Niskayuna High School

Since 1974,Now Weekly

October 19, 2001

Music department holds year’s first concertVolume 28, Issue 6

Mr. Scott’s Front Porch

IN MY DAY: Earth science teacher Paul Scott sits on his makeshift front porch with juniorAnjuli Upadhyay. Scott put two chairs in front of his E-hall room because he felt the schoolcommunity was not “neighborly” enough.

by Brian DashewNEWS

Niskayuna Superintendent of SchoolsDr. J. Briggs McAndrews will retire atthe end of this school year. McAndrewshas been working at the district for tenyears.

District teachers were informed of hisdecision to retire on Friday, October 12in a letter distributed to the all. In theletter, he also shared his feelings regard-ing what makes this is a special place toattend school.

“Niskayuna is a very special place tobring one’s children and to become astudent. It is also a special place to workin service to the community and its chil-dren,” he wrote. “In fulfilling its mission,Niskayuna is an exemplar of caring forthe children while challenging them tobecome their best. I’ve seen and heard itin classrooms, cafeterias and offices andexperienced it on buses, on fields and inauditoriums.”

A special profile on McAndrews willappear in the next issue of The Warrior.

McAndrews to retire

Warrior photo / Brian Dashew

by Sara Backowski andJesse Conti

NEWS

The year’s first school concertwas held this past Wednesdaynight, October 17, in the highschool auditorium, with perfor-mances by Concert Chorale,Symphony Orchestra and Sym-phonic Band.

The evening began on a patri-otic note: Bel Canto Voices andStudio Singers opened the con-cert with The Star SpangledBanner. After the groups fin-ished singing, the audience wasasked to refrain from applause.

“We didn’t want anyone toclap, we just wanted them tosing respectfully as a salute toour country then let the pro-gram continue,” said choral di-rector Paula Brinkman. Theprogram carried over the pa-triotic tone into the next num-ber as well. Members of Con-

cert Chorale were accompaniedby Symphonic Band players inan arrangement of Americathe Beautiful.

Students were particularlyexcited about the patriotic ele-ment of the concert. “I think theconcert is a really nice tribute,”said Symphony Orchestra mem-ber sophomore Kishori Rajan.“It’s nice that we get to do some-thing [to show tribute] throughmusic. This concert is kind ofdifferent from what we’re usedto doing; the patriotic theme isreally fun, and everyone is intothe [nationalistic] spirit of it.”

After the tribute, the concertmoved on as usual. As always,the performances showcased thetalents of the students in themusic department.

All three groups did indeeddemonstrate their musical ex-pertise and abilities; each en-semble played its own challeng-

ing program. Concert Chorale sangThe Battle Hymn of the Republic(in conjunction with SymphonyOrchestra), Boatman’s Dance, I’mGonna Sing ‘Till the Spirit Movesin My Heart, Miseri CordiasDomine, and Silver Wings.

Symphony Orchestra per-formed Battle Hymn of the Re-public (accompanying ConcertChorale), Nimrod, and Polkaand Fugue.

Symphonic Band performedthe songs Eternal Father Strongto Save, and Symphonic Suite.

When asked to comment onher group’s performance,Brinkman said, “Conductorsdon’t speak; we let the musicspeak for us.” Indeed, the musicthe three groups performed didspeak for itself, and the concertwas a musical success.

Symphony Orchestra membersophomore Evan Feranoli ex-pressed the feelings of all mem-

bers of the groups, saying, “Ithink it was a great concert!”

As far as the status of Sym-phonic Band, saxophone playerJeremy Gold, a sophomore, said,“We’ve done a lot of practicing. Itwas a good idea to have thepatriotic theme.”

For some, this was the firstchance to perform with the topgroups in Niskayuna. JuniorJenny Wang is a first yearmember of Concert Chorale,having performed in LadiesFirst last year. “I’m really ex-cited to sing with such a goodgroup,” she said. “[Ladies First]is an all girls ensemble andthis year is a completely differ-ent sound and style.”

She felt the patriotic concertwas timely and appropriate,pointing to the collaborativeefforts of the groups as almostrepresentative of the world’shope for togetherness.

2NewsOctober 19, 2001The Warrior

Arthur joins Foreign Language staffby Melissa Chow

NEWS

Shannon Arthur is the lat-est addition to the foreign lan-guage department at the highschool. Although her status is“new teacher,” many studentsremember her from last year,when she worked as a studentteacher along with foreign lan-guage teacher VincentBianchi.

“I love teaching here,” Arthursaid. “I think Niskayuna is agreat school district.”

Arthur received both herB.A. and master’s degree fromUnion College. After enjoyingher time student teaching atthe high school, Arthur real-ized that she wanted to stayand teach full time here. Thisyear, she teaches French IIR,French IIIR, and Spanish IIRto high school students, as wellas Spanish to eighth gradersat Van Antwerp MiddleSchool.

Although Arthur has morework this year than last, shedescribes her job as “fun work”

and has no complaints. Sheenjoys teaching and notes thather students are fun, ener-getic, and hard-working.

Arthur’s love of teachinggoes way back; she had hopedto become a teacher since theage of five. As a child, shetaught French to CabbagePatch Kids - they all learnedto speak the language flu-ently, she said.

“She’s really energetic andnice,” said freshman CarlyMatarazzo. “She lets us playcool games like Jeopardy; it’sa lot of fun.”

Arthur enhanced her flu-ency in French during herstint in France, where shestudied at the University deRennes. While visitingCuernavaca, Mexico she fine-tuned her Spanish speakingskills. The new languageteacher brings widespreadcultural experience to ourschool: she has also visitedGermany, Switzerland, Italy,Belgium, Scotland, England,and Luxembourg.

NEWS BRIEFSAFS: Have some thrillsand chills, and

show off yourskills by com-ing to thep u m p k i ncarving on Oc-tober 25 at 6p.m. in the OldCafe.

CLASS OF 2004:Save yourself

the annoyingtrip to the mallthis holiday sea-son and at thesame time sup-port the sopho-more class. BuyY a n k e eCandles! See aclass officer or advisor for details.

WARRIOR :Calling all En-glish students:the school news-paper is lookingfor fresh youngwriters to join thestaff. Come toD103 Monday or

Thursday after school, or any time dur-ing homeroom.

NISK-ART:Publish your tal-

ents - submit yourartwork or litera-ture to the Nisk-Art magazine.Drop off all piecesto Miss. Yolen inF104.

CLASS OF2002: Get readyfor the highlightof your highschool careerand come to theHaunted Houseat the highschool. Prepare

yourself to be spooked on October 27from 10-2 p.m.

MULTICULTURALSOCIETY: Showyour support forMulticultural Soci-ety and buy star-shaped lollipops foronly 50 cents. Pro-ceeds will benefitthe September 11Fund.

Warrior photo / Lindsay O’Connor

BONJOUR: New teacher Shannon Arthur shines a smile whilebringing new joy to the Foreign Language Department.

Class of 2004 walksby Brian Dashew

NEWS

The Class of 2004 participatedin the Making Strides AgainstBreast Cancer on Sunday Octo-ber 14 in Washington Park inAlbany to raise money for breastcancer awareness and research.25 students walked five kilome-

ters in the name of print shopstaffer Lois Bena and Sue Burke,social studies teacher at VanAntwerp Middle School, bothbreast cancer survivors.

“We wanted to do somethingfor the community,” saidsophomore class presidentMatt Larkin.

3NewsOctober 19, 2001The Warrior

New math teachers bring enthusiasm

National MeritCommended Students

The following seniors have been commended by the National Merit Scholar-ship organization for their excellent performances on the PSAT last fall.

Congratulations!

by Caitlin BergeronNEWS

Three new teachers, LiviaDenis, Stephanie Graseck, andMichelle Santora, have joinedthe math department this year.

Denis comes to Niskayunadirectly from a four-year posi-tion at the Brooklyn Collegeof the City University of NewYork as an assistant profes-sor of mathematics education.She also brings experiencefrom jobs as an assistant pro-fessor in the department ofeducational theory and prac-tice at SUNY Albany and asan adjunct faculty member atHudson Valley CommunityCollege.

Denis received B.A.’s fromthe University of Puerto Rico,the Puerto Rico Conservatoryof Music, in education andvocal music, respectively, anda master’s degree in math-ematics secondary educationfrom the University of PuertoRico. She also has a doctoratein curriculum and teachingfrom Fordham Universit.

Denis is teaching several mathand computer science courses.She’s satisfied with the districtso far, saying, “the studentsat Niskayuna are very coop-

erative, andI feel thatI’ve gotten alot of sup-port from theadministra-tion.”

S o p h o -more ChrisHenry, a stu-dent inDenis’ com-puter sci-ence classcommented,“Mrs. Denishas exten-sive knowl-edge of thesubject area,and I havelearned a lotfrom her.”

As forGraseck, herdream of becoming a high schoolteacher has finally cometrue.“I’ve wanted to be a teacherever since I was a freshman inhigh school, and I knew I wantedto teach math ever since I was asenior,” she said. As for math-ematics, Graseck loves “the abil-ity you have to derive formulasand the multiple ways to solveproblems. It’s like a puzzle.”

Graseck taught mathemat-ics at Trevor Day School inManhattan for six years beforecoming to Niskayuna. Sheearned a B.A. in mathematicssecondary education fromSUNY Plattsburgh and amaster’s degree at ColumbiaUniversity’s Teacher’s College.

“So far I think it’s wonder-ful,” Graseck said. “The students

are nice and responsible and areeager to work with their teach-ers, always coming in for helpwhen they need it. They are verysupportive. Sometimes they [stu-dents] keep me on my toes, butthey have good hearts. I’m stillgetting used to it, but I love it.”

After coming to Niskayunalast December to fill in for ateacher on family leave, Santorais exciteded to become a mem-ber of the faculty. Santora has amaster’s degree in math fromSUNY Plattsburgh. “I definitelylike [Niskayuna]. The studentsare great. The teachers I’ve comein contact with have been veryhelpful and nice as well.”

Santora’s students have re-sponded positively to her teach-ing style. Sophomore MattFriedson said, “I like how shegives bonus points every class,and the book checks are a greatway to gain bonus points. Also,she makes it easy to catch upwhen you’re absent.”

Sophomore Matt Martin com-mented, “I think she’s pretty fair,and she listens to other studentswhen she speaks.”

With their extensive back-grounds and excellent teachingstyle, these three teachers prom-ise to add to the strength of themath department.

THE THREE MATHEMATICIANS: From left to right, Livia Denis, Michelle Santora, andStephanie Graseck smile for the camera.

Warrior photo / Lindsay O’Connor

John AdamecSara BackowskiAmy BrilliantDavid Gross

Christopher JacksonChristopher Jarmul

Danielle KesslerSara Lischynsky

Peter RelyeaRegina Schwartz

Alok Tayi

4 Opinion

The Warrior

The Warrior is published each Fri-day the high school has classes (33times a year).

For a one-year subscription, send acheck for $25 payable to NiskayunaHigh School to The Warrior, Attn: Sub-scriptions, 1626 Balltown Rd.,Niskayuna, NY 12309.

Niskayuna High School1626 Balltown RoadNiskayuna, NY 12309

(518) 382-2511, Ext. 351http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/

warrior/index.html

T H E S TA F FEDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Brian Dashew,

Cassandra WolosNEWS EDITORS: Sara Backowski,

Lindsay O’Connor, Jessica Tepper,Anna Yu

ASSISTANT NEWS: Peter ChenOPINION EDITORS: Elspeth Edelstein,

Melissa JordanASSISTANT OPINION: Eugene YeeENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Ryan

LindenbergASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT: Bill

Curran, Ben CrairSPORTS EDITORS: Matt Larkin, Pete

RelyeaASSISTANT SPORTS: Michael

SpinnicchiaMAGAZINE EDITORS: Jessica Dan, Leo

SutkinASSISTANT MAGAZINE: Jonathan ChowLAYOUT MANAGER: Dave SheehanDISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Sufyan

ShahinCOPY EDITOR: Andrew BrownBUSINESS MANAGER: Karin DonhoweWEB SITE MANAGER: David SheehanADVERTISING MANAGER: Anjana VakilADVISORS: James Edgar

EDITORIAL POLICIES

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are wel-come from all members of the schoolcommunity. The Warrior reservesthe right to edit letters for gram-mar and length.

SIGNED OPINION ARTICLES AND CAR-TOONS express the opinions of theircreators.

UNSIGNED EDITORIALS representthe consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, which may not reflectthe majority of the students’ views.

THE OP-ED PAGES are a forum forstudents’ opinions and ideas.

October 19, 2001 The Warrior

EDITORIAL

Five weeks after the most vicious at-tack our country has ever witnessed, theUnited States is asking all its citizensfor help. Our support for America needsto extend past monetary donations torebuilding the l ives ofthose affected.

Many families are left withno source of income and, fornow, rely on our contributions. In Af-ghanistan, people under the rule of theTaliban will have no way to receive theirnormal food supply due to airplanesaround the training grounds, which iswhy our government is airlifting food toits citizens.

What can we do to help? Some stu-dents who met the age and weight re-

quirements have already given blood tothose directly affected by the falling tow-ers. Most high schoolers do not havehuge amounts of money to donate. How-ever, the president has asked all school

children to give a dollar tocharity. He said, “I ask you tojoin in a special effort to helpthe children of Afghanistan.

Their country has been through a greatdeal of war suffering... One in three is anorphan, almost half suffer chronic mal-nutrition, and we can and must helpthem.” These contributions should go to:

America’s Fund for Afghan Childrenc/o The White House1600 Pennsylvania Ave.Washington, D.C. 20509-1600

by Cassandra WolosOPINION

Theoretically, the worldcontinues to tick. At thispoint, most pre-planned gath-erings and conventions arestill scheduled. Despite thisappearance of pseudo-nor-malcy, however, the humaninstinct to retreat to safetythreatens to prevent theprogress of everyday life.

In Niskayuna, long dis-tance school trips havebeen cancelled until fur-ther notice. The admin-istrations of other localdistricts have imposed spe-cific mile-radius boundariesfor traveling classes. For ob-vious reasons, schools areconcerned about the moraland legal implications ofsending students anywhereat all. Has anyone consid-ered, though, the emotionalimplications of banningthese trips?

The reaction across theUnited States to the terroristattacks of September 11 hasbeen one of either determi-nation to continue life unin-terrupted, or the more sen-sible urge to cut off normalactivities and recoil into sup-posed shelter. Many of us, thisschool district included, searchfor a comfortable midpoint.

Underneath our reflex tolunge for cover, however, lies

the gnawing suspicion thatthis fearful reaction is in it-self the victory that our en-emies continue to predict.This may not mean that theTaliban seeks to overrun ournation’s government, butmay imply simply thatOsama bin Laden knows healready controls the dailylife of every American; ev-ery U.S. citizen is paralyzedwith extreme caution.

Unless we want to lockourselves into our bedrooms,we need to define the differ-ence between concrete riskand impractical wariness.Middle school foreign lan-guage teachers have alreadyannounced that their spring-time field trips are in limbo,but the Allstate music festi-vals and major sportingevents have not been chal-lenged. What makes theFrench class trip to Montrealmore dangerous than themusic convention in Roches-ter? We could draw the linealong the internationalboundaries, but Canadaseems safer at this pointthan most U.S. cities.

Also, if we do need to cutdown on travel, how long dowe wait until resuming ordi-

nary activities? Thedistrict’s “further notice”may be further away thanwe think.

The only possible conclu-sion to this cumbersome setof unanswerable questionsis that we as Americanshave no choice but to ig-nore the natural impulseto cower under cover. If wecan’t determine the extentto which it’s appropriate to

cut off the routines andpatterns of our lives, ouronly choice is to continuenormally. In theory,

Americans have the re-sponsibility to tend to ev-eryday life as if fear werenot an overpowering force.

At the same time, I ad-mit that I personallydon’t want to be in NewYork City right now. Nomatter how necessarynormalcy sounds, irratio-nal fears will govern myactions. I am afraid ofstraying far from home. Iknow I’m not unusual inthis respect.

The only way for theschool to balance respon-sible worry with respon-sible education is to leavethe traveling decisions upto students. Let’s givestudents the chance toovercome fear with pa-triotic resolve.

What we can do to help

CASEY AT BAT

Balancing fear and normalcy

5OpinionOctober 19, 2001The Warrior

by Sara QuerbesOPINION

In light of the terror threatening the na-tion, and indeed the entire world, I found itrefreshing when my sociology teacher, Mr.Warren, offered us posters with positive,non-violent messages. These signs, whichhe had downloaded from the site www.usunite org, had messages like “hateis the enemy- wtc 911” or, “we wereall there,” with different religioussymbols. The one I found particu-larly effective had the message, “Is-lam is not the enemy.” It explainedthat members of the rescue teamswere Muslim, and that, out of re-spect for them, we should keep theirbrothers and sisters safe. This wasthe best point I could think of be-cause I’m someone who cannotstand the idea of discrimination.Harassing people who are differenthas always seemed wrong to me,and at a time like this, it’s even moreimportant to be kind to others.

On top of the obvious devastationin New York City and WashingtonDC, there are innocent people allover our country being abused and hassledbecause of their religious beliefs. I thoughtthat this sort of discrimination was some-thing of the past that we would never bebombarded with again. So, I picked up myposter as I exited class, figuring I’d hang it

on my locker, to show that not only am Iaffected by the tragedies of September 11,but that I’m in support of celebrating reli-gious diversity, Islamic or otherwise. I’m infavor of people, whoever they are, being freeto live in the United States without persecu-tion. I got some tape and hung up my sign.But, the next day, when I arrived at school,

my poster was gone. I didn’t think too muchof it, and just put up a substitute. By lunch-time, that sign was missing too. I replaced ityet again. When I mentioned this to friends,they suggested that maybe someone hadliked my sign and taken it for him or herself.

This was a nice thought, so I figured I’dstick with that excuse to make myself feela bit better.

By the next morning the new poster hadvanished. I brought this up in my sociologyclass when Mr. Warren offered the postersagain, and someone suggested that perhapsit was just a high school prank, and that it

really wasn’t about what was on theposters that had offended someone.I accepted that for the first fewdisappearance, but I felt like it hadgone on for too long for it to be theanswer. I am horribly upset to thinkthat it is more than likely that peoplein our school were offended enoughby my poster to want to tear it down,those who acted on it and those whoeven thought about it. I just wantedto get the word out that I’m notgoing to stop putting up my poster.If one gets torn down, then I willreplace it with another. I have awhole stack waiting in my locker. Iwant whoever is doing this to stop,and maybe, if I’m lucky, they willnot just claim defeat, but look atwhy they are offended by what I

believe in and start thinking about whatmakes people different and why this is okay.We are all Americans and we should all liveas we choose without feeling abused or afraid.No one should be scared to live their lives asthey please.

Warrior photo / Elspeth Edelstein

by Paul Hebert

Pupils pinch peace-promoting posters

STOLEN: These signs were removed from the author’s locker.

6 Entertainment October 19, 2001 The Warrior

by Richard KoninENTERTAINMENT REPORT

The evening of Thursday, Oc-tober 11 was a fine evening, afine evening indeed. Roughly50% of all television-owningAmerican citizens sat down at8 o’clock in the p.m. to vieweither Friends, Survivor, ma-jor league baseball, or some-thing else. Of course, there wasa bit of a delay thanks to theantics of Mr. George W. Bush,but the night carried on inspectacular fashion. A fineevening indeed!

I watched Friends first. Andthe masses shout, “We don’tcare about what you watchedfirst, dork!” Sadly, the episodewas a big wet disappointmentafter the splendid doses of com-edy that came with the season’sfirst two episodes. The pre-views for the episode made sucha fuss about Ross learning thathe’s the father of Rachel’s babythat I’m thinking, “Oooh,what’s he about to do? Flip out?Spontaneously propose mar-riage? Do anything interest-ing? Anything? At all?” Sadly,the answers to my questionswere “nothing,” “no,” “no,” “no,”“no,” and “no.” The show hascome to the point where theonly characters demonstratingany kind of chemistry whatso-ever are Joey and Phoebe, with

Monica and Chandler at a dis-tant, distant second. Youmight as well not even con-sider it second, that’s how dis-tant it is. Does Brad Pitt mindthat his wife plays a womanwho’d actually go to bed with aguy as dorky as Ross Gellar? Iwonder if Jennifer Annistoncares that her husband was onJackass in a monkey suit.

I saw a preview of CorkyRomano in between scenes ofFriends. Corky Romano looksto be about the dumbest moviein the history of mankind.

By the way, if anybody’swondering, Courtney Cox isn’tfunny. At all. Not even a smid-gen. On a funniness scale of 1to 10 where Bill Cosby is a 10and Carrot Top is a 1, CourtneyCox falls in at about a 3.5, giveor take 0.0001. For a long time,I thought she was more arounda 5 or a 6, but it occurred to meon Thursday that the writerssimply give her funny lines todeliver. Nobody could screwthese lines up. Matt Leblanc isvery funny, Matthew Perry isfunny, David Schwimmer hashis moments, and CourtneyCox is just plain bad. I guessthat’s what happens whenyou’re with David Arquette allthe time.

Survivor! I only caught thelast half hour. And the masses

shout, “Stop talking about your-self, dork!” The foxy lady factorthis season is poor, borderlinenon-existent, in fact. How theheck do you go from Elisabeth(the goddess) to this?

Hold on, can we talk aboutElisabeth for a second? She’s sogreat! Elisabeth wanted to bethe survivor and win a milliondollars. Elisabeth just mightbe the very best girl in the wholeworld! According to Elisabeth’sbio on cbs.com, she’s 23. I’malmost 23, sort of. It also saysshe’s extremely smart. I’m ex-tremely smart! And she gradu-ated from Boston College. Iknow people that go to BostonCollege! This is too much.Elisabeth, I pray you, ditch yourbig, muscular, bound-to-be-suc-cessful boyfriend and come tome, a little boy writing for hishigh school newspaper. It’smeant to be!

Survivor is in Africa this sea-son, where there may or maynot be lions. Have I mentionedthe total lack of good-lookingladies on the show? Well,there’s a total lack of good-looking ladies on the show.Diane went and told a fib abouteating beans or something andshe got herself voted off first.What a pathetic loser. She getsthe boot three days into theshow and she’s all like, “I’ve gotno regrets.” Right. Tell it toyour therapist. Then there’s

Tom the hog farmer who’s arotten old man if I’ve ever metone. He’s a tubby son of a gun,too. Not that there’s anythingwrong with that.

My pick here and now isLex because, well, his name isLex. I’ll change my mind whenhe gets voted off in a coupleweeks and I’ll officially switchmy pick. Until then, go Lex!

I watched the Yankees playthe Oakland Athletics next.Baseball is always entertain-ing television for people wholove baseball. Baseball isnever entertaining televisionfor people who hate baseball.I love baseball. Of course, I’mnot the least bit entertainedby watching the Yankees losea game they should’ve won.Oakland didn’t even win, theYankees lost. If that makessense. In the scheme of thingsthe loss doesn’t meandiddlysquat because the Yan-kees will win the World Se-ries again. I’d bet the farm onit, kids.

I wanted Friends to be good.I wanted Survivor to have aplethora of gorgeous women.I wanted the Yankees to win.Of course, you can’t have yourcake and eat it and have yourcake again too, unless ofcourse you like to eat poop.And I, my friends, do not likeeating poop.

Thursday night TV entertaining for all

Photo courtesy NBC.comPICTURE PERFECT: The cast of the decreasingly funny, yet highlyrated NBC sitcom, Friends, fail to make people laugh every Thursday.

NICE GUYS FINISH LAST: Elisabeth was one of the nicest (andbest looking) girls on the second edition of the popular reality show.

Photo courtesy CBS.com

7SportsOctober 19, 2001The Warrior

by David O’ConnorSPORTS

The Niskayuna boys’ varsity volley-ball team kicked off the season of witha rocky start, but, in recent weeks, hasfound a way to utilize the abilities of arelatively new team. Through the lead-ership of co-captains senior JustinLaRocque and junior Rob Sores andnew head coach Darryl Bray, the teamhas posted a 7-11 record (as of October15) and hopes to do even better in theupcoming section championship tour-nament at Burnt Hills.

A tournament was held recently atBethlehem. The team placed fourthout of eight area teams and held itsown against rivals Bethlehem andBurnt Hills. This year, there are onlyeight players on the squad, two ofwhich were only recently brought upfrom the JV team. This leaves just twosubstitutes in the games, since volley-ball requires six players on the courtat a time.

But the small size of the team hascontributed to camaraderie. Accord-ing to J.D. Proulx, a senior and firstyear player, “we have become close asa team, and we’ve been working wellwith our new coach.”

At the beginning of the season theteam had its work cut out, with every-one but Soris and LaRocque new to theteam. Senior Dawson Grau has made a

THE PRE-GAME RITUAL: Members of the boys’ varsity volleyball team stretch in preparationfor a recent home game. Despite having many inexperienced players, the team had achieved arespectable 7-11 record as of Monday.

Warrior photo / Matt Larkin

strong showing and has earned him-self a starting position. Of the team’sprogress, Proulx said, “the team hasgrown a lot since the beginning of theseason. We’ve come a long way, butwe’re not quite where we want to be.”LaRocque said of the prevelent inex-perience, “New players did great. Iwas really happy with how they playedthis year.”

Despite the new players and newcoaching, the squad has improved tre-

mendously since the beginning of theseason, and the players hope to makea good showing at Sectionals. Thougheight players are far from intimidat-ing, the squad’s determination to im-prove its play in each subsequentmatch promises to lead to sucess.

The team takes on Burnt Hills todayat 4 p.m. at home. This will be the lastregular season contest. Sectionals willbegin this Tuesday, October 23, atBurnt Hills.

Boys’ volleyball capitalizes on new talent

Varsity ScoreboardGirls’ Soccer: 7-4

Boys’ Soccer:6-4-1

Football: 1-5

Field Hockey: 3-11

Golf: 14-5

Girls’ Swimming: 2-5

Cross Country: 1-4

Girls’ Tennis: 5-4

Girls’ Volleyball: 4-6

Boys’ Volleyball: 7-11

Warrior scores reflect October 15 records

8 Sports October 19, 2001 The Warrior

by Danielle KormanSPORTS

The Niskayuna girls’ swim-ming and diving team gotright into its season, whichstarted with a scrimmageagainst Burnt Hills on Sep-tember 6.

The team began the seasonpracticing at the SchenectadyJCC. Once school started,practices moved to MohonasenHigh School. Traveling toMohonasen has been a nicechange from the longer trip toAlbany Academy, which theteam routinely made last year.

The swimming and divingteam is headed this year byreturning coach Kate Bleser,a second grade teacher atRosendale ElementarySchool. This is the first timein several years that a coachhas returned for a second sea-son. The team is also led bythree seniors putting in theirfifth years on the team, se-niors Danielle Korman andcaptains Amanda Test andAlyssa Kouzan. Both Kormanand Test were state finalistslast year. Their success dur-ing last season has helped pro-pel and motivate theteamtoward success.

In addition to the seniors,the team consists of three jun-iors, seven sophomores, fourfreshman and six eighth grad-ers. The teams’ underclass-men are showing promise fora bright future on the team.

So far this season, the teamhas competed in five meets,with another four remaining.Out of those five meets, theyhave won two, defeatingMohonasen and Guilderville.They still have one of theirbiggest rivals left to swimagainst: Bethlehem on Octo-ber 30. In their past fewmeets, they have competedagainst Burnt Hills andShenendehowa, the top twoteams in the section.

During their match-up, theteam finished closest to theShenendehowa team theyhave in many years.

Part of the teams’ success isdue to the fact that there areseveral outstanding divers onthe team. In previous years,diving was a weak point forthe team, but this season, ithas stood out as the team’sstrength.

The dynamics on the teamhave been outstanding thisyear as well. Members feel

Warrior photo / Danielle Korman

MAKING A SPLASH: Junior Erin Leach dives at a meet againstMohonasen last friday. The “Nisky Rules” sign shows how much supportthe teammates have for each other and how well they compete together.The swimming and diving team has won two of their five match-ups.

GO MOHON!?!?: A diver from Niskayuna performs a move in a recentmeet against Mohonasen. The team has come together this season to bea tough competitor against the other top teams in the Suburban Council.The squad is made up of mostly underclassmen and middle schoolers, yeteveryone has stepped up to create an enjoyable, successful season.

that having a returning coachhas really helped. Said seniorAlyssa Kouzan, “This year ourteam is probably closer thanwe have been in the past fouryears. Everyone gets alongand we all support one an-other.”

This is really helping theteam in meets and practice topush their skills to the limit.The team has participated innumerous spirit building ac-tivities, including wearingteam sweat pants and num-bered shirts. The team hopesfor more of this bonding in theyears to come.

According to the team’sswimmers and divers, the

team’s goal this season is toplace higher than lastyear’steam’s seventh placefinish at the Sectionals tour-nament. In addition, the hopeis to send some individualsand possibly a relay to States.The team has been workinghard this year after a fewyears of rebuilding and isready to show Section II thatNiskayuna swimming anddiving is ready to become apowerhouse in the sport. Theteam hopes to receive supportfrom Niskayuna students atSectionals, which will be heldNovember 8-10 at the RPI fa-cilities.

Warrior CorrectionIn last week’s issue, the article entitled Niskyfalls short in Homecoming game listed thenickname of the Guilderland team as thePlainsmen. The team’s nickname is actuallythe Dutchmen. The Warrior apologizes forany confusion this may have caused.

Swimming squad works hard to succeed

Warrior photo / Danielle Korman