In its forty-eighth volume, The Jaguar Journal finally goes online. As we bid Mr. Miller, the former advisor, a happy retirement, we welcome Mrs. Shavel and Ms. Regan as ad-visors to Jackson Memorial High School’s award-winning publication. With the so-called passing of the torch, we were to stop printing and move online. For me, it was bittersweet: there was some-thing beautiful about seeing the pages you spent piecing together come to life in vivid, tangible form. But to be hon-est, I’m more excited about what’s to come. You may have noticed this looks like a newspaper. And if you’ve noticed that, you’re

right, it is! We debated over whether to switch to a medi-um that provided us a blog-like layout, where you work and publish on a per article basis, or stick with the old-fashioned issue. Clearly, we don’t have any issues with is-sues, and we’ve decided we’re going to publish through a service called Issuu! (Do you need a tissue? Especially af-ter that.) We’d hoped people would be more apt to read the paper if it was presented in one chunk, as opposed to randomly having to check back for new articles. Issues allow us many options, like special editions. Best of all, it still looks and feels like a newspaper. One problem we

feared, though, was that edi-tions take time—and after too much time, relevance is lost. We’ve decided to com-bat this by putting out short-er editions. So, how does it all work for you? Well, you can find out when new editions are out on the school homepage and emails sent out by Mr. DiEugenio (our social me-dia is under construction). When you get to our page on the school website, you can see the most current edition in the viewer, and below it lies a “shelf ” of all our back issues. Clicking the viewer will make it full screen; at the top, you’ll notice a little menu bar: the left slider con-

trols the zoom, the middle arrows allow you to flip be-tween pages, to the right of that, the two page icons al-low you to change between two different views, and to the far right, you have a close button that allows you to exit full screen (pressing Esc on your keyboard closes it as well). To see more, sim-ply scroll through. There are links in blue and icons that pop out when you roll over them: clicking them exits the full screen mode and opens a new window that takes you to more content. We hope you enjoy the first online edition of The Jaguar Journal.

VOLUME XLVIII - ISSUE 1

JACKSON MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

Dec 2011

If you walked down the JMHS halls November 4th, you may have seen football players uniformed in their jerseys surrounded by a sea of school spirit. This meant one thing: Jaguar Football. This game was no ordinary game; it was Homecoming. Homecoming had been post-poned from its original date in October due to inclement weather. After a superb pep rally 4th period, everyone was in the mood for some Jaguar football.

Coming into the game, the Jaguars were 6-1 with the No. 4 ranked defense in the Shore Conference, allow-ing just over 166 yards per game. Throughout this game against Freehold Township, their defense proved to be at its best, completely shutting out the other team’s offense. Recovering 3 fumbles and collecting an interception, the Jags only gave up a total of 64 yards of offense to the Patriots. The Jaguar offense was

taken to a whole new level for this Homecoming ex-travaganza. Within the first quarter, Seniors Brandon Winston and Johntel Thom-as were in action behind their senior quarterback Jim-my Celidonio. By the end of the quarter, the Jags were al-ready leading 16-0. Fourteen more points were successful-ly accomplished by halftime making it a 30-0 lead. By the end of the game, the Jags, coached by Walt Krystopik, won 37-0, making their re-

cord 7-1; a best in years. This win was not only a win for Homecoming, but it also brought playoff hopes for Jackson Memorial. With such a huge win on such a huge night, the Jags and their fans all celebrated. Unfortu-nately, the Jaguars lost the first round of States, but all in all, this Homecoming was one to remember not just for the seniors, but for everyone else as well.

Homecoming Win Rallies School Spirit

SEE THE JAGUAR JOURNAL’S

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Unfortunately, everyone has heard so many tales of bullying, whether from tele-vision shows, books and newspapers, or firsthand ac-counts from classmates. It is something that has become somewhat of a cliché; it is typical in children’s cartoons for there to be an oversized bully hanging around every playground. Bullying is some-thing that we are all aware of in the back of our minds. No matter how directly we have encountered bullying, it is an act that affects us all. Maybe you’re not that kid whose money is taken by the tough guys, or maybe you aren’t one of the tough guys. But at one point in time, bullying has had an impact on your life. You know the stereo-types: That rude little kid who said something that upset you; those mean girls who convinced you to do something mean; even your friend, who took your favor-ite toy. For some people that is the extent of bullying in their life. But for others, it has become life threatening. They are afraid to walk into school and feel as if they are completely alone; they have become a walking target for humiliation and emotional and physical stress. The State of New Jer-sey has taken steps to stop this from happening; in ev-ery school district, the new bullying law requires more school involvement. Every threat, sideways glance, or derogatory name must be re-ported by a faculty member or an administrator immedi-

ately. This was implemented to stop cases of violence, not to severely punish first grad-ers who talked in the wrong tone of voice. Opinions on the new law vary and talk-ing to students reveals that your point of view depends on whether or not you have been bullied. Some people support the law, saying that bullying is a problem, and as a teenager, they see it every day. They say that anything that helps can’t be that bad. However, others argue that the bully-ing law pushes the limits on students and only makes life harder. They compare it to airport security – you think it is a good idea, but you don’t like some of the restrictions it places on the individual. Of course, students love hav-ing more protection from bullies, but some feel as if it won’t help prevent the more minor incidences that have not yet become too serious. Some say it just creates more anxiety among the students. Other say that what would have been a joke a few years ago now must be fully inves-tigated as a bullying incident. Teachers and adminis-trators continue to warn students that they need to think twice before they do or say anything, and they especially need to be careful about what they post on so-cial networking sites such as Facebook. The law requires that not just the school, but the local police department, get involved in any suspected cases of bullying.

Just say No to BullyiNgBy Marissa Parinello

News editor

By Lindsay Wellingtonsports editor

By Josh LaCalamitoeditor-iN-Chief

• The Jaguar Journal’s Flickr photostream

• A clip from an upcoming Principal’s Spotlight on JTV

• The “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act” mentioned in “Just Say No to Bullying”

• Photos and videos from all band competitions on the Jaguar Band’s website

MORE

THE JAGUAR JOURNAL GOES ONLINE

Comic by Matt Altiero

THE

MICHAEL KABASEPTEMBER

JACLYN BRADLISEPTEMBER

Jackie hopes to attend the University of Chicago to study quantum or astrophys-ics. Her dream is to uncover the secrets of the universe; Jackie says, “After sitting in Mrs. McCormick’s chem class I’ve realized I have so many questions about how it all started and why it all works and what my contribu-tion to the universe is.”

Mike hopes to spend his col-lege years at MIT studying phyics because he likes the idea of finding a way to make sense out of the world. He says, “I have no real goals to become supreme dictator of the world or anything that crazy.” All he hopes for is to attend a good college and obtain a good eduation, have a family who he can support and provide with a good life, and do scientific research.

Big cheers and excitement lingered around the Jackson Jaguars football stadium on Friday November 4th, but what did the freshmen think of their first experience? We asked Mrs. Gonzales’ fourth period health class to find the answer. On Thursday November 3rd, the freshmen were in-terviewed and asked various questions pertaining to the upcoming pep rally. Out of twenty-six students, three have already attended a pep rally, fifteen were attending the barbeque and the game that night, five were participating in the rally, and fifteen were wear-ing red and black in spir-it of the day. These statis-tics show the ded ica t ion and passion most students feel for their school. After being asked what the freshmen expected the pep rally to be like, many had colorful answers, filled with a Jaguar essence. “Great time, fun and activities, and the whole school coming together to celebrate Jaguar pride,” stated freshman Jus-tin Volpe. “What do you do at a pep rally? What do you watch?” questioned Phillip Merriweather. When asked about what he was looking forward to most at the rally, Michael DeBlasi comically answered, “People falling

down over relay races.” Fi-nally, the day came and after sitting in the sun on cold, shiny bleachers on the away side, the freshmen were ex-periencing a traditional and historical moment in their high school lives. Constant murmur and popular music filled their ears, giving them an insight as to what pep ral-lies consisted of. On Monday Novem-ber 7th, the freshmen were questioned again and their responses were both posi-tive and energetic. Eleven

out of twenty-six enjoyed the rally, eight liked the games played, and three did not en-joy it. When asked what they thought of the pep rally, Jus-tin Volpe’s answer was hope-ful. “I liked it, everyone came together. Everyone was really excited and it celebrated Jag-uar pride,” was his passionate response. Freshman Spencer Morrisey objected. “They didn’t face us, I didn’t like it,” he said. This opinion was ex-pressed among many of the other freshmen interviewed and was a shared view among sophomores as well.

Kelsey Lona stated that if she could change anything about the pep rally, it would be to have the pep rallies “more often”. Josh Lindo wished they would “change events to be more excit-ing”, another opinion shared among other students. When asked what their fa-vorite parts of the rally were, Ryan Morris mentioned, “ev-eryone competing in events” and Justin Volpe said, “[It] felt like the first time we be-long to this school”. The freshmen at Jackson

Memorial enjoyed the pep rally, although they did raise some questions. Why don’t the speakers or cheerlead-ers face the sophomores and freshmen? Why can’t the events become more chal-lenging? Overall, the sacri-fices made to have a school of 1700 come together were gratifying and the response was worth listening to. After decades of multiple pep ral-lies and football games, the Jaguar spirit lives on, and will forever serve our hunger for excitement.

A Rally of Freshmen Share Their Peppy ExperienceBy Alex Halfinger and Amy Rarick

staff writers

SAMANTHAMAHABIR

OCTOBER

Samantha plans to study neu-roscience and the biologi-cal basis of behavior at the University of Pennsylvania and then proceed to medical school to become a pediatri-cian. Eventually, she wants to work with Doctors Without Borders, which is an overseas relief organization that “as-sists people whose survival is threatened by violence, ne-glect, or catastrophe.”

GINO CORTESOCTOBER

Gino’s plan for after high school is to most likely at-tend Rutgers to save up mon-ey for medical school. He is currently awaiting the news of a possible full ride to Rut-gers. He says that in ten years he can see himself working as some kind of doctor because he is “fascinated by the hu-man body and its chemistry.” His dream goal would be to find a cure to a tragic disease such as cancer or AIDS.

KATELYN TRANNOVEMBER

Katelyn hopes to pursue a degree in chemical engi-neering and then continue down that path by working with a chemical engineering company. She would eventu-ally like to become a college professor so she can research and teach. “[Those are] two things I really love,” she said. “I’ve always loved school and the thought of being able to conduct my own research re-ally excites me. I am a nerd, but I’m proud of it.”

ALEX NORTHRUPNOVEMBER

Alex has narrowed down his top two college choices to the Massachusetts In-stitute of Technology and Princeton. His plan is to major in biomedical engi-neering and then advance into a job in that field where he would create prosthetic limbs, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment. “I would mostly like to be in prosthet-ics,” he explained. His main goal for his future is to be able to help improve people’s lives in the best way he can.

SENIORS OF THE MONTH,SEPTEMBER — NOVEMBER

FROM GIANTS STAdIuM TO ALLENTOWN: Bronze, Si lver, and Gold

By Dave Montgomerystaff writer

On Sunday, November 13th, the Jackson Jaguar Marching Band ended their season with a 96.1—their highest score of the year—at the National Competition in Allentown. Incorporated in this score was an individual music score of 19.8 out of 20, the highest the band has ever scored. They received a sec-ond place trophy, losing by only three tenths of a point. Band director Bud McCor-mick says, “This has been a fantastic season for us” and the show at Allentown was “the best performance the band has had in eight years”. The band also earned third place at the State Compe-

tition in Union, NJ, where they won the Cadets Award of Excellence for the best overall effect. At a competi-tion in Giants Stadium, the Jaguar Band received a first place trophy as well as the award for best marching. Not once throughout the season has the band’s score gone down; each competi-tion they played better and better. Alto saxophone play-er Eric Vigliarolo expressed his reaction after nationals, saying, “It’s a really great feeling when after putting in all of that effort, we had such a phenomenal show.” And what an effort they put into it: with over 120 hours

of practice for over fifteen performances, the band has certainly stayed busy. As if all of this weren’t enough, the Jaguar Band has been asked to represent New Jersey in the 2013 Tour-nament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. Only seventeen bands were select-ed to perform in this parade, and as many band members would agree, it is a great honor indeed to be selected as one of the bands. As the season comes to a close, the band turns its attention to next years’ show which is ru-mored to be a Rock and Roll spectacle.

Photo by Mr. Ken Rogalsky

The underclassmen stand at the pep rally

PEP RALLY 2011

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE PEP RALLY >

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By Gina Costanzo

THE JAGUAR JOURNALJosh LaCalamito

Sarah FreyreLindsey Williams

Marissa Parinello

Tom Kluxen

Olivia Gomez

Lindsay Wellington

Josh LaCalamitoRyan Bender

Hope Olszewski

David MontgomeryAlex HalfingerAmy RarickGina CostanzoDanielle FinneganSam NotaroMatt AltieroJordyn Greenblatt

Editor-in-Chief:

Managing Editors:

News Editor:

Features Editor:

Photography Editor:

Sports Editor:

Layout Editor:Assistant Layout Editor:

Photographers in this issue:

Staff writers in this issue:

memorial.jacksonsd.org

Advisors: Ms. Kathleen Regan and Mrs. Paulette ShavelSend all comments and questions to jaguarjournal@jacksonsd.org. All layout and design done in-house by Jaguar Graphics.

As the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year has come into full swing, our class presidents and their of-ficers have been filling the calendar with fundraisers and events galore. The se-niors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen have come up with various creative ideas to get school spirit filling the air and the money rolling in. As the freshman class President, Puttipong Prom-sook is ecstatic to be enter-ing the new world of high school as well as being able to set the tone for his class in terms of fundraising and gearing money towards their prom and formal. When asked about his plans for this upcoming year, Puttipong had many events already in place. “Well, as freshmen, we don’t have anything big go-ing for us until junior prom I believe. So we’re just in the process of raising money for that. We have ideas like mak-ing a salad bar for the staff

only or doing a fundraiser at Friday’s. We also want to make spirit wear for the freshmen class.” The fresh-men are well on their way to a rich treasury if they keep up their organization in or-der to achieve success! The sophomores have an extremely important year in terms of raising funds for their formal in the near fu-ture. They will have to book a venue and set a date before they know it! Sophomore Class President Sarah Vallee has an endless list of events that will be sure to get them a large profit over this next year. She excitedly rattled off just a few fundraisers that will be coming up. “This year we are planning on doing a bunch of fundraisers. We are planning things such as car washes and there is going to be a fundraiser at Applebees coming up where we sell tick-ets on a Sunday morning and we will serve you and make the food for whoever comes!

We are going to be selling long sleeve shirts in addition to throwing up ideas about where we should have formal and starting to think about that.” Keeping their priori-ties in line and saving tons of their profits will be the main focus of their sophomore year. Formal and prom are the focal point of the junior class officers. Junior Class Treasurer Erin Kelly had many different and interest-ing ideas for raising the big bucks! “We are super excited for our junior formal on May 4th! We’re going to be selling t-shirts for the JMHS verse JLIB football game, having numerous car washes, and setting up zumba dance class-es for the students and any-one who wants to come. We also have been selling tattoos for the football games and will be hopefully selling col-lared shirts for staff and yoga pants for the students!” The juniors are getting things to-

gether for formal, but at the same time trying to cut down expenses so they can have an amazing prom next year. Now, the seniors are defi-nitely large, in charge, and ready to go when it comes to their final year of high school! Margaret Barshow and Matt Crehan have set up copious amounts of fun filled events for their senior year. Margaret listed a few of them when asked about fundraisers for the future. “We’re selling apparel such as socks and shirts, along with car fresheners and hold Jagwa every other Wednes-day! We just had powder puff which is a huge fundraising and fun staple. Plus we have Mr. JMHS coming up in February!” She also credited their class treasurer, Jocelyn Williams for keep their funds in tact so they have plenty of money for a beautiful prom to remember.

New Year, New Ideas, New Class Officers!By Jordyn Greenblatt

staff writer

Academics and extra circu-lar activities are major parts of high school and teach us how to balance our lives for the future. However, there is one more objective to take into account when you think about the four short years you will spend at high school and how precious those times really are. Events like pep rallies, football games, and other amusements for the school wouldn’t be avail-able without the students of course. The fulfilling ventures everyone shares through high school wouldn’t be available if it weren’t for student government. Student Council is a club consisting of students from all four grade levels. How-ever, there are five officers who especially active in the planning of events such as Homecoming and the Lib-erty Game. These five of-ficer positions in Student Council are voted for by the junior and senior classes in September. Junior Shaaliyah Lyons is the President of the Student Council. Junior Pat Duggan is the vice president. Senior Stephen Rozansky is the Secretary while senior Jen Kalash is the Historian. Last but not least, the trea-surer for Student Council is John Delaney, another

senior. They are all looking forward to promoting school spirit along with the other members in the club and spreading it to the rest of the school. The officers are also look-ing into new and different goals for fundraising this year. This year the officers are planning on fundrais-ing for several different gifts such as a Jaguar Statue for the school. They are also looking into raising money for a new jaguar mascot out-fit and flags for our school. As mentioned before, the of-ficers of Student Council are planning events for the Lib-erty Game including setting up a hall decorating contest for the Liberty vs. Memorial Game, which is scheduled for Wednesday November 23. This year Jackson Memo-rial will be hosting the game. The winning class of the hall-way decorating contest will be given $100 towards their class proceeds. They are also working on selling shirts for the Liberty-Memorial Game to get the school pumped up to beat Jackson Liberty. Remember the high school years are short and by show-ing school spirit and enjoying school held events you will make your time worth it.

A New View for the SchoolBy Sam Notarostaff writer

Some books have a special quality that just makes them addicting; that feeling when you can’t stop reading no matter what else you have to do. It consumes you until you finish. Legend by Marie Lu is one of those books. Legend is a dystopian novel that takes place in futuristic Los Angeles. In this future, the Unit-ed States is now at war with itself. It has split into two nations, the western Repub-lic and the eastern Colonies. Day, one of the main char-acters, is the most wanted criminal in the Republic. On the opposite side of the dis-trict of Los Angeles, there is June. June is a fifteen-year-old military prodigy who loves and is exceptional at every-thing she does. After June’s brother is found dead, the prime suspect of the case is

Day. June sets out to capture him, something no one else has been able to do. When these two-worlds clash you

get an action packed, unstop-pable book. Legend is told in the alternating points of view of June and Day. It was interest-ing to read from both June and Day’s perspec-tives. In the be-ginning they are

part of two different worlds and we get to see them both, the military and the criminal side. June’s tough, smart, per-sonality to Day’s more sensi-tive one, balanced each other out. Without seeing both sides, Legend would not have the same effect it did. Overall this is a dysotpian novel that you do not want to miss with its mystery and non-stop action. You will be able to find Legend in book-stores on November 29th.

a Review of Maria lu’s legend

By Danielle Finneganstaff writer

Another year goes by and once again Infinity Ward graces us with the next and final title in the Modern Warfare series, but will the largest release in the history of gaming stand the test of time? The campaign contin-ues mere minutes after what happens in Modern Warfare 2, with your now good buds Soap and Price fleeing the scene and trying to finally take down that jerk Ma-karov. During the campaign you will play mostly as Yuri, an Ex-Spetsnaz while being with Soap and Price, and Frost, an American Marine fighting in WW3. Though the campaign is just as fun as previous games, there is a very large amount of on-rail shooting, maybe it’s just because your character en-joys a lot of different rides, but it eventually takes away from what could have been an extremely fun campaign. My only other gripe with it is the ending, without spoiling it the final mission brings an extreme amount of closure to the series, with almost no questions left unanswered, which means the inevitable

Modern Warfare 4 will now have a new storyline, which is a good thing, but I would like to have theories on what was left like the other games still. After that you would ei-ther swap over to Spec-Ops, which is much improved since Modern Warfare 2, with new missions, and a Horde-based survival mode, or more preferably, onto the main point of the game, its multiplayer. Now I feel like I could get a few hate mails out of saying this, but to me the multiplayer just feels kind of bland. I say this with the feeling that almost nothing is different within

playing the multiplayer. It’s just like every other Call of Duty game, new maps, new modes, new guns, some im-provements, but where the last two felt like they were taking steps up, this multi-player feels like a step down. Though the good news is the money-based system from Black Ops is gone, it is re-placed with a new gun expe-rience level style of leveling up. So instead of purchasing your wanted add-ons, you will have to play with the gun of your choosing until the period of time you have reached a high enough level on your gun to reach the de-sired add-on. The system is

cool, but I still just prefer the Modern Warfare style of “Hey you killed these guys, here is a new piece of equip-ment.” To sum things up, it’s Call of Duty. If you played the others (which all of you read-ing this will have) you will still want to play this one, es-pecially if you want to see the ending of the story years in the making. Story, good but too many on-rail sections. Spec-Ops, still a nice thing to have, although I feel like it should now have four peo-ple rather than two at some points. Multiplayer, bland, but still fun enough to keep me playing for a while.

The disgruntled Gamer: Modern Warfare 3By Matt Altierostaff writer

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