shieldthe

McCallum High School / 5600 Sunshine / Austin, TX 78756 / Oct. 5, 2012 / Issue 1 / Volume 60

Staffers take a look at what it means to be ‘college ready’

Student chosen as one of 30 finalists in national contest

West Nile Virus sweeps Texas; student tells first-hand story

story on page 4 story on page 9 story on page 18

WhaT’S iNSide

New coach changes things up during fall football season

story on page 14

table of contents3

Judge in Lubbock causes national controversy

5 6 Hurricane Issac brings back memories for student from New Orleans

7

8 Students prepare for upcoming ACL music festival

12 New teachers at Mac tell their stories

Seniors Makala Wangrin and Brandon Corpus are crowned homecoming Queen and King at the Mac v. Vista Ridge homeoming game Sept. 21. Photo by ashlyn eddy.

15 Students and teachers discuss recent Lance Armstrong controversy

19 Staffer dishes on all the new fall shows

20

21 Foreign exchange student compares home in Germany to Austin

october 5 Underclassmen school photos5-7 Choir Caberet in the MAC 6 McNeil Cross-Country Invitational 9 Varsity volleyball @ Ann Richards11 First designer meeting for Charity Fashion Show12-14 Austin City Limits Music Festival17 PSAT18 Varsity football Battle of the Bell @ Burger Stadium

20 Orchestra Movie and Music in the Park20-21 Fall Dance Show30 Steel Drum Concert31 Halloween

save the date

Sophomore Lily Hickman-Walden’s All-State Medalist, Gold Seal Winner art piece is on display in the main hallway gallery. To see more Mac art, go to page 11. Photo by Grace Frye.

5 5

november 1 Late start8-11 Theatre Department ‘Secret Garden’ 13 Underclassmen picture retakes

coverThe varsity football offense lines up for a second down deep in its own territory at the homecominggame against Vista Ridge Sept. 21. Photo by Mary Stites.

02 the shieldcontentsoct. 5, 2012

news

feature

14 sports

18 entertainment

opinion

03the shield news oct. 5, 2012

When senior Keith James* realized that he would be able to vote for President in November 2012, he knew exactly who he is going to vote for.

“I am very excited to vote I am going to vote for Barak Obama,” James said. “He has been doing well so far. ”

James said he is sharing his opinion on Facebook and Twitter and with his class-mates.

The Washington Post reported that each campaign in the 2012 election is using social media to its fullest to raise support. In 2008 President Obama announced his vice presidential candidate by text mes-sage, and now both the Republican and Democratic parties reach out to support-ers through blogs, iPhone apps, twitter ac-counts and Facebook pages.

Government teacher Erin Summerville says she sees a lot of excitement among stu-dents about the election.

“I think there is a lot of youthful energy in the campaigns right now,” Summerville said. “Media informs us about politics. We look at the candidates through media, and the candi-dates look at us through media, too.”

Freshman Anna Arocha said she wouldn’t vote for Barak Obama because

her influence comes from somewhere else. “I think my family’s conservative tenden-

cies have probably affected my opinions,” Arocha said. “I don’t agree with my parents on everything, though. I would probably vote independent because I am somewhere in the middle.”

Students can support both candidates on-line. On Obama’s website, my.barakobama.com, anyone can sign up to par-ticipate or lead campaign events in his or her area.

“Students can join groups or sign up for mailing lists,” Summerville said.

On Mitt Romney’s website, mittrom-ney.com, young people can sign up to cam-paign for Romney in their communities and receive text updates about his cam-paign process.

“Even if students aren’t old enough to vote,” Summerville said, “they can cam-paign.”

Although both candidates have sup-ported the use of social media in an at-

Political action or indifference?Students encouraged to become involved in upcoming presidential election

tempt to persuade young adults and voters, sophomore Megan Dale said she doesn’t think her opinion really matters.

“I don’t really care [who is elected] unless the candidates do something major that af-fects my life, my school or me” Dale said. “I

guess Obama’s already been president. Might as well give someone else a chance.”

What young people might not know is that there are many elections going on this year, some even

closer to home. This fall, teens in Texas can support local candidates, as the race for Texas Senator is in full swing. Principal Mike Garrison said the Texas state laws will affect MAC students far more than Federal laws.

“Based on my understanding, I am not seeing any significant changes to the policy. I know there is talk about chang-ing or abolishing [No Child Left Behind],” Garrison said. “But there is not a definitive plan out there on what to do when 100%

of the students in all schools, except those that applied for the waiver, are required to pass the designated assessments, which for Texas will be the STAAR EOC exams, in the year 2014.”

Freshman Zac Sternberg said social media has taught him what he knows about the election.

“I’d vote for Obama because he is [awe-some]. He’s definitely one of the smartest presidents the US has had in a long time,” Sternberg said. “I don’t really know how I know about Obama, I guess from TV and what I’ve overheard people talking about. He’s smarter than Mitt Romney.”

Sophomore Andreas Gaul said none of the issues in the debates right now have re-ally captured his attention.

“I guess I care about every political is-sue just a little bit,” Gaul said. “I’d vote for Obama. He seems to know what he’s talk-ing about.”

Dale and her friend, sophomore Jake Janson argued over whether or not the campaigns with affect the students of MAC or not.

“Who cares? We’re just kids!” Dale said.“We’re the future of our country!” Jansonsaid.“No we’re not,” Dale said. “That’s

weird.”

NATALIE MURPHYstaff reporter

Erin SummervilleUS government teacher

“Even if students aren’t old enough to vote, they can campaign.

”

*Name changed

Who would you vote for in the 2012 election?

Barack Obama

Other

Indifferent

Mitt Romney

Does social media affect your opinions?

No

Sometimes

Yes

65 students polled

68.5 percent of students said they would support President Obama in the upcoming election. 7.8 per-cent said they would suppport Romney. 9.4 percent said they would support a different candidate, and

20.3 percent of students were indifferent.

41.8 percent of students polled said social media does not affect their opinions. 37.3 percent said yes it does, and 20.9 percent said social media sometimes

affects their opinions.

65 sutdents polled

04 the shieldnewsoct. 5, 2012

When junior Sarah Swedlow woke up with a stomach virus, varying fever, aching body and swollen lymph glands, she had no idea what had hit her. After days of suffering with these symptoms, a doctor pronounced the diagnosis: West Nile Virus.

“I was pretty nervous,” Swedlow said. “I probably would have been less concerned at the time to know someone else who had it.”

This exotic disease was first noted, as the name implies, in the West Nile region of North Africa. Although no one is sure how the virus migrated to North America, some information has been discovered about how it has spread.

“It’s a virus that evidently lives in a variety of different hosts,” Science Department chair Richard Whisennand said. “Humans being one of these as well as birds and, of course, mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are the main vec-tor. In other words, they are responsible for spreading it from one thing to the next.”

The virus has a variety of types that char-acterize it. Some who contract WNV can be infected but do not experience any symp-toms. Twenty percent of people who be-come infected with the disease acquire what is known as West Nile Fever. Symptoms of this include fever, headache, tiredness and other flu-like indications. The rare form of the virus which has caused much of the fear associated with its name is the form of severe disease which invades a person’s nervous sys-tem.

“The main problem with viruses has been their mutability and their ability to change,”

Whisennand said. “The real problem is the type of West Nile that causes damage to the nervous system. That’s the one we’re finding has killed so many different people. It’s the neuro-invasive one people are worried about and not as much the one that causes flu-like symptoms. That one is not as big a deal.”

This neuro-invasive form of the WNV that Whisennand described can cause symp-toms as severe as stiff-ness, stupor, disorien-tation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis. Though Swedlow did not ex-perience the most benign type of the virus, she was among the minority who endured symptoms while escaping the most severe neuro-invasive form.

“It takes anywhere from three days to two weeks from the day of the bite to start showing symptoms,” Swedlow said, “and I think it was about a week and a half when I started noticing it—about when school start-ed, and I had spent a lot of time outside.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services has recorded 1303 cases of WNV in Texas as of Sept. 17. Sixty eight of these cases have appeared in Travis County. This high incidence rate affirms the outbreak as an epidemic. Whisennand said many of these cases are a result of the persisting drought in Texas.

“Because of the drought we’ve had, there were some minor puddles of water here and there,” Whisennand said. “So organisms needing water all had to go to the same place to drink: the same little pond, or the same little bird bath or the same standing water.

Because of that, lots of different birds would come, and mosqui-toes were concentrated there. So it was easy for mosquitoes to get it to the birds or get it from the birds. Be-cause birds fly from one of these pud-dles to another and mosquitoes stay kind of isolated, birds could transport the virus from one batch of mosquitoes to the next very eas-ily.”

School nurse Kathleen Thelen said those who should be most concerned are the very young and the elderly with lower immunity.

“Typically it’s this population who are the ones who have died from it,” Thelen said. “But it’s almost like any other flu. It’s going to hit your population that is the most at risk the hardest. But most of the symptoms are similar to the flu.”

The Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department has issued fly-ers for the district outlining the precautions students should take against the virus.

“The best way to prevent it is to go around your yard and make sure there isn’t any stand-ing water anywhere and also use insect spray that has DEET,” Thelen said.

She did not see a need for students to adopt preventative measures while at school.

“There are people who are more prone to mosquito bites,” Thelen said, “but I really think the biggest thing to notice is when you see standing water you should dump it out. You know to kill the mosquitoes. But unless

you’re noticing swarms of mosquitoes, I don’t think

there are any other precautions to take.”

Whisennand said though some people can be concerned

with spraying chemicals direct-ly on their skin, it is important

to wear an effective repellent.“People really need to, when they go out,

have some kind of protection against mosqui-tos,” he said. “And there’s a lot of mosquito repellents out there, but people seem to shy away from the ones that have DEET in it be-cause a lot of people feel that’s not very good for you, but DEET seems to be the one that’s the best.”

After resting for a number of days and taking medication to relieve her aching body symptoms, Swedlow recovered from the virus.

“I missed the whole second week of school, and there was a lot of makeup work, including two tests, but I’m all caught up now,” Swedlow said. “I don’t feel too unlucky that I got it; I just didn’t like having to stay home for so long. It actually doesn’t even re-ally feel like it ever happened, but I definitely know a lot more about West Nile now than I did before I got it.”

If students are experiencing any flu-like symptoms, they might consider Thelen’s ad-vice.

“If you are having symptoms and fever and if you get any kind of rash or if your joints are stiff,” Thelen said, “certainly go see your doc-tor to check that out.”

Mosquito mayhemStudents, teachers keep watch for deadly West Nile virusCAITLIN FALKassistant editor

1. Use insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus.

2. Dress in long sleeves and long pants when you are out-side.

3. Stay indoors at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.

4. Drain standing water where mosquitoes breed. Common breeding sites include old tires, flowerpots and clogged rain gutters.

The “Four Ds”:

Graphic by Caitlin Falk.

Lubbock County Judge Thomas Head made global headlines Aug. 21 with his comments about President Obama and his possible reelection. His words voiced his concern of civil unrest if Obama remains president.

“He’s going to try to hand over the sov-ereignty of the United States to the U.N., and what is going to happen when that happens?” Head asked the TV commenta-tors. “I’m thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe.”

Head spoke about his worries on Lub-bock’s local Fox News station, Fox 34 News. Although his words were originally said to help jus-tify a proposed tax hike to strengthen the county’s Justice D e p a r t m e n t , they’ve caused more controver-sy than intended as news sources across the globe have picked up the story.

“It gives off the perception that Texas believes that Barack Obama is horrible,” junior Jeptha Johnson said, “and it solidi-fies the backwater image [of west Texas] because an educated person would not say this.”

Lubbock, located in northwest Texas, is home to three universities: Lubbock Christian University, Texas Tech Uni-versity and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, attracting a wide variety of people from around the world.

And it is their opinions and reactions to the judge’s comments that ended up in a large variety of big name newspapers, including the New York Times, which is where Economics teacher Patrick Young-blood first learned about the situation.

“A lot of people are embarrassed,” Youngblood said. “With Texas Tech and a serious major medical facility, for west Texas, [Lubbock] is very diverse. It’s an okay place, and those people are horrified at what he said.”

Since reading the article, Young-blood’s own reaction to Head’s words has taken on a similar tone as he continues to find flaws in the judge’s argument.

“I mean, does [he] even read the pa-per?” Youngblood said. “Obama’s ad-

ministration stood in the way of a global environmental treaty, and this is the guy that is going to hand over the U.S. to the U.N.? How could [Head] be so complete-ly removed from reality?”

Judge Head currently presides over Lubbock County Commissioner’s Court and has served for several years. He has refused to retract his words, saying it’s part of his job to think of “the worst-case scenario.”

This is not the only time the judge has been involved with controversy. In 2009, he posted “racially charged” posters of mug shots of people wearing Obama T-shirts with the caption, “Did you ever see

anyone arrested wearing a Bush T-shirt?” Howev-er, this is the first time his actions have made global news.

“He’s probably a decent judge,” Johnson said, “but all elected officials have two faces, one for campaigning and one they actually have. He has a

right to opinions; however, as an elected official, he has to watch what he says.”

Despite numerous requests from Democrats and others, Head has refused to resign over his comments.

“I cannot divorce my theology and my philosophy from my office,” Head said. “I am pro-life, I’m pro-gun rights, and if you’re gonna vote for me and if you’re not for gun rights, then you probably don’t want me in office.”

Judge Head is not the first Republican to voice controversial comments as the volume of extreme rhetoric seems to in-crease every year.

“It says [the Republicans] are devolv-ing in their politics,” Johnson said, “that they are scared they won’t actually win. You know how there was ‘yellow journal-ism?’ Well this is ‘yellow politics.’”

However, Head is only following a trend that some of his fellow Republi-cans have been following since their loss in 2008. For the past four years, Repub-licans have criticized many of Obama’s actions with varying degrees of negativity.

“What I find striking is there’s this sentiment out there that Obama is this socialist,” Youngblood said. “He’s not all that liberal in the Democratic Party. He’s pretty conservative. Clinton was a pretty

conservative Democrat, and I don’t re-member people criticizing him. It keeps coming back to the idea ‘is it because Obama’s black?’”

Youngblood said he has noticed changes in the country’s political culture over the years that the Judge’s comments only further display.

“The whole political spectrum has shifted to the right,” he said. “In today’s definitions, Nixon would be considered a liberal Democrat. Nixon started the En-vironmental Protection Agency. He also signed the Clean Air Act, and he was con-sidered a conservative Republican in his time.”

Johnson has also seen a shift in the po-litical climate this election year.

“In the last decade, the U.S. has shifted from moderate politics to more extreme politics. I feel it’s due to the aging popu-lation who feel that extreme things are the only way to fix things,” Johnson said. “However, I feel confident this won’t hold over to the coming generations.”

Youngblood, on the other hand, is more concerned.

“I think it’s distressing that our politi-cal culture is so damaged. I mean, there are more important things to have a de-bate about,” Youngblood said. “It makes me distressed.”

Lubbock judge’s comments about President Obama create a stirViolet aceVedoStaff Reporter

Jeptha JohnsonJunior

“ It says [the Republi-cans] are devolving

in their politics, that they are scared they won’t actually win.

” illustration of Judge Thomas head by Nohra Johnston

05the shield news oct. 5, 2012

Thinking of the worst-case scenario

On Aug. 28 , many who live along the Gulf of Mexico were reminded of Hurri-cane Katrina as Hurricane Isaac began its destructive path. Louisiana spent almost $100 million preparing for Isaac. They were not going to let history repeat itself.

Hurricane Katrina began its path of destruction on Aug 23, 2005. It hit New Orleans, killing over 1,800 people and leav-ing thousands more stranded for days. For junior Ferrionne Re-casner, Hurricane Ka-trina was more than just a story on the news.

Recasner was just 10 years old when the dev-astating hurricane hit her hometown of New Orleans. When news came that Hurricane Katrina was going to hit, Recasner and her family went to her aunt’s home. They tried to leave the area altogether, but because so many people were trying to get out, it was nearly impossible for the family to escape.

“It was scary. I felt sad, mad and glad, a lot of emotions, “she said.“ My grandma was always stressing, which made me stress too.”

The water rose 15 feet, flooding every-thing indoors but, miraculously enough, the house remained standing throughout the hurricane.

Ferrionne RecasnerJunior

“We were starving and we didn’t have any food or water.

”

SAMANTHA ROGERSstaff reporter

“People were going crazy outside,” Re-casner said. “People were killing people for no reason, raping them, shooting, cutting people. It was just crazy.”

Everything had turned to chaos. The government was showing no signs of help-ing New Orleans during this time.

“We were starving, and we didn’t have any food or water,” Recasner said.

After Hurricane Katrina hit, Recasner and her family were moved to a temporary shelter. They lived there for a week before

they were relocated to Austin. Recasner’s mother, grandmother, brother and cousins still reside in Austin while the rest of her family moved back to New Orleans.

Recasner takes great pride in the tat-

too on her leg that reads “Home of the Saints” along with an outline of the state of Louisiana. While she doesn’t plan to move back to New Orleans anytime soon, she does visit her family often.

After Hurricane Katrina, more than 250,000 evacuees came to Texas, and out of those, 10,000 came to Austin. For Re-casner and many others, New Orleans will always be home.

“Austin’s not home to me,” she said. “I’m going to always want to move back, but it’s just that the hurricane made people scared to move back.”

hurricane isaac brings back memories of Katrina

Searching for shelterSearching for shelter

06 the shieldnewsoct. 5, 2012

Looking for

JACOB STRAIGHTstaff reporter

Students today are lacking knowledge of space

intelligent life

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy promised Americans would land on the moon before the end of the decade. In 1969, Neil Armstrong fulfilled this goal. People in today’s world aren’t as informed or interested in space as they were then. Many people don’t know the basics about what Americans are doing in space right now.

“I’m always astonished when a student comes up to me and tells me they saw the moon during the day,” said Clint Reck, astronomy teacher. “I always thought that was basic knowledge.”

Well, how much does the average stu-dent know? Out of 25 students asked, only two could name a recent event that dealt with space. Only 13 of the same 25 ques-tioned knew what the International Space Station was.

“I honestly only remember about Neil Armstrong being the first man on the moon and the order of the planets in our solar system,” freshman John Smith said. “Other than that, I’m pretty much clueless about space in general.”

NASA recently landed a rover on Mars, which has been sending images and infor-mation about the planet. In other news, NASA has discovered a massive amount of black holes scattered around the universe. The NASA telescope WISE (Wide-field

Infrared Survey Explorer) has shown that there are as many as 2.5 million newly dis-covered black holes in the universe.

“I think space should be more included in the curriculum in classes at some point in the year,” senior Katie Straight said. “I didn’t think there were even two million black holes that existed. I would enjoy it if we were taught these things.”

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is on its way to another small, undeveloped planet in the unending search for life. Dawn began its three billion mile journey to explore the two most massive objects in the main as-teroid belt in 2007. Dawn arrived at Vesta, one of the small planets, in July 2011 and will reach Ceres, the second planet, in early 2015.

“When I was a kid, people in the space program were like rock stars, astronauts were celebrities, but now that we go to space so often, kids these days aren’t even interested in space,” Reck said.

The NASA probe MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) will explore the Mars atmosphere to determine why the red planet turned hostile. The planet is almost impossible for life to exist, with rapid freezing and heating stages to which most life simply can’t adapt.

“We already have spacecraft on Mars?” Smith said. “I thought we hadn’t even start-ed to send things to Mars. It seems like we don’t even have spacecraft on the moon, let alone Mars.”

news in brief

Junior Josh Haggler went to the homecoming dance the day after the homecoming game.

“The dance was not my thing, but it was a good experience, I guess,” Haggler said. “They played rap and dubstep, and just music that’s popular these days.”

Students and teachers had fun, students said. Social studies teacher Bill Staples danced with a circle of kids around him, shouting his name.

“Let’s use that term very loosely. Have you heard of that movie ‘Dead Man Walking?’ That would’ve been me, White Man Dancing,” Staples said. “It was just a whatever dance.”

A photographer at the dance took pictures of students in front of a backdrop.

“They had boas and just little props on a table,” sophomore Cris Oliver said. “I loved taking pictures with my friends.”

Student council-run Homecoming dance enjoyed by students

Student film plays at iconic local theater

“Nick and the Ne’er-Do-Wells,” a movie by McCallum alumni Zoe Dahmen and Kelsey Hockmuller, premiered at the Alamo Drafthouse on Anderson Sept. 26. Star junior Connor Barr said the premiere was a success.

“It was really satisfying to have it shown at the Drafthouse,” Barr said. “It was kind of intimidating to see myself on the big screen, but it is what it is. Actually, I think we sold-out, which is really great.“

The whole movie process took about a

year from casting to finished copy.“I was a part of about six months of that,”

Barr said. “I got cast December of 2011, and we finished filming May of 2012. So seeing it all finished and wrapped up, and seeing it on the big screen, and then seeing people applaud for it was really nice.”

Barr said in general he hopes more people will keep an eye out for the film.

“I want to encourage people to go seek it out and support it because the more support we get, the more chance we have to get it distributed,” Barr said. “Both of the filmmakers are in college now, but they’re going to continue doing more

films if people are interested in going to see that.”

07the shield feature oct. 5, 2012

SEREN VILLWOCKstaff reporter

Express yourself

Alexander MarquezSophomore

“ My favorite part about spirit week is

seeing everyone dress up and look ridiculous

together.

”

Students dress up to show their school pride for homecoming

Mac Pride Day

FormalDay

Sadie Hawkins Day

Safari Day

SuperheroDay

Photos by Seren Villwock, Brit-tany Robinson and Jalia Travis

The neighborhood McDonald’s on North Lamar, which has been under con-struction since mid-July, is expected to re-open in December. Sophomore Darius Henderson said it’s good it’s being re-built.

“It’s just taking too long because it was a hang out for me and my friends,” Hender-son said.

While McDonald’s is under construc-tion, food service manager Deshay Wil-liams-King said she has noticed a huge difference in the cash flow that benefits not only the school but the students as well.

“You get more bang for your buck when students eat in the cafeteria,” Williams-King said, because school food is less cost-ly than McDonald’s.

“I hope prices don’t skyrocket when the new McDonald’s opens,” sophomore Mat-

thew Clayton said.School food is proven to be much

healthier. When students eat at McDon-ald’s, they can expect to get a small quantity of food that adds up to over a 1,000 calo-ries. However, when they buy their lunch from the school, they can expect to get a larger amount of food that will equal 250-450 calories.

Still, McDonald’s has been a favorite to many students. It’s been so popular that some students have the courage to leave campus just to go to McDonald’s even though they are not seniors.

“I was very mad,” senior Jaylia Travis said. “I was looking forward to legally be-ing able to leave campus to one of the best restaurants in the neighborhood.”

Biology teacher Kristen Hopkins-Cerame said she feels students are be-ing “robbed” by McDonald’s. Hopkins-Cerame encouraged students to buy their

KOLTON ZABODYNstaff reporter

Mac-to-MacStudents miss local restaurant

With Austin City Limits around the corner, expect tourists coming from miles

away, more hectic downtown traffic and overcrowded hot spots.

The festival will take place Oct. 12-14. This year the headliners include Jack White, Neil Young and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Freshman Mia Sorrells attended the Austin City Limits Festival last year for the first time.

“Last year I was so wrapped up in the music, I wasn’t eating or drinking enough,” Sorrells said. “I almost passed out.”

Sorrels said eating and drinking during the festival will help people enjoy them-selves and keep them from fainting.

The ACL administration only allows two sealed water bottles, per person, and usually the bag checkers will confiscate any food they find.

“Before I’ve been able to put food at the bottom of my bag, and even though, it’s not allowed, the staff has never noticed,” sophomore, Ian Gartner said.

If sneaking food in doesn’t work, then

concert-goers can enjoy some fresh, local food from some of the many venders at the festival. Grab a potpie from Boomer-ang’s or a P. Terry’s burger and a tall glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and en-joy the shows.

“As much as I enjoy the music, one of my favorite things about ACL is the local food,” freshman Charity Copeland said

Austin down-town traffic is usu-ally pretty hectic to begin with, but during ACL the traffic is even worse. While free shuttles are available, there is a set schedule to when they come and go. The city bus is another option, but it doesn’t run as long as the shows go.

“Some ways that I have avoided traffic and found a good place to park are to park a few blocks away and walk to the park,” substitute teacher Charlie Gore said. “You could also car pool with your friends.”

With 75,000 people at the festival, get-

ting a good spot at one of the concerts may be a challenge. Many of the stages are at the base of a hill, which allows people to see even if they are far back.

“Getting a good seat at a very popu-lar concert, or even a not so popular one, can be diffi-cult,” Sorrells said. “At times I just have to push my way through to get a good spot.”

Gartner said people always camp out at stag-es for hours and hours.

“I feel that I miss other bands just wait-ing for that one,” Gartner said “I usually like standing at the back of the crowd, and I can usually find a place where I can see the stage, hear the music and still enjoy the concert.”

Gore, who is also a musician, said ACL is also a good way to stumble upon some great new artists.

“If you have a band you want to see, you can wait there for an hour or so before the

band comes on,” Gore said. “You’ll even get to hear other bands that play on that stage.”

The ACL staff invites bands from the entire world to come and play. Some may be touring, and some may have not toured in years.

“I like this year’s lineup because it isn’t all modern music. There is a good variety of bands from old to new,” Gartner said.

Gartner said last year the artists were of similar genre. His only complaint about this year’s lineup is that Neil Young and Jack White are scheduled at the same time.

“The music I play does affect the bands I listen to. I do like bands that play in the same genre as I do, but I also like hip hop and R&B,” Gore said. “Don’t stay stuck in the same genre because you may be able to find other bands that you like that are in different genres.”

While music is the main focus, ACL of-fers plenty of other things to do. Besides dining on some of the local food, concert-goers can visit the Hope Farmers Market, and a football lounge will broadcast all the college games.

“Even if you aren’t into music very much, you can definitely find something you will have fun doing,” Sorrells said.

DANIELLE GARTNERstaff reporter

lunch from the school cafeteria because it helps the school monetarily as well as stu-dents’ health.

However, senior Brittany Robinson said she was disappointed.

“It’s weird because during my fresh-man, sophomore and junior year, I was like, ‘Okay, senior year we can go off cam-pus,’” she said. “When I found out it was closed, I was like, ‘Where are we gonna go now?’”

McDonald’s is being re-built on North Lamar and is scheduled to re-open in december. Photo by Kolton Zabodyn.

Students anticipate another year of ACL

Mia SorrellsFreshman

“If you aren’t very into the music, you can

definitely find some-thing you will have

fun doing

”

Past experiences help prepare concert-goers for what to expect at festival

08 the shieldfeatureoct. 5, 2012

Senior Danny Lopez hopes to get into Carnegie Mellon University or New York University at the end of the year. NYU’s SAT scores range from 2300-2390, which only gives him 1.4 percent chance getting accepted. Is Lopez prepared?

“Prepared?” Lopez said jokingly. “I was born prepared.”

Tests such as the SAT are used as a way to try and predict how a student will do in college while they are still in high school. Texas, however, has some of the lowest test scores in the country. In com-bined SAT scores, it ranks 45th out of 50, with a score of 985. AISD ranks higher than the state average with a score of 1027, and McCallum ranks higher than the AISD average with a combined score of 1104.

Assistant Principal So-phia Sherline, McCallum’s testing coor-dinator, said she is not sur-prised McCal-lum’s scores are above average.

“ It (the data) shows us that were better than the state’s average, and that were even better than some of the schools in Austin,” Sherline said. “I think definitely the students who participate in pre-AP and AP classes can have a lot of help to be prepared for college.”

College counselor Nancy Nitardy agrees, saying AP classes are an excellent way to prepare students for college.

“I definitely think our students in the AP programs are very well-prepared,” Ni-tardy said. “They continue to come back and tell me that.”

The SAT and ACT test scores dropped between 2007-2010, but more students passed the College Admis-sions Test. Most four-year colleges and universities rely on standardized tests to determine how ready a student is for

college-level work. A good test score can help students get into the school of their choice, earn scholarships, and receive advanced placement or college credit. Lopez said he was surprised to hear this information.

“I’ll probably be above,” Lopez said seriously. “I don’t want to sound full of myself, but I’d like to think that. I think people have a lack of inspiration when it comes to the SAT and the ACT, but they took the college test more seriously ‘cause it has the word college in it. Or just the peer pressure because their friends have took it before and said it was easy, so they listen to them and slack off, thinking nothing of it.”

Another important feature of Mc-Callum is the dual-credit program with ACC, which Nitardy said, like AP class-es, helps prepare students.

“The ad-vantage of taking col-lege classes now is that it is a small en-vironment, they get the feel of what it’s like and what’s ex-pected, and they can probably be more suc-cessful when they get to college,” Ni-tardy said.

Sherline said the new

STAAR tests serve as an accurate indica-tor of what a student has learned, and she hopes they will show college readiness as well.

“I think STAAR exams are more ac-curate in assessing what students should have learned that school year,” she said. “With respect to being ready for college, I’m not sure yet. I haven’t learned enough about the STAAR tests.”

Senior Rose Banks said some stu-dents may get good grades but they aren’t very good at testing.

“Maybe they are great students, but they are not very good at testing, or they just had a lack of test prep, but college and high school are two different things and when students are in high school for

es, and if colleges just base everything off your SATs and your grades, I would rather them look at my college admissions test.”

Sherline said students who graduate from McCallum would have an easier time transitioning into a college environ-ment because of the campus’ diversity.

“The amount of different things you can do at McCallum is a lot like college,” she said. “There are kids who are interest-ed in fine arts and doing all that, and then there’s the athletes and the high academ-ics, so I think a lot of that stimulates a col-lege atmosphere. So maybe the diversity in the experiences prepares you better for the mentality of college.”

Lopez said although seniors look forward to college, they will miss some things about high school.

“There are those moments when you are like, ‘Okay it’s time to go,’” Lopez said. “But then there are those others, let’s say marching band; you realize this is my last time doing this. This is just really kind of bittersweet because you really grow in to some of the things that go on here. You see your friends everyday, and you get to make new friends. Each and every year it’s a new experience. Whatever you put into it that’s what you get. And it’s really fun and unique, but thinking this is my last year, and everything will be entirely different, it’s seriously a bittersweet experience.”

Are students ‘College Ready?’

Danny LopezSenior

““Each and every year it’s a new experience. Whatever you put into it, that’s what you get. And it’s really fun and unique, but thinking this is my last year, and

everything will be entirely different, it’s seriously a bittersweet experience.”

”

GINGER BICKLEY staff reporterCAITLIN HENSON staff reporter

Num

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four years, it gets old,” Banks said. “But when college comes around, they get ex-cited and realize they have to try harder.”

Sherline said she is definitely not pleased with the writing portion of the test as an indicator of college readiness because she believes the standard narra-tive essay format is too different from the research papers that are expected in col-lege.

“The writing, at least on the TAKS test, is a narrative whereas in college you’re almost always writing reports and research papers,” she said. “Unless you’re majoring in creative writing or some-thing like that, very rarely do you get to write about personal experiences.”

Some colleges look at GPA (Grade Point Average) and extra curricular ac-tivities as well as SAT scores. Lopez said college admissions test should be consid-ered instead of GPA and SAT scores.

“College admissions tests will definite-ly be more significant, at least I think,” Lopez said. “It would be more significant towards where you get placed in college and how willing they are to take you.”

Banks would rather colleges base her admissions placement on the admissions test.

'When college comes around and you’re taking your SAT, it can be nerve-racking,” Banks said. “Or students might not do well during the year in their class-

Seniors prepare for the next level of education

09the shield feature oct. 5, 2012

Graphic by Caitlin Henson

10 the shieldfeatureoct. 5, 2012

What rad things did you do?BARON HEINRICHstaff reporter

“I went to New York and I spent time with my dad’s four sisters. I was spending time with them in Boston for a week. And then I went with another aunt and stayed there for the rest of the three weeks. For those three weeks I went for a camp called Camp Smile for the blind and visually impaired, and it’s basic camp stuff since the kids are different. You take care of a bunch of people. I spent time with my brothers, and they took me to their apart-ment for something fun. I stayed home for the rest of the summer.

“[New York] was different. I think you could fit in if you loved people. It’s also fun when New Yorkers are saying, ‘Oh my god, you’re from Texas? Do you do horseback riding? Do you wear boots? Do you wear cowboy hats? Do you have cacti? Do you have electricity?’ A little kid actually asked me that. It’s very friendly there in Webster. It’s very country. Friendly neighborhood and town, so it was fun.

“[The camp] was suggested by one of my aunts. I did it last year as a CIT, counselor in training. There were a lot of kids there who I liked and made camp friends. All in all, it was really fun. We did different activities like swimming, canoeing, rock climbing, roller-skating, sports, horseback riding and outside stuff.”

“A dance intensive is a program where a plethora of people come and unite and we have a set schedule where you take classes. The one I went to, Joffrey Ballet, had teachers that were from Joffrey in the past or with other dance companies. It’s just people getting the opportunity to dance on a regular basis with teachers from really well-known companies.

“I went to New York for a total of eight weeks, and for six of those weeks I was in a ballet intensive with Joffrey. It was amazing. I’ve been [in New York] once before. The first time I went I was overwhelmed with everything. It’s way busier than Austin is. The second time I went I could handle it and visited places around town and people kept moving. I was there for the choir for one week, and then I stayed with a friend who goes here for little less than a week and then six weeks of ballet.

“It was amazing. There were people from Italy and people from Mexico City, and every-one spoke a different language. It wasn’t just a ballet intensive; it was a cultural experience. Some people there were professionals in dance companies already. It was amazing to see people from all different levels all coming here for the same reason.”

“I traveled a lot and went to orchestra camp. I traveled to Ireland, New Mexico, Mex-ico, Amarillo, New York.

“I went to a bunch of touristy spots [in Ireland] like the cliffs of Moher and just towns. I did nothing in New Mexico. I went to Santa Fe and then I stayed in Angel Fire and then walked around and read. It’s a super, super small town. It has a big coffee shop, though. I went to the library for my little cousin because his mom won’t read for him, and he’s in kindergarten and he doesn’t read. I also lost track of time in Amarillo because I was doing nothing.

“I liked Mexico because it was really pretty and relaxing although it was really hu-mid. The hotel I stayed at was so humid the mirrors were wet. It was all-inclusive with food places and a pool. Some people who worked there didn’t speak Spanish. It was very Americanized.”

“I went to the Olympics in London. It was the big event. It was a unique experience; it was really cool.

“We did a lot of sightseeing. We ate some interesting foods and went to a lot of museums like the National Gallery and Natural History Museum. We walked around a lot. It was fun not having a set destination.

“I liked being around all sorts of people from different places in the world and experiencing that crazy atmosphere that people see on TV. It’s 10 times bigger in person. Everyone’s kinda crammed in, and everyone’s excited and showing their pride showing where they’re from.

“I went to Men’s Diving, two soccer games, two basketball games, and men’s and wom-en’s swimming. My favorite was either soccer or swimming. I liked swimming because I saw Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte and all those other guys. I liked soccer just because it’s really fun.”

Students talk about their summer vacations

Senior Nohra Johnston

Junior Charlie Bell

Junior hannah Yeo

Sophomore Iliana Albion-Poles

Junior ellen Scarborough’s gallery piece fea-tures her cousin, Luca. “It started out as just creating different spray paint backgrounds, seeing what it looked like,” she said.

Shield: What is your favorite art form?Joe VanOverbeek: I definitely have a focus on two different mediums, and that’s fashion as an art form and 2D art, which is portraiture and such. They’re really one in the same because when you think about it, art is all about concept and representation of an idea, but my focus is definitely on fashion design. I’m working on the fashion show, I’m head of the Fashion Club, and I’m looking at some fashion colleges. I think fashion and 2D art are different aspects of representing these artistic ideas.

Shield: What are you plans for art after high school? JV: I’m definitely going to pursue fashion in college.

Shield: What’s your favorite piece you’ve created?JV: I think it was an alteration of a baptism dress. It was a white lace shift with pillars down the side and rows of flowers that converged into one near the top. It had three crosses on it and a little saint. It was part of a series or collection about Catholicism and those are my favorite pieces, but the baptism dress was my favorite and I think aesthetically it came off the best.

Shield: How have you improved as an artist over the years?JV: I’ve improved a lot. With Ms. [Carol] Torrance, I’ve learned so much about form and so many basic art principles that not VanOverbeek

only apply to painting or drawing a portrait but so many other types of art, like when you think about how one thing relates to another and the realistic implications of that. I think about those things on a whole new level now because of the way Ms. Torrance and Ms. [Mary] Ghazi have taught me. The art program has totally changed my perception of how to create and represent.

Shield: If you could design for anyone, who would it be?JV: I really like Mia Farrow, with the whole emergence of the mod fashion in the ’60s and the moral implications of that.

Shield: What’s your dream job?JV: It would definitely be to own my own fashion house.

Shield: Who is your favorite musical artist?JV: I’m really into Crystal Castles right now.

Shield: If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?JV: I’d love to go to Asia and see Japan or go to Greece and London, somewhere not in our hemisphere.

Shield: Where’s your favorite place to go in Austin?JV: I really like going to the Blanton [Museum of Art] and getting lost inside all the exhibits there.

SEREN VILLWOCKstaff reporter

Joseph

This piece by senior Owen dodgen is dis-played in the McCallum Arts Center. “I want-ed to represent something other-worldly,” he said. “I love drawing hands, and I was try-ing to make them as detailed as possible.”

11the shield feature oct. 5, 2012

On the arts

A moment with

Rowan Young’s first venture into a new style of oil painting was this piece of her friend. “I think of her as a really sweet and genuinely open person, and I wanted to represent that with the colors and the style,” she said.

In the gallery

feature the shield12

It was Kalyse McElveen’s love of the arts that drew her to work at McCallum. After Lanier Bayl-iss’ retirement last year, McElveen now manages the operations of the Academy and over 400 students who are a part of it.

“I’m a band nerd from way back,” she said. “I’m really excited to work with students whose passion is also fine arts because it’s something I can identify with.”

McElveen works in the Fine Arts Office with her assistant Stephanie Phillips, where they manage calendars, schedule meetings, track student requirements and progress, facili-tate communication, recruit perspective students, and much more. Though it is a big task, she said she feels up to the chal-lenge.

“I am really enjoying [working here],” McElveen said. “I started at the beginning of August, and everybody has been really welcoming. The thing that’s been the nicest for me is that because of the nature of this job, I have opportunities to work with teachers, students and parents.”

One of the ways McElveen hopes to make improvements is to advocate for the Academy so it is recognized at the state and national levels.

“I hope to raise the profile of the Academy so that we’re really well-known in central Texas for doing fantastic work,” she said. “I hope we’ll have student and parent advocates that are out there talking about their experiences they had while they were here saying, ‘This is the place to go.’”

As the coordinator, McElveen’s advice for fine arts stu-dents is to be mindful of requirements to get the most out of their schedules.

“My mantra for students is ‘Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do;’ knock all of your state require-ments for graduation out of the way early so by the time you are a junior or senior, you can take a ton of fine arts classes and you have more flexibility in your schedule.”

For McElveen, the year will be filled with new opportu-nities. She looks forward to helping students discover their passion, she said.

“I feel like high school is like a catapult; you’re still in an educational environment where you’re taken care of, but this is an opportunity for you to really find what that next step is going to be in your life,” she said. “Even participating in some small way in helping individual students blossom and find their passion is really exciting.”

Kalyse McelveenFine Arts Coordinator

The road to McCallumStudents, teachers welcome new staff members

Joshua Denning, Becky White, Kate Wiley, Theater teachersWith a completely new set of

teachers, the theater department has been completely remodeled. Theater production teacher Josh-ua Denning, technical theater teacher Becky White, and musi-cal theater teacher Kate Wiley are the new leaders of the program. Though the changes have been big, the theater production depart-ment has already hit the ground running with its recent production “Beauty and the Beast.”

“I think it’s definitely been a radical change considering that all three of our teachers left last year, but I think there’s a lot of motivation to do big things with the new teachers,” senior Molly Wear said. “We’ve already put on a show that Mr. Denning directed, and we made record profits. We sold out pretty much every night and even over-sold some of the

nights.”Denning, who began as a sub

mid-semester last year, said it’s the productions like this that are the most exciting aspect of becoming a theater teacher.

“I think I’m most looking forward to all the exciting productions that we’re going to do,” Denning said. “Over the years I’m sure we’ll do some pretty spectacular and interest-ing shows, and I’m also really looking forward to growing the department

in a way that’s really efficient and excellent.” For sophomore Lila Penn, the new teachers mean an op-

portunity to learn different techniques and styles in musical theater.

“Everyone has a different way that they sing and a different style that they like, so I’m looking forward to seeing what type

of music and dance Ms. Wiley likes,” she said. “I really miss the old teach-ers, but I’m sure I’ll warm up to the new ones. Now that there are three teachers just focused on theater, I think there will be a narrower focus on the program and we’ll have more opportunities, too.”

In the technical theater depart-ment, White said she hopes her students this year will be able to grow with the teachers in new di-rections.

“I know that the theater is a completely new department, and I hope that the changes are easy and the students will be able to accept the differences,” White said. “I want them to be stretched in the theater and in their craft so they’ll turn back at the end of the year and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I could do that.’ I hope they’ll be pushed even in the classes; I think there’s a lot of things in the technical classes that they’ll get to do this year that they hadn’t been doing in the past.”

In the theater, White is designing the set for the upcom-ing show “Harlequinade.” In addition to teaching classes, she is also making sure the students are supporting and help-ing with all of the fine arts productions.

“The biggest challenge has been learning which student wants to do what and what their focus is,” she said. “That means learning who they all are and figuring out where their needs and wants are, so we’re making sure they’re getting the right support.”

White’s students’ ambitions go beyond the classroom into the personal interests of each tech theatre major. White said she looks forward to this aspect of the fine arts program.

“I’m really excited about the energy that the students here have,” White said. “They’re very ambitious about what they want to do and where they want to go, and I think that’s re-ally awesome. It’s really cool to have lots of kids that really want to be here.”

Wiley

White

denning

the shield

13oct. 5, 2012

The first time Joe Underwood came to McCallum, five years ago for training, he “fell in love with the charm of the old classrooms.” After teaching at Reagan, Lago Vista and Taylor high schools, he is the new AP US History teacher here. When Underwood moved into his class, he added his own personal touches, painting We The People on the wall above his desk.

“The American Revolution is my favorite time period be-cause it is what this country believes in,” Underwood said. “It is what we stand for and all the good things about America wrapped up into one.”

Underwood went to McClennen Community College in Waco before going to The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton, and he is now working to complete his masters from Sam Houston State University.

“I used to run summer camps, and I really enjoyed being around teenagers,” Underwood said. “I thought that teaching would be a great way to do what I already love doing.”

Underwood was the director of these camps and did every-thing from “logistics to day-to-day operations.”

“Underwood is one of the best teachers at Mac,” junior Jake Fey said. “He’s really funny and he makes learning fun.”

Even though Underwood is an AP teacher, he still has a life outside of school.

“I’m an avid outdoor hunting, fishing, camping guy,” Un-

Joe Underwood aP US history Teacher

Building manager Mary Noack’s three children attended McCallum, so she’s used to having family around her workplace. However, since her daughter’s graduation in 2007 she’s been the only Noack in the building. That changed this year when her daughter-in-law, Sarah Noack, was hired to teach 10th grade Chemistry.

“It’s amazing. It really is amazing,” Mary Noack said. “I am kind of used to having one of my kids around, so it’s really cool to have her here in the building.”

Sarah Noack graduated from Texas State University and decided to work at McCallum after securing a job as a perma-nent sub here during her time in college.

“I really enjoyed it,” Sarah Noack said. “I really like the principal and I liked the other teachers and I knew that it was a place where I would feel comfortable working.”

Two of Mary Noack’s children live out of town. One re-sides in Georgia as a member of the Navy, and the other is working in Houston until the end of the year, when she will travel to Europe to work on a project there. Since two of her children are out of town, Mary Noack looks forward to hav-ing a familiar face at school with her this year. Three weeks into the school year, Sarah Noack was already enjoying her position.

“I really like the people here; everyone’s really friendly,” Sar-ah Noack said. “No one has been stand-offish or weird at all.”

After graduating, finding a job teaching wasn’t always a simple task for Sarah Noack because of the hiring freeze Aus-

Sarah Noack Chemistry Teacher

tin implemented the year she got her degree.

“She couldn’t get a job in Austin (because of the hiring freeze),” Mary Noack said, “so for the last three years, she’s been driving all the way to Cop-per’s Cove, which is up by Killeen and Temple, teaching Chemistry. When she found out there was going to be some openings here this summer, she applied and was fortunate enough to be hired, so we’re really excited about that.”

Speaking of exciting, the Noacks have some other news to share.

“Well,” Mary Noack said with a smile, “she’s pregnant, so we’re going to be having a grandbaby in March. I kinda re-ally get to play mom here and make sure she’s okay, and she is. That is very exciting, though, and was really an added bonus too when she got the job because you know we didn’t know about that when she applied. It was still too early then, but that’s definitely an added bonus with her being here.”

Mary Noack noted the reason she has chosen to stay at McCallum for such a long time is because she, too, appreci-ates the students and faculty members.

“The thing I enjoy the most about McCallum is the stu-dents and the teachers,” Mary Noack said, “and unfortunate-ly my role is not always a fun role with students because I’m telling them, ‘You’re in the wrong locker, you parked in the wrong parking lot, you lost your textbook,’ and that’s not al-ways a fun thing to do. I want to have fun with students, but sometimes my job just doesn’t always let me have fun.”

Even though the pair work in the same building, they don’t

see each other every day because of their hectic schedules.“I haven’t seen her since the weekend,” Mary Noack said.

“You know we had the three-day weekend, and now it’s Thurs-day, and this is the first time I’ve seen her since then, so we don’t get to see each other every day, but I know she’s here.”

These periodic visits at school give Mary Noack a chance to discover what her son and Sarah Noack, who live in South Austin, are up to.

“South Austin is like another world to me because I don’t go to there very often but on weekends and holidays when we get to spend time with each other. It’s a lot of fun, and now, I feel almost like they’ve moved back to town because I do get to see her during the week. When Sarah was working out in Copper’s Cove, she left so early and came back so late and then when she did have a weekend, she was just exhausted and doing lesson plans. So that has definitely loosened up the schedule to where we see each other more now.”

Sarah Noack said though she had not always wanted to be a teacher, after applying about four years ago, she found it was something she really enjoyed. According to Mary No-ack, the atmosphere at Copper’s Cove was not always what Sarah Noack had in mind.

“McCallum is very different than Copper’s Cove,” Mary Noack said. “Here it’s, you know, ‘Get your job done, teach the kids what they need to do, that’s what is expected of you and give your 100 percent to the kids,’ and she feels like she’s able to do that more here than she was there in Copper’s Cove because she’s able to spend quality time with her students.”

Sarah Noack agrees; she does appreciate the extra flexibil-ity in her teaching curriculum she has here.

“The rules are different for teachers at McCallum,” she said. “It’s a lot more free, and I get to make more of my own choices about things.”

derwood said. “I really enjoy firearms, and my wife and I com-pete with handguns.”

The competitions are part of the International Defensive Pistol Association.

“It’s a timed scenario,” Underwood said. “You get a staged set up with multiple targets and multiple no shoots.”

These competitions test the accuracy and the speed of the shooters. Underwood won the State Regionals in 2009, which was his biggest win so far.

Underwood is also a Freemason. While in school, Mr. Un-derwood noticed all the great men people study in this country and name buildings after all belong to the Freemasons. He wanted to have his name alongside the likes of George Wash-ington and Ben Franklin. Some people view the Masons as a secret society, but in reality it is a society with secrets. The group is widely involved in community service and charity efforts.

Underwood’s favorite teaching memory involves taking a group of students to Washington D.C. in 2007.

“Taking a group to Washington D.C. was probably the coolest thing I’ve done since I’ve been a teacher,” Underwood said. “Considering what I teach and what I taught them, it was that much more special.”

Their tour guide was very new to the job. “She got a lot of facts wrong, but I was so proud because they were able to po-litely correct her and provide her with the correct information,” Underwood said.

Underwood’s parents and grandparents are Irish immi-grants, and he will occasionally wear kilts to honor his heritage.

“They are just the most stupidly comfortable things on planet earth,” Underwood said. “I think they look really cool, and they’re different. I don’t mind standing out in the crowd.”

Chemistry teacher Sarah Noack and building manager Mary Noack

04 the shieldsportsoct. 5, 2012

Coach Jason Cecil was hired as ath-letic director last spring after coach Todd Raymond left his position at McCallum. Cecil was the assistant head coach to ap-proximately 300 players at Stony Point High School in Round Rock before com-ing here.

“I started in April and had less than a month to get prepared for spring football,” Cecil said. “I had to get to know our play-ers, our coaches, our school and our oppo-nents. There were already four coaching positions to fill, so not only did I have to start teaching our players and coaches our system, I also had to go out and find the best people I could to coach here.”

Cecil has coached in many stadiums in his 17-year coaching career, including Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Dumas High School.

Defensive end Edward Armstrong said

New athletic director shakes things upVarsity football players adjust to methods, personality of coach Jason Cecil

his first impression of Cecil hasn’t changed.“[Cecil] came in already yelling and

screaming,” Armstrong said. “I guess he was excited. It was exciting when [Cecil] came, because we had never had a coach like that before. [His intensity] is a good thing. It instills fear in us.”

Cecil said his first impression of the players was that they were talented and wanted to win.

“I still believe those two statements,” Cecil said. “However, right now we are try-ing to teach them the difference in wanting to win and paying the price to win. I want our team to understand that nothing will be given to them, and if they want to win, they will have to earn the right to win.”

Cecil is well known for his catch phrase “Do it the right way, every day.”

Defensive end Marquis King- Smith said Cecil cares more about the integrity of the team than winning a game.

“Raymond didn’t care how we won,” King-Smith said. “He just wanted it done.

Cecil is different. He wants us to win the right way.”

Armstrong said former coach Ray-mond was a lot more relaxed than Cecil.

“We have a whole new defense,” Arm-strong said. “His intensity level is crazy. Practice with Cecil has to be 100 percent.”

King-Smith agreed.“Coach Cecil is way more about his

business than Raymond,” King-Smith said. “If [Cecil] says he is going to do some-thing, it will get done. Raymond was more of a pushover.”

Wide receiver Wes Bellomy said Cecil has changed the football program for the better.

“Practices are harder,” Bellomy said. “We have a lot more focus and discipline. Cecil came in with a lot of fire and inten-sity. He’s always excited.”

Offensive coordinator Charles Taylor said Cecil and Raymond have different mentalities.

“Coach Raymond was more focused

on offense,” Taylor said. “Cecil is a defense guy.”

McCallum is about two times smaller than Stony Point. Cecil said McCallum is smaller but has a similar student body.

“Both schools have very unique and diverse student populations,” Cecil said. “Our kids are very similar in talent and backgrounds.”

Cecil has coached many positions on the field, including linebackers coach, defensive coordinator and special team coordinator.

The Knights are 3-2 so far this season. “These games have been learning ex-

periences for our team, and we know that if we make these mistakes against a really good team, we would be in trouble,” Cecil said. “On the other hand, if we clean up all of the mistakes, we know can be a really good football team.”

Cecil seems to already be making an im-pact on his players.

“[Cecil] is crazy,” Armstrong said. “He’s going to get me to college.”

NATALIE MURPHYstaff reporter

sports in brief

The freshman volleyball team is 6-1 so far this season. The team played a home game against LBJ Oct. 2. The results were unavailable at press time.

“We’re doing great,” freshman Meagan Garza said. “Coach [Casey] Kinkade and Coach [Charlie] Gore are really motivating us. We’re going to have a great season.”

The freshman girls broke their winning streak after a loss against Ann Richards in September. The match went to three sets, and the team worked really hard, Garza said.

“We’ve won almost all our games,” Garza said. “There’s room for improvement, and we’re getting better.”

Freshman volleyball 6-1 in district season

The JV football team is 2-2 with a 1-0 record in district play. Last Thursday the team shut out Reagan 68-0 in the district start.

“We put in a lot of hard work and effort in our homecoming game,” sophomore Eric Sandoz said. “ We came up short, and we were really disappointed. We were able to rebound really well against Reagan, and we came away with a good win.”

The team will play Sacred Heart Catholic School from Halletsville this week.

The freshman football team currently holds a 1-3 record.

The game against Hutto was canceled. The team beat Akins 18-14.

“I really think we’re going to improve this season,” freshman John Smith said. “We’ve had our ups and downs so far this year, but I think we will balance out to-wards the end.”

Freshman football team beats Akins 18-14

“We really need to work on our ball skills, tackling and blocking this week and not slack off,” sophomore Kyle Turi said. “It’s important we stay focused and continue to play our best.”

Next week they will play Crockett at Noack at 7 p.m.

JV football focuses on skills, teamwork for upcoming games

JV volleyball undefeat-ed in district so far

Varsity volleyball tied for first in district play

New members means bigger team for cross-country

With a team twice as big as last year’s, the cross-country team has already competed in four meets and will compete at the district meet Oct. 19.

“I’ve really enjoyed the great turnout that we have this year,” coach Susan Ashton said. “There are a great number of students that get up early to run with us every morning. There’s a JV and a varsity team this year, so we’re very strong and looking good.”

New this year is the three-mile run for girls, replacing last year’s two-mile distance. Sophomore Alexis Shoobe said this is an adjustment for the girls.

“It’s a lot longer, and we have to practice this year to prepare for the longer distance,” she said. “At our last meet, we ran against

Westlake, and they have a really good cross-country team. We’re hoping to improve for district coming up soon.”

Ashton said she hopes to see the runners continue to drop their times as the season proceeds, and she looks forward to the progress the team will make.

“I made up a time sheet for the kids so they can see their times are lowering and we can continue improving,” she said. “I’d really like to see us do well at district.”

With their many recent wins, the Lady Knights varsity volleyball team is tied for first place in district with Ann Richards School. The two teams are set for a rematch on Oct. 9.

“We need everyone to come to the Ann Richards game,” senior Chandler Stancliff said.

Stancliff is confident the team will win their upcoming rematch.

“I think we’re going to come back and get them,” she said with a smile.

The game starts at 7:30 p.m. on the Ann Richards campus.

The JV volleyball team will play Travis tonight here at 6:30 p.m.

JV won all of its first six games. The team played LBJ Tuesday. The scores were not available at press time.

“JV is doing great,” sophomore Penelope Stopper said. “This year our team is really working together. We are improving really fast.”

Winning: the overwhelming adrenaline rush, the ach-ing pains that last for days

and the sense of accomplishment. These universal feelings are known by hundreds around the world, including junior Marie-Claire Huff.

“Almost a year and a half ago, I decided to register and begin training for the Capi-tal Texas Triathlon,” Huff said. “Allotting myself only two months of preparation, I trained rigorously every day in hopes that I would maybe place in the top 50 for my age group. When race day finally came, I felt I was ready. I will never forget the moment I crossed the finish line and was handed a plaque reading 19 and under Female State Champion. I couldn’t believe it. I thought there was some sort of mistake. My body was so dead after the race that the magni-tude of my accomplishment didn’t set in until the next day.”

According to Huff, the idea of being stripped of her wins would be devastating. This punishment was recently given to lo-cal Austin celebrity Lance Armstrong—fa-mous for his sports accomplishments and philanthropic efforts. The retired profes-sional bicyclist has been stripped of his sev-en Tour de France titles by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), in what has become a highly publicized controversy.

“I think that doping has really done ir-reparable damage to the sport of cycling,” AP English 4 teacher and avid cyclist Tom Watterson said. “That Lance Armstrong has been implicated really isn’t surprising, given how pervasive the problem is in the entire pro peloton. That said, I have yet to hear of a conclusive test that has shown him to have used performance-enhancing drugs.”

Armstrong announced Aug. 23 that he

would no longer fight against the USA-DA’s doping charges against him.

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Armstrong said in his Aug. 23 statement. “For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart’s unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense.”

The quasi-governmental agency took this as an admission of guilt and announced a lifetime ban against Armstrong, as well as stripping him of his Tour titles from 1999-2005.

“I’m not at all convinced that USADA has the jurisdiction to even bring charges against Armstrong,” Watterson said, “let alone sanction him in the Tour de France.”

In a statement issued on Aug. 24 by USADA, CEO Travis Tygart explained the agency’s reasoning behind Armstrong’s punishment.

“Nobody wins when an athlete decides to cheat with dangerous performance en-hancing drugs, but clean athletes at every level expect those of us here on their behalf to pursue the truth to ensure the win-at-all-cost culture does not permanently over-take fair, honest competition,” Tygart said. “Any time we have overwhelming proof of doping, our mandate is to initiate the case through the process and see it to conclu-sion as was done in this case.”

The USADA claimed to have many key witnesses ready to testify against Arm-strong in court, Watterson said.

“My understanding is that USADA is prepared to introduce an array of wit-nesses, George Hincapie [a teammate of

Armstrong’s] among them, whose testi-mony could potentially be very damaging,” Watterson said. “If they’re willing to go to these lengths without having a positive doping test, they must be pretty confident that they can win.”

Huff said even though Armstrong has been charged with doping, she still consid-ers him one of the greatest athletes of all time.

“I am confident that Lance Armstrong has used some sort of enhancement drug as most professional athletes have done,” Huff said. “Whether the drugs were legal or illegal, I am not sure. But he is still an icon regardless of whether he was wrong-fully convicted or not.”

While Armstrong’s titles were stripped based on the principle key that he broke the rules, questions have been raised about the legality of the USADA’s actions which broke their own eight-year statute of limita-tions rule.

“The statute of limitations can be ex-tended if there’s evidence of a cover-up, which USADA claims is the case,” Wat-terson said. “But I’m honestly not inclined to accept their version of events, given that their entire case seems to be based on sec-ond-hand information, rather than actual doping test results.”

The Tour de France has released a statement saying they will keep an eye on the case and have requested the case files to make sure the punishment issued was valid. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has also stated it will keep watch on the situation.

Watterson said he thinks the UCI, which enforces disciplinary rules, such as in matters of doping, has the sole jurisdic-tion to strip Armstrong of his titles.

“Based on what I know about the state of the sport today,” Watterson said. “I would be very surprised if he didn’t dope. But without a positive test, it’s all just specula-

15the shield sports oct. 5, 2012

GRACE FRYEeditor-in-chief

tion. The USADA didn’t have the right to take away his Tours.”

After declaring his innocence, Arm-strong had until midnight Thursday Aug. 23 to decide whether to or not fight against the agency’s charges. The USADA has a 58-2 record of athletes fighting charges, but due to the lack of a positive drug test, Arm-strong’s case is unique.

“To me, that’s the crux of the matter,” Watterson said. “If the UCI sets up dop-ing controls and a rider adheres to them and passes the tests, then you have to ac-cept that. USADA can’t just say, ‘Well, he passed the tests, but Floyd Landis says he doped, so we’re going to punish him any-way.’”

Huff disagreed.“I believe there is a possibility that his

lawyer is trying to protect him by refus-ing to fight back,” Huff said. “Personally, I can’t imagine accepting the fact that I am wrongly convicted and stripped of my titles. However, maybe he is simply tired of constantly battling the media.”

The reputation of LiveSTRONG, Armstrong’s foundation, could also be af-fected by the recent events, Huff said.

“It is sad because the goal of the foun-dation is merely to help those with cancer,” Huff said. “The validity of Lance Arm-strong’s titles should not affect the founda-tion.”

It is still unclear to the public who will be announced the winner of the Tour de France from 1999-2005 since most of the riders on the podium with Armstrong have also faced their own doping charges.

“I heard today that if they were to award Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France victo-ries to the highest-ranked rider who didn’t dope, they would have to give them to the guy who finished 37th in the race,” Watter-son said. “The whole thing is just sad, and I’m very disappointed to see such a great sport be forever tarnished by cheating.”

LANCE ARMSTRONG:Local celebrity stripped of titles; students, teachers discuss controversy

FADING AWAY?

16 the shieldsportsoct. 5, 2012

TS: When does cross country start training for the sea-son?

MW: Well, usually we start during the summer. For this 2012 season we started at the end of school last year and went all through the summer, but summer training is a lot more relaxed than the in-season training. We run around the track; we did a lot of conditioning so that we would be in shape for the competition season, and we ran around the Mc-Callum area.

TS: What is your favorite part about Cross Country?MW: I love how rewarding it is. It is definitely one of those

things where your hard work really pays off and you see lots of improvement throughout the season which I think is really cool.

TS: What is it like to be the captain of the team?MW: Well, it is a lot more responsibility. You have to make

sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to be do-ing and not slacking off during practice, especially since the team is a lot bigger this year. Coach Ashton puts a lot more weight on my shoulders to make sure that the team is doing their best work.

TS: How has Coach Ashton helped you as well as the rest of the team?

MW: Everyone has been really positive and understand-ing. She understands if we are injured or if we have a prob-lem with running or school work and she is very flexible towards our injuries and is really willing to customize work-outs depending on if you aren’t feeling well. She is also really encouraging which is a really good quality to have in a coach.

TS: What do you hope to accomplish this season?MW: This year we are running three miles so I want to get

a really good personal record around 20 or 21 minutes and I want to do really well in every race and feel like I couldn’t have done any better. I also hope we can win district and beat LBJ.

TS: Would you consider Cross Country an individual sport or a team sport?

MW: There are definitely some individual aspects because what you do is all you; what place you come in is up to you, but the way they rank who gets first and second is by team. How-ever, you can get a medal depending on your individual time so in a way it is pretty much both.

TS: What are you most excited for this season?MW: I’m just excited for everyone to do well, and it is my last

year so I really want to make it my best year yet. I really want everyone to improve and be really happy with their season.

TS: How has the team changed since last year?MW: The team has gotten a lot bigger this year and I feel

like we have become really comfortable with each other re-ally fast, so we are all really outgoing and supportive of each other which is really awesome, and I really like the vibe that our team has.

TS: How do you prepare for a race?MW: I always listen to Kanye West, [laughs] I mean its true,

I try not to focus on what is going on outside of the race. I don’t think about what is going on in my life like school work and drama, I just try to focus on the race and just block out every-thing else in my life.

TS: What is your favorite thing to do after a race?MW: Probably go to P. Terry’s, it is something I do quite of-

ten after races. I always pass out under our little tent and then when we get back to McCallum I just go to P.Terry’s and go ham.

TS: What does the team hope to accomplish this year?BW: To go deep into playoffs is probably what I hope to ac-

complish. I hope we can win district and definitely go unde-feated and try to go deeper into playoffs than we ever have and possibly go to state.

TS: How do you think winning the Taco Shack Bowl helped the team mentally?

BW: I heard we were picked to lose that game, and coming back from being down because they scored first was a huge confidence boost. It let us know that we can make comebacks; we aren’t going stay down once we start down. Winning that game after losing it three years in a row was a big boost for the team and the school to have that trophy back because we had come close in the previous years.

TS: Shield: Who is your biggest competition in district?BW: LBJ, definitely. They haven’t won any games yet, but

they have also played three very good teams. They returned 17 starters, so they have a lot of the same players that they had last year, but I still think that we have the better players

TS: How do you think the team will do in playoffs?BW: [Even though Lake Travis is no longer in our district],

we will still play a very tough team. The two teams we will play are Cedar Park, number four in the state, or Leader, number two in the state. So either way we will play a very tough team, but I think if we can beat them then we can make a really deep run in playoffs because the first round is always the hardest.

TS: How has tearing your ACL affected you?BW: It made me enjoy playing football a lot more. Missing a

season like that is just awful. Being out last year made playing this year even better.

Shield:What position do you play?Billy Won: Left tackle, which is on the offensive line. The

offensive line are the five guys that are in front of the quarter-back; the center guy snaps the ball, and there are four guys next to him and I am the leftmost player. My main job is to block the other players and protect the quarterback, depend-ing on what plays we run.

Shield: How long have you been on the Mac football team?BW: I’ve played all four years; I made varsity my sopho-

more year. I wasn’t able to play last year because I tore my ACL.

TS: How has the team changed since last year?BW: I feel like we have gotten tougher since Coach [Todd]

Raymond left and the new coach, Coach [Jason] Cecil, has im-plemented a lot of punishments rules and disciplinary rules. I feel like we have gotten slightly better too.

TS: How has the team adjusted to the new coaching staff?BW: We haven’t done too bad. I guess people were more

comfortable with Coach Raymond because they knew him and they had more than a year to know him. But, of course, the first year with a new coaching staff will always be hard so I think we are still getting used to the new system, but I think once all of the players are used to it, everything will work re-ally well.

TS: What do you hope to accomplish individually this sea-son during district?

BW: Individually I don’t really have many goals. I just want to help the team win. I mean, getting first team all district would be nice, but I would much rather help the team win games than get a personal reward.

MakalaWangrin

WonMARY STITESphoto editor

Billy

17the shield sports oct. 5, 2012

The first week of school did not bring only dread this year, it also brought the end to a mostly tragic off-season for col-lege football. With all the scandal that surrounds football now, it’s hard to just sit back on the weekends without the constant talking of Penn State, Jerry Sandusky and the forever-tainted ending to the career of Joe Paterno.

In addition to the events at Penn State, the University of Arkansas head coach, Bobby Petrino, was involved in a motor-cycle crash in April. Riding with him on the motorcycle was former All-SEC vol-leyball player Jessica Dorrell. Pertrino had hired her in March as the student-athlete development coordinator. Petrino initially announced he was alone, but minutes be-fore the police report was announced he revealed Dorrell was on the bike with him and that he had an inappropriate relation-ship with her. Petrino was later investi-gated and fired. The NCAA took fair ac-tion in this situation. Dorrell was given an unfair advantage in the hiring process, and Petrino initially announced he was alone in the crash to protect his image.

In July, NCAA President Mark Em-mert handed Penn State unprecedented penalties that will cripple the team’s abil-ity on the field. Emmert banned Penn State from bowl games for four years and imposed a reduction in scholarships total-ing 40 lost over four years. In addition to these, he vacated all of Penn State’s victo-ries from 1998 through 2011. That means former head coach Joe Paterno will lose 111 of his record 409 victories, a Division I all-time record. This punishment was chosen over suspending the program for at least a year, but the current sanctions are likely to be just as devastating. It is very clear that the NCAA wanted to make it very difficult for Penn State to succeed in the future. The NCAA made an example out of Penn State and made it clear that any similar situation at any school will be handled in a very harsh manner.

In addition to the physical punishment of Penn State, many still feel the lingering emotional effects in the wake of the scandal. The football season has not gone great for Penn State so far; they have lost their open-ing three games. It will take years for the program to rebuild and even longer for the University to come back from this atrocity.

Despite the tragedy at Penn State, the

BCS finally decided to negotiate the be-ginnings of a playoff in college football. Many fans have been praising the idea of a playoff for the last several years. The new system, which will start in the 2014, will be a four-team playoff by the top four teams in the BCS poll.

This season of college football promises to be one of excitement. Quarterback Matt Barkley is com-ing back for his se-nior season to lead USC. They were in a good situation to make a run for the championship until they took a trip to Palo Alto in the third week and lost to Stanford for the fourth year in a row. Their rivals to the north in Oregon are coming back with one of the fastest and most unique teams in the country. Their uniforms are still the most unique in the country and with Nike in their back pocket, they will continue to be the team to beat on the West Coast.

Alabama and LSU will fight it out in the SEC this fall, along with new addition

Texas A&M, who lost a very close game in their SEC opener against Florida. Arkan-sas looked like they could be a contender until they were upset by Louisiana-Mon-roe in week two, and then were absolutely destroyed by Alabama in week three by a

score of 52-0. Without ques-

tion Alabama and LSU will be the teams to beat this season. The two teams will meet on Nov. 3 at LSU. The meeting between these two teams last year was dubbed “the game of the century,” and this season’s meeting will be no different

as long as the two are able to stay unde-feated. Alabama will most likely come away with the victory unless LSU is able to estab-lish a consistent passing game. Quarterback Zach Mettenberger has struggled this year, and until the passing game improves, LSU has no shot at the National Championship.

The Longhorns also look much better than they did last season. The defense is solid and the offense showed they could

put up points in their 66-31 victory over Ole Miss in week three. Quarterback David Ash showed he could throw the long-ball but still was underthrowing his receivers. Marquise Goodwin also showed the speed of the Texas team in his 69-yard TD run against Ole Miss.

Texas will have a decent shot in the Big 12 this year if they can contend with Okla-homa and Kansas State. In order for them to make a push for the Big 12 Champion-ship, Ash will have to do a better job on his long throws. Against Ole Miss he un-derthrew a number of his deep throws and forced the receivers to peel back in order to make the completions.

Traditional powers Notre Dame and Florida State also look to be returning to power. Both teams have a 3-0 record, and so far Notre Dame has taken down Michi-gan State and Michigan. The Irish face a very tough schedule this year with games against Miami, Stanford, Oklahoma and USC. Florida State took down Clemson in the fourth week in their best perfor-mance of the season. With a relatively easy ACC schedule, it would be easy for them to go undefeated. Their toughest tests will be Miami and Virginia Tech on the road and their traditional game against Florida at home to end the season.

Scandals tarnish memorable year Teams start journey to rebuild; others look to make a championship run WES JOHNSstaff reporter

My two centsNFL Strike• The NFL finally reached an agree-

ment with its normal referees Sept. 27, ending a lockout that lasted since June. Roger Goodell and the team owners had confidence in the replacement offi-cials from the start.

The call that ended the Green Bay and Seattle game shook the league and forced negotiations to re-start. Late on Sept. 26, NFL owners reached a tenta-tive agreement with the referees. Until the call in Seattle, the NFL had replace-ment officials scheduled through the fifth week and had no plans to negotiate further with the refs.

The lockout started because the refs wanted a $16.5 million benefit package over the next five years of their contract. NFL revenues are at an all time high, $9.6 billion a year, and expected to grow to between $12 and $14 billion, so why did they not want to take $500,000 from each team to pay the normal officials?

They risked the integrity of the game in try and create the most profit possible.

Baseball• This MLB season has been one of

the most exciting that I remember. The Texas Rangers started the season strong and have continued to win as playoffs get closer.

The Oakland A’s and Baltimore Orioles were both surprise teams this year. The A’s gave the rangers a run for the money in the AL West. The Orioles were a huge threat as the season progressed. The team does a great job of building off of each other’s energy and are a huge threat in the post-season as long as the team’s pitching can contend with the Yankees, Rangers and Tigers.

The Yankees had their hands full in the East with the Rays and the Orioles. The Houston Astros turned out another hor-rible season this year. They finished with over 100 losses for the second season in a

row, but they will have Nationals third base coach Bo Porter as their new coach in their inaugural season in the AL West in 2013.

I project the Rangers, Orioles, and Nationals will all make a deep playoff run this season. The Rangers have been the most consistent team for the last two years. They were defeated in back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011.

The Orioles have an explosive team and will be hard to beat if they get hot in the postseason. The Nationals will not have Steven Strasburg in the play-offs but will have rookie Bryce Harper. Gio Gonzales, the season’s first 20-game winner, will be their ace if they make a run deep into October. The Reds are also a team capable of making a deep run in the playoffs. They have a strong pitching staff and an offense that can put a lot of runs on the board. If Joey Votto stays healthy, their chances to win will improve greatly.

“The Longhorns look much better than they did last season. The defense is solid, and the offense showed they could put up

points. ”

18 the shieldoct. 5, 2012 entertainment

Junior Emily Hunteman’s heart raced when she heard the news. In an effort to keep from screaming, she forced herself to bite something. Emily had just found out her photo was chosen out of 9,000 entries as a member of the top 30 finalists in a na-tion-wide competition called Imaginat10n.

“I couldn’t even breathe when I found out [my photo had been chosen],” she said. “I walked through the door after school, and I guess they called my mom trying to reach me. She was just like, ‘If somebody calls, answer it!’ and I thought something was wrong. She wouldn’t tell me what she was talking about. When they called me, I didn’t even hear half of what the lady on the phone said, my heart was beating so loudly. I had to keep the news to myself for a few days for confidentiality reasons because they hadn’t released the finalists to the public. I thought I was going to burst.”

Project Imagina10n is a contest headed by director Ron Howard and Canon Cam-eras where participants from around the nation enter photos, and the winning imag-es are used to make one of 10 films. In her particular category, there are 10 winners to inspire a 10-film film festival. Hunteman said she thinks this project is a great way to highlight photography as an art medium.

“A large point of the project is to prove that inspiration and creativity can come out of something like photography, and to show that photography can be a creatively useful tool,” she said, “which just makes me love this project more because I feel like sometimes photography gets undermined, and it’s really exciting to have a new use for photography.”

Once a photo was chosen as a finalist, the pubic voted and the winners chosen. To vote, people went to the contest website. They voted once a day from Sept. 11-24. The winners will be announced on Oct. 15. Em-ily said once the voting started, contestants were responsible for spreading the word.

“It’s kind of a domino effect,” she said. “I posted it on Facebook, some of my friends shared it, and some of their friends shared it and so on and so on. Ms. [Carey] West [pho-tography teacher] also put up flyers and sent them around the school. It’s so weird seeing my photo all around McCallum.”

Emily found out about the contest through YouTube two days before the contest ended.

“My mom actually saw an ad for it and it sort of became a last minute ‘Eh, I guess I’ll do this’ sort of thing,” she said. “I’ve done, like, little contests here and there. For ex-ample, the kite festival has a photography contest every year, and I’ve participated in a few ATPI contests and activities. Noth-

ing nearly as huge as this, though, that’s for sure.”

Emily said she created the photo before the contest as a school project. She entered nine photos.

“We had to do self portraits for class, and self portraits can be very difficult to successfully photograph,” Hunteman said. “So I sat down and looked at other self portraits people had done. I found this one girl, Kayla Varley I think is her name, and I was so drawn to her photos and the way she used emotion to create an other-wise boring image. So I started to draw out what I wanted to do, and I decided I wanted to portray something that people could relate to. I feel like heartbreak and the typical teenage drama that just makes you want to lay your head down and drown out the world is something we can all for sure relate to. It’s a really powerful emo-tion, and I really wanted to capture it in a photo. I also was sort of in love with face-less portraits at the time. I still am. I feel like they tell more of a story.”

Part of Emily’s story includes what she describes as “typical teenage heartbreak.”

“I mean, I can for sure admit to feeling hurt and, yes, heartbroken,” she said. “But you pick yourself back up again and get on with your life, and that’s sort of what this photo is about. That moment when you just let everything fall down around you,

but you can sort of see this emerging light from her, like everything’s going to be okay in the end.”

Emily said if she won, as well as inspir-ing a film, she would be able to buy new supplies, which would help her improve even more.

“I would get to be a part of this awe-some collaboration, of course, which would just be incredible,” she said. “I also get to go to New York, which I have never been to, and go to the premiere and film festival and all events associated with this project. I do also get $500 credit to their sponsor’s store, which could get me new lenses I’ve been wanting.”

She continued to say the support she has received has been great, and she hopes to see her name in the rolling credits of a film, soon.

“I feel like it’d open so many doors for me,” she said. “Some really big names are involved in this (Ron Howard, Eva Long-oria, Jamie Foxx), which could possibly put me in a really good position. It’s incred-ible how many people are trying to get the word out and how many people have taken the time to vote. I’ve gotten pats on the back from random strangers and so many nice comments from people. It’s really, re-ally incredible. I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity and to have so much sup-port to go with it.”

GRACE FRYEeditor-in-chief

Student photo chosen as finalist in national photography contest

Imaginat10n at workSelf-portrait of junior Emily Hunteman. Photo chosen as a finalist in the photography contest Imaginat10n.

Supernatural/Horror/Fantasy• “The Vampire Diaries” (Oct. 11, The CW) • “Supernatural” (Oct. 10, The CW) • “Grimm” (Sept. 28, NBC) • “Once Upon A Time” (Sept. 30, Fox) • “Havens” (Sept. 30, Syfy) • “The Walking Dead” (Oct. 14, AMC) • “Touch” (Oct. 26, Fox)• “American Horror Story: Asylum” (Oct. 17, FX), a brand new series set in a mental institution for the crimi-nally insane in 1964• “666 Park Avenue” (Sept. 30, ABC), a series about a couple who learns that the Manhattan apartment build-ing that they just moved into might be possessed by a

mysterious demonic force.

Drama• “Hart of Dixie” (Oct. 2, The CW) • “90210” (Oct. 8, The CW) • “Gossip Girl” (Oct. 8, The CW) • “Criminal Minds” (Sept. 26, CBS)• “Private Practice” (Sept. 25, ABC)• “Grey’s Anatomy” (Sept. 27, ABC)• “Person of Interest” (Sept. 27, CBS)• “Scandal” (Sept. 27, ABC) • “CSI:NY” (Sept. 28, CBS) • “Fringe” (Sept. 28, Fox) • “Blue Bloods” (Sept. 28, CBS) • “The Good Wife” (Sept. 30, CBS)• “The Mentalist” (Sept. 30, CBS)• “Beauty and the Beast” (Oct. 11, The CW) A modern tell-ing of the story of the original series of a mysterious man falling for a woman who tries to uncover his dark past• “Vegas” (Sept. 25, CBS) A tale of a sheriff dealing with a Chicago mobster in the 1960s.• “Nashville” (Oct. 10, ABC) About an old country star who’s afraid of being outshined by a younger, beautiful singer and tries to make her way back on top• “Elementary” (Sept. 27, CBS) A remake of the BBC show “Sherlock,” making the setting in New York City.

The change of the seasons to fall means the return of all favorite TV shows and checking out brand new series.

Action• “Nikita” (Oct. 19, The CW) • “Castle” (Sept. 24, ABC) • “Revenge” (Sept. 30, ABC) • “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” (Sept. 26, NBC) • “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (Sept. 30, CBS)• “NCIS:LA” (Sept. 25, CBS) • “Hawaii Five-0” (Sept. 24, CBS)• “Arrow” (Oct. 10. The CW) A new series based on the DC character “Green Arrow” and his origins

Reality TV• “Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars” (Sept. 24, ABC)• “The Amazing Race” (Sept. 30, CBS) • “America’s Next Top Model: College Edition” (Oct. 19, The CW) • “Jersey Shore” (Oct. 4, MTV)

Animation• “The Simpsons” (Sept. 30, Fox)• “Bob’s Burgers” (Sept. 30, Fox)• “Family Guy” (Sept. 30, Fox)• “American Dad” (Sept. 30, Fox)• “The Cleveland Show” (Oct. 7,Fox)

ComedyFans of “How I Met Your Mother?” The hit sitcom will

be returning on Sept. 24 on CBS, along with:• “2 Broke Girls” (Sept. 24, CBS) • “Mike & Molly” (Sept. 24, CBS)• “New Girl” (Sept. 25, Fox)• “The Big Bang Theory” (Sept. 27, CBS)• “Two and a Half Men” (Sept. 27, CBS)• “Raising Hope” (Oct. 2, Fox)• “30 Rock” (Oct. 4, NBC)• ”It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (Oct. 11, FX)• “The League” (Oct. 11, FX) • “Suburgatory” (Oct. 17,ABC)• “Whitney” (Oct. 19, NBC)• “Community” (Oct. 19, NBC) • “Happy Endings” (Oct. 23, ABC)• “Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23” (Oct. 23, ABC) • “Partners” (Sept. 24, CBS) Two longtime friends are put

to the test to retain their bromance when one gets engaged and the other starts a relationship.• “Emily Owens, MD” (Oct. 16, The CW) A young thriv-ing doctor-to-be discovers her long-time nemesis is working with her and realizes her job is high school all over again.

19the shield entertainment oct. 5, 2012

JENNIFER CASTROstaff reporter

New shows spice up fall TV season

As I walk into Pacsun, I notice that all the sweaters and scarfs are out in the front. At the back of the store all the swimwear and shorts are on sale. Relizing that fall trends have come.

A big trend during the summer was high-waisted jean shorts. Since summer is coming to an end, what’s better than high-waisted jeans? I love high-waisted jeans because I can wear a crop top and still be school appropriate.

I think high waited-jeans are great be-cause they go with so many things. I can style with any T-shirt I want and a pair of flats or boots and bam, my outfit is com-plete. Jeans are a classic look, but high-waisted jeans give you a little bit different look. I think high-wasted jeans are a great choice for that comfortable and casual look.

I have seen many celebrities and many people around MAC wearing combat boots. These shoes will keep you nice and toasty for the cold winter ahead. Also, they are super versatile. I adore how these boots go with jeans, skirts and even dress-es. I really enjoy these boots with high-low dress or skirts.

If you don’t know what a high-low dress/skirt is, it’s when the front of the dress is shorter than the back. (This was a big trend during the summer.) Combat

boots with this dress look absolutely stun-ning. These boots give an edgy feeling to your outfit. You can dress down your out-fit with these boots. Also, these shoes are a great way to add some height without seeming dressed up. I expect to see a lot of these shoes around MAC during the fall.

A clothing item I have seen a lot is the infini-ty scarf, if a scarf that never ends. Basically, both ends of a scarf are connected. I tried one on and I did not like the way it looked. Call me old-fashioned, but I preferred the look of a plain and simple scarf. I enjoy the style of a scarf going around your neck once and seeing both ends of the scarf. The infinity scarf does the opposite of what I like. It goes around my neck twice and that’s it. I think it looks like a drape on my neck. The infinity scarf is just one of those trends I would not wear myself.

However, what I plan to wear a lot during the fall is oversized sweaters. I love how they are so comfortable and very casual. I like how you can just throw on a large sweater and put on a pair of jeans and there’s your outfit. If I ever wake up

late this is what I do. I don’t have to put too much thought into styling with an oversized sweater. It is nice and easy for those lazy and chilly days.

Leather pants have been spotted on many celebrities and everyday people. I

have seen these in a couple stores. I tried on a pair and hated them. I do not like the feeling of these pants. Plus, they make a strange sound when you walk. Like, who wants to sound like a piece of plastic? Whenever light hits these pants, there is a huge glare on them.

This makes them look like you’re wearing a piece of plastic as pants. Another thing I don’t like about them is that I look like I am part of the KISS band. That is not the style I am going for. I also do not like the way that it drapes around my legs. I really don’t want to be wearing pants that look, feel and sound like plastic. Overall, I can’t handle these pants when they are on me. Hey, if you like them, then more power to you.

No matter what your style is, these are the big trends going on. You may love or hate the trends, but there is always some-thing in your style no matter if it’s girly, edgy or even both.

Time to update the closetFall fasion trends include combat boots, oversized sweaters KAYLA GREGORCYKstaff reporter

20 the shieldoct. 5, 2012 opinion

Transferring from one reality to another

BRIANNA GARCIAstaff reporter

“A doller make me holler, Honey Boo Boo child!” is something you just might hear at Honey Boo Boo’s house in Geor-gia. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” on TLC, follows 7 year-old Alana and her self-proclaimed redneck family.

The family consists of “Honey Boo Boo” (Alana); her mother June (Mamma); Mike (Sugar Bear), who is the father figure in the family; and Alana’s sisters, who are Jessica (Chubbs), Lauryn (Pumpkin) and Anna (Chickadee). The show has become quite popular, and, according to the Hol-lywood Reporter website, received more

views than the Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Con-vention.

The show is quite different from most reality shows because the family consists of just normal people. Alana was first shown on “Toddlers & Tiaras,” but all she was seen doing was competing in pageants. Before that, she wasn’t famous in any way and because so many people liked her, she got her own show.

Alana herself is certainly a character to watch. She’s a chubby little girl although the family members themselves are a chubby people. It’s no wonder the family is chubby because they eat a lot of junk food. That makes me wonder why she even does

pageants. She recently got a pet male pig, but she named him Glitzy and dresses him up in little dresses as if he were going to do a pageant himself. I don’t understand why they just didn’t get a female pig for her.

I can understand if people do not like Alana’s sister Pumpkin. She is really gross and will burp and fart at the table while eating. June signed Honey Boo Boo up for etiquette lessons making Pumpkin tag along, but Pumpkin was not in for it, burping and blowing her nose during the lesson, saying “What you see is what you get.”

I do like Honey Boo Boo. I enjoy watching the show because it is really en-tertaining to see what the family is up to

‘honey Boo Boo’ proves to be popular despite redneck family’s crude behaviornext. Some people don’t like Honey Boo Boo or the show itself. I think if they just take the time to actually watch the show, they’d see that it’s not all that bad. It’s just like any other reality show that shows people in their daily lives, but I feel like the family members are really true to themselves and don’t put on a show just because they’re in front of a camera. It’s not like she’s in their life, bothering them every day. She and her family are just on TV doing whatever they please.

Overall, I would keep watching “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.” New episodes are Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. on TLC. Some episodes are funny, some are not, but the show is still very entertaining to me.

“ Another thing I don’t like about them is that I look like I am part of the KISS band. That is not the style I am going for.”

Sophomore Penelope Stopper wears combat boots, a new fall fashion trend. Photo by Kayla Gregorcyk.

Football, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yellow buses are things I’d only seen in movies before moving to America as an exchange student. However, being an exchange student is much more than those things. It is a great way to experience different cul-ture.I live in a village in the west of Germany. It is called “Herzebrock-Clarholz”, and it is much smaller than Austin. Austin is about 50 times as big as my village, so living in a big town is a new thing for me. In addition to this, the weath-er in Texas is much hotter. We count our time different too. We have no a.m. or p.m. At noon we count on, so our 1 p.m. is 13 o’clock (military time). The difference between the time zones is seven hours. That is why it is difficult to talk to my family and friends back home. The whole school sys-tem is differ-ent too. In Germany, we have three kinds of high schools with differ-ent levels. That’s why our schools are smaller. It is differ-ent for me that all the students are in the same school. It is a great way to meet students with a different backgroundThe difference between our three high schools is the level. We have no pre-AP

classes; everyone goes to a school with their level. The school with the lowest level is called “Haupschule”, the middle one “Realschule,” and the school with the highest level is called “Gymna-sium.” At the “Haupt-” und “Realschule” students graduate after 10 years, so most students are about 16, at the school with the highest level after 12 years. If they want to go to college, they must have graduated from the high-est school. Furthermore, we have no middle school. We go for four years to elementary school and then the teach-ers have to decide which

school level the students should go. Another thing I like about the American high schools is the offer of electives. There are so many kinds of subjects I had never heard about. Because of this, I am able to have subjects like newspaper.The football game against Anderson High School was the first football game I had ever seen.

It was really fun. I like that nearly ev-erybody went to the game to cheer for their high school. Most sports in America are in school, so students play for their school. That is different in Germany. Most of our sports are not in

school. People play them during free time and the sport has almost nothing to do with school. That’s why we don’t have a special school color or a mascot. Our school grades are different too. An “A” is a 1 (called “sehr gut” in German), B=2, C=3 and so on.During my second weekend in America, I went to Atlanta to visit the family of my host mom. It was a great trip and a good chance to see another part of the United States. It was hard sometimes to under-stand the family because of their South-ern accents, but very funny. I stay with a Jewish host family, so I will see another kind of religion (I am Catho-lic). At the first Jewish holiday, Rosh Ha-shanah, we went to a temple, and it was very interesting for me to see a different way to celebrate the New Year.

Another difference between Germany and the USA are the eating habits. In Amer-ica, dinner is the most important meal. Our most important meal in Germany is lunch. I am also looking forward to see Ameri-can holidays like Thanksgiving. In Ger-many we don’t have Thanksgiving, so it will be very new but interesting for me to eat turkey for the first time. In addi-tion to this, I am excited for Halloween because we don’t celebrate Halloween as much as people do in the states. All in all, I can say being an exchange stu-dent is a great way to see different things. For the rest of my exchange I am looking for-ward to discovering more typical American things. My host family is already planning to visit me in Germany, and after my ex-change, I would like to visit the USA again.

No peanut butter sandwiches in Germany

Good Morning - Guten MorgenHello - HalloHow are you? - Wie geht es dir?Good - gut Bad - schlechtBye! - Auf Wiedersehn

LINA WOSTMANNstaff reporter

From English to German

Foreign exchange student learns to live American way of life at McCallum High School

At the varsity football game against Akins Sept. 6, foreign exchange students Jila Shirazi, Anne-Sophie van Hasselt, Lina Wostmann and Emilie Kjellerup pose with the McCallum Knight, sophomore Matthew Tenney. Photo provided by Lina Wostmann.

Facts about Germany Capitol - Berlin Ethnic groups - 80% German, 5% Turks, other 15% Official name - Federal Republic of Germany Population - 81,799,600 Germany consists of 16 states The biggest festival is the Oktober Fest, but it starts in September Gummy bears were invented by a German Christmas tree (Tannenbaum) tradition came from Germany The most popular German surname is Müller There are 35 dialects of the German language. German is the official language of 5 countries: Germany, Schwitzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein Berlin has the largest train station in Europe.

21the shield opinion oct. 5, 2012

22 the shieldoct. 5, 2012 opinion

In a heated court case between Sam-sung and Apple, the court ruled in favor of Apple and awarded the company with $1.05 billion in damages.

The case was over an issue of patent infringement. Samsung was accused of mimicking Apple’s smartphone designs, interface and icons based on the iPhone. Looking at a couple images of phones around the Web, it is pretty obvious Sam-sung’s phones look like cheap iPhone knockoffs. The Samsung Galaxy S looks almost exactly like the iPhone 3G. The Samsung Galaxy S II looks like the iPhone 4. Icons for the Galaxy generation do look too similar to the icons used for iOS. Apps were also organized similarly, most obvi-ously seen in the Galaxy S but also seen in the later models. Other areas of infringe-ment were the use of multi-touch features such as “pinch to zoom.”

Apple has requested the infringed phones be taken off the U.S. market. The Galaxy S III will be also taken to court for

other infringements and possible removal from the U.S. market. If In South Korea, a court determined both Samsung and Ap-ple were infringing each other and banned the sell of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 along with the Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1.

However, Samsung isn’t going down without a fight and is watching closely the specs of the iPhone 5. Since the iPhone 5 has been officially announced to have 4G LTE for its next generation, Samsung threatens to sue under a patent infringe-ment for 4G LTE technologies.

This heated patent war should’ve end-ed with Apple declaring infringements on Samsung devices. Apple’s decision to ban the sale of the infringed phones makes Apple look a little too greedy. But, at the same time, the 4G LTE lawsuit from Samsung makes them look like they’re try-ing to hard to get even with Apple despite Samsung only owning the third largest of 4G LTE patents. Samsung is too eager to hamper the sell of the iPhone 5. I wouldn’t be surprised; Samsung did released an anti-iPhone ad encouraging consumers to

BARON HEINRICHstaff reporter

buy their Galaxy S III. The South Korean court didn’t make the best move with the dual ban of both Samsung and Apple de-vices. Doing so will hamper choices for South Korean consumers.

This whole debate over Samsung and Apple has cued many other lawsuits around the globe. Apple won against Mo-torola in a German court and banned the sale of the infringed phones. At the same time, Motorola Mobilty, a Google owned company, is suing Apple and requesting the ban of imported iMacs, iPhones and iPads imported from China.

It’s getting absolutely crazy. These court cases are both a demonstration of a power struggle over the mobile market and a question of what features can and can’t be implemented in a cellular device and what patents count as “fair and reasonable;” pat-ents that can’t be infringed upon. These court cases across the globe are more dev-astating for the consumers rather than the companies. With the whopping amount of preorders, Apple better hope not to lose any court cases or consumers can say good-bye to the new iPhone 5.

Key to chart:

Design Patents for iPhone Utility Patents for iPhoneiPhone Design Patent: D’667 & D’305 Pinch-to-zoom: 915 Rubber-banding: 381 Tap-to-zoom: 163

Galaxy S 4G

Galaxy S2 AT&T

Galaxy S2 Skyrocket

Galaxy S2 T-Mobile

Galaxy S2 Epic 4G

Galaxy S Showcase

Droid Charge

Galaxay Prevail

Design Patent

D’677Q5

D’305Q7

Utility Patents915

PatentQ2

381Patent

Q1

163Patent

Q3

Are you getting the iPhone 5?

Are you getting the Galaxy S III?

Yes

Maybe

No

Yes

Maybe

No

The war of the phonesiPhone company sues rival Samsung or patent infrigment

40 students polled

shieldthe staff

A.N. McCallum High School 5600 Sunshine Dr. Austin, TX 78756(512) 414-7539 fax (512) 453-2599

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Students may not publish material that is obscene, libelous or that which will cause a “substantial disruption to the educational pro-

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Politics should focus on substance, not style

23the shield editorial oct. 5, 2012

editorBaROn heinRich

With what looks to be the closest Pres-idential race in history only 32 days away, the main issues still seem to be on a more superficial level than most care to recog-nize. Rather than focusing on substance, the positions and debates are focused on style. Instead, the candidates (and the de-bate moderators, for that matter) should focus on what our nation needs now.

The grim facts are that only 54 per-cent of Americans are fairly/fully satisfied with the candidates while a whopping 40 percent of citizens are not very/not at all satisfied with the current candidates. This doesn’t seem to faze President Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney as the two seem to spend all their time trying to make the other look bad.

Furthermore, the ridiculous idea that if the president were to be reelected, Texas, or any other state, would be invaded by the United Nations is ludicrous. By even bringing the subject up, Lubbock county Judge Tom Head is derailing the minds of voters and adding yet another useless topic into the mix. This is just one ex-ample of how the focus is not on what the country needs.

Both Romney and Obama have made mistakes in the campaign, and the media’s fascination with these mistakes builds the situations to staggering heights and blows them way out of proportion, only adding to the confusion surrounding main issues such as education, the economy and foreign policy. The truth of how impact-ful mistakes are lies solely with the voters; their votes are the ones to be swayed.

And while polls offer insight into the minds of Americans, they have become too much of a focus for campaign manag-ers. For the Republicans to accuse polls of being skewed to bias Obama seems like a waste of time and shows a lack of class and control. Being this far in, the candi-dates need to know how to exercise these key tactics if they hope to succeed. Take for instance Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comments. They caused him to drop in the polls, but not significantly enough to count him out or even seriously affect his campaign.

Both candidates, incumbent Obama and challenger Romney, are skirting their responsibilities to the people of the U.S. by not telling us their plans for improving our country’s problems. Rather they are hiding behind a façade made up of feigned concern over pointless topics; the Ameri-can people want solutions, not rhetoric.

In order to correct their mistakes, Obama and Romney need to be straight with the voters, tell them exactly what they are thinking and how it will affect them and their families. Ignoring easy one-liners and rah-rah pep rallies, they need to rally their supporters honestly and with the respect they deserve. De-bates should help the American people understand what the candidates plan to do, both their easy to find five-step plans as well as their what goes on behind-the-scenes plans.

If either one wants to be trusted by the people, they have to give us a reason to trust them and earn our votes. Both

Cartoon by Tillie Walden.

are known for their oratory skills. They should use them to answer their citizens’

questions insightfully and, above all, with purpose.

24 the shieldoct. 5, 2012 photo essay

1.Senior aline Mayagoitia (Belle) sits and reads her favorite book that the book store owner gave to her in the opening number “Belle.” 2. Sophomore Jacob Roberts-Miller, who plays the Beast, and Mayagoitia perform the iconic Beauty and the Beast ballroom dance to “Tale As Old As Time” after sharing a meaningful dinner for two. 3. Sophomore Ben dickerson and sophomore Janine dworin are excited about the possibility of being human again after Belle reveals her true feelings about the Beast. 4. Junior Skylar Bush, junior Jasmine Bell and senior Sydney Holt talk about Gaston and the town gossip. 5.Gaston, played by senior Liam Dolan-Henderson; Lefou, played by sophomore Seamus Bolivar-Ochoa; and other townsmen raise their torches and sing about killing the Beast.6. Junior Lara Whitley, senior Micaela Racanelli and Bolivar-Ochoa swoon over Dolan-Henderson as the cast sings about Gaston’s love for Belle. Photos by Mary Stites.

Tale As Old As Time

1 2

3

4 5 6

Cast, crew of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ perform in show to be submitted to the International Thespian Festival