THE PINE NEEDLEVolume XC St. Christopher’s School, Richmond, Virginia, December 2007 No. 3

Inside

See Giving on page 2>

St. Christopher’s reaches out for

Christmasby Patrick Delaney ’10

“He departs, in the foot-steps of Mark Twain and Ezra Pound, for the lands of Medi-terranean legend and myth, and responds with erudi-tion, humor, and excitement.” Readers of poetry the world over, such as Professor Massi-mo Bacigalupo, are saying good things about “Moon Road,” the recently released collec-tion of poems from St. Chris-topher’s Writer-in-Residence Ron Smith. This work comes as a pinnacle achievement for the longtime poet and teacher. Mr. Smith has invested an immeasurable amount of time in the book. It is a compilation

of poems he has written since 1986, but he said the poems draw influence from a much longer time period. “…I try to put everything I know, every-thing I have experienced, every-thing I have learned to feel into . . . everything I write,” he said. Renowned across the school community as a thinker of the deepest thoughts and a scholar in many arenas (not just Eng-lish), Mr. Smith is faculty advi-sor to the Philosophy Club as well as a teacher of AP English and senior electives. He takes quiet pride in routinely instigat-ing the most intense class dis-cussions on campus. “I learned more with [Ron] Smith than I

ever did with anybody else,” said senior Stephen Davenport. So it comes as no surprise that his book has received rave re-views from some literary critics for its leaps into deep, traveling thought. Tom Wolfe, St. Chris-topher’s alumnus who wrote “The Right Stuff” and “I am Charlotte Simmons,” said about the new collection. “No other serious American poet, not even Frost, is as clear, clear to the point of pellucid, as Ron Smith--until all at once you realize he has lured you into some very deep water and you are drowning in emotions you never felt be-

by Brendan Worst ’08

Mr. Ron Smith recently signed copies of his latest book, “Moon Road: Poems 1986-2005,” at Book People, a local bookstore. Among those attending were alumni Evan Davis ’85, Brent Baldwin ’90 and Kevin McNeer ’90.

“Moon Road” draws rave reviews

See Smith on page 4>

For all who traverse that seminal artery of Cougarville, River Road, the Christmas sea-son evokes an image of a yard and house brightly illumined by lights, figures and Nativ-ity scenes. This image is that of Mr. John Whitlock, class of 1975, and his wife Margaret’s home at 8720 River Road, across from the Episcopal Di-ocese’s retreat at Roslyn Hills. The bright scene is replete with all that one would expect from a Christmas light show—Rudolph leading the reindeer in pulling Santa’s sleigh, a nativity scene and white lights galore—but also with others one wouldn’t expect, like Santa Claus waterskiing. Mrs. Margaret Whitlock is in charge of the display that has now become a small West End tradition. “It started with icicles seven years ago, it grew from there,” she said. “It was 50,000 lights [last year], and

this year it’s a few more.” Af-ter every Christmas season, the Whitlocks buy new lights and figures once they go on sale, so each year the collection grows. The assembly is a mammoth undertaking. “I put them up the first several years with my

yard man,” Mrs. Whitlock said. “Now my brother-in-law does it. It takes us two weeks with two to three people working on it [all day].” After trying many different systems to supply the

Whitlock display dazzles West Endby Brian Kusiak ’08

See Lights on page 3>

Student Council is planning several exciting events for winter and spring. In the near future, students can look forward to a winter spirit event, such as a halftime show or pep rally, as well as the second annual dodgeball tournament. The council is also planning to sell Dippin’ Dots and glass-bottled Cheerwine at basketball games. A student auction will offer such items as the privilege to grow a beard and wear flip flops to school. New forums are also on the horizon. All students are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to voice their opinions. Finally, the council has continued to plan for a spring concert featuring a big name band. Details are yet to come. Check in with your Student Council representative to find out more information and feel free to make suggestions or attend one of our weekly meetings.

STUDENT COUNCIL UPDATE

The season of giving is upon us. With Christmas rapidly ap-proaching, St. Christopher’s has been busier than ever co-ordinating events and out-reach to ensure that people inside and outside our com-munity have a happy holiday. Students from junior kin-dergarten through twelfth grade have been putting their heads together in an attempt to come up with exciting and creative ways to help others. “This year we cast a wider net with regards to reaching out the entire community,” said Mrs. Melissa Holler-ith, Upper School chaplain. The Lower School held its seventeenth annual supply drive to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. The young boys helped collect and deliver canned goods in an attempt to benefit out-of-town families with children currently receiv-ing care in our local hospitals. Students in third, fourth and fifth grades helped to spread fes-tive cheer by making more than 150 holiday cards for soldiers serving in Iraq while Extended Day students donated books. This year the Middle School is doing a variation on their traditional Angel Tree. In addi-tion to helping with the adop-tion of a needy local Rich-mond family, the tree is also filled with “helping hands” that provide opportunities to give locally and internationally. “Opportunities range from giving goats and chickens to needy East African families to giving toiletry kits and basic-need clothes to homeless Rich-mond adults,” said Mr. Durk Steed, Middle School chaplain. St. Christopher’s Upper School, sharing the enthusi-asm of the younger Saints, has been busy at work prepar-ing for the holiday season. The ninth grade will work as a gift-wrapping booth located at Short Pump mall. Proceeds from their hard work will go towards the Juvenile Diabetes Fund. Both the sophomores and juniors will sort gifts at the Salvation Army. The senior class, not want-ing to be outdone by underclass-

Hairy Abtspg. 3

Fall sports wrap-up pg. 2

The dress codepg. 3

Raps & Taps interviews

pg. 6

-- Robert Allen ’09

2 The Pine Needle December 2007

Fall sports wrap-up

Varsity Soccer

12-7-1

Varsity Football

3-6

Varsity Cross Country

8-2

JV Soccer

8-2-3

JV Football

6-2

JV Cross Country

JVB Soccer

0-9

HighWinning the Eastern

Mennonite tournament.Beating Cape Henry, Collegiate

and Woodberry in a row.

Beating STAB on Homecoming. Winning in overtime

at Episcopal.

Placing 2nd in the Prep League Meet and placing 3rd in the

combined State meet.

Beating Trinity the second time after losing our first game; beat-

ing Collegiate twice.

Scoring a touchdown to beat FUMA with two minutes left.

Beating St. Stephen’s St. Agnes 8-6 to start the year.

A good performance at the JV Prep League meet.

“The last day of practice.”--Parker Thompson

LowHomecoming loss to Eastern Mennonite.

Tie with STAB.

Losing to Collegiate.

Losing to Freeman.

Losing at Christchurch after crushing them 5-0.

Losing 6-0 to Woodberry in the rain.

Losing to Collegiate 14-0.

The FUMA JV Invitational.

“Coach Chapman makingus run.”

-- Parker Thompson

On Nov. 10, sixth grade Span-ish teacher Chris Carrier partici-pated in his first marathon ever. In a fantastic effort, Carrier, 23, ended up placing 13th overall and first in his age group (20-24). While Carrier had no pre-vious marathon experience, his achievements in both high school and college provide evi-dence that his finish in the Rich-mond Marathon was no fluke.

Carrier’s run-ning career be-gan in middle school where he still holds the school mile record of 5:10. In high school, he ac-c u m u l a t e d a school re-cord 13 var-sity letters,

participating in track, cross-country, swimming and soccer. Carrier went on to run track and cross country for Allegh-eny College in Pennsylva-nia. He won five conference championships in college and holds the school record for the 3000-meter steeplechase. Carrier described his train-ing plan for the marathon as relatively simple. “As far as training goes, it was more sim-ple than one would think,” he said. “I didn’t read any books or follow some professional plan. I sat down in June and mapped it out. I have a pretty extensive background and understand-ing of training so I just mapped out something that made sense for a 26.2 mile race.”. The training consisted of a combination of long distance runs and shorter runs at mara-thon pace. “The two keys were long runs and sustained tempo runs,” Carrier said. “Long runs are usually done one minute per mile slower than race pace and I built up to a 21-mile run two to three weeks before the race. At this point, I was running about 80-plus miles per week.” All the training paid off as Carrier posted a spectacular time of 2:40:21 in the marathon. “As you may have gathered, I plan on doing many more [mar-athons] in the future,” he said. “I have tentative plans to run one in Virginia Beach this spring or possibly the famous Boston Marathon in April.” Carrier also is interested in pursuing the Ironman Triathlon event, since he was also an accom-plished swimmer in high school. Carrier’s successful finish in this year’s Richmond Marathon has encouraged him to continue running, as he is only 23 and has vast potential for future success. “Overall, I love running and will continue to compete (mainly marathons) until my body will not let me anymore,” he said.

Carrier places 13th in Richmond

Marathonby Tyler Franz ’09

With sweat dripping off my back, I wrote a new number down to add to the hundreds of others. Ten yards away from us on each side, other stu-dents were counting further classes within the stifling field house. With three classes tied at 400, we took a quick break, but immediately carried on. “It was intense,” said Kyle Wittenauer ‘10. On Saturday, Nov. 3, the Saints took on the Cougars in a decisive football game. Al-though the Saints were not des-tined to come out on top, they were able to participate in an-other competition between the grades. In this grade level com-petition, the students brought

in bags containing any number of cans to the football game la-beled with their class year. The cans then received a counting by students the following Monday. The grades then specified points to the Class Cup based on their ranking in number of cans. The cans were then dumped into gi-ant boxes and shipped to the Central Virginia Food Bank in two large trucks. The totals of each class went as follows: ninth grade, 289, tenth, 689, eleventh, 464 and twelfth, 669. Collegiate and St. Catherine’s also contributed. Each girl at St. Catherine’s sponsored a foot-ball player and brought in the number of cans equivalent the number on his jersey. If you add up each player’s number on the football team, the total

is 1,331. The Middle School at St. Catherine’s also contrib-uted by sponsoring a wear-any-thing day on Halloween and the cost, to contribute three cans, totaled another 750 cans. The local school record had been 3,300 pounds. With the help of Collegiate and St. Cath-erine’s, we were able to bring in close to 10, 274 pounds of food, tripling the number of pounds ever brought in by a school. This number also made us the number one giver for non-corporations this year-the closest competi-tor was a government agency at 6,594 pounds. Mrs. Hol-lerith said, “I was delighted…win or lose the football game, the city of Richmond won.”

by Jason Pacious ’10

Saints and Collegiate set school recordin canned food collection

Outlook“The new and young guys stepped up and proved them-selves. We worked and came together to have a successful season.”

-- Sandy Wall

“It was a lot of fun, even with our 3-6 record, I can only imag-ine what it would have been like with a winning record.” -- Neil McGroarty

“This year’s team was com-prised of a highly motivated group of guys who went out hard every race. By the end of the season, our dedication and persistence led us to successful showings at the Prep and State meets.”

-- Benjamin Harrison

“We had a pretty good season in terms of wins and losses, but I think we could have been a lot more successful if we had worked harder in practice and in the off season.”

-- Alec Vozenlik

“We had a good record, but we ended the season poorly with two straight losses which put a bad ending on a good season.”

-- Warren Snead

“It was a really fun season. We lost all of our older runners, but next year JV will have a lot more experienced runners who will do very well.”

-- Jamie Ball

“Coach Chapman said, ‘Unless you have a bone sticking out of your leg, you aren’t injuried.’ ”

-- Parker Thompson

men, escorted two grades of stu-dents from St. Andrew’s School to see “A Christmas Story” at Theatre IV. Some seniors also served as tutors for these stu-dents throughout first trimester. A number of advisory groups have also adopted families from the Peter Paul Development Center for Christmas, mak-ing it their fifth year to do so. In addition, the Upper School will donate money through their Missionary Society collection to benefit Richmond’s Christmas Mother, Mrs. Nancy Gottwald, and Supplied to Survive that supports soldiers overseas. Finally, the Science Club has inaugurated a “Guitar Hero” tournament to raise money for the Christmas mother. Overall, St. Christopher’s School has been, and will continue to be, hard at work reaching out towards both the local and international com-munity in an attempt to make the holiday season memorable.

GivingContinued from page 1

Compiled by John Stillwell ’09

Micaiah Abts is well known across campus for his intense coaching style, relentless work ethic and sarcastic wit. Now, we can add flowing, brown locks to his list of notable characteristics. Last year Mr. Abts found out that one of his favorite base-ball players, Nick Swisher, was growing his hair out to donate to Locks of Love, a program that provides wigs for people who lose their hair from che-motherapy or other health is-sues. He decided to follow suit with a similar program called Pantene Beautiful Lengths. “I figure as long as my fol-licles still work, I may as well do this,” he said. “I may never get another shot.” Mr. Abts last cut his hair in

In recent years, the vibrant music scene at St. Christopher’s has been filled with acts ranging from the grinding heavy metal of J.T. Jester and The Reserve to the rhythmic rapping of se-nior Trey Ferguson. The lat-est addition: a talented family singing group, the Whitlocks. The group is composed of siblings Callie, Ellie and Ed-die. Callie and Ellie both at-tend St. Catherine’s and Ed-die is a seventh grader here. The trio began to sing togeth-er seriously six years ago after seeing a video of them taken by

a family friend. Since then, the Whitlocks have gone on to per-form at such venues as the Wa-termelon Festival, the Irish Fes-tival and the city Easter Parade. The Whitlocks are directed by family patriarch, John Whitlock, a member of several area bands in the 1980s who describes him-self as “executive producer and head slave driver.” The Whit-lock kids perform three genres of music: pop, Christmas and gospel. Pop sets include songs by Michael Jackson, Hannah Montana and the ever-popu-lar “Buttercup.” Hillary Duff and Elvis make up the Christ-

mas compilation. Gospel tunes consist of contemporary, wor-ship and patriotic church songs. “A lot of the songs look kind of juvenile and now we’re go-ing back to update the choreog-raphy,” said Mr. Whitlock. To help with this task, he brought in help from SPARC (School of Performing Arts in the Rich-mond Community) to update the dance moves of his young charges. The trio is also begin-ning to produce their own musi-cal arrangements with the help of Chris Adams, a songwriter from the Memphis Boys Choir of Woodlake Methodist Church. When not performing at places like the Innsbrook Il-lumination or Radio Disney, the Whitlocks often perform at area nursing homes. With com-mitments like these continuing throughout the year, the trio practices almost every night. Whether the young Whitlocks have a future in music remains to be seen. “They don’t under-stand what that means yet,” Mr. Whitlock said. “It would be fun, educational and stimulating, but that can’t be the purpose.” If a musical career doesn’t pan out for the Whitlock siblings, they have other options. All three are nationally ranked water skiers and Callie recently won her age group at the Richmond city junior tennis championship.

Whitlock kids rock local gospel scene

March of 2006, and he plans to grow it to 10 or 11 inches before hacking it off. It currently mea-sures eight inches from his scalp. I asked him if having such long hair has posed any hygienic problems. “Having it long can be a real pain sometimes,” he said. “In the summer it was really hot. It is really nice not to have a hair blanket on the back of your neck when it’s 105 degrees out. I’m hoping that evens itself out in the winter, as the extra insulation may keep me nice and toasty.” Finally, I asked Mr. Abts about favorite hair styles with his long locks. “I kind of like the ‘Last Samurai’ topknot; I think I could throw a heck of a mohawk together, and my mul-let potential is astronomical. For the most part, though, I just try to keep it out of my face.”

December 2007 The Pine Needle 3

The Whitlocks serenade crowds at Stony Point several years ago.

by Teddy Mitchell ’09

by Teddy Mitchell ’08

Imagine a state of panic: peo-ple running around, last touches being added to set and last min-ute adjustments being made. It is truly opening night for Am-persand’s “The Bluebird.” On Nov. 8, 9, and 10, Ampersand performed this Maurice Maeter-linck play in McVey Theatre. The plot revolves around sib-lings Tytyl and Mytyl searching on Christmas Eve for the bluebird of happiness, which is said to be uncatchable. These two partic-ular children need the bluebird because they are coming from a poor family, unable to afford any Christmas presents. Eighth

grader Drew Schaffernoth and fifth grader Kristina Dickey played these two central roles. Along the way, they search for the elusive bird with characters like Light (Elizabeth Rumble ’09), the cat (Duncan Lyle ’09), the dog (Jabriel Hasan ’11), Wa-ter (Corinne Downs ’09), Fire (Max Parks ’11), Sugar (Ben Resnik ’11); and even Bread (John Peyton McGuire ’12). After searching through graveyards, forests and an evil witch’s castle, the children wake up on Christmas morn-ing, unsuccessful in their mis-sion. The play ends with an unusual twist, challenging the

“Bluebird” soars for Ampersand

LightsContinued from page 1

by Ryan Van Sumeren ’10

The three-week span be-tween Thanksgiving and Christ-mas break is an awkward period of the school calendar, a time when many students find it hard to focus and slack off, think-ing Christmas is only weeks away. In this way, many stu-dents view this period to be a restful time, as they ignore pressures from classes and de-termine to work harder later in the trimester to recover from a certain slump in their grades. However, for those students involved in Glee Club and Saints Singers, this is not at all the case. It’s the busiest time of year for choir students as Lessons and Carols and other concerts are demanding. For students in Saints Singers, this three-week period entails numer-ous extra practices and a total of six concerts. Not to men-tion that students involved in Beaux Ties have two addition-al concerts at St. Catherine’s. Junior West Smithers and seniors Stephen Davenport, Sam Hays, Christian Harder, CJ Williams and I are involved in all three groups and have sung in all eight concerts. Se-niors Logan Cochran and Bren-dan Worst are also in all three choirs, but they missed a few performances due to sickness. So how do these students carry on with such an enor-mous load added to an already tight schedule? “It’s been really hard because, with the excep-tion of one or two Saturdays, I’ve had a concert or a major practice pretty much every day for the last two weeks,” said Glee Club Head Stephen Dav-enport. “But my teachers have been helpful in terms of allow-ing me make up work and com-plete assignments when I can.” One may inquire as to wheth-er this concert load is simply too much. Davenport doesn’t think so. “The concerts make it all worthwhile,” he said. Senior Glee Club member Chas Skid-more added, “Having Lessons and Carols on my birthday was a treat for me, and the perfor-mance that Mr. Vick put together was amazing. There are few in-

The most wonderful time of the year

by John Mark DiGrazia ’08 dividuals that I would have rath-er spent my birthday with than my buddies from Glee Club.” Skidmore’s comment alludes to one of the reasons that the Upper School choir groups have been so strong this year. This year’s Glee Club has 15 dedi-cated seniors who have been in choir for several years. “I think I speak for the entire Glee Club when I say it’s been so enjoy-able that it will be one of the things we miss most when we go off to college,” Davenport said. The community has recog-nized the service and sacrifice of those students involved in choir often with gifts of food. After one performance, the women of St. Stephen’s Church gave out goody bags of cookies and can-dy. Following the Wednesday night performance of Lessons and Carols, the Glee Club and Saints Singers enjoyed a nice re-ception. After the Saints Sing-ers sang for New Market Corp., they were provided a delicious feast for lunch. Mr. Vick also took the Saints Singers to Pizza Hut and gave Glee Club a pizza party after Lessons and Carols. However, food is not the only means of expression offered by members of the St. Christo-pher’s community. After cha-pel Dec. 12, Mr. Szymendera thanked all the choir students for their involvement in Les-sons and Carols, especially the dedicated senior members. Oth-er faculty members have also extended gratitude to student choir members for their efforts . “This is the first year since I have been here that everything has been perfect,” Upper School Spanish teacher Mrs. Varner later said about the service, re-marking that no one was flat and all of the solos were well sung. Lastly, congratulations should go to Mr. Vick, Dr. Stephen-son and all other choir direc-tors for their efforts during this hectic time. “Mr. Vick has been awesome,” Davenport said. “I never really loved singing but I just kind of did it throughout Lower and Middle School, but in Upper School, I have learned to love singing, largely because of the efforts of Mr. Vick and Dr. Stephenson.”

audience to find the bluebird. Providing comic relief, Jabriel Hasan ’11 played an overprotec-tive dog with great success. Kris-ten Luke ’10 brought a nurturing motherly presence as the fairy. Meredith Bailey ’09 and Brendan Worst ’08 gave memo-rable performances as the chil-dren’s grandmother and grand-father in one scene, as well as the children’s mother and father. The most intriguing aspect of this production was that children from Middle and Lower School were involved as well. This marks the first time that non-Up-per School students played such an extensive role in an Amper-sand productions. Lower School stars included Paul Padalino. Ampersand deserves great praise for making an already solid play an outstanding one.

lights with power, now the flood of kilowatts is supplied by mul-tiple breakers added to the Whit-lock’s electrical infrastructure. Some of the most notable pieces in the show are the wa-terskiing Santa Claus and the nativity scene. They have the waterskiing Santa Claus be-cause all the kids like to water-ski and Eddie ’13 and Ellie, in fifth grade at St. Catherine’s, both compete nationally in the water sport. The nativity scene is the staple of any Christian Christmas light display, and the Whitlock’s is no exception. The display has sometimes been the target of vandals. While the Whitlocks would not disclose the culprits, they did say that they now have security

who patrol the property at night. Four years ago, some late night prowlers stole onto the prem-ises and snuck off with the baby Jesus. The Whitlock children made signs around the neighbor-hood requesting the return of the figure. The Richmond Times-Dispatch also covered the story. Months later, an anonymous box came in the mail with the baby Jesus inside, Mrs. Whitlock said. Christmas season is a holi-day many enjoy, and the lighted scene in the Whitlock’s yard brings joy to many in Richmond. The Santa, reindeer, nativity scenes and other lights are peren-nial favorites. Sam Priddy ’08 summed up the feelings of many when he said, “Christmas lights are wonderful. They’re like a present for the eyes every day.”

The Saints Singers perform at Lessons and Carols. The service included choirs from all three school divisions.

Mr. Abts stands strong with his flowing tresses.

Mr. Abts lengthens locks for others

Mr. Jim Morgan, a second grade teacher, also grew up in Richmond. He went to Grange Hall Elementary, Brooklyn Middle and Monacan Upper School. In fifth grade, his favorite subject was math and his favorite book was the “The Silver Chair” by C.S. Lewis. He gradu-ated from the University of Richmond and formerly taught at Lin-wood Holton Elementary. Mr. Morgan likes St. Chris-topher’s. “It challenges me to be the best teacher I can be,” he said. He was attracted to the job because of the opportunity to get in the classroom “with boys who are engaged and enthusiastic about learning.” In his spare time, Mr. Mor-gan enjoys theater and reading. He also loves to play video games and says that his favor-ite is “Ratchet and Clank.” His favorite quote is William Shake-speare’s famous line from “Ham-let,” “To thine own self be true.” Mrs. Eliz-abeth Sch-nell, Lower School sci-ence teacher, grew up in Norfolk and went to the L a r c h m o n t E l e m e n -tary School, Blair Middle School and Maury High School. Her favorite fifth grade subject was language arts and her fa-vorite books were the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis and “The Bridge to Terabithia.” She went to boarding school at St. Mary’s in Raleigh and gradu-ated from Randolph Macon Women’s College, today known as Randolph College. She for-merly worked at various schools in Norfolk, the Science Mu-seum of Virginia, and at a zoo. Mrs. Schnell’s favorite thing about St. Christopher’s is the welcoming atmosphere of students and teachers. Her hobbies include reading, ski-ing and going to any beach.

4 The Pine Needle December 2007

Here at St. Christopher’s we have not one, not two but four new teachers in the Lower School. Do you think that you know all of them? If not, here are their brief biog-raphies and some things you might be interested in knowing. Ms. Mary Tryer, a music teacher, was born in Kingsville, Texas. She went to the Epiph-any Episcopal Day School. In the fifth grade, her favorite subject was science and her fa-

vorite book, “The Book of Three.” She graduated from the Univer-sity of Texas in Austin with a degree in music and received a master’s at the Cleveland In-stitute of Mu-

sic. Before coming here, she taught at the Browne Academy in Alexandria but wanted to get back to a classroom setting. Her favorite thing about St. Christopher’s is the welcom-ing, friendly atmosphere. In her spare time, she plays golf, knits, cooks, reads and enjoys bird watching. She also plays the harp and gives piano and harp lessons. Just recently, Ms. Tryer played the harp accompaniment to a song sung by the Lower, Middle, and Upper School choirs in Lessons and Carols. Mr. Cabell Jones, a fifth grade teacher, hails from good old Richmond. He went to The Steward School. His favorite

subject there in fifth grade was history or so-cial studies. He graduated from Hampden-Syd-ney College, where he got a bachelor’s degree in his-tory. He is now working on a

masters degree in history at Vir-ginia Commonwealth Universi-ty. Before coming here, he was a substitute and taught at Steward. “I love the community at-mosphere,” he said about St. Christopher’s. “Every-one is a part of something.” In his free time, Mr. Jones enjoys fishing or anything water related.

New teachers join the Lower School

by Richard Hamrick ’15

Former Saint monitors campaign financingby Kyle Wittenauer ’10 Ever wonder which can-didates your neighbors sup-port? Go to OpenSecrets.org and type in their names. Voila! Now you know now you can decide if serious discussions are in order to win them over to your political viewpoints. OpenSecrets.org is the award winning website for the Center for Responsive Politics where Mr. Massie Ritsch ’94 is com-munications director. The center is the nation’s premier research group in tracking fundraising in U.S. politics and analyzing how the funds af-fect elections and public policy. As communications director, Mr. Ritsch oversees all media materials and interfaces with the media and others who utilize the center’s research and non-parti-san analysis data. Mr. Ritsch, a Princeton University gradu-ate, joined the organization in 2006 after stints as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and communications strategist for a Los Angeles public affairs firm. Mr. Ritsch gave a speech to students in chapel Nov. 12 af-ter Mrs. Melissa Hollerith, Up-per School chaplain spottted her former student on Comedy Network’s “The Colbert Re-port” and tracked him down. On the show he tried to educate the comedic masses on cam-paign contribution guidelines. “All the money in our elections is coming from people like you and me,” he told Stephen Col-bert and added that it’s coming from a tiny percentage (prob-ably around 3 percent) of Amer-icans and there are limits on how much they can contribute.” In an effort to enlighten Col-bert on how corporations get around such limitations, Ritsch said that they form political ac-tion committees which he com-pared to mutual funds for poli-tics in which people invest and corporations decide how they are best spent to affect policy. The day after his appear-ance, Mr. Ritsch said that the Center’s website visits tripled but three days later,

Colbert’s campaign tanked. Mr. Ritsch said that dona-tions pay for advertising, staff and travel underscoring the point that the candidate who raises more money has a far better chance of being elected. The candidate who is elect-ed in turn makes policies that dictate industrial and public standards. Mr. Ritsch made the connection to the everyday world citing the oil industry and energy policy as example. as well as health care, the defense industry and stu-dent loan organizations. The question is, what role should money play in the cam-paign process? The Center for Political Responsiveness does not take a position on taking money in or out of politics. This presidential race will be a $1 billion race, a re-cord amount, Mr. Ritsch said. At the same time he said that Americans will spend more than $1 billion dollars eating at res-taurants today alone. By com-parison, is $1 billion for the pres-idential race excessive or not? Fundraising also takes time away from the legislative pro-cess. “Eric Cantor’s (Rich-mond’s congressman) PAC charges people…often lobby-ists…to meet him at Starbucks…for a few minutes in the morn-ing,” Mr. Ritsch said. It makes him wonder whether one day we will pay members of Congress to walk their dogs or pick up their dry cleaning. “Every moment of

their day has been programmed to raise money,” he said. With 94 percent of Congress and 86 percent of the Senate being re-elected, it is difficult for an underdog to win. There is a current perception of cor-ruption. One idea for chang-ing the system is free advertis-ing. Ritsch has another idea. Washington could really use an honor code, he said, where elect-ed officials for every vote would pledge that they have neither given any special favors that do not serve the interest of his or her constituents nor received any campaign contributions or other perks that influence his or her decisions and that they are not aware of any breach of the honor code by colleagues in similar positions of public trust. He admits that the Congressio-nal Ethics Committee does not like to meet regularly because it becomes bipartisan, and both parties seem to be concerned of their own potential breeches. How can the St. Christopher’s student get involved? Mr. Ritsch concluded his talk with several suggestions: register to vote, volunteer for a campaign, give money, become educated on the issues and how they connect to money and contact your elected representatives. Later that morning, Mr. Ritsch met with the Political Awareness Club, St. Christo-pher’s own “PAC,” and dis-cussed possible options for re-form in the campaign process.

“[SCA] gives students a say in what the school does,” says Jack Bassett (President of the Jacksons). SCA is an almost all student-run organization that helps the Lower School to be better in many ways. Lower School leader Julian Mills runs the student council meetings and the Literary So-ciety Meetings. Vice President Mikey Zeevi presides over re-cycling and is available to take over the meeting if the leader is not there. Secretary Walker Rise writes the minutes for each meeting. He also is in charge of the SCA bulletin board out-side the computer lab. Treasurer Johnny Constable is in charge of counting the money we get from projects that SCA does.

Meanwhile, the Literary So-ciety officers run the meetings where classes recite poems for points. Each class is divided up into Jacksons and Lees and recites poems for points. Each team has a president, vice- president and secretary. The two presidents (Jack Bassett-Jacksons and Wilson Bedell-Lees) carry banners down the aisle and call down the Kindergarten, first and second grade classes to recite poems. The two vice-presidents (Connor Lifson-Jacksons and Logan Ende-Lees) occasion-ally carry the banners and call the third, fourth and fifth grade classes down to recite poems. The two secretaries (Wil-liam Maddock-Jacksons and Cole Claiborne) read min-utes from the past meeting.

“[SCA is a] pretty cool experi-ence, overall,” said Jack Nolan, fifth grade representative. “I like getting other students’ opinions.” Representatives are elected by their peers. The SCA has a fall representative and a spring representative who go to meetings and the recycling program on Friday mornings. “I love working with all the different students.,” said Mrs. Wilson, fifth grade teacher who helps run the meetings. “[SCA] gives students more responsibility and it is a place for their voice to be heard.” “It’s good to know that my classmates trust me,” said William Boyd, fifth grade representative. Students agree that SCA is a way to gain confidence and help the Lower School be a better place.

SmithContinued from page 1

by Connor Lifson ’15

Students lead Lower School

fore…. Don’t come near ‘Moon Road’ without a life jacket.” The praise for this new book doesn’t stop there. Pu-litzer Prize winner Claudia Emerson called it, “a wel-come, beautiful collection.” Even amidst this decidedly positive reaction, Mr. Smith remains humble. Simply get-ting the book published with the Louisiana State University press is, he said, worth celebrat-ing. “It’s always hard to get a book published by a good publisher--and LSU is one of the very best,” he said. “I have heard some poets say it is the best for poetry.” When asked about obstacles to publica-tion, he said there were sim-ply too many even to mention. The collection delves into themes of travelling on both literal and figurative levels, as well as intellectual, emotional and physical levels, Mr. Smith said. About the title poem, a golden road leading to a glori-ous moon turns out to be, in that poem, a road into a dark-ness, a cave. So, the book is

also about how beautiful ap-pearances can be misleading. Themes and motifs aside, the buzz about the book is growing intense. One English teacher went so far as to say that the book will solidify Smith’s sta-tus as a powerhouse in con-temporary Southern literature. Mr. Smith recently had a book signing at Book People, a local book store, and gave a reading at school Dec. 14. Members of the local literary community, as well as members of the writing world abroad, are talking about the voice and presence of Smith’s w r i t i n g . Meanwhile, Mr. Smith stays eva-sive about the future of his writ-ing. “I hope this book will make all my future writing easier. Or, if not easier…then better and more in-teresting, and more universal…What is important is that the work speak to the open-minded reader, the open-hearted reader.”

Lower School SCA and Literary Society leaders pose in front of a Christmas tree.

Mr. Massie Ritsch here after chapel with Mr. Joe Knox, former language teacher, Mr. Jump and Mr. Szymendera.

December 2007 Editorial Page 5

Many would agree with me in stating that the dress code needs change. The high school dress code is harsher than the Middle

School’s, but the infractions that occur against it are the same: un-tucked shirts, messy shoes, forest camo jackets, the

baggiest of the baggy khakis, and the unnoticed, frayed hemlines. Yes, even the last four men-tioned are against the dress code. As the handbook indicates, the dress code is designed to promote a neat and clean appearance. Though this may be true, most St. Chris boys very well know that the appearance of many is often not neat and sometimes not clean. Simply put, our dress code works to an extent. The consistency of a pattern, the length of one’s hair, the amount of jewelry one wears, or the fab-ric of a pair of pants are only distracting if they are made to be. To me, a hot pink Polo shirt is a distraction, but jeans are not. Our dress code seems to be stuck 40 years back, when it would have basically been the standard for what most people wore and what was consid-ered appropriate for school, but as clothing styles have drastically changed, and it seems that jeans and T-shirts are almost all that is sold, the dress code has not stretched. It is sometimes hard to shop

by John Stillwell ’09

for clothes that are in dress code and suit different prefer-ences, and there are days when coming to school in dress code appropriate attire is uncom-fortable, like Fridays for in-stance. Of course, there is a private school appearance that must be maintained, but wear anything days aren’t that wild. If the dress code read some-thing like this it would be easier and cheaper to follow: Jeans are permitted but must be worn with a tucked-in collared shirt, and T-shirts are permitted, but must be worn with regular pants. Be-cause it would be more lenient, there probably would be fewer infractions and a more dramatic difference between the appear-ances of the students. After all, the school wants diversity. A change in the dress code would allow differences to flourish, and I believe that people would be more ac-cepting of differences once they are allowed to become common. Maybe Student Council should hold a forum about changing the dress code. If real diversity is what St.Christopher’s wants, then loosening the dress code is a step that the school should take.

Dress code:Outmoded institution or timeless tradition?

by Jabriel Hasan ’11 Ever since the school’s found-ing in 1911, St. Christopher’s has maintained a dress code

among all students and faculty. The establishment of the dress code is not to discourage diversity or to prevent self expression but

rather to promote a clean and pro-fessional learning environment. A fairly loose dress code, like ours, allows for plenty of self expression yet prevents any distraction that may come from inappropriate or gar-ish clothing. Although this may be more prevalent in girls schools, the expectation to look your best or wear unique clothing is often a distraction. School is certainly not a fash-ion show; it is a place to work and learn. No one should have to worry about what he wears to school each day. It should be a simple and carefree decision. The St. Christopher’s dress code is designed so that all students, regardless of socio-economic class and culture, have easy access to appropri-ate clothes. Students may chose to buy a $15 dollar col-lared shirt at a discount store that looks almost identical to a $75 dollar designer shirt or vice versa. No student should feel uncomfortable in any way wearing khaki pants and a col-

lared button down or polo shirt. Within the guidelines of the code, students are able to freely express themselves. For example, my style is preppy whereas Matthew Londrey wears more contemporary clothes. This freedom al-lows for a different yet clean look among the student body. After classes and on the week-ends, stu-dents are free to wear a n y t h i n g they want with friends and family. School, however, is not a social gathering, and the dress code helps to reinforce the fact that we are at a learning institution. We must not focus on trivial matters such as personal apparel when we are at school to learn. As a college preparatory school, St. Christopher’s has an obliga-tion to prepare its students for life beyond secondary school includ-ing professional careers where a proper appearance is necessary.

by Christopher Alexander ’09

Dress down

Leave it on the field

by Kevin Isaacs ’08

A new postseason for Division 1A The Bowl Championship Series (BCS), is system utilized by NCAA Division 1-A college foot-ball to rank its teams, cre-ates a format for postsea-son play and the National Championship Game. Created in 1998, the BCS’s goal was to continue college football’s storied bowl system while al-lowing a championship game to be played between the na-tion’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams. The bowls not only allow col-leges to play in the national spot-light, but the economic benefits from the bowl games are signifi-cant in funding the conferences. Every year the major bowls generate more that $100 million for the major BCS conferences, and give $8 million to the other five associated conferences. While the BCS seems to be an effective system including all teams and allowing for a fair formula to determine the na-tional champion, the system at times is flawed. The BCS uses a combination of a computer pro-gram and national polls to cre-ate its ranking, yet when teams have similar records but never directly compete, decisions con-cerning rankings and bowl se-lections can become controver-sial. For example, in 2004, the BCS rankings left Auburn out of the National Championship game despite an undefeated re-cord. Also in 1998, Tulane was snubbed a bid to any of the ma-jor bowl games despite their un-defeated regular season. Despite winning the national champion-ship game in 2003, LSU had to share the championship with USC because of BCS rankings.

This year’s season has been a perfect example of how chaotic the system can become. With Hawaii remaining as the only undefeated team, all of the pe-rennial powerhouse programs have suffered at least one loss. While Hawaii has a perfect re-cord, it has been left out of the National Championship Game, but LSU and Ohio State, who are seemingly superior teams in comparison to Hawaii, both have suffered losses. The BCS is unfairly biased. The only effec-tive way to end these controver-sies would be to create a playoff system at the end of the season, to crown the true champion. A 16-team playoff would be an ideal way to give all top teams a legitimate shot at the champion-ship. Similar to college basket-ball’s March Madness, this play-off system would draw national attention, allow mid-major foot-ball programs to achieve suc-cess similar to George Mason’s 2006 Final Four run and end all bickering concerning the BCS. Some critics of the playoff system argue that the system

would end the importance of ev-ery regular season game, but in reality, the conference champi-onship games, already in place, weaken the importance of the regular season games because by winning the conference cham-pionship a team is automati-cally admitted into a BCS Bowl. Many university presidents worry that a playoff system would extend the season to in-terfere with exams, but if the teams stopped playing weak opponents during the first few weeks of the season, schedules would not be any longer. Also if the big-time programs stopped playing weak teams at the begin-ning of the season, there would be more opportunity for major programs to face high-qual-ity non-conference opponents and end the issues concerning strength of schedule. The rank-ings would become more valid. Because a loss in September is less significant in a team’s rank-ing than a loss in November, the BCS ranking is unrealistic. In a playoff system all teams have an equal chance, no matter which

part of the season they slip up. Those traditionalists who complain that a playoff sys-tem would end the storied bowl system should realize that the bowls could be imple-mented into the playoff system, having bowls host different rounds, thus keeping tradition and allowing the conferences to continue to receive finan-cial support from the bowls. People who believe that without the BCS system, Utah in 2004 and Boise State in 2007 would never have been able to compete in a high-profile bowl in the national spotlight like the Fiesta Bowl are mistaken. In reality the BCS hurts smaller programs because even though they are included in bowls, the BCS would never consider them for a National Title bid. Other smaller bowls could also continue for the teams that are not in the 16-team pool, pleas-ing athletic directors nation-wide who desire the national attention for their programs. While a bowl system in col-lege football is a long shot, it is a system necessary to take college football excitement to the next level. Being utilized by all other levels of football through high school, smaller level colleges and the NFL, the playoff sys-tem’s efficiency is proven, and conference and university presi-dents must realize its benefit. I will always be a fan of college football, no matter what format it uses, but the playoff system would make college football an even more exciting sport.

This fall, three other students and I had an opportunity to coach the Middle School football teams, the first ever Student-Athlete Coaches. Chas Skid-more and Richard Luck helped

Coach Golla-day with the eighth grade, while John “ W i l k y ” W i l k i n s o n and I helped coach the sev-enth grade.

Every seventh period we could spare was spent on the practice field, refining the tech-nique of our younger counter-parts. For the seventh grad-ers, Coach Wilky handled the linemen, and I worked with the defense and running backs. The vast majority of these boys hadn’t played football before, and I could see them struggling trying to translate what they had seen on Sundays to their own brand of football. The first weeks were painful for Coach O’Ferrell and me, having to explain the rules of each drill again to each group every day. Some boys were contact-shy, some just didn’t know how to get their bodies into athletic po-sitions. “Having you guys there helped a lot because we could talk to you as friends and it wasn’t just like some coach tell-ing us to run over there,” sev-enth grader Marshall Hollerith said. By the end of the season, everyone was a football player. No seventh grader seems to understand what is said to him in a group, but if you get students one-on-one, what you say sinks in and they apply it immediately. Wilky diagnoses his coaching success into a matter of relating to the kids. “We can help them understand a specific technique better because we haven’t been away from the field as long as their other coaches.” This is one of the more crucial aspects in coaching at all levels because, for example, if no one teaches you to stiff arm, you won’t learn how until it’s done to you. The other coaches tell them where to run and who to block, but we concentrated on showing them what to do once they got there. “I feel like by the end of the season I became their friend as well as their coach,” Wilky said. There was an identifiable transformation that took place throughout the season. In the beginning they seemed a little scared of us, but by the last week, when they weren’t mak-ing fun of me, they were likely trying to fight me. Through all of that though, I think I was able to teach them a couple good things. The seventh grad-ers were able to teach me how fun coaching can be, especially when you see Paul Farramosca’s little brother juke somebody out. Most of the seventh grad-ers believe the program was a success. “We learned a lot of stuff from you guys no one else would have told us,” said sev-enth grader Churchill Young. Coaching the kids helps them get ahead of the curve and could have a lasting effect on the play-ers and the athletic program here. My hope is that the Stu-dent-Athlete Coaching program will continue in the future and broaden to include more sports.

Dress up

Don’t agree with John’s ideas on the College Football postsea-son and BCS system? Write to the Pine Needle with your own postseason plan, and it might make it into the next edition.

* * * * *

6 The Pine Needle December 2007

The Back Page

The Pine Needle

Senior ContributorKevin Isaacs

Junior ContributorsChristopher Alexander

Robert AllenTyler Franz

John StillwellSophomore Contributors

Patrick DelaneyJason Pacious

Ryan Van SumerenKyle Wittenauer

Freshman ContributorJabriel Hasan

Faculty AdvisorMrs. Kathleen Thomas

Senior EditorsJohn Mark DiGrazia

Brian KusiakTeddy MitchellBrendan Worst

Lower School Contributors (Class of 2015)

Richard Hamrick Connor Lifson

We the editors of The Pine Needle love being editors. That’s why we’re always introducing ourselves as such. “Hi I’m Brian Kusiak, editor of The Pine Needle, the St. Christopher’s newspaper since 1915... Yeah, that’s a long time... Yes that’s right, I did get a 1550 on the SATs...” That’s pretty much how all of our conversations go. We’re just that proud of our paper. But while this may be the best publication on campus, it isn’t the only one. There happens to be some other book, called Raps & Taps, and it has senior editors too. We decided to give them some press by putting them in our paper. Enjoy the holiday interview.

Raps & Taps Senior Editor Neil McGroarty

What’s your favorite thing about the holidays?The night before Christmas I get really nervous with excitement waiting for my presents. That’s the true meaning of Advent: anticipation.

What are you buying your girlfriend for Christmas?The problem is that I had to buy so many presents for so many young girls that it’s tough to decide who gets what. There’s the dinner for two at Flemings, there’s the arch card from Micky D’s, and of course, the UVA lacrosse hat.

What do you want for Christmas?A Fathead of Lance Armstrong crossing the finish line at the seventh Tour de France. Do you think Lance was born a champ? NO! He had to work for his seven titles. One of my favorite Lance quotes comes to mind. “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”

Neil, you are revered as a true “lady’s man.” Any relationship advice for your fans?Please don’t put that. Don’t put that! That’s not gonna help me out.

Neil what motivates you to work so hard in all aspects in your life?Lance Armstrong.

What are your feelings on Christmas lights?I think they’re dangerous! It’s like a rose, but you know, it’s got thorns. I live out in Cougarville and every night my life is threatened by roadside light extravaganzas on my way home. I’m keeping my eyes on the road and people are swerving and stopping all over the place. After my recent rereading of “The Odyssey,” I would compare them to Homer’s sirens because while they may be beautiful, they kill.

Merry Christmas , Chief!

Raps & Taps Senior Editor Robert “The Bod” Barry

What are your plans for the holidays?To spread the Christmas spirit by being giving to everyone.

What’s your New Year’s resolution?To find a soul mate. For longer than a week.

Any Christmas traditions?I enjoy baking cookies with Neil.

Raps & Taps Senior Editor Sam Priddy

What are you buying your girlfriend for Christmas?The problem is I don’t have a girlfriend, but if I did have a girlfriend, I’d get her a gift card. But not a gift card to somewhere, a gift card for fun lovin’.

What’s your favorite thing about the holidays?I just love Christmas lights, there’s just no way around it. Like I said in Brian’s amazing article, they’re just wonderful.

What do you want for Christmas?I want a Neil McGroarty Fathead. He’s just a true inspiration, he just works so hard in all aspects of life—especially on the athletic fields. The thing about Neil’s Fathead is that it shows him always in action, which you’re never really guaranteed during the real sport.

Thanks for keeping our campus beautiful with you smile.From Zac and Peter