Feb 21 Hi-Line

The

Tiger HI-LINE

Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

After 40 years,

Volume 53 Edition 17

English department head makes this her last year Rumors are all too common teaching all day and grading in the halls of CFHS, but few ru- papers all night and every mors garner so much reaction or weekend, she barely has any emotion as one that unraveled a spare time at all. few weeks ago. Putting speculaBut retirement surely tion to rest, English teacher and won’t mean boredom for her. department head Judy Timmins She looks forward to spendhas announced her retirement at ing time with her family, as the end of this school year, after she already has one grand40 years of teaching. child “and two more on the Timmins attended UNI, earn- road.” She also plans to travel ing her B.A. in a Spanish and and simply relax. “I’m going English double major and her to read a whole lot of books M.A. in English. Timmins didn’t for me,” Timmins said. even know Timmins she want to has brought be a teachan amazing er. She was impact over set on bethe years. ing a peWhen studiatrician, dents write but her sispapers, she ter talked will not award her out of the paper a fithat, so she nal grade undecided til the student to pursue had corrected Spanish, every mistake which she — on their had taken own. Timmins English teacher Judy Timmins from eighth was always g r a d e will retire at the end of the year. willing to help through 12th grade. The logical a student, but never gave course of action for a Spanish answers outright, and she demajor was teaching, and Tim- manded both punctuality and mins double majored in English quality. Many students may in order to be more marketable. recognize her mantra: “You She started her career will pay now or you will pay teaching Spanish at West High later, but you will pay.”

School, but after two years, the Despite her demand for enrollment in foreign languages excellence, students know was so low that she could no lon- that Timmins cares about ger teach there. She then taught them. “It doesn’t matter what ninth grade English at Logan you do, she wants you to have Middle School for one year be- a nice time,” senior Taylor fore coming to Cedar Falls High Horvatich said.

School where she has been ever Timmins urges students since. At first, she missed teach- to take advantage of their ing Spanish, but she continues experiences and opportunito speak a little in her English ties, both at Cedar Falls High classes, when the situation may School and elsewhere. “Do arise, and English always pro- whatever you can to prepare vided her with something new. yourself for whatever you Timmins particularly noted the think you might want to do,” variety of literature texts she can she said. choose from for teaching and For students who think also experiencing the myriad they may want to go into ways a student can respond to teaching, Timmins advised, one piece of literature.

“You need to have a sense of After 40 years, however, humor.”

Timmins acknowledges that the

By Editor-in-Chief Ellen paper load that comes from teaching is just too much. With WALLINGFORD

Charitable Cause

Students raise money for University of Iowa Children’s Hospital with dance marathon/page 2 Follow us on Twitter at tigerhiline, Facebook at TigerHilineOnline and on our website at www.hiline.cfschools.org

CFHS students create speedy performance in 24 hours

Submitted Photo

Sophomore Grace Gubbrud, seniors Ellen Wallingford and Kyle Wiebers and CFHS alum Jillian Ross with their group after their performance.

Playwrights typically spend minutes and that is related to weeks or months writing the song. The theme of the and perfecting their plays. plays for this performance “It was a lot of fun to They work to make every was “Friends and Lovers.” detail perfect for their au- do it because it was like a The performances were dience’s enjoyment, but show, but it was sped up and judged by local celebrities what if they only had 24 Andrea Dryer, who is a jushours to make their plays didn’t involve the backstage tice at BlackPhoto Hawk County Submitted satisfactory? A group of drama. It was fun to be a part Courthouse, and John LuCFHS students faced this zaieh from the Oster Reof something different that challenge when they pergent Theater. formed in a Speed The- most people don’t get to be At the end of the perater event on Saturday a part of.”

-Senior Kyle formance, several CFHS night, Feb. 15. students won awards. The For $10, anyone was group that included Grace able to see this crazily Gubbrud, Ellen Wallingthrown together performance at Ellen Wallingford. CFHS alum ford and Kyle Wiebers won Best the Walker Building across from Jillian Ross also participated.

Original Script. Wiebers won In Speed Theater, partici- Best Actor. John Nicol’s group the Waterloo Community Playhouse. Several CFHS students pants are divided into teams of won Best Use of “Speed” in participated including sopho- six to eight people. Each team Speed Theater. mores Grace Gubbrud and Ka- draws a song title from a list of

By Editor-in-Chief Mallory tarina Walther, junior John Nicol songs and must, within 24 hours, VALLENTINE and seniors Kyle Wiebers and create a play that lasts under 12

Wiebers

Tiger Den open for business The CFHS Tiger Den has officially opened and is ready to house students during their releases, lunch shifts and before and after school. The Tiger Den is located right beside the library in the library’s old and retired computer lab from 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and can hold up to 50 students. “[The Tiger Den] gives students another positive option for free periods,” Associate Principal Troy Becker said.

The hang-out space provides a new place for students to go and relax while eating some food or drinking some pop or sports drink, and it

will soon be serving food and drinks of its own in the near future.

Katie Walsworth is the teacher in charge of the new Tiger Den and said, “It gets kids out of the hall and a chance to hangout.”

As far as rules and regulations go, there are no major rules for the new Tiger Den except to show respect to those inside and to make sure the volume is still softer than that of the cafeteria.

There are also some advantages to having a Tiger Den. Becker said, “It’s a place that students in good standings

can sign out of study hall and the commons to go and hang out in. It’s [also] a place for students to collaborate and visit during the day.”

The Tiger Den is place to go for other things besides hanging out, such as eating lunch and eventually for buying food and coffee and drinks.

It will also be a place for students to go and take tests during release and before school depending on the volume and amount of people in the Tiger Den.

By Staff Writer MacKenzie

DALLENBACH

2

The

CAPTURED

Tiger

Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

HI-LINE

Dance Marathon Students raise money for hospital

The dance marathon raised $1,500 with the help of Student Senate. The money will be donated to the Iowa Children’s Hospital.

Starting at top left, senior Kayla Dowell holds a child. Middle left: Students play dodgeball. Botton left: Jude Corkery is held by his father. Jude was was diagnosed with epilepsy. Top right: sophomore Annebeth Ahrenholz gets ready to throw the ball. Middle right: juniors Kaitlyn Bown and Olivia Hall.

Bottom row, left to right: Student senate president, senior Alyssa Vuong, and junior Becky Mujica hang out. Junior Catherine Weilein and sophomores Conrad Nichols, Andrew Hager and Trevor Benson cheer dodgeball players on.

Agatha Fenech photos

3 Too much stress

The

Tiger

HI-LINE

OPINION

Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

#SochiProblems? More like #US Problems

placed on juniors

Coverage, attitudes toward Olympics embarrassing It seems that the 2014 Winter Olympics will be about as famous for its failures as its successes. But not just in sports. The news has found a way to point out every little flaw in the the Games since before the Games began.

When one ring of the Olympic symbol failed to open during the opening ceremony, journalists made it sound like not only was it the end of the world, but that it was proof that Russia couldn’t handle the Olympics. There is even a Twitter account and separate hashtag established — @SochiProblems #SochiProblems, respectively — that detail all the little problems people have encountered in Sochi. Colored water, locked doors, holes in walls. You name it, it’s probably a #SochiProblem.

Granted, there have been a lot of problems in Sochi, and in Russia as a whole. But let’s explain how and why they became problems. First of all, people have been up in arms over Russia’s anti-gay laws.

Now, I support gay rights wholeheartedly, but keep in mind that these anti-gay laws as well as Russia’s position on Syria do not reflect the ideas of the whole nation. A country’s entire population should not be blamed for the actions of its government, but it seems that most people formed rock-solid opinions about Russia before the games began.

And about the con-

struction issues. Many hotels and crews were simply not ready for people to come in yet. Starting construction too late, they had to scramble to make things presentable.

Of course, they should have been ready, and issues that threaten the health and safety of athletes and spectators are inexcusable, but as the whole world watches, we could make less of a deal of the things going wrong and more of a deal of the sports events.

For example, one of the Olympic rings didn’t open when it was supposed to during the opening ceremony. A simple mistake, and one that could have happened to any crew in any country at any event of this grandeur. What about the other rings that did open into snowflakes? That’s pretty cool.

What about all the athletes coming together in solidarity and celebrating each other before the competitions? All this was lost on some people who were so hung up on little mistake.

All these problems have been meticulously hashed out by regular citizens and journalists alike, who I had hoped possessed at least an ounce of journalistic integrity these days. The @SochiProblems account seems to be used by more spectators than anyone, but as I was scrolling the account and the hashtag feed, I saw that news commentators and journalists were supplying pictures of their own. Seriously, what happened to respect, if only for yourself? Not only are these people embarrassing all Russians and everyone involved with the Olympics,

Contact Us The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613.

Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Fridays to read during their fifth period classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the majority of the editors listed below.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Monday for publication in the following Friday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editors-in-Chief: Austin Anderson, Martha Hall, Mallory Vallentine and Ellen Wallingford Staff: Zuhayr Alam, Kaleb Bengston, Kaitlyn Brocka, Mackenzie Dallenbach and Abby Young

but they are making fools out of themselves. And the problem with publicizing information on social media is that it finds a way to last forever. Even if the account is deleted, there’s an exorbitant amount of proof that it happened. Imagine people in Russia scrolling through Twitter, to see one of their towns, and thereby their entire people, ridiculed as the laughingstock of society. Imagine one of your children asking you why #SochiProblems ever happened. What are you going to tell them? Imagine the Olympians who have worked so hard to achieve their dreams, but people find the hotel water more interesting than their performance.

The United States of America, as one of the major world powers, has an opportunity to show support of other nations, and to strengthen a bond that has long been unstable.

Instead, we squandered it with prejudice, indifference and petty hangups. So regardless of who takes home the most Gold, who really won and lost out there? The struggling southern resort town who didn’t quite perform under pressure? Or the observing countries who acted as immature as possible under the circumstances? This winter, I’m proud of the athletes, but that’s about it.

It’s your junior year, and you think since it’s the middle ground of high school, the year shouldn’t be too hard.

However, you’re very wrong.

As a junior there are many things expected of you. There is so little time to do all of these things that you find yourself exhausted by the end of the day and have very little free time. Ask any junior in the hallway how much free time they really have, and they will tell you, if any, they don’t have much.

As a junior the first thing expected of you is to get your license and keep it. That’s not too hard as long as you don’t speed, text and drive or do other things that could cause you to lose your license.

On top of that, you’re expected to get A’s or at least B’s in all of your classes. This means no slacking whatsoever. You have to study for every class and do all of your homework on time. Again, this is not very hard to do unless something gets in the way of that.

Most juniors are turning 16 or 17, and that means it’s time for a job. Depending on how long you work and how many days you work, a job can make it incredibly hard to keep up with schoolwork. If you wake up, go to school, go to work after school and only have an hour, maybe two, to study and do homework, how are you expected to get such good grades?

Another big thing that is

Editor-in-Chief Ellen

constantly on your mind as a junior is the enormous pressure of figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life. Most people think this is what seniors do, but that is incorrect. As a junior you need to take the ACT or the SAT, and you need to pick classes to take as a senior to prepare you for your future. You need to start thinking of what college you want to go to, what you want to major in and when you can tour these colleges.

You also have to make sure to reach the requirements for all of the possible colleges just in case you can’t get into the one you wanted.

With all of these things on your mind, how are you able to have any time for relaxation, let alone hanging out with your friends? This is something expected of you, too. Adults stress all of these things upon you and then ask why you don’t have many friends or why you’re never out of the house. It’s because there’s no time for any of that.

Junior year, in my opinion, is the most difficult school year and the most exhausting. However, once you get through your junior year, the summer will probably end up being your time to get some real sleep, reconnect with your friends and get ready for senior year to come.

Staff Writer Kaitlyn

Brocka

Wallingford

Our View

Exceptional efforts deserve glory

CFHS is home to amazing students and staff, even some who are willing to go above and beyond to put forth exceptional effort to helping others. Each month you can go to the high school website and nominate a student for each grade level and staff member(s) for the Exceptional Efforts Award to thank them for all they’ve done. Nominations are due on the 25th of each month, and the awards are given out on the 30th. This month six very exceptional women won the award. During the

holiday season, sophomore Olivia Mickey convinced her English class to help out someone in need by raising money to give them gift cards. Junior Rebecca Lyman never backs away from a challenge or meeting new people. She is a member of the Girl Leadership Group and MVP. She’s always cheerful and friendly to people while keeping a smile on her face.

Senior Catherine Isley’s warm heart showed as she led and coordinated an effort to create and make blankets for children staying at a local hospital. Her effort touched many people in

the community’s hearts with her kindness. Staff media specialists Kim Traw, Kristi Anhalt and Lori Nelson gave over 100 percent as they put a lot of their time into preparing and distributing all of the CFHS Chromebooks. The task took weeks of unpacking and labeling the thousand of Chromebooks distributed among the students just last month.

All six of these women put forth exceptional effort and help many people in their free time. Their awards are well deserved.

4

The

Sports

Tiger

HI-LINE

Friday, Feb. 21, 2014

After Sochi,

World Cup captures global focus The FIFA World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in the world this year. The final tournament, whose qualifying rounds began in June of 2011, will take place in Brazil starting June 12, and run until July 13, with billions upon billions of people tuning in from all corners of the world to watch.

The groups for the tournament were chosen just a few months ago. There are 8 groups, each represented by a letter such as “Group A.” In group play, every team faces each team once. Teams get three points for winning, one point for tying, and no points for losing. The top two teams will advance to the knockout stages.

The United States will have a tough time getting out of its group, however. America was drawn into Group G with Ghana, who had knocked the United States out each of the past two World Cups; Portugal, who have one of the best players in the world at the moment in Cristiano Ronaldo; and Germany, who are one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Brazil goes into the tournament as another one of the favorites, mainly because of home field advantage. The whole country of Brazil is looking towards 21-year-old Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, commonly known as Neymar, to lead the country to its sixth World Cup victory. Some other favorites are Germany, who have not won a World Cup since 1990, and Spain, who won the last World Cup in South Africa. Argentina go into the tournament as contenders as well, led by 26-year-old Lionel Messi, who many people call the best player the world has ever seen.

With a mere four months

the

Week

Brazilians wrestle with costs of hosting In 2014 and 2016, Brazil will be hosting the biggest sporting events the world will have ever seen: the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 summer Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.

These mega-huge events will cost the country billions upon billions of dollars, and that is not going over too well with some of its citizens.

According to National Public Radio, the World Cup will cost an estimated $1020 billion for the country.

That price comes from the building of new stadiums, renovating transportation systems and housing and just overall tidying up before the spotlight falls on the country.

A Wall Street Journal story reports that the Olympics will tack an estimated $15 billion to Brazil’s investment in sports. That price comes from building a whole new

Olympic park and transforming Rio de Janeiro into a modern metropolis.

An estimated 40 million people in Brazil live under the poverty line, so spending many billions of dollars on these two events is not going over well with a large portion of Brazil’s citizens. Many citizens want the federal and state governments of Brazil to spend $30 or so billion on education or food. Just last year during the Confederations Cup, sort of like a mini World Cup, there were riots all over the country during the games. Some of them turned violent, and there were many injuries. During the final between Brazil and Spain; however, the riots stopped, and everyone seemingly quieted down to watch the game.

Many citizens of Brazil have warmed up to the idea of hosting the World Cup in their country, but they are still op-

posed to hosting the Olympics.

Brazil’s Olympic Committee has a grand scheme in the works to completely change one part of Rio de Janeiro in order to build the athletes’ village among other Olympic attractions. The committee is also looking to revamp the older transportation systems of the city along with adding more tourist attractions in the cities like museums.

The poorer people of Rio think that this is an atrocity because they feel that they are being completely overlooked.

There will undoubtedly be violence and riots during both sets of games, so this begs the question: Should Brazil be hosting these events?

By Staff Writer Zuhayr

left until the World Cup starts, Brazil is having problems getting all of its stadiums ready in time. There have already been multiple fatalities while building the stadia, the last of which happened last Saturday. Many of the stadiums have not been completed, and most of the newly planned hotels have not even begun construction.

There have also been security concerns for Brazil. Last year, during the Confederations Cup, which is sort of like a mini World Cup, there were riots over corruption and spending so much money on the World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games when the country’s economy is not doing well and much of the

country is in poverty. Also, during Pope Francis’s visit to Brazil during the summer, there were security concerns when people came to see the Pope as he halted his car and people got close enough to touch him.

Sophomore soccer player Nathan Shull is enthusiastic about the World Cup, despite the safety concerns.

“I like to watch the world’s best players and their teams competing against each other.

You can tell that the players get really passionate, and that makes for a great atmosphere.

As for who would win the coveted trophy, Shull said, “I think Spain will win again. Spain is still a very talented team, and

I can’t see them not making a deep run. There is a special kind of atmosphere there.”

Junior Hiram Marquez can hardly wait for the World Cup to begin as well.

“I enjoy watching the World Cup and soccer in general because it is really intense. You can feel the passion coming from the field and the fans,” Marquez said. “The World Cup is especially good because the best of the best play there, and every game is life and death.”

Marquez thinks that Brazil will win their sixth World Cup in 2014.

ALAM

opponents but not fear them,” head coach Dan List said.

Many players on the team have said that a big reason for their success is their team chemistry. Whether it’s playing basketball, having a team meal or just hanging out, they all get along well. They are like one big basketball family.

“My favorite part of coaching is to see the tremendous chemistry the team has. They respect and pull for each other and have really come together

as a team,” List said.

If the Tigers are able to pull off another win at Mason City, the girls would travel to Ames to battle against one of the top teams in the state of Iowa, Des Moines East.

If they are able to upset the Des Moines East Scarletts, the Lady Tigers would advance to the State tournament.

There are two seniors on the team this year, Madison Wood and Symone Robinson, who are fighting to keep play-

Drew Marchesani Basketball Junior Drew Marchesani is the Tigers’ leading three-point shooter and is preparing to start the playoffs against Metro rival Waterloo West, who they have split the season series with.

How are you wrapping up the season and preparing for the playoffs?

We kind of hit a rough spot later in the year, but our last game against Kennedy, we played really well and are starting to turn it around and have some really good practices.

Hopefully we can peak at the right time on Monday for West.

Having split the season series against Waterloo West, how are you game planning to beat them?

Last time we played West was at home. We didn’t have our leading scorer, Keeon [Johnson], which really hurt us offensively and defensively because we had to play zone.

With Keeon back, we can play man to man, and he can cover their best man Lincoln Conrey and hopefully shut them down.

Have you thought about college at all?

I’ve definitely started to think about college. I’m going to start it off by playing a lot of AAU ball this summer and try to get on the map. I’ll work real hard and see what happens and play my hardest every game, and let it be done.

By Staff Writer Zuhayr

ALAM

Women’s basketball team readies for playoffs The CFHS women’s basketball team is just two games away from being able to go to the state basketball tournament.

This Saturday, they will be traveling down to Mason City for their first playoff game. Although Mason City has a better record, 15-6, than Cedar Falls’ record of 11-10, Cedar Falls pulled off a win last time they played them in a close game 66-59.

“We want to respect our

Athlete of

ing as they are finishing up their high school basketball careers.

“I’ve been a part of the journey to go to State for the past four years at Cedar Falls, and this is our year. We’ve worked really hard as a team for these last games, and being a senior is my last chance to help the team make it count,” Wood said.

By Staff Writer Abby

YOUNG

Tigers in

Action

Men’s Basketball (6-14) Feb. 24 Home vs. Waterloo West Women’s Basketball (10-11) Feb. 22 @ Mason City

Wrestling State Qualifiers Dan Kelly-138 Drew Langel-170 Devon Davis-220