Sidekickthe

!ough he carries no wand and may or may not have a rabbit in his hat, freshman Aaron May-nard believes not only in magic, but in the power it has to change lives, especially his own.

To Maynard, magic is more than just a hobby, as he uses it to bring joy to the hundreds he has performed for. !e magic began in Maynard’s life when he was 4 and was attending a magic per-formance with his mother. He had the desire to understand how the magician’s amazing illusions worked and eventually wanted to be able to recreate them himself.

“I remember the acts very clearly and being fascinated by everything the magician did,” Maynard said. “A"er the show I got a small magic kit and then it all began, I was hooked.”

A t only 14, M a y -

nard has 10 years of experience with magic under his belt.# His growth and improvement is an apparent result of the e$ort he puts into his work. Over the years, he has impressed hundreds

with his magic tricks, includ-ing the Cop-pell mayor and city coun-cil. Awestruck

by Maynard’s performance, Cop-

pell Mayor Doug Stover, along with the council, de-

clared the last week of October annu-

ally as “Magic Week” in Cop-

pell.“As a

mom, I was very proud to

watch Aaron perform, but at one

instance, I thought he messed up [the trick], and I felt horrible for him,” JoAnn Maynard, Aaron’s mother said. “In the end, he sur-prised the council by pulling out a giant version of the right card from the trick. He’s always look-ing for new tricks and surprises. It keeps me on my toes.”

More than the city is taking notice of Aaron’s talents. Because of his leadership, he received recognition from the Society of American Magicians.

Each week, Maynard spends up to 10 hours practicing with magic. As you can imagine, the numerous events Aaron attends can be hard to balance as a stu-dent. From Dallas Magician’s Club meetings# to performances at restaurants and social events, Aaron works hard to improve and prepare for performances.

Coppell High School 185 Parkway Blvd. Coppell, TX 75019 November 2011

www.coppellstudentmedia.comVol. 23 No. 2

For the %rst time in campus history, the Gay-Straight Alliance club has been o&cially recog-nized at Coppell High School and held its %rst meeting on Oct. 25.

“Getting this club accepted means that I have succeeded in

Long battle leads to acceptance, alliance

Maynard has tricks up his sleeve

CHS freshman Aaron Maynard is well respected among the magic community.

Photo by Rowan Khazendar

To see more go to Coppellstudentmedia.com

Kimberly Del AngelSta! Writer

Kristen ShephardSta! Writer

see Amazing on pg. 4

see GSA on pg. 3

Tragedy o"en has the greatest in'uence on those who were immediately impacted. For Coppell football players Luke Jenner and Jason Lister, the tragic death of good friend Jha’Kyric Nixon has become their inspiration and motiva-tion on the football %eld.

Coppell resident Jha’Kyric Nixon, 17, died July 29 in a drowning accident at Lewisville Lake. Unfortunately, over 50 people were present as attend-ees of a birthday party. Nixon was planning to transfer to CHS from the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District.

Everyone who knew Nix-on was positively impacted by his vivacious personality, clever jokes and loving spirit.

Coppell juniors, running back Luke Jenner and wide re-ceiver Jason Lister, considered Nixon a best friend. Needless to say, the reverberations of Nix-on’s passing were felt greatly by the Coppell community.

As for playing football, Nixon serves as an inspiration, causing a great will to win and will to succeed for their friend. Nixon was hoping to play bas-ketball for CHS and eventually at Oregon State.

see Nixon on pg. 22

Juniors Luke Jenner and Jason Lister remember their friend Jha’Kyric on and o! the "eld.

Photo by Jodie Woodward

Starting players honor Nixon on, o! the "eld

Seth SloverSta! Writer

Volleyball commitmentsSports pg. 23

Sidekick reviewsEnt. pg. 18

something that will continue to operate and bene%t CHS a"er I leave,” president of GSA senior Daniel Markbreiter said. “It’s sort of like leaving a present to all fu-ture kids who will attend CHS, a legacy almost.”

A"er originally rejecting the GSA’s application for club sta-

tus, lead assistant principal Sean Bagley informed Markbrieter and senior Melanie Duck, co-presi-dent of the club, on Oct. 14 that GSA would be accepted. History teacher Brian Rohlo$ will serve as GSA’s sponsor.

“What changed my mind on this, was going back and looking

at this again at the group’s pas-sion and their beliefs for trying to get this club started,” Bagley said. “And I’m going to be real honest, Mark’s email probably opened my eyes a little bit and I need to make sure we’re doing what’s right for everyone. So, if I give one group

Springer a hero for students

Mary Whit"llFeatures Editor

Everyone knows someone who has made an impact on the world around them. From motivational stories to heart warming work in the commu-nity, those who strive to make a di$erence in Coppell are now being recognized. !e Coppell High School Public Service Academy (PSA) is wrapping up the second year of the Home-town Hero project, devoted to giving recognition to residents who have had a positive e$ect on the community.

!is year’s Hero, Coppell Middle School East Principal Laura Springer, was announced at the Coppell game against Jus-tin Northwest on Oct. 21. PSA announced Hometown Hero nominees three weeks ago, and voting was open to students, parents and other communities until the previous !ursday.

Springer was chosen for her inspirational life story and says that she makes it a person-al goal to reach out to students who are going through situa-tions similar to the one she ex-perienced growing up.

Photo by Brian HwuSeniors Melanie Duck and Daniel Markbreiter are the co-presidents of the Gay-Straight Alliance club.

see Hometown on pg. 11

In-Depth pg. 12-13

newspage 2 november 2011iGeneration mourns loss of Steve Jobs, creative visionary

1955, Feb 24: Steve Jobs is born

1973: Jobs attends Reed College and drops out

1984: Macintosh is launched

1995: Jobs becomes president and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios

2003: Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

2011, Oct 5: Steve Jobs dies

Jordan BickhamSta! Writer

Doug Griswold illustration of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Bay Area News Group 2011/MCT Campus

Everyone has heard of Ap-ple, one of the biggest companies in technology today. !With Macs, iPhone, iPods, and even iPads rampant amongst people of all ages, one does not have to go far to see how Apple has impacted our lives.

But Apple did not begin as one would think, with the "rst Apple computer being created in a basement by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s, Apple did not start o# as a big business. !While it did not begin grandly, the company has grown into a 21st century icon for technological advances. !

When Steve Jobs died Oct. 5 from pancreatic cancer, the world was stunned. ! Many have taken time to re$ect on some of the greatest inventions from the company he helped build, starting with the most recent addition, the iPhone 4S. !

“%e [iPhone 4S] has a new camera and also a new shape since it is a di#erent model of the iPhone. !And because of the new A5 dual chip, it is a whole lot faster and there are like no lags at all, which is pretty awesome,” sopho-more J.P. Goyne who recently re-ceived his pre-ordered iPhone 4S said.

Another unique aspect of the new model iPhone is a voice com-mand application called Siri.

“Siri is awesome, you can talk to your iPhone, and it does ba-sically everything you tell it to do, like call someone, look something up or answer a question you have,” Goyne said. !

As Apple advertised “your wish is its command,” making Siri groundbreaking in technological advancements. !

Other Apple products are popular at CHS such as varying models of Mac computers, iPods and the new iPad. ! Take it from conceptual physics and aero sci-ence teacher Bill Montana who owns an Apple computer, an iPhone and an iPod.!

“One of the cool things is that Apple products are all inter-connected through a service called

MobileMe. !And so my contacts, my calendar, my!appointments,!emails, everything is on every device I have. !Set an appointment on your mac and you can get it on your phone and vice versa,” Montana said.

Montana has been using Apple products since he gradu-ated from high school and still uses them!in!his!everyday!life.

“I! started using Apple com-puters probably in 1980-81 a&er! I graduated from high school. ! %e "rst computer I worked with was an Apple. !Back then, it was the only computer. !Now technically that’s not true, there were a couple of others, but it was the easiest to use and the cheapest. !It was groundbreak-ing technology of that time,” Mon-tana said.

A p p l e began primar-ily creating just c o m p u t e r s , b e g i n n i n g in 1976 and has been in-novated to being one of the biggest names in computer c o m p a -nies. !

“ I ’v e had my home Mac since "&h grade, and for a long time, my fa-vorite feature was Photobooth. ! My friends and I could entertain ourselves for hours by making videos and taking pictures. ! But I also really like iPhoto because I can keep all my pictures organized there, edit them and use them however I want,” sophomore Ali Martinez said.

While the Mac is fun to use for entertainment and great for organization, it is also useful for school work with its variety of dif-ferent applications and helpful so&-ware.

“Macs are really easy to use, I use it a lot for homework, such as making a movie on iMovie. !%e so&ware is always being updated and each update is easy to "gure out and always helps, I really like it,” Martinez said. !

Most recently Apple’s popu-larity has continued with the Mac-book Pro line of Macintosh porta-ble computers that was introduced in January 2006. !Along with new computer models came improved Apple so&ware such as Mac OS. !

“It makes more sense

[ M a c OS],

it’s easier to use and it doesn’t require you to think like a le&-brained programmer. ! At one point [Apple] said that it’s the computer for the rest of us and it does not force you to think se-quentially. !Whereas the Windows operating system, de"nitely made

you think a certain way,” Montana said. !“You had to go through cer-tain steps through a certain order to get stu# done, but with Mac OS, you can do it that way if you want to, but you can do it other ways too. !Its very $exible.”

Along with Macs came the new idea of the iPod and eas-ily downloadable music on iTunes that was launched in 2003!that in-cluded 200,000 songs for 99 cents each. iTunes was a great success with one million songs being sold within the store’s "rst week.!

“%e consumers don’t know what they want until you tell them what they want, is Steve Jobs’ philosophy. ! And nobody knew they wanted an iPod until we had iPods and it was like ‘of course, this makes perfect sense.’ ! No-

body knew they wanted to buy their music online until we had iTunes,” Montana said.

iTunes is one of Apple’s greatest creations and

contains music from the most popular music of the time to small indie bands. ! iTunes is also easily accessible from almost any mobile de-

vice, making it sim-pler than ever to

download music. !“My favor-

ite feature on my iPod is probably being able to get to the iTunes store on it. ! I usually have my iPod with me,

and if I like a song I hear, I can go look it up eas-

ily and get it right then,” Martinez said.

Chemistry teacher Sal-ly Urquhart agrees with how

amazing the idea of easily acces-sible music and small iPods with lots of space were.

“He [Steve Jobs] stream-lined the process of music down-loads. ! He paid royalties. ! %e iPod was so di#erent from what I had been using, which was a Sony Walkman,” Urqhart said. ! “It’s so much smaller and I can pack so much more on it. !I have days worth of music on it, and it still has

lots and lots of memory le&.”Not only did he create inven-

tions that changed everything, but he also reinvented ideas to make them easier to use and simpler to understand.

“One of the things Steve Jobs did was took existing ideas and reworked them and made them overall more user friendly,” Urqu-hart said.!

Many people believe Jobs made complex inventions sim-pler, so everyone could use them to go about their life, making the products appeal to a large audi-ence.

“Apple is unique because they care about making products compatible and helpful with peo-ple’s everyday lives, which I think Steve Jobs was a huge part of,” Martinez said.

While Jobs was the co-founder of Apple, it was not the only company he played a huge part in. !In 1986, Jobs bought the animation company, Pixar, spark-ing the creation of some of the best "lms of the late 20th century, beginning with!Toy Story! trilogy in 1995, ending with the third one in 2011 that is the highest-grossing animated "lm of all time worldwide.

“I cannot pick a favorite, but they have impacted me since I have grown up with them. ! I watched a lot of them this past summer and they still always touch your heart since they are so sweet and meaningful,” Martinez said.

Steve Jobs was an incredible inventor and was the backbone of two world-impacting com-pany. ! Jobs in$uenced people all over the world with his unique, groundbreaking products that changed how people go about their daily lives and gave us a glimpse into future technological advances in the near future. !

“Apple has rede"ned or reinvented every category that they are in, or actually have cre-ated new categories,” Montana said. ! “I admired how he [Jobs] could think outside the box, and I really, really admire his salesman-ship. !%ere have been very few, if any, that could sale us something we did not even know we needed.”

%e American Cancer Soci-ety Relay for Life has become a staple in the Coppell community over the years. !Relay for Life has fought, increased awareness and fundraised for cancer for nine years. !

With the anticipation of this year’s rally in April, a Relay for Life kick o# rally will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the New %e High@Cop-pell Café, located at 113 Samuel Blvd.

%e kicko# rally is ex-tremely important in preparing for Relay for Life in the spring. Although the actual 2012 Relay for Life of Coppell (taking place

at Wagon Wheel Park) is not un-til April 28, it is not too early to begin the preparation for a very relevant cause.

Event Chair Debbie Rus-sell-Chillag reiterated the signi"-cance.

“As we approach the %anksgiving and Christmas Holidays, what better way is there to celebrate the ‘season of giving’ than by participating in Coppell’s Relay for Life 10th An-niversary Kicko#?” Chillag said.

%e bene"ts of attending are extensive.

“%ere will be free food, door prizes, and a plenty of great gi&s,” Donna Ramsey, a member of the publicity committee, said.

In addition, attendees of the kicko# meeting will be able

to sign up and start their own team at this kicko# meeting with the added bene"t of not having to pay any team registration fee.

Since beginning in 2003, Relay for Life continues to take place year a&er year largely in order to honor cancer survivors and revere those who lost their lives to cancer. With nine years of Coppell Relay for Life com-pleted, this year’s goal is to reach a grand total of $1 million.

“During the past nine years, we have raised almost $905,000 through the help of more than 5,000 Coppell resi-dents that participate,” Russell-Chillag said. “We’ve also recog-nized and supported almost 500 local cancer survivors. For our 10th Relay in 2012, we aim to

raise $100,000 and surpass the $1 million mark.”

Countless Coppell High School students have taken part in Relay for life in past years.

“I helped start a team last year for Relay for Life, and it was definitely a great ex-perience,” junior Ki-ley Brat-ton said. “I’m really l o o k i n g f o r w a r d to going again this year.”

E v -eryone is e n c o u r -

Coppell gears up for Relay for Life with kickoff rallySeth SloverSta! Writer

aged to participate in a fight against a disease that has such harmful effects.

The first step in this year’s fight against cancer is attending the Nov. 15 rally at New Tech.

Photo courtesy of Donna Ramsey

news page 3november 2011

Excess enrollment causes overcrowding overloadStudents push and shove

their way through the hall-ways, they maneuver themselves around desks and they have to !ght simply to be heard in class. "ese consequences of over-crowding are becoming more apparent at Coppell High School as the school continues to house a larger number of students each year.

Teachers, students and ad-ministrators are all coming to grips with the overcrowding and attempting to solve some of the problems it creates.

Perhaps the most apparent limitation of overcrowding is the larger class sizes, primarily at the middle school and high school levels.

“As we are receiving less money from the state to operate our schools, basically our enroll-ment has grown [but] we haven’t really hired many additional teachers. So naturally some of our class sizes have grown,” Assistant Superintendent for Business and Support Services Sid Grant said. “Whereas we might have had a few classes with over 30 kids in them three years ago, we obvi-ously have quite a few now. So the actual class sizes have increased over the past three years.”

"ese large class sizes can sometimes lead to frustra-tion amongst both students and teachers for it can sometimes in-hibit the learning process.

“If you have a really moti-vated class it is not as bad. But I would say the classroom atmo-sphere can very easily become hectic,” English teacher Zach Sherman said. “You have little side pockets of whispers and con-

versations. And actually, just a few of those elements, throughout any classroom, can really detract from the vibe. And so you end up wasting more class time putting out those little !res.”

“If it takes a class 10 minutes to get focused as opposed to two or three and that happens every day, that is a lot of time each week you spend just being a police-man.”

A crowded classroom can even lead to a loss of connection between student and teacher.

“A teacher cannot spend as much time individually with every kid because they have so many people to keep track of that they cannot teach as long,” sopho-more Mallory Moore said.

However, while these larger class sizes can be challenging, some feel that they are only a minor roadblock in the learning process.

“I enjoy [my classes] just as much,” English teacher Vicki Pierce said. “"ey are a lot of fun and I do not see that as a huge is-sue, really. Discipline wise they are just as good. I do not see that as a big problem at all.”

Classrooms are not the only aspect of the school day that is being a#ected by overcrowding. Simply walking from class to class can be a challenge with such a large quantity of students to ma-neuver around in the hallways.

“You cannot walk through the halls here, it is crazy,” senior Conner Lawyer said. “It is like a little sardine can that we are all just trying to work our way around. It is hard to get from place to place and you do not have much time. It is just too many people for such a small square footage area, even though it is so massive.”

Lack of funding, with ap-

proximately $24 million a year in tax payer money going to the state for programs such as Robin Hood, has le$ the district with limited avenues to consider.% "e total enrollment in CISD has in-creased signi!cantly since the 2010-11 school year. Rising by 434 students district-wide to a total of 10,602 students, this number far exceeded the district’s expected enrollment of 9,904 for the 2011-12 school year. "e high school population increased by 4.9 per-cent with 153 more students.

"ere could be numer-ous reasons for this unexpected growth, and the district is consid-ering all of them.

“I think we have had unan-ticipated growth in our enroll-ment as a factor of the economy,” Grant said. “Since the economy has gone down, kids have come

an opportunity I need to give all groups an opportunity.”

"e Gay-Straight Alliance is a national organization striving to enhance tolerance between gay and straight teens. Established in 1998, GSA continuously works to expand into high schools across the nation to help and encourage teenage gays and lesbians to stand up for themselves and feel com-fortable in their own skin and, in turn, to help their heterosexual counterparts understand where they are coming from.

Markbreiter and Duck started working on approval of the club in September. "ey were initially rejected due to fears the

club would exclude students by focusing on a group of students’ beliefs.

"is was not the !rst time for the club to be denied. In pre-vious years, CHS denied the GSA from being recognized as an o&-cial club for reasons unknown to Bagley. "is is Bagley’s !rst year to face a decision regarding GSA.

With the initial rejection came an invitation to speak with Bagley himself and discuss its standing. Markbreiter and Duck looked to their Facebook sup-porters of the Coppell GSA club and turned to informational web-sites in e#orts to factually con-vince the school of the necessity of the club.

“I sent Mr. Bagley an e-mail

Photo by Brian HwuThe Gay-Straight Alliance club held its !rst meeting on Oct. 25. Over 30 students and teachers attended.

C o n t r o v e r s y e n d s i n a l l i a n c e

Madison FordEntertainment Editor

and he was supposed to go look [at] schools around us; we listed schools in Texas near us that have GSAs,” Duck said. “He said he would look into that. In it, I thor-oughly explained it’s not a ‘gay club’; it’s something we want to help build tolerance. I gave him links for websites, like the GSA Network website, three di#erent links he could look into.”

Markbreiter and Duck also created an online petition and the issue became a hot topic on Face-book among CHS students.

Nevertheless, the students did not give up hope that the GSA would eventually be approved and their persistence paid o#.

“"e process was frustrat-ing because I knew it was the

right thing to do but at the same time I knew that there would be opposition,” Markbreiter said. “It wasn’t the denial from Mr. Bagley that surprised me or even enraged me, but rather it was the kids who went on the club’s [Face-book] wall and posted blatant ho-mophobic comments. "ose kids hurt me personally.”

Aside from current CHS students, the club’s denial sparked tensions between the school ad-ministration and alums that sym-pathized with the group.

“When I moved from Cali-fornia and came to Coppell, I was astounded by how di#erent it was; it seems like anything that is di#erent from the norm was never accepted by the majority,”

2010 graduate Cristina Alvarado said. “"e world is always chang-ing around us. We all need to be open to new things and learn to accept everyone and everything that comes our way.”

With the lengthy approval process behind it, the GSA has its sights set on its future.

“We’ll be discussing many events that we will be partici-pating in this year, some of the upcoming holidays and events include LGBT history and aware-ness month, No Hate Week and "e Day of Silence,” Markbreiter said. “Next year we are planning to send a group to the Gay Pride Parade in Dallas as well as partic-ipate in September’s No H8, and Coming Out Day 2012.”

out of private school. Parents that have lost a job or they are not making as much as they used to or they are afraid of the economy so they pull their kids out of private school and put them back in pub-lic school. So we have a lot of that happening. We have had more families living with other families. Maybe they lose their job in Ohio, and so they move here and live with a brother, and they put their kids in school here. So there are a variety of reasons why.”

With the freshman and sophomore classes being among the largest to pass through the high school in recent years, with class sizes of 715 for the class of 2014 and 735 for the class of 2015. Class sizes are 843 and 867, re-spectively, including New Tech High students.

Class sizes continue to in-

crease with upcoming classes, so Coppell High School’s struggle with overcrowding has unfor-tunately just begun. In order to combat the issues that accompany overcrowding, the district does not believe that simply hiring a few teachers will !x the prob-lem since the overcrowding is so widespread. Instead, the district is looking into o#ering additional teaching sections to current sta# in key subject areas at the middle school and high school levels, as well as considering long-term fa-cility visioning.

“We are looking at solu-tions,” Grant said. “In fact the board is having some community meetings later this month and talking about enrollment issues to get some community feedback to know what they would like to see.”

Crowded classrooms continue to cause constant hassle for students throughout the day.Photo by Jack Ficklen

continued from pg. 1

newspage 4 november 2011

“I try and do what I can to !t as many practice hours into my week,” May-nard said. “I really have to manage my time to get every-thing done, but I love magic so it’s worth it.”

Maynard knows that to master a trick, it can take dozens of times to be able to perform even the simplest trick. His favorite trick is levitation, but he practic-es dozens of others from card tricks to disappear-ing acts.

Even though he has mastered many of his tricks, Aaron seeks to develop and improve his skills. He is involved in the CHS Improv Club and even helped the drama department by performing at its an-nual

dinner and auction night.

Beyond Aaron, there is an entire community of magicians in the nation and the local area. With societies like the Dallas Magicians Club and the Society of American Magicians, the magic community is bustling with activity. A magi-cian as young as Aaron is rare; he is the youngest member in the Dallas Magician’s Club by nearly 30 years. Regardless of his young age, Aaron is already climbing up the ladder of experience.

Aaron, founder and vice president of the Young Magicians of Dallas Club, is encouraging its membership and growth and never ceases from taking on op-portunities for leadership roles, regardless of his age.

Magic is certainly not the average extra-curricular activ-ity, but the lack of magicians in the Coppell area has not stopped Aaron from pursuing his love. In-stead of letting this get him down, Aaron sees his peers’ lack of mag-ic knowledge as an opportunity to

s h o c k his friends with

his magical abilities.Magic has undoubtedly given

Maynard abilities as a leader por-trayed in other aspects of his life. A member of Boy Scout Troop 842 in Coppell, Aaron bene!ts greatly from the techniques and values taught in scouting.

“My goal someday is to be an Eagle Scout and I’m on my way,” Maynard said. “Someday I might even hope to use magic to complete my Eagle Scout project, you never know.”

Passionate about combining his loves, Aaron is currently cam-paigning for a magic merit badge to be added to the list of badges issued by the Boys Scouts of America. Few proposals are given o"cial merit badges, and though his request was originally denied, Aaron has no intention of giving up. If there is one thing magic has taught Aaron, it is that you have to keep getting up a#er life pushes you down.

“Even though we didn’t get the badge added, it’s teach-

ing Aaron not to give up and to !ght for his passions,” JoAnn Maynard said. “$at’s a lesson you’ll use for the rest of your life.”

As a magician, a scout, and a high school student, Maynard en-courages people his age to follow their interests, and to share their talents with the world. Above all, he reminds teenagers not to be-come discouraged.

“Practice does not make perfect – it makes you better. You are going to make mistakes,” May-nard said. “I think that magic has given me the ability to speak and perform. It’s allowed me to bring joy to people and I love that.”

On Oct. 15, Aaron brought joy to hundreds, as young magi-cians boarded a train sponsored by the Make-A-Wish foundation. Over 160 terminally ill children attended for excitement and en-tertainment. Spread out in !ve cars, the Make-A-Wish children and their friends and families shared a magical bonding op-portunity that will impact them forever.

“It takes a special person to be able to work with

both healthy children and

sick children,” JoAnn May-nard said. “Doing picnics and things are fun, but these are the things that impact people for a life-time. You have to hold a happy face and Aaron al-ways has that.”

$ese are the events that make Aaron’s prac-tice hours worthwhile. Volunteering is his way of using his hobbies to make a di%erence in the world. One of the MO-SAIC program organiz-ers, Michelle Bauer no-ticed Aaron’s passion and pro!ciency in his work.

“When I !rst inter-viewed Aaron, I could tell he had great skills,” Bauer said. “He was very knowl-edgeable and worked well with the elementary age chil-dren at one of our picnics. He taught juggling and the kids were extremely fascinated. Aar-on is on his way to success, he works hard and will continue to bring joy to people.”

continued from pg. 1

opinions. .

page 5november 2011

!is is America, a country that was formed on the basis of Christianity; on the basis of the Bible.

It was our Founding Fa-thers who believed in God and the morality derived from bibli-cal scripture; Shakespeare alludes to it at an estimated 1,300 times within his work; Martin Luther King Jr. used the words of the prophet Amos during his “I Have a Dream” speech. We would have a better understanding of human history if we could just "ll in the missing pieces. We make it so controversial just to ask the sim-plest question.

It is OK to have students dive into history and ask “why,” open a Bible, and re#ect on the reference a historical "gure made when they acted in the way that they did. Schools would not be asking students to convert by teaching the Bible in school, they would ask them to better explain

an event and better understand the power underneath a con#ict or resolution of today or yester-day.

We would be discussing context, not meditating on them. A teacher, legally, will not print out the Psalms as a homework assignment. !ey would not be scheduling prayer time before or a$er class. Schools would contin-ue on with their curriculum, and the Bible, and its in#uence would "t in accordingly, but it would not be the basis of every lesson.

We could look at it this way: the Bible did not create; it was used. It inspired and it moved, but within a school curriculum we should be moved by the way it moved, and not have it move us unless we set out to do so. But with proper training, teachers could learn how to teach it objectively. !e sole purpose of teaching the Bible in public schoolswould be for the facts and the e%ects, and

the facts and e%ects alone.Of course teaching the con-

text of the Bible could bring ten-sion among students and teachers if not treated carefully. Someone could get hurt, or someone could learn something new. It is one student’s choice to believe in a scripture, and another’s to not. But this is not a situation of right or wrong in a school curriculum; it is a matter of opinion. Discuss-ing the Bible would bring out opinions, but it would eventually help students approach contro-versial topics with maturity and respect. But once again, a teacher will not hold a discussion on the scripture used, just the simple fact that it was used, and what it said.

Sophomore year, my English teacher passed out Genesis. In fact she made us take it home and memorize it word for word and quizzed us on

!is is America, land of the free. Freedom to receive a public education, freedom to choose any of the numerous religions in the United States - if any - to practice or learn from and the freedom to know any other belief or scripture will not be forced in education.

So why take away from that freedom and require teaching of the Bible in public schooling?

!e topic associates itself with controversy in all parts of the nation; it raises questions of constitutionality across the board; it challenges teachers to decide if they would have the capability of teaching objectively; it assumes students are mature enough to handle such controversy. It is the question of whether or not to teach the Bible in public schools.

Texas especially, with its strong Christian presence, faces an ongoing battle of whether to ignore the constitutional require-ment of keeping a separation of church and state or that the Bible be taught in public schooling.

I have read parts of the Bi-ble objectively and do not have a personal connection to the Bible, nor am I ignorant of the issue of whether or not to teach the Bible in public schools. Yet I still believe that teaching the Bible should be strictly separated from public education.

In America, people practice over 1,500 di%erent faiths – that is, if they are not one of the 20 million people who practice no faith at all – and every single one of these religions has shaped the country we live in today. To de-vote speci"c attention to the Bible without regards to other religious texts is to say that the Bible is the most important of them all, when in reality schools should be pre-paring students for the diversity they are to face as they begin their lives outside of the classroom.

Learning from the Bible should be a voluntary decision. With all the diversity apparent in modern day society, what is to say that other religious texts could

not be just as informative?!e Bible itself refers to a

doctrine, imago Dei, stemming from Genesis 1:27, describing that humans should have the option to deny or repress their likeness to God and the Bible because they have the capacity of free decision-making. If the argument about this in#uential book is to teach it, shouldn’t those very people learn from what it says "rst?

From the very beginning, our country was established with a wall between religion and government-funded establish-ments as the "rst colonists came to America escaping religious persecution. !e colonists who were tired of religion running their monarchial government and being exposed to religious ideas they might not agree with sought stricter religion or a more lax form of it. For that very reason, the separation of church and state was written into the framework our country was built upon: the Constitution.

Certainly, the Bible has played a major role in the foun-dation of our country, seeing as how the founding colonists came mostly from a Christian back-ground and allusions to the Bible are very prevalent in Literature and speeches, like those by Shake-speare and Martin Luther King Jr. However, the Bible itself is not history.

As much as people claim it to be true, there is no denying that the Bible is a series of sto-ries passed down generations, from people who have claimed to have heard God himself, until it reached a generation that wrote it down. !ink about a game of “telephone.” How much does one thing get twisted up even when only a few people pass it around?

Of course, there is also the argument that the Bible is worth teaching because of the morals exhibited that could hypothetically be learned from. I again "nd

PRO/CON:it. But it was not because she felt like it. It was almost essential for reading John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” one of the most famous epic poems.

An epic poem, a speech, a lot of war, a lot of Martyrs, and maybe an entire country: I would give this book a lot of credit, be-lieve in it or not. By far the Bible is one of the most, if not the most in#uential book in history. !at alone makes me curious. But the main question is, do we have the

right teachers for it or students who are

mature enough? !at should be for the schools to decide.

What do you think? “No, I believe the Bible should not be taught

in school. I believe that would be a matter

relegated to the idea of separation of Church and State. However,

parts or quotes of the Bible can certainly be

taught in English.” - Michael Cooke,

Librarian

“Yes, everyone needs to know the religion that

stands for the United States. The Pledge of Allegiance

states ‘one state under God.’ People would have a better understanding of the Word and there would be better

people in the world.”- Hannah Eibert, Junior

“No, they should not teach the Bible in

school because the bible relates to reli-

gion and religion is a personal choice.”

-Katy Baldwin, junior

Should the be taught in public schools?

this misleading. When I read the Bible, the morals I was supposed to “learn” were ethics I was al-ready living by. And by the same token, the immoral aspects of the Bible are overlooked, as people would be “learning” that stoning is an appropriate form of punish-ment and that sacri"cing animals is ethical.

!e Bible does not belong in schools in the same way that psalms do not take the place of poems and verses do not take the place of essays. It brings up too many areas of sensitivity and con-troversy. If people are looking to

learn or speci"cally take something from the Bible, there are Sunday schools specially devoted to that; they have no place in public

schooling.

Business ManagerAddy Buigas-Lopez

Constitution

Sta! WriterErica Rhode

Public Schools

Schools should give

students a choice of

what classes they

can take.

Schools can teach

the Bible objectively.

Teaching the

Bible would

Our nation was

founded on Christian

principles.

The Bible itself is

not history.Schools should uphold

the separation of Church

and State.

Comments from the web

I arrived home one a!er-noon this summer to "nd a stack of college-prep books at least three feet high sitting on my bed. I can take a hint, parents.

!e O"cial SAT Study Guide (3.6 pounds), the Book of Majors (5.8 pounds), the College Handbook (5.8 pounds) and !e College Application Essay (one pound) – all sent to my doorstep by CollegeBoard, paid for by my well-intentioned mother and moved immediately to my book-shelf, where they would remain until the day before I took the PSAT.

With this in mind, one can make at least a vague assumption about my feelings for the SAT and PSAT, but this notion would most likely be wrong. I am not opposed to these types of standardized tests; in fact, I commend them for attempting to measure “apti-tude,” or a student’s innate ability to learn and understand, rather than a student’s ability to regurgi-tate facts. A!er all, you cannot be taught aptitude.

Despite the impracticality of studying for a test like this, infa-mous SAT prep courses, the ones

who pledge “to help each of our students expand and improve his or her choices for admis-sions, scholarships, and honors programs through improved test scores and in doing so, better equip them with a fundamental understanding of how to suc-cessfully prepare for any major life-impacting event,” still gain cult-like followings every fall as students try to prepare for these tests.

#e mission statements of these test-prep centers are quite lo!y, seeing as they do little other than teach test-taking strategies. Rather than internalizing facts and regurgitating them, students are learning formulas and tricks to deceive college admissions of-"cers into thinking they are more prepared for college than they ac-tually are.

I hate to break it to SAT prep czar Karen Dillard, but life is not multiple-choice.

I don’t doubt many of the students attending these courses see an improvement in their test scores; the fault is not that these institutions fail to live up to their promise of

raising scores. #e fault is they are teaching students the wrong things.

If an organization claims to be a “College Preparatory School,” shouldn’t they be focused on all aspects of being a well-rounded student? Shouldn’t they provide leadership opportunities and specialized tutoring, as well as test-prep?

By claiming SAT scores make or break your chances of getting into college, these courses create the illusion of prepared-ness. But I know plenty of people who have gotten 2100s on their SATs yet have little else on their resume.

If a student wants to do well on the SAT or PSAT or ACT, they will. It is all about the drive

and determination of the student to prove their intel-ligence, and this can be achieved without the help

of an over-priced tutor.

Editor-in-ChiefMichelle Pitcher

No pricetag for true aptitude “I personally prefer a balance between a structured education system and some room for students to get cre-

ative in their choice of classes. Learn-ing a variety of topics can develop a

growth of interest in learning.”-Susan

School system is settling for just OK

Club shouldn’t just be résumé boosters (as they have become at CHS), they should be used to unite students with common interests and struggles; a GSA would be

invaluable to a school like CHS.-Ashleigh Heaton

Gay-Straight Alliance put on hold

“Dealing with and overcoming adversity, the Cowboys still have a chance to make

it to the playo!s - if they win their last two games. From there it is about the

team that is playing their best, with the belief that they can win....”

-Eric

Northwest turns Coppell at home

2011-2012 StaffEditor-in-Chief

News Editor

Opinions Editor

Features Editor

Design Editor

Entertainment Editor

Sports Editor

Photos/Graphics Editor

Webmaster

Business Manager

Sta! Writers

Photographers and Graphic Designers

Advisor

Michelle Pitcher

Mary Whit"ll

Julianne Cauley

Kelly Stewart

Madison Ford

Sammy Robben

Lauren Ussery

Brian Hwu

Wren Culp

Addy Buigas-Lopez

Kimberly Del AngelColeman ArmesJordan BickhamChristina BurkeJay CarrollCaroline CarterJohn LoopLance McCaskeyTanner McCord

Sarah PoliceChase PorterChris ReaganErica RohdeTolu SalakoKristen ShepardSeth SloverCorrina TaylorJordan ThompsonAnnie WenDyer Whitt

Rachel BushJack FicklenIvy HessRowan KhazendarHaley MadiganTrevor Sti!Jodie Woodward

Chase Wo!ord

The Sidekick is the o#cial student newspaper for Coppell High School. Its purpose is to inform, entertain and provide an educational resource for its readers. This newspaper is a public forum for student expres-sion and thus student editors make all content decisions.

The Sidekick is a member of ILPC, NSPA and JEA. The Sidekick was the NSPA Pacemaker Final-ist in 2002, The Dallas Morning News best newspaper honorable metion in 2006, Best Newspaper and Best Website in 2011 and received the Award of Distin-guished Merit in 2003 and 2008 and is Broze Star recipent for 2009 from ILPC. The editorials and columns presented in this

paper re$ect the view of their writers.

Advertisements are sold as full, 1/2 page, 1/4 page and 1.8 page sizes in black and white or color.

For more information you may reach the adviser in his classroom (D115) or by phone at (214) 496-6239.

To read more stories by The Sidkick sta! members, and also to "nd videos and photos, you can visit coppellstudent-media.com.

The Sidekick welcomes all letters to the editor, but letters must be signed before consid-eration for publication. Send letters to cwo!ord@coppellisd.com. or bring them by D115.

opinions. .page 6 november 2011

Online Copy EditorsKara AdkinsBen CowlishawThomas Hair

#e United States of Amer-ica is in the midst of precarious times. Unemployment is ram-pant and the economy is little more than a shriveled remnant of what it once was. #e wealthy are getting wealthier, and the poor are getting poorer.

It is in times such as these that the nation is truly in need of a strong leader to take command, to assuage the uneasy populace. Without bold and decisive indi-viduals fronting America’s gov-ernment, the future of the nation is an uncertain one.

America needs Presidents who are painstaking in repre-senting the wishes of the major-ity. However, it is the respon-sibility of American voters to select such a worthy candidate,

someone we can rely on to ensure the people’s representation in the government.

#is responsibility is not spared from teen voters. By the time Election Day rolls around next year, there will be a whole new generation of eligible voters, including many current juniors and seniors here at Coppell High School.

#e 2012 Presidential Elec-tion will be the "rst in which Coppell’s current junior and se-nior classes will be of age to vote. It is imperative that the young voters across the country, the fu-ture of this nation, take the time out of their day to submit a vote.

America has always been a progressive nation, a pioneer of democracy and a bastion of po-

litical rights. As a whole, the new generation of voters is abounding with revolutionary ideas that will help America continue to evolve in the future.

If teen voters, like upper-classmen at CHS, continue the trend of apathy by not voting, America risks falling behind na-tions with more eager, forward-thinking young voters.

Over the past several de-cades, voter turnout at Presiden-tial Elections has been steadily declining. In the 2008 election, only 63 percent of Americans "lled out a ballot. #is percent-age is one of the lowest among established democracies.

If barely more than half of Americans are voting, does it ab-solutely re$ect what the majority

needs? #e blunt truth is that no, it does not.

A reversal of this trend could only be made possible by an enthusiastic group of teen vot-ers. #e future of America is in the hands of the current youth, and another generation of indif-ferent drones does not bode well for America.

If only certain groups of Americans are voting, only these certain groups will bene"t. It would be highly bene"cial if public schools would encourage students to vote and spend class time to educate students on any upcoming election.

November is already upon us, and only one year remains before the 2012 Presi-dential Election.

#e average senior at CHS probably knows very little about the leading Presidential candidates, like Republicans Mitt Romney or Herman Cain, and even less about key issues.

Remember, CHS upper-classmen, you do have a voice. Take advantage of the freedoms you are so privileged to have and starting paying attention to the election campaigns. Amer-ica will be whatever the voters make it, so vote in 2012.

EditorialStudents urged to cast vote in upcoming election

Graphic by Lauren Ussery

takes. What is “real” about that?To add to the turmoil, MTV

stands on the sidelines as they tape some unforgivable actions taking place in the show. !ey tape lives of mothers who seem careless in handling their chil-dren, who unveil their child’s eyes to household abuse, and MTV stands by as parents do not promote healthy habits of raising a child.

Adding camera crews and the entertainment industry to the lives of the parents and chil-dren during a time when they are barely managing to get by is not what these teen moms, now stars, need.

What is MTV is doing by glorifying these girls? It is argu-able"“Teen Mom”"shows the hard-ships of being a teen parent, but the ac- tions of parent-h o o d seen on the

show are not good exam-ples."

page, a complete stranger is ask-ing me and my peers to have the passion to mold the world.

Now, the few people I have talked to about the subject look at me with undeniable apathy, say-ing, “I wouldn’t even know what to change.” !is frightens me. Here we sit in a world full of pov-erty, declining economies, cor-rupt governments and thriving intellects, and the people of my generation are threatening to sit idly by and do nothing.

Sure, we may not face the same problems of the 60s. We aren’t #ghting for the liberation of minorities or toppling global capitalism, but the problems we face are no less real and no less threatening. So why are we de-termined to make our generation less impactful?

During the time of these raging revolutionaries, even a 15-year-old schoolboy with the most limited grasp of world events could easily determine which side he was on, but now, I guarantee 80 percent of the CHS senior class couldn’t name three GOP candidates or #ve countries the U.S. occupies.

I refuse to be part of this apathetic generation. I want

my peers to re$ect the revolution of a new time; I want to leave a mark on America.

page 7november 2011 opinions. .MTV portrays teens as celebrities rather than parents

ish their education. However, the show fails to portray the “reality” of the struggles of teenage"preg-nancies." Reality television was created to provide audiences with unscripted, real and dramatic situations.

If this is the case," “Teen Mom”"falls short of being an au-thentic and respected reality pro-duction.

Pregnancy is glori#ed in this show; the real struggles are

not always evi-dent and are

almost lightened." Hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky of “Loveline” and “Celebrity Rehab” fame," “Teen

Mom”"reveals the e%ect this show has on its audience. MTV has created a culture, which consists of other teenage girls who are now romanticizing the teen preg-

nancies, “oohing” and “aah-ing” over babies"and crying

over proposals.!is does not

sound very pre-ventative to me.

While the life of a child is beauti-ful and a blessing to the world, these tele-v i s i o n s h o w s - meant to serve as pub-

lic service a n n o u n c e -

ments - should portray the re-

ality of the situa-tion. Keep in mind

that"the stars are paid to take part in this show. !ey

are being rewarded for their mis-

It’s 8 p.m. and Maci trips over a toy car in the middle of the living room carpet. Her 2-year-old son Bentley begins taunting her, screaming, “Mommy, you ain’t tough enough. Cry!” Maci’s boyfriend, Kyle, has just been re-leased from the hospital because of a surgery and is therefore un-able to watch their son."

Maci, a teen mom, is le& to tend to her ill boyfriend, raise a child, cook and clean, all while needing to submit her untouched college paper due at 10 p.m. that night.

!is is the typical setting of MTV’s popular reality show “Teen Mom.”" !is series portrays the lives of four teenag-ers as they cope with their #rst few years of parenthood. “Teen Mom” attempts to focus on the chal-lenges and struggles of teenage par-enthood and changing re-lationships, but does it live up to its intentions?

Plots vary from" the inevitable relationship instability, #nancial woes and the characters’ inability to #n-

They tape lives of mothers who seem careless when handling their children, who unveil their child’s

eyes to household abuse.

Have you ever noticed how o&en people #nd themselves standing on the sidelines of life? !ey watch other people doing the things they have always want-ed to do. For example, it has be-come a national pastime to watch others try out for American Idol. I suspect this is why bucket lists have become so popular. We are hoping that if we have a list of what we really want to do, maybe eventually we’ll do something ex-citing.

Yet for most people I do not think lack of planning is the only problem. Too many people are simply afraid to do the things they would really enjoy. !ey think; what will people think, what if I fail?

I’ve struggled with this like everyone else, even though some of the best times of my life have occurred when I just went ahead and took a chance.

As a junior in high school, I learned that I had the chance to take a college course that re-quired a 3 week tour of Europe. I said yes. I cannot even remember

wondering if I could handle col-lege level work, but I do remem-ber that was the point when I de-veloped my life-long philosophy; “have passport, will travel”. I not only received college credit for Art History, Music Appreciation, and European History, I have fan-tastic memories from that time.

In college I suddenly de-cided I wanted to explore work-ing on plays and spent four years building sets and doing one act plays. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun I had. And a few years a&er I started working in Houston when a friend said “oh look, they’re o%ering Belly Danc-ing lessons”, I said “I’m in”. I think you can see a pattern developing.

However, in spite of admit-ting to a belly dancing class, I am not fearless and when a friend suggested a pottery class, I hesi-tated because I have no artistic ability. None. But I love art and had always wanted to try pottery.

It was fantastic. I loved it even though I was every bit as bad at making pot-tery as I thought I would

be! My pottery was lopsided and generally ugly but I had a great time and have taken two other classes since then because isn’t that the point? Enjoying your life and doing the things you love?

I am so glad when I do not let my fears hold me back.When you think that way you take won-derful risks that result in great memories and amazing life les-sons. !ose are the things that help us grow into the people we want to become.

Some of the greatest oppor-tunities in life and unexpected sources of fun come from un-expected opportunities that you have to take advantage of when t h e y come your way. So watch

out for your chanc-es, do not be held

back by your fear and seize the day!

Alexander looks past the fearGraphic by Brian Hwu

I am an old soul. I write let-ters on stationary, I only under-stand the most basic of techno-logical functions, I use only a pen and paper to conduct interviews and I own more close-and-play record players than I care to ad-mit.

It is indisputable that I was supposed to be born in 1950, en-joying the presidency of John F. Kennedy and the music of John Lennon in the 60s, following Ste-vie Ray Vaughn around the coun-try in the 70s, refusing to grow up in the 80s and crying when Bill Clinton was elected in the 90s.

I have realized maybe I don’t have so much a respect for my elders as disrespect for my own time. I #nd myself idolizing writers, artists, politicians, pro-testors and musicians of the past and hating those of my own gen-eration.

I recently sat down to read 1960s pop-culture analysis book, “!ere’s a Riot Going On,” and before I’d even begun, the novel’s tribute caught my attention. It read: “and to Georgia & Tom An-sell, in the hope that their genera-tion #nds the will to question au-thority and the vision to change the world.”

I found this request com-pelling. Here, someone who has not only watched, but dissected the rise and fall of a completely revolutionary generation, is wishing the same thing upon us, a people of a completely di%erent time. On an otherwise blank

Graphic by Brian Hwu

Graphic by Arden Radford

Generation Y does not ask “Why?”

Mary Whit!llFeatures Editor

Julianne CauleyNews Editor

Donnette AlexanderSocial Studies Teacher

Facts about Teen Pregnancy:1. The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world

2. About 750,000 Teens get pregnant in the U.S. each year

3. About 1 in 3 women become pregnant at least once before they are 20.

4. Only a third of teen mothers earn their high school diploma

5. Girls born to teen mothers are more likely to become teen mothers themselves

opinionspage 8 november 2011. .

In a high school !lled with almost 3,000 students, it is di"-cult to “stand out” or be original. #ere are so many di$erent fash-ion fads going around that I don’t personally care about; however, facial piercings and tattoos are another story.

Occasionally when walk-ing through the halls I will see a student with a facial piercing, ei-ther on their lip or their nose. Ac-cording to the dress code, pierc-ings are allowed at the principle’s discretion. More o%en it is a double piercing in the ears or gauges, which are usually more acceptable than other piercings.

There are very few stu-dents who a c t u a l l y have the fa- cial piercings, but I respect the ones who do. #ey are the ones who are not afraid of judgment from anyone else and are express-ing themselves in a way for every-one to see.

I feel whatever we the stu-dents do to alter our appearance is done simply to make a point, or because we enjoy how something looks. A lip ring is harmless, and to me it is just another feature on someone’s face. I like piercings on certain people, and if a stu-dent can pull o$ the piercing then good for them.

Everyone should have the choice to change whatever he or she wants about themselves if it makes them truly happy and not be judged by others. #ere are al-ways going to be people who live to put down people brave enough to show their personality, but at the end of the day, who cares if one person doesn’t like your lip ring?

#e same goes for tattoos and hair color; I think that the school dress code is too strict when it comes to hair color (even though they allow piercings and some tattoos). Saying that it would be a distraction to other students is an overstatement. Just because a girl in my class has pink hair does not mean I am going to stare at it to the point that I do not do my own work.

Since tattoos are a perma-nent feature, unlike dyed hair or

piercings, I am less ap-proving of them. Still, if someone wants to go and pay to be permanently inked then they should have the right to do so in our school. Because we are still in high school, I would advise against it because it is per-manent, and it would be di"cult to get a professional job when people judge you based on your tattoos.

I am all for people express-ing their personality and showing how they feel by piercing their lip or nose; it is inevitable that soon the student will outgrow it, but for the time being I think it is accept-able. Being a teenager is a time for teens to go and do something ex-treme (within the law) like getting a piercing just because they want to or to go out and do something stupid, so they can learn from their mistakes.

Piercings are just another way to vamp up your personality, just like a new haircut or double piercing your ears. Students have the right to do what they want to if they tru-ly believe it will make them look better or

if they are just trying to make it a point. I know how it feels to have the needle go through your lip and I remember the looks I got when I had a lip ring.

If other people want to pierce themselves, I do not see why it should be a problem or why other people should care whether or not they have a

piercing. You are en-titled to your own

opinion, but you should not try to change other people just be-cause you do

not like it.

Is there anyone on Facebook whose statuses regularly appear on your feed? Is there someone notori-ous for posting depressing statuses continuously? Considering most kids at Coppell High School have close to 1,000 friends, I don’t doubt it.

Facebook is a part of our cul-ture; it is habitual to log in when the opportunity presents itself. #e rolling tide of updates washes up all sorts of thoughts into our newsfeed, including cries for help. It is ironic how the leeching anxiety within a teenager, that impulsive fear that persuades them to ‘submit’ them-selves to the Internet, is scarcely de-serving of sympathy from an impa-tient and annoyed observer.

Most teens with depression will su$er from more than one epi-sode. According to Teenhelp.com, 20 to 40 percent will have more than one episode within two years, and 70 percent will have more than one episode before adulthood. Episodes of teen depression generally last about eight months.

What happens in those eight months is virtually undeterminable, but the possibilities are well worth preventing. Before you fervently nod in agreement consider your thoughts when scrolling through the newsfeed. If someone posts sta-tuses like “I want to kill myself ” but never does, do you assume that they never will?

It is easy to surmise a person’s character as over-dramatic and neg-ligent if they never follow through with their promises, but if logi-cal thinking is what we are talking about, then we should not go on as-suming the seriousness of a person’s depression if we are not sincerely knowledgeable about the disease itself. Sel!sh is the kid who arro-gantly dismisses suicidal statuses as “irritating” because they think the person who made them is just craving attention. So what?

#ere is revelry, a plan ‘A’ that lingers in every heart jaded by depression. Death is plan ‘B’; suicide is plan ‘C’. In other words, someone may truly want to be dead, but doesn’t want to actually kill themselves.

Suicide is not easy for anyone no matter how depressed they are. #e power of human instinct makes the road to death di"cult. Every step to death hits the ground to the beat of a reluctant countdown; “three, t-two, two and a half…”

Every depressing status you see, no matter how o%en, is another reluctant step. I am sure you have heard it said that only we can control our happiness, and that is true. If life were a fairytale, everybody would persevere through their problems and realize they can make themselves happy.

Reality’s clock doesn’t stop ticking for anyone. Not all children grow up-some just give up instead. Maybe you are right about someone who posts dramatic statuses on Face-book, and they never will actually kill themselves. At least not while you know them.

And maybe I am wrong about you. Maybe you have tried to com-fort someone a%er seeing their sad or angry statuses but they never listened to what you have to say.

And maybe, you tried to help someone but the seriousness of their depression led them to take their life anyway.

I encourage the annoyed, ig-nored, and just plain unlucky to all remember one word: compassion. Repetitive statuses may seem irri-tating, but it is your fault if you lack patience. Just because your Facebook messages didn’t make a di$erence doesn’t mean they caused more pain, and I doubt they were a real hassle for you.

Compassion is not like money; there is no need to conserve it or save it, just use it, better yet please, abuse

it. #ere is nothing wrong with trying to simply

make someone’s life better and giving them more strength to stick around long enough to realize they can

make it. In fact, there is some-thing beauti-ful and brave about that.

2011-2012 StaffEditor-in-Chief

News Editor

Opinions Editor

Features Editor

Design Editor

Entertainment Editor

Sports Editor

Photos Editor

Webmaster

Buisness Manager

Sta! WritersPhotographers and Graphic Designers

Advisor

Michelle Pitcher

Mary Whit!ll

Julianne Cauley

Kelly Stewart

Madison Ford

Sammy Robben

Lauren Ussery

Bruce Warren Culp III

Learning how to care

Addy Lopez

Kara AdkinsKimberly Del AngelThomas HairChase PorterErica RohdeCorrina TaylorColeman ArmesJordan BickhamChristina BurkeJay CarrollCaroline CarterBen Cowlishaw

John LoopLance McCaskey IITanner McCordSarah PoliceChris ReaganTolu SalakoKristen ShepardSeth SloverJordan ThompsonAnnie WenDyer Whitt

Jack FicklenRowan KhazendarHaley BushIvy HessHaley MadiganJodie WoodwardTrevor Sti"

The Sidekick is the o#cial student newspaper for Coppell High School. Its purpose is to inform, entertain and provide an educational resource for its readers. This newspaper is a public forum for student expres-sion and thus student editors make all content decisions.

The Sidekick is a member of ILPC, NSPA and JEA. The Sidekick was the NSPA Pacemaker Final-ist in 2002, The Dallas Morning News best newspaper honorable metion in 2006, Best Newspaper and Best Website in 2011 and received the Award of Distin-guished Merit in 2003 and 2008 and is Broze Star recipent for 2009 from ILPC. The editorials and columns presented in this

paper re$ect the view of their writers.

Advertisements are sold as full, 1/2 page, 1/4 page and 1.8 page sizes in black and white or color.

For more information you may reach the adviser in his classroom (D115) or by phone at (214) 496-6239.

The Sidekick welcomes all letters to the editor, but letters must be signed before consid-eration for publication. Send letters to cwo"ord@coppellisd.com. or bring them by D115.

Free expression pierces hallways

Graphic by Haley Madigan

Graphic by Brian Hwu

Sta! WriterJordan Thompson

Sta! WriterCorrina Taylor

features page 9november 2011

Activities cost students, parents more than just timeThe number of checks

from parents’ checkbooks made payable to Coppell High School has been steadi-ly increasing in the past few years. With the multitude of activities provided at CHS, there are many hidden fees involved when students go to pursue their passions.

For the award-winning CHS Marching Band, the pro-fessional quality of their shows does not come free. At the be-ginning of each school year, band members must pay a fee of around $485. In addition to this standard payment and the $150 Pay-to-Play fee, each band mem-ber must intently care for their instrument, some of which cost thousands of dollars to purchase.

“You have to keep up with your instrument, so if anything breaks you’re responsible for it most of the time,” junior Caro-

line Kersen said. “Some people have to buy their instruments, which can cost a couple thousand dollars. A lot of people have mul-tiple instruments for marching and competition season, so that’s twice as much.”

Not only is the equipment pricey, but the uniforms and up-keep of appearance also account for a large sum of these families’ expenditures.

“We also have to rent our uniforms and have them dry-cleaned every week or so,” junior Natasha Shams said. “!at costs about $50 to 100. We have to have two pairs of shoes also.”

However, a large portion of the overall cost of band comes from the trips that are o"ered. Because some trips are manda-tory due to competition require-ments, the band directors do their best to choose destinations that are a"ordable for all mem-bers.

“Some trips are mandatory, like BOA, but that’s not too ex-

pensive – it’s only around $150,” Kerson said. “The Chicago trip was about a thousand dollars. But when we go in state, it’s only about $500.”

The Lariette Drill Team is another one of CHS’ proud titleholders, but the costs in-volved in joining the team make the barriers to entry rath-er high.

“The biggest fee that comes out of their pocket is their uni-forms and their practice clothes,” Lariette director Julie Stralow said. “!at adds up to about $800, but the uniform fee is one time only. Also, they reuse their practice clothes every year, so the second and third years on the team are typically much more a"ordable.”

However, to alleviate the stress of these costs, the Lari-ette Booster Club funds all the things that benefit the whole team, such as choreographers, costumes and competition fees. The only other likely ex-pense comes from their yearly

trip, but, like band, the Lari-ette directors do their best to vary the price from year-to-year to make things more af-fordable.

“You see dollar signs and freak out, but then you realize that everything these girls pay for goes directly back to them,” Stralow said.

Additional competitions are offered to the girls in which they can perform solo dances. These contests are optional, and the girls are in charge of getting their own choreographers, mu-sic and costumes.

“Choreographers charge anywhere from $60-90 an hour, and entrance fees are $60-90 at every competition,” junior Madeline Nauyokas said. “Cos-tumes cost as much as you want them to.”

Although the school dis-trict spends large sums annu-ally on athletic equipment, the cost for students playing the sports is relatively low.

“We ask the students to purchase their own shoes re-gardless of what sport it is,” athletic director John Craw-ford said. “And then if there is additional equipment required beyond the norm, we would ask students to purchase that.”

Perhaps the largest ex-pense that comes from the ath-letes’ pockets is what they invest in personal training.

“!ere is a great variance among players as to how much they pay for private training,” Crawford said. “Some may pay little to none, while others may pay large sums for companies like Velocity.”

With every activity here at CHS, there is some sort of cost involved, the level of which vary greatly from group to group. While the costs can be high, the large amounts of students partici-pating in these extra curricular activities show that students have decided the experience is worth the cost.

Michelle PitcherEditor-in-Chief

Photos by Brian Hwu

featurespage 10 november 2011

Jordan ThompsonSta! Writer

!ere is one in every crowd. Coppell High School junior Beth-any LaPrade is one of the thou-sands of students trying to stay a"oat in its swarming hallways. At CHS, she is another straw in the haystack, but to Texas hospi-tals, she is the needle they have been looking for.

Exactly one year a#er LaPrade’s recovery from a severe brain injury, she received a call from the Center for Brain Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center last March.

“Usually when I got calls about my memory loss issues, it wasn’t something me or my mom wanted to hear. I was afraid it wasn’t over and there was more bad news,” LaPrade said.

Subsequently, the call was not in any way unfortunate. Not only was LaPrade’s injury unique, but also her recovery was so re-markable, professors at UT de-sired to make her case their new project.

“It is so weird knowing Bethany, and then also knowing how important she is to those doctors. I might even be thankful to her one day if I get in a car acci-dent or something,” junior Colton Cunov said.

On her way to San Anto-nio for her freshmen choir trip in 2010, LaPrade lost balance on a moving bus and fell, hitting her head on a metal door. !rough-out that weekend she su$ered se-vere headaches, especially a#er a day at Six Flags. She experianced a %nal blow to the head a#er fall-

ing o$ her bed, inducing extreme memory loss. !e lack of knowl-edge her doctors had on the situ-ation as a whole led them to have virtually no solid prediction of the outcome. !e rebound of her memory was the a#ermath every-one anxiously crossed %ngers for.

But the LaPrade family knew they weren’t quite in the clear just yet. LaPrade’s memory could slip away just as abruptly as it was recompensed. Curiosity lingered throughout the LaPrade household.

“It wasn’t hard to agree to letting them do tests on my brain because it would give me an-swers too. Brains all heal di$er-ently and some don’t even heal. If we did the tests we would know more about how much my brain healed,” LaPrade said.

LaPrade’s injury was one of the most unique cases UT’s brain institute had seen in 30 years. !e more answers they could attain through tests, the more they could understand general head trauma, ranging from a small concussion

LaPrade plays guinea pig to bene!t UT Southwestern

EMAC sophomores developing as advanced reportersAnnie WenSta! Writer

(Top) EMAC sophomore Shannon Wilkinson interviews sophomore Jack Hobbs for an online story about the CHS upcoming theater production Beauty and the Beast. (Bottom) Sydney Williams, EMAC sophomore, interviews PSA sophomore Vivit Chetry for a halloween story to be posted on the Weebly website.

With a deadline approach-ing, sophomore Sydney Williams knows she must get her inter-views done and her story posted online. Williams is not a member of !e Sidekick or KCBY but a student in EMAC’s Advanced Reporting elective course.

!e Advanced Reporting class provides EMAC sopho-mores with hands-on experience as they serve as true reporters of Academy news.

“!ere’s always something to write about,” Williams said. “A#er I have an idea of what to write I do my interviews and I make a dra#. !en the other writers and [teacher Chase Wof-ford] edit the story and once the story has been edited it gets post-ed on the website.”

Students in the EMAC academy are able to choose elec-tives every semester. !is year reporting teacher Chase Wof-ford took his class in a di$erent direction and created the website where the sophomore students can publish their work.

“!e website was my idea,” Wo$ord said. “It isn’t as much about the site as it is about devel-oping the writers. I want them to be actual reporters, working on the job.”

!e content on the web-site is news that happens in the Academy, but the writers are able to be creative with their stories.

While PSA, EMAC and

STEM have all combined into one academy on the website, each academy still has its own individual events, such as PSA’s Hometown Hero project and STEM’s MATE team. !rough-out the year each academy hosts events to promote the academy. !e website is a good way of let-ting people know when these events are.

“We put on the website the big projects for each [individual] academy,” sophomore Shannon Wilkinson said. “It’s a good way of reaching out to people and let-ting them know what events are coming up.”

!is website is similar to the Coppell Student Media web-site. Both are student-managed publications and report on Cop-pell related news. However, the Academy website is specialized towards news happening in the Academy and does not include the radio network that the CSM website does. !e CSM website also has di$erent categories for di$erent types of stories, such as sports, features, reviews, opin-ions as well as blogs that are up-dated every day. !e Academy website has one tab where all news is published and a separate tab for pictures.

!e website went through various stages of development before it was published.

“I went on [English teacher Clara] Caussey’s website, and she had a list of free website cre-ators,” sophomore Sydney Wil-liams said. “I saw Weebly as one

of the options. It was something new I had never tried before, so I decided to work with it.”

!e writers of the website have put in a lot of time and ef-fort to %ll the site up with stories.

“It takes about three days to write a story,” Williams said. “I %rst brainstorm and I write ev-erything down on a piece of pa-per. If I don’t have any ideas, I’ll just ask around.”

!e writers for the site are also photographers, and are re-sponsible for the slideshows on the website as well.

“Each story has to have a picture, so we’re responsible for taking the picture,” sophomore Regan Sullivan said. “We also just take pictures throughout the day and post them on the web-site.”

!e new website not only serves as a good place to learn about the Academy and what its students are doing, but it is also a good outlet for the writers.

“I really like writing for the website,” Williams said. “It’s re-quires creativity to come up with good stories and thinking in a bigger way.”

!rough working on the website together, the writers have also gotten to know each other better.

“It’s fun to work on,” Wilkinson said. “You meet a lot of new people through writing the stories.”

!e EMAC website can be found at www.coppellacad-emynews.weebly.com.

to permanent damages.When LaPrade hung up the

phone that day, the world’s hues appeared a little brighter. An in-jury that sucker-punched her three years back in time became a vital puzzle piece to progress. Starting then, her calendar would include a brain test each week for 12 weeks to three months as ‘the guinea pig.’

“!e testing process was like running a mile. If you’re not good at running, a single mile requires so much energy. My memory is

so weak now that the tests were exhausting,” LaPrade said.

!e tests consisted of simple tasks like reading numbers and reciting them or summarizing a short story. While they seemed austere, they were important enough for the doctors to come down to Coppell to conduct them.

“!e ‘baseline assessments’ as the doctors called them, were almost like PSATs. !ey were or-ganized to target di$erent parts of Bethany’s brain in a therapeutic way,” Bethany’s mother Elizabeth Laprade said.

Because LaPrade’s injury had not been seen in over 30 years, the UT publicity depart-ment eagerly sought contact with Elizabeth in hopes of publishing an article on the events that took place. Elizabeth LaPrade is also planning to serve on the board for the Center of brain health at UT.

High prospects do not end there; the baseline assessments pioneered by UT Southwestern are to be used in the future for other patients. Personalized and perfected, they will continue to serve in other hospitals and facili-ties.

“I still have memory issues-I will for the rest of my life,” Bethany said. “But I know I have improved in every way I could, and if these tests helped me then I want them to help other people too.”

!e baseline assessments helped the LaPrade family reach the light at the end of the tunnel, only to be followed by others in the near future.

Laprade’s memory loss has provided UT Southwestern with a unique research opportunity, and she has since been interviewed by local television stations such as WFAA.

Photo Courtesy Elizabeth LaPrade

Photo by Regan Sullivan

features page 11november 2011

“I was one of those teenag-ers who thought the world was against them,” Springer told PSA students. “I realized that I don’t have to !ght for my life and that people are there to help me, and hopefully I’m going to be that kind of adult for students as well.”

A"er falling into drugs at a young age, Springer was on a downward spiral. At times, she felt that there was no hope, but she was able to overcome her tribulations thanks to strong adult !gures in her life, and she hopes to embody that spirit for her own students.

“We are very relationship oriented here,” Springer said. “We are all about getting to know our students and caring about them as people, not just students. We are about forming a relationship that will hopefully be there all the way through. We will be there cheer-ing for them as they walk that stage at graduation and for the rest of their life.”

Students feel Springer has been a great in#uence on their lives and appreciate all she has done for them.

“She’s just so loving towards everybody, she doesn’t judge you or anything,” sophomore Amber Bouressa said. “She just takes ev-erybody in and loves them equal-ly.”

In addition to Springer, PSA also gave recognition to four other Coppell community mem-bers who have shown sel#essness, dedication and loyalty.

Nominee Donna Cranston, coordinator of “Welcome Home a Hero” and founder of “Defenders of Freedom” arranges a crew of hundreds of civilian and veteran volunteers to greet troops with cheers and hugs at DFW Airport. A"er greeting soldiers, Cranston helps returning troops !nd their families, make connecting #ights or contact loved ones.

“Welcome Home a Hero” is a volunteer initiative that started in 2004 to make sure people were at the airport to say welcome

home to troops and thank them for serving,” Cranston said. “De-fenders of Freedom came from me already being at the airport every day and I !gured that I would start a non pro!t to branch out and help even more.”

Defenders of Freedom (DOF) puts together care pack-ages for troops on request, and provides emergency medical funding to those who have been a$ected by brain injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many troops do not begin to receive veteran bene!ts or salaries until months a"er they come home, so DOF helps to cover medical costs until they are back on their feet.

Cranston is honored to be nominated, but feels that it is the accomplishments of the organiza-tions that should be recognized.

“I think what means the most to me is that the nomina-tion is about what our mission is,” Cranston said. “So many people want to be a part of it and want to be appreciative of what we do. I don’t think it’s about me as much as it is about our goals and inten-tions.”

Also nominated was CHS special education teacher Eileen Higgins who serves as a role mod-el and resource for students. Hig-gins approaches teaching with the mantra “put the child before the disability,” and serves as a coor-dinator of both Special Olympics and Circle of Friends.

“I didn’t really start out thinking that [teaching special education] was what I would be doing, but once I got my Masters I was hooked,” Higgins said. “I hope that I change their lives for the better. Make them stronger, make them more capable when they leave Coppell High School. Make them happy and willing to take risks and say ‘I can do that.’”

In addition to her special needs classes, Higgins has been able to extend her in#uence to other students at CHS.

“I’ve been in Circle of Friends for a few years now, and I’ve honestly never seen anyone as loving an accepting as Ms. Hig-

gins,” senior Kelly Sigmund said. “She is so great with everyone, I’ve never once seen her lose her temper and she connects with her students better than any teacher I’ve ever seen.”

Brad Hunt, CISD Assistant Superintendent for Administra-tion and former CHS principal, was being recognized for his out-standing leadership and programs that inspire both management and service. Hunt is responsible for organizing several programs that focus on the observation of student achievement and is de-scribed by family, friends and stu-dents as funny, outgoing, humble and kind.

“It’s very easy to see why Mr. Hunt was nominated,” senior Tara Henry said. “He has always been so supportive of our class and the rest of the school. Even when he comes back to visit, he still knows our names and he has kept up with all of our accomplishments.”

%e !nal nominee was the !rst female mayor of Coppell, Candy Sheehan. A breast cancer survivor and Iron Man competi-tor, Sheehan has shown persever-ance and over come life-altering odds.

“I guess I try to always look at the good,” Sheehan said. “I’m a breast cancer survivor so I think that during my !ght I always tried to have a positive attitude and I

think that my focus, determina-tion, attitude and discipline help me get through di$erent journeys in life.”

PSA chose to honor Shee-han because of her inspiring mes-sage and role model persona.

“I’ve had a lot of experienc-es, some good, some not so good, but it’s the way you approach the experience that helps put you in a good place,” Sheehan said.

Hometown Hero an inspiration for change, renewal

“What I miss the most is the just daily interaction with students.

We have the best students at Coppell High School, they’re so polite and involved and special.

I’m just amazed at what they can do and it’s just makes feel

good about being in education.”

-Brad Hunt

-Laura Springer

“I love CISD. I love the people I work with, and I feel like it’s a

student-centered place and we care about you guys. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, so it’s a

great work environment.”

continued from pg. 1

“My big motto is ‘quit worrying about what’s wrong with everybody

and see what’s right in people and care about them.’ Our world could be

a much better place.”

“I just get a lot of joy out of helping troops. We get a lot of

feedback; they are overwhelmed and very grateful. They are very appreciative of it.”

-Donna Cranston

“I’ve had a lot of challenges in life and I could have just crumbled and hidden

in my house but I think you should walk out that front door and make a

di!erence. So my motto is ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’.”

-Candy Sheehan

“I just feel like every day I make a di!erence in my student’s lives. They’re con"dent that I’m there for them, and

they’re comfortable knowing everything I’ve done for them.”

-Eileen Higgins

Photos by Rowan Khazendar

in-depth page 13page 12

A group of children in tattered clothing gather around the school-house, trying to peer into the windows to get a glimpse of the lesson. !ese children are not from an entirely dif-ferent social class from the children sitting inside the schoolhouse, but they have one crucial di"erentiating factor: they lack the means by which to purchase textbooks.

!is scene is precisely what Hebron High School senior Aditya Viswanathan witnessed when he vis-ited a small village in India in Decem-ber 2010, and this is precisely what inspired him to found Jatalo.

When Viswanathan returned from his trip, he immediately enlisted the help of 2010 Coppell High School graduate Krish Suresh in #nding a way to assist the children of poverty-stricken areas, mainly to help them obtain an education. Together, they came up with a business plan mod-eled largely a$er that of TOMS. !ey would create and distribute backpacks to people across the world with the guarantee that for every backpack sold, they would donate a year’s worth

of textbooks to a child in India who could not a"ord to buy their own.

“We came up with the backpacks because we wanted something cheap enough that people could a"ord, but also something that would be able to pay for the textbooks,” Suresh said. “!e textbooks are cheaper than they are in America, but they’re not cheap. So we needed a margin that was wide enough to cover the costs of text-books.”

!e price of textbooks, they found, is directly related to the amount of children who are unable to attend school or are forced to drop out to lighten their family’s #nancial wor-ries. While many government or charitable organizations are willing to subsidize the cost of tuition, they do not provide the necessary tools for education.

W h e n Viswanathan talked to teach-ers and admin-istrators in India,

he learned that many of them had been funding some of the children’s educations out of their own pocket for quite some time. !ose lucky students who received the teachers’ generosity went on to college or to pursue wor-thy professional careers. Viswanathan was taken by this craving for knowl-edge and the fact that when these underprivileged children were given the chance, they could rise to great heights.

“I actually visited a rural village in India where my grandfather

is from, and I talked to a lot of parents,” Suresh said. “!ey told me that they realize the value of education, and they wish their kids could kind of

skip the poverty cycle and rise up the economic ladder.”

“It’s like wearing a part of the world on your

back,” Viswana-than said.

Suresh and Viswanathan knew they would have to #nd a market close to their cause, so they felt back-packs would not only be useful, but they would remind the buyer of the purpose of Jatalo’s e"orts.

“We knew we wanted to do something that was inspired by the artistic cultures of the area we were trying to help, and we felt like the backpack industry wasn’t very satu-rated yet, so we could kind of make an impact there,” Suresh said.

Suresh and Viswanathan de-cided to take the idea a step further and incorporate the cultures of the areas into their products. As of now, these patterns come from the bright, vibrant cultures of South Asia.

“!ese patterns do have signi#-cance,” Viswanathan said. “One thing we’re trying to do is bring the artistic styles from around the world to stu-dents and kids here, because I know there are a lot of people out there who have an interest in global cultures and artistic styles from around the world but haven’t been exposed to them.”

However, as people usually only need one backpack per year, Jatalo could not operate under the concept of universal need as TOMS does. Re-alizing this, Viswanathan and Suresh came up with an idea to add bracelets to their list of products.

“!e bracelets were an addi-tional idea we came up with later, just as a way people could help out with our mission who didn’t want to spend money on a backpack or didn’t need one,” Suresh said.

Jalato as it gains mo-mentum, hopes to continue to expand its products of-fered. It does not matter so much to them what they are selling as long as the cause continues to be recognized.

“We absolutely want to branch out our prod-ucts,” Suresh said. “I’ve actu-ally been talking with con-tacts in Africa and !ailand. A$er doing some research on the subject of education, we realized that it’s not exclusive to India, so we’re de#nitely looking at expand-ing.”

As the charity is still in its build-ing stages, they have a limited number of designs available for order. Howev-er, the ideas for several others are in the works.

“We only have two designs out right now, but we’re de#nitely rolling out more,” Suresh said. “We’re hop-ing to get three more within the next month, month and a half. And to go along with other cultures, we’re get-ting patterns inspired by other cul-tures. !ere’s one with Mexican art, and there’s another in an African trib-al style of art, then there’s just a solid one.”

CHS students and buyers from around the world particularly seem to appreciate both the product and the concept.

“I really do like the backpacks,” junior Madeline Nauyokas said. “I love how you can do good by buying things you already need.”

It was not enough for these indi-viduals to be driven by their dedication to the cause; they had to go through a long and arduous process in order to establish a solid foundation on which to operate their business.

“It was several months, the major-ity of a year, before we were able to ac-tually launch our business,” Suresh said. “!ere was a lot involved in the process, and we had to #gure out our business model- how much the backpacks would cost, how much the shipping would cost, how much textbooks would cost, #guring out how to produce the back-packs.”

A$er developing their model,

they addressed the task of designing their product.

“We designed them on our own using so$ware like Adobe Photoshop and then we got in touch with a manu-facturer in China,” Suresh said. “We sent them the design, and they manu-factured it. !ey sent us prototypes, and simply put, that was how we got started.”

In keeping with their original concept, for every backpack sold, Jatalo donates a year’s worth of textbooks to a child in India who cannot a"ord it on their own, and for every bracelet sold, Jatalo donates a single textbook to a child in need. !e children who re-

!is program allows students to set up Jatalo chapters in their high schools to spread awareness. Being an ambassador means that you get to keep a measure of the pro#ts you make by selling Jatalo’s products on your school’s campus. If you are interested, you are encouraged to contact the company via email or telephone. All contact in-formation can be found at www.Jatalo.com.

“With the ambassador program, we haven’t really #gured it all out yet, but we’re hoping that students who want to get involved by more than just buying a backpack or bracelet can help out by spreading the word,” Suresh said.

As awareness for their cause grows, they are working to make it more personal than ever.

“If you go the website there’s actu-ally a really cool feature where you can go on there and see pro#les of students who are getting funding,” Viswanathan said.

Jatalo hopes that by focusing on these a%liate regions, they can slowly but e"ectively decrease the dropout rate and overall illiteracy rate in the areas. In India, their current focus, the illiteracy rate for the entire country is nearly 30 percent, and one out of every three stu-dents drop out before #$h grade.

“Our company was inspired by the plight of children, speci#cally in India, who couldn’t a"ord textbooks,” Suresh said. “So, ultimately, our goal is to make it to where no child is unable to a"ord an education due to their not being able to a"ord textbooks.”

Despite how recently the com-pany entered the market, they have en-

countered enormous success, hav-ing sold over 100 units within the #rst three weeks of business.

“So far we’ve gotten really positive reception from all over the place, from across the nation,” Viswanathan said.

Not only have they made an impact in the United States, but people from around the world have been donating to their cause.

“It’s been amazing how the word has spread,” Suresh said. “We don’t know how, but we’ve been getting orders from Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Canada, !ai-land.”

ceive these supplies have been chosen from a pool of applicants or have been nominated by their teachers or com-munity members.

“I feel like social entrepreneur-ship is kind of a growing trend, and it’s really catching on,” Suresh said. “I think when people hear about our do-nation model, they’re going to think of TOMS, where every pair of shoes you buy goes to buying shoes for a child in Africa, and we were kind of inspired by that kind of mode: some-one being able to, not only buy a product, but also invest in a cause at the same time.”

Jatalo:  a  unique  type  of  tree  which,  in  Indian  culture,  stands  for  trade,  enlightenment  and  education.

Local students aim to

change lives withBuy one backpack

and Jatalo will

donate a year’s

worth of textbooks

to a child in India.

Ikat Classic

Backpack

Textured

Classic

Backpack

Learn more at

www.Jatalo.com

Hebron High School senior

Aditya Viswanathan got the

idea to create Jatalo after

taking a trip with his family

to a small village in India.

featurespage 14 november 2011

Many students at CHS choose to shop at thrift and resale stores because of the a!ordable prices and unique items.

Sometimes, shopping takes a leap of faith. However, for some Coppell High School students, this journey outside the typical consumer comfort zone reaps nu-merous rewards. !is desire for a unique shopping experience is what lands them in thri" stores and they boast that they come away from it with memories, original purchases and signi#cantly more change in their pockets.

Coppell is surrounded by thri" store shopping options. No matter which direction you go, you are more than likely to stumble upon a vintage or resale shop boast-ing great buys and cheap prices. Some students are taking advantage of these shopping opportunities and in the process, falling in love with the thri" shop experience.

“I can buy more clothes for less money [at thri" stores] and get more unique stu$, no one else is go-ing to have whatever you are wear-ing,” senior Michelle Bizzell said. “You can imagine those used to be somebody’s. Why did they buy that? Did they like it in the 80s or the 90s? Was this in? Did they know it was ugly? Was it a gi"? [!e experience is] so much more interesting.”

To senior and frequent thri" store shopper Lexus Deloach, these shops can serve as a time machine to experiences gone by.

“It’s so cool because every sin-gle clothing item has a story behind it,” Deloach said. “It once belonged to someone else. I am recycling and reusing clothing, which is kind of cool. It is like I’m just writing my own chapter into the clothes.”

!e items available for pur-chase in thri" stores, while o"en the triggers of re%ection, include such a range of categories that a wide vari-ety of shoppers with di$ering pur-chasing objectives can #nd an item that #ts their needs. From furniture to retro-wear, casual clothing to board games, as well as a seemingly inexhaustible supply of accessories or trinkets, thri" stores can comply

with the most sporadic of shoppers. !at is, if they know where to go.

“Some stores just have more clothing. Like !ri" City prob-ably has the most clothing and the Goodwill, and the CCA don’t have that much. Once you go, you’ll #g-ure that out. [For instance] if you want a board game, de#nitely [go to] CCA. Some [stores] will have big items, like DVD players and stu$, where some will have mostly little things,” Bizzell said.

Even on the search for clothes, di$erent shops specialize in di$erent items. Seasoned thri" store shoppers have come to know which stores in the area will yield the best results for #nding certain pieces.

“If I’m just looking for T-shirts or sweaters or something I’ll go to !ri" World, but if I’m look-ing for, let’s say my homecoming dress, I went to a place in Dallas called Clothes Horse Anonymous, and that’s probably my favorite place to get dresses,” Deloach said. “And jeans and shirts and stu$, it would probably be Bu$alo Ex-change. It depends on what I’m looking for.”

One of thri" stores’ large sell-ing points are their lower price tags. !is can entice even those who pre-fer mainline shopping to frequent these resale shops.

“I probably prefer shopping at chain stores, but if I’m low on mon-ey, then I’ll obviously go to a thri" store,” senior Liz Meyer said.

!e #nancial upside of thri" stores is twofold in some instances. !ese stores provide many who are in tight #nancial situations a more a$ordable option for obtaining clothing. Some resale shops, such as CCA, Goodwill and the Salva-tion Army, even use their revenue give back to the needy.

Senior Carolyn Mason not only sees the charitable paybacks of thri" store shopping, but the cre-ative opportunities it o$ers as well.

“I’ve gotten stu$ for art proj-ects and engineering projects, once made my mom a paper towel roll,” Mason said. “It was wooden and I

sanded it down and wood burned it. I guess it’s inspiring. !ey’ve got a wide variety of stu$ and it’s cheap so you can do a lot of fun cra"y ex-perimental things. And it bene#ts the needy.”

Mason even found a way to bring thri" store shopping into a CHS tradition.

“I got my senior overalls for $2.50 [at a thri" store],” Mason said.

Another plus of this uncom-mon way of shopping is the unique “#nds” one can take away from it.

“Sometimes I buy gi"s for friends because they have a lot of weird stu$ that people don’t want,” senior Christina Wagner said. “And they have funny shirts, because people don’t want them, so they’ll say funny things. I got a shirt that says bar mitzvah on it. So now I have somebody’s bar mitzvah shirt.”

A visit to one of these estab-lishments may provide the buyer with a bargain rare of superstores and high-end boutiques. Deloach had such an experience when searching for a homecoming dress.

“I got a brand new Betsey Johnson dress at my thri" store for 100 bucks [at Clothes Horse Anonymous], which is cheap,” De-loach said. “And it was brand new really. I am so obsessed with my dress, it was black and pu$y and so just my kind of dress.”

!e bond students have made while thri" store shopping are reminisced on fondly. A sim-ple trip has le" many with lasting memories with friends.

“!ere is a hat that my friends and I all bought. We all got matching hats that say ‘Pack 59’ or something,” Wagner said. “It’s for some boy scout troop in like Georgia, and I guess they had a whole bunch of hat so they donat-ed them. So we all have matching pack hats.”

To those wary of taking the plunge into the thri"ing world, one CHS shopper urges them to consider this.

“Instead of a shopping trip, it’s a shopping experience,” Bizzell said.

Students learn value of thrifting

Senior Lexus DeLoach proudly shows o! her resale purchases.

Madison FordEntertainment Editor

Land owners ready to mess with local o!-road driversA look around the student

parking lot reveals many students sport Jeeps, trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. While many seldom use their car for anything other than day-to-day driving, there are some who enjoy taking them o$-roading to push their vehicle to the limit.

Most are unaware that, espe-cially in one of the more popular lo-cations for o$-roading in Coppell, the practice is not only dangerous – it is illegal.

At the u-turn bridge under State Highway 121 near N. Cop-pell Road, one can o"en see a Jeep bouncing around the terrain. How-ever, the location is private property and anyone caught on the property, both the driver and passengers, can be charged with criminal trespass-ing.

Coppell Police Department (CPD) Assistant Chief of Police Gary Nix said the practice itself is not unlawful, but it becomes a problem when one does it on pri-vate property.

“Just like riding go-karts or dirt biking, you have to have per-mission from the property owner before you can go o$-roading,” Nix

said. “O$-roading itself isn’t illegal; the problem comes when people think its OK to start driving on pri-vate property. !is is being enforced by patrols, as well as responses to calls we have about people driving on private property.”

According to the Texas penal code, a criminal trespass charge is a Class B misdemeanor, which can be punishable with up to a $2,000 #ne and/or 180 days in jail.

A student at Coppell High School, who asked to be le" anony-mous, regularly took his Jeep to the 121 location until the police were called.

“We didn’t realize it was pri-vate property or that we were il-legally trespassing. I didn’t see any signs, or at least didn’t remember seeing any,” the student said.

He considers himself lucky he got o$ easy, and has not since gone o$-roading anywhere besides his own property.

“!ankfully, I only received a warning, but it could have gone much worse. !e only times I ever go o$-roading now are on my ranch,” the student said.

An area farmer from the Fu-ture Farmers of America (FFA), who asked his name be le" out, says the issue hasn’t been a real problem until recently when o$-roaders and

their parents have become more in-volved in the situation.

“I have been a farmer in the Coppell area since 1994, and [o$-roading] has been an ongoing is-sue for as long as I can remember,” the farmer said. “Kids have always decided to go o$ roading, and be-cause property owners never did say anything to anybody, it wasn’t a big deal for a long time.”

!e issue, according to the farmer, has grown a"er the parent of one driver who got injured while o$-roading sued the property owner.

“In the last #ve or six years, it has grown into a bit of a controversy. A kid went o$-roading, got hurt, and the land owner got sued by the kid’s parents,” the farmer said. “Since then, most property owners have tried to stop every-one from being on their prop-erty, and have asked the [police department] to start enforc-ing to stop o$-roading.”

!e prob-lem also lays

with the o$-roaders themselves and their behavior when they are caught on private property. When the trespassers are not cooperative is when he gets the law involved.

“It is the ones who are ar-gumentative that I don’t want to deal with,” the landowner said. “At that point, I’ll call in law en-forcement, take their IDs to give to the o&cers, and they could end up with a ticket - I call it kids hav-ing fun, the police department calls it criminal trespassing.”

A common misconception is that the o$-roaders aren’t guilty of trespassing if there are no posted signs warning people to stay o$ of a property. At the 121/Coppell Road location, there have been multiple attempts to put up signs, but they are o"en immediately removed.

!e ultimate goal is to stop o$-roading, but that may never come to fruition. He says land owners and farmers don’t feel like it is their re-sponsibility to pay to keep people o$ of their property

“In the areas where enforce-ment has gone up with the police department patrols, it has really

helped to slow down the o$-road-ing,” the landowner said. “It

will never be stopped unless landowners put up fences,

and most don’t have the money or don’t want to pay for fences to be put in place.”

He says that they don’t want those caught to get into trouble, just to be cooperative and to put a stop to the tres-

passing.“We don’t want you

in trouble. Be polite and courteous and we’ll help you

out; tell your friends, just please stay o$.”

Ben CowlishawOnline Copy Editor

Graphic by Brian Hwu

Photo by Jodie Woodward

Photo by Jodie Woodward

features page 15november 2011

Junior Julianne Kodros happily helps excited children stu! their teddy bears while working her shift at Great Wolf Lodge.

Photo by Ivy Hess

As students get older, numer-ous rights and responsibilities are bestowed upon them. !ey are given more freedom than they have ever known, while at the same time are more responsible for their own actions than they may be prepared for.

Many students acquire an a"ernoon or weekend job for any number of reasons. Some need to save for a car or college, while others just want the extra cash. For some, however, they learn having a job with school, sleep and a social life can be more of a balancing act than they originally applied for.

Junior Natalie Lamb, who works at Fat Daddy’s, thinks at times having a job has a#ected her school performance.

“School should come $rst, especially since I just work for the extra money, but sometimes I’ve had to work really late, and I haven’t been able to $nish all of my homework,” Lamb said. “When you have a job, it becomes a commitment, and everything is on you. If you’re late, it doesn’t go to your parents, you have to take responsibility, and that’s why I think sometimes work inadver-tently becomes a higher priority than school.”

Having a job with late hours on school nights a#ects school performance directly and indirectly. An hour at work could be an hour spent studying. Being at work for hours a"er school can drain a student’s energy, so they must choose between homework and sleep.

“I try to limit the number of days during the school week that I work, because on the nights that I do [work], I know I won’t be able to $nish all of my work before falling asleep,” Lamb said.

For many, having a job is just an exploration of what it is like to join the work force and to get experience under their belt. For others, however, a job may be unavoidable.

Junior Trevor Berryman, an employee at Las Colinas Country Club, bought his own car and needs the job to pay for gas and insurance.

“I really had a choice to make: either get a car or don’t

have a job,” Berryman said. “Be-ing in high school, having a car is pretty necessary, so [getting a job] wasn’t a di%cult choice. A lot of nights, I get home and am too tired to start on my home-work, so I end up having to $nd a way to get it done the next day. School should come $rst, and it usually does, but I think having a job is another important part in learning responsibility and becoming independent.”

Senior English teacher Matt Bowden has seen $rst-hand the a#ects having a job has on students’ academic per-formance.

“Working too many hours can be taxing, leaving the stu-dent exhausted and unfocused during the day,” Bowden said. “I can remember several times when the student seemed to place their work schedule and responsibilities above their ac-ademics, which is obviously a problem.”

On the other hand, Bowden also noted the many ways in which students may bene$t from obtaining a job.

“Working a"er school and on the weekends teaches young people responsibility, work ethic and independence, and it is nice to see kids earn-ing a paycheck rather than de-pending on mom and dad for everything,” Bowden said.

Bowden believes it up to the student’s internal drive and motivation to determine if they can be successful in school while maintaining a job.

“!e issue boils down the individual and their ability to manage time and prioritize properly,” Bowden said. “Strong students who truly care about learning and doing well in school will always do so, even with a job on the side.”

Students and teachers alike feel that having a job can be detrimental to a per-formance in school. Students learn a great deal of respon-sibility, and begin to gather experience they can take with them to college and beyond. Whether or not the bene$ts outweigh the negative e#ects is up to the students to dis-cover for themselves as they learn the ways of becoming an adult in the “real world.”

Working students

Whether you are a jock, nerd, overachiever or band geek, everyone is defined and labeled by a stereotype. The students at Coppell High School are no exception.

Stereotypes can be seen everywhere and affect every-one. They are in TV shows such as “Glee” and “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and movies including Mean Girls and even Harry Potter.

“Glee” centers around a show choir of misfit teens, and the show prides itself on being accepting of all stereotypes. Though the show brings up good points about approval, many CHS students think the exaggeration of the segrega-tion of different stereotypes is not realistic when compared to Coppell.

“At CHS we stereotype people who are fat, and we think they aren’t athletic; peo-ple who are in all regular class-es are dumb; people who play a certain sport like lacrosse or cheerleading are really stuck up but we just leave it at that,” junior Lexie Davidson said. “In TV shows like ‘Glee’ it’s a lot more extreme. The charac-ters act on their stereotypes by making fun of them, or throw-ing slushees in their face.”

At Coppell High School there is not a battle between the Glee club and the football team, and the cheerleaders may not rule the school, but

stereotypes are still present. Many students agree the ste-reotypes they give others, or may have themselves, come from their actions, who they hang out with and what they are involved in.

“Someone shouldn’t be judged by being involved in an activity they love,” junior Jen Olson said. “We base ste-reotypes off of what we have heard about a person, not what we really know about them.”

Though there are some major differences between CHS and these shows, one ste-reotype present in almost ev-ery show and is evident at CHS is racial profiling. In a school where there is extreme compe-tition to get the highest grades and to be number one, racial profiling is inevitable.

In “Glee”, the show ref-erences the “Asian bookworm stereotype” that many CHS students can relate to. Many students assume their Asian or Indian classmates are the stereotypical “nerd,” with im-measurable amounts of pres-sure placed on them by their parents.

“People often assume that because I am Asian all I ever do is sit in my room and study, but in reality I’m on the golf team and I hang out with my friends all the time, junior Al-bert Lo said.”

These stereotypes tend to be seen only as harmless cat-egorizations but in reality they can be hurtful and in some cas-es can harm a person’s reputa-tion.

“Stereotypes are hurtful because they are not a realistic representation of the values of people in a particular group,” Olson said. “CHS is very dy-namic and every activity in-cludes a variety of people with different beliefs and personali-ties and it is not fair to clump them together with a single stereotype.”

Labeling, categorizing, stereotyping: you can call it whatever you want, but chang-ing the name will not change the reality that stereotypes have gone beyond the TV screen into the halls of CHS.

Sammy RobbenSports Editor

Ben CowlishawOnline Copy Editor

TV stereotypes transition to CHSGraphic by Haley Madigan

juggle jobs, school

British culture invades American TV, radio entertainmentpage 16 november 2011

British culture is the American teen’s guilty plea-sure. Their accents, music and TV shows all contribute to the American teenagers’ obsession with Britain.

During the summer of 2011, a swarm of British artists came into America releasing new singles and albums from various music artists including Jessie J, Tinie Tempah, Adele, Ellie Goulding etc.

Thanks to VEVO, a

website u s e d

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. (MCT)

Tolu SalakoSta! Writer

to watch music videos and dis-cover new artists, many British artists have been introduced to America. Jessie J, a British pop artist, was the first to host the series VEVO Lift, a webshow about a new artist’s life and what to expect on their upcom-ing album. Since then, other European and British artists such as Tinie Tempah and Oh Land have been the host of Lift and have recently been success-ful in America.

By simply taking a glance at the iTunes top ten artists,

there is handful of them that are from British or of Euro-pean descent. Adele’s album has been in the top ten for many months and has been

blowing up the radio. American artists such

as Britney Spears and Ke$ha used be in the

same position, which has recently been tak-en by the Brits.

“I really think that people like Brit-ish stars because they have more raw voices

and of course every-body wants to hear

someone with a different accent,” sophomore Mary

Claire Phillips said.

About two years ago, the only British stars and artists that American teens were famil-iar with were the cast of Harry Potter and maybe the members of Coldplay. Since that time, British media has increasingly emerged into American culture at a very fast pace.

Recently, a remake of the British show, “Skins”, premiered on MTV on Jan. 17, 2011. The show was about teenagers in New York City and their lives about their dysfunctional fami-lies, mental illnesses, substance abuse and death. However this show did not connect with the American audience in the same way the original Skins, based in Bristol, England, did back in 2007.

“[Skins US] didn’t have the same characters and the ac-tors were very one dimension-al,” junior Tatiana Gantt said, “The British ‘Skins’ show had a lot more depth.”

In addition to the debut of new British TV shows in America, the show “Misfits” premiered in the UK on Nov. 2009 and recently Hulu started

Cut loose and see FootlooseFootloose is a classic 1980s

movie combining the story of big-city kid in a small town with the common idea of teenage rebel-lion. !While the idea was basic, the movie was a hit, and is considered another classic 80’s "lm, along with "lms like Pretty in Pink, #e Break-fast Club and Sixteen Candles. !

Because of its great success, director Craig Brewer decided to take the "lm’s storyline and make it his own with a 2011 remake of the "lm that came to theaters Oct. 14. !

Most everyone knows the idea of the movie; big city kid, Ren MacCormack moves from the hus-tle and bustle city of Chicago to a small Western town. !Although he tries to "t in, he can’t get a grip on the brutality of the town’s council who has banned music, drinking and, shockingly, dancing. !In an ef-fort to have fun and win the girl of his dreams, MacCormack faces the council in an e$ort to get the senior class their own prom. !

Kevin Bacon plays MacCor-mack in the 1984 original, with Kenny Wormald in the lead role in the remake.

With leg warmers, big hair, and synthesized background beats in every song, the 1984 Footloose original has all the qualities of a typical 80’s "lm. !Watching it now, it is obvious the movie is so outdat-ed it is almost un-enjoyable. !While

the story line is fun, and the actors are passionate about their roles, some major scenes are ruined by 80s music thumping in the back-ground and the laughable dancing. With a lot of the details dating back 30 years; the "lm is distracting due to its age.!

Although most of the origi-nal "lm is silly due to the music choices and fashions (especially the long awaited prom scene, which was probably the cheesiest part of the movie), the actors make the movie a lot better than it would have been. ! With standout actor Bacon as the lead role, the acting is impressive and believable. ! Not only was his acting great, but his dancing is phenomenal. !As proven in his solo dance scene, Bacon can dance, and he can dance well.

Even though the original was a good movie, Brewer decides to change it up to "t the trends of today. ! While keeping the script almost exactly the same and the scenes in the movie close to iden-tical, there are few major di$er-ences in the remake. ! Besides the opening scene being more depressing than the toe-tapping original and the mom being de-ceased in this remake, most of the "lm sticks to the original story-line.

#e only real changes are the music, which is reworked to be more modern, the fashions, which were de"nitely di$erent from the 1984 original, and the dancing. !

Another notice-able di$erence was the actors in the "lm. !Ken-ny Wormald, who has a lot to live up to, falls just a bit short. While he is just as charming as Bacon, his acting and dancing were not as phenomenal as in the original. ! On the other hand, sidekick, Willard, played by Miles Teller, is a hit. ! With hilarious jokes and sarcastic com-ments, Teller really adds comedy to the "lm.

Another addition dancer and country sing-er, Julianne Hough, gives a standout performance as a debut actress. ! Al-though personally, I did not expect much from her, Hough’s acting is passionate and believ-able, and, of course, her dancing was incredible. !

Overall, while both movies are great for their own time, the new Footloose of 2011 ap-peals to more audiences with improved music, fresh dancing and strong actors. ! Brewer’s Foot-loose is a modern spin on an 80s classic tale of teenage rebellion that is the same, no matter what age you grew up in.

Jordan BickhamSta! Writer

Chris Ware illustration of English singer-songwriter Adele. MCT 2011

to post new episodes every Monday of this hit show so it can be available to Americans.

The British culture seems to appeal to the younger gen-erations due to their different slang, accents and music style. The situation and scenarios are different to what Ameri-can teens would face, such as the unchanging weather, the school systems and the way that British students are educated. The British culture is completely different yet American teens can relate to it because of the same language.

MTV is one of the most famous TV channels in Ameri-ca while E4, a UK channel with the same concept as MTV, is one of the most watched chan-nels by teens in the UK. Many UK stars started out their ca-reers on E4, including stars from “Skins”, “The Inbetween-ers”, “Misfits”, “Doctor Who” and “Nearly Famous.”

There is no doubt that the British are stepping into America creating a large base of entertainment for all teen-agers to enjoy.

Kenny Wormald plays Ren and Julianne Hough plays Ariel in “Footloose”.

British television daily scheduleCHANNEL: BBC AMERICADoctor Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weekdays at 5pmTop Gear . . . . . . . . . . . Wednesdays at 6 & 7pmLaw & Order: UK . . . .Wednesdays at 8 & 10pmThe Inbetweeners . . . . . . . Saturdays at 10pmSkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Net!ixSherlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Net!ix

On stage all the attention from the audience is focused on the actors, as they become an en-tirely new person. !e audience members “ooh” and “ahh” at the intricate set designs and smooth light transitions throughout the performance.

No one gives a second thought to the people behind the sets and lights, the people who worked tirelessly for this perfor-mance to be perfection.

!e Coppell !eatre De-partment has three teachers who have dedicated themselves to the students in order to help create the best productions possible. !ese three teachers may not al-ways get the credit they deserve, and are not as acknowledged as they should be. Not many people even know what led them to be a part of Coppell.

CHS theatre department head Lisa Tabor has been a part of the Coppell theatre for 12 years. However, before her time in Cop-pell she was involved in theatre as an actress herself.

Before Tabor even consid-ered teaching, she found her love

for choir and drama during her sophomore year of high school and decided it was something she wanted to pursue.

Upon graduating from Bay-lor, Tabor had an agent in the Dallas area and was acting in commercials and industrial work, which is training videos for dif-ferent companies. However, Ta-bor soon found it was not exactly what she had been expecting.

“It was when I got into a Church’s Chicken commercial where I had to eat an imaginary piece of chicken when I decided my Baylor degree wasn’t doing so well,” Tabor said.

Figuring commercial acting was not her path, Tabor spent "ve years as the drama and #oor di-rector at her church until she re-alized she was doing most of the “a$er work” such as what happens behind the curtains and decided to pursue teaching.

She went back to college and got her teaching certi"cation and started her life in Coppell. Be-cause of her background, Tabor proved to be a worthy teacher.

“Having experience as an actress helped me tremendously,” Tabor said. “I know what the di-rectors are going to be looking for

and what the colleges are looking for. I also understand the ner-vousness my students get.”

Tabor is now a permanent "xture in the hearts of her theatre students. !rough her accom-plishments she has come to a re-alization.

“I am doing something with my life I truly enjoy doing; it’s something I love,” Tabor said.

!roughout her journey Ta-bor has come to settle into Cop-pell and has grown accustomed to her sta% members, including Bill Ballard.

Ballard teaches the techni-cal theatre classes alongside Bruce Hermans and has spent his life wandering. !at is, until he found refuge within the walls of Coppell High School.

When Ballard started o% doing stage makeup, he became more and more involved in the theatre.

A$er graduating, Ballard found that a job was hard to come by, so he decided to go back to college at University of Arkan-sas to obtain his Master’s degree. While in Arkansas, he was a tech-nical director, building sets for the Ouachita Baptist University; however, this visit was short lived.

“I wanted to do more than just build sets. I was working all the time, and I was never home,” Ballard said. “I came to realize that I liked high school kids and I liked working with them so I decided that I was going to teach high school.”

And that he did. His love for acting is obvious to those around him, which is why he teaches another important class called Broadway Bound that is an ad-vanced theatre class. And he has never been happier.

“I try to think of something else I would have spent 32 years on besides painting in a lo$, and I can’t think of anything,” Ballard said. “I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been a good career and I’ve only got three more years le$ to teach.”

Bruce Hermans, the third theater teacher, has an equally colorful background involving theater. Before he became the teacher students have come to depend on, he was involved in all areas of theater.

He acted in commercials and industrial work like Tabor, and he also was in "lm as well. He was in two episodes of “Walker Texas Ranger” and in a movie with Chuck Norris called “Cadil-

lac Jack”.He had the opportunity to

be in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” at his church. It was there his profes-sional friends saw him and of-fered him shows to direct.

“I have come to "nd that I really enjoy directing,” Hermans said. “I pulled not only from my acting background but also my designing background and it re-ally comes together when direct-ing.”

In total Hermans has been a part of 120 productions as an actor, director, tech worker or design artist. Because he can vi-sualize the scenes in his head as a director he also takes part in ma-jority of the set work.

Hermans always had a plan that by the time he was 40 he would go back to school to be-come a teacher, and when the time came he came out of school eager to teach and ended up at CHS.

And while the audience is clapping for the performers on stage, these theatre teachers will be the ones who know in their heart the hard work that was done to make their theater dream a re-ality.

Theater reveals hidden actors behind curtain

Bill Ballard (left), Lisa Tabor (center) and Bruce Hermans (right) departed from their professional careers in the theatre in order to impart their wisdom onto CHS students. Corrina TaylorSta! Writer

entertainment page 17november 2011

Photos by Trevor Sti! and Brian Hwu

entertainmentpage 18 november 2011

!e beloved summer months of big-budget blockbust-ers are behind us, and "lm fans must once again set their sights upon the stream of unfamiliar titles that keep the industry alive until the next holiday.

!e latest #ick released in this vein is Dream House, which hit theaters nationwide at the start of October. Dream House tells the story of a family that moves to a picturesque house in the country where several grotesque murders were committed years ago – only to "nd themselves the next target.

With a sophisticated sto-ryline that makes one think, and several familiar names in the cast (Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts) Dream House im-mediately piqued my interest

when I "rst heard about it. Un-fortunately for Universal Pictures, the stories surrounding the movie o$ the screen turned out to be just as intriguing as the story on the screen.

Directed by Jim Sheri-dan (In America, My Le% Foot), Dream House is a disjointed "lm that never "nds any sort of #ow, or even its own identity.

Universal Pictures marketed Dream House as a horror "lm, when clearly it was far from being one. Horror fans that #ocked to theaters Friday night for the debut of Dream House must have been sorely disappointed, as the movie never came close to obtaining the dark atmosphere advertised in the trailer.

But as I walked out of the theatre, I couldn’t help but feel the movie could have been so much more. Somewhere amidst

its choppiness and script failures were moments of shining bril-liance. I couldn’t help but feel if the studio’s big wigs had stuck with director Jim Sheridan’s vi-sion for the "lm, Dream House would have turned out so much better.

!at’s right. Morgan Creek Productions was dissatis"ed by Sheridan’s work and "red him before "lming was complete. !e studio had to throw the movie together by itself, with Sheridan’s intention for the storyline lost in the chaos.

Craig and Weisz, loyal to Sheridan’s vision for Dream House, were fuming a%er the studio’s unexpected move and were uncooperative for the rest of production. !e "lm’s superstars even went as far as to refuse to make press rounds for the "lm, as they felt Morgan Creek butchered what would’ve been a great movie.

!e result of this catastro-phe is a slapdash "lm that is de-spairingly unorganized. Many scenes don’t connect smoothly and the viewer ends up disori-ented at many points because of

constantly shi%ing mood. Numerous issues with Da-

vid Loucka’s script didn’t help ei-ther. !e writing is average and at times reminiscent of a corny made-for-TV movie. Loucka (Ed-die) is an inexperienced writer, and it shows.

In the end, Dream House is nothing more than a cliché mys-tery #ick with a few hal&eart-ed attempts at macabre fright thrown in for good measure. Fur-thermore, the plot twist is eerily similar to that of Liam Neeson’s Unknown (2011).

What saves Dream House, at least in part, is the convincing performances of all the actors in-volved. Main-man Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) is brilliant as the tormented Will Atenton, dynami-cally portraying Atenton’s passion and confusion.

Craig is complimented won-derfully by Rachel Weisz (!e Mummy), who plays Will’s wife Libby Atenton. Craig and Weisz have impressive chemistry to-gether, one of highlights through-out the entire "lm. !ey even fell in love on set and discreetly mar-

One of students’ favorite bands, Coldplay, released a new album on Oct. 24, entitled Mylo Xyloto.

Coldplay has really made a name for itself through many popular songs in the past like “Lights and Sounds”, “Clocks” and “Viva la Vida”. Its new album has its ups and downs, though it has great songs that you can tell are going to become hits and climb pretty high up on some of the music charts like “Billboard Top 100”.

!e release is receiving a lot of attention because it has been three years since its last album release of Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends. !at album has songs that climbed to No. 1 in both the Unit-ed States and United Kingdom.

Coldplay hopes the new album will get the same outcome. !e al-bum is not perfect, however. “Princess of China” does not really sound like music, it sounds like a bunch of instruments mashed together, and it does not sound good at all. While “Us Against the World” is not that bad, it is a little slower than the Coldplay everyone is used to, which makes it interesting and it makes the album a little bit better, because there is more variety.

“Charlie Brown” is a great song; it is a mixture of slow and up-beat. “U.F.O” has very nice acoustics and has a good feel to it, andit has a nice blend between the background music like the guitar and the lead vocals which makes it unique to the album, unlike “Princess of China”.

“Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” has a techno feel to it, but it works for the song and the band makes it work. !e variety to the album is amazing, as there is a little bit of everything: techno, slow songs, fast songs. It’s a huge variety of songs and almost all of them sound good.

It doesn’t matter what people think about it, the album will be a hit and many, many people will buy “Mylo Xyloto”. Coldplay fans everywhere will be anxiously waiting for Oct. 24 to roll around so they can go pick-up the new album. !e album will most likely be a top-seller, one because it’s Coldplay and people always buy their albums. Two, because with the exception of two songs it’s one of its best albums and might even be one of the best the group has ever made.

!ere were 20 songs, eight wardrobe changes and 50,000 peo-ple present on a Saturday night. !ese numbers do not even begin to explain what went on in Cow-boys Stadium on Oct. 8.

With thousands of people screaming in a pitch-black sta-dium, Taylor Swi% appeared on a platform that rose from the ground onto the stage. Amongst thousands of cameras #ashing, white smoke billowed from the platform and she walked out wear-ing a gold, sparkly, fringe dress, singing “Sparks Fly.”

Unlike at other concerts I have been to, Swi% was actively moving throughout the night. She danced, whipped her hair around,

and o%en played guitar. Swi% was very friendly throughout the con-cert. When she sang “Dear John” she honestly looked like she was still upset as she was singing about what she went through.

Swi% de"nitely came dressed to impress, and had a number of dress changes ranging from casual dresses to fancy ball gowns. She changed wardrobes every couple of songs. Among the out"t chang-es were her traditional sparkle dresses for songs like “Better than Revenge,” “Our Song” and “Mean.” During slower songs such as “Back to December” and “Enchanted” Swi% wore a #oor length gowns that looked like they had just been purchased from Vera Wang. Dur-ing the encore, Swi% even showed her support for the Dallas Cow-boys by wearing a personalized

The Sidekick REVIEWS

jersey that said “Swi%” on the back.Her voice projected through-

out the stadium. Swi% sang her more popular songs like “You Be-long With Me” and “Mine.” But she also pleased fans by singing the lesser known songs like “Long Live”. What really got to me was how she was so casual and friendly with the fans. I genuinely felt like I had been her childhood friend and we were just having a conver-sation. It was really exciting that there was an interesting anecdote that foreshadowed each upcoming song.

!ere was not a boring mo-ment throughout the night. Swi% also kept it interesting by adding fun twists in the concert like sur-prising the audience with R&B artist B.O.B. As they belted out a duet to his song “Airplanes”, Swi% and B.O.B made fans go wild. Not only did Swi% collaborate with B.O.B, she also sang Don Henley’s song, “!e Boys of Summer” while playing the guitar. Swi% attracted fans by singing a mix of her songs “Back to December,” “You’re Not Sorry” and “Apologize” by One Republic.

For the grand "nale, Swi% sang her hit “Love Story.” She wore a full-length crème, sparkly ball gown. !is song had the biggest (and coolest) e$ects; Swi% actually got onto a platform that rose up in the air and moved her around the stadium. She had many backup dancers and "reworks going o$ in the background.

Swi%’s concert was de"nitely the best one I’ve been too in a long time. For anyone who gets the op-portunity, I highly recommend go-ing to see Taylor Swi% in concert. She gave a phenomenal perfor-mance and I give her a solid A.

Coldplay’s“Mylo Xyloto”

B+ “Sparks Fly” concert

A Dream

House

C

Ratings:

Sparks !y in Swift’s concert

Dream House more like a nightmare

ried a%erwards.!e other big-name star,

Naomi Watts, was not given much to work with, but she delivers a solid performance as neighbor Ann Patterson. Even Taylor and Claire Geare, playing the little girls Trish and Dee Dee Atenton, serve their purpose by being ex-ceedingly adorable and innocent.

!anks to crisp visual ef-fects and excellent acting, Dream House is not a total bust. In fact, in my 92 minutes in the theater I never felt the urge to check the time. Despite its many #aws, the plot is complex and makes one think.

Given the catastrophes that Dream House went through dur-ing production, it really isn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Although there are some brilliant moments (almost entirely in the "rst hour of the movie), most of Dream House is mediocre at best.

If you are just looking for a little bit of suspense, this could be for you. But if you care about the subtleties of a movie, skip Dream House or wait for Net#ix.

Rating: C

Thomas HairSta! Writer

Sarah PoliceSta! Writer

Jay CarrollSta! Writer

Taylor Swift performs in front of thousands of excited fans at Cowboys Stadium early in October.

Photo by Rachel Bush

Photo courtesy Coldplay.com

Coldplay hits the mark

entertainment page 19november 2011

What makes a band famous is not !ashy clothes or a “tough-guy” attitude; it is talent and will to succeed. A local Coppell band is known for its dedication to their instruments and themselves.

As self-taught musicians, the members have spent their high school career practicing and working hard to establish their band. Together, 2011 CHS grad-uate Je" McQuitty, senior Jett Raines, Cistercian students Stu-art Leach and Matthew Lancaster make up Seastroke.

Seastroke is an up and com-ing band introducing a new type of sound. #e use of a violin in its songs adds a nice touch to the overall quality of the songs; some may even say it forms a new genre.

“We would call ourselves melancholy pop because the mu-sic is sad and happy, sad lyrics with a pumped up sound,” Leach said.

It is with this new sound that Seastroke is reach-

ing so many fans eager to hear its music. With over 900 likes on Facebook it is easy to it is start-ing to get noticed by people ev-

erywhere. Seastroke is receiving recog-

nition from its many live perfor-mances at over four di"erent ven-ues, such as #e Lounge, and the release of their songs on iTunes. It released its $rst EP “Outside Into Eyes” in March of 2010 on iTunes along with a single from its new album “Stupid.”

“ T h e c o o p -e r a -

tion on the song Stupid was really sound,” Raines said.

Fans who have heard Seast-roke’s music are hungry for more and are eagerly awaiting the re-lease of the new album, which is to be released sometime in December. Fans share their en-thusiasm and their suspense for the new album on their iTunes reviews. Such comments include one from Samantha Navarro, a sophomore in Animation at the Kansas City Art Institute and John Paul II High School alumn.

“ I r e a l l y h o p e they go

places so I c a n keep listening,

if they’re playing near you I encourage you to go,” Navarro

said. With the new album to be

released, Seastroke is hoping to begin playing live concerts again once its violinist, McQuitty, comes home from college at the University of Texas at Austin. Still fans are not giving up hope.

“My friends and I patiently await their next show; hopefully their work will only be made bet-ter by their time away in college,

and we will get to hear more from them soon,” Navarro

said.It seems as if nothing can

stop this band from reaching its goals, even if they are sure to go

through di%cult times next summer when they graduate,

there is still hope for Seastroke. #e members are continuing to work on their album and have hopes to $nish it by December.

“Our band is in a cocoon; we haven’t quite

!ourished with our new album yet but with time it will

grow,” Lancaster said. All information for future

shows, a detailed background of the band, and merchandise can be found at Seastroke.com.

Corrina TaylorSta! Writer

Local band plays to a di!erent beat

Photo by Corrina TaylorGraphics by Lauren Ussery

(Left to right) Matthew Lancaster, Jett Raines and Stuart Leach formed the band Seastroke in early 2009 and released their !rst EP Outside into Eyes in 2010.

Photo courtesy www.Seastroke.com

“Our band is in a cocoon; we haven’t

quite !ourished with our new album yet but with time it will grow.”- Matthew Lancaster,

bassist

Be sure to check out Seastroke’s EP, Outside into Eyes!

Featuring:

Sailing

April

Cathedral and

Between Glass

sportspage 20 november 2011

Concussions making impact on rules and coachingLance McCaskeySta! Writer

During a typical hitting drill, freshman football player Chris Goldman immediately knew something was wrong.

“I went to hit this guy, he got lower than me, and his helmet hit my face mask,” said Goldman. “My head snapped back, and my own guy hit my head from the back. My brain bounced around my skull, giving me the concussion.”

In the world of contact sports, many fans come for the thrill of the big hit, crushing blow or hard collision. With hits come injuries, and most of these

injuries are head injuries.Goldman went to the

trainer to see what was wrong and take the IMPACT (immediate post-concussion assessment and cognitive testing) test.

“I actually blacked out for a second. When I came to, I was really dizzy, and knew something was wrong,” Goldman said. “I went to the trainer, and took the IMPACT. !e result came back positive, and I knew I had a concussion.”

Goldman is still feeling the e"ects of the concussion, and has not got back to his normal routine.

“Even today I still get really

drowsy,” Goldman said. “I get an occasional headache, especially when I do my schoolwork. [Yvette Carson] the head trainer sent out an e-mail to all my teachers, just letting them know what I’m dealing with. !ey all understand that it is harder for me to do the work because of the pain.”

Because of recent discoveries in health and science, governing bodies at every level in contact sports, such as football and hockey, are instituting new rules to protect players from concussions.

“We emphasize how to do it correctly,” o"ensive line coach Clint Schnell said. “!e fundamentals, not ducking your head, things like that. Teaching them the proper technique to protect them.”

!e o"ensive and defensive lines are the areas where the most head to head contact takes place. !is means this is a place at a high risk for head injuries.

!e National Football League (NFL) blazed the trail with systems such as the IMPACT test with rules that are similar. If a player gets concussion symptoms, they must sit out until a trainer clears them to return. !e University Interscholastic League (UIL) took it to the next level by

including the IMPACT into the system.

Another major movement that the NFL has started is scienti#c research into how concussions can a"ect players long term.

“One of the things they found, is that players who sustain multiple concussions actually have a shorter life expectancy,” Health Science teacher Ray Pool said. “!e average life span of an NFL player is around 63-65. Compared to general public that is quite low.”

!is movement has also made its way to the high school level. !e IMPACT test is a requirement for every team in Texas, and doubles the required time to sit out for concussions a$er the #rst one.

Hockey has also changed drastically due to the recent scienti#c research that will help make the sport safer for players a. While not as popular as football, the collisions can be just as large and tolling on the body.

Jack Skaggs, member of the CHS hockey team and sophomore at Cistercian Prep Academy, su"ered a concussion this past season against Frisco.

“I was cutting across the middle, and the defense man

made a pass to my feet. I put my head down to #nd the puck. !e next thing I remember was looking up at the ceiling %at on my back,” Skaggs said. “!e trainer examined me, and diagnosed me with a concussion.”

A$er diagnosis, Skaggs went to a doctor, who told him it was a minor concussion, and that once he passed the IMPACT test he was released to play. Within two weeks, Skaggs was back on the ice.

“It was unfortunate that I missed a game the next week, but it taught me to keep my head up, and play with caution,” Skaggs said. “Hopefully I won’t ever have to go through something like this again.”

Head injuries such as Skaggs are unfortunately a common occurrence in hockey. Players and coaches are taking notice and want to #nd a way to limit these life changing injuries.

“Hockey is a tough sport. Players get hurt. Over time, players accumulate injuries, and they can seriously impact their lives down the road,” Aaron Gaunt, Coppell Cowboys JV hockey coach said. “!e worst injury you get is a concussion in hockey. !ere are so many collisions that second impact is a serious concern.”

High school hockey rules now limit head contact, with suspensions that can last up to a season. Equipment is also taking strides forward in an e"ort to protect the players. Helmets have moved from so$, nonabsorbent foam, to a contact absorbing gel. Shin pads and elbow pads have also switched from a so$ foam into hard plastic and gel.

“We have to make sure the players know what they’re doing. We emphasize the fundamentals, Making sure they keep their heads up, and are aware of the dangers of the game,” Gaunt said. “We also teach them how to hit properly so they don’t endanger any other players or themselves when making a play.”

Cowboys’ playo! hopes come down to "nal week

Photo by Ivy Hess

In order to avoid sustaining long term injurues in high contact sports such as football, Texas UIL has passed new laws requiring injured athleltes to complete mandated rehabilitation programs before they can return to the sport.

Photo by Ivy HessPhoto by Rowan Khazendar

Sammy RobbenSports Editor

When the 2011 football sea-son rolled around, the Coppell Cowboys were ready to answer their critics and prove that they were as good as last year’s team. But as their season started to un-fold it became clear that this sea-son would be nothing like the last.

It has been said over and over again; last season was his-toric for Coppell High School with an undefeated district season and a successful playo" run that ended in a devastating one-point loss to the Euless Trinity Trojans in the regional #nals. Last year the question on everyone’s mind was, are we going to be state champi-ons or not? !is year, people are asking themselves, will we even be going to playo"s?

For the Cowboys #rst four games of the season, they were unstoppable beating everyone with ease, but Denton Guyer was the #rst of many teams to cause the Cowboys successful season to come to a screeching halt. During the fourth quarter of the game, the Cowboys senior quarterback Jake Larson, injured his knee it what seemed to be a season end-ing blow.

!e loss of their senior star

meant big changes for the Cow-boys. With junior Tyler Zabojnik and sophomore Connor Wilson taking over for Larson as quar-terback, the coaches decided to change their o"ense to feature their skills.

In response to the changes in the Cowboys o"ense, there were also chang-es made to the C o w -

b oy s

coach-ing sta" as o"en-sive coordinator and quarterback coach Mike Dormandy was replaced by assistant head coach and inside receiver coach Jay Jones.

!ough all these changes have had a big role in shaping the season, the biggest di"erence between this season and last sea-son has nothing to do with who is playing quarterback or the coach who is calling the plays, it is the

people sitting in the stands. At Coppell High School

success is expected, and winning is the only option, but when the Cowboys started losing players,

coaches and games, t h e y

start-ed losing fans as well.

Last year support for the Cowboys was unquestionable, just like their playo" eligibil-ity. !is year with the Cowboys playo" future on the rocks, their fans have started to lose support for the Cowboys and all because

of this so called “bad” season. But maybe the problem has more to do with the Coppell’s perception of bad, and less to do with actual team.

We assume that because we are number four or #ve in dis-trict, or because of the fact that

we aren’t a for sure playo" con-tender, we are a bad

team. But what we never thing

about is t h e

s i x t h , seventh and

eighth ranked teams and I bet

they would tell you that it could be worse. !ough the stats might

show the Cowboys as a team with limited success, behind the num-bers there is a team that has pushed through numerous obstacles and challenges.

!e lack of support became evident when the

Cowboys had a major game on the same night as the World Se-ries game 7. Just a week before, the Cowboys lost what had been expected to be an easy win over Justin Northwest and even though the Cowboys game against the Keller High School Indians could have de#ned their playo" future, many Coppell High School fans chose the Rangers over the Cow-boys.

Even with a small amount of support, the Cowboys defeat-ed the Indians easily, continuing their journey to the post season playo"s.

!e Cowboys have survived a season very di"erent from the one they intended and hoped to have. It was a season #lled with injuries, changes and unex-pected losses that have no doubt

pushed the Cowboys to their limits. Even through all their obstacles, the Cowboys have made it clear that

Cowboys #ght never dies.

sports page 21november 2011

In! a town where! Fri-day!night lights shine bright and trophies "ll the halls of the high school, student-athletes feel the pressures to!succeed!and perform at extreme levels.

State Championships, col-lege scholarships and school re-cords are expensive, not neccesar-ily in terms of money, but because of the pressures young athletes face to perform.!Playing sports in Coppell is not something taken lightly, as practice hours can be overwhelming and! workouts! ex-hausting. By the time youth enter high school, the sports can some-times even mimic college or pro-fessional level intensity.!

To many players, the pres-sures to succeed start with simply getting on the roster. With hun-dreds of students in each gradu-ating class, tryouts are o#entimes packed with eager athletes com-peting for a spot on the team. Even though o#en leads to Cop-pell teams being “the cream of the crop”, it isn’t always fair for play-ers who don’t obsess on improv-ing their game to not even have a shot.

“In a place like Coppell, if you don’t play a club sport or are on a select team, you really don’t have a shot at making the [school] team let alone actual playing time” said sophomore Seth Mar-golis. “Sometimes its like, if you haven’t played this sport since you were eight, you don’t have the talent to be on the team and that’s just not fair.”

A football player himself, Margolis also puts pressure on himself to play well on the "eld. Other than not wanting to let down his team mates, players like Seth have an undermined fear of having a “rough game”. In a place where sports are so important to the community, players feel as if they are expected to shine at every possible moment.

“Even without the pressure of the coach and fans, I don’t want to disappoint the team”, said Mar-golis. “Being on top of your game is how you win, and thats our main goal on game day”.

One can’t help but won-der, what about the love of the game?!When players become nar-row minded with the goal set only on winning, the love of the game is o#en overlooked. Instead of fo-cusing on nurturing the competi-tive spirit and enjoying the sport, games become vicious with one word in mind: win.

Coaches in Coppell and similar schools are! certainly! not immune to the pressures either. Just ask Coach Stricker, the head coach of the girls soccer team at Coppell High School.

With a state championship and dozens of district wins un-der his belt, Stricker knows what it’s like to have high aspirations. However, he believes that the in-vestments of time and money on athletic programs should not be the sole reason for kids to feel ob-ligated to excel.

“Most of the players have the "nacial means to play club sports or get specialized "tness or speed training. When the par-

ents and the kids are investing so much time in their sport results are expected.! When winning is expected pressure increases.” Stricker remarked.

Another source of pres-sure Stricker sees is that placed because of college scholarships. With numerous players being of-fered scholarships to prestigious schools each year, it’s easy for ath-letes to feel anxious and pressured to get one themselves.!

“Student athletes that are playing for just a scholarship rarely make it and if they do they usually quit playing! a#er their "rst year of college”, Stricker noted. !“$e players that play for the love of the game and the play-ers who train because they want to be the best player they can are usually the players that play at the next level.!

More and more nowadays, students who originally joined a team as a fun extracurricular activity are being thrown into an intense training program where weakness isn’t tolerated.! In the long run, these pressures can take a serious toll on athletes’ charac-ter.!

Successful coaches have to remind themselves on a daily basis that we are here to man-age kids to maximize their ability on the "eld and help teach them life lessons along the way to help them succeed at the next level of life» Stricker said. !«As soon as we lose focus [on enjoying the game] just get focused on winning, the pressure mounts at an exponen-tial rate on ourselves and that transcends to the kids.

Athletes pushed to their limitsKristen ShepardSta! Writer

After a strong regular season, the cross-country teams looked to con-tinue their success in the post-season at the District Championships. The varsity girls took second place, and earned their spot at the Re-gional Championships in Lubbock on November 5th. The varsity boys took 5th, the j.v. girls took 2nd, and the j.v. guys also took 2nd.

Both the CHS junior varsity and varsity swim teams continue to domi-nate in the water as the season progresses. Both squads clocked in at !rst overall in the both the Temple meet as well as the annual Belton Invitational on September 15th. The squads will continue to compete in smaller meets until the big District meet on the 28th of January.

Sixteen times, the CHS tennis team has progressed to the regional tour-nament, but never have they progressed to the state tournament. This weekend, the team will travel down to the Rose Park Tennis Center in Abilene to try and win the Class 5A Region I tournament. By defeating Southlake Carroll, Plano West and many others and winning the re-gional tournament the tennis team will guarantee a spot in their !rst state tournament.

Photo by Jodie Woodward

Head football coach Joe McBride coaches his players from the sidelines at the game vs. Justin Northwest on Oct. 21

Photo by Brian Hwu

Photo by Rachel Bush

Photo by Rachel Bush

Photo by Brian Hwu

New boys soccer coach Chad Rakestraw comes to Cop-pell looking to carry the pro-gram’s winning tradition.

“I love the competition that is required, the skill that it re-quired and the team atmosphere,” Rakestraw said.

Rakestraw is entering his sixth year of coaching. He previ-ously worked at Denton Guyer for three years and Justin Northwest two years. Rakestraw knew the boys soccer program at Coppell has a great tradition and provides an opportunity to compete for the state championship.

Coppell ISD Athletics Di-rector John Crawford believes Rakestraw will make Coppell a

very special place to play soccer.“(Rakestraw) came to us

very highly recommended (from Northwest). He runs a disciplined program,” Crawford said. “$e at-mosphere and culture created by Rakestraw is attractive for partici-pation.”

To date, Rakestraw de-scribes his "rst few weeks at CHS “awesome.”

“It feels comfortable and welcome,” Rakestraw said. “Ev-eryone makes you feel like you’ve been here for a while.”

With a good group of kids overall, Rakestraw has seen a lot of leaders step out in these "rst couple of weeks and is excited for the turnout. He emphasizes changes to the program will come as he continues to work with the boys.

“(Rakestraw) expects the soccer players to be good exam-ples for our peers, so grades and attitude are really important. He works us hard so that we can be-come better players,” sophomore Corey Oesch said. “He is a very respectable and reasonable per-son to work with, and he loves the game and holds mutual respect with players.”

Rakestraw’s "rst season with the Cowboys begins in January.

“Every coach has their dif-ferent way of doing things,”

Rakestraw said. “My philosophy is to shape and mold our players into better young men

in the classroom and on the "eld.”

Rakestraw sets new goals for soccerChristina BurkeSta! Writer

Chad Rakestraw

Fall sports windingdown successful season

Because of the many tasks they are required to do, the trainers often spend more time at the game than any player, coach or fan.

“Any athletic game we are there doing our job, freshman, JV and varsity,” Carson said. “A 12 hour day is a short day for us.”

Though it can be tiring, the trainers sincerely love what they do. The group of about ten students comes in day after day to serve the athletes of CHS. New Tech sophomore Erin Gil-len takes pride in her role as an athletic trainer as it gives her a chance to see what a possible career in the field might look

like.“I really en-

joy what I do with the athletic train-ers,” Gillen said. “I like being around everyone and get-ting to know the players and coach-es. This will re-ally help me out in college because this is something that I want to pe-ruse. Everything that I do now (as a student trainer) is stuff that I could do in college.”

The train-ers of CHS work to make sure ev-eryone remains healthy and safe. Though their work may go unnoticed to some, the ath-letes appreciate all

that they do.

sportspage 22 november 2011

Jenner and Lister are both making great strides on the foot-ball !eld. Jenner, a !rst year starter, has rushed for 500 yards and six touchdowns through the !rst !ve games of the season. It is clear that Jenner’s explosive play in his !rst season is rooted in motivation that stems from some-thing deeper than just football.

“Jha’Kyric was an athlete. He constantly worked so hard.” Jenner said. “He took full advan-tage of the time he had to prog-ress as the athlete he wanted to be. Now, since he isn’t here, I feel called to work twice as hard as be-fore.”

Lister, a starter since his sophomore season, grabbed his !rst touchdown of the year against the Saginaw Roughrid-ers. He too has a new approach to both football and life in gen-eral.

“One thing I realized through Jha’Kyric’s passing was that you never know if today will be your last day,” Lister said. “I want to live every day – and play every game – as if it were my last.”

Other players have similar views on the situation.

“"is has really opened a lot of people’s eyes about how fragile life is,” junior Alex Kulig said.

Jenner and Lister each con-sidered Nixon as not just a friend, but a brother. Both players agree

Football starters inspired by loss of friend Nixon

While the athletes at Cop-pell High School train during the day and compete at night, one group of students is always with them. The CHS athletic trainers put countless hours of work in to ensure that the stu-dent athletes stay hydrated, safe and healthy.

Under the direction of Yvette Carson and Barry Jones, a small group of students work from sun up to sun down to provide help and support to the freshman, junior varsity and varsity student ath-letes.

“[The train-ers] do first aid and help us handle in-juries,” Jones said. “They are basically our right hand and are capable of do-ing just about any-thing that we need them to do.”

Jones, a grad-uate of Texas Chris-tian University and the University of Arkansas, was also an athletic trainer when he attended Longview High School and does not regret his deci-sion to become one.

“I wasn’t good enough in sports in high school, and the thought of still being able to be around sports and

being in medicine was very ap-pealing to me,” Jones said. “I haven’t looked back since.”

With their prior knowledge of what it is like to be a sports trainer, Jones and Carson help many of the student trainers learn the ropes of athletic training and how to react to a situation.

“"ey have been taught all these skills, so if someone is hurt-ing they have been taught the proper protocol we use to help work on that problem to get that player back in the game

Athletic trainers ensure healthy players on the !eldas soon as possible,” Carson said. “"ey are responsible for hydra-tion but there is a lot more to it than that.”

Sophomore Connor La-sater is in her second year of being a student trainer. A fan of sports with a heart for helping others, Lasater enjoys her time as a student trainer and hopes to possibly pursue a career in sports medicine.

“I decided to become a trainer because I love helping others and love watching sports, so being a trainer I get to do both,” Lasater said. “Something that a lot of people don’t know about trainers is that we show up before the players and are al-ways the last to leave.”

Before the players arrive to the game, the athletic trainers are responsible for preparing all !rst

aid kits, setting up water stations and assembling some of the equipment used by the players. A#er the game is over, the train-ers must pack up their equipment and make sure all the players are safe.

CHS athletic trainers junior Zoe Cacheria, junior Chandler Bateman, and junior Austin Pang prepare water bottles and equipment before the Coppell vs. Arlington game.

Caroline CarterSta! Writer

Photo by Rowan Khazendar

Photo courtesy of Susie ShahsavariAlthough Jha’Kyric Nixon’s death was a devastating loss, his memory lives on as he continues to positively in!uence the choices of his friends.

that there is a strengthened brotherhood within the Coppell football team. Jenner and List-er, close friends themselves, are forced to rely on others.

With di$cult games, in-cluding Keller Central, on the upcoming schedule for the Cowboys, the team will have to play inspired football in order

to come away victorious. Now more than ever, players are able to e%ortlessly !nd a source of inspiration through their close friend who no longer is in the stands rooting them on.

“I do it for him. I play for him,” Lister said. “He always told me he would be here watching me. Before every game I picture

him up in the stands cheering me on. It’s an even better feel-ing to know he has a better seat for watching the game now than anyone in the stands does.”

Jenner approaches his games in his own way.

“I pray before every game. I pray that I’ll make God proud, and in addition that I’ll make Jha’Kyric

proud. I miss my friend – and I always will – but I work hard and keep pressing on,” Jenner said.

It is this sense of diligence, commitment and inspiration – resulting from a love for a friend no longer here – that Jenner, List-er and the Cowboys are using to hopefully make this a season to remember.

continued from pg. 1

sports page 23november 2011

Senior Kierra Holst has committed to Oklahoma University to play volleyball next year, a school that wasn’t initially on her ra-dar.

“I wasn’t considering them at !rst and then they o"ered and I took a visit there,” Holst said, “#ey have a great campus and a great volleyball team.”

Oklahoma is currently one of the top 25 teams in the nation and !nished last year breaking the top 20 in the polls.

S e n i or s Sarah Arnold and Kristin Dickerson have been friends and teammates since the !$h grade, and now

they are

leaders of the varsity squad,

propelling the Cow-girls’ six game winning

streak.Dickerson started her

volleyball career in the !$h grade playing on a club team.

From then on she continued to play on the Coppell Middle School East team and other non-school related club teams. Ar-nold had a similar start, joining Dickerson’s club team in the sixth grade and also playing with her while she was on the

CMSE volleyball team.Both girls agree that

being teammates since sixth grade and get-ting the chance to play alongside each other during seventh and

eighth grade has made them even closer as team-mates and friends.

“Being team-mates with Kristin has not changed my relationship with

her one bit,” Arnold said. “Volley-ball is something we have in com-mon and that we share. I know that because of volleyball Kristin will always know me better than most people.”

Dickerson is currently serv-ing as the Cowgirls defensive spe-cialist or libero. In this position she is responsible for making sure the other team doesn’t score ini-tially, but she must then pass the ball to her o"ensive teammates. As a leader Arnold says Dickerson is a great leader for the team.

“I would consider Kristin’s leadership unique,” Arnold said. “While she doesn’t scream at ev-eryone, she remains very intense and focused. She always has posi-tive things to say to the girls and leads the team by example.”

Arnold is the communica-tor of the team because she is the starting setter for the Cowgirls. As setter, her job is to direct the team on the court and set up the o"ense. Dickerson says the team really looks to Arnold when lead-ership is needed.

“Sarah is a determined lead-er,” Dickerson said. “When she sets a goal for herself she works hard to accomplish it. #e team really looks up to her. She’s very strong willed and is willing to do whatever needs to be done to achieve our goals.”

Earlier in the season Arnold su"ered a low ankle sprain during practice, re-sulting in her not being able to play some of the team’s district games. To make up for Sarah’s injury, the team had to buckle down to try to make up for the loss of the setter.

“Because Sarah was hurt we all had to pick up our inten-sity in practice in order to make up for her being hurt,” Dickerson said. “We had to stay focused and keep working hard so that when she was better we could pick right back up.”

Now that Sarah has recov-ered from her injury, she and Dickerson are trying to keep the team on track to take on the last part of the regular season and upcoming playo"s. Both girls have con!dence in the rest of the team because of the hard work and dedication they display on the court.

“I think that the team has had a major breakthrough,” Ar-nold said. “Around mid-season we had a hard time getting in a rhythm and playing together as a team, however, we all are learn-ing to trust each other more. #is will only help us perform to our abilities the rest of the season.”

For both of these girls vol-leyball is a

part of their lives, but now as college applications are being completed they have decided not to play volleyball in college and pursue a more normal col-

lege experience.“Having Kristin [Dick-

erson] and Sarah [Arnold] on the team is really great for team morale,” junior volleyball player Jordan Jones said. “Since they are such good friends and they joke around in practice

it keeps every-one in a good mood while at the same time keeping everyone fo-cused on our goal as a

team.”

Senior duo sets each other up for success

The Coppell Cowgirls volley-ball team has done an outstand-ing job this year and has had 3 three verbal commitments to uni-versities, two of which are top 25 schools in NCAA rankings.

Junior Chiaka Ogbogu has decided to take her talents to the University of Califor-nia-Berkeley. California is currently a top !ve school in the nation despite having a young team.

“I decided on them because they’re not just a good volleyball school, they also have good academics,” Ogbogu said “ I wanted to go where I could win a champi-onship and get educated.”

Ogbogu has been on varsity since her sophomore year and is known to her team-mates as a gi$ed player.

“She has so much natural ability and knows the game well,” junior Cassidy Pick-rell said, “She’s really supportive and stays positive on the court.”

Her attitude on and o" the court is sure to get her far with the California-Berk-ley Golden Bears when she arrives in 2013.

A$er passing up on the opportunity to graduate last year, Senior Bear Bass will be attending St. Mary’s University in San Anto-nio, arriving as a junior in college.

“I liked St. Mary’s because it !ts in with my plan academically since I won’t have to transfer for graduate school and I really liked the coach,” Bass said.

Bass started out on Junior Varsity her freshman year before being moved up dur-ing the season to varsity.

Underclassmen Cassidy Pick-rell, Erica Bohannon and Megan Kennedy are also considering of-fers from colleges before they en-ter their senior year.

VolleyballCommittments

Chris ReaganSta! Writer

Chase PorterSta! Writer

Varsity girls prepare to compete at next level

Junior Chiaka Ogbogu (right) keeps her eye on the ball as teammate Sarah Arnold moves forward to hit it. Ogbogu will join the University of California-Berkely team in 2013.

Photo by Jodie Woodward

Photos by Brian Hwu and Jodie Woodward

Sarah Arnold

Kristen Dickerson

the sidekick. .page 24 november 2011

Across1. Type of fruit made into a sauce commonly served with turkey 3. Term given to the day after Thanksgiving, known as one of the busiest shopping days of the year 4. Team who defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the snow on Thanksgiving in 1993 and also this year’s Thanksgiving opponent 5. In addition to the Dallas Cowboys, this NFL team plays every Thanksgiving 6. Corporate sponsor of annual Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City 8. Where the Pilgrims celebrated the !rst Thanksgiving 10. Issued annually by the President to the National Thanksgiving Turkey

Down2. Annual event the week of Thanksgiv-ing in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square to begin the Christmas season 7. Annual 5k and 8 mile run in hosted by the YMCA in Dallas and nationwide on Thanksgiving9. President who proclaimed Thanks-giving to be observed on the fourth Thursday of November

Crossword Look at the clues and !ll in the blanks with the best word. Sudoku

Fill up the grid with the numbers 1-9. Numbers can only be used once in a row, column, and box.

Find the answers on coppellstudentmedia.com

Boggle your brain

October 31It’s Halloween and librarian Jamey Dubbs is dressed up to show some spirit for this festive holiday. Photo by Rachel Bush.

October 12A volunteer from the Mitchell Environmental group comes every week to water the plants on the side of the stairway. Many CHS students and teachers assume these plants are fake but in fact they are real. Photo by Rowan Khazendar.

October 14The cafeteria sta" held a special lun-cheon to celebrate long time cafeteria worker Barbara Strill’s retirement. Photo by Jack Ficklen.

October 6Junior Valentina Vesga is happy to vol-unteer to give blood at the annual CHS blood donation thursday morning. Photo by Rachel Bush.