Volume 67, Issue 4

the Page

JANUARY 2018

VOL. 67, ISSUE 4

WWW.LASLOMASPAGE.COM

BEHIND THE CLASS OF 2018

LL BASKETBALL SUCCESS

LIFE WITH LYME

Read about notable seniors and their passions.

Knights Basketball hopeful to reach state.

Learn about the experiences of LL students with Lyme disease.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Check out laslomaspage.com for podcasts, photo galleries, and more.

News.................................................3-5 Features..........................................6-12 Opinions & Columns.................12-14 Entertainment.............................15-19

E D I T O R S

M. Lin

Sports...........................................20-24 Sophomore Elen Barseghyan, Mrs. Miranda, and Mr. Granzotto ice skating on Fri. Dec. 15.

Editor-in-Chief: Tanvi Saran Managing Editor: Izzy Bartling Online Editor: Sofia Monroy Multimedia Editor: CJ Cabungcal Business Managers: Marcus Lin News Editor: Vanessa Jamieson and Lukas Carbone Features Editor: Geneva Donahoe S. Monroy

Entertainment Editor: Gracie Bridges Opinions/Columns Editor: Madison Lakin Sports Editor: Allison Philipps Staff Artist: Jessie Plascencia

Senior Jessie Plascencia and junior Tahla Bahnasy at the Walnut Creek Women’s March on Sat. Jan. 20.

S T A F F Mark Barram, Kylia Blackstock, Cassidy Carlberg, Caleb Conrad, Sam Hoff, Ava Johnson, Mariyah Keifa, Abby Lusherovich, Nicholas Muirrague, Cian Mullins, Carina Norris, Grace Paulson, Charlie Rosen, David Ryder, and Colin Stoelk

S. Monroy

Emily Bartling

Junior Ben Wilson, senior Eduardo Geurrero, junior Jinsung Huh, junior Kekoa Chung, senior Timmy Grabow, junior Robbie Uesugi, and junior Grant Holland performing at the Walnut Creek Women’s March on Sat. Jan. 20.

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N E W S

Locker Room Vandalism

by Abby Lusherovich

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some steps to make sure that no one can access that room at night.

We were concerned that people were coming in through the windows and we had those fixed and we increased the supervision during class periods to make sure it wasn’t a kid,” said Mr. Granzotto. “But the general consensus was it wasn’t a kid.”

The vandalized lockers have holes in them that the culprit made to remove the stolen valuables. The targeted lockers are spread out through the locker room instead being close by each other. The WCPD (Walnut Creek Police Department) only recently received news about the incident and is currently investigating the matter.

V. Jamieson

few weeks before winter break, the girls locker room was broken into and multiple lockers were left vandalized.

Makeup bags and other valuables were stolen. “It must have been a couple of weeks before break,” said Assistant Principal David Granzotto. “There was some concern that it wasn’t a student, that someone was coming in at night because it happened all at night.” It is believed that the vandalizer was trying to steal from the lockers, as they were found in a damaged state.

In response to the attempted vandalism, the school has begun taking steps to better-protect the locker room. “We’ve already taken

Contraceptive Mandate Under Attack

by Lukas Carbone

S

ince October, the Trump Administration has been embroiled in a legal battle over its attempted revocation of a controversial provision in the Affordable Care Act that mandates employers cover all contraceptive costs for their employees. The provision was already undermined by a Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that granted limited exemptions to the employer mandate on the basis of the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, an interpretation of the RFRA that was likewise controversial. Despite the Hobby Lobby ruling, however, political

conservatives have continued to attack the ruling on the basis that employers’ freedom of conscience is still threatened by the mandate; thus, the attempted revocation of the contraceptive mandate is consistent with conservative positions on the issue.

The executive order was almost immediately challenged by California Attorney-General Xavier Becerra and Massachusetts Attorney-General Maura Healey, both of whom are Democrats. Federal judges in Pennsylvania and California blocked the rollback on December 15 and December 21, respectively.

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California Wildfires

by David Ryder

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n California, a war against Mother Nature itself erupted. California was plagued by a fearsome wave of enormous fires that stretched from north of San Francisco to Los Angeles, causing the call for resources of the state to be amplified to their fullest. The Authorities of Wine Country said that the death toll of Northern California fires amounted to 42 casualties. When the Northern threat was extinguished, Southern California became wracked by fires.

In the already brutally dry and hot Southern California, fires swiftly spread. The fires took firefighters’ lives, thereby making the struggle worse than it already would have been. For example, Devynn Sargent, an EMT at a Los Angeles hospital, stated that her friend’s close friend was killed attempting to put out rogue flames escaping the main fire site, stating that, “The smoke got into the hospitals in Ventura and Sylmar. Everyone wore masks,” said Devynn, explaining the extremity of the situation. Devyn also commented that: “The firefighters were working 32 hour shifts…day in and day out trying to help.” It is a sad thought to think that firefighters died to save individuals from the fires, but they will fortunately be remem-

bered as brave and heroic fighters who saved many lives.

Another citizen of Southern California, Robert Sargent of Castaic, said that, “They bothered the everyday process of people down here…the smoke caused insane traffic and made it difficult to arrive to work on

time to do my jobs.” Not only a nuisance. the fires were a a true terror to the public.

Now because of the current mudslides from our winter storms, the death toll has risen to 58 and California resources is still fghting against the tragedies began by the fires.

Net Neutrality Under Attack

by Nicholas Muirragui

T

he FCC’s planned revocation of net neutrality is a recent political controversy that has been prominently featured on both the news and the Internet. For those who don’t know, net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers cannot interfere with Internet speeds.

The Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, is attempting to revoke net neutrality so that individuals can pay for certain websites and internet speeds. Behind

the campaign against net neutrality is Ajit Pail, Chairman of the FCC. On December 14, the FCC officially voted to revoke net neutrality in a 3-2 party line vote.

This revocation of net neutrality will gradually but drastically affect all Internet users. Assuming net neutrality is eradicated, there is a possibility that websites will be forced to require users to pay to access the website in what is referred to as a “paywall”. In order to sustain the higher costs, wwebsites would now face; for example,

users would have to pay a certain amount of money for being able to use a website for one month. Furthermore, users would face greater difficulty in contacting an ISP in what is a less harmful but nevertheless inconvenient burden in an era for net neutrality.

But the battle for the internet isn’t over yet. In a last ditch effort to preserve net neutrality, net neutrality supporters have taken the FCC to court, and millions await the decisions of the judiciary.

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The 2018 Winter Olympics

by Cassidy Carlberg

T

he upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with the Opening Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony held on February 9 and 25, respectively. Selected on July 6, 2011, Pyeongchang emerged as the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics after gaining 63 votes.

This is not the first time a South Korean city will host the Olympics, as Seoul hosted the Summer in 1988. 8,005 individuals bearing the traditional Olympic torch began their journey on October 24, 2017, which will end when the Olympic Opening Ceremony begins. There will be 102 events in 15 sports.

The 2018 Olympics have already been faced with numerous prominent controver-

sies plaguing the games; for example, the National Hockey League has refused to provide accommodations for NHL players competing in the Olympics’ hockey events. Furthermore, the Russian Olympic Team has been prohibited from participating in the Games for a prominent doping scandal, although Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in the Games under the Olympic flag should they prove they they have not taken steroids.

On January 9th, the nation of North Korea, which is technically at war with South Korea and is notably embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with the United States because of its nuclear weapons program, has officially announced that they will be sending athletes to the Olympic Games.

Both Korean governments hope to use the event to further thaw inter-Korean relations and some have stated that the move is in line with the values of the Olympics. However, some have posed concerns that the defection of a North Korean athlete (as has thus far mostly been avoided by North Koreans but has frequently occurred in other dictatorships such as Eritrea), such as Hong Hyun-ik, senior fellow at a major Seoul-based think tank.

In short, while the 2018 Olympic Games will serve alongside its predecessors as a celebration of international cooperation and athletic ability, it will also serve as a momentous diplomatic event and continue to be rife with geopolitical and ethical controversies; in essence, something that is a true spectacle.

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Behind the Class of 2018

Colette Shaw: Volunteer at John Muir’s house Q: How did you become involved with the National Park Service?

A: I took a class at DVC in my freshman year because I was having a rough time at the start of high school, and I met a park ranger from John Muir National Historic site, who insisted that I volunteer. I love the work, leading tours of John Muir’s house I get to meet people from all over the world who want to learn something new. Not one of my coworkers dislikes their job, and I’m always given interesting projects, like ‘get the stray cat off the historical furniture’ or ‘cross out a misprint in thousands of flyers.’ Whatever it is, it’s always an experience to be remembered. I like to think that I help people become more informed about history and the environment. I’ve delivered impromptu lectures in Trader Joe’s and even at stoplights, because people ask about my uniform and want to know about what I do.

Mark Taylor: Artist Andrew Milne: Singer, Musician, and Songwriter Q: When did you first get involved with music?

A: When I was about four years old I lived in an apartment with my dad and the people who lived above us had a daughter and they bought her a whole bunch of instruments but she wasn’t really interested in it so first I got her cheap target made guitar right and I started messing around with it.

Q: Do you want to pursue music in the future?

A: If I want to succeed in anything in life, it’s gonna be music there isn’t anything else that i have as much passion for that i have a talent for and music just clicks with me and i feel like being a musician really fits my personality too.

Q: What does art mean to you?

A: For me, art is all about making something that’s totally honest and true to yourself, and that’s something I think everyone should be able to do without being judged for being who they really are and expressing what’s on their mind. I got really into art probably around the beginning of sophomore year, when there was a lot going on in my life and I had to find a way to get things off my mind. Making art let me do that and was fun for me at the same time.

Q: Why is art important?

A: Art is one of the things that is totally unique to everyone, and everyone can find their own meaning and develop their own thoughts and opinions about it. The fact that art can be taken so many ways by so many different people makes it one of the things that brings us together. Everyone can disagree about what a piece of art means, but what they all have in common is that they’re thinking about it and applying it to their own life.

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Molly Stuart: Filmmaker Q: Where did your interest in film-making come from?

A: I’ve always been an incredibly introspective person, constantly in observation of my environment. I feel everything so deeply; I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. Somewhere along the line, I think I realized that my level of sensitivity was not a very common experience amongst people.

I was 14 at the time, and I needed to find a way to rightfully project my perception of the world, rather than bottle it up. Movies are always playing at my house. The majority of my current favorite films were introduced to me at a young age by my father. Growing up, I was always embarrassed to admit that my favorite thing to do in my spare time was bundle up and watch a movie because that would make me sound lazy! In the eighth grade I had already began piecing together little short films of my family vacations and what not, but grew increasingly eager to create more and more with inspiration from my favorite filmmakers and bloggers. One day I had the most powerful epiphany: movies are, and always have been my true love- the thing that makes me the happiest version of myself. So that day I decided that I would make movies. And here I am!

Q: What contributions have you made to Las Lomas?

A: At Las Lomas, I was honored to have been able to make the highlight video for the homecoming rally two years in a row. Understandably, high school is a difficult place to return to every day. It’s a burden. However, being able to ease feelings of stress and make my fellow peers feel even the slightest bit delighted to be at school was beyond rewarding. All of these projects I’ve poured my heart into over the years led to my acceptance at my dream school in New York.

Laila Amro, Carina Haghighi, Ava McCandless, and Sienna Terry: Diversity Leaders Q: What do you partake in? Why? A: I chose to partake in diversity work after I noticed racist experiences going on at school… and I’m a big believer that if you don’t like something to do everything in your power to change it. So Tanvi Saran, Carina Haghighi, and I decided to meet once a week in room 403 and continue to discuss what we can do to help make school a safer place for everybody. -Laila Amro Q: Describe the issue you all faced.

A: Before my voice was heard by administrators on the district level, there really was very little initiative by the district to acknowledge the racial experiences of people of color on AUHSD campuses. -Sienna Terry Q: How have your actions affected LL? A: Through GSA, I am able to create a safe and supporting space for students who might feel alienated due to their identity.

High school is, unfortunately, an environment where students who don’t “fit in” are often reminded of what makes them different - especially in a town like Walnut Creek.

Where I am not directly affected, I can be an ally to other marginalized groups. By being an ambassador for CARE week and collaborating with Tanvi, Laila, Carina, Sienna, and the other GSA leaders on the curriculum, we have been able to educate our peers on the discrimination seen everyday on both local and national levels.

Q: What makes your work important?

A: Diversity is not going anywhere, so it is incredibly important to me that we make LL an accepting school with no tolerance for discrimination of any kind.

Hannah Portner: Communiteens Leader Q: What got you into community service?

A: It was in fourth grade and my mom was talking to me about Prop 8, and my mom was like this doesn’t matter to anyone and the right thing to do is to say no, why can’t we just all accept each other and I thought mom you’re so cool! So I think that’s when I realized social issues and then I’ve always been involved in charity work various projects, so when I was really little, in about second grade I started a business called Scarves, which was supporting cancer awareness research foundations and we knit and sold these scarves for cancer research. And right now as a mirror as to when I was little, I make hats and I’m selling them and donating the money to Planned Parenthood. It’s something that I really love to do. I think it’s my responsibility to give back.

Q: What’s new with Communiteens?

A: We’ve done a lot of really cool things and made people aware of a lot of things. Like right now we are doing a documentary series where we show a different documentary every month, we just finished one about plastic pollution in the ocean and right now we are doing one about clothing and so we had a clothing swap, hopefully just educating people and creating a space to talk about things that wouldn’t regularly be talked about.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I’m going into environmental studies, so hopefully creating policies or changes that help various countries, and to stay really aware of their environmental impact....

There are so many things in my life where I feel like it would not be complete without the social consciousness awareness of the world as a whole.

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“The Class of 2018 is a dyn of students. I can’t wait to take in the future

Sara Marsey: Stagecraft Crew-Head Q: What do you partake in?

A: I work in stagecraft and crate light designs mostly because of how creative the technical theater world is; it’s like being able to paint anything on a blank canvas. I got involved by taking stagecraft freshman year, I was originally on set crew but I moved to lighting at the end of the year because of how fascinating it was to me. Then, during junior year, I began to stage manage and run plays at Las Lomas.

Q: What do you find important about your work?

A: I like to believe that my lighting work affects the school and my life greatly; I teach newer lighting technicians and train them so if they want, they can pursue the same job I have. For my life, it impacts a lot of my free time. Most people outside of theater don’t realize how many hours go into every show.

For A Piece of My Heart, I spent two full days recording 250 light cues, which totaled to around 105 hours of after school work, and the same goes for stage managing too.

In the theater world, there are always technicians innovating new technology; electricians making new tools that we can use to better our lighting work.

Eduardo Geurrero & Timmy Grabow: Musicians

Devin Payne: Basketball Player

Q: What do you partake in?

Q: What do you partake in?

A: I work in stagecraft and crate light designs mostly because of how creative the technical theater world is; it’s like being able to paint anything on a blank canvas. I got involved by taking stagecraft freshman year, I was originally on set crew but I moved to lighting at the end of the year because of how fascinating it was to me. Then, during junior year, I began to stage manage and run plays at Las Lomas.

A: I play basketball. I’ve been playing it my whole life; The team this year is special.

Q: What do you find important about your work?

A: I like to believe that my lighting work affects the school and my life greatly; I teach newer lighting technicians and train them so if they want, they can pursue the same job I have. For my life, it impacts a lot of my free time. Most people outside of theater don’t realize how many hours go into every show.

For A Piece of My Heart, I spent two full days recording 250 light cues, which totaled to around 105 hours of after school work, and the same goes for stage managing too.

In the theater world, there are always technicians innovating new technology; electricians making new tools that we can use to better our lighting work.

Q: How do you think your actions have affected the school?

A: It’s not me that’s affected the school, it’s the team.

Q: What is important to you about playing basketball?

A: What is important to me about basketball is winning and making memories with the team.

Q: What are you most proud of in your high school career?

A: Winning League MVP for the 2016-2017 season.

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namic and inpsiring group o see the path the students e.” -Ms. Geotina

Nessa Ordukhani: Club President and Athlete

Q: What do you partake in?

A: Julia Tarter and I are the presidents of French club which is just participating in activities like going to French restaurants and watching French movies and doing French stuff which is fun. Julia and I have both been members of the French club since Freshman year and so the departing presidents asked us to take their place. I was also a student diversity ambassador, so I would go to Freshman classes to teach about diversity, and I’m also on the soccer and tennis team. I was a captain on the tennis team, which has helped my leadership skills… I think I was able to help organize practices a little more.

Q: Explain your diversity work.

A: That’s really fun, hopefully that has a good influence on Freshmen because they learn about how to be more accepting. Everybody really just deserves a safe environment, and they should come to school and feel safe. I feel like I have an obligation to teach other kids about it so they know how to act appropriately.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: I might do soccer and tennis intramurally for fun in college, but I’m definitely considering joining environmental groups and like a hiking and traveling group.

Jessie Plascencia: Artists Q: Do you consider your art a hobby?

A: I have never really thought of as a hobby. It has been more of an addiction. Ever since I was a kid, I would get sudden urges to sketch and create characters. That’s how I would spend my “play time” growing up. It wasn’t until my parents and teachers would tell me that I had a gift that I began to take it seriously.

Serene Hammami: Musician and Actress Q: Where did your love for music come from?

A: I have always had a passion for music and theatre. I started teaching myself how to play piano on my little keyboard when I was 5, and I’d put on plays in my living room. It was when I saw a Broadway musical for the first time that made me really solidify what I wanted to do with my life: musical theater.

Q: What do your love about art?

Q: How important are the arts to you?

A: I think that creating art is a beautiful way for me to share a piece of myself with the world. People always love to see things that are unique visually or communicate something that cannot be said with words.

A: I think a lot of people in the world don’t quite realize how important The Arts arethey’re a huge part of everyone’s lives. As cliché as it sounds, everyone has a story that they either need to tell or need to see being told in some way, and whether it be through music and/or theatre, I want to be a part of that.

Q: Do you plan on doing art in the future?

A: I definitely intend to continue creating art till my hands fall off. I want so desperately to work for an animation studio or maybe even make my own! The future will definitely have some more goldfish-in-space art, I’ll tell you that right now....Now, I can say I’m a bit more comfortable as I’ve realized this: you can’t expect your art to be seen if you do not take risks and put yourself out there.

My mom always taught me that and I’ll never forget it.

Q: Do you have any plans for the future?

A: I want to go to college for musical theatre and pursue a career in musical theatre. Performing at Carnegie Hall or playing Golde in Fiddler on the Roof.

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Life with Lyme

by Maddy Lakin DISCLAIMER: The people in this story asked to remain anonymous.

“

You learn to accept that your health is your main priority and getting better is the goal”-Anonymous 2 The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) claims that every year 300,000 people are affected by lyme disease, a few of these people attend Las Lomas.

Anonymous 1 has been chronically ill for a little over five years and was misdiagnosed with P.A.N.D.A.S (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infections) in 2013 after experiencing many OCD symptoms. Once they were treated for P.A.N.D.A.S for a year and did not notice a change in their health they got correctly diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease along with various co-infections as of May 2017.

Anonymous 2 was diagnosed in May of 2017 after struggling since third grade with Lyme symptoms but because of the lack of awareness of chronic Lyme it took them over five years to discover what their illness actually was.

I asked these students at Las Lomas who are living with Chronic Lyme to explain to me what this disease is. Anonymous 2 defined it as “caused by bacteria carried by a tick that spreads around your body. After the tick bites you, if it is a carrier, it will infect you with different types of bacteria and things called co-infections that can lead to the symptoms Lyme patients have. Some of my symptoms consist of chronic migraines, low back pain, neck pain, joint pain, stomach pain, chronic fatigue, cognitive issues (speech, memory and reading problems, etc)”.

You may think that dealing with these symptoms is hard enough but even more challenges arise when you are an active student going through treatment.

Kids with chronic illnesses like Lyme do so much everyday. “School work has always been a very hard thing for me to manage because of the cognitive issues that come with Lyme disease, but I have tutors and teacher that support me and want me to do well which is very helpful. As for managing a social life and medical related things it’s been tough for me to learn that sometimes I’m just too sick to participate in certain activities, but you learn to accept that your health is the main priority and getting better is the goal.” -Anonymous 2.

Anonymous 2 also has a PICC line which is a more permanent form of IV. It is a tube that sticks out of your arm that leads to the veins in the heart. The PICC line makes it easier to take IV meds so they don’t have to poke themselves with IV needles. Everyday they come home and sit in a chair with easy access to an IV pole from 3:00-5:30 putting two types of IV medicines into their veins.

Another student facing Lyme disease explains how they manage school work and their social life, “Last year I was in the worst health

of my life so for the first semester I was on a home-hospital program for schooling because of extensive treatments, and the second semester I went back to school for half days which forced me to drop three classes. This year I am back at school for a full day of seven periods. I am currently making good grades but am absent one or two times every week, which means I’m in a constant cycle of makeup work. I usually base my pill-taking schedule around school so I make sure I’ll always have time to take them, which has been working well for me. I have an amazing support system of friends who are extremely understanding which has helped me through so many difficult times these past years. Now I am able to hang out with friends on the weekends and was able to see them a few times a month when I was being home-schooled. Being homeschooled and enduring long IV treatments every day definitely took a toll on my social life, but I was able to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout that time with the help of various tutors.” -Anonymous 1.

Since there is a lack of awareness with Lyme disease, when asked these students would like the Las Lomas student body to be informed that: “Lyme Disease is described as an “invisible illness” because while you may look fine and healthy, but what you’re feeling inside is a different story. Many people don’t know the amount of restrictions people with Chronic Lyme have, all because they don’t particularly look sick.

You become an expert at hiding your pain from others to maintain some degree of normalcy to your life which is a coping method I’ve gotten good at.” -Anonymous 1.

Both of these Lyme fighters feel immense support at home and at school Anonymous 1 claims “I have the best group of friends at school who support me and stick by my side no matter how sick I am. They understand when I can’t hang out some days when I don’t feel well and always check on me to make sure I’m doing okay, which means more to me than they’ll ever know.” While Anonymous 2 also feels the love with an understanding family that is constantly working hard to make sure medical appointments and anything she needs is handled.

A lot of people wonder if you can ever recover/reach remission with Chronic Lyme and Anonymous 1 says that you can reach remission with Chronic Lyme when your symptoms have subsided and you feel more able-bodied, but most Lyme patients continue taking supplemental medicine for years after reaching remission to manage the infections in their body. Although some Lyme fighters reach a point in treatment where they are able to return to their old lives and feel completely healthy again, but there is not much research to support a concrete “cure” for Chronic Lyme Disease.

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FEATURES

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OPINIONS

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COLUMNS

Bitcoin Brings in Bucks

by Mark Barram

W

ith the price of Bitcoin surging in mid-2017, cryptocurrency has garnered significant public attention and Bitcoin has become a household name. Yet such prominence has led to a multitude of questions, ranging from “Is it still profitable?” to “Is it even legal?”

Bitcoin is a blockchain-based currency that began receiving attention from the media after it began rising to very high prices in 2017.

In 2012 a bitcoin was worth only $7.50 before eventually rising to $870 in January of 2018. By the time of writing, however, one bitcoin is now worth approximately $15,000.

The cause of such an increase in the price is simple: supply and demand. A single coin could theoretically be worth hundreds of thousands one day, and the next pennies; the value of all cryptocurrency, and indeed all currencies, is totally dependent on what people are willing to pay for it.

But is there still money to be made off Bitcoin? In short, yes. Because the price of Bitcoin often fluctuates thousands of dollars every day an experienced day trader would be able to make substantial amounts off of Bitcoin. In addition, potential investors need not be deterred by the price of Bitcoin, as it is possible to purchase fractions of Bitcoin rather than one full bitcoin; indeed, most transactions involving Bitcoin will involve values such as “0.0004 BTC.” Yet there are a wide range of currencies extending far beyond Bitcoin in what is referred to as Altcoins, or any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin, most famously Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. It is generally believed by most investors that the best opportunities come during the early stages of an Altcoin; for example, investing in an Altcoin worth $0.25 a piece that would eventually climb in value to a dollar would quadruple your earnings.

ITCOIN M. Lakin

Women Have the Right to Choose

by Grace Wong and Kylia Blackstock

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bortion is “the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.” Although this is the definition of abortion given by the Oxford Dictionary, the word means so much more to me. Abortion represents the freedom of choice and the empowerment of women.

The Freedom of Choice Act states “that it is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child; terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability; or terminate a pregnancy after viability when necessary to protect her life or her health.” It dictates that women have the freedom to make choices for themselves, and their own bodies. We all have bodily autonomy. In other words, every person has control over their own body, and without abortions, women are being asked to give up that bodily autonomy for months to save what some view as a human being. According to myDr, an Australian healthcare website, the organs of a fetus do not fully form until 24 weeks into the pregnancy, and the fetus heartbeat can be heard around 10 weeks, as claimed by

SutterHealth.org. Planned Parenthood.org states, “the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 66 percent of legal abortions occur within the first eight weeks of gestation, and 92 percent are performed within the first 13 weeks.”

When abortion became legal in America in 1973, a period of dangerous and unregulated abortions in the U.S. ended. In countries where abortion is illegal, women go to extreme measures to abort a pregnancy even if that means putting their own lives at stake. Without abortion, expectant mothers unwilling to have or unready for a child are being subject to extreme mental, emotional, and physical distress. Pregnancy can cause lots of stress on women socially, can affect their career and financial-state, and brings a large amount of pain and discomfort. Great strength is needed to undergo not only the swollen feet, extreme back pains, and labor but also the social pressure, which varies depending on age and social customs.

Pregnancy isn’t a punishment. It isn’t a scare tactic or an inconvenience. A pregnancy is a life changing agreement, and it

shouldn’t be forced upon anyone who isn’t ready to take on that responsibility. Even if a woman does decide to abort her pregnancy, I believe that she shouldn’t be considered a murderer.

When a mother is forced into taking on the responsibility of parenthood, it can sometimes lead to a bad relationship between the mother and child. Knowing that the mother wouldn’t be able to take care or provide a stable environment for the child, she should be allowed the choice of having an abortion.

Currently, there are millions of children who are in foster care, homeless, in abusive households, running from their homelands, and so much more. Why add more children to the world that cannot be taken care of ?

The basis of America is freedom, which includes the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the freedom of choice. Being pro-choice, I believe in this freedom, the freedom that gives women the right to make their own decision concerning their own body.

OPINIONS

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& COLUMNS

A Cup of Hate

by Colin Stoelk and Vanessa Jamieson

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n early December of 2017, a Korean exchange student and her tutor were verbally assaulted in a local Walnut Creek Starbucks. The student, Annie An, and her tutor, Sean Lee, were discussing a college essay at the coffee shop, located in the “Mercer” apartment complex on North California Boulevard in downtown Walnut Creek. A woman interrupted the tutoring session and began to make racists remarks toward Annie and her tutor when Lee began to record the event.

The woman who has yet to be identified remained seated by her laptop as she went on her rant, occasionally hiding her face behind a binder. She yelled racial slurs and made comments like, “This is America. Use English only.” The lady was asked to leave the establishment many times by bystanders and multiple Starbucks Employees. She pretended to write an email to Starbucks Corporate at one point, but somebody did later say she was pretending to type, only hitting number keys. The encounter lasted 15-20 minutes before Walnut Creek Police arrived to escort the woman away from the coffee shop.

The backlash against this racist woman was relentless, and for good reason. Publications across the country and world wrote about the incident. In my opinion, much worse happens on campuses daily. I am not surprised that the incident took place, but rather that it garnered so much media attention. To treat this event as an uncommon occurrence in Walnut Creek is a gross understatement of the hate in our community. Those who were shocked that this could happen to people we may know, in our town, are blind to the hatred of race and religion that affect our neighbors daily. While this woman’s words were disgusting and racist, I don’t expect any more from the suburban island of ignorance that is this town. - Colin Stoelk When this incident was brought to my intention, my initial reaction was shock. I was shocked that something so horrible and discriminatory had happened right under my nose. I always read about stuff like this happening in other places, and of course it’s an awful thing no matter where it’s taking place, but when it happens in your own community, it’s like a wakeup call. I thought about it more, and I realized that things like this probably happen around here everyday but are not publicized. I grew up in a household where English was the only language spoken, so other than the minimal Spanish I learn in school, English was the only language I know. Although a problem like this has never directly affected me, I want to do everything I can to shed light on the issue and improve the injustice. I believe that in America, everybody should be free to practice their religions, free to celebrate their cultures, and free to speak their own languages. - Vanessa Jamieson

Logan Paul Goes Viral (for the Wrong Reason)

by Charlie Rosen

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ogan Paul, a 22 year old vlogger on YouTube, recently made mainstream news for the wrong reason. On January 2nd, he uploaded a video featuring him and three friends walking and planning to spend the night in the Aokigahara Forest in Japan. Logan filmed the whole experience on Youtube, but it was taken down 24 hours later. Logan showed a dead man hanging from a tree, and was standing there making sarcastic remarks which included, “What?, You never seen a dead guy before?” He has since been bashed by the whole youtube community. Many other figures and YouTubers expressed how they felt about the situation and, to say the least, they were very upset and disappointed.

Since the release of the video, Logan did apologize twice. Though he did apologize, he is still getting massive amounts of hate. Logan has 15 million subscribers on YouTube and a large amount of those subscribers are below the age of 12.

“Kids look up to what he does, and the message being sent to them is not positive.”

One apology was a video on YouTube, and the other was a note on twitter. In his apology on YouTube, he seemed apologetic and realized he made a huge mistake.

Though in his Twitter apology he stated that he didn’t do it for the views; he said he made the video to bring awareness but was caught in the moment and did not know how to react when he saw the body. Kids look up to what he does, and the message being sent to them is not positive. Since he posted his apology video, Logan has not posted another video and is not sure when he will return back to YouTube and creating content. He has lost many ad opportunities and is no longer able to make money from advertisers using YouTube. He has still been gaining subscribers, even with the massive amounts of hate he has received. If his channel is deleted, it could ruin Logan’s career.

Suicide is not a joke and should never be taken lightly.

Nobody should make jokes about suicide. We all make mistakes, some bigger than others, but we all deserve a second chance to make it right. To make jokes while laughing and mocking a dead body is terrible and Logan definitely should be punished, even more than losing sponsors and money his account, though I do hope Logan realizes he messed up and can learn from his experience. Hopefully he will never do something this irresponsible, and insensitive, again.

15

ENTERTAINMENT

From the Page to the Screen

by Sofia Monroy and Izzy Bartling

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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ewildered. Betrayed. Upset enough to nearly throw the book across my room. This is how I felt after finishing the highly acclaimed novel Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. What began as a masterpiece turned into an utter disappointment. Tóibín has a way with words, there’s no doubt about that, but when it comes to endings, I can’t say the same. After sharing my unfavorable reaction with a friend who had recently seen the movie without having previously read the book, we discovered that our opinions regarding the story didn’t match up; she didn’t understand the discontent I had experienced from the ending of the novel.

Out of curiosity, I immediately went out and bought the movie.

After watching it, I was stunned. I didn’t have the same reaction as I did to the book because the ending of the movie adaptation was tweaked in a positive direction, and I felt the closure I longed for after finishing the book. The movie did a wonderful job preserving the storyline and emotion of the characters described so well in the book, especially the way Eilis felt after moving away from her family in Ireland to America. Saoirse Ronan was perfect for the role as Eilis Lacey, the main character, not just because she’s Irish but because she succeeded in bringing Eilis’s personality and character from page to screen. Moreover, I noticed Eilis was presented in a more likeable way in the movie than in the book, so I was okay with it. The ending of the novel is what tore me apart, which was the deciding factor for why I, in this rare case, preferred the movie over the book.

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efore even setting eyes on a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, one can tell just by the title that this novel is anything but conventional. Filled with time travel, monsters, and very peculiar children, Ransom Riggs succeeds in creating a bizarrely suspenseful, World War II centric story about outcasts and one’s appearances versus their true identity, illustrated with bone-chilling antique photos. While reading the novel, the eerie, dark tone is evident, which is why it was surprising that the film did not preserve this tone; instead, unlike the black and white cover of the book, the story on screen was presented in a very colorful and childlike way.

The thing is, the book is not meant for young children with its somewhat-frightening supernatural content. Therefore, the bright, childish way the story is presented in the movie makes it difficult to discern whether or not it is a children’s movie until a scary-looking creature pops up. In other words, the actual story derived from the book along with the childlike tone of the movie do not flow.

At the beginning, although we noticed slight differences between the book and movie here and there, the movie was quite captivating… until the action scenes began, which is where the movie officially went downhill. These battle scenes were pointless, way over the top, and not in the book. It was disappointing because the focus on these dramatic fight scenes drowned out the true value and meaning of the story.

We recommend that you read the book but not the movie. The book was gripping, bizarre (in a good way), but too bizarre to translate onto the screen even for the king of the weird and otherworldly Tim Burton.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

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hough author M.L. Stedman’s debut novel The Light Between Oceans is written in the third person, the film adaptation of the book seems to be filmed as a first person narrative. It gives the audience a very realistic, intimate window into the lives of two people, so intimate in fact that sometimes it feels like you’re not supposed to be there.

Newly weds, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, though much older than their respective roles in the book, are Isabel and Tom Sherbourne. Vikander plays her part with such strong conviction, ferocity, and maternal affection that even though we know that what Isabel is doing is wrong, a part of us can’t help but sympathize with her as in the book, so much so that many of Vikander’s scenes brought tears to my eyes. And Fassbender does a great job at bringing to life the internal struggle Tom comes to face.

Most importantly though, as a couple, they had natural chemistry and could play off each other so well, which was of utmost importance because as a result of the isolation

of the island, the majority of the story is centered around their relationship, a relationship that becomes difficult maintain when a moral dilemma literally washes to shore.

With sweeping shots of New Zealand, what the movie executed beautifully was making sure that like in the novel the island where the Sherbourne’s maintain the lighthouse was as major a character as any of the other ones. For example, often times the natural wind on the island intertwined and even overpowered the dialogue in the movie, as if it was trying to join in on the conversation, which helped maintain a consistent sense of place throughout the film.

Overall, yes, it is a slow movie and like the sea the separates the Sherbournes from the mainland, some scenes seem to stretch on for a very long time, but it is a very faithful adaptation of Stedman’s novel and those long scenes only heighten the underlying tension that results when the lines between what is right and what is wrong become blurred.

16

ENTERTAINMENT

Movie Reviews

by Caleb Conrad

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t says a lot about the filmmaking talents of both director Guillermo Del Toro and co writer Vanessa Taylor that they’ve made one of the most compelling on-screen romances of 2017 between a human woman and an amphibious fish-man creature, and that this is the least of the surprising wonders that the Shape of Water has to offer.

The film’s story is about a mute janitor in a secret government facility during the Cold War falling in love with the subject of the facility’s research, and Del Toro takes influence from all kinds of films from that era, from the more obvious Universal and Hammer monster movies to romantic melodramas and musicals.

While I’ve been known to take issue with films using nostalgia as a crutch, this influence is tied together by a magnetic and contemporary originality that keeps things interesting. Many clichés of the time are turned on their heads. For example, the creature, a male character, fills in the role of the “damsel in distress” for the most part, defended by a woman. The director also includes content that wouldn’t possibly be included in movies at the time. Be warned that the film is quite violent at times, and the central romance does become, er...explicit.

The film has another defining trait keeping it culturally relevant: a willingness to discuss the social issues behind those often glorified times. The hero of the story, Elisa (played to perfection by Sally Hawkins), is not only excellently developed and portrayed, but is accompanied by a small group of historically oppressed individuals that allow the story to touch on the treatment of people of color, gay people, and immigrants by society and government in the 1960s. In fact, the only straight, white, and American man in the main cast is the villain.

Through these characters, we can see a grander purpose for the presence of the film’s “monster”, the amphibious man referred to only as the Asset, than being an exciting visual effect or a love interest. The creature becomes representative of the Other, anyone outcast or misunderstood by “normal” people for their differences. Del Toro creates a magnificent fairy tale in which it is recognized that these differences make the Other beautiful, where outsiders are royalty and the real monsters are the humans that would oppress them. It’s an important message in a time like this, when we are dangerously close to the kind of systematic discrimination of the past.

J. Plascencia

T h e S h a p e o f Wa t e r

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tar Wars: the Last Jedi is, despite some seeming controversy around it, a Star Wars movie, and due to that there’s not a lot I can help you with as a reviewer.

There are big laser fights in space and there are bad guys and good guys and a little robot ball whose purpose I am unsure of. I should mention that this is actually the most suspenseful and possibly most cinematic of these films, and the narrative structure is quite interesting at times. This is all to say that I liked it, but I don’t feel qualified to talk about the Star Wars-ness of it all. I would, however, like to discuss one of the more interesting factors of the film: its discussion of modern communication.

The film opens with a humorous scene in which one of our heroes essentially prank calls his enemies to bring their guard down.

The scene is funny, but it also establishes a recurring theme of the film making the most explicit social commentary of the often politically charged franchise, about the benefits and shortcomings of modern methods of long-distance communication. Holograms and communicators, connections and projections through the Force serve as futuristic analogues for discussion through text or social media throughout the runtime of the picture.

The most interesting example of this comes from a subplot involving the characters Rey and Kylo Ren. Their connection through the Force leads each of them to learn more about their counterpart throughout the

first few acts of the story, from the other person’s perspective. This leads Rey to believe that Kylo Ren can be turned good, and Kylo to believe that Rey can be turned evil. Both are proven wrong in the end. It’s a reflection of a kind of incident that can happen all too often through the internet, of anonymity leading to manipulation or misunderstanding on both sides of a relationship, and it’s surprisingly topical from a series of films that frequently seems to rely on callbacks to its glory days to pull in an audience.

Then there’s the final encounter between Kylo and Luke Skywalker, a dramatic exchange of words and blows that ends in the reveal that Kylo has been swinging at an ethereal projection. This could be a comment on the aggression some of us build up on Twitter, attacking people that users aren’t even really seeing. The sequence also ends in the death of Luke Skywalker, through exertion rather than combat. Perhaps a grim reminder of the inability for some members of older generations to keep up with changing times, or a choice to live without that technology. Either way it marks a step into new territory for the franchise in more ways than one.

These scenes and others show an interesting willingness to explore (admittedly not extremely important) issues of today in a way that is uncommon for other studio blockbusters of the same kind. Hopefully it is a sign of more things to come, rather than an outlier in a sea of similarity.

J. Plascencia

S t a r s Wa r s : T h e L a s t J e d i

17

ENTERTAINMENT

New Music Coming to 2018

by Kylia Blackstock

J. Plascencia

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ith a new year comes new and exciting events to look forward to in the world of music. In the next few months, a variety of artists will be debuting new albums and singles, many of them still unnamed. Here are a few to expect in the upcoming year.

Charli XCX’s new album is currently under the wraps. During an interview with The Fader, she says, “I’m not going to touch the album until two months before it’s going to come out, because if I started working on it again I would probably write another four albums. Maybe more.” The next artist that is also working on an unnamed project is Nicki Minaj. Although there are no confirmed tracks, she has commented on the work she has done, saying to Whoo Kid, “I know it’s going to be my best body of work.” Cardi B has also made several comments about an upcoming record. She’s even said that “six or seven solid” tracks are done. The record is expected to be a mix of reggae and Spanish music with trap. There isn’t very much information regarding Heather Baron-Gracie’s album Pale Wave, but she shares her message for people awaiting the release during an interview with Billboard: “For the album, I’ve full-on unleashed everything. Once people hear the album, it’s stepping into Heather’s world, and they’ll really understand me as a person. It’s really exciting but scary at the same time.”

There are many things Selena Gomez has to say about her new upcoming songs.“I think it’s fair to say that people know the year I’ve had, and I’ve poured my heart into my music and I wanted it to be fresh. It wasn’t really about charts for me or numbers. It was more just about what I could creatively do for my music. So, yes, I can successfully say that my inspiration for this next album is in full motion and it will be very soon,” Selena said to BBC’s The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw. Major Lazer’s new album, Music Is The Weapon, is another soundtrack people are looking forward to greatly. All that is known so far is that there will be collaborations with The Weeknd and Travis Scott, plus singles ‘Cold Water’, ‘Believer,’

‘Run Up’ and ‘Know No Better.’ Fall Out Boy’s released their new album Mania last Friday. Pete Wentz is very proud of it, telling Rolling Stone, “Sonically, we are sewing multiple eras of – both our own band and own influences – together in a way that is completely new to us through both the production and writing process.” 2018 will be an awesome year for music.

18

ENTERTAINMENT

How to Spend Your Day in the Bay

by Gracie Bridges and Geneva Donohoe

Fat Apples

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n the mood for a quaint neighborhood dining experience? Visit fat apples restaurant and bakery on the corner of rose street and Martin Luther King Jr. way in Berkeley. Enjoy their delicious pumpkin pancakes or their phenomenal tuna melt. This Neighborhood gem is a great place to go out to breakfast with the family, out to lunch with friends or to just grab a quick snack from the bakery on your way to work. The family friendly breakfast/lunch nook provides a cozy and homey atmosphere while serving tasty meals at a fast pace. Join the locals and enjoy.

Legion of Honor

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s you walk up to the large marble building that houses marvelous art from various artists and time periods, you are accompanied by a beautiful view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge adjacent to the museum. Inside, the main attractions and exhibitions that are currently on display are Klimt & Rodin: An Artistic Encounter, Séraphin Soudbinine: From Rodin’s Assistant to Ceramic Artist, Framing the Body: Form and Figure in Artists’ Books, Lynn Hershman Leeson: VertiGhost, and The Future of the Past: Mummies and Medicine. If you are looking for a peaceful and beautiful place to spend your afternoon, the Legion of Honor is the perfect destination.

The Public Market

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rab your friends, bike, and picnic basket and head on over to West Cliff, a local-favorite spot, for a stroll along the coast.

Look to your left and you’ll see the statue dedicated to surfers of past, present, and future with a plaque that reads, “To Honor Surfing.” If you venture past the Surfer Statue, you’ll come across the historical brick lighthouse, now a Surfing Museum that showcases old surfboards and artifacts of Santa Cruz’s surfing history. The calming ocean breeze and gems found around town are enough to send you falling head over heels in love with the seaside city.

The Marin Headlands

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ou know it’s going to be a good day when you get to drive over the golden gate bridge.. Heading up the grassy hills of the Marin headlands you can hardly wait to see the incredible view that awaits at the peak of the bay area. From every angle is a new perspective. Turn one way and you see the whole east bay, turn another and you are staring the city of San Francisco straight in the eyes and if you turn once more you have the deep blue pacific ocean that stretches your eye to the horizon. With Beautiful views and a new perspective of the place most of us call home, the Marin headlands cast a larger scope for the imagination.

19

ENTERTAINMENT

What’s Your New Years Resolution?

Create a guitar journal. - anonymous To live to my fullest and cherish time with family and friends. - anonymous Go on a bucket list worth adventure.

- Dylan West Eat more delicious junk food. Exercise more often. - anonymous Don’t get sick the whole year.

- Jessie Mele To do more cardio. - Mr. Bremer To keep practicing for lacrosse and to get better everyday. - Bailey Rios Floss… - anonymous To go to the gym more often.

- Cait Mendessohn Go camping in the wilderness more this year.

- Gabe Fernandez Continue trying hard in school and study more.

- Mimi Coppersmith Build a treehouse in my backyard.

- anonymous

2 0 1 8

Enjoy the little things. - Savrene Dudwal Be more selfish. Stop sacrificing my mental health for others. Put myself first more often. - Sienna Terry To lose 15 pounds and be more active.

- anonymous Eat healthier. - Mr. Speir Stop biting nails. - anonymous Improve both my skateboarding abilities and mental health. - Cali Lopes I want to be able to juggle 3 apples.

-Donny Nicol To be the best person I can be this year.

- Kayan Amani-taleshi Accept myself. - Komal Sethi To stay positive and to try my hardest.

- Alexa Sabatte Do things that make me happy.

-Kyra Glass Use my phone less. - anonymous To get all A’s this semester.

- Jack McCullar

20

SPORTS

Las Lomas Scholar Athletes

by Ava Johnson

Max Holm- Princeton

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ax grew up with golf because of his dad, but he really began playing competitively around age 10 or 11. In the seventh grade he chose to play golf full time and began practicing with bigger goals in mind.

Max believes that “golf is a sport where you are always tinkering”.

He worked with a swing instructor to continue to improve his fundamentals in order to build a golf swing that produces consistent and predictable results.

Besides mechanical work, he spends time practicing shots he will encounter while playing, as well as playing the game itself.

The game comes with a pressure that he enjoys and the individual nature of the sport requires him to be sharp mentally as well as physically. Having to “think” constantly is unique to golf, and he loves the mental challenge.

At the time Max committed, he had received offers from the University of San Diego, Princeton University, and Claremont Mckenna College. It boiled down to Princeton and USD, he chose Princeton because of its premier education, connections, and landscape. It felt more like home than USD, and at Princeton, he has the opportunity to play professional golf in the future while still receiving an education he will be able to fall back on.

Alissa Gardenel- Trinity Christian College

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lissa started playing multi-league baseball at the age of four when her mom signed her and her sister up. She loved playing with her friends, and because of her great experience she then started playing softball.

In order to continue excelling she works out and does programs to help her gain strength in her weak spots. In her free time she works on her fielding and hitting in her backyard and tries to get on the field as frequently as possible.

She enjoys playing Softball because it teaches her many life lessons and gives her the opportunity to meet new people. Alissa is excited for her opportunities to play sports collegiately. She has been talking to Southern Oregon, Puget Sound, University of Tampa, and a couple other schools. But when it came down to making a decision she was drawn to Trinity Christian College because of the small and charming campus, along with the lovely people of Chicago.

Nate Robinson

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ate was introduced to basketball by his father when he was seven years old. Growing up “ I watched my father play and I wanted to be just like him” said Nate. In order to keep excelling, Nate works hard everyday and enjoys the process of improving his game.

He loves his sport because he is able to learn from his mistakes and strives to continue growing as a player. As of now, Nate has one offer from USF, but is still in contact with coaches from other D1 schools. He isn’t sure where he will end up going, but he is enjoying the process of being recruited and is excited about his future.

Courtesy of jlawphotography

Courtesy of jlawphotography

SPORTS 21

Winter Sports Snapshots

22

SPORTS

Fight like a Girl

by Mariyah Keifa and Grace Paulson before she was confident to start on her own. When asked if working with boys was uncomfortable Bond replied, “ It’s not weird for me personally but diversity within the wrestling community. “I don’t want them to think of me as weak so I’m very competitive.”

For Bond, the environment is very strict and always pushes her to do better. She mentions her favorite coach, Coach Charley, as one who drives her to her hardest and helps her to improve. Bond wants to pursue her wrestling career until senior year in hopes of joining a girls wrestling team in college. For now, this season she wants to win more matches consecutively and strives to be better in the long run.

As the years go on, both athletes await for more and more girls to join the team. Although the lack of other females may be an obstacle for Bond and Johns, it does not deter their motivation to not only succeed in this sport, but to encourage more gender diversity within the sport.

Courtesey of Aileen Johns

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It’s not a boy’s sport!” said sophomore Nicolette Bond, a current member of the girls wrestling team.

Wrestling is highly stereotyped as being a boys sport, but three female Las Lomas students are breaking the barrier. Sophomore Mari Johns, freshman Jadyn Hibbs, and Bond have really set the bar for a new era. As opposed to other girls sports, girls wrestling has a vibe of its own.

Johns initiated her wrestling career the winter of her freshman year. This is her second year supporting her team with new knowledge and pursuing the improvement of her skills.

“This year I’ve been more comfortable with trying new things and I think I’ve improved a lot,” said Johns. Working with a class that mostly consists of guys, it can get very competitive. Johns likes a challenge especially when it comes to boys thinking they are stronger because of their masculinity. For girls who want to do wrestling but are too scared of what people would think, Johns replies with, “Just do it and shoo out the haters.” Since there isn’t a specified sport for girls wrestling in college, Johns wants to continue her wrestling career in high school and see where it takes her from there. Johns, two years after starting her wrestling career at Las Lomas, convinced more girls to try out such as Nicolette Bond.

Bond is a newbie at wrestling but enjoys it a lot more than she expected. “It’s a great release and it feels really nice to compete with people one on one,” said Bond.

Doing a contact sport makes one feel a lot more self confident, especially when winning a match. At the season’s start in 2017, Bond had trouble with her self confidence which prevented her from becoming the best wrestler she could be. Bond would watch matches

Rose Morse Key Player on Varsity Basketball Team

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veraging 11 points per game and starting point guard for the Las Lomas Girls Basketball team as a freshman, Rose Morse is a talented basketball player. Morse brings a lot to the team with her phenomenal ball handling skills, passing abilities, and her incredible shot.

At the West Coast Jamboree tournament, their first tournament of the season, Morse played remarkably, and as a result, she was placed on the all tournament team.

The 2017-18 season has brought a lot of changes including a new coaching staff, led by Sean Hisaka. “I feel like with our new

M. Lin

by Sam Hoff

coaching staff and how much our girls have been working in the off season, we are going to have a better season each year,” said Rose.

She believes that he is the right coach for the team as well as a great communicator.

Coach Hisaka previously coached the boys Freshman basketball team at College Park and coached JV girls basketball for Acalanes High School in 2016.

For the first time in three years, the team has a possibility of making it to the playoffs.

“It’s a goal we are striving for, but only fate can tell what will happen”, said Rose. The girls team was put in a new division with

Alhambra, Berean Christian, Mt. Diablo, Northgate, and Ygnacio Valley.

Through the first 14 games the girls team is in second place at 6-9, and they lead their league with 742 points scored. League play will start on January 12th against Ygnacio Valley.

Even though the girls went 5-17 last year, this year marks a turning point with a new freshman class, and a brand new coaching staff. The girls are now heading into league schedule looking to win out, make it to the playoffs, and win league.

23

SPORTS

Girls Soccer- Then vs. Now

by CJ Cabungcal

C. Cabungcal

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ith the graduation of one of the most prominent soccer players of Las Lomas-- Class of 2017’s Haley Brown-- as well as a large number of the girls varsity soccer team last year, one might think that the team has changed for the worst. According to varsity players Uki Fujiwara and Sophie Runte, there is nothing to worry about despite the early issues.

Preseason struggles were evident and attributed to players’ departures. “The midfield was mostly seniors like Haley Brown and Mackenzie Patterson,” said sophomore Uki Fujiwara, “This year… our team had the trouble of connecting in the middle because everyone is so new with each other, but now, we are starting to connect better and play a lot better with each other.” In addition to that, senior Sophie Runte noticed “a drop in the overall competitiveness since the seniors left,” which might sound alarming. Runte later noted that “this team is now less harsh and hard on each other and probably a little less stressed out to do well.”

Runte, a fourth-year varsity player, has been on the team long enough to recognize that each year has its struggles; this is simply another cycle. As a varsity player for four years, she has experienced these struggles before. “As a freshman, the chemistry wasn’t as strong as the team would’ve hoped especially coming off of the NCS finals the previous year,” said Runte. “My sophomore year, we just clicked from the very beginning. We did decently in league, had a respectable seed in NCS, and… won over Bishop O’Dowd in the finals, the first time girls soccer won NCS at Las Lomas.” This year; however, seems to be the biggest shift in the so-called cycle. “[Our coach] was working with virtually the same starting line up for three years so it’s been somewhat of a process and it continues to be a process to find out who works best where on the field.”

Ultimately, both understand that with every year, the great, experienced players leave, but new, strong players are given their chance to shine as well. As a captain, Runte has the role of setting examples for new varsity players and staying positive despite the extreme change.

“As a captain my junior and senior years, I’ve tried to stay level headed,” said Runte.

Though the team’s roster has obviously changed, the varsity girls soccer team is still headed for great things. The loss of notable players has evidently altered the team, but definitely not their goals or confidence. “Our overall goal is still to win NCS,” said Runte. Fujiwara, on that same note, has hope for the future: “Looking at the JV team and the freshman team, I think we will be okay and still be very strong. As long as the motivation and positive mentality is there, any year will be a good team.”

12

Knights Basketball Proves Successful at the Halfway Mark

by Sam Hoff and Marcus Lin

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We came here believing we can win every game, we go into every game with that same attitude, and we will continue with that attitude for the rest of the season,” said head coach Brian Dietschy.

The Knights are rolling through the season (as of January 24th) with a record of 16-2, blowing out their opponents by an average of 15 points per game. League play has just started and Coach Dietschy knows his team can give more. “...We aren’t firing on all cylinders yet. There is still a lot of room for improvement…. Its gotta be a five man effort, everybody has to pitch in.”

Last year, the team went 22-7 and lost two members of their starting lineup to injury (Blake Thorpe) and 2016 graduate (Tanner Wallace). But new starters Homer Kravets and Nathan Robinson have filled their places.

“... a record of 16-2, blowing out their opponents by an average of 15 points per game” Many of the team’s key players have reached their senior year, giving them the experience they need to know what to expect during the playoffs.

The Diablo Foothill Basketball Division, is one of the toughest divisions currently for Division 2.

Through the first few league games, there is a four way tie for first place, Las Lomas, Clayton Valley, Campolindo, and College Park all with a league record of 2-1. The Ugly Eagles have the best total record, 18-1 in the regular season. Campolindo gave the Ugly Eagles their first lost of the season beating them 100-98 in double overtime.

“He’s done a terrific job on defense, he coaches us a lot on defense,” said Senior Robert Prince on head coach Brian Dietschy. Dietschy’s coaching abilities of defense has been working and it has shown. Out of all the six teams in the Diablo Foothill Division, the Knights have given up the least amount of points, only allowing 926 points this entire season, while Campolindo has given up the most points this season, 1,135 points.