THEMOORNEWSPAPER.COM ISSUE 3, VOL. 104

ALL-AMERICANHALL OF FAME

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Applicants for Federal Financial Aid Increase; Obama Calls for Higher Education Reforms

Scholarship Lauds Diversity of High School Graduates in San Gabriel ValleyDIANA LINews Editor

On Aug. 26, the 2013 Sam & Jackie Wong-Alhambra Source Scholarship recognized nine win-ners in a ceremony at the Mosaic Lizard Theater. Organized by two San Gabriel Val-ley real estate de-velopers and the Alhambra Source, the scholarship was designed to help San Gabriel Valley students pursue higher education while reflecting on their ethnic heritage.

The scholar-ships’ applicants submitted a pot-pourri of experi-ences within their respective cul-tures from various countries, includ-ing Cambodia, China, Cuba, El Salvador, France, Mexico and Vietnam.

“The stories are amazing,” scholarship judge Linda Yamau-chi said, according to Alhambra Source. “Some of the imagery is

beautiful.”Among the winners were AHS

alumnae Shannon Ho, Yvonne Lee, Vanessa Solis and Valerie Cabral; all of the recipients were either high school graduates or college students.

“It was very inspiring to be sur-

rounded by people my age who have the same shared experience of being either an immigrant or a child of immigrants,” first-place winner Shannon Ho said. “It’s nice to be able to celebrate and share something that usually isn’t

DEBORAH CHENCopy Editor

Nowadays, students and their families are more willing than ever before to borrow money to pay for college, becoming more and more dependent on grants and loans to as-sist them with their tuition costs.

According to the Na-tional Center for Education Statistics, an increasing number of students from all income levels are currently dependent on federal finan-cial aid to pay for college; an even higher proportion of students now take out loans. During the 2011-2012 school year, 42 per-cent of students received federal grants. Four years ago, that number was at 28 percent. Around 41 percent of all undergraduates took out loans, a six percent in-crease from four years ago.

“Federal financial aid is very important to me.

It is the lifeline of many students who can’t afford to immediately pay off the high costs of college. It enables us to take care of our educational needs first, rather than having to face economical obstacles,” se-nior Jeffrey Lee said.

Though the federal gov-ernment is gives out more grants to low-income stu-dents, colleges continu-ally use their money on grants for students in wealthier families, according to The Fiscal Times. This has become a trend, causing concerns for people who argue that col-leges should instead help students of limited means.

“As college tuition sky-rockets, [...] the fact that most colleges haven’t di-rected their resources to-wards lower-income stu-dents who need funding has only worsened the situ-ation,” senior Bonnie Lam said.

However, on Aug. 22, President Barack Obama called for higher education reforms that aim to make college more affordable.

In the past decades, ris-ing tu-i t ion

costs h a v e far exceeded income raises. This has forced students to take out loans to pay for college, which delayed goals such as buying a home, getting married and

saving up for retirement.By fall 2015, the presi-

dent wants college ratings to be based on measures such as tuition, debt and earnings of graduates, grad-

u a t i o n r a t e s

and

t h e p e r -

centage of lower-income students who attend. Federal aid would be distributed based on where colleges stand by 2018. This proposal would give aid to schools that

ACT Results Show Lack of College PreparednessREBECCA ZENGStaff Writer

This year’s ACT results indicat-ed that some of the students who took the ACT lacked competent scores that would prove that they are capable of handling the course load of college.

Similar to the SAT, the ACT helps students get into college and earn scholarships. In addition, the ACT tests students’ English, math, science and reading skills.

“[M]y reason [for] taking the ACT in the future is because it definitely stands out when apply-ing to colleges. It gives the col-leges more to look at about your academic level, and it is also high-ly recommended by colleges and universities,” junior Carol Chen said.

Aside from giving colleges an idea of who to accept, the ACT also helps in measuring the level of readiness of high school stu-dents for college-level courses.

According to Central Orego-nian, students who achieve a pass-ing average of the four different parts of the ACT have a 50 percent chance to earn a B or higher and a 75 percent chance to earn a C or higher in college-level courses.

While scantron machines do not discriminate against students and are generally correct, they only measure how many an-swers a student has gotten right or wrong, not what students have learned permanently.

“It’s not a good way to measure overall intelligence of a school because many people do not take it very seriously. Some just quick-ly complete it to just get it over with,” senior Marilynn Bach said.

According to The Education Week, The Brookings Institution found that 50 to 80 percent of the improvement during year-to-year tests were “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning.”

While some students may not be prepared for college-level work right now, they can bet-ter prepare themselves through classes and reviewing new mate-rial. In addition, to further prepare for college-level work, students can study often, read and do extra credit.While the ACT is only one test, there will be more tests in college. The ACT helps with col-lege readiness as it prepares and shows high school students how much is expected of them in col-lege courses.

talked about in day-to-day life, and I was very humbled and hon-ored to be the presence of such strong people.”

Though accepting one’s cultur-al background may be difficult, time and experience are para-mount to reaching an understand-

ing.“For so long I didn’t

even realize that I was pushing away from what I perceived to be my culture,” second-place winner Yvonne Lee said. “I definitely think it’s something that you grow into and you start to ap-preciate all the weird things about your background and your family as you get old-er. As first generation Americans we always struggle with who our

parents are and where we grew up and who

we think we are, it’s awkward and it inevitably defines us. It’s how we choose to go about with that understanding that shapes our path.”PHOTO courtesy of ALHAMBRA SOURCE

SHARING EXPERIENCES First-place winner Shannon Ho reads her essay aloud during the ceremony on Aug. 26.

graduate employable stu-dents on time and also to those who keep tuition af-fordable.

Obama also encouraged institutions to make cours-es more accessible through the use of online learning. For instance, accessing higher education would be cheaper and more flexible if classes were streamed online. However, students

that take out federal loans would be re-sponsible for com-pleting a certain

percentage of classes before they can access

more aid.Nevertheless, there are

potential flaws in Obama’s plan. Many feel that linking financial aid to graduation rates will cause colleges to either be more selective when admitting students or cause them to push out un-prepared graduates. Also, Beth Akers and Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution feel that Obama

needs to clarify what he means when he uses the terms “quality” and “val-ue” speech concerning the college affordability plan, according to U.S. News.

Overall, students feel that Obama’s plan should be tweaked to address cer-tain issues.

“Increasing available federal aid and mitigating the crippling effects that out of control student loans can have makes college more affordable and more appealing. But there are some flaws with Obama’s policy. For example, a part of his policy wants to rate schools based on gradu-ation rates, among other aspects. This may have an adverse effect on colleges, causing them to pump out ill-prepared graduates in order to maintain their ratings,” senior Tony Situ said.

MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO

JANET GUAN Staff Writer

Depression has become an impacting illness in the United States. According to Centers for Disease Control, in 2008, one in ten adults reported to having de-pression. Depression decreases a person’s ability to do normal activities, but it greatly affects the person’s mental health as well; it can lead to the decision to take one’s own life. Many people almost never disclose the morbid thoughts they have, making imminent suicide dif-ficult to detect. However, scien-tists are looking into a blood test that can possibly identify when a person is at risk of suicide.

The blood test’s purpose is to find select biomarkers, mol-ecules indicating how active cer-tain genes are. The high or low expression of specific genes can determine whether the people are thinking about suicide. The research team, led by scientists from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, performed their study on a group of white men with bipolar disor-der. They met with the research-ers every three to six months, giv-ing blood samples and answering

BRIANA THAIStaff Writer

Common Core Standards (CCS) have a huge impact on the U.S. today. 45 out of the 50 states -ex-cluding Texas, Alaska, Nebraska and Virginia- have adopted these standards that focus on English Language Arts, History, Math and Science. (Minnesota only adopt-ed English and Math standards.)

According to corestandards.org, “the standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowl-edge and skills that our young people need for success in col-lege and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete suc-cessfully in the global economy.”

However, in order to achieve

According to my super legiti-mate source, more specifically urbandictionary.com, the term butter face is “everything about a chick looks good, ‘but-her-face.’ In many cases, conversations between two heterosexual boys usually go something like this: “Dude, she’s definitely a nine out of ten!” “Are you serious— she is definitely a BUTTER FACE!”

Fast forward a couple of years and the same “bros” are rat-ing girls on a scale of 0 to Kate Upton. The conversation has transformed to this: “What is with all her makeup?!” “Yeah dude, she looks like a clown—she doesn’t look pretty with it!”

See how brilliant young teen-age boys with raging hormones are? It is no secret that some girls wear makeup. Heck, guys wear makeup and you don’t see any judgments there. Society’s standards of women have been hyperbolized by airbrushed models and actresses on maga-zine covers, and apparently, all women are now expected to look ‘dewy’ and perfect 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But who cares! If anyone ever tells you that you are beautiful, they are not lying. Everyone is uniquely beautiful, but some people choose to wear makeup, because it increases their confi-dence in this judgmental society. Too much makeup? What a streetwalker. No makeup? Gosh, cover that “pizza” face up. To all the ladies out there: If makeup makes you feel comfortable, wear it. I understand that the emphasis on beauty perpetuated by a culture that believes skinny is beautiful is hard to deal with, so go ahead, you deserve to look beautifully enhanced. As for the guys: talk to me when you go through childbirth and realize that girls don’t look good just for you, but also for themselves.

SHELLEY LINStaff Writer

According to CNN, since 2012, approximately one in four people around the world have used social networking sites to save themselves from bore-dom by connecting with oth-ers online, and, unfortunately, sometimes with strangers.

With the growing popular-ity of social media, the Pew Research Center states that 89 percent of social network users use these sites to keep up with family and friends, 57 percent to make plans with loved ones and 49 percent to make new friends.

When surfing the Internet, it is evident that much of the in-formation that was once consid-ered private is slowly turning

Blood Tests: Reliable Suicide Detectors?

Social Networks: TMI Online?

psychiatric tests at each visit. Nine of the patients had chang-

es in their suicidal thinking due to emotional disorders, and the blood samples drawn from when they had suicidal thoughts had high expressions of the gene called SAT1 and the low expres-sion of the gene called CD24.

The researchers also examined blood samples from nine men who had killed themselves, as well as another group of patients with bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. Both also had high expressions of the gene SAT1. Though these tests have had consistent results, it is far from becoming a reliable test because of multiple factors that may counter its accuracy.

First, the study was done pre-dominantly on a group of white men. In order to be considered a reliable test, the test should be applicable to all who are sus-ceptible to depression. This in-cludes women, who are more likely to be diagnosed with de-pression, as well as those living in unfavorable situations, such as those who have recently ex-perienced a divorce or separa-tion. Patients of different races and ages should be considered to see whether the test is appli-cable and consistent to all people.

Second, the appearance of the

this, CCS should increase the difficulty levels of each sub-ject. Only then will more stu-dents be competitive for col-lege scholarships and jobs.

The CCS limit the variety of topics and subjects taught in the 45 states, but instead of providing a rudimentary edu-cation of various subjects, the new standards cover a few cho-sen subjects more extensively.

Therefore, if the standards are raised, students are more likely to focus and succeed in class(es), as well as learning more from the intensive material given.

As opposed to mediocrework, more difficult standards, among other factors, will stimulate the mind. By raising the bar, stu-dents are forced to step up to the challenge or fall behind.

Standards Retrenched to Core

biomarkers did not indicate the degree of the suicidal thinking. Scientists cannot measure the in-tensity of depression a patient is feeling. Question-naires may al-low scien-tists to have a gen-e r a l i d e a o f h o w t h e p a -tient i s feel-i n g , but the i n t e n -sity of sui-cidal thinking is only known by the patient.

It is difficult to exactly mea-sure the intensity of depression when the scale the patient is bas-ing their depression on may differ from how researchers interpret their feelings. The test leaves the question of whether the genes are also expressed when the pa-tient is experiencing depress-ing, but not suicidal, thoughts.

Third, most people do not take blood tests often. Unless they

public. However, is it necessary to share such invasive informa-tion with the rest of the world?

Hannah Anderson, a 16-year-old girl who lives in San Diego County, California, was kid-napped by James Lee DiMaggio. When Anderson was later safely brought back home, she began to answer questions from Ask.fm, one of the current popular socializ-ing sites where users answer ques-tions from anonymous people.

These questions, later publi-cized for its explicit details, ranged from the survival of her captivity to other aspects of her personal life. Anderson’s ask.fm account was eventually disabled, but her answers have been read and the entire answer thread can be found with a simple search on Google.

When any information is

shared online, it is forever saved and can be traced back to the per-son who posted the information. Words and images may remain on the Internet for long periods of time, available for scrutiny by identity thieves, ‘spammers’ and stalkers. For instance, shar-ing where you live, your phone number and other personal infor-mation can put your safety at risk.

However, it isn’t safe to share too much information online since it can spread like wildfire to strangers. Thing that are too personal should be kept private from strang-ers instead of posting it online.

In today’s society, limiting the availability of personal in-formation is very crucial as dangerous situations can hap-pen when least expected.

have certain medical conditions, the frequency of blood tests de-pends on how often the doctor requires the patient to be tested.

Patients with depression may be able to start

having routine blood tests,

but it does not take into consid-eration the people who do have de-p r e s s i o n , but are un-diagnosed. A person on average has

three doc-tor visits per

year, and the high cost of health insur-

ance and consequently doctor visits may discourage people from visiting doctors.

Using biomarkers to indicate whether a person is about to com-mit suicide can possibly prevent multiple deaths, but more re-search is needed to define the spe-cific nature of the genes. Instead of focusing on detecting suicide thoughts, detecting depression and finding more effective ways to treat depression can counter both depression and suicide rates.

Tea Time With Tina

TINA CHENOpinions Editor

‘Butter Face’ But-Her-Face

Looking for fabulous scripts, unbelievable scenes, and acting that makes you cry? Avoid

this film. However, if you want intentional cheesiness and gooey guts, Alien Apocalypse is a

good choice for entertainment.

The protagonist’s forced superhero image was the biggest problem of the movie. Repeti-

tive flattery over the “the great healer” only makes you want to fast-forward the movie. In

addition, Ivan Hood returns from a space mission, it is as if he is purposely the designated

leader of the rebellion that finally defeats those aliens. Even the climax of the movie with

magnificent orchestral music doesn’t make you excited. There’s no logical relationship be-

tween Ivan’s doctor identity and the major plot, the script writer mechanically drew a forced

analogy in order to make people admire the superhero more, which evidently, didn’t work out

at all. In addition, the actors’ exaggerated acting change this adventure movie into a comedy.

Fighting for your freedom is one of the most used topics, but still draws the audience in.

The concept never grows old because the desire for liberty is inherent in us all. Despite the ri-

diculous costumes, dialogue and acting, this ethical idea still manages to satisfy the audience.

When green slime squirts out from the last living grass-

hopper, viewers still obtain to feel joyous knowing that

good always prevails over evil.

The Asylum’s monster disaster film Mega Python vs. Gatoroid incorporates dry

humor into a story about enormous reptiles that engage in combat in the Ever-

glades. Its mind-blowing and senseless logic stands out the most. There is no clear logic

behind gators growing into massive sizes after devouring deceased chickens im-

planted with steroids. It made me want to stop watching halfway if it weren’t for

the expected action and fight scenes which never occurred. Interestingly enough,

the fact that snake heads live and defend themselves an hour after their beheaded

deaths is true not only in movies.

The major problem in this movie was the lack of character development. Starting

with over multiple characters, the film killed them off one

by one with 5-minute time intervals between each death.

Lacking emotion, these deaths were unmemorable because

their characters had no development.

If you are a person who typically enjoys or endures most

movies whether they are terrific or terrible, then this motion

picture is a perfect fit for you.

Excusing the fact that a man nearly ran over an innocent rabbit, Eight Legged

Freaks assimilates a sizable amount of animal abuse, the “horror” moments for

me. Colossal, carnivorous spiders on cricket steroids mugged a dog, a cat, my

favorite parrot, and by the time they plucked off a flock of ostriches, it was almost

an expected tragedy. With scurrying spiders making mischievous cartoon squeaks coupled with green

mucus of supposed spider blood, the movie is far from having the effective horror

genre qualifications. The instrumental tunes were upbeat and dynamic compared

to the standard slow, suspenseful horror movie music. These building-climbing,

sometimes-fireproof arachnids emerge from hidden areas in quick bursts; rarely do

they spring out of nowhere, erasing the surprise element from the film.

Although it fails to terrify its audience, watching townsfolk arm themselves with

chainsaws, pitchforks and perfume bottles was more entertaining than I antici-

pated. With hopping spiders tailing speeding neon green motorcycles, this “arach-

attack” plays out like an action film with a typical happy ending and an atypical

closing song, featuring a more gruesome version of the “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

The accurate portrayal: the not-so-isty-bitsy Spiders crawled out from within, to

capture living beings with webs that they spin.

Human vs. Grasshoppers

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid Mega Action!Itsy-Bitsy No Longer

JADE LIEUStaff Writer

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No--It’s a Shark!

Piranhaconda Rages for Baby

OLIVIA CHEUNG

Editor-inChief

Although Piranhaconda does not boast as large of a

budget as box office champions, it provided unperfected

entertainment that is rarely found in theaters.

With every movie comes its flaws, and this movie’s larg-

est flaw was its attempt to encompass multiple subplots

and failing to make sense of any. There were at least 20

characters, but none were developed enough for the audi-

ence to care about their deaths; their sole purpose was to

trip over nothing and become a literal, dense mist of blood

that did not dissipate until a minute later. Furthermore, the

awkward love story only seemed to inspire the lead char-

acters to make dumb decisions that left me stupefied for

half the movie.

No matter how much logic this movie seemed to lack

and how many scientific laws it broke, it was nonethe-

less an entertaining experience. The overly clichéd plots

and stereotypical characters provided audience members

a sense of victory when they made the right predictions.

Even the impossibly unrealistic CGI effects had a purpose;

what would have normally appalled theater audiences ex-

pecting quality entertainment instead kept the TV-movie

audience laughing and engaged.

This movie is not designed to appeal to every-

one, but those who would enjoy a movie that could al-

ways serve as the go-to topic during a dying conversation

should definitely watch this.

Sharknado is an hour and a half of your life that you will never get back. This film made its way onto social media from the moment it screened on SyFy channel. When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature’s deadliest killer rules the sea, land and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. The low bud-get SyFy movie is self-explanatory--sharks in a tornado, a simple idea with an absurd concept. “The idea is completely ridiculous”, as the director says, “but, it comes with sincerity.” Perhaps it is that sincerity that brought all these views. Shot in only 18 days, it was a fun film to watch and does not take mil-lions of views to make a profit. Although cheesy, it can also be interpreted as politi-cal commentary. It reminds everyone to be aware of the negative effects of global warming and to never under-estimate the potentials of Mother Nature. If nature is not the reason for this tornado of sharks, it causes the view-ers dive into the sea of possible interpretations. Is it the work of God? Is it an apocalypse? This thought-pro-voking film leaves viewers with an endless amount of curiosity, another SyFy disaster film gone horribly right.

BARRY CHEUNG Staff Writer

CINDY LUO Staff Writer

JENNY LEE Staff Writer

The MOOR Weekly 101 South Second Street, Alhambra, CA 91801 The Moor Weekly serves as one of the checks and balances of district and school policies. It is an open forum for the campus population and one of the records of Al-hambra High School’s history. The Moor Weekly is not a vehicle for the promotion of any school organization, individual and/or activity, excluding those promoted via paid advertisement. The Moor Weekly is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and California Education Codes 48907 and 48950. The Moor Weekly encourages students, faculty and community members to submit Letters to the Editor. Topics need not deal with stories previously published but should pertain to issues affecting the school and/or surrounding community. Letters can be delivered to C-225, or the The Moor Weekly’s suggestion box in the Activities Office at least one week in advance. For legal reasons, The Moor Weekly can-not publish letters written anonymously but can withhold the name of the writer at their request. The Moor Weekly also reserves the right to refuse publication when the opinions expressed or issues discussed have been previously addressed or are of no relevance to the campus community and/or surrounding areas as deemed by the Editorial Board.Note: Issue reviewed and edited by adviser for content and journalism standards.

Editors in ChiefNews EditorsOpinions EditorsFeatures Editors Sports EditorsCopy EditorsGraphics EditorHead CartoonistBusiness ManagerStaff LiaisonCirculations ManagerHead Photographer

Olivia Cheung, Caroline RenDiana Li, Denise TieuTina Chen, Susanna AigaJenny Lee, Sylvia WinstonNate Garcia, Kevin Kong Deborah Chen, Tina ChenSimon ZhaoJacqueline ChauJacqueline ChauAnhayte GuajardoAnhayte GuajardoYibei Liu

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Cross Country Team is Sanguine for Almont League Season

ANHAYTE GUAJARDOStaff Writer

As the hot weather pro-gresses, the cross country

team continues to practice and work hard for this upcom-ing fall season. Last year, the varsity boys placed fourth and the varsity placed third, ad-

vancing to the California In-terscholastic Federation (CIF).

“This year our goal is for [both varsity boys and girls] to win Almont League and for ev-

eryone to reach their personal best,” captain Luz Badillo said.

The team practices five days a week starting at 3:15 pm and ending around 5:30. Every day, the team either works on endurance or speed and according to the return-ing, athletes, the workouts have increased in difficulty.

“[I am] increasing the mile-age for varsity this year, from three to five miles to this year’s five to six miles, in order for them to lower their time [in races],” Head Coach Sandra Rodriguez said.

The team began their first preseason race on Sept. 7 at the Bosco Tech Invitational lo-cated at the Santa Fe Dam, and came home with three medals. The last four races were can-celed due to athletes from oth-er teams becoming dehydrated

and being taken to the hospital.“Despite the heat every-

one who ran looked strong, [and a] lot of new people got the experience they needed to go out and do [well],” ju-nior David Hernandez said.

As the date for the first league race gets closer, Ro-driguez and the team are very hopeful to beat their longtime rivals, the Schurr Spartans. Ac-cording to Rodriguez, the team lost many seniors last year that were vital to the team. However, this year, they have gained new talent that will help aid them in battling Sch-urr and advancement to CIF.

“Being part of the team for the first time this year, I see a lot of unity and a lot of dedi-cated runners that will help bring this team to victory,” freshman Yaneli Guajardo said.

NATE GARCIASports Editor

Rackets that move like samu-rai swords and balls that are seen as green blurs are a couple things witnessed during a var-sity girls’ tennis match. Despite the scorching heat, the Lady Moors practice daily after school to become adroit in their event, whether it be singles or doubles matches.

During practice, the girls warm up and work on fundamentals such as ground strokes, volleys and serves. They also run and

do drills and core exercises dur-ing the two-hour practice.

The girls started off their pre-season with wins against both Burroughs High School on Sept. 3 and Pasadena High School on Sept. 4. However, they lost to San Marino High School on Sept 5.

This year, most of the varsity team is comprised of former JV players, with only two varsity re-turners from last year, according to Head Coach Calvin Chau.

“Most of these players don’t have the experience [of being on the varsity team] since we

SIMEON LAMStaff Writer

Though football has evolved into one of the most popular sports, it still carries a huge danger factor unlike any other imagined. On Tuesday, Aug. 27, football player Tyler Lewellen died after collapsing on the field five days earlier. Lewellen was a junior at Arlington High School in Riverside, Califor-nia. The team was involved in a scrimmage on Thursday, Aug. 22. Accord-ing to New York Daily News, Lewellen inexplicably collapsed and lost con-sciousness after a play involving a helmet to helmet collision and was then rushed to a nearby hospital. He fell into a coma from the head injury and died at the hospital Tuesday night. As Arlington High School mourns over the death of Lewellen, the principal has nothing but kind words about him.

“Tyler was a wonderful young man with a bright fu-ture ahead of him and everything to look forward to,” Ar-lington Principal Antonio Garcia said, in an ABC7 article.

Lastly, the players and coaches have strongly stated that Lewellen demonstrated his courage by always doing what was right.

“The first time I met him was when I was getting bullied. He was the one that stopped it,” teammate Arturo Camargo said.

Through Lewellen’s death, questions have arisen whether a higher tech-nology helmet could have prevented this tragedy. In an article by USA To-day, a new developing helmet has been created using auto racing technol-ogy to decrease concussions and make football a safer game. Bill Simpson, auto racing specialist, states that his secret to the helmet’s success is its weight. It weighs half as light as a traditional football helmet, checking in an extraordinary 2.6 ounces, which can decrease the force of hard tackles.

With this new technology, football of all levels has finally taken a big step in the safety of the players’ heads. However, the only problem is that these helmets cost a staggering $400. Possibly, one day, all foot-ball programs will be able to adapt to this new era of helmets to make the game of football safer. With these new helmets, there is hope that football players will be able to avoid injuries similar to Lewellen’s.

had to move them up from JV. This is a brand new team,” Chau said.

Despite having an almost completely new roster, the Lady Moors continue to strive to im-prove their game as best they can.

“We have done better than I thought we would so far in this preseason. [...] Even though we lost to San Marino, a lot of us are happy because we were able to fight back against the CIF champions,” sophomore singles player Tiffany Chen said.

KAYIU WONGStaff Writer

Daily practices are like clockwork for fall athletes. Working tirelessly to improve and hone skills, the JV boys’ water polo team knows this firsthand.

According to Head Coach Adrian Lo-pez, moving the majority of previous JV players up to varsity has resulted in many new faces. Out of the 12cur-rent junior varsity players, there has been weekly walk ins and only two returners from last year’s JV team.

“We want our players to be quick with the ball and focus on our

been able to last longer swimming. We can actually catch up to fresh play-ers that just got into the water, while we’ve been in the water for the whole first quarter,” junior Peter Lopez said.

With the season starting the same time as school, there has been limited time for the JV team to develop skills and play right off the bat. Nonetheless, the ambition to win and succeed is the biggest driving force the team has.

“With the amount of work we put in during practices, our play-ers should feel like the game is a breeze,” Coach Lopez said.

WESLEY TSAIStaff Writer

With this year’s Lady Moors physi-cally and mentally ready, they aim to have a successful preseason by practicing diligently. With nine se-niors leaving this past season, the new varsity players have a differ-ent perspective from the inten-sity of junior varsity and varsity.

“In JV, practices weren’t as stress-ful because [of] Coach Tiffany. Coach Tiffany is known for her relaxed and funny personality, and it really shows through during practices. In JV, we developed a bond as friends because

we all share laughs and jokes from time to time. In varsity, it’s a differ-ent story, with [Head Coach] Charles [Tran] coaching us we [...] have the responsibility to ourselves to not fool around and we need to train with great effort and with the correct men-tality.” junior libero Carol Chen said.

While it is only preseason and the Moors have a record of 1-3, Tran is using this preseason to help the team out in or-der to have a successful Almont League.

“Preseason is a good time to see which groups of players works best. The main goal of the preseason is to make progress and be ready for league. We constantly work on fundamentals

during practice. The [three] elements that make a good practice are being prepared mentally and physically, be-ing self-disciplined, and giving [the] best effort you are capable of. The girls work hard and [this upcoming season should be very exciting],” Tran said.

With Tran being confident in his team, and with all the extra prac-tices he’s put in into the Lady Moors throughout the summer and the be-ginning of school, the Moors attempt to take one team at a time while progressively getting better in order to have a successful league season.

drives and quick catches [in or-der to] shoot plays,” Lopez says.

Treading, dribbling, passing and shooting are the areas of emphasis the water polo team are focusing on. The players work on control with ball handling drills and shooting inside the corners of the goal. JV practice occurs alongside their fellow varsity teammates, and scrimmages against each other have helped both offen-sive and defensive tactics. Along the way, building up endurance while swimming and treading is another key aspect for the young players.

“[Because of conditioning] we have

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and College Work Shopand College Work ShopSeptember 22, 2013 @ Alhambra High School

101 S. Second Street, Alhambra, CA 91801

MOOR photo by SHANNON KHA

MOOR photo by YIBEI LIU

EYE ON THE BALL During the Sept. 4th match against the Pasadena Bulldogs in number one singles, Tiffany Chen won her set with a score of 6-0.

TRI-ING HARD Alhambra varsity cross country team sprints around the campus to train tor their Sept. 7 Don Bosco Invitational meet.

Varsity Girls’ Tennis Getting into the Swing of Things

Varsity Girls Volleyball Approach For a Successful PreseasonHigh School Football Player Dies, Questions Helmet Safety

JV Boys’ Water Polo Shooting to WinMOOR graphic by SYDNEY LI

MOOR graphic by SYDNEY LI

MOOR graphic by SYDNEY LI