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Increase in ID rule enforcementA new practice in the lunch lines has

students who are carrying their IDs moving to the front of the line,

while those without IDs wait at the rear. The process, which has frustrated some

students, was initiated by Dean of Students Mr. Mike Grosch as part of

his growing concern that students don’t comply with the existing ID policy. Mr. Grosch explained the rea-son for the change: “The lines in the cafeteria were super long because the kids who didn’t have

their IDs would use the keypad to type in their ID numbers, which

holds the line up. If you have your ID, it’s a quick scan, and you’re done.” East Leyden Senior Kristina

Cosic claimed that the new prac-tice hasn’t been easy from the start. “When the school first started re-enforcing this rule, there was a lot of confusion

between the students and staff,” she said. “A lot of kids thought

they couldn’t get a lunch without their ID. After everything got settled

and we learned to bring our IDs, everyone was getting their lunch

as they were supposed to.” Mr. Grosch explained, “Most

kids believe that just because they are paying cash for their lunch then they don’t need their IDs. However, the Ley-den Handbook states that all students must carry their IDs and show them upon request, and kids aren’t carrying them, which is why this is becoming a problem.” Thus, Mr. Grosch is inter-ested in expanding the lunchroom ID requirement, hoping to move toward a school policy that requires visible IDs everywhere. He said, “I personally think students should have them visible or clipped on their shirts. Most schools in the district do it, and I believe even the staff should be wearing their IDs.” He further explained that such a policy is, and has long been, a widespread requirement in other schools and in corporate offices. Although there are not any formal discussions happening right now, Mr. Grosch said he plans to submit the ideas for consideration. East Leyden Senior Dominick Santana expressed his opinion on such a policy: “I don’t feel as if it is neces-sary. Students have gone years without bringing their IDs, and the school has been running just fine.” In contrast, Cosic said, “I think the new trend of wearing our IDs around our necks isn’t a bad idea! We have always had to use our IDs for lunch but now that the school really wants to enforce these rules, it’s a smart idea to give us a way to always have them on us.” Currently, an ID is required for getting on the bus,

getting a lunch, and checking in and out books in the Nardini Library. It costs $5 in the Dean’s Office to replace the lost one you were given at the beginning of the school year. So should students be wearing their IDs around their necks? Most of the teens in the school believe they should not, but will it help if they do? Mr. Grosch said the lunch lines are moving faster already, a lot of kids are stop-ping in and buying IDs, and they aren’t writing as many bus passes anymore.

Jamie DuBrock

Dean of Students Mr. Dennis Byrne shows how good a visible ID badge looks.

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Freshmen now target for PARCC

The freshman are taking one for the juniors this spring, when all students in first year English and Math classes will sit for multiple days of state testing

originally scheduled for juniors. Ever since the state adopted a new test to assess Common Core standards (the PARCC test), schools have been struggling to deal with an unknown. The new test has been piloted but not all schools have had that opportunity. It’s also uncertain how the tests will be scored and what those scores will mean. And the requirements for who will take them have changed repeatedly. Confusion about the PARCC test has arisen partly because of its ever-shifting requirements. Eventually, the state wants all students in grades 3-11 to take two tests each year in both math and language arts. The tests are designed to better measure student ability to complete complex tasks, like writing and explaining their mathematic reasoning. Thus, they’ll be more difficult than previous multiple choice tests. And they’ll be long. Administrators, parents, teachers, and students all have concerns about what this will mean in terms of time. Leyden Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Mikkel Storaasli acknowledged that the tests “might” provide great data about student learning, but he also said, “My main concern is that it is simply way too long. More testing does not lead to more learning, and I think everybody at Leyden would rather have students in class learning from peers and teachers rather than taking a test.” In response to this common time concern, the state let high schools off the hook last spring, allowing them to keep the test for only one group of students: those taking junior-level English and math courses. But this decision, giving the PARCC test to juniors, presented its own problems. The state, which is moving away from requiring the ACT in favor of PARCC, offered to fund the ACT one last time--but to accommodate PARCC,

the state offered March 3 as the date. This is several weeks earlier than normal. Junior AP English teacher Mr. David Narter explained, “The impact [of the PARCC] will be huge. ACT will be moved up six weeks, so our students will have less time to prepare for it than the rest of the country.” On top of these two tests, many juniors also have AP exams. Narter said, “We will lose a week of instruction immediately before the AP test. Finally, students will be suffering from test fatigue right before they take their AP exams.” And teachers weren’t the only ones recognizing these prob-lems. Juniors had a lot to say about the test. They were so agitated and annoyed with the circumstance that a new twitter hashtag emerged: #stop-PARCC. Here are some samples: “@xoxoNataliaoxox: Lol 15 hours of PARCC exam right before our ap tests and act tests. Thanks Illinois #stopPARCC” “@charlyblue Because chil-dren should not have stomach pains, depression and anxiety every year over tests. #TESTHearingsNow #Stop-PARCC #EndNCLB” “@Ronahy1998 Dont let the state control our education! We know what benefits us, and they dont! “Lets control our futures!!! # s t o p PA R C C # l e y d e n p r i d e ” (Continued on Page 2)

Christopher BritoThe Main Street Cinema gets a food delivery every Friday morning. On Thursday, Hannah checks the computer to determine what to order the next morning. The computer shows the amount of popcorn seed and boxes remaining at the end of each day.

Sales Sunday through Thursday are relatively consistent. Friday and Saturday are busier days, and on each of those days they sell between 200 and 300 large boxes of popcorn. On Friday and Saturday, they also sell about twice as many small and medium boxes of popcorn as they do on the other days.

She also knows that 1/3 cup of popcorn seed makes 8 cups of popcorn, and she must buy enough popcorn seed to last until the next delivery on the following Friday.

Estimate the amount of popcorn seed that Hannah should order this Friday so that there are between 100 and 200 cups of popcorn seed remaining next Friday morning. Show or explain the reasoning you used to determine your estimate.

Sample Grade 9 MAth Prompt

Taken from http://parcconline.org/samples/mathematics/high-school-mathematics

At the Women in Tech event, 60 Leyden girls were able to meet and learn from six women working in

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. The panelists provided students information about different careers, an effort by companies to supporting STEM education and fill positions. Panelist Jess Keys explained that her career in STEM began with a search for a career centered on creativity.She started out going the public relations route in college but then later switched because it wasn’t for her. She decided to go towards advertising, which she enjoyed, but within her company she fell in love with the digi-tal department. Keys thus decided through this to create her own blog. Keys also left the even adoring Leyden. She stated, “My favorite part about today was meeting ev-eryone. This is the most inspirational group of high school girls I have ever met. I am blown away. It’s really awesome to see a group of women that are so driven and want

to get into this so early in their lives.” Senior Paula Bassmaji was simi-larly impressed with Ms. Keys and the event, overall. Bassmaji stated, “I learned things from panelists that I didn’t think I would learn from. I didn’t have any interest in pursuing a career in technology, but I still learned how to market myself in women in tech. Exposure is so important.” This im-pacted her and many other girls at the event because to get any type of job you need to market yourself and to make yourself look like you would be a better employee than anyone else applying for the same job. Another very important panelist, Ms. Eva Robert from Google, attended for the second time this year already to talk to Leyden girls in technology. She has thoroughly expressed her minimal yet trans-forming struggles during her time in STEM. Luckily this has never happened at her job, but in college one of her friends stated that she earned something just because she was a girl. There is the occasional kid in the back of the room that would have to fault all of the ridiculous knowledge that they have, but

her counterpart females would help create a barrier from the ridiculousness. Overall, Ms. Robert liked technology because it brought together all of her other interests. She be-lieves that she has made a small impact so far, but believes she will make a much larger impact in the future. Ms. Robert stated that the most important thing to take away from the ses-sion was to do one thing: what you love. “It’s nice to see how even if you

don’t know what you want to do right now, that it’s okay because it will come to you even if it might not be right now,” said Senior Avani Shaw. She now understands that she doesn’t have to worry too much about what she is going to do or where she is going to work right now; she rather worry about what she enjoys and finding her passions. Miriam Her-nandez also loved hearing about how the women found their path. It helped give her

ideas on how to reach her dream of being a computer security analyst. Many of the girls at the event actu-ally brought up the fact that it is nice to see that you don’t have to know right now what you want to do. Technology may be one of your passions, but the great thing about it is that you don’t just have to look into one part of technology if that is what you want to try to find a career in.

In an attempt to once again break state records for participation and collection, Leyden hosted the first of its two annual

blood drives on December 4. Counselor and event organizer Mr. Bill Mitchell has brought in a record breaking 340 students in past blood drives, but his focus is clearly on helping others. One out of three people are rejected for donating blood because they have low iron, do not weigh enough, or have been to a certain country. Somehow, Leyden still has managed to claim the title as, “Best High School Blood Drive In Illinois.” This all falls back on the students who come to donate. Mr. Mitchell shared, “Our blood drives are so successful because our stu-dents have big hearts. Many of students come from families where they take care of their little sisters and brothers, their parents, and their grandparents. They are generous and feel good helping others even when it comes to the people whose lives they will save and whose faces they will never know.” This past success does create some pressure on Mr. Mitchell to do better each year. Even though we have no competition from any other high school, Mr. Mitchell wants to increase the number of people who donate each year. Mr. Mitchell said, “I

wouldn’t say there is any outside pressure. But I definitely put pressure on myself to make each experience better than the previ-ous time: to make donors more comfortable, to make the process flow more smoothly, to get more donors to save more lives. “Let’s put this into perspective, we are saving lives here. This isn’t about trophies, titles or news articles. This is about saving someone’s life when the unspeakable happens. It is about giving a mother one more day with her child. It is about giving a

child one more day to know their grandmother’s love. It is about keeping the light in someone’s life for as long as we can before they are taken away. What goal could be more noble?” In order for the blood to be sent out quickly, there is someone who drives a truck back and forth from Leyden to the Life Source headquarters. There are so many people in need of blood that as soon as the blood reaches the labs, it gets tested, separated into different blood products, and sent out to patients by the end of the weekend. Mr. Mitchell motivates kids to do the blood drive during

lunch periods and claims to always get a great turnout. “I motivate kids to donate simply by approaching them with respect and a sense of humor. Students are sitting with their friends at the lunch table and like to donate with their friends. Usually when one asks for an application, the other four or five friends sitting with them will ask for one, too. It’s more fun to donate with a buddy,”

News December 2014The Eagle’s Eye2

One of many Leyden arms that contributed to the first drive.

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Leyden juniors elaborated. Elizabeth Shelton said, “I think that [PARCC] is ridiculous. How are we supposed to take the ACT six weeks earlier than everyone else, then take 25 hours of testing for the PARCC test, and then take AP tests. It is unrealistic that the state thinks we can do all of these things and perform our best. The ACT actually matters and helps determine our future by determin-ing what colleges we get into.”

PARCC(from Page 1)

Best big blood drive in IllinoisCatrina Sanfilippo

Mati Szelezak said, “I do not think my class is ready for the test. First, most people reading this will have heard about the PARCC for the first time. We haven’t heard of any prep class, only that we’d have less time to prepare for the real deal, the ACT. Second semester is VERY stressful for all upperclassmen, and especially so for juniors. We’re tak-ing AP exams, ACT prep, the ACT itself and now, the PARCC! With this much stress and so little time it is impossible for us to do well on everything. Know-ing the juniors will focus their energy on only one or two things, something will have to give. College bound juniors will choose the APs and ACT. Something will give.The hours of testing and prepa-ration will add to student fatigue will be reflected on something. My guess is it’ll be the PARCC.” Szelezak was right. The con-cerns above prompted the state board of education to allow districts a choice to move the test from junior year into freshman or sophomore year, and Ley-den has chosen freshmen. Dr. Storaasli explained that the move will be less of an interruption and that getting results about freshmen might provide useful information for instruction sooner. For example, if these students test next year as well, the district could look at student growth. But for this year, the most important thing is probably that juniors replace the traditional “Go home, fresh-men!” chant during Junior Olympics with “Thank you, freshmen!”

Panelists share their tech career tips.

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Women in STEM, take two: tech panel returns for second yearSamantha Caputo

Knowing the juniors will focus their energy on only one or two things, something will have to give.... My guess is it’ll be the PARCC.”

“

Hundreds of Colorado High School students are protesting over their history curriculum. This protest

spread all over the U.S and started a debate about whether school districts should be able to censor the material students learn. The students started protesting because they didn’t want their AP history curriculum to be censored. The alleged censorship occurred after board members reviewed the cur-riculum and instituted a policy stating that history materials and content could only be used if they didn’t “encourage civil disorder, social conflict or disregard of the law.” According to the district, “the history curriculum should promote citizenship, pa-triotism, respect for authority and respect for individual rights.” While such language seems sensible, it poses problems for history courses. The student protesters are taking

a stand because the policy drafted by the school board could leave out important les-sons in history, such as the “civil disorder” promoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ms. Johanna Heppeler, Leyden’s own AP U.S. history teacher, heard about the Colorado high school protests through Twitter, the evening news, and a letter she received from the College Board. Ms.Heppeler stated that “debates about what should be taught in a history classroom are not new. Often the conversations are about ‘what’ to teach and not ‘why’ certain topics are important to learn about.” She also provided her response to the Colorado policy and protests: “Teachers should be intentional in their decision-making about the content they bring into the classroom. If the content is ‘unpleasant’ but serves a purpose, it should be included.” And according to Ms. Heppeler, leaving out the unpleasant moments is not possible in her subject: “History, by defini-

tion, is argument without end. Historians create an interpretation of past events using evidence and reason to support that inter-pretation. In order to create opportunity for students to learn about the past, they need to encounter the past, the good and the bad. My goal is to empower students to create their OWN interpretation of what really happened in the past.” Junior Natalia Baniak is currently taking AP U.S. history and stated that she completely agrees with the students’ pro-test. According to Baniak, “schools should provide each student with equal opportunity to access any knowledge they want to learn, and students should learn as much as they possibly can about any topic.” Baniak agrees with the protesters because in history “every country has done something that we would consider ‘wrong’ and we could use those events to help shape a better society.”

Colorado students protest over right to learnYonka Angelova

Is it ever safe to say that there is no more room for improvement? Not in the eyes of Leyden principal Mr. Jason Markey

and Bettendorf principal Mr. Jimmy Casas. In late October, twelve Leyden students and twelve Bettendorf students teamed up in a student exchange program to look at different aspects in each other’s schools, comparing and contrasting in an effort to make each school better. Mr. Markey stated, “I have been fortunate to be able to travel to several other schools the past few years, and I always take something away from each school that we could use to make Leyden even better. Knowing this is so valuable to my perspec-tive as a principal. I knew if we could find a way to have our students visit another school that they would be able to take as much if not more to bring back to Leyden. I strongly believe the more connections we make the more it can inform our own improvement.” As a participant of the event, I came away from the trip happy that Leyden has done a great job making improvements. But I also came away convinced that we need increased student voice and participa-tion to foster more pride in and out of the school. Currently, Leyden has a student leadership team that has a good student voice, but not good enough. Student voice is the individual and collective perspec-tives and actions of young people within

the context of learning and education. This can include, but isn’t limited to, active or passive participation, knowledge, voting, wisdom, activism, beliefs, service, opin-ions, leadership, and ideas. The first problem with the team is that no one knows what the team is all about and who is on the team. The WSC Leader-ship team at Leyden is a group of 30 kids who come together to discuss the school and potential changes or improvements. In November, the team went on a trip to Addison Trail High School to meet with other teams within the WCS to learn how to be better leaders. The many students involved in this team are heavily involved in other clubs besides this team. This is helpful because they have the abil-ity to talk to many other students that they know around the school to look for ideas, but there is no structured setting where all students would have the ability to give their ideas on what we can do to make Leyden a better place to go to school. The kids who do not already contribute ideas are either too lazy or don’t know where to share their ideas. Students may think that the upper hand will not listen to their ideas because they are “just kids” and that their “ideas don’t matter,” yet the district is actually listening. The team has already brought up Turnabout and having Athletic P.E. as an honors class. So far, Turnabout has been brought back, but we are still working on bringing up new ideas to policy-makers this coming year, such as making spirit buses for away games. I, we,

the students, are the ones who have to stay at Leyden for over eight hours a day, so shouldn’t it be set up the way you want it? Borrowing from Bettendorf, Leyden should ensure everyone has a say in the school by creating a program like R.S.V.P.(Bettendorf High School’s leadership/student voice program). At R.S.V.P., all students are as-signed to a classroom like an ACCESS, but it’s not just freshman year, and they don’t meet every day. They meet only when it is necessary. Here, students have the ability to talk about things that they would like to see things changed throughout their school and even their neighborhood. The talks consisted

of topics from cafeteria food to even look-ing into creating a better mall or skate park nearby. Leyden is looking into this program because it helps give everyone in the school a voice in a more structured environment. This program would give students the ability to have their input heard and possibly put into action. Even though the leadership team is already working very hard and coming up with lots of ideas, why can’t we have more? Why are we not having every single student in the school have the ability to speak their mind about how they think our school day should be spent?

Opinions December 2014The Eagle’s Eye 3

Visiting other schools gives us a good sense of what we’re doing well and ideas for improvement. What Leyden needs is more students speaking up.

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BS laws

Cesar Milan, a famous dog trainer, says, “A breed is like a suit of clothes, it doesn’t tell you anything

about the dog inside.” Across the United States, breed-specific laws are being passed. These laws are being placed to ban a par-ticular breed or restraining a breed based on its appearance. Usually, the BS laws are full bans, but they may also exist as restric-tions in certain cities. Most of these bans are placed based on misconceptions about the breed. Since the beginning of the bans, many breeds have been targeted, such as Rottweilers, American Staffordshire Bull Terriers (“Pit Bulls”), Chow Chows, Ger-man Shepherd Dogs, Doberman Pinschers, and the list will continue to grow. These breeds are commonly considered “danger-ous” or those who demonstrate aggression or violent behavior. During the 1980s, a number of deaths and injuries caused by these certain breeds brought attention to the public, and the public began demanding breed-specific restrictions.

But many animal experts believe that these laws are not the answer. The American Veterinary Medical Association believes that these bans would not help any of these breeds. If these bans continue to grow then maybe these laws will be used in shelters. If the dog that fits into these characteristics then maybe the dog will be euthanized based on its appearance and not given the chance to be adopted. All these dogs should be given a chance to be adopted and find their forever homes. These bans are expensive laws to keep. In 2001, it was esti-mated that this would cost almost $750,000 to enforce these laws. In recent years, there at least seventeen states trying to fight against these laws. As of 2014, states such as Maryland, Vermont, South Dakota, Missouri, Utah and Wash-ington state are jumping on the bandwagon to promote anti-pit bull bans and anti-BSL.There are many groups anti-BSL that are hoping to get things overturned as well. Such as the group “Don’t Bully My Breed.” This group spreads awareness on these top-ics throughout the United States.

Samantha Caputo

Breed specific laws unfairly target the pet rather than the owner.

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Raise your voice

Procrastination, prioritization, communication

Crystal Iniguez

Christina Leon

With just a few days left until finals, everyone is cramming to get last minute studying in.

Why? Because we all procrastinated. We procrastinated to do our homework, and we procrastinated to study. But it’s okay because it happens to everyone. Because procrastination affects many students, especially seniors, and teachers should learn to understand that sometimes some things are more important than doing homework. Seniors have to do so many things in their last year of high school: apply to colleges, apply for scholarships, go on college visits, and get ready for a whole new life.

Teachers expect students to com-plete their homework, but what they do not always acknowledge is that students have so much more to deal with. Many students participate in a sport, are part of a club, and have after-school jobs; how could they pos-sibly find the time to do homework, study, and apply for colleges? Thus, when students drop the ball on the little things, it’s because they are more focused on bigger tasks. At this point they are not procrastinating; they are prioritizing. Students know that getting their

college application done is so much more important than doing notes for their class. And sometimes it is more important to deal with family issues than it is to do homework for Spanish class. Students might find that teachers respect this prioritizing, but a problem arises when a student doesn’t com-municate with the teacher. How is the teacher supposed to know that the student didn’t do their home-work because the student has a family mem-ber in the hospital? Teachers are humans too. They understand that you have other pri-orities and will hopefully give you a break. But there comes a point when it happens so often that a teacher just can’t let it slide. If you’re going to prioritize, you still have to finish the little things, not just ignore them.

You have to tend to your responsibilities,;that is what life’s all about. Students have to communicate and teachers should try to understand. They have gone through the entire school process already and should know how overwhelming things could get. Letting a cou-ple unfinished homework assignments be turned in

late won’t hurt anyone. It starts to turn into a problem when grades begin to drop and the student has completely ignored the fact that they have to still do the make up work. That is when the teacher should take action and give out consequences, not when it has only happened a couple of times. Prioritizing is not the same as procrastinating, but they both have similar consequences. Everyone prioritizes and procrastinates-- it’s a part of life-- but don’t let it conquer you, you should be the one conquering it.

Christmas is a holiday I love and enjoy. Spending time with family and doing all your favorite things together is my favorite part. In my house, putting up the decorations and selecting the tree are

activities that we still do as a family. We do so many things together at this time: buying gifts for the ones we love, smelling the cookies we’ve, listening to Christmas music, and settling int to watch all our favorite holiday movies on TV. Christmas is about the people you love, which is the main reason I love Christmas, and one of the important traditions in making Christmas even better is going to church. Every year, I go to celebrate the birth of Christ at church, but I’m beginning to worry that when people think of Christmas they don’t really think of Christ. Some of my peers don’t like to participate in family holiday events, but I think this is the most important part of Christmas. I have heard many people say that they don’t want to spend the Christmas holidays with their families. Instead, they’re anxious to have the time off to go and hang out with their friends. Not spending time with family is something you will regret one day. Christmas brings people together. There is no bad during the Christmas holidays-everything is magical. If you have some free time, go gift shopping for your family and get them what they want. Also, go to church with your family during the holidays. Going to church is another opportunity to spend time with family and actually celebrate Christmas. Those are memories that will last a lifetime. I think Christmas is the only day that everyone gets along. During Christmas people are much happier. Christmas is all about giving. Giving your loved ones love, time, and gifts. Spending time with family is really rewarding and it makes you happy. Also, during the Christmas holidays, many people not only give gifts to loved ones, but they also donate money to charities. This is another opportunity to invest in family time. My family donates money to a different charity every year, and it makes us happy to know that we probably helped someone have a better life--together.

Opinions December 2014The Eagle’s Eye4

C H R i s T M a SCandy Cane Hot

Chocolate Reindeer Ice Skating Santa Tradition Mistletoe Angel Snowman

Kristina Ivanova

Alicia SolisAs we are approaching the Christmas season, people are getting excited to celebrate with presents and a nice, long vacation. We’re ready to see our family, go out or stay home to enjoy big dinners, recive gifts, complete an-nual traditions, and generally be merry. But sometimes we forget that this is also a time for giving. During this season people, should be more willing to give to the less fortunate people of the world. One of my favorite ways to do that is through Toys for Tots. The Toys For Tots Marine Corps foundation’s mission is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November, and December each year, and to distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children throughout the community. You can give as much as you can afford/want, and you will help bring the joy to less fortunate children. All children deserve to experience the joy of Christmas. If people in all different communities participate in this giving foundation’s mission then we can help bring the Christmas joy to all sorts of children. This can also help unite people and really spread Christmas joy not just for the less fortunate, but for those giving. Don’t be a Scrooge during this giving time, give to those less fortunate and to those who forgot about Christmas joy.

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Editors-in-ChiefSamantha Caputo (News) and Alex Mennella (Sports)

Opinions EditorCatrina Sanfilippo

In Focus EditorYolisiya Yonova

Feature Co-EditorsYonka Angelova & Adriana Balvaneda

Arts & Entertainment Co-EditorsMaria Barron & Yakeline Ramirez

Broadcast EditorPiotr Dabek

Web EditorJessica Batson

Visuals ManagerChristopher Brito

Social Media/Marketing ManagerChristina Leon

Copy EditorsJoanna LeskiMartha Leski

Social ChairJamie DuBrock

ReportersAlyssa DeSimoneNicholas ElliottJacob HawkingCrystal Iniguez

Kristina IvanovaAkur Kuanyin-Agoth

Angel PerezAnthony Raimondi

Jesus RenteriaJessalyn RiveraSandy Sanchez

Alicia SolisJasmin Villalpando

The Eagle’s Eye is produced by students enrolled in English IV Journalism and English IV Journalism Honors with Mr. John Rossi. The opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the district. Readers are encouraged to check out our full collection of content and submit story ideas via eagleseye@student.leyden212.org

Find us at lhsnews.orgFollow us @EaglesEye212

Attention JUNIORS! Interested in working on the paper, the website, or the morning announcements? Ask your English teacher and counselor to enroll you in English IV Journalism or English IV Journalism Honors. Or talk to Mr. Rossi for more details.

This year, one Leyden ACCESS group will not help the young, sick, or elderly. Instead they’ll help a fellow

teen, giving him a last hand before he turns too old to be in foster care system. This project is being managed by Ms. Kari Stutzman’s freshman ACCESS as part of a larger project introduced by Leyden senior Kerri Predovich last year. It was as a child that Predovich first became involved with the Lydia Home Orphanage, but it wasn’t until she heard that not all the kids at the orphanage were receiving gifts for Christmas that she decided to take action and bring the program to Leyden. For the past two years, Predovich has asked mem-bers of our school to help with her family tradition of helping. Last year, the partnership quickly proved successful as it marked the first year in a long time that all the orphans received a Christmas gift. Predovich explained, “Christmas is a time of giving, so I thought it would be appropriate to get my friends and faculty at the school involved. This is not a Leyden run program, but Leyden has been a huge help for me with this project.”Lydia Home is a safe home that was for-mally established in 1995 as a non-profit organization. Their mission was to, “help towards ending violence by being a place of healing and a voice of hope for abused women and their children.” In 1996, Lydia’s house opened its doors with one full time staff member. The first residents who prospered from this opportunity moved into their own home in 1997. In 1998, Lydia Home received out-standing funds that gave them the chance to purchase a multi-family apartment complex. This organization was then able to proceed in creating programs and development activities for Women and their children for

additional support. As of today, Lydia’s house is improving and strengthening their opportunities and living conditions with the help of its: donors, volunteers, and commu-nity partners. As it’s approaching the holidays, this is a great way for the students at Ley-den to get into the giving spirit. Senior Iris Villasenor said, “Christmas is a day for everyone to make time for each other, to give and enjoy each other’s presence.” The giving all starts with Predovich getting the names/profiles of the children: the child’s name, ID number, race, shirt size, pants size, shoe size, coat size, bra size, if they have their ears pierced, favorite color, favorite character, favorite team, needs/wishes. From there, each Leyden group

that’s helping gets assigned a child or two, and Predovich makes sure the gifts are de-livered. Stutzman’s ACCESS was par-ticularly drawn to the story of Sean (name changed). Sean is a 17 year old boy who has been orphaned since a very young age. Once a person reaches 18, he or she is unable to stay at an orphanage any longer. Sean will need to search for close or distant family members or other temporary housing. Stutzman’s class is trying to help Sean receive all the necessities, to make sure he has all the supplies he needs to per-form daily tasks. Although he’s struggling through greater obstacles than the average teen he is not much different from the rest of us. He’s a huge Bulls fan and is a very

artistic kid. He enjoys playing video games and loves listening to music. Villasenor is one of the mentors in Ms. Stutzman’s ACCESS class. She says that working together to help Sean is helping the freshmen develop as people: “I want them to be aware that some of things that they have on a regular basis [are things] other children struggle to get.” Beyond Stutzman’s ACCESS, other groups that Predovich interacts with have also become involved, primarily the Senior Class Board. Sponsor Mr. Jerome Patt explained his appreciation for the Ley-den students: “I love seeing our kids bring in all the gifts and seeing their happy faces.”

Now that win-ter in here, Leyden stu-

dents will be look-ing for hot spots to go in the cold. The MB Financial Park in Rosemont is one of those places, and a new four-story tube hill adds to an already impressive lineup of things to do. Tube hill tickets are $20 per person per hour and are on sale now! Oth-erwise if you just want to go skate, admission to the rink is free and skate rentals are avail-able for $8.00.When you go to the park the first thing you see is people drinking hot coffee, ice skating, people’s cold breath as they’re breathing, couples hanging out, holding hands, and just a peaceful place to be. It is also good for big city dining, entertainment, nightlife, and family fun. The park offers international cuisine, live music, comedy, a state-of-the-art movie theater, bowling, an ice rink, and more. Senior, Catherine Chalakoff, loves going to the Park. “The MB Financial Park is a great place to spend some time with family or friends. I admire that there is a big variety of restaurants to choose from and other activities such as watching a movie, ice skating during the winter, bowling, and of course the newly built indoor skydiving. The places I visit frequently are the movie theatre (Muvico), ice skating arena, bowling (King’s Bowling), and my favorite restaurant ‘Fogo de Chao.’ If you are a big meat eater and love trying new foods, such as Brazilian, I would strongly recommend it. In terms of the park, it is very well maintained. Especially, the ice arena at night with all the surrounding lights and music. The atmosphere is amazing.” “I love to go to the movies (Muvico) with my friends. I like how it’s close to my house, and I can get there easily and go whenever I want. Besides, it’s a great place to meet boys there,” senior Maggie Dencheva laughed. “Going ice skating in the winter is one of my favorite things to do because it’s something you can do with friends and it’s very fun. I am also looking forward to the new four-story tube hill this year! I love going to the park in the winter because I admire the lights and the music and everything is so festive. You can definitely feel the Christmas spirit!”

Features December 2014The Eagle’s Eye 5

Student’s seasonal project supportedSandy Sanchez and Akur Kuanyin-Agoth

Leyden students are on board with a senior’s special connection to a longstanding Chicago charity.

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Winter Wanderland: In search of seasonal funKristina Ivanova

MB Financial Park in Rosemont will open a four-story tube sledding hill on Dec. 12. as another attraction.

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Storytime with SantaDecember 18

6:00pmJoin the Franklin Park Library in meeting Santa and getting a great

storytime. Cookies and milk will be provided and you will ge the chance to

take a photo with santa.

Christmas Party w/ Santa ClausDecember 13 5pm-7:30 pm

Santa is visiting Rosemont Recreation Center. Come and celebrate his arrival

with music, food, and candy.

Holidays DIY GIFTsNorthlake LibraryDecember 20, 2014

2pm-3:30pmJoin the Northlake library on

December 20 to make your own handmade gifts for your loved ones.

Limit 30 participants

Holiday Lights Bus Tour December 12

The Chamber sponsored by O’Hare will hold its bus tour to Chicago to see the festive lights and decoration

that adorn downtown. The tour offers sightseeing and food.

Contact Franklin Park village to reserve seats at (847) 671-4800.

On November 17th, Rockstar Games released a remastered version of Grand Theft Auto made specifically

for next generation consoles. The game was originally released a a little over a year ago on what then was considered current genera-tion consoles. Because the remastered version came out only a year later and is basically the same game with extra features and im-proved graphics it poses one question: is it worth it? This question especially applies to the players who bought the original version of the game. Perhaps the most persuasive new feature in the game is the addition of a first person mode, which allows the player to play the game through the eyes of the characters. This mode is integrated very well into the game; players have the op-tion to switch between third and and first person at any point in the game. It is easy to get accustomed to and is a completely new experience to returning players who are used to playing in third person on the older consoles. I am glad to say that thanks to this mode the game is a much different experience gameplay wise. What I mean by that is that the game can be experienced much differently with this mode, for example in the old game, on a specific mission the player was required to tail a plane while in a crop duster, with the first person mode on, this mission has a different level of difficulty and requires the player to approach it slightly differently than they would in third person. Rockstar has also spent some time giving extra details to locations that would normally not be seen in third person, minor details like dashboard lights working in a car, or a cracked screen on a phone. What really surprised me is that the player’s vision is affected by accessories like helmets or glasses; putting on glasses causes the screen to be the same shade as the glasses and a helmet will slightly limit the player’s field of view. Unfortunately, it is not possible to view the whole playable part of the game in first person due to some moments that force the camera to be in third person, which I found a bit disappointing because it changes the experience, especially for players like me who are attempting to play the whole campaign in first person. However, this is

only a minor negative compared to all the positives of this mode. Overall, I would give a nine out of ten for this mode. Other new features include a selection of new vehicles in the game. Although there are not as many as it would be expected, and some will not be avail-able to players unless they have played the older version of the game. For example, there is one plane that appeared in the older Rockstar game called Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, that can be unlocked by complet-ing new missions available to only those returning players. There are a few other ad-ditions that follow this basis. These features are not necessities to play the game, which may have been Rockstar’s attempt on trying to convince last gen players to upgrade, and let’s face it, exclusive content is a good way of convincing someone to upgrade. Whether that is the reason, or if Rockstar is just trying to reward loyal players, it is not known if these special features will be released as a paid extension pack in the future. It is also interesting to see cars that were part of extension packs in the older game driving on the roads of Los Santos, especially since the only way to see them in single player on last gen was to select one from the character’s garage. And while this may not seem that important to many players, as a returning player I am quite pleased by it. I give this section a six out of

ten because although the new vehicles are nice to have, much more could have been added on. Graphically, the game does not really feel like it looks extremely better than the old one, even though it clearly does. If the two are compared side by side then, yes, the visual differences are there, but if someone looks at the two games at two different times on the same screen going through the exact same action, I do not think that that person would be able to instantly identify the difference. The high levels of detail mainly appear in places that the player is expected to focus on majority of their time, for example, like mentioned earlier, the dashboard of a car has amazing levels of detail, but all it will take is to look down onto the pedals, which look like they were only meant to be looked at from far away. That being said, with all the new additions and extra details in the game, it is an excusable but not unforgettable fault. That is why it is difficult to give it a rating on graphical advancements, Some areas were given, marvelous levels of detail, while oth-ers, were just left as they were. That is why I feel that it gets a six and a half out of ten in this area. There is no real point focusing on the campaign in this game, because it follows the same characters as the last gen version of the game, so I will jump straight

to GTA Online, which is the name for Grand Theft Auto’s multiplayer mode. Players who have worked hard to get their characters to where they are now, are given the option to transfer those char-acters and all the things that they unlocked into the next gen version of the game. The actual multiplayer is basically the same experience as in the older game, apart from the fact that it now supports thirty person lobbies instead of the original twenty-four. Because the game has only been out for a couple of days, no exploits have been found yet, which is a good sign for the game so far, especially since last one suffered from some kind of new exploit or glitch with a release of every new patch. With that said though, GTA Online did have a hard time getting in motion due to issues with the servers not allowing players to transfer their characters and a hacker group hacking into the servers causing a temporary outage of the online service for the game. As of now, those issues have been resolved and no new ones have arose. As for the online heists, they are still not in the game, although Rockstar claims that they will release these by the end of November. It is only fair that people have their doubts since these heists were supposed to be in-cluded in the last gen release of the game, and were promised to be added to it a long time ago until the idea practically faded away. The main difference in multiplayer would be the option to play in first person. Because the multiplayer is practically un-changed, and still does not include the heist mode, I give it a rating of five out of 10, this is not because it is bad, but because no real changes were made to it, and because play-ers still have to wait on the online heists. Overall, the remastered version of Grand Theft Auto V is a relatively new ex-perience for both returning and new players, but is it really worth to upgrade if you have already purchased the original last gen ver-sion, that may be up to personal tastes, what should be noted is that it still is the same story, with a few extra missions and a few extra features including the new first person mode? If you never played the original and already have one of the next gen consoles, it is definitely a game worth picking up, but if you only have a last gen console, I would not use this game as a reason to upgrade just yet.

Entertainment December 2014The Eagle’s Eye6

GTAV’s new perspective makes this game worth returning to, even if the story is unchanged.

Wallet warfare

Piotr Dabek

Our reviewers set sights on games that deserve your dollars

Jesus Renteria

Activision and Square Enix released a new Call of Duty on November 3 called Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The game is available on many platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC. This game features a jaw-dropping new campaign, fa-miliar multiplayer, and improved graphics. The campaign is like an action movie. In almost every mission there are bullets flying or things exploding, which is awesome. American actor Kevin Spacey has an important role in the campaign. Spacey plays as Jonathan Irons, the owner of Atlas, a private army. The character you play is Jack Mitchell, who was enlisted in the marines six months before going to battle. The campaign’s story takes place in several places: South Korea, USA, Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, Thailand, Nigeria, and Antarctica. But the setting is the mid-21st century (2054), and this fictional future is complete with jetpacks, laser beam guns, and grenades that shoot out of your armor

suit. The sci-fi approach creates a compel-ling experience, and the graphics look amaz-ing on my Xbox 360. I can infer that it will look better on the Xbox One or PS4. The multiplayer features are end-less, but the most drastic one is customiza-tion. There are a lot of options that are cus-tomizable: the guns, character appearance, classes, and settings. In customizing your character, you have a greater number of options than in past games. You can choose hats, clothes, helmets, jetpacks , glasses and skin color. Each class has its own killstreak.

Another feature is the different ecosystem. While waiting in the lobby for the game to start, you can see other’s play-ers characters. The new layout provides you with three screens. On the left side, you can view classes, maps, and armory. There’s also a box that shows your inventory. In the middle of the screen, you can see your online characters, in addition to being able to zoom in and see their inventory and weapons. Lastly, on the right side of screen there is a table of the players’ gamer-tags with their rank. This game features a

larger variety of grenades, more attachments for guns, different sights, a new tracker, and a mini map. Parabolic microphone suppress weapons fire appears on your mini map. The number of options can certainly be overwhelming in the beginning. The maps and the lobby were confusing at first, but after some games I got used to it. In my first game I went 0-5-0 K:D:A. But in my second I went 14-8-3 K:D:A. Third game 18-11-5 K:D:A. Fourth game 21-14-1 K:D:A. Fifth Game 20-6-3 K:D:A. Once I got accustomed to all the new bells and whistles, it felt like the same CoD fun I’ve enjoyed for years. Is the game worth buying? I think it is worth buying, but not at retail price as Call of Duty games tend to lose value quickly. I bought Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare for $40 (including tax and shipping) and I got mine a week after the release day. Shortly after I made the purchase, I spotted Call of Duty:Ghosts on sale for $5 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. As long as you get a discount for the game, it’s definitely worth buying.

This year’s Call of Duty has futuristic toys. They’re small changes but big fun.

Features December 2014The Eagle’s Eye 7

Fine Arts Spotlight

Gisselle Reyes is a student in Mr. Bill Krypel’s ceramic class. She has created a piece which displays

a number of well-developed skills. Reyes talked about some of her difficulties with her project and also about her success. “Keeping myself motivated throughout the process was hard alone. It took over a semester to make, so there were days when I just had creativity block and couldn’t think of details to add. But I think the hardest part was picking what colors I

wanted to paint it when it was finished. I actually painted the entire house green but I didn’t like it, so I took it all off and repainted it.” she shared. Looking at her piece would make one wonder how this project was created. “I used slabs to create the base of the project, including the house itself and the tree. I also used sculpting to create the woman’s face and coils to roll her hair and the branches.” Her idea came from a very well known Disney movie, Pocahontas. Specifi-cally, Reyes was inspired by the character Grandmother Willow, and she decided that

she wanted to recreate the woman through a detailed piece that had different concepts of the movie in it. She decided to paint the leaves of her project just as they were shown in the movie in order to add detail. All of her careful choices really made her project unique. When asked about her successes, Reyes admitted, “I love how the leaves turned out. When I was first making them I thought they looked like snowflakes, but after I added the design and painted them, they had this dry but harsh look to them that I loved.”

Alicia Solis

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Off campus policy a long way offSenior Michelle Hathaway checked

her phone. It was 12:10 P.M, only giving her four more minutes to get

inside. Starbucks drink and pastries in hand, Hathaway quickly paced across Leyden’s parking lot. She ran to the auditorium en-trance, expecting to see one of her friends waiting to open the door for her. Instead, a security guard was waiting for her. Hathaway was supposed to be on her way back to 8th period, but instead was directed to deans office, where she received a BIC for leaving the school building with-out permission. Hathaway served her BIC as she knew that she broke the rules of leaving the building, but she still continues to dis-agree with Leyden’s lunch policy, desiring an off-campus opportunity. “To me, a break means being able to fully relax. It means getting into my car with my friends, jamming out to music, being able to have the freedom to choose what I want to eat for lunch that day, and actually being able to be away from school for those 20 something minutes. I appreciate just being able to catch a breath outside and be able to go to a different surrounding and completely forget about school for a short portion of my day.” Schools with an off-campus policy do exist. Four out of fourteen schools which are a part of the West Suburban Conference of the Illinois High School Association, which includes both East and West Leyden, have an open campus lunch policy. Unfortunately for Leyden students who’d like to leave (without having to stay late for a BIC) there’s little chance that the opportunity for off-campus can be created any time soon. There is no current discussion about open campus lunch for Leyden. Dean of Students Mr. Dennis Byrne said that he

“has never thought about the possibility be-cause it was never brought up or discussed.” Dean of Students Mr. Michael Grosch shook his head at the question of an off-campus lunch policy ever being avail-able for Leyden. “Not only would this cause too much traffic at attendance, kids would get caught by trains or just get caught in line at their favorite restaurant.” He continued, “Not many fast food places are close to Leyden, so many students would be going to the same place and not everyone can make it back. 25 minutes is not enough time to grab a lunch, eat it, and come back to school on time. My argument could be refuted by men-tioning that Leyden can extend the lunch period, but that would take years to change as not every student would not want that option in the first place. It might be possible for one student that leaves to make it back on time, but not if the whole school decides they want Positano’s for lunch that day.” Principal Jason Markey shared his view: “I wouldn’t say it could never hap-

pen, but there’s a couple of barriers. One primary barrier that is very unique to here is the trains. If you want to go to one of the places where you can eat quickly, which most happen to be across the tracks, this sets up problems for a short lunch period. Within a 25 minute lunch period and our surround-ings where there are not a lot of places to eat really quick, it would be difficult. Just because it would be difficult doesn’t mean things couldn’t change.” Though being able to leave campus seems like a long shot based on these fac-tors, many problems could be mitigated by selectivity. Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn offers an open campus policy for sophomores, juniors, and seniors with no disciplinary problems, no suspensions, and few absences. York Community High School in Elmhurst allows seniors with good standing to leave the campus for lunch. Lyons Township North High School in La Grange allows juniors and seniors who

live less than two blocks from campus to go home during lunch, and Oak Park River Forest High School in Oak Park River For-est allows off campus lunch for juniors and seniors who have a 2.0 or higher GPA and administrator approval. Considering this approach, Mr. Markey stated, “Largely, the parameters would rely on parent permission, something that freshman and maybe even sophomores don’t have; maybe it’s just upperclassmen. I haven’t thought much [of an]incentive or GPA requirement, but those are all good suggestions. I know some other schools that do that.” He added, “If it’s something that there’s interest in and it’s feasible, I’d be more than happy to [discuss it.] But to be honest, it’s something I haven’t thought about a lot because it hasn’t been brought up a lot.”

Joanna Leski

Friendly faces and behavioral consequences will continue to greet those who leave for lunch.

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Leyden events such as the Honors Breakfast and staff meetings function as the clients for the Advanced Catering students. These real mouths to feed mean real palates to please, which means early mornings and a great deal of preparation.Analysia Martinez talked us through the process.

PREP“Prep takes us anywhere from a few days to a week. We have to make sure that all the food that is being prepared before is at the best quality.”

SETUP and SERVICE“On the day of the event, it depends on if it is a morning or afternoon event, but if it is morning, we have to get there early, around 6 a.m., to make sure that the food is prepared and that everything is set up correctly. Before the event Ms. Sweeney practices with us to make sure that we know exactly what we are doing. For the people that are serving the food, they have to know exactly what is in it, just in case someone asks. During the event we have to stand and act professional. While everyone is enjoying their food, we have to stand there quietly.”

CLEAN UP”After the event is over we have to clean up. If there are people still there we have to clean up quietly. We take everything back to the room and make sure every-thing is washed. Then we have to put everything where it belongs. We usually finish early, so we have some downtime to rest.”

Christohper Brito

Class to Table

Sports December 2014The Eagle’s Eye8

Prompted by a number of high profile NFL cases and controversies, Leyden and

all other high school sports have revised their rules and policies to prevent and limit concussions. The IHSA (Illinois High School Association) has mandated a number of changes in the wake of recent concussion research. Ley-den’s Athletic Director, Mr. Randy Conrad, explained: “Back six or seven years ago, pamphlets were just being distributed to athletes regarding concussions. After the IHSA was mandated by the state legislature, they have since put forward a powerpoint presentation and video that every high school athlete has to watch regarding concussions.” According to the IHSA, besides the presentation being viewed by student athletes, “Infor-mation on the school’s concussion and head injury policy must be a part of [an] agreement contract... that a school requires a student athlete and his or her parents or guardian to sign before participat-ing in practice or interscholastic competition.” Upon further investiga-tion, Leyden’s policy is directly in line with the IHSA’s policy. All student athletes watch the concus-sion presentation and sign the con-cussion contract before beginning any competition, just as the IHSA requires. A recent example of the new concussion protocol was witnessed by Junior and Varsity football player Steven Gulo. Ste-ven was concussed on a hit during a game this season. According to

Gulo, “the trainers basically asked me a bunch of basic questions such as, what day it was, what happen during the play my concussion occurred and they asked me to memorize 3 random things and they would asked me throughout the night to repeat the 3 words.” Gulo was kept out practice and games for 11 days. He was only allowed to return after a follow up meeting with the trainers. Gulo recalls the trainers asking if he still had any symptoms from his concussion and he was given a concussion test on an iPad before he was allowed to return. Gulo’s case is quite com-mon and the sport he plays is most closely linked to concussions: football. Concussions and football have been linked since the early 2000s, when initial research was conducted and the findings were published. The NFL initially de-nied that players health problems after football had something to do with their days in the NFL. After lawsuits, court cases, more re-search, and former players deaths, the NFL has dramatically changed its attitude towards concussions and player safety. The event that sparked the link between concussions and football took place in 2002. Pitts-burgh Steelers legend and Hall of Famer Mike Webster had recently died of a heart attack. His brain was being analyzed by top neuro-surgeons and neuropathologists: Dr. Bennet Omalu, Julian Bailes, Robert Cantu, and Ann McKee. They discovered structural defor-mities on Webster’s brain that led to his declining health before his death. They examined a total of 14 brains from NFL players who died

from suicide, accidents, or drug abuse. Of the 14 brains studied, 10 showed signs of structural damage, later named Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). After vigorous research and countless studies, Dr. Omalu published his findings. He met harsh backlash from the NFL, who immediately denounced his study and demanded that he retract it. Over time, however, the NFL has made a complete change in policy. Starting in 2009, the NFL made a series of rule changes to make the game safer for players. They also adopted a plan to help former play-ers whose health problems could be linked to their playing days. The largest event that has stemmed from concussion research happened in August of 2013. The NFL settled a lawsuit filed by more that 25,000 former players and almost 9,000 relatives of deceased players regarding the carelessness of the NFL regarding player safety. The settlement was for an astounding $765 million and more if necessary.

While this seemed like a huge win to almost everyone involved, after the settlement was reached, some players dropped out of the case. According to ESPN, “a total of 220 individuals -- 196 former players, 22 relatives of NFL retirees and two who went unclassified -- opted out by last month’s deadline.” Along with the dropout, ESPN also reported that some leading brain trauma experts also denounced the plan because it, “pays nothing to ex-players exhib-iting mood swings, aggression and other behavioral problems they link to repetitive brain trauma.” Although the plan does have some opposition, the general attitude of those involved was that of pride. The attorneys for former players, Christopher Seeger and Sol Weiss, issued a statement confirming the players feelings of success. Their statement read, “With over 99 percent participa-tion, it is clear the retired player community resoundingly supports this settlement.”

Boys swimming suits up

Jamie DuBrock

T his school year is flying, and it’s already Boys Swimming season! I had

the chance to sit down with senior and Captain Macin Chmielewski for a Q&A for the coming months.Jamie: What are you expect-ing for this upcoming season?Marcin: “For this season I’m expecting that we can start strong and stay strong through-out the season. I’m also ex-pecting that we will have a harder season than last year because we lost quite a bit of good swimmers who were se-niors last year. But I hope we can make up for the smaller team, and at least be a chal-lenge to Downers Grove and Maine East, maybe even beat them. I’m also hoping that the freshmen turnout this year will be good. As previously stated, we are in need of more swim-mers.”

J: How are the crowd turn-outs?M: “Our crowd turnouts aren’t that big at the meets; they’re mostly parents of the swim-mers and some Leyden stu-dents. I’m hoping that we can get more Leyden students to come out and support us this year.”

J: How long is the swimming season?M: “The boys swim season is quite long, starting from the third week of November until the sectionals meet at the end of February, but our pre-season workouts started much earlier, in the beginning of Septem-ber.”

J: Are there any individuals that you’re looking to step up this year?M: “ I’m hoping that the whole team steps up for this season, as we all have the potential to become better swimmers, it’s just how much we dedicate ourselves to practices.”

I also had the chance to sit down with Junior Rob Gussy to get his take on the swimming season.Jamie: What are you expect-ing for this upcoming season?Rob: “I’m expecting for a lot of people to try their best, and I expect to have a lot of fun because the swim team is like a family, I’m also looking for-ward to the 100 yard butterfly especially because that’s my main event.”

Pom and cheer teams move on to competition season

Now that football season has come to a close, the cheer and poms team start

their competition season through the end of January. Both teams have been preparing for this time of year since the summer. They are both hoping to qualify for the state competition this year and they both know it will take a lot of hard work and determination to get there. The Leydenettes have a total of five competitions this year including sectionals. During early November, they had a choreogra-pher come in on a Saturday for 10 hours to teach the team their new routine. They already had their first competition on November 22

competing against over 40 other routines. This year the team has decided to perform a jazz routine to the song, “Unbelievers,” by Vampire Weekend. This song was chosen by their choreographer because the Leydenettes wanted to perform a jazz routine. Jessica Johnson, a ju-nior at West Leyden says, “I think we have improved extremely from last year not only technique wise but also we went to our competi-tion a whole new team with a jazz routine something different than our usual poms dances, we put so much work into our dance and I think we performed really good at competition.” With a total of 18 members performing, intense and long practices have been held

for many weeks. Diana Csercse, a senior here at East Leyden shared her thoughts about the team, “Competition season is personally my favorite part of poms. I think the girls love to show off all their hard work and have fun in doing so.” The varsity cheer team learned their competition routine over two days during the sum-mer. They practiced four days a week since the football season has ended. Their choreographer has came back a few times to help them clean their routine some more. Captain Ashley Pesch stated, “Whether we place or not this year, it’s a great experience and the team has became so close.”

Anthony Raimondi

The cheerleaders and poms both have a full lineup of competitions this winter.

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Concussion facts hit hard

Wide receivers like Reggie Wayne are particularly prone to receiving hard hits. ht

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Q&A

Cheerleading

December 13Lincoln Way North

December 20Rolling Meadows

January 4Conant

January 11Buffalo Grove

January 18Niles West January 31Sectionals

Poms

November 22Fremd

December 6Eisenhower

December 14Stevenson

January 10Rolling Meadows

January 24Sectionals