom of not having to use school computers, which sometimes had long lines, but also noticed it sometimes hampered his productivity.

“It was nice,” said Higgins. “It was also a distraction.” Higgins says that it is very easy to engage in distract-ing activities on a laptop, like playing a game of solitaire in-stead of listening to a lecture (he does concede, however, that doing this may actually help some people listen more

attentively). So, laptops seem to be

ideal if you want a comput-er at college. The problem is:

ww h i c h kind do kind doyou get?

The various kinds of lap-tops can be broken down into three main groups: net-books, notebooks, and tab-lets.

Netbooks are the smallest of the three types. These are built with portability as their main focus, and as a result,they generally don’t get big-ger than about 8 inches long.

Of course, with great por-tablitity often comes not-so-great hardware. Netbooks

are most suited for inter-net surfing, so they have less RAM and hard drive space

than a standard notebook (though these can be (though these

certain upgraded to a lex prodegree). Compl -otoshop grams like Pho

run on aren’t going to puters. these tiny comp

Th n, with en againeen and the small scre

cramped slightly cb o a r d , k e y b

m o s t mgraph-ic de-

signers swouldn’t turn to a netwouldn’t turn to -

book to suit their needs.The price of a standard

netbook ranges from $200-$400.

Notebooks are the broad-est category of laptop. These can range in both size and hardware capacity, depend-ing on the use. Gaming lap-tops are the biggest of the hardware bunch, offering fffftop-of-the-line graphics cards and lots of RAM. On the oth-er end, some notebooks are practically netbooks, only

distinguished by bigger key-boards and screens.

The advantages of note-books over netbooks are mainly size. The screens are bigger, and thus better for watching movies, and the keyboards are less likely to cause cramps. Of course, they’re also longer and heavi-er, so a special bag or back-kkpack might be needed to car-ry them comfortably.

Most notebooks will cost somewhere between $300-$700, though higher end models can cost over $1000.

Lastly, there are the tab-lets. Tablets are so called be-cause they feature a touch-screen, and hand gestures or a stylus are used to navigate. Some tablets, like the Ap-ple iPad, are all touchscreen, while others feature a swiv-eling screen and a keyboard. Also, some tablets have full computing capabilities (“Tablet PC’s”), while oth-ers (like the iPad) have more limited power and are mainly used for web surfing.

Due to their more spe-cialized features, tablets can

range from $400 to over $1000.

For the college freshman, Higgins recommends the netbook. He says that net-books offer the greatest adffff -vantage to most students since they are light and small. These allow easier note-tak-kking in class, as well as lessen-ing the weight a student has to carry around.

While Higgins does rec-ommend netbooks to most students, he says they’re not for everyone. Graphic De-sign students, for in-stance, will have problems with a netbook’s small screen and lack of hardware.

“[Netbooks] don’t have the

capac-ity to get any-thing photo-wise done,”said Higgins. However, Hig-gins says that the basic func-tions most college students

would use (internet surfing, writing papers, taking notes) work just fine on a netbook, thus earning his recommen-dation.

As a precaution, Higgins warns that all portable com-puters are unstable. He says that the components of lap-tops are very sensitive, and even moving the computerwhile it is powered on can hurt it.

“The problem with lap-tops is that they’re more un-stable,” said Higgins.

In ad-dition, s i n c e l a p t o p h a r d -

w a r e is more i

s p e c i a ls -ed, it is izo more also

ensive to expereplace.

Determining which computer best fits a student’s needs (and budget) shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Students talk summer plans and vacationsMiguel Ramirez1. Where are you going?“Idaho.”2. How long are you going for?“2 - 3 weeks.”3. How are you getting there?“Driving.”4. Do usually take vacations?“Yes, every year, my family and I take a vacation some-where during the summer.”

Brian Jackson1. Where are you going?“California.”2. How long are you going for?“For one week.”3. How are you getting there?“Driving.”4. Do usually take vacations?“Usually.”

Ben Rodriguez1. Where are you going?“New York.”2. How long are you going for?“For about a week or little more.”3. How are you getting there?“Flying.”4. Do usually take vacations?“No.”

Damien Eliason1. Where are you going?“Camping.”2. How long are you going for?“For a Labor Day weekend.”3. How are you getting there?“Driving.”4. Do usually take vacations?“Yes, every year, my family and I go camping for the La-bor Day weekend.”

Kenyon Anderson1. Where are you going?“Mexico.”2. How long are you going for?“For one week.”3. How are you getting there?“Cruise.”4. Do usually take vacations?“Yes, most of the time.”

BY CHRIS LARLL SEN

Photo by Jy esse Richmond

Dominick Booth1. Where are you going?“California.”2. How long are you going for?“For a couple of weeks.”3. How are you getting there?“Driving.”4. Do usually take vacations?“No.”

5

BY AY USTINAA SANDEAA RS

There is a great battle that is brewing out there over such a simple subject, which is should I get glasses or should I get contacts.

Many people worry about how they look. Some say go with contacts. Others say that it is not hard to make glasses match with what their wear-ing.

So the question was an-swered after some hard re-search. We have found that there are few differences in ffffthe eyewear. With contacts it makes it so that your pe-ripheral vision is also work-kking, but glasses can cut offsome of your peripheral vi-sion. Glasses can make it so that you have tunnel vision.

“Contacts are nice, but they are scary to put in.” said Dallas Gardner

He is not the only one who dislikes glasses “I likes

the contacts because I could not see good before,” said Damien Elison

Even teachers don’t like glasses.

“I hate glasses,” said Mr. Cox.

Also some people don’t like glasses for other reasons.

“I hate glasses because they cut off my peripheral viff -sion and they are annoying in the rain,” said Amy Bangerter a senior from Fairview. “They also give me a headache.”

People who wear glasses do not seem to like them. So if you are debating I would suggest that you talk to your eye doctor about contacts. One reason that glasses are better than contacts is that they are cheaper. Glasses cost about $100 a pair. But contacts cost $220-$260 peryear. A big price difference ffffbut some say it is worth it.

There are also other op-tions such as Lasik, which

is a good way that is a more permanent solution. Lasik costs more, but it works most of the time. There have been cases were peoples eye vi-sion goes back to normal. It is surgery and there is always a risk.

Some people say that they like glasses better.

“My eyes just aren’t good with contacts because [they] irritates my eyes,” said RhettBird

Adversely, Sophomore Nathan Beck likes glasses more.

“I don’t like the thought of putting something in my eye so glasses are way better,” Said Beck.

“I love glasses they are easier to use. When you read contacts can make your eyes hurt more from contacts get-ting dried. Contacts open up ways of getting an infection,” said Dax Higgins, science teacher.

Based on whom I inter-viewed students at NS like contacts better. So if your vi-sion is lacking then talk to your eye doctor. See which option is best for you.

BY WY HITNEY NANN FUS

Teens singing their lungs out about their feelings in a group may not sound like a type of show you would want to watch. The name itself makes it seem unworthy and just plain silly. With reviews deeming it brilliant, thirteen million viewers, and numer-ous awards you may just have to see it at least once.

Glee’s setting is a typical, ordinary high school. You have your usual cliques from preps to goths. The Glee club is for everyone, encourag-ing relationships between cliques.

Still, getting together just to sing about what you’re go-ing through at the moment doesn’t sound like the best storyline. Yet people all over the nation are craving more and more.

Normally people enjoy shows they can connect to through its characters. Glee’s characters are vibrant and unique.

The wide variety of cliques and how they act is something you see in realhigh school life. Glee is full of situations that seem realis-

tic and relatable. This is one of the reasons why the youth love Glee.

“You can just relate to the characters,” said Cait-linn Mower, a student at NS. “You can find them in our high school, and it feels like people you actually know.”

Glee seems to be real modern high school life in its funniest form. Full of en-ergy and drama, it’s sure to attract audiences. The quick, witty script offers unlimitedffffamount of humor. Also the characters add to the come-dy with their personalities.

“It’s absolutely hilarious, and I love every minute of it,” Christina Coates said.

Glee takes old and new songs and seems to com-pletely transform them into instant hits. You wouldn’t think that a rock song could be pulled off in choir form. ffIt seems to be working with their albums selling in thetop charts.

“I like their voices andhow they make songs new and fresh,” says Carly Ander-son, junior.

We will see more of Glee and the large amounts of fans called “gleeks” in the future.

Popular TV series entertains T

with music, drama and comedy

Students debate over contacts vs. glasses

Photo by Jy esse Richmond

Photo from fox.com/glee/

NS counselors work behind the scenes

BY HY ANNAA AHNN ALDRIDGE

Many students have benefited from the help that the two NS counselors of-fffer. O’Dee Hansen and Chet Keisel are the two men that have helped count-less students both during and after high school. Keisel and Hansen provide as-sistance with student’s schedules; helpwith the SEOP (student educational oc-cupation plan), and assistant students applying for scholarships.

Many students rely on these two men for help with all things academ-ic. They assist students in applying for colleges they are interested in, and give them advice on how to pay for it. Many students believe that these two men are an incredible recourse.

“They do have to do a lot for stuff for ffstudents,” said Maria Reyes, Junior from Wales. Reyes feels very close to both counselors, and can be found it their of-fffices often times.

She feels that many people at NS, students and teachers alike rely on the counselors for many things. This, she

feels, it what makes them to valuable to NS High.

The counselors at NS also do what is called a “guidance curriculum.” This helps prepare students for post-highschool life. Of course, both counselors encourage all of their students to go to college. This is their main goal as coun-selors. Both say that it is a difficult and troubling thing to see students miss out on a college experience by decide not to further their education.

“I love helping students find direc-tion and overcome issues,” said Hans-en. He has been a counselor at NS for 5 years, and hopes to remain one for years to come.

Hansen states that he enjoys help-ing student reach their fullest poten-tial. Hansen became a counselor for that reason, he enjoys helping students overcome issue and find direction. Kei-sel also became a counselor for similar reasons.

“I enjoy working with students,” said Keisel. Keisel’s favorite part of being a counselor is seeing students succeed.

He hopes that he can encourage stu-dents to further education, and succeed in that way also.

Both Hansen and Keisel feel that what they do at NS is immensely im-portant for the students that attend the school. Keisel believes this because he feels it is his mission to help students understand what their options are after and during high school.

Keisel does his best to make sure that he is helping students in this way as much as is possible. Hansen feels that his job is important because studentsneed help outside of what teachers do.

“[Counselors] add one more team member to help students toward suc-cess,” said Hansen. He feels that the NS staff is just like a team of people; all with ffthe goal of helping students succeed in life. He feels that counselor’s are just one more help toward that goal.

It is clear the both Hansen and Keisel provide an enormous amount of help for NS student. Many students hope to continue to have their help for years to come.

Photo by Sy adie Ivie

6

BY PY AULPP COOK

The Lady Hawks have ended an-other successful softball season and played well throughout the state tournament.

With only one loss in region play, the Lady Hawks were able to

take the region championship andearn a number one seeding for the double elimination state playoffs. ffff

The first tournament game took place in Mt. Pleasant against Mor-gan who is number four in their re-gion. Shelby Earl pitched a no-hit-ter as the Hawks took the win 4-0

to advance to the second round of the tournament. The other teams to advance past the first round were region rivals Manti, number one ranked Bear River, number four ranked Grantsville, and Union who dealt the Hawks one of their only losses of the season.

As the playoffs continued the ffffLady Hawks played the Wasatch Ti-gers who they easily beat 5-0. Anna Ledingham and Brooke Seely hit homers in the win.

Up next was top-ranked Bear River who beat the Hawks 8-1 to send them into the losers bracket.

Immediately after the Bear Rivergame, the Hawks played Manti for the third time this season. Shantel Ison led the Hawks to victory with a three run homer to eliminate the templars. The score was 4-2.

That same day NS played the Union Cougars. The Hawks jumped to an early lead in the 1st, 5-1. But the cougars rallied to take the lead in the fifth, 6-5. But the Lady Hawks scored four more in the sixth and seventh to take the win 9-6. Ison and Ledingham both had home-runs.

The Hawks continued fighting their way through the lower brack-kket in the semi-finals game against Grantsville. Ison hit her third home-run of the season in the close win against the cowboys. The final score was 3-1.

With the win the Lady Hawks were headed into the championship game to play Bear River for the sec-ond time during the tournament.

The Hawks struggled through-out the game with hitting and er-rors, getting only two hits whilehaving six errors. The Lady Hawks lost to the bears 8-1 for the third time this season. It was a tough way to end the season.

But the season was in no way a failure. The Hawks managed to take second in state and win their region.

“It was our best season yet,” said Earl who pitched 42 straight innings during the tournament. “I loved ev-erything about it. Our team did re-ally good and we pulled through when we needed to.”

Ladyhawk softball goes to state, takes 2nd

Photo by Py aulPP Cook

Due to injuries and illnesses NS track team doesn’t perform as well as ex-pected, but they enjoyed making new friends and gaining new experiences.

BY AMANDAAA CA LARK

Despite the high hopes of continuing the three year winning tradition, the team set-tles for second place in the Region.

Injury caused this season of track to be unstable, with many of the star runners out for most of the season. Seniors Lind-say Bradley and Will Cruz were out for the majority of the time because of pulled ham-strings at the first of the season. They were both only recently able to compete in Re-gion and the BYU invitational, along with Kody Kleven who received a stress fracture at the race held at Manti, during the region meet.

“It was a disappointing season for us,” se-nior Haley Ence said. “We had a lot of inju-ries and illnesses and didn’t perform as well as we all hoped.”

Ence, who suffered from not only pneuffff -monia but also two broken ribs near the end of the season, wasn’t able to run her regular races. She performed well even with her in-juries which were unknown at the time, and helped the 4 x 400 M team make it to state.

Bradley helped the girls win region three years in a row and was a member of the two- time state champion 4 x 400 M team. Al-though Bradley’s injury affected the team ffffgreatly, sophomore Paige Franks was able to join the team and help them do well, quali-

fying the team to go to state with an excel-lent time of 4:05.

Although the team had its ups and downs they received second place in Region placing behind Delta. The rest of the season was also successful, and according to the members of the team players have done well despite the injuries. Coach Butler said that through the season the team has been able to win easily without too much effort.ffff

The Hawks were able to have a good year while making friends and gaining new expe-riences. Ence notes that although the season wasn’t the best for her she enjoyed making friends. The team members loved spending time with their teammates as well as those they competed against.

“My favorite part about track was just be-ing with the girls,” Shyanne Ison, senior of Mt. Pleasant said. “We all get along really well and have lots of fun together. Plus we win and that is always fun too.”

State was held on May 14 and 15. Those who competed did well despite injuries.

The medley successfully placed third in a close finish against Ceder and Park City.

The 4 x 400 M relay took first in state with a time of 4:03. The team consisted of Shyanne Ison, Leah Gull, Paige Franks, and Lindsay Bradley. They also broke the school record by five one hundredths of a second.

Paige Franks, a sophomore, did well in the 300 M hurdles, placing sixth overall in state.

Although there were many unexpected challenges towards the end of the season, the Hawks were able to place second in re-gion 12 and successfully compete at state.

NS track team disappointed with season, but did well at state despite injuries

pppp

Photo provided by By ill Bedford

BY CY HANA TA HOMPSON

Cruz Rodriguez is a junior from Moroni and a student at NS, but once he hits the soc-cer field he is an unstoppable, aggressive athlete. He fin-ished out this soccer season ranking second in the state for the most goals scored in 3A.

“Playing defense and for-ward are my best skills in soc-cer,” said Rodriguez, “and giv-ing it my best every game.”

According to head coach Mauricio Montano, Ro-driquez is a hard worker, he never gives up, and he can stay positive in adverse situ-ations.

“He helps the team to get their heads back in the game,” said Montano. “He tells them to play hard and to not give up.”

Teammates agree that Ro-driguez helps keep spirits high in a losing situation.

“One time we lost to Rich-field and we were all down and Cruz helped us to be positive,” said Osbaldo Jime-nez, a sophomore from Mo-roni.

But being positive isn’t the only great quality that Rodriguez contributes to the team.

“Cruz likes to win, but he won’t cheat,” said Montano. “He’ll play fair. He plays ev-ery game like it’s his last; he has a lot of heart out on the field.”

Though he plays fair, he is often aggressive and occa-sionally violent.

During a home game against Richfield, Rodriguez received a red card for elbow-ing an opposing player in the face.

“The kid didn’t like me because I had more goals. I schooled him and he punched me in the back of

my head, but the refs didn’t see,” said Rodriguez. “Later he came up behind me and was saying stuff in my ear so ffI just elbowed him in the face and got red carded.”

But this experience shows just how passionate Rodri-guez is about the sport of soccer; he gets into the gameand gets aggressive. And that’s how Rodriguez is a si-lent leader, through his pas-sion for the game.

“He doesn’t lead with words but with actions,” said Montano. “He is the type of athlete every team wants to have. He has played through the season with injuries andhe puts his teammates before his own wellbeing.”

But Rodriguez couldn’t have made it through the sea-son without the help of histeam. He said they help him by giving him passes to make goals.

Rodriguez loves soccer and practices at home to get better year round. His mom inspired him to start playing the sport.

Rodriguez has been play-

ing soccer since he was young and plans to continue playing after high school.

“I want to play soccer pro-fessionally or go to collegefor it,” said Rodriguez. “It is my dream to play for the Mexico League team.”

Besides soccer, Rodriguez enjoys wrestling, hanging out with his friends and watch-ing movies. He likes attend-ing North Sanpete and en-joys wearing the jersey thatrepresents it.

As this soccer season ends, he takes the good things that he has experienced to incor-porate into his game next season.

“I look forward to nextyear,” said Rodriguez. “We just have to put our headsinto it and play our best.”

Getting better includesplaying soccer continuous-ly even though the season is over, and that is just what Rodriguez hopes will hap-pen in the future.

“I hope the team keeps playing so that we can take state next year,” said Rodri-guez.

Student plays well to receive 2nd highest scoring record in the state

Photo by Cy hana ThompsonTT

7

Boys’ soccer feels good about their season BY CY HANA TA HOMPSON

The NS boys’ soccer season ended on Fri-day, April 29 when the team played against Ben Lomond; the game ended in a loss 6-1.

“We went into the game with a lot of ner-vousness,” said head coach Mauricio Mon-tano from Moroni. “We have a lot of young players, and we just didn’t have all the luck that we needed.”

Varsity captain Javier Navarro, a sopho-more from Mt. Pleasant, feels that it was an amazing opportunity to play in the first roundof state but believes that the pressure affected ffffthe team’s ability to play their best.

Players and coaches alike admit they arenot as happy with their season as they hoped to be. They had higher expectations for the outcome of the season.

“I thought we would win more,” said Os-baldo Jimenez, a sophomore from Moroni.

The team may be disappointed with someaspects of the season but they also look back at the positive things that have happened.

According to Navarro this season was much better than last season. He recalled that last season, varsity only won two gamesand this year they won six. Although it is a slow climb, the players feel that they are im-proving individually and as a team.

Montano believes the team has gained agreater understanding for the sport of soc-cer.

“The team understands that soccer isn’t about shooting,” said Montano. “It’s about possession.”

But what satisfies Montano the most about this season is that the players are much better at controlling and passing the ball more accu-rately, and 9 of the 11 varsity players are com-ing back next season.

Highlights of the season for Navarro in-clude winning their last game against Manti 2-1. He felt it was a very successful moment

when they beat their rivals, especially after losing to them once earlier in the season.

Now that this season is over, the coaches are making preparations for next years sea-son.

“We’re going to have our athletes play asmuch off season as we can,” said Montano.ff

Navarro believes that the team can im-

prove greatly if they start getting conditioned early and learn each player’s weaknesses and strengths.

Navarro is thankful to the coaches for teaching the team what they know and forall the time and effort they took out of theirffffschedules for them.

Photo by Cy hana ThompsonTT

Jazz have successful season but fall to Lakers in semis

Hawk baseball struggles to end of season, looks for positives

BY PY AULPP COOK

A week before the start of this years NBA playoffs, the Utah Jazz ffffappeared to have a bright path ahead of them. But that all came to an end as they suffered a crushing ffffloss from the Phoenix Suns. What could have been a number two team dropped all the way to number five with a single loss.

What came with the loss was a more challenging team, the Denver

Nuggets for the first round. And an even more challenging team forthe second. Utah had a rough path ahead without home court advan-tage.

Utah took a beating in the firstgame of the playoffs. Carmelo Anffff -thony was unstoppable in the Nug-gets 126-113 victory over the Jazz. Mhemet Okur suffered a tear in his ffffachilles tendon in the first half leav-ing the Jazz close to helpless in the paint through the rest of the play-offs.ffff

Utah’s season appeared to be over without homecourt advantage and unable to stop Carmelo Antho-ny. But Deron Williams came outand dominated game two scoring 30 points and dishing out 14 as-sists. The Jazz won a crucial game on the road 114-111 which would give them the upper hand through-out the rest of the series.

The Jazz returned to Salt Lake City to play the next two games of the series. Utah won both games in what is arguably the most intim-idating arena in the NBA. Deron Williams led the way averaging 26.75 points through the first fourof the series and scoring his fourth straight double-double.

The Nuggets returned home for game five and beat the Jazz by 14. Williams had another fantastic game, scoring 34 points and nine assists. But that was not enough to finish the Nuggets.

Game six took place in Utahwhere the Jazz won to finish off the ffseries 4-2. Undrafted rookie Wesley Matthews had one of his best games of his career scoring 23 points. The final score was 112-104.

But the victory was bittersweet. With a win over Denver, Utah’s only reward was the Los Angeles Lakers, who had at that time beaten the Jazz fourteen straight times in the Sta-ples Center and eliminated Utah in

the playoffs for the past two years.ffffIn game one the Lakers destroyed

the Jazz in the paint; Pau Gasol fin-ished the game with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks. Utah was defenseless underneath with only inexperienced Kyrylo Fesen-ko, and undersized Carlos Booz-er and Paul Millsap trying to slow Gasol.

Utah made a small comeback in the fourth, but it was short lived as the Lakers were in complete con-trol of the game. The final score was 104-99 Los Angeles.

The Jazz headed into game two with hopes of slowing the Lak-kkers. But this time Utah took an even heavier beating, losing the game 111-103. Williams played his worst game of the playoffs so far, ffffscoring only 15 points. Paul Mill-sap, on the other hand, played ex-ceptionally well, scoring 26 points and grabbing 11 boards to keep the Jazz in the game. But Kobe Bry-ant, being guarded by rookie Wes-ley Matthews, killed Utah on every part of the floor. He finished with 30 points, eight assists, and three blocks.

The Jazz returned to Salt Lake City for game three where they hoped to steal a game from the Lak-kkers. Utah played much better than in the past two and led almost the entire game. But L.A. cut their lead

down in the final minutes and led by one point with four seconds left. Both Williams and Matthews had a chance to win the game, but Wil-liams missed his jumper, and Mat-thews was unable to get the tip-in. The Lakers took the win 111-110.

With the series at 3-0 and play-ing the reigning NBA champions, there was close to no hope left forUtah. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3 game defi-cit.

Game four went along much like the first two. Los Angeles domi-nated the game and were ahead by as much as twenty at some points. The Jazz were defeated 106-92 and lost the series 4-0.

With Utah’s season at an end, the team realizes that they need to make changes.

“We’re a playoff team, just not a ffchampionship team,” said Williamsat a press conference after the game. “I think we need a couple more pieces, and until we get those piec-es we’ll be a four of five seed.”

Without more or better big men the Jazz won’t be able to get past teams like the Lakers who are so dominant in the paint.

Utah has had their most success-ful season in years, and if they can build on that they will have cham-pionship potential.

Photo provided by ESPNy

BY CY HANA TA HOMPSON

The baseball season at NS comes to a close with a less than satisfactory record, but the team struggled through until the end and looks back at the highlights from the season.

“We were good in the field,” said junior Parker Christensen from Fairview. “We played good defense and stopped the ball.”

For head coach Lee R. Sorensen from Fairview, the best parts of the season were the games when NS was able to stay close and had a chance to win.

The team enjoyed spending time together at practice every day and as the season ended many younger athletes were sad to see the se-nior athletes leaving.

And although many seniors from this year’s team will not be returning, the team hopes to improve their skills for the future and achieve a better winning record.

The team feels they could have done alot better this season if they would have im-proved some things.

“We could have improved on our hitting,” said Christensen. “We had a dismal batting average.”

Sorensen said that the biggest challenge the team had to face this season was hitting the ball. Everything feeds off of it--if you ffcan’t hit, your scoring struggles.

Sorensen feels that the season would have went a little smoother if they did more in the off season. But they worked hard throughout ffthe season too, doing what they could to im-prove.

“The coaches brought in guys to help us with batting,” said Brendon Anderson, a freshman from Mt. Pleasant. “They also brought players that have already graduatedto help us improve.”

According to Christensen the coach-es taught them new techniques and helped them to improve their fundamentals.

Batting wasn’t the only thing that set back the team this season; athletes feel that some teams had an advantage because their teams were composed of mainly juniors and seniors with more experience.

Although the record was not what the team neither expected nor wanted, they man-aged to finish out the season. With the end of the season comes the end of Sorensen’s coaching at NS, due to new policies that have been imposed.

“I appreciate all the help we had and appre-ciate the seniors for their leadership and will-

ingness to help with the field and get things ready,” said Sorensen.

Photo by Cy hana TThompsonTT

8

Girls golf goes to state for first time in NS history

BY AMANDAAA CA LARK

Senior Kelton Rasmussen has always had a love for tennis since the time he was six years old. His desire to start play-ing tennisence.

Playingfreshmantalent thrfirst doubon Sego. Ththem an uoutcome

“I didnthis good“But surping well.”

Rasmuimproveming the gasity. He apartner hwhere hestill has wneed to wsonally he

The pateam. Thement andhighlight of the season when they received third place out of

eight other teams. This accomplishment ranked them above the region 12 champions, and just below Desert Hills andHurricane.

Although Rasmussen has improved his tennis skills, ac-onally.ung boy to a

cess throughhe team as a tournament he team didn to the first eld at BYU.

was the only nto the sec-

state in a gainst Mor-

the team hough they ast the first

has been m not only ccording to l toughness

mple for the without him

wouldn’t be the same.”

BBoys’ tennis does well at region tourney

BY AMYAA BY ANGERTER

On May 13, the NS girls’ golf team traveled to the Mead-owbrook Golf Course in Salt Lake City to compete in the state tournament. This was the first time the team has ever

made it to the state tourney and Coach Todd Hansen as well as the girls feel it was a huge accomplishment in and of itself.

“Every girl on the team helped us get to state,” Hansen said. He added that they were able to accomplish their goal for the season, which was to get to the state tournament. “They wereable to go and see what it’s all about,” Hansen said.

The top four golfers from NS were Annie Johnson with a score of 51, Kallie McCulloch who scored a 44, senior Raber-ta Garlick was third for NS with a 42 and Heidi Shelley golfed a score of 31. The overall team score was 137 and although they did not place in the top 10, they did well and feel that the experience was worth it.

“It was good for our team to make it to state so next year they know they can do it again and they can do better,” Gar-lick said.

According to Garlick she feels she could have done bet-ter than she did and she is sad that it is over. However she is grateful for the friendships she developed throughout the season.

“I gained more friendships with the girls on the team,” Garlick said.

The team is looking forward to next year but they will miss Garlick.

“We hate to see Berta go, but the girls coming back are go-ing to be strong next year,” Hansen said.

The girls on the team have looked to Garlick throughout the season because of her experience from previous years and her example.

“She is awesome and she has inspired us all,” Johnson said.

Next year the team is hoping to get in the top 10 at state and improve from this past season.

“This year was a fun, developmental year,” said Hansen. “They are a great bunch of girls.”

The team speaks highly of Hansen and how he helped them reach their goals and go all the way.

“He believed in us and he told us that we could do it andwe did,” Garlick said.

The younger members of the team are anxious to improve upon the skills they have learned this season and they enjoyed their experience at state.

“I thought it was amazing that we got to go and I hope we get to go next year,” McCulloch said. She added that during the season the team overcame certain challenges especially those due to difficult weather and working together.

The girls were able to overcome these difficulties and feel that they made a lot of progress and are proud of their sea-son.“We got better as it went along,” Johnson said. “Practice makes perfect.”

Photo provided by Ry abertaRR Garlick

y p ys so young was because of his grandmother’s influ-

g on the NS boys’ tennis team sincce e n year, Rasmussen has increased hiss rough the years and now playss bles with sophomore Camer-The partnership has given unexpected but positive e this season.

n’t think we would do d,” Rasmussen said.

prisingly we are play-

ussen said that the ment is due to play--ame with more inten-added that his doubles elped him reach the level is playing at today, but he

work to do. He notes that they work on communicating, and per-

e wants to improve his serves.air took second in the region as a doubles ey did exceptionally well at the Divisional Tourna-

d according to Coach Ericksen, it seemed to be the

g pcording to Ericksen he has also progressed perso

“It has been good to see him grow from a youyoyoy ung man,” Ericksen said.

The doubles team’s succthe season has helped th

whw ole. In the region theh ld in Richfield, th

weww ll and moved onrround of state, hStS ephen Lewis woone to move onono d round of clc ose match agggan.

The rest of plp ayed well alth

didn’t make it paround.

Rasmussen an example to the team

through his talent, but acErE icksen he brought a mental

that the team needed.“[He] has brought a meanness that is an exam

younger players,” Erickson said. “Our team w

9

BY AY LEXIS FRYERFF

Last week the young actors of the NS drama department performed their annual springtime play. This year’s perfor-mance was “Bull in a China Shop” written by C. B. Gillford.

This piece is a varia-tion of the classic play, “Arsenic and Old Lace” written in 1939 by Joseph Kesselring. The high school rendition was a bit shaky, but overall it was an enjoyable event. The students seemed ex-cited about what they were doing and the audi-ence, though small, was interested.

The students did well in their choice of story,

costumes and set. The accents varied from time to time, and their deliv-ery was staggered at some points, but they handled their errors well.

Many students did preparation work and behind-the-scenes tasks to make the production come together nicely, though not flawlessly.

The play told the story of six old ladies and their insane plans to meet their attractive, middle-aged neighbor Dennis O’Finn, played by senior, Aaron Johnson. The old widows were played by Jessica Draper, Delilah Reece, Laura Honey, Amanda Johanson, Sarah Allen, and Erica Draper.

The group’s designs

to meet Mr. O’Finn turn out to be quite morbid. They discover that he is a detective in homicides, so of course the logical thing to do is to cause a death.

The next thing you know, there are only five old ladies; the sixth is laid out cold on the cof-fffee table to the sick de-light of the rest. Appar-ently, someone slipped poison into the tea but none profess to know which of the others did it. It is up to O’Finn to determine who adminis-tered the poison. They won’t let him discov-er the culprit easily, that would mean he would go away. To add to the mess, a nosy reporter (Sarah

Bartholomew) discov-ers the mystery, and adds her own demands on O’Finn’s time.

The frustrated de-tective’s predicament opened up opportuni-ty for many humorous comments, commonly coming from his assis-tant Kramer (played by Trevor Ivory). Kramer pointed out at one point, however, that their dis-coveries were just lead-ing them in circles. This fact seemed a little too true to be funny. They made slow progress at the end, but eventually the case was closed and O’Finn was freed from the insane house… at least for a while.

BY CY ARLY CY HAHH PMAMM NAA

A summer parade in Sanpete County is characteristically ac-companied by the joyful sounds of a marching band. But creating a marching band takes money, and asking for funding is a queasy sub-ject.

North Sanpete School Dis-trict will experience a budget defi-cit over $600,000 for the 2010-11 school year. But even with this im-

mense deficit, elected school-board officials still chose to provide fund-ing for the annual Summer Band program.

“In budget years, we have to pro-tect the Arts,” said Leslie Keisel, Assistant Superintendant. She said that if the Board cuts an activity, the likelihood of it returning is small.

The Summer Band program is a three-week band camp for appli-cable students in grades 6-12. They learn to march and memorize mu-

sic while also performing in local parades and festivals throughout North Sanpete. At the end of the camp, students are rewarded with a trip to Lagoon Theme Park.

The program proposed a needed budget of $14, 640, though more than a third of that sum could besaved if the program coordinates transportation with the Migrant education program. But even at over $14,000, Keisel said “it doesn’t make a dent” in the district’s deficit

pool. Timothy Kidder, NS band di-rector, must get the Summer Band budget approved every year.

“Programs don’t come back when the money comes back, so we have to maintain them to keep them,” said Kidder. “This is the best thing for my program that I’ve done since I’ve been here.”

He said the Summer Band pro-gram gives exposure of music to the community and bridges the gaps between elementary, middle, and

high schools. Summer Band also bridges gaps between students and community.

“It’s one of the most important[public relations] things the dis-trict does,” said Kidder, explaining the positive impact of band perfor-mances in community parades.

“The community expects it for our summer festivals,” Keisel said. She said the summer program also provides opportunity for children’s learning.

BY AY LEXISFRYERFF

“Avatar”, a visu-ally amazing and te c h n o l o g i c a l l y advanced motion picture is one of the most revolu-tionary films of its time. Highly ad-vanced special fea-tures opened new opportunities for those with creative imaginations and ambitious ideas. The new visual ef-fffects have been some of the most important factors in giving “Avatar” its great success.

The significance of the new technology used for the film has been widely ac-knowledged since the film’s release in theaters. How-ever, “Avatar’s” recent in-troduction into the world of home DVD players is predicted to ruin anything that once made the movie great. Many think that the only reason for the movie’s success lies in the captivat-ing size and 3-dimensional effects; that without thesefffftraits it’s just like any other film.

This is an extreme cri-tique. I feel that even in their own home, people willbe able to enjoy the film’s many captivating features. Of course it will be small-er, maybe less dramatic; but what movie isn’t when com-pared to the theater? Those that loved “Avatar” enough the first time to watch it over and over again will en-joy what they can get. The great depth is gone, yes; and those who watched in IMAX theatres may have a harder time adjusting thanthe rest of us, but for me, the 3-D only “made it” in a few parts.

James Cameron did a great job of creating the au-thentic feeling through a combination of reality and fiction, not just throughviewing-size. Even the for-eign things were similar, in ways, to what we know on Earth. Many parts were shown together with human forms, voices, and inven-tions, which we interpret asreality.

This is not to say that the show was perfect; it’s visual effects and futuristic seffff tting distracted from what would have otherwise been an av-erage story line. It focused around a singular moral anddid not establish a deep un-derstanding that lets you get what you need person-ally. It was a great moral, but was possibly portrayedtoo harshly. Additionally, the shallow bad guys and the cheesy military dialogue took a great deal away from the depth of the story.

Though it has it’s silly as-pects, “Avatar” was an in-triguing and well-craftedmovie overall. Whether you view it as your favorite show, or just to observe the high-ly advanced visual technol-ogy, you will watch in awe; even on your very own tele-vision.

District gives money to maintain summer band program

BY AY MAA AMM NDAA A JA OHAHH NSENAA

Solo and Ensemble is a big deal to those who perform at NS, taking qual-ifying for state is an even bigger deal. Making it to state with a solo perfor-mance and obtaining perfect scores at both region and state as a freshman is seldom heard of, Taylor Purcell has done just that.

Purcell earned perfect scores in both region, and state competitions perform-ing Bagatelle Opus 5 Number 10 by Al-exander Tcherepnin.

“I didn’t think the piece would go anywhere,” said Purcell. “I just started playing it, and others liked it.”

Purcell had been working on the piece for approximately six months to master the piece for another competi-tion. After randomly playing the com-position for fellow students, they sug-gested of as did the choir director Carissa Hilton. This brought on a new source of determination for Purcell to perfect the incredibly fast and vigorous composition.

“He did it all on his own and with support from his family, it was amaz-ing,” said Hilton.

Purcell performed his piece for the

region competition where he was up against other students from across the region, and those who would be judg-ing the competition.

At the competition judges would stop students during their performance and tell them how to fix their piece, and asked them to start over. This caused them to be behind on schedule, and Purcell was accidentally skipped, and he had to remind the judges that he was still there to perform. Despite this minor set back Purcell played his piece only once, maintained the perfect score of a one,and was eligible for the state competi-tion at Lone Peak High on April 26.

“As a freshman I wasn’t expecting to go to state,” Purcell said, “There were amazing people at state, and region was more the end of my goal.”

Purcell performed the same piece ashe did in region. When he got up to per-form the judge had told him to switchthe piano bench that was already up there with a creaky wooden one. When the switch was made he forgot to intro-duce himself, and started playing. He was then stopped and told to make theintroduction and start the piece over.

“I didn’t have an up-to-par perfor-mance in my mind,” said Purcell. “If I

were judging myself I would give myself like a one minus, or a two.”

Purcell’s nervousness did not nega-tively effect his ranking, as he earned a ffffperfect score.

Purcell had a life full of piano before solo and ensemble. He wakes up at 5:30 each morning to practice piano for two hours.

“It’s not just practicing the piano,” said Purcell. “If someone tells you to run 5 miles you can just do it. You can’t just sit at the piano and play you have to concentrate and really want it.”

He started learning piano from his fa-ther, Rhodri Purcell, when he was about five years old. At age 11 he went on tolearn from his grandmother who has sent four people to college majoring in music.

“He wanted to quit for a while, and we kept telling him ‘no you can’t’, and about a year ago he started loving it,” said Rhodri Purcell.

Purcell is currently working on The Apassionata Sonata which is the longest sonata by Beethoven, is 28 pages long, and will take approximately two years to master. He is also considering going on to college as a music major in piano.

Freshman pianist impresses at state Still exciting, but Avatar loses luster when off the big screenff

Photo by Ay my By angerter

Drama entertains audiences with modern comedy

Photo by Ay lexis Fryer

10

Cognitive Quest

FreshmenWhat is the name of the end-of-school party next Thursday?

SophomoreWho is next year’s Student Body Activity Agent?

JuniorHow many times is the ACT administered yearly?

SeniorHow many times have we used Jesse’s glasses in this year’s newspapers?

Super SeniorBless you, ants.

HeardHalls

IN THE

While walking down the halls at the school, you hear some bizarre things that make no sense when taken out of context. Here are a few of the

g

funniest ones we’ve heard.