Editors-in-Chief Kevin Dukovic Alan Lamarque Nora Rosati Managing Editors Charlotte Biffar Colin Patterson Austin Poore Sammy Solomon Design Editors Michelle Friedlander Nina Kelty Photo Editors Scotty Bara Grant Shorin Columnist Jonny Glazier Video Editor Annie Susco Business Managers Hilda Huang Michael Strong Staff Paul Bienaimé Audrey DeBruine Ami Drez Jordan Gans James Harrison Tara Lawrence Niall Patrick Pippa Raffel Rohit Ramkumar Zach Rizk Julia Saul Chris Smith Josh Stern Staff Adviser Ellen Austin, MJE
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Dear readers, We hope your spring is far from a-pollen and that your fourth and final quarter is not showered with work. In this issue of The Viking, we highlight the obstacles faced for track and field jumpers as well as the opportunities gained with the addition of Olympic-hopeful coach Tolu Wusu in “Track and Field Insights” starting on page 32. Our cover story, “What if?” (p. 38), explores what Paly athletics could have been without the loss of elite athletes. In addition, the underappreciated sport of badminton and key player Gaven Chan are featured on page 22. Take a look inside the mind of Paly “athlete” and bracketologist Marie Ezran on page 16, as well as a peak into the life of Paly’s own bodybuilding gym teacher, Jason Fung on page 15. Magazine aside, we would like to sincerely thank our readership for giving us the opportunity to explore sports journalism while building a staff of dedicated and talented students who will carry The Viking in the year to come. After a four-week selection process and a year of close observation, we are proud to have chosen what we feel to be a passionate, skilled leadership staff for the up-
Letter from the editors coming year. We would like to congratulate new Editorsin-chief Pippa Raffel and Josh Stern, as well as the rest of the new leadership staff on their tremendous accomplishments. Like a 65 percent dark chocolate Ghirardelli bar, our parting is bittersweet. We are so grateful for the support of our advisor, Ellen Austin, as well as that of the Paly community. Thank you again for your readership.
Sincerely yours, Kevin Dukovic Alan Lamarque Nora Rosati
News brief | Water polo coaches depart
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oth the Paly girls’ and boys’ water polo “We are hoping that our Harbaugh-esque rivalry will teams lost members of their coaching staffs help promote both programs and we plan to focus the this month. Boys’ assistant coach Matt extra media attention on our players and try to get them Johnson and girls’ head coach Spencer in the spotlight as much as we can,” M. Johnson wrote in Dornin will not be returning as for the up- an email to The Viking. coming fall season. Dornin, the girls’ coach, is leaving Johnson, who served as the Palo Alto for Dallas, Texas now that “When I heard that Matt his wife has finished her medical boys’ junior varsity coach and assistant varsity coach to his residency at Stanford University. was leaving, I was twin brother Brandon Johnson, Dornin coached the girls for two will assume head coaching duobviously devastated.” years. ties at his alma mater Gunn “It’s painful to see [Dornin] leave, - Ethan Look High School. especially since we’ve worked with “When I heard that Matt was him for two years now and we’ve leaving, I was obviously devastated,” water polo player become really close together as a team with him,” girls’ Ethan Look (‘14) said. “He’s a great guy. He has a lot of water polo player Emma Wolfe (‘14) said. [water polo] knowledge, so my initial reaction when I Both teams look forward to moving on next seaheard that he was going over to Gunn was that we’re los- son and coping with the loss of experienced members of their coaching staffs. ing such a great coach.” M. Johnson is excited about the heightened rivalry “Hopefully we’ll be able to get a good coach,” Wolfe that will ensue next season as he coaches against his twin said. “I think our future is looking bright, especially beand his team’s crosstown rival. cause we have so many people coming back to play.” <<<
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