GROWL The Growl
THE
A Student Publication of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy
America’s Idol talks to The Growl
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October 2011
The Growl
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GROWL Volume 9
Issue 2
Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy 5625 Holy Trinity Drive Melbourne, FL 32940 (321) 723-8323 news@htes.org Dana Slomins Editor in Chief Shannon Sapourn Feature Editor Ally Neutze Photo Editor Staff Reporters Matthew Allison Patrick Black Bobby Forman Kenny Liska Megan McCreery Casey Nierenberg Catie Sergis Kyra Weiss Adviser Jim Hale Headmaster Catherine A. Ford Printing Indian River Press
Cover Photo
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery has stayed close to family, including those who attend Holy Trinity.
The Growl is published monthly during the school year by students of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. The publication is a public forum, with its student editorial board making all decisions concerning its contents. Unsigned editorials express the view of the majority of the editorial board. Letters to the editor are welcomed and will be published as space allows. Letters must be signed and will be verified. The paper reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and clarity, and all letters are subject to laws governing obscenity, libel, privacy and disruption of the school process, as are all contents of the paper. Op i n i o n s i n l e t t e r s ar e not necessarily those of the staff, nor should any opinion expressed in a public forum be construed as the opinion or policy of the administration, unless so attributed.
The Growl Follows Up on Earlier Issue
Longer Lunches By Patrick Black It is safe to say that most students in the school would like a longer lunch. However, despite that desire, no action has been taken that addresses this topic. According to Mr. Joe Mancini, nothing has been done because student government has not yet expressed any interest in the issue. “We have been so busy with homecoming that we have not had time to focus on other things,” said Shannon Sapourn, projects chairman. “Extending the lunches is a topic of interest and will be brought up in the next student government meeting.” According to Mr. Mancini, another reason that no action has been taken by the administration is becuase they are not sure how students will react. “Any time added to lunch will be added to the end of the day,” said Mr. Mancini. “I don’t know if students will mind extra time added to the school day.” However, it seems that a vast majority of students wouldn’t mind the extra school time. “I think you can add 10 minutes to lunch and 10 minutes to the day and that would make me happy,” said junior Christina Darwish. “Since the day ends at 2:50, why not round the number to an even 3:00 and add 10 minutes to lunch?” said junior Jack Olinde. However the director of the Upper School, Mrs. Nancy Giangrisostomi, believes there
will be several problems with adding 10 minutes to the day. “First there is the bus that goes to the Lower School,” said Mrs. G. “Right now the timing for when the bus leaves and when the Lower School students get out of school is perfect. Adding time to our school will leave a 10 minute gap in which you would have to deal with the Lower School students.” According to Mrs. G, adding 10 minutes to the Lower School lunch is something that must be brought up with the administration down there. “Another problem with extending lunch is the fact that it will shorten fourth period,” said Mrs. G. “We would have to revamp the whole bell schedule in order to regain that lost time.” On top of all this, Mrs. G wonders how they would extend the lunch for the high school only and not the junior high. “High school students govern themselves pretty well,” observed Mrs. G. “With the junior high students, that would require more supervision because they do not use their extra time the best.” Mrs. G is also concerned whether the extra time will really help people. “I see a lot of students during lunch with a lot of time on their hands,” said Mrs. G. “I just don’t want to extend the school day unless I see a real need to do so.” “Also I would like to see how this would affect everyone,”
said Mrs. G. “You need to see how many will benefit and how many will be impacted in a negative way.” Also, some students do not like the extra time added to the school day. Sophomore Isaac Furtney said he would like an extended lunch but not the extended school day. “Rather than making school longer, I say deal with it,” said Furtney. There are other alternatives to extending the lunch such as shortening the classes or shortening chapel but these are unlikely to ever take effect. “We would have to extend the school day,” said president Wyatt Rudd. “I don’t think we can shorten classes.” Many teachers believe that they do not get enough time for class as it is now. “I would hate having shorter classes. I do not even eat lunch,” said Mr. Trevor Herntier. “I wouldn’t buy that at all,” said Mrs. Ann Rouse. “I am used to 55 minute classes, so I want more class time, not less.” “I would be okay with shortening the classes by a minute,” said Mrs. Melissa Euziere. “However I would prefer just to add 10 minutes to the end of the day.” Shortening the chapel time faces similar problems. “I would very much rather them not,” said Rev. Joy. “Other Episcopal schools have class time set aside for learning about faith in addition to chapel. For our school, chapel is the only time we get to learn about the Christian faith, so time is precious.”
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What Happens in the Lot Doesn’t Always Stay in the Lot By Shannon Sapourn
One day after school, Laura Szostak and I were driving home down US1, and we looked over and saw Joey Ballack reading The Growl while driving home. Caroline Hament My parking spot is blocked by carline, where the parents drop off their kids in the morning. The younger kids take forever to get out. One morning, this kid was getting out of his car, and he couldn’t get his back pack out of the car. Then, a football falls out of the car and he goes to put it back in the car, and it falls out; he tries to throw it into the car again, and it falls out. This happens five times before it finally stayed in the car. McKenzie Altman
I was swerving in the parking lot, having a good time while the song Headlines was on, so you can’t blame me. Then, Mr. Mancini turns around and points at me. He yelled at me and told me to slow down. Now, as my punishment, I have to park by the football trailer for two weeks. Now, I have to ride my scooter from the trailer into school. All the parents were looking at me like ‘He is the weirdest kid ever.’ It’s honestly worse than having my car taken away. Joey Ballack
One day I came to school and saw Ryan Rufo parked his car across two spots. Trey Ville
Every single year that I have driven to school, someone has always stolen my spot on the first day of school. Nikki Kilborne
Two years ago, I saw Brenden Clarke pull out of the grass lot and not look to see if cars were coming. Evidently, there were two cars heading towards the carline when he pulled out in front of them. He stopped his car, in front of both of these cars who had to slam on their brakes, because two of his friends in the parking lot called his name. Still not looking, he began to back up. The car in the middle backed up into the last car as a result. Seeing that he had caused an accident, Brenden sped off as fast as he could. Luckily, the other two cars only scratched each other. Shannon Sapourn
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By Catie Sergis
Lets Get Clubbin’
Many students at Holy Trinity are a part of a sport, honor society, or extracurricular activity. Some may not be aware of all the clubs on campus this year. The Ping-Pong Club is new to the Holy Trinity community. “I started playing Ping-Pong when I was a little kid,” said founder of the club, junior Reid Stockett. Even though Ping-Pong Club is new this year, there are 30 members.They meet every Monday right after school from 3:00 until 4:00. “Ping-Pong Club is really fun, and I always look forward to Mondays,” said sophomore Andrea Bomalaski. Surf Club is another easy-going club at Holy Trinty. Surf Club is all about having fun and learning new things. “Anybody can join Surf Club. We can teach all of the new members how to surf,” said president of Surf Club, Victor Rahner. Not only is this a club for learning a new sport, but also having a great time with friends. “My favorite thing about Surf Club are the party waves,” said junior Casey Nierenberg. “Party waves are multiple people on one wave,” added junior Alex Theodotu. Surf Club also helps out with the community in a fun way. A couple weeks ago, members from the club participated in a beach cleanup. Another club giving back to the community at Holy Trinity is the Interact Club. “The Interact Club promotes community service opportunities. It also encourages students to work together,” said advisor Ms. Martha Ferguson. Other leaders of the club are sophomores Hannah Shuman and Taylor Wilson. This club is a great way to earn community service and have fun at the same time. The Interact Club has lots of events planned this year. The next event is the dress drive for Eau Gallie High School. “Girls are encouraged to bring old dresses on the week of October 24-27 to the bins in the Tiger Cafe. The dresses will be taken to Eau Gallie High where they will be stored for girls to borrow,” said Ms. Ferguson. Pep Club is also a club that promotes
students working together is Pep Club. This is a great club to get students involved in school spirit. “The Pep Club enables the student body to think of new ways to promote school spirit, other than the typical signs,” said president, senior Shannon Sapourn. This year the club has thought of many new ideas for all of the games. Starting this winter, Pep Club will check off how many students from each grade are at the home games, and the grade with the best attendance each week will get a prize. At the end of the month the winning grade will get
an even bigger treat. One club at Holy Trinity that is handing out some tasty treats is the Cooking Club. This club is a big addition to the Holy Trinity community. Community service is incorporated in this club in many ways. The Cooking Club cooks meals and sweets for different events around Melbourne. The club enables students to have fun and earn community service at the same time. All of these clubs at Holy Trinity are always up for newcomers. Students are encouraged to join these clubs at any time during the school year.
Sophomores Allie Knodel and Chandler Sutherland decorate cakes for King James’s birthday. The Cooking Club participates in many community service events throughout the year.
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iPhone 4S Wows Users By Bobby Forman The iPhone 4S, despite what its name suggests, is still a major update for the Apple phone platform. While it is not the iPhone 5 people originally thought it would be back in early October, it does still offer industry groundbreaking features. Apple has redesigned a lot of the iPhone’s main hardware components. First they redesigned the iPhone’s Camera. They added an eight megapixel camera sensor to capture larger, higher quality images. But the sensor isn’t the only thing that determines image quality, however. Apple has added two extra lenses, for a total of five, and widened the aperture to
Siri, the new personal application on the iPhone 4S, helps users with the weather, texting, and general knowledge questions among other things.
allow in more light. These combined allow for better quality in low light situations Apple has also put in the A5 processor, the same Apple-designed processor in the iPad 2. It is a dual core processor which allows the iPhone to operate twice as fast and have graphics run seven times as fast. For the first time ever the iPhone will come in 3 different memory capacities: 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB. Also for the first time, the iPhone will be available on Sprint, as well as AT&T and Verizon. Finally, the antenna system in the iPhone is an industry first for all Smartphones. It uses a dual antenna system automatically switching between the two for better speed. In layman’s terms if you downloaded the same thing in the same spot on the iPhone 4 and 4S, the 4S download would go twice as fast as the old iPhone 4. This allows you to reach 4G speeds on a 3G network. However, where the iPhone 4S really exceeds is in the software. It comes loaded with Apple’s brand new mobile OS, iOS 5. Some features of this new OS include a brand new notification system, Twitter integration, iMessage, Apples free Internet based iOS texting service, and wireless syncing. All in all, iOS 5 includes over 200 brand new features. Apple’s new cloud service iCloud is deeply integrated into the new iPhone. iCloud is a service that automatically saves photos, music, videos, and documents in the cloud and then wirelessly pushes them to your iPod, iPad, and Mac. As Apple likes to say, “It just works.” The Siri personal assistant function on the iPhone 4S is by far the most incredible. Apple wanted to reinvent voice commands. Before you almost had to learn syntax to command the phone, for example you could only say, “Play Beatles.” You couldn’t say, “Play something by the Beatles.” It wouldn’t understand. However, Apple has changed that; with Siri you can just talk like normal and it understands the context of what you are saying. In a live
The new notification center in iOS 5 provides an easier interface for users to be able to acess all their notifications in one place.
demo the speaker asked Siri if he needed an umbrella. Normal voice recognition wouldn’t be able to answer however, Siri can. It understood what he was saying and answered, “Yes, it sure looks like rain” and displayed the weather forecast for him. The possibilities of this technology are endless. For more information on the Apple iPhone 4S or to see videos of features like Siri in action visit www.apple.com.
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Idol balances fa By Megan McCreery
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his past spring, my cousin, Scotty McCreery won American Idol. The whole experience was just surreal. Seeing him on T.V. can only be described as wild. The weekend after the show ended, the top five Idols traveled to Orlando to visit the Disney parks and to record their parts for the new American Idol Experience at Hollywood Studios. After their work was over, we met up with Scotty and his mom (my aunt), Judy McCreery. We only had a few hours to hang out because that night he was to have dinner with some Disney executives at the top of the Contemporary Hotel. As we began, Scotty introduced us all (my family, and some of Judy’s family) to his bodyguard. In addition, two people who worked at Disney took us around the outside of the parks and stopped at whichever rides we wished to go on. I think this is where it first hit me; I was so excited that we were seeing Disney this way, and Scotty was still relaxed about it all. We started talking about life, music, and whatever else came in between. He was still the same ol’ kid I had known before American Idol, and that is definitely what made me the happiest. I believe he’ll stay grounded thanks to his supportive family in Garner, North Carolina and his strong relationship with God. First, we went to the Toy Story ride. Everyone was very excited. They told us to stay quiet and quickly enter the ride when we were told to. As we went through the doors to get to the ride, people waiting in line started yelling, “Who are these people and why do they get to cut us?” American Idol Scotty McCreery gathers with cousins at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Clockwise from top, Scotty McCreery, Kaley McCreery, Gage White, Alyssa Nelson, Kyle Nelson and Megan McCreery. Right Page: Scotty performs on the 2011 American Idol Tour along with Lauren Alaina, Thia Megia and Pia Toscano.
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amily and fame No sooner than that lady finished her sentence, people began to recognize Scotty, even though he had his head down with a baseball cap on, and boy did all those people start to scream his name. Within five seconds, everyone in the place went crazy. After all, they were within 100 feet of the 2011 American Idol. After Disney, Scotty began the fastpaced 2011 American Idol tour. The Growl staff recently interviewed Scotty by phone. We caught him as he was finishing up his psychology homework, about an hour before he was to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres show. “This semester I’m taking psychology, P.E., and chorus, but next semester I’m taking AP English and some different stuff.
I only have to take one class to graduate, but I wanted to take a full load,” said Scotty.
“I know being in the business I’m in, you’ve got to make sacrifices.” -- Scotty McCreery Even in the wake of the release of his new album, Clear As Day, he plans to return to high school. “I’m playing baseball this year at school. I’ll be really rusty, but it’ll be fun getting back into it. I also have to take P.E.
every day, so today I went for a run, and found some tennis courts on the top of a hill, so I decided to play tennis instead,” said Scotty. College is still in Scotty’s future because he recognizes that he still has a lot to learn. “I’ve got to learn more about the business and have to learn more about what I’m doing,” he said. “Right now I’m just out there singing songs. I don’t know too much about the business side of things of the industry I am in, so that needs to change. I’m interested in Belmont in Nashville, or NC State maybe.” Needless to say, daily life is different today in the McCreery household. Continued on next page
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“It’s changed drastically. I’ve been put in the public eye a lot more,” said Scotty. His older sister agrees. “I think our family’s life has changed forever,” said Ashley. “Simply going out to dinner with Scotty is different because we have to sneak him in and out. Our old normalcy has definitely disappeared. But, we are all adjusting and I think things seem to be going well,” she said. Many changes have impacted their whole family. “I’m traveling a lot more now too.” said Scotty. “I was in Nashville a week ago, New York two days ago, and now I am in Los Angeles today. I’m not home that much anymore.” Ashley is a senior at the University of North Caroline at Charlotte. “Carrie Underwood bought the top nine Idols dog tag necklaces from Tiffany’s with their name on the front. Scotty gave that to me as a little present. I almost never take it off. It’s my little keepsake to remember him by when he and mom are on the road,”
said Ashley. One of the things Scotty doesn’t miss when he finally gets to relax at home for a few days is wearing tight jeans. They say the stage adds 10 pounds, so the stylists want the Idols to wear a size down for the slimming effect.
“Every time I see someone famous in the country industry, I still get star struck.” -- Scotty McCreery Scotty says there are many things he feels he does miss out on. “I missed baseball season [at school] and a lot of football games. [I am missing] a lot of stuff kids get to say were fun times in their junior and senior years of high school. I see it all on Facebook and it’s tough on me,” he said. “But I know being
in the business I’m in, you’ve got to make sacrifices.” The 2011 American Idol Tour went all over the world. They traveled across the United States, Canada, and the Philippines. “It was a blast. We have so many good memories from it, and such good times. We (the top 13 Idols) became a big family,” said Scotty. They all pranked Jacob Lusk by pouring an ice bucket into his shower before one of the concerts. Going to the Philippines was an amazing experience for the Idols. “It was really wild over there, like Beatlemania. The people were all very polite though. I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t eat over there. I tried not to eat too many different foods. I went to the beach once, but we stayed close to the hotel for the most part,” said Scotty. After the tour wrapped up in September, his first album, Clear As Day, was released. “I was so pumped. We’ve been working on it for a few months now, trying to make
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery sings Live Like You Were Dying with country star Tim McGraw during the season finale. Next year Scotty will be touring with Brad Paisley.
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each [song] just right, and perfect them. It’s nice to finally get it out to the public, so we’ll see how it does,” he said. “Water Tower Town is probably my favorite [song on the album]. On this album we had so many people in Nashville writing for us. We had a big meeting down there and told them what we were looking for. I went there for the first time and met the producer [of the album] and they started writing for me. They wrote perfect songs,” said Scotty. Some people wonder if Scotty likes to write his own music, and he assured The Growl that, “I’m writing, I’ve been writing all my life.” He plans to continue with music for as long as the rest of the world permits him to. “[In the next year or so] It’d be really cool to have a number one, either a number one single or a number one album. That’d be a huge step in my career. That’s something people work for for a while now,” said Scotty. Scotty has many musical influences, including Elvis Presley as well as current artists. “My other musical influences are Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and Josh Turner. [I look up to] people that have been doing this for a long time,” said Scotty. Many artists that Scotty has been looking up to for years have now become his friends. “It’s so cool [to be someone people can look up to] so I try to be a role model and try to do and say the right things. I don’t look at it as pressure, but it is something I am conscious of. I just don’t want to mess up in front of the people watching me,” said Scotty. And people are watching. “USA Today had me on the front page the other day for the release of my album. It still cracks me up to see my face on something like that when I’m walking down the road. It’s wild,” said Scotty. With the fame, comes people who aren’t supporters as well. “I try not to [worry about them]. I learned pretty quickly that everyone doesn’t like me. You might see 100 good things [about you], but it’s that one bad thing that rips your heart out. Everyone wants to see you in a relationship with someone, but not me, I’m still single. I want to do something so they won’t say all that stuff, but it’s better not to react,” said Scotty. His new stardom has brought along
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many advantages for the entire family. “[Some of the coolest people I have met are] Tim Allen, Muhammad Ali, and Brad Paisley. Every time I see someone famous in the country industry, I still get star struck,” said Scotty. Last year affected each member of their family differently. “I think my life has been impacted a little bit by this whole process,” said Ashley. “More people know my last name. I think I’ve definitely grown a lot closer to my true friends back home. I think with this whole process, you are tested as to who your true friends are. More people want to talk to you and become your friend, just because of the “famous” aspect. I have a great set of core friends that have my back and I love them dearly,” she said.
There have been so many awesome aspects, but some negative ones as well. Scotty’s father Mike said that one negative aspect is the loss of privacy for Scotty. He cannot go out in public without people coming up to him. There is not as much family time at home as Scotty and his mother, Judy, have been on the road a lot. On the up side, Mike said his favorite moment all year was Scotty singing Live Like You Were Dying with Tim McGraw. The newest addition to Scotty’s success happened very recently when Brad Paisley asked him to join him on his 2012 country music tour. Scotty has had a fantastic year so far, and it’s only October. I cannot wait to see the things he is able to accomplish in a lifetime.
New CD is Fan Friendly
By Kyra Weiss Scotty McCreery’s debut album Clear As Day was released October 4th, with 12 new songs including his single hit The Trouble with Girls. After listening to this album, I loved all the songs and don’t think that fans’ expectations will be left unmet because it is full of McCreery’s country charm that the public fell in love with on American Idol. With McCreery’s traditional country voice and his young audience, the album is a good mix between
contemporary and traditional country music. It creates a story of a simple country life of a teenager including love, family, and faith -- making each song relatable to pre-teens, and teenagers everywhere. In the album’s songs Out of Summer Time, I Love You This Big, Clear as Day, The Trouble with Girls, Better then That, Write My Number on Your Hand, and You Make that Good, McCreery sings about the ups and downs of crushes and young love. Out of these six songs my favorite is Write My Number on Your Hand. Water Tower Town and Walk in the Country are about what makes a small town life in the country so lovable. Dirty Dishes, Back on The Ground, and That Old King James focus on the importance of family and faith. I feel that McCreery definitely satisfied his fans with this album by keeping his friendly attitude and familiar, lovable country twang in his songs. It is also very relatable to teenagers in high school with the situations and stages of life that they are going through. Clear as Day is only his first album and a great start to whatever the future holds for his singing career.
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Emily Morgan
Goal Oriented By Ally Neutze
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s her feet run across the grass, she skillfully dribbles the ball and dodges opposing team members hoping to steal it away with a quick move. In no time, she has made it down the field and nears the edge of the goalbox, where with one swift kick she sends the ball sailing through the air and into the net. Eighth grader Emily Morgan, has scored yet another goal for the Tigers. Morgan’s soccer career began at the age of seven when she played for the Melbourne Beach Tsunami Soccer Club. “Emily’s progress since starting soccer has been consistently overwhelming,” said Coach Dean Pekmezian, Morgan’s Tsunami coach. “There is simply no defensive player good enough to stop her without help from others along the backline, and even then Emily will find a way to score,” said Pekmezian. Morgan attributes much of her success to Pekmezian and his work with her. “He’s been my coach since I started playing and has really helped me become a better player,” said Morgan. The strengths that Pekmezian has helped Morgan fine-tune, such as kicking, became evident a few weeks ago during a pregame warm-up. “One of Emily’s shots sailed above the crossbar and towards the windshield of a parked car. The ball shattered the windshield and left a soccer ball sized dent in the glass,” said Pekmezia. Her Tsunami team has played together for many years and now the girls are playing together at HT. “Emily’s impact is that she can dismantle
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a defense, create relentless pressure in the offensive half of the field and bury the ball in the back of the net. By every player knowing and excelling at her role, it allows the 11 players to play as one, a true team,” said Pekmezian. Pekmezian is not the only one with praise for Morgan -- any one of her teammates will say the same. “Emily is extremely supportive of her team and works hard every time she’s on the field. I’ve known and played with her for eight years on Tsunami,” said freshman Summer Rydson. “She is really funny and giggly. She likes to have fun, but she’s also really sweet.” “One thing Emily used to do when she scored was the airplane. Now she and some other girls do the Bernie to celebrate each goal,” said freshman Kate Elstun, who has also played Tsunami with Morgan and Rydson. “She is a great player and teammate. She will go for any ball and player that comes her way. She has achieved so many things and is an amazing person to play with.” One of Morgan’s major accomplishments was winning the MVP award for the 20102011 HT girls varsity soccer team as a seventh grader. “As talented as Emily is, she doesn’t think of herself as being any better than anybody else out there. She always works hard and gives her all,” said teammate and freshman Morgan Walker who has played with Morgan for 3 years. Morgan’s accomplishments come after many years, teams, coaches, and camps. In previous summers she has attended camps hosted at the University of Florida, Florida Tech, and Wake Forest University. “I play forward for the most part so I would really like to see my defensive skills increase this year. I guess that and winning districts would be my goals for this season,” said Morgan. Long-term, Morgan said that she would like to be more like Meg Rydson, her friend Summer’s sister. “She’s an amazing soccer player with amazing footwork. She can do the Maradona, which is really cool but I can’t do it yet,” said Morgan. And although she’s still in junior high, Morgan says that she would consider playing in college for schools like UF and Florida Tech.
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Rising Stars
By Dana Slomins
Victoria Salmon, Eighth Grade Only an eighth grader, Victoria Salmon is a valuable member of the freshmen volleyball team this year. She is currently a setter and hopes that being a member of the freshmen team will allow her to improve her right-side hitting and work on a harder serve. Salmon has helped her team win tough games against Merritt Island Christian School and Merritt Island so far this season. She has been a big contributor to the success the team has had and plans on continuing her success on either the freshmen or JV team next year.
Samantha Folio, Seventh Grade Samantha Folio has always loved to run. This season she has proved that she not only has a passion for running, but she has what it takes to compete at the varsity level on a state-winning team. Folio has placed in the top seven girls on the team in several meets including the Great American Cross Country Festival where she ran 21:33 and the 12th Annual HT Fall Classic where she ran 21:08. After losing several seniors and top runners from last year, Folio has stepped up to help the girls team in their attempt to win their seventh team title.
Justin Ganiban, Eighth Grade Eighth grader Justin Ganiban is a leader on the field this season as a team captain of the junior high football team. He has been playing football for four years, and this is his second year on the team. Ganiban plays safety on defense and tail back on offense and has already led the team to a 49-6 win over Cocoa Beach. As a captain this year, he hopes to help the team get better as well as improve his own game and play to the best of his ability. He also hopes to lead the team to an undefeated season and plans on playing on the varsity team as a freshman next year.
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The Ambush
By Kenny Liska
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eet stamp and hands clap as another kill marks up one more point for the varsity volleyball team. As the crowds die down and the girls set up for the next play, a sudden shout rings over the home bleachers. “The Book!” shouts senior Josiah Chalmers, standing up at the bottom of the bleachers, raising up a school textbook above his head. This is one of many traditions that the Ambush fan squad has done every volleyball game they have attended. The Ambush is a relatively new fan group that goes to every varsity volleyball game to provide fan service for the girls. The Ambush, which was named after what a group of traveling tigers is called, was founded by senior Doug Dial after seeing a lack of fan support for the volleyball team last year. This year he and a group of others, including fellow seniors Ryan Rufo, Jos Chalmers, Shane Dunne, Michael Netterstrom, junior Nick Hamer, and sophomores Trey Ville and Matthew Allison, shared this vision and wanted to
make an impact at the games, so the Ambush was formed. Along with drawing inspiration from fan groups at other schools, the Ambush has set out to be the best fan squad of them all. “We want to be better than the others,” said Dial. Dial, one of the main leaders of the traditions and chants that the Ambush performs said that this year he felt like there was a need among his fellow seniors to bring back a fan squad for the volleyball team. When the Ambush enters the gym, it is an impressive sight, as they go all the way back to the wall seats of the bleachers. This was clearly the effect that the group had planned which was intimidation. “Mind games, we want to mind control the other team and their fans,” said Dial. But along with trying to psych out the other teams, they would like to support their own girls said fellow senior, and Ambush leader, Rufo. The Ambush brings many different types of both taunts and cheers to the games, and will not hesitate to unleash their arsenal
on a moment’s notice. This year they have come fully armed with not only some old traditions but some new ones that they hope will remain a staple for future games. These can range from the traditional “O-U-T spells OUT!” chant and the reading of the sacred “Book,” to the new ones of “CPR” and the “roller coaster ride.” With these and many more, the Ambush has definitely succeeded in making their mark at every game. “We are trying to revamp,” Dial explains, with the introduction of the new and hopefully staple traditions. So far the Ambush has been an everpresent loud voice at the varsity volleyball games. The only thing that Dial worries about is the continuation of the Ambush next year. “It will definitely take a hit,” said Dial. He is hoping that some of the more enthusiastic members, like Nick Hamer and Trey Ville, will step into the shoes of the seniors this year and continue to the lead the Ambush for years to come.