See ALUMNI BUSINESSES, page 2

Knightimes stirs studentsBy Jenny JohnsonOnline Managing Editor

Homecoming week started off with the true meaning of home-coming. The coronation ceremony brought back alumni as the school celebrated its Homecoming King and Queen, seniors Shola George and Maggie Murphy.

On the morning of Color Day, Oct. 3, seniors brought their pride in the form of marching from the commons all the way up the main

staircase, chanting “Seniors, se-niors.” The seniors then sat down at the base of the main staircase, completely blocking the foyer, leav-ing the rest of the school to watch.

In past years, seniors stopped at that, but this year, one sit-down would not cut it. Throughout the day, seniors had a total of seven.

“I was shocked by all the com-motion,” freshman Marisa Ro-manelli said. “These are the oldest kids in the school, yet they are act-ing so immature.”

“I think [the seniors] were try-ing to be united but then other [stu-dents] saw it, and tried to be better than us, leading [to] everything to get out of hand,” senior Angel Kuikstra said.

What was meant to unify one class, ended up disrupting the whole school. Administration was appalled by the behavior students were taking part in (see Principal Kurt Laakso’s open letter, right).

Alumni run local businessesBy Nabi Dressler and Danielle ChurchNews Editors

‘96 graduate Bill Lagattolla began working part-time at Mt. Prospect Paint, Inc./Benjamin Moore Paints in Mount Prospect in high school to save up money for college. At the time, he didn’t plan on owning the store.

Lagattolla took industrial classes like auto shop during high school and studied mechanical engineering at Uni-versity of Illinois at Chicago. When the owner of Mt. Prospect Paint, Inc. re-tired in 2006, he took it over. Since the job deals with chemistry and physics, it was a “natural fit.”

“It’s funny because the classes you take, you don’t realize you will use

them,” Lagattolla said.Lagattolla and most other alumni

who own local businesses fell into their businesses and therefore didn’t take business classes to prepare them for their current jobs.

‘84 graduate Hank Friedrichs played football and baseball and wrote on the Prospector. He majored in communica-tions and planned on becoming a fire-man after college but now is the fourth generation of his family to own Fried-richs Funeral Home.

Friedrichs’ father, Henry, who always wanted Hank to take over the business, passed away 13 years ago and Hank de-cided to give it a try for a few years.

The voice of Prospect

since 1960

801 West Kensington Road, Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056

Volume 52, Issue 2 Friday, October 12, 2012

As this year’s boys’ golf season comes to a close, read a reflec-

tion on their season. see...

Sports, page 13

ROSPECTORTHE

See PRINCIPAL REACTION, page 2

s WATCHING PAINT MIX: Mt. Prospect Paint, Inc. owner and ‘96 graduate Bill Lagattolla mixes a paint can. Lagattolla worked part-time at the store in high school and now hires Prospect students to work part-time.

Favorite hair and makeup products

Students selected their top hair and makeup picks. To find out whether your favorites made the list, turn to...

Entertainment, page 12

Pets galore

Both students and classes have pets. To read about students’ pets like Murphy, junior Michael Gattuso’s dog (right), class pets and Kay’s Animal Shelter, see...

In-Depth, pages 8-9

A day as a Mustang

Senior and Executive Opinion Editor Anna Boratyn attended Rolling Meadows High School for a day. See Boratyn compare and contrast RMHS with our school on...

Opinion, page 5

It is often observed that common sense is far from common, and the same is sometimes said of com-

mon decency. Neither was much in evidence at Prospect High School on Color Day, Oct. 3, 2012—a day of mis-guided mayhem that marred an otherwise wonderful week of homecoming celebrations.

While several positive activities took place during Knight Times, we had a diffi-cult day on Wednesday, with many seniors choosing to demonstrate their class unity in ways that were essentially oppositional, defiant and po-

larizing. The sit-downs and chants that they organized on

Color Day were disrespectful and potentially dan-gerous, and the behavior that they exhibited and provoked at Knight Games was unpleasant to be-hold.

Color Day 2012 will go down in my memory as a low point in our progress as an institution, repre-senting a step backward for our school, since the attitudes and behavior on display that day under-mined the norms of a community defined by coop-eration, collaboration and mutual care.

Fortunately, the contrary posturing was mostly contained to one day, though some ill-advised indi-viduals persist in believing that they did nothing wrong in participating in such mob-like activities. I find this self-justifying profession of ignorance both immature and disingenuous, and anyone expressing “pride” in such regressive, childish behavior gross-ly undervalues the Prospect community.

Principal expresses disappointment instudents’ behavior

ALL IN GOOD FUN?: The junior and senior classes clash at the Knight Games competition on Oct. 3. During last week’s Homecoming week, events like senior sit-downs and froshing raised questions about the line between harmless class competition and student endangerment.

See STUDENT REACTION, page 2

Kurt LaaksoPrincipal

Want all Prospect, all the time? * Check out our online publication: www.ProspectorNow.com * Follow us on Twitter: @ProspectorNow * Like us on Facebook: ProspectorNow

s

photo by Ian Magnuson

photo by Ian Magnuson

October 12, 2012News2 prospectornow.com

passed away 13 years ago and Hank decided to give it a try for a few years.

Instructional Assistants Shirley Kiratsous and Denise Chitjian work at Mount Prospect restaurant Mrs. P & Me; Kiratsous is a bartender and Chitjian is a hostess.

According to Kiratsous, ‘96 graduate Chris Figa-ro, Mrs. P & Me owner since June 2004, didn’t plan on owning a business.

Initially, Chris was an electrician. He took a restau-rant management class at Harper and failed it.

“Clearly that doesn’t mean anything,” Kiratsous said.

Figaro bought Mrs. P & Me with his brother and ‘93 grad Nick and ‘95 grad Pat McLean. Growing up in Mount Prospect, the Figaros and McLean realized Mrs. P & Me was a business opportunity due to its sig-nificance in the town’s history.

There is a Prospect atmosphere at the restaurant; about five other workers are graduates or have kids at Prospect. Others, like Kiratsous and Chitjian, work at Prospect.

“It might as well be Prospect,” Kiratsous said.Similar to Lagattolla and Friedrichs, ‘77 graduate

Katie VanEgeren didn’t take any entrepreneurship classes; only fire cadets and beauty salon classes were offered. However, VanEgeren is the owner of Vi-gnettes of Arlington, Inc., an antique store that also has a Prospect-like atmosphere. VanEgeren has three sons who all worked at her store and graduated from Prospect.

VanEgeren believes her education prepared her for her business because “any education you get is a good

education.”After graduating from high school and attending

Arizona State University where she majored in edu-cation, VanEgeren worked for merchandising compa-nies such as L’oreal Cosmetics and Personal Optics for 13 years. One day, her husband asked her why she didn’t just work for herself.

The next thing she knew, VanEgeren was opening her antique store. She decided to go into antiques because she believed people were always looking for something new. So, VanEgeren thought it made sense to open up her store.

While these alumni did not plan on running their own businesses initially, students can take Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses.

According to business education teacher Cather-ine Fortuna, more vocational classes, like secretari-al classes, used to be offered. Now, students can take business classes like entrepreneurship and technical classes like autos and woods.

Fortuna believes students should use electives like these as opportunities to explore interests while they’re still in high school.

“Really, if you don’t try [your interests] now, chanc-es are you’re probably not going to try [them] once you either go out in the workforce or college,” Fortu-na said.

VanEgeren agreed with Fortuna, saying students should talk to people in the industry if they can.

“Pour your whole heart and soul into [your pas-sion] because if that’s what you want to do then you’ll be happiest in life doing it,” VanEgeren said.

However, VanEgeren believes her most important piece of advice for students is to shop locally. She thinks by doing this, students will be giving back to

their community more. In fact, Lagattolla hires only local kids to give back

to the community. Only Prospect students, such as se-nior Frank Walter, ‘11 graduate Jimi Poulos and Lee Dewyze, have worked part-time at Mt. Prospect Paint, Inc.

“You take care of the neighborhood and the neigh-borhood will take care of you,” Lagattolla said.

Seventeen-year-olds can certainly dif-ferentiate between positive celebrations of school spirit, such as last Friday’s lip-dub/pep assembly, and aggressive demonstrations of group will, such as those that occurred on Color Day. While some students cry that they were “just having fun,” their rationalization rings hollow. If people were having fun that day, they were having fun BECAUSE they were breaking the rules. Human beings do this from time to time. We all understand the phenomenon. Let’s not lie about it. However, to engage in such rule-breaking fun at the expense of safety and order is unacceptable in the context of a school, the fundamental purpose of which is to provide a secure, supportive environment for all students to learn without fear or interference. If the motive for the raucous behavior was to express “class pride,” then it is diffi-cult to justify the danger posed, such as the possible formation of a riot in the school.

When a person takes part in a group demonstration, he risks losing his in-dividual integrity and volition. As his will becomes “deindividuated,” he sur-renders his ability to think reasonably. Deindividuation is a terrifying occur-rence, which can lead to chaos, violence, and widespread destruction. Once dein-dividuation takes hold, the chance of restoring order grows increasingly un-likely, as was evident during Color Day and Knight Games, both of which fuel a competitive kind of “definition by op-position.” It’s time to change that, for we are not promoting school spirit by competing with each other, especially when the whole point of homecoming is to celebrate our appreciation for one another, our enthusiasm for our shared experience, and our unity as a commu-nity.

What is a school if not a communi-ty of individuals striving together in support of one another? At the root of the word community is the word “com-mon,” and the strength of community

depends on a combination of common sense and common decency, as well as the existence of common beliefs and promises. We at Prospect believe that young people deserve unbounded love and encouragement and that they have the potential to change the world. As members of the Prospect community, we promise to treat each other with Pride and Respect, and we promise to be there for one another when we’ve fallen down and need help getting up again. We took a tumble last week, but it’s time to stand up and get back to where we were, hopefully with a new promise to Prospect never to violate the common trust again.

RUN THIS TOWN: ‘77 graduate Katie VanEgeren stands in front of her Arlington Heights antique store, Vignettes of Arlington, Inc. Prospect offers business classes like entrepreneurship.

s#MILLERLOST: Sophomores “Tebow” in defeat after Knight Games’ musical chairs competition. However, there has been much controversy about whether the senior class actually won Knight Games.

s

photo by Danielle Church

To see video footage of Knight Games, visit... ProspectorNow.com

photo by Ian Magnuson

STUDENT REACTION: Opinions on Homecoming

PRINCIPAL REACTION: An open letter to student body

ALUMNI BUSINESSES: Graduates an integral part of community

CONTINUED from front page

CONTINUED from front page

Some students agreed with the admin-istration’s disapproval of students’ be-havior.

“I am disappointed in the upperclass-men,” Kuikstra said. “We are supposed to be role models and show everyone how to act and yet here we are, almost starting a riot.”

After a disappointing school day, staff, students and parents gathered in the field house for the annual Knight Games.

What was supposed to be a friendly competition turned into what seemed like a war.

“If this is really how we want to leave our mark and the classes to see how our class acted, it’s disgraceful,” Kuikstra said.

Some seniors disagreed and thought their actions weren’t bad at all; though the number of sit-downs may have been

too much, the action of the sit-down was harmless.

“It’s better than pulling a prank be-cause pulling a prank can hurt some-one, whereas sit-downs did not do any-thing,” senior Christine Hood said.

Along with senior sit-downs, a group of juniors put Vaseline on the first floor lockers.

Junior Jen Schiro thought the junior prank was uncalled for and “should just leave the pranking to the seniors.”

The next day, according to Kuikstra, “rumors spread like wildfire” about the consequences for seniors. There were also rumors about suspensions and a senior-sophomore controversy about the winner of musical chairs.

“Thursday you could just feel the tension in all the classes and it was un-comfortable,” Kuikstra said.

Administration did not stop any of these rumors nor confirmed a conse-quence for the senior class.

“We are not here to take things away from students,” Principal Kurt Laakso said. “We are here to provide an educa-tion and a safe environment.”

Laakso, who described Color Day as a “feast of ego,” said administration has yet to decide on a consequence for seniors, if there will be one. They also need to discuss what next year’s Home-coming week will be like.

“I think if the administration has a punishment ready and informs the school of the consequences, students will follow through,” Schiro said.

“They can’t go in and take away stuff without taking away the fun and with no fun, then what’s the point of Home-coming week?” Romanelli said.

With students focused on Color Day, Homecoming seems to have lost its true meaning throughout the years.

Freshman John Dixon knows Home-coming is meant to unify the school and community, but feels students failed at this because he was written on with marker, known as “froshing.”

“I get the idea of Homecoming, but I do not think the message was executed right,” Romanelli said.

CONTINUED from front page

October 12, 2012 News 3prospectornow.com

Yeah! for YEA!By Spencer BallNews Editor

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) caters to students who have an interest in working in business and cre-ating their own company.

According to YEA!’s website, it was founded in 2004 at the University of Rochester in New York. By 2011, YEA! was sponsored nationally by the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Campaign for Free Enterprise, which encourages people to pursue business and entrepreneurship in order to create more jobs and oppor-tunities for the Amer-ican people.

YEA! was brought to Prospect by the Mount Prospect Chamber of Com-merce (MPCC), which deals with everything business in Mount Prospect. Dawn Col-lins is the Executive Director of the MPCC, and was the one who wanted to adopt YEA!.

Students are able to join the YEA! pro-gram by filling out an application form by Tues., Oct. 16.

The criteria of application requires students to write an essay, get a recom-mendation from a teacher or other local community leader, and other basic in-formation.

Prospect is a member of the MPCC, so when Collins got the opportunity to endorse the program, Prospect was a strong contender.

Collins and project manager Claire O’Shea had to go through months of phone conferences with the YEA! staff in Rochester, NY, where they learned how to properly establish YEA! ses-sions.

“It is just like anything else,” Collins said. “We just can’t go, pick [YEA!] up, and start delivering it.”

According to Collins, the class takes place after school from 3:15 to 5:45 p.m. on Wednesdays, with the group’s first meeting date on Oct. 17. The course runs for 30 weeks, ending around the time of graduation.

Assistant principal and CTE department head Jovan Lazarev-ic is the liaison be-tween Prospect and the Mount Prospect Cham-ber of Commerce.

Lazarevic said YEA! is more of an enrich-ment type of class, where students learn how to create a busi-ness and what aspects come with being a small business owner, such as pitching ideas to a group of investors.

With the assistance of community mem-bers and funding by various investors, the students will then pro-

ceed to create and expand their busi-nesses.

“That is the goal, to create a busi-ness,” Lazarevic said. “To take the risk,

jump out there and to say, ‘Hey, can you help me fund this?’”

Instead of butting into Prospect’s classes, Collins feels that YEA! just en-hances the courses already provided at Prospect.

One of the local business owners that will be instructing the students in YEA! is co-owner and president of Ca-pannari’s Ice Cream Katie Dix.

When Dix asked if she could be of any assistance to the program, Collins was eager to have her join.

“I thought it was a nice fit, because I already work with 25 kids at my shop,” Dix said. “The age group was perfect for what I already deal with.”

Dix will be teaching the students for the first 10 weeks of the 30 week course. There, she will help students come up with an idea for a business, create a business plan, and even design the product the business is making.

Dix will be taking the students on

a field trip to Capannari’s, where they will learn the day-to-day operations of the business.

“I am absolutely ecstatic about run-ning this class,” Dix said. “I’m not ner-vous at all, I feel like I know all about [the topic], I love working with young kids, so that part of the class is exciting to me. I love coming up with new ideas and helping people come up with ideas and implementing them.”

Collins feels that the inclusion of YEA! at Prospect will help both students and the community in the long run.

“A lot of people grow up [in Mount Prospect], they go away, they get an ed-ucation, and they come back and want to work here and start their business-es here because they have that type of connection to Mount Prospect,” Collins said. “I really believe that [Prospect] students are going to be running Mount Prospect, so I may as well help them get a start on their own businesses now.”

Business owners offer wisdom through program

THE PERFECT PITCH: New business program YEA!, or The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, brings in real business owners to teach how to pitch a business plan. YEA! was brought to Prospect to enrich students’ business skills. cartoon by Veronica Holloway

s

What’s the MPCC?

The Mount Prospect Cham-ber of Commerce (MPCC) is a non-profit organization that works with business owners in order to help them succeed.

The MPCC helps companies by assisting owners find man-agement training to helping the staff become better at what they do.

Dawn Collins is the Execu-tive Director of the MPCC.

“A big thing for me is just to help the business communi-ty in all of Mount Prospect,” Collins said.

The StaffEDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Maggie DevereuxMiranda Holloway

MANAGING EDITORSKatie Best

Ian Magnuson

COPY EDITORKyle Brown

ONLINE MANAGINGEDITOR

Jenny Johnson

ASSOCIATE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Maddy Moloney

NEWS EDITORSNabi DresslerSpencer Ball

Danielle Church

OPINION EDITORSAnna BoratynChris Kivlahan

FEATURES EDITORSAndi HayesEllen Siefke

IN-DEPTH EDITORSKhrystyna Halatyma

Brian Park

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Kelly Schoessling

SPORTS EDITORSAungelina Dahm

Peter Fusilero

ONLINE EDITORJack McDermott

PHOTOGRAPHERRich Futo

ADVISERJason Block

Published by students in Journalistic Writing courses, the Prospector has won, most notably, the 2004-05 and 2006-07 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemak-er; 2009 Illinois High School Association Sectional Cham-pionship and State Runner-up; Gold Medalist from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2009, 2010 and 2011; Illinois Journalism Education Associ-ation Best Overall Newspaper 2012.

Mission StatementThe primary purpose of The Prospector is to report news as well as explain its meaning and significance to our readers and the community. We, The Pros-pector, hope to inform, enter-tain and provide a school forum for the unrestricted exchange of ideas and opinions.

AdvertisingFor ad rates, call (847) 718-5376 (ask for Katie Best), fax (847) 718-5306 e-mail or write The Prospector, 801 West Kensington Rd., Mount Prospect, IL 60056, prospec-

Sta

ff E

dito

rial

Respecting our differences

There are a lot of things worth protesting. Slavery, in-tolerance, hangnails and this being the last season of “30 Rock” (THAT IS NOT OK! I AM NOT OK WITH THAT!). You know what isn’t worth pro-testing? Nothing at all. I’m looking at you, seniors.

Remember those seven sit downs you did on Color Day? Let’s think back on all of the things you could have been rebelling against. Maybe the time that they put a town-wide ban on dancing? No, no. That was “Footloose.”

The time where they gave five students from completely different cliques Saturday de-tentions, leading to deep and meaningful revelations about how we’re all more alike than we think? No, that was the school from “The Breakfast Club” (If you haven’t seen it, put this paper down. Right now. We don’t want your kind here.)

Okay, so you had nothing to protest. Which would have been fine if you’d done one or even two sit downs. But seven? Come on, guys. That’s not right. The administrators were also

flabbergasted as to what the se-niors could have been trying to prove with their hijinks.

That being said, not all the fault lies with the senior class. Sure, they cheated at Knight Games, but there were mis-takes made on the other side of the conflict as well.

The rumors currently fly-ing around concern-ing the punishment for seniors involved in sit downs range from nothing to four hours of detention per sit down.

And that is one of the key errors the administration has made – at the time of my writing this, Prospect leadership has done absolute-

ly nothing to quell the rumors that are fluttering around like so many mice with pigeons glued to their backs.

In their protest of nothing, the seniors made a mistake. But that’s to be expected– kids are stupid. Just like building a race of killer robot bears with sharks for arms to protect you, but instilling them with ar-tificial intelligence that will eventually lead them to rise up against their oh-so-fragile flesh-and-blood overlords. Now that would be stupid.

But the administration made a mistake by not putting down the rumors in time, and have given the senior class some-thing concrete to rebel against.

Speaking of things to rebel against, the senior class was given something else to get mad about when the lights were left on at the Knight Games dance.

Deans of Stu-dents Patricia Tedaldi -Monti and Mark Taylor both said that the lights were left on only be-cause of the de-bris on the floor presented an in-jury hazard.

I’d like to believe it was because peo-ple would have been “freaking” too hard (Is that even a thing? Actually, never mind. I don’t want to know), but no such an-nouncement was made at the time of the dance. So the stu-dents believed that the entire thing was nothing more than a punishment.

Furthermore, the deans said that they did not plan to leave the lights on at the Homecom-

ing dance. However, as any-one who went to the teenage quasi-mosh-orgy can recall, the lights were far too bright

for anyone to get their Jersey turnpike on.

In this de-veloping se-nior-staff con-flict, mistakes have been made on both sides. Because of these mistakes, it is entirely possible that the animos-ity will continue throughout the year, with effects that we can only begin to fathom.

The Prospector staff does not encourage wild conjecture, but I can comfortably say that this is almost certainly the first in a series of events that will lead to not only the downfall of society as we know it, but also a “Keeping Up With the Kar-dashians” spin-off based on the life and times of their gardener.

Oh, and #MillerWon.

Freshman linebacker Jamie Kuntz, who attends North Dakota State Col-lege of Science, says he was kicked off the football team for kissing his boyfriend this past September. The couple was sitting in the stands vid-eotaping the game when they shared a single kiss in the press box. While the school claims Kuntz’s dismissal from the team has nothing to do with him being gay, they have not released a reason for his dismissal.

Whether or not the disci-pline was homophobically motivated, it still raises ques-tions over how accepting schools and their staff are to the different lifestyles of their students. This bigotry is not limited to sexual ori-entation, but also includes religion, political views and personal preferences.

At Prospect, we have a diverse group of students. Whether through different genders, races, interests or sexual orientation, diversity

is a good thing. Diversity is what makes Prospect unique, and it also gives many stu-dents the opportunity to get involved in the things that make them different with a variety of clubs and activi-ties.

We, The Prospector, believe diver-sity should be celebrat-ed — not d i s m i s s e d . Having di-versity is what makes people differ-ent instead of having carbon copies of one another walk-ing around the halls of Pros-pect.

Sexual orientation, race, religion: all should be cele-brated and not devalued sim-ply because not everyone was dealt the same hand in life. A student should not be penal-ized for being gay or being Jewish; rather, they should be welcomed with open arms.

There are even clubs at school that honor this diver-sity: Gay Straight Alliance, Ebony Club, Spanish Club, Young Life and many more. These clubs are a way to get involved the cultures created by Prospect’s diverse student

body.It is the

responsibil-ity of the school’s com-munity, staff i n c l u d e d , to uphold a standard of tolerance for the differenc-

es around them. When toler-ance is expected, the school atmosphere changes. When students feel welcome, they feel safe, and when they feel safe, they’re more comfort-able and open to learning.

Chances are that after the incident, Kuntz, the North Dakota linebacker, did not feel welcome at his school.

His coach, the person that was that was supposed to be a

mentor to him, punished him for expressing his individual-ity.

When faced with someone who is different than one’s self, remember the simple rule: just because they’re dif-ferent doesn’t mean they’re bad; you don’t have to agree with them, but you do need to respect their choices and ac-cept their diversity.

Once diversity is accepted and respected, it can thrive. It is our duty as a school to em-brace the entire student body with open arms because it cannot be just one person or group that makes up a com-munity; it needs to be a mix of people, ideas and opinions.

So the next time your di-versity is put under duress, remember it is something to be proud of, not ashamed of.

It is like Jimmy Carter said, “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

Senior-staff conflict an exercise in idiocyMistakes made by both parties lead to discord

Not all the fault lies with the senior class.

Sure, they cheated at Knight Games, but there were mistakes made on the other side of the conflict as well.”

Mistakes were made

Contrary to public belief, I do respect the Prospect admin-istration. That’s why it’s so terribly surprising that the admin-istration has said absolutely nothing concerning punishments for the rebellious seniors. The deans said that in addition to the fact that no formal decision has been made, there had been no discussion at all of repercussions as of Oct. 5. The fact that they let the rumors endure as long as they have will, quite possibly, cause this conflict to last longer than it would have otherwise. Since you all obviously came here expecting a joke, remember the column on the front page by Mr. Laakso? My proposed headline that, unfortunately, wasn’t used (THANKS Obama. . .) was “Students Laak Principals”. Get it? It’s a pun!

Letters to the EditorEmail letters to the Editor to prospectornow@gmail.com in regards to ANY article or editorial this issue. All letters must be signed. Please limit letters to 400 words. The Prospector reserves the rights to edit letters for style and length.

Chris KivlahanOpinion Editor

s CENSORED: Seniors sit in an effort to protest absolutely nothing in particular. This is just one many sit downs that occured on color day. The faces are blurred so as to not provide the administrators with a list of offenders. I’m not taking sides in this particularly epic struggle. photo by Ian Magnuson

Voting results of the Prospector staff in regards to this editorial.

19Against For

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October 12, 2012Opinion prospectornow.com4

5October 12, 2012 Opinionprospectornow.com

Rolling with the MustangsA few Thursdays ago, I passed my

good friend senior Dawn Walter in the hall and said “Hi.” Walter likewise

greeted me and continued on her merry way.

A few seconds later, from the opposite end of the hallway, I heard her yell, “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!”

Walter goes to Rolling Mead-ows High School (RMHS), and for

a brief six and a half hours, so did I. I shadowed RMHS senior Megan Horan through her day at fellow District 214 school RMHS.

Aside from its South Middle School alumni, RMHS has a lot in common with Prospect High School. For exam-ple, RMHS has an iPad pilot program and has just installed a synthetic turf field.

In addition, PHS, RMHS and Wheeling all contribute to WildStang, the FIRST Robotics team that won a Robotics Championship two years ago.

Though PHS and RMHS share some similarities, it’s impossible to say which school I prefer, because the two are just so different.

For example, the RMHS block sys-tem divides schedules into gold and purple days.

On a regular-start day, blocks are 90 minutes long, with 10 minute passing periods. I happened to come on a late start purple day, which meant the day started at a 78-minute period five and continued on to period eight.

I found starting the day at period five relatively trippy. However, block scheduling, in conjunction with a mandatory study hall called Seminar, has the upside of giving RMHS a less stressful environment and a closer community.

Being able to linger in halls for longer, spend more time in classes to-gether, and talk to each other during Seminar gives RMHS students cama-raderie. For this reason, I liked block scheduling.

However, no system is perfect. Block scheduling is not for those with short attention spans.

Though I came on a day when the

blocks were shorter than usual, I found myself glancing at the clock after 50 of the 78 minutes were up. However, Horan, acclimated to block scheduling for three years, finds block scheduling productive.

“You’d think that the classes would drag on with 90 minutes, but they fly by,” Horan said. “I think you learn more in a day this way.”

PHS and RMHS differ in other ways, too.

While PHS’s school spirit is me-diocre at best, fading after its initial boost via The Underground several years ago, RMHS has one that forges ahead. School spirit is something that is nearly impossible to manufacture, and even more difficult to hold onto.

My theory is school spirit grows out of RMHS’s smaller school atmo-sphere and aforementioned sense of camaraderie.

“School spirit is just something we’re good at,” Horan said.

It’s an understatement. RMHS’s school spirit is driven by the school spirit organization Stampede, a cross between PHS’s Peppers and The Un-derground. Stampede has 50 mem-bers who are super-fans at RMHS’s games.

However, RMHS is changing, be-coming more academic ever since last year’s inauguration of its new prin-cipal, Eileen Hart. The school has a new ARC, or Academic Resource Cen-ter, stocked with teachers ready to tu-tor students.

Furthermore, clubs are no longer allowed to meet during the first half of Seminar, and students need passes to walk hallways during Seminar.

Some of these changes are good, but as a part-time Mustang, I hope RMHS doesn’t change too much.

s NOT A HORSE: Left to right: Rolling Meadows has humorously small lockers, the Rolling Meadows mustang sculpture, and RMHS prepares for homecoming on Sept. 20.

A Day in the life of Megan

Block 6, Seminar: Seminar is a school-wide study hall that takes place during the sixth block. As a person who impulsively packs their schedule with difficult classes every year, I think I would benefit from being forced to have a study hall. Secure in the knowledge that no one can out-compete me in the amount of AP’s I’m trying to take – the Seminar is mandatory – I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about taking a study hall.

The study hall I attended with Horan was brimming with Horan’s chums, and ev-eryone hung out and finished homework for an entire block. It was moments like these that made me want to be a Mustang.

Block 7, AP Spanish: PHS’ undeserv-ing freshmen are gifted iPads every year. Thankfully, RMHS has recognized this injustice and proceeded to give iPads to classically senior classes. One of these classes is AP Spanish. Social Studies Di-vision Head John Harrington even made a surprise visit to AP Spanish to talk about iPads.

“I want to re-emphasize that this is an opportunity most people do not get,” Har-rington said. “With great power comes great responsibility.”

AP Spanish is technologically in-volved, using Moodle to allow students to ask and answer each other’s questions in Spanish, and iPads to turn in homework and read news articles.

Block 8, Education Academy: Education Academy is a class different enough to warrant its own story. It combines students interested in teaching from all over the district, uses iPads and allows students to teach at elementary schools.

Block 5, Physical Education: Physical Educa-tion: Rolling Meadows Senior Megan Horan’s Ad-vanced PE class whined very little, and only when they had to do a twelve minute run. Having been in gym classes with whiny friends (and being a

PE whiner myself), I was favor-ably impressed. Rolling Mead-ows High School (RMHS), like Prospect High School (PHS), has wrestling rooms, an indoor track and a weight room.

However, RMHS’s gym pro-gram is slightly different. For example, RMHS’s fitness test has many of the same compo-nents PHS’s does, with the ad-dition of a vertical jump test, where students have to jump up

a touch a spot on a ruler which is recorded every semester and checked for improvement.

RMHS also has “dot drills,” black mats with yellow dots students have to step on in a pattern, as quickly as possible. The activity is measurable against national averages, increases agility and looks like a complicated round of Dance Dance Revolution.

Say cheese!

Pictures of current students participating in extracurriculars line the hallways of RMHS. This new addition to RMHS makes walking around RMHS feel like traipsing through the pages of a living year-book, edition 2012-2013. I imag-ine it makes going to class more interesting to some, the some who don’t have their faces plastered on walls in unposed shots.

Look Left and Right with

Anna’s Political Blogs

s TWO HOPS THIS TIME: RMHS students excercise via dot drill. Cue “Jump Around” by House of Pain.

Megan Horan

Anna BoratynExecutive Opinion Editor

On Prospectornow.com . . .

s iSPANISH: Senior Megan Horan uses her iPad during her AP Spanish class. What I wouldn’t give to be able to type my diarios.

photo by Anna Boratyn photo by Anna Boratynphoto by Anna Boratyn

photo by Anna Boratyn

photo by Anna Boratyn

October 12, 2012Features6 prospectornow.com

By Erin McGovern and Gracie McKayStaff Writers

A phone rang in the background as a 5-year-old little girl twirled in her big, cowboy-patterned skirt, trying to please her mother.

“I hope that’s the orphanage,” the girl remembers her mother saying, “be-cause I’m sending you back.”

Hearing the truth in that sharp remark, that she wasn’t the child her mother want-ed, could have been a crushing realiza-tion for a five year old, but instead it made her stronger.

By turning her skirt into a bag and

planning on running away, a young Su-sie Buchanan took the first step toward becoming the strong-willed, driven in-dividual that she is today.

Due to her work in community ser-vice and marketing she was named this year’s distinguished alumnus at the Knightimes coronation ceremony.

After the death of both her parents, Buchanan discovered that she had been adopted, and, although the realization stung, it made perfect sense to the now adult daughter who never felt like she fit into her adoptive family.

She would never know the truth about her birth parents. After discover-ing that her adoption papers had been destroyed in a fire, Buchanan realized that it was friends, not family, who she should turn to.

“When you don’t have a lot of family, friends become closer,” Buchanan said.

Later on in life, Buchanan went through a divorce, quit her job working in advertising and public relations and moved to North Carolina.

Buchanan didn’t want to live at home in Chicago with her kids because she

wanted to start a new life. Her first in-tention was to retire as soon as she got to North Carolina, and she played golf for a month straight when she got there.

But she found out a year after the divorce, the company she left to her ex-husband to manage failed.

The money Buchanan planned on us-ing for retirement was gone.

“It was either I move in with the kids or be strong and figure it out,” said Buchanan.

So Buchanan decided to do some-thing about it. She went to find a job, and chose to work at St. Joseph of the Pines Retirement Community, which helped out the elderly and homeless.

“Once I found [the job], I knew I was home,” said Buchanan.

While Buchanan worked at St. Jo-seph of the Pines, she discovered that 22 percent of the people in Moore County, where she lived, were illiterate.

Buchanan felt obligated to help those people in need because she said giving back to the community is important.

“It’s rewarding to them as much as it is to myself. When I was in trouble, people helped me,” Buchanan said.

To help the people in need, Buchan-an came up with an impeccable idea. Through her project entitled, “Togeth-er We Can Do Moore,” she decided to create a semi trailer that would travel to the less fortunate, since the home-less and elderly couldn’t get to the free medical clinic on the other side of the county.

“We brought the medical services to them,” Buchanan said.

The semi-trailer was composed of two medical examination rooms, two medical offices, emergency food and medical supplies and it also had “Semi Schools,” which were programs that taught classes on stress management, nutrition and had support for those looking for jobs.

Buchanan was able to make the idea of the semi-trailer come to life because

she applied and was rewarded with a grant of a staggering $448,000 for the project, and now the semi-trailer idea is expanding its horizons to include dental treatment. Buchanan helped out Moore County in several ways.

“I kept praying that I would lead a purposeful life,” she said.

It was for this diligence and hard work, Buchanan was recognized and in-vited to

Homecoming coronation ceremony.“I cried my eyes out,” she said. “I felt

so honored to be back here.”Buchanan was honored at the as-

sembly on Monday, Oct. 1, accompanied by her longtime friend since freshman year, Sandy Macarol.

The two have maintained a strong friendship since becoming friends in 1961, being there for each other through thick and thin.

The two liked to spend time outside, going to sundae shops or having slum-ber parties; helping each other through painful experiences like break-ups and the tragedy of president John F. Kenne-dy’s assassination during their sopho-

more year.After hearing on the loudspeak-

er that the president had been killed, the emotional turmoil was somewhat soothed by the presence of friends to go through the shock alongside Buchanan and Macarol.

“It was so emotional and just scary,” Buchanan said. “It was your friends that got you through it.”

And through it all, the two have been together, even sitting in Prospect’s field-house as Buchanan was awarded this year’s distinguished alumnus award.

Macarol nominated her friend be-cause of the remarkable accomplish-ment of starting her life over at 60, and for the enthusiasm she has as a person.

For the two friends, especially Bu-chanan, the hard times, generosity and perseverance have certainly paid off.

The success she has had and sense of fulfillment from helping others has more than outweighed the difficult times she has faced.

“When you are faced with adversi-ty in life. You can fold or get stronger through it,” Buchanan said.

Who Knows You BetterZach

Tuzcak

The Boyfriend

LibbyFredrickson

Paige Zardin

The Best Friend

The subject Libby’s planned college major?

Libby’s favorite place to eat out?

Libby’s favorite class?

Libby’s biggest pet peeve?

Libby’s favorite color?

Libby’s favorite type of music?

The results

Nursing

Nursing

Nursing

Kampaii

Kampaii

Kampaii

Nursing at Harper

Literature

Nursing at Harper

Pink

Pink

Pink

If people don’t pay attention

People don’t lis-ten to her when

she’s talking

People text off her phone

Country

Country

Country

Winner4

4

4 4

4

4 4

44 x x

Alumnus earns honors for charity

Back in the day

Susie Buchanan,

DOING GOOD: Distinguished Alumnus Susie Buchanan started a program called “Together We Can Do Moore,” which opened a trailer to help the needy in Moore County, NC. The ‘65 graduate used her experience in marketing and advertising to help her community. “I kept praying that I would lead a purposeful life,” she said.

photo courtesy of Susie Buchanan

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photos courtesy of the Crest

‘65 Prospect graduate and this year’s Distinguished Alumnus Susie Buchanan kept busy during high school.

Center, second row, Buchanan was a member of the Rhytmettes, on of the school’s dance groups.

Buchanan was the adver-tising editor for the Prospec-tor her senior year. She later pursued a career in advertis-ing and public relations.

Buchanan, was also in-volved in class board and the variety show.

October 12, 2012 Features 7prospectornow.com

By Kyle BrownCopy Editor

The trees sway strongly east-ward, toward the barbed wire-topped fence dividing Heller Lumber from Douglas Avenue. The gusts of wind are the only relief the teenaged ballplayers at Recreation Park have from the cruel, unwavering heat of the sun overhead. The parents squint and shield their eyes with their h a n d s , t u r n i n g their faces away from the action whenever the dust kicks up from the diamond.

The bat-ter takes his first swing on a high chan-geup, but fouls it off to the left field side. The ball rises high in the air, spelling trouble for the kids in the home dugout who are meant to re-trieve it since the roof and con-crete walls limit their circum-ferential vision. Sure enough, the wind carries it away over the fence and into the lumber yard, the netherworld from which no ball ever returns (see “Where do the baseballs go?”).

This scene has been played out hundreds of times over the 76-year history of the park, and is a telltale sign of the idiosyn-cratic relationship between Recreation Park and the busi-ness park next door.

Rec Park, established in 1936, was the first piece of land

ever acquired by the Arlington Heights Park District (AHPD). It was developed to be a sort of “central park,” according to Arlington Heights Deputy Di-rector of Community Planning and Development Bill Enright, and was placed next to Heller Lumber, the cornerstone busi-ness of Arlington Heights’ first industrial park, in order for the pair to develop as a center-piece for the young, still-grow-

ing village. By now,

h o w e v e r, Arlington H e i g h t s has been built out to its bound-aries, so some de-velopment moves that were made in the v i l l a g e ’ s i n f a n c y don’t seem to make as much sense to-day now

that we can see the final map of town. Rec Park is one of these areas that might seem random to the casual viewer.

While Rec Park is surround-ed by single-family housing on two sides, the other two bor-der Northwest Highway and a rusty, crumbling industrial park.

Aesthetically speaking, this is anything but ideal. Come ear-ly July, the Frontier Days festi-val backs up to bleak stacks of lumber, which opposes the in-tended festive atmosphere.

However unsightly Heller Lumber may be to passersby, it has called its plot in Arlington Heights its home since 1923.

The business has been passed down through four generations and is anchored by its little strip of railroad that comes through the intersection of Northwest Highway and Kens-ington Road (see “The railroad is alive tonight”).

No matter how integral Heller Lumber is to Arling-ton Heights’ history, it still re-mains an eyesore. That is why the APHD planted a grove of pines separating the lumber yard from the smaller of the two baseball diamonds.

Rec Park isn’t the only park district facility in the area that neighbors an industrial zone, though. Heritage Tennis Club on the north side of town is nestled snugly within its busi-ness park surroundings where the local workers often go to work out, according to Enright.

However, Rec Park is noth-ing like the tennis club. Its in-dustrial neighbors have walled themselves off from the park and it’s clear that the park is meant for kids, or at least those are the only people who seem to use it.

Because of this disparity of interaction between the busi-nesses on Hickory and the Rec Park community, the Arlington Heights Planning Commission has proposed the development of four-to-five-story apartment buildings to replace the indus-trial zone that stands today.

“It would be a positive to

have more people living with-in walking distance,” Enright said. “They would be able to patronize the park and use it and benefit from it.”

According to Enright, this plan would take its course over 10-15 years, assuming two things: that the property own-ers would be willing to sell and that there would be enough de-mand for such a development.

For a point of reference, it took roughly 25 years to develop the bustling downtown Arlington Heights area into the nightlife megacenter it is today.

“It’s not something that hap-pens overnight, but it would be a first step for putting forth a vision for the area,” Enright said. “Hopefully it will come to fruition, but it takes time.”

Side by side, but not hand in handRec Park’s juxtaposition with a local business park has deviated from its 76-year-old intended purpose

A TALE OF TWO SETTINGS: Recreation Park’s adult and high school level field stands across the street from Heller Lumber. Plans are in the works to reconfigure both of the ball fields at the park. photo by Rich Futo

The railroad is alive tonight

Heller Lumber, while not directly on the railroad tracks, still has access to them. The founders used its proximity to the railroad as the anchor for its location and have their own private set of tracks running off the main line exclusively into their lumber yard.

They rely on the tracks to this day and get all of their inventory on a railcar shipped from the Pacific Northwest about once a month. From there they package it for use in housing and other construction.

It’s not at all uncommon for baseballs to find their way into the lumber yard adjacent to both of Rec Park’s baseball diamonds, but what happens once they’re lost?

As it turns out, they aren’t eaten by a guard dog like the one in “The Sandlot,” nor are they handed out as Employee of the Month prizes.

Instead, they are collected in a bucket and then returned to the league, which comes by periodi-cally to reclaim their lost foul balls, according to Heller Lumber owner Bob Heller.

Where do the baseballs go?

CHAIN-LINK CHARM: (Below) The Heller Lumber Company looms behind the home dugout at Recreation Park. Its proximity to the field makes it easy for foul balls to get lost. (Right) The lumber yard, as viewed between the row of evergreens and the fence that keep the park and lumber yard separate.

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photos by Rich Futo

photo by Rich Futo

October 12, 2012In-Depth8

Talk with a pro: The Subject: Angela Lambert

Occupation: Manager at Kay’s Animal Shelter

Q: How many pets are held at Kay’s at a time? A: We have probably 25 and 50 dogs at a time. In the winter we may have only 20 cats or so and then in summer we may have 40.

Q: What types of animals does Kay’s have? A: Just dogs and cats.

Q: How much does it cost to adopt a pet? A: Most of the dogs are $280 and most of the cats are $130.

Q: What does this include? A: They’re current on their vaccinations...the puppies are microchipped. If they’re old enough they’re already spayed and neutred.

If they’re not old enough, we provide a certificate to get that done.

Q: What do you mean by, “microchipped”? A: They have a little chip that’s put, with a needle, it’s about the size of a piece of rice. It has a number and police depart-ments, shelters and animal hospitals have a...scanner and you can wave it over the top of the animal and a number pops up...if a pet is ever lost and somebody finds it they scan it and call into the company. It’s a source of identification.

Q: How long do you keep the animals?A: Until they’re adopted.

Q: Do you put any animals down?A: No.

Q: What are the benefits of adopting an animal at a shelter?A: The biggest thing is that they’re usually going to be healthi-er. Sometimes you’re going to the pet stores and some of those are working with what they call puppy mills. The animals that are raised in puppy mills are kept in horrible conditions. A lot of times when you adopt through a shelter you’re saving an animal.

Acquiring a faithful companion

By Khrystyna Halatyma and Jack McDermottExecutive In-Depth Editor and Executive Online Editor

Pet StoresJunior Joe Benway decided to go to

Happiness is Pets to acquire his silky ter-rier last month.

Happiness is Pets brags about hav-ing the best warranty and the healthiest puppies by printing this phrase in big let-ters all over their webpage, but for Ben-way’s dog, Lola, this was not the case. She seemed healthy and normal when bought, but became mysteriously ill after coming home with the Benways so they took her to an animal hospital.

“They said she was going to be alright and that we could pick her up the next day, but [Lola] unexpectedly just died,” Benway said.

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), virtually all dogs in pet stores are from puppy mills. Benway believes the dog he purchased from Happiness is Pets came from a puppy mill. The manag-er of Happiness is Pets had no comment regarding the situation.

Puppy mills are large-scale breeding sites where dogs are often malnourished and kept in small cages. Although many stores oppose puppy mills, they are the cheapest way to get a constant supply of purebred dogs to stores.

Despite controversy, thousands of people buy dogs from pet stores because of the accessibility and ease; pet stores cannot legally hold pets from any cus-tomers and because of this, there is very little paperwork.

However, store bought dogs that come from mills are more likely to become hard to house train and are less social. Still, many families still buy pet store dogs with great longevity and success, unlike Lola, the Benway’s first dog,

Gordy represents the successful side of pet stores. Gordy is currently an 11-year-old dog with great health, an as-tonishing feat for any dog. Gordy was also bought from Happiness is Pets, and the process went so well it caused the family to purchase from there again.

FosteringSenior Taylor Arndt and her parents

have been participating in dog fostering with Foster 2 Home for about two years. Foster 2 Home describes itself as “a reg-istered, non-profit, charitable organi-zation dedicated to finding permanent homes for adoptable dogs.”

Foster 2 Home works with families who agree to take care of dogs until a suitable and more permanent home can be found for them (to learn more, see “Want to get involved?”).

“[The dogs] go to houses so they can be with the people instead of being at a shelter,” Arndt said. “It’s just a better sit-

uation for them instead of being locked up in little cages.”

The process is simple; Arndt gets an email with information about dogs in the foster system, then the next step is to pick up the dog they chose from the previous owner. After that, the dog is all theirs until someone else decides to adopt it for good. Arndt says dogs can stay with them anywhere from three days to two months.

“It’s a good way we can have a sec-ond dog without keeping a second dog,” Arndt said.

However, the number of dogs in the Arndt house has risen to three. Arndt and her family ended up adopting one of the dogs they fostered, a chocolate lab named Clyde. They had decided to adopt Clyde because of the bond that had grown between them during the time Clyde was with the family.

Arndt says with certain dogs it’s hard to give them up for adoption, but with others, like puppies, it’s a different story. Puppies are easy to give away to owners according to Arndt because, even though they are so cute, they require a lot more work than older dogs.

“[Fostering] is a really good thing because it’s saving a life,” Arndt said. “Even if you can’t own another dog, it’s at least giving you an opportunity to save these lives. My mom always says she thinks [the dogs] know they’re getting a second chance because we’ve never re-ally had a bad dog. Even though it’s one dog it’s saving something [and] it’s just that great feeling.”

The Art of buying furry friends:

There are many different ways to acquire a dog; from a pet shop, adoption, breeders or from fostering. All situations have their benefits and disadvantages

The graph on the left shows where students got their pets. The graph on the right shows what kind of pet students own.

MACY: Junior Holly Macks

MURPHY: Junior Michael Guttuso

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PEANUT VICTOR: Senior Samantha Victor

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RIEDY: Senior Laura Barnetts

October 12, 2012 In-Depth 9

Prospect’s In-Depth guide to popular pets

By Brian ParkExecutive In-Depth Editor

Early in the morning, before students arrived for their classes, something was stirring around in the building. . . and it was dangerous. Slithering stealthily, the snake came closer and closer until it gobbled up its meal, an unsuspecting rat, by knocking its cage on the floor.

The snake, Noah, is actually a red-tailed Columbian boa constrictor that currently resides in science teacher Nick DelBoccio’s biology class, room 329. Noah is not used for biology exper-iments; however, it has been a class pet living at Prospect for at least 23 years. According to DelBoccio, the name Noah had been chosen because Noah rhymed with boa.

While class pets can be a great ad-dition to a classroom by brightening a student’s day and give students some-thing to look forward to in school, they can also be distracting during class and need to be taken care of. A boa constrictor, a dwarf hamster and a dark-furred rabbit are some of the animals at Prospect that have our school as their home.

In another room, the students were go-ing about their usual routine in chemistry class until Nugget, the class hamster, started acting up. During the day she usually sleeps, but one day she decided to run on her wheel during

class, which instant-ly grabbed the stu-dents’ and the teach-er’s attention.

Senior Hannah Heimdal decided to bring Nugget the dwarf hamster to class. It was brought into room 313 be-cause she already had a cat at her house and her mom did not like rodents.

“I decided [the name] before I got it; I just thought it was so little, like a little nugget,” Heimdal said.

The dark-furred rabbit lives in room 330. Whether he jumps into students’ backpacks, runs and tosses papers on the floor, or unexpectedly poops in peo-

ple’s hands when they are hold-ing him, Tuck-er Bam Jamal Thumper Thun-derbunny really has a knack for surprising his caretakers.

All names courtesy of stu-dents, this dark-furred rabbit was first called Tucker when he was given to

science teacher Alyssa Genitoni from a former student. The breeder where he got it from named it Bam, another

former student then named it Jamal, this year’s class added Thumper, and his last name is Thunderbun-ny.

He was born in Dec. 2006, and Genitoni re-ceived him from Pros-pect graduate Domini-ca Amidei in Jan. 2007, after the she expressed an interest in bunnies from a farm festival.

After Amidei men-tioned she didn’t know if she would be able to keep her bunny, Vicki,

Genitoni then told Amidei to bring it to school if she had nowhere to put it. However, something happened, and she was able to keep Vicki. Amidei wanted Genitoni to have a bunny too, so she went out and bought one for her.

While Genitoni takes care of Tucker during the school year, she allows stu-dents to take him over the summer if they want to.

The responsibility of taking care of Noah falls on both DelBoccio and biolo-gy teacher Tom Froats, which includes feeding, giving it water and finding Noah if he goes missing from his cage.

Snakes are excellent at escaping, so Noah had been an escapee out of his cage before; in fact, he escaped twice. One time he was just laying behind a lab table, and another time he went af-ter a rabbit in another room. Fortunate-ly, snakes aren’t very active during the daytime and start moving around when the lights go off.

How to get involved with “Foster 2 Home”

Head to ProspectorNow.com to...See photos from Kay’s Animal Shelter

Read the rest of “Pets in the Classroom”

Pets in the classroom: pros and consThe advantages of having a diverse group of animals in the school outweigh some the disadvantages involved

The dangerous snake

Students can touch Noah when the teachers are holding them, but the teachers do not allow the students because Noah can always strike out at them. According to DelBoccio, students are not allowed to feed Noah, mainly because the feeding process is gruesome. Noah feeds off mice and rats, so feeding him can be a bit trau-matizing. A teacher throws in the prey, and Noah does the rest.

HAPPY HAMSTER: Nugget the hamster lives with his exercise

wheel. Students can visit her in room 313. photo courtesy of Hannah Heimdal

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BONNIE JOY RUDA: Junior Jenny Ruda

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APACHE: Senior Lexi Bottss

LOVELY: Junior Hannah Roses

LINKIN and LOUIE: Senior Katie Bests

Truman: Junior Callie Leones

Teachers go from training to 26.2

By Andi HayesFeatures Editor

Math/Science Division Head Keith Bellof arrives at Prospect around 4:45 am to go for a four to five mile run. Once at school, Bellof meets with social studies teacher Dave Schnell and math teacher Mike Riedy to run around the neighborhood, taking different routes around Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights, depending on the day.

These runs usually take the teachers about an hour to complete. Running is just one component of the rig-orous training these teachers do to train for a marathon.

This year, many Prospect teachers com-peted amongst 45,000 people in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7. For some it was their first marathon, and for others it was an annual tradi-tion. However, no one, newcomer or not, could have completed the 26.2 mile trek without the dedication and hard efforts required for training.

Training for marathons typically starts 16 weeks prior to the run. The total number of miles per week starts from around 9 miles and maxes out with about 36 miles, according to a be-ginner’s guide to training for the Chica-go Marathon from Nike’s website.

Typically the runner trains six days a week, alternating every other day with cross-training (swimming and bicycling), track intervals and/or

stretching. Schnell started preparing for his

first Chicago Marathon in June by run-ning three days a week with one day for swimming and bicycling each. He alternated his running days by doing one day of long-distance running, me-dium-distance running and short-dis-

tance track workout intervals.

Having only pre-viously ran in half marathons and 5K’s (3.5 miles), Schnell no-ticed the organization and goal-oriented plan for marathon training differed greatly from his half marathon strategy of not giv-ing the running much thought and going as fast as he can.

“I don’t think there was a lot of thought

[into my] pace and how to do things,” Schnell said. “I think [marathon train-ing] has been a lot more scientific. You have a goal, you know how much you’re going to hit. On certain days you’re go-ing to run slower than others. Every-thing’s got a very regimented structure to it.”

Math teacher Martha Kelly had a very regimented training plan for her ultramarathon (see “What’s an Ultra-marathon?”), which included running every day and biking once a week to and from school from her Mundelein home, a 20-mile ride each way. Kelly also trained by doing long-distance runs on Saturdays and Sundays, usually of 20 miles each.

Kelly feels running is no different

than any other hobby and has been do-ing marathons for 14 years. Kelly enjoys the sense of accomplishment after fin-ishing a marathon.

Similarly, Bellof has another reason for that feeling. Bellof began running marathons to raise money for World Vision, an organization that provides clean water solutions for third world countries. Bellof accredits one of the most rewarding parts of running his marathon this year to raising $2,600 for World Vision.

“When times got tough, I would think of why I’m running [the marathon], and that helped,” Bellof said. “Knowing the struggles that [the underprivileged people World Vision helps] go through made my [running] struggles seem not so big.”

Even though he wasn’t running for a particular cause, Riedy decided he wanted to run his first marathon after Bellof convinced him to give running a try. He started with 5K races and half marathons and then upgraded to a full marathon.

“I’ve always trained working to-wards a certain race, and [running mar-athons] just seemed like the next logical choice after training for all [those] oth-er races,” Riedy said.

After he started training for a mar-athon, Riedy’s health became his cause for running. Riedy has been able to enjoy the benefits running had on his health by feeling more energetic and positive throughout the day and even losing 60 pounds.

“Four years ago I [had] high blood pressure [and] high cholesterol,” Riedy said. “I was, in essence, a walking heart attack. And then I started training and my high blood pressure and my high cholesterol went away.”

Riedy isn’t the only one reaping the health benefits of marathon training; Schnell has also lost weight, feels like a better runner and stronger swimmer. However, Schnell claims the most re-warding part of running a marathon is the whole experience itself.

While Schnell did not make his in-tended time at this year’s Chicago mar-athon, he plans on running next year to improve even more.

“It sounds like it’s miserable because it’s three or four months where you’re constantly running all the time, but I really enjoyed the whole process,” Schnell said. “It felt like you reached a new challenge each time you ran a lit-tle bit further, so I think it was kind of exciting.”

What’s an Ultramarathon?

Also known as an ultra dis-tance, ultramarathons are races that are longer than the typical 26.2 miles of a marathon. Ultra-marathons are usually 50 km. (31.1 miles), 100 km. (62.1 miles), 50 miles or 100 miles. Math Teacher Martha Kelly is running the Glacial Trial 50K in Wausaw, Wisconsin, which is full of hills and is a constant up and down course.

October 12, 2012Features10 prospectornow.com

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702 E. Rand Rd.Mount Prospect, IL 60056Phone: 847.590.9545

Keith Bellof03:32:23Craig Bianchi

04:20:26Erik Hodges

3:40:02

Gary Jud-son4:02:15

Martha Kelly3:32:03

Mike Riedy03:58:45

Scott Russell3:58:23

Dave Schnell05:06:50

Pete Wintermute2:55:10

Cristen Sprenger3:35:13

Staff’s best for time running a marathon

October 12, 2012 Entertainment 11prospectornow.com

Unique fall play uses originality to capture audienceBy Kelly SchoesslingEntertainment Editor

Instead of spending his sum-mer enjoying the beach and playing in the sand, English and Fine Arts teacher Jeremy Morton was primarily focused on finding the perfect play for this year’s fall production.

Morton was interested in looking for a play done by the House Theater Company in Chicago (see “House Theater Company in Chicago”) after seeing several impressive pro-ductions done by the company. While researching for the per-fect show, he stumbled across a different kind of production,

“The Sparrow.”Written in 2007 by Chicago

playwrights Jake Minton, Na-than Allen and Chris Mathews, “The Sparrow” is a fairly new, but already popular produc-tion.

The show centers around Emily Book, a young second grader with magical powers who leaves town after a trag-ic event leaves the rest of her classmates dead.

The story then continues on several years later when Emily returns to her hometown for her senior year of high school where the past tragedy still lin-gers.

“It’s the idea of a girl who

comes and helps the town fly--and I mean that metaphori-cally,” Morton said. “It’s about tragedy. Everyone has tragedy in their lives and sometimes we never get past it.”

“The Sparrow” also attract-ed Morton’s attention because it touches upon another im-portant topic: bullying.

“There’s such an epidemic right now of I think bullying of younger kids, and I wanted to tell that story,” Morton said.

“All the stories that I found were stories for younger au-

diences. I didn’t know if that would be appropriate for the high school stage.” Morton said.

Once he crossed paths with “The Sparrow” he believed it had the capability to speak to a more mature audience.

The cast and crew are also very excited by the original-ity “The Sparrow” brings to the stage.

“It’s nothing like I’ve ever been in before; it’s very differ-ent,” Sophomore Allie O’Con-nor said.

O’Connor explains that the unique script and choreo-graphed numbers are expres-sive and exciting to perform.

“It seems like it would be weird, but it’s actually kind of interesting,” senior and stu-dent director Lauren Kinser said. “It’s a different variety of the art forms.”

This year’s fall play will be featuring not only dancing, but also flying and magic through interpretation.

Though the show is exciting both to Morton and cast mem-bers, it’s also presented some extensive technical difficulties.

“The hardest part right now is all the magic,” Morton said, “How do we make it look like they’re flying? How do we co-ordinate the music of the show with the movement?”

Sophomore Elli Furukawa and O’Connor both agree that the technical pieces within the show, like flying, have been the biggest difficulty so far.

“It’s hard to do without ac-tually jumping and getting off the ground, “O’Connor said. “Gravity doesn’t allow us to fly,” Furukawa said.

Though flying is no easy task, student director Grace Campe thinks the motions and dance within the show are the most challenging.

“They have to show emotion through their body movement, and that’s kind of hard to por-tray sometimes.”

Despite all the challeng-es, “The Sparrow” looks to be extremely promising with its unique storyline, interpretive dancing and magical presence.

“The Sparrow” will be soar-ing onto the stage Oct. 18, 19 and 20. “I don’t think they [the audience] will ever see a show like ‘The Sparrow’ again. It’s so unique,” Morton said.

“The Sparrow” spreads its wingsHouse Theater Company in Chicago

Founded in 2001 by a group of friends, the House Theater Com-pany in Chicago is a non-profit production company that works to create a “unique and theatrical experience,” according to their official website. The company performs a variety of different genres of shows, and even accepts submission of scripts on their website. Since their first opening show, “The Death of Harry Houdini,” they have expanded to create seven seasons worth of creative shows.Though the Company is only 11 years old, its proven to be quite a success with its 50 Joseph Jefferson Awards. To find interest-ing and new productions in the area visit their official website for

To learn more about “The Sparrow” check out Prospectornow.com

SOAR: Juniors Jenny Ruda and Josh Arshonsky run through their lines as they practice for the upcoming PHS production of, “The Spar-row”. The unique production will be premièring on stage Thurs. Oct. 18 and will be performing until Oct. 20. photos by Ian Magnuson

October 12, 2012Entertainment12 prospectornow.com

#1: “ Y o u put it on before your makeup and after, and it makes it so your make-up stays in place.”

#3: “I use it every day because it’s awesome and it matches anybody which is great.”

#2 : It never rubs off, it’s actual-ly really hard to get off but that’s a good thing.”

1. Urban Decay De-Slick Oil Con-trol Make Up

2. Revlon Color Stay Liquid Eyelin-er

3. Nars Laguna Bronzer

1. L’oreal Paris True Match Natu-rale Minerals Loose Powder Foundation

2. Fantasia IC Hair Polisher with Aloe

3. Mac Pro- Long Wear Concealer

1. Lancome Oscil-lation Mascara

2. Bobbie Brown Loose Powder

3. Bobbi Brown Lip Balm

1. Burts Bees Chapstick

2. Cover Girl Vol-ume Mascara

3. Chi Flat Ironed

Three is the magic number A look inside the ladies of Prospect’s top three beauty products.

#2: “Instead of hav-ing blotchy spots, it comes on clearly.”

#1: “It pulls my lashes apart and up.”

#3: “It has SPF in it and it's like lip gloss and chapstick at the same time.”

#2: “It makes your eyes pop.”

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By Maddy MoloneyAssociated Editor-in-Chief

I am a bit of a scatterbrain. That being said, there are few things that can fully keep my attention: Ryan Gossling’s abs, Garrets Popcorn and sharks are some of the few things that I can zero in on. But the one thing can turn my attention into obsession is make up. It’s not only the pretty colors that excite me, but

options and possibilities each product opens itself up to. With this spread I wanted to share other stu-dents favorite products to give others something to get obsessed with.

To see even more students top beauty products hop on to Prospectornow.com, where you can also find reviews about the hottest new products.

Mascara ManiaIf you’re anything like me, you go mad for a

good mascara. But sometimes finding a decent mascara can be tougher than Acing an AP phys-ics test. So I have compiled a list of my top mas-caras just to make you’re life a little easier.

Buxom Lash Dior Black out Bareminerals L’oreal Telescopic Mascara

Revlon Photoready 3D Volume

$9.99 Walgreens $7 Walgreens$18 Sephora$25 Sephora$19 Sephora

Flawless Definitions

SeniorChantel Higgins

#3: “It conceals my dark eyes after studying all night for tests, and it just has good coverage. If you use it, you don’t real-ly need to use foundation, because your skin already looks smooth and even.”

#2: "It keeps my hair polished, soft and shiny."

#1:"It provides a matte finish and it keeps my face oil free."

#3: “It’s literally so easy to straighten [my hair] in the morning.”

#:1“It moistur-izes your lips and looks so cute be-cause it looks like you have lip gloss on, and it just adds something so you don’t look so ‘plain

Senior Baylee Porter

JuniorAmanda Basalaj

Sophomore Sabrina O’Mara

October 12, 2012 Sports 13prospectornow.com

On, off the course for four years

By Maggie DevereuxEditor-in-Chief

One of senior Jeff Blethen’s favorite memories this year was the boys’ golf ’s win over Fremd in the team’s last con-ference meet of the season. Heading into the match, they were undefeated, and Fremd only had one loss.

For Blethen and fellow se-niors, a victory in their last Mid-Suburban League (MSL) match was important, but even more special was the support they had from the entire pro-gram, who came to watch.

An undefeated conference record, 11-1 regular season re-cord and an MSL conference ti-tle highlights this year’s team’s run. But to them, their bond and chemistry with each other is equal to the results.

“The results help, but be-

ing friends with everyone else is the best part,” senior Ryan Maloney said. “We’ve all been friends since freshman year, but golf definitely strength-ened our bond.”

According to head coach Tom Martindale, five of the seniors on the team — Malo-ney, Joey Corrado, Mike Fox, Alex Parisi and Tyler Yarwood — have played with each oth-er for all four years of high school. Similarly, three other seniors have been playing with those seniors for three years: Blethen, who moved to varsity his sophomore year, and Kyle Blatt and Nick Piper, who each took a year off.

“It’s been them on the course and off the course for four years,” Martindale said. “Their friendships have grown stronger and stronger as each year has gone on.”

Martindale has seen these friendships act as a motiva-tor on the course, and Blethen agrees that they have a big im-pact.

“We have this comfortable familiarity with each other that gives us good chemistry,” Blethen said. “We’re always rooting each other and know-ing to pick the other person.”

The chemistry isn’t just lim-ited to the seniors on varsity however. Maloney and Blethen believe it spreads all the way down, even to the Frosh/Soph level.

“This year it’s a program from top to bottom. I think the freshmen and sophomores feel they’re just as involved as the juniors and seniors,” Blethen said. “You’ll see seniors talking to freshmen golfers in the hall-way. You’ll see juniors talking to sophomores. There’s no ‘Oh I’m a varsity player, you’re a freshman player, we don’t re-ally talk.’ We’ll play together on the course; we’ll practice together.”

“We try to set the tone for future years and what golf at Prospect should be,” Maloney said.

Alongside their chemistry, the team’s biggest strength is their depth. Compared to pre-vious years, Martindale has used more different lineups than ever with this team.

“The great part about being on our team is if you’re having a bad day you know there’s five guys with you that are going to pick you up,” Blethen said. “We have six players that can go out

and [score] low any day. Even if you have that one bad shot, one bad hole, you know your team-mate’s going to be there to pick you up and keep you going. Our sixth guy can shoot as good as our first guy on any given day.”

The combination of depth and chemistry helped the team win their second consec-utive conference title on Sept. 24. Their second place finish added to their undefeated con-ference record and put them

ahead of second place finisher Barrington.

At regionals, the team took fourth, but Maloney, Blethen and junior Josh Johnson ad-vanced individually to the sec-tional meet. (see “Regional and sectional results”)

“Most of the time when you’re playing golf, it’s just you against the course,” Blethen said. “But it helps a lot having five guys [who] are rooting for you around you.”

Bond of seniors impacts program, strengthens meet performances

Regional and sectional results

Regionals: Oct. 2 at Old Orchard Country Club

Team Score- 328, 4th out of 9 teamsIndividual Sectional Qualifiers: Senior Ryan Maloney (76) Senior Jeff Blethen (82) Junior Josh Johnson (84)

Sectionals: Oct. 8 at Makray Memorial Golf Course

Individual State Qualifier: Junior Josh Johnson (79)

State Meet: Oct. 12 at The Den at Fox Creek Golf Course

s SWINGING FOR STATE: Junior Josh Johnson takes a swing in practice on Oct. 9 to prepare for the state meet on Oct. 12. Chemis-try throughout the program has helped lead the team to asuccessful season. photo by Rich Futo

October 12, 2012Sports14 prospectornow.com

Knights host 5th Volley for the Cure

At 11:56 EST on Sept. 26, joyful news spread through the wide world of sports announcing that the NFL ref-eree lockout was over.

The referee lockout began at the end of the 2011-2012 season and lasted the entire preseason this year, along with the first three weeks of the regular season.

This was the result of the NFL referees “boycot-ting” the league, replacement referees had to act as placeholders.

The problem people had with replacement referees was that they weren’t even NCAA Division I officials; they were Division III, junior college, and high school referees that they found in the middle of nowhere (sarcasm intended).

However, this lockout would most likely not be over unless it was for a Monday night football game that swept the entire nation when the Green Bay Packers got screwed over on a controversial call against the Seattle Seahawks.

The game blew up on different TV sports networks and on social media. People were calling the NFL a joke and that those referees had no idea what they were talking about; I couldn’t help but agree.

As a high school athlete, there is no worse way to lose than from a blown call by a referee or official.

Whether it’s being called out by an outside pitch in baseball, getting fouled with no call in basketball or receiving a pass in football and being called for a pen-alty, there is no satisfaction in losing that way what-soever.

I understand that if you go down swinging or if you fade away from contact, the call from the referee isn’t going to go your way, but if you put in 110% of effort and your team ends up losing on something you can’t control, I can imagine that you would be devastated.

A high school referee is no different than one of those NFL replacement referees.

Despite the lighter amount of pressure, high school referees make the same mistakes as NFL referees. Even if the stage is smaller, the players’ reaction can be the same.

I’ve seen referees penalize and throw out high school athletes for not throwing a tantrum, but simply asking why they made the call they did.

During an AAU basketball game, one of my team-mates who is considered one of the top player in the country got thrown out of the game for asking the ref-eree about a foul.

My teammate didn’t use any profanity nor did he do anything unsportsman like.

He was simply asking why the referee called an “and-1” when the foul was committed five seconds earlier.

The official must of had a tough day because she made my teammate leave the building and told the people who ran the tournament that he wasn’t al-lowed back inside.

Referees do not want to be threatened when they’re officiating the game. The referees want to have full control of the game and when they get “rattled”, they tend to start blowing whistles and throwing flags like crazy.

Just a word of advice, don’t exaggerate or “flop” during games because it’s just going to make you look like a wimp and the referee is definitely not going to give you the call.

And another thing, keep your mouth closed in any competitive sport.

Just keep playing. Don’t swear, touch or harm the referee.

Any type of retaliation is just an excuse for the ref-erees to “T you up” and put you on the bench for the remainder of the game.

Most of us athletes have had an experience where we’ve been screwed over by a referee and the ending result might not be in our favor, but sometimes we have to walk in their shoes to see how tough officiat-ing can be.

sSPIKE FOR THE CURE: Holly Hunt spikes the ball over the net during the Volley for the Cure game against Buffalo Grove. The girls varsity volleyball team is hoping to use Volley for the Cure as motivation for the rest of the season.

By Peter FusileroExecutive Sports Editor

Jean Walker Fieldhouse was covered in pink from the rafters to the floorboards. Pink balloons were tied to hand rails, students in pink t-shirts packed the stu-dent section and pink posters were hung up that read “More than 2.5 million survivors in U.S.A.”

On Oct. 4 this past week, Pros-pect hosted its 5th annual Volley for the Cure match against Buffalo Grove and won the match (See Vol-ley for the cure brings success on prospectornow.com). Prior to the event, the girls’ volleyball program raised money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure by selling t-shirts and raffle tickets.

As of Oct. 9, the team’s record was 11-17, and the team hopes to turn things around by using Volley for the Cure as motivation.

“Last year we had a lot of peo-ple watching us at [Volley for the Cure],” senior Maggie Haaning said. “It’s a huge motivator and we usually all play better as a team

and perform better.” Haaning believes that Volley for

the Cure not only motivates and impacts the team, but it also affects the whole school.

“I think a lot of the school is really behind the event,” Haaning said. “Everyone enjoys coming to it and everyone is a big supporter.”

Within the first couple days, there were already 400 Volley for the Cure shirts sold and the grand total sold was 900 t-shirts, according to head coach Mike Riedy.

Riedy com-pares the event to a Bears game.

“It’s not just a Bears game, it’s the t a i l g a t i n g ahead of time and the post game after,” Riedy said.

There is much preparing and planning that leads up to Volley for the Cure.

“It’s not just a volleyball game, it’s the raffle, it’s the t-shirt sales, it’s the stands filled with people

in pink,” Riedy said. “It’s people coming to remember friends and family members who lost the battle with cancer.”

According to Haaning, the pro-gram’s goal each year is to raise $10,000 and they’ve gotten close to breaking the $8,000 benchmark.

Even though the generous do-nations make a huge impact every year, Riedy believes it is not all

about the money.“It’s nice that

we’re able to raise so much money, but I don’t think any one [event] is any more special than the oth-er,” Riedy said. “Even if we were to raise an exor-bitant amount of money this year, I still think we would see it as one great event.”

Aside from the Volley for the Cure, the team hopes to rebuild and improve for the rest of the sea-son.

“We’re not doing as well as we’d like to be,” senior Annie Geweni-ger said. “Sometimes we fall apart in a game, and we don’t pick our-

selves up.”Confidence is what Ge-

weniger believes is going to be key to be successful for the rest of the season.

“It’s having the confi-dence to keep playing and playing to our ability,” Ge-weniger said.

Along with confidence, Riedy believes that focus needs to be a big factor in order to win games.

“Part of our issue now is focus. I think that’s one thing to work on,” Riedy said. “Take every practice seriously and take every match seriously regardless of who your opponent is.”

Crowd wearing pink brings the team in sync

All an official needs is a whistle

With Peter Fusilero

photo by Ian Magnuson

Raising Money for the Cure

-Money Raised in 2008: $5,600-Money Raised in 2009: $6,200-Money Raised in 2010: $7,700-Money Raised in 2011: $7,801-Money Raised this year: $6,800

Total Money Raised: $34,101

*All money is donated to Susan G. Komen Foundation

SPORTSFriday, October 12, 2012 On Prospectornow.com ...

Girls’ Golf team travels to Decatur for a chance to maintain their State Championship Title. Head online for a reflection on section-als and a preview of the weekend.

By Aungelina DahmExecutive Sports Editor

Curtis Thomas was one of the many men who have made an impact in Pros-pect football history. Unfortunately, the ‘06 grad passed away on the morning of Aug. 27 due to a rare brain cancer he had been fighting for around two years. It accelerated quickly and unexpected-ly, but he was surrounded by his family, who never left his side during his battle.

Thomas contributed to the success of the state championship back in 2005 as a lineman. On Friday, Oct. 12, not only will the ‘02 state championship team be recognized for their 10-year reunion during the home football game against Wheeling, also the recent death of Thomas will be honored throughout

the night.Thomas’s parents

stood at the wake at St. Raymond’s for around seven and a half hours, acknowl-edging all of the peo-ple who came to sup-port the family and pay their respects. The line started at the front of the

church and went out the back door the entire evening.

“He was a funny kid and he had a lot of personality,” head varsity football coach Mike Sebestyen said. “You want to have those kind of people around.”

There were dozens of people who at-tended the wake, some of them people Thomas had never met. Many people just heard from others of his charm, quick wit and good humor and wanted to give the Thomas family their prayers.

As a part of one of the state cham-pionship’s alumni, Thomas and many others helped to construct the tradition of Prospect football.

“Curtis didn’t play a ton, but we’ve never been about that,” Sebestyen said. “He was the ultimate Prospect football player because he understood what we were trying to do. Curtis did what was

asked of him, and it was more import-ant for him to make sure that the team came before the individual.”

As of Oct. 9, the team is 4-3 with a bright future ahead (see “Record to re-cord”). It has been six years since Pros-pect has won a state championship. However, there is hope that this year could be the year. The success of the team has never been based on the final outcome.

“If these kids do it right, I’ll consider it a successful season,” Sebestyen said. “I won’t care where we finish.”

Even back when the ‘02 team was in the making of the so-called “golden years,” the ending result was never the most important thing to them. It was the making of history.

“It’s important for us as young peo-ple to understand the history of some-thing, and there is a great history to this program,” Sebestyen said.

Moreover, the excitement of the ‘02 alumni coming back is rising and some of this year’s team have met many of the alumni already. The alumni have provided a sort of mentorship to a sub-stantial amount of the team.

“We’re fortunate in the situation that we fostered a program that has a family element to it,” Sebestyen said. “The kids who played before care deep-ly about the program and the kids who play in it, so they go out of their way to try and explain that to them.”

Varsity football coach and ‘04 grad Brock Collins also played on the ‘02 team. He is most looking forward to having similar conversations like the ones they had at games, practices and just hanging out when most of the team will hopefully come back for the re-

union. “The more alumni that we can have

around our football program, the better off our football program is,” Sebestyen said.

Even more so, Collins is in the perfect position to coach the football players in a way that would reflect the success of his old team. Since he was once part of the football program he can teach them lessons he has learned from being in the same position that they are.

“[The team] needs to believe that the things that [the coaches] are doing will make them better, and that there is a purpose and a reason to everything,” Collins said. “They will see the results of that on the field.”

Sebestyen agrees with Collins be-cause he knows the program itself in-side and out, but he can never fully un-derstand the experience since he never played in it.

“They’re on the field. I’m never in a huddle, they’re in the huddle together,”

Sebestyen said.On the other hand, Collins was once

a part of that huddle and can take that feeling into account when coaching the players. When he came back to the school to coach and become a teacher at the start of this school year, the feeling of Prospect football overwhelmed him once again.

“Coming back here and seeing the amount of work the team was willing to put in, and the amount of time, it felt like being back home,” Collins said. “That’s what I was used to.

Overall, the reason why the team has the reputation it does today is because of the remarkable achievements of the past.

“The consistency that ‘05, ‘02, ‘01 and the 2000 teams built is a big deal and it’s important for our kids to understand the history of where it was, what they did and what they’re continuing on,” Sebestyen said.

By Aungelina DahmExecutive Sports Editor

Tonight, game 8 against Wheeling will be welcoming back former Prospect coach Brent Pearlman who now coaches varsity at Wheeling. He previously led Prospect to three state championships, in-cluding the ‘02 victory. Pearl-man will be able to see the returning alumni for the 2002 State Championship Night, along with the celebration of Curtis Thomas’ life.

The Knights will be trying to up their record from 4-3 with another win against Wheeling. In the three games prior to to-night, Prospect has gone 2-1.

The ceremony before game 5 on Sept. 21 gave recognition to Prospect’s newly installed turf, and the rain during the first half created a new feel for the players. Senior Devin O’Hara accounted for 152 of his team’s 388 rushing yards and made a total of 2 touchdowns to bring

the Knights to a win over Buf-falo Grove with a score of 34-14.

Junior Jack Tuttle gained another 139 rushing yards to add to O’Hara’s, and conclud-ed a 6-yard touchdown. Senior Steven Isteefanos contributed

another 83 rushing yards and a 1-run touchdown.

Game 6 was a painful lost to Rolling Meadows on Sept. 28. Prospect was leading the way 28-27 late in the third quarter when O’Hara raced 6 yards for

a touchdown and had 140 rush-ing yards total in the game.

However, Rolling Meadows scored 3 touchdowns in the last 12 minutes of the game to se-cure their triumph. The game lasted longer than usual be-

cause of the 22 total penalties made throughout the night. The final score was 49-28.

Most recently, game 7 was an effortless win against Hersey for the homecoming victory on Oct. 5. The strong defensive line consisting of senior Mike Houghton, senior Colin Ol-son, senior Kevin Kern, senior Shola George and sophomore James Ford took the anger from the loss of the previous game out on Hersey.

O’Hara rushed for 65 yards on 20 carries and had a total of 9 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown.

When the game was down to the fourth quarter, Pros-pect bursted out an amazing 22 points. Isteefanos made a 5-yard scoring run with a total of 21 carries and 62 yards in the entire game. O’Hara also made a 31-yard touchdown pass to se-nior Andrew Hajek who had a total of 3 catches and 91 yards throughout the game.

Reunion with former coach next up for 4-3 Knights

Record to recordFrom ‘59-’98 the record for varsi-

ty football was 140-200-4, and 60 games under 500

From ‘99-present the record is 112-42, and 10 games above 500

Information courtesy of Mike Sebestyen

The game to remember

In the 2002 season, the quarter final game was the most remarkable of the year according to varsity coach Brock Collins. Earlier in the season, Buffa-lo Grove (BG) had beat Prospect in game 5. This time around Prospect was up 17-14. With a minute left in the game, BG had the ball on the 1-yard line ready to score. They ran a quarterback sneak and someone forgot to block for quarterback Tom Zbikowski. Zbikowski, now a safety on the Indianapolis Colts, fumbled the ball and Prospect quickly recovered it. As the buzzer was struck, Prospect took a safety and won 17-16.

Information courtesy of varsity coach Brock Collins

Blast to the past: return of ‘02 team

Curtis Thomas

A LOOK INTO 2002: The 2002 varsity football team and coaches pose for their team picture. They were the second team in Prospect history to win the state cham-pionship. photo courtesy of The Crest

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EASY-PEASY VICTORY: Senior Devin O’Hara topples over a Huskie on Oct. 5 to score a touchdown. Prospect crushed Hersey 35-0. photo by Ian Magnuson

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