Environmental clubsets up recyclingBY MARENA COLE

This school now has single-stream recycling, according to senior Naomi Genuth.

“Single-stream recycling means you can mix paper, plas-tic, glass and anything else recy-clable in one bin,” Genuth said, who is an officer of the club with seniors Carissa Chan and Emily Denn.

“We want our school to be a greener place, and one great way

to do that is through recycling,” Genuth said.

The Environmental Club orga-nized a recycling system for this school, Genuth said.

Homerooms are now being asked to empty their small recy-cling bins into the larger green bins on Main Street. Anything that is recyclable can go in the bins, she said.

Additionally, the Environmen-tal Club will host the annual Envi-

roJam, a concert to raise money and environmental awareness, March 26 in the little theatre.Seniors pledgenot to tan before promBY MARENA COLE

Seniors are pledging to not tan before prom, according to Eliana Eskinazi, the class president.

“It is an incredible cause and it is important that people are educated to learn more about the consequences of tanning, and it is a great way to raise money for prom!” Eskinazi said.

BY HILARY BRUMBERG

Both the city and this school will host their annual events to honor the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. within the next week.

The English department co-ordinated the annual writing as-signment for sophomore English classes, according to English department head Tom Fabian.

Today, the honorable men-tions will be introduced and the winners will read their essays at an award ceremony in Lasker auditorium.

“This is really the kind of writing that needs an audience,” Fabian said. “It’s nice to have a contest just because it helps students get recognition for their writing skill.”

The project required students to choose a “personal hero and convince us that he or she em-bodied the spirit of Dr. King,” ac-cording to the assignment sheet created by English teachers.

The essays were judged on the quality of the writing and the writer’s ability to both make points and tell stories, according to Fabian.

This year ’s winners were Courtney Leahy, first place; Pa-mela Chen, second place; and Maleeka Pearson, third place.

Honorable mentions were Shelton Cochran, Clare Doolin, Jenny Hamilton, Evan Harris, Maggie Heffernan, Mira Netsky, Bethany Schubert, Hannah Stub-blefield-Tave and Fatema Zaidi.

Monday at 10 a.m., Our Lady Help of Christians church will host the 42nd annual citywide celebration, according to fine arts coordinator Richard King.

Mayor Setti Warren will be the guest of honor of the event.

Interim superintendent V. James Marini will introduce the students from this school, Big-elow and F. A. Day. The students will read reflections.

According to King, the Newton All City Honors Chorus Treble Singers, Newton South’s Haram-bee Gospel Choir and Myrtle Baptist Church’s The Love Tones will provide live music.

This event is co-sponsored by the City of Newton, the Founda-tion for Racial, Ethnic and Reli-gious Harmony and the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association.

Newtonite◆ Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 • Volume 88, Issue 16 Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Ave., Newtonville, Mass. 02460

Non-profit org.US postage paidNewton, Mass.Permit no. 55337

Pledging is part of Your Skin Is In, a contest sponsored by the Melanoma Foundation of New England.

Not tanning includes not in-tentionally laying out in the sun and using tanning beds, Eskinazi said.

“If 70 percent of our senior class, 322 students, pledge, we could win $500,” she said. “How-ever, if we can be the school with the highest percentage of pledges, we will win $1,000.

“Also, if we are one of the first

150 schools to have 70 percent of the class pledge, we will win two day passes to Six Flags, which will be raffled off.”

Any money the class wins will go towards the prom, she said.

Students have until February 14 to pledge. They can pledge online at http://www.melanoma-foundationne.org/skinpledge-form2010.php

Last year, over 70 percent of the Class of 2009 pledged not to tan and won $1,000 for the prom.

BY ELLEN SARKISIAN

Approximately half the furni-ture in this building will not move to the new school, said principal

Jennifer Price.“The furni-

ture may not be moved because it is damaged, broken or its quality is poor, or it does not meet the stan-dards of the fire code,” she said.

First, it will be considered

whether the item could be real-located, for example, to another school, Price said.

“Then, the city lets people know there are city items that are surplus, and people can purchase them,” she said.

“After that, it becomes the property of the contractors.”

The move will be completed by July 15, said English teacher Liana Kish, who is a co-chair of the Move Committee with special

education aide Mark Wadness.Price and department heads

are in the process of assigning spaces in the new building, and the city is in the process of pro-curing a mover, Kish said.

The Move Committee has at least one member from each department of the school, she said.

The staff is in the process of reviewing the inventory of items for each department and will confirm and revise the inventory lists as needed, she said.

The inventory lists, as well as the list of special items in each department, will be used to create a request for a proposal from moving companies, after which the moving company will be chosen, Kish said.

Heidi Black, the administrator of high school construction and strategic planning, will then meet with movers on the state contract list to talk about the scope of the job, she said.

“The lists will also be used to determine what furniture, fix-tures and equipment need to be

ordered,” Kish said. “A coding system will be cre-

ated to ensure that boxes are moved to the right place in the new building.”

Black has been meeting with all department heads to deter-mine which departments have specialty items that need to be moved, Kish said.

“Specialty movers will be hired as needed,” she said.

Each piece of furniture was labeled with a sticker: green means the item will be moved, tan means the item might be moved, red means it is not moving, not suitable for and or item does not meet code, and blue means it is a personal item, Kish said.

If items that will not be moved are personal items, staff may take them home.

For any remaining items, the city is required by law to go through the surplussing process, Kish said.

Consultants inventoried the furniture and labeled it according to its quality, Black said.

The city will have the mov-

ers in place by early spring, she said.

“Once we have movers in place, we will be able to speak more specifically and take them to meet the different people to speak to about the move,” Black said.

“For special equipment, for example fitness and career and tech equipment, the vendors will be contacted so a specialist can disassemble the equipment, the movers can transfer it to the new building and the specialist can reassemble it,” she said.

“There really will not be a need for specialty movers, other than to move chemicals.

“We will need to use vendors to disassemble equipment and then reassemble it, but there is virtu-ally no need to have a specialty mover. The regular movers can do most every move,” she said.

There will be approximately two purge days, when faculty can dispose of unneeded paper goods, each month starting in February until the end of the year, Kish said.

file photo

Jennifer Price

Look Inside the New Building — See Pages 8 and 9

Newtonhonorslife ofKing

Teddy Wenneker

“Mom Sketch”: Freshmen Ian Lund and Michaela Burla-Shulock portray distraught parents in “Freshman Cabaret” Friday, Jan. 9 in Lasker auditorium. See related stories on page 4.

Committee makes plans for move

in brief

opinion Friday, Jan. 15, 20102 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Pledgeagainsttanning

Students, faculty discuss midyear examsBY GEORGINA TEASDALE

At the end of second semes-ter, some teachers give midyear exams.

Students and teachers have varied opinions on whether stu-dents should take midyears. Faculty:

Tom Barry, history: “It may depend on the subject. It may be more critical in a foreign language class or math or sci-ence. I don’t personally give them, but I can see why some teachers do.”

Emilio Maz-zola, foreign language: “A couple years ago it used to be the case that all teachers gave midyears. Then we moved away from that.

“I didn’t like that. For a full year course, we’re always as-sessing anyway. I don’t see the advantage of them. It puts more stress on the teacher.

“I think for semester courses it’s appropriate, as a final.”

Gretchen Sandbach, math: “I’m not really fond of 10th grad-ers having midterms, because they have so many tests, but I think it helps students on the final because it gives them a midyear checkpoint.”Seniors:

Nik Klebanov: “It depends on the class. In a math class or an AP class, it helps students remember in-formation from the first two terms.”

G i l b e r t o Richardson: “I don’t think so. It puts more pressure on the student, and you’re forced to study everything from September to second semester. I think finals are enough.”

Yasmina Samaha: “I like mid-terms because as you’re learning material sometimes the units

aren’t connected, so it helps you remember them and keep up your skills at doing them.”Juniors:

Sam Blair: “It seems like a pretty good analysis of how the student is doing and how he is comprehending the information in the long run.”

Helen Gao: “Math classes should have midterms be-c a u s e u n i t s are very sepa-rate from each o t h e r. E n g -l i sh c lasses shouldn’t have midterms be-cause it’s not something you should have to review. I’m not sure about history or science.”

Ashley Luce: “It doesn’t really help me.”

Sarah Mead: “They don’t treat them like finals, so there’s less preparation time and you start third term with a big test.”Sophomores:

Robert Babbit: “I think they’re an important part of making sure students are up to date with the material.”

Justin Keefe: “I guess they should give midterms, but I don’t really like them. You have enough tests during the year.”

Zach Levin: “Teachers should give midyears, so kids can re-member what they learned at the beginning of the year.”

Katherine Rogers: “There is some use in a midterm because it gives the student incentive to review and make study notes that help with the final but it’s a large source of stress.”

Emma Rosenfield: “It prepares us for finals, and it’s better to have more grades to get the aver-age for the term.”Freshmen:

Maya Ingram: “I think they should be less stressful and we should just review the material.”

Devon Lamm: “I think teach-ers shouldn’t give midyears. Finals test you on everything, so you shouldn’t have to take a second test.”

Learning languages in China BY SHENGNAN WANG

When our Chinese exchange group came here, almost ev-eryone was surprised by our English.

In fact, we still have problems in the language, but it seems that our English is good enough as we are foreigners.

In China, kids take English class since the third grade, and more and more kids start learn-ing English even earlier.

Such as me, I had English class since I was in kindergarten! At schools, English is one of the most important subjects.

Although students are divided in two types, science and liberal arts at high school, both of them will take an English test in the university entrance tests.

It means all Chinese students must learn English at least for nine years.

It is also important in the uni-versity entrance test, therefore everyone wants to do well in it, as almost everyone spends a lot of time to work on it.

There are no second foreign classes at Chinese schools. As we have already paid a lot of atten-

tion in English, there are not so many people who want to learn another one—it is too hard and stressful!

In fact, parents in China don’t want their child to learn another foreign language.

Because they think it is hard to be fluent in English, students just concentrate on studying English instead of learning more languages.

We must learn English as a for-eign language. From the Chinese point of view, once you learn a language, you should learn it as well as you can.

And English is useful in the world. In the United States, stu-dents always start learning one or more foreign languages at middle school—while I have al-ready learned English for almost seven years.

There are also various choices for Americans. Students have more choices and more freedom, but they have less time to study and their level will be lower at the same time.

Now it easier to understand why Americans are surprised by our English—we spend much more time and pay much more effort in English.

Although Chinese and English are in the different language sys-tems and English is not easy, we still make much progress.

It is just because of our effort, not because we are geniuses or English is easier than Chinese. Chinese is not that hard if you’re hardworking and determined. Good luck! Enjoy learning Chi-nese.

Newtonian

Yasmina Samaha

Newtonian

Sarah Mead

There’s nothing more sat-isfying than a win-win situ-ation.

By pledging to not tan be-fore prom this year, there’s the perfect opportunity to take advantage of one.

Through the “Your Skin is In” contest sponsored by the Melanoma Foundation of New England, our school can win money that goes directly to the cost of the prom.

It can make a large and lasting impact for you and our school.

Really, though, it depends on all you seniors.

If 70 percent of the class pledges not to tan, we could reap in $500 for prom. But that’s not all. We can double that amount if we can get the highest percentage of pledges the quickest.

Sure, you may have to sur-render that sun-kissed look, but you still have benefits that lie ahead.

On the health side of the issue, you avoid the risk of developing a serious form of skin cancer, such as mela-noma.

Answer this. Would you rather make the popular choice or the smarter choice in the long run?

Through the contest, our school can show how con-scious people are becoming of their own health.

In addition, the extra mon-ey can contribute to a great senior prom for the Class of 2010.

The Newtonite, founded in 1922, is the newspaper of Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Ave., Newtonville, Mass. 02460.

The Newtonite staff does all the reporting, production work and photography to produce 16 issues a year for a circulation of 2,500.

To place an ad in the Newtonite or contact us by phone, please call 617-559-6274. Yearly subscriptions cost $20. Readers can also reach us at thenewtonite@gmail.com.

To find the Newtonite online go to www.thenewtonite.com.

Newtonite

Editors in chief — Eli Davidow, Matt Kalish, Ellen SarkisianManaging editor — Prateek AllapurNews editor — Marena ColeSports editors — Meredith Abrams, Josh BakanArts editor — Alicia ZhaoFeatures editor — Jay KriegerOn campus editor — Olivia StearnsNews analysis editor — Georgina TeasdalePhotography editors — Shira Bleicher, Gaby Perez-Dietz, Teddy WennekerProduction managers — Max Fathy, Ben HillsAdvertising managers — Chris Keefe, Jack McLaughlinBusiness manager — Chris WelchCirculation managers — Caleb Gannon, Dan SalvucciExchanges editor — Peter Taber-SimonianAdviser — Kate Shaughnessy

Production advisers — Sue Brooks, Tom DonnellanNews staff — Ilana Greenstein, Rebecca Harris, Stephen Michael, Rebecca OranFeatures staff — Emmett Greenberg, Jacob BrunellSports staff — Evan Clements, Nicole Curhan, Jeremy GurvitsArts staff — Eliana Eskinazi, Kate Lewis, Fatema ZaidiNews analysis staff — Kellynette GomezArt staff — Julia Belamarich, Puloma Ghosh, Anna Kaertner, Maia Levoy, Stephen Lu, Maddie MacWilliams, Hannah Schon Photography staff — Helen Gao, Anna Gargas, Jaryd Justice-Moote, Edan Laniado, Jesse Tripathi, Matt VictorCirculation staff — Spencer Alton, Alison Berkowitz, Stoddard Meigs, Omar Pinkhasov, Michela Salvucci, Stephanie VitoneProduction staff — Graham Stanton

Teddy Wenneker

Clock strikes midnight: Freshman Ellie Wenneker throws confetti over Times Square as the new decade begins.

LettersReaders are invited to submit guest articles and letters to the editor. Letters should be put in the Newtonite box in Beals House or emailed to thenewtonite@gmail.com. The Newtonite reserves the right to edit all letters, which must have the writer’s name, class and homeroom. The Newtonite serves as a forum for student opinion.

Newtonian

Tom Barry

editorial

guest column

newsFriday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 3

Charlene Beh wins Meserve for teachingBY MARENA COLE

For English teacher Charlene Beh, this year’s winner of the Charles Dana Meserve Award for excellence in teaching, students are her biggest inspiration.

“My students are very influen-tial, because I see them everyday and because they make me re-think what I do,” Beh said.

“When they ask me questions or show me something I can do differently, that has a huge impact.”

Currently, Beh teaches junior and senior English classes, and Creative Writing to juniors and seniors. She is also an adviser of the Asian Culture Club.

Beh graduated from Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wap-pingers Falls, New York in 1992.

She earned a Bachelor’s in English from Yale in 1996, and a Master’s in teaching from Har-vard in 1998, where she did her teaching at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. She came to North in 1999.

Beh said that literature has al-ways been one of her passions, so teaching was a natural choice.

“I’ve always loved English,” she said. “I’ve always loved talk-ing about books. I had this degree in English and wanted to keep working with literature.

“Teaching at a high school seemed like a good mix of being

Senior named outstanding tech student of the year

Watch senior PRATEEK ALLAPUR

star inShakespeare

Room 311E-block

able to work with adolescents and literature that I enjoy.”

English department head Tom Fabian said that Beh’s deep criti-cal understanding of literature makes her a great teacher.

“That critical understanding is really the result of a striking

intelligence, and she uses it to open up books for students,” Fabian said.

“She’s tough, and she’s funny, too. That’s really what you need to be a good teacher.

“She really brings just a re-markable awareness about what

she’s teaching and the students to whom she is teaching it. She shows a clear commitment to making sure every student knows what’s important.”

One of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching are the con-versations that classes have, Beh said.

“After a good class, I can see something new in a book that I might have already taught five or six times already.

“Also, I love being able to work with students to improve their writing. Watching them revise it and it being that much more powerful is always really rewarding.

“It’s also great that I get to know 80 people—80 minds and 80 personalities—every year.”

Dedicated students also make teaching enjoyable, she said.

“For the most part, people here are motivated, smart and invested in their learning,” she said.

“I’m always impressed by the vast number of extracurricular activities that students are in-volved in here.”

An enjoyable memory of teach-ing for Beh is a discussion a class had about The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

“In a sophomore class I had five or six years ago, people got really, really interested, and we had really good conversation for

a class and a half.“Somebody started with say-

ing that they felt the represen-tation of men in the book was problematic, and we ended up having an extended conversation about gender, sexuality, race and class.

Another fond memory is of a unique present students gave her.

“One of my sophomore classes gave me a pair of sneakers at the end of the year,” Beh said. “They were a great group, inter-esting, motivated, enthusiastic, and throughout the year I felt really blessed to have them as students.

“That they wanted to get me something as a class and that they picked these really cool, stylish sneakers just blew me away.

“I’ve held onto this pair of sneakers for eight or nine years now, and when I’ve had a bad day, I’ll sometimes just go and take a peek at them to cheer myself up.”

One of Beh’s favorite books to teach is Their Eyes Were Watch-ing God by Zora Neale Hurston.

“I really enjoy the personal and creative writing that students do around it,” she said.

“They may not all love the book, but I feel like the conversa-tions we have around it are really good.”

Teddy Wenneker

“My students are very influential, because I see them everyday and because they make me rethink what I do,” says English teacher Charlene Beh.

BY MATT KALISH

Senior Tal Shemesh has won the Career and Vocational Tech-nical Education Outstanding Student of the Year Award.

Shemesh is currently a Design and Visual Communications major. She was nominated by Design and Visual Communica-tions teacher Sue Brooks for her outstanding creativity, hard work and moral characteristics.

“In the sense of moral char-acteristics, Tal inspires through example,” Brooks said. “She is a natural leader.

“For the last few years I have had the privilege of watching her grow and show her leadership in class.

“At one point in her junior year, the class was doing a project where we had to meet deadlines, and it was on a Friday afternoon that I realized the class wasn’t in good shape to meet the dead-lines,” she said.

“Tal came into my room after school that day and told me she couldn’t start her weekend off the way that class ended and asked me what she could do to help.

“That next Monday, she came in with eight of the most beauti-ful sketches I have ever seen, and when they were turned in the client asked for no changes, something that rarely happens.”

Shemesh said she initially de-cided to take Design and Visual Communications because it com-bined drawing and computers, both of which she loves.

“Throughout the years I’ve taken it, it has become my favor-

ite class, and a kind of haven to me,” she said. “It’s somewhere I can learn more about my chosen career, not only graphic design, but the business aspects as well.

“I love the class because it’s run very much like a small busi-ness firm with real clients, and actual deadlines so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing work for grades, but for a legitimate purpose.

“Ms. Brooks has taught me so many things aside from De-sign—life lessons that I’m posi-tive have me more prepared for the future.

“In the end, Design and Visual Communications is just another example of the opportunities Newton North has presented me with.”

Four other seniors were nomi-nated for this award: Automotive Technology major Joseph Kiddie, Culinary Arts major Amanda Lau, Carpentry major Ricky Lu and Technology/Engineering major Daniel Smith.

“Each one of our students goes through a rigorous interview process, and unfortunately only one can come away a winner,” said Diana Robbins, career and vocational technical education department head.

“Receiving a nomination re-flects the caliber of work ethic, leadership and commitment that each one of these students shows,” she said.

To become the Career and Vocational Technical Educational Outstanding Student of the Year, Robbins said, nominees must

◆ have a 3.5 cumulative av-

erage◆ have good attendance◆ demonstrate technical com-

petence in their career fields◆ have career and technical

education-related work experi-ence

◆ possess leadership quali-ties

◆ have demonstrated respect for human differences, and

◆ be involved in their com-munity and in extracurricular activities.

Automotive teacher Paul Wag-ner nominated Kiddie for his outstanding attitude and his willingness to help others.

“Any time there is a chal-lenging job to be done, our first thought is that Joe and his team are the ones for the job,” Wagner said. “Joe’s most outstanding quality is his attitude and willing-ness to help others.”

Culinary Arts teacher Lisa McKinney nominated Lau for her dependability and class par-ticipation.

“Amanda is by far one of the highest ranking students in culi-nary,” McKinney said. “She won the outstanding student award in both her sophomore and ju-nior year and participates in many events,” among them being ‘Death by Chocolate,’ a competi-tion and fundraiser for the Rotary Club, she said.

Carpentry teacher Garrett Tingle nominated Lu for his tre-mendous progress and ability to overcome obstacles.

“He is a highly skilled and dili-gent student who helps out fellow

students purely because it’s the right thing to do,” Tingle said. “He is a doer, not a talker.”

“More than a few adults have stopped me in the hall and told me how great Ricky is, and as a teacher I have to take notice of that.”

Technology and Engineering teacher, Scott Rosenhahn nomi-nated Smith for his passion for

robotics and engineering.“Dan is one of the most active

members on Ligerbots, the New-ton robotics team, and travels to every competition,” Rosenhahn said.

“He is always the first to step up and volunteer.”◆ MARENA COLE CONTRIBUTED TO THIIS STORY.

Shira Bleicher

Outstanding Student of the Year: Interim superintendent V. James Marini presents senior Tal Shemesh with her award.

Advertisement

arts Friday, Jan. 15, 20104 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Freshmen discover talents in Theatre Ink

‘Freshman Cabaret’ filled withspontaneity, humor, creativity

Gaby Perez-Dietz

Freshmen in theatre: Sierra Beatrice, Sydney Appelbaum, Alex Gribov, Nick Rodriguez and Meagan Crowley act in a skit during “Freshman Cabaret.”

Newtonian

MaddieCetlin

BY AUDREY DEROBERT

With its affectionate nickname “Froshcab,” “Freshman Cabaret” is Theatre Ink’s only all-fresh-man show—filled with songs and some original sketches, Facebook and phobias, Monty Python and lots and lots of freshman talent.

Sophomore Maddie Ce-tlin, who co-directed with sophomores Caleb Brom-berg, Pamela Chen and So-nya Douglas, said the show is “really all about youth.”

“It’s about being young and in love,” she said.

Included in “Froshcab” were songs such as “Unwritten” by

It doesn’t end there, how-ever: two freshmen are in “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller and another 15 will perform in the school musical “Cabaret.”

Some of the freshmen who have been immersed in theater this year are Eliza Burr, Ella Cohen and Lexi Dissanayake.

W h i l e a l l three are in “ F r o s h c a b , ” B u r r a l s o worked back-stage in “Cal-igula” and will play a role in “Cabaret,” and Dissanayake juggled three minor roles in “Caligula.”

All three said that they love being a part of Theatre Ink. Dis-sanayake likes that it’s “a lot

Natasha Bedingfield, “We Are Golden” by Mika and “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” from the Disney movie Hercules.

In addition, the directors cho-reographed and wrote several of these sketches and dances.

This year’s cast consisted of a “whopping 47 freshmen,” Cetlin said.

“Some of them have never done Theatre Ink, or even theatre at all, but they’re so talented,” Cetlin said.

Bromberg also exclaimed, “We were expecting a small village, not this whole city of freshmen!

“So many of them are going to keep performing.”

Six freshmen already have, with roles in “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, “Twentieth Century” by Ken Ludwig and “Caligula” by Albert Camus.

more professional” and that it “feels more real,” while Cohen cites the “really good directors,” “more talent” and “more dedica-tion” as what she likes about the program.

“It’s a family—a very talented family,” Cohen said.

“You go to the shows and you just leave feeling awed. I want to do that; I want to awe people.”

However, all three girls agree that fewer freshmen tend to be cast in Theatre Ink shows com-pared to upperclassmen.

Cohen said that this happens because freshmen have less ex-perience.

“Upperclassmen have more experience both in Theatre Ink and outside of it,” Cohen said.

“I think that does make it harder for freshmen to be a part of Theatre Ink.”

Additionally, Adam Brown, director of Theatre Ink, said that

there are fewer freshmen who audition for shows compared to upperclassmen, so it makes sense that fewer freshmen have roles.

Besides that, he said that sometimes freshmen are not as prepared for mature roles, have less experience or do not have strong auditioning skills.

Still, “We try not to look at age or class,” he said.

“In each show you have fresh-men, sophomores, juniors and se-niors all in the show together.”

To those freshmen who haven’t yet been cast, Brown gives this advice: “Go to workshops and seek me out for feedback,” he said.

“Find out what worked and what didn’t so you’ll be stronger when you come back.”

The Class of 2013 has some serious talent.

These future stars of Theatre Ink are ready to awe.

Newtonian

Caleb Bromberg

Teddy Wenneker

Singing: Freshman Madeline Murphy solos during “Freshman Cabaret,” which went on stage last Thursday and Friday.

BY PERRIN STEIN

A class of small children sat on the stage as freshman Julia Belkin taught them the first thing about singing from The Sound of Music. “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” Belkin began. “When you read you begin with, ‘ABC,’ when you sing you begin with...”

Then, the curtains opened, the lighting immediately changed to red and the entire cast broke into a rendition of “Thriller” by Michael Jackson.

The surprising opening set the mood for “Freshman Cabaret,” which went on stage Thurs-day, Jan. 7 and Friday, Jan. 8 in Lasker auditorium. The directors, sophomores Caleb Bromberg, Maddie Cetlin, Pamela Chen and Sonya Douglas, worked with 47 freshmen to put on the show, which featured skits, songs and dances.Skits

“Thug Life,” a clever skit by Bromberg, incorporated stereo-types to garner laughs from the audience. Andy Frank played a thug bullying a group of “los-ers.” Every time he bullied them, his targets would respond with comebacks that amused the au-dience.

Written by Douglas, “Singles

Night” began with Katie Wu dra-matically talking about how her horoscope said she was going to meet a special guy. After Wu’s monologue, Mauve Sockwell walked on stage and told Wu about how she met her special guy at Whole Foods’ “Singles Night.” Sockwell then used ac-centuated arm movements to tell her story engagingly.Songs

Another highlight was “Un-written” by Natasha Bedingfield. With strong, clear voices, Mi-chaela Berla-Shulock and Anna Nemetz alternated the verses while other girls sang and danced in the background, livening up the song.

A group of girls sweetly sang “We Are Golden” by Mika. Dur-ing the song, Kristian Sumner sauntered to the front of the stage and announced, as if through a megaphone: “We are not what you think we are. We are golden.” These lyrics sent across the mes-sage that teenagers are all special in their own way. At this point, the cast’s energy level was so conta-gious, the audience responded to the performance with cheers and applause.

DancesSkilled tap dancers took the

stage for a performance of “Love Me Two Times” by The Doors. The song was upbeat as the dancers used short, accentuated taps to represent this cheerful excitement.

One of the most impressive acts, “DotA” by Basshunter rever-berated through the auditorium as dancers stood behind a large bed sheet, only their silhouettes visible. Suddenly, the sheet was ripped down and boys in strik-ing, multicolored shirts started dancing to the pulsing music. The boys performed a variety of movements that had the audience laughing, such as holding rifles in an assembly line, as if to hunt zombies, and ripping off their white shirts to showcase their colored ones.

The show ended the same way it began: with enthusiastic spon-taneity. Groups of girls and boys alternated to sing the song “Kid Inside” by Craig Carnelia before the lighting changed to red and the entire cast began doing an abridged version of “Thriller.”

Ending in full circle, “Fresh-man Cabaret” displayed the talents of this year’s freshmen through the theme of growing up.

review

artsFriday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 5

BY ALICIA ZHAO

Nineteen students from this school took part in the 2010 Mass. Music Education Association Eastern District Senior Festival Saturday at Boston Latin.

The fact that these students were selected is very significant, said fine and performing arts de-partment head Todd Young.

“The competition has a fairly

Writerlectures on jazzhistory

Jubilee Singers to perform Jan. 23

BY ALICIA ZHAO

With 18 members, this school’s “Cabaret Troupe” performs a va-riety of contemporary musical theatre, said sen ior Hay-ley Travers, a director with junior Kel ly McIntyre and sophomore Jon Paul Roby.

“There is a sketch com-edy troupe, an improv troupe, and now we are happy to say, a contemporary cabaret troupe,” Travers said.

The troupe performs music written within the last 10 years, Travers said.

“What has been so great about having a contemporary repertoire is that some of the music we per-form is composed by students in college,” she said.

“The lyrics they write speak so clearly to what we, as high school students, experience.”

Not only do the pieces range from solos and duets to small group collaborations, “the show also has some really exciting

Students direct new musical troupe

19 students participate in districts festival

small percentage of acceptance and it is a real honor to be ac-cepted,” Young said.

According to Young, the music department originally sent more than 30 students to the auditions in December.

“Compared to last year, more students auditioned this year,” Young said.

“To me, that was the real ex-citing part—having the students take that risk and really perse-vere.”

In addition, 10 of the accepted students received a recommenda-tion to audition for the All State competition.

These students are: seniors Paul Batchelor, CC Holm, Wil-liam Richards, Camilla Shearman and Hayley Travers, juniors Ellen Goldberg, Carissa Lin and John McGaffey, and sophomores Laura Cooke and Rosie Sokolov.

“To me, that was the real exciting part—having the stu-dents take that risk and really persevere. ”

numbers involving the whole cast,” Travers said.

“All the songs have to do with the struggles we face in high school, whether it be a comic situ-ation or something with a little more depth,” she said.

According to Travers, Mc-Intyre decided to create the troupe.

“She had a fantastic vision to have a group of great musicians as well as actors to perform con-temporary musical theater, which is not often used in a high school setting,” Travers said.

After this, the directors began holding auditions.

“We were looking for more than just a great voice,” she said. “We were looking for someone that could truly connect to the piece they were performing.”

Having settled on its members, Travers said that the troupe plans to have two shows this year.

The troupe was to have de-buted yesterday, and the second performance is still being deter-mined, Travers said.

For the future, Travers hopes for the troupe to put on their own weekend shows as well as small workshops.

Newtonian

Hayley Travers

Gaby Perez-Dietz

Belting out: Senior Corey Robins rehearses with the rest of the rest of the ‘Cabaret Troupe’ for their first performance.

BY MARENA COLE

Contrary to popular belief, Newton has a rich jazz history, according to Bob Blumenthal,

“Newton doesn’t come to mind when the subject is jazz,” Blumenthal said. “Many people don’t think there’s much of a jazz history here.”

Blumenthal, a Grammy award-winning author and journalist, gave a presentation here last Thursday, Jan. 7 on the Newton connection to jazz history as a part of the Huntington Lecture Series.

One musician Blumenthal dis-cussed was Steve Kuhn, a pianist. Kuhn was born in 1938 in Brook-lyn, but grew up in Newton.

Kuhn went on to perform in New York with various acts, Blu-menthal said.

“He was the first pianist in John Coltrane’s band,” he said. “He played with Stan Getz and with Art Farmer.”

Blumenthal played Kuhn’s 1984 solo version of “Airegin,” a Sonny Rollins composition.

“I thought it gave a great ex-ample of Steve’s sound, his beau-tiful touch, his melodic instincts and his technique.”

The piece was intricate and fast-paced, displaying Kuhn’s technical abilities as a pianist as well as his improvisational abilities.

Blumenthal then talked about two of Kuhn’s classmates: Dick Sudhalter, a trumpet player who was also born in 1938, and Roger Kellaway, a pianist who was born in 1939.

“They all attended Newton High at the same time, before there was a North or a South,” Blumenthal said.

Sudhalter, who died in 2008, is primarily remembered for three books that he wrote, Blumenthal said.

“He wrote a book called Bix: Man and Legend, which was the first extended and serious study of the legendary cornetist Bix Biederbecke.

“He also wrote a book about Hoagie Carmichael, and he wrote a fairly controversial book a couple of years ago called Lost Chords: White Musicians and their Contributions to Jazz, 1915-1945.”

Kellaway has played around the country, but has spent the ma-jority of his career in Hollywood scoring films, Blumenthal said.

“In the jazz world, he is per-haps most known for a group he had called the Roger Kellaway Cello Quartet.

“It was a piano trio with cello added, and it was an early attempt to synthesize jazz and classical music within one ensemble.”

A piano solo from one of his compositions, “Remembering You,” was played at the end of every episode of All in the Family, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal played “I’m Smil-ing Again,” a recording from 1998. The piece was written by Kellaway and featured Sudhalter on trumpet. Sudhalter soloed expressively with Kellaway play-ing underneath, and together they had a sound that felt as if it came right out of a New Orleans jazz club.

Gaby Perez-Dietz

At rehearsal: Jubilee Singers prepare for their upcoming concert “Never Alone,” which will be next Saturday, Jan. 23.

Newtonian

Sheldon Reid

BY ALICIA ZHAO

With themes of struggle, sor-row, triumph and praise, the Jubilee Singers will present a wide variety of African diasporic music, said music teacher Shel-don Reid, its director.

“As usual there will also be a focus on the importance of com-munity,” Reid said.

“Our message is that no mat-ter what you are going through, you can make it.

“You are not alone. You are a part of something greater.”

Jubilee’s annual winter con-

cert, titled “Never Alone,” will be next Satur-day, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. in Lasker auditorium.

Music selec-tions will range from spirituals such as “Some-t imes I Feel Like a Moth-erless Child,” contemporary gospel such as “Friend” by Is-rael Houghton, classical hymns

such as “Amazing Grace,” and Reid’s original compositions.

The concert will also feature the Harambee Choir from South as a special guest.

Reid said that he hopes for the concert to “not only be fun, but a source of encouragement for those going through hard times.”

“We hope to see everyone there, as it is the last Jubilee win-ter concert in this building and we want it to be a big celebration with all our friends,” he said.

Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults. They are available in the music office, from any Jubi-lee member and from Reid.

“We hope to see everyone there, as it is the last Jubilee winter concert in this building and we want

it to be a big celebration with all our friends.”

Sheldon Reid

Todd Young

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on campusFriday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 7

Program aims to aid development in Rwanda BY OLIVIA STEARNS

Education is a key component in the development of low-in-come nations, said Kerry Ann Dobies, ’03.

“Rwanda is a small country with a dense population,” Dobies said. “As a post-genocide country they are still greatly in need of aid.”

Dobies attended George Wash-ington University with a major in international development.

In 2008 Dobies went to Rwanda to help teach at the Maranyundo School for Girls, which opened that year.

“The first class of girls had 60 students and the second had 120,” she said “Next year we plan on having at least 180 girls.”

In addition to teaching the girls English, Dobies runs the basketball team and the art and health clubs.

“I also do what I can to take part in charity activities in the community,” she said.

The school is a tuition-free boarding school for high school girls from low-income families. Each student is chosen based

Parent says choicescan affect familiesBY JOSH BAKAN

The flyer reads, “She was no different than any of you. Her friends were no different from your friends. They just made ter-rible choices and bad decisions one night.”

Taylor Lee Meyer was a se-nior at King Phillip Regional High School in Wrentham who drowned on Oc-tober 17, 2008 while under the influence of al-cohol.

Her mother, Kathi Meyer, discussed the i m p o r t a n c e that choices and their ef-fects have on family Friday, Dec. 18 in the little theatre.

“Taylor was as strong a human being as you will ever meet,” Meyer said.

“She had a strong personal-ity. She held confidence with every step she took. But just like any of you, she thought she was invincible.”

Before Meyer presented, Nan-cy Holczer, chair of The Newton Partnership’s Safe Rides Task Force, presented the Safe Rides program.

Safe Rides can be used “when you are in a position where you don’t have an opportunity to get home,” Holczer said.

“If you and your parents fill out the permission slip, we provide

a free confidential taxi cab ride home,” she said. “You are all loved by people who want you to get home safely.”

Meyer recommended contact-ing your parents when you don’t have a safe way to get home, even if you’ll be in trouble with them.

“Make that phone call,” Meyer said. “They might be mad at you the next day, but there will be a next day. You have no idea how much a part of your parents’ and family’s life you are.

“Whenever you think your friend isn’t where they should be, please make the call to their parents.”

Poor choices can negatively affect anyone, whether they are aware or not, Meyer said.

“You always think ‘not me,’” Meyer said. “‘It could never hap-pen to me or my friends.’

“Taylor had a good life ahead of her. I turn on the car and talk to her, and I’m the only one talk-ing.

“Taylor’s brother Zack said at her funeral, ‘Mom, I talk to her more now than I did when she was alive.’”

Logan, her other brother, “said he misses how she woke him up every single morning,” Meyer said. “You don’t realize how the little things affect your family.

“I want you to look up here at me and see your loved ones,” Meyer said.

Safe Ride permission forms are available in every house office and once signed can be returned to house secretaries.

on her Rwandan National Exam scores and her family’s financial need.

The school is funded entirely by individual American donors, Dobies said.

After talking about the school itself, she showed a timeline that explained the history of Rwanda.

“As far back as 1000 AD there were two differing religious groups: the Hutus who made up the majority of the people, and the Tutsis, who were the minor-ity,” Dobies said.

In 1962, when Rwanda re-ceived its independence from Belgium, the Hutus took power and the Tutsis fled the country, she said.

From April to July of 1994, the Rwandan government killed 800,000 Tutsis.

“It was an incredibly orga-nized and fast movement,” said Dobies.

In the aftermath of the geno-cide, neither the United Nations nor the United States intervened to support the remaining Tutsi people, she said.

“Sixteen years later, the coun-try is still physically, economi-cally and emotionally destroyed,” she said.

Dobies explained that the av-erage life expectancy in Rwanda is 50 years and that 40 percent of children in Rwanda suffer from malnutrition.

“The girls that attend the school are all really appreciative,” she said.

“They all understand how significant it is that they have the opportunity to be there.”

The Maranyundo School pro-vides a safe environment for the girls to learn, Dobies said.

“We hope that they grow into the next generation of Rwandan leaders,” she said.

After the presentation, Dobies gave the audience a list of ways that they could get involved to help:

◆ Stay current and keep oth-ers knowledgeable

◆ Get involved in groups that promote human rights

◆ Fundraise or donate◆ Send old or used books to

help the children learn to read.

Subscribe to the Newtonite!

Call Alison Berkowitz and Caleb Gannonat 617-559-6274

Teddy Wenneker

On Campus: Kerry Ann Dobies spoke about a project she took part in that aims to increase education in Rwanda. She made a presentation Tuesday, Dec. 22 in the film lecture hall.

www.parent-child.orgThe Learning Center36 Philip Darch Road, Watertown, MA 02472

Soaring to SuccessThrough Books and Play...

The Parent-ChildHome Program

Since 1965

family photo

Taylor Meyer

Friday, Jan. 15, 20108 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Inside the new North...

Naming Committee to suggesttitles for places in new school Building will be ready

for school in September BY MATT KALISH

The new building will be ready in September for the start of school, said Heidi Black, the administrator of high school construction and strategic planning.

“Everything right now is going on schedule,” she said. “Flooring, painting, the pool, mechanics and plumb-ing are just some of the things being worked on right now.

“As of now, the pool is probably the least furthest along, as it was started later in the overall schedule, but it is still on schedule and we foresee no issues with the pool or anything else.”

She said that there are no problems in the construction of the building. “We are expecting that the building will be ready to turn over to the city in either May or June,” Black said.According to chief operating officer Bob Rooney, the building is around $6.5 million under the allotted budget,

$197.5 million.

Karen Giovannucci

Inside the building: Graphics teacher Tom Donnellan and assistant principal Deborah Holman stand inside the Early Childhood Education and Care kitchen area.

courtesy Amy Winston

In the hall: Principal Jennifer Price, math department head Cindy Bergan, career and vocational technical education department head Diana Robbins, world language department head Nancy Marrinucci and director of Plowshares childcare Jo Carpino look at the new space.

BY PRATEEK ALLAPUR

A ll members of the school community can submit suggestions for names

for the new school’s ceremonial entrance, according to principal Jennifer Price.

The School Committee has authorized the creation of a Nam-ing Committee, which is respon-sible for recommending names for particular places in the new building.

“The Naming Committee has suggested the name ‘Tiger Drive,’ so the address for the new school would be ‘One Tiger Drive,” Price said.

Suggestions for the ceremo-nial entrance may be submitted through the school’s library web-site at http://nnhs.newton.k12.ma.us/library.

The submissions will be open until Tuesday at 9 a.m., Price said.

At 12 p.m. that day, there will be a poll on the library website to decide between the suggested names, she said.

“This is something we’re trying to do quickly, as the School Com-mittee and the aldermen need to approve the name,” she said.

History department head Jon Bassett and senior Eliana Eskinazi head the Naming Committee.

“We want to keep a lot of the existing names, but we might put them in different places,” Eskinazi said.

The committee will also be exploring the idea of designating a single place in the new building in which to honor long-serving faculty.

According to Eskinazi, the Naming Committee only has the power to make recommendations about names and places to the School Committee, which will be in charge of making all the final decisions.

“In order to help with deciding which names should be kept and which new ones should be adopt-ed, we will be rolling out a survey in a few weeks, in which people can suggest appropriate names for places in the new school,” Es-kinazi said.

According to Bassett, the Nam-ing Committee hopes to submit its recommendations to the School Committee sometime this spring.

“However, we want to ensure

that we are doing a good job, there-fore we won’t rush ourselves and we will take our time,” he said.

“We are also interested in do-ing more to explain and publicize names of places and the people they are named after.”

Bassett said that the only re-striction for suggesting names to the committee is that the suggested person cannot currently be a New-ton employee.

“However, it is also recom-mended that the suggested person have a long history of association with Newton North,” he said.

According to Bassett, the nam-ing committee is expecting to preserve most, if not all of the

existing names of places in the current building.

“However, since we techni-cally just recommend names to the School Committee, the final decisions on locations in the new building will be made by the School Committee once they have received our recommendations,” Bassett said.

The other members of the Nam-ing Committee are former princi-pal Jennifer Huntington, commu-nity member and archaeological photographer Peter Vanderwarker, athletic director Tom Guisti, fine and performing arts department head Todd Young and North parent Rhonda Willinger.

Jacob Schwartz

Dedications: Plaques name the Lasker auditorium and Reggie Smith gymnasium. Names in the new school are to be decided.

Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆9

Inside the new North... Murals in cafeteria to be saved,

others will be photographed

Building will be ready for school in September

BY KAYLA SHORE

Brilliant oranges, deep emeralds and cool blues adorn the once empty

canvasses that fill the halls of the building. The murals that give life to this building’s walls will be torn down this summer with the rest of the school. Photographs will be the only relics of the school’s vibrant murals.

Only the two large paintings in the cafeteria, completed by Work Progress Administration artists and Elli Crocker, will be preserved. Art teacher Sandra Truant is in charge of preserving about 100 other murals around the school by photographing and cataloging them with the name and gradua-tion year of each artist.

“We’ve enjoyed these murals for 20 years, and they have made our building much more lively and have given personality to it,” Tru-ant said. “We’ll always have fond memories of these murals.

“I would like to create a map, showing the location and image of each mural similar to the maps mu-seums have,” Truant explained.

Since 1990, Truant has presided over the creation of the murals.

Graduating Art Major 4—and sometimes Art Major 3—stu-dents pitched their ideas and went through a critiquing process with their classmates before they painted the murals, she said.

Before the murals were painted, Truant said she and the students presented their ideas and sketches to the principal and staff before starting the paintings.

Truant said she was set on cre-ating superb art.

Throughout the years, the mu-rals have had different themes, such as dance in 2001 and women in 2002. Sometimes they provide social commentary, like the image of one colorful, lively tree against a deadened cityscape. Others pay tribute to the way artists in the past have portrayed the human figure.

The murals themselves convey a lot about the artist and so do their locations, Truant said.

“They reflect where and how the students placed themselves in the building,” she said.

In 2005, students began paint-ing their murals on canvas so that they could then be transported to the new school.

However, two were stolen off the walls and the decision was made to wait until the move was made to resume painting. Cur-rently graduating Art Majors are painting self-portraits in place of the mural project.

The murals have become an integral and defining part of the school. Divya Akhouri ’02, who painted one of the murals, was saddened when she thought about the destruction of the mural she and a classmate, Becca Herskovitz ’02, had poured so much time and hard work into creating.

“We spent basically all of our free time sitting in that hallway and painting,” Akhouri recalled fondly. At first, Akhouri had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that her mural would be lost with the school.

“When I first thought about the school being torn down, I thought

about going to the school and go-ing to get my piece of wall,” admit-ted Akhouri.

What will last for Akhouri, be-sides her photo of the mural, are the memories of painting it. “I’ll be sad, but the experience was great,” said Akhouri.

“The thing about public art is that sometimes it has a life span,” noted Slattery. “I look forward to having the new murals in the new school.”

Much will be lost with the cur-rent murals’ destruction, but the beauty of the new murals will give new Newton North a life of its own.

BY MATT KALISH

The new building will be ready in September for the start of school, said Heidi Black, the administrator of high school construction and strategic planning.

“Everything right now is going on schedule,” she said. “Flooring, painting, the pool, mechanics and plumb-ing are just some of the things being worked on right now.

“As of now, the pool is probably the least furthest along, as it was started later in the overall schedule, but it is still on schedule and we foresee no issues with the pool or anything else.”

She said that there are no problems in the construction of the building. “We are expecting that the building will be ready to turn over to the city in either May or June,” Black said.According to chief operating officer Bob Rooney, the building is around $6.5 million under the allotted budget,

$197.5 million.

Shira Bleicher

“Womyn” by Troy Dunlap ’00

Shira Bleicher

“Shiva” by Divya Akhouri ’02 and Becca Herskovitz ’02

Karen Giovannucci

The gymnasium in the new building.

courtesy Amy Winston

In the hall: Principal Jennifer Price, math department head Cindy Bergan, career and vocational technical education department head Diana Robbins, world language department head Nancy Marrinucci and director of Plowshares childcare Jo Carpino look at the new space.

Maddie MacWilliams

advertisements Friday, Jan. 15, 201010 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Students will receive 10% off their order Monday-Friday

before 4 p.m. until June if they show their student ID.

340 Walnut St.Newton, MA 02460

(617) 965-2801

www.ajisushibar.com

Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 11

Talk of the TigerCritic’s Corner

Teachers’ PicksMr. Drake

◆R.E.M.◆The Beautiful Self◆U2◆Ten Thousand Maniacs◆Fettes Brot

◆Gallipoli

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆Mad Men

Ms. Craig-Olins

◆Bonnie Raitt◆Tom Rush◆Mary McCaslin◆Bob Dylan◆Edward Elgar

◆The Secret Life of Words

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆24

Mr. Allen

◆James Brown◆Johnny Pacheco◆Ralph von Williams◆Johnny Mercer◆Aretha Franklin

◆Saving Private Ryan

Favorite Artists

Favorite Movie

Favorite Show◆Have Gun-Will Travel

Matt LeBlanc ’85 played one of the lead characters in the award-winning television show Friends.

According to his fan site, in high school, LeBlanc won the Golden Hammer, a carpentry award.

After graduating from Newton North, LeBlanc attended Wen-tworth Institute of Technology for one year before moving to South Florida to pursue a career in modeling.

Due to his success as a lead character in Friends, LeBlanc was nominated for multiple awards.

Newtonian

Did you know?

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Instructions: First unscramble each word using the clues provided. When all the words are solved, un-scramble the circled letters to find the bonus word.

Jumble: Administrators Edition

For answers, go to www.thenewtonite.com

16 Blocks

Bruce Willis and Mos Def star as a worn out alcoholic cop and a criminal in this exciting, albeit paint-by-numbers, thriller. Detec-tive Jack Mosley’s (Willis) assign-ment is to deliver Eddie Bunker (Def) to court so that he can testi-fy against supposedly dirty cops. What follows are chase scenes and shoot outs, and while these scenes are well choreographed and well scripted, you get a sense of déjà vu—you’ve seen all this before. While 16 Blocks is enter-taining, it certainly doesn’t stray from any other action films out there. However, it features above average acting as well as a some-what surprising twist at the end.

—Rent

Panic Room

You never think that someone will break into your house until it happens. Luckily for new home-owners Meg and Sarah Altman, their recently bought townhouse

comes equipped with a state-of- the-art panic room. The acting is superb; not only can you sense the protagonists’ (Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart) fear and anxiety, you are given a rare look at the robbery from the perpetra-tors’ (Jared Leto, Forest Whita-ker and Dwight Yoakam) point of view. While the movie will have viewers sitting on the edge of their seats until the very end, the ending is somewhat abrupt.

—Rent

Righteous KillHonestly, how can any movie

that has Robert De Niro and Al Pacino be bad? Yet director Jon Avnet manages to do the impos-sible by delivering a mangled script, poor plot and an ending so obvious, you know what’s go-ing to happen an hour before the movie is over. De Niro and Pacino star as two veteran police officers who are assigned to a case in-volving a series of murders. The plot is laughably mundane. Rob Dyrdek and Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, fill the sup-porting roles, and surprisingly,

Jackson does an adequate job. This was undoubtedly one of the worst films I saw all year. It is an unfortunate example of a movie with talented and prominent actors that can’t help save an abysmal film.

—Pass

Snatch

Hilarious from start to finish, this Guy Ritchie film doesn’t let up with brutally funny dialogue and witty and dark-humored characters. Memorable charac-ters include an unlicensed boxing promoter trying to get his fighter to take a dive, a mad Russian and a crime boss trying to extort the boxers. The story is hectic, with characters with several agendas intertwining. Snatch, filled to the brim with personality and originality, is a rare gem that is overshadowed by big blockbuster movies. The all-star cast includes Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Fa-rina, Alan Ford, Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt and Jason Statham.

—Buy

—Jay Krieger

Hot Stuff

Samantha Alpert and D’Jaidah Wynn

advertisement Friday, Jan. 15, 201012◆ Newtonite, Newton North

sportsFriday, Jan. 15, 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 13

Tigers win with offenseWrestling needs to improve defense, captain saysBY JOSH BAKAN

Wrestling, 9-3, is strong on offense, but has to work on de-fense, said senior Sam Shames, a captain with senior Alex West-lund.

“We’ve been more aggressive on offense, and it’s been showing up in our matches,” Shames said. “When we’re defending, a lot of times, we’re not able to score from our defense.”

Tomorrow, the Tigers visit the Weymouth Tourney, a tourna-ment with 22 or 23 teams, coach John Staulo said.

“At this time of year, it’s a good opportunity for tourna-ment experience,” Staulo said. “It’s well-run, organized and competitive.”

Wednesday, the Tigers host Wellesley, and then they visit a quad meet at Weymouth, Satur-day, Jan. 22.

“Wellesley is in a rebuilding process,” Staulo said. “They have a former football player

Teddy Wenneker

Before Natick: Senior Sam Shames picks up sophomore Jordan Long during practice Monday, Jan. 11.

Shira Bleicher

Switch leap: Junior Victoria Mirrer practices her beam routine in the SOA Friday, Dec. 11.

Girls’ gymnastics undefeatedwhile boys start off slowlyBY IVAN MCGOVERN

AND JACOB SCHWARTZ Boys to host Lowell

After a shaky 0-1 start to their season, coach Steve Chan still expects boys’ gymnastics to win about 50 percent of their meets and to finish in the top half of the league.

“I expect a lot of hard work, ef-fort, and dedication. And people to try their hardest,” said senior Buzz Cochran, a captain with senior Justice Hedenberg.

Tuesday, Jan. 19, the Tigers will host Lowell. Chan said that it should be a close matchup, although it is hard to know be-cause the Red Raiders have a new coach. Friday, Jan. 22, the team will face off against Burlington at home.

In their first meet of the sea-son Friday, Jan 8, the Tigers fell short to Andover’s Golden War-riors as Andover scored 132.5 to the Tigers’ 123.1.

Hedenberg scored a personal record on the vault with an 8.1. According to Chan, Hedenberg has played a key role so far in the season.

The team’s inexperience has been evident, as they aren’t as

Boys’ track to face Brookline, beats Braintree 73-12BY JOSH BAKAN

Boys’ track, 2-0, has started the season strong in all events, coach Jim Blackburn said.

“We have a lot of strong events,” Blackburn said. “We’re strong in the shot put, in speed events and in distance events.”

Recent notable players are seniors Conor Ebbs in the shot put, Jake Gleason in the mile, Ben Kiley in the 300, 4x400 and

Boys’ swimming, 2-3, working with inexperienceBY JOSH BAKAN

Following their second Bay State Conference loss, boys’ swimming, 2-3, will not be able to sustain the league title.

“We’re pretty good for the most part, but we need to work harder in practices,” said senior Aidan Breen, a captain with se-nior Sam Rolfe.

“In our meets, we take first place in a lot of events, but the

other team ends up taking second and third, and that’s what loses points for us,” Breen said.

“We lost a lot of good swim-mers from last year.”

Today, the Tigers host Welles-ley.

“They always have good stroke swimmers, and they’re always very competitive with us,” coach Amy Richard said.

Then the Tigers host Need-

ham Tuesday in their last ever duel meet in the current Newton North building.

“We were able to beat them the last two seasons to clinch the league title, so they’d love to get some payback,” Richard said.

Tuesday, Jan. 12, Framingham beat the Tigers here 99-85.

Framingham is undefeated in the Bay State Conference. Had the Tigers beaten them, they

would both have led the confer-ence with only one loss.

Friday, Jan. 8 at Brookline, the Warriors beat the Tigers 99-86.

“We got some good times, but it was a disappointing loss,” Richard said.

Rolfe finished first in the 200 freestyle at 1:56.91 and in the 500 freestyle at 5:27.43.

Sophomore Ben Salwen fin-ished second in the 100 butterfly

at 1:05.91.Friday, Dec. 18 at Natick, the

Tigers beat the Red and Blue 104-80.

“We lost a lot of seniors from last year, but the remaining team swam well in this meet,” Richard said.

Breen finished first in the 200 individual medley at 2:21.40 and in the 100 backstroke at 1:04.31.

high jump and Hao-Kai Wu in relay events.

He also noted juniors Ezra Li-chtman in the 1000, Isaiah Penn in the 600, Dan Ranti in the mile and sophomore Justin Keefe in the 1000.

Ebbs, a captain with Gleason and Wu, said the Tigers are “very strong in the shot put.”

Himself, senior Humberto Castillo, junior Ryan Donovan

and sophomores Young Guang and Swardiq Mayanja are among the top ten shot-putters in the Bay State Conference, Ebbs said.

A weak event is hurdles be-cause “we only have two return-ing members,” Ebbs said.

The returning members are Guang and senior Faisal Ma-yanja, he said.

Thursday, the Tigers face Brookline at the Reggie Lewis

Center.“They have good distance run-

ners, and they have [senior] Irvin Scott in the shorter distances,” Blackburn said.

“Kiley is our top guy right now. If Scott can beat Kiley in three events, that would make a big difference. But we haven’t lost in 12 years, so we don’t expect to lose.”

Ebbs said, “From what I re-

member last year, they were very weak in the shot put.”

Sunday, Jan. 24, the Tigers will send members to State Relays at the Reggie Lewis Center.

There are four members in each running event and three members in the high jump, long jump and shot put.

Thursday, Jan. 7, the Tigers beat Braintree 73-12 at the Reggie Lewis Center.

polished as opponents with re-turning competitors, Chan said.

Although they lack experi-ence, the team tries their best and is very enthusiastic. “They always practice hard,” he said.

The Tigers were to have vis-ited Salem, NH, Wednesday and Braintree Thursday.Girls start 4-0

Girls gymnastics has started its season off well with a four meet winning streak, said coach Jim Chin.

Today, the Tigers will face off against Walpole for their second home meet of the season.

“They’ve been one of the pow-erhouses of our league, and it will be a good meet,” said senior Rani Jacobson, a captain with junior Andrea Marzilli.

Then the team has three away meets in a row Tuesday, Jan. 19, Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 26, against Needham, Wellesley and Braintree, respectively.

According to Jacobson, “We can ease off a little bit for Need-ham, because we should be able to win that easily.

“Wellesley is definitely going to be one of our hardest meets of the year. Braintree will also

be close.”The Tigers won their home

meet against Framingham Tues-day, Jan. 12, 133.65-130.05. At first, the meet was very close. The floor exercises helped the Tigers get ahead towards the end of the meet, and ultimately brought them to a win, said Marzilli.

Freshman Lili Margolin earned personal bests on the beam, the vault, the floor and the all around score, in which she scored 33.5 points.

The Tigers broke the team record for the floor exercise Sat-urday, Jan. 9 in a meet at Natick, based on the top four scores for the floor. The team scored 35.5.

At the same meet, freshman Ali Hurwitz achieved personal bests for the floor, vault and beam.

However, “there were some inconsistencies,” said Chin. “We only had two girls stay on the beams the entire routine and everyone else had one or two falls.”

The team beat Weymouth on the road, Tuesday, Jan. 5.

The Tigers won their first meet of the season over Norwood Tues-day, Dec. 22.

from the school as their new coach. Their link with the football team has quickly increased their numbers.”

The Tigers will face Milton, Norwood and Wellesley at their quad meet.

Tuesday, Jan. 25, the Tigers host Walpole, which “has some tough individuals,” Staulo said.

In recent action, Natick beat the Tigers 54-9 at Natick Wednes-day, Jan. 13. “There were a lot of close matches but they’re the number five team in the state,” Staulo said.

Saturday, Jan. 9 at the Belmont Tourney, Shames finished first at 112, senior Jake Gannon finished fourth at 145 and Westlund fin-ished fifth at 135.

The Tigers beat Braintree 49-30 Wednesday, Jan. 6 at Brain-tree.

“We won the match, but we didn’t wrestle very well,” Shames said.

Tuesday, Dec. 29, members

of the Tigers participated in the Lowell Tourney, a two-day tour-nament.

Shames finished third at 112 after an upset elimination in the semi-finals. Westlund made it to the second day, and senior Adam LaFleche at 140 won two matches.

Wednesday, Dec. 23 at South, the Tigers beat the Lions 36-31 in an annual match-up that’s “always a great tradition,” Staulo said.

The Tigers came back from a 31-12 deficit after getting some pins, Staulo said.

Tuesday, Dec. 22, the Tigers beat Dedham here 50-18.

“Dedham is a favorite to be in the running for the state champi-onship, but they’ve had a couple injuries,” Staulo said.

Saturday, Dec. 19, the Tigers visited a quad meet at Plymouth North where they beat Norton 39-22, beat Nauset 47-15 and beat Plymouth North 48-18.

sports Friday, Jan. 15, 201014 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

Girls’ hockey to focus on overcoming inexperience

Teddy Wenneker

Fighting for possession: Junior Michelle Troy fights for control of the puck Wednesday, Dec. 16 against Norwood at home.

Boys’ hockey worksto gain confidence

Teddy Wenneker

Breakaway: Senior Harry Metallides handles the puck up the rink Monday, Dec. 29 at home against Lincoln-Sudbury. The Warriors defeated the Tigers 3-2.

Boys’ and girls’ JV hockey overcome inexperienceBoys to visit BraintreeBY PERRIN STEIN

A positive attitude helps the Tigers as they continue to im-prove their hockey despite their 3-5 record, said coach Felix Lopez.

“Some of our players are playing organized hockey for the first time. The philosophy is to be competitive. Work ethic is critical,” said Lopez.

Despite some of the team members’ inexperience, four of the five defensemen are fresh-men, and the team has several quick forwards.

“Young, solid defensemen and quick aggressive forwards could not have come at a better time,” he said.

“They will add depth to the varsity team in years to come.”

As part of practice, the Tigers are working on passing and skat-

ing agility. To improve, players are practicing a variety of flow and passing drills.

“We need to improve our over-all hockey sense,” Lopez said.

“Experience is our weakness,” junior forward Jack McLaughlin said.

“We’ll be able to bounce back with a few hard days’ practice,” McLaughlin said.

The Tigers will travel to Brain-tree tomorrow morning.

The team plans to use a close loss to Framingham in late De-cember to help motivate them-selves for a rematch game Sun-day.

Monday, Jan. 18 the Tigers will host Acton-Boxborough.

The Tigers will then travel to Norwood Wednesday, Jan. 20 against the Mustangs.

Natick will host the Tigers Saturday, Jan. 23.

Monday, Jan. 11 the Tigers lost 3-2 in their rematch against Milton at home.

Friday, the Tigers traveled to Milton Jan. 8 and lost 7-4.

At the end of winter break, Sunday, Jan. 3, the Tigers had a tight game against Watertown, losing 2-0.

The Tigers’ second loss of the season was to Framingham Wednesday, Dec. 30.

Despite strong goalkeeping, the Tigers lost 6-3, Lopez said.

At Watertown Sunday, Dec. 20, the Tigers lost their first game of the season 1-0.Girls’ JV hockey 1-4BY OLIVIA STEARNS

Motivation and excitement helped girls’ JV hockey, 1-4, be-come a better team, according to coach Victoria O’Connor.

“They take away something valuable from each game, each

practice, and then apply it the next time they are on the ice,” she said.

The team’s biggest challenge is that they tend to be inconsis-tent in their intensity and confi-dence, she said.

Unfortunately, the team will not be attending their usual games in Martha’s Vineyard this year because the tournament is not being held, said junior Emma Mahoney, the captain.

Tuesday, Jan. 19 and Saturday, Jan. 23, the Tigers visit Wellesley in what could be a challenging game, Mahoney said.

“We played teams which are similar to Wellesley earlier this season, so if we play like that again, we might have a chance,” she said.

O’Connor said that Wellesley is an experienced team.

“In the past, they have not

been a ‘learn to play’ team like us, so they will definitely challenge us to skate hard and play strong defense,” O’Connor said.

The Tigers defeated Needham 5-0 in their first win Monday, Jan. 11 at St. Sebastian’s.

“Every single player fought hard in that game to secure the win,” said O’Connor.

At home against Framingham Friday, Jan. 8, the Flyers defeated the Tigers 4-1, with junior Lucy Mazur-Warren scoring the first goal of the season.

Against Walpole Wednesday, Dec. 23 and at Dedham Sunday, Jan. 3 were very tough teams, O’Connor said.

“Their benches are deep, whereas our team is girls who are either brand new to the sport or only have one to two years under their belt,” O’Connor said.

BY MEREDITH ABRAMS

Focusing on keeping play sim-ple in games, girls’ hockey, 3-5, is trying to work past inexperience, coach Bob MacDougall said.

“We get into trouble when we try to do too much,” MacDougall said.

“We just need to put pucks into the net, go after them, and instead of coming up with elabo-rate plays, just get after the puck and grind away,” he said.

However, he said inexperience is a team weakness. “We have some new players in crucial ar-eas, so we’re going to make some mistakes,” MacDougall said.

“We have to be consistent in playing three strong periods, because we tend to lose focus on what we’re trying to do,” he said.

At Needham tomorrow, the Tigers expect a challenge, Mac-Dougall said.

“It’s going to be a real tough game—they’re going to get their players ready, and I hope we have enough to get the win,” he said.

Hosting Newton South Mon-day, Jan. 18, MacDougall said

the team is looking forward to a fun game.

“It’s going to be a fantastic game, full of emotion, and hope-fully we can play inspired hockey and execute,” he said.

Wednesday, Jan. 20, the Tigers visit Framingham. “They’re one of the top teams in the league, and going to their place is never easy, but if we do the things we need to do, we could do well—it all depends on the effort level,” MacDougall said.

The Tigers host Natick Sat-urday, Jan. 23 and Braintree Wednesday, Jan. 27.

Senior Hannah Jellinek, a captain with senior Kim Gillies, said a strength of the team is consistent effort.

“Everyone always works hard and puts forth their best effort,” she said.

“We’ve had a rough start, but we’ll do well over the next few games.”

Wednesday, the Tigers shut out Brookline 8-0 at home.

“It was a good game,” said Jellinek. “They’re a struggling team, but we still put in a good

effort.” A strong point of the game was

that the goals were spread out. “A lot of people scored points and assists,” she said.

Saturday, Jan. 9, the Tigers defeated Milton 1-0 at Milton, and Wednesday, Jan. 6, the Tigers de-feated Weymouth 5-0 at home.

Of the game against Wey-mouth, MacDougall said, “we played very strong, kept it simple and just did much better.”

Belmont defeated the Tigers 3-0 Monday, Jan. 4 at Belmont. “We had some good practices and we were playing well, but we made little mistakes that cost us the game,” MacDougall said.

Wednesday, Jan. 23, Walpole defeated the Tigers 3-0. “It was a good supporting game, but we came out flat and intimidated, and it wasn’t our best effort,” he said.

At Braintree Saturday, Jan. 19 the Tigers lost 4-2. “Braintree is a very strong team, and we just couldn’t match their effort consis-tently,” MacDougall said.JACOB SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.

BY MEREDITH ABRAMS

Despite a strong first line and goaltender, boys’ hockey, 1-8-1, needs a more positive attitude to start winning games, coach Tom Ryan said.

“The thing we’re trying to im-prove on the most is confidence,” Ryan said. “We have to know we can win.”

The team is focusing on im-proving to the point where it can compete in a challenging confer-ence, Ryan said.

Hosting Needham tomorrow, the Tigers expect a tough game, Ryan said. “It will be a very dif-ficult game,” he said. “Needham is the best in the league, year in and year out.”

Monday, Jan. 18, the Tigers host Acton-Boxborough. “They have an outstanding first line,” Ryan said.

The Tigers host Framingham Wednesday, Jan. 20. At Natick Saturday, Jan. 23, the Tigers have a chance to win, Ryan said.

Wednesday, Jan. 27, the Tigers visit Braintree.

Senior Ben Sauro, the team captain, said the Tigers need to improve their work ethic. “As individuals they’re great people, but as hockey players they need to develop more,” he said.

Visiting Brookline Wednesday, Jan. 13, the Tigers won 3-2 in their first victory of the season. “We got a key goal in the third pe-riod that changed the movement of the game,” Sauro said.

The Tigers tied Milton 3-3 Saturday, Jan. 9; at Weymouth Saturday, Jan. 6 the Tigers lost 7-3; Saturday, Jan. 2, Marshfield defeated the Tigers 5-1 at Marsh-field; and at home Thursday, Dec. 31 Waltham defeated the Tigers 8-0.

Lincoln Sudbury defeated the Tigers 3-2 Monday, Dec. 28 at home; at Walpole Wednesday, Dec. 23 the Tigers lost 7-3; Brain-tree defeated the Tigers 7-1 at home Saturday, Dec. 19; and at Norwood Thursday, Dec. 17 the Tigers lost 3-2.JAY FEINSTEIN CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.

sportsFriday, Jan. 15 2010 Newton North, Newtonite ◆ 15

Defense a strength for girls’ basketball, 8-1BY MEREDITH ABRAMS

Playing games with intensity from start to finish is a focus for girls’ basketball, 8-1¸ said coach Hank DeSantis.

“We need to improve, to play hard and to start games like we finish them,” DeSantis said.

“We’re getting better,” he said. “We are just worrying about de-tails and trying to improve every aspect of how we play and defend

Teddy Wenneker

Three pointer: Freshman Madison Beatrice dribbles around a Brookline defender Tuesday, Jan. 12 at home. The Tigers won 41-33.

JV girls’ basketball to host NeedhamBY HILARY BRUMBERG

Thanks to the hard work they have put in, JV girls’ basketball, 6-2, is starting to work as a cohe-sive unit, coach Angela Manfredi said.

The team’s goal is to play for the varsity team and improve it, according to sophomore Alison Berkowitz, a captain with sopho-more Kayla Farina and freshman Madison Beatrice.

“When people play well, their reward is to sit on the varsity bench,” she said.

The Tigers visit the Needham Rockets today.

According to Manfredi and Needham coach Dean Putnam, this will be a tough game, be-cause the teams have contrasting strengths and weaknesses.

Fast breaks are a strong area for the Tigers, according to sophomore Lydia O’Conner. The Rockets have been practicing long and hard to prevent that offense, Putnam said.

Manfredi said the Tigers have trouble “playing solid defense throughout the course of an en-tire game.”

On the other hand, one of

Freshman girls’ basketball,1-6, looks for team skillsBY BECKY KALISH

With hard work and effort as strengths, freshman girls’ basketball, 1-6 is working hard to improve team skills and unity, coach Laurie Arcovio said.

“We have the most aggressive bunch of girls I’ve ever seen out on a court, and they have such great defense and effort,” she said. “We still need to work on

Girls’ track, 2-0,relies on depth BY MEREDITH ABRAMS

Depth is a major strength for girls’ track, 2-0, despite some in-experienced new members, said senior Sam Gluck, a captain with senior Jaya Tripathi.

“We have a lot of athletes who are strong across a couple of dif-ferent events,” Gluck said.

However, she said, “We still have people new to their events, but they’re making strong im-provements.”

Thursday, Jan. 21 the Tigers face Brookline.

“They have some strong ath-letes, but usually we have more depth than Brookline does,” Gluck said.

The Tigers will compete in the State Relays Sunday, Jan. 24. “Generally it’s our most antici-pated event,” Gluck said.

Against Weymouth Thursday, Jan. 28, the Tigers expect a close meet, Gluck said.

This year’s team is still de-veloping the mix of upper- and under-classmen, coach Joe

Shira Bleicher

High jump: Junior Emily Hutchinson practices Tuesday, Jan. 12 in the SOA.

the Rockets’ highest priorities is defense. “We try to be a great defensive team first—we put a lot of emphasis on team/help defense every day in practice,” Putnam said.

Tuesday, Jan. 19, the Tigers will face the Flyers in Framing-ham.

The Tigers will then play two consecutive home games: against Natick Friday, Jan. 22 and Brain-tree Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Tigers defeated Brookline here, 41-33.

In Milton Friday, Jan. 8, fresh-man Jillian Doherty shot three points to tie the game with about one minute remaining, varsity coach Hank DeSantis said. The Tigers came back and won, 36-33.

Although they didn’t perform their best, the Tigers defeated Weymouth 31-26 Tuesday, Jan. 5 at home, according to Manfredi. They were led by Farina, who scored 12 points.

The Tigers beat Walpole Mon-day, Dec. 21 at home.

Friday, Dec. 18 at Braintree, the Wamps beat the Tigers for their second loss of the season.

Tranchita said.“We’re still working on the

chemistry between veterans and new members,” he said.

Some members competed in the Dartmouth Relays Friday, Jan. 8 and Saturday, Jan. 9 at Dartmouth College. The Tigers placed second overall.

Junior Margo Gillis placed second in the 1000, and Forbes placed first in the long jump and triple jump, and second as mem-ber of the 4x200 relay team with senior Ariana Tabatabaie and sophomores Steph Brown and Kayla Wong.

In addition, junior Emily Hutchinson placed second in the high jump.

The Tigers defeated Braintree 65-17 Thursday, Jan 7.

“They were just a weaker team, so we did pretty well,” Gluck said.

Thursday, Dec. 17 the Tigers defeated Needham 69-17.

The Tigers were to have face Framingham yesterday.

boxing out on defense, because this is the one aspect that repeat-edly gets us.”

The Tigers visit Needham today.

The team will play at Fram-ingham Tuesday, Jan. 19 and will host Natick Friday, Jan. 22.

“Our skills and fundamentals could always be improved,” Arco-vio said. “I hope for our level of

play to improve, but also just for the girls to have fun out on the court.”

The girls defeated Brookline at home Tuesday, Jan. 12.

The Tigers had a very close game at Milton Friday, Jan. 8, losing in overtime by only two points.

On a four game losing streak, the team played Weymouth at

home Tuesday, Jan. 5, Walpole at home Monday, Dec. 21, at Braintree Friday, Dec. 18., and Norwood here Tuesday, Dec. 15.

High scorers on the team have been Caroline Loftus and Chris-tine Raymond, Arcovio said.

The Tigers beat Framingham Friday, Dec. 11.

“The game against Framing-ham was an especially good one,”

Arcovio said. “Our offense was the best it’s been, which helped our win. The scores of the games after that have kept getting closer and closer.

“These girls also have such great effort and attitude,” Arcovio said. “They also work very hard and get on the floor to dive for the ball more than any other group of girls I’ve seen.”

at a high level.”Hosting Needham tonight at

6:45, the Tigers expect a close game.

“All the games against Need-ham last year were battles, and this one is back-to-back with the boys before us, so we hope fans will come out and support us,” DeSantis said.

The Tigers visit Framingham Tuesday. “We hope to take away

their better players and do better this game,” DeSantis said.

The Tigers host Natick Friday, Jan. 22 and Braintree Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Senior Lucy Abbot, a captain with Hunt and seniors Sammy Alpert and Monet Lowe, said the team is focusing on playing con-sistently at its best but has had a great start to the season.

“We play really unselfish and

work together as a team, and we’re still pushing ourselves to do even better,” she said.

The Tigers defeated Brookline 64-52 Tuesday, Jan. 12 at home. “It was an ugly game,” DeSantis said.

“There were a lot of fouls and turnovers, and we didn’t rebound as well as we needed to.”

Against Milton Friday, Jan. 8 the Tigers won 46-26, and at

home Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Tigers defeated Weymouth 64-26.

In the Garden City Classic Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednes-day, Dec. 30, the Tigers defeated Brighton 66-22 Tuesday and lost 51-49 to Newton South Wednes-day.

The Tigers defeated Walpole 59-41 at home Monday, Dec. 21 and the Wamps 72-54 Friday, Dec. 18 at Braintree.

sports Friday, Jan. 15, 201016 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North

BY ELI DAVIDOW

Boys’ basketball and its flaw-less record will be challenged by a difficult schedule, said coach Paul Connolly.

“We can’t take anything light-ly,” he said. “We’ll have to stick to our motto of playing hard, playing together and playing smart.”

Today the Tigers, 9-0, host Needham for the first time since they played the team in the first round of the post-season last year.

In the final 20 seconds of that game, the Tigers edged over the Rockets, winning 42-39.

“They’ve got one of the top re-turning players in the conference in Kerry Hecker,” Connolly said. “They’ll be fired up to be here.”

Sunday, the Tigers will par-ticipate in the Hoop Hall Classic at Springfield College, taking on St. Frances of Baltimore.

“St. Frances is a national type program, right out of one of the best leagues in the Baltimore area,” Connolly said. “It should be a good time for the kids.”

Here against Framingham Tuesday, the Tigers will see a soild team, Connolly said.

At Natick Friday, a “well-coached” team will host the Tigers, Connolly said.

JV boys beat Brookline 46-42BY MATT KALISH

Maintaining their game intelli-gence and improving basic skills are goals for the undefeated JV boys’ basketball team, 8-0, said coach Joe Siciliano.

“Coming every day to prac-tice is the most important part,” Siciliano said.

“What we do in practice trans-lates into the games, meaning an unproductive practice means a sloppy game,” he said.

“As a group, all 14 kids on the team have improved and really stepped up,” Siciliano said.

Junior Tom DeStefano said that the team needs to focus on boxing out and being physical.

Today, the Tigers play Need-ham here and Tuesday they face off against Framingham here.

Next Friday, Jan. 20, the team travels to Natick and Thursday,

’13 boys work hard in practiceBY JAY FEINSTEIN

More practice will help the freshman boys’ basketball team keep up its 7-1 record, said coach John McNamara.

According to McNamara, win-ning or losing doesn’t determine if a game is good or not. It’s more about getting better.

“Everything we do is team-oriented. No one person is bet-ter than the team,” McNamara said.

According to McNamara, de-fense has been a strength of the team. In three of the team’s eight games, the Tigers held opponents to fewer than 40 points, he said.

Teddy Wenneker

Triple threat: Senior Greg Kelley, a captain, posts up against a Milton opponent.

Alpine, nordic ski hope for new members to adaptBY JOSH BAKAN

AND EVAN CLEMENTS

Both alpine and nordic are trying to acclimate new members over the course of the season.

As alpine struggles with low numbers, nordic builds unity. Alpine rebuilds

With only six boys and six girls, alpine is rebuilding this sea-son, coach Scott Mighill said.

“It’s the lowest number of kids

Then Tuesday, Jan. 26, the Tigers will have to tame the “monster” skills of Braintree’s P.J. Douglas to defeat the Wamps, Connolly said.

“Last time, we did a great job holding down his 25.5 points a

game average,” he said. In special news, senior Greg

Kelley became the third player under Connolly to eclipse the 1,000 point mark in his high school career.

The moment happened in the

Tigers’ first game of the Garden City Hoops Tournament Tues-day, Dec. 29 against the Lions at South. The Tigers won 63-58.

“That’s quite an accomplish-ment for a young man,” Connolly said.

Kelley has committed to play at Yale next season.

The Tigers won the tourna-ment the following day, beating Catholic Memorial 81-50.

Within the Tigers’ depth of talent, two other players to watch out for are sophomore Michael Thorpe and junior Tevin Falzon, Connolly said.

“Michael’s a terrific addition,” he said. “He’s got good speed and quickness.

“With Tevin, he’s a player re-ally starting to come into his own. Soon, he’ll be putting up double-doubles consistently.”

In other recent games, the Tigers routed Brookline 63-46 Tuesday at Brookline.

Kelley, a co-captain with se-nior Wynn Tucker, earned a double-double with 34 points and 20 rebounds.

Here against Milton Friday, “a dominant run in the second half” put the Tigers over the top 69-49, Connolly said.

Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Tigers beat Weymouth 74-54 with “a lot of key buckets” from senior Kourtney Wornum-Parker, Kel-ley said.

“We put pressure on them the whole game,” Kelley said.

In Walpole Monday, Dec. 21, the Tigers won 83-61.

Jan. 26 the Tigers will play at Braintree.

“We really want to be an ac-tive team, getting open looks and tiring the o t h e r t e a m out,” DeStefa-no said.

Tuesday the T i g e r s w o n a g a i n s t t h e Wa r r i o r s a t Brookline 46-42.

Last Friday, the Tigers beat Milton here 52-41.

“This was a hard-fought game. They ran a good offense, but we persevered in the end,” Siciliano said.

The Tigers won at Weymouth 65-40 Tuesday, Jan. 5 against a

team that was “bigger and stron-ger, but we were better,” Siciliano said.

Monday, Dec. 21, the Tigers won at Walpole 52-42 in what Siciliano said was the toughest game of the season.

“We were both pressuring each other back and forth and we won the battle in the end,” Siciliano said.

The Tigers won 58-46 against B.C. High here Saturday, Dec. 19.

“They were a talented team, and it was a great game,” he said. “We fought hard, and we came through in the end.”

Friday, Dec. 18 the Tigers beat Braintree 60-43.

“We were only leading by single digits at half time, but we stayed disciplined,” Siciliano said.

“We take a lot of charges,” said Jeremy Fathy, a point guard.

Visiting Needham today, the Tigers hope to defeat the Rock-ets.

The Tigers will then host Framingham Tuesday and visit Natick next Friday.

Tuesday, Jan. 26, the Tigers will visit Braintree again, and Friday Jan. 29, they will host Dedham.

At Brookline, Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Tigers suffered their first loss against the Warriors.

“The loss is very tough on everybody,” said Moshup Gal-braith. Hosting Milton Friday,

Jan. 8, the Tigers defeated the Wildcats 45-41.

Visiting Weymouth Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Tigers defeated the Wildcats in overtime, 43-38. Small forward Korey Mui scored a last-second shot, tying the score and forcing the game into overtime.

At Walpole, Monday, Dec. 21, the Tigers won 59-42.

According to McNamara, B.C. High is a good team, but Satur-day, Dec. 19, the Tigers beat the Eagles 73-67.

Hosting Braintree the day be-fore, Friday, Dec. 18, the Tigers defeated the Wamps 34-27.

I’ve had in my 15 or 16 years of coaching here,” Mighill said. “Our goal is to have some fun.”

Monday, Jan. 11 at the Weston Ski Track, sophomore Kate Re-gan finished 16th at 28.78, and sophomore Jackie Comstock fin-ished 38th at 34.25 for the girls.

For the boys, freshman Rayan Bezri finished 33rd for the boys at 28.46.

Thursday, Jan. 7 at the Weston

Ski Track, Regan finished 16th at 25.85, and sophomore Eli Ashley finished 26th at 27.41 for the girls.

The top finishers for the boys were freshman Mark Vrahas in 32nd at 26.72 and Bezri in 40th at 27.75.Nordic works toacclimate new skiers

Nordic’s goal is “to promote team unity,” according to senior

Rob Lasell, a captain with seniors Leah Cepko, Michael Goldenberg and Zoe Pepper-Cunningham.

“We have a lot of new kids, so we need to get them interested in the sport and teach them how to ski,” said Lasell.

“But we also have a very dedi-cated group of kids returning.”

Wednesday, Jan. 6 at the Weston Ski Track, Goldenberg and sophomores Stoddard Meigs

and Will Benson were the top three finishers on the boys’ side.

They finshed at second, sixth and 20th respectively.

Junior Ellen Goldberg, fresh-man Julia Schiantarelli and ju-nior Tatiana Froehlich led the way for the girls.

They finished at second, fifth and 15th, respectively.

The boys placed third overall, and the girls finished second.

Teddy Wenneker

Through the lane: Sophomore Michael Thorpe shoots over a Milton defender. The Tigers won 59-49 Friday, Jan. 8.

Boys’ basketball takes on tough schedule

Newtonian

Tom DeStefano