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The Warrior beatNews and Features written by Warwick High School Students

ZACK HURSTWarwick Journalism Student

The Lancaster-Lebanon League high school basketball season is well on its way. Warwick has a very young and small team this year. Despite this, the Warriors hoops team has been very competitive in Section One play.

“The keys to our success this year have been playing as a team and al-ways giving 100 percent for 32 min-utes every game,” said Warwick guard Tyler Stief.

The Warriors have been able to be competitive due to hustle on both ends of the floor and playing tough defense. “Our success is from our team defense and athleticism,” said Warrior guard Matt Engle.

The Warriors are a top team in a tough Section One. They are looking to pull ahead of the pack as the sea-son progresses. A key player for the Warriors so far has been senior guard Derrick Shields who has been averag-ing around 15 points per game. Other key players include juniors Tyler Morris, Matt Engle, Kshawn Mick-ens, Colby Weit, and Tyler Stief. This year, these juniors have stepped up to fill a big role since there are only two seniors on the team. This also shows that Warwick has a bright future ahead of them.

Warwick has been competitive in every game so far this year and is not showing any signs of slowing down. “We are able to shut teams down with our defensive play and gain the advantage with our hustle,” said Warwick forward Colby Weit.

The team relies on tough defense and translates the defensive pressure into points on the offensive end of the court.

Warwick still has a long season ahead of them, and looks to improve on their weak areas. “Areas of im-provement we are working on is find-ing a way to score when we don’t have momentum behind us,” Stief said.

“We need to improve our consis-tency on offense,” Weit said.

The Warriors have struggled at times to generate points and find good shots. The team is working hard to improve on their offensive game. According to Engle, the team needs to improve on scoring consistently.

Come out and support your War-wick Warriors boys’ basketball team as they look to stay on a hot streak and compete for the Section One title.

Warrior hoops updatePhoto courtesy of Curt Morris

Warwick junior forward Tyler Morris blocks a Penn Manor shot.

SYDNEY EELMANWarwick Journalism Student

The month of February is famous for two things — being the shortest month and Valentine’s Day. When the holiday is mentioned, most people begin to panic at the thought of having to buy their boyfriend or girlfriend a present that he or she will appreciate. Sometimes, the classic roses and chocolates are just not enough to justify how much someone means to you. If you are one of the millions of people struggling to find a present, here are some suggestions.

Warwick High School sophomore Sydney Woyurka said she is going to make to her boyfriend homemade brownies instead of stressing over finding a present.

Junior Jordan Conrad is also catering to her boy-friend’s sweet tooth. “I’m going to get him a huge bag of his favorite candy. Nobody can ever go wrong with buying someone candy,” she said.

While these are all good suggestions for high school students who do not have all the money in the world to spend, what about those who do have a little more money than most high school students?

Tiptoptens.com lists the top ten Valentine’s Day presents. The number ten gift is a cookbook of unique recipes. This is a good gift to give to a loved one since it is something you can do together when there isn’t much else to do.

The number nine gift is an exhilarating bungee jump together.

Coming in at number eight gift is tickets to a Valen-tine’s Day concert.

If you procrastinated and need something quick, the number seven gift is expensive perfume.

Looking for something both you and your signifi-

Top 10 Valentine’s day giftsMADDIE CHIRICOWarwick Journalism Student

It’s that time of year again — course selection. Soon, 8th grad-ers, freshmen, sophomores, and

Preparing for course selection

Photo courtesy of Maddie ChiricoA student decides her courses for the following year using the War-

wick High School Curriculum Guide.

Photo courtesy of Sydney Eelman

Two Warwick students walk the halls while trying to decide what to get one another for Valentine’s Day.

juniors will choose their classes for the upcoming year. It is vital that students choose courses wisely to receive maximum benefit.

“It (course selection) really af-fects a student’s future,” said War-

wick High School Principal Troy Price. “It will help them explore their options of career choice be-fore they decide what they really want to do.”

Many students have not taken this decision as seriously as they should have in the past. “A lot of students take ‘fun’ classes, or the bare minimum or credits (five credits-worth). Also, some stu-dents over-challenge themselves by taking all AP (advanced place-ment) or Honors classes. Students individually need to find a healthy medium of the amount and diffi-culty of courses they choose, and choose courses having to do with their life after high school,” said Warwick Guidance Counselor Tif-fany Miller.

This decision isn’t as hard as it seems. First, you should receive opinions from those who know what you’re capable of. “It is strongly recommended that aca-demic program decisions be the product of a joint effort between students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors,” according to a letter written in the Warwick High School Curriculum Guide.

“It is important. This decision is a team decision,” Miller agreed.

“It is also important to complete More COURSE SELECTION, page A7

LARISSA MILLERWarwick Journalism Student

Without leap year, 100 years would go by, and the calendar would be 24 days ahead of the seasons. According to timeand-date.com, this discrepancy of time can only be compensated by a leap year, and 2012 is one of those years.

“To be honest, I don’t exactly know what leap year is for,” sophomore Kristen Anderson said.

Most people don’t seem to know why we have leap year. It’s just another day added to the end of February every four years, right?

“The earth rotates once in just about 24 hours,” John Mousetis, earth science teacher at Warwick High School, said.

According to Mousetis, for the earth to make one revolution around the sun, or a year, it will rotate about 365 and a quarter times. A typical calendar with only 365 days will not be able to match with the seasons.

“After four years, the start of the season is one day different, and if we never adjusted for that one day, then we’d have some-thing like winter in July,” Mr. Mousetis said.

Of course, that might be nor-mal in the southern hemisphere,

Leaping to a new year

Graphic by Larissa MillerThe earth rotates approximately 365.25 times to make one full rev-

olution around the sun. (Picture not to scale.)

but that’s beside the point.Leap year has been around for a

very long time and can be traced back even to the Roman Empire. Originally, the year had only ten months. Looking at the months September, October, November, and December can prove this. In Latin, septem means seven, octo means eight, novem means nine, and decem means ten. However, it is commonly known that these months are respectively nine, ten, eleven, and twelve.

Whose brilliant idea was it to change the number of months? According to Mr. Mousetis, Ju-

lius Caesar and Augustus Caesar messed with the calendar. “They [both] wanted to have a long month for their month,” he said. Mr. Mousetis says this was how the months July and August were created, and they both comprise 31 days. For some reason, the famous Caesars picked on February to steal their days from, making Feb-ruary a shorter month with only 28 days.

“They add it to February be-cause it’s the shortest month,” Mr. Mousetis said about the extra day for leap year.

SARA SCHOUTEN Warwick Journalism Student

Mary O’Keffe is a PALS bud-dy at Warwick School District who loves the weekly meetings. Her favorite activities are the ones involving food. Not only do the buddies enjoy the meetings, the student PALS do, too. “I love PALS because I make new friends and I love helping the buddies,” club member Rachel Boyer said.

PALS is a club at Warwick High School that meets every Friday where students come and do fun activities with their bud-dies, the IU 13 Life Skills stu-

Warwick students make good PALSdents. There are approximately 20 students at every meeting. The students meet the first week of ev-ery month to decide what activity to do with the buddies.

Recently, the buddies learned how to open and pour cereal, so for the get-together this January the buddies served cereal to their student PALS. PALS does activi-ties outside of school as well. Last year, they went bowling. Soon, the buddies and PALS will meet at the end of the day to watch a movie in school.

Hannah Cunliffe, who gradu-ated from Warwick three years ago, started PALS, and it has been a big success ever since. Taylor

Stork and Taylor Calta are the presidents this year. Stork and Calta work with Mrs. Morris, the Life Skills teacher to come up with ideas for activities for each month.

“l think the club is such a big success because of the fun activi-ties buddies and PALS get to do. It’s also fun to see what joy the buddies get out of the meetings,” Emily Wyand, a club member, said.

PALS club meets the first two weeks of every month at Mrs. Mor-ris’s room, A146. If you like help-ing others, meeting new people, and, of course, food, then come to the next PALS meeting.

More NEW YEAR, page A7

More GIFTS, page A7