A publication of Douglas Southall FreemanHigh School, Henrico, Virginia 23229

Commentator

Matthew Heinicke-PeartStaff Writer

A publication of Douglas Southall Freeman High School; Henrico, Virginia 23229

February 2014

Vol. 61, No. 3 Page 1

the

Senior Competes in China

Senior Charlie Bonner and Destination Imagination teammate Gabby Levet pose on the Great Wall of China after competing in the Asia Pacific Beijing Invitational.

Imagine yourself in the bustling city of Beijing, with a chance to compete against hundreds of the brightest young intellectuals in Asia and across the world. Now imagine winning. Senior Charlie Bonner made this a reality thanks to his own imagination. He and his partner Gabby Levet, a Deep Run se-nior, were invited to the Asia Pa-cific Beijing Invitational for Des-tination Imagination; they won first place in the international National Geographic Challenge, and second place in the Improvi-sational Challenge. Destination Imagination (DI) is an organization designed to help students learn and experience creative processes. It is much

like other competitive clubs like Model UN, except the DI com-petitions are composed of engi-neering and forensic disciplines. Competitors are asked to design and/or act out solutions to criti-cal problems that are applicable to today’s society. “[We] were asked to design a tool to remotely operate a digital camera, and to then take pictures of wildlife with that camera.” said Charlie. “They wanted to see what the wildlife would do when people weren’t around.” As one can imagine, presenting in a foreign country was a chal-lenge. The pair had an interpret-er who helped their team and the judges communicate. Charlie’s success was due in large part to his chemistry with his teammate Gabby, who has worked in DI with Charlie since the third grade. “I did more of the structural

things, and she did more of the costumes and design. I also did most of the acting.” said Bon-ner. The two have been working together in DI for so long that “everything just seems to work between us.” Although this was their last DI competition, Char-lie and Gabby will be at the glob-al finals in May as volunteers. Charlie and Gabby had time to explore some of the history of the area, such as the Great Wall. “Thanks to our interpreter, we got to ride the subways and buses around the city and experience what Beijing is really like.” Charlie’s accomplishment was “great for the prestige of Doug-las Freeman” said Leadership Center Director Rob Peck. Mr. Peck has been teaching Charlie and attempting to develop his in-tellectualism, but he is convinced that “[the success at DI] was all Charlie’s.”

Students Will Receive School Email AddressesEric AsplundStaff Writer

Henrico County has been work-ing on establishing an email sys-tem for students to use at school by way of the popular online email provider Gmail. Gmail is a free webmail ser-vice provided by technology su-perstar Google that launched in 2007. As of 2012, it is the most popular webmail provider. This web service offers a version of the Gmail app specifically for school use. This version has 30 gigabytes of storage as opposed to the typical 15, an offline ver-sion compatible with the on-the-go student, and is devoid of pesky advertisements.

This version, called Google Apps for Education, is also fil-tered for use by students. The email system runs through a Henrico County domain unlike a personal email account. Google personalizes the accounts for the school system and it is complete-ly free. Every email address has to have a host domain. The most familiar host domain in the county – and the one used for all teacher email addresses – is “@henrico.k12.va.us.” Students, however, will have a different host domain. Jessica Ciokan, Freeman’s In-structional Technology Resource Teacher, said that “there are now two domains – one domain is for teachers … and one domain is for students.” The domain for students will

be “@henricostudents.org” and students can log in to Gmail now by simply tagging this domain onto the end of their normal username for the county (e.g. hcps-example@henricostudents.org). The password, however, is “changeme” and students will be prompted to change the pass-word when they first log in. In the Acceptable Use Policy published by the county in the Student Code of Conduct, email and chatting has been approved for educational use. This is not a change, but now it is becoming more relevant as the system is implemented and the article in the code will now have a univer-sal example. Every student in Henrico Coun-ty will be provided with an email account. Students are listed in a

special database server called an “Active Directory” which can be updated to instantly add an ac-count. “If a new student comes to the school, they are added [to the directory] within 24 hours. In the past, the school’s ITRT had to manually add new students,” said Ms. Ciokan. But the real question is whether or not students will take advan-tage of the service. “I already have a personal email but, yeah, I’d use it,” said senior Almasa Hodzic. “The accounts would give stu-dents an easier way to commu-nicate with their teachers after school hours,” said junior Alex Kossan, who describes himself as “mildly tech savvy.”

“I think exchanging personal email addresses with teachers crosses a little over a barrier in student-teacher relations” Alex said. As for teachers, the idea also seemed to be well-received as op-posed to former attempts at the same system. “I don’t look at my School Space mail at all…so I think it will simplify things,” said Ger-man and French teacher Irene Roberts. Freeman’s IT staff feels the ex-act same way. Ms. Ciokan said, “The distinc-tion between appropriate use of personal and professional email accounts is an important 21st century skill that students attain [with the new system].”

Henrico’s New Grading ScaleAndrew Oostdyk

Staff Writer

After years with a seven-point grading scale, a new ten-point scale will go into effect starting in the fall of 2014. Not only will it affect students’ grades next year, but it will be retroactive, chang-ing grades from previous years at Freeman. Many students are ex-cited to see how this will benefit their academic performance. “[Henrico is] the largest system in the state that has not convert-ed to that yet. [We are] making sure that our students are more competitive to other students in the college admissions process,” said Anne Poates, principal. Students agree that this change levels out the playing field. “It is a good idea just to help Henrico remain competitive,” said fresh-man Campbell Nystrom. The obvious benefits have been a topic of discussion for most students around school. “I am

excited about the new scale be-cause it will make it easier to get better grades” said junior Jack Zielenski. The new scale means that if a student received a 90 in a class from a previous year, that 90 will now be considered an A. This grade boost is exciting for all stu-dents whose grades will go from B’s to A’s or C’s to B’s, but could be seen as unfair for students who have received A’s in previ-ous years. “If you had a few B’s from previous years it will help bump those up, but if you’re someone who had A’s it will not make them look as good,” said junior Michael Spainhour. This one aspect of the new system will impact student GPAs and class rank. “I don’t think it will change the order [of class rank], but more students will end up with the same GPA, so you might have six kids be valedictorian,” said Kevin Steele, school counselor. With GPA’s rising, the oppor-tunity for admission to college

increases as well. “You will have a better chance because you will have a higher GPA correlation, and some schools that focus more on class rank, like UVA, will allow more kids to get in,” said Mr. Steele. The scale also affects the teach-ers’ approach to their classes. Math teacher, Kathleen Under-wood had a ten-point scale when she was a student. “Perhaps I will grade a little harder to distinguish between an A and a B,” she said. “At the beginning I think my grades will go up but after that, as teachers become more accus-tomed to the new scale they will go back to normal,” said fresh-man Nitish Vaidyanathan. Other students have voiced concerns that it might be too easy to earn an A. “I think some people might not work as hard, but people who need a boost to their GPA might see this as a great opportunity,” Michael said. Only time will tell what chang-es the new system will bring.

It is not very often that one gets to see a real hero in the flesh, but that is exactly what happened when Carl Wilkens visited Freeman in early Dec. Wilkens was an American aid worker that was living with his family in Rwanda when the genocide broke out between two ethnic groups—the Hutus and the Tutsis.

Instead of fleeing Rwanda to safety in other countries like his fellow Americans and family did, Wilkens made the decision to stay where he was in order to do all he could to help those af-fected by the fighting.

Visit the blog for the rest of the article on Wilkens’ presentation to Freeman.

http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/

freemancommentator/

Logan HarveyStaff Writer

PHOTO: GINNY BONNER

PHOTO: NATALIA BELL

Activist Shares His Experience Surviving Rwandan Genocide.

Will making up these days impact Spring Break or any other planned off days? Yes, there has been a change to the school calendar: Monday, Feb. 17 will now be a regular school day for students and staff. Spring break remains unaffected.

How many days like this are built into the school cal-endar for weather? Our industrial days are longer than what is required by the state.Currently, we still have more than a week of “banked” instructional time.

How do you determine if roads are too hazardous for busses? We look at roads throughout the county, es-pecially in the Eastern portion, for icy roads on which busses cannot safely travel.

Why do you wait to make decisions so late at night?We make every effort to announce the night before school, but we also think it is fair to give road crews plenty of time to evaluate the conditions.

Freshman Brett Reid stages falling down the stairs in a Twitter protest to convince Henrico to cancel school one day in Jaunary.

Snow Day Q&AFrom the Twitter of

Andy Jenks, HCPS PR Director

Page 2 The CommentatorOPINIONS

D. Graham Stephens and Hannah BuckleyOpinions Editors

Who Needs Midterm Exams Anyway?

I could not resist the opportunity to write to offer my own comments regarding the opinions expressed in the December issue of the Commentator about school spirit at DSF. As mem-bers of the Douglas Freeman community, we have much to be proud of, including the student section, athletes, and cheer-leaders. As the principal of the school, I take great pride in sharing in the tremendous amount of talent, dedication, and spirit that I encounter at the different types of events I attend throughout the year. One of the first statements I would like to address is the allegation that since some of the games were won by a large margin, “most of the students” ended up leaving early. From my perspective standing in front of the student section, that was not the case. Most of the students were happy to remain until the end to celebrate another football victory with class-mates and friends. I would also be remiss if I did not challenge the allegation that the cheerleaders do not add to the spirit of the game or that they “look like the simply don’t want to be out there.” The cheerleaders enjoy leading the crowd in cheers such as the Rebel Rumble and Rebels in the Front, encouraging the crowd to get louder during big plays, and rooting on the football and basketball teams to victories. Their smiles, cheers, and spirit at every game add to the overall school spirit! From the opening game against Midlothian to the home playoff game against Manchester, I was privileged to watch the student section grow. The freshmen seemed happy to take their place at the top of the bleachers, knowing they would work their way down to the front in a few years. The sopho-mores, who last year had room to form their own cheering section off to the side, accepted the fact that they had to move up the bleachers because of the burgeoning number of juniors and seniors in the front rows of the bleachers. It’s a great problem to have – the band, student section and parent fan base have all increased in size and are vying for space in the bleachers. I look forward to the 2014 football season to see how the Class of 2015 takes on the challenge of improving on what their predecessors did as leaders of the student section. Who will be in charge of The Board? What will the seniors do to set the tone for the year? How will they make the best use of their role as school leaders?

Anne Poates, Principal

Commentator StaffEditors-in-chief:

Tom Jacobs and Allison Turner

Copy Editors:

Rachel Coble and Lillian Gaertner

Design/Online Editors:

Mac Wood and Peter Barkey-Bircann

Photography Editors:

Hannah Buckley, Hannah Gemmell, and Natalia Bell

News Editors:

Laura Anderson, Julia Hennig, and Alec Loughran

Opinions Editors:

Hannah Buckley, D. Graham Stephens, and Rachel Coble

Features Editors:

Asher Thornton, Eliza Duckworth, and Matthew Stopkey

Special Features Editor:

Ellie Manspile

Sports Editors:

Hunter Gingras, Gabe Hauari, and Madeline Slough

Arts and Entertainment Editors:

Mary Praught, Kara Adams, and Emmie Lacy

Staff Writers: Sarah Ashman, Eric Asplund, Carissa Campbell, Leah Dillard, Alison Eddins, Hayley Fogleman, Caroline Forrest, Alexander Gilliam, Connor Glowacki, Mia Harris, Logan Harvey,

Matthew Heinicke-Peart, Sebastian Hughes, Frances Leake, Trent McCaffrey, Shannon McCarthy, Andrew Oostdyk, Mary Rockwell,

Sarah Spivey, Madinah Stallworth, and Luke Twente

Letter to the Editor

On behalf of the county wide cancellation of exams, we ask ourselves: Would this fiasco have happened if exams were before winter break? Currently Henrico County Public Schools, along with the majority of public schools in Virginia, must begin school after Labor Day in accordance with the “Kings Dominion Law”-- a law made for the profit of large corporations, not the betterment of our students. If school started one or two weeks earlier, not only would the year end before June, but the first semester, along with exams, would be finished before winter break. Most colleges and local private schools follow this schedule, and

it has been working wonders for those lucky students. A winter break free of worry over the im-minent stress-filled week of ex-ams has never been a reality for Freeman students. Winter break should ring true to its name: a time of rest and relaxation. For seniors it may be a time for col-lege applications, but above all it should be a time dedicated to family and friends. The possibility of disruptive weather during exam week is of-ten of high concern, as we have witnessed this year. While some may argue that snow days give students more time to prepare for exams, it is easy to see what students are really doing with their time by checking Twitter. From #closehcps tweets to peti-tions for exam cancellation, we all pitched in, and this year our efforts were successful. A let-ter from two of Freeman’s own seniors seems to have been an influential factor in the county’s decision to cancel exams. How-ever, when we are not pleading for school closings, we are hang-ing out with friends, sledding, building snowmen, and making igloos (many times under the impression that exams will be cancelled). While the county did well informing us of the cancel-lations, perhaps a set formula should be in place, such as what many students believed was the

‘three days off and exams are cancelled’ rumor. Now, we know it could snow at any time during the cold-er months, but looking back through snowfall records for the Richmond area; January sees much more snowfall than De-cember. According to the South-east Regional Climate Center, over the past 73 years, Richmond has seen an average of 2.2 inches of snowfall in December, while in January it has seen an aver-age of 5.0 inches. Furthermore, only two of Richmond’s 15 larg-est snowstorms have been before the New Year. So while there is still a possibility of snow and cold weather affecting exams in December, the possibility of it happening in January is much higher. This would not only give stu-dents a worry free break and earlier start to summer, but for the many students enrolled in Advance Placement classes, they would not be behind all year as they are currently. It is harder for Henrico County to compete in terms of AP exam scores when school begins up to three weeks after other comparable coun-ties. This not only has an effect on the school’s ranking, but also students who are trying to gain admittance to increasingly more competitive colleges and univer-sities.

While total exam cancellations are few and far between for Hen-rico County, inclement weather is a real concern or hope nearly every year. A law made for the benefit of hotels, theme parks and other amusement indus-tries should not be the cause of worsening students state-wide. For students, cancelled exams are only a dream. Our advice is to be thankful for your saved grades because chances are

it’s not going to snow in June.

“say something I’m giving up on you @HenricoSchools #CloseHCPS” -@nichol-SONofagun

“If they cancel school tomor-row I will never say anything bad about Henrico County ever again. Ever. #close-HCPS” -@AidanCrenshaw

He Said She Said

Valentine’s Day Surveys

People on Crutches

Leadership Blackboard

Netflix

Wolf of Wall Street

The best way to start my last semester as a se-nior. #2ndsemester

More dates and marriages than any other school sponsored survey.

Why are Freeman students so frail? #gotmilk?

An open forum for the entire school is bound to produce civil discourse, not people writing inap-propriate things, right?

Ain’t no mountain high enough to stop me from watching Netflix.

NOT A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT WOLVES LIVING IN NYC! #dontseewithyoungersister

Dr. Kinlaw for President!

This guy I like was my number one fresh-man year, so we are going to date, right?

Never ending roadblocks in the hallways. #stayoffthestairs

Hey, the concept of it had potential.

Why must they make it so easy to watch the next episode? #3seasonslater

It has Leonardo DiCaprio in it so it must be good.

Exams Cancelled

D. Graham StephensOpinions Editor

Rachel CobleOpinions Editor

“Everybody do your #close-HCPS dance” -@Friend_Nick

“@HenricoSchools Albert Einstein never took midterms and he did pretty well for himself ” -@cameronm201

“#closehcps” -@dannimals

“@HenricoSchools Snow is going to get here between 12 and 1. How are you going to get kids, especially elemen-tary kids, home safely?” -@btfabain

“So Richmond AND chester-field are close. #closehcps” -@moore_4less

Visit The Commentator Blog for more student tweets about snow days and closing HCPS, as well as the letter written by Freeman students to the superindentent.

blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/freemancommentator

Page 3The Commentator FEATURES

You may have heard of a capel-la groups from “Pitch Perfect” or “The Sing Off,” but you may not realize that Freeman has two acapella groups of its own: Downbeats and Syncopations. Famous for their Singing Valen-tines, Downbeats and Syncopa-tions do a lot more than serenade your significant other. Downbeats (the girl’s group) and Syncopations (the boy’s group) have had a long history with the Freeman Family. The two groups are combined to form Festival Choir—the top choir at Freeman. Festival choir is a chamber choir that sings a lot of difficult songs. Festival competes in many high level competitions around the city, but their biggest competition is held on the annu-al Spring Trip. Festival does not sing pop songs; they concentrate on the more artistic side of music than the popular side of music. “It started with Deen Entsminger back in the 1970’s. The kids wanted to sing popular music, and he didn’t want to do anything with popular music, so they created these two student directed groups,” Amy Hruska, choral director, said. The tradi-tion of the student-led groups continues to this day; many of the songs people hear are ar-ranged by Freeman students themselves. “We’re given guidelines from Mrs. Hruska…once we’re teach-ing it [the songs] she offers sug-gestions. She stands back and lets us do our thing,” said senior Julia Henry, and co-leader of Downbeats. Composing the songs is not always easy. Sometimes notes clash or parts don’t sound good together. The creative process comes naturally to others if you have knowledge of music and music theory, junior Devin

Hatcher, co-leader of Syncopa-tions, said. Downbeats and Syncopations are primarily made up of juniors and seniors, but a few under-classmen can be found in the groups. Julia said it is dispersed pretty evenly in Downbeats. Conversely, this year Syncopa-tions is mainly made up of ju-niors and seniors. Many students involved in the choirs heard about Downbeats and Syncopations through re-cruitment at the local middle schools; others learned about the groups when they joined chorus their freshman year. “I first heard of Downbeats when my middle school, Tucka-hoe, came to Freeman for the Winter Concert. I saw them and I was like, ‘I love their sweaters! How can I do this?’ I remember actually going up to one of the girls afterwards and asked her how I could get into the group. She told me that if I worked real-ly hard and continued with mu-sic, I’d get in eventually,” junior Paola Orellana said. “I heard about it my freshman year in chorus. I heard an a ca-pella group of girls singing and I thought it was really cool to hear something different in a cho-rus department,” junior Jenaya Moore said. Most of the people in Down-beats and Festival have many family members who are also involved with music. Julia’s mother is a music major, Devin’s aunts are involved in musical theatre, and freshman Caroline Azdell’s family is very into musi-cals and Broadway. These family connections allow for a personal connection to music. “I just have always loved it [singing]…First I started it as an easy ‘A’, but then it turned into a love. It’s something that con-nects.” Julia said. “I was singing since I was born pretty much. I have a musical family—a lot of my aunts are

in musical theatre…Formally, I didn’t start singing until sixth grade at Byrd Middle School,” Devin said. The student leaders share a love of music that is clearly reflected in the work they put into their songs. The leaders are often ar-ranging their songs and often use the other for ideas about the ar-rangement. Students respect the leaders as well; they often feel like they can offer suggestions for songs and talk about issues with them. “I think it [student leadership] gives us more of a feel of having a sisterhood and we’re able to communicate,” Caroline said. “It’s nice [student leadership] because you get to have some-one who understands how cho-rus students need to be taught, because they’re one of them,” freshman Jared Scott said. The groups do not have a set rehearsal schedule, but they fit in the rehearsals whenever they can. “We meet during chorus class which is fourth period and in the morning and afternoons, some-times. We hold them during class when Mrs. Hruska is able to give us time…and if we need them, then in the mornings and after-noons. They are held in the choir room,” Paola said. “We…meet in class whenever we need to practice, sometimes having meeting during study block or before or after school,” junior Brandon Wallace said. The hard work of Downbeats and Syncopations is always ap-preciated when the Singing Val-entines come along. Students around the school always are excited to be serenaded by the two groups, but few realize the work behind the tradition. The students involved in Downbeats and Syncopations are very grate-ful to be part of something spe-cial to the Freeman Family. Sign up for a Singing Valentine for $3 in the cafeteria this week!

A Capella Hits High Notes

Downbeats and Syncopations prepare for their performances during fourth period.

Freeman Animates

Where are bug-eyed characters fighting dragons acceptable at school? Anime (an-uh-may) is a genre of Japanese-styled car-toons and animation popular in American mainstream and subculture. It takes the form of comic books called ‘mangas’ as well as 20 minute television epi-sodes. The new Anime Club has brought it to Freeman. Freshman Virginia Gray was the founder of the club. “There’s this classic stereotype of anime that it’s just an anima-tion with characters that have unnaturally large eyes and color-ful hair. That’s exactly what it is. But, there’s more to it,” she said. Anime is, “somewhere in [every-one’s] childhood,” said sopho-more Sammy Zhao. Anime takes many forms, from the depths of Cartoon Network, to the popular Pokémon video game series, to original Japanese manga comics. “It’s clear that people who like anime, know everything [about it],” said Lara Curry, history teacher. Freeman, it seems, has plenty of anime fans. Virginia said she started the club because her friends, “either watched anime themselves or knew people at Freeman who did.” When she realized that there was no anime-themed activity at Freeman, she took the question to her school

counselor, Shannon Edwards. With Mrs. Poates’ approval and Mrs. Curry’s agreement to spon-sor the group, the Anime Club was formed. Do not be misled, though, the group is not actu-ally official yet. It’s designated a ‘special interest group’ right now. This means that it doesn’t take dues, and “If there’s a lot of interest then we can make it into a club,” said Mrs. Curry. “Usually, we just eat snacks and watch anime,” said Sammy. Sophomore Jalan Washington said that he has attended all but one meeting. “At the beginning, we would watch two episodes of anime that we democratically de-cided on,” he said. But the club is beginning to diversify their meet-ings. They have had a Pokémon tournament and many people come to draw anime as well. Recently, “[we have] started having conversations about what the club is about and about what we’ll do,” said Jalan. For such a new club, it has certainly had good attendance. Average attendance is about 20 people. “Enough to fill up the room,” said Jalan. The Anime Club meets ev-ery other Wednesday. Their next meeting is Feb. 19. “The amount of people interested in partici-pating in the club … has been great! That being said, the club is always looking to welcome new members and hoping to expand in the future,” Virginia said.

Lillian Cook enjoys drawing her own anime characters.

Yesterday’s Graduates Today

Chris Wiggins, who asked to be referred to as Chris, graduated in 1981 as a thriving Freeman stu-dent who triumphed in soccer and band, but little did he know that he left such an impact on the school for years after. Although he loved soccer[ and continued to play after high school, his biggest impact on Freeman was through the Tri-Toms drum line. He convinced the senior drummers to let him play as a sophomore. Becoming thoroughly inspired by music and the drum line, he began to ponder the different ways he could rally up the Free-man spirit. “I found my niche with the tri-toms and was taught a drum ca-dence by Jim Walker that even-tually became CW,” he said. Sports were very popular at Freeman the years that Chris at-tended. He added an element of personality to the student body

which would soon become much bigger. After high school Chris moved on to the University of Rich-mond. He began to sell orthope-dic implants after college while living in Washington D.C. Chris and his family soon moved to Bainbridge Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle, and he settled down and began his new life in software sales. Chris has not been very in touch with Freeman lately, being so far from his hometown. “I assumed it [CW] would prob-ably carry on for a few years and fizzle. I had no idea that it had such a legacy.” He stays in touch with his three closest alumni friends Steve Mill-er, Blake Eudailey and Chris Da-nahy. Through Facebook’s grow-ing popularity in the past decade he has been able to reconnect with other alumni from his class. Mr. Eudailey and Chris still continue to have a strong friend-

ship. Reflecting on high school Mr. Eudailey said, “I always ad-mired Chris for his athletic tal-ents in soccer, but I admired him more for being a musical minded sort of fellow.” “Our band with Chris Wiggins was an instrumental part of the success of our football team in creating a strong positive vibe, as well as our other sports teams where the band played,” said Mr. Eudailey. Chris wishes to return to visit Freeman soon and see the CW himself. For now, he is humbled that not only did he make the CW so infamous, but the band as a whole. Chris leaves Freeman’s students with some words of advice: “Treat others with consider-ation and kindness and you will always be remembered fondly. Learn to work hard, knowing you did your best but don’t stress. Put down the ear phones and un-plug the TV. For the most part it will be your friends and the people around you that make up your best memories, so indulge others with your time and atten-tion.” The CW serves as a reminder to the student body to continue the legacy of Chris’ humble, in-telligent attitude.

A Day in the Life: Mr. Faglioni

Shannon McCarthyStaff Writer

Hayley FoglemanStaff Writer

Alex GilliamStaff Writer

PHOTO: NATALIA BELL

PHOTO: HANNAH BUCKLEYPHOTO: CHRIS WIGGINS

6:30 A.M. - Mr. Faglioni does not use a traditional alarm. Instead, he has been conditioned to wake up to the sound of traffic on Pump Road directly behind his house.

7:00 A.M. - Does a warm-up and stretch with his two sons in the living room. After warm-up, he teaches his sons the techniques of mixed martial arts to include wrestling, boxing, karate, muay Thai, and taekwondo. Gymnastic training is next. Family does splits, cartwheels, round offs, and back handsprings in the living room.

7:30 A.M. - Takes his youngest son Mitchell to Pinchbeck Elemen-tary School.

7:45 A.M.- Drops off his older son Tyler at Byrd Middle School.

8:00 A.M.- Arrives at Douglas Freeman High School. While traveling to school, he listens to an inspirational CD entitled, “Get your students to think more like Sigmund Freud and Phillip Zim-bardo.”

8:30 A.M.- Uses this time for AP Psychology lesson plan reflec-tion time, course planning, coffee consumption (2 cups, decaffein-ated), copying time, and field trip planning to include the H21 AP Psychology project on Gender Stereotypes, the H21 project on the APA Psychology Conference, and the H21 project on the Skittle Sensation Lab.

10: 00 A.M. - Government class. Discuss the pros and cons of rais-ing the minimum wage.

11:00 A.M.- Works his duty at the attendance office with Ms. Har-grave. They discuss school climate, attendance issues, politics, and the meaning of life.

12:00 P.M.- Uses reverse psychology with 4th period AP Psychology class and discovers that this technique is very effective.

1:00 P.M.- Mr. Faglioni eats lunch with social studies department to discuss school related matters, NFL final four picks, local and national politics, and the meaning of life.

2:00 P.M. – Visits the awesome Librarians at Freeman High School, Ms. Rosemary Wheeler and Ms. Carolyn Schmid. A talk with Ms. Wheeler is usually about local, national, and state politics.

4:00 P.M. - Leaves Freeman High School.

5:30- 11:00 P.M.- CONFIDENTIAL

Where Are They Now?Chris “CW” Wiggins, ‘81

PHOTO: HANNAH BUCKLEY

To see a demonstration of the CW, go to http://www.dsfcommentator.org/

SEEING DOUBLEPage 5Page 4

Fraternal twins Harrison and Graham share a lot of things, including their position of wide receiver on the freshman football team. Freshmen Graham and Harrison Peacock are fra-ternal twins born within one minute of each other. Harrison said the benefit of being a twin is “always having someone you know well with you.” The downside of having a twin is “sharing clothes and a room. Sometimes I feel like it would be nice to have my own personal items and space,” said Graham, the older of the two. Although some twins claim to have twin telepa-

thy, the Peacock brothers don’t feel the connection. “We tried it before but we have never been suc-cessful,” said Graham. The Peacocks aren’t the only twins in their family. “We have another pair of twin siblings - a boy and girl – in seventh grade, and a little brother in second grade,” said Graham. Graham and Harrison have a memory from kin-dergarten when they got lost in Maymont Park to-gether. “We got lost for an hour and my brother started freaking out. It was pretty funny,” said Graham. People get the two mixed up quite often. “When people first meet us they always mix us up. Especially coaches and teachers,” said Harrison. However they do have

some differences. “We have different per-sonalities. I get less wor-ried about things. Harrison is more up tight. But we both like to play the same sports,” said Graham. “We play football, bas-ketball, and lacrosse. We played freshman football this year at Freeman,” said Graham. When they were young, Graham and Harrison’s parents had them wear matching outfits. “My parents would dress us up in the same clothes and they gave us bowl cuts,” said Graham. “We look a lot different and have some differing interests. But we hang out with each other outside of home and we have the same friends. For the most part we are pretty similar,” said Harrison.

Fraternal twin girls have twice the chance of giving birth to twins. Fraternal twin, Hannah Douglas said it would be pretty cool to parent her own twins one day. Freshmen Gracie and Hannah Douglas were born within 11 minutes of each other. Gracie is the older of the two. The Douglas twins claim to have a certain type of twin telepathy. “Hannah and I have the same dreams sometimes. It’s pretty cool,” said Gra-cie. The Douglas twins are part of a family of four girls. “There’s me, Gracie, Maddy, who’s a senior,

and Sarah-Bradley, who’s in college,” said Hannah. Despite having the same birthday, the Douglas twins have a lot of differ-ences, and most people don’t confuse them. “Sharing the same clothes and room with Gracie can sometimes be annoying. I’m very clean while Gracie is dirty,” said Hannah. “Hannah and I are into different sports. I like la-crosse and other outdoor sports while Hannah is a gymnast,” said Gracie. Since Gracie and Han-nah play different sports, it is sometimes hectic getting them to and from prac-tices. The twins look forward to getting their licenses but not sharing a car. When it comes to col-lege, the sisters don’t have

the same aspirations. Gracie would like to play lacrosse in college and hopefully get a scholar-ship. Hannah aims to at-tend UNC Chapel Hill or Clemson. “Gracie and I get along well, but we don’t nec-essarily have the same friend group. I think that our laugh is similar,” said Hannah. “Hannah and I are com-pletely different. I don’t know what she’s talking about when she says we have the same laugh,” said Gracie. Although they don’t al-ways agree, they still are happy to have someone so close to them. “I like having Gracie as my twin because I always have someone to do stuff with and talk to,” said Hannah.

“OMG—Twinning!” reads the caption of a photo in your Instagram newsfeed. Taking a closer look, you roll your eyes as you realize that the only thing remotely close to “twinning” about the two people is that one per-son’s shirt color is vaguely similar to the color of the other’s shoelaces. Twinning has become a popular phrase in main-stream social media, but most don’t know what it’s truly like to be a twin. Meet Molly and Ellie Cox, two sophomores who un-derstand the true meaning of twinning. Molly and Ellie were born at Henrico Doctor’s Hospital in Richmond on

Jan. 16, 1998, and they’ve been best friends ever since. “We’re really close, so we do a lot of stuff together,” said Ellie. The two girls are frater-nal twins, and they don’t have any other siblings, so they both enjoy being together and having each other for support at Free-man. “When starting new sports or a new school, it’s good to have her with me so I’m not by myself,” said Ellie. Between sports, school, and spending time with a lot of the same friends, Molly and Ellie have a lot in common. “Our interests are simi-lar but our personalities are different, but we both play sports. Ellie’s more competitive than I am and

that definitely shows in sports,” Molly said. For these twins, there are no family vacations where they’re stranded without a friend. “I really like it because having someone my own age is better, especially when going someplace with my family, because I always have a friend there,” Molly said. Though getting along with siblings can be diffi-cult, Molly and Ellie stand up for and support one an-other no matter what the circumstnaces are—these twins are tight. “Ellie is one of my best friends just because we know each other so well, so it’s really good having a friend with me all the time. I know that she’ll always have my back,” Molly said.

Only 32 out of every 1,000 people are twins, and sophomores Quinn and Ellie Girardi are two of these select few. Quinn and Ellie were born on Sept. 19, 1997, and have grown up in Richmond together. Though they both like having someone the same age in their family, they think of the other as a brother or sister rather than a twin. “I’m used to having a twin now—it’s nice hav-ing someone in your grade with you. I don’t really think about it anymore,” said Ellie. “It’s not really any differ-ent. We’re just kinda like brother and sister,” said Quinn.

Ellie and Quinn also have a 13-year-old sister, Mia, in eighth grade. “I look a lot like my younger sister, so a lot of people think she’s my twin,” said Ellie. So far the Girardi twins have not had any classes together at Freeman, but were in classes together when they were younger. “We were in the same class a couple times in middle school and ele-mentary…in kindergarten I think they split us up be-cause I acted like Quinn’s mom,” Ellie said. Both twins are active in their community and have their own individual pur-suits, but they also share some common interests. “We both run, but she likes to swim more, and I like to bike. She likes to do more social things, and I like to do sports and stuff. I like to do art a lot, but Ellie is more into music,”

said Quinn. “Quinn is a lot more ar-tistic than me…he’s better at math and science and I’m better at English and history. We both have a lot of the same friends, though,” said Ellie. In addition to school ac-tivities, Ellie and Quinn are active during the sum-mer. “We both work at the same camp over the sum-mer, called Virginia Out-side, and it’s mountain biking and fishing. Quinn has already worked there for a couple of years, and this summer I will be paid,” said Ellie. From their sports to their academics, Quinn and El-lie Girardi pursue their own unique interests, yet they always have each oth-er by their side. “Ellie’s kinda in the same situation, so she’s always there for me,” said Quinn.

The old twin cliché “Double the fun, double the trouble” is true with senior twins Mikaela and Kiana Hunt. It all started on February 4, 1996 dur-ing a snow storm with the birth of these two twins. Although the twins may always seem to be up to trouble, they never fail to have a good time. “One year when we were little we went to a doctor’s appointment and instead of getting a shot we ran around the doctor’s office until we got caught,” said Kiana. The twins even use their identical faces as an ad-

vantage in their work place and at home. “One time we tricked our mom into thinking we were each other and she fell for it,” said Mikaela. “People get us confused all the time. A few weeks ago we switched name tags at work and our man-ager didn’t notice,” said Kiana. If ever in a time of con-fusion of which twin is which, the two twins can be differentiated by the beauty mark on the left side of Mikaela’s cheek. Having a twin makes things, such as school, eas-ier and getting things twice or sharing are also a plus. “We share everything: cars, clothes, schools, and friends – everything except for a boyfriend,” said Ki-

ana. “Our friends would prob-ably describe us as silly and funny,” said Mikaela. “They depend on us for a lot of car rides, so you could say we’re depend-able,” added Kiana. Though the twins are similar in many ways, they still try to find their own individuality while still keeping the bond. “I think we differ musi-cally. She doesn’t listen to the same music that I listen to. Sometimes [we differ] with our hair,” said Mikaela. Although the twins may playfully bicker with each other, they agree that the best part in having a twin is always having someone around to share your time with.

Moving from another country to Richmond, VA is a struggle, but it’s a lot easier to do when you have a twin to do it with. This is the case for fra-ternal twin seniors Tohi-bur and Tahmina Paiker. Tahmina, the elder of the twins, defines their move here as her favorite twin memory. “[My favorite is] I guess moving to America when we were younger. It was a good experience,” said Tahmina. Just recently the twins got to revisit Bangladesh,

which Tohibur defines as his favorite twin memory. “This past summer we went to our home country and had a lot of fun to-gether,” said Tohibur. When together, Tahmina and Tohibur aren’t neces-sarily a rowdy bunch and can usually be described as “quiet.” “We have a few of the same friends that we share and they would describe us as chill and fun to be around. At home, we’re usually quiet and we do our own things,” said Tah-mina. Though the twins en-joy each other’s company, they do not necessarily considered themselves at-tached to each other like

some other twins are. “We are completely different. The only time when we do stuff together is for family events,” said Tohibur. Instead of having to study alone, the twins use each other to their ad-vantage with their school work. They always have someome to quiz them. “[It’s easier] because we would have one or two of the same classes or teacher but different periods and then we can study together for a quiz, test, or exam,” said Tahmina. Tahmina and Tohibur may not spend a lot of time together, but that doesn’t undermine their love for each other.

Not one, not two, not three, but four sets of trip-lets attend Freeman this year. Freshmen Thomas and George Walker, senior Keely Burn, and senior Nile Price were born trip-lets. Thomas and George’s sister, Lila, goes to New Community High School. Keely’s sister Emma goes to Hermitage and her other sister, Claire, goes

to Henrico. Nile has two brothers named Emanuel and Jordan who both go to Henrico. The life of a triplet is by no means a lonely one. “Being a triplet is fun, you always have someone who you can relate to be-cause you’re both the same age…it would be annoy-ing if I only had younger siblings who wouldn’t know what’s going on” said Keely. “You always have some-one to hang out with,” Nile said. With three kids the same

age, sharing is a key com-ponent to a triplet’s every-day life. “If I don’t have some-thing, I can just borrow [Thomas’s],” said George. However, sharing can have its downsides. “We used to have the same birthday party and three different birthday cakes. Now we have to fight over whose party is on the birthday weekend,” Thomas said. Nile used to have to share a room with his brothers. Thomas and George “have two classes together

this year, which is really funny. For the first cou-ple months of school our teachers completely mixed us up…our parents still mix us up all the time,” Thomas said. Parenting triplets is no easy task. Their children’s interests, activities, and expenses are all multiplied by three. “I can only imagine how hectic it really was for my parents having to drive us everywhere when we were younger,” said Keely. “It was crazy, that’s really the only way to describe

it. Whatever we did when they were growing up, we did it big,” said Thomas and George’s mother, Anne Walker. “We had a whole team of nannies…I was often asked if we were on a youth group trip or some-thing. But nope! They’re all mine,” she said. Nile said he and his two brothers especially are looking for scholarship money to pay for college. “There’s a ton of mon-ey out there, the key is to know where to look,” he said.

Mrs. Walker said that one of the biggest prob-lems with parenting trip-lets is that many parents treat their children as a unit. “For me, it was really important to treat them as individuals,” she said. “We fight a lot and we’re always really competitive. But it’s really nice to have someone who will always have your back,” said George. “Overall though, I really couldn’t imagine growing up any other way,” Keely said.

While the phrase “double trouble” typically applies to children born in sets of two, several Freeman teachers agree that having twins is not at all trouble-some, but a blessing. Brianne Conway, an Al-gebra II and AP Statistics teacher, is the new mother of Mary and James Con-way, her six-month old twins. “I was excited when I

found out I was having a boy and a girl, I feel very blessed about that, espe-cially since they were born a month early,” she said. Mrs. Conway is not the only teacher at Freeman that has twins “When we found out we were having twins we were very shocked, but I am a planner so I already had their nursery prepared, although nothing could have prepared me for the future,” said Sabrina Ra-bon, the business and mar-keting teacher. “I have fraternal twins,

AnnDouglas and Jackson. It has been an exciting ex-perience to watch as they have grown from infants to grade school students,” Mrs. Rabon said. Twins can be a handful for parents. “Every day is something new and special. I’m grate-ful the twins are so kind to one another; their love, friendship and dedication to one another makes me honored to be their moth-er. ” she said. Ginnie Moore, health and P.E. teacher, is the mother of three boys,

twins, and younger sibling. “Having a child will take all of your time, so having two babies at one time can only take all of your time,” she said, laughing. Mrs. Moore said that when her youngest child was born, her twin boys, Tate and Sam, provided a great amount of help. “It made such a huge dif-ference to have them there to help out,” she said. Both Mrs. Conway and Mrs. Moore agreed that the one of the difficult parts about twins is plan-ning for their college edu-

cation. “We have already start-ed to put money away for their college education. There is no such thing as a discount on tuition, so that’s what makes it so tough.” Mrs. Moore said. “Planning for their col-lege is definitely stressful,.My husband and I have al-ready started to put money away,” Mrs. Conway said. While Mrs. Conway, Mrs. Moore, and Mrs. Rabon all agree that hav-ing twins is by no means an easy task, they also all agree on the fact that they

Juniors Mary Peyton Baskin and Campbell Baskin can be seen run-ning on the track or driv-ing their family’s Prius to-gether. In fact, they are often more together than apart. “When we were little our parents said ‘First rule is to take care of your twin and second rule is to share’,” said Mary Peyton. Campbell and Mary Pey-ton believe they have a strong connection going beyond their sibling rela-tionship. “I can tell when she’s stressed out by homework and all that stuff,” he said.

These twins definitely have a sense of twin te-lepathy. “He really is my best friend. I know he’s upset about something before he tells me,” Mary Peyton said. “We sometimes fight and argue about little things be-cause we know how to get on each other’s nerves,” Campbell said. Aside from little argu-ments, the Baskins do not mind being twins. They both run cross country in the fall and track during the winter and spring; both are dis-tance runners. The Baskins are differ-ent than many siblings because they enjoy each otheer’s companionship. “We’re twins, we’re sup-

posed to get along well, she’s my best friend,” said Campbell. Mary Peyton and Camp-bell may take pride in their friendship, but they have found their own niche at Freeman. Mary Peyton is a part of the Leadership Center, and Campbell plays clarinet in the Rebel Brigade and concert band, so they don’t have any classes together this year. One of Campbell’s favor-ite memories is when he “used to crawl out of [his] crib to [his] sister’s crib to sleep,” he said. Mary Peyton doesn’t know “what it would be like not to have a twin.” “They will always be there for you and are your best friend in tough times,” Campbell said.

Many people may wonder how to tell identical twins Connor and Shane Allin apart, but Connor shared a common mnemonic device for distinguishing them: “Connor: contacts, Shane: spectacles.” At a first glance, these tall blonde juniors seem identical, but their friends can tell them apart, even when Shane isn’t wearing his glasses. Even their parents mix them up at times, but Con-nor said their sister, Leigh Allin, a Freeman gradu-ate, doesn’t confuse them. The twins both have Miss Carretto and Miss Smiley, who confuse the two.

Connor said it makes sense that Shane’s first sentence was, “I am not Connor; I am Shane.” Older by three minutes, Connor believes that they get along most of the time, but still have argu-ments like most siblings. When they were young, they shared a room which caused arguments, but now that they have their own rooms so they get along much better. Connor and Shane are identical twins, but have different interests. “We are both in track and Boy Scouts, but we play different instruments,” said Shane. Connor plays the trombone, and Shane plays the clarinet. Connor and Shane be-lieve in twin telepathy,

“sometimes we think the same exact things, it’s re-ally weird,” said Shane. “Yeah definitely, it hap-pens a lot,” said Connor. “I remember in elemen-tary school, it would be weird that we would sit in the exact same spot with-out telling each other,” he said. Now that it is just them in the house, they have individual rooms, but still continue to share a car. “When we were growing up we did have a lot of the same friends,” said Shane. “On homework it really helps; it is like having an-other friend,” said Con-nor. “Sometimes it’s really fun because there’s always someone to talk to that’s like you,” said Shane.

Alison Eddins Staff Writer

Trent McCaffreyStaff Writer

Alison Eddins Staff Writer

Madinah Stallworth Staff Writer

Trent McCaffreyStaff Writer

Luke TwenteStaff Writer

wouldn’t have it any other way. “With twins, it’s always a challenge, but always fun,” Mrs. Moore said.

Frances Leake Staff Writer

Madinah Stallworth Staff Writer

Carissa Campbell Staff Writer

Carissa Campbell Staff Writer

Good things come in threes: Teachers share about raising twins

Freshman Twins:

Gracie and Hannah Douglas

Graham and Harrison Peacock

Sophomore twins

Molly and Ellie Cox

Quinn and Ellie Girardi

Junior Twins:

Mary Peyton and Campbell Baskin

Shane and Connor Allin

CHECK OUT THE BLOG FOR BABY PICTURES OF THESE TWINS!

Senior Twins:

Mikaela and KianaHunt

Tohibur and Tahmina Paiker

Freeman students talk about what it is like to be a triplet

The Commentator Staff would like

to congratulate

Heather McMunn, family and consumer

science teacher, on the birth of

her second set of twins!

Max and EliFeb. 4, 2014

“My goal is to definitely play in college but not really profes-sional; but if that happens, then I am not going to resist,” he said. “Jack really wants this- to play in college,” said Ms. Zielinski. “He would love to have a pro career and I support him 100 percent.” One of Jack’s favorite memories of playing ice hockey was trying out for a team in Minnesota that gets numerous college commit-ments. Being on this team would have required him to live and go to school in Minnesota for a year. Another proud moment for the Zielinski family occurred re-cently. “My proudest moment of him was when he’d been asked to play on the Junior Generals… [and] in Connecticut … scored the game winning goal this past fall,” said Mrs. Zielinski. “We’re so proud of him and that’s where he wants to be,” she said. “We miss him, but we support him.”

Page 6 The CommentatorSPORTS

Editor’s Picks for the Olympic Games

Junior Stars in Rare Richmond SportWinter Records & Highlights

Jack plays for the junior hockey club Richmond Junior Generals.

Boys BasketballRecord: 3-11Highlights: 46-38 vic-tory over Collegiate

Girls BasketballRecord: 2-12Highlights: Shannon Longworth with 20 points in 49-42 win vs. Thomas Jefferson

GymnasticsHighlights: “We beat Deep Run for the first time as a team in so, so, so, so long”-senior Janie West

Boys SwimmingHighlights: Champi-ons of Woodberry Invitational; Jack Cortright and Jack McSorley won mul-tiple events

Girls SwimmingHighlights: Defeated Virginia Episcopal at Woodberry Invita-tional; Martha Anne Sperandio won the 100-yard butterfly

For videos of the swim team, visit the blog:http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/freemancom-mentator

Boys Winter TrackHighlights: Blake McLean became an automatic qualifier for states with a pole vault of 12’6’’

Girls Winter TrackHighlights: Jor-dan Bourgeois and Mackenzie Kerr became automatic qualifiers for states in the 300 and 500 meter dash

WrestlingHighlights: 50-15 dominating win over Deep Run on Jan. 8

As of 2/3/14

Caroline ForrestStaff Writer

Former Rebels Return to the Track

Sarah Todd AshmanStaff Writer

Key Game to Watch

Basketball

Feb. 12 vs. Deep RunBoth the boys and girls teams look to avenge their losses at Deep Run on Jan. 16. This rivalry should produce a classic.

Coaches B.J. Revis, Will McPherson, and Mark Rausch and plan the team’s workout.

With his heart and rap mu-sic beating in his ears, junior Jack Zielinski prepares for his ice hockey game against the New Hampshire Monarchs. His skates, protective gear, and ice hockey stick are poised for ac-tion, and Jack glides onto the ice ready to hear the crowd roar for the Richmond Junior Generals. Consisting of mostly 19- and 20-year-olds, junior hockey is “the pinnacle of the skill develop-ment program of USA hockey,” according to the team’s website. The team is geared towards play-ers who want a challenge that is not offered at their school or club teams. Junior hockey aims to im-prove the capabilities of the par-ticipants and provide an opportu-nity for players of this age group to play “organized hockey.” About nine years prior to playing for the Junior Gener-als, Jack was on the opposite side of the applause cheer-ing for his favorite team the Washington Capitals when his parents, Martha and Jack Zielinski, took him to a game. Jack “really developed a lasting love for ice hockey.” “My dad inspired me to play,” he said. “He didn’t play but loved the sport.” “His dad and I had season tick-ets and he liked it and wanted to learn how to skate from a very young age,” Mrs. Zielinski said.

A typical ice hockey prac-tice at either Skate Nation or the Richmond Ice Zone for Jack includes stretching, goalie warm ups, positional plays, power plays, and penalty kills. Power plays occur when a team has more players on the ice than the opponent and thus has an ad-vantage. On the flip side, teams whose players have committed a penalty or infraction to some de-gree are in penalty kill, where the offending team plays with one player down for a period of time. Jack calls ice hockey “a game of speed and quick de-cisions” and his team “[prac-tices] with set groups and im-portant situations,” he said. He said the Junior Generals must be “positionally sound” and know what they are doing. All of this practice has paid off considering the Junior Gen-erals have won 24 games and lost approximately five so far this season. Jack has assisted 20 goals and scored seven even though he plays left defense. “He plays defense and gets some hits and passes in,” said junior Duncan Thur-ston, a friend of Jack’s. With all of the time focused on ice hockey, injuries like a separated shoulder and a bro-ken thumb are bound to happen. “Jack can hold his own,” Mrs. Zielinski said. “I haven’t had to worry about him because he’s a good player and is usu-ally knocking the other guy out.” Besides the physical toll of play-ing the sport, ice hockey is not cheap. “It’s very expensive since

he has to travel and fly to wherever he’s playing,” said Ms. Zielinski. Many of Jack’s ice hockey games are played out of state. In the past, the Junior Gener-als have played games in Michi-gan, Florida, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Mas-sachusetts, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. Mrs. Zielinski said the family is able to keep in touch during the many weekends that Jack is away via texting. “Basically I support him when he’s here,” she said. Jack said that he and his teammates get along really well due to their extensive travels. Another one of the unavoid-able costs of playing ice hock-ey is balancing it with school. “It’s definitely difficult. I miss a lot of Fridays so I set aside time to do homework,” Jack said. Even with all of these daunting aspects of the sport, Jack aspires to play ice hockey in college.

PHOTO: HANNAH BUCKLEY

Every year on fee night, the Freeman hallways are lined with tables selling stickers, sweat-shirts, pencils, and signs with the Rebel logo printed proudly across the front. Some items come and go, but one item sold without fail every year is the “Once a Rebel, always a Rebel” T-shirt. This year, that phrase has rung true for the indoor track team, which has three new coaches. B.J. Revis, Eric Davies, and Will McPherson, all Freeman alumni, have decided to return to Freeman track, only this time without a uniform. After running indoor and out-door track, B.J. Revis graduated from Freeman in 2005, and went on to play football at South Car-olina State. He now assists as a sprinting coach. Will McPherson graduated from Freeman in 2010 after run-ning cross country, as well as both indoor and outdoor track, and has recently graduated from

VCU as an English major. Also having run cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track, Eric Davies graduated from Freeman in 2009. Coach Davies went to Coastal Carolina, and then transferred to VCU where he will be graduating this spring from the engineering program. Both Coach McPherson and Coach Davies assistant coach the distance runners. Though it may be surprising to students that graduates, especial-ly college kids, would be inter-ested in returning to Freeman to coach, this is no rare occurrence. “It’s hard to find a sport that we don’t have some help from alum-ni,” said Drew Bright, activities director. Freeman alumni are known for continuing to be very involved within the school by serving as coaches, and they are welcomed back with open arms. Because our alumni are already familiar with the athletic depart-ment, they have a lot to offer to the various programs. “If everything is equal, we will take our alumni first because we believe they already have a perspective into the philosophy

of our program,” said Coach Bright. Freeman alumni know the ropes, and they have continually proven to be extremely beneficial due to their unique position. “They understand what we want our athletes to do because they have been there and done that,” said Brian Reutinger, the head cross country and track coach, who graduated himself from Freeman in 1998. Not only are the new coaches familiar with Freeman, but the combination of having attended Freeman with being a college kid, or a recent graduate, is a valuable combination. “They are younger, they are closer to our athletes in age,” said Coach Bright, which is something that cannot be said about every average coach. The athletes who work with these young Freeman alumni couldn’t agree more. “They’re closer to you in age… they’ve been through the same program you’ve been through… they’re both a friend and a coach,” said Jacob Harless, a se-nior on indoor track. If there is anything Rebels love, it’s the continuation of the Freeman family. Talking about his connection with the track program and all the kids, Coach McPherson said, “Some of them have older brothers and sisters that I ran with.” Coach McPherson is currently in his second year coaching Free-man track. He was an asset to the Freeman track and cross country teams while he was a student, and loved the programs. “Track [was] really positive… we always had a really good group of guys,” he said. Coach Reutinger claims that this positive experience with the program is what brings athletes back to coach, rather than mon-

ey. “I think the time that they spent as athletes at Freeman has compelled them to want to come back and help other athletes… most of them aren’t getting paid,” he said. After Coach McPherson ran track at George Mason Univer-sity, he wanted to bring back the experience he has gained of running at a higher level to Free-man. “I ran a year in college and it gave me a lot of perspective and I wanted to come back… and give back,” he said. This is something that the ath-letes really appreciate. “Will has a lot of drills that he learned from running track at George Mason… He uses his experience from running there to help us out,” said Jacob. As much as Freeman benefits from the service the alumni pro-vide, Coach Bright also empha-sizes how beneficial coaching can be to previous athletes. “They are now looking at the program from a very different prospective… it helps them ap-preciate what the program is able to do. It’s hard to imagine the time that our coaches put in… as an athlete you wouldn’t see [that],” he said. Coach Reutinger has also had the unique privilege of watching B.J. Revis, Eric Davies, and Will McPherson mature on and off the track over the years. “It’s been good. They’ve defi-nitely matured and grown up a lot since they were athletes… BJ now has children of his own…it’s been nice to have them back.” Freeman is very excited to have B.J. Revis, Eric Davies, and Will McPherson, and appreciates all that our alumni coaches do. “We really need them! Our volunteers really help us... they are very important to us,” said Coach Bright.

Jamaican Bobsled Team USA Men’s Ice Hockey USA Snowboarding

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love watching these torpedo-like sleds fly down the course? After the 1993 film “Cool Runnings,” based on the Jamaican bobsled team’s participation in the 1988 Olympics, the team has become developed quite a following. The team returns to the Olympics for the first time since 2002 with a shot for their first medal. -Gabe Hauari/Hunter Gingras

Watching “The Flying Toma-to” dominate this event over the past several years has definitely been interesting. Shaun White the recordholder for most gold medals at the X Games, will again be favored this year in one of the Olympics’ most extreme sports. The USA team also fea-tures former gold medalists on the women’s side. -Gabe Hauari

It’s been 34 years since the famous “Miracle on Ice” team won the gold medal over the So-viet Union in 1980. It’s been four years since they lost to archrival Canada in overtime in the gold-medal game. It’s time for a return to glory. Captain Zach Parise of the Minnesota Wild leads a vet-eran squad against one of the toughest fields in years.-Hunter Gingras

Editors Hunter Gin-gras and Gabe Hauari recommend the most exciting events in the 22nd Winter Olympic Games held in So-chi, Russia from Feb. 7-23.

PHOTO: JACK ZIELINSKI

The Commentator Page 7SPORTS

Rebel Gymnastics Team Feels like Family

As the third most watched sport in the 2012 Summer Olympics, gymnastics is one of the most popular sports in the world. Fans have all been amazed by one of our favorite gymnasts’ (think Shawn John-son, Gabby Douglas, or even Mary Lou Retton) breath-tak-ing routines, and have cheered them on as they go for the gold. Freeman’s gymnastics team consists of four freshmen, two sophomores, three juniors, and four seniors. Coached by Sha-ron Kelly, the team typically competes once a week on ei-ther Wednesday or Thursday nights at 7 p.m. meets against two or three other schools. For those who don’t know any-thing about high school gym-nastics, there are four events like there are in the Olympics: beam, bars, floor, and vault. Individuals compete to score points out of 10, and each in-dividual score gets added to the team’s total. The team with the highest score wins the meet. A gymnastics team func-tions as a track, swim, or tennis team does; individuals com-pete against each other, but their scores affect the team as a whole. This makes gymnastics more of an individual activity than football or basketball for example. The Freeman team

is especially good at enhanc-ing the team aspect of the sport. “We go [out] to dinner before meets…we watch our videos after our meets of our perfor-mances, just little stuff like that. It definitely helps make us clos-er,” said junior Peyton Brady. Senior Julianna Shibley said, “On Fridays we watch…each other compete on the film and critique each other. We give each other pointers and we do that a lot at practice too.” The gymnasts said that this peer critique has helped throughout the start of the season, and has also contrib-uted to team trust and respect. “We’re like a family; we don’t single anyone out. If you need help, instead of going to the coach you can go to a teammate. We treat each other with respect and we’re really connected,” said freshman Shakia Plaskett. “We’re really friendly and helpful and we work well as a team…We see a lot of other teams that don’t work well to-gether at all,” said Julianna. One of the contributing fac-tors to this cohesive environ-ment is the welcoming nature of both the upperclassmen and the team’s coach, Coach Kelly. Shakia, who is participating in her first school sport at Free-man, said that “The experience has been really fun…I’ve got-ten to meet new people and develop new relationships.” She also said that she has gained a lot from their coach.

“I love Coach Kelly. She’s our only coach, but she’ll al-ways spot us; she’s really warm and welcoming,” Shakia said. Kelly has been coaching gymnastics at Freeman since 1996. Kelly said that over the past 18 years, her goals for her team have always been the same – “to improve each day and to improve each meet.” One thing Kelly does to fos-ter improvement on the team is to post results and goals for each member on the wall of the Small Gym. There are top-ics on the wall that include “Winner’s Circle,” “Wall of No Falls,” “Back-to-Back Su-periors,” and “Full Difficulty.” Each sheet has a set of criteria to meet if a member wants their name under any of these top-ics. Kelly hopes to motivate her team with these reachable goals. Kelly not only strives to educate her team about the rules of gym-nastics, but also about the life lessons that relate to the sport. Among these, Kelly said, are to “Always do your best; always help others; always be a good sport; believe in yourself and think pos-itively; try not to take yourself too seriously and to have fun!” Kelly noted that she has seen the seniors step up and take these life lessons to heart. Help-ing others has become a key role of the seniors of the team, and they “have taken a great leadership role,” said Kelly. The four seniors share a collec-tive captain position on the team.

Because of this, their obligations to the team have changed since their years as underclassmen. “I have more responsibili-ties, because this year we’re in charge of getting the spirit wear, and we lead warm-ups. The coach kind of depends on us to help the underclassmen if they need anything or are get-ting frustrated,” said Julianna. Overcoming frustrations, im-proving skills, and becoming a family are three developments that make the Freeman team very similar to the Olympic teams that we watch on TV.

The Rebels are currently 5-2 with three major meets still left in their season: A home meet on Tuesday, January 28 at 7 p.m., an all-day all-county meet on Saturday, February 1 at Henrico High School, and the all-day re-gional meet on Saturday, Febru-ary 8 at Deep Run High School. Freeman will be competing against schools such as Godwin, Deep Run, Atlee, and Glen Al-len. With the support of their fel-low Rebels, it will be that much easier for the Freeman gym-nastics team to take the gold.

Once upon a frozen rink, there was an ice queen who ruled her domain with grace and power. With a sweep of her skates she carves the pristine ice with swirl-ing patterns, leaving behind a rush of adrenaline and ice crystals. But this isn’t a fairytale for se-nior Brenna Riddell who learned to ice skate at 4 years old and was competing by the time she was 6.

“I had tried a multitude of different sports before go-ing into skating and none of them seemed to fit me or my personality,” said Brenna. “Watching the other girls skate so gracefully in competition, it made me want to skate more and start competing,” she said. Brenna is a member of the Richmond Synchro Inter-mediate team along with 14 other figure skaters who per-form together in a synchro-nized program at competitions

against others in their division. Brenna’s team competes with other teams on the East Coast and teams all over the US if they make it to Nationals. “Travelling out of state is the best part of competing;.It’s a great bonding experience for all the girls,” said Brenna. “It’s a huge commitment, two team practices a week, plus ex-tra individual practice,” said Brenna, who attends practice at Skate Nation Plus in Short Pump. These practices are spent

Senior Figure Skater Competes in Synch

Leah DillardStaff Writer

Annie SpiveyStaff Writer

PHOTO: NATALIA BELL

PHOTO: WILL BRUCE

Brenna (right) is awarded along with her teammates after a competition.

“learning and changing cho-reography, perfecting our skat-ing skills and technique, and making and perfecting our fa-cial expressions,” said Brenna. In addition to the time commitments, there is a monetary commitment of $2,000 to be on the team. Competitions are comprised of “exhaustion, too much hair gel and hair spray, lots of cheering, way too much glit-ter, adrenaline, prep for skat-ing the program,” said Brenna. Brenna’s favorite competi-tion was the Eastern Synchro-nized Skating Sectional Com-petition in Lake Placid, NY. “The teams decided to go skat-ing on the Olympic Speed Skat-ing Oval. It was so exhilarat-ing to know that we were skating on Olympic ice, not once, but twice that day,” said Brenna. Brenna says her favorite part of skating is “either the glitter or the insane adrena-line rush that you get for the duration of the program.” Brenna has a knee injury that limits some of the jumps she can do, so she works on other tricks, such as spins and foot-work sequences. Some of her favorite tricks include the 135, the spiral, the hydroplane, the sit spin, and the camel spin. “[Brenna] makes it to prac-tice and works hard on the ice,” said fellow team-mate, senior Hannah Brown. “We all skate together; we pretty much do everything to-

gether. We’re basically sisters,” said Brenna of her teammates. “She’s an inspiration. She has the best smile, and fa-cials. She has a lot of power and strength,” said Hannah. While her teammates look up to her, Brenna looks up to her skating idols and coaches, Dima Overchuck and Stacey Carter. Brenna also shares her pas-sion with younger skating hopefuls through coaching, considering it the most gratify-ing experience she’s ever had.“The kids are great, they look up to me, they want to learn, and they want to have fun. I hope to coach in the near future,” said Brenna.“Coaching people and kids to skate gives me the same joy that I experienced when I was first learning to skate,” she said. In addition to a possible future in coaching, Brenna hopes to con-tinue skating after high school. But before she heads off to college, Brenna has some goals she hopes to achieve. “My goals to achieve be-fore I go to college are to pass all of my ice dance tests, land my axel, and to go to Nation-als for synchro,” said Brenna. As a longtime, active perform-er, Brenna always watches the skating in the Winter Olympics. “If I didn’t what kind of per-son would I be?” joked Brenna. “Every little girl’s dream is to compete in the Olym-pics as a skater, and I always hoped that I would,” she said.

Tricky Slopes No Problem for Freshman Skiier

Trudie practices her tricks off the rail.

Sebastian HughesStaff Writer

The 2014 Winter Olym-pics are coming, and United States skiers all over the coun-try are training. Freshman

Trudie Grattan is training too, but not for the Olympics. Trudie Grattan is a member of the Wintergreen Freeside Team, which practices on the week-ends for snowboard and twin tip skiing events and competition. The team specializes in free-

style events that include flatland tricks, switch riding, rails, big air jumps, and carving, which are scored based on categories like versatility and execution. “Racing was too struc-tured for me and they were too strict with the coaching Freestyle is scored based on different categories, such as versatility and execution. “It’s like the X-Games,” said Trudie. Skiing is a Grattan family af-fair and has been for a long time. “We have been ski-ing for 40 years,” said Gill Grattan, Trudie’s father. “We started skiing as a family when we lived in Raleigh,” he said. “My parents ski and my brothers ski, so it’s kind of like a family thing,” said Trudie. With skiing being a big part of her family’s life, Trud-ie first started skiing when she was four and was eight when she started to free ride. Trudie’s weekend is largely taken up by practices, and she goes to Wintergreen almost ev-

ery weekend during the winter. “Sometimes when we are out of town weekend after week-end, it gets old, but we cer-tainly enjoy watching them grow better and gain new friends,” said Mr. Grattan. The sport requires a lot of equip-ment, as Trudie owns not only the skiing essentials, which includes “poles, goggles, and clubs,” but she also has special skies, called “twin tips,” that point up in the back, just like in the front, which enable her to ski backwards. “She is a terrific athlete and enjoys all sports,” said Mr. Grattan. This is certainly true considering the vast amount of sports Trudie partakes in. In the fall, spring and summer, Trudie does outdoor lacrosse, and in the winter she does in-door field hockey and skiing. Though she wosrks to im-prove, Trudie said that she does it mostly “for fun,” as being a part of her team allows her to travel all over the country. “I’ve been to Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado,” said Trudie. She

has even been to Whistler, British Columbia a year before the Win-ter Olympics were held there. Mr. Grattan described the overall experience as excel-lent and that the family has enjoyed the winter sports pro-gram because it has made his daughter become a great skier. “We have a number of coach-es,” said Trudie. “They are re-ally good at pushing you to try new things, and support ev-eryone on the team,” she said. This comes in handy with such a scary sport. “My first rail jump was the scariest,” said Trudie. Rail jumps involve performing tricks on a course filled with rails and boxes. Trudie said that the hard-est part of the sport is “get-ting over the fear of trying something new,” but that “it is so easy once you get things.” Trudie maintains that the most important part about Freestyle skiing is “trying new things because you are never go-ing to get better if you don’t.”

Noelle Davi (10) works on her floor routine in preparation for the next meet.

PHOTO: MARTHA GRATTAN

Page 8 The CommentatorBACK PAGE

VMFA Costume Exhibit Deserves an Oscar

Harry Potter and Jack Sparrow were standing next to each other. I thought I was going to faint. Well, it was just their costumes. But I definitely felt the presence of countless movie legends as I stepped into the Hollywood Costume Exhibit on display at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum (VMFA) now until Feb. 17. Arranged by the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the exhibit showcases some of the most iconic costumes from America’s film history. From Cleopatra to Jack and Rose from “The Titanic,” various charac-ters are brought to life through the costumes. When I entered the exhibit, the dark lighting along with the first row of costumes I came across created an intriguing atmo-sphere. While I peered around, a sentence inscribed on the wall caught my attention. “Costume design is not just about the clothes.” It was a funny statement; how could a costume exhibit not be just about the clothes? By the end of the experience, I under-stood. While admiring the first part of the exhibit, I couldn’t help but wonder what the chattering was from the next room. As I entered the next room, I was simply perplexed. Every-where I looked I saw mirror-like, vertically positioned rectangles placed next to specific costumes. The rectangles were in pairs and scattered the room with a “real-live” person in each one. With this technological feature, the appearance of a legitimate discussion between two profes-sionals, director and costume designer, was provided. Perusing the assorted displays and their accompanying mirror conversa-tions, furthered my realization of how significant costume de-sign is when forming characters.

There were a few aspects of the exhibit that stood out. A dress by John Truscott from the movie “Camelot” had many people stopping and staring at its elabo-rate design. One woman stood in awe before leaning over and asking me, “Wow! Are those pumpkin seeds?” Turns out, in the description it revealed that, indeed, pumpkin seeds speckled the train of the dress. Another favorite of mine was seeing superhero costumes next to each other. Batman and Spi-derman juxtaposed one other menacingly yet valiantly. The Batman trilogy, especially with Christian Bale, has been one of my favorite movie series. Seeing the obscure, but majestic cos-tume of Batman allowed me to stand in the front of one of my favorite characters of all time – less than an arm’s length away. At first I will admit I thought the exhibit was odd because of the headless mannequins, but after a while, I found myself able to imagine the characters for myself. Most of the specta-tors are not going there to look at clothes; they are going to the exhibit to see their favorite char-acters brought to life. In one of the interviews in the technologically advanced room, Martin Scorsese said one sen-tence that emphasized the im-portance of the exhibit, “The costume is the character.” I could not agree more. After being able to see these costumes from characters that have moti-vated the success of countless movies and other works of art, it made me appreciate the dedi-cation and work that goes into creating a movie.

To find more VMFA events vistit The Commentator Blog: http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/freemancommentator/

Mary RockwellStaff Writer

Senior Wins Award in VMFA Fashion Show

Cameras flash, music booms, and emotions race as senior Maegan Jenkins wins the Vir-ginia Museum of Fine Arts Teen Stylin’ competition alongside her model senior Mary-Kate Parkhurst. The VMFA Teen Stylin’ Competition’s objective is for the designer to create a wear-able work of art inspired by a piece chosen in the museum. There are two ways of enter-ing the Teen Stylin’ competition. One is through self-nomination, and the other is nomination by a teacher. Maegan’s outfit was a long dress, paneled with white and blue painted chopsticks, hot glued onto a piece of tyvek. The top was a bodice made of white and blue chopstick sleeves glued together. The necklace and headpiece were made from a broken picture frame, buttons, old necklaces, and feathers. “I love being able to make a piece out of something unusual

that people would never guess could be used,” said Maegan. Her creation was inspired by a painting called “Blue Interior: Giverny (The Red Ribbon)” by Frederick Carl Frieseke. Maegan won best use of cre-ative construction, and as her prize, she gets to go to New York City in the spring. She first decided to compete while taking a fashion class at the VMFA over the summer, and had heard about the competition through her friends at school. Mary-Kate’s hair and makeup was prepared at Maegan’s house, and the dress was prepared as soon as they got to the competi-tion, which was very hectic. “The dress was not even made at 4 p.m. that evening. She had to pretty much hot glue me into the outfit. She completely re-did the bodice that night because it didn’t fit me,” said Mary-Kate. “My garment was not even finished until minutes before the show. I was freaking out and I didn’t even like my piece until Mary-Kate calmed me down and [I]realized what it looked like,” said Maegan.

Of course, beauty knows no pain: “I found about 6 hot glue burns that evening,” said Mary-Kate. This was Mary-Kate’s first time modeling, but she thought com-petition day frenzy was manage-able. “I was anxious, not nervous. I was anxious because I wanted to know how it would turn out…the audience really reacted to the dress,” said Mary-Kate. Although Mary-Kate has been told by many people to consider modeling, she never thought about it. “It’s not really some-thing that I would want to do [professionally],” said Mary-Kate. However, being a fan of model Cara Delavigne and her funny personality, she does think a life in the modeling world would be “ridiculously awe-some.” Maegan has always dreamed of becoming fashion designer and plans to study fashion in college. “She has shown tremendous growth through the last few years as student, as a[n] artist, and as a person” said art teacher, Mary Taylor Baker-Neal.

“There were many rewarding parts of the performance,” said Maegan “After Mary-Kate left the runway and I left the stage it was [an] instant relief…people kept coming up to me and saying how much they enjoyed my piece and asking what it was made of.” After such an exhausting day

of highs and lows, Maegan and Mary-Kate went out to celebrate. “Even though we were beyond exhausted and none of us had sat down for about four hours, we went to Galaxy Diner for milkshakes and tried not to fall over,” said Mary-Kate.

Mia HarrisStaff Writer

Tears formed in my eyes while I gulped down sink water in the bathroom of Anokha. I had specifically ordered the spiciest dish of curry, perhaps to prove myself worthy of Indian food culture; or to satisfy my need for heat. Regardless, while I over-esti-mated my heat tolerance, every fiery bite of my chicken Vin d’Alho tasted wonderful. Despite this dramatized depic-tion of my decisions, Anokha’s atmosphere and menu offers its customers a steady and consis-tent dining experience. Anokha is one of several Indi-an restaurants in the Richmond area, and based on other cus-tomer reviews, receives some of the highest praise. The restaurant is at 4015 Lau-derdale Drive across from the Short Pump shopping center. Indian cuisine found its way into my stomach during a vaca-

tion where I tried my first curry, a savory and creamy blend mixed with rice and potatoes. The next time I sat down to Indian food would be at Anokha where I ordered a captivating plate of rice and chicken. Ever since then, my appetite has al-ways welcomed Indian food. Curried rice and chicken even appears as a meal at my home now, yet I occasionally pine for the skillfully spiced foods of a professional restaurant. With that said, my visit to Anokha left me wanting more. And so I returned. This time around I ordered the Hara Bhara kebab ($5) as an ap-petizer and chicken Vin d’Alho ($14). The kebabs are specially spiced potato and spinach patties that are served in a group of four on top of a tangy green sauce. They had both a crunchy breaded exte-rior and soft potato interior and served as a preliminary snack. The Vin d’Alho came next. The chicken itself was cooked very well and was full of flavor be-cause it had been marinating in the Goan style curry that comes with the meal. Curry is a mixture of spices that may contain meat and vegetables in a thick form of soup. I found that pouring the curry over my

plate’s rice added an especially enjoyable dynamic to the dish. I also tasted a Chettinadu style curry ($14) and aromatic Biryani rice ($14). Both were seasoned generously with spices and were more than enough food for a sin-gle person (the Chettinadu curry also came as chicken served in a bowl of curry and was my favor-ite dish of the night). Typically, Indian food is char-acterized by heavy use of spices. The menu at Anokha was full of specially spiced dishes contain-ing rice, goat, beef, chicken, fish, or assorted vegetables. Anokha’s prices are some-what higher than El Caporal’s and Panera’s, but the food and atmosphere are indicative of a quality restaurant. Ambient mu-sic played in a large single room, and the space was decorated with modern paintings and light fixtures, yet also felt authentic and original. The average age of the diners came to be around 30 years, and most wore casual at-tire. I see Anokha as a great place for couples or friends who want to sit down and talk for a while and enjoy a quality dinner or a special weekend lunch. For more information on the menu visit their website: www.anokha.us/index.html

Connor GlowackiStaff Writer

Anokha: Unique Indian Cuisine

PHOTO: KARA ADAMS

Seniors Maegan Jenkins and Mary-Kate Parkhurst pose in front of the painting that inspired Maegan’s award-winning design.

Bruno Hernandez: Urban Style Artist

PHOTO: CONNOR GLOWACKI

Emmie LacyA&E Editor

Grade: FreshmanArt Level: Art I

What’s your favorite color? “My favorite color is blue be-cause it pops out to me more than the other colors.”

How would you describe your artistic style?“I would describe my style as urban-- I tend to do a lot of free-style drawing.”

What do you like most about art?“I like art because it comes eas-ily to me.”

How did you first get involved in art?“I like drawing and started draw-ing a lot more and continued from there.”

Which medium do you use most frequently?“I work with pencil most of the time. My art is mostly me sketching.”

Do you hope to incorporate art into your future career?“Yes, maybe a career in drawing or illustrating.”

What is unique about your art-work?“I think I have my own thing-- I have my own way of drawing the stuff I do that is different from anyone else.”

Rated:Prices: $$$$$

PHOTO: NATALIA BELL

Rated:Youth ticket: $10Adult ticket: $20

Rice accented with pork vin da’alho with curry.