The RebelVol. IX No. 2 / January 23, 2009 / Effingham County High School / FREE

1589 Highway 119 South, Springfield, Ga., 31329 therebelpaper.com

IndexNews - pg 2

Features - pg 3-5Sports - pg 7

Talk - pg 6Recess - pg 7Spotlight - pg 7

Favs - pg 8

See pictures from Obama’s Inaugu-

ration, page 3

A new addition to the ECHSfamily, page 2

Huntley’s class donates gifts to soldiers,

page 5

Colt Ford and why he’s not traditional,

page 8

ECHS mourns the loss of BrostBY BRIAN HOLTBHOLT@ECHSPRESS.COM

Paraprofessional Rita Bro-st, 55, was killed on Nov. 30 in a one-car accident along Georgia Highway 119, just north of Springfield.

Brost lost control of her ve-hicle and skidded off the road. She was not wearing her seat-belt.

She was on her way to church that Sunday morn-ing when accident occured around 9:25 a.m., according to police reports.

Funeral services were held on Dec. 4 at Fairhaven Fu-neral Home in Savannah.

Faculty, staff, and students wore jeans and spirit shirts on Dec. 5 in her memory and donated $3,442 to her family. Other clubs and organiza-tions are planning fundraisers to help the Brost family.

By SOPHIA CHANG & JOHN VALENTINewsday - (MCT)

NEW YORK - Mary Berkwits can’t wait to get home to North Caro-lina.

Berkwits and her hus-band, Michael, were on US Airways Flight 1549 when it landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, having apparently lost power to both of its en-gines after striking a flock of geese.

“I survived cancer,” she said. “I survived this.”

The Berkwitses, who are in their 50s, arrived Jan. 16 at LaGuardia Airport not long after 8 a.m. EST. The two had no luggage. They were carrying belongings in

plastic bags.“I can’t wait,” she said, “to

get home to my family.”In what New York Gov.

David A. Paterson called “the miracle on the Hudson” all 155 people on board the Charlotte, N.C.-bound Air-bus A320--including at least one infant--survived the ditching in the frigid water.

On Friday morning, some of the passengers were preparing to board other flights.

David Sontag, 74, of Cha-pel Hill, N.C., was getting ready for a flight to Raleigh, N.C. Sontag said he had been given an aisle seat in the exit row and was happy about that. After all, Sontag,

said, it had been a dif-ficult week.

He had come to New York for the fu-neral of his brother.

“I buried my broth-er Tuesday,” he said, adding of the crash: “I think my brother was watching over me.”

Australian singer-songwriter Emma Sophina, 26, said she felt relieved despite getting just two hours sleep Thursday night. She stayed at a hotel near LaGuardia Air-port on Thursday--and was headed to the

See CRASH, page 2

US Airways crash survivors fly home

Inauguration 2009

Barack Obama, with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha at his side, is sworn in as the country’s 44th president by Chief Justice John Roberts, front, at the U.S. Capitol in Washing-ton, D.C., Tuesday, Jan. 20. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/MCT). See more Inauguration informa-tion inside.

2 News 01.23.09

The Rebel The Rebel is produced by the Newspaper Club at ECHS. Opinion articles in The Rebel are not necessarily the views and opinions of the administra-tion of Effingham County High School, the Effingham County Board of Education or other members of The Rebel staff. The Rebel welcomes letters to the editor. Each letter must be signed by the author. The Rebel staff reserves the right to edit or refuse any letter. The Rebel is a member of the Georgia Scholastic Press Asso-ciation and National Scholastic Press Association.

Our paper is printed in Sa-vannah, Ga., by the Savannah Morning News. We also use additional mate-rial from mctcampus.com Staff Members:Kristin Pair, Eli Abraham, Lindsey Grovenstein

Adviser: Brian HoltPrincipal: Yancy Ford

Contact usEffingham Co. HS1589 Hwy 119 SouthSpringfield, Ga. 31329912.754.6404 FAX 912.754.6893www.therebelpaper.com

Crashcontinued from the front

Australian consulate Friday to replace the identification and documents lost in the crash.

“My belongings are at the bottom of the Hudson Riv-er,” she said, adding: “I’ve been in the Hudson River.”

She said she escaped the downed jetliner and board-ed a raft, which took her to safety.

“I didn’t feel any terror,” she said. “I was very calm. If I was going home to heaven that meant I was going home to heaven ... I thought we hit a building. The crash was so startling and so hard. It wasn’t until they opened the doors that I realized we were in the water.”

Passengers were plucked off the wings--and off the inflatable emergency exit slides--by ferries, rescue craft and even ships from the Circle Line just moments af-ter the plane crash-landed on the Hudson not far from the U.S.S. Intrepid.

The evacuation of the plane--and the rescues--were so swift that most of

the passengers barely even got wet.

Sontag said that the cap-tain asked the passengers to count off--for a head count--as they waited on the wings.

“God bless him,” Berkwits said of the job done by pilot Chesley Sullenberger. “He was unbelievable. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be alive today ... He’s just wonder-ful.”

Meanwhile, on a chilly, breezy Friday when temper-atures hovered in the teens and low 20s, the Airbus A320 remained in the Hud-son, tied up to bulkheading off Battery Park City near Murray Street.

Investigators from a Na-tional Transportation Safety Board “Go Team” were on-site, though it was unclear if they had actually entered the airplane, or were sim-ply making arrangements to have it removed from the river.

A Federal Aviation Ad-ministration source told Newsday that it may be days before the plane is removed from the water, most likely onto a barge for transport to a land-based investigation site. In mid-morning, glimpses of

the half-submerged jet re-vealed that a flap was miss-ing from the bottom half of the left wing.

It was unclear if that flap came off upon impact.

A spokeswoman for US Airways, meanwhile, said the airline will not be re-leasing a detailed passenger list of those on-board the downed airliner.

“After further consider-ation, we have decided not to release a list,” said the spokeswoman, who was reached at the airline’s me-dia call center but refused to identify herself.

Back at LaGuardia, Craig Black, 46, an auditor from Charlotte and a father of two, said he was “a little anxious” about flying again so soon after the crash.

Black, who had been in New York for a meeting, was about to board a US Airways flight to Charlotte Friday morning.

“Once we get past where the birds hit us yesterday,” said Black, “I’ll feel better.”

___(Staff writers Sumathi

Reddy and Rocco Paras-candola contributed to this story.)

special photoCollyn Michael Ward was born 12-31-08 at 9:49 p.m. Parents are ECHS coaches Mike and Katie Ward.

EFFINGHAM SENIOR WINS STATE COMPETITIONSenior Jeremy Hill won the State FFA-EMC Electrification Contest at Camp FFA in Covington, Ga., on Jan. 10. He scored 91 percent and defeated 11 competitors that had placed either first or second at their respective area competition in December. The competition is a three part competition: wir-ing, 30-question test, and four-to=six minute speech.This year’s wiring problem involved two lights, several three-way switches, a ground fault outlet and ground fault protected outlet, as well as service entry panel for all of these. This is a timed problem. Participants are given 30 minutes planning time and 60 minutes of working time.The local competition is held in December in the six districts and then the top two finishers from each district come to-gether in Covington to compete for the $1000 scholarship. Hill placed third at the state competition last year.Pictured are Jeremy Hill (left) and Dr. Freddie Waltz, the Ag Mechanics instructor and FFA sponsor.

News 01.23.09 3

BY PAM COXPCOX@EFFINGHAM.K12.GA.US

Can one person make a difference? Absolutely!

One of our own, Ebenezer Middle School’s 2006 Teacher of the Year Anthony Mastrianni needs our help. Anthony is battling Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which has returned for the third time. After undergoing three months of chemotherapy and radiation, his treatments have been stopped here in Savan-nah. He will now need to be treated at Emory University Medical Center in Atlanta

We are in a race against time to save Anthony and other patients like him. An-thony is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Since none of his family members were found to match Antho-

ny closely enough to donate, he has turned to the National Marrow Donor Program. The cost to be placed on the Bone Marrow Registry to start the search was approximately $8000.00. This is not covered under the Mastrianni’s insur-ance plan. Because Anthony is an Italian, the chances of finding a donor locally in this area is very slim.

Now, your help is needed.An account has been es-

tablished at a local bank to accept contributions to help Anthony and his wife Mon-ica. If you feel that you can help monetarily in this situ-ation, please send your con-tribution to the following address:

Anthony Mastrianni FundThe Coastal Bank5799 Hwy 21, South Rincon, Georgia 31326For years, Anthony Mas-

trianni has made an impact on the lives of Effingham County’s students, both as a math teacher and as a role model. Now we have a chance to say “Thank you.” It’s true: one person really can make a difference, and for Anthony, that one person could be you.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance at the Commander in Chief’s ball in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, January 20, 2009. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill make an appearance at the Midwestern Inaugural Ball at the Washington D.C. Convention Center in Washington, D.C, Tuesday, January 20, 2009. (Gabriel B. Tait/MCT)

Ebenezer teacher needs your help

Mastrianni

President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, January 20, 2009. (Alex Wong/Pool/MCT)

4 Feature 01.23.09

Wanted:Newspaper Needs writers mettings on Mondays in

room 816 after school. If interested see

Mr. Holt or Katie LaCoste

Feature 01.23.09 5

BY KATIE LACOSTEKLACOSTE@ECHSPRESS.COM

This year the school decid-ed to start a new class called Current Issues. The class is taught by Matt Huntley, and covers issues like the econ-omy, how a business works, the presidency, community service, moral issues in our country and much more.

Huntley's first period Current Issues class decided to do a community service project that would go along with the Christmas season.

The class had been talk-ing about the war and the military around the time, so Huntley talked to Sergeant Perryman from the National Guard Armory in Springfield and wanted to do a shoebox for a soldier.

The project started at the beginning of October and ran through the first week of December. The class asked the entire school to get in-volved with this and there was a great turn out.

There were materials brought in along with dona-tions taken up; there were 116 shoeboxes made and $131 in donations.

The donations were used to buy items such as razors, notebooks, soap, socks, foot powder, movies and games for the shoeboxes. The dona-tions went along way making at least 10 boxes.

The goal made was 100 shoeboxes and it was exceed-ed thanks to the students and staff in the school.

The Pre-k also helped bringing in boxes of selected items such as sugars, tooth-brushes, creamer, and hot coco mix. They too helped out tremendously.

Huntley's first period packed the shoeboxes, wrote the soldiers letters in each one, loaded them on the bus, and took them to the Springfield Armory during first period.

When they arrived at the armory there were National Guard soldiers waiting for

our arrival.They helped unload the

bus of all the shoeboxes and took them inside. Once done unloading everyone gathered round the rows of boxes and took pictures.

There were questions about the National Guard and what they do. The sol-diers answered questions, told stories of their last trip to Iraq, and future trip to Af-ghanistan coming.

There was a wood door they tallied on for many different things that they brought back. On the door there was every name of the men and women stationed in Iraq in the same base at the time.

The soldiers were very wel-coming and willing to share stories and experiences. Be-fore the group left Huntley was given an framed award-ed a for helping out. "I plan to do this again in this class, it's a good chance for people and students to help others out in their community.

Shoebox for a Soldier

Photos courtesy of Matt Huntley

6 News 01.23.09

Welcome to new staff members

Name: Lynn KennedeyUniversity Attended: Arm-strong Atlantic State Uni-versity (AASU). Degrees: BS in Chemistry, BS in Biology, and aMEd in Curriculum and Instruction. Years Teaching: 11. Subject: Science Name: Brian ShinallUniversity Attended: Georgia Tech. Degrees: PhD in Chemi-cal Engineering. Years Teaching: 4Subject: Science

Name: Donnie ArringtonUniversity Attended: Georgia College and West Georgia. Degrees: BBA in Business, Masters in Science Education. Years Teaching: 26. Subject: Science Name: Mary Lou SpakeUniversity Attended: AASU and University of New York at Canton. Degrees: Bachelors in Science and Nursing, Associ-ates in Business. Years as a Nurse: 15 Name: Tara LambUniversity Attended: Georgia Southern University (GSU). Degrees: Bachelors in Health Science, MEd, EdS. Years as a Counselour: 8 Name: Brad ArringtonUniversity Attended: Valdosta State University. Degrees: BS in Secondary Ed. Years Teach-ing: 3Subject: World History Name: Danna HathawayUniversity Attended: AASU.Degrees: BA in English. Years Teaching: 1. Subject: English Name: Jessica SmithUniversity Attended: GSU. Degrees: BSEd and working on a MEd with emphasis in English Education. Years Teach-ing: 1. Subject: English

Name: Elbie PiotrowskiUniversity Attended: Univer-sity of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Degrees: BSEd Years Teaching: 12. Subject: Science Name:Tina QuartermanUniversity Attended: Spellman College, Indiana University, Cambridge College. Degrees: BA, Masters in History, MEd. working on EdD in Leadership and Change. Years Teaching: 15Subject: Advanced World His-tory, Government. Name: Miranda ClayterYears Teaching: 11Subject: Special Education Name: Jill Exley University Attended: AASU, GSU. Degrees: Bachelors in English, working on Masters in Instructional Tech. Years Teaching: 5. Subject: English and Literature Name: Tony OrsiniUniversity Attended: New Berry College, GSU. Degrees: Degree in Math, Masters in Education Leadership. Years Teaching: 30Subject: Math Name: Donald SmithUniversity Attended: Wayland Baptist, Toro UniversityDegrees: Bachelors in Occu-pational Edcuation, Masters in Education. Years Teaching: 5Subject: Aerospace Science and Leadership Name: Karl DemasiUniversity Attended: Adelphi UniversityDegrees: Masters in Health EducationYears Teaching: 21Subject: Healthy, Physical Edu-cation, Drivers Education Name:Missy RoddenberryUniversity Attended: GSU. De-grees: Bachelors in Computer Info Systems and BusinessYears Teaching: 2. Subject: Math

Photos by Brian HoltBrian Holt’s Government class-es studied the Foundations of American Government in early January. To better illustrate the topic and its concepts, Holt’s classes created their own coun-tries--complete with names, laws, and money.

Top: Jessica Hadden, Dennis Ter-rell, Kevona Young, and Ally St. George. Left: Kelley Neidlinger, Nina Bragg, Ryan Frederick, and Derek Padmore.

N A T I O N B U I L D I N G 1 0 1

Photo by Cindy Baldwin / for The RebelThe ECHS/SEHS Model UN team at Harvard Univ. in Boston, Mass., Dec 11-14, 2008.

Sports 01.23.09 7

Photo by Emily Goldman / for The RebelThe Rebel Wrestling team coached by Chris Hardin posted its first trophy ever from state competition. The wrestlers finished fourth at the State Duals held in Macon, Ga., on Jan. 17. Congrats to Stephen LaMore, Jamelle Jaudon, Josh Barnhill, Kevin Ulmer, Kyle Piche, Justin Panter, Bruce Smith, Jordan Ginn, Tovar Allen, Zach Gilliam, Nick Cannon, Andrew Bushey, Haisten White, Brandon Macklunis, Casey Herrington, Desmand Washington, Deonte Love, and Jacobi Anderson.

Photo by Brian HoltOn Jan. 23, senior Kayla English signed a letter of intent to play softball at Middle Georgia College in Cochran, Ga.

Sitting L to R: Tammie English, Kayla English, Ken Phillips (Head Coach MGC).Standing L to R: Ray English, Matt Huntley (Head Coach ECHS).

BY LINDSEY GROVENSTEINLGROVENSTEIN@ECHSPRESS.COM

Rebels have high expec-tations this year; the tennis team has been practicing for this moment to shine. While we were enjoying the sum-mer vacation and surviving through the first semester of school, the tennis team was working hard to perfect their skills. Their dedication has shown through their willing-ness to practice offseason. They have taken lessons over the past year, anything that they can do to go that one extra mile.

High hopes in mind, they intend on winning state. The ultimate goal for any team of course, but they’re competi-tive and ready for anything that might pose a threat. Coach Patty Onorato, head

coach, as well as Coach Car-ol Hicks have been putting these boys and girls to work. They’re not just competing in local tournaments, but also plan on going into Savannah.

There are two seniors this year on the team, Chandel McDonie and Josh Griffiths. Last year the girls scored third in regional and are ready to take it up a notch.

The expenses of keeping a team together is costly, but every Wednesday and Friday the team sells biscuits in the cafeteria before school.

The money raised to get a McDonald’s biscuit helps them buy their uniforms, hold banquets, and anything else they need.

Check out their schedule on the Athletics section of effinghamcountyrebels.com.

Tennis netters gearing up for big season

Spring Sports coming soon...Soccer

BaseballTrackTennisGolf

Help us cover them.see mr. holtin room 816

8 Favs 01.23.09

Four Christmases too manyBY KATIE LACOSTEKLACOSTE@ECH-SPRESS.COM

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play Kate and Brad in the movie Four Christmases.

Kate and Brad are seen as the perfect couple. The movie displays them where they don’t fight, they do everything to-gether, and enjoy each others company.

The beginning shows though that it’s clear they don’t want to be married or have kids due to their par-ents’ marriges.

Kate and Brad had been together for three years but never meet the other’s par-

ents.On Christmas eve

their trip to Fiji (an annual trip they take at Christmas time) was cancled due to fog.

The first house was Brad’s dad’s and they weren’t exactly welcomed. They saw Brad as weak because he chose a career in-stead of fighting.

The second was Kate’s mom where the family did the classic pull-out-the-baby-and-childhood-pictures.

The third house was Brad’s mom’s and it was constant fighting, including between Brad and Kate, so they desided to leave early.

On the way to Kate’s dad’s house she told Brad she wanted to get married some-day but he didn’t want to listen so she told him to leave when they got to her dad’s.

Brad left back to his dad’s and realized she was right so he turned and around and came back to Kate.

They made up and a year later they were married and had a baby girl born on Jan. 1, at midnight.

So if you want a love story and comedy its the perfect movie

BY KRISTIN PAIRKPAIR@ECHSPRESS.COM

In 2005, Panic! At The Disco burst onto the teen-age music scene with their album, This Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.

Changing popular music forever with their catchy lyr-ics, orchestra-influenced mu-sic, fashionable cabaret in-spired wardrobe and concerts gone theatric, the boys quick-ly climbed charts. Returning once again, only without the exclamation point, Panic At The Disco’s teenage rock and roll circus presents to you their new album, Pretty Odd.

With assurances that they are in fact, still the same band,

this new album only adds to their fame with chart climb-ing songs like “Nine in the Afternoon” and “This Green Gentlemen.”

This CD truly speaks for itself, it is indeed, pretty odd.

But what else would one expect from the suit wearing boys from Vegas?

This CD is definitely worth your time. The titles are less wordy, the music a bit strang-er, but it’s still classic Panic and still completely circus.

So go pick up a copy at your local Hot Topic or Wal-Mart, or maybe even venture on to iTunes and buy it for your iPod All will be golden when you just take a listen to Pretty Odd.

The Ringmaster Returns