The Sailors' Log, February 14, 2013

Page 1

2nd annual Shores vs. Reeths-Puffer Health Challenge Feb. 11 marked the start of the second annual sixweek health challenge between the staff of Shores and ReethsPuffer. Employees earn points by exercising, and the school with the most points at the end of the six weeks will win the competition. The challenge was created by Access Health, Healthy on the Shore, and 1in21.

Athletes make final cut for scholarship competition Out of more than 5,000 applicants and three rounds of judging, three Shores students made it into the top 24 boys and top 24 girls for the MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar Athlete Award. The finalists were seniors Reed Hrynewich, Hailey Hrynewich, and Jillian Klien; however, none of them won.

BPA students place at regional competition On Jan. 12 at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, students competed in the BPA regional competition. Students who placed for Shores were seniors Taylor Groenhout, Ben Szot, Mari Reyes; juniors Mitchell Anderson, Bryan Hendryx, Bryton Woirol, Cade Messinger, Kelsey Nygren, Morgen Oneka, and sophomore Nick McNarland.

students of the month

December students of the month are seniors Christian Fritz and Logan George.

random acts of kindness rewarded The Student Recognition program recognized juniors Maddy Elwell and Samantha Morse with $10 Subway gift cards.

next paper Next month’s edition will be out March 28.

index

p. 2-3 – editorial p. 4 – entertainment p. 5 – profiles p. 6-7 – center section p. 8-9 – feature p. 10 – news p. 11-12 – sports

LOG the

Volume 51 Edition 5 Thursday, February 14, 2013

Mona Shores High School • 1121 Seminole Road • Norton Shores, Michigan 49441

Blind motivational speaker provides athletes with a...

CLEAR

VISION

nent blindness. Within six weeks his right eye went blind through a rare eye disease Editor-in-Chief called Sympathetic Opthelmia. Everyday, people dream of doing amazing That incident has not slowed MacFarlane things, but doing amazing things often takes down. great motivation and insane courage. Stressing his own version of P.R.I.D.E. Craig MacFarlane has both the motivation (preference, responsibility, individuality, deand courage to do amazing things. sire, and enthusiasm), MacFarlane challenged MacFarlane, a blind motivational speaker students to not “let the little things get in the as well as an accomplished athlete and musiway and serve as an excuse.” cian, spoke to athletes from Born in 1963 in the town of Shores and Fruitport on the Desbarats, Ontario, Canada, In addition to morning of Wednesday, Feb. 6, MacFarlane has won 103 gold Craig MacFarin Shores auditorium. medals in various sports, inlane, the parents “I think it was touching how cluding wrestling, sprinting, of Detroit Tigers he has dealt with his blindness,” and skiing. He has befriended pitcher Justin Versenior Joel Maire said. “(His giants in all fields of life, from lander also spoke. speech) was inspirational beGeorge H. W. Bush to Pope Please go to page cause it shows that if you put Benedict XVI. 10 to read about your mind to something you “(His speech) was motivatheir story. really want to accomplish, you tional because of all the cool can do almost anything.” things he has done, and he is MacFarlane has been blind blind,” senior Brandan Gue said. since a freak accident involving a striker (a MacFarlane summed up his positive outdevice used for lighting a welding torch) that look on life and charisma by saying, “We all occurred when he was only two years old. have a little torch inside of us, and how high He was playing with a few friends in the we light the torch reflects in the smile on your backyard of his parents’ home when someone face.” got their hands on a striker, and it accidentally In addition to the business giants and hit MacFarlane in the left eye causing perma- Please see SPEAKER, page 10 By Jake Bordeaux

SUSPENDED! By Jake Bordeaux

Editor-in-Chief Matt Koziak, the second-year head coach of the Sailor football program, will not be present for the first two games of the 2013 season. “(Koziak) has been suspended for undue influence,” athletic director Ryan Portenga said. “Basically, he did not go through the proper enrollment channels and is in violation of Koziak MHSAA regulation.” The situation began when the family of a Grand Haven student contacted Koziak about possibly transferring to Shores. “I thought that I was not in vi-

On the morning of Feb. 6, student-athletes at Shores and Fruitport schools had the opportunity to listen to motivational speaker Craig MacFarlane.

Football coach to sit two games for MHSAA recruiting violations

olation of any rules because the family contacted me,” Koziak said. “I called and notified the student’s coach to let him know the student was considering transfer, and I then met with the family to further discus the transfer. My meeting with them was the violation.” The incident occurred in mid-November of 2012, and Shores self-reported the incident to the MHSAA. Portenga said Shores has never had an undue influence incident with any of its coaching staff prior to this event. Also, Portenga added that because the case was self-reported and handled by Shores administration and it was a first time offense, he said he expected nothing more than a slap on the wrist. However, because the MHSAA

has to rule based on the precedence of previous cases, they were forced to penalize Koziak the same as coaches in the past. The MHSAA sent a letter to Shores stating that Koziak had a choice to make. He could either give up coaching the first two games of the 2013 season, or he could coach, but if the team qualified for the playoffs, they would not be able to participate. “I don’t agree with the suspension at all; however, it is a rule, so I am going to accept the penalty,” Koziak said. “If I don’t respect the rules and penalties, how can I expect the rest of the coaching staff and my players to?” Koziak is not the only party involved in the incident, though, as the student and his family are also in

violation of MHSAA rules. In the MHSAA handbook, under the penalties for undue influence, the rule states, “This rule renders a student who is recruited by a person directly or indirectly associated with a school or athletic program ineligible for up to one year.” Despite this rule, Portenga said the MHSAA has not moved to impose this punishment on the student involved, and has instead left any action regarding the discipline of the student completely in the hands of Grand Haven’s administrative staff. Portenga said that while he believes Grand Haven has handled the whole situation perfectly, they have not yet moved to discipline the student yet. Please see KOZIAK, page 10


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