By Megan MaughanExecutive Features Editor

Katie Stack received a letter on Dec. 4 from her husband, James, written on their daughter Mikayla’s first birthday on Nov. 3. Addressed to Mikayla, the let-ter said, “If I don’t make it back, Mom-my will take care of you and tell you how much I cared about you. You mean everything to me, and Daddy would give anything just to be there with you.”

“The night before he deployed, he laid her head down on the pillow, and he wrote about how much he didn’t want to leave her and how he would have given anything to just be there by her side,” Katie said. “He loved her with his entire heart.”

James, who was in the Marines, was deployed to Afghanistan in mid-Sep-

tember of this year. After two months of fighting, James Stack died in the line of duty this past November.

Katie said that the hardest part about James’ death is raising their one-year-old daughter by herself.

“Raising a child by myself at the age of 19 is unbearable,” Katie said. “But I have to do it; I’m not just going to give up.”

Katie and James met at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights after she transferred there from Pros-pect her junior year. They started dat-ing in February 2008, but she didn’t find out about his decision to join the Ma-rines until he signed up in November the same year.

“I’ll be honest with you: I didn’t want him to do it,” Katie said. “I knew it was dangerous, and I knew that we wouldn’t have time together.”

Still, Katie and James decided to stay together despite Katie’s worries. James left for boot camp April 6, 2009, and later that year on July 12, Katie and James got married.

“It was a very hard decision, but I

told him that I was going to stick by him no matter what,” Katie said. “I knew I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life.”

’09 Prospect graduate Jaclyn Gartz is not only Katie’s best friend, but she is also dating James’ best friend, Kevin Strack, who is in the Marines as well.

Unlike James, Strack is not in infan-try and is stationed in North Carolina, where he is an air wing mechanic.

Gartz said that though he hasn’t been deployed yet, Strack is not completely certain of his military future and can

By Neel ThakkarEditor-in-Chief

Pushing an empty shop-ping cart into the girls’ locker room, Dean Dr. Patricia Tedal-di-Monti emerged minutes lat-er with a cart any drifter — or mall rat — would envy.

Stocked inside was $4,000 in the form of cell phones, calculators, cameras, wallets, iPhones, iTouches, an iPad and every manner of clothing, from torso (North Face jack-ets) to toe (Ugg boots).

“I was just crazy,” Tedaldi-Monti said. “I mean, I was just really frustrated.”

Inside the locker room, girls had left the items strewn

everywhere: on the floor, on benches, under benches, in lockers left wide open and, ac-cording to sophomore Jacque-lyn Donzelli, in “corners that nobody goes in.”

For Tedaldi-Monti, “It was like putting your stuff out there saying, ‘Please, rob me.’ ‘Burglarize me.’ ‘Steal my stuff.’”

So she did just that, leaving notes for the girls to come to the Dean’s office to retrieve their things.

“I can tell you what they told me,” Tedaldi-Monti said of the girls’ reasons for leav-ing their items unlocked. “[Most said] they were in a hurry, so they didn’t lock

[their lockers]. Some of them said, ‘Well, my bag doesn’t fit in my locker.’ And a couple said, ‘Well, I would never take anything, so ...’”

The collection, which took place on Oct. 26, had an im-mediate impact on the girls — mostly freshman cheerleaders on their first day of tryouts.

According to Donzelli and freshman Heidi Eurich, whose iPad and calculator were among the items taken, the cheerleaders almost never leave items unlocked any-more.

But the underlying prob-lem of students’ apparent carelessness when it comes to their property remains dis-turbing for administrators.

According to a survey of 186 students by The Prospec-tor, 40 percent have lost some-thing or had something stolen just this year, mostly in the

locker rooms but also in the halls and classrooms (see full survey results on page 2).

Although Tedaldi-Monti’s visit to the locker room was unusual — “This was prob-ably the first time I’d gone down there like a crazy per-son with a shopping cart,” she said — any number of valu-able items are left unlocked there on an everyday — even an every-period — basis.

“You could easily go down and clean up a $1,000, $2,000 worth of stuff on many days,” Associate Principal Greg Minter said.

The problem isn’t a new one. According to PE area as-sistant Dave Jerbi, who is re-sponsible for monitoring the locker room during the school day, it has been around for the 25 years he has been at Pros-

Hard lessons in possessionStudents neglect belongings, create opportunity for theft

See MARINES, page 11

See THEFT, page 2

Former students support military relationships despite hardship, tragedy

TheVoice of Prospect

since 1960

801 West Kensington Road, Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056

Volume 50, Issue 5 Thursday, December 16, 2010

Still behind their Marines

pA LOVING FATHER: James, Katie and one-year-old daughter Mikayla Stack pose for a family photograph in September at Camp Pendleton in California. James, who was deployed to Afghanistan the next day, died in the line of duty this November. (Photo courtesy of Katie Stack)

A glance at bromance

Best friends are usually close, but when do two guys go from “ friends” to being in a “bromance?” For more on friendships that go beyond “best friends,” turn to...

Opinion, page 6

College searches

When high school athletes decide where to attend college, both academics and sports are often factors. For two athletes’ stories on their college searches, check out...

Sports, page 14

Gleeful no more?

“Glee” wowed Prospect audiences with its debut last year. But has the show lost some of its charm? For an opinion on the direction the show has taken, see...

Entertainment, page 12

‘A Midsommer Nights Dreame’Entertainment, page 13

ROSPECTOR

Photo illustration by Ian Magnuson

2 NEWSThursday, December 16, 2010

pect. “Unfortunately, it’s the same thing —

[just] different years,” Jerbi said.Jerbi tries to keep the locker room

secure by keeping it locked except just before and after every gym class. He also inspects it every period, picking up things that have been left out in the open.

“[The PE department] tries to clear things out and make sure there’s no one remaining in the locker room,” Minter said, “because ... kids were hiding in the toilet areas and waiting until every-one was gone and [the locker room] was shut, and then they would come out and

steal things.”Unlike many locations in the school,

though, the locker room has no cam-eras, and Jerbi says it’s hard for him to prevent theft.

“I can lock it up, [and] I can pick stuff up, but preventing [thieves]?” Jer-bi said. “I can’t prevent theft. I’m not in the locker room when the kids are.”

PE Division Head Jovan Lazarevic also keeps an eye on the locker rooms, checking them at least once a week at different times. He finds, on average, three to four people who have left their belongings unlocked.

Lazarevic picks up the items and brings them to his office. When stu-dents come to retrieve their belongings, they give him a number of reasons for not locking their things up: They didn’t want to be late to class, they didn’t want to take things out of their backpacks to make them fit in their lockers or they didn’t have locks.

Junior Devin Kurowski falls into the second category. He has stowed his backpack under the benches every day since freshman year. Luckily, he hasn’t yet lost anything, though he tries to keep his risk low by only keeping books in his backpack.

Though it is smaller during the day, the problem of carelessness and theft is magnified after school since the locker rooms have to be kept open to accommo-date sports and students who work out.

“It’s nearly impossible to lock that door and just say, ‘Well, it’s locked,’” Minter said, “because there are al-ways going to be kids who need to

get in.” As a result, students who use the

locker rooms after school have to be more careful. As sophomore Kennedy McNamara learned, leaving valuable items out, even for a moment, is risky.

Two months ago, when McNamara was changing after a soccer game, he set his iPod touch down beside him. The next thing he knew, it was gone — taken, he thinks, by a teammate. He did

file a report with the attendance office, but he has “kind of given up hope” of getting it back.

Even though he was more careful than most, McNamara wasn’t careful enough.

“It makes me wonder,” Tedaldi-Mon-ti said, returning to her search of the girls’ locker room. “Do kids not care about their stuff ? Or are they just so careless? ... I just don’t understand.”

THEFT: Students’ neglect results in lost and stolen items

The girls’ bowling team claimed a second place finish out of 16 teams at the Palatine Invitational at Rolling Meadows on Dec. 4.

pLIVE AND UNPLUGGED: A group performs at last year’s variety show. This year, Prospect will have a completely live variety show. The appropriately named “PHS Live V-show” will take place on Feb. 24-26. Check out Prospectornow.com for more about the upcoming show.

CONTINUED from front page

Locker room

ClassroomHall

CafeteriaOther

Based on a survey of 186 students

LOST TREASURE

In her 22 years as dean, Dr. Patricia Tedaldi-Monti has seen the number of items turned in to her stay fairly constant. What’s changed is the kind of items. Here are some items that were commonly lost before the age of cell phones and iPods:

- Laser pointers- Pagers - Transistor radios- CD players- Boom boxes- Doc Martens shoes

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Want all Prospect, all the time?Head online for the latest news!

Even thieves have little use for more than one calculator, cell phone or iPod. So in order to unload stolen items, they often turn to websites like Craigslist, where such items can be found significantly discounted. For example, the running price for a TI-84 Plus calculator on Craigslist, according to five recent listings in the northwest suburbs, is about $50. Dean Dr. Patricia Tedaldi-Monti has a reason for the discrepancy. “If you go on Ebay [or] if you go on Craigslist and someone’s selling stuff,” she said, “they probably stole it.” The trade can be lucrative, but administrators and the police have caught on. This year alone, according to Associate Principal Greg Minter, the police have arrested “a few” students for selling stolen items on Craigslist. As School Resource Officer Justin Beach explained, he and other police investigators check Craigslist to see if they recognize any names. “If it’s a name that we recognize, it’s kind of a red flag if they have three or four [of the same] items,” Beach said.

BUSTED ON CRAIGSLIST

This issue’s fashion update takes a look at jeggings, which seem to be here to stay.

Third period classes, the boys’ basketball team, Italian Club, Student Council, the main office staff and others all chose children to support for the annual Adopt-a-Child fundraiser for needy children.

Photo illustration by Ian Magnuson

Outside of the computer labs, the attendance office might have a claim to being the most technologically advanced area in the school. Inside, School Resource Officer Justin Beach keeps stacks of electronic items worth, by his estimate, thousands of dollars. All have been turned in within the past year but have not been claimed. “We don’t know who to go to because either they don’t file a report or there’s no name,” Dean Dr. Patricia Tedaldi Monti said. “It’s like, ‘Whose is this?’ Last year, I had, at one point, eight North Face jackets hanging on hangers behind my door.” Tedaldi-Monti stresses the importance of reporting a lost or stolen item. Just this year, she was able to return an iPod touch to its rightful owner, who had lost it in March.

Where students have lost their possessions

By Andrew RevordNews Editor

What started off as a sim-ple joke between two English teachers ended up as an op-portunity for Prospect to do-nate to the American Cancer Society.

The Thursday before Hal-loween, English teacher Mi-chael Andrews walked into school wearing a mohawk.

Fellow English teacher Matt Love saw the mohawk and thought it would be funny if Andrews kept it for parent-teacher conferences, so Love dared Andrews to keep it until then. And Andrews, being the “kind of guy who just might do it,” accepted.

Of course, he didn’t accept the bet without conditions. If Andrews kept his mohawk

until conferences, Love would have to grow out his beard, and Andrews would decide how he would have to shave it.

The next thing Love knew, Andrews was distributing fly-ers in the English office that read “The 2010 Dr. Love Col-oring Contest” after the nick-name that the English depart-ment had given Love. They included a picture of Love for participants to draw a beard on so Andrews could choose the best entry.

Since then, Love switched the name to “Build-a-Beard.”

Andrews wasn’t the only person with conditions. Love’s wife, Jessica, wasn’t thrilled about her husband growing a beard and shaping it into some wacky style.

“I’m not a big fan of facial hair,” Jessica said.

However, she agreed to go

along with the plan after Love proposed charging all partici-pants $1 per entry and having the money go to the American Cancer Society (see Fighting cancer).

Love said cancer is a rel-evant issue because it doesn’t just have consequences for the victims but for their fami-lies and loved ones as well.

Although it started inside the English department, An-drews decided to give out the flyers to other departments.

As the word got out, it wasn’t just the staff who par-ticipated in the contest, but students took interest as well.

“Everyone wanted to color my face and make me look stupid,” Love said.

Jessica said that as of Dec. 10, they had raised $426. Pros-

pect had raised $226, and she had added $200 herself.

Andrews also believes that everyone can have an impact.

“If students think about how much money they blow in the cafeteria, what’s a little money to support the chari-ties here?” Andrews said.

Though this lightheart-ed contest gives Prospect a chance to make a teacher look silly, Love and Andrews believe that the Prospect com-munity in particular has a heart for charity.

Love mentioned Volley for a Cure, the food drive and the mosquito nets as examples of Prospect’s giving spirit.

“I like to think ‘Build-a-Beard’ is one more example of Prospect raising awareness for a good cause,” Love said.

By Maddie ConwayExecutive News Editor

To freshman English teacher Teri Buczinsky, teaching Shake-speare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is the highlight of the school year. Many students head into the Shakespeare unit with the ex-pectation that they’ll only be bored, Buczinsky said, and she loves seeing the students prog-ress as they read the play.

English teacher Allyson Kreutzer also finds joy in teaching “Romeo and Juliet,” from reading it out loud in class to analyzing Shake-spearean language.

“I love sort of opening that door to Shakespeare for

[students],” Kreutzer said. “[It’s] some-thing that is totally understanding and human and completely real, and once they get past a sort of language barrier that many of them have ... it can really open a door to a whole realm of great lit-erature.”

But with a curriculum that’s packed from start to finish with little time to spare between units, the freshman Eng-lish teachers began to ask themselves if spending five to six weeks on a unit that doesn’t address other core reading skills, like grammar or vocabulary out-side of the play, was worth it.

Freshmen will no longer read “Ro-meo and Juliet” during class. Instead, freshman classes will experience a more skills-based curriculum with a focus on college readiness skills.

According to English/Fine Arts Divi-sion Head Erin DeLuga, four of the six District 214 schools have taken “Romeo and Juliet” out of the freshman curricu-lum with the goal of choosing texts that

connect more to global issues and are more “mainstream” in terms of skill application. DeLuga said the freshman English team at Prospect made the final decision with the change.

Instead, freshman classes will read more non-fiction and poetry and, most significantly, spend more time on skills-based learning like vocabulary, gram-mar and reading skills. DeLuga hopes this will prepare students for more dif-ficult texts as they progress as readers.

“By vamping up their critical think-ing skills and their reading and writing skills as it relates to college readiness standards,” DeLuga said, “they’re really going to be much more college-ready, so to speak, at the end of their freshman year heading into sophomore year.”

“Skills are meant to drive and en-hance content — not to diminish it,” DeLuga said. “And when you have those skills concretely down as a student, then you’re able to understand things so much better as you’re reading.”

The freshmen will address and prac-

tice these skills while reading other books throughout the year (see New reading list).

Regarding “Romeo and Juliet,” Kreutzer said that while she will miss teaching the play, she isn’t too bothered by the curriculum change because stu-dents will still experience Shakespeare from sophomore year on with “Mac-beth” and others.

DeLuga said replacing “Romeo and Juliet” with other areas of focus will help students in the long run both be-cause of the broader perspective they will gain from a wider range of texts and their growth as readers.

“Ultimately, the curriculum shift is going to be in the best interest of the students,” Kreutzer said. “When they do encounter Shakespeare later in life — because everybody in the world needs to encounter Shakespeare — I hope they will be better equipped to understand it. But I certainly don’t want to see a world where Shakespeare disappears — far from it.”

Now that freshmen are no longer reading “Romeo and Juliet” in their English classes, Theater Angels is making a change to their one-act play production. In the past, theater students have put on a one-act spoof of “Romeo and Juliet,” called “R & J,” near the end of the school year for freshman classes and other students to watch during the school day. With the curriculum change, however, Theater Angels will perform a different play in the spring. According to Theater Angels sponsor Jeremy Morton, “R & J” has evolved into a writing process that has involved from as many as four to 15 or 20 students. The play is student-directed and student-run. Morton said Theater Angels is currently in the process of deciding what production will replace “R & J.” Because sophomores read “Macbeth” for English class and would understand references to it in a production, that is a possibility. There are other potential ideas, too, including an entirely original play altogether. “I’m saddened for my students who will not get that opportunity to work on ‘R & J,’” Morton said, though he understands the curriculum change, “but what I will do ... is continue to find new opportunities for students [with the one-act play].”

THEATER ANGELS TAKE NEW DIRECTION

Freshmen focus on skills, not Shakespeare

pAND THE WINNER IS: English teacher Matt Love holds sophomore Keagan Anderson’s winning design in the “Build-a-Beard” contest, which raised money for the American Cancer Society. (Photo by Walker Brewer)

Love, Andrews take friendly bet, raise money for Cancer Society

The elimination of “Romeo and Juliet” from the freshman English curriculum opens up more time in the year for other texts. The curriculum for the honors-level freshman course, Honors Written and Oral Communication, will now include “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winner. Up to this year, they have read “To Kill A Mockingbird” for summer reading. Regular-level freshmen will read “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah, which has a more global perspective with the protagonist recounting his experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

NEW READING LIST

Jessica Love, English teacher Matt Love’s wife, has donated to the American Cancer society for 20 years and has volunteered at several fundraisers, including cancer walks and runs such as Making Strides and the Susan G. Komen Mothers’ Day Race. She is even a team captain for the former; her team raised $1,700. Jessica herself raised $1,200 for Making Strides. Her father died of pancreatic cancer, and her mother is a breast cancer survivor, but she took interest in cancer before because it is a “pretty big killer” after heart disease.

FIGHTING CANCER

The heart

The “LOVE”

Photos by Emmy Lindfors

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There is a unique power in giving.

Like dropping spare change into a karma bank, the small amounts of time spent for the aid of others slowly grows un-

til a moment of luck oc-curs.

Because of charity, people can gain more luck toward a favorable moment oc-c u r r i n g . When that m o m e n t h a p p e n s , the amount

returns to zero. Thus the bal-ance, like a scale, is returned to zero.

No season is more famous for giving than December. And no two men are more famous for giving then dear old St. Nick and his bro Jesus.

I am an avid fan of Secret

Santa, and in being part of a large family (can anyone top 25 cousins?), my gift list is quite long.

Two unavoidable corner-stones of my winter break are always going to the mall and going to church — two seem-ingly unrelated activities.

However, this year will be slightly different. When I walk into Woodfield and see the massive snaking line of small children waiting to see Santa, I will be reminded of Jesus. Because after all, Santa is the commercialized version of Je-sus.

True, a jolly fat man doesn’t have much to do with a reli-gious leader in a robe. Howev-er, I started to see the similari-ties between the two when my friend was talking about this in gym. Both men reward chil-dren if they are good through-out the year — or life. Both be-come very important around Dec. 25. And both are difficult to meet in person.

Mall Santas don’t count. I’m talking about the one and only original who resides at the North Pole.

The reason companies ad-vertise with Santa comes back to society’s expectations of al-ways being politically correct. The current political as well as commercial communities can’t afford to lose voters or custom-ers. For their own well-being, both groups are forced to use the most vanilla of phrases.

When was the last time you saw any commercial end with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah”? Years ago, either would have been commonly seen, like a General Motors ad published in 1948. It had a picture of a little kid sneak-ing a peek of a lit Christmas tree with a message: “Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us of General Motors.”

Today, the blanketing state-ment of “Seasons Greetings” is the main phrase.

Trying to sell Jesus, or any religious leader, is bound to offend someone. Instead, take Santa — an elf from Nordic folklore — and have him hand out gifts (see European Past). What you have left is a figure-head for the most commer-cially success-ful month of the year.

S t a r t i n g with Novem-ber’s Black Fri-day and run-ning through Christmas Day, stores across the nation see a larger profit in the last month of the year.

With every great movement, people need a leader to rally behind. Or, for the stores, a marketable character to sell to the population. In the case of the Christmas shopping spree, that figurehead has been for-ever symbolized by Santa.

While many religious peo-ple will gripe about the fact

that Christmas has now been commercialized past the point of recognition, what they need to realize is that Jesus has not been pushed aside by Santa.

Jesus urged his followers to spread cheer and belief in the Christian faith. However, in this nation which champi-

ons freedom of religion, Santa has been used instead to slightly twist Jesus’ mission. Santa is doing Jesus’ bidding in a commer-cialized way.

Jesus said to give to the

poor and needy but never spec-ified how. Santa tries to preach the same idea and leads from example by giving gifts. By tak-ing the idea of charity to such a materialistic level, anyone can understand.

Like a team of Clydesdale horses, the two men take care of different parts of the Christ-mas season while always work-ing for the same goal: peace on earth and gifts for all.

Pop culture hasn’t already inundated students with “Romeo and Juliet” referenc-es by freshman year, then at least they get to read the tale of dangerous lovers from the wrong side of the tracks.

Well, not anymore. Fresh-men are apparently not ready to experience this clas-sic, and teachers are taking it out of the curriculum. What can help them under-stand this difficult topic of forbidden love is none other than a unit focusing on col-lege readiness.

Instead of being able to cite where Juliet says, “wherefore art thou Romeo” and actually know that it means “why are you Romeo,” students will now be left out of the loop and made to learn what an author’s purpose is.

There’s no better place to learn author’s purpose than in a work of Shakespeare, and by assigning freshmen to one of his more straight-forward texts, teachers can help them grow in their knowledge and feel confident in their reading skills.

The freshmen will now

spend more time reading non-fiction and poetry, as if that is not hard enough to comprehend. Analyzing poetry can be even more dif-ficult than reading Shake-speare, especially when div-ing into ambiguous poems by Emily Dickinson.

Shakespeare is difficult to interpret, but the important c o m p o n e n t s that students need to under-stand — like “so what,” au-thor’s purpose and theme — are not difficult to pick up in Shakespeare. What makes his texts difficult are his allusions, backward language and concentration on diction and syntax.

According to English/Fine Arts Division Head Erin Deluga, students should be focusing on more of the big picture in works, so it should not matter if they don’t un-derstand every allusion.

And, by exposing students to these details in language,

they can get a feel for how they add to the main mes-sage with the help of the footnotes.

The argument that “Ro-meo and Juliet” is too iso-lated seems a bit ironic — in a literal sense, it’s known worldwide as an iconic love story, it’s written by a man from England and it takes

place in Verona. Italy might not be as “global” as Africa, but it’s still a cul-ture outside of what students e x p e r i e n c e daily, especially because of the time gap.

Figuratively, it stretches beyond just a unit on “Romeo and Juliet.” It teaches students to accept tragedy in life, learn a lesson through suffering and focus-es on how love is a universal truth.

Replacing this message with a focus on assessing students’ growth is sicken-ing. With the implementa-tion of grammar booklets in

sophomore World Literature and Composition, the Eng-lish department at Prospect is too hooked on the techni-cal aspects of reading and not focused enough on the enjoyment that comes about with learning.

We, The Prospector, feel that forcing college readi-ness skills on freshmen is detrimental to their growth as students. Placing them on a narrow, college-bound track is not healthy at their age, and up until now, stu-dents have had no trouble getting into college with “Ro-meo and Juliet” under their belts.

There’s always room for improvement in every aspect of learning, but the school is going overboard with techni-calities.

Students need to have room to test the waters in what they can and cannot understand. It’s better to challenge students than to stuff them into a cardboard box of structured learning. After a while, all that will do is suffocate them.

p SELLING SAINT NICK: Santa sits to greet and take pictures with children in Woodfield, where consequently a line of eager children and parents quickly form. Due to pressure to sell a secular symbol, retailers have started to sell Santa as opposed to the religiously affiliated Jesus. (Photos by Walker Brewer)

Whitney KiepuraExecutive Opinion Editor

EUROPEAN PAST

In Nordic countries, the original bringer of gifts was the Yule Goat. But by the end of the 19th century the Goat had been replaced by “Tomte”, an elf who wore gray clothes and a red hat.

Royals rule seasonSanta and Jesus complete the holiday spirit

The StaffEDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Kate SchroederNeel Thakkar

MANAGING EDITORDeanna Shilkus

COPY EDITORGina O’Neill

ASSOCIATE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Sharon LeeRiley Simpson

NEWS EDITORSMaddie Conway

Jane BerryAndrew Revord

OPINION EDITORSWhitney Kiepura

Katie Best

FEATURES EDITORSMegan Maughan

Carly Evans Jenna Mastrolonardo

IN-DEPTH EDITOREmmy Lindfors

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Tallyn Owens

SPORTS EDITORSMaggie DevereuxNick Stanojevic

Miranda Holloway

PHOTO EDITORSIan MagnusonWalker BrewerAli Preissing

CARTOONISTQuinn Blackshere

ADVISERJason Block

Some material is courtesy of the American Society of Newspa-per Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service. Published by students in Journalistic Writing courses, the Prospector has won, most notably, the 2004-05 and 2006-07 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker and the Gold Crown from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2006.

Mission StatementThe primary purpose of the Prospect High School Prospec-tor is to report news as well as explain its meaning and sig-nificance to our readers and the community. We, the Prospector, hope to inform, entertain and provide a school forum for the unrestricted exchange of ideas and opinions.

AdvertisingFor ad rates, call (847) 718-5376 (ask for Deanna Shilkus), fax (847) 718-5306 e-mail or write the Prospector, 801 West Kensington Rd., Mount Prospect, IL 60056, prospec-tornow@gmail.com.

Letters to the EditorDrop off letters to the Prospec-tor in the box in the library, in Rm. 216 or email letters to prospectornow@gmail.com. All letters must be signed. Please limit letters to 400 words. The Prospector reserves the rights to edit letters for style and length.

Wherefore no more R&J?5OPINION

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Voting results of The Prospector staff regarding this editorial.

AgainstFor

117

Sta

ff E

dito

rial

After being introduced to bromances in the movie “I Love You, Man” — fea-turing the ever-so-funny Paul Rudd and my future husband, Jason Segel — I have noticed society’s overwhelming obsession with heterosexual male affec-tion.

I thought this social norm was awkward and a bit odd at first. It was different to see guys acting af-fectionate towards each other when society has valued them as strong and brave protec-tors. But now, I’ve come to fully ac-cept and appreci-ate the bromance, not only because

it strengthens friendships, but also be-cause it’s just entertaining.

According to urbandictionary.com, a bromance is defined as “the intense, complicated love shared between two heterosexual males that consists of but is not limited to wrestling, numerous man-dates and tons of other stories that will only remain between the two.

“This bond is normally only shared between two males that have a deeper understanding of each other — in a way no woman could ever realize.”

While there were over three pages of definitions of the word bromance, I thought this definition explained them perfectly. It is normal to see two girls who are inseparable and know every-thing about each other. I go on trips with my friends and their families and vice versa.

Girls know when the other is upset about something and can talk for hours (I talk with them on the phone for at least an hour nearly every night). But seeing dudes this “tight” with their bros is something even Prospect is see-ing more of.

The reason the bromance has be-come so prevalent in today’s society is because of pop culture. Recent TV shows and movies have contributed to their increasing popularity among teens and adults.

Take “Jersey Shore,” for example. Men without a bromance probably would not be spray tanning with each other, nor would they sacrifice them-selves to the horror which they call “grenades” — for those of you who have never watched “Jersey Shore,” a “grenade” is the most unattractive girl found in a group of friends. If the “gre-nade” doesn’t get any lovin’, then nei-ther does anyone else.

Whenever the guys go out to party, at some point or another, the guys will “take a grenade for the team.” Now that’s a true display of bro-love and sac-rifice.

It is now socially acceptable for guys to know everything about each other, have what I like to call a “manly slum-ber party” — a sleepover wherein they play hours of “COD,” discuss numerous “hot babes” and consume a large num-brer of calories — or publicly display the “bro-hug” (see How to bro-hug). So when I walk down the hallway and see guys doing the “bro-hug” or slapping each other’s butts, it doesn’t faze me.

Guys should embrace their bro-mance; they should not be ashamed to show some love to their best buds. Two guys who show their brotherly love for

each other are ju-niors Connor Fitzgerald and Scott Hammer-sley.

P l a y f u l l y n i c k n a m e d “Sconnor” by friends, the duo have been buds since fifth grade and e s t a b l i s h e d their bromance freshman year.

“The best part is [we] are closer than you realize,” Fitzgerald said. “He could be my broth-er; I tell him everything ... it’s been years since I’ve withheld information from Scott. If something big happens, I tell Scott. It’s like a second nature.”

Bromances are beneficial for male friendships because they bring the males in question closer together. But there are a few misconceptions about the time Hammersley and Fitzger-ald. “[Some people] assume we are the same person and do everything to-gether,” Hammersley said. “We are dif-ferent people with different interests, but that’s what is awesome. Everyone brings something new to the table.”

“We just think on the same wave-length,” Fitzgerald said.

“In a friendship, the two begin to take each other’s opinions into consid-eration and care what they think,” So-ciology teacher Jason Cohen said. “Hy-pothetically, in a bromance, they would need to hear what the other’s opinion is

such as, ‘ W h a t would do you think about this?’ or ‘What would you do?’”

Cohen says that since the boom of the bromance, males are becoming less focused on heterosexual male/female relationships and have longer-lasting friendships with their bros. The need for male company has grown, strength-ening bonds between males.

The strength of the bond between two males is important in order to cre-ate an outlet for emotions and a crutch in a time of need, per se.

I’ve realized that the bromance is natural. So next time you see two guys doing the “bro-hug” in the hallway, think to yourself, “Do they have a bro-mance?”

Chances are, they probably do.

Step 1 Both men see each other and wave their hand in salutations.

Step 2Both men grip firmly on each other’s hand and pull into a tight hug.

Not - Scraping ice off windshields: Sleeping in late is a rare blessing found only on Thursdays. However, I get to wake up to the delightful treat of a fully ice-incrusted windshield every morning. Trying to balance a full backpack, keys and a mug of tea while trying to start the car is only the beginning. After all my necessary baggage is settled, I’m still stuck in my driveway, scraping off crystals, intead of driving off to school to make it before the bell rings. Freezing fingers and backups on Kensington could all have been avoided if only Jack Frost hadn’t visited my house.

(Whitney Kiepura)

Hot - Bo Burnham: His new album “Words, Words, Words” was just released a few months ago, and once again I have fallen in love with Bo. While his songs may be highly offensive to some, the sexual innuendos and sexist jokes within his songs make my life a little bit brighter every time I listen to them. One of my favorite lines in his new song “Oh Bo,” goes something like this; “I spot a little Latino/ Booty so big call it Oprah’s Ego.” Even the chorus is funny: “Single every single day/ Do it every single make/ make the single ladies say. ‘Oh Bo.’ And if I were gay/ Though I swear I’m straight/ I’d make the fellas say, ‘Oh Bo.’”

Oh yes, oh Bo. (Katie Best)

Not - The gift card: I understand giving gift cards to people who you don’t really know, but getting a gift card from a Secret Santa (or snowflake) basically means that they didn’t think about it at all. And what fun is that? My challenge to everyone this year is to get those creative juices flowing and think of something original for your Se-cret Santa gifts. (P.S. if you need ideas, you could always talk to one of their friends.)

(Jane Berry)

Want more Hot or Not? Check out prospectornow.com for the expanded edition.

Hot -White Hot Chocolate: Nothing soothes shivers and chatter-ing teeth better than Caribou Coffee’s delicacy: white hot chocolate. Traditional hot chocolate has nothing on this sweet treat, which is served steaming in Caribou Coffee’s signature cup and topped with thick whipped cream and mini white choc-olate chips. While this cozy coffee shop is slightly farther from Pros-pect than its rival, Starbucks, this tasty drink is worth the trip.

(Jenna Mastrolonardo)

Step 3 Once the two men are in an embrace, they give each other one to two smacks on the back and let go, thus completing the bro-hug.

Bromances bring brotherly bonds

Katie BestOpinion Editor

OPINIONThursday, December 16, 2010

6

Hot orNotPhoto illustrations by ali Preissing

How to bro hug

By Sharon LeeAssociate Editor-in-Chief

*Names have been changed for confi-dentiality

Senior Jeremy Harris* first met a girl when he was working. He said he was physi-cally attracted to her right away, and within 24 hours, they hooked up.

“It kind of went from just met to hooked up pretty fast,” Harris said.

Harris believes that hooking up is con-venient for him because he doesn’t have to be committed to a relationship, and it’s also “fun.”

According to junior Angelo Gountanis, high school is all about having fun.

“[Hooking up] doesn’t bother high school students,” Gountanis said. “It for sure doesn’t bother high school guys.”

School psychologist Dr. Jay Kyp-John-son said that hooking up poses too many dangers, anforming healthy relationships

in high school is important for students. But Kyp-Johnson understands

that for kids, it’s exciting to meet new people and start new rela-

tionships. “People love to have hope,

and people love to have ex-citement, and they love to have future prospects,” Kyp-Johnson said. “It’s just part of being human.”

However, Kyp-Johnson said that hooking up can be dangerous because there could be a mis-communication of intent, and people can

easily get too attached and hurt in the pro-cess.

“I don’t think anybody necessar-ily knows how at-

tached they’re going to get

to somebody,”Kyp-Johnson said.Kyp-Johnson said that tech-

nology often helps with this mis-communication. “[Texting] is not face to face commu-

nication,” Kyp-Johnson said. “It’s difficult to really understand people’s intents in texts as opposed to in person.”

Misunderstanding of intents can be det-rimental to teenagers when they think they are having a relationship with someone and they’re not, and it de-stroys their ability to trust anyone in general, according

to Kyp-Johnson. “That’s really bad psychologically when people can’t feel like

they’re on solid ground.”Kyp-Johnson said that high school is a crucial point in teenagers’

lives to experience new relationships and grow from them.“I think young people need to practice skills in relationships,”

Kyp-Johnson said. “It’s good for people to get to know what other people are like and how different people are and have some experience before they get to the situa-tion where they decide who they’re going to spend the rest of their life with.”

Seniors Lisa Conrad and her boy-friend Corbin Blackwell have been dat-ing for exactly two years and eight months.

Conrad said that being in a rela-tionship that long has helped her to mature as a person.

“If you learn to mature in a re-lationship in high school and you learn to take care of someone else and care for yourself, it’ll be easier later in life,” Conrad said. “In college, it won’t be as overwhelming.”

High school students who just have “lots and lots of superficial relationships” are not necessarily prac-ticing the depth of skills necessary to understand how to relate to people.

Kyp-Johnson believes high school students may also have

7IN-DEPTHThursday, December 16, 2010

Inside: Long-distance relationships page 8

Worst date stories page 9

How to turn someone down page 9

J

J

JJ

Hooked on hooking up

See HOOK UP page 9

By Emmy LindforsExecutive In-Depth Editor

When senior Beau Zanca and his teammates were playing the Wheeling Wildcats on Homecoming night, he had an extra incentive to play well.

Andrea Wehrle, Zanca’s girlfriend who graduated from Prospect last year and now attends the University of Iowa, was in the stands cheering Zanca on. Wehrle had come home to see Zanca play in the game, but the two didn’t go to the dance. Instead, they went out to dinner to “take advantage of all the

time [they] had [together].”Since Wehrle left for college, the two

have only seen each other six times: twice when Zanca drove to Iowa City, Iowa and four times when Wehrle came home.

Zanca and Wehrle did not plan on having a long-distance relationship.

Over the summer, the two had gotten closer, and when Wehrle began college, they decided to commit to a long-dis-tance relationship.

“I knew it would be different,” Weh-rle said. “But it didn’t hold me back from wanting to date him.”

Over the years, more couples have committed themselves to long-distance relationships. While going to college used to be a factor contributing to breakups, more students at Prospect, like Zanca, have committed themselves to long-distance relationships in spite of the fact.

The top five colleges that the Pros-pect class of 2010 went to — Harper College, University of Illinois at Urba-na-Champaign, University of Illinois Chicago, Northern Illinois and Uni-versity of Iowa — are a relatively close distance from Prospect, thus allowing relationships to stay intact and remain strong.

The only main obstacle with long-distance relationships is making sure that the distance doesn’t de-stroy it, which Zanca and Wehrle face constantly.

“You can’t see each other on an everyday basis,” Zanca said. “With the usual high school relationship, you can see each other walking down the halls. It’s not like that [for me].”

“I saw him every day,” Wehrle said, “and now I have to wait like

three weeks until I can see him.”

Senior Silvi Ramire z-Ber tolasi has gone through similar circum-stances. Ramirez-Bertolasi has been a part of a long-dis-tance relationship since Matt Santil-lan, her boyfriend who graduated from Prospect last year and

now attends University of W i s c o n s i n Whitewater, left for col-lege. Ramirez-Bertolasi and S a n t i l l a n were together since July

2008: the end of Ramirez-Berto-lasi’s freshman year.

Over the sum-mer, Ramirez-Ber-

tolasi and Santillan knew that their re-lationship was going strong and that they

were going to make the effort to stay with one an-other.

“[When deciding if we were going to continue

our relationship], it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re going to be far away, so we shouldn’t go out,’” Ramirez-Bertola-si said. “‘If it doesn’t work

out, it doesn’t work out.’”

Once this

school year began, Ramirez-Bertolasi

found it “very weird” that she wasn’t seeing her boyfriend in the halls every day like she used to.

Fortunately for Ramirez-Bertolasi, Santillan is only two and a half hours away, so she is able to see him often. She goes to see him at Wisconsin Whitewa-ter, or he comes back home when he can. Santillan tries to come home especially if Ramirez-Bertolasi is performing in a choir concert.

When Ramirez-Bertolasi and Santil-lan aren’t able to see one another, they will mainly Skype or call one another.

“The only problem [with Skype] is it can be hard to determine what some-one is feeling,” Ramirez-Bertolasi said. “When you’re at Prospect, you can tell if someone is in a bad mood, but on Sky-pe, it can be harder. You want to know what’s going on in that person’s life.”

Similarly, Zanca and Wehrle use Skype to communicate on a daily ba-sis, but Zanca pointed out that “college students have a lot more to do” and that at times, their conversations will end quickly due to Wehrle having to go take a test or go to a class.

Even with the minor difficulties Skype brings, Ramirez-Bertolasi be-lieves that using internet communica-tion methods can really help build a stronger relationship, especially when it comes to long-distance ones.

“It’s important to keep communi-cation open,” Ramirez-Bertolasi said. “Being open and honest helps, too, but that’s for all kinds of relationships.”

Zanca agrees when it comes to being honest and open in long-distance rela-tionships.

“It shows the strength we have and our relationship has. We can handle the fact that we are away from one anoth-er,” Zanca said. “Making an effort to see each other, talking to one another and trusting each another is the main [key] to making it work.”

In addition, Ramirez-Bertolasi feels that being in a long-distance relation-ship can really strengthen and help build trust for the relationship and the two people.

“With having a long distance rela-tionship, we definitely aren’t clingy,” Ramirez-Bertolasi said. “A lot of young-er couples tend to always, always, al-

ways be together, and then they lose sight of the relationship.

“Like the saying says, ‘Distance makes the heart grow fonder.’ We appreciate the time when we’re together. We never take it for granted.”

Going the distance for loveThursday, December 16, 2010

8 IN-DEPTH

COLLEGE DECISION For seniors Beau Zanca and Silvi Ramirez-Bertolasi, their college decision processes involved their significant other at the beginning. But now both students don’t plan on going to the college where their loved one goes. Zanca’s college decision revolves mainly around football. “I did at first consider [going to the University of Iowa],” Zanca said. “But I’m playing college football, and her school’s [football program] isn’t at my level. I’m trying to figure out what school is good for me with football.” For Ramirez-Bertolasi, she decided not to attend the college her boyfriend Matt Santillan is attending because she is planning on majoring in music, and University of Wisconsin Whitewater’s music program is “pretty much nonexistent.”

dilemmas

Dating

9IN-DEPTHThursday, December 16, 2010

“Kate, do you want to go out with me?”I froze. I could not find the words to speak.

Even though nearly 1,000 kids were boarding the buses and cars in the parking lot of South Middle School, I had gone completely deaf to any commotion around me.

I literally looked down at my pint-sized ad-mirer, whose round baby face was red with

nervous anticipation. It was just sad.

Even though I did sort of like him, there wasn’t a chance I would say yes. I was nearly 5 feet 7 inches tall in eighth grade: a gi-ant in middle school. I played basketball and knocked down the boys in dodgeball, and he was, well, pushing 5 feet.

I thought about how uncomfortable it would

be when we went to a movie with all of our friends — such a classy date; we middle schoolers were so romantic. I imagined him failing miserably when he tried to wrap his arm around my shoulders, which were a con-siderable distance from his reach. As if mid-dle school wasn’t awkward enough.

The thing I worried about the most was how I would turn him down. As I stood on the sidewalk with my feet glued to the ground, a few options ran through my head:

1. Pretend like you forgot something in your locker.

2. Tell the truth: “You’re a midget. I’m a gi-ant. That kind of stuff only works in movies.”

3. Laugh like it was a joke — maybe he will catch on.

But none of these ideas seemed like they would work, so I decided to run with No. 4: spit out a bunch of BS.

“I am really really sorry ... we would never see each other ... I wish I could ... I am so busy ... we are awesome friends ... I mean I have dance and basketball everyday.”

I stumbled on and on with insignificant reasons on why “dating” was not such a great idea, and eventually he understood. He re-sponded by agreeing to my BS reasoning; then he apologized for proposing such a ridiculous question. When he stopped to catch a breath, I quickly mumbled “bye” and speed walked away, guilt dragging behind me.

Four years later and two inches taller, I am still not too great at turning guys down. There have been a few accounts where I have resort-ed to dishing out random BS.

Worst of all, I have actually hidden from po-tential date offers because I did not know how to say no and move on without a sense of guilt.

But what I have learned as a maturing adult is that this type of confrontation will not go away anytime soon, and I have to master it to the best of my ability.

So for all of the young men and women who are hiding in the third floor bathroom or mak-ing a friend pass on the news, it is time to man up. Learning to turn someone down is just one more fear in life that we have to overcome; it is a necessary quality — unavoidable in life.

Even though turning someone down with-out offending them is an honorable quality, people need to speak the truth when turning someone down, and that took me many fearful

a skewed perception on dating and believe casually dating can re-place taking the steps towards a healthy relationship.

According to senior Alex Steffen, casual dating means “you don’t nec-essarily care for the [other] person or [really] care what they think; you’re doing it to get something out of it.”

Kyp-Johnson believes a healthy relationship takes time and must be thought through carefully.

“What I think is dating is [when] two people have gone through steps: They’ve met each other and have talked and had some kind of rela-tionship that’s building, and they’ve done some kind of assessing — do I really like this person and what are they like,” Kyp-Johnson said. “And at some point, it’s a big deal to go

out together, and they continue to move through steps and get better acquainted with each other.”

According to Conrad, being with Blackwell for so long has helped her to see the value in relationships.

“Unless your relationship expe-rience is really long and you know the value and what it does feel like, you’re probably less inclined to hook up,” Conrad said. “You don’t have that stability [when hooking up]. It’s

CONTINUED from page 7

HOOK UP: Students test relationship field

Kate SchroederEditor-in-Chief

How to turn someone down 101

“I got the guts to ask this girl out, and she said yes. When I went to go pick her up, she brought her best friend along, not even telling me. They laughed all night, and she barely even talked to me. The only thing I got out of

[the date] was a second date with her friend.”

– anonymous junior boy

“This boy that I had a crush on forever took me to the movies. It already wasn’t going well – [he was] not who I thought he was. On top of that, 10 minutes into the movie he fell asleep. I thought that was really bad,

but then he started snoring. Never talked to him since.”

– anonymous senior girl

When

“date-aster”

strikes

By Jane BerryNews Editor

Five members. Four instruments. Three memorable experiences. Two practices a month.

One Foot In. Mike Grasse, the newest pre-calculus

and physics teacher, has got a lot on his plate, but he finds time to balance hang-ing out with his 6-year-old daughter, Claire, teaching high school and being

part of a band: One Foot In.

The band of five consists of George Winkler on drums, Gary Wheaton on keyboard, Jim Teolis on bass, singer Jill Sawyer and Grasse on guitar.

One Foot In actu-ally got its name for

all the busy lives its members lead, be-ing that they only really have time to put One Foot In. While Grasse is a teacher, George Winkler, the band’s drummer and junior Gabriella Winkler’s father, is a detective at the Elk Grove Police Department.

Although Winkler started playing the drums at 14 in hopes of becoming a rock star, Grasse started playing guitar when he was 15 years old for a different reason.

“My dad was a drummer, so I think that’s really what sparked my interest in music,” Grasse said.

Grasse had a friend who owned a stu-dio and was often asked to fill in for gui-tar players from various bands who had conflicts when their band had a gig. He started filling in so often for One Foot In that they asked him to join.

Since then the band has produced a CD of their own: The E.G. Wheaton Project. Although the CD is made up of completely original songs, One Foot In typically plays live covers of ‘60s, R & B and Motown music along with a few ‘80s selections, including pieces from Sam and Dave, Aretha Franklin and Prince.

The band usually once or twice a month and has a gig about once a month. Winkler says almost all the gigs they get are from connections that they have to their town and its people, so they typically play in Chicago because that’s where most of the band’s mem-bers live.

Occasionally they get a gig in the

area. The Friday after Thanksgiving, the band even played in Mount Prospect at Ye Old Town Inn. The band will typi-cally play at a few bars, private parties, block parties and even some weddings.

One of his favorite experiences was playing behind DJ Wendy Snyder on 890-AM because “it’s cool to have [his] music spread to a wider audience.”

Grasse also loved when his band got to play at an art gallery opening because they were surrounded by beautiful art and, unlike when they play in parties, people really stopped to listen to them and appreciate their music.

If Grasse is not teaching or not with his band, then the next best place to find him would probably be with his daughter.

Between ballet classes, tap classes, piano lessons and playing her father’s drum set, 6-year-old Claire Grasse fol-lows her father’s footsteps by pursu-ing the spotlight, even though she’s already her father’s “star.”

Grasse even transferred from Elk Grove to Prospect after 23 years so that he could pick Claire up after school because it was closer to Pros-pect and has an earlier start time.

Just as Claire was starting her first full day of school at the beginning of this year, Grasse was starting a first day of school, too.

“I have to admit: I was a little ner-vous,” Grasse said, “A new environ-

ment, a different way of doing things, new policies — I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Grasse really wanted the first day to go as smoothly as possible by getting to school early and preparing everything. Unfortunately, Grasse got to school so early he actually had to wait in his car for a half hour before he could get into the building.

Although Grasse let his nerves drive him to school early, he did not let them affect him in his most memorable con-cert.

About 10 of his former students that were in college banded together, found out where Grasse was playing and went to see him.

“It was really cool to see my stu-dents, perform for them and then get to learn what they’re doing now,” Grasse

said, “Although it was nerve-wracking to have them see me out of my com-fort zone, the vulnerability of it almost made us closer friends.”

Grasse does have a secret though: He doesn’t like performing as much as he likes to practice and improvise with the band.

“He is the only person in the world who can chicken fry any song” Winkler said. Chicken fry means to take a rock ‘n’ roll song and turn it into a one with a Bluegrass spin.

He compares improvising to teach-ing in the classroom because he never knows what question a student will ask next.

“You can’t predict it or duplicate it; it’s thinking on your feet,” said Grasse, “There are some moments where every-thing just works.”

Put One Foot InNew teacher spends time balancing job, music, daughter

pIN HARMONY: Mike Grasse balances being a new teacher, hanging out with his 6-year-old daughter, Claire, and playing in his band: One Foot In. Here he is pictured playing guitar with the band. Grasse has been playing guitar since he was 15 years old. “My dad was a drummer, so I think that’s really what sparked my interest in music,” Grasse said. (Photo courtesy of Mike Grasse)

Mike Grasse

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still face deployment. She said that James’ death made her friends and fam-ily really understand the reality of her and Katie’s situations.

“I don’t think people [I knew] fully comprehended a military relationship until what happened to James,” Gartz said.

“I think they kind of were like, ‘Whoa, Jaclyn really is in a mature rela-

tionship where every day she has to not only think about the separation from him and how much she misses him, but also the fact that if he deploys, there’s a decent chance that he may not come back.’”

Katie and Gartz both said that the hardest part of being in a military rela-tionship is the long-distance aspect and the amount of time their boyfriends or husbands are away.

“People don’t understand how much hell we go through,” Katie said. “Since [James] was in infantry, he was prob-ably in the field every other week. I saw him less than half the time we were married.

“Sometimes he could call me when he was on training operations, but sometimes I would go weeks without hearing from him; I always had to wait for him.”

Gartz said that with normal long-distance relationships in college, the couples still might be able to see each other every month or two, and even then, they don’t have to worry about the safety of the other to the ex-tent that she has to worry about Strack.

“When you’re not talking to him, you’re just praying that he’s still alive,” Gartz said. “You are re-ally young, but because of the maturity of the relation-ship and the long distance ... it makes you feel really old sometimes.”

Gartz said that the key to surviving their long-distance struggles is keeping up communication and being under-

standing of each other.“If he’s having a rough day at work,

or if I’m having a stressful week at school, we just understand that and try to be there for each other even though we aren’t,” Gartz said.

One of Gartz’s main struggles is making those who doubt her under-stand why she’s dating Strack.

“It discourages me when people are always saying, ‘Do you really see this relationship going anywhere?’ or ‘How can you see yourself with a guy you’re only going to see ev-ery few months?’” Gartz said.

“To all that I just say, ‘You know what, when you know it’s the one, you just know it.’”

Gartz lessens her stress about Strack’s situation by spending time with what she calls her “military fami-ly,” which is a small group of girls at her school, Carroll University in Wauke-sha, Wis., who also have boyfriends in the military.

Gartz finds her “military family” so helpful because they’re all in the same position and “go through similar diffi-culties or complications” in their rela-tionships.

“[One of my friends] is freaking out because she hasn’t gotten her first let-ter yet from her boyfriend who’s in basic [training], and we’re like, ‘Don’t worry — it will come; it takes a week or two,’” Gartz said.

“We’re all in different stages, and we can all say, ‘I’ve been there before’ or ‘This is what I did in your situation.’ We all understand each other.”

Katie also has friends who have hus-bands in the military, and she said that she doesn’t know what she would do without their support.

“People don’t get it,” Katie said. “The relationship I have with my Marine girlfriends is unbelievable on [the level of] how much we have become a family because of how much our husbands are away.”

Despite their hardships, Katie and Gartz encourage teenagers and young adults who might be facing the same sit-uation to stay in a relationship as well.

“If you feel that you have a strong enough bond with that person, do not, under any circumstances, break up be-cause of the military,” Katie said. “It’s going to be tough; it’s unbearable how hard it’s going to be. But if you love that person and want to stick by them, then stick by them.

“I’m so proud of being a Marine wife. I’m proud that I have a husband that I can stand by and say that he defended our country.”

Currently, Katie’s main concern is that Mikayla has to grow up without a father.

“I’m just afraid of her not realizing how much he loved her,” Katie said. “I need her to know that she was his world; he would have done anything for her.

“I lost my husband, but she lost her father. I can remarry, and of course it will never be the same, ever, but she can never get her father back.”

11FEATURESThursday, December 16, 2010

“It’s going to be tough; it’s unbearable how hard

it’s going to be. But if you love that person and want

to stick by them, then stick by them.”

-former PHS student Katie Stack

CONTINUED from front page

PROSPECT HELPS HONOR FALLEN MARINE On Sunday, Nov. 20, Prospect held the funeral service for James Stack, Marine husband to former student Katie (Landeweer) Stack, who was killed on Nov. 10 in Afghanistan. The memorial service started at 11 a.m. in the field house; about 2,000 people were in attendance, including 50 Marines. Among those in attendance was James and Katie’s pastor, Rev. Peter McQueen of St. John United Church of Christ in Palatine, who delivered a speech. According to the Daily Herald, McQueen told the story of how he first met James. During a snow storm two years ago, McQueen called Katie’s family to let them know that the snow was keeping him from getting to church. Katie told him, “Let me call James,” and shortly after, James was outside of the reverend’s house in a pickup truck, waiting to bring him to church. The Daily Herald also said James’ mother, Linda Stack, made a point to thank the other Marine families in attendance: “It’s a unique family: the United States Marines. Thank you each and every one of you for serving and protecting our nation, protecting our precious freedom and for being there for Katie and my family.” Information courtesy of dailyherald.com

MARINES: Wife, girlfriend continue military relationships despite roadblocks

pLONG-DISTANCE LOVE: Prospect grad Jaclyn Gartz is pictured with her boyfriend, Kevin Strack, at his boot camp graduation. Despite their unconventional relationship, Gartz and Strack manage to maintain a strong connection. (Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Gartz)

pREMEMBERING A HERO: James Stack, husband of former Prospect student Katie (Landeweer) Stack, is pictured at Advanced Mojave Viper training at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base in California. Stack died in the line of duty in early November, and his funeral took place on Sunday, Nov. 20, in the Prospect field house. (Photo courtesy of Katie Stack)

U.S. MILITARYDEPLOYMENT FIGURES

According to the Department of Defense, as of Sep. 30, deployment figures to Afghanistan are as follows:

65,800 Army personnel 22,500 Marine personnel11,100 Air Force personneland6,500 Navy personnel

That’s 105,900 personnel total.

pMILITARY FAMILY: Top: James Stack is pictured with his daughter, Mikayla. James’ wife, former Prospect student Katie (Landeweer) Stack, said that her main concern with raising Mikayla is making her understand how much James loved her. Middle: Katie poses on her wedding day with her maid of honor and best friend, ’09 grad Jaclyn Gartz. Both have friends in military relationships who help them sort out their own relationships worries. Bottom: Katie is pictured with James on their wedding day. James and Katie got married in July of 2009 and have a one-year-old daughter, Mikayla. (Photos courtesy of Katie Stack and Jaclyn Gartz)

During its debut episodes, the Fox hit “Glee” was like the most popular girl in school. It had a promising cast and crew, a fan base that multiplied faster

than bacteria in McKinley High’s locker room and all the bright and shiny potential that comes with being a young, original, high-in-terest TV series.

“Glee” is cen-tered around an eccentric high school show choir and its members and has become

a pop culture staple while spreading the love for intricate musical numbers

among the masses.The first 13 episodes of “Glee” were

a dream living inside my TV. It was dif-ferent and quirky while maintaining a healthy balance of comedy, music and plot. These factors kept 14 million view-ers coming back every week.

But it seems that lately the suc-cess of “Glee’s” opening episodes has caused the show to go a bit overboard during the final half of the first season going into the second season, which has been filled with themed shows — Lady Gaga, Madonna and “the Rocky Hor-ror Picture Show” — and unnecessary Top 40 covers including Jay-Z’s “Em-pire State of Mind” and multiple Bruno Mars songs.

A numerous amount of the songs featured on the show have been auto-tuned to oblivion (see auto-tuning) as a way to accommodate the show’s less vocally gifted actors as well as the origi-nal arrangement of the song.

According to an interview with “Time Magazine,” Adam Anders, the executive music producer for “Glee,” said he has only eight days of studio time with the actors to record all the vocals for a given episode and further

ready the song to appear on the show, which often includes the use of auto-tune.

It was a brighter time for “Glee” when the punch lines of Jane Lynch’s Emmy-winning Sue Sylvester weren’t the comedic highlight of the show and the musical number didn’t make us roll our eyes at yet another Rachel Berry (played by Broadway star Lea Michele) solo.

As this excitement faded, the true nature of the shows sophomore season appeared as ridiculous and overblown, filled with one gimmick disguised as plot after another.

The cheesy cover of “One of Us” by Joan Osbourne that was tacked onto the end of an emotionally packed epi-sode centered around Kurt, his coma-tose father and the emotional effort the “Glee” club contributes to help comfort him is one of many examples of unnec-essary songs interrupting a solid story line, which is becoming more apparent as the episodes go on.

These components that were used sparingly in the show during its debut have now begun to suffocate the plot line, character development and gener-al appreciation for music and perform-ing. An overload of the quali-ties that made “Glee” successful before have started to fash-ion a strong distaste with old fans while gradually turning the entire show into a mockery of itself.

This is all great for the show — not to mention the sala-

ries of its stars and producers. So far, Glee has had 93 songs place in the Bill-board Top 100, which translates into a small fortune’s worth of digital down-loads. (see “Glee’s” cash cow)

These atrocities hardly stood alone and were littered through every epi-sode past episodes. The madness must end if “Glee” wants to live up to the cre-ative and comedic potential it displayed in the first season.

During “Glee’s” reign as the most popular girl in prime time TV, it strut-ted through school much like McKinley High’s very own Quinn Fabray or Re-gina George of “Mean Girls.”

Differences aside, getting fat, pregnant or hit

by a bus like the two queen bees men-tioned above is nothing shy of the ridicule “Glee” will

face unless it tones down the

showmanship a notch or two — or 10.

Tallyn OwensEntertainment Editor

12 ENTERTAINMENTThursday, December 16, 2010

$ ‘GLEE’S’ CASH COW

$7.3 Million: the approximate amount of money Glee made on digital downloads during its first season

87 percent is the increase in sales Journey saw after "Glee" covered "Don't Stop Believin’'" during its pilot in 2009.

900,000: individual downloads of “Glee’s” cover songs bought on iTunes.

$50,000 and $30,000 is the amount that the show’s veteran actors, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison earn respectively for each episode.

“Auto-tuning” is a pitch correction software that is widely used in popular music to compensate for the large amount of singers who lack actual musical talent. Not all of the actors and guest stars on “Glee” are trained singers. It sure sounds like the show’s crew probably used the software to modify their voices.

AUTO-TUNING

$

$

$

$Information courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

gone overboard

p’GLEE’ SUCKS: Since “Glee” hit the second half of the first season into the second season, it has built off the massive success it experienced during its debut last year. However, Glee’s focuses on themed episodes (pictured above) that are cheesy facets of performing interfering with the show’s overall entertainment factor and credibility. (Photos courtesy of gleeimages.com)

Musical comedy goes to extremes to increase ratings

graPhic by Kate schroeder

By Riley SimpsonAssociate Editor-in-Chief

A week before Prospect’s 2007 win-ter play, “Bob Crachit’s Wild Christ-mas Binge,” premiered, director Phil Koehl’s father died in Phoenix. Koehl went out to Arizona for a week, tend-ing to family business.

“It’s a bad time for the director not to be there,” Koehl said. “[But] in life, you sometimes can’t control every-thing that happens.”

However, Koehl had a backup plan in Special Education teacher John Meyers Jr.

Koehl asked Meyers to step in for him to run the play through its final rehearsals and to fine-tune small scenes.

“I knew that I would be retiring in a couple years, and I knew that Mey-ers was one of the people [who] was interested in directing the winter play,” Koehl said. “I thought having him step in for me would be like a dry

run for him.”Koehl, who

retired this past spring after 16 years at Prospect, said that Meyers’ sense of humor was apparent even as an audience member at the winter plays.

“[Meyers] al-ways used to laugh at anything that

was even minutely funny,” Koehl said.Last week, “A Midsommer Nights

Dreame” premiered at Prospect, with Meyers in the director’s chair. After “volunteering” for the position, Asso-ciate Principal Greg Minter and fall play/spring musical director Jeremy Morton interviewed Meyers for the director spot and ultimately chose him.

“I thought I could [direct] a great play,” Meyers said. “I thought I could provide a good experience for the stu-dents.”

While William Shakespeare’s ro-mantic comedy was Meyers’ directo-rial debut at Prospect, he does have a history in theater. He directed “End-game” — among other Samuel Beck-ett plays — at DePaul Theatre School and other small professional theatre productions. Meyers also ran a com-edy troupe in college.

“I think somebody who’s active in plays — as he and I have done — al-ways make the better director,” Koehl said.

Most of the time, Meyers was working with a cast of six or seven people. The cast of “Dreame,” how-ever, includes about 60 actors.

“I know what a bigger production entails, and I understand what it’s

like when you’ve got 50 to 60 people in a cast and you have a lot of issues,” Meyers said, “but it’s the first time I’ve had to do it myself. It’s a little daunting.”

Meyers said that he likes big casts and getting as many students involved as possible. Everyone who auditioned for “Dreame” made the play.

“It wasn’t [like], ‘Everybody’s great, and everybody gets an award!’” Meyers said. “No, it’s like, ‘Everybody can do this job.’ There’s no reason to cut anyone for that. I just want to make room for everyone in the play.”

This approach is very different from Koehl’s. In 16 years at Prospect, his largest cast included 40 actors.

“When you have that large of a cast as a director, it’s harder to give each individual actor as much attention as in a smaller cast,” Koehl said. “Like a teacher ... if you’ve got a class of 15, it’s easier to give each individual at-tention than it is in a class of 50.”

The cast of “Dreame” was split into three main groups: the fairies, the troupe of traveling actors and the

lovers. According to senior N’Kole Burke, who played the lover Hermia in “Dreame,” the three groups were very separate on stage.

“Even at rehearsal, [Meyers] was being pulled in all sorts of direc-tions,” Burke said, “but he was able to give everyone the focus and attention they needed.”

And if Meyers couldn’t handle an issue personally, he delegated student directors to help.

Throughout the production, Mey-ers learned the “essential” skill of a director: flexibility.

“You think, ‘Oh, I’m the director of the play. I sit around and say things, and people do them,’” Meyers said. “But in reality, it’s more like I’m a counselor. I’m making a lot of sugges-tions and hoping people are able to carry through with them.

“It’s really about personality man-agement more than anything else,” he said. “Everybody knows their job. It’s [about] getting them to do [their jobs] together and at the same time.”

Although Meyers is quick to shoot down the possibility that he’ll be di-recting the winter play as long as Koehl’s 16 years — “I gotta get through next week,” he said — he is interested in continuing the fun and excitement he experienced in “Dreame.”

“I’ll worry about next year when I get to next year,” Meyers said. “If they will let me, I will do this as long as I can.”

“I’ll worry about next year when I get to next year,” Meyers said. “If they will let me, I will do this as long as I can.”

Director John Meyers Jr.

Nov. 29 was the first Monday I came to school with a smile.

That past weekend included Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), my first Black Friday experience — during which I was awake from Thanksgiving morning until Saturday morn-ing (way trippier than any viewing of “Incep-tion”) — and finally the Bears’ win over the Eagles on Sunday.

It was a pretty good Monday for me. Until I walked up to my friend Nick’s lock-

er — yes, the same Nick who writes “Nick @ Knight” on page 15 — and asked him how his weekend was. He told me that it was OK.

“Oh, and did you hear about Leslie Nielsen dying?” he added bluntly.

“What?!”“Yeah, I guess it’s a ‘good night, sweet

prince’ for Leslie Nielsen.”My smile turned into a squiggly line, con-

necting imaginary dots on my face. It looked like that thick, black line across Charlie

Brown’s shirt. Say “good-bye” to that good Monday feeling.

Leslie Nielsen, “that white-haired guy from all those spoof movies,” as my mother calls him, had suc-cumbed to pneumonia at the age of 82.

But he was more than a white-haired funnyman to

me. This may sound silly, but I always thought of Nielsen as a surrogate grandfather. I grew up with only one wise sage in the family — my mother’s father died almost 10 years before I was even born.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nielsen, he starred in “The Naked Gun” movies (and the little-known TV show, “Police Squad!” that inspired the spoof franchise), “Spy Hard” and, of course, the classic “Airplane!”

Around sixth grade, I watched the comedy “Wrongfully Accused” for the first time. It was hilarious, spoofing “The Fugitive,” “Mission: Impossible” and other action flicks. While most kids were “Hooked on Phonics,” I was hooked on Nielsen.

Nielsen was the only highlight in “Wrong-fully Accused.” Don’t get me wrong, it was ter-ribly written and most of the acting was too fake, even for a spoof.

Key phrase in that statement: “MOST of the acting.”

It was his deadpan delivery and wild dedica-tion — Nielsen was about 71 years old when he filmed it! — that made “Wrongfully Accused” even remotely funny. When Nielsen’s charac-ter, Ryan Harrison, is cornered by an armed bad guy, he taunts him: “That’s right, isn’t it? Signal yes by shooting yourself in the head three times.” Shirley, the line itself is funny, but Nielsen’s mix of crazy and low-key comedy is what makes it and all his lines shine with charm.

Between all these hilarious Nielsen spoofs, I’ve enjoyed almost seven years of laughter. Even though I can keep enjoying the man and his jokes on DVD, I feel kind of empty.

Why?Sure, I’ve seen images and sounds of him

that make me laugh. But I never got the actual thing that blessed so many entertainment re-porters, filmmakers and Nielsen’s friends and family. I never had the privilege of experienc-ing the larger-than-everything Nielsen in per-son.

In life, one will always have regrets. My big-gest regrets:

1. Oh, I wish I studied for that math test instead of watching episodes of “Psych” on Hulu.

2. Darn, I shouldn’t have told every girl I met freshman year to make me a sandwich.

3. I never had the chance to meet the late, great actor Leslie Nielsen.

13

Good night, sweet prince

p’DREAME’-ING BIG: Junior Kelsey Henquinet (center) plays Puck, the Fairy King Oberon’s servant, in a dress rehearsal of the winter play, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame.” John Meyers Jr. directed the winter play for the first time, taking the reins from Phil Koehl. Koehl retired this spring after 16 years of directing the winter play. (Photo by Ali Preissing)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

RRated

for Riley

Leslie Nielsen

ENTERTAINMENT

John Meyers Jr. has always believed that William Shakespeare’s plays included musical scores. However, over time, performers and writers have only kept the words, losing whatever music the plays included. Meyers wanted to make sure his version of Shakespeare’s “A

Midsommer Nights Dreame” included a musical score complete with a pit of orchestra members. “We’re trying to get to the root of the play,” he said. At first,

sophomore Sean Brennan was only interested in playing the cello for the pit since “Dreame” is his favorite work by Shakespeare. But after asking Meyers’ permission, Brennan ended up writing almost all of the music for “Dreame,” save for the overture, which was arranged from The Beatles’ “Mother Nature’s Son”

from “The White Album.” “They call me ‘the music executive’ or ‘the executive musician,’” Brennan said, “or some other name Meyers made up.” Brennan, along with sophomore pit violinist Ian Magnuson, composed themes for different characters and tried to keep the score centered on chord progression. According to Brennan, plays normally have no musical element, let alone an entire score. The only “Dreame” production Brennan has seen with music in it was the 90s film version with Kevin Kline. After over a month of writing and editing, Brennan and Magnuson finished their score. The final product didn’t come without its share of stress and anxiety along the way. “I kind of felt like I went insane a couple of times,” Brennan said. While writing, Brennan would take “mental health days” when he would sit in the theater, just watching “Dreame” rehearsals. “Sanity lost,” he said. “Sanity gained back.”

SOPHOMORES WRITE SONGS AND SCORES

MISSPELLED ‘DREAME?’

The strange spelling of “A Midsommer Nights Dreame” raised many eyebrows when the winter play premiered last week. One might think the cast T-shirts, the play’s program and the posters all had several typos. But according the director John Meyers Jr., “A Midsommer Nights Dreame” is exactly how the play is titled in William Shakespeare’s “The First Folio:” a compilation of 36 of William Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623.

Meyers gets ‘Dreame’ job

Meyers takes over director’s position for winter play

Sophomore Sean Brennan

By Gina O’NeillCopy Editor

Before senior varsity bas-ketball player Matt Loebbaka went to an exposure camp in Boston this summer, the Mas-sachussetts Institute of Tech-nology (MIT) was not on his “radar.”

He knew MIT had high ad-missions standards — its av-erage accepted ACT score is a 33 — so he thought it would be a “stretch” to get in.

“I hadn’t reached out to the [MIT] coach,” Loebbaka said. “I didn’t think [getting in] was a possibility.”

However, after a two-day camp where Loebbaka was evalu-ated on his skills on the court as well as in the classroom, MIT became a possibility. Loebbaka, who wants to major in chemical engineering, partici-pated in games and practices and had to fill out a brochure with his ACT score, GPA and class rank.

Playing a varsity sport in high school shows that a per-son is well-rounded, according to Loebbaka, and colleges rec-ognize that.

According to College and Career Counselor Diane Bourne, that’s because it shows they are involved in school, can get along with other people and exhibit leadership skills.

So, in addition to having an ACT score of 35, a 5.53 GPA and being ranked ninth in the class, Loebbaka feels that play-ing on varsity basketball for two years is “definitely supple-mental.”

Senior Steve Dazzo, who was a captain of the varsity football team, agrees that participating in a sport shows leadership skills, and football was all he wrote about in his college ap-

plication essay.Dazzo is applying

to Dartmouth Uni-versity, Cornell Uni-versity and Univer-sity of Pennsylvania with the intention of playing football there. Indiana Uni-versity, Miami of Ohio University and Vanderbilt Univer-sity are just schools he’s interested in be-cause he wants to go into economics, and football is not part of the program.

“My interest isn’t to play football in college,” Dazzo said. “It’s to go to a really good school and play football as well.”

Dazzo acknowl-edges that he would not be able to play football at a SEC school like Vanderbilt because he doesn’t feel that he has the skill set, such as being tall enough or fast enough.

“The people who play there end up playing at the NFL in four years,” Dazzo said.

For Dazzo, getting into Dart-

mouth and Cornell would be no easy ride without football, and the coaches of those schools have already talked to Dazzo and reassured him that they will work with admissions of-fices to allow him to attend.

“I’m a good student,” Dazzo said, “but I wouldn’t have the grades to get in there without football as well.”

“If a gifted athlete is ap-plying to a highly competitive school, he may not have to have the same cre-dentials [as other non-athletes],” B o u r n e said.

Bour ne s a i d s c h o o l s might be able to make a dip, as in lowering their standards, in the admis-sions process to allow them to attend the school because these athletes have “the hook.”

“The hook” is a where a person has a quality that the school is looking for either based off need for that quality or desire to promote the school. To help athletes who come in less qualified academically than average students, schools offer special tutors for ath-letes, and coaches will monitor grades in a way similar to how

it is in high school. Athletes recruited to play

in college generally get a big-ger advantage than those who played in high school, Bourne acknowledged, but both benefit in the admissions process.

Bourne said that if highly selective schools have 10 appli-cants with 35s on their ACTs, having varsity athletics on their application will help the schools choose which students

to admit. “ T h e y

don’t take all those quali-fied people,” Bourne said. “It’s just that one extra push.”

For Loeb-baka, that push came from the MIT basket-ball coach.

The coach visited Loebbaka at his house to discuss his po-sition at the school and offered to write him a letter of recom-mendation to the MIT admis-sions office, telling him that recruits usually get into the school.

According to Loebbaka, the coach was looking for a guy who would be the “dog of the team,” or in other words: a big guy who can shoot, hustle on the floor and play around the basket, which is what Loeb-baka does now, as he plays post.

“[The coach] saw me at the camp and obviously knew I had certain attributes he was look-ing for,” Loebbaka said. “It all depends on what they need.”

14 SPORTSThursday, December 16, 2010

“My interest isn’t to play football in college. It’s to go to a really good school and play football as well.”

-senior Steve Dazzo

The extra ‘push’

Senior athletes use sports to gain ground on admissions competition

Senior Steve Dazzo

Senior Matt Loe

call 847-255-2526

421 W. Prospect Ave. Mt. Prospect, IL

Anyone with a student ID will receive a 10 percent discount on any order!

DEVOTION TAKES TOLL ON TIME

Time devoted to playing sports can take a toll on academic performance, which is why seniors Matt Loebakka and Steve Dazzo both developed time management skills from being a part of a varsity sport. Loebbaka is currently enrolled in five AP classes, and when he’s not playing basketball at Prospect, he was involved in an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) travel team during the spring up until last year. Since the AAU league has an age limit of 18, he will be playing in a men’s league at the RecPlex or Central Community Center in Mount Prospect this year. Loebbaka also played in a fall league at Prospect with some of his friends who were not involved in winter sports. Through precise planning, Loebbeka gets a set nine hours of sleep per night. On a typical day, he goes to school, has practice from 3 to 5:30 p.m., eats dinner at 6 p.m. and does homework for two to three hours before going to bed at 10 p.m. He also spends at least half of his lunch period — his only free period — doing schoolwork. Dazzo is taking two AP classes and has third and fourth period open, so he does his homework for the morning periods at night and finishes the work for the afternoon periods during his open.

Cartoon by Riley Simpson

Athletes continue playing during offseason to keep competitive edgeBy Deanna ShilkusManaging Editor

For the Prospect volleyball team, ju-nior James Doughty knows he can’t skip a practice, and he doesn’t want to.

Because he plays on a Buffalo Grove private club volleyball team called TNT from September through February every year, Doughty has grown to value both club and Prospect teams differently in his three years of playing.

He values the Prospect team as a place where he can be a “contributing mem-ber” and help the team go as far in the season as it can. The club team is mainly a place for him to focus on improving his skills and stay in shape.

Doughty’s club practices are held two to three nights a week with one night dedicated to conditioning, including ab workouts and running, and the other to game-play drills. There are many other students that Doughty plays with on his club team as well as his Prospect team.

Those who play on a club volleyball team, according to Doughty, have a ben-efit in the fact that they are constantly improving their skills together, there-fore improving the Prospect team when they go in to play together.

“It shows dedi-cation,” Doughty said.

While he likes playing on both teams, his goal is to play on the club team so that when the sea-son for Prospect comes around, he is ready to try out; he doesn’t want to “have to go in blind” to the tryouts for the volleyball seasons each spring. Doughty feels more comfortable and prepared with playing as opposed to those kids who “haven’t touched a vol-leyball” in months.

Playing club allows Doughty and ju-nior soccer player Kelli Iovino to stay sharp the entire year and also helps them balance time c o m m i t m e n t s . However, there are some drawbacks.

Head girls’ soc-cer coach Tom Froats agrees that playing a sport for a long period of time will help someone get better, yet he also feels that stu-dents who commit themselves year-round to a demand-ing sport are at a disadvantage.

Froats has no-ticed that the num-ber of club soccer players in the past few years has in-creased, and the de-mands on athletes out of season are greater.

Besides having a tough schedule, Froats believes that playing only one sport doesn’t allow someone to get a

feel for other sports. By junior and se-nior year, students may know what sport they want to play, but until then, it is important that they try as many as they can so that they can grow to learn about other sports.

Iovino used to play volleyball and soc-cer for Prospect every year. Due to a lack of interest and benefits from volleyball, howev-er, Iovino decided to commit her-self completely to playing soccer her sophomore year.

Iovino has played on the Prospect soc-cer team in the spring for two years and cur-

rently plays on the Arlington Aces Acad-emy Program during the summer, fall and winter.

The reason she chose to play only soccer was because she had trouble han-dling the overlap of practices and games between sports.

When Iovino played Prospect volley-ball, she had to miss some practices and workouts because they conflicted with her club soc-cer games.

“I hated to let [the volleyball team] down,” Iovi-no said.

According to her, each coach wanted his or her team to be her biggest com-mitment, but Iovi-no only played vol-leyball for fun and wasn’t that serious about it.

“We can’t do ev-erything [if we are] already committed to other [sports],” she said. “I felt like I had to do what was best and most fair.”

Besides being able to improve their skills and make a better Pros-pect team, spending so much time to-

gether on club and high school teams al-lows the players to become close friends.

Iovino plays with the same girls on her club team and Prospect team and feels this helps them be able to commu-nicate better. Doughty feels the same way in that having friends on each team make the bond socially equal because the players are seeing each other all the time.

Although playing club during the off-season doesn’t necessarily affect his confidence level in making the Prospect team, Doughty is just more comfortable.

“I want to make sure that I have some edge,” Doughty said, “or something that makes me stand out.”

Like many Chicagoans, I hated Brett Favre from the first time I saw him. There was something about his theatrical emotions that seemed to bother me.

And as I grew older, the hatred remained. I even began to feel Favre was overrated for winning only one Super Bowl and annoy-ing for all of his faux-retirements.

But recently, in shocking fash-ion, I have actually begun to re-spect Favre more.

Although Favre has broken many records in our lifetime, like the passing touchdowns, wins and pass yardage records, his most im-pressive accomplishment came in stopping one of his records from expanding.

After starting 297 games con-secutively, Favre sat out the game against the New York Giants on Dec. 13 due to an injury.

Instead of “starting” the game, handing the ball off a few times and then sitting out for the rest of the game, Favre took the bet-ter option by not holding his team back for his own selfishness.

Last year, the Indianapolis Colts, pretending not to be inter-ested in running the table, rested their starters for the playoffs.

But they still started Peyton Manning in order to keep his starting streak alive, and they intentionally threw easy comple-tions to Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark so they could get 100 recep-tions for the year.

While I didn’t lose respect for Manning or the Colts for doing this, acting the way Favre did would actually make me gain re-spect for them.

Not only did Favre impress by not forcing his streak to continue, but making it through the sea-son without retiring should earn praise even from the harshest critics.

With a bad team, injuries and the Jenn Sterger scandal, Favre actually had a legitimate reason to give up on this season.

But Favre didn’t quit. He kept playing, and it wasn’t for money or any other bad reason. It was for the love of the game. It turns out the reason many fans hated him — for his excessive emotions — is needed more in the NFL.

Regularly negative players like Jay Cutler and Phillip Rivers could learn from him.

As his career slowly ends, Fa-vre’s true legacy is being written before our eyes — though I would never put it past him to come back again.

How fans and ESPN interpret him in the near future could de-termine what everyone will think of Favre in 10 years.

Personally, I am beginning to recognize Favre as a true competi-tor who never gave up.

I also now realize maybe one Super Bowl ring is enough. Like it or not, Chicago, chances are Fa-vre will be loved.

And I can’t wait to tell younger generations about him.

I just wish I could say the same about Lebron.

When senior Nicolette Grivas’ soccer coaches encouraged her to try out for a club team in fourth grade, she was hesitant. Now, Grivas has been playing on a club soccer team for 13 years. As she progressed into high school, playing club soccer during the fall and winter and for the school team in the spring forced her to consider her priorities. Soon enough, playing on both teams became too much. While she didn’t play on both teams at once, Grivas began to feel differences between the teams that caused her to make a decision. While students like juniors Kelly Iovino and James Doughty have decided to commit themselves to one sport and play club for the rest of the year, Grivas decided to only play club since her grades and family commitments come first. Grivas decided that playing on the Prospect team took up more time than club did with daily practices and games on weeknights. Besides her schedule, Grivas has also felt that playing on club has become easier for her to stay close with her friends. On her club team, Grivas feels that the atmosphere is like a family: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t like each other or not.” The biggest difference she would say between the teams is that the girls have more respect for each other. “On the field, we stick together and play as a team.”

PLAYING ONLY ON A CLUB TEAM

Club teams weigh on try uts15SPORTS

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Knight@

TRAINER VS. COACH

In club soccer, each team has a trainer and a coach. The coach is someone who only deals with paperwork and managing the team. The trainer comes to practice and works out with the team, focusing on the drills and what the team needs to improve on. According to senior Nicolette Grivas, the trainers look for girls who continually play soccer. Those girls who form a close relationship with their trainer can also talk to him about getting recruited for college.

SETUP AND SMACK: Junior James Doughty goes to serve the ball at a game for his club volleyball team. Doughty has decided to play club volleyball all year so that he can practice his skills and prepare for the Prospect team tryouts in the spring. (Photo courtesy of James Doughty)

p

KICKER: Junior Kelli Iovino (4) jumps in the air with her Prospect teammates to block an incoming free kick. Iovino is one of many who decided to commit herself to playing only one sport due to a loss of interest in volleyball. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Iovino)

p

A great legacy

SPORTSThursday, December 16, 2010 On Prospectornow.com...

Look for a profile of Prospect’s new head football coach, Mike Sebestyen.

Sebestyen, formerly an assistant coach, got the job after coach Brent

Pearlman retired.

The Drills

The offensive player gets the ball around the three-point line, and then pump fakes in order to draw hesitation from the defender. Based on which arm the defender lifts up, the offensive player then dribbles in for a lay-up using a two-footed jumpstep.

FAKE SANDWICH DRILL After practicing driving with the ball and then kicking out, the girls have to test their ability to read a defense when driving to the basket. The offensive player drives to the basket with the ball and depending on whether the defender helps or not, the girls need to determine whether to pass it out for an open three-pointer or finish the basket themselves.

SHOULDER-CHEST READ

Girls’ basketball coach Martha Kelly is used to her players going to Division I schools. “Players that we’ve had in the past decided to go schools like Indiana where they weren’t being recruited, but there were smaller schools which were interested,” Kelly said, “because of what they wanted to do with their futures, however, they decided to go with the academic route. Seniors Marissa Pettenuzo and Sarah Winans are looking for schools for basketball. For Winans, just a few choices are Iona and Elmhurst College, while Pettenuzo is looking at North Park University and Knox College. Sarah Hunt is playing Division I volleyball.

THE RECRUITED ONES

tBLOCK ONE: Senior Marissa Pettenuzzo plays defense against Rolling Meadows freshman Jacqueline Kemph on Dec. 3. Following a difficult loss, the team restructured its practice priorities to become a team more focused on basketball fundamentals. (Photo by Carissa Weis)

Back to basics

Boys’ Basketball

Sports in 60 seconds

Boys’ BasketballTied for first in the MSL East with Hersey.

Overall 3-3

MSL East 2-0Fast Fact: The team is

shooting 80% from the free-throw line.

Overall 2-0

Girls’ Gymnastics Conference rank not yet determined

Fast Fact: Have the 20th highest score in the state

MSL East 1-0

Bowling Tied for first in the MSL conference.

Fast Fact: Finished 7th out of 44 teams at the Plainfield North Strike Fest.

Overall 5-0

Conference 5-0

Boys’ Swimming Conference rank not yet determined

Fast Fact: Coach Alfonoso Lopez is looking forward to winter break where the team will “train hard and also have fun.”

Overall 0-2

Conference 0-2

Wrestling Conference rank yet to be determined

Fast Fact: According to senior co-capitan Joey Randazzo, the team is working much harder.

Overall 2-3

Conference 1-1

Talented team returns to old drills

By Nick StanojevicExecutive Sports Editor

The girls’ basketball team had al-ready set big goals for themselves com-ing into the season. Their two main goals for the start of the year were to win the Lyons Township tournament for a fourth year in a row and win the conference.

But after a 54-49 loss to eventual champion West Chicago in the Lyons Township tournament and a 43-35 loss to Rolling Meadows (8-0) on Dec. 3, coach Martha Kelly knew she could not continue to overlook the team’s re-curring problem.

In both of those losses, the girls sent their opponent to the free-throw line over 20 times, committed 20 turn-overs against West Chicago and 19 ver-sus Meadows.

“It’s been very frustrating,” Kelly said. “I think coming into the season the girls had a lot of high expecta-tions, and right now it’s more a con-fidence thing and mental thing. Yogi Berra always said, ‘90 percent of the game is 50 percent mental.’”

The main reason why Kelly is miffed by the situation is because of the talent she knows this team has.

“We are deeper in terms of talent, skill and athleticism,” Kelly said, “which is part of the reason we are disappointed by our performance so far. But it is a long season, so we are going to keep our heads up, and we’re going to keep working at it.”

According to Kelly, players such as seniors Sarah Winans, Sarah Hunt, Ashley Wabik and Marissa Pettenuzzo exemplify how talented this team is.

Both Winans and Hunt have been on varsity for four years and were all-conference last season. According to Kelly, Hunt is also one of the most tal-ented post players in the area.

Pettenuzzo has contributed with games like the one against St. Viator, where she scored 14 points off only nine shots, while Kelly calls Wabik a versatile player with the ability to play around all areas of the basket.

In response to the team’s struggles, Kelly made fixing these two hurdles one of the team’s biggest priorities. In order to have less fouls called on the team, Kelly began practicing foot-

work drills so the girls would move their feet when defending rather than reaching in and being called for a foul. Additionally, Kelly began calling fouls in all practice scrimmages, which Wi-nans believes was the problem before.

“We really try to go as fast as we can in practice,” Winans said. “We play so aggressively, and we don’t real-ize we are going to get called for it. … I think we are definitely thinking more in a good way [now] to make improve-ments.”

To counteract all of the turnovers, Kelly has her team working on vari-ous dribbling exercises. Kelly makes the team work on using their dynamic jump step to fix the problem (see The Drills).

“We understand as a team that [the basics] are something we need to im-prove on, so we are willing to work on it,” Hunt said. “But it is kind of differ-ent to have to focus on it so much at practice when it has been part of the game ever since we’ve been playing.”

In games such as the one against Palatine on Nov. 3, Kelly believes the team showed its true abilities. In a 15-point win, the girls held Palatine to only 27 points. From the third quarter to half-way into the fourth quarter, Palatine only scored two points.

“We limited our fouls [and] held our composure, and [it] was a great, solid game in terms of defense,” Kelly said.

While both players and coaches

hope the team will reach their poten-tial, Kelly admits she has learned a lot with this team already.

“I think it’s kind of an eye-opening experience for us as coaches,” Kelly said. “No matter where you are as a player or as a team, you always have to work on the basics. Maybe the mistake is we assumed we didn’t have to work on those things.”