The Viking: Volume 8, Issue 2

from the FIELD to the STAGE Where He Is Now pg. 40

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an by K pg .2 d Y AN LI E NA C 4 A DU LL KO AN VI C

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by MADDY ATWATER and ISAAC KASEVICH

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Volume 8 Issue 2

LINE UP

photo by Maddy Atwater

November 2014

BREAK FREE Shaun Pike (‘16) breaks through two Palma defenders and stretches for a first down.

17

DIGGING IT

See how Daniele Desiderio’s professional volleyball career has crossed over into his coaching.

by MEGAN VALENCIA

32

NO EXCLUSIONS

A deeper look at the diverse group of runners that make-up Paly’s cross country team.

by REUBEN KRAMER and HAYLEY POORE

34

VIKING TRIES Come along with Alex Murray as he takes Viking Tries to new heights.

by ALEX MURRAY

38

VIKES ON BIKES

Fewer students are biking to school. See why you should bike instead of drive.

ZOOM

Swing Flex Soar

Lunge

KICKOFF Staff view Pop culture grid 10 questions with Lucy Fox (‘15)

Inside the mind

of Luke Schroeder (‘15)

SHORTS

4 6 8 10

Finding the perfect balance

23

Physical education?

30 38 46

Vikes on bikes Last word

13 14 15 16

20 Viking tries: skydiving 34 Unsung heroes 36 Winter previews

COLUMNS

FEATURES

Take a look at the unconventional sport of roller derby and the professional career of Bay Area skater Laura Mann.

by KYLIE CALLAN and ANNA DUKOVIC

40

Diggin’ it

17

Rollin’ with the punches

24

No exclusions

32 40

Where he is now

24

ROLLIN’ WITH THE PUNCHES

WHERE HE IS NOW After a stroke devastated his once-promising football career, Carl Wolfgramm (‘16) has found a new passion.

by MADDY ATWATER and ISAAC KASEVICH

by CLARA HARRINGTON

NOVEMBER 2014

Halle Biorn (‘16) prepares to hit a forehand in the girls’ match against Mountain View. photo by Katie Foug

Andrew Jozefov (‘17) gets up to pass the ball to a teammate during a game vs. Gunn. The Vikings were defeated by the Titans with a final score of 16-12. photo by Olivia Scola

Anna Dukovic (‘15) spikes the volleyball across the net against Homestead. The Vikes fell in three sets to the Mustangs. photo by Katie Foug

Kevin Anderson (‘11) reaches to tackle Arizona State offensive player. The Cardinals lost to the Sun Devils 26-10. Anderson graduated from Paly in 2011, and is now an outside linebacker at Stanford . photo by Scotty Bara

Editors-in-Chief Zoe Bhargava Rowan McEvoy Alex Murray Managing Editors Priscilla Bell Anna Dukovic Maddie Kinnaman Hayley Poore Sheila Subramanian Design Editor Paige Bara Photo Editors Katie Foug Olivia Scola Copy Editor Clara Harrington

From the editors Dear readers,

We hope that you all have had a great first quarter of school, and that you seniors got your early college applications in on time. As fall sets in, we are proud to release our second issue of the year. Our new staff members have fully entered the fold of The Viking staff.

As we start the second quarter of school, fall sports finish up and winter sports begin. Make sure to take a look at our winter previews for boys’ basketball, boys’ soccer, girls’ basketball, girls’ soccer and wrestling. Also, keep up with CCS playoffs with coverage from our website at www.vikingsportsmag.com.

This issue’s cover story focuses on the experiences of Carl Wolfgramm (‘16), a former football player whose career was cut short by a stroke. After Wolfgramm’s injury, however, he found a new passion in the form of acting. Furthermore, we take a look at the sport of roller derby through the eyes of professional player Laura

Columnist Garret Reynolds Multimedia Editor Gillian Chryst Business Manager Megan Valencia Staff Writers Paige Anderson Maddy Atwater Kylie Callan Bryn Carlson Daniel Douty Issac Kasevich Meredith Kinnaman Reuben Kramer Zach Levitan Alys Olmstead Michael Pappas Staff Adviser Paul Hoeprich

The Viking Palo Alto High School 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301 650-329-3837 Email contact: vikingeds@gmail.com Advertising and Sponsorship Contact: vikingads@gmail.com

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Mann. We explore not only the culture of the sport but also Mann’s experience as an athlete.

Elsewhere, we examine our new volleyball coach Daniele Desidiero, investigate the uses of running cross country and inspect some of Paly’s unheralded athletes.

Additionally, our staff members take stances on the issues of biking to school, education of college athletes and physical education as a class.

We also discuss the problem of high school sports practicing during school breaks in our editorial. The piece addresses the differences between high school and professional sports and the differences in level of commitment that should exist.

Finally, we would like to thank you all for the continues readership. We hope that you enjoy this issue and have a great Novemnber. See you in a month and go Vikings!

Sincerely, Zoe, Rowan and Alex

The Viking’s likings

The Viking staff’s favorite things of the season.

Halloween costume:

Ferris Bueller

Fall beverage:

Chai latte

Fall activity:

Fantasy football

Tailgate food:

BBQ chicken

Giants player:

Hunter Pence

The Viking, a sports magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Advanced Magazine Journalism class, is an open forum for student expression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership. The Viking is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost. The staff welcomes letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity.

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Advertising in The Viking The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with The Viking, please contact the The Viking by email at vikingeds@gmail.com Printing Services 2,500 copies of The Viking are printed, six times a year by Fricke-Parks Press in Fremont, Calif.

Staff view

About the controversy of high school sports practicing over school holidays When signing up to participate in a school sport, athletes always have to consider the amount of commitment they can give during the season. They have to consider practice times and game dates. Many times, family vacations are determined by an athlete’s schedule and the time they have off from their sport. The level of competition shown at the high school level for sports is intense, but that doesn’t come without hours and hours of practice. For many athletes, their seasons run through many holidays and breaks. During these breaks, most high school sports have practices and some games.

Many professional sports teams have practice and or games on national holidays. Unlike high school athletes, these players are paid for their time. For example, in football many teams have games on Thanksgiving Day, and basketball games can be played on Christmas Day. Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers played on Christmas Day. The level of dedication at the professional level is higher than that of high school sports. Because of this, professional athletes practice for longer hours, some of

which may conflict with holidays. At the high school level, though, players may still be learning the sports they are playing and may only be playing the sport for a recreational pastime.

The middle level between professional and high school level sports is the collegiate level.

Although these athletes are not paid for their playing time, they often commit to the schools for their sports which means they are committing most of their time to playing sports in college. This usually means these athletes train over their school breaks and on holidays. For college football, many bowl games are played on holidays. This included the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl which was played on Christmas Eve. In addition, multiple bowls were played on New Year’s Eve. As a staff, we believe that sports should refrain from having practices and games over school issued holidays and breaks. During this time, athletes should not be required to be at these practices and games. These breaks are a time for students to rest and recover from school and sports. Students should not be obligated to attend school related activities if

school is not in session.

If there are practices and games over school breaks, then sports teams should give that information to potential athletes before the season starts so families and players can plan accordingly. We believe that athletes should have the option of participating in practices over breaks. These practices should not be mandatory because that is unfair to athletes who have prior commitments. Playing time in postbreak games should not be based on attendance at these practices. Athletes should not be expected to be at these practices because it is their time away from school and sports.

Although high school sports should have a high level of commitment and intensity, students need time away from school activities and that includes sports. Coaches should realize that not all athletes are going to be able to commit to practice over breaks due to family commitments. Practices over school holidays and breaks should be optional for athletes that are in town and are available for these dates of competition and practice. <<<

In the news: hazing scandal in New Jersey

Recent allegations arise against New Jersey high school football team On Oct. 10, six Sayreville War Memorial High School football players were charged with involvement in a series of four sexual assault cases that started as hazing. The next day, a seventh player was also taken into custody. The school is located in Parlin, N.J., and its football team has won three state titles in the past four years. With the news about hazing coming out, the rest of the Bombers’ season was cancelled.

The New York Times reported on Oct. 19 that “three were held at least initially in juvenile detention; the four others accused of less serious crimes, were released.” The three being held are currently charged with aggravated sexual assault, the other four with aggravated assault.

The decision on whether to charge the seven players, ages 15 to 17, as adults is still being made, the New York Times wrote. Five of the football coaches, including head coach George Najjar, were suspended on Oct. 21.

The four freshman were allegedly targeted in the locker room, and beaten and groped by the older players.

Despite the serious allegations, the Sayreville student body and the Parlin community have continued to defend Najjar as a coach, and believe that he should not have been suspended because he was not to blame.

According to The Guardian, “a MoveOn. org petition defending him has been signed by nearly 800 people by Tuesday afternoon.”

The freshmen who were hazed have also received backlash from peers, leading one to tell the New York Times it “made me want to shoot myself.”

In 2007, The Viking wrote a feature on hazing that had happened at Paly. It occurred on the football and wrestling at extreme levels, one football player even bruising some ribs after landing on the side of a pool after an attempt to throw him in. However, it happened behind the backs of former head coach Earl Hansen and the administration.

“It’s hard to say what happens at school because there is a sense of secrecy surrounding hazing,” former principal Jacqueline McEvoy said. “Even when you’re dealing with victims of hazing, they don’t want to talk about it.

They’re on the team.”

Seven years later, hazing seems to have toned down at Paly, but will never completely be gone.

“Hazing is definitely a tradition at Paly, and I don’t think anything can stop it,” a Paly senior football player said in 2007.

The boys’ varsity soccer team still gives out haircuts. The seniors, however, can participate

as well, giving the act a sense of team building as opposed to tearing down younger players.

Attitudes toward hazing have also been tested. The football players in the case of bruised ribs recognized that they “took it too far” and apologized. There were no arrests in any of the Paly cases, because they went on behind the back of authority, so the community did not have a large say in what should be done about the hazing culture. In Sayreville, some believe that what happened was not a big deal.

“No one was hurt, no one died — I don’t understand why they’re being punished,” Madeline Thillet told the Sayreville school board, according to the New York Times.

A court date for the players has not been announced, but they could face a punishment of having to register as sex offenders for at least 15 years, no matter if they are charged with sex crimes in juvenile or adult court. Because the accusations are testimonial, the prosecution could be difficult. <<< Check out the Viking hazing article at http:// paly.io/QGQYXW More on the Sayreville case can be found at http://nyti.ms/1yQnfzA

NOVEMBER 2014

P Culture Grid

The op W H A T D O P A LY AT H L E T E S S AY ?

Shaun Pike (‘16) Football

Who will win the World Series?

Giants

Celebrity crush?

Mila Kunis

Favorite holiday?

Christmas

James Franco is...

Katie Passarello (‘17) Volleyball

Seth Alston (‘15) Water polo

Kevin Bowers (‘16) Water polo

Izzy Kelley (‘17) Water polo

Giants

Giants

I don’t care

Shawn Mendes

James Franco

Anna Kendrick

Mr. Bean

4th of July

Thanksgiving

Kwanzaa

Christmas

36 years old

Pineapple Express

Kinda wrinkly

Water polo

Rain

Trees

Royals

Cool I guess

Interesting

Football

Football and volleyball

Best thing about fall?

HOT

San Francisco Giants in the World Series: After beating the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals, the Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS and are moving on to the World Series. The Giants won their way to their third World Series appearance in the past five years.

Images taken from

Mississippi football:

Mississippi St. and Ole Miss are ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in the nation, respectively, as of the week 9 AP polls. Both teams hope to make the four-team playoff and bring home a national championship. Mississippi St. quarterback Dak Prescott is looking like one of the front-runners in the Heisman race.

Stanford football:

After beginning the season ranked No. 11 in the AP poll, Stanford has consistently underperformed. After close losses to USC and Notre Dame, Stanford was dominated by Arizona State. Their latest defeat knocked them out of the top 25.

College apps:

The stress levels are high for the class of 2015. The seniors are rushing to submit their early decision and early action applications by their deadlines and trying to get a start on the regular decision apps. Wish them luck, as they will soon be heading off to college!

N OT

10Questions with

Lucy Fox (‘15)

as told to Sheila Subramanian

The Viking asked Paly tennis player Lucy Fox (‘15) 10 questions about herself and then compared her responses to that of her coach Andy Harader, teammate Halle Biorn (‘16) and boyfriend Anthony Liu (‘15). Read on to discover who knows Lucy best!

Lucy Fox (‘15)

Varsity tennis player

Questions

Andy Harader

Halle Biorn (‘16)

Grapes

Coach

Green grapes

Favorite pre-game snack?

Bagel and cream cheese

Team bonding

Best thing about tennis?

BVO

Fall

Fall or winter?

Fall

Stats

Favorite class?

Breaking Bad

Teammate

Getting close with the team

Anthony Liu (‘15) Boyfriend Banana Winning and teammates

Fall

Winter

Political Science

Econ

Stats

Favorite TV show?

Keeping up with the Kardashians

Doesn’t really watch TV

Mr. Baker

Favorite teacher?

No clue

Mr. Davis

Mr. Friedland

Italy

Best vacation spot?

Hawaii

Ireland

France

Anthony

Dream date?

Her current boyfriend

“Andre” Harader

Me

Anything by The Strokes

Favorite song?

Anything by Jennifer Lopez

Don’t You (Forget About Me)

Let It Go

People tagging themselves in Instagram posts

Pet peeve?

Images taken from

Not having fun

Bad calls on whether the tennis ball was in or not

20%

30%

That 70’s Show

Their vs. there vs. they’re

30%

Inside the mind of Luke Schroder (‘15)

as told to Sheila Subramanian

photo by Sheila Subramanian

On water polo

“Being goalie is awesome because there’s a saying that all goalies are a little bit weird in the head. That’s because we’re crazy enough to put ourselves in front of the ball. It’s cool though, because there isn’t anything else like it.”

On the Johnson brothers

“I love every single person in the Johnson family. It’s great that they’re young and we can relate to them and stuff. They’re also great water polo players and great coaches.”

On senior year “When I was not a senior, I didn’t think [senior year] was that special but now that I’m a senior, I’m like ‘oh, it’s cool’, you know? It’s nice being the biggest and the coolest, as always.”

On his love life “The love life is thriving. I am currently dating Claire Chevallier [‘15] for the fourth time, four years-ish.

It’s great.”

On college apps

“What I actually did with my college apps was finish them really early and then I don’t have to care about them as much. I’ve almost applied to all of my schools, which is chill. Pretty much every school I applied to has a club water polo team, D1 is just too much.”

On DJ-ing

“I like it...It’s all about getting the mood right, it’s really awesome to be able to control the mood of the whole area. I just like the fact that I’m kind of in charge of what’s going on.”

Digging it

New volleyball coach Daniele Desiderio has played professional volleyball for almost 20 years and now brings his knowledge to his coaching career.

IN THE SAND New head volleyball coach Daniele Desiderio goes for a dig while playing beach volleyball. Desiderio plays in the Association of Volleyball Professionals along with his partner David McKenzie, who was on the Olympic volleyball team last year.

by MEGAN VALENCIA Photos courtesy of Daniele Desiderio

T

his year, there are many new faces in the Palo Alto High School athletic department.

One of those new faces is head volleyball coach Daniele Desiderio. Desiderio took over after former head coach Dave Winn stepped in favor of the head coach position at Mountain View High School. Unlike Winn, Desiderio still plays volleyball while coaching. He plays

volleyball professionally, and has competed in many countries around the globe.

Desiderio has achieved a lot in his professional volleyball career. However, the achievement that he is most proud of came when he was on a junior professional team.

“When I was nineteen I was named ‘Best Player of the World’; that was something very huge,” Desiderio said. “For the junior team, we won the world championship with Italy, and

I was named best player. If you can imagine how many people [were] playing volleyball at that time, it was really nice to be named best player of the world. [Being] successful gave me a lot of confidence in my playing.”

Desiderio values spending time with family as well as continuing his passion for volleyball.

Although Desiderio plays and coaches volleyball for a living, he still has time to spend with his wife Olta and son Gabriele.

NOVEMBER 2014

“[The volleyball life] is kind of a strange life because you are starting when other people [normally] finish working,” Desiderio said.

“But I have plenty of time [to spend] with my son [who] is now four years old… Most of the time the [professional volleyball] leagues are pretty short, [about] six or seven months, so I have five months off. Of course [during the months off], you have to practice, but you can adjust your schedule. You can go early in the morning and spend more time with your family.”

Desiderio has traveled around the world and experienced many different cultures throughout his professional volleyball career. Japan was one of his favorite places to play, mostly because of the spectator attitude.

“It was really nice playing in Japan just because it was so different from the rest of the world,” Desiderio said. “We had 15 to 20 thousand people watching the games, so it was a nice experience because it’s always better as a player when you have many people watching your games.”

However, some of the cultural differences in the different countries that Desiderio traveled to were problematic for his family. The attitude towards women in Iran was especially challenging, because the strict rules made it more difficult for Desiderio to spend time with his wife.

“Iran was difficult at the beginning because

my wife was not allowed to come into the gym,” Desiderio said. “They have rules there [because] they [don’t] want women coming inside the gym[s]. So, it was kind of strange, because [my family] had waited so long to watch the match and then they couldn’t watch me. So, for a while, we were separated.”

Players nearly always sustain a few serious injuries during their careers, and Desiderio was no exception. Ankle, knee and back injuries are common in Desiderio’s profession, and he has experienced all of them.

Volleyball Professionals (AVP). The process of getting his green card was difficult, but was made easier by his volleyball prowess. “[Getting a green card] was a nightmare,” Desiderio said. “[My lawyers told me] that it was a lot easier to get a green card for ‘Extraordinary Ability’. [The rest of the process] was very difficult, because you have to show everything that you’ve done in your career. You have to bring every article, the original page with the name of the newspaper article and the date, translated into English from wherever I was… The rules are very strict, so I was happy to be inside this small ‘Extraordinary Ability’ category. [They told me that] I was actually the first one in history to get a green card for [‘Extraordinary Ability’ in] volleyball in the USA.” Desiderio’s AVP partner is is David McKenzie, who played volleyball for America in the last Olympics. Desiderio and McKenzie have played together and won many different tournaments in the Bay Area.

“We also have won indoor and sand [tournaments] together here in Palo Alto,” Desiderio said. “We are good friends and we try to play without any stress.”

As for his coaching style, Desiderio believes in encouraging his players while also giving them constructive criticism to better their play.

“I like positive coaching,” Desiderio said. “I like to always have a team with full energy. I [have] played [in] several finals in my career,

“Daniele is very positive. I think that he was a good change-up, knowing that Dave [Winn] was not going to be here this upcoming season. He brings a lot of new drills to practice, which is interesting with his Italian background, and he pushes us to be the best.”

- Jade Schoenberger (‘15) “I’ve gotten a lot of injuries [playing volleyball],” Desiderio said. “It’s part of the job, you know. It’s very bad when it happens to you, but if you talk to the other players, everybody has one or two bad injuries. [As volleyball players], we force our bodies to do things at the maximum level that they’re not used to doing... I always had professional people to help me come back, so it was fine every time.”

Now in the United States, Desiderio recently received a green card, a permanent residence card that allows a person to live and work in the U.S., in order to play in the Association of

Daniele through the years... and countries!

Began playing volleyball at age 6

Champion of Italian Silver Medal 1st Place & MVP Youth League, 2nd World Youth of Italian Junior youngest player in Championship League, 1st Place of history to play in Italian League A1, Italian A1 League 1st place in CEV Cup

Gold Medal in Silver Medal World Youth in European Championship, Junior ChamBest Player of pionship the World

ITALY

ITALY

PUERTO RICO

ITALY

IRAN

1984

1993

1995

1996

1997

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ISRAEL

1998

ACE Daniele Desiderio serves to the opposing team. He has played professional volleyball in more than nine countries. [so I know] how the energy of a team makes a huge impact on the game. I also like to give the players detailed [tips] on how they can improve their skills.”

Co-captain Jade Schoenberger (‘15) believes that Desiderio was a great choice as coach for the Paly volleyball team and likes his coaching style.

“Daniele is very positive,” Schoenberger said. “I think that he was a good change-up, knowing that Dave [Winn] was not going to be here this upcoming season. He brings a lot of new drills to practice, which is interesting

with his Italian background, and he pushes us to be the best.”

Although coaching the Paly team takes up the majority of his time, Desiderio works as an assistant coach for Stanford men’s volleyball team.

“I just started two weeks ago [as an assistant coach for Stanford], Desiderio said. “I actually helped them a little bit last year, but it was an unofficial position because I was already on a visa for another club. Now that I have my green card, I can start with Stanford. It is of course something amazing to be over there, and I am really enjoying it.”

Desiderio finds many differences in coaching men’s and women’s volleyball, but really enjoys coaching at Paly.

“I played at the highest level on the men’s side, so sometimes it’s easier for me to give [the Stanford men’s team] tips because [their game] is closer to [mine],” Desiderio said. “On the other side, I really enjoy coaching the girls at Paly. All of the girls put all of their effort in from the beginning and they do whatever I am asking them.”

Schoenberger emphasized how Desiderio’s professional background is helpful for the team, as he can show them what he cannot tell them.

“It’s nice [that Daniele plays professionally] because he can demonstrate everything perfectly,” Schoenberger said. “Whatever he is trying to explain, if no one understands, he can just do it himself.”

Co-captain Molly Fogarty (`15) agreed that Desiderio’s experience has given the team a new perspective on volleyball.

“It’s interesting having such an accomplished coach,” Fogarty said. “He knows a lot about volleyball and has played and coached at many different levels which makes him very respectable. He knows many different strategies that

work and that many of us have not done before which is really interesting.”

Desiderio does encounter some difficulties with coaching at the high school level.

“When you are coaching young players, you have to [deal with their] parents,” Desiderio said. “I was really lucky to find the right parents and the right players. I think that you are honest with people and try to help them improve, there is nothing that they can argue with you [about].

In the future, Desiderio sees himself staying in Palo Alto with the Paly volleyball program.

He wants to transform the Paly volleyball program into something that reflects his own approach.

“I would like to keep coaching at Paly for a long time,” Desiderio said. “I live really close and my family [loves] Palo Alto. I am really enjoy[ing] this year. I will try to keep [coaching at Paly] and I am trying to develop my own private club this year… This year was a transition for me because most of the [Paly] program was built for the previous coach. My goal is for Paly to play according to my style of volleyball.”

Although playing and coaching volleyball has its downsides, Desiderio appreciates the positive aspects of his job cannot see himself doing anything else.

“The benefit [of playing and coaching volleyball] is that I am doing what I like, something that makes me happier,” Desiderio said.

“I’ve been playing volleyball since I was 6 years old, and I was professional when I was 15, so volleyball is my life. I like being [in America], because it gives me a chance to be in one place in coach. As a professional coach in Europe, you have to travel the same as the players.

When I knew that I could build something [in America] in volleyball for my family, I came here right away.” <<<

KEY: 1st place Gold Medal Best scorer 1st place UAE Spanish at Mediin league League, 1st place League, Bronze terranean for his posi- President’s Cup, 1st medal CEV Games tion place Federation Challenge Cup Cup

SPAIN

TUNISIA

2000

2001

ITALY

2004

Club Volleyball Italian National Team

Best scorer Al Paly of League, Garafha volleyball Best Foreign Doha, Qatar team Player A coach

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

IRAN

QATAR

UNITED STATES

2009

2011

2013

2014 NOVEMBER 2014

WINTER PREVIEWS As fall season sports wrap up, here is a look at what’s to come for Paly varsity winter athletics.

by BRYN CARLSON, MADDIE KINNAMAN and MICHAEL PAPPAS

Deckelman, there is still hope that the season will be a success.

“We have two highly ranked wrestlers with Seth Goyal [‘17] and I, but we are going to have some growing pains.” Giaccia said.

After coming off of a 2-5 record last year, the team seems optimistic that this year will be better.

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR:

2013-14 RECORD:

James Giaccia (‘15) Seth Goyal (‘17)

HEAD COACH:

Overall: 2-5

League: 5-7

MAJOR LOSSES: Josh Deckelman (‘14)

Braumon Creighton

20 | T H E V I K I N G |

“The main focus is to win the league,” Giaccia said.

Through hard work in the weight room and on the mat, Paly wrestling hopes to thrive this season. photo by Olivia Scola

This upcoming wrestling season, Paly has put some big expectations on a relatively young team.

“This year is going to be a true test for the young team,” James Giaccia (‘15) said.

Paly wrestling lost Josh Deckelman (‘14) who wrestled in the 152 lb weight class last year. Although the team suffered the loss of

w w w. v i k i n g s p o r t s m a g . c o m

GET DOWN James Giaccia (‘15) confronts his opponent during a match in the 2013-14 season.

JUMP Kevin Mullin (‘15) drains a three-point shot during a game against Menlo-Atherton.

Last year, the girls’ basketball team was exceptionally young with five underclassmen starters. This was due in part to the ACL injuries of Hope Crockett (‘14) and Charlotte Alipate (‘14), which kept them out of the game for virtually the entire season.

The young team, however, still enjoyed some success. The girls advanced to the semi-finals round of CCS, where they fell to

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR: Maddy Atwater (‘16) Courtney Lovely (‘16) Alexis Harris (‘16)

HEAD COACH: Scott Peters

2013-2014 season. Despite these crucial losses, there are some strong returning players in addition to a couple of up-and-comers including Miles Tension (‘17), who was pulled up to the varsity team last year during the playoffs.

Kevin Mullin (‘15), captain-to-be, believes that the team has potential and he has high

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR: Alex Dees (‘15) Kevin Mullin (‘15) Jonathan Rojahn (‘15)

HEAD COACH: Adam Sax

North Salinas High School.

“We really want to win the CCS championship this year,” Coco Lovely (‘16) said.

Lovely will be one of the five returning starters this year. Without suffering any major losses, the team is expected to do well in the upcoming season, especially being one year older. This season the team is trying to secure the league championships, seeing as the Lyn-

2013-14 RECORD:

hopes for the upcoming season.

“We’re going to look to try to win league; last year we got second place,” Mullin said.

“I think that we are one of the teams that has better players returning, the only other team I could see competing for the league title is Milipitas.”

2013-14 RECORD: Overall: 15-11 League: 8-4

MAJOR LOSSES: Matthew Fogarty (‘14) Kesean Johnson (‘14) Noah Phillips (‘14) Clark Schmutz (‘14)

brook team, last season’s league champs, have dropped to a lower division after graduating six seniors.

photo by Josh Stern

photo by Alys Olmstead

During the last boys’ basketball season, the Vikings had an 8-4 record in league before moving on to the quarterfinals of Central Coast Section (CCS) where its season ended after being defeated by the Menlo Atherton Bears.

Much of last year’s success can be attributed to the four seniors who started during the

Overall: 13-13 League: 5-7

MAJOR LOSSES: Charlotte Alipate (‘14) Hope Crockett (‘14)

FREE THROW Maddy Atwater (‘16) focuses while taking a free throw.

NOVEMBER 2014

Last year the boys’ soccer team finished its league season 2-5-3 but did not make it to CCS following its 2-1 loss to the Los Gatos Wildcats. The Vikings were led by captains Tony Maharaj (‘14), Cina Vazir (‘14) and Wesley Woo (‘15 and graduated two seniors, Maharaj and Vazir.

Despite the loss of its goalie, Maharaj, the team has several strong returning players: Woo, Preston Kuppe (‘15) and Steven Blatman (‘15). Blatman is confident about the upcoming season due to the number of returning players and hopes to have a successful season.

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR:

2013-14 RECORD:

Preston Kuppe (‘15) Steven Blatman (‘15) Wesley Woo (‘15)

HEAD COACH: Don Briggs

League: 5-7

Major Losses: Tony Maharaj (‘14) Cina Vazir (‘14)

photo by Maddie Kinnamin

Jacey Pederson (‘16) Katie Foug (15)

HEAD COACH:

tive errors.

The team was led by senior captains Megan Tall (‘14) and Sunny Lu (‘14). Despite losing four seniors, the team has several returning players such as Olivia Musil (‘15), Katie Foug (‘15) and Jacey Pederson (‘14). Musil has high hopes for the Lady Vikes this upcoming

season.

“This season we’re hoping to make it as CCS champions, we’ve gotten closer and closer every year and I think this one is going to be the year,” Musil said.

photo by Anna Duckovic

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR:

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Overall: 2-5

CHIPSHOT Cina Vazir (‘14) boots the ball during the 2013-14 season.

The Lady Vikes enjoyed a successful 20132104 season with a league record of 6-2-4. The team made it to the CCS semi-finals, but lost against the Los Gatos Wildcats.This successful season follwed a difficult 2012-2013 season where they were not allowed to compete in CCS following a violation due to administra-

Kurt Devlin

“In past seasons we have been more of a young team, but now most of us are juniors or seniors so we should have a much better squad this year,” Blatman said.

2013-14 RECORD: Overall: 2-5

League: 5-7

Major Losses: Megan Tall (‘14) Jess Branson (‘14)

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CHARGE Sunny Lyu (‘14) sprints with the ball down the field during the 2012-13 season.

Finding the PERFECT balance

With thousands of high school athletes receiving scholarships to Division 1 schools each year, schools aren’t strict enough on student-athlete regulations. Big schools primarily focus on athletics and it has a dire effect on the athletes for the rest of their lives.

All images taken from

ATHLETICS Alabama QB A.J. McArron led the team for three seasons. Alabama was first in the nation most of that time.

T

EDUCATION This building can be found at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school known for its academics.

STUDY Students at Stanford engage in a lab. Stanford has the highest graduation rate of its student athletes.

sociation (NCAA) athletic directors who don’t enforce the practice regulations put in place by the NCAA. Students who take fraudulent classes are just as much at fault as the coaches who hold 20-plus hours of practice each week.

In order to change this problem we have to set stricter rules on the number of hours college athletes are allowed to practice per week and higher grade standards for athletic eligibility. We also need to attack the problem at the next level; the National Basketball Association (NBA) recently passed a rule that student-athletes have to complete their freshman year of college before declaring the NBA draft.

Last year in the NCAA basketball tournament, Cincinnati faced off against Harvard.

Harvard boasted a 100 percent graduation rate of their basketball team, while Cincinnati graduated only 56 percent of its student-athletes. This is unacceptable. At school, student-athletes are building a foundation for the rest of their lives by receiving a college education and only 56 percent of them completed the degree that they came to get.

The problem is also a result of some coaches getting paid millions of dollar to win bas-

ketball games and could care less about the graduation rate of their players. Schools like the University of Alabama and Ohio State have built football dynasties; both of which bring in nearly 150 million dollars each year.

The schools are not concerned about their athletes’ graduation rates. As long as the team keeps its status in sports, the school will thrive financially and continue its athletic success.

The solution to student-athlete problems is not a simple one, but a plausible one. We need to educate students from an early age about the importance of having a college education and the difference it makes to have a college degree versus only a high school diploma. The average starting salary of someone without a college education is $30,000 a year, while the average salary with a bachelors degree is $46,000. Since not all will go pro, schools need to make it clear that the student-athletes are there to build their future and to educate themselves. Sports open gates for high school students at the next level, but these opportunities can be squandered. Students need to realize where their priorities lie and what will make a bigger impact on their life. <<<

by GARRETT REYNOLDS here are a select few high school athletes who are awarded with partial or full scholarships to play sports in college. For these certain students, practicing day in and day out for the last four years has paid off.

Sports scholarships open doors to schools that might have otherwise been out of their reach academically and gives the student the edge they need to get into the school of their dreams.

On average, two percent of college athletes turn pro, so why do students go to college and focus all their time on the field? Student-athletes should go to college to get an education and sports should come secondary to that.

Aside from the very unlikely chance to go pro, the players that do go pro have relatively short careers. The average length of a National Football League (NFL) career is six years.

The student-athlete system is flawed, as more and more students are dropping out of school and focusing all their energy and time on going pro. Everyone is to blame, from the high school coaches who make sports a number one priority to the National Collegiate Athletic As-

NOVEMBER 2014

Rollin’ with the

punches Roller derby is a sport that has its own unique history, rules and traditions. Laura Mann, a blocker for the Bay Area Derby Girls’ All-Star team and the U.S. World Cup team, shares her experiences with the sport and how her career has progressed through the years.

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by KYLIE CALLAN and ANNA DUKOVIC

hen someone hears the word skating, they often picture a graceful dancer moving around an ice-rink. Others may imagine people rollerblading. However, those associated with the sport of roller derby know a whole different picture, complete with constant injuries and extreme physicality. Bouts, jammers, pivots, blockers—these words may sound foreign to an average person, but they are all central parts of this aggressive sport.

Besides the use of skates, roller derby is about as different from any other form of skating as it can get. In roller derby, two teams compete instead of performing for an audience. The teams race around a circular track on roller skates and each works to score points by lapping as many opponents as possible.

Although roller derby is usually portrayed as a women’s sport, men can skate as well. Since the sport’s revival in the early 2000s, there have been three main types of roller derby leagues: all-female, all-male and mixed-gender.

Now, the sport has spread across the world, with leagues in Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, South America and even the Middle East. In 2011, the first roller derby World Cup was played in Toronto, Canada, with thirteen participating countries. In Decem-

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ber of this year, the second World Cup will be played in Dallas, Texas. 30 countries are expected to make an appearance at the event.

Current Bay Area Derby Girls All-Star skater Laura Mann skated in the first World Cup for Team USA. She is preparing for this year’s competition along with the 19 other skaters on the American World Cup team.

Mann first started skating about eight years ago, when she lived in Albuquerque, N.M. She was working as a photojournalist intern at the Albuquerque Tribune when a story written by one of her colleagues exposed her to the sport. Given her background in ice skating, the transition to roller derby was easier than it may have otherwise been.

“Someone else was doing a story on [roller derby and] I was helping [to] edit the photographs,” Mann said. “I looked at them and I was like ‘hmm, I could probably do that,’ so the next summer I...contacted a league and started skating...I ice-skated growing up for about 11 years so I had a skating background, just not on wheels.”

Now a veteran of the sport, Mann described roller derby as being simultaneously offensive and defensive.

“It is a full contact race on roller skates, but only one person from each team is actually trying to race around,” Mann said.

“It is basically five on five...It’s offense [and]

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photo courtesy of Donalee Eiri

KEEP PUSHING Laura Mann and her teammate work together to keep the other teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jammer from getting through the pack.

photo courtesy of Donalee Eiri AGGRESSION Laura Mann, pictured in the black uniform and black mouth guard, tries to block the jammer (skater wearing the star on her helmet) of the opposing team in a roller derby bout. Mann plays for the Bay Area Derby Girls’ All-Star team, currently ranked second in the world. defense at the same time. [You] try and stop the other team from passing you.”

Roller derby is played in two thirty-minute periods. Each half consists of short matchups, which are called jams. There are three main positions: jammers, blockers and pivots. Jammers are the skaters who are trying to race around the track and get by the blockers on the other team. Their objective is to pass as many of the opposing skaters as possible during the two-minute jam. They wear two stars on their helmets to distinguish themselves from the other skaters on the track. Four of the five skaters on a team are blockers. They attempt to block the other jammer from getting through and blocking other opponents to help their jammer get through. One of the four blockers is known as the pivot. Pivots wear a striped cover on their helmet, and they can become a jammer if the jammer passes them the cover with stars on it. Each jam ends either when the two-minute time limit runs out or when the lead jammer, the one who initially broke through the pack of blockers first, chooses to end the jam at a more strategic time.

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The sport was invented in the United States in the 1930’s by Leo Seltzer. Initially, the sport had no point system and instead was about endurance in the marathon-like races. Roller derby began as a speed race where the only severe contact between skaters occurred when one tried to pass another. However, in the late 1930s, Seltzer was encouraged to allow maximum physical contact between skaters to make the sport more entertaining for fans and since then the sport has transformed.

With this change came a key component of the sport: physical toughness. Every bout is full of lots of blocking and pushing.

For Mann, a blocker, she was intrigued by the physicality and violence of the sport.

“I really like the aspect of being able to hit people,” Mann said. “When you see someone that you want to hit that’s in your way on the other team and [you’re] able to go up to them and hip check them as hard as you can legally and possibly knock them down, I think that’s really fun.”

Even though the sport is extremely physical and bumps and bruises are very common,

w w w. v i k i n g s p o r t s m a g . c o m

Mann has only been seriously injured once.

“My very first season, I got hit into a cinder block wall because our venue wasn’t a very safe,” Mann said. “I got hit into that and my knees both splayed in and I ended up tearing my MCL in my left knee. But [I didn’t need] surgery, just 12 weeks recovery….I’m convinced it was the brick wall’s fault and not the actual [sport].”

In addition to the brute nature of the sport, the required mental toughness can pose a challenge. For Mann, she believes the key to doing well is to stay calm. “[You have] to be in a really good place in your head to not have anxiety and not freak out,” Mann said. “Sometimes you will be playing a team and you look at the scoreboard and you are not winning, [and] you can’t let that get into your head.”

To prepare herself mentally, Mann goes through a process where she envisions a positive memory of herself.

“I have a weird little [thing], it’s recalling sports events of the past,” Mann said. “I had a sports psychologist that had me lay down and visualize a time that I did really well and

I visualize myself ice skating and winning.”

On top of visualization, Mann has another ritual that she does before every bout to get in the right mindset and play her best.

“I click my wrist guards together before the game and [absorb]...that feeling of the crowd and the smells and everything,” Mann said. “It kind of resets [my mind].”

Besides the mental rigor of playing in games, there is also a difficulty associated with the mental component of pushing herself to practice.

“The motivation to go to practice [is one of the hardest parts of skating],” Mann said. “Practice is fun once you [are there], but sometimes when you’re tired and [it’s] after work [it’s hard] to get the motivation to go.”

All the difficulties that skaters go through together encourage them to respect each others’ abilities and they push one another to get better.

“My roller derby role model is... actually one of my teammates, Fallen Angel,” Mann said. “She doesn’t come from a skating background and [I’ve] just [watched] her work hard over the years. She’s been skating almost as long as I have, but she has definitely surpassed me in her abilities. And her drive off the track [is impressive]…she goes [to the gym] almost every other day. And she has a full time job so I...don’t know how [she goes] to work and [gets] up at 6 A.M. and then [has] the energy to go to practices.”

While there are a lot of challenges that the sport entails, Mann enjoys many components of roller derby and especially appreciates the community that the sport has created worldwide.

“The community aspects of it [are one of my favorite parts of skating],” Mann said. “I’ve skated in something like four other countries so far and...I’ll put something out on Facebook...and within an hour someone’s picking me up from the train station [and] putting me up at a house with my own room. It’s happened over and over again, all through Europe and China and...in Mexico...just people accept you [because] you play roller derby.”

Another central part of the roller derby community is the emphasis on traditions and customs. Skaters still use the original style of skates with four wheels, two on each side of the skate.

They have also continued the tradition of using fake names that tend to sound intimidating and have some sort of pun attached to them.

“Back when roller derby was first starting

in the 20s, people were just choosing handles, it was more theatrical,” Mann said. “It got started from that kind of culture of having a stage name. People wanted to carry on that tradition, same with having the quad skates.”

Stage names were not the only theatrical part about roller derby when it first began. Each bout was planned ahead of time

letes as well as the sport as a whole. With that comes a new trend of using one’s real name instead of a fake one. However, this change is not accepted by everyone.

“The trend nowadays is people using their real names try to legitimize the sport, so it’s not seen as just girls trying to beat each other up in fishnets, but actually athletes that train,” Mann said. “Some people are totally on board with [that] and others are [not] but I don’t have an opinion either way.

I...go by my derby name [for the] Bay Area Derby Girls...but then on Team USA I go by my real last name.”

If a skater decides to use a stage name, the name they choose usually means something special to them. References can be anywhere from vague to blatantly obvious.

“Picking a roller derby name is very personal,” Mann said. “Some people pick them because of a band they like or a comic book or some kind of reference [like] that.”

Beyond the traditions that roller derby brings, Mann also finds joy in the competition part of the sport. When Mann started skating, she was on Duke City Derby, a

“The community aspects of it [are one of my favorite parts of skating]. I’ll put something out on Facebook and within an hour someone’s picking me up from the train station...It’s happened over and over again...People just accept you [because] you play roller derby.”

- Laura Mann with hits and injuries that would make it as entertaining as possible for spectators.

“It was actually very staged back in the day,” Mann said. “It would be like ‘Okay, I’m going to elbow you and then you’re going to fall’ and now it’s not like that anymore in the current incarnation of roller derby started by the Texas Rollergirls.”

Now, many skaters are trying to get more recognition both for themselves as ath-

photo courtesy of Donalee Eiri

HOLD YOUR GROUND Laura Mann, pictured in the yellow uniform on the right, and her teammate fight to move the opposing team’s blockers out of the way to create a path for their jammer to get through.

NOVEMBER 2014

team in Albuquerque, N.M. When she felt she wanted to be challenged more, Mann decided to move to a town with a better team.

“I skated [a] season with them [Duke City Derby] and then I realized that they weren’t as competitive and I really just wanted to play; I wanted to be challenged,” Mann said. “Instead of being one of the best skaters on the team, I wanted to be not the best skater so that I could strive, to have a goal to beat someone. So, I moved to Denver where I skated with the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls.”

Mann moved to Denver in 2010, and the move helped her career. During her first year on the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, her team won the Hydra, a trophy that has been awarded annually to the number one woman’s flat track roller derby team in the world every year since 2006.

“Winning the Hydra, the trophy that everyone is vying for all year.... that was definitely a highlight, something I wanted to do since I moved there,” Mann said. “Basically I told my teammates back in Albuquerque ‘I am moving to win at roller derby, I’m sor-

ry’. They were like ‘What do you mean win at roller derby?’ And I was like ‘Just watch.’”

Instead of peaking with winning the Hydra, Mann’s career has continued to progress. After

is on the National Team, she prepares for the World Cup, which takes place in December.

The long seasons add up and can prevent some skaters from holding normal or full-time jobs. Mann, a self-proclaimed lady of odd jobs, has bounced around between careers. She currently house-sits, pet-sits and guest coaches roller derby teams of all ages. Some of her teammates have had better luck with their professional lives outside of skating. Mann has a few teammates who are teachers, some who are Information Technology workers and even one who is a contractor.

Roller derby can also affect skaters’ personal lives. Mann originally moved to the Bay Area with her husband. When he moved back to Albuquerque, she stayed behind to continue her skating career with the Bay Area Derby Girls. The distance has been difficult for Mann.

“I have been mulling over [whether to keep playing] the past few months,” Mann said. “I do have to go home to be with my husband in Albuquerque after this season. It has been a hardship for commute. I haven’t had a home since he has moved. I just move from house to house every couple nights. It’s a little rough.”

Even though moving back to Albuquerque would reunite her with her husband, it would not be without disadvantages. One thing that would make the move harder is the transition to a lower-quality skating team. Mann does not know what this would mean for her skating career, or even if she would continue playing.

“I don’t know if I can skate in New Mexico just because right now we [Bay Area Derby Girls] are number two in the world and Alburquerque is 70th or 80th, so it would be really hard to make that jump,” Mann said. “I don’t know what my future holds. I might try to come back here after my next season. I might try to go back to my old team in Denver.”

Whatever Mann decides to do with her future, she has accomplished a significant amount with her athletic career—winning the Hydra, playing for the second best team in the world, and making the U.S. Olympic team for the second time. With an athletic experience that very few people can relate to, she has been exposed to a culture of skaters that she never would have known about had it not been for that article she worked on eight years ago in Albuquerque. Regardless of the next step in her life she will always have the memories and the lessons that roller derby has given her. <<<

“I realized that they weren’t as competitive and I really just wanted to play; I wanted to be challenged. Instead of being one of the best skaters on the team, I wanted to be not the best skater so that I could strive, to have a goal to beat someone.”

-Laura Mann playing with the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls for three seasons, she came to San Francisco to skate with the Bay Area Derby Girls. She has now skated in the Bay Area for two seasons.

These past years have been busy, as Mann skates almost completely year-round. Mann’s regular roller derby season starts around March, with tryouts for the Bay Area All-Star team taking place in February. Bouts can run until about September, and the season finishes with tournaments that lead to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) championships. Following the season, since Mann

CRUISING Laura Mann rounds a turn on the track as she pulls ahead of the Jet City jammer. Although Mann’s normal position is blocker, she has played jammer, as shown by the star cover on her helmet.

© 2010 Masonite Burn; via Creative Commons

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Just roll with it

A look at what it’s like to be on the Santa Cruz-based Boardwalk Bombshells roller derby team through the eyes of skaters Beans, Sharon D. Payne and Envy Atoms.

BREAK THROUGH One of the Bombshell’s jammers, Luna, works her way past the New York Bad Apples’ blockers in their bout on Oct. 11.

BEANS #24

The Boardwalk Bombshells, a Santa Cruz Derby Girls’ (SCDG) team, raced against the New York Bad Apples on Oct. 11 in the last bout (event) of the season. With a close fight, the bombshells defeated the Bad Apples 196-157.The SCDG moved up from Division II to Division 1 this year and they are now ranked 25 in the world. The Bombshells travel across the country to race against the best teams in the United States in order to vy for a spot in the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association (WFTDA) Championship. The Championships were held in early September this year and the Bombshells finished seventh overall.

To follow or learn more about the SCDG Boardwalk Bombshells go to: http://www.santacruzderbygirls.org.

SHARON D. PAYNE #16 ENVY ATOMS #260

Position: Blocker

Position: Blocker

Position: Pivot

Favorite part: “My favorite part about skating is learning new things and challenging myself. I am a bigger girl and it is nice to do things that tiny girls can do.”

Favorite part: “I like the competition and just being part of a team.”

Favorite part: “I just like being on a team...and roller skating with my friends.”

Hardest part: “All the commitment...that [it takes] to get better...I work full time and I have a family, so it is hard. But I love it.”

Hardest part: Learning new strategies because there are a lot of them

She’s been skating: 5 years How she started: “My friend wanted to skate, she wanted to join a roller derby league. So I said I will do it with you. Then she quit and I kept on [skating].”

How she started: “I decided to go [try out] with [a friend]. I had never seen a game before, but I loved skating, so I tried out.”

She’s been skating: 4 years How she started: “I saw it on TV when I was 14 and...[when] I was 18 I knew I had to do it.”

ON YOUR MARK Physical Education students get ready to run around the track. Running, from my experience, is one of the least popular activities in P.E.

Physical Education?

by ROWAN McEVOY Photos by Katie Foug

Viking Editor-in-Chief Rowan McEvoy takes a deeper look at the lack of enthusiastic particpation in Physical Education (P.E.) classes and the underlying problems with fitness.

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an eating too much be a problem? Ask someone from just about any period in history and they would give you a weird look and probably deny that this was possible. The sad truth of the matter, however, is that we now face this situation in arguably the most advanced country on the planet. Helped along by the potent combination of cheap and unhealthy food as well as a decreasing need for physical labor, obesity is an obstacle that no one could have imagined a couple centuries ago. One supposed fix to the problem is mandatory exercise, or physical education (P.E.) in

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schools. As obesity grows, however, we must ask ourselves if P.E. really is doing its job in educating our youth on how to keep their bodies physically healthy. I believe the answer is no.

I cannot knowingly speak truthfully for all schools, but there is definitely a clear social aspect to P.E. Unlike in competitive sports where there is pressure to succeed and win, in P.E. there is pressure not to. Maybe it’s the negative connotations of the sweat and smell a person generates when they exercise or maybe it’s the relaxed vibe one gives off when they don’t seem to care too much about something, but trying hard in P.E. is not a common occurrence in high school. Sure, some students do genuinely

w w w. v i k i n g s p o r t s m a g . c o m

try in P.E. and get some exercise, but for the most part, the student population spends the class period walking around and trying to get out of whatever physical work has to be done. I myself did not actually mind P.E. when I took it, and regularly was one of the kids who ran a decent mile time when my class was asked to.

Come sophomore year, however, I ended up joining the mindset of the masses and spent my days lethargically making my way through class.

Though P.E. did actually provide me with exercise at school through middle school and into high school, it lacks the ability to do so for many others simply because of the social pres-

sure against it. As many high school students know, social conventions dictate much of everyday life in and out of the classroom. What clothes to wear, what classes to take and even what food to eat are all constantly influenced by “the norm”. Just as there are kids who try hard in P.E., there are kids who do not listen to other societal pressures. This group, however, is in the minority.

Here at Paly, the administration has already tried to fix this problem by offering alternatives to regular P.E., namely the dance class.

The class allows students the chance to engage in something slightly more meaningful to them and focuses on different types of dance.

It can be taken after a student has completed one year of regular P.E. Though Paly does an admirable job of attempting to engage students in required physical activity, the only real way I see to achieve this feat is to make success in P.E. desirable in some way. As to how this mountain will be climbed, I can offer little insight other than what has already been tried. Maybe the best thing to do is to scrap the class altogether, at

Paly P.E. at a glance: Class Options: -Regular P.E. -Dance (Requires one year of prior P.E.) Teacher Possibilities: -Mr. Diepenbrock -Mr. Duran -Mr. Fung -Ms. Gibson -Mr. Halas -Mr. Knight -Ms. Kofman -Ms. Mulroe Attendence: After a fifth cut or eighth tardy, a student will be dropped from his or her P.E. class

least for athletes. Though student athletes already get a prep period instead of P.E. during their sports season, instituting a complete exemption from P.E. for any student who plays at least four seasons of a sport during high school, equivalent to one per year, would be beneficial. Because students are compelled to do physical activity in sports practices, they get better exercise playing a sport than in P.E. Pushing students toward sports with the incentive of no P.E. whatsoever would actually increase the physical exercise that they get.

No matter what Paly and other schools across the nation decide to do with their P.E. programs, I don’t believe they can find a way to get the majority of students to exercise effectively during a class. While there are some solutions for improving fitness as a whole, P.E. is not one of them. You can give students all the opportunities in the world to be active, but because of the social pressures against it, they will not exercise in class. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. <<<

RISE AND SHINE Physical Education students stand around as they wait for a faceoff in hockey. For the most part, students do not try very hard in the class because of the social pressures against it.

NOVEMBER 2014

NO EXCLUSIONS

Another year of cross country brings a diverse group of runners together. They may have of all joined for different reasons, but they are brought together by their desire to be on the team.

by REUBEN KRAMER and HAYLEY POORE

photo courtesy of Malcolm Slaney

GREEN AND WHITE The varsity cross country boys’ team stands with coach Kelsey Feeley after its meet. The team consists of a variety of individuals that participate for a number of reasons.

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any people play a sport for one reason: they fall in love with the game. Cross country, however, attracts runners for a variety of reasons. While some do it because they enjoy running and want to stay in shape, others do it for the sole purpose of getting a prep.

Cross country does not require a person to have been running for years in order to be on the team, and it helps people stay in shape for other sports they are more committed to.

“I do cross country to stay in shape for other sports and improve my performance for specific areas that cross over between

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sports, such as stamina,” Tanner Newell (‘17) wrote in an email to The Viking, along with all others quoted in this article.

Although everyone on the team is pushed to work hard, the ones who are training for another sport have even more motivation to put in effort.

“On the team, no matter who you are, you are constantly pushed to go farther and train harder…” Newell wrote. “Having a sport to train [for] improves your performance.”

Many see progress, and some people even develop a new passion for running after joining the team.

“This is actually my first season of cross country,” Maddie Feldmeier (‘17) wrote. “Last year I started track which is when I discovered my

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interest in running. I had a really fun season, but wanted more diversity in my runs because running around the track got pretty boring.”

Many people also do cross country because it allows them to meet new people and socialize while doing something they love.

“It’s cool to hear people’s different views on cross country and work with so many people with different lives and personalities, but the majority of us do it because we love running and want to fill our free time with something that we love doing,” Natalie Maloney (‘17) wrote. “Also, it’s really fun to be on a Paly sports team where you can converse and meet new people from all grades as well as spend time with your friends.”

Since freshmen and sophomores are forced to participate in physical education (P.E.) class unless they are on a Paly sports team, some underclassmen join the cross country team just to get out of P.E. The girls’ coach, Paul Jones, however, makes it clear that he expects everyone to work hard no matter their reason for joining the team.

“No one joins the team and advertises [getting a prep] is their reason for joining,” Jones wrote. “At our early practices and at our parent meeting at the beginning of the season, I emphasize that although it is a no-cut sport, improvement and competition is expected from all team members.”

Jones makes it clear that if an underclassman runner who is getting out of P.E. for being on the team does not show up for practices and meets, he will send them back to class.

“If they are getting P.E. credit, I let them know that missing [events] is going to lower their grade and limit their chances of getting P.E. credit for the semester,” Jones wrote. “I send them back to P.E. to avoid those issues.”

Every year there are people that try to get out of P.E. by joining the cross country team with the intention of not showing up. This year was no exception.

“Last year I sent back a half dozen or so,” Jones wrote. “This year will be about the same.”

With the threat of being sent back to P.E., some underclassmen on the team refuse to

share their reasons for joining the team. Several underclassmen contacted about their reason for joining the team declined to be interviewed.

With a number of runners on the team not putting in their full effort, some of the more competitive and serious runners get irritated.

“Sometimes it gets annoying and quite discouraging that these people don’t put any effort into practice, and I feel that it’s a bit disrespectful to the people who work hard to run well,” Portia Barrientos (‘16) wrote.

Others, however, that first joined the team to get a prep, ended up enjoying running and making it their primary sport.

“Freshman year I did cross country because I wanted to get a prep,” Barrientos wrote. “I discovered that I was decent at it and the captains were really sweet people and managed to get me really invested in the sport, which is why I continued to do it.”

Most runners enjoy being on such a diverse team because it brings people together that would otherwise not be friends.

“The captains and other runners have put a lot of time into doing things to unify our team, such as making t-shirts and organizing secret buddies,” Barrientos wrote. “Overall the diversity of people on the team is really rewarding because every year I meet people that I never would have talked to if I didn’t do cross country.”

Even with some students trying to beat the system by signing up for cross coun-

try to get out of P.E., Jones still thinks that the current policy works well.

“It is easy to contact the parents, runners and P.E. teachers regarding missed practices,” Jones wrote. “Generally there is a period at the beginning of the season before preps are earned where non-participation can be observed and students do not go on the list of those to be excused.”

With this policy in place, Jones believes that cross country should remain a no-cut sport to allow new runners to try it out and maybe find a new passion.

“I have had a large number of casual runners who have tried out and found that it works for them,” Jones wrote. “We have an alumni run at Christmas break where past runners come to run for fun or fame. Several of them started as casual runners who have adopted running as part of their lifestyle.”

Overall, the majority of the runners put in the effort and have fun being on the team.

“I really enjoy running and like the challenge that each race presents,” Feldmeier wrote. “It has been a great way to meet new people and and learn to be mentally tough, especially during races.”

Even though the runners on the team all have different reasons for participating, they almost all have fun and gain something from being on the team. <<<

photo courtesy of Malcolm Slaney

ARM IN ARM Runners on the girls’ varsity cross country team pose with coach Paul Jones. There are 52 athletes on the roster and many of them have a passion for running.

NOVEMBER 2014

Skydiving SKY HIGH The Viking’s Editor-in-Chief Alex Murray looks at the horizon as he freefalls with his diving instructor, Greg. Murray fell a distance of 13,000 feet, equivalent to 13 Eiffel Towers.

by ALEX MURRAY

S

ince the dawn of time, man has looked towards the sky with a sense of envy. We’ve yearned to be among the birds and clouds, who are boundless and free. Almost every culture has its own story about the sky and its feathered inhabitants: in Greek mythology, the story of Icarus and his ill-fated attempts to escape his prison bounds through flying is probably the most famous in the world. Despite the invention of the airplane in 1903 by the Wright Brothers, men still longed to be outside the plane. This led to what we

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know today as skydiving. Modern skydiving was first invented by Grant Morton in 1911, who jumped out of a plane above Venice Beach, Calif. and used a silk parachute to land safely on the beach. And with that iconic jump, the premier extreme sport was born.

Fast forward a hundred years to 2014 as I calmly sat in the reception lobby of the Skydance Skydiving center located at Yolo County Airport (a rather appropriately named place to skydive if you ask me) in Davis, Calif. I was about to tandem skydive, meaning I would be attached to another

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person and essentially fall with them, from 13,000 feet in the sky, with up to a minute in free-fall. To put that into perspective, I would fall a distance equivalent to 9 Empire State Buildings stacked end-to-end. As I waited for instruction, different instructors were outside coaching the future skydivers on the do’s and deadly don’ts of the sport. The instructors who work for S.S. are an eclectic bunch; most of the men sport some kind of facial hair, while some show off diving suits decorated with tie-dye or hand-drawings. A number of the instructors are from other countries; my

Photos by Kurt Vert

tries

instructor was a small Chilean woman who told us that she sky-dived up until she was 6 months pregnant. After waiting about 5 minutes, I was led into the instruction room. I sat with my parents and another skydiver, and we swapped stories on why we were skydiving.

The other skydiver’s family friend’s father had jumped over 500 times, and encouraged him to try diving. Then we watched a video that described what we would experience and showed us how to properly dive. I was led into the hangar where I met Greg, the instructor who I was to tandem with, and Kurt, the videographer. Greg was the kind of guy you would expect to be a sky-diving instructor, who would rather call you “dude” or “brotha” than your given name. Kurt was extremely friendly and kind, asking why I was skydiving and assuring me that I was in good hands.

Over the course of Greg and Kurt’s sky-diving careers, they had a combined experience of over 22,000 dives and had experienced free-fall for over three weeks. The hangar was a noisy din of reggae music and instructors preparing the diving equipment, stuffing the parachutes into their bags and going over the instructions with their tandem partners. On the walls were posters of different skydiving sayings, bumper stickers and articles about skydiving. The more experienced divers were comparing equipment and swapping stories of jumps. The hangar and the residents within helped to settle any nerves I had about the jump. As I headed out onto the tarmac and into the plane, I slowly realized that I was going to fall out of a plane and that there was no turning back.

As we made our ascension to the diving

point, I was strapped in closer to Greg, ensuring that there was no backing out. At this point, I felt the first few butterflies in my stomach. Despite the obvious danger of what was about to happen, everyone around me had smiles on their faces. Even my fellow first-timer was smiling. Soon, I felt one spread across my face as well. When we reached 13,000 feet, the first divers began to jump.

With each passing person, the plane began to feel lighter and lighter, adding to the queer sense of anxiousness that was beginning to build in my stomach. Finally, it was my turn.

Greg and I walked over to the edge of the plane in a crouched manner. I could see out over the edge of the plane and into the vast nothingness that was between the Earth and me. Kurt made his way out of the plane and held onto the outside of the plane, preparing to film what might have been my last moments alive. Then, as Greg finished his countdown, he pushed us out.

There is a particular sensation that you feel when you fall out of a plane. I felt as though I was looking through a camera that was trying to adjust its lense, zooming in and out of place to find the right focus. I learned afterwards that because the body has no point of reference in relation to the ground, your brain cannot truly comprehend how far your body is in the sky. It is the reason why people who are afraid of heights are able to skydive; your body really does not know that its 13,000 feet in the sky. Despite the shortness of it, freefall was an exhilarating experience. There’s something magical about falling at the rate of gravity, struggling to speak let alone breath as you barrel towards the Earth at 9.8 m/s^2.

As we reached 5,000 feet, I was instructed to pull the parachute. The parachute dragged us upwards, and I was able to take in the view of the surrounding area and finally catch my breath. Greg allowed me to steer us; to turn left, you pulled on the left strap. To turn right, you pulled on the right strap. Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the dive was the silence. You really don’t realize until you’re 5000 feet in the air, but the amount of noise there is on the ground is ridiculous. Everything in the air was silent, except for the occasional breeze going past my head, and I think it made the experience all the more poignant. Landing was the most dangerous part of the whole experience. I was told that if I did not land right, I could fall onto my face going 15 miles per hour, and that was something I was trying to avoid. To land, I was instructed to keep my legs and knees straight and allow Greg to hit the land first. I stuck the landing and I had finally made it back to Earth. Despite the initial discomfort of being back on the ground and the two pints of adrenaline that were coursing through my system, my first skydive was a success.

Overall, I would highly recommend anyone who has the smallest amount of interest in skydiving to look for a center near you. It was a fantastic experience that was enhanced by the wonderful people that took the time to introduce me to the sport that they love. And really, isn’t that what sport is all about? Sports are supposed to bring vastly different people in order to celebrate a common interest. And in the air, everyone is brought closer together. <<<

13,000 feet is roughly equivalent to: 9 Empire State Buildings 13 Eiffel Towers 36 football fields 130 blue whales 56 Boeing 747 passenger airliners

Unsung heroes

You know the quarterback, you cheer for the flyer, and you celebrate the hitter, but do you recognize the others? Here, we praise the unsung heroes of our beloved Paly sports.

by PAIGE ANDERSON and ALYS OLMSTEAD “I don’t really get the appreciation that I deserve but it doesn’t matter to me because I just want to contribute to the team.” - Jose Patino (‘16) The kicker on the football team is responsible for kicking the field goals and the extra points. Although their job consists solely of kicking, often times people undermine their role as a crucial player on the team. After all, they are sometimes entirely responsible for the points scored in a game.

Football: Kicker Jose Patino

“I don’t think other cheerleaders underestimate my stunting ability... But I do think other people think a base is nothing and that the only person who matters is the flyer.” - Leila Benest (‘16) The base in cheerleading is the person responsible for throwing and catching the flyers in the cheer stunts. The base of the stunts is crucial when it comes to the control and stability of the flyers. A base usually consists of about four girls. All girls must master proper technique when catching, holding and tossing, as to not injure themselves or the flyer. Benest is one of the bases for the Paly cheerleading team.

Cheer: Base Leila Benest

Fun Fact:

Kabria Dame (‘15) and Joanna Falla (‘17) play softball in the spring, as well as playing their current fall sports.

“I think people underestimate the importance of my position a little bit, because they might think singles are more important than doubles.” - Jackie Cai (‘18) Although doubles and singles tennis are similar in many ways, they differ extraordinarily in terms of strategy and skill required. “It’s hard to grasp that tennis can have such polar versions of the game,” Madeline Lee (‘15) said. Often times, people assume that singles is the primary concern of the team when in reality, doubles are just as important. The number one doubles team for Paly consists of Lee and Cai, who both agree that their position on the team is underrated.

Tennis: #1 Doubles Jackie Cai and Madeline Lee

“You need to be in such a strong mindset and have such strong legs and core that a lot of people can’t take it.” - Joanna Falla (‘17) The goalkeeper in water polo is the last line of defense when an offensive player on the opposing team is shooting. The requirements for a goalkeeper differ greatly from the field players, but that’s not to say their presence is any less important. Joanna Falla beleives that being a goalie requires even more mental and physical strength than the other positions.

Water polo: Goalkeeper Joanna Falla

“Sometimes people underestimate the importance of my position because without a pass there can be no set, and if there is no set, there is no hit... Some people only focus on the hitters.” - Kabria Dame (‘15) The libero is a defense oriented player responsible for a large part of the team’s digs, making it possible for the offense to do their job. The libero remains in the game at all times and is the only position not restricted by the rules of rotation. The Paly volleyball libero differs depending on the game, with many players getting a chance to play it.

Volleyball: Libero

Kabria Dame

Vikes on bikes Paly students have increasingly showed a lack of enthusiasm about biking to school. Read on for reasons why using a bicycle is actually better than driving.

by CLARA HARRINGTON photos by Katie Foug

WORKING IN TANDEM Claire Liu (‘15) and Clara Harrington (‘15) pose in front of a tandem bike, which they have begun using as a way to get to school. The two are big advocates for biking as a sport and hobby.

M

ost people have similar morning routines when getting ready for school: you get up, brush your hair, eat breakfast, drink your first cup of coffee, change into your clothes for school, and get into your car to drive to school.

Why doesn’t anyone bike to school? Well, the answer is pretty obvious if you ask any of your peers; biking has become this taboo, “lame” activity reserved only for the licenseless Paly

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students who cannot drive themselves or get driven to school. I will admit that I, too, have looked down on bikers and I have seen biking to school as embarrassing. However, when you think about it, biking is not something that should be sneered at. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, and we should be supporting our fellow students rather than dissing them.

Biking to school is much better for the environment than driving. Aside from the carbon steel or aluminum alloys that are typically used to construct a bike, it is extremely eco-friendly

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and has a relatively low carbon footprint. This is not to say that bicycles have absolutely no effect on the environment. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate Shreya Dave estimated that the manufacturing of a bike emits about 530 pounds of greenhouse gases. As opposed to driving, riding a bike for roughly 400 miles makes it carbon-neutral, meaning you have offset the effects of the production of your fun, new transportation.

As high schoolers, most Paly students are somewhat low on personal funds. I can say

MY BIKE WILL GO ON Staff writer Alys Olmstead (‘16) and Harrington pose as Jack and Rose from The Titanic (top left).

RIDIN’ DIRTY Olmstead and Harrington bike through the Paly campus (bottom left).

BUCKLE UP Olmstead and Harrington smile for the camera with their helmets on (top right). that most of the money I earn gets spent on food or drinks, leaving little for anything else.

Driving takes away even more of these funds; with increasing gas rates and required maintenance for cars, it is definitely not cheap to drive

to school every day. According to Cable News Network (CNN) Money, the average American spends roughly $368.09 per month on gasoline. Do you know how much it costs to bike per month? After the initial purchase of a bike,

BIKING TIPS 1.

Remember to always wear a helmet. Messing up your hair a little beats having a cracked skull.

2.

Try to stay in the bike lane as much as possible. Drivers on Churchill can get angry when a herd of bikers is blocking their way.

3.

Tighter clothing and close-toed shoes are recommended. Loose pants or skirts can get caught in your chains, and flip flops expose your feet to chilly mornings.

which can range from around $80 to $1,000, it is essentially free. An air pump, extra tube and repair kit can all be bought for less than $50.

Even if you were to pop the tube in your tire 100 times in 30 days, you would still be saving money compared to driving.

Aside from the environmental and economic benefits, starting your day by pedaling rather than repeatedly stomping down on the gas pedal can make your mood better. Getting exercise releases endorphins, making you happier and less groggy for your first class of the morning. In addition, the view of Palo Alto’s fall foliage is a lot nicer when it’s not through a windshield.

Obviously, it is unrealistic to expect everyone at Paly to bike to school all the time. Some students live inconveniently far away and biking is not an option; others have injuries or disabilities that impair their ability to bike. We all have days where we wake up late, or have to lug a clay model to class. However, more plausible is a positive change in our habits, as well as how we view and talk about biking. Even biking just once a week can make a big impact on your life, as well as on others. As the weather is finally starting to cool down, I encourage everyone to at least try biking to school once.

Although it may be initially difficult to abandon your seat-warmers and loud speakers in your car, you may find that a cool breeze and the rattling of old chains is the perfect way to kick off your day. <<<

NOVEMBER 2014

Where he Could Have Been w o N s I e H e r e Wh

by MADDY ATWATER and ISAAC KASEVICH

After being devastated by a career-ending health implication in eighth grade, Carl Wolfgramm (â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;16) discovers his new passion to fill the void of sports. Remaining positive, Wolfgramm shares his story with The Viking.

F

or top-flight athletes, one false step can bring injury. Some athletes are sidelined for minutes, some for games and some even miss whole seasons. But, there are a few cases through all levels of sport where an injury or health issue can end a promising career prematurely. In just a few brief but heartbreaking words, a doctor can ruin the dreams of a young aspiring athlete with the simple words no athlete wants to hear: “You can never play again.”

Most casual sports fans recognize the famous Lou Gehrig case: after a legendary 17 year career in which, for 13 years, he did not miss a single game, Gehrig was forced into retirement by Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an eventually life-ending disease which now bears his name. He was a seven-time all-star, two-time American League Most Valuable Player, and finished his career with a .340 batting average, 493 home runs, and 1995 runs batted in. In a special ceremony, the 36-year-old Gehrig was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. He died one year later, at age 37.

Joe Theismann, two time Super Bowl-win-

ning quarterback for the Washington Redskins from 1974-1985, had his career cut short by one of the most violent and disturbing plays in football history. On a Monday night game, New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor sacked Theismann, and in the process of bringing him down inadvertently snapped his leg in two. Theismann was carted off the field, and never made it back into an NFL game again.

Gehrig is known as one of the greatest men to ever play baseball, despite being forced to end what could have been the greatest Major

the playoffs if not for his injury.

Unfortunately, the experience of career ending physical conditions and injuries is not isolated to professional athletes.

High School career ending injuries have greatly increased over the past few years. Carl Wolfgramm (‘16) knows first-hand the reality of never being able to step on his playing field again.

The date was November 23, 2012. Wolfgramm, an 8th grader at Jordan Middle School at the time, was casually playing basketball with his friends, Eli Givens (‘16) and Tony Cabaillero-Santana (‘16), in the Jordan gym. Suddenly and unexpectedly, he suffered a stroke extremely rare for his age.

“We were playing a game and [Wolfgramm] was shooting the ball,” Givens said. “He kept shooting and kept missing and he was shooting pretty close up, but wasn’t even hitting the rim.”

Givens and Cabaillero-Santana thought it was weird, but did not give it too much attention. They continued to play around, but Wolfgramm’s state only became worse.

Givens checked in with Wolfgramm just to be sure, and Wolfgramm claimed he was okay.

“Tony was getting the ball and I asked, ‘Hey

“He dropped the ball and just stood there. He turned around and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t feel half my body.’”

-Eli Givens (‘16)

photo courtesy of Carl Wolfgramm

League career in history. Theismann, although not a statistical superstar, would most likely have been able to guide Washington back to

LAST WORD With a heartfelt speech to the thousands of fans at Yankee Stadium, Lou Gehrig announces his retirement from Major League Baseball due to ALS. Gherig ended his consecutive games-played streak at 2,130, a record that stood for 56 years.

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GRADUATES Wolfgramm and friends pose after their 2012 Jordan Middle School graduation.

photo by Katie Foug

GOAL IN MIND Wolfgramm poses under his old stage as he reminisces about what could have been. His new goals focus on performing on a different one.

Carl, are you okay?’, and he just responded, ‘Yeah, I’m fine,’” Givens said.

“I turned around and walked back to go shoot and he said, ‘I can’t’.’”

“He dropped the ball and just stood there.

He turned around and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t feel half my body.’”

Unusual circumstances, Wolfgramm says, contributed to the stroke.

“I was very dehydrated, and my blood pressure had risen dramatically at the time,” Wolfgramm said. “I stopped playing, but was just watching them play, fully conscious. I remember everything that happened.”

Luckily for Wolfgramm, several of Jordan’s lunch supervisors were close by.

“They noticed that I had gone very stiff, and that the left side of my face was hanging down,”

Wolfgramm said.

Paramedics were contacted, and Wolfgramm was taken to Stanford Hospital. Diagnosed with a stroke, dehydration and high blood pressure, Wolfgramm was given terrible news: “They told me that I could not participate in any sport with collisions or head con-

career ended at such a young age hit home with his friends, who also were pursuing careers in football.

“He would have been a star,” Givens said.

Prior to the incident, Wolfgramm was very seriously considering attending De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif. The Spartans, a perennial football powerhouse, are currently seated as the number three high school football program in the nation and number one in the state. Unfortunately, after his stroke, going there seemed a little impractical and would not work out for the young athlete.

By now, Wolfgramm would have been a starter for the Spartans, anchoring down the defensive line. Given his size (6’4”, 275 lbs) and athleticism, Wolfgramm would have fit the mold of a Division-1 defen-

“They told me that I could not participate in any sport with collisions or head contact.”

-Carl Wolfgramm (‘16) tact,” Wolfgramm said.

The news was heartbreaking to not only Wolfgramm, but also his support system. To see such a young, promising athlete have his

NOVEMBER 2014

photo courtesy of Paly Theater

LOVER BOY Wolfgramm and fellow actor Mariah Potier act out their roles in a Paly theater showcase called “Check Please”. sive end.

“I am very confident that I would have been a four or five-star recruit had I not had my stroke,” Wolfgramm said.

It was well known that Wolfgramm would have advanced in football. Cabaillero-Santana and Givens both currently play football at Paly and knew Wolfgramm would have been a star football athlete.

“He would have been at De La Salle,” Cabillero-Santana said. “He would have been a whole, totally different person.”

Wolfgramm, too, had ambitious goals. After playing at a Division-1 school, he wanted to continue his career at the next level.

“Football was a sport that I had a passion and

Theatrical Career

1. Aladdin Role: Security Guard 2. The Stinky Cheese Man Role: The Giant 3. Two Theatre Showcases Role: The Dreamer

Role: The Lover Boy

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w w w. v i k i n g s p o r t s m a g . c o m

heart for,” Wolfgramm said. “My dream was to go on one day to the NFL as a first round pick.”

“Once the doctors told me I could no longer play football, I thought it was the end of the world. But when I got home, I kept thinking about it, and I thought ‘It’s not the end of the world, there are a lot of different fields out there that I can be successful in besides football,’” Wolfgramm said.

Maintaining a positive attitude, Wolfgramm changed his focus from athletics to academics and a new extracurricular: theater. As a Polynesian, Wolfgramm finds it odd and unfair that so many young men in his culture are pushed towards sports as a career.

“I think that it’s sad that people think sports are the only way to help out their families,” Wolfgramm said.

He went on to explain that, while many Polynesian boys are very athletically inclined, few are given opportunities to branch out and explore other activities that they might be even better at.

“I find it unfair for a parent to raise a child to live a life exactly the way a parent wants the

child to live it,” Wolfgramm said. “They should let the child choose what he or she wants to do in his or her life.”

Wolfgramm became involved in Theater when he came to Paly. He started by signing up for the theater course, and started getting involved in school plays. He says the reason he chose a path in theater was because he could easily draw comparisons to football, likening the pressure of performing to the intensity of the sport he once played.

Recently, he acted as the the giant in Paly theater’s performance of The Stinky Cheese Man alongside Daniel Cottrell (‘16), who played the lead.

Cottrell and Wolfgramm, now close friends, first met in an advisory class.

“He introduced himself to me since I was new and he was friendly,” Cottrell said. “He’s very willing to listen and really doesn’t judge you.”

Wolfgramm, having started his theater career a little later than most, has had to work slightly harder than his contemporaries to develop the difficult techniques of line memorization and on stage acting, but Cottrell thinks he is on the right track.

“He is perserverant,” Cottrell said. “He is very open to constructive criticism. Though he is not at a superstar level yet, he certainly has the right attitude and disposition to be able to improve quickly.”

Wolfgramm wants to continue to broaden his horizons and expand his theatrical talents.

“In the future, I want to take choir so that I can learn how to sing and join in some musical plays,” Wolfgramm said.

More importantly, Wolfgramm has found happiness in what he is doing now, whereas some would still be upset over a career ending injury.

“I’m really enjoying theater right now,”

“Many people who go to Division-I colleges to play football don’t appreciate the education.

All they can think is football, football, football,” Wolfgramm said. “If they don’t make it to the NFL, they end up having to do undesirable work, like landscaping.”

Though Wolfgramm looks to make a career in the performing arts, he knows the importance of higher education.

“As a backup plan to theater, I want to major in economics, because I am very good with handling money,” Wolfgramm said.

However, Cabaillero-Santana, having seen Wolfgramm grow and develop as a friend and actor, has no doubt that he can make theater a career.

“I think whatever he does he will put everything into it, that’s the kind of person he is, and if theater is it then he is going to give his all,” Cabaillero-Santana said. “Something great is going to happen”.

As a genuinely kind person and loyal friend, Wolfgramm should see nothing but success in whatever he chooses to do. He wants his story to not be defined by what could have been, but what he is now.

“I want everyone who reads this to see it as sort of an inspiration,” Wolfgramm said. “In life, there are a lot of open doors and dreams out there other than football.” <<<

“There is a reason why I had that stroke, so I could try out different things besides football.”

-Carl Wolfgramm (‘16) Wolfgramm said. “My aspirations are to become a famous actor an I am really enjoying my journey.”

At the time, Wolfgramm thought of his stroke as a disastrous event. Now, though, he views it as a blessing. If he hadn’t had his stroke, he is sure he would still be playing football, and never would have discovered his love of acting.

“I think that this is sort of a testimony for me,” Wolfgramm said. “There is a reason why I had that stroke, so I could try out different things besides football.”

Another blessing that Wolfgramm feels his stroke has brought is a realization of the importance of education. With a sad look, he described the problem.

STROKE STATISTICS 1/4 57 40

Images taken from

NOVEMBER 2014

The Last Word

Identity crisis

Every team in every sport must have an identity: a personality that defines its personnel and style of play. Without it, any team will struggle.

PAST AND FUTURE Gore (left) and Hyde (right) warm up before a 49ergame. As Gore gets closer to retirement, Hyde readies to take his place.

by ZACH LEVITAN

E

very team has an identity. No matter what the sport is, all teams have a unique integrity that is usually based off of the characteristics of its players. The personality of a team changes over the years with the players and coaches.

These changes are visible in almost every team in all sports. Take our beloved 49ers for example. Everyone remembers the heyday of the Niners. The days when Bill Walsh’s revolutionary West Coast style offense changed the game and allowed Joe Montana to win the Niners three Super Bowls. The times when the Niners roster held two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Montana and Steve Young. Back when these great quarterbacks were throwing to Jerry Rice, one of the greatest wide receivers ever. Rice and Young connected for a total of 85 touchdowns: the second most of any receiver quarterback duo of all-time, just behind Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning. Those were the good old days of Niner football.

What will our current Niners team be known for? Jim Harbaugh has changed how people perceive the Niners. Harbaugh combined a powerful running offense a powerful running offense with a strong defense to give the team identity again. That being said, this season has been a bit of struggle. Frank Gore and Patrick Willis still make up the

core of the team but the field around them is everchanging, and, lets face it, Gore and Willis are starting to get older. Gore is 31 and Willis is almost 30. How is the team going to change once the guys that have built the team are gone?

Harbaugh’s offense was highly criticized in the beginning of the season after the team started off 1-2. The coach was chastised for giving the veteran halfback a total of 19 carries in the two loses. The next game, Gore had 24 carries for 119 yards in a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. There will come a day when he can’t perform, but don’t worry.

Carlos Hyde, the Niners second-round pick in the 2014 draft out of Ohio State is one of the brightest prospects in the league. Hyde only has 48 carries on the season for 161 yards and two touchdowns, but it’s not his stats that are impressing people. It’s his running style. Hyde is 6 feet tall and weighs 235 pounds. Remind you of anyone? Gore is a whopping 5’10” and weighs 217 pounds. They both have great vision and a hit-the-hole-and-go running style. Neither of them are going to outrun a safety, but they might run him over. Hyde will be a great replacement for Gore in the years to come. He will give the offense a back bone in the years to come.

The core of the Niners offense under Harbaugh will always be its running attack, but recently the quarterback has become part of

that attack. Colin Kaepernick has had a rough career. He came in as part of the new wave of athletic, mobile quarterbacks. His every move has been scrutinized and even though he has led the team to three straight National Football Conference (NFC) Championship games.

Kaepernick’s exciting style of play has never been very consistent, which makes me believe he won’t be the quarterback that the Niners need in order to take the next step to become a dominant team. Kaepernick’s decision-making was dismissed as inexperienced early in his career but in his fourth season it hasn’t improved. Kaepernick isn’t the mature leader that the team needs in order for the Niners to become a truly elite team.

The Niners’ identity has been in transition for the past few years and is still changing.

Here at Paly, a team’s character changes, but much quicker. With an entire group of core players graduating every year, the identity of a team can change with each senior class. Four years ago, the senior class may have been the most athletic class to ever come through Paly.

Both the girls’ volleyball team and football team won California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championships. From that championship football team alone, Kevin Anderson (‘11) is a starting outside linebacker for Stanford University, DaVante Adams (‘11) is the fourth string wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, and quarterback Christoph Bono (‘11) made a game saving catch in the College World Series. That’s just to name a few. A great team consists of great leaders. I would argue that the reason the our football team this year is 2-4 is because the team has no strong veteran players. The team has a total of nine seniors, and the quarterback position has been up in the air. Without a clear path, the team has struggled to compete this season.

Although we may not have a great chance at making the playoffs this year, the future of the team looks good. Compared to the nine seniors on the team, there are 22 juniors including great athletes like Eli Givens (‘16) and Justin Hull (‘16) who will help lead the team next season. Each year teams adapt to their losses and evolve during the season. These are challenges every team must face.<<<

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