7

9Winter sportsseasons

get under way

“I love wild rumpuses!”Brenda Gorsuch,

English teacher (discussing “Where the

Wild Things Are”)

“You too can look good naked in our clothing.”

Amy Zalevskiy,science teacher

(about Abercrombie & Fitch clothing)

“Atkins died. Nice diet, dude.”

David Kahn,math teacher

(talking about theAtkins diet)

“I asked for pink. It’s breast awareness month.”

Drew Adams,senior

(about his bandageafter donating blood)

Senior Donny Heatherly performs with the marching

band at halftime

•Marching band sweeps competition

Choosethe rightcollegefor youwingspan

3600 Haywood Road, Hendersonville, N.C. 28791 • Volume XXVIII, Issue 2 • December 11, 2009

WEST HENDERSON HIGH SCHOOL

6Studentsface

intoleranceDec. 21 - Jan. 1 Jan. 1Jan. 18Jan. 21

Christmas BreakNew Year’s Day

Martin Luther King DayEnd of 1st semester

HHeard

in the

all

Looking A head

Yes8%

No92%

Do you thinkthe world

will come to an end in 2012?

(based on a survey of 387 students)

Peregrine

Poll

The Flying Falcon Marching Band competed at the Southeastern Band Classic competition at Newton-Conover High School on Nov. 7. The band received a superior rating and took first place overall. The band was one of two to receive a superior rating in 1A and 2A. The band earned first place in drumline, drum major, hornline and color guard. The 35-member marching band defeated several bands with more than 70 members. “I’m really proud of them. They worked really hard, and can now say that the hard work pays off with the trophies we have been rewarded and excel-lence at competitions,” band director Allen Klaes said. “Newton-Conover was a great feeling for the students. We hadn’t swept the class yet, so it was a nice way to end out the season.”

Statewide ‘texting while driving’ ban in effect

Women’s golf team captures school’s first individual, team titles

Ryan DuckettSenior Editor

Michael TurlingtonFeature Writer Texting while

driving?

Twice as

Nice

•Beginning Dec. 1, texting while driving is illegal

(www.usnews.com)

Last year on the day before Thanksgiv-ing, senior Patrick Sims was driving with his girlfriend close to his home in

Denver. He looked down at his phone to text a friend when he heard his girlfriend scream. When Sims looked up, he saw that he was in the bike lane and only inches away from a cyclist. Unable to swerve or stop, he hit and killed the 63-year-old. Sims accident might not have oc-curred if he had not been texting, and that is what the N.C. General Assembly had in mind when lawmakers passed the “No Texting While Driving” bill last summer. “I have seen people driving while tex-ting who were driving worse than some drunk drivers. Sometimes people are tex-ting and pull left of the center line and hit someone head on and kill them,” Officer Robert Grayson said. “Texting is one of the worst distractions that I have ever seen.” Beginning Dec. 1, law enforcement officers in North Carolina began issuing citations for texting while driving. A new state law says that anyone who is caught

sending or reading a text message while driving on public roads will be fined at least $100 and will have to pay for court costs as well. No insurance points will be charged. “Hopefully, this law will have some teeth to it,” Grayson said. “We want it to get people to stop texting while they are driving because it is a major distraction.” Some students feel that it will be hard to en-force this law. They say that it will be difficult for highway patrolmen to spot people who are tex-ting in the car. “I don’t think that law enforcement officers will be able to catch texters,” senior Ryan Callahan said. “People can hide it very well, so offi-cers will not be able to see them text when they are on patrol.” Many law enforcement officers have a different opinion. They feel that texting is obvious and can be easily spotted. “It is very simple to catch people, es-

pecially at night. You can see the glow of someone’s cell phone on his or her face. People prop their phones on the steering wheel, especially the ones with the key-boards,” Grayson said. “You can tell by just watching their eyes and head; if they are

looking down, you can tell what they are doing. If you are looking for it, you can see it. I don’t think that it will be a problem to catch people.” Lawmakers in North Carolina have taken sev-eral steps to try and get the news out about the new texting ban. “All the major newspa-pers are receiving a press release that gives out spe-cific information about the texting law,” Grayson

said. “A traffic safety officer has been as-signed to Asheville, and he is making the rounds around the county and getting the word out to schools as well.” State leaders are hoping for a high level of compliance. They feel if most peo-

”

This law will save lives, and that is what we are all about. We want to keep people from getting hurt.

“Robert Grayson

N.C. highway patrolman

and to keep them in a good mood,” Bryson said According to team members, the team stayed relaxed by having fun. Jackson said the added sup-port of the team members not participating in the tournament helped to take off some of the pressure. “We were pretty laid back anyways because we had Taylor and Olivia to keep us laughing,” Jackson said. She also said the team’s uniforms helped the squad stand out. “We were in bright pink, and everyone was ask-ing us about our shirts. Since it was breast cancer aware-ness month, the other teams thought we were wearing pink for that.” Jackson said that after beginning the second round of

the tournament, everything came together for her. “The second day was just a whole lot better (than the first). I really clicked with the girl I played with the second day, so that helped as well,” she said. “Anna and Kayla are more consistent, so we didn’t really expect them to drastically change their game because they did pret-ty well both days, but Carly, I don’t know how she did it,” Springer said. “But I think Taylor and I helped keep the girls relaxed.” The team said that the minutes leading up to the final scoring were the most tense of the tournament. “We had our calculators out, and we were trying to

figure out who was winning before we realized we were 14 strokes ahead,” Bryson said. “There was a lot of anticipation because the officials were taking forever to put the scores up. As it turned out, we won by nine strokes.” According to Springer, the team learned about Sciu-pider’s individual championship after learning of the team victory. “That was the last thing we learned because it was re-ally close with her and a couple of other girls. Kayla knows most of them because she plays in all these tournaments,” Springer said. “It was really close and she actually thought she lost so she started crying, and her dad thought she lost too, but he added the numbers up wrong. It was a mess be-cause she thought she won then she thought she lost.” Only Sciupider will return to the team next year. Padgett plans to golf at the college level. “I’m really sad about everyone leaving, but I’m optimistic about next year,” Sciupider said. “The two golfers from Rugby have a lot of potential, and next year should be a good season as well.” The team was coached by Sciupider’s father, DaveSciupider.

It was the end of the first round of the women’s 1A/2A/3A state golf tournament, and senior Carly Jackson was feel-ing a tremendous amount of pressure. West trailed leader

Salisbury by eight strokes. In the first round, junior Kayla Sciupider had shot a 74, but Jackson had shot a 102. Jackson needed to lower her score for the team to have a chance at winning the state title. “My feeling going into it (the second day) was that it was my fault that we were losing because I played so bad, so if we lost the next day, it was going to be my fault,” Jackson said. The next day was a much better day for Jackson. She carded an 88, 14 strokes better than her previous day’s score. The improvement was enough to clinch the champi-onship for the Lady Falcons; Jackson’s teammates named her “most valuable player” for the tournament. Topping off the day was Sciupider’s individual cham-pionship, a 149 to 152 vic-tory over Ashbrook’s Megan Burnham. The victories were the first men’s or women’s golf championships in West history, at the team or individual level. “It was a pretty surreal feeling knowing that we not only won as a team, but that I also won as an individual,” Sciupider said. “I didn’t even know that either win was his-tory making.” Sciupider, Jackson and senior Anna Padgett combined their scores to claim the 509-518 victory over Salisbury. Padgett transferred to West from the Raleigh area this year. “We knew what we all could do, and we knew it was pos-sible, and just the fact that it was able to be done at state was awesome,” Padgett, who tied for 10th individually, said. It was the first time the school’s women’s team had com-peted at state as a team since 2004. The tournament was held at Longleaf Golf Course in Southern Pines. The team placed first at regionals as well; however, Sciupider placed second individually after a sudden death playoff round against Burnham. “We’re not rivals because we are good friends, and we play together a lot, so it was actually a weird feeling being in a sudden-death playoff at regionals and then beating her at state,” Sciupider said. Only the top three golfers play for a team score. Seniors Olivia Springer and Taylor Bryson, the other team members, watched the matches as spectators. “Olivia and I, our purpose was to keep the players loose

Phot

o b

y C

hels

ea B

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Falcon PrideHolding their state championship trophy, members of the wom-en’s golf team, junior Kayla Sciupider and seniors Carly Jackson, Anna Padgett, Taylor Bryson and Olivia Springer, display their win. The ladies won the tournament at Longleaf Golf Course in Southern Pines with a score of 509.

• See Texting on Page 2

•more than 90% of

adults say texting while

driving should be illegal

•66% of adults admit

to reading texts while

driving

•57% of adults say they

send texts while driving

•64% of 18-34 year olds

send texts while driving