Auburn Riverside Student VoiceDEC 17, 2013 • VOLUME 19 • ISSUE #3

Best hot cocoa of the seasonSee page 7

Leverenz earns place in WIAA Hall of FameSee page 12

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InFlight policies Greetings from Newspaper

InFlightstaff reportersMackenzie BrownJude Hanno Karlee JohnsonDylan JohnstonAlex Vasquez

guest reportersCameron FairchildSarah KoenigJacob LonerganSasha TerryEric Walker

editor-in-chiefMackenzie Brown

business managerKarlee Johnson

photographerDylan Johnston

InFlight Dec 17, 2013Opinion2

adviserPatrick Swenson

social media editorJude Hannocover illustrationMackenzie Brown

In 1975, Steven Spielberg revolutionized the way films were marketed with Jaws, an adaptation of the Peter Bench-ley novel about a shark that terrorizes Amity Island and the three men who set out to stop it. Ever since its release, ma-jor Hollywood films have sold themselves as a spectacle.

Jaws, along with the ear-liest modern blockbusters like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, are inventive, classic films. What they’ve left in their wake today is a nightmare.

It’s not enough to say the modern Hollywood sys-tem- throwing money at big, CGI (Computer-generated imagery)-heavy, redundant or else ridiculously plotted action epics- is broken. I could argue forever the im-portance of balancing art and entertainment in film, but the truth is major studios aren’t interested in low-key, creative films. They’re only interested in the bottom line- making money by selling movies as products.

This dogmatic system is best exempli-fied by the dearth of originality in Holly-wood films.

“There are currently a lot of sequels and remakes. I’d like more original ideas in Hollywood,” senior Jonathan Baunach said.

Principal Dave Halford similarly laments the lack of originality in movies. “I think

with the stories the writers take it a little bit too far,” he said. “I remember liking Rocky and Rocky 2 but the sequels are just the same story.”

Pacific Rim, another major 2013 release, fell short of its production bud-get by almost 90 million dollars in the U.S. market, only generating a little over 100 million. Foreign theaters, on the other hand, gen-

erated three times that. I bring this up to exemplify another foreboding trend in mod-ern Hollywood filmmaking: more and more films are made with overseas audiences as a priority.

“International audiences love action, wild and exciting special effects that can only be created by our technology,” movie

producer Lynda Obst said. If American mov-ies aren’t even being made for Americans, why do we bother to go see them?

Indeed, the CGI of today has become the dividing line in terms of supporters and naysayers of modern film. In a survey con-ducted with students, 47 percent believe movies are getting worse largely because of the improvement of CGI and the stagnation of storytelling, 21 percent believe film qual-ity has remained largely the same, while 32 percent believe movies are improving in tandem with CGI improvements.

“Movies are getting better because of better special effects,” junior Xiomara Var-gas said.

While I have no problem with CGI (even if practical effects have always been supe-rior), I believe story and characters should always take priority.

There is still hope for cinema yet. If you hate foreign films on principle (even though you shouldn’t) I have to at least ad-vocate independent films, which are made with minimal studio funding and influence, and oftentimes have original, entertain-ing, and emotionally resonant stories. Hollywood doesn’t respect its audience’s intelligence, and it’s time we stop patron-izing it.

Cameron FairchildGUEST REPORTER

Remember a time when there were lit-tle to no ads on YouTube, or even when the website still functioned properly?

Some of you might not know, but what you see on the website when doing general browsing is different than what users see if they upload videos every day. When users upload a video to YouTube, the process is not as easy as one might think. Some days it might take one hour, other days it might take five hours. It might even take a whole week just to get one video out on the inter-net for other people’s enjoyment.

One of the most recent changes to You-tube is the comments section. To comment, you need to have a Google+ account and it

has to be linked with your YouTube. “The new YouTube comment system

has made it impossible for me to reply to my fans in the comments,” popular YouTu-ber Sp00nerism said.

It’s not that I don’t like the design to the comments, I just hate how it works. One should only need to have a Youtube account to say something in the comments section. Most YouTubers who upload vid-eos daily don’t comment anymore because it’s near impossible to keep up with what goes on in the com-ments section.

Occasionally, Google might ask if you want to change your YouTube name to your real name on Google+. This is extremely annoying and everyone says

The year the movie industry stood still

no anyways, so why even have that feature put in? Google+ might not be as bad if they weren’t trying to shove social media down your throat.

When YouTube didn’t have anything to do with Google, there were little to no ads, and even with ads, they would only be five seconds long. With the integration of Google+, and as time progressed, YouTube got more and more ads, until pretty soon, it

Google+ monopolizes YouTube’s comment sectionwas like going on Myspace. Not that ads are a bad thing, but having to sit through a five minute unskippable ad about who knows what is annoying.

Not only has Google taken over You-tube, they are also attempting to make their own version of social media called Google+. Another thing they might ask when you sign in to your Google account is if you want to join Google+, or have a run-

down on how Google+ works. It even tries to get you to add people to your Google+ circles (that’s basically your friends).

If you would like YouTube to change its comments section, go here and sign this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/google-change-the-youtube-comment-section-back-to-its-original-form. Even YouTube’s co-founder Jawed Karim is against the new comment section.

Dylan JohnstonSTAFF REPORTER

PHOTO COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE, WIKIMEDIA.COM

One of the few good things left about new movies is watching them on the big screen in the-aters.

PHOTO BY DYLAN JOHNSTON

This Thursday...come on by room #402 for a movie and treats. Get cozy and enjoy

Elf for only $5 dollars!

MOVIE NIGHT!Thurs 6 p.m.

wearing the sweaters. “It all depends on if they can rock the look,” Camarillo said. “Sort of like some people can rock a short dress, while others really can’t.”

In my opinion, no one can rock the ugly sweater look. It’s something that no one should wear. Ever.

There are a lot of alternatives to wear-ing these sweaters that no sane person would enjoy looking at. You can wear winter coats, multiple layers, or even sweatshirts!

Whether or not these sweaters are an actual fashion statement, people will con-tinue to wear them to express their love for the holidays, or just for the weather.

3Auburn Riverside High School Opinion

NHL hockey seems to be in just about every major U.S. city. Why not Seattle? We all deserve it. It is definitely possible to do it. As of right now, the only problem is that we need money and a place to play. To put it simply, no arena, no deal.

A former NHL goalie, Doug Soetaert, said in a Seattle Times article that “they have to get an arena.” This sounds all too familiar; remember the Sonics arena deal plan? This is the same one and the stadium would act as a home for both professional sports teams. I believe that this sharing of stadiums would bring much more income to Seattle as well as bring the city together with the forming of a new team.

Few people know that Seattle was a major city for hockey long ago. Todd Smith, a writer for sonicsrising.com, dubbed it the “Original Hockeytown USA,” because Seat-tle’s first hockey team, the Metropolitans, won the Stanley Cup in 1917.

Hockey is alive and well in Kent with the Thunderbirds, but they are not a major league team, or close to it. If we can get an NHL team in Seattle, I think it would gener-ate a huge fan-base based on the popularity

of Kent’s team. Hockey is a great sport in my opinion, and I enjoy watching it. Many people in Seattle would too.

“There are a lot of devoted fans out

NHL: Bring hockey back to SeattleEric Walker

GUEST REPORTER

The wonderful holiday season is here again. Christmas trees, scented pinecones, dreaded family Christmas pictures and fruitcake are back! Unfortunately, so are the “ugly” sweaters. Which is exactly what they are: ugly.

Many people seem to think that hav-ing an ugly Christmas sweater is a fashion trend, but in reality, does wearing grand-ma’s clothes really say something good?

Ugly Christmas sweaters are called ugly Christmas sweaters for a reason.

I mean, some people actually go out of their way to find the ugliest sweater pos-sible only to wear it and have the nerve to call it “cute.” Excuse me? Does no one know the definition of “ugly?” Come on! Have some dignity, people.

Dress your age and save the frumpy sweaters for when you’re a grandpar-ent. You’re too young to dress like you don’t care.

Many students here agree with them being annoying and completely stupid. “I’m not the biggest fan of them,” sophomore Aubrey Camarillo said. “But then again, I don’t really care.”

There are such things as cute ugly sweaters, and then there are ugly ugly sweaters. Which are the types of sweaters that are most unliked. You can really tell the difference: cute ugly sweat-ers are found at name brand stores whereas ugly ugly sweaters are a rare find and are

actually rarely worn. People wear sweaters around the holi-

days for warmth anyways, so why not make it a decoratively themed sweater, just for fun?

Some students however disagree with such a statement. “I think they’re really cute, but only if they’re not too tacky,” sophomore Melissa Chamberlain said.

Students may agree with Chamberlain, and may also think that wearing the sweat-ers is a form of showing a sort of unique taste. “They’re not everyday clothes people wear,” junior Thailer Mcleod said. “I think wearing them shows diversity and a colorful side of people.”

Most people would think that you’re only supposed to wear these kinds of sweat-ers around the holiday season, although I personally have seen people wearing rein-deer and snowman sweaters starting as ear-ly as September. “I sometimes even wear them in July,” Chamberlain admits.

Most people wear these sweaters when it’s cold outside, which is completely under-standable. Except there are other warm items of clothing that are not incredibly ugly.

You can go anywhere and find better sweaters than ugly ones.

Although, some people don’t exactly think that certain people should even be

here,” Soetaert said. The most important roadblock for a

Seattle-based NHL team, therefore, is to get an arena built. Geoff Baker, a colum-

Ugly Christmas sweaters are uglyAlex Vasquez

STAFF REPORTER

PHOTOS COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE, FLICKR.COM

The Metropolians, Seattle’s old hockey team, won their World Hockey Championship in 1917.

PHOTO COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE, FLICKR.COM

nist for the Seattle Times, said “What mat-ters to the NHL is infrastructure.” So all we need to do is get people to vote on an arena and it will attract leagues such as the NHL and NBA. A new stadium could also create a new venue for concerts and other events.

Some students would be thrilled to have an NHL team in Seattle. “We need a hockey team to be a major sports city. It would be absolutely fantastic and we could finally compete at the highest level in hock-ey. Imagine a rivalry between the Vancou-ver Canucks and Seattle’s proposed team,” senior Jacob Spracklin said.

Senior Pablo Rasales agrees. “I think it’d be pretty cool.”

Junior James Hornbuckle added to the sentiment. “It would be a great new fran-chise in Seattle.”

Here in the Northwest we all can agree that we have a great sports community with teams like the Seahawks, Sounders, and Mariners. It wouldn’t hurt to bring in another professional sports team. The NHL would be a great fit here, and it might even attract an NBA team in the future. Hockey has had history in the past here and it would be great to see it alive and well today com-peting in the professional scene. Let’s bring professional hockey back to Seattle!

InFlight Dec 17, 2013News4

Christmas is just around the corner and Riverside is planning many interesting and exciting events for the holiday season.

The Auburn Santa Parade, which took place on Saturday, Dec. 7, featured both the Marching Band and Key Club. The Marching Band played the tune “Deck the Halls” and marched alongside the Auburn community in the cold.

Key Club sold hot chocolate with West Auburn during the Santa Parade.

Key Club is also taking the initiative to help out those in need for the holiday sea-son. The stocking stuffing event, which was on Wednesday, Dec. 11, gave a fun stock-ing filled with cool toys to help kids who wouldn’t have been able to see Santa or get into the holiday spirit without the help of their community. The hygiene drive also took place on the 11th.

Another event that helps bring out the holiday spirit of giving is the annual blood drive. The blood drive is today and tomor-row. In order to donate blood, you must be 16 years of age. The blood drive is a perfect way to give during this holiday season, be-cause it allows normal everyday students a chance to help those in need.

Many charities are trying to find ways to help many local foster children and or-phans. Some charities also try to collect food for the local food banks to feed local families.

The food bank will have a holiday meal set for those who cannot afford food.

Along with the support Riverside has thrown behind these many amazing causes, it has also conceived many ways to make the holiday season enjoyable for all of the students here.

This year a few different events will complement the holiday season, one of which is Winter Wishes, which is basically the Wishing Well from last year. This will be organized by both the R.A.K.E Club and our ASB officers.

School clubs bring Christmas spiritAlex Vasquez

STAFF REPORTER

Riverside’s annual spring musical is fast approaching. The musical is going to be All Shook Up and will be performed on March 7-9 and 14-16.

All Shook Up is a 1950s musical about rock-and-roll. It is not only just a musical, but the show itself has a lot of opportuni-ties for those who enjoy acting.

A mysterious stranger in a leather jack-et shakes up a small Midwestern town in 1955. It’s a story of cross-dressing mistak-en identity and the romance that ensues. It was inspired by Twelfth Night and other Shakespearean comedies.

Every single song played is by the one and only rock-and-roll legend Elvis Pres-ley. Presley hits included are songs such as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Hound Dog” and “Love me, Tender.”

Director Karla Seman believes it is a play many will enjoy. “I chose this musical because it naturally is really upbeat,” Se-man said. “It has a lot of parts for both act-ing and singing giving those performers to have more opportunities. There is also a lot of flexibility for the choirs and the actors who perform in All Shook Up.”

The first meeting for auditions was on Nov. 21, and the auditions were on Dec. 2-5. The final cast list for the spring musical was posted on Monday Dec. 9.

Seniors in acting roles performing in their last musical are Nicole Coppola, Shaun Meehan, Taylor Fairchild, Rizelle Rosales, Kyle Nacis, Mason Fox, Megan Lucchesi, Hannah Treece, and Sam Thurston.

The musical has approximately eight main characters and parts for statues for their few big singing parts in the show. Be-sides that, a bunch of extras will be sing-ing, dancing, and acting along to support the entire play as a whole.

Although Seman will direct the play, a team of staff members help out with the production as well. Choir teacher Jonathan Stenson will aid in the singing portion, and science teacher Judith Shaw works on cos-tume design. The dance director is Harry Turpin, and theater technician Ed Dunaway will work backstage with tech students such as senior Michalyn Thompson.

According to theatricallights.com, the author of the musical, Joe Dipietro, want-ed to create a show that’s all about loving someone, no matter who they are. “It’s re-ally about needing someone so much they rock you to your soul.”

Spring musical to shake up audiencesKarlee Johnson

STAFF REPORTER

The ASB of course has been working very hard to prepare for such things. “We work long hours; before and after school,” ASB President senior Drew Wallen said. “We’re just trying to make some positive impacts in individuals’ lives.”

Any student could come and put a slip into Winter Wishes to have their one wish come true.

Winter Wishes became an idea when ASB wanted to bring students together, and

The spring musical, All Shook Up, will have performances in March, and feature the music of Elvis Presley.

GRAPHIC COURTESY KARLA SEMAN

also grant some wishes to students to make their days brighter and happier.

In addition to Winter Wishes, there is also going to be a clothing drive. The cloth-ing drive is where students bring in and do-nate jackets, gloves, and other winter es-sentials for the students who can’t afford such important things. This is important be-cause some people in the world don’t have the capability to afford warm winter cloth-ing. Riverside’s trying to help those in need for the winter holiday.

The ASB is also in charge of this. “We all have a zero period now, so we can split up into committees and get planning and organizing done more efficiently,” said ju-nior Kristi Nyguen, who is another member of the ASB. Their zero period works effec-tively to get work done faster for the stu-dents here.

The holiday season, as we all know, is about giving. Not all the students are as fortunate as others. ASB is attempting to help give to others and be kind and caring people. “We all have blessings and not ev-eryone is as fortunate as others, so we’re just trying to help,” Wallen said.

ASB is trying its best to make our school a better place, and they’re succeeding by planning things such as Winter Wishes and the clothing drive.

In a couple days, Winter Break will start, leaving many students and ASB mem-bers to reflect fondly on how they helped others in the Auburn community and spread holiday spirit throughout our school.

Seniors Nicole Coppola, Lauren Crimi and Miranda Martens lounge around before getting into charac-ter as elves for the Santa photos.

PHOTO BY DYLAN JOHNSTON

5Auburn Riverside High School Feature

From the Michael Wong presidency, to Drew Wallen’s reign, school togetherness has been one of the ASB’s top priorities.

If you’re a senior this year, you’ve heard them all: Flip the Switch, It’s Our Time, RPOE, and Rip up Your Cool Card.The yearly slogan is still a relatively new concept, but it’s already second nature to most students. In the mere four years these themes have been adopted, the school has come together by leaps and bounds.

Riverside used to be a bit different. The yearly themes are now naturally in-corporated into each school year, which years ago, hadn’t even been thought of.

That was, until a very important change was made four years ago. What was supposed to be a small prank by a small group of students toward another, turned out to be very big and very racist. The prank affected and offended many students.

“We looked horrible in the public eye,” Michael Wong, one of the master-minds of the yearly theme, said. This sparked an idea in the mind of Wong, who had just been elected as the next ASB president. Come next year, he decided it was time for a change.

The school was looking for ways to

come back from the prank that ended up landing Riverside on the news for all the wrong reasons. Wong and the ASB at the time came up with a message to spread schoolwide.

“Flip the Switch”: annual school themes improve togethernessJacob Lonergan

GUEST REPORTER

In the morning, the alarm goes off, and the snooze button is pressed time and time again in an attempt to get one more minute of sleep. Finally, after getting dressed and ready, heading off to school is a gruesome experience.

Tired eyes, Starbucks coffee, and mumbling by the first couple periods of the day. You’re tired. You’re exhausted. You’re 110% done with a day that has yet to even reach noon. You’re con-templating sleeping in classes. You’re stressed about the test in 3rd period. You’re treading water. Barely breathing through. You’re dead. You feel tired and all you want is the comfort that your bed allows, and by third period, all you want is to go to lunch to have even a little time off from the work, the tests, the lectures, and the pop quizzes. Why are students so exhausted and stressed? The answer is simple: school.

According to a story from CNN, “among 13- to 17-year-olds, school is by far the most commonly mentioned source of stress.”

High school has many challenges stu-dents have to face every day. When we en-ter as freshmen, we first don’t understand all the pressure that is being driven into us. The Huffington Post said “making the tran-

sition from middle school to high school can be a particularly daunting time. You’re sud-denly thrust out of your comfort zone into a brave new world of upperclassmen, home-rooms, lockers, parties and football games. It’s no surprise that a significant number of high school freshmen find the adjustment overwhelming.”

Once students reach orientation fresh-men year, the pressure is on. Students, from the first day they enter the class, are asked about their future goals, as well as pushed towards taking advanced placement class-es. They are told the more you take, the

better. Not only are the aforementioned AP classes important, but we are told that col-leges don’t accept people with low GPAs, and that colleges don’t accept people who don’t take after-school activities. The next four years will determine the rest of your lives, they told us time and time again.

Freshman Gaby Yoxtheimer believes that stress in high school “breaks down self es-teem.”

Freshman Hailey Wagner agrees with Yoxtheimer, and be-lieves that high school impacts students with mental disorders nega-tively. Wagner also be-lieves school causes high risk stress levels in teenagers. “You get lots of work and not a lot of time,” she said. “There are lots of activities, and when you do it all, you just don’t have the time!”

Freshman Cole Brown believes he understands why high school stresses out

teenagers so much. “It’s what they expect from us. You’re trying to do everything right. I’ve had so much anxiety just from school alone.”

Freshmen year is just the beginning. As students progress through the years, they

School causes stress in teensJude Hanno

STAFF REPORTER

Before Wong’s presidential senior year, Jeff Miles, part of the ASB’s executive board, thought of the message “Flip the Switch,” a simple sound bite that encap-sulated the aims of the Wong’s ASB presi-

dency: encouragement of students to make a change and a 180 in their attitudes so that the school could rebound from the previous year’s scandal and unify in the process.

The aim for the new theme was to bring students together and create a positive environment. “I convened my ASB team and we decided it was time for a change,” Wong said.

That’s just what they did. Wong and his ASB team focused on what was impor-tant: a feeling of schoolwide unity and comfort for every student. “If you don’t feel safe, there’s no way you’re going to participate in school and school spirit,” Wong said.

The ASB’s new call to action was in-troduced in the first assembly at the be-ginning of the 2010 school year to the new freshmen and returning upperclassmen. The message quickly stuck with students.

From then on, a tradition was started to make all students feel welcome, espe-cially incoming freshmen, with a simple slogan that everbody knows to remind stu-dents to stand against prejudice and bul-lying.

The tradition still carries on every year when we walk into school and hear our new welcoming theme. One tiny change made four years ago will forever be a part of Riverside as it blossoms into an ever-growing, comforting environment and a united school community.

Freshman students wear the mark of Raven Pride as they venture through the school on their first day with the help of their Raven Crew leaders.

PHOTO COURTESY GINA SANDLAND

get overly stressed and tired. By the time students reach their sophomore years, they have begun to lose all hope. AP classes give a lot more homework than expected, and students who participate in after school ac-tivities don’t come home until as late as 9

at night. According to the

National Institute of Mental Health, “about 11 percent of of ado-lescents have a de-pressive disorder by age 18.” If you applied that statistic to the student population at Riverside, about 175 students suffer from a depressive disorder. “Any stressful situa-tion may trigger a de-pressive episode.”

If school is the leading cause of stress in teens, then school has more than any other impact on the depressive state of a teen who may or not be feeling depressed through genetics or through a harsh impactful traumatic epi-sode.

School’s combination of homework, grades, tests, extracurriculars, social pres-sures, and graduation are all factors that enable school to be the leading cause of stress for teenagers.

InFlight Dec 17, 2013Feature6

It’s that time of the year again: a time of giving and spending time with family and friends. Winter Wishes is here to do just that.

Winter Wishes was run this year by lan-guage arts teacher Angela Rigley, and the ARHS community could join in and help out. Normally 20 or so people actually stick around and help out the whole entire time. “It’s the best part of Christmas, thinking of ways to brighten someone’s day,” Rigley

said.The idea of Winter Wishes

started with the R.A.K.E Club (Random Acts of Kindness). At first it was just a fun idea to brighten up people’s days. Then it started to get bigger and more serious when they started to col-lect from students around the school.

“We wanted to look past our own needs and on to others who needed something,” teacher Ju-lie Moberg said.

R.A.K.E. wanted to do something to help the immedi-ate community, and to give back and help those who are in need. This is the third year R.A.K.E. put on Winter Wishes.

To sign up for Winter Wish-es, students had to fill out a form they could find at either lunches. The form allowed them to potentially give a gift anony-mously to a friend/family mem-ber at this school, or even a gift for themselves. The gift could be anything school appropriate, and it didn’t need to be a seri-

Dylan JohnstonSTAFF REPORTER

Winter Wishes grants student requests

Everybody had that one odd winter tra-dition. Maybe it’s shopping for the perfect Christmas tree in a Christmas tree forest and cutting it down yourself. Perhaps it’s spending every snow day making a world class snow man. Some people open a pres-ent on Christmas Eve and others just their stockings. Maybe it’s putting reindeer ant-lers on your dog...every...single… year. It could be just giving socks to your Uncle Scott because they’re always getting lost, or maybe it’s spending the morning trying to wake up your parents. Sometimes it’s them trying to wake you up.

Students all over school have their own little traditions they do around the holi-days. Christmas traditions are what set the scene for Christmas spirit, without them, where would Christmas be?

“We set up Christmas on Thanksgiv-ing,” freshman Morgan Gailey said.

Some people have more common tradi-tions than others, such as sophomore Nicole Johndrow. “Open a present on Christmas Eve, and then the rest on Christmas Day,” Johndrow said.

Still, others spend their Christmas making presents by hand. “We make gifts for our family,” freshmen Evangelina Shvetc said.

Commonly known traditions are the kiss under the mistletoe, Christmas carol-ing, and believing in Santa Claus.

In a recent poll of students, only 2 per-cent had ever kissed under the mistletoe. People are 50/50 on believing that Christ-mas caroling is either fun or annoying and 80 percent stopped believing in Santa dur-ing elementary school with the other 20 percent quitting during middle school.

Most people also decorate Christmas trees, and in different ways: some with col-orful lights on an evergreen fir, others with artificial snow and glittering ornaments. There are unlimited combinations of golden ribbons, colorful rainbows, or strings of pop-corn or candy canes. Beneath its branches goes the best part of it all—the presents.

Winter sports are another common tradition among students, skiing and snow-boarding being the most common, along with ice hockey and ice skating.

Of the students in-terviewed, only about 60 percent practice winter sports. A majority of the students who practice winter sports do skiing and snowboarding. Only a shocking 5 percent of those who practice win-ter sports do ice hockey or ice skating.

Not everyone even celebrates Christmas. Though the celebration of the holiday is more common in our school than others, some stu-dents celebrate Hanuk-kah, which is Jewish; Di-wali, which is Hindu; Eid, which is Muslim; or one of the many other holidays celebrated that are also similar to Christmas.

It doesn’t really mat-ter what you celebrate, as long as you have a mer-ry holiday season, and a happy New Year.

Sara KoenigGUEST REPORTER

Christmas traditions abound during holidays

ous gift either. Fun and friendly joke gifts were accepted as well. For example, one year, someone asked for kisses from all of the cheerleaders, so they gave that person a bunch of Hershey Kisses.

Serious gifts were also accepted. Win-ter Wishes uses the donations businesses give them to buy gifts for all of the people who filled out a form to participate. One way Winter Wishes raises money is by taking Santa pictures, which are only one measly

At the wishing well, students made wishes for themselves or fellow students.

PHOTO BY DYLAN JOHNSTON

dollar. Its not too late to support Winter Wishes, by taking a picture with Santa this week.

Fun gifts were handed out at the as-sembly last Friday. These are gifts that were written down on slips of paper and put into the well. At last year’s assembly, senior Drew Wallen sang Santa Baby to Principal Dave Halford.

Other gifts will be distributed before break on Dec 20.

Student traditions vary: caroling, tree decorating, and Santa

PHOTOS COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE, FLICKR.COM

Arts & Entertainment 7Auburn Riverside High School

CHO SING HOT One drink that there’s little to no debate over—hot chocolate. Unlike some seasonal drinks like pumpkin spice lattes or eggnog, mostly everyone loves chocolate, and it’s available almost all year round, especially in the cold season. Every chocolate has its own flavor and its own tiny details that make it extra delicious.

McDonald’s is known for a lot of their menu items, but many people don’t even know they serve hot choco-

late. For only $2, you can get a twelve ounce, and if I’d known how good it was, I would’ve gotten a large. It was perfect warm temperature and served

with whipped cream and a nice choco-late drizzle. Not to mention, the cup it came in was a cute red Christmas one. Holding a spirited Christmas cup is way better than holding a plain one, every-one knows that. It was plenty chocolatey and sweet, just perfect. Plus, all Mc-Donald’s always have easy access, since they’re all around town. Some are even 24 hours, so if you are craving a drink at 2 a.m., you can go get one.

A lot of different types of hot cocoa taste the same, which makes sense. It’s re-ally just milk and chocolate powder mix. Even with two ingredients, Starbucks still has a really unique type of drink. It’s chocolatey and rich, but the chocolate is almost a little bitter, like dark chocolate. It’s still really good, and served with whipped cream at re-quest. One thing Starbucks will always have going for them are their Christmas cups; every-one knows they’re the best. The unveiling of the cups is practically a national holiday.

One of the best places I got hot chocolate was Panera. It was a little hot, but it wasn’t expensive and it was good. Not to mention,

Panera has some of the best cold-weather foods like soup and warm bagels. It was not too sweet, not too bitter, and served with whipped cream and chocolate. The most disappointing thing about it was that it was served in a plain Panera cup, white and bor-ing. It didn’t make me feel the Christ-mas spirit. Who would’ve guessed that Christmas spirit would be one of the most important ingredients in a good cup of hot chocolate.

If there was an award for cheap and delicious, Big Foot Java would take the cake. You can get a 20 ounce drink for under three dollars. It’s not really anything special, there’s no special ingredient, it wasn’t even served with whipped cream or that special choco-late drizzle. However, nothing is quite as good as cheap cocoa. It’s so cold outside that anything remotely warm practically gets chugged down instantly, so it’s not like anyone takes the time to savor every sip. Big Foot, unlike other competitors, have fast and effecient drive-throughs too. Warm, chocolatey, fast service, and cheap, the perfect combo.

Big Foot JavaMcDonald’s

panera Starbucks

Mackenzie BrownEDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHOCOLATE

It symbolizes Christmas. Wait-ing in a ten car drive-through is totally worth a little taste of Starbuck’s hot cocoa.

InFlight Dec 17, 2013Arts & Entertainment8

Frozen came out in theaters for the holidays, and watching it was the best way to start off the holiday season. By far, it was one of the best movies of 2013. It had an actual plot, unlike most Dis-ney movies, and a good one at that.

Frozen tells the story of Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell, a princess in the town of Arendelle, and her quest alongside ice-salesman Kristoff, rein-deer Sven, and snowman Olaf, as they try to rescue her sister Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel, from isola-tion. Elsa, born with the ability to freeze just about anything, is pushed into the mountains by the people of Arendelle after she accidently turns the town’s summer into winter, with her powers.

The best focus of the movie was the plot. It was actually detailed, there were plot twists, and it made sense. Some parts it seemed that events in the story would appear pointless, but everything in Frozen came back to connect in the end. I’m pretty sure I audibly gasped more than twice—at a Disney movie. Usu-ally, movies about princesses tend to be aimed towards ten-year-olds, but this was fantastic. Not only that,

but it was funny. Not wow-that-was-stupid funny or it’s-so-cute-it’s-funny funny, but genuinely, laugh out loud, hilarious.

Frozen is also cutely romantic. It doesn’t overly push the idea that every

Disney’s Frozen dazzles

Candy Canes

66%

The sweet and savory stick of candy is liked by most students here. As we near Christmas day, candy canes are enjoyed by more people to bring on the holiday cheer.

Students share their opinion on current topics and pop culture

93%

Not only are ugly sweaters incredibly warm, they’re also incredibly cute! Students around campus are excited that the cold weather is finally here so they can snuggle up in a warm sweater.

Uggs

Google+

93%MySpace became uncool, Facebook’s becoming uncool. Google+? It was nev-er cool. Many students yell out a loud “NO!” when asked what they thought about this lame social networking site.

52%These fashionable boots stirred up quite the debate here. With most girls rocking their boots this winter, Uggs Australian boots don’t fit into the equation.

69%ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas

Christmas movies of every type are displayed in this holiday cheer TV event that students apparently love to watch!

avenRuling

Christmas Music

80%Not only does this music bring holiday cheer, it’s also incredibly catchy! Students have been listening to Christmas music since mid-November in order to bring on the holiday spirit!

Ugly Sweaters

Mackenzie BrownEDITOR-IN-CHEIF

princess finds a prince or anything like that. In fact, there’s a little heartbreak and betrayal in the movie.

When the first song hit, I was worried that Frozen would appear to be a lot more of a musical than a movie. There were a lot of songs, which is expected from a Disney movie, but by the seventh or eighth, it still didn’t seem like too much. Why? Because they were good songs. Like the kind of songs you go home and secretly put on your iPod without tell-ing anyone.

There are no weak characters in the movie. No one plays a part that seems unimportant. Some are serious, some are evil, some are dorky, and one can’t even talk. Still, they are all important.

Most modern day Disney movies will never compare to the classics. Most. Frozen, however, belongs at the top of the list. Way at the top.

Arts & EntertainmentAuburn Riverside High School 9

With the long-awaited Allegiant, Ve-ronica Roth concludes her thrilling trilogy she began with Divergent, which was first published in 2011.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Roth’s action/adventure/ro-mance/sci-fi/dystopian/satire/post-apocalyptic saga follows the story of Beatrice, or Tris Prior, who is a diver-gent, or a person who has all the traits that her society celebrates: peaceful-ness, intelligence, honesty, selfless-ness, and bravery, while most people only have one of those traits and are divided on that basis.

I really loved this book! The char-acters are impeccable, and feel and act like real people put through the situations they must handle. I espe-cially digged the character Caleb, Tris’ brother, because of his compli-cated relationship and mysterious mo-tives that change unpredictably as the novel unfolds.

For a teen romance, Allegiant has a lot of teen romance that is very good and convincing. The love between Tris and Tobias is very well told. I also loved the supsense of the novel, as the author’s writing style re-ally puts you in the shoes of the char-acters and right into the action. Peril permeates and punctuates each page

Fantastic Allegiant completes Divergent triologySara Koenig

GUEST REPORTERof this pulse-pounding, prescient, partially perplexingly complex piece of prose. This book is a definite-page turner.

Of course, you can’t talk about how great the final book in a series is without mentioning the previous entries. I would venture to call Roth’s trilogy one of the fin-

est around for the young adult audience both in this decade and in general. It es-chews the awful dreck of the supernatural romance that’s been peddled to popular ac-claim in recent years, and instead exploits the dystopian teen romance market that has become very popular of late.

This book specifically retains the melancholy atmosphere created in the first two novels, especially towards the end, and makes it both satisfying and unnerv-ing as our protagonists triumph and fail in equal measure.

Some people compare this trilogy to the Hunger Games, but I never thought that that trilogy was as thrilling as this tril-ogy, largely due to there being a lot more surprising plot twists and more investing characters. You especially pull for Tris and her friends and loved ones as you reach the novel’s end. You really hope they’ll be okay.

Allegiant also works as a dystopian novel, and I should know because I love dystopian fiction. Dystopian novels are books about nightmarish, strict societ-ies, like the Hunger Games or the classic Among the Hidden books by Margaret Pe-terson Haddix. The world Roth creates is suitably oppressive and haunting, which helps you empathize with the characters even more.

Allegiant is a masterful, heartbreak-ing, and potent tale of friendship, love, betrayal and hope that will enthrall all those who submit to its power.

Every year around the holiday sea-son, tons of people like to go and see what the Christmas lights look like. There are a bundle of places where you are able to see them. Whether they’re around your neigh-borhood or in a place you pay to get in to, their are a host of places to see the won-derful Christmas lights displays.

The place I went to was Zoolights. Zoolights is at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. Overall, the whole ex-perience is more for the little kids who go with their families. I was open to going, be-cause I have only heard good things about others who went in the past years.

The cost to get in the park area wasn’t expensive at all: it was only $9 at the gate, and you can go and buy tickets at a store such as Fred Meyer, where there are a little bit cheaper.

The cost at the front gate also includ-ed many extra attractions in addition to Zoolights. These included watching Santa swim with the sharks and many other activi-ties that are largely geared toward younger patrons. The park hours are 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., which is an ample time frame for taking in the lights.

It honestly wasn’t what I was expect-ing. I was expecting to go and see a bunch of animals along with the Christmas lights

that they had up. Although the lights they did have up were very bright and wonderful, I was more disappointed in the fact that there weren’t that many animals I was able to see. Besides that, it was fun.

They were also offering rides on camels and they had their famous carousel open for all ages in the park.

I would recommend it if you were going with your fam-ily or a group. I have really young cousins and they abso-lutely loved it. I didn’t like the fact that it was extremely cold, so one thing to remem-ber is to dress warmly because not everything is inside.

Zoolights was really fun. It is open until Jan. 5 and is closed on only Dec. 24, and open on Christmas Day at 6:00 p.m.

The park itself is asking for donations for Christmas lights. They don’t want the thousands of lights that end up at the landfill every year to go to waste. You are able to drop off the lights in bins that are set up throughtout the park, or in the main en-trance of the park.

Zoolights add sparkle to Christmas spiritKarlee Johnson

STAFF REPORTER

PHOTO BY KARLEE JOHNSON

The Zoolights Christmas light show is presented at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It is open in the evenings from 6:00 to 9:00, and will remain open until Jan. 5. It will be closed on Christmas Eve, but open on Christ-mas Day.

Deck The Hall BallDeck the Hall Ball 2013 was awesome!

A lot of good bands showed up to Key Are-na, including the Arctic Monkeys, Church-es, Foals, Lorde, Alt-J, the Head and the Heart, Phoenix, and Vampire Weekend. The stadium was filled with people, and the sound in there was great.

The bands who really killed it were the Arctic Monkeys and Phoenix because they knew how to put on a great show.

The Head and the Heart were good as well, and had a lot of power in their songs.

Another great performance on the electric side was Alt-J, whose unique sound was a definite hit.

Vampire Weekend’s always-original and always-slightly-off style meant that not all of their songs translated perfectly to the large venue, but those that did ab-solutely killed.

By far, I think that Phoenix was the best performance in the concert. In the beginning they had technical difficulties, so they had to improvise one of their songs with just singing and a guitar (which was a severe, but successful departure for the electro-alternative band). They came through after that, delivering the songs and style audiences have come to expect from them in grand fashion.

All in all, the concert was a great experience and I would recommend going to Deck the Hall Ball 2014!

Eric WalkerGUEST REPORTER

11Auburn Riverside High School Sports

The boys swim and dive is starting a new season this winter. The team wants to have a good season and win many meets. They lost a lot of seniors last year who played a huge part in bringing the success of the team. They are go-ing to try to maintain the skills they had from last year.

The boys swim coach this year is science teacher Mike Van Eaton. He has been an assistant coach for 10 years and this year is his first time being head coach.

Van Eaton has played a huge role in the success of the swim team in the past by being an as-sistant coach. Now, he has the opportunity to take on the whole new level of coaching.

Van Eaton has some important goals he wants to accomplish this season. “We need to improve our times to be very competitive,” he said. He also thinks swimming is an individual competition and we need improvements on endur-ance.

Van Eaton plans to accomplish these goals by training his swim-mers to work harder for longer periods of time.

He prepared for the season by working on technique, and now he is coaching endurance. Van Eaton understands what it takes to be a coach.

There are two freshmen on the team and more people can still join the team. Some key play-ers on the team are senior Jace Davey, junior Eriik Snyder, and se-nior Robby Iverson.

The team is hoping for some individuals and relays to make it to State and win this year. They are also hoping to have a good league season and to be very com-petitive.

With the success the swim team faced last year, it will be a hard act to follow, but the players are giving it their all to hopefully make the season best it can be and play the best they can.

The team travels to Kentlake this afternoon for a meet at 3:30 p.m. After that, although they’ll be practicing most of Winter Break, they won’t have a meet un-til Jan. 7, when they take on T.J.

Sasha TerryGUEST REPORTER

Boys Swim

Women’s basketball looks to have a great season this year by hard work and dedication.

Assistant coach Julie Moberg said the team is “working hard on building a program, not only for varsity, but for JV and C team as well.” The team is going to try new training methods to hopefully increase the chances of winning as well as improving the players indi-vidually.

New head coach Derek Pe-gram, who is excited to see how well the teams do this year, said “We are preparing by making practices very competitive. We want the girls to get used to com-petition every day in practice.” The dedication by the head coach means the players will be working harder to improve their skills.

The team is more focused on being good themselves rather than studying their opponents. “It’s about us getting ready to play,” Pegram said. “It’s not about the other team. We’ll beat ourselves before we beat them.”

There’s a lot of pressure for players to get better individually. The goal is for improvement and beating their own personal moti-vations. There’s a lot of dedication this year with both the players and the coaches.

The new coaching staff is quite a combo with Moberg being Pegram’s old teacher when he was a Raven student. Moberg said that it is really cool to have him as a coach but they are getting used to switched up roles.

The team faces Kentwood tonight at home, and will also be home on Friday against Emerald Ridge.

It’s that time of year again for the competitive sport of wrestling. Dedicated wrestlers are ready for the new season to begin.

Career counselor Steve Mead and history teacher Shawn Martin-son are co-coaching the wrestling team this season.

Martinson has many high ex-pectations for this year. He wants the wrestlers to get as much mat time as possible and just get overall experience.

Martinson also believes this year will be a year of improve-ment. “Last year, we had a lot of seniors and now we have a really young squad,” he said. “It’s a hard sport, but they’re really talented and there’s so much potential to be successful.”

Martinson knows that some key players will bring success to the team. He mentioned seniors Todd Houston and James Smith, junior Landon Stockton, and sophomore Gabe Tugade.

Mead’s goals for this season are for improvement from the players every week and that they have a full 28-player team for SPSL competition.

An important asset to the team is senior Larkin Williams. He was a two-time state competitor and a three-time lettermen.

Mead has been a wrestling coach from 1991 until now. Mar-tinson has been co-head coach since 2008.

The wrestling team has been preparing incredibly hard for their wrestling season. You can see them running in the hallways after school and practicing wrestling in differ-ent areas on campus.

The Ravens take on Mount Rainier and Kent Meridian in a dou-ble dual meet tomorrow starting at 5:00 p.m. They’ll travel to Renton for the Lindbergh Invitational on Saturday, Dec 21.

Girls B-ball

Jude HannoSTAFF REPORTER

Wrestling

Eric WalkerGUEST REPORTER

The gymnastics team is plan-ning on having a successful season and are working hard towards their goals for this year.

With so many past successes, it will be hard to beat last year’s team, but the gymnasts for this season are hopeful they can im-prove.

This year’s captains are juniors Hannah Wilson and Emily Polkow.

Polkow’s goals for this season include the team getting better as an entire group of gymnasts. Her major goals are to “get to State as a team and hope that everyone improves.”

Polkow also has some individu-al things she would like to improve on from last year. “I’ll be working as hard as I can and getting help from my coach,” she said.

The coaches this year are Cathy Robinson and Natalie Hackry. This is Robinson’s 7th year coach-ing, and with some hard work, she has been able to help the Ravens find success. Robinson plans on improving her team this year as well.

Gymnastics’ biggest goal this season is to make it to districs and compete there as well as they can.

Last year, the team made it to the South Puget Sound League Sub-district meet, and both Wilson and Polkow competed.

Wilson finished 34th with a score of 29.600.

This year, the entire team hopes to improve and do even bet-ter than they did last year.

Tomorrow, the team makes its way to Kent to compete against the Kentridge Chargers at 7:00 p.m.

On Thursday, the J.V. will attend an invitational meet at Kentlake.

Jude HannoSTAFF REPORTER

Gymnastics

Boys B-ball

Boys basketball is set to fol-low its fellow Riverside sports teams’ winning records for their current season.

James Brown is the head coach this year, and he’s going to be using his experience to his ad-vantage. Brown has coached five different schools including River-side, and played on three differ-ent teams himself.

Joining Brown is assistant varsity coach Earl Taylor, who has served as an assistant for many seasons.

The team has many expe-rienced players as well. Senior Joshua Turner is giving his all this year so he and his teammates can get to the playoffs and, soon after, State.

Senior Derek Brown, a leader on the team, is similarly excited to play this season, calling his team “one of the best teams I’ve played with, not because of skill, but chemistry.” Brown thinks that players buying into the program will surely have success. Brown is averaging 27 points a game. He scored 34 (so did junior Mitch Wetmore) in the first game of the season against Capital High.

The boys have played five games as of today. They were 3-1 as of press time last week; they fell to the Tahoma Bears on Dec. 10, wasting a 32-point per-formance by Brown. Results of the games against Kentridge and Bonney Lake were not available, taking place after InFlight went to press.

The boys go up against Kent-wood tonight at 7:30 p.m. They won’t play again until Dec. 28, during Winter Break, in a non-conference game against White River at 4:30 p.m. A conference game against Mount Rainier fol-lows that, on Jan 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Jacob LonerganGUEST REPORTER

InFlight Dec 17, 2013Sports12

Over fifteen years as head coach. More than 300 recorded wins. A member of the Wash-ington State Coaches Association. A signifi-cant contributor to the development of high school volleyball. An integral member of our schoolwide community.

Head volleyball coach Christine Le-verenz’s many years of service and numerous accomplishments have netted her a spot in the Washington Interscho-lastic Activities Associa-tion’s Volleyball Coach Hall of Fame, which she was inducted into at the State Volley-ball tournament this year.

Volleyball Coaches Association member Anthony Batinovich claimed that nominat-

ing Leverenz was a no-brainer. “Chris was nominated due to her passion for the sport and her success,” he said. “She has been an outstanding role model and coach for both the programs at Auburn Riverside and Auburn High School.”

Leverenz did be-gin a near-30 year career in the field of high school coaching at Auburn High as an assistant in 1983, but has dedicated the majority of her time coaching, 19 years, to Riverside. Though she

is currently serving as Dean of Students for Mt. Baker Middle School, she returned this year as head varsity coach and promises to do so for many more years.

“As of right now my plans are to con-

tinue coaching at Auburn Riverside until I get too old to do that,” she said. “My deci-sion regarding when I am done coaching will depend on whether or not I am still having an impact on student-athletes.”

According to many of Leverenz’s stu-dent-athletes, that impact is still greatly felt.

Senior Sydnie LaValley had nothing but praise for her coach, citing her com-mitment to the team and concluding that she inspired her to achieve success in more fields than just volley-ball.

Senior Austyn Law-renson felt similarly. “She is an amazing coach,” she said. “She always gives her best for you, so you want to give your best for her.”

Leverenz’s coach-ing style was commonly cited by her athletes and colleagues as one of her greatest strengths.

Cameron FairchildGUEST REPORTER

Leverenz earns WIAA Hall of Fame position, our respect“She was high energy and had a really

specific program,” P.E. and Health teacher Julie Moberg said.

In Leverenz’s own words, she is a strong disciplinarian in practice, but she also uses humor to keep things light. “Student-ath-letes need to be able to understand where their coach is coming from,” she said. “I be-lieve if players respect their coach they will work that much harder.”

Clearly, Christine Leverenz’s place in the WIAA Hall of Fame was well-earned.

PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS LEVERENZ

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Coach Christine Leverenz