Final Fumble

FINAL FUMBLE IOWA CITY WEST HIGH SCHOOL | 2901 MELROSE AVE. | IOWA CITY. IA 52246 | INTRO.WSSPAPER.COM | MAY 28. 2019

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CO N T E N TS MAY. 28, 2019

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PROFILE

LIVING THE LEGO LIFE SPORTS

2019 BASEBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

SENIOR FUMBLE PROFILE

BENDING THE CULTURE OF CLAY OPINION

WAGE GAP: THE MYTH

MEET THE STAFF America Marungo ‘21 PHOTOGRAPHER AND WRITER

Gary Chen ‘22

CONTENTS CONTENTS WRITER

Youjoo Lee ‘21 DESIGNER

Owen Aanestad ‘22 EDITOR

Tosh Klever ‘21 VIDEOGRAPHER

Frances Blount ‘21 WRITER DESIGN BY FRANCES BLOUNT COVER DESIGN BY YOUJOO LEE

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May 28, 2019

Living The Lego Life Legos have been a big part of our childhoods, well at at some point we forgot about them and now they are probably sitting in the basement or even in the closet, well that’s not the case for Sam Westergaard’ 21.

He doesn’t play with them instead he does something unique.

Legos are well known around the world but do you actually know the story behind legos Sam, a former student at West High has been hiding one of his talents which is to personalize his figures to make them unique not only he does that but he also like to build buildings,any kind of hobby people usually start when they are bored or have always been interested on it ”Probably around 2013 I’d say,when like Star Wars Clone Wars was on and I just started making legos of characters from that TV show” he says. There are people who think playing legos it’s a kid thing and not really a teenager hobby, but Sam thinks otherwise, he has comment that when he tells people about his figures they find it weird but other people take it as something interesting “There are people who find my hobby interesting, and would like to know more about it but at the same time there are people who find about it but at the same time there are people who find it weird” he said.about it but at the same time there are people who find it weird” he said. Sam enjoys painting his lego figures in his free time,the reason why he does this is because he can personalise them anyway he wants “I really don’t know how much I spend but if we estimate,I would say around $90....I use to paint over old figures I did just to save money but now I don’t because each piece is unique in it’s on way “ he said.Family has to be a big part of a hobby you like to do right? “My family finds it really interesting and really don’t treat me different,they are really supportive of this.”Westgaard’21.

It doesn’t matter what you are into the only thing that matter it that you enjoy it.

Although Sam’s hobby doesn’t consist of building or doing something really creative as many people think of it,he has a time an effort when it comes to painting his Lego figures and even though people may not think it’s something also more creative that’s not what Sam think or his friends or his family because he is using the time to make every single detail that goes into every Lego figure and that’s what makes it unique,and yes you can go to the LEGO store and get different parts of Legos and buy them to make your own but Sam does it differently he just likes put in his work into them that’s something awesome and I feel a lot of people do when it comes to a hobby like that make it a unique and enjoy and really not caring what people say about them so if you have any crazy hobbies don’t let anyone bring you down And anyway because you should enjoy doing what you love doing with that anyone bothering you and tell you that that’s not creative interesting because there’s people out there that do think you have a great skill.

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LEGO FACTS The Lego group began in 1932 in Billund,Denmark and was founded by Kirk Christiansen LEGO was originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks”.

The largest commercial LEGO set is the Taj Mahal set. It has 5,922 individual pieces.

Events

29 July LEGO & Minecraft Camp (Ages: 5-8) 15 June Brickworld Chicago 13 July BrickUniverse St. Louis LEGO Fan Expo 17 June Summer Camp 2019: Lego Robotics BRICKUNIVERSE IS THE ULTIMATE LEGO FAN EXPERIENCE OBJECTIVES

Professional LEGO artists from around the world will be at BrickUniverse showcasing hundreds of LEGO creations.

The world’s tallest LEGO tower is 28.7m high, made For more information go to from with 465,000 bricks! :https://www.brickuniverse.c om/ More than 400 billion Lego bricks have been produced since 1958

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SPORTS

MAY 28, 2019

BASEBALL PREVIEW

WSS INTERNS TAKE A LOOK AT THE UPCOMING 2019 BASEBALL SEASON THIS SUMMER AS THE TEAM LOOKS FOR ANOTHER TRIP TO STATE

BY GARY CHEN The stands are packed. The crowd is cheering as you step up to bat. The pitcher throws, you swing, and It’s out of the park! It is baseball night with the Trojans. This team of 30 had a 30-11 winning record last season. Today, we interview two seniors, Chase Calderwood and Nick Fleckenstein to see what baseball is like.

WSS: What has been your involvement in the past three to four years?

Chase: Most of my time is spent on baseball because I don’t play any other sports.

Nick: I would say a lot, because I play in the Fall, Spring, and Summer for high school ball. I would probably say six months of the year.

WSS: What has been your record for the past few seasons?

Nick: It’s just been a winning record.

Chase: I don’t remember.

WSS: How are you going to prepare for the next season?

Nick: Just keep lifting, practicing, and just get prepared.

WSS: What sort of connection do you and your teammates have?

Nick: We have a strong bond. We’ve been playing together since we were little.

Chase: We have all been friends since we were eight. We all have good connections.

WSS: Do any specific schools push you to play better?

Nick: Definitely City. That gets intense.

Chase: Last year, we won both games against City. Sorge trucked the catcher, so he got kicked out. Someone got suspended for the next couple of games. It was crazy.

WSS: How do you avoid a farmer’s tan?

Chase: You don’t. It looks good.

WSS: Being the seniors this year, how do you plan to lead the team to victory?

Nick: Chase: Juniors don’t really have a lot of energy.

Sometimes they’re lowkey dry. They don’t really show any emotion.

We also take a peek into the mindset of head coach Charlie Stumpff.

WSS: How long have you been coaching West High Baseball?

Stumpff: I believe this will be my 27th year, so a long time.

WSS: What was the greatest year, in your opinion?

Stumpff: That’s tough. There’s always going to be some memorable ones. My first year here, we struggled, but had a great group of guys. It showed that we have potential here. The first team I went to state with was in 2004. We upset a couple of higher ranked teams, we were under 500, but we got blitzed in Des Moines in the state tournament. But still, the first time, the excitement, it was memorable. We’ve had a run of 8-9 state teams, five runner ups, and the first time we were

in the championship. Every team makes their own memories.

Tosh: Would you say the competition has stayed the same over the years?

Stumpff: Yeah I think so. It ebbs and flows some years.

Dubuque, Xavier, and City when I first got here, was a monster baseball program. They all have the same thing in common. Division 1 athletes.

WSS: I’ve heard that some of the teammates have played together their whole lives. Does that play into their teamsmanship?

Stumpff: Yeah. They’re a close group. In 15 years, you develop friendship, comradery, through the ups and downs.

“TH E RE ’S NO MAG IC TO IT. YOU ’VE GOT TO PUT I N TH E WORK .

YOU ’VE GOT TO DO TH I NGS I N TH E OFFSEASON .”

VARSITY BASE BALL COACH CHAR LI E STU M PF F

WSS: What are your goals for the season?

Stumpff: The goals are always West High goals. We’re going to try to win conference, try to win state, and be the best we can be.

WSS: Does competitiveness ever affect ethics?

Stumpff: There’s always ways to shortcut things. People can cheat with bats, people can cheat in the weight room, but we preach to do things the right way. We’re hopeful that we have high character kids that go about doing things the right way.

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SPORTS

MAY 28, 2017

With many challenging opponents along the way, West will have to fight hard for the playoffs this year. With Prairie, City, and Xavier, it will definitely be a tough battle with everyone contributing, fighting with all their might for a success

BY TH E

N U M B E RS

13 30 -11

returning seniors to the team

record last year the 6th best record in the state

0.316

over all team batting average last year

U PCOM I NG GAM ES DH 5:00PM Xavier May 28th Home Soph/V 5:00PM May 29th at Pleasant Valley DH 5:00PM Linn-Mar May 31st Home Soph/V 5:00PM Iowa City Liberty June 3rd Home Soph/V 7:00PM Away vs. Iowa City Liberty June 4 at Mount Mercy University DH 5:00PM Waterloo West June 7th at

Waterloo West High School

DESIGN BY OWEN AANESTAD

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F E AT U R E

MAY. 28. 2019

SENIOR

It’s the end of the year and seniors are excited to graduate high school and step out to the world. WSS Intern interviewed seniors about how West High has helped them to grow up and also asked for some advice for underclassmen.

COMPILED BY YOUJOO LEE

Noah Aanestad‘19 “Playing sports in high school gives people the outlet to play the sports they love at a really competitive level, like Iowa Athletics and our conference, while also having a strong foundation on academics and school in general which is really the thing that makes West special for me and many others.”

Eliana Cheng ‘19 “High school has helped me a lot [to grow up]. I came here 2 years ago from China and there, I had to study all day, everyday. But here, I could try out different things during my free time. My personality also changed because here I could talk more and learn more things.”

FUMBLE FRESHMAN

SENIOR

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F E AT U R E

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F E AT U R E

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Lexi Moore ‘19 “I got taller to say the least. I’m definitely more outgoing than I was my freshman year. I was really shy and probably had more anxiety back than I do now. I had issues talking to new people and making new friends [but now I don’t].”

Allie Schmitt-Morris ‘19 “You will probably leave high school with a completely different friend group you started out with freshmen year but that’s okay because those people that you end the shcool year with are the most important. I have become more me because I now have friends who accept me for who I am.”

Marco Avalos ‘19 “School really hasn’t done much. It’s just school you know, it’s not that important. You really just go to the real world and do what you have to do at the end of the day. It’s nothing special. Just YOLO, [but] do your homework, don’t slag or else you will be like me. And make sure you do your work to pass all your classes.”

FRESHMAN

SENIOR

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F E AT U R E

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DESIGN AND ART BY YOUJOO LEE

MAY. 28, 2019

D I N N G E B THE CULTURE OF

Olivia benda '19, who has been making ceramics for five years, describes how she uses pottery as an outlet to express her creativity with.

L C A

Y

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PROFILE

BY FRANCES BLOUNT

If

you walked beyond the door of room 158 and into the ceramics room, the first thing you would see would be the two-foot-tall, unfinished ceramic vase that is perched on the clay splattered counter.

Made with 25 pounds of clay and decorated with whimsical flowers, this remains one of the largest pieces that Olivia Benda ’19 has ever made. Benda, one of West High’s resident ceramicists, has been creating both functional and decorative pottery pieces since she was in eighth grade.

Even at the beginning, Benda felt a special connection to ceramics. After being exposed to pottery by her art teacher at North Central middle school who offered to teach her how to throw on the wheel, she decided to continue creating throughout high school and even plans to maintain her hobby in college. Although she is going to veterinary school at Iowa State, Benda says, “I’ve been having a midlife crisis thing where I’m like, man, I just really want to be doing ceramics for the next 30 years.”

Olivia Benda ‘19 stands in front of her flower vase surrounded by materials used to make it in the ceramics room on May 1.

Since eighth grade, a lot has changed for Benda. Over the past five years, her commitment to ceramics has grown and her technique has steadily improved, but her interests are always changing, as she is constantly inspired by new styles, textures, and designs. One of Benda’s art teachers at West High, Marggie Yocius, has been working with her for

" IT ’S R EALLY N I CE TO HAVE TH I S K I N D O F OUTLET WH E R E I CAN J U ST CO M E I N H E R E AN D LI STE N TO A PO DCAST O R A YOUTU B E VI DEO O R J U ST SO M E M U S I C AN D MAK E WHATEVE R I WANT TO MAK E ." - O LIVIA B E N DA '19 over two years and has been able to watch Benda improve.

“She began coming in after school and making pretty simple cups, but she has started doing massively large sculptures. She took 25 pound bags of clay and she was throwing it [on the wheel]. That's a lot of clay to try to maneuver and move around and try to control. But she did it,” says Yocius. “She’s not afraid at all to experiment with technique, and size, and different forms. She pushes the limits.”

Benda has also had her fair share of experimentation with different methods such as sculptural and handbuilding, but she always comes back to throwing pieces on the wheel, especially vases, which are her favorite thing to make at the moment. According to Benda,“There's something really satisfying about them and you have more room to put anything cool on it. Like if you want to do a really cool glaze or if you want to do some carving on it.”

Over the years, Benda’s room has become overrun with ceramic pieces, so, one of her goals is to sell ceramics, not only to clean up the house, but also to make a little money before she goes to college. She has sold some ceramic pieces to family friends and relatives, but, after being accepted into the Emerging Artists Pavilion at the Summer of the

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PROFILE

MAY. 28, 2019

Arts Festival, Benda plans to sell more items and exhibit her art at her booth on June 1-2.. Benda is also hoping to sell more pieces off of her Instagram account, where she showcases videos and pictures of certain pieces to her followers.

Not only is having social media a financial asset, it is also where Benda finds most of her inspiration. “A lot of the stuff she does is self taught through Instagram videos that she sees or youtube videos that she watches,” Yocius said. Benda typically uses new techniques and ideas she finds on Pinterest and Instagram as a foundation to build off of and make her own.

However, she doesn’t always succeed in making what she wants. “I’ll see something on Instagram and think that's really cool and I will try my best to create that, but working with clay, sometimes, as much as you want to make something, the clay’s just not having it that day and what you want to make isn’t going to happen,” Benda said.

Along with classes, Benda spends almost five hours every day in the ceramics room, wearing her clay spattered smock, and sitting at her wheel. In just one class period, she can make eight to ten small mugs. However, making so many mugs and bowls can get extremely repetitive.

Benda says, “Sometimes I get in a rut. Earlier this year for this thing called the Super Bowl, I threw 15 bowls which isn’t that much, but I kind of got burned out after a while.”

olivias_pottery

“SHE’S NOT AFRAID AT ALL TO EXPERIMENT WITH TECHNIQUE, AND SIZE, AND DIFFERENT FORMS. SHE PUSHES THE LIMITS.” - MAGGIE YOCIUS, ART TEACHER Although Benda occasionally gets tired of making pottery, she finds that life without ceramics is dull. “I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and in January I had to get surgery on it because it was getting to the point where it was really painful to make pottery. That was a really really rough spot because it was like two weeks where I couldn’t really do anything and I remember just having to glaze a bunch of things and it was the most boring thing I’ve ever done for two weeks,” says Benda.

Making ceramics hasn’t always been a walk in the park, but Benda always finds herself coming back to it. “I don’t have to throw ceramics every day but it’s really nice to have this kind of outlet where I can just come in here and listen to a podcast or a youtube video or just some music and make whatever I want to make,” Benda said.

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PROFILE

MAY. 28, 2019

The spinning pattern of a ceramic piece being thrown creates a design on the plate of the potter’s wheel in the ceramics room.

Olivia Benda ‘19 makes use of different colored glazes to spice up her artwork.

Kelp green, one of Olivia Benda’s vases, can be viewed on her website oliviabenda.pb.online along with other ceramic kitchenware, vases, jars, and planters. Benda also advertises her watercolor and charcoal art on the website.

Clay coated potters wheels as they sit unused for the moment as students use them to throw new pieces of pottery everyday in the ceramics room on May 1.

DESIGN BY YOUJOO LEE ART BY FRANCES BLOUNT PHOTOS BY OWEN AANESTAD

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OPINION

Wage Gap: The Myth

MAY 24, 2019

BY GARY CHEN Imagine being a woman in one of the best countries in terms of equality in the world, but you still apparently make less than your male counterparts. With a victim mentality, this is a lie that many believe. Countless evidence disproves this, so it is only fair that people shouldn’t believe this lie, but many do. Today, we find out why.

First off, the differences in the working hours and professions of men and women make this difficult to compare, as on average, men work more hours and choose higher paying professions, already explaining a part of this lie. However, even with equal hours and education, there is still evidence disproving the wage gap.

In 2018, Google conducted research on whether or not it underpaid its female employees. The results shocked many at Google, as single women actually made $9.7 million more than their single male counterparts. According to Forbes, a “victim mentality” also perpetuates false fears of gender inequality. Karin Agness, a Forbes reporter went to speak at Harvard to undergraduate women. She asked a simple question. “Do you think you make $0.78 for every $1 a man makes?” The astounding majority of the crowd raised their hands.

Many women’s rights organizations continue to spread this mentality of being set up to fail. On the Institute for Women’s Policy Research wage gap page, there is literally a pull quote telling women they will not be equal to men until 2119. If one thing’s for sure, being forced to think you will fail certainly won’t help you in life.

The Bureau of Labor Department statistics says that women make 77% of what men earn. Their statistics are based on the same jobs for men and women. However, they did not account for the factors stated earlier, such as how men tend to choose higher paying professions and work more hours. If women are working 77% of the hours earning 77% of the pay, that is only fair.

There has been considerable human error in the calculation of the supposed wage gap. Survey data and administrative records uncover the underreporting of income within some of the most widely used survey data.

Another factor is flexibility in job schedule. Heritage News analyzes how one of the most valued qualities in a job that mothers want is flexibility. However, this is a trait that companies don’t like. In essence, it’s a value of choice. Many female workers are willing to sacrifice pay in terms of flexibility.

Feminists claim that once they become mothers, they earn less than fathers, hence what they call the “fatherhood bonus” and “motherhood penalty.” Fresh evidence from a Harvard study find this false. On average, mothers took 17.5 unpaid days of leave, often to avoid undesirable schedules. Fathers on the other hand, took 10 days on average. According to a Wharton study, Fathers also worked 160 hours of overtime with mothers trailing behind at 80 hours.

In conclusion, we can see the explanation the wage gap lacks.

Evidence such as case studies, a victim mentality, and inconsideration of choice differentiation all point to one conclusion. The wage gap is not suppressing women, it is not a gaping threat, but merely a deception.

Most common degrees: Men: Psychology, engineering, and theology Women: Education, English, and communications Work hours on average: Men: 8.2 Women: 7.8 8.2 7.8

COLORING CORNER ART BY GARY CHEN

Yay! You made it to college. Now it’s time to expierience the exciting life of debt, grades, and homework. Just kidding, but enjoy the coloring page.