Amazing Spiderman disappoints

Summer construction

NBA Playoffs

SummertimeFun and Games

Felix Varela Sr. High School * 15255 S.W. 96 St., Miami, FL 33196

vol.13 issue 4 / / june ‘14

Hits and misses

Varela is getting a makeover! Tab-lets for students, shiny new Pro-methean boards for teachers and Wi-Fi connectivity for all. Welcome to the Grid.

Dear Michael Bay, Please don’t bring Dinobots into your Transform-er universe. Sincerely, All Trans-former fans.

Here’s hoping Hollywood doesn’t mess up really good YA Novels, i.e. The Fault in Our Stars, The Maze Runner, The Giver, etc.

Summer Break - ONLY 10 weeks spent binge watching House of Cards and drowning in hours of Watch_Dogs!

Summer Break - 10 weeks spent binge watching House of Cards and drowning in hours of Watch_Dogs!

Dear Michael Bay, Please leave the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe alone. Sincerely, All TMNT fans.

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volume 13issue 4

June ‘14

Editorial BoardMANAGING EDITOR

Cj SalcedoSECTION EDITORS

Taylor DaleyDavid Murray

Christian Schlegel

StaffersJordan ClineAlec DiLella

AdviserElizabeth Cardenas

Editorial PolicyThe Viper Vibe is the student news-paper of Felix Varela Senior High (15255 SW 96 St. Miami, FL, 33196). It is an open forum for student expres-sion. The opinions expressed in the publication do not reflect the official opinions or policies of the school. The Viper Vibe welcomes letters to the editor, but requires that they be signed and reserves the right to reject, edit and condense letters. The staff and davisor can be contacted at 305-752-7900 or thevipervibe@gmail.com

AdsThe Viper Vibe solicits advertising but reserves the right to reject any material deemed obscene as to minors, defamatory or materially and substantially disruptive of school activities.

The Editor Says: Thanks

F r o m t h e E d i t o r s V i e w p o i n t s

It’s been a pretty in-teresting year. The sum-mer of 2013 was a sad one with the announce-ment of Varela’s journal-ism class being cut from the schedule, leaving this hopeful editor heartbro-ken. Thankfully, we didn’t give up. We pulled through and kept fight-ing, no matter what anybody told us. Part of

that is all thanks to our

supporters: you guys. All our readers have been our motivation to keep going, and we couldn’t be more grateful. This issue is dedicated to all of those who kept reading and always sup-ported us. Have a great summer and I’ll see you next year. #wemadeit

Cj SalcedoManaging Editor

experience summer, don’t just live itWe Say:

Cover artwork byMeghan Espinosa

A wise man from Toronto once said “You only live once.” Now, what was once a simple phrase meant to inspire people to live a good life has now turned into coworkers and fam-ily making really brash decisions and merely saying “YOLO.” Thankfully, Toronto-born rapper Drake publicly apologized for unleashing the “YO-LO-plague” upon the innocent and impressionable minds of humanity. Even though this “YOLO” craze has reached some seriously unsafe heights, the phrase does carry a lot of truth with it. You only have one life to live, live it to the fullest. Obviously, be safe while doing it. What exactly do we mean by this? Try to experience an entirely differ-ent kind of summer. Something that is really far from the norm. Don’t spend another summer sleeping in until noon and waking up to binge-watch some-thing on Netflix. Go out and live. Try to travel somewhere and experience everything that place has to offer. Eat

whatever those locals eat and partici-pate in local events. If you can’t afford to travel, drive up to Miami Beach and just hang out. Go to a restaurant and order something you’ve never tried before, just to say you’ve tried it. Go watch some strange foreign art house film at a small local theater. Heck, go on some boat tours. Don’t follow the same boring routine that everyone else is following. Break away from the mundane and live your life. Listen, we could only sit here and tell you what to do. It’s up to you to decide how you want to live out the remainder of your existence. Have a great summer.

What do you think?

Let us know!

We’d love to hear from you

Write to us at:

thevipervibe@gmail.com

photos by Fox-Mar

Based on the 1998 movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, The Wedding Singer is a play about Robbie Hart who works as the lead singer for a band that plays at wed-dings. Julia Sullivan is a waitress at one of the weddings where he per-forms. Robbie is just getting over be-ing dumped by his girlfriend and Julia is engaged to be married to a man that is very self-centered and unfaithful. Throughout the play both Robbie and Julia grow closer together and realize that they are pining over people who aren’t worth the energy. The movie was later turned into a musical on Broadway and Varela’s dra-ma department presented its version to the school April 30-May 2. “The whole month of March was dance rehearsal and April was songs, blocking and dance reviews in be-tween,” said junior Ryan Bauta, who played Sammy. The set was a tacky mix of colors, but it was fitting since the play takes place in the 80s. With movable walls and set pieces, the design worked well with the play. The acting in the play was great even with the small minor problems like the microphone not functioning properly. There were a few flubs on lines and lyrics; however, the rhythm on stage flowed easily among the actors. “Because the band follows you, if you mess up on a lyric, they keep vamping until you get your lyric right,” said senior Jeanfranco Cardentey, who played Robbie.

One interesting aspect about the play was that the audience to the “weddings” was not only on stage but also in the audience in the front of the stage bringing the acting out into the auditorium seats. Cardentey really stood out since he had the most stage time; however, the audience never felt like he was tak-ing over. He blended in well and made the play feel more like an ensemble piece. The school’s jazz band was on stage during the whole performance. Playing the score for the musical, the band was hidden in the back part of the stage covered by a screen. “Having a live band is always bet-ter for the actor because it gives you more energy on stage,” said Bauta. Varela’s drama department said goodbye to seniors on the last day of the play. “It feels a little bittersweet due to the fact that it’s my last show. I got to give it my all,” said Cardentey. “It’s sweet because I got to play an awe-some role and just have fun on stage. But on that last night it was bitter because it was my last night and my last show performing on this stage.” The Wedding Singer was an excep-tional play with talented performers and music from Varela’s Jazz Band. “It was an amazing show to end my high school career with,” said Car-dentey.

BY Taylor DaleySection EditorIG: captainjamaica24

4 t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m

N e w s A r o u n d V a r e l a

Drama revisits a 90s classic

Summer Construction

photos by Taylor Daley

In the fall of 2013, Mi-ami-Dade County voted for the improvement of schools through the Bond Referendum. While students here at Varela saw the beginnings of the change when the school put in building-wide Wi-Fi, most of the money allo-cated to Varela will be used this summer in different construction projects. This summer teachers are being asked to take everything they need with them, from per-sonal items to planning materials because the main building will be closed for construction. All summer school classes will be in Building 11. Since Varela is a newer school (opened in 2000), construction is geared mostly towards upgrades and general fixing.1. Veteranary Magnet For the past 14 years, a main complaint in the Art hallway has been the smell from the Vet area. Hopefully, things will change for next year. Vet teacher, Ms. Yleana Escobar, has been working dil-igently to find homes for all the dogs currently housed in the ken-nels so that construction workers can get to work. Plans for the program include a separate air conditioner so that smells can be more contained and new floors that will be easier to clean.2. Media Center Plans for the media center involve full renovations. Databas-

es will be completely digital. There will be two new computer labs and a conference area for teleconferenc-ing. All new books purchased will be e-books.3. General The school in general will be get-ting fixed up. There will be painting in order to spruce up the buildings. The air conditioners will be getting new chillers. Hopefully, this will cor-rect the problems we have had in the past with temperatures varying from room to room. The biggest upgrades will be in

technology. Every classroom will be equipped with an interactive white-board. Teachers are being encour-aged to take professional develop-ment classes over the summer to learn how to use the new Promethe-an boards that have been delivered. All overhead projectors are being donated. Next year, Varela will also be a Bring Your Own Device school. Many students will be getting free tablets. This makes way for student activities and assignments to include a technological component.

A r o u n d V a r e l a N e w s

By Taylor Daleysection editorIG: captainjamaica24

A night fit for the gods

story by Cj Salcedophotos by Fox-Mar

Seniors fled to mythological Greece on Saturday May 17, for the 2014 senior prom. This year, the theme was Mount Olympus, as seniors danced among the gods, complete with living statue and a foun-tain. “I really enjoyed the theme this year,” said Jocelyn Rodriguez. The night was also filled with food, fun and a lot of dancing, especially from the Prom King Nick Cuervo and Queen Amanda Dominguez. “My favorite moment was the crowning of the king and queen. I thought it was really cute that they were really boyfriend and girlfriend,” said Rodriguez. Activities Director, Ms. Felicia Christin, hired a decorator to transform Jungle Island’s Treetop Ball-

room into a Grecian wonderland. With over 650 tickets sold, the $75 per ticket price not only pro-

vided food, decorations and entertain-ment, but each attendee received a

Varela blanket. “It was a lot better than I expected,” said Carlos Rodri-guez.

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Parade of Lights The lively sound of alternative electronic and indie rock music has given birth to thousands of young aspiring artists looking to find a way into the niche and get their powerful music heard. As a musician myself, I can relate to how utterly difficult it is to sound different than the thousands of others competing for the same spotlight. Although I can’t refer to the rest of the alternative electronic music genre as a comparison, I have heard Parade of Lights’ EP Golden, their debut album. The powerful combination of electronically-created instruments, beats and vocals make for songs that without a doubt took many hours to coordinate and compose. The songs are reminiscent of groups such as MGMT, and Imagine Dragons.

Nina Nesbitt If you’re looking for a feel-good, bright and lively style of music, look no further than Nina Nesbitt, a UK star with a fan base growing seemingly exponentially. The star of her own show, Nesbitt uses relatively clean and natural instrumentals to back up her singing, which normally remains equally clean and undistorted. “Statues,” a song from her self-titled EP, stands out as an especially emotional song in her list of otherwise bright and cheerful ones. However, my favorite of the bunch remains “Boy.” This song starts out with an aggressive, somewhat rebellious tone and transitions about a third of the way through into a calming yet uplifting sort of sound. If you’re a fan of individual musicians like Taylor Swift, Nina Nesbitt is someone you might want to look into to see a fresh face in the music industry.

Bad Seed Rising For a group reminiscent of punk-rock bands of the early 2000s and mid-to-late 90s, Bad Seed Rising accurately recreates the sound I was so used to hearing back when I was younger; and believe me, it was a great sound. Bands like Paramore, who were relevant back in the times that seem to have inspired Bad Seed Rising’s style, essentially defined American Punk-Rock. Bad Seed Rising’s aggressive, rebellious-sounding Charm City album fails to deviate far from the original sound of the genre. Personally, I enjoy hearing refreshing revivals of music genres long thought dead and gone with the rising in popularity of synthesizers and artificially-created music like that of Skrillex or Panic at the Disco. It takes special skill and dedication to pick up instruments and form a group to have fun and make music, but it takes talent, above all else, to make music that is good and enjoyable. This is a group that I absolutely would not switch radio stations to avoid.

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reviews By alec Dilellastaff Reporter@alecdilella

FUN

IN

Movies

Ten weeks of no school and no work sounds awesome, but all of that time can be pretty boring if not spent wisely. Thankful-ly, we at The Viper Vibe devised this list of some fun things that you can do over the summer.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Old meets the new in Brian Singer’s latest adventure starring The Uncanny X-Men. The story here is future Wolverine goes back to the year 1979 to stop all sentinel robots from eradicating all mutants in the future.

The young Charles Xavier played by James McAVoy, left, meets his future self played by Patrick Stewart in X-Men: Days of Future Past. photo with permission Marvel Studios/MCT

Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt in a scene from Guardians of the Galaxy. photo with permission Marvel Studios/MCT

Jonah Hill, left and Channing Tatum, right with Ice Cube confront the bad guys in 22 Jump Street. photo with permission Glen Wilson/MCT

22 Jump Street - Time to learn your Miranda rights! Jenko and Schmidt are back again, and this time they’re going to college! After a new drug craze hits campuses, everyone’s favorite narks are undercover and on it.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name, Guardians stars an unlikely team of extraterrestrials misfits led by Star-Lord, played by Parks and Recreation star Chris Pratt. The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.

concerts

Looking for a fun way to incorporate music, fun and complete your social activity quota for the whole summer? Why not go to a concert? Check out Fall Out Boy and Paramore at the Cruzan Am-phitheatre in West Palm Beach for their Monumentour. The show is at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 25. Tickets are available at LiveNation.com. Sitting on the lawn will cost about $33. Only a few weeks away from the “Best Day Ever,” there is so much to look forward to in the 2014 Vans Warped Tour. Billed as a festival, over 100 artists from different genres appear on several stages. Expect to see bands such as The Summer Set, Of Mice and Men, Chelsea Grin and MC Chris. Their South Florida stop will be Saturday, July 26, at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. If you need addi-tional information, go to warpedtour.com and go the warped 101 section. Tickets are available at LiveNation.com, with general admission prices around $50. Fans of Panic! At The Disco will be happy to hear that their The Gospel Tour is making a stop in South Florida at the Mizner Park Ampitheater in Boca Raton on Friday, Au-gust 15. Tickets are available for $53 at ticketmaster.com.

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SUMMER

TV

video gamesDestiny Platform(s): PS3, PS4, X360, XBO - Halo developers, Bun-gie, return with an MMO-shooter that is garnering a lot of anticipa-tion. The game will bring in many different elements to the genre and will be released on both next-gen and current-gen.

Ramon Rodriguez stars in Gang Related on Fox. photo with permission Fox/MCT

Gang Related FOX - This RZA-produced drama stars Ramon Rodriguez as an LAPD officer, raised by one of the most dangerous gangs in the area. His struggle between juggling both his work and personal life really makes this a must-watch for 2014.

Crossbones NBC - John Malkovich stars as a white-goateed Blackbeard in this swashbuckling adventure from Neil Cross. Like Black Sails, the series from Cross is set around New Providence Island and the pirates’ fight for treasure.

photo courtesy of NBC Universal

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Girl Meets World Disney Chan-nel - Boy Meets World fans rejoice! The sequel all fans have been waiting for is coming and it couldn’t be here soon enough! Girl Meets World tells the story of Corey’s daughter experiencing her adolescence the same way her father did in the 90s.

Watch_Dogs Platform(s): Win, PS3, PS4, X360, XBO - Ubisoft’s latest adventure takes gamers to Chicago

as Aiden Pierce, a skilled grey hat hacker, making the choice to fight against the law or for it. The game fea-ture an open world, filled with many missions and an

ability to hack items in the virtual world

Mario Kart 8 Plat-form(s): Wii U - An-ti-gravity cars, boats and hang gliders? Sign me up! All your favorite Ma-rio characters are back on the race track and ready to race. Prepare for all your friendships to end in the blink of an eye.

photo courtesy of ActiVision

Ubisoft Montreal’s new open world video game, “Watch Dogs,” available May 27 across all platforms, features the virtual city of Chicago prominently. Players explore the Windy City in the game as Aiden Pearce, a hacker who can take control over everything from traffic lights to trains. photo with permission GamerHub.TV/MCT

photo courtesy of ActiVision

photo courtesy of Nintendo

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1 0 t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m

L i f e s t y l e E n t e r t a i n m e n t

reviews By cj salcedomanaging editor@cj_fett_salcedo

Spiderman 2

Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a disap-pointing film. Maybe even a bad film. It’s just a shame to see such a great superhe-ro in such a terrible adaption. I mean, it has some great special effects and some decent acting, but it could use an actual story. The story is a horrible mix of a subpar coming-of-age story blended with a half-baked superhero plotline. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is now an established hero as Spider-Man. He has saved the city of New York and the world a few times yet can’t manage to make it to his graduation on time. All these issues in the world, combined with his personal life clash and he must juggle between these problems. Now, this isn’t only Peter’s story. Max Dillon (Jaimie Foxx) is an Oscorp scientist. Constantly bullied by his coworkers and has lost all self-respect, he is saved by Spider-Man on the busy streets of New York. His fascination of the superhero’s kindness begins to grow

into an obsession. One day while fixing an issue with wiring in the lab, an acci-dent occurs, transforming him into the super villain Electro, granting him the power to control any electricity around him. Electro is similar to Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 in that, he’s not really a bad guy; he was just a product of so-ciety’s mistreatments. He is a character that gains my sympathy. As far as other villains go, Rhino (Paul Giamantti) is thrown in there for a few minutes, which is a shame, since Rhino was one of Spider-Man’s better villains. The baddie who steals the show though is Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). Dehaan plays the character the way he should be. A tortured son of a mil-lionaire, left heir to an empire he knows nothing about and constantly battling his own demons. New Goblin’s origin is similar to the Ultimate version of the character, along with elements from the Amazing counterpart of the Goblin. Yet, all these excellent villains bring issues to the table. The fact that several of people’s favorite bad-guys are coming together on the big screen may sound cool, but it results in a film crowded

with too many characters and a rushed ending. The story fails to be this high-fly-ing superhero flick and tries to mimic this Dark Knight-style of storytelling and character development (which is much better than the first film). Visually, the film is a spectacle for the eyes. Electro runs rampant around the city, and sparks fly everywhere while Spider-Man swings from building to building, shooting his usual humorous quips around. They are excellent, and provide an excellent distraction from the subpar story. Music is also well done, with a great score and some awesome dubstep that plays whenever Electro enters the scene. An Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar track during the credits is also a nice treat. Where do I stand on The Amazing Spider-Man 2? I really did not like it that much. Acting and special-effects are the standout elements that make the film bearable, but its story makes it really hard to sit and watch. When a great superhero can’t save a film, there is no hope.

The AmazingDisappointment Andrew Garfield, left, and Dane DeHaan star in Columbia Pictures’ “The

Amazing Spider-Man,” also starring Emma Stone. photo with permission Niko Tavernise © 2013 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Andrew Garfield stars as Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures’ “The Amazing Spider-Man,” also starring Emma Stone. photo with permission Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Imageworks ©2013 CTMG. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

D+

E n t e r t a i n m e n t L i f e s t y l e

t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m 1 1

It’s not surprising to see films based off biblical tales, or even feature themes and messages dealing with the Christian faith. This year proved to be a prom-inent year for these films, with three releases: Noah, Heaven is For Real, and God’s Not Dead. Critically, the films each received mixed to negative reviews and Noah underperformed at the box office. Surprisingly though, the latter two were huge successes at the box office. Part of the reason might be due to the fact that they are much calmer films, unlike Noah, which was an epic that strayed too far away from the source material. This has been a trend among movie-goers since the 1950s. Epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments were both critical and commercial successes, with Ben-Hur winning Best Picture in 1959 and grossing over $70 million on a $15 million budget and is still the high-est-grossing biblical film of all time. What do these two films have in common? They both stuck very close to their source material, the original Bible stories we all learned in Sunday schoo

Then again, back in the ‘50s people were a lot more conserva-tive, and it was considered taboo to stray too far away from what we were taught. Fast forward 29 years later and Martin Scorsese releases The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 to positive reviews but disappointing box office results. Based off Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel of the same name, the film caused controversy when it was released, with theaters being boycotted by Church officials and the general public. It seems as if the country had to yet to drop its conservative ideals. Our culture seemed to become more accepting of certain taboos, biblical cinematography being one of them. The Passion of the Christ (2004) directed by Mel Gibson, was re-leased to a mixed critical reception, yet made over $600 million in the box office, and was incredibly popular with Chris-tian groups. Churches were even granted permission to show it during services. The general consensus with these films is that if directors stick to the source material and don’t stray too far from the original stories they will find a measure of success. With the release of the big budget Noah, Hollywood was hoping that “A” list

stars such as Russell Crowe and Emma Watson, along with dazzling special effects, would bring back the age of biblical epics. However, box office sales disagreed. Following Noah, Chernin Enter-tainment and director Ridley Scott are hoping to impress audiences in Decem-ber with Exodus: Gods and Kings starring Christian Bale as Moses. Joining Bale is a star studded cast consisting of Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Aaron Paul. Whether they learned anything from Noah’s mistakes remains to be seen.

Hollywood takes on the BibleBy cj salcedo and Jordan Clinemanaging editor andStaff Reporter@cj_fett_salcedo@J_cline82297

MovieDavid and Bathsheba (1951)The Ten Commandments (1956)Ben-Hur (1959)King of Kings (1961)The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)Prince of Egypt (1998)The Passion of the Christ (2004)One Night with the King (2006)The Son of God (2014)Noah (2014)

Budget$2,170,000$13,282,712$15,900,000$5,037,000$7,000,000$70,000,000$30,000,000$20,000,000$22,000,000$125,000,000

Box Office (USA)$7,000,000$80,000,000$70,000,000$14,483,352$8,373,585$101,217,900$370,782,930$13,391,174$59,696,176$100,869,013

The Bible vs. The Box Office

information gathered by Cj Salcedo from imdb.com

photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

S p o r t s A r o u n d V a r e l a

Fall SportsScholarship Signings

Maria EstupinanGirls Volleyball

Jose SalvadoTrayvious Fance

Football

1 2 t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m

Softball Badminton

Spring SportsScholarship Signings

Julian LaFortuneAlexander LaFortune

Track and Field

Kristian QuincosaBen Murray

Baseball

Giselle MesaSoftball

SwimmingVanessa Ramirez

Tyrone ShafferViper Award

Marialisa BarbaranTyrone Shaffer

Scholar Athlete Award

FootballRoberto MatosViper Award

Eric BlancoScholar Athlete Award

GirlsVolleyballMaria Estupinan

Viper Award

Claudia CamperoScholar Athlete Award

CrossCountryNeysa Parham

Kristian GoodgerViper Award

Anju WilsonCharles Martinez

Scholar Athlete Award

TennisDanny RamirezViper Award

Ariana VergaraScholar Athlete Award

Track &Field

Monica ContrerasJose Belaval

Viper Award

Samantha FergusonCharles Martinez

Scholar Athlete Award

BoysVolleyball

Alejandro GonzalezViper Award

Christopher OrtizScholar Athlete Award

t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m 1 3

Spring SportsScholarship Signings

Julian LaFortuneAlexander LaFortune

Track and Field

Kristian QuincosaBen Murray

Baseball

Giselle MesaSoftball

A r o u n d V a r e l a S p o r t s

Winter SportsScholarship Signings

Kevin AcevedoJohn John DiazDominic Dudley

Daniel FoenJuan GrimaldoKevin PizzoloBoys Soccer

Antonella MonrrealKarina Velasquez

Girls Soccer

WrestlingNixon ChavezViper Award

Adrian GarciaScholar Athlete Award

SoccerCarlota CamposJohn John DiazViper Award

Alana CuadraJohn John Diaz

Scholar Athlete Award

BasketballSabrina VerdesAdrian MedinaViper Award

Leanna LuAdrian Medina

Scholar Athlete Award

BadmintonJuan Grimaldo

Valeria MatallanaViper Award

Miguel CoiraClaudia Campero

Scholar Athlete Award

BaseballCarlos Martinez

Viper Award

Alejandro LazcanoScholar Athlete Award

SoftballGiselle Mesa

Viper Award

Brooke MorrisScholar Athlete Award

S p o r t s O u t s i d e V a r e l a

BY Christian schlegelStaff Reporterchrischlegel21@gmail.com

FIFA celebrates summer in Brazil with the World Cup

Top Right: This shows the tournament board which depicted all the teams and the format of the tourna-ment. Bottom Right - An audience of over fifty students watching the Championship Game for the 2014

FIFA World Cup between Italy and France. Italy was victorious. Left - Italian Champion and Senior John John Diaz holding his custom Felix Varela FIFA World Cup Champion 2014 Trophy for all to admire.

photos by D. Martinez

1 4 t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m

Soccer fans across the world speak one common language, futbol – or here in the U.S., soccer. The game’s most sought out championship, the Federa-tion of International Futbol Association (FIFA) World Cup, begins June 12, in Brazil. Teams from across the globe have battled each other with blood, sweat and tears to get one of the coveted 32 spots. People from around the world will watch their TV sets and scream GOAL as their favorite team or native team scores. The championship is divided into eight groups of four teams. For each game, the winner gains three points and every tie is equal to one point and the two teams with the most points and goals scored will advance to the next round. Then the knockout stages begin with the quarter finals, semifinals, and then finals. Many students here at Varela feel that the trophy will go home with a South American team. “They have Neymar in Brazil and Messi in Argentina,” said sophomore Vladimir Maire. African teams can be dangerous since they may contain superstars such as Didier Drogba a striker from Ivory Coast, Samuel Eto’o Cameroon striker and Kevin Kevin-Prince Boateng mid-fielder from Ghana. “African teams have good pace and have good players too they can be hard to beat,” said senior Kevin Yupanqui. There are many stars to shine like Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal and Lionel Messi from Argentina who are considered the best two players in the world, not to mention Neymar Brazilian sensation, Luis Suarez from Uruguay who also plays forward position.

Germany is a huge non-South American team for the final with young players emerging such as Mario Gotze, Marco Reus, Thomas Muller, and Toni Kroos strengthening their midfield and attack. “Germany has won three world cup titles. They have constantly had very good offense and defense. With their rookies, they might impact the World Cup,” said sophomore Jason Bernaola. Then there is Spain, who have most of their squad in the top soccer clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and other English premier league teams. Valentina Valbuena, a freshman soccer player here at Varela, thinks Spain will win the World Cup because of their 2010 World Cup triumph and their success winning the Euro Cup 2012. In order the celebrate the upcoming tournament, students here at Varela competed in the Felix Varela FIFA World Cup Championship. Organized by Social Studies teacher Mr. Diony Martinez, 30 students and two teachers were randomly assigned countries to represent. In order to prove their worthiness, they were required to complete the Human Geography FIFA World Cup Finals Country Analysis in order to familiarize themselves with their new homeland. Fail-ure to complete this assignment resulted in automatic disqualifica-tion for the country. From May 16-28, participants played each other in the video game FIFA World Cup 2014. Senior John John Diaz won for Italy.

O u t s i d e V a r e l a S p o r t s

Heat and Spurs face off for consecutive final

Right: The Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh attempts a shot in the first

quarter against the Indiana Pacers during Game 6 of the Eastern

Conference Finals at the American Airlines Arena in Miami on Friday, May 30. photo with permission El

Nuevo Herald/MCT

Below: San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (9) drives to the basket in a game against the

Dallas Mavericks during the first half of play at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday, May 4. The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Dallas Mavericks,

119-96, during Game 7 of an NBA Western Conference quarterfinal.

photo with permission Dallas Morning News/MCT

The 2014-15 season for base-ball has started and for some teams it is starting out great, others not so well. Toronto has started off well in the season, already 35-24, along with other teams like Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland.

As for last year’s champions, the Boston Red Sox, they have not started out so great. They are al-ready 27-31 in the season, and had a 10 game losing streak in May. Our own Miami Marlins are right now placed 2nd in the East part of the National League. With a record of 30-28, it is a better start than last season and fans can see that the team has improved a little.

The boys of summer are back in full swing

The Miami Marlins’ Ed Lucas slides safely into third base in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at the Marlins Park in Miami on Thursday, May 22, 2014. The Marlins won, 4-3. photo with permission El Nuevo Herald/MCT t h e v i p e r v i b e @ g m a i l . c o m 1 5

By David Murray and cj salcedoSection Editor andManaging Editor@heyydavidd@cj_fett_salcedo

By David MurraySection editor@heyydavidd

The road to the NBA Finals has been a long one. Teams have fought long and hard to make it to the top, but only one may stand victorious. It all has come down to the last two teams, the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams had an impressive regular season, with the Spurs lead-ing the Western Conference and the Heat placing second in the Eastern Conference First round of the playoffs, the Spurs beat the Mavericks 4-3, making it a challenging series and necessitating a seventh game. On the other side of the country, the Heat swept the Charlotte Bobcats 4-0. Round 2 was still a breeze for Miami as the Heat eliminated the Brooklyn Nets, winning four games and only losing one. On the western front, the Spurs had an easier time, beating the Portland Trailblazers 4-1. The final round was plagued by stress and a fear of hanging onto the playoffs a little longer. The matchup in the East was the

Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. This was their second consecutive conference finals appearance and the second year that the Heat came out victorious. The Pacers fought hard, though, nearly fouling out LeBron James in Game 5 and taking that victory. The Spurs took on the Oklahoma City Thunder, beating them 4-2. This will be the second time that the Heat and Spurs will vie for the championship. Last year, the teams battled it out until the bitter end going all seven games, with the Heat winning in a nail biting final. After months of preparation, these two teams are entering and only one will remain victorious. Sophomore Roberto Ventura feels that the Heat will win, but will only get to game six. “We’ve connecting on all as-pects of our game. Plus, Andersen is playing again, and that’s exactly who we’ll need to win this ap-proaching series. However, junior Esteban Mar-tinez feels that San Antonio will be victorious. “They have a great overall teamand they have a home court ad-vantage. This is going to be a long series going into game seven for sure.” Basketball fans, let the games begin.

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