Issuu

JANUARY 2021

Westminster Christian Academy

The Plastic Problem Pg. 1 6

800 NEWS MANAGING EDITOR IN CHIEF MAGGIE LINDSTROM, JUNIOR

CONTENT EDITOR EMMA HARRIS, JUNIOR

CO-EDITOR OF 800SPORTING MARTYBRINER, SENIOR

CO-EDITOR OF 800SPORTING BROOKE HIGHMARK, JUNIOR

STAFF WRITER

COLIN RING, SENIOR

EMMA SMITH, SENIOR

2 STAFF

NOLAN JONES, JUNIOR

CJ FRANCOIS, FRESHMAN

STUDENTS SERVING STUDENTS

TAFF

S G S

STAFF WRITER

MOOREA ATKINS, SENIOR

KAITLYN BUTLER, JUNIOR

SAM VESTAL, JUNIOR

STAFF WRITER BEN KNISLEY , SOPHOMORE

HOPE LINAM, JUNIOR

ELLIE JOHNSON, JUNIOR

ANAGI PIERIS, SOPHOMORE

STAFF WRITER GUS DUDA, JUNIOR

STAFF WRITER

EVAN KOHN, JUNIOR

ELLIE JONES, JUNIOR

STAFF WRITER

ANDREW CAHILL, FRESHMAN

STAFF WRITER LAUREN BORCHELT, JUNIOR

STAFF 3

CONTENTS

FEATURE

OPINION

THE HISTORY OF RECYCLING

2020 VS. 2021

PLAGARISM

PG. 15

PG. 9

PG. 12

AUTHENTICITY IS ESSENTIAL: COLLEGE APPLICATIONS PG. 13

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOSTERING & ADOPTING A KITTEN PG. 16

FIVE WAYS TO STUDY PG. 17

PG. 10

WHY IS POETRY DEAD?

NEWS

SPORTS

THE PLATIC PROBLEM: THE TRUTH ABOUT RECYCLING

SHOENBERG’S CONSTIBUTION TO C&S CULTURE

HOW WE CAN HELP RECYCLING EFFOTS

MEN’S BASKETBAL AT ST. DOMINIC’S

UPDATE ON THE COVID VACCINE

WCA ATHLETES WON’T LET INJURIES DEFINE THEM

PG. 6

PG. 20

PG. 7

PG. 21

PG. 14

PG. 22

WILDCAT SHOOTOUT CHAMPIONS PG. 23

COMEBACK KIDS IN OUT PG. 24

BOYS BASKETBALL ASSISTS CRISIS AID PG. 25

4 CONTENTS

CONTENTS

STAFF ED

The ResetWith a new semester we all have the opportunity to start off fresh, people change classes, new students enter the school, schedules for next year begin to roll out, this is what we all face year after year. I know personally the beginning of the second semester begins to worry me, because we are always planning out the future. The future, now more than ever before, seems to have more darkness. This year especially we have felt as if everything we had planned has gotten changed. Which is making it difficult for some to make plans or even begin to think about the future. Some words of advice I have for all that feel this is, trust. Trust in the Lord and Trust in his plan for you. Also pray to him cast your anxieties on him and give him your worries. Trusting is one of the hardest things to do, when you are in a planning state of life, but at some point or another you will have to trust someone. So trust in the Lord above that gives us constant reminders to trust in him. The Lord sees what you need before you need it and he knows you better than anyone. He walks alongside you through every second of your day and has carefully planned your future. It is easy for us to get caught up in the notions of the world, that we must plan and we must have or so all these things. But look to the Lord for all that he knows and he will answer you within time. The beginning of New Years are always hard as it feels everything is different, but don’t worry you are in God’s hands. So I will leave you with this-

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act” - Psalms 37:5. Happy New year! From Maggie Lindstrom -Managing Editor In Chief and the rest of 800 news!

STAFF EDITORIAL 5

THE PLASTIC PROBLEM: THE TRUTH ABOUT RECYCLING MOOREA ATKINS Staff Writer

We all know that there’s a pandemic going around, but I’m not talking about COVID-19. What I’m talking about is the plastic problem. Our oceans are dying from pollution and trash dumps. Our air is getting polluted from dangerous toxins. We need solutions to these problems, and we need them now. Children are taught from a young age to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic, but in recent years recycling has caused a bigger global headache than coronavirus relief. Recycling plastic seems like a great and logical way to support the environment and stimulate the economy. But the honest truth is that recycling is doing the opposite. It’s failing us and the planet.

It’s much more cost effective to sell recycled plastics, and up until 2018, China bought the majority of the world’s recycling (estimates say around seven million tons). The majority of plastic in the U.S. and Europe were bought and shipped to China. But that all changed when China banned imports of recycling, called the National Sword Policy. According to research done by Visual Capitalist, plastic imports fell from over 500,000 tonnes to just under 24,000 tonnes. Other countries followed suit, such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. With nowhere to go, these containers full of recycling end up in storage (The Guardian estimates more than 19,000 shipping containers in the U.S. alone), stockpiling until another solution arises.

The worst outcome of these stockpiles is sending them to third world countries. It’s true that our trash stacks up in other countries, exploiting governments that can’t take care of it themselves. Someone in a third world country has a high chance of being A city municipality paying for recycling services is more expensive than you think. The infected with a serious virus or disease digging through or living near trash. In one city has to pay for plants, trucks, workers, maintenance of recycling plants; the cost state in Malaysia, over 4,000 people developed mysterious illnesses due to toxic waste adds up quickly. For manufacturers, using recycled plastic is triple the cost of new plasdumping two years ago. Trash is not only killing the environment in the United States, tic. Many counties, cities, and a few corporations across the U.S. have actually stopped but other human beings in other countries. That’s the most devastating fact of our or reduced recycling programs due to the cost. In 2019, Phenix City, Alabama stopped waste crisis, in trying to be stewards of the earth we’ve also endangered other’s lives. accepting plastic recycling altogether. According to research by the American Association of the Advancement of Science, only 9% of discarded plastics are recycled. But the process of breaking down plastics is not only expensive, it’s also intricate and complicated. What most people don’t realize is that there are so many different types of recyclable plastics, each with a different consistency. While some are easy to break down, others take double or triple the time and resources to reuse. To reduce costs some counties are forced to stop breaking down certain plastics, leaving them for the landﬁll or resorting to burning them themselves.

Recycling plastic hasn’t been a total failure, the way that it’s been implemented has caused more problems than solved. Something has to change, whether that means a new solution or revamping the recycling program completely. If you’re passionate about making a difference, take the concept of recycling seriously. Reuse as much as you can. Do your research, be aware of the best steps you can take to reduce your trash. Or if you’re up to the challenge, start putting your brain to work to come up with a solution to the waste pandemic. The solution is out there, we’ve just got to ﬁnd it.

More of our recycling ends up in landfills or storage than actually being recycled.

Graphic by: Moorea Atkins

6 FEATURES

HOW CAN WE HELP RECYCLING EFFORTS? EMMA HARRIS Content Editor

rechargeable batteries may seem like a small effort at ﬁrst, but when you take a look at these numbers, there’s no denying it could make a Now that we know why we need to recycle, how exactly can we con- signiﬁcant difference. Not only will you be helping the environment, tribute to recycling efforts? The key is reduce, reuse, and recycle. but you can save a little money too! 1. Know What You Can And Cannot Recycle

6. Skip Out On Plastic Bags

Recyclable items will have a green symbol comprised with three Instead, bring a fabric or burlap bag or ask the grocer to use paper arrows bending towards each other. However, you can look at the bags if available- or, if you don’t have too many items, just carry your infographic for a general rule of thumb on recyclable and nonrecycla- purchased items out. ble items. In other words, try to minimize the materials you use and waste you 2. Donate Gently Used Items create, reuse items, and, of course, recycle. Have decorations you no longer like? Clothes that don’t ﬁt? Books you will never read again? Instead of throwing them away, pass them onto a cousin or hand them off to thrift stores like Goodwill. You can also donate old electronics to schools so their working parts can be reused. 3. Buy Recyclable or Recycled Items Just like donating old items to thrift stores will help, buying from them will help too. You can also buy recycled paper, notebooks, school supplies, clothes that have been partially made by recycled materials, and more, and purchase items that you can recycle yourself (such as avoiding food that comes in plastic containers). 4. Save Your Trash For Art! Maybe you’re the artist, maybe you’re the artist’s friend. Either way, we artists might be ecstatic to receive your bottle caps, gears from your permanently broken watch, shards of shattered mirrors, broken hangers, scraps of fun paper or posters, or anything else you might have thrown away (except for perishables, obviously); one man’s trash is an artist’s treasure. 5. Buy Rechargeable Batteries In America, an estimated three billion batteries are thrown away each year. Applying this knowledge to the whole word (without taking into account different consumption rates for each individual country), this means about 28 billion batteries are thrown away worldwide. Buying

Although you may think it’s obvious, you might be surprised at what you can and cannot recycle- here’s a general rule of thumb. Infographic by: Emma Harris

OPINION 7

8 FEATURES

THE HISTORY OF RECYCLING

made by private companies and individuals, so once the initial surge of popularity dissipated, landfills began filling up again in the 1970’s. According to writers of Middle Tennessee State Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Recycling as we know it is a relatively University, recycling surged in popularity yet again in 1970 recent practice, but few know that people today, specifically in when Gary Anderson, a student enrolled at the University of America, recycle far less than ever before. Humans have been Southern California, entered his design for a symbol to signify turning waste into reusable material since products began recycling for the Container Corporation of America. This is being physically made because the answer to the question the symbol that is permanently etched in our brains when we regarding what should happen to the waste was obvious. think of recycling today.

ELLIE JOHNSON Staff Writer

We traditionally think of recycling as turning used paper into new paper or old soda cans into pristine cans. Recycling actually is anything that someone would not have used again turned into something that will be. This practice was extremely common in the 1800s when clothing and many other items were not mass produced. Sheila Mulrooney Eldred explained in her article for History: “If the elbows in a shirt wore out, you’d take the sleeves off, turn them inside out, and voila: new shirt. If a dress went out of style, you added new buttons or sent it back to the dressmaker to fashion a trendier frock. Eventually, the fabric would be turned into a quilt or a rag rug or just a rag.” This common recycling created a different relationship with material goods than we have today because everything they had was made by someone they knew, and they weren’t so quick to throw something in the trash.

Finally, curbside recycling improved the amount of goods being recycled, minimally helping the environment. That leads to today, when people put their waste in the trash unless a recycling bin is easily accessible though they know it is important. The trends in history prove that society tries to correct their harmful imprint on the earth by recycling when it begins to look bad, but if people constantly recycled, maybe the environment wouldn’t have to be saved.

But when trash pickup began in the late 1800s, and the world of recycling looked similar to how it does today with recyclable material being separated from the rest with minimal effort. However, there was a short period of time in the early 1920’s when recycling was forgotten about entirely and nothing was being sorted. Recycling surged in popularity again during World War II due to the war effort, then after the war ended, people began throwing everything in the landfills yet again. This severely destroyed the environment, so in the 1960’s recycling finally was linked to environmental improvement and used to attempt to fix what landfills had done. However, these efforts were only being

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Illustrations by: Ellie Johnson

IN-DEPTH 9

Keeping a positive attitude is not the only thing we can do to make this year a better one. The course this year lies in EMMA SMITH the hands of every American citizen. We need to unite and Staff Writer work together to help stop both Covid and political strife. We went into 2020 with the same high hopes that we As Americans we take extreme pride in our individualism. have for every New Year: we wanted to go in with a bang. We love to exercise our right to do what “I want”. But However, Covid changed all that and 2020 ended up being, what we want is not always what is good for America. as a lot of people feel, one of the worst years in history. So America needs to sacriﬁce its own personal comforts in when 2021 came into view we didn’t know what to expect. order to help restore the country we know and love. For If I had to pick a motto for this new year it would be “I’ll example, even though wearing a mask is annoying, doing go in quietly, keep my head down, and hope for the best.” so saves lives. This being an attempt to prevent something so drastically terrible as coronavirus ever happening again. However, this Making 2021 a better year than 2020 will take a lot of idea was thwarted because, as soon as the new year hit, work. But it’s still possible for us to change this year for Trump supporters stormed the capital- the exact opposite the better. of keeping your head down.

2020 VS 2021

2020 brought something new to the whole world by bringing Covid, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. 2021 has already changed history by beginning with the storming of the capital, an unexpected event that successfully depressed America. The events of the past few years leaves people wondering what will happen next. Will 2021 manage to be just as bad as 2020 or is there still hope for a fresh start? I say yes, there is still a chance of a fresh start. I believe these past events will have a serious lingering effect on America that’s going to take more than a year to recover from. But that doesn’t mean the year is completely ruined. At this point I would say that the only thing that can truly make this year better is a positive outlook. We don’t have control over some of the circumstances happening around us. All we can do is decide how we’re going to react and deal with them. It would be easy to let political strife and illness send us down a spiral into depression, so we have to ﬁght against it.

10 OPINION

There’s hope yet for a happy new year. Illustration by: Emma Smith

NEWS 11

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PLAGIARISM ANAGI PIERIS Staff Writer

There have been sanctions against further enrollment, degrees revoked, suspensions issued, books burnt, artwork destroyed, and twenty-ﬁve thousand dollar lawsuits all for….copyright violation. Since information has become widely available on the Internet, students at every level of education have been tempted to plagiarize for the sake of saving themselves some effort, but ultimately, taking such shortcuts is not in their best interests.

agents and putting their own name to the work is tempered by the many new opportunities open to those pursuing education abroad.

Here at WCA, each high school English teacher uses turnitin.com, which is software that prevents student plagiarism by comparing papers with a large pool of web resources. Turnitin.com’s plagiarism spectrum identifies 10 different kinds of plagiarism and the website has corroborated that the recent influx of online schooling will come coupled with growing cases of William Shakespeare usually receives credit for the creation and orches- academic dishonesty and cheating. A survey by the Josephson Institute tration of 37 brilliant plays that still draw crowds today, but some histori- Center for Youth Ethics found that 34% of students who had plagiarized ans suspect that several of his plot elements were borrowed from other once before have since repeated the infraction. Yet for students who feel English contemporaries. Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician, is famous stuck in the same rut of plagiarizing over and over to get the ‘right grade’, for the geometry theorem a2+b2=c2, yet records reveal the principle was the cycle can be broken. Developing one’s own unique literary voice, peralready common knowledge in China years earlier. Although the question forming honestly for a genuine self-evaluation, and building one’s writing is not whether or not they are capable of coming up with original work, skills will, over time, restore a degree of the confidence that was lost. students are now accustomed to more precise standards of academic Overall, many top-notch resources are available not only through the Internet, but also through mediums like books and magazines, so the least one integrity, yet still unprecedented numbers of them are failing. can do is to generate their own original work and properly cite sources. Plagiarism, particularly in student papers, has been on the rise not only in the past decade, but also over the course of the past year during COVID-19. For instance, from 2010 to 2020, college presidents encountered 55% more instances of plagiarism in student papers. With the general anonymity afforded by online exchanges of assignments, “ghostwriters”, generally employed by high-level professionals interested in authoring a book or political speechwriting, are now garnering additional popularity. From America’s collegiate scene Lee Ann Clements, a professor at Jackson University says,”Based on the five previous years of data we should have seen between 44% and 52% of the annual [academic integrity violations] in the spring semester (average of 47%). However, this academic year 61% of cases were in the spring, and 60% of the spring term cases occurred after students began remote learning.” But Americans are not the only ones cutting corners on schoolwork. College’s International Recruitment and Services Directors occasionally encounter plagiarized or ghostwritten college essays by international students. For example, the Chinese language has no participle form of grammar. Thus when American universities receive foreign enrollment essays with participle phrases beginning a sentence, it is a dead-ringer for cheaters. For some children aspiring to go overseas and study in specifically Western countries, the risk of hiring such personal promotion

12 FEATURE

Illustration by: Anagi Pieris

Authenticity is Essential

99/100 people believe that getting into college means having a 4.0 and above a 32 on the ACT. Famous professor Cal Newport challenges this belief and reveals the truth on the college admissions process.

ELLIE JONES Staff Writer Everyone is familiar with the anxiety that comes along with ﬁnding the right college for them. Unfortunately, most high school students have a warped sense of what they “need” on their resume to get into their dream school. Having a cram-packed schedule of extracurriculars will not automatically guarantee you a spot, but neither will just grades. Even though a GPA is important in some ways, at the end of the day, it is just a number. This does not represent nor deﬁne who someone truly is on the inside and what their work ethic consists of.

counselor gave Kara thoroughly false information. Kara ended up being accepted into Stanford, despite being told she was not good enough. Moral of the story, colleges want prospective students to be involved in activities at their high school however, they do not want kids who pack in extracurriculars that they don’t even have any interest in. Instead, they admire those who pursue happiness in some free time, while pursuing few extracurriculars that the student truly has pure interest in. Colleges do not want ﬂuff, they want sincerity and realness.

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the college admissions process, is the idea that colleges only look at GPA and test scores.Even though every university will vary, colleges want someone who can use what they know and be something, not just someone who knows everything. If someone does not exceed knowledge and cannot accomplish anything, they most likely will not ﬂourish post-college if they are not able to use that education for greater purposes beyond making decent grades. Cal Newport, a professor at Georgetown University located in Washington D.C., is an author of numerous self-improvement books. One of his most famous books titled How to Be a High School Superstar, gives real life examples of individuals who were accepted into their dream schools not by doing everything possible, but by being interesting. He believes that only demonstrating “passion” does not catapult one far, but setting yourself apart by being unique is a whole different ball game. One girl in particular, Kara, had one set goal in her mind: Stanford.To set some background, she made A’s and B’s. However, her best friend Elizabeth, made straight A’s and immersed herself in numerous extracurricular activities. Now, while implementing oneself is honorable, she was often stressed and upset. Overall, Elizabeth would say that she did not truly enjoy her high school career, and had no social life whatsoever. On the other hand, Kara is the complete opposite. She loved high school, and would say it was one of the best times of her life. She did not make straight A’s, she did not create a demanding schedule for herself, she actually had a social life. She was involved in the track and ﬁeld team.

Illustration by: Lexie Vick

Kara learned how to ignore this falsity that she was average, and to use it to her beneﬁt to be more interesting. As was said before, grades and GPA are incredibly important, but being interesting is essential. What colleges truly want as part of their community is not a robot who can generate grades, but a real human being who can use their knowledge to make the world a better place.

What makes you different? What makes you stand out? Do not tell a college admissions office what you think they want to hear in your essay, take a minute, or 30, and think. Just think. Write from your heart- as cheesy as that sounds, it works. You have to tell colleges why you truly desire to be there, When Kara first met with her college counselor, she already had her mind not just use all of these ginormous, intelligent words. Missing a comma? No set on Stanford. Despite this dream that her college counselor knew that big deal, but being pure makes all of the difference. Do this by writing what she had, the counselor expressed her concerns. She told Kara that students you truly believe and feel, do not just simply generate words on a paper. with B’s do not get accepted into schools like Stanford. Kara’s confidence Make the paper come to life. Be authentic. quickly flew out the window, and she began to doubt herself. This college

FEATURE 13

UPDATE ON THE COVID VACCINE CJ FRANCOIS Staff Writer

The Covid-19 vaccine is an essential tool that will

help eradicate the coronavirus. The ﬁrst vaccine in the US was given on December 14, 2020. The FDA has granted emergency use authorization for two Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pﬁzer-BioNTech and Moderna. State and local health departments determine eligibility by prioritizing high risk populations, including healthcare workers and residents of longterm care facilities.

This will make the risk of getting Covid much lower than if a person didn’t get the vaccine at all. It will also help to ﬁnally eliminate Covid and get rid of masks.

The vaccine works by helping the body develop immunity to the virus that causes Covid-19, without us getting the illness. It works with the body to supply a memory of T-lymphocytes as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to ﬁght the virus in the future. It typically takes a few weeks for the body to produce T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes after vaccination. This vaccination requires two shots given a few weeks apart to get the most protection the vaccine has to offer. In the state of Missouri, there are four phases of Covid-19 vaccine availability. Phase 1A is distribution to long term care facility residents and staff, as well as healthcare workers that are patient facing. Phase 1B is distributed to ﬁrst responders, high risk individuals aged 18-64, and people over 65 years of age, as well as essential workers. Phase 2 is sent to populations at increased risk, like people with diabetes or chronic diseases. Phase 3 is sent to all Missouri residents. Getting vaccinated is one of many steps a person can take to protect themselves and others from Covid-19.

14 NEWS

The COVID vaccine is now being administered. Illustra-

tion by: Emma Harris

WHY POETRY IS ON ITS DEATHBED

KAITLYN BUTLER Staff Writer

shadows or the brush with which he or she painted the leaves; rather, the painting is to be beheld in full, as a comprehensive depiction of Roses are red, violets are blue. Poetry is boring, and that statement is what the artist finds a worthy subject. In the same way, each line of a true. When the English teacher announces that the next unit will focus poem serves as an individual element of a greater, beautiful picture. on poetry, almost the whole class will groan in unison: “It’s too hard to Not as a mere sentence or phrase to be analyzed and annotated until it understand,” or “It doesn’t make sense.” loses its significance. I, for the record, love poetry. Yet at the same time, I completely sympathize with students’ unanimous frustration with it. I, too, have rolled my eyes during poetry units—not out of a distaste for Frost or Dickinson or Shelley but for the way schools have taught us how to read it.

Part of the reason why we so easily treat poetry as an essay falls on the shift in today’s culture of entertainment and literature. Before, most people never actually read it in their head; they instead listened to it as a rhythmic, auditory form of art, hence why poets followed specific rhyming and syllable structures. Iambic pentameter and ABAB Poetry is an art form, much like a painting, except created with the sequences did play rather important roles. To put it into perspective, medium of words; despite this, we often fail to treat it like one when we the rap music genre closely resembles classic poetry in a way. No one integrate it into the curriculum. We assume the duty of dissecting every necessarily reads rap lyrics word by word with the intention of probing metaphor, uncovering every symbol, and demystifying every stanza. its meaning. Consider the following lines in Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poety” that uncovers our mistaken approach to reading poems: Yes, perhaps the era of classic poetry must come to an end someday,

“I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide...

considering that our tastes inevitably evolve with time. Let us not continue to expedite the process of its degeneration, however, by stripping it of its very purpose. In its essence, its beauty shall never dwindle; its fire shall never be extinguished. Yet I am afraid that torturing a confession out of it only distracts us from its true magnificence. May poetry be remembered as a true art and poems as written masterpieces, not as formulaic equations or mysteries to be solved. Often, they come without definite answers. And often, that is what makes them beautiful.

...or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch...

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” Instead of appreciating and dwelling in the beauty of each line--feeling its walls or probing our way through--we jump straight to translating them into everyday terms. The problem is that word-painting characterizes the art of poetry itself; we strip it of its essence. When you walk through a museum, your job is not to find the exact meaning of every single painting. An artist does not paint a tree expecting viewers to discern the distinct colors of the highlights and

A poem by Edger Allen Poe. Photo by: Kaitlyn Butler

OPINION 15

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOSTERING AND OWNING LAUREN BORCHELT Staff Writer

a few weeks or months and then the kitten goes off to its forever home. This gives you ﬂexibility to go on vacation or something that would require animal care when you aren’t fostering. You can plan the fosters you have based on your schedule and what your future will look like.

During the beginning of quarantine in March, my family and I started fostering kittens again as something to do. We have fostered many times before, so we were prepared for kittens who are too young or have health or behavior issues Next, some people like to see what its like to have a cat in their home before that need to be resolved before they are ready to be adopted. There are a several they choose to adopt. This would give someone the opportunity to have a cat in differences between owning and fostering cats/kittens. their home and care for it to see if they want to adopt a cat or kitten. When you are doing this, the animal shelter covers vet bills for the foster cat, food expensThe biggest difference for us is that the kittens we get most often are the es, etc.. so your biggest focus is giving the cat a good foster environment rather offspring of feral cats. Feral cats are adult cats who have no desire to be pets. than worrying about food and resources necessary to foster. Also, if like us, you Those cats have been trapped and brought to the shelter for Operation Sterile specialize in socializing kittens, you always have cute little kittens around. Feral - the barn/feral cat spay/neuter program. Once the mother cats are spayed, the kittens are taken and our work begins to socialize them and teach Aside from these technical reasons to foster, the most obvious reason is that them to trust people and ultimately become adoptable kittens. The best window you are making an impact. Some cats don’t know how to play or be with people. of opportunity to socialize the kittens is in the first 13 weeks of life. Sometimes, They are terrified of people and don’t know how to react, and it is the foster’s that requires us to pull the kittens before they are weaned to solid food, which responsibility to teach the cat and get it ready to be adopted. You can change requires round the clock bottle feeding. KIttens so young also do not know how a cat’s reaction to people and see them grow and be able to be adopted, where to clean or self care for themselves so we have to teach them those skills as otherwise they would not have been able to be adopted. Some cats that don’t well. Thankfully, our big cats at home are great teachers! learn these basic skills or traits are euthanized, and it is heartbreaking to know that just because there was fewer foster parent, there is one less cat to be Beyond the obstacle of socializing wild and distrustful kittens, the cute little adopted. The greatest gift we receive as foster parents is a cell phone picture or bundles are are full of energy, eat more food, are extremely messy, require text message from one of our adopters where we can see a happy cat in their constant supervision if not in a kitten-proof environment. It is a lot of work and forever home. When we remember the hissing, terrified, scrawny and angry cleaning every day. Owning a kitten or cat would be a little different because kitten who arrived at our house a matter of weeks or months before that photo, they are ready to be adopted and not too young to be adopted. Usually by the every litter box cleaning, floor sweeping, late night feeding, frightened kitten cat time they are ready to be adopted they are eating solid food, a little less messy, coaxing is all worth it. We can’t save every cat and kitten in the world but we do and have learned at least basic self-care and cleaning skills. what we can do, one kitten at a time. One big and obvious difference between fostering and adopting is the fact that you don’t keep the kitten you are fostering. This can be especially difficult because when you’ve had a kitten/kittens for multiple weeks or months, you get attached to them, you’ve taught them certain traits or habits, and they grow with you. It can also be very difficult to let go of a kitten who has had serious health or behavior issues that have required countless hours. Inevitably, you grow close to the little feline by the time they are finally ready for adoption. When you are looking to adopt a cat, you are specifically looking for a cat or kitten to KEEP. When you are fostering, you have to remember that they eventually go to someone else’s home and live with someone else, so you have to try and keep a different mindset otherwise you will end up keeping every kitten you are fostering. If we had adopted everyone, we would have added 28 additional cats to our house in 2020 alone! Now while it may sound difficult to foster knowing you will get attached and eventually have to say goodbye, it is not all bad. Some people specifically choose to foster rather than adopt a cat for many reasons. First of all, you have more flexibility. When you are fostering, you are only committing yourself to

16 FEATURE

What’s the difference? Photo by: Lauren Borchelt

PROVEN WAYS TO STUDY BETTER

The second fact was that underlining and highlighting text like lecture notes and slides only feels like learning. DREW CAHILL People have researched this and they ﬁgured out that Staff Writer after one or two reviews of a text, self-quizzing is more Many people do not realize how effective their study meth- helpful by a big margin. This type of practice is named od is, or they don’t even really have a good study method. retrieval practice. make it stick says, “Quizzing yourself Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel on the main ideas and meanings behind the terms helps wrote a book called make it stick. That book greatly helped you to focus on the central precepts rather than on me to write this article. This article should help people peripheral material.” meaning that this type of practice realize what good study methods look like. helps you learn the ideas that you need to learn. The ﬁrst fact that was very surprising was that repetitive practice is not very helpful. Cramming for exams makes you feel like you learned but the next day you’ll have forgotten everything. Studies show that practice that is spaced out helps you remember your information longer. This type of spaced out practice requires more effort than repetition practice, but will actually learn the information rather than thinking you learned it.

Using these types of practices is proven to help students learn the material and do better on tests. While your institution may tell you to practice-practice-practice and jam the information quickly into your head, using these strategies actually helps you learn the information.

You should study for over a long course of time. Illustrated by: Drew Cahill

FEATURE 17

18 NEWS

Westminster Christian Academy

800 SPORTING 19

SCHOENBERG’S CONTRIBUTION TO S&C CULTURE

SAM VESTEL Staff Writer

about their teammates and building healthy relationships in order to grow mentally tough as a team. “I enjoy feeling good physically, and when I train in any way, I also feel beneﬁts mentally and emotionally.” As Coach Schoenberg continues to push his athletes to be the best they can be, Westminster athletes continue to thrive. Students are thankful for his continual hard work and dedication each day and know that a big part of the success of Westminster athletics is due to his presence in almost every sport

Coach Greg Schoenberg has been and will continue to be a crucial aspect of the success of all Westminster sports. While his name is not mentioned on team rosters, Coach Schoenberg ensures that athletes of all sports stay in shape both in season and afterward is “Pillar 1 says, ‘Honor Jesus Christ in all that we do.’ I feel like I have ﬁnished. Not only does Schoenberg get everyone in physical shape a chance to do that every time I get to do something challenging, for their sport, but he also brings energy and enthusiasm to the like training and competing. Phillipians 4:13 says, “I can do all things weight room that excites all athletes for their upcoming sport. through Christ who strengthens me.’ One of my favorite verses,” said Schoenberg. “I love S&C for so many reasons, but to boil it down, the most simple is that training allows us to build upon the gifts and abilities that God has given us,” said Schoenberg. A big part of Schoenberg’s enthusiasm in the weight room comes from his drive to bring glory to God. Because he is such a ﬁrm believer in Christ, he pushes himself and others to work as hard as they can to not only allow each athlete to reach their personal goals, but also to better the relationship that they have with God. Along with setting a good example for his students in their spiritual walk, Coach Schoenberg also ensures physical improvement. Strength and Conditioning is a crucial aspect of every sport, and Coach Schoenberg makes sure that every athlete will be well prepared for their season. “For our in season athletes, we talk about ending the season stronger than when we started it. For our off-season athletes, we get to build strength with the next season in mind!” said Schoenberg. If you have ever participated in any workouts with Coach Schoenberg, you know that he is not simply a strength coach; he truly cares about your personal well-being and the functionality of your team. The level of care in which Coach Schoenberg displays in the weight room daily is another crucial way in which he wants all of his athletes to grow. Through coach Schoenberg’s example, players learn the importance of caring

20 800 SPORTING

Greg Schoenberg coaches strength and conditioning class. Photo by: Hope Linam

COACH STULL MOVES INTO THE BUILDING

NOLAN JONES Staff Writer

Following the resignation of Mr. Horn at semester, a gap was left in the business department. A face familiar to the football team and summer Strength and Conditioning athletes has now ﬁlled the gap. Mr. Stull has been the running back coach at Westminster for three years now. He has also helped with summer “S&C” and helped out with the grounds crew for a while as well.

It was exactly the type of teaching job that he would be the most qualified for, and everything lined up. The only thing that hung him up from applying was the mid-year circumstance. Getting the job at WCA would mean that he would have to leave his current class, and the school might not be able to fill his position quickly. He didn’t want to leave his students in a bad situation simply to better his own situation. Luckily, the school was able to find a perfect fit for the job right away. He saw this as a provision from God, an answer to his prayers about whether this was the right move for him.

Growing up in a small town in rural Ohio, Mr. Stull grew up with a blue collar background. He grew up playing pee wee football and came to be a hard-nose player in high school. He was a part of a gap year program in between high school and college. Following this gap year, he went on “I feel thoroughly blessed to be teaching at Westminster and be a part of to play four years at the University of Greenville studying business. Stull the Westminster community,” said Stull. played running back all four years in his college career. Mr. Stull is excited to be teaching Economics at Westminster and to meet After he graduated with his business degree, he moved to St. Louis for a more people in the community. business job at a company called Data Verify. A friend of his who was an alumni of Westminster let him know when he saw that the school expressed a need for a running back/assistant coach. Stull’s football mind aligned with the head coach’s at the time, and he got the job. This side job as an assistant highschool football coach had more in store for him then he thought at the time. Through coaching at Westminster and being able to have an impact on players life, Mr. Stull started to rethink his career path. Last year, he made the decision to make the jump. Through lots of prayer and thinking, he came to the conclusion he wanted to pursue a career in teaching. “My passion for what I was doing changed to where I wanted to give back and make a difference in the world and I felt that education was a great avenue to do that,” said Stull. So, about a year and a half after moving to St. Louis for a business job, he quit and found a job as a fourth grade teacher at Providence Classical Christian Academy in South County. He taught there all of last year and the ﬁrst half of this year. He enjoyed teaching the younger kids, but he also enjoyed having relationships with the football players who he could connect with more and have a deeper impact in their lives. “I noticed on Westminsters job board there was a position open that seemed to be hand-made for me,” said Stull.

Mr. Stull adjusts to teaching at WCA. Photo by: Nolan Jones

800 SPORTING 21

WCA ATHLETES WON’T LET INJURIES DEFINE THEM

Like Ebling, Caleb Moellenhoff, senior cross country and track runner, has also endured a long recovery process from an injury. Moellenhoff originally tore his hamstring in the winter of 2018, and it took him over a year and a half to get back into shape.

COLIN RING Staff Writer

After a relatively injury free few months of the 2020 cross country season, Moellenhoff began to feel extreme tightness in his calf during the last few weeks It’s no secret we live in a fallen world. Everywhere we go, there is brokenness of the season. When the season ended, he got checked out and was diagnosed and heartache, and even the most enjoyable things do not escape the effects of with a stress fracture of the shin. sin. This cannot be more true for the realm of sports. Intended to be a way to have fun and feed your competitive fire while also staying in shape, sports too often cause the body to break down, resulting in injury. It doesn’t matter who you talk to either. If anyone has played sports long enough, they inevitably will have endured a few battle scars. Personally, I have broken my right ankle twice playing pickup basketball, knocked out my permanent front tooth playing a game on a waterslide, and endured multiple overuse injuries from running, including a hamstring strain I am currently nursing. As I work my way back from injury, I thought it might be worthwhile to check Caleb Moellenhoff has spent a lot of time cross training at the gym out other Westminster athletes who are also enduring a rehab process. It is easy to feel stuck and sorry for yourself while having to sit on the sidelines, so as he continues to rehab from injury. Photo by: Colin Ring I interviewed them to understand how they stay motivated and hopeful while Despite his circumstances, Moellenhoff has used his injury as a way to better trying to get healthy. himself in other aspects of life. Adam Ebling, a senior baseball player at Westminster who has committed to play baseball at Tulane, has dealt with a serious knee issue called Osteochon- “I have found that it is much better to not dwell on the fact that I can’t do one of the things I love, but to look at it as an opportunity to get better in other ways, dritis Dissecans this year leading up to the baseball season. whether that is in my sport or just in life. Since athletics are neither the ultimate nor the only thing in my life, I have been able to enjoy life outside of my injury. The Mayo Clinic refers to Osteochondritis Dissecans, or an OCD lesion, as “a joint condition in which bone underneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to lack Recently, I found more time to play the piano, read, and spend time with family,” of blood flow; this bone and cartilage can then break loose, causing pain and said Moellenhoff. possibly hindering joint motion.” Unfortunately for Ebling, his condition was only Caleb’s injury has not just made him a more well-rounded person and helped treatable by surgery and a long recovery process. build his character, but it has also tested his persistence and dedication to “The surgery for this requires for the doctor to place screws in the knee bone in staying in shape, a test he undoubtedly won. order to force healing. This made my recovery difficult because I wasn’t weight bearing for 9 weeks. From this, I lost a lot of muscle and weight,” said Ebling. “I’ve been able to work on upper body and core strength and get better at swimming and cycling to stay in shape. I find that one of the things I like most about running, fitness and stress relief, is not necessarily specific to running. I It was extremely difficult for an elite, dedicated athlete such as Ebling to be unable to participate in sports for a long time, but he made a point to focus on try to keep the same mindset going into doing physical therapy exercises or a swimming workout each day that I would for running,” said Moellenhoff. what he can control and take each day as an opportunity to get better. “I had to stay focused and take pride in the little things early on. With a 6 month rehab process, I am constantly reminding myself that I won’t let an injury define me. I control what I can control, and that is my attitude and effort. Every time I do rehab exercises, I realize that I’m one step closer to my goal, which is being healthy again,” said Ebling.

22 800 SPORTING

Although injury may be a part of our fallen world, both Ebling and Moellenhoff have proven that God can use our brokenness to help us build character. Life is not without difﬁcult circumstances, and ﬁghting through an injury in high school has taught athletes like Ebling and Moellenhoff the importance of perseverance in the midst of adversity.

WILDCAT SHOOTOUT CHAMPIONS

BROOKE HIGHMARK Co-Editor of Sporting

Over the weekend, the girls basketball team dominated a tournament on their home court.

knock it down. Ending with a 60-53 final win, Brophy finished with a career high of twenty points, shooting six for eleven from the three point line, Coleman added fifteen points and nine rebounds, Highmark dished out eight assists, and Vick secured an additional nine rebounds. On Saturday, January 9th, the Cats prepared to battle the underdog of the tournament, the seventh seeded Cor Jesu chargers. The girls

Westminster defeats Cor Jesu in the championship game 62 to 27. Photo by: Nolan Jones

On January 7th, the Cats faced their first matchup as the one seed, the eight seeded Pattonville Pirates. Off to a slow start, the girls Carlie Vick shoots a three pointer against Cor Jesu. held a thirteen to eight lead. However, after a seventeen to zero run Photo by: Nolan Jones in the second quarter, the lead was stretched to 27 to three at half. With twenty points from Brooke Highmark, seventeen points from Reilly Brophy, nine rebounds from Carlie Vick, and eight rebounds knew that they wanted to put on a strong performance, as they lost from Julia Coleman, the Wildcats took home another victory 66 to in the semifinals last season to Gateway STEM 46 to 51. Coming out of the gate hot in the first quarter, Westminster scored 23 points 41. as opposed to Cor Jesu’s thirteen. With twenty four points from The next day, on January 8th, Westminster faced a strong Francis Highmark and twelve each from Coleman and Vick, the Wildcats Howell Central team, seeded fourth, in the semifinals. Although the dominated and earned the first place trophy with a final score of 62 Cats took an early lead, the Spartans went on a run in the second to 27. quarter, closing the gap to only six points at half. In the second half, the Wildcats figured out how to break down the 1-3-1 zone The girls basketball team now has a record of eleven and one, and by finding the open gaps on the wings for three point shooters to they travel to Eureka on Friday, January 15th at 6pm to face the purple Wildcats.

800 SPORTING 23

a three pointer by Lawrence to close the score gap to two points, another timeout was called by the Rams. The Cats defense was unbeatable, forcing a five second call to give them much needed possession of the ball. BROOKE HIGHMARK Lawrence continued to show up in clutch time, draining yet another three Co-Editor of Sporting to give them a 50 to 49 lead. After an MICDS timeout, Nick Roper drew a The boys basketball team loses to rival MICDS in a back and forth overquestionable blocking foul to put him at the line, making one for two of time battle. his free throws to tie the game up with 25 seconds left. The Cats held the ball to get the last shot, and Lawrence’s missed three pointer extended Coming out of the gate, it seemed like the Rams were going to pull away the game to overtime. and take home a smooth victory. However, the Cats gave them a fight, which is not surprising for Coach Ribble’s gritty group of players. Mitchell-Day’s athleticism troubled the Wildcats, as he put the Rams up 55 to 50 with two and a half minutes on the clock. After an “and one” In the first quarter, MICDS’ Brandon Mitchell-Day set the tone with a dunk from Kobi, the Cats stayed in the game, trailing by a mere three points. to contribute to his team’s six and 0 run. After a made free throw by Caleb However, they’re full court press couldn’t force a turnover, and Roper Thompson, junior, to end the run, the Rams went on another one, but went to the line twice for a “one and one” to stretch the lead to 61 to 54. this time it was seven and 0. With the help of the surprisingly beefy Jack A battle against the clock, Westminster didn’t have enough time to regain Pronger, MICDS gave Westminster trouble in the paint, blocking shots the lead, so the score remained the same at the final buzzer. and rebounding like nobody’s business. At the end of the quarter, the Cats kept the game within reach, trailing fifteen to six. Despite the loss, the Westminster boys basketball team truly showed their toughness by staying in the game throughout the adversity. Kobi Jakobi Williams, sophomore, and his brother EJ, junior, gave the Cats led his team in scoring with seventeen points, Lawrence finished close some energy heading into the second quarter with a smooth three pointer behind with fifteen with five threes, Vick snagged eleven rebounds, and EJ from Kobi and a charge taken by EJ. When Westminster called a timeout dished out an impressive seven assists. with a little over four minutes left in the quarter, the score gap was closed to only four points with the Rams leading nineteen to fifteen. The The Cats play next on January 21st against Holt, at their place, at 6:00 PM. younger Williams brother became determined to close the gap completely, shooting three of four from the three in the second quarter alone. However, Mitchell-Day continued to put his team on his back with several tough finishes through contact to maintain a 25 to 23 lead at half time.

COMEBACK KIDS IN OT

After the half time break and some wise words from Coach Ribble, the Cats again started off hot with a three pointer by Casen Lawrence, junior, and an “and one” by Austin Vick, junior, for another three point play. MICDS’ Hasani Spann helped the Rams answer to these plays by draining some memorable shots. The physicality of the game continued, and Westminster called a timeout with a minute and a half remaining in the quarter. With a three pointer each by Lawrence and Vick, the Rams managed to hang onto their lead of 43 to 36 heading into the fourth. Kobi Williams is truly a force to be reckoned with, as he opened up the quarter with a fast break dunk to get fans on their feet--a display that is becoming routine for the young stud. Williams continued to go off for several minutes with a combination of free throws, jumpers, and fast breaks to help his teammates take their ﬁrst lead of the game at the ﬁve and a half minute mark. MICDS answered this Wildcat run by going on a six and 0 run of their own to put them back up 49 to 44 when Ribble called a timeout with two and a half minutes remaining in the game. After

EJ Williams scoops in a left handed layup on a fast break. Photo by: Margaret Briner

BOYS BASKETBALL ASSISTS CRISIS AID HOPE LINAM Staff Writer

Even though it may have been in slight ways, the team was able to realize the large impact that they had on others while serving. They were glad to help families in need and were thankful for what the experience brought. “We enjoyed helping people in need and glorifying God in all the things we do on and off the court. They are all still regular people made in the image of God. All they need is a helping hand. We’ve been blessed to do that for them,” said EJ Williams, junior.

On Saturday, January 9th, the Varsity boys basketball team helped package boxes of food at Crisis Aid in order to serve families in need. This experience not only brought the team closer together but also demon- In addition to building team chemistry and teamwork, the boys found strates the culture that Coach Ribble has developed within the program. ways to build their communication skills, which will come in handy heading into conference games, districts, and post-season play. One of the Varsity coaches, Mike Lemp, is the Director of Development at Crisis Aid, and when Coach Ribble asked about possible service projects, “In this project we encouraged each other, as if we were on the court. It Coach Lemp saw this as a great opportunity for the boys to serve and helped our teamwork and communication as a team,” said Caleb Thompgrow closer as a team. son, junior. “Serving brings success whether it is on the basketball court or in life. You start to understand that when you serve others you will always be taken care of,” said Coach Lemp. This service project strengthened the teamwork between the players, built further chemistry, and gave everyone an opportunity to socialize outside of a practice or game setting.

It is no doubt that the current and previous Westminster boys basketball teams always have a special bond. In addition to their talent and skills, the players’ off-the-court chemistry allows them to go into many games with the upper hand, contributing to their current winning record of eight and two.

“I see everyday at practice how they serve each other on and off the court. They truly care about each other and want the best for each other. “Our team deﬁnitely built more chemistry with each other, giving us an This can’t be said of all teams, but is certainly the case with this group,” opportunity to get to know one another in other ways outside of basket- said Lemp. ball and have a good time,” said Kobi Williams, sophomore.

The boys varsity basketball team serves with Crisis Aid International. Courtesy of: Dale Ribble