pg. 6

Boys’ soccer heats up

Get the inside scoop on “Gooey Louie”

pg. 8

Are you getting enough sleep? pg. 4

A new year sometimes brings new policies, but technically, those being implemented in 2010-2011 are not new policies. !ey are old policies with a posi-tive approach, dubbed “!e Pirate Code.”

“It is the Positive Behav-ioral Interventions and Supports (P.B.I.S),” Dr. Sara Keene said. “!at is the information the school received. We researched ideas and ways to have positive approaches to the school, so we formed teams called the Pirate Code. Groups of teachers, sta" and students formulated the new plan, so they’re not exactly policies, they are more of an ap-proach.”

Students no longer need to wear IDs at school.

“!is is the best new policy of all time,” Will Lapidus, 10, said.

Aaron Landgraf, 10, agrees with Lapidus. “It’s great,” he said with two thumbs up, “because teachers leave us alone.”

Students appreciate this part of the Pirate Code, and the administration sees the bene#ts of not requiring students to wear IDs.

“It was led by the students and sta",” said Keene. “We talked to the students and the results show that students don’t need them. !is also helps with personal con-nections between the students and teachers.”

While some changes have met a positive reception within the student body, some changes are bringing negative feedback. When teachers spot students with electronic devices, they are to use a plastic bag and place the device in it. !ese are then taken to the students’ principals.

Dannielle Hasty, 11, said the

new “Bag and Tag” policy is the “stupidest thing I ever heard. It’s going to the extreme.” A lot of people agree with Hasty.

“I don’t like that they take our phones and iPods in the hallway,” Kaleb Pope, 10, said.

!e students feel that the “Bag and Tag” policy is unjust and that it should be removed. “We’ve had cell phone issues for a while,” Keene said. “We wanted to come up with an easier way to get rid of cell phones. I feel like I don’t see as many cell phones.”

!e high school has decided to focus on hallway behavior for 2010-2011 with the new policy of “Walk and Talk” and “Stay to the Right” because 1,752 referrals written last year were related to tardies.

!ere are mixed opinions about this policy.

“!e hallways are more clear,” Pope said. “I no longer trip or run into people.” It is nice to know that this policy helps Pope, but there are some students that disagree such as Kiersten Bush, 12.

“!ere is no change,” she said. “!e teachers just yell and no one listens.”

Although the students have mixed opinions, there are times that the “Walk and Talk” and “Stay to the Right” policy are decidedly helpful.

“It’s a proactive approach,” Keene said. “It makes the most sense and the idea behind it is to make sure the students can get through the halls. I’ve noticed some di"erence in the halls from experience.”

With the focus on hallway behavior, Keene expects the number of referrals for tardies to be lower this school year.

By Lexi Kendall

BriefsPattonville

Laura Hartsock, a Pattonville Heights science teacher, was invited to speak at the recent national Challenger Conven-tion in St. Louis about the im-pact the Challenger Learning Center program has on stu-dents. She earned the Nation-al Teacher of the Year Award from the Challenger Center for Space Education in 2005.

Compiled by Jessica Brunts

!e 2010 Homecoming theme is “Bringing Pirate Spirit to the Big Cities.” Homecoming is on Satur-day, Oct. 2.Seniors - New OrleansJuniors - New York CitySophomores - Los AngelesFreshman - Honolulu

!e Dodgeball tournament will be at 6:15 p.m. on Sept. 20. Each team consists of #ve boys and #ve girls and costs $100 ($10 per player).

1990 Pattonville High School graduate and owner of St. Louis bak-ery Gooey Louie, Debbie Stieferman will be fea-tured on the Food Net-work in September. Her company will be fea-tured on the Food Net-work with a co"eehouse in Lafayette Square as they compete to deter-mine who makes the best gooey butter cake in St. Louis.

Many students at Pattonville take the transportation system for granted, and have since elemen-tary school. Yet over the years, the system has grown to the forefront of transportation programs in the St. Louis area.

“We used to run the entire system, all the routes, repairs, ev-erything, out of a trailer,” Steve Gerke, director of transportation at Pattonville, said.

Gerke has worked with the district’s transportation depart-ment for 20 years and has seen the changes the department has gone through. He’s seen the student population, which was much larger when he began working, shrink over the years, and watched its re-cent steady rise.

Before working at Pattonville, Gerke worked for a private school bus contractor.

“I really prefer to work with a district-owned department.” Ger-ke said. “I have more control over things like the routes and the per-sonnel we recruit. It allows for bet-ter teamwork to provide a better service for the students. It’s really a great place to work. I love the ca-maraderie at Pattonville.”

Twenty years ago, the buses were stick shifts, and were using simple videotaping for security. Over the years however, the safety and e$ciency of the buses im-proved drastically. New emissions systems make bus pollution prac-tically non-existent, and the buses have switched to all diesel fuel sys-tem, which bettered the mileage to

eight miles per gallon.“It may seem miniscule, but for

the amount of straight weight, weight that doesn’t assist move-ment of the bus at all, that is load-ed on to the bus, it’s rather high.” Gerke explained.

!e bus depot, located directly behind Holman Middle School, has inground oil tanks, so they can buy in bulk, and has gas pumps on site so the buses can pump gas right on location.

Gerke was the #rst at Patton-ville to use digital recording cam-eras.

“It got to a point where parents were less inclined to believe the bus driver regarding disciplinary issues, so we have to rely on cam-eras to convince parents because some would rather believe their son or daughter than the bus driv-er.”

Various safety upgrades have also become widespread. White roofs and tinted windows, not im-plemented years ago, have helped to keep the students on the bus cool and save on air conditioning costs. Body bows across the bus keep it together during a crash, and are designed to protect against roll over damage. Multiple new safety exits have been added over

the years as well.!e %ame retardant seats that

are so commonly vandalized are made from Kevlar and chopped foam, and are revolutionary in ab-sorbing energy and preventing in-jury, working based on a system of compartmentalization.

“Buses are the number one saf-est way to travel in America,” Ger-ke said.

“Our drivers strive to keep the buses as safe as possible, that’s why they always remind the stu-dents to sit straight and keep the aisle clear and so on. It’s to maxi-mize the safety features of the bus, not just to nag.”

Many students have noticed the in%ux of kids on certain buses.

“We have noticed the overloads on particular buses, and we are working with the administration to add a route and relieve some of the pressure. We’ve had 450 new enrollees this year, and we’re working hard to spread them even-ly across the system, trying not to stress one route too much.”

Gerke says that they’ve had some trouble with out-of-district students trying to come to Patton-ville.

If a driver believes someone

By Jacob Sharp

Newsl l

!e oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is approaching resolution. As of Aug. 30, 2010, BP hoped to have a relief well drilled within one week. While the drama of this environmental disaster unfolds in the Gulf, the population of Pirate Nation has had their own plans de-railed by the oil spill.

Several students and sta" had plans to go down to the Gulf over the summer. “I planned to get married down in the Gulf this June,” said Jessica Hauser, Eng-lish Department. “But I had to plan the wedding here once the oil made landfall.”

“I was planning on staying in a beach house at Fort Meyers during the summer,” said Heather Spren-gal, 12. “Once the spill occurred, I had to go to Florida instead.”

As plans have been altered, the people’s opinions of BP and o" shore oil drilling have soured. “I already knew that we needed to drill,” said Beth Moritz, English department, “but now I am much more aware of how harmful it is to the environment.”

Personal reasons aside, it is agreed that one of the biggest

problems caused by the spill is the impact it has on the sea life in the Gulf. “It a"ects lots of di"erent parts of life,” said Sprengal.

!e e"ect on the wildlife goes on to a"ect other aspects of life. When the oil kills #sh and other aquatic life, #shermen su"er be-cause they are unable to catch and sell seafood. In turn, restaurants are unable to sell the entirety of their menu since they are unable to buy the seafood. !is also hurts tourism because no one wants to go where they might see oil on the beach or visible on the horizon. Finally, the Gulf Shores’ economy is hurt, as is the national economy as a whole.

Hauser has developed a pretty low opinion of BP as a company, believing that they put their busi-ness before ecology and human needs. “I even have a bumper stick-er to show it,” said Hauser.

“I went to college in New Or-leans,” said Moritz, an alumna of Tulane University. “It is like a second home to me, so I hope that the #shermen will be able to work again.”

!e End of Course exams are state-wide tests that all Algebra and English II students are re-quired to take. !e goal for every district is to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards that the E.O.C. results determine. In spring of 2010, Pattonville did not meet the state required AYP standards.

Every year, the state sets stan-dards on the E.O.C.s that schools are required to meet. !ese standards are a set pro#ciency percentage that the schools must achieve in each area. In order for a district to meet AYP standards, all of the target pro#ciency rates must be met in every area by every school in the district. !e failure to meet AYP standards can result in loss of accreditation by the state.

!e state standard for English II for 2010 was a pro#ciency rating of 67.4 percent. Patton-ville High School exceeded that standard with a pro#ciency rating of 82.6 percent.

!e state standard for Algebra for 2010 was a pro#ciency rating of 63.3 percent. Pattonville High School combined with the 8th grade Algebra students did not meet the AYP standard with a pro#ciency rating of 62.9 percent. Not meeting the AYP standard in Algebra at the high school, along with other schools in the district not meeting their standards, means that the entire district was unable to meet the AYP standards.

Dr. Sara Keene did not express concern with any possibility of Pattonville losing its accreditation

for not meeting the 2010 AYP standards, especially since only one school district in the St. Louis county area met all of the AYP standards.

“I don’t see Pattonville going down the road to being a state-run school,” Keene said. “How could the state run all of the St. Louis County school districts?”

However, Pattonville scored higher than the state averages in both subject areas. !e state aver-age for English was a pro#ciency rating of 73.1 percent and the state average for Algebra was 57.3 percent.

“Our score is going up next year,” Keene said, con#dently. “Our summer school 2010 E.O.C. scores will count toward the spring 2011 E.O.C. scores and our 2010 summer school scores improved 20 points from 2009.”

Every year, the state standards are raised. In 2011, the state standard for English will be 75.5 percent and the state standard for Algebra will be 72.5percent. By 2014, all of Missouri schools will be required to have a pro#ciency rating of 100 percent in both subject areas.

“Our tough piece is meeting the national standard,” Keene said, “But we know we can do it because we o"er so many teaching methods.” Tutoring and instruc-tion di"erentiation are among the two biggest methods. Instruction di"erentiation is when teachers use di"erent techniques to help all of the students that learn di"er-ently to be able to learn the same material.

shouldn’t be coming to the school, they’ll bring it up with the admin-istration, and an investigation will ensue.

“It’s very important that we make sure that the people that go to our district actually go to our district, or our actual students are getting short-changed because out-of-district students don’t con-tribute taxes.”

And it’s important that money is put where it’s needed, as state budget cuts are rampant.

Normally, the department gets

money to purchase six replace-ment buses, each running about $70,000, but this year, they are restricted from it by budget cuts.

“It’s not as bad as it has been in other districts, but we’ve had to put more money toward parts be-cause we’ve had to keep our buses longer. Luckily, we have Chief Fi-nancial O$cer Ron Orr and he does an amazing job at keeping the budget balanced,” Gerke said. “We haven’t had to cut any buses or routes this year.”

!is is unlike the district in Troy, Mo., which after a failed tax

levy has had to cut back ridership. Students within a one or two mile radius of the school have no buses.

“We’re not worried about that situation [in Troy] happening to us. Ron has planned the budget with forethought and anticipa-tion. I don’t think we’ll have any bus cuts in the near future. But you never know, we can’t forecast the future. Pattonville has it good, it’s great to work here. !e district really puts the students #rst, and that’s why we’re one of the top

schools in the county.”

By Andrew Tyahla

By Jessica Brunts

BP Oil Spill By the Numbers205.8 million gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico

Over 665 miles of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico have been a"ected by the spill.

53.5 million gallons of oil remain on shorelines along the Gulf of Mexico.

A Hummer H3 could drive around the earth 69,068 times with the oil from the oil spill.

!e oil spilled from the leak could #ll 331 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Statistics Courtesy of www.popularmechanics.com

l l

BriefsPattonville

!e Varsity Drill Team placed 2nd in home routine, won a superior trophy and won the leadership award at a camp at Saint Louis University. !e Junior Varsity Drill Team earned 2nd place in home routine and received a Su-perior Trophy.

Compiled by Jessica Brunts

Khalil Gri$n, 12, attended a summer program at the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology and his team #nished #rst with a study of point mutation TP53 found in pateient (HCC38) with breast cancer phenotype.

Dan Wright, a Pattonville 2009 gradu-ate, has been diagnosed with testicular cancer and a fundraiser is being held at Lion’s Choice on Olive Street during business hours on Sept. 18-19. Learn more at pattonvillepiratepress.word-press.com

Pattonville High School’s football team hosted its #rst ever mother/son practice and barbeque on Sat-urday, Aug. 14. Moms participated in the team’s morning practice.

ST. CHARLES COUNTY REGIONAL20th Annual

CollegeFair

1-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19

www.stchas.edu/collegefairCollege Center SCC Campus

For more information, call 636-922-8226 or e-mail mgrimm@stchas.edu

Representatives from nearly 80 colleges will be on hand!

T H A N K S T O S T. C H A R L E S C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E , Y O U R S E A R C H F O R T H E R I G H T S C H O O L J U S T G O T A LO T E A S I E R .

Kelly Gould, 12, won the Webster Groves Golf Invitational on Sept. 3 and has medaled at tournaments against Hazelwood Central and Hazelwood West.

Bachelor’s degree in secondary education and a master’s degree in the natural science of math from Southeast Missouri State University

“I student taught at Fort Zumwalt North High School and Eureka High School. I also taught 2& years at Southeast Missouri State University.”

“I have enjoyed it very much. I love being able to work with the students daily. Also the sta" here is very nice.”

Bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Southeast Missouri State University and a master’s degree in educational admin-istration from Lindenwood University.

“I previously taught four years in St. Louis Public School as well as student teaching in Riverview Gardens School District and Francis Howell School District.”

“!ere are great students, great sta", excel-lent resources and a great school culture here at Pattonville.”

Received a bachelor’s degree in education from University of Missouri.

Taught 5& years at Forth Zumwalt South High and coached freshman softball for one year and sponsored the Future Medical Club for three years.

“I have enjoyed it extremely. Pattonville is a great place to teach. I feel blessed to be a part of such a wonderful learning environ-ment.”

Bachelor’s degree in Communication from Missouri, master’s in Media and Marketing from Webster University, and a masters’s in teaching from Lindwood University.

“I have been a district sub for two years and now a permanent sub at Pattonville. I have coached the JV Drill Team for three years and plan to student teach this summer.”

“I’ve really enjoyed my #rst few weeks here at Pattonville. It has been nice to be back at my alma mater. Also it’s been wonderful getting to know the students and the sta".”

Attended Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for his undergraduate degree and has a master’s degree from Lindenwood University. Has also taken 18 credit hours of coursework at the University of Iowa.

“I taught social studies for 3 years at Uni-versity City High School and taught world history and American history for 2 years at Francis Howell Central. Last year I was Dean of Students at Francis Howell Central as well as a summer school principal at both the middle and high school levels.”

“It’s been great so far. !ere was a reason I applied to work at Pattonville and the stu-dents, sta" and community show me every day I made a good choice by coming here. I have been continually impressed with the way students pick up after themselves in the cafeteria after breakfast and lunch.”

Graduated with a degree in education of the uni#ed sciences with an emphasis on biol-ogy from Missouri State University.

“I taught for six years at Central High School in Spring#eld, Mo.”

“I’ve had a blast. Both the students and the sta" have made it an enjoyable experience as well as getting to know a new group of friendly people.”

Bachelor of Science in secondary education from University of Missouri - Columbia and earned Master’s of Administration from Lindenwood University

“I taught nine years at Riverview Gardens Central Middle School and three years at Hazelwood Southeast Middle School.”

“I love teaching at Pattonville. Everyone has been so wonderful to work with, both the students and the wonderful sta".”

Bachelor’s degree in music and theatre from Indiana University and a master’s degree in TESOL from Hunter College.

“!is is my 11th year teaching. I have taught in New York City, Florida, Kansas City and Kansas. I also taught English as a foreign language in Poland for the U.S. Peace Corps.”

“I have loved the school. !e students are wonderful. Everyone has a great attitude about the school and their futures.”

Bachelor of Science in math at Western Illinois University and a Master’s of Arts in teaching at Arizona State University.

“I taught in South Carolina for a year before teaching here.”

“I really like it here. I have enjoyed in thor-oughly.”

Undergraduate degree from Bradley Uni-versity in communication advertising and master’s degree in educational history from Maryville University

“I student taught at Parkway South and was a personal trainer at Gold’s Gym.”

“It’s been a good experience so far. I am glad to be back for a second year and expect a good year.”

Bachelor’s degree from Saint Louis Univer-sity in secondary math education

“I student taught at Marquette High School and I also coached the swim team.”

“I have loved my #rst weeks at Pattonville. I really like the people at this school, the students and the other teachers.”

!e varsity girl’s soccer team completed its 2010 season with a second place #n-ish in the Missouri State Champion-ships.

of Pattonville gets less than the recommended

nine hours of sleep per night. To varying degrees, this sleep deprivation is a"ecting students’ performance. Other than to pro-mote learning, why should we be sleeping more?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep can provide a number of physiological bene#ts. A lack of sleep can contribute to acne, overeating, and illness. !e correct amount of sleep can also help to regulate mood. Besides, it simply feels good to be well rested.

Scientists believe that the brain

uses sleep to organize the infor-mation that we learn during the day. Connections between new and old information are formed as well. !is means that lessons learned at school are more likely to stick and might even stick more e"ectively.

Since sleep is so important to learning, it follows that schools should be concerned with the sleeping habits of students. How-ever, Pattonville is among many schools that simply start too early to accommodate the sleep schedule of a teenager. Our bod-ies are hardwired to go to sleep late and wake up late as well. Studies have shown that when

schools start later, students go to bed at the same time and end up getting more sleep.

It is unlikely that the high school will be parting from 7:23 a.m. starting time and it is also unlikely that nap time will be built into the school schedule, although short naps can be exceedingly energizing. So the ball is in the students’ court. If they wish to perform at their full potential, then students will have to take some initiative and go to bed earlier. More sleep increases performance level in the class-room, at sports, and as a general member of society. Students owe it to themselves to try sleeping

more.In the Pattonville sleep study, a

number of students commented that they like sleep and/or wish they got more. Some of these same students, as well as a few others, stated that they were kept up late doing homework. !is is a valid concern, especially for stu-dents in challenging courses and who are involved in afterschool activities. Some students even feel that stress makes it di$cult to fall asleep. !is vicious cycle poses no easy solutions that fail to endanger the students’ pre-cious right to learn.

For the rest of the world, it wouldn’t hurt to log o" Facebook

a little sooner, stop watching that fascinating show, or leave that friend’s house and just go to bed. Learning is absolutely essential to quality of life, so some students may need to sacri#ce less im-portant activities to ensure that they are getting enough sleep to completely absorb the informa-tion presented in class.

In other words, sleep is impor-tant. Get some.

Participants were surveyed during contact time in randomly selected classrooms.

For tips on falling asleep and maintaining a healthy sleep cycle, check out www.pattonvillepirate-press.wordpress.com.

By Hannah Johnson

86%

Students Who Feel Tired During the Day

Students too Tired to Concentrate in Class

Students Who Fall Asleep In class

86% 78%77%62%

46%62%

39%24%

46%

38%

49%

12%6 or Fewer Hours of Sleep

7-8 Hours of Sleep

9 or More Hours of Sleep

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to audition for the play or musical? Pirate Press got the inside scoop from real auditioners and some tips and tricks from Lara Corvera, theatre teacher and director of the play.

Madison Sportsman, 12, said she doesn’t really get nervous about auditions. “I only get nervous if I don’t know the material.” David Robinson, 11, also auditioned, and prepared by rehearsing at home and having his family review him.

During her audition, Sportsman tried to think like the character and concentrated on her projection. Robinson’s audition was a bit di"erent.

“I thought about not messing up or forgetting a line, which I did.”Corvera runs the play, and has a cheat sheet for auditions, saying what to do and

what not to do.“Most important, the auditioner should think ‘I believed that,’ then that kid has a

spark.” Corvera also has the job of casting.“It’s di$cult. I’m looking for the right person for the role, but also the right group-

ing for all the roles. Casting is 95 percent of the job. If it works well and you have the right characterization, you got it made.”

Corvera hopes that everyone who was not cast will come back for future produc-tions.

Unfortunately, auditions for the play are over, but auditions for the spring musical “Bye Bye Birdie” will be at the beginning of November.

By Courtney McNeese

l l

Never before in my life had I been grateful that my siblings were so much older than me. But, as I watched my friends %ip out about getting lunch, upperclass-men, homework, navigating the school, participating in clubs, and so on and so forth, I found myself being the cool-headed character amongst my friends.

Already expecting the boatload of homework, already deciding that I’d just have to wander and hope I found my class, and already set on ignoring the rumors of evil upperclassmen, I entered high school eager to explore and, for once, learn.

!ough registration had mo-mentarily dampened my excite-ment with the long lines for the stations, forms and pictures for my ID, freshman orientation day came and I found myself itching to get there and run through my schedule. Too bad that was only a third of what the activities were, while everything else was #lled with assemblies.

Leaving the bus behind and entering the large school that had once intimidated me when I came to see my siblings perform in band and plays as a child, I unfolded my schedule and started the trek that will hopefully be-come an easy route for me to use the rest of the school year. With all the free time on Day 1, I was dragged through the hallways by

friends eager to #nd familiar ter-ritory. In other words, we were on a scavenger hunt to #nd fellow fresh-man lockers and more speci#cally freshmen. With all these older kids who looked like they knew far more about what they were do-ing than we did, it was going to be comforting to #nd faces of people who didn’t have the slightest idea as to what was expected.

!ankfully, we found quite a few with the same idea as us. Not even in middle school had it been so nerve-wracking, seeing as Heights wasn’t nearly as big, nor were the seniors going to our middle school. Not to mention the fact that we were about to get a lot more homework and a lot more di$cult work.

Friendly faces now checked o" on the list of things to accomplish on the #rst day of school, I headed to Honors Biology. As the day progressed and we read through the handbook in each class, my backpack stu"ed with papers to get signed and new textbooks, I found myself more excited about school.

!e impossible had happened. It must be something magical about Pattonville High School, or maybe I’m just really optimistic

and I’ll even-tually become like other freshmen who despise school after a couple more weeks of quizzes and

carrying a 50-pound backpack.With the only real %aw being

the idea of waking up before it even grows light outside on a day-to-day basis, I #nd myself heading into an adventure. Having now experienced all three types of daily schedules I’m more excited than ever for what these classes and people hold in store for me. People say these are the four best years of your life, and though I’m not willing to admit it’s that amazing just yet, having only been in for a couple weeks now, I will admit it beats middle school and elementary school.

I think what really makes me happy about the school, no matter how mushy it sounds, is that its promised a lot of fun and laughs, complaints and groans, and plenty of stu" to do, be it homework or club activities. It’s kind of like a second house, minus allowance and a bed. I’m not sure whether it’ll turn out to be the kind of house that I’ll always want to go to, or the kind where I can’t wait to move out. Only time will

tell on that one.

By Tara Lowry, Guest Writer

Last April, junior Mikala McGhee was #lmed for six weeks by MTV’s MADE. McGhee was transformed from All-Star Athlete to Ballroom Dancer. She plays three sports throughout the year: softball, baseball, and soccer. Her friends notoriously know her as “Mankala.”

McGhee wanted to be MADE because everyone saw her as one of the school’s top jocks. She chose dancing because people do not view it as a masculine sport. Ballroom dancing was also a car-dio workout she has not mastered.

McGhee was not afraid to show her boyish habits. Her masculine manners actually dominate her personality. !is is the side that McGhee is known for and the side that is most expressed. “I just wanted to show a di"erent side of me that no one allowed me to express,” said McGhee. !ere may have been a few doubts, but her family and close friends supported her through out her experience.

Don’t let this ‘tomboy’ fool you into thinking she can’t walk in heels. McGhee #rst met her coach at the batting cages. She was hit-ting baseballs then turned around for a quick break when she saw her MADE coach stroll in dancing. “I was urged to #ght with my dad because all I wanted to do was practice,” McGhee said.

Her #rst impression of her coach was that she was a diva because her attire seemed so per-fect. McGhee’s #rst of many tasks was to dance as best as she could in heels. !en her coach made an attempt to play fair and hit a baseball in her dress and heels. “I honestly thought she was a lunatic when she picked up the bat. You don’t play ball in heels, that’s how you get hurt,” McGhee said. !is hard-worker never gave up and always succeeded.

Normal life did not seem so normal when a camera was follow-ing her around constantly. Every time she had to go somewhere, she had to make room and trans-portation for the camerawoman. Not only was transportation a problem, she also had to take time to put on a microphone. !is

process was not long, but it was hindering to McGhee every time she moved.

McGhee may have given her 110 percent but that does not mean it was easy. Balancing the life of a scholar athlete and a ball-room dancer was quite di$cult. McGhee had no time for social-izing, “I was coming home late at night from dance lessons and I stayed up until 2 in the morn-ing because it distracted me from school so much. She clearly had a strong desire to prove herself to her peers.

At the end of McGhee’s six weeks, she had lost the school talent show to Montel Moore who graduated in 2010. After being MADE, life for her did not return to normal. She traveled coast-to- coast this summer. In cities like New York City and San Francisco, McGhee teamed up with Neutro-gena: Wave for Change Campaign and did service in her community.

McGhee got the chance of a life time to be on MTV, but MADE was not what she expected. “I can’t watch MTV the same any-more. Once I experienced produc-ers telling me to act a certain way to intensify their show, I have a di"erent outlook,” said McGhee.

For the most part, McGhee enjoyed the transformation. She learned how to express herself more openly and now her peers are seeing the lady in McGhee. Like many other Pattonville stu-dents, McGhee’s clothing choice was “Scrubbing.” Scrubbing is essentially soccer shorts, a T-shirt, and some comfortable shoes, most likely adidas %ip-%ops. Her bad habits consisted of spitballs and horse play. Best friends, Kailey Utley, 11, and Kristen Hanna, 11, said she wears jeans and sandals more and there is no more spit-ting. Now, Mikala is not afraid to show her lady qualities. “I’m really glad Mikala had this experience. She has received many opportuni-ties for her to promote herself and enhance her life,” Dr. Keene said.

After witnessing McGhee’s MADE experience, Pattonville now has a better perception of

Mikala McGhee.

Future Educators Associa-tion (FEA) members and student teachers at Pattonville pursue their ambitions of becoming educators.

Mallory Arens, 12, is the cur-rent president of the Pattonville and Missouri chapters of FEA.

FEA is an organization where students aspiring to be teachers can learn more about the #eld of education. Members get the opportunity to travel to state conferences and listen to guest speakers.

Arens commented that she has wanted to become a teacher since she began elementary school.

“I just looked up to my teachers and wanted to be one,” Arens said.

Arens has always enjoyed work-ing with children and hopes to go into the #eld of special education.

“I want to be a special educa-tion teacher because I believe that all children deserve a chance at succeeding,” Arens said.

In addition to being the presi-dent of FEA, Arens is enrolled in Child Development II where she gets the chance to interact with young students daily.

“I have an internship at Bridge-way, so I go everyday at seventh hour where I can actually work with kids,” she said.

While Arens claims that all of her teachers have inspired her, she speci#cally mentioned Maureen Weissler, her Gifted Honors Eng-lish teacher as someone who has

encouraged her to pursue educa-tion as a career.

“[Weissler] has given me her input and kind of made me want to go into special education and elementary education,” Arens said.

Christian Johnson, 11, also aspires to be a teacher. Johnson is the vice president of FEA at Pattonville. She hopes to go into secondary education.

“I want to be a high school freshman or sophomore math teacher because that was the hard-est class I had through high school and I want to help freshmen and sophomores get to know what to do,” Johnson said.

Johnson plans to come back to Pattonville High School to teach after she earns her degree.

“I like the atmosphere of Pattonville and I also would like to be a coach. I like the fact that you can be a coach and a teacher. You can have a connection with your players and they can come to you for help when they need it,” Johnson said.

She commented that she would like to coach volleyball and basket-ball at Pattonville.

Johnson also said that her math teacher, Emily Werner, has inspired her to go into education.

“She is a great teacher and she’s a teacher that I look up to. With the style that she teaches, she makes sure everyone understands before she moves along,” Johnson said.

Chris Stan#eld is a student teacher at Pattonville this year, Stan#eld is #nishing his masters degree at Lindenwood University and aspires to become a communi-cations and speech teacher.

“I like to work with kids and I enjoy the #eld of communications a lot,” Stan#eld said.

Stan#eld graduated from the University of Eastern Illinois with a corporate communications de-gree before he decided he wanted to become a teacher.

“I worked for Pepsi for a year and it made me miss school and it made me realize I wanted to work with kids and eventually become a coach,” Stan#eld said.

!roughout high school, Stan-#eld said that his Speech teacher motivated him to pursue a degree in communications and speech.

“My speech teacher helped me get into other activities like an internship at a radio station and encouraged me to pursue speech in college,” Stan#eld said.

So far, Stan#eld said the hard-est aspect of becoming a teacher is meeting the course requirements. He must complete a portfolio, various coursework and student teaching requirements in order to achieve his degree.

However, Stan#eld is eager to start his teaching career.

“I am excited to work with students and get the opportunity to help people become better

speakers,” Stan#eld said.

By Geri Farrell

By Jackie Neil

A team of familiar faces will be returning to the soccer #eld. !e boys #nished under .500 in 2009 with a record of 9-13.

Pattonville’s varsity boys’ soccer team hopes to win the Suburban North Conference and be District champions this season.

One of the team’s strength is experience. Senior leadership dominates the team roster with a few underclassmen.

Andy Simpkins, 12, is a power-ful player who will be helping out on defense. Seniors Josh Gross and Brian Bauer will be seen step-ping up in the mid#eld.

“I am excited for senior leader-ship,” Coach Tom I"rig said.

Rob O’Keefe, 11, wants to help

the team out and lead in goals or assists.

Right now, the team’s weakness are injuries. !e team started the season without some key players resulting in a 2-0 loss against the Lafayette Lancers.

Arsy Alvi, 12, broke his ankle in the begin-ning of the season. Jimmy Benoist, 12, and Calvin Capstick, 12, had to sit out the #rst game due to ankle sprains.

Max Browne, 12, is unable to play due to personal reasons and underclassman Aim Dedkhad, 10, could not also return to the #eld.

“Since there are injuries, all we have to do is stay uni#ed and will hopefully get 16 wins by the end of the season,” O’Keefe said.

!eir #rst conference game was

against Hazelwood Central on Sept. 8 resulting in a 3-2 loss.

!e team has prepared for the season with hard work over the

summer and I"rig hopes that i pays o".

“!e team worked hard over the summer playing in a league college shoe tournament, we have a very strong team and I hope we make it to #nal four,” I"rig said.

!e girls’ tennis team is prepar-ing to keep its Suburban North Conference Championship title in the 2010 season. In 2009, the team #nished #rst in the Confer-ence tournament, placed in the top four in Districts and advanced to Sectionals, where they were de-feated by Marquette High School.

!is season, the team is led by many veterans. !e top four players are seniors !eresa Ford, Savannah Sneed, Hope Bene#eld and Melissa Bradford. All four girls play Varsity singles.

!eresa Ford is ranked No. 1 on the team this season.

“It feels good because you know you worked hard to get to that spot,” she said about being ranked #rst. Coach Je" Grass expects a lot out of Ford and the other top players.

“I expect them to be our leaders and to kind of set the tone for our team and make sure everyone is working hard and giving 100 percent,” he said. For 2010, Grass hopes to win the Conference title again.

“It would be great to send a doubles team to State,” he added.

In order to play hard during their matches, the girls must work hard in practice. !e team warms up by running a few laps around

the courts, stretching and doing some arm circles.

After that, the girls work on technical exercises, including “mini-tennis,” in which the girls play using the services boxes inside the courts, ground strokes from the baseline and practicing serves.

Besides working hard at practice, many girls work on their skills during the o"-season.

“I make sure I work on my serve over the summer and make sure I’m hitting [balls],” Ford said. Savannah Sneed also stays in shape during the o"-season.

“I exercise. I run a lot. I hit [balls] over the summer,” she said.

Bene#eld has played tennis rec-reationally with her family since she was young.

“When I was little, me, my dad and my brother would play at the park. !ere were times that I re-ally hated [my dad] for it, because when you’re #rst learning the sport, you really suck at it. I had balls going over the walls,” she said.

Bene#eld became interested in the sport because of her father, but Sneed almost did not consider playing.

“In middle school, [Coach Grass] would always tell me to try out [for tennis] and I was going to volleyball tryouts as a freshman but I didn’t have my physical,” she said. Sneed then went to catch up with her old gym teacher, Grass, who convinced her to watch the

practice. Sneed eventually was persuaded to join the team.

!e Varsity leaders love the sport and are always looking for ways to challenge themselves.

“It’s di$cult to improve quickly,” she said. “You can always get better [at tennis.]

Melissa Bradford enjoys the team aspect of the sport.

“I like how it’s an individual

sport but we still have a team feel-ing,” she said.

Sneed’s favorite part of tennis is her love for the sport.

“I like it how I actually enjoy going to practice. I love going to practice and I think tennis is fun

to play,” she said.

For many student athletes, their senior year is their #nal year to make an athletic impression on the high school. For example, there are currently 157,000 se-niors playing some form of college basketball. !at means that only about 3 percent of high school seniors in this country will go on to play college basketball. Not to discourage anyone from chasing their dreams, but any potential college athlete needs to have more than talent. !ere are a few steps each athlete has to follow in order to begin to even think about play-ing a college sport.

!e #rst thing an athlete needs to do is to begin contacting the school they want to go to and talk to their respective sports’ coach. For instance, an e-mail to the basketball coach just to introduce yourself and to express your inter-est in their program would su$ce. Coaches, much like admissions counselors, receive hundreds or even thousands of e-mails about athletes wanting to join their team because they feel they can make the team better. !at leads into the next step.

Make yourself noticeable and unique. Do not try to sound like the Average Joe athlete. Every kid thinks they can be the next Joe Montana or Michael Jordan. Statistics are not all that is im-portant. If the coach at a college decides to invest some time into your career, their next step is to check your grades and call your coaches to learn more about you as a person, not just an athlete.

It has been said in athlet-ics that it is best to learn from someone who has already been to the big dance. Well it does not get much bigger than going to a Division I school and playing col-lege basketball. Teacher and coach Kelly !ames, has a bit of advice for some hopeful college athletes. “Do not just play for your school. It will be easier to get noticed playing for an AAU team,” !ames said.

AAU is a circuit of select basketball teams that play over the summer and this is where !ames says that a lot of colleges get their recruiting done. !ames also credits his basketball fortune to his hard work and constant practice. However, practice is not the only thing that you need. !ames remained in close contact with his high school counselors and obviously his parents, who, he says really helped him through the complex process of college athletics.

Another huge decision for future athletes is whether to play NCAA or NAIA sports. !ere is not a huge di"erence between the two other than the competition you may face and the amount of money you can receive. NCAA schools have the ability to pay a full ride for their college athletes. On the other hand it is much tougher to earn a spot and is usu-ally saved for the “cream of the crop” athletes.

NAIA schools hand out many more scholarships but usually do not give away full rides like their sister association. Also, many of their scholarships are academic based while NCAA o"ers both ath-letic and academic. !irdly, there are Division III schools which do not tend to give any money away as those are the much smaller, more local schools.

A possible requirement for po-tential athletes is to #ll out a col-lege athletic resume. !is resume contains every detail about your high school sports career from how many shots you made to how many minutes you played. !ames mentioned that he never had to #ll out a resume but he did have to #ll out questionnaires from the colleges which listed his GPA and class rank.

No one is guaranteed a spot on a college roster just because you may have been an all-star at your high school. Completing these relatively easy steps does not necessarily ensure you a spot on a college roster either however, your chances increase the more a college recruiter gets to see of you. So a #nal word of advice is to con-tinue to practice hard, work hard in school and #nd the best athletic home for you if that is your plan for your future.

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By Zach Bailey

By Elise Moser

By Jackie Neil

Sports

Senior year is #nally upon me. After three long, hard years of busting my brain and stressing over all of the work that goes with taking four honors classes, I have #nally made it to my last year of high school. Many people believe that senior year is the year to slack o", to take easy classes that are guaranteed to get you an A. !at may have been true decades ago, but that is no longer the case.

In today’s society, college might as well be required by law because for the majority

of people, if you want to get anywhere in life, you have to have a college education. Colleges want high school students to take rigorous and challenging courses throughout all four years of high school. Senior year is supposed to be very fun, but it is also very serious.

!ere is a lot of work to be done when planning for college. Your senior year is the time to start applying to colleges, apply-ing for scholarships, and working on getting ACT and SAT scores higher.

I will be the #rst to admit it when I say that I am not ready for senior year. I had hoped to have most of my col-lege visits

out of the way over the sum-mer before Senior year started. Unfortunately, due to a lot of mix-ups and miscommunications, I was unable to visit any colleges because they do not o"er campus tours on the weekends in the summer. Now, I feel behind and overwhelmed. My parents and I have begun to work out college visits so some of my tension and

stress over visits is beginning to ease.

!e biggest part of college that stresses me out is trying to #nd the right one. !ere are thousands of colleges out there. !ere is no way that anyone could know every single one, visit every single one. I worry that my college search won’t take me to the school that is exactly right for me.

I’ve looked at many schools, and I have a list of schools I still want to visit. All of them are still in the Midwest. I’ve looked at a mix of private and public schools. Ideally, I would want to attend a private school, but public schools are substantially cheaper.

!e anxiety and worry of the cost of private and out-of-state schools freaks me out. I have the

option of A+ because I will be A+ certi#ed, but I really don’t want to go to community college. I want to go away to college. Not all of my parents are so keen on the idea.

Scholarship searching is over-whelming. Googling the word “scholarships” brings up millions of results. !ere is so much information that it is almost im-possible to know where to begin.

While everything is so over-whelming and my time for college planning has come, I know that if I take a deep breath and proceed in a calm manner, everything will turn out all right. Wherever I end up next year, I trust that I’ll be happy with my decision. Plan-ning and making decisions that will change my life are scary, but they’re all growing pains.

!e administration at Patton-ville introduced the policy of “Walk and Talk” and “Stay to the Right” this year to help the congestion in the hallways during “pass-ing time.” Unfortunately, this new policy has been greeted with mockery from Pattonville’s student body. While I realize that the motto is pretty juvenile and the specially made T-shirts take the program a step too far, I think that overall, the program has been a bene#cial ad-dition to the school.

I remember in previous years, students would arrive late to class, claiming that it was the tremendous crowds in the halls that had stalled them. In fact, one common complaint most students seemed to have about “passing time” was the extreme congestion in the hallways. !is year, I have noticed a de#nite di"erence in the crowding. !ere is still the oc-casional “tra$c jam,” but getting rid of all blockages is unrealistic when over 1,200 students stream into the hallways during “passing time.”

However, I #nd that I am no longer hurtling over mounds of stopped people on my way to class.

!e administration has been using positive reinforcement, awarding students when they are following the new rules for the

hallway. !is positive

system is much better than the alternative, which would be penal-izing students for ignoring the hall rules.

!e fact that the program is so publicized throughout the

school makes me take into ac-count where I am walking almost every “passing time.” I #nd that even though I consider the slo-gans somewhat inane, I still make it a point to “walk on the right.” Although the hallways have im-proved greatly since the introduc-tion of this program, Pattonville still has room for improvement Hopefully, the student body will improve hallway etiquette before more drastic measures are taken. At Holman Middle School, a red line separates the right and left sides of the hall. I hope that hallway conduct at the high school improves so that “passing time” is

never reduced to that.

By Geri Farrell

At a glance, it is obvious that the #rst issue of the 2010-2011 Pirate Press is very di"erent from the Pirate Press in previous years. !e most obvious change is the format of the paper itself. !e Pi-rate Press has transitioned from a magazine-style format printed within the Pattonville School District to a tabloid newspaper, much like the Saturday St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with the Missou-rian Publishing Company.

!e tabloid format is a smaller version of a newspaper format such as the daily edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. !is new style of the Pirate Press allows for more stories to be placed on one page. It also allows for jumping stories. !is means that a story will start on one page and will end on a di"erent page. !is

draws the reader further into the newspaper and allows him or her to see more of the newspaper while locating the rest of the #rst story.

!e new Pirate Press is now more like a newspa-per than a magazine.

!e design was created by Jacob Sharp and Elise Moser while at-tending a

journalism camp at the Univer-sity of Missouri-Columbia and earned #rst place in design, mak-ing the Pirate Press an award-

winning newspaper.!e Pirate Press has switched

to printing with the Missourian Publishing Company to increase the turn-around time of our newspaper. With the Pattonville School District Print Shop, it took 10 business days to get the paper back to pass out to the students. !e Missourian Publishing Company guarantees to return the paper in only two business days. !is increases the e$ciency of the newspaper and allows the Pirate Press to cover stories that are more timely and more relevant.

In addition to the new format, the Pirate Press now has a blog that will constantly be streaming new content related to the cur-rent issues covered in the news-paper. !e blog will also have

many polls about the Pirate Press or articles in the Pirate Press. !e Web address to the Pirate Press blog is www.pattonvillepi-ratepress.wordpress.com.

In addition to these changes to the format of the newspaper and the blog, the Pirate Press has many new sta" members. Last year, the Pirate Press had only six sta" members and two of them graduated. !e four returning sta" members this year are Elise Moser, Editor in Chief; Jessica Brunts, Managing Editor; Jacob Sharp, Design Editor; and Geri Farrell, Copy Editor. !e new sta" members are Hannah Johnson, Courtney McNeese, Zach Bailey, Armand Hayes, Jer-emiah Williams, Jackie Neil, Ben Trochtenberg, Lexi Kendall, Chris Babb and Andrew Tyahla.

Opinion

!e Pirate Press is the open forum news magazine of the Pattonville

High School. !e opinions published are of the publication and are open to criticism. As the members of the 2010-2011 sta", we dedicate our-

selves to the accurate and objective dissemination of information to all

readers. We will protect and exercise our First Amendment rights. !e

viewpoints of all sta" members are to be regarded as being seperate from those of our administration, faculty,

peers and adviser.

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By Jessica Brunts

Entertainment

A word that comes to mind when the name Kanye West is said could be “G.O.O.D.”

G.O.O.D. stands for Getting Out Our Dreams. !is is the acronym for West’s newest album of music produced by him, which is also known as G.O.O.D. Mixtape.

!e CD consists of 30 tracks, some are live performances from recent concerts.

Also, there are 15 other artists on the label along side West, such as Kid Cudi, Common, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Charlie Wilson and John Legend.

!e album has songs like “See Me Now” featuring Beyonce and Charlie Wilson, “So G.O.O.D” by Big Sean, and “Got Me Gone” by GLC. A song that became a quick favorite is “Live Fast, Die Young”

with Rick Ross featuring West, GLC and Tony Williams.

Ross’ smooth, blunt and raw rapping style along with West’s jubilant and fresh beats, make for the perfect blend of new-age rap music that can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

!e song is truly nothing di"er-ent than West has done before, but it really does o"er a great sound of what rap should be, disregarding auto-tune and trying to #nd new subjects to rap about, which West does well.

West is only featured on a few tracks on the entire CD, which could be a large let down for West fans who are expecting him to be all over the album.

However, the CD unleashes more of West’s creative side and shows that he can be taken seri-

ously as a producer and a rapper. !e CD also consists of his nor-

mal “good life” standards and liv-ing it up with the rapper life style. However, I believe that West has gone too commercial.

!e music still sounds like almost everything else that is out at the moment that deals with rap music, but it still is good enough to listen to and enough collabora-tions in it to invite anyone into a di"erent genre of rap music, even if you don’t enjoy this brash rapper.

It is truly an album to at least sample, even if you aren’t the big-gest Kanye West fan.

!e album is available on several Web sites and is schedule for a full release in the fall.

By Armand Hayes

As a hater of the “Twilight” movies, I thought “Vampires Suck” was going to be awesome. What’s better than a spoof of a movie that completely ruined your love for “Twilight”? I can never re-read the series now because of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. My hatred for those movies is as big and #ery as the sun, and I thought “Vampires Suck” was stupid. !e only funny parts are shown in the trailers, and the cheesiness is way too much. I nearly died from dairy overload, it was that bad. My friend and I ended up laughing because if we didn’t, we’d start to cry. !e movie should also have

dedicated warning labels stat-ing that you will not leave the theater without hearing the actors cuss about 150 times. !e only parts of the movie I liked was the soundtrack and the actor (Chris Riggi) who played Jacob, but not until after he turned into a Chihuahua. So if you’re completely determined to see and like any and all movies that make fun of “Twi-light”, have fun. For the rest of the people, don’t see it, you’ll only get a stomachache and a migraine.

St. Louis’ very own rock group Ludo dropped its album “Prepare the Preparations” on Sept. 7, followed by an acoustic show at Vintage Vinyl Sept. 8 at 8 p.m.

Tim Convy, Ludo’s very own keyboard player, decided to drop a few lines to Pattonville about the new album. Such past releases such as “You’re Awful, I Love You” generated thousands of fans, and led to the single “Love Me Dead.” !is time around, Ludo will have to top greatness to meet and excel the success of their last album.

Convy is con#dent that Ludo’s fan base will welcome the new album to their CD collection.

“We’re con#dent that fans are going to love it,” Convy said.” We think it’s a better record. It’s even more Ludo to us, if that makes any sense.”

St. Louis will get a taste of the real deal Oct. 18 at the Pageant when they dish out the new album to the masses. Convy also stated how the band as a whole was much more con#dent this time around since the release of the band’s previous album “You’re Aw-ful, I Love You” and the band has never been more ready to seduce the listeners’ ears with some pop-rock action. Convy explained that fans should attend the show, not

only for Ludo, but also for !ere for Tomorrow, !e Graduate, and Tommy & the High Pilots. Convy said that Matt Palermo, Ludo’s drummer, also plays in Tommy & the High Pilots, and that it would

add an interesting twist to the live show.

With a lot of support by 105.7 !e Point, Ludo’s new single “Whipped Cream” has been receiv-ing airtime in preparation for the album.

Convy said the single re%ected the new album, “I’d say it re%ects the album in that it’s pretty over-the-top and a little strange which most the album is, but I don’t think anything else on the album sounds like “Whipped Cream” at all.”

He also said he wanted the listeners to just take a deep breath and relax, as the new album has

“something for everyone.” Convy said that there are many

stories, messages and tales in the new album and it has a lot of character.

“!e new album has some of our best stories yet. I’m excited to see how people react and pumped to be playing this stu" live.”

!e high expectations must surpass such stories as “Broken Bride”, Ludo’s rock-opera that cov-ers everything from prehistoric danger, a man trying to save his wife with a time machine, and an apocalyptic future where zombies reign and dragons destroy.

But, Convy assures fans that this is so far the best Ludo has to o"er.

!is will be the #rst album without former bassist Marshall Fanciullo in the team’s line-up. Convy said a search for a perma-nent bassist is not currently on the agenda.

“We’ve had a great time having di"erent friends play bass with us and it brings a new energy to what we do. I think we’ll keep that up.”

With the album here and the glory exposed, fans can #nd themselves “preparing the prepa-rations” by going to the Pageant’s box o$ce and picking up a ticket for the show on Oct. 18.

By Courtney McNeese

I recall a certain someone who always says, “I’m getting a rumbly in my tumbly.” Well, of course Winnie the Pooh is always right, however if you #nd yourself with that famous “Rumbly in your Tumbly,” what better way to re-linquish those hunger pains than to head out to Gooey Louie’s, the Place for Gooey Butter Cake

When it comes down to St. Louis traditions, one sweet treat is gooey butter cake. Despite this, it is a hard-to-#nd delicacy. One of the best places to #nd it is Gooey Louie.

Gooey Louie is located at 6483 Chippewa, a half-mile east of Ted Drewes, in the city of St. Louis.

It is a small bakery with a color-ful interior that evokes a whimsi-cal and loving atmosphere. But keep in mind that it is intended for pick-ups and take-outs, so there is nowhere to sit.

Debbie Stieferman, a 1990 Pat-tonville High School graduate is the owner and founder of Gooey Louie, and alongside her husband, Kirk, has been dishing out gooey butter cakes since the fall of 2006.

To their surprise, they would be making gooey butter cakes as a full-time job with a recipe that dates back four generations and competing in a television show on

the Food Network to determine the best gooey butter cake in St. Louis.

Family-run and operated, they are most famous for their home-made crust and o"er their cakes with special packaging and can cater for any celebration.

!e cake itself comes in 10 dif-ferent %avors, including original, Chocolate Chippewa, Hwy 40: Driving Me Nuts, Chocolate Pea-nut Butter, Key Lime, and Let’s Go Blueberries.

I recommend the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. It is as gooey as the name gooey butter cake suggests, but it is not too much that it sticks to the roof of your mouth. It is sweet due to it being topped with powdered sugar. In addition, the cake is actually made with real peanut butter cups. !e cake is sold in 8 inch by 8 inch cakes and cost $10.32 plus tax. Fair warning: the cake is really rich, so you might not want to have too much cake in one day.

Gooey Louie actually has a sec-ond location at 14628 Manchester Road in Ballwin, one mile west of Highway 141. !is helps to make its cakes more accessible.

Overall, Gooey Louie serves delicious gooey butter cakes and is well worth the price.

By Jeremiah Williams and Andrew Tyahla

By Chris Babb