FEBRUARY 11, 2015 • VOLUME XLVI • ISSUE 4

5430 TORRANCE BOULEVARD, TORRANCE, CA 90503 • WWW.BMHS-LA.ORG

BISHOP MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL

Winter Wizarding WorldWritten by Samantha Nishimura, Nathan Quast, and Natalie Pistole. Photographed by Milanne Izawa.

KNIGHTLIFE

Beginning with the eerie Harry Potter theme song played on morning announcements, Winter Spirit week proved magical and unlike any spirit week held at BMHS! With each class assigned a traditional Hogwarts house -- Freshmen: Gryffindor, Sophomores: Hufflepuff, Juniors: Ravenclaw, and Se-niors: Slytherin -- one could not help but feel a bit of friendly competition between the classes, especially in light of the Quidditch match planned for Thursday. By the end of the week, however, the entire student body was reminded of the importance of unity and school pride by celebrating Winter Spirit Week as a whole. It has been said before: Bishop Montgomery is one big family. There is no better example of this than the unity mass. The Knights were out in full force this past winter spirit week, joining together with their classmates for the liturgy. The mass was a chance, in the spirit of Catholic Schools Week, to be thankful for the ability to express our faith in unison with our peers at school; in addition, the mass was a special occasion for the juniors, who had their rings blessed by Father Allen.The ability to celebrate mass on an otherwise normal school day is a char-acteristic of Bishop Montgomery, and Catholic schools across the nation, that many students enjoy. James Han ‘15 commented, “I get to spend an hour or two away from school and focus solely upon God. With mass, I can relieve my stress from my academic life and just relax in peace.” Finding time to spend in prayer or meditation is always welcome for a student, with all the stress that they have to deal with during the course of a day and a week. James concluded, “To brighten one’s mood is one of the things that makes mass awesome!” Sean de la Peña ‘15 echoed this sentiment, say-ing, “The fact that we do this is just so powerful.” Masses will continue to be an outstanding tradition of faith and family at Bishop Montgomery. This, of course was a special mass, celebrating not just Catholic Schools week, but the blessing of the junior class’ rings; the mass was not just a unity mass but a ‘ring mass’ -- a term that Father Allen struggled to understand in preparing for his sermon.

Junior John Nonato commented on the mass, saying: “I like singing and praying together with my friends.” The rings that they received will no doubt remind the juniors of the bonding moments such as this that they shared during their years at Bishop. The rings were given to the juniors not long before this week’s mass, and stand as a reminder, as Father Allen said, of their mission in life and their commitment to be the Christ-like individ-ual that Bishop Montgomery so strongly promotes. While the mass was a special occasion for the juniors, it was the ele-ment of unity that stood out the most. On the day of the week when the indi-vidual classes were encouraged to wear their class’s respective colors in sup-port of their grade, it would seem that the school was most clearly divided by class. Red, purple, blue, and green filled the gym during Tuesday’s mass, but when the bleachers shook to the chorus of the Bishop students stomping during the Alma Mater, black and gold were the only colors that showed. “I love having mass at school because of our school unity,” Juli Papilla ‘15 remarked, “Every mass brings our Bishop-family even closer together.” The mass showed how closely bonded everyone at the school is and helped continue to build that familial bond. “I like that we all get together to appreciate God and others for going through life with us,” Maria Jue ‘15 said of the mass. The Harry Potter festivities continued on Wednesday with a Harry Potter-themed Improv show at lunch. The talented Improv team performed the game “Expert Challenge,” challenging one another on their knowledge of the magical subject of Herbology, and an-other game where the team reenacted Dobby’s heart-wrenching death scene normally, documentary-style, and mys-tery-style. Freshman Cassandra Crakes ‘18 had the honor of playing the beloved house-elf. That evening, Bishop held the much awaited McTeacher’s night at the McDonald’s down the street. Occurring for the second year in a row, McTeach-er’s night proved yet another enjoyable event in which teachers worked behind the counter, much to the delight of their students. Teachers such as Mrs. Rodri-guez, Mrs, Mitchell, Mr. Sheckler, and

many others good-naturedly took part in order to raise money and create a fun evening for faculty and students alike. Thursday may have been the climax of the Harry Potter-themed spirit week this year with Bishop’s first ever Quidditch match! Held on the lower field during lunch, the game attracted and en-tertained a huge crowd of students who were curious to see how BMHS-style Quidditch would differ from Hogwarts-style Quidditch. In the wizarding world, Quidditch players ride magical brooms, like the Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt, that zoom menacingly through the air. Each team consists of seven players that each have a specific duty: the three Chasers pass the Quaffle and try to throw it into the opposing team’s hoop-shaped goal posts, the Keeper acts as a goalie, Beaters fly around with bats and hit players with heavy balls called Bludgers, and the Seeker is responsible for catching the tiny elusive ball called the Golden Snitch, which is worth 150 points and ends the game. However, since BMHS is part of the muggle (non-magical) world, ASB arranged the game so that muggles like us could still enjoy the fun sport. Simplifying the game to just three chasers, replacing brooms with pool noodles, and substitut-ing the Quaffle with a nerf football, they successfully managed to amuse both people unfamiliar with real Quidditch and die-hard Harry Potter fans alike. Michelle Figueroa ‘15 claims that for her “the most ridiculous part of the game were the pink noodles everyone was rid-ing. They looked so silly running across the field with the noodles flopping back and forth.” The randomly selected teams represented an alliance of the seniors and freshmen versus the sophomores and juniors. From the beginning, the senior/freshman side exhibited excel-lent passing, teamwork, and dominance over the other team, eventually crush-

ing them with an impressive score of 140-50. Senior “Your Boy Joe” Vicelja, a key player who brought the team to vic-tory, states that “the best part of playing Quidditch was dominating the juniors and sophomores and playing with my man Christian. It was fun playing with the freshman [because] they listened to whatever we said.” Many thanks to ASB for turning a whimsical idea into a suc-cessful reality! On Friday, Student Appre-ciation Day, the wonderful Ms. Libbon treated the entire school to cookies during break! Students were also al-lowed to wear black jeans. After school, Winter Spirit Week concluded with the much-anticipated Students vs. Teach-ers volleyball game. Players like Tessa Allen and Shane O’Donnell on the student side sported ridiculously colorful uniforms, generating a playful, harm-less atmosphere that soon vanished once the teachers began to dominate the first game. Many members of the crowd viewed the lack of actual teachers playing as unfair, for it was the Bishop volleyball coaches who were respon-sible for keeping the energetic student team on their toes. After being defeated in the first game, the students played on with increased focus now that they knew with whom they were dealing. Game two was close, but the students never-theless brought the match up to a third tie-breaking game, in which they slayed. Despite the powerful spikes from Mr. Roehl and the varsity volleyball coach-es, the Knights turned that intimidation into celebration when they persevered and won the match. Overall, despite the everyday stress of homework and tests, BMHS students managed to celebrate another wonderful Winter Spirit Week as a com-munity dedicated to bringing the magical spirit of Hogwarts to Bishop.

Above: Mr. Adams and Mr. Scheckler collect donations at the McDonald’s drive-thru for McTeacher’s night.Left: Kira Iwai ‘15, Tess McElroy‘15, and Kaya Fiamengo ‘15 display the quidditch cup for Winter Spirit week.

Right: The students were victorious over the faculty members for the students vs. facutly volleyball game.

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With change, there always comes problems and obstacles that need to be confronted, but eventu-ally build the team into a stronger, fiercer force. Despite unfamiliarity with each other, the players still work well together with what Allen de-scribes as “good on-the-field chem-istry.” On-field chemistry is not be-cause of necessity, the camaraderie found off the field allows for strong games, as seen with the Pirate Cup Tournament, the win against La Salle, and close game with St. Joseph’s, their toughest competition. Good luck to the Varsity Girls who now prepare for playoffs and further games against St. Joseph, La Salle, and Bishop Amat. The girls aren’t the only ones aiming big this year. The Varsity

Boys’ Soccer Team has also been diligently preparing for whatever comes their way this season. The boys mentioned that they are work-ing towards getting to playoffs in February. Filiberto Diaz ‘16 re-marked, “This season our goal as a team is to also make CIF.” However, this year the team faces a more difficult division than last year since some teams switched out and some new ones joined the division. Even though the boys were hoping for a win against Cathedral, their biggest opponents, the intense game was still close with a final score of 2-1. While the team has had their ups and downs, they’re plan-ning on “practicing hard and turning it around.” When asked about his goals for next year, junior Hayden

Biernat ‘16 said, “Recently I’ve been playing more so next year I’m hoping to make the starting lineup.” Al-though the boys face intense teams, their positive attitudes, strong mind-sets, and determination are sure to take them far this season. Cheer on the Varsity Boys’ Soccer team as they work towards accomplishing their goals and finish-ing the season strong. Show some support as they soon go up against St. Monica, a team new to their divi-sion. Go Knights!

Sports

Going For The Goal

With sweat, blood, and mild concussions, the Lady Knights of Girls’ Soccer strive to win CIF this year, and earn a banner in the gym-nasium. Although the season is now in full gear, the girls worked endless-ly during their preseason to claim their victories. The tiresome morn-ings, late afternoons, and numerous sacrifices have paid off with victo-ries, such as the team’s win against La Salle. Captains Tessa Allen ’15 and Natalie Di Angelo ’15, both with scholarships to play soccer in col-lege, have aided their team multiple times in victories and nurtured the team chemistry. According to Coach Martin Haynes, “senior leadership makes the difference [to a good year].”

Written by Emily Blair and Kassandra Madrigal. Photographed by Emily Blair and Milanne Izawa.

Hanging TenWritten by Shelby Richardson. Photographed by Lauri Allen.

As we all know, Bishop Montgomery is home to very well-organized and student-run clubs like Spilled Ink, Stand Up to Cancer, and Habitat for Humanity. We’ve established chapters from greater organization such as JSA, Key Club, and National Honor Society. We’ve created clubs that have been rec-ognized for their outstanding con-tributions to our surrounding com-munity such as Concordia, H.I.S., and the Gardening Club. But the most “refreshing” of Bishop Mont-gomery’s clubs would have to be the Surf Club! Who wouldn’t want

to catch a few awesome waves with your good friends? Although meet-ings during the week are at 6:30 AM, every member is treated with a beautiful sunrise on the beach while experiencing the soothing sea breeze. “The best beach to catch great waves at would be El Porto,” says Jimmy Grove ‘15 and Natalie DiAngelo ‘15 seconded that opin-ion. Joining the Surf Club is said to be one of the greatest aspects of Bishop Montgomery. One’s sense of freedom intensifies while riding waves and submerging into the shocking waters, and that new and

refreshed attitude helps to complete the school day. Not only does Surf Club heighten the senses, but it’s a great rationalization of just relaxing at the beach with a couple of friends just before school starts. “The Surf Club enables us to go surfing during the week,” says Grove, laughing. “It also gives our club members the op-portunity to build up their community service hours.” These community service opportunities include the an-nual Friendship Walk and voluntary beach clean-ups! Because surfing can be a little scary, not all members have to know how to surf. There are

surfing competitions, but no one is compelled to compete in any of them if they aren’t comfortable do-ing so. Speaking of competitions, did you know that Bishop’s Surf Club once won the Frosh Hen-nessey Cup of the South Bay Surf League? Go Knights!

Above: Natalie Di Angelo ‘15 and Tessa Allen ‘15 shred some waves at the surf meet.

Above: Shane O’Donnell ‘15 is amped to wake up early and surf before school.

Above: The girls varsity soccer team has had great chemistry on and off the field.

Above: Alex Bessler ‘15 races down the field and finds his open teammate.

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Written by Danielle Julifs. Photographed by Lifetouch and Yearbook Staff.

Sports

2K15 Basketball

It’s 2015 and it seems that the Bishop boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have found their own dream teams of the year! Seniors Chelsea Lidy ‘15, Christine Delapina ‘15, and Cassidy Lomas ‘15 are leading the girls’ team and the solid wall of seniors Blake Miles ‘15, Christian Oshita ‘15, Stephen Thompson ‘15, and Austin Cole ‘15 are bringing the boys to battle. The girls’ have been bring-ing their A-game since the very first game. They kicked off the season in their non-league game against Redondo Union, beating them 62-60. Their more recent league games have been close, with the Lady Knights beating St. Paul (63-58) and Bishop Amat (78-47) and losing to St. Anthony (56-48) and Serra (56-52). The girls’ will continue in their league games until February, when

CIF rolls around. Exciting news came when team-mates and close friends Lidy ‘15 and Delapina ‘15 both joined the 1000-point club. Lidy is signed to play next year at the University of the Pacific, and is excited for the possibility of later playing overseas. Lidy said about the team, “We’ve had our struggles, but none of us are going to give up on each other. We have to play our hardest every game to get a win, but that’s the fun part. I love my squad and my lovely coach.”The boys’ have definitely also been hitting it hard since day one. They started out the season with a win and have kept it up, beating Redon-do Union (71-58) , George Washing-ton Prep (86-50), Narbonne (54-51), St. Bernard (67-24), and Cathedral (80-76). Cole ‘15 expresses his

excitement for the season: “We continue to improve as the season progresses, which is definitely good for us. I’m so proud of how close our team is - on and off the court - espe-cially our camaraderie.” His advice for younger players? “You need to work hard to try to improve each practice, and put in time outside of practice to get better.”In the boys’ second game against St. Bernard, not only did they take home a win of 71-48, senior Stephen Thompson scored his 2,000 career point. Thompson, who is one of the top shooting guards in the country, is signed to play for Oregon State University next year. Freshman Kevin O’Donnell ‘18 and senior Patrick Kohly ‘15 had the amazing experience of winning money toward their tuition in the half-court tuition shot. At the home

games, students have the oppor-tunity to sign up for the shot and win the money, with no purchase required. O’Donnell was the first student to win, during the girls’ game against St. Anthony on January 13, and Kohly followed suit at the boys’ game versus Cantwell on January 23. With victories on the court and outstanding personal achievements, the 2014-2015 season looks to be a promising one for Bishop’s basket-ball teams.

Far left: Chelsea Lidy ‘15 goes up for a block.

Left: With his tongue out, Stephen Thompson ‘15 gives his best Mi-chael Jordan impression as he drives the lane.

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Entertainment/opinion

Hollywood Shenanigans at the Golden Globes

The Golden Globe Awards mark the beginning of the enter-tainment industry’s award sea-son. Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Golden Globes recognize achievements in both film and television as chosen by the mem-bers of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). This year, hosts Tina Fey and aAmy Poehler returned for their third and final time to host the 72nd annual Golden Globes. The days leading up to the awards were a flurry of ex-citement. Anticipation brewed as everyone waited for the show, ea-ger to see the red carpet fashion and learn who would take home the trophies. Perhaps the most anticipated aspect of the awards this year was Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s roles as hosts. The co-medic duo didn’t disappoint; they pulled out all the stops in their hilarious opening monologue. It took less than one minute before they mentioned the controversy surrounding The Interview, joking that the evening was a celebra-tion of movies that North Korea deemed appropriate to watch. During the ten minute mono-logue, Fey and Poehler weren’t afraid to poke fun at many of the different nominees. In one zinger, Poehler explained to the people of Hollywood what cake was, saying that it was a dessert that people ate on their birthdays. Fey continued, explaining that birth-days are events people celebrate when they admit they have aged. The two comedians even teased George Clooney, the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. They listed all the incredible accomplish-ments of his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer, after which they expressed their confusion that her husband was being honored

for lifetime achievement. Sophomore Katie Smet loved the Golden Globes this year, saying “Tina and Amy were hilarious as usual, I wish they would host every year!” The hosts were not the only highlights of the evening. Arguably the funniest present-ers were Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, who introduced the award for best screenplay. They quoted lines from the screenplays of different well known movies, but they were lines no one had ever heard. Another highlight was comedian Margaret Cho’s performance as a North Korean journalist and newest member of the HFPA. Cho’s character ex-pressed her distaste for the show and declared that she would be hosting next year. Two of the best speeches were delivered by Gina Rodriguez, winner of Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy or Musi-cal for her role in Jane the Virgin, and Kevin Spacey, winner of Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama for his role in House of Cards. Rodri-guez paid tribute to her dad, and Spacey dropped an expletive and became emotional after his win. The most prestigious award the Golden Globes have to offer is the Cecil B. DeMille Award, given for outstanding contributions to film and television entertainment. This year, Clooney was chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to re-ceive this honor. Clooney, whose three-decade career had earned him thirteen Golden Globe nomi-nations and four wins, first be-came a truly recognizable public figure when he landed a role on E.R., the medical drama from the 1990’s. Since then, he has become one of the most recog-nizable faces in Hollywood. Actor, producer, and director, Clooney accepted his award in a gracious

Written by Caroline Cusolito and Stephanie Trelease; photographed by Simon Tran. Left and Below: Muriel Clapp ‘17, Katie Smet ‘17 present Nora Ward ‘17 with her “Golden Globe award”.

speech, thanking his wife and voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo. To ring in the new year of 2015, the Golden Globes cele-brated and honored exceptionally outstanding movies, television series, actors, actresses, and songs. Many of the nominated movies came out to theaters in late December, such as Into the Woods, Wild, and Annie. The movie nominees varied from Interstellar, a movie about astro-nauts on a mission to save all of humanity, to Into the Woods, a fairytale-like movie that was pre-viously a play production. Both adult and kid movies were strong contenders in this year’s Golden Globe awards. Categories vary-ing from drama to animated mov-ies were awarded. The two win-ners were Boyhood (drama) and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (ani-mated). Boyhood was shot over eleven years, showing the matu-ration of a young boy and his sis-ter, so this award was a long time coming for the crew. The Golden Globes are truly a time to award all the hard work put into these movies throughout the past year, as well as recently released films, such as Selma, a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. and his five mile march regarding the Vot-ing Rights Movement. Not only were movies awarded, but also television series, such as actress Joanne Froggatt of Downton Ab-bey, and many nominations for the well known television series,

American Horror Story. With over twenty awards given out dur-ing the awards show, it was an eventful and memorable night for the film world. Keep your eye out for upcoming movies this year in hopes your favorite one gets nominated come next awards season!

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Entertainment/opinion

2015, a whole new year with new possibilities. All the markets of the world are expand-ing and the video game market is no exception. The big three, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all concocting their own formulas for the future. Nintendo has released a successor to the 3DS in Japan called “The New 3DS.” It has an extra joystick and increased processing power. This is a confusing name because when someone asks to buy this hand held the clerk will ask “do you want to buy a used New 3DS or a new New 3DS?” This hand held may be coming out to the states at some point. According to venturebeat.com some of the Nintendo exclusives for 2015 are Splatoon, a shooter focusing on covering an area with squid ink, Xenoblade Chronicles X, a sifi RPG, and the WiiU Zelda game, titled simply The Legend of Zelda. According to Engadget, Sony has started to invest in 4K TV’s (a TV with 4 times the graphics quality of an HD TV) and virtual reality headsets, which could possibly make it’s way into its Playstation sector. According to BBC.com, Sony will sell off its computer division in 2015 to reform the company. According to primagames.com, some PS4 exclusives are, The Order:1886, a steampunk shooter, Ratchet and Clank Remastered, and The Last of Us Remastered. Accord-ing to cnet.com, Microsoft has

Written by David Carroll; photographed by Simon Tran.

been focusing on its Windows 10 project which is expected for the middle of 2015. Each of the big three have their own little projects and some of them will bear fruit in the following years. Accord-ing to primagames.com, some of Microsoft’s exclusives are Halo 5:Guardians, Fable Legends and Forza Horizon 2. According to wdc.com, the three major trends in gaming are cloud gaming, this console gen-eration may be the last, and video game respectability. Cloud Gam-ing is the idea that you stream games that you buy instead of playing loaded games on disks or on the console’s hard drive. This can be useful for consoles which don’t rely on hardware power. However, owning what you buy and stream is becoming an issue because this system is a subscription-based service. It is another question whether or not you own the games you buy in the digital age in general. There is some speculation this generation of video game consoles may be the last. In the past there were many reasons why you bought consoles, in-cluding the exclusives, popping the disk in and playing instantly, easy setup, and generally more power than PCs back in the day. Nowadays games come installed on consoles, and games need patches months after release. the 8th generation (PS4, Xbox One and WiiU) are the first to stagnate

Game On!

Above: Jason Hermoso ‘18 is looking forward to the release of Halo 5: Guardians.Left: Derek Rabot ‘15 contemplates if he should upgrade to the “new 3DS XL” as he plays Pokemon Ruby on his 3DS. He’s gotta catch them all!

in processing power. The PC greatly out does the consoles all areas. PC’s also get almost all of the console games asking the question “why buy a console for games I can buy on PC?” Many of the benefits that consoles had over PC’s have disappeared and people wonder if this could be the last generation of consoles. Since 2012 the supreme court officially considers video games an art form. Video games are gaining more respectability as gaming comes closer and closer to becoming a part of the main-stream media over the years. However, gaming is still not part of mainstream media in many people’s eyes. When games try to take on mature topics like the holocaust and many very deep subjects that TV and books have been digging into for nearly a century, there is controversy and outrage. This problem should reduce in 2015 as the medium becomes more mainstream. It should be able to touch more mature subject matter. According to http://www.momentology.com, in 2015 You-tube, Twitch TV, and other social media will become increasingly relevant as a source of gaming entertainment, gaming news, and a source of raw gameplay foot-age to help figure out if a game is enjoyable. This also has really helped call out large corporations about some of their horrible poli-cies and promotes obscure high

quality games. This also helps people share their hobby through online gaming as well. Many people who are not game-savvy can learn about aspects of games and what games are appropriate for their kids. In general, gaming will become more social as the internet evolves. We will see a definite increase in games in the entertainment and journalistic sectors. In conclusion there are both many amazing and horrible trends in gaming which we can expect to see in 2015.

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Campus life

DESICIONS, DESICIONS!

Denim Day: Fabulous for a Cause

Written by Isabella Bacoka and Matthew Cusolito; Photographed by Alex Arucan.

Written by Caitlyn Kester and Kayla Ables; Photographed by Yearbook Staff

Above Left: Mrs. Skelley and her students help others by participating in denim day.Left: A group of students are bummed that they forgot to wear jeans and their spirit shirts on denim day.

Above: Aimee Myers ‘15 proudly shows off her University of San Francisco sweatshirt.

Above: Bryce Tokatlian ‘15 dreams of attending Loyola Marymount University next fall.

These past couple of months have been very stress-ful and exciting for every senior. On top of preparing for their last semester of high school, they are eagerly waiting for responses from the colleges where they ap-plied. With most applications due by January 15, many seniors are currently anxious to hear from their dream school. Luckily, from early decision, many seniors are assured acceptance into their dream school! Schools such as Loyola Marymount, NYU, and Harvard all offer early admissions to the students who are especial-ly eager for their schools. Jordan Tabaldo recently got accepted into LMU, a prestigious Catholic university in Los Angeles. She hopes to be studying psychology and says, “I love LMU! Its always been my dream school and they recently got one of those new fancy 3D printers!” Kelly Hugo also got into her dream school of Santa Clara University, where she is entering undeclared but hopes to study Psychology to eventually work as a speech therapist for young children. “The campus is unbelievably beautiful and in the perfect location,” she says, “But the main factor I love about the school is the people. They are so genuine, welcoming, and compassionate, that I knew I would have no trouble fitting in!” Senior Stephanie Durbano was one of the seniors who was so extremely dedicated to getting into her dream school that she applied early action to Boston

University, but was insecure at first. “It was really nerve-racking when I sent in my application. I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t get in because everyone told me I wouldn’t,” she says. But once the email was sent to check their application status for those who applied early action to Boston University, her insecurities were gone. “When I opened my Ap-plicant link and saw that I was accepted I screamed, jumped up and down, and didn’t believe it. It helped relieve a lot of my stress.” For senior Lilly Douga-las, sending in her application received a different reaction. “Sending in the application was a relief because I had been work-ing on it for weeks. I was glad for it to finally be over.” But wait-ing is always an experience that brings anxious days and nights, constantly preventing yourself to check the mail everyday for that large maroon envelope. For Lily this envelope was from West-mont College. “I was ecstatic. It’s amazing to be accepted into your first choice. It’s even more amaz-ing when they give you a $10,000 renewable merit scholarship.” says Dougalas. Congratulations to all these seniors and best of luck to those who have yet to hear from their colleges!

Aren’t you guys tired of wear-ing those boring uniforms? Well, you can stop your pouting because we have Denim Days! Denim Day is a great way to raise money as a com-munity. This month’s Denim Day is benefitting a father who had a kidney transplant. He was laid off, and he needs money to pay for medical bills. We have to remember not to focus on Denim Days as a way to get out of wearing uniforms, but as a way we can make differences in other people’s lives. The father that we are raising money for could be any one of our fathers or relatives, and we have the opportunity to help. Though this is only just the begin-ning, our next Denim day Donation is in February, and proceeds will go to benefit those affected by the acci-dent at St. James that occurred after their Christmas program. They have medical bills to pay for and need

tuition assistance because of loss of income. Although we can’t make sense of why things like this happen, there is always a way to contribute to our community and we should be proud of our Bishop Montgomery community for what we stand for. Denim Days cost only $2.00, and it would be so great to see all you teachers and students dressed in denim. GO KNIGHTS!

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Campus life

Lights, Camera, Robo-Knights!Written by Rose Park; Photographed by Alex Arucan

Comic by: Michael Romero

This past weekend on an early Saturday morning, the Bish-op Montgomery Robotics Club, also known as the Robo-Knights, traveled to Venice High School to compete in their second FIRST Tech Challenge competition this year. The game provided a seem-ingly easy goal: to get as many wiffle-ball and golf-ball sized balls into different height tubes. The Robo-Knights have been working toward this goal on a robot since September, and have had some exciting times during the competi-tions. The team consists of engineers, programmers, and public image workers. The team of twelve works together to design and program a robot to complete the game, while continuously striving to get busi-nesses as sponsors. Through-out the months, the team works hard throughout the week and sometimes spends weekends at school, changing their robot. On Saturday, the team nervously waited through the beginnings of the competition for their games. In the first set of games, the teams play 2v2, gain-ing overall points. A lot of how well the teams do depends on the sheer luck of being paired with robots that work well together. No matter how much the teams practice, their excellence is tested during the game. Rose Park, a senior on the team, says, “Every year is dif-ferent, and although we see the same teams and have gotten the

hang of who’s really good, it can all change in one second. Even though we’re pretty reliable, we had a few difficulties with our batteries and wires and that sort of thing.” Meanwhile, Eric Lopez, another senior on the team, and a judge during the competition, added that “This year, our team did well on coming up with a workable design to pick up the balls right off the bat. We stuck to the idea and were able to work together and make it happen! The programmers already know-ing RobotC from the previous year were able to have a work-ing autonomous mode with little difficulty. They knew what they were doing.” However, Lopez sees that there is always room for improvement. “ I think the team can improve on community out-reach and getting sponsors. This year we expanded our outreach with help from Riviera Hall with their STEM Day and even our own Open House here at Bishop, but we can further educate about the importance of Robotics and STEM within the rest of the schools in the area. With spon-sors, we improved with having companies donate money to us, but we will need more funding if the club will want to have a fight-ing chance in future competitions. The Robo-Knights had a tough fight this year, dealing with the game itself and their techni-cal difficulties, but they worked to-gether and came out with a robot ready for battle!

Scary Story

Above: Brandon Wong ‘15, Zach Hayes ‘15, and Mr. Sansalone prepare their robot for the competition.

Above: The BMHS robot scoops up whiffle balls and drops them into a container.

Knightlife pg.8

Campus LifeThe Pianist, the Violinist, and the Boxer Balancing a heavy load of school work, sports, volunteer work, and clubs can be a difficult lifestyle for any high school student. Yet some of our school’s most active students are able to make room for their passions within such a hectic schedule. Angelo Pasco ‘17 has been playing the piano since he was six years old, along the way learning from two teachers and currently self-educating himself. When asked why he started playing the piano, Angelo responded, “I always loved to hear my older cousins play the piano when I was younger. After hearing my mom tell stories about how she was supposed to take piano lessons when she was younger, but never got the chance to, I figured I would learn to entertain her and myself.” He practices the piano in between school and extra-curriculars, and is usually able to play every other day, if not every day. But how?! He says, “ I really enjoy the sound of a well-played song and love the feeling of finally playing a piece smoothly. It never seems like practice to me.” Jumping from song to song, and learning a few parts of various songs at the same time, Angelo says that he loves playing jazz and contempo-rary music. Improvising with a scale or set of chords means that he can always play something new every time he sits down at the keys. His advice to those interested in learn-ing how to master the instrument is

as follows: “Starting out in piano is usually the most difficult part. I know I hated learning scales and chords and theory, but without the basics you can’t move on to the fun stuff. Keep on playing and the repetition will fade away into enjoyment.” There is another talented musician at Bishop named Iris Shi ‘17. She has been playing violin since she was four years old. As an international student, it requires her to put extra effort to keep her aca-demics and extracurricular activities in place. However, she managed to do it. She said the key point is to have patience. To master one piece of music, she often had to play the same phrase over and over. But with patience, imagining how beautiful the piece will be when she’s be able to play the piece fully, she cannot stop practicing. With her talent, she joined Bishop’s marching band last year. She said to join the band was a great decision in many ways: “I used to play it everyday at least one hour but I really got the hard work from school everyday, so I used band practice to play and get help from Mr. Hankey, the band director. I also made many friends through band, so I’m glad to join it.” She said she will continue to play violin and cannot imagine stopping it. Another student at Bishop Montgomery who is able to keep up both his classes and extracurricu-lar activities is Entonyous Bernaba ‘15. He started boxing in Inglewood

at the age of eight to learn how to defend himself in the face of bullies. At first, Entonyous almost decided to take karate lessons; however, he re-marks, “Boxing sounded cooler and I wouldn’t have to take off my shoes. So I went with boxing. The “Rocky” movies also had a lot of influence on me. They inspired me and made me believe that if a person does his best, he’ll get his opportunity in life and might succeed if he gives it his all.” Boxing has always been Enton-yous’s stress reliever. He says, “It’s fun, competitive, and anyone can do it.” Although he currently only practices about three times a week,

before high school began, he trained almost every day. Entonyous’ last official boxing competition season was in freshman year: he had a total of 21 wins, four losses, and 13 knockouts. Working on their talents, the students were able to have more life experiences from making friends to going on competitions, and meeting the bigger world. As it requires a lot of effort and time to manage both school work and extracurriculars, let’s give them a big round of ap-plause.

Written by Jasmine Shin and Ariana Rupp.

Above: Angelo Pasco ‘17 lies in front of one of his best friends-- his piano.

Question CornerInterviews by Jackie Pistole.

Any New Years’ Resolutions?Are you working toward that resolution?

Riley Parker ‘18: For this se-mester, I really want to have good grades. I’m going to study a lot to accomplish that goal.

Jashaun Diggs ‘18: I’m making a resolution to get more money.

Carla Mas ‘15: This year I want to get into a prestigious college. I want to go to NYU. To achieve my resolu-tion, I am going to get good grades this semester.

Jayden Davis ‘17: I want to eat more candy.

Knightlife 2014 - 2015 Board Editors-in-Chief: Alexander Rodriguez & Samantha Nishimura

Vice Presidents: Lourdes Lidzbarski & Anna LeoncioPhotography Executives: Milanne Izawa & Danielle Julifs

Secretary: Aimee MyersArt Executives: Kira Coyne & Jackie Nkansah

Treasurer: Manaka SatoMedia Manager: Sam Thompson

Graphic Designer Executive: David Kim

This issue: Graphic Designers: David Kim, Jesus Vazquez, Yidan Yuan

Peer Editors: David Macareg, Carolyn Egekeze, Aimee Myers

Staff Writers: Aimee Myers, Alexander Arucan, Alexander Ray, Anna Leoncio, Ariana Rupp, Briana Tucker, Caitlyn Kester, Caroline Cusolito, Carolyn Egekeze, Emily Blair, Erika Akyeah, Erin Hall, Hallie Coyne, Isabella Bacoka, Jackie Nkansah, Jackie Pistole, Jasmine Shin, Joshua Villalta, Kathryn Graz, Kayla Ables, Kira Coyne, Libby Hadnett, Lourdes Lidzbarski, Manaka Sato, Matthew Alcado, Matthew Cusolito, Milanne Izawa, Natalie Pistole, Nathan Quast, Rose Park, Sara Awad, Sebastian Atashi, Shelby Richardson, Stephanie Trelease, Theresa Sitter, Yidan Yuan, David Carroll

Staff Artists: Anna Leoncio, Erin Hall, Hallie Coyne, Jackie Nkansah, Jasmine Shin, Kira Coyne, Michael Romero, Nathan Quast, Samantha Peralta, Yidan Yuan,

Staff Photographers: Alexander Arucan, Danielle Julifs, Emily Blair, Erika Akyeah, Isabella Bacoka, Joshua Villalta, Kassandra Madrigal, Kathryn Graz, Libby Hadnett, Lourdes Lidz-barski, Matthew Alcado, Milanne Izawa, Sabrina Supapkooha, Sara Awad, Sebastian Atashi, Sebastian Contreras, Shelby Richardson, Simon Tran, Stephanie Nwaiwu

Staff Redactors: Aimee Myers, Alexander Arucan, Anna Leoncio, Ariana Rupp, Briana Tucker, Caroline Cusolito, Carolyn Egekeze, David Macaraeg, Jordan Bell, Lourdes Lidzbar-ski, Manaka Sato, Matthew Alcado, Natalie Pistole, Nathan Quast, Sara Awad, Stephanie Trelease, Theresa Sitter

Staff Graphic Designers: David Kim (1-3), Jesus Vazquez (4-6), Yidan Yuan (7-8)Peer Editors: Carolyn Egekeze (1-3), David Macaraeg (4-6), Aimee Myers (7-8)Staff Interviewers: Alexander Arucan, Caitlyn Kester, Caroline Cusolito, Erika Akyeah, Isabella Bacoka, Jackie Nkansah, Jordan Bell, Joshua Villalta, Kassandra Madrigal, Kathryn Graz, Kayla Ables, Kira Coyne, Libby Hadnett, Matthew Alcado, Milanne Izawa, Sara Awad, Sebastian Atashi, Shelby Richardson

Staff Advertisers: Caroline Cusolito, Jordan Bell, Kayla Ables, Manaka SatoMatthew Cusolito, Sara Awad

Advisor: Mr. HongProofreaders: Mr. Marafino, Ms. Vigon-MorffiPublisher: Ms. Libbon