Feb 14, 2008

VOLUME 51, ISSUE 6

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2008

CASTRO VALLEY, CA, 94546

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Students get into the spirit of Valentine's Day by displaying their affection.

too few boys; Mr. CV event cancelled

State budget rips public education

By Malena Bell and Timothy Wong Due to a $14.5 billion deficit in California’s budget for the coming year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a new budget in which $4.8 billion dollars will be eliminated from public education funding over the next 1.5 years.

The cut would affect beforeand after-school programs, career and technical classes, the smallclass-size program, and special education.

Schwarzenegger’s budget does not include any tax increases.

“Raising taxes is out of the question,” said Schwarzenegger.

“This is something that we cannot tax our way out of.” Instead, schools will have to deal with the 10 percent decrease in funding.

“This is a considerable amount,” said Principal Peter Alvarez, “but we are a financially sound district...we will still need to do some belt-tightening though.”

Alvarez projected that Castro Valley High School has enough money to sustain the programs it already has. No staff cuts or program cuts would be made,

By Michelle Matsui City Editor

Malena Bell / Editor-in-Chief

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about upcoming budget cuts during a speech in Sacramento. but the school would also not be able to add any new programs that may benefit the school.

If the funding cuts last longer than the district's reserve money can last, program or staff cuts will be necessary for the school to continue operating. Trying to remain optimistic, Alvarez made no predictions as to what would have to be cut first.

Despite the cuts, Schwarzenegger said in a January meeting attended by The Olympian, “Every child ought to have the opportunity to get the same education.”

Schwarzenegger also referenced the presidential race: “Anyone who writes a $14.5 billion check to California, I will endorse,” he joked.

Number of student votes

Obama wins big in mock election 300 250 200 150 100 50 John Mike Mitt McCain Huckabee Romney

Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton

This statistics for this graph come from a mock election involving 618 CVHS students in their social studies classes.

After many years, the traditional male pageant show that is known as Mr. CV has been cancelled due to a lack of participation from the senior boys who usually perform in this fun annual event. Along with the partially unfunded Spirit Squad, the Class of 2008 is dismally disappointed with the cancellation of Mr. CV. “I think it’s really disappointing because it’s been a tradition for a long time and it’s my senior year,” said senior Kelsey Aper. “I think a lot of people are going to be upset.”

According to some of this year’s senior boys, one of the main reasons for the lack in participation (only seven boys signed up as opposed to the usual twenty or so that had signed up in past years) was the strict nature of the rules, which prohibited any gestures of a sexual nature in the boys’ acts. The rules restricted the performances so that they would be appropriate for children, despite the fact that the event is performed by senior boys and held mostly for high school students.

“I wanted to be in Mr. CV but it seemed impossible to be funny because of the rules,” said senior James Fazzio.

Fazzio, who planned on doing some sort of dance routine for the show, said that although his whole dance wouldn’t be sexual, he would probably have had some obscene gestures in it and he didn’t think it was necessary to censure the event for young children, essentially making a high school event G-rated.

“Sexual is what’s funny now,” Fazzio explained.

But not everyone saw the rules as being so strict or restricting.

“The rules are the same as usual,” said Aper, “but it was really hard to get people to participate and turn in their packets.”

“They are the same rules as always and their enforcement is similar to previous years,” said event coordinator and English teacher Gabrielle Hedlund.

Although the surprisingly low

number of boys signed up for Mr. CV could be due to the restrictions found in the rules, it could also be due to the way the event was advertised this year.

“The only major difference this year was how the guys were recruited,” explained Hedlund.

“This year the girls made Mr. CV open to the senior boys in general rather than having the senior girls on the varsity cheer and dance teams coming up with a list of guys.”

“I did nothing to sign up for Mr. CV. A packet was sent to me and some of my friends during class,” said Fazzio.

“ Sexual is what's funny now. ” James Fazzio Senior With only seven boys offering to participate in the show this year, the parents of the Spirit Squad tried to postpone Mr. CV to give more time to senior boys still interested in competing, but the school’s calendar was too full. Event coordinators were also concerned that they wouldn’t make their return and profit from the show with such a short program and decided to cancel it instead.

“I’m disappointed for the girls because it’s a big ending to their time with the squad. But even though Mr. CV was cancelled this year, we will most definitely try Mr. CV again next year,” assured Hedlund.

The loss of Mr. CV is a disappointing loss to the whole school, the Class of 2008 especially, as no one will be able to enjoy the festivities and pageantry of the occasion, nor will the school gain the financial help it normally receives from this popular event.

“It’s stupid that Mr. CV is cancelled since it’s the senior guys’ only chance to do it,” criticized Fazzio, articulating the complaints of the disappointed student body in general.

Learn or die

Budget cuts leave scar on education Editorial We at The Olym pian believe that Governor Schwarzenegger’s recent decision to cut almost $5 billion from our public schools is outrageous. It will have negative affects on people who need help the most.

Students will lose out on getting a better education in an already flawed public school system.

The poorest schools will lose more money than it already has with the No Child Left Behind program. It does not make sense to take these drastic cuts from important programs when it appears that the cuts will not even completely cover the deficits. What happened to the budget surplus from last year? Now students and teachers have to suffer from the politicians’ irresponsibility with money.

Instead of making cuts to education and other important programs, the state should raise the income taxes of Californians who have incomes of more than $1 million.

In December, The N ew York Times reported that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans made more money than everyone in the poorest 20 percent range. If the rich are getting richer and California is getting poorer, it makes sense to tax people like wealthy Silicon Valley and Hollywood executives in order to fix budget gaps.

The consequences of the education budget cuts on CVHS are yet to be seen but it is not a good sign for all the new programs and classes being planned for the future. It could mean fewer electives since art programs often tend to be the first victims of budget deficits. Teachers’ jobs might be in jeopardy and special education classes stand to lose significant funding.

Cutting funds for the education of children means the dimming of bright futures and our state will see the repercussions on society for years to come. Schwarzenegger obviously does not believe that children are the future.

The Olympian is a publication of the Journalism Class, Castro Valley High School, 19400 Santa Maria Ave., Castro Valley, CA 94546. ©2008 Editor-in-Chief...............................................................Malena Bell City Editor................................................................Michelle Matsui News Editor.............................................................Sophiana Carrell Opinion Editor..............................................................Kevin Hanley Feature Editor...............................................................Hayden Folks Sports Editor....................................................................Joseph Wan Copy Editors...............................................................Kyle Friedrich Laura Mitchell Becky Chao Photo Editor......................................................Stephanie Lombardo Systems Manager.........................................................Andrew Quan Business Managers.....................................................Candace Wong Esther Lee Staff Writers: Frank Chao, Ryan Flores, Andrew Huber, Irene Liang, Brandon Lui, Erin Mundy, Lindsay Oda, Taylor Pepsin, Eva Poon, Howard Whang, Tim Wong Advisor........................................................................Matt Johanson

By Kyle Friedrich Copy Editor

PHOTOpinions BY: Stephanie Lombardo

Which presidential candidate do you support and why?

“Obama, because he's more up to date on current issues.” –Corina

“Hillary Clinton because

“I like Obama because he’s

“McCain because he's the only Republican who has the same views that I do.”

–Branden

my parents are voting

for her.” –Morgen

VanDamme, senior Wildeman,freshman

pro-choice and very honest.

I think it would be nice to have a change of ethnicity in the White House.”

–Alex

Kurtz, sophomore

Meadows, junior

From the presidential elections and state assembly meetings, to the ASB government workings at our own school, government and politics surround us. It is a shame that most of the students I know don’t bother to participate, or even understand, the activities that have so much impact on our lives.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend a press conference in which Governor Schwarzenegger spoke about the budget crisis and the cuts he proposed. To my amazement, myself and a fellow Olympian reporter were some of the few student journalists in attendance. Surely there must be other students across the state who cared about where the state spent its money, right?

As a reporter I’m a bit ashamed to say it, but it seems like our media is partially to blame, because it often puts sensationalism over useful news. Even when politics are covered in the media, it is often on the superficial elements of it. The primary elections are a perfect example of this.

Compare how many articles you have seen about Obama being black to the ones that actually describe his political views and plans for our country, and you’ll wonder why they don’t get their priorities straight.

The media also tends to focus on the "celebrity candidates" like Clinton and Obama, while ignoring less high profile candidates like Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, and Mike Gravel who may be just as qualified if not more so. Even somebody like Ron Paul, who is all over the Internet, practically always on the YouTube most viewed page, and arguably the greatest American hero of our time is barely mentioned by the "traditional media."

Sure there are the people that are hardcore into Obama or Ron Paul or whoever, but how many people could actually tell you the difference in each candidate’s political views? It seems that many people are voting for someone based on what gender or ethnicity they are, which is incredibly ignorant.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I actually have to applaud MTV for their efforts with the "Rock the Vote" program. Getting young people excited about politics and learning about the world they live in is one of the most important things a society can do.

Stop whining about how much the USA Malena’s sucks, because this country is awesome Minute

By Kevin Hanley Opinion Editor

The United States of America gets a lot of crap from its own citizens, some of it justified and some of it not. However, when you look at the situation in a place like Kenya, where riots over the recent controversial presidential election have left over 800 people dead as of this writing, we’ve got it pretty damn good here.

The standard of living in our country is so luxurious when compared to the majority of the world that it boggles the mind. Wars are fought in other countries over things we take for granted. Of course there are people who are desperately poor in America as well, but even the poorest, most destitute American citizen has it better then most citizens in third-world countries.

Now is that to say that the poor of America should just stop complaining because they could have it a lot worse? Of course not, we should try to do everything we can to help those in need. Basically what I’m trying to say is that it’s better to be poor in America than it is in somewhere like Haiti, where some people are so impoverished that they must resort to eating “dirt cookies” to

Obama can be the change America needs

By Malena Ball Editor-in-Cheif

survive.

People have many problems with the political system in America, especially under the current administration, but for all its flaws, I think it deserves some credit. Democracy is difficult to achieve and maintain, and we have one of the world’s most stable democracies. Once again, this does not mean that there aren’t problems that need to be

fixed within the system, but keep in mind that in 2000 when many people felt George W. Bush had stolen the election it didn’t lead to a massive civil conflict that left hundreds dead.

This is not some kind of conservative “proud to be an American” opinion. I know that there are many problems in this country, like the forty million people without health insur-

ance or the indefensible use of Guantanamo Bay to imprison people indefinitely without legal representation. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement in America. That being said, I think we should give credit where credit is due, and when it comes right down to it, I think the United States is one of the best places in the world to live.

contact between students should not be harmful, harassing, or embarrassing to the students involved, to other students, or

does not talk about the enforcement or consequences of breaking this rule. Our administration isn’t doing its job in providing a safe, comfortable learning environment for the students who don’t want to see people swapping spit every day.

As far as PDAs go, our administration doesn’t seem to care about what the students do, unlike some other high schools that strictly enforce their laws.

The Richland School District in South Carolina recently expelled two students from one of their schools for kissing. The high school junior and his girlfriend are currently being homeschooled, because they have been banned from all public schools in the state for one school year.

Keep in mind that this is just another normal public high school like CVHS, not a strict, high-maintenance private school.

They were expelled for “violating the district’s Code of Conduct forstudents.” The school district also said that “rules of student conduct and consequences for violations are necessary for the orderly operation of the district’s schools.”

Therefore, if the student conduct is bad and there are no consequences, the school can’t run in an orderly fashion. That

is what seems to be happening here at CVHS. Many people are desperate for somebody else’s saliva, and they stop in the halls or courtyard to get it, not knowing or caring who is watching. It causes disruptions and distractions and is disrupting the orderly operation of our schools.

Imagine if everyone on campus who was kissing got expelled.

Well, at least that would take care of our overcrowding issue.

Students should stop being so horny

By Howard Whang Opinion Editor

Eye contact, holding hands, hugging, sure okay, whatever.

Kissing, umm…okay. Desperate slobbering over each other’s faces…ugh, but go ahead. The school doesn’t seem to care anyways, even though the student handbook itself says that it isn’t allowed.

Going about during a normal school day, it is near impossible to not see a couple standing in the halls or in the courtyard desperately sucking on each other as if their lives depended on it.

Where do we draw the line?

Here in school, there isn’t really a strict rule about public displays of affection, or PDAs. However, there should be a rule protecting others in the learning environment. Actually, there is a rule: “all students have the right to be educated in a safe, positive learning environment free from disruptions,” according to that huge set of rules mailed out to everybody at the beginning of the year. Nobody in the school has to be subjected to such a scene of affection, especially if they are disrupted by it.

In the Student and Parent Handbook, there is a miserably short paragraph about physical contact, simply saying “Physical

” It is near

impossible to not see a couple... desperatly sucking on each other as if their lives depended on it.

“

adults. Students must refrain from overt demonstrations of affection” (the emphasis was mine). Therefore, there is a rule written down for students: stop sucking on each other and get a life!

The only problem with this rule here is that the handbook

LETTERS

To the Editor

Tell us how you feel about The Olympian! Is it the greatest thing since toilet paper? Is it like the second coming of Hitler?

We at The Olympian welcome letters to the editor. Letters should be typed, and can be up to 200 words long. They should be delivered to room 113, Mr. Johanson’s mailbox, or cvhsolympian@yahoo.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for spelling, libel, grammar, and offensive content. We have only recieved a few letters this entire year, so we strongly urge that as soon as you finish reading this, you pick a writing impliment and a piece of paper, and tell us how much we rock, suck, or are a vast communist conspiracy.

The Democratic nomination is by far the biggest issue in this primary election. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are neck and neck and neither is going to back down soon. While I think it is fantastic that the voters have two outstanding candidates to choose from, I am nervous for the result.

There are so many issues with the primaries that I am afraid we will end up with a candidate who is not the people’s choice, but rather the result of negotiations and trickery.

What worries me most are super-delegates who do not have to vote in accordance with the people, but who can vote for any candidate they wish. How much say do the voices of many have in this race when it is the few who can have their voices heard louder? Especially when these delegates may be biased towards voting for Clinton, the vote is not an accurate representation of the entire nation.

Another issue that concerns me is the elimination of Florida’s and Michigan’s delegates. The Democratic National Committee decided to punish Florida and Michigan for moving their primaries ahead by eliminating their 366 combined delegates.

This was an unjust action.

The citizens there have just as much right to have their votes counted as the citizens in any other state.

However, the only fair way to do it would be to hold a new primary election in those two states.

Considering that Clinton was the only one on the ballot in Michigan, the current results (Clinton won both states) are not truly representative of the people.

In full truthfulness, I have to admit that I support Obama and feel that Clinton may be getting an unfair advantage in the race.

In the true spirit of democracy, Clinton should be playing a fairer game. If she won truthfully, then she could be proud that the people chose her because she is the right one for the job. If she does not win, then she was just not what the country wanted.

The country wants change, and right now Clinton is acting like another old corrupt politician.

Support Obama!

Cool climbing quest

By Hayden Folks Feature editor

CVHS students in the Construction Academy get to climb the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as participate in an activity to aid the world.

One of the field trips coming up is a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge. On this trip, students will be able to climb up one of the pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge as a part of their tour.

“People actually walk on the cables; we are not doing that,” said Rich Schneck. What student will be doing is climbing about half way up the pillar where they will be able to look out the portholes. To make sure students are physically fit, they will have to climb the bleachers twenty times or something along those lines. It is a lot of steps to the pillar’s halfway-point and it would be bad if a student died before they got there. An exact date has not been set.

The Golden Gate Bridge was selected as a possible location for a field trip for many reasons. One is that it is an engineering marvel along with the fact that it is a symbol known the world over.

It is also constantly maintained, keeping the paint up so it looks nice and it is home to the high-

“s t u d e n t s

will be able to climb... the Golden Gate Bridge” est paying job in the Bay Area, under water welding. People in this profession get paid $300 an hour because it is extremely dangerous.

Obama prevails at JSA event

By Malena Bell Editor-in-Chief

Heated debates and important issues brought students from both sides of the aisle to the Junior State of America’s Presidential Nominating Convention.

The convention is held every four years as America nears election time and students must decide whom they will support in the presidential race.

This year, it was held on Jan. 26 at UC Berkeley and 12 students from CVHS attended.

During the convention, students represented presidential candidates and explained that candidate’s views on important issues like immigration, Iraq, Iran, health care, taxes, gay rights, and abortion.

Representatives from some of the candidates’ official campaigns also spoke and answered questions from the audience.

Senior Michael Gitlin, JSA chapter president, said he liked“the fact that they had adult representatives from

each campaign, Republican and Democratic, that could talk to us on a more detailed level about the candidates’ stances on issues.”

The Democratic candidates were Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama. The Republican candidates were Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson.

After all the candidates got time to draw support from the audience, a mock election was held. In the primary election, Barack Obama won the Democratic Party’s nomination, while Ron Paul won the Republican Party’s nomination.

Another vote was held to determine the new president, which Barack Obama won.

Though many students at the convention are not yet able to vote, they still wanted to get involved in this election.

“All these students are defying stereotypes about teenagers by getting involved in politics,” said junior Maria Bustillo.

The other amazing thing coming up for students enrolled in the Construction Academy is The Tech Challenge. Every year 11,000 students, grades 5-12, throughout California participate in it. This will be CVHS’s first year. This year the challenge will not only let kids show off their engineering skills, but it will also allow students to help the world. The challenge is to use only the power of a river to make water flow into the water tanks with out using any electricity. This design then may be used to help the 1-in-5 people in the world that do not have access to clean drinking water. The students will build a small model to demonstrate the design and the winners will receive a year’s pass to the Tech Museum, which is the sponsor of the event.There will be 14 field trips for the various academies. The trips are meant to be educational, fun and directed for the students’ personal interests. If you want information about these events, or any other academy event, ask Schneck or your teachers. Fliers will be in the window of room 606 two weeks before the events take place.

Chinese Americans fight mythical monsters

By Lindsay Oda Saff Writer

“Chinese New Year is the idea of a new beginning and to put the other years in the past,” answered Sophomore Kristal Lam when asked what the holiday is all about.

Chinese New Year is a celebration for the incoming year that starts on the first day of the lunar month and ends on the 15th of February.

The week is celebrated to keep away a human-eating monster of Chinese myth. Each year is named after a different animal of the zodiac, 2008 being the year of the rat.

B e f o re N e w Ye a r ’ s D a y, sophomore Justine Ma’s family cleans all of the bad luck out of her house, and to have a clean house ready for a fresh start for the New Year. Ma’s family throws away a lot of their old belongings and goes shopping for new ones. Ma buys new shoes and clothes just to wear on New Year’s Day. Sophomore

Ning Hsu’s family goes shopping for food in preparation for Nianye Dinner, which is family dinner on New Year’s Eve. All the food represents things such as wealth, happiness, or good fortune. Lam only eats vegetarian food at Nianye Dinner for good health.

Many activities are done during New Year ’s Eve, such as the fireworks during the night, enjoyed by Hsu. “The fireworks were my favorite part as a kid,” said Hsu. Ma makes sesame balls with her family. Lam exchanges laisi, money given by adults to the kids, and Lam admits, “that’s the first thing that comes to mind when I hear Chinese New Year.”

For these students, Chinese New Year is a lot more than celebration and good luck.

“It’s about spending time with the family,” said Ma. For Lam, it’s more about tradition. “It’s important that I celebrate it to keep up my culture and tradition,” she said.

27 reasons to see 27 Dresses

By Candace Wong Business Manager

Howard Whang / Staff writer

Students demonstrated a nuclear reaction with ping pong balls and mousetraps.

‘Out-of-control reaction’

By Howard Whang Staff Writer

Six hundred ping pong balls plus 600 mouse traps equals one huge uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

This year, chemistry classes that have been studying nuclear reactions devised an interesting experiment involving hundreds of ping pong balls sitting on top of set mouse traps. Teacher Bertram Pinsky came up with the idea for this demonstration from a movie he watched many years ago, and he organized this experiment, with a bit of help from his classes. His students brought in most of the ping pong balls and mouse traps.

Deborah Yager ’s chemistry class got a late start, but also contributed a fair number of ping pong balls, adding to the success of the experiment.

“As a first time experiment, it proved to be a very successful demonstration of an outof-control reaction, completely designed, built, and initiated by students,” said Yager.

Each trap represents a nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, and each ping pong ball represents a neutron that gets ejected from each uranium nucleus as in undergoes nuclear fission, which is when a nucleus of an atom splits into two when it is hit by a neutron, producing a large amount of energy.

The classes spent about 40 minutes of a block period setting up the “reactor core” by setting the mouse traps and equipping each one with a ping pong ball. Unfortunately for the students, a loose mouse trap would occasionally launch its “neutron” and start a mini reaction, using up a bit of the dangerous “uranium.”

After about 600 traps were set out, the teacher went around the room passing out a ping pong ball to everyone who wanted to participate in initiating the reaction. At the count of three, ten or 15 balls were tossed into the ring of mouse traps, each setting off a mouse trap, which launched their balls, which triggered more balls to fly, which triggered more balls which hit more traps, walls, and people. Ping pong balls flew all the way across the room and as high as the roof. It was like a big game of dodgeball, except with smaller balls.

The demonstation lasted for a few minutes, but the show was worth the effort and the few painful fingers that got pinched by the mouse traps.

“Most importantly, everyone had a good time, and most recommended that we do it again next year,” said Yager.

The perfect Valentine

By Taylor Pepsin Staff Writer

Girls “I think Valentine’s Day is stupid. Why should a guy value a girl only one day of the year?

Shouldn’t couples be nice to each other every day? The perfect Valentine would treat his girl special everyday,” said Erica Straub.

“Chocolates, roses, and the boy, that’s the perfect Valentine for me,” said Sophia Melero.

“The perfect valentine is any guy who isn’t a jerk and who will actually show they care about me,” said Laura Giacomini.

“My boyfriend is the perfect valentine anyone could ask for because he’s honest, funny and makes me happy,” said Kaila Lawson.

Boys “For me I would try and do something clever for her. Something special. Something she’ll never forget,” said Nick Zezza.

“The perfect Valentine is any girl who makes you laugh and makes you feel good when you are around them,” said Tony Slakey.

“Showing how you really feel and what you really think of that person would make he perfect Valentine,” said Chris Mulready.

“Kind, pretty, and interesting. And someone that will say yes!” said Michael Chow.

From Disney Channel’s Wish Upon a Star to the renowned Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up, Katherine Heigl has definitely made a name for herself in the entertainment industry.

With her eclectic roles, Heigl now stars as Jane in the new movie 27 Dresses.

Growing up, Jane has had a fixation with weddings. She has always been around that traditional white gown and the women walking down the aisle on their big day.

However, her obsession with weddings may bring her to a conclusion she would never see coming.

Being a selfless romantic, Jane is definitely unable to turn down her younger sister, Tess, when she falls for Jane’s beloved boss. Bearing the menacing weight of her sister marrying her secretly loved boss, Jane starts to reassess her role as the “perfect bridesmaid.”

While re-evaluating her love for her boss over that for her sister, Jane slowly develops a relationship with the Commitments section writer in the New York Journal. Kevin, played by James Marsden from Enchanted, is constantly seeking an opportunity to acquire a promotion from the Commitments section, which soon leads to misunderstandings.

Marsden and Heigl complement each other well enough to make this movie worth watching. The filmmakers of this movie made it so that the balance between romance and comedy is suitable throughout the entire duration of the film. Although the plot of the movie is pretty much spelled out for the audience, 27 Dresses is, nonetheless, adoring and presented with an outstanding cast.

27 Dresses brings forth an outstanding storyline, almost resembling How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but in its own originality. It is conceivably one of the best chick flicks out there so far. I may be making a bold statement when I say it is almost as good as, or maybe even better than, Juno.

Please recycle your copy of The Olympian.

Keep our school clean!

Boys basketball squad continues strong season

Victory over O’Dowd for the first time in school history

“All the kids have been working hard and doing a really good job playing as a team,” said Coach Nick Jones.

The narrow loss (by four points) to San Leandro on Jan. 25 was a “letdown,” Jones said, but he noted that “everyone is focused on doing what we need to do to be successful in the future. We played a very good team, played really hard, competed well, and we’re ready to move on.”

With six league games to go,

Jourdan Demuynck, DJ Broome, Dan Teicher and Rashad Parker especially shone on the court...

By Laura Mitchell Copy Editor

With the loss of four graduating starters and the turmoil surrounding the firing of former head coach Jason Treglown, many expected the CVHS Varsity boys basketball team to have a lackluster 07-08 season. But instead, the team has powered its way into the top-ranked spot in the HAAL boys basketball league, tied for first with San Leandro.

The Trojans have had a consistently strong season, steadily winning game after game and only losing twice so far. A highlight was the record 74-62 win over Bishop O’Dowd, the first Castro Valley boys basketball victory against O’Dowd in school history.

Returning players like Jourdan Demuynck, DJ Broome, Dan Teicher and Rashad Parker have especially shone on the court, but teamwork has been key in the Trojans’ success.

the team is determined and set on winning.

“We’re focused on taking care of business and getting ready for NCS,” said Jones.

With an overall 21-2 record as of Feb. 7, the CVHS Varsity boys basketball team is on track for one of the best – and most exciting – seasons in recent memory.

C a s t r o V a l l e y ’s

Stephanie Lombardo / Photo Editor

Senior Danny Teicher breaks through the defense and to the basket at the game against Arroyo on the 1night of Friday, Feb. 1.

S up e r S a v v y Sp o r ts St a rs Irene Liang / Staff Writer

Jeremy Meza, Freshman

Freshman Jeremy Meza is a forward for the CVHS Junior Varsity soccer team. Meza has played soccer for eight years, and enjoys the sport because, “you’re never standing still.”

His many years of experience were showcased when he scored two goals during a game against Moreau. As for the future, Meza will play on the collegiate level if given the chance, but is not on the lookout for scholarships.

Off the field, Meza’s interests include tennis and video games.

Jessie Heuer, Sophomore

Sophomore Jessie Heuer can be found on the soccer field after school practicing with the rest of the Varsity girls soccer team, which is ranked seventh in the nation. “I like soccer because it’s fun and competitive,” said Heuer. The eight-year veteran, who is both a midfielder and defender, said that the highlight of her season so far was beating Monte Vista High 4-2. When she isn’t on the field playing for CVHS or for the Castro Valley select team, Heuer is shopping or hanging out with her friends.

Michael Busch, Junior

Junior Michael Busch pinned one person after another on his way to the Varsity boys wrestling team here at CVHS. “I like everything about wrestling. It’s a lot of fun,” says Busch. Busch, who wrestles in the 125-weight class, said that the highlight of his season thus far is beating Arroyo High 14-0.

Although colleges have not yet approached him, Busch is keeping his options open. During his free time, Busch likes to hang out with his friends.

Jessica Fong, Senior

“I like basketball because it’s really fast paced and it depends a lot on teamwork,” said senior Jessica Fong, who is a point guard for the CVHS Varsity girls basketball team. The humble eleven-year veteran’s most memorable moment was when she scored 36 points in a game during her sophomore year on the JV team. When she isn’t playing for CVHS, Fong participates on a traveling tournament team. Her other interests include playing Guitar Hero, watching midnight movies, and going to concerts.

Close but tough loss for Trojans

By Becky Chao Copy Editor

Howard Whang / Staff Writer

Junior Michael Busch crushes his opponent in a steel grip on Jan. 31 at the new gym.

Wrestlers win perfect season

By Joseph Wan Sports Editor

Taking out his legs from under him, sophomore Christian Gascon drove and pinned his opponent to the ground despite the best efforts of Mt. Eden’s wrestler. To the other wrestler ’s frustration, Gascon scored point after point and at the same time never let him get back onto his feet.

This was only one of the highlights from the Trojans’ 49-21 victory over Mt. Eden on the night of Thursday, Jan. 31. With other such victories, the Varsity boys wrestling team ended their season 5-0, earning them the league title.

“It feels great to help my team win,” said Gascon. “I hope to continue the winning streak for CVHS for the next two years.”

Adding to Gascon’s victory, senior Ben Crosby and senior Jason Herrings also contributed to the Trojans’ overall score, doubling Mt.

Eden’s at the end of the meet.

After their crushing victory over the Mt. Eden Monarchs, the Trojans went on to defeat the Tennyson Lancers in an even greater victory winning 60-14 overall, clinching the league title.

Furthermore, it is fact that the seniors on the team have never lost a team meet in all the four years they have been competing.

Crosby, captain of the wrestling team, boasted, “I’m proud that the seniors haven’t lost a dual meet in all four years. I hope the underclassmen keep up the tradition.”

And not only that, the Trojans have not lost an HAAL dual meet in three years, are backto-back HAAL champions, and started this year with seven individual league champions.

This win marked their eighth consecutive league victory.

“The underclassmen better keep the team strong,” said Herrings.

End score backs girls’ reputation

By Esther Lee

Business Manager The coach’s instructive yelling mixed with the shouts of fans and the yells of support from fellow teammates. The CVHS Varsity girls soccer team was playing San Leandro and they were dominating.

Junior Kristin Perrault scored the first goal for CVHS within five minutes. The fast-paced game didn’t disappoint as four minutes later sophomore Lily Johnson scored another goal. Then a couple of minutes later, sophomore Morgan Castain’s goal brought the total score to 3-0. The ball remained near San Leandro’s goal and there were 19 attempts to score, compared to San Leandro’s one. After the third goal, the game progressed more

slowly and eventually CVHS won, with a final score of 5-0.

This has been a good season for CVHS’ girls soccer team, which is currently ranked eighth nationally. This win has complemented CVHS’ record of being undefeated in the league. Now, their league score is 14-0. But there is also a downside to being nationally ranked so high.

“Rankings are a target. Everyone wants to beat you. It’s not what matters, NCS is,” said junior goalie Megan Lee. The team also has a lot of young talent this year.

“There are a lot of sophomores and we’re training really hard,” said Lee. And they have their record to back that up.

This coming Saturday, the Trojan boys will head to the HAAL championships intent on dominating the opposition once again and set to add another year’s victory under their belt.

As a continuation of a dispiriting season, the Castro Valley Varsity boys soccer team suffered a 2-1 loss to the Bishop O’Dowd Dragons Jan. 30. With two games left to play, the team (6-5-3 as of Feb. 5) will only be fighting for third place in the HAAL. The game started out promisingly, with CVHS sophomore Connor Thornton making the first goal within 20 minutes of the kick-off. The Trojans tried for another goal, this time narrowly missing and hitting the edge of the goal instead. However, the yellow-and-black clad Bishop O’Dowd team eagerly started their attempts to retaliate, and succeeded 15 minutes later when Andres Plascencia of O’Dowd scored with a penalty kick.

The first half ended with a tie of 1-1, but both teams started the second half with renewed energy.

This time, it was Castro Valley on the defense. The ball bounced off the edge of Castro Valley’s goal on one attempt, but the Dragons were

undeterred and later Plascencia scored again, meaning Bishop O’Dowd was up 2-1.

In the end, Castro Valley couldn’t make a comeback with such limited time left. An explosive last 15 minutes yielded no more goals for the Trojans and the whistle blew sounded again, causing the Dragons to do a short cheer.

“It was a challenging game and in the end, we were unfortunate,” said senior Rick Raygoza afterwards.

His teammate Thornton, who made the only goal for Castro Valley, agreed.

“It was tough. But we’ll win the rest,” he commented optimistically on the remaining games.

When asked about the season, coach Al Peacock shook his head. He described it as “disappointing, in a single word.”

“It’s a tough loss,” he said shortly, referring to the recently ended game. “We’re going to play as hard as we can and see what happens.”

CVHS applies for $3 million facilities grant

Look out, Paris. Here comes CVHS!

By Frank Chao Staff Writer

Many CVHS sophomores toil at the Palace of Versailles for King Louis XVI as World Civilization students. This coming June, some 32 students will get to experience the real thing.

After a year and a half of planning, students will finally go on a ten-day trip to Paris and Barcelona in June to see exhibitions of art.

“I’m really looking forward to the trip. I’m really excited to show students important pieces of art and share the experience of traveling to other countries,” said Jennifer Jervis, Art and Yearbook teacher who is one of five teachers going on the trip.

The other four teachers, Kevin Batchelor, Jennifer Leighton, Jason Marlis, and Jo Sutton, will go along with Jervis and three parents as chaperones for the 32 students in the Art and Communications Academy who have paid $2,500 each to go on the excursion.

“Honestly, I’m really excited to see other countries, especially Barcelona,” said Kayvon Mangabay, a senior who will be attending the trip.

Parts of the tour in Paris and Barcelona will involve the participants in walking through the cities with tour guides.

Among the many places that they will be visiting is the Louvre, which is arguably the most important art museum in the world. The Louvre is best

known for being the home of the Mona Lisa.

Other places that the Academy has planned to visit are the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower. The Palace is known for its beauty and is famous for having housed many French government officials in the past.

The Eiffel Tower is known as an important symbol of Paris. The students will also visit Gaudi’s Cathedral in Barcelona, built by the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi.

“I’m ecstatic. I had no idea we would have so many kids that would be interested,” said Sutton.

Students can still sign up, but the cost is now $3,000 per person and the deadline for registration is March 16.

refugee camp that highlights the current genocide in Darfur, while also giving information about previous genocides. There are a total of five tents and each tent is dedicated to a specific genocide.

Camp Darfur is visiting Castro Valley High School on the Monday and Tuesday of that week.

Students will be able to visit the tents in the annex during break and lunch.

the same time that you purchase your own. Dance fast passes will get you into this dance, but you need to get a dance clearance pass, and go to room 607 to get a new punch on your ID card. See CVHS Activities webpage for additional dance policies.

Upcoming school events

By Erika Solanki

ASB School Board Representative First semester flew by, and as we enter the second half of the year, we have tons of exciting activities, and important deadlines approaching fast!

SENIORS: Senior Panoramic pictures are selling right now for $10 in room 706 during lunch. Get them early before we run out! Senior clothing is going on sale starting Monday, February 11th. Senior shirts are selling for $10 and senior sweatpants are selling for $20, pre-sale only during lunch in room 706.

SWEETHEART DANCE: The Sweetheart Dance is on February 14th. The last day to buy tickets is February 14th. The prices are $5 with an ASB sticker and $8 without an ASB sticker. Guest passes are available online, and the guest ticket must be purchased at

JUNIORS: You can still order junior class sweats! E-mail JoungJulia@yahoo.com to order, and include your name and size in the e-mail.

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DAYS OF DIVERSITY: Days of Diversity is taking place from March 3rd to March 7th. Camp Darfur is an interactive traveling

SUPER CLUB: The “Super Club” application has been posted on the website, and is available for clubs to review.

The deadline will be announced shortly.

To reach the Student Activities web page, go to CVHS’s website, http://www.cvhs.cv.k12.ca.us/, then click on “Students,” then click on “Activities.”

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CVHS is applying for a grant next year called Career Technology Facilities Grant. If the school earns it, CVHS would get $3 million from the state of California.

The money would go to building or upgrading facilities for career tech programs.

“Career tech education fulfills the needs of the workforce and the needs of our students by giving them multiple pathways for success,” said Arnold Schwarzenegger during California’s first Career Technical Education (CTE) Summit.

Schwarzenegger has had a recent interest in placing more career tech programs in California high schools and has offered funding for more CTE such as the grant CVHS is applying for.

“My dream school could definitely use a parking garage and maybe a kitchen for us to cook in,” said sophomore Kristal Lam. In preparation for this grant, teacher Richard Schneck will be asking for student input on what their “dream school” would look

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Staff Writer

like around March. The votes will be used to help write the application for the grant.

Some big dreams on the list are solar panels for the whole school for students interested in energy and environmental technology. Another dream is a video production studio where the daily bulletin and movie making would take place. This would be for students who want to go into media and entertainment studies.

While many other ideas have been listed, there’s still room for more. CVHS administrators want input not only from students, but staff, parents and the community. The only downside is that current students won’t be at CVHS once the possible dream school is complete. The construction and installation of the buildings would take years.

Before that CVHS has to be one of the five chosen California high schools to take part of the grant, which will take a year to be accepted.

But current students can always vote for the future students and help them get their dream school.

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By Lindsay Oda

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