ENTORTheMManhattan High School Volume 101 Issue 13 Dec. 10, 2013 page 3 page 5 page 4

School Board chooses to end contract with IQ Academy Madeline MarshallStaff Writer

The USD 383 Board of Ed-ucation’s unanimous vote to end Manhattan High’s con-tract with IQ Academy and several course additions, changes, and removals be-ing proposed at last Wednes-day’s meeting will mean some changes in the coming years around the school.

IQ Academy Kansas is an online high school with both full and part time enrollment options. In the past, it has been a way for students to take courses not available at MHS or add extra hours to a student’s school day.

“The contract was com-ing up for renewal at the end of the month and we would have been locked into anoth-er two years if we renewed,”

BoE vice president Leah Fli-ter said. “The IQ Academy staff wanted more !exibility than what the current com-pany was likely going to of-fer on renewal. I supported ending the contract but am concerned that it will take a lot of work to start a ‘new’ virtual school. I do think, however, there are some options available through existing online programs at

MHS, so our students won’t be completely without those opportunities.”

Ending this contract will open doors to new opportu-nities in virtual education in these upcoming years.

“Before another contract is signed, it is always a good time to reevaluate the cur-rent programming and de-cide if we want to continue on with what we are pres-

ently doing or make some changes,” Director of Sec-ondary Education Jeanne Disney said.

“The Board decided not to renew the contract and to explore other options includ-ing the possibility of design-ing our own virtual school,” Disney said. “I am person-ally very excited about the opportunity the Board has provided us as we look to re-

de"ning and enhancing our virtual program.”

As far as course changes, many that were proposed were minor.

“The removals were most-ly classes that hadn’t been offered for a while. The addi-tions will give students addi-tional choices,” Filter said.

Drum line wins Battle of the Bands

FFA student earns 5th

place in horse judgingRetta Lazaris Staff Writer

Last week, FFA members ran with the horses -- or actually, watched the horses as they performed in an arena.

Members go to many competitions throughout the year and this time around they got to experience horse judging. Junior Stormie Clemens took "fth place in the senior divi-sion.

“This is my second year [in FFA],” Clemens said. “I like it. Last year I wasn’t all that involved, so this year I’ve been try-ing to go to more competitions, and it’s been fun.”

Aside from FFA, Clemens has shown horses in 4-H compe-titions ever since seventh grade. Her family currently raises four quarter horses, and Clemens has had years of practice with them.

“I like judging horses; I’ve gotten better at it,” Clemens said. “I’ve had a couple years of experience before this, be-cause I did K-State Horse judging. The K-State equestrian team taught me how to judge horses.”

The FFA members were tasked to judge "ve different classes: Reining; Hunter Under Hack; Western Pleasure; and two halter classes, either a stock-type gelding and a hunt-er-type gelding.

See FFA page 5

Rachel Beach Staff Writer

A fun-"lled busy day. Chil-dren from all around Man-hattan congregated at Man-hattan High on Saturday, Dec. 7 for FCCLA’s fundrais-er -- Santa’s Workshop.

Several members of MHS’s FCCLA club watched the kids while their parents went out and did some gift shopping. The event was held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., which allowed the parents plenty of time to seek out the

FCCLA hosts Santa’s Helpers

Medical Explorers: more than meets the eyeRetta Lazaris Staff Writer

Students are educating themselves on the broad spectrum of the medical world by attending and par-ticipating in the Medical Ex-plorers club.

Club president and senior, Natalie Dick, is going on her third year as a member, and says Medical Explorers has helped her choose a career path.

“Medical Explorers is a great club, because, as a

sophomore, I was thinking about the medical "eld, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” Dick said. “It gives you more of an idea of what is in the medical "eld. It’s not just the doctors that you see on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ It’s not just the doctor that you go to when you’re sick. So I start-ed going to that, and now I’m think about becoming a vet-erinarian,” Dick said.

The club allows student to explore their options in the medical "eld. Sponsor Pat Lamb schedules doctors

in all different specialities to come to their meetings and present what they do in their job.

“You also get to learn about a different "eld that you didn’t know existed. It’s a way that you can interact and ask them questions,” ju-nior Mai Mizuno said.

Mizuno has been a part of Medical Explorers through her entire high school career thus far, and is now both the Vice President of Volunteer Services and Historian for the club.

“I love Medical Explor-ers, and that’s partially why I became an of"cer,” Mizuno said. “I mean, when you watch TV and stuff, you get this like idea about doctors that is not always correct. And so, if you want to know about the reality of a doctor’s life -- you know to get a bet-ter idea of what you want to do in the future, or you don’t want to do that in the future -- then going to a Medical Ex-plorers meeting is good.”

perfect holiday gifts for their children.

With a fee of just $5 per hour, FCCLA’s fundraiser was still successful in raising money to help them travel to their National competi-tion that will be held this summer. The fundraiser re-ceived a good turnout and allowed several families to purchase gifts.

“We didn’t have the num-ber of kids we had anticipat-ed,” FCCLA advisor Hiede Rippert said, “But we hope to expand the fundraiser

next year.”Children who were left

in the care of the members of FCCLA participated in crafts and received snacks throughout the time period they were at MHS. From Christmas themed crafting to making and decorating Christmas cookies, the kids had plenty to do.

“It was fun,” junior Shay Hubble said. “The kids were all excited to be there and their parents all seemed to appreciate the time they got to go shopping.”

NHS president imple-

ments new fundraisers

Student wins T shirt in

trigonometry competition

Laura Sapp, Manhattan High School Trigonometry teacher, presents a T-shirt that senior Parfitt Mc-Nair designed. Students of Dedra Braxmeyer and Sapp had a competition using Trigonometry func-tions to create a T-shirt.“It was fun and purposeful at the same time,” Braxmeyer said. A grand champion was chosen between both classes based on creativity and accuracy with the functions. “The competition brought out creativity with students and helped them review for the chapter,” Sapp said. Dheepthi Perumal, Photographer

Scholars Bowl places 11

Manhattan High School’s drum line takes the stage during this years Battle of the Bands. The event took place last Tuesday in Rezac. Turn to page 3 to read more. Amy Levin, Photographer

See Medical Explorers page 5

Tracy LeGraphics Editor

Senior Marley Evans has been part of Manhattan High’s National Honors Society for two years and this year, she is the group’s president.

"It was an election [for president] so I'm really glad I won that,” Evans said. “I really wanted to make some changes. Some changes didn't quite happen this semester but now I have a good idea of what needs to changed and how it can be changed."

Evans still has many ideas to help make NHS better. They have had bake sales and chocolate bar sales so far and already Evans and the group have come up with two new fundraiser ideas, one of those being a prom-related fashion show they plan on having this spring. The other is a water bottle sale that has already began to take place.

"I'm on the Manhattan Marlins swim team and we did it as a fundraiser and it went well. I think it's cool and everybody liked it [the idea],” Evans said. NHS started selling water bottles last week during lunch.

"It's for a good cause and I think they [the water bottles]

See NHS page 5

See IQ Academy page 5

Senior Hanna Hayden, sophomores; Sterling Edgar, Joshua Schwartz and junior Benjamin Lindsey pose after their Schol-ars Bowl meet. The team was missing two players, Kyle Weston junior and Luke Wuri, but still managed to pull through. “We scored 1280 points which is very good without those two,” assistant coach Tim Ekart said. “We placed 11th overall in 6A schools.” Courtesy Photo

Beating the rest

Opinion The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 2

Christmas at school respectful to all?

Kristyn BakerDavid Clinkinbeard

Karl DrownPatrick Falcone

Vincent GossKarl Harmon

Jordan HatleyColten Kirk

Josh KohlsKasey Morris

Mallory MorrisMegan Ritthisorn

Jeremy RomigZane Smith

Austin Tatum

EDITORS:Liz Logback, Editor-in-Chief/Trending

Maddie Ross, News EditorSarah Shi, Opinions/Content Editor

Dheepthi Perumal, Entertainment EditorNick Bandy, Sports Editor

Michael Melgares, Assistant Sports EditorConnor Bliss, Features Editor

Kennedy Felice; Danielle Cook, Copy EditorsAlan Brown, Multimedia Editor

Tracy Le, Graphic DesignerAllison Olsen, Photo Editor

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS:Matt Bandy

Kristen BatsonRachel BeachGage Benne

Chris KlugRetta Lazaris

Madeline MarshallMadison Newman

CIRCULATION:

The Mentor

OTHER:Jerry Sextro, Business Manager

Kristy Nyp, AdviserEric and Lisa Ross, CaterersPam Stokes, Photographer

The Mentor is published each Tuesday that school is in session at Manhattan High School, 2100 Poyntz Ave. Manhattan, Kan. Telephone (785) 587-2114. More than 1,500 Mentors are printed each week and distrib-uted free of charge to all faculty members and students. MHS journalists are members of the Scholastic Press Association. The Men-tor is an open forum that accepts contribu-tions from the public. E-mail us at mhsmen-tor@gmail.com.

“Find time to sleep.”- Madi Fellers, senior

Week:Questionof theWhat big plans do you have for the last month of 2013?

Next edition’s Question of the Week: What ’s on your wish list? Submit answers to mhsmentor.

The editorial is a compilation from a discussion held by the Editorial board.

We have found the issue that divides the staff.

Normally our round table discussions on editorial top-ics end in a majority rule, but this week the topic of Christ-mas in the public school sys-tem left us in two.

The dividing factor was determining the line of what was and was not offensive. While many of us agreed it’s wrong to ignore other’s feelings and actively offend someone, the question was raised, how far do we go to insure no one is offended?

Some of the editorial board was on the far edge of the spectrum and felt that Christmas should in no way be brought into the public school system. Despite the fact that a majority of the school celebrates Christmas,

it is not worth risking the feelings of those who don’t. If playing Christmas music in the classroom offends even just one student, the teacher should not play the music.

The society around us has made it feel like everyone in the United States is Chris-tian and celebrates Christ-mas. The other holidays are ignored and desensitized. Many cultures and religious groups outside of Christi-anity have adapted to the largely celebrated Christmas so their beliefs should not be in jeopardy in their schooling environment. Instead, the minority should be looked out for and extra caution should be taken to insure they do not experience dis-crimination.

The opposing viewpoint among the editorial board agreed with some of those points, yet didn’t feel it was necessary to take such ex-

treme measures in protecting everyone’s feelings. There is always going to be something that offends another in the community. While it is im-portant to be respectful of all beliefs, is it really necessary to eliminate Christmas from the public school system all together? The question was raised, what if one !nds it of-fensive that Christmas is not present in their school? If the minority is so minute that it only affects a few people, measures like eliminating Christmas celebrations and decorations from the public school system all together is too extreme.

In the end, we all agreed that being respectful is the most important thing. Stu-dents’ feelings should be tak-en into consideration when hanging decorations or play-ing Christmas music.

“Surviving.”- Diana Chilton, junior

The Mentor is an open forum and accepts signed letters and guest columns from students, faculty members and parents. Letters and columns are distinct from each other.

words. -

a guest column is advised to clear the topic with the editorial staff prior to writing it in order to save time and effort.

The editorial staff reserved the right to edit for length, grammar and clarity while preserving the original -

tions.

Cigarette smoke chokes my lungs and the city pollu-tion fogs everything beyond the skyscrapers, even at night. I am !ve years old in Beijing, China.

After dinner my dad walks ahead with another busi-nessman, the same man we just shared our Peking Duck with, while I hold hands with my mom -- until we see an-other mother and daughter. This little girl digs through the trashcan for dinner while her mother, dressed in thin, dirtied rags, looks on from her blanket and then joins her. The corners of my eyes droop in sorrow; I stop, then tug on my mom’s arm for money. I place 20 yuan on their blanket and leave just before I turn my head and see the mother’s face -- an

expression of gratitude that stills stares back at me a doz-en years later.

My parents told me if I didn’t want a life like that mother then my education would be my life. “If you work hard and go to a good college, you can take care of yourself,” they said.

While it’s extreme to com-pare my future life to the homeless, if my bachelor’s degree comes from other than Princeton, Harvard or Yale, the advice speaks truth. The probability my fu-ture will mimic Bill Gates’ or Mark Zuckerburg’s adds to one percent of one percent – I still need a college degree, preferably one from the top !ve universities.

However, my commit-ment to academics has fal-tered no doubt, with my de-cisions to spend hours in the journalism room, join extra-curricular clubs, and meet up with friends on the rare occasions my parents grudg-ingly allow (I don’t have a “ti-ger mother” at home, but the core values still apply.)

I once viewed my place in

society as one who follows the rules, excel at one thing, and !nd my place in the as-sembly line. “Be practical,” my parents said. I held back from harboring post-high school and college dreams because I was afraid of what people would say, afraid of looking like an idiot. I think that part rings true if you don’t take practical steps along the way, but now I don’t see anything wrong with dreaming big.

I think us teenagers fall on one of two sides: we believe we’re not good enough to do great things or we think life’s successes will be handed over to us. I’ve been on both sides.

I owe it to senior year – months of college informa-tion sessions and tours – to realize that once I leave I’ll take my !rst steps toward my dreams and no professor will give me an A for partici-pation along the way. I still vouch for a strong education foundation, but after that, I’ll reach for the stars because no one is going to hand them to me.

SarahShi

Senior re-evaluates ‘dreaming big’

“The refs cost us the game!”

How many times has a questionable call by the ref-erees ultimately determined the outcome of the game? Hits and penalties that are seen as clearly legal on high de!nition replay can be inter-preted as illegal on the foot-ball !eld. Often, calls that are clearly incorrect, such as pass interference penalties, cannot be corrected. The obvious question arises: why not?

Just this Sunday, a ques-tionable pass interference call on a defender for the Cleveland Browns against a New England receiver

ultimately handed a game-winning touchdown to the Patriots. According to the announcers, who saw the instant replay, the outcome was a “terrible call.” Earlier this year, a defender from the University of Alabama was called for targeting by an of!cial on the !eld. When re-viewed as to whether or not he should be removed from the game, it was concluded that the hit was not targeting after all, but by rule the 15-yard penalty would still be enforced.

Mistakes by referees should not determine an outcome of a game, and a change must be made to avoid these incidents. Why a plausible solution has not been put forth by the NCAA or NFL is puzzling.

Is it that referees are just so high and mighty that they must get the last word, re-gardless of what is the cor-rect call? Perhaps they fear

the need to review every questionable penalty would signi!cantly slow down game play.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick brought forth an interesting proposal during one of his recent press conferences to help solve this problem. Why not keep the old rules, but allow coaches to use their challenges against any pen-alty they choose? This would keep reviewing of penalties at a minimum due to a limit-ed number of challenges, but would ensure that penalties in critical situations could be reviewed and made correct.

Belichick’s reasoning makes sense, and he even goes so far as to suggest chal-lenging should be open to all plays. Of!ciating crews would be wise to listen be-cause the system in place simply isn’t working. It’s time for some change.

Referee rules need to changeAlanBrown

‘Tis the season to be jolly -- or so they say -- but what does “holiday cheer” really mean?

The month of the turkey has come to an end. The stuffed turkeys and the plas-tic pilgrim !gurines go back into the closet to make room for winter holiday decora-tions.

December is my absolute favorite month. Secretly (maybe not so secretly), I’m a really cheesy person. This month gives me an excuse to go out of my way and over-load on holiday spirit.

I have been listening to holiday music since Septem-ber. I make yearly playlists on my iPod (my favorite album is Michael Buble’s “Christmas”). I will proudly admit that I get ABC Family’s “25 Days of Christmas” mov-ie times texted straight to

my phone. I watch “A Christ-mas Story,” “Home Alone” and “Elf” over and over. You could say that I’m a Christ-mas fanatic.

I have loads of sweaters hanging in my closet waiting to be worn in the wintery weather.

My lights are up at my house and I even set up a minia-ture tree in my room with a string of lights and hanging snow-"akes around my bed.

The smell of pine and va-nilla candles waft through my house during this time of year. I scour Pinterest to !nd all of the best holiday cookie recipes.

As much as I love all of those things, nothing can beat how much I enjoy the fact that for one month ev-eryone seems to actually get along. Whether you cel-ebrate Christmas or not, the fact that holiday cheer runs

through every aspect of De-cember is my favorite thing in the world. I see people at the mall picking names off of the tree to send gifts to peo-

ple who can’t afford them for their families. The Flint Hills Breadbasket

does its annual Holiday Food and Fund drive to help feed the hungry

over the holidays.It doesn’t even

have to be feed-ing the hungry. I’m

just saying that a little smile goes a long way. We need to !ll our

halls with happiness this December. You don’t even have to celebrate Christmas to spread holiday cheer. We just have

to remember what the holidays are all about.

As Buddy the elf says, “The best way

to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.”

So I encourage you, put a little holiday magic into ev-eryone’s day and do some-thing nice for someone.

Let the season of pepper-mint begin!

Deck the halls with holiday spiritAllisonOlsen

Illustration by

“You include the viewer and you think ‘this isn’t just for me, someone is going to see it’ and then you can talk about it with people.” -Rempel

Entertainment The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 3

Battle of the Bands:small audience, big performanceMaddie RossNews Editor

Despite the small crowd, Rezac Auditorium was still !lled with energy as four bands strummed, drummed and sang in pursuit of !rst place in this year’s Battle of the Bands competition.

“The show was a lot of fun to play,” senior and E.R. band member Lukas Hu-gunin said. “We had fun up there. The lights were really well done. The sound was good.”

The four bands that com-peted were E.R., The Hollow Earth, Toad and the Tundra and the Big Blue marching band drumline. In the end the Drumline came out on top with the coveted !rst place title.

“It is very exciting,” junior drumline member Danny Ar-amouni said. “We were not expecting it at all. We had only practiced three times.”

As the battle began stu-dents made their way to the front of the auditorium, right up to the stage.

“It was so fun, everyone

went up to the stage,” senior Oscar Serrate said. “It was cool seeing the bands put it all out there, and be a part of it.”

“To be honest, I feel the audience really enjoyed it,” Hugunin said. “My favorite part of playing in a band is the enjoyment I can give to the audience members and how much fun that my band members get to have by play-ing. The music is de!nitely an integral part to that. How-ever, the music is only fun if everyone else is having fun.”

Each band played around three to four songs, some original and some covers of famous songs. The per-formances were judged by guests from one of the event’s sponsors Sisters of Sound. After all the bands had taken the stage, the judges tabulat-ed the scores and the results were announced.

“I must say I was a bit dis-appointed with how the over-all outcome went but I mean with the drumline winning props to them,” Hugunin said. “Their sound was good, and I imagine that they put

Chamber choir carols in the coldMadeline MarshallStaff Writer

Friday night, the Man-hattan High Chamber Choir bundled up and caroled at the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting in Triangle Park. Their repertoire included classic Christmas carols, all of which were sung next to the unlit tree as parade "oats passed by.

“I couldn’t feel my !ngers or feet, but despite the cold, caroling was really fun,” sophomore choir member Emma Galitzer said.

“I thought it was really fun. My hands were frozen, but other than that it went well,” junior Levi Jones said.

Even in the face of below-freezing temperatures, the students enjoyed the im-promptu performance.

“It’s a big community

event and I think that just go-ing out and showing the com-munity what we do was is a really big deal,” Jones said.

“It’s also great for com-munity service and really just helping everyone to just get into the holiday spirit,” Jones said.

Many parade-goers wan-dered by, most of whom stopped to listen. As the pa-rade ended, Triangle Park was !lled to the brim.

“I think the crowd enjoyed it, we sung before the mayor lit the holiday tree so that made the people stay and listen, even though it was so cold. They were drawn to us after the parade and the mu-sic made them stay,” Galitzer said. “It was a great bonding experience for the choir. The fact that we were huddled up like penguins certainly helped.”

At the annual Christmas tree lighting in Triangle Park, Manhattan High School Chamber Choir sings around the tree. The group of students’ repertoire included Christmas carols. Chamber Choir performed along side the Mayor’s Lighted Holiday parade that was happening at the same time.

Photographer Madeline Marshall

on a good performance wor-thy of their position.”

“It was very fun. I would love to do more things with small percussion ensem-bles,” Aramouni said. “I think it shows us as percussionists that we can play percussion ensemble music, and people will enjoy it.”

In the end it was a reward-ing experience for all the bands.

“Sure we would have liked to have placed higher but it doesn’t necessarily befall us, it doesn’t cause us to give up,” Hugunin said. “It is what it is and you have to keep on truckin.’”

Kristen BatsonStaff Writer

Fine arts credits as a col-lege requirement has be-come somewhat of a contro-versial topic. Some people argue that there are very few career paths it will lead to, but ceramics teacher Sara Rempel has taken a different stance.

Rempel found her passion for ceramics in high school and then went on to major in art in college focusing on ce-ramics. She and her husband traveled around the US go-ing to various arts and crafts shows displaying their work for 20 years.

“I was very shy at that time and when you put your work out for the public to see

it’s really scary. I got over my shyness and was able to see the culture all over the country in dif-ferent areas,” Rempel said. With math you have to memo-rize how to do it and with art it isn’t always

Fine arts credits a controversial topicthe same. You have to think

about what you’re doing,” she

said. “You include the viewer and you think ‘this isn’t just for me, someone is going to see it’ and then you can talk about it with people. It’s re-ally good for communication and critical thinking and also just expressing yourself.”

She feels that whether or not you pursue a career involving an art form, the classes offer students more

than just skill. Currently, she is entering

pieces created by students at Manhattan High to the Free Expressions art contest.

Early Expressions is an art competition and exhibi-tion of works completed by students in USD 383. The works are displayed at Kan-sas State University’s Beach Museum of Art.

Right: The Hollow Earth per-forms single that they wrote themselves. The group is made up of all sophomores that attend Manhattan High School.

Photographer Thom Billam

Right: The band E.R. suits up to perform at the annual Battle of the Bands. E.R. started the night off, playing from three albums. Bottom: Lead singer junior Noah Schnee, of Toad and the Tundra sings in a two man band. The two juniors also wanted to try out for Battle of the Bands.

Photographer Thom Billam

Sports The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 4

Down goes DerbyNick BandySports Editor

Until last Friday, the Man-hattan-Derby rivalry has been pretty one-sided. Der-by beat the boys basketball team three times last year, including an end of the sea-son win in SubState, and its football team recently ended the Indians’ season.

But the !rst basketball game of this season couldn’t

Junior Caroline Ballard prepares to shoot a three-point shot over a Derby defender. Ballard’s key free throws helped the Indians get a six-point victory.

Michael Melgares, photographer

Stitt leads boys’ high-powered offense in dominating win

Michael MelgaresAssistant Sports Editor

With 45 total fouls in the game, the Manhattan High Lady Indians’ match up against Derby Friday night quickly became a test of depth for both teams.

“Defensively, we need to defend without fouling,” head coach Scott Mall said.

The Indians were forced to bench two of their top players, Caroline Ballard and Darby Price, due to foul trouble late in the !rst half. However, behind eight points from juniors Savan-nah Roberts and Savannah Thaemert, and help off the bench from juniors Amara Ehie and Kylie James, as well as senior Erika Hairgrove, the Indians were able to edge the Panthers 53-47.

“I thought that (help from the bench players) was a big key in the game,” Mall said. “Every girl that came in off our bench did a great job.”

The game went back and forth for the !rst three quar-ters with neither team having a clear advantage over the other. This was the case un-til a momentum swing came early in the fourth from off the bench. Ehie stepped up

with six consecutive points to spark the Indians’ past the neck-and-neck trend that had manifested itself throughout the game. Ehie would !nish with a team-high 13 points. At that point, it was evident that the Indians had the up-per-hand.

Starting the season off with a victory is rewarding for Mall.

“It tends to validate some of the work you’ve done,” Mall said. “We didn’t play as well as we would’ve liked to Friday, but still it kind of gives you a little reward for the work that you’ve done.”

While the Indians’ per-formance on the offensive end of the "oor was sub-par, shooting 38 percent from the !eld, it was the team’s lock-down defense that helped the Indians hold off Derby for the win. The Indians held Derby’s star player, 6-foot-1 Grace Mitchell, to 14 points despite having two of their best post defenders in foul trouble.

The team will hit the road next Friday night to play Dodge City, before taking on Great Bend the next day in what will be the team’s !rst two road games.

have been any different. Un-der a large and loud home crowd, MHS dominated from the !rst minute as they led the whole game and won 80-63.

“We played as a team and we did what coach wanted us to do and just got the job done,” sophomore Gabe Au-brey said.

Aubrey and junior Pierson McAtee were both !rst-time starters, along with return-

ing junior Peyton Stephens and seniors Winston Dimel and Alex Stitt.

“I worked hard in the sum-mer and in practice,” Aubrey said.

Aubrey made the only three pointer of the game for MHS, as the Indians had no problem getting the ball close to the basket for easy layups.

“It felt good, it was good to get the !rst one out of the

way,” Aubrey said.Stitt led the way for the

Indians, scoring 27 points on 8-for-11 shooting and not missing a single free throw. He was also the Indian’s key to breaking the Derby full-court press as he used his ball handling and speed to get past defenders and make layups, or set up his team-mates for easy shots.

“We realized their mis-matches and we pounded

them inside,” Stitt said.Stephens did most of

the inside pounding as he put up 25 points, almost all in the paint and including one dunk. He pulled down rebounds and the smaller Derby players had little ef-fect on him when he got the ball and decided to take it to the basket.

Despite scoring 80 points, more than the Indians scored in any game last year, they

still found things to work on after the game. They com-mitted 16 turnovers and al-lowed more points than they would have liked.

“We need to work on our defense. Allowing 63 points isn’t very good,” Stitt said.

Their next game is this Friday at Dodge City.

Defense, free throws help girls in close victory

Athlete of the week

Junior Amara EhieEhie led the team in scoring

with 13 points. She scored six straight points in the fourth quarter and secured their vic-

tory.

Swim team starts with

second-place finishMadison NewmanStaff Writer

The Manhattan High swim team brought home second place from their sea-son opening meet at Topeka on Wednesday. The team scored 100 points behind Washburn.

“We did really good for our !rst swim meet. The new guys were a bit worried but we pulled through well,” Xavier Hayden, junior, said.

“We did really good. Bet-ter than I thought we would, actually,” Paul Wichman, MHS senior said. “Topeka’s pool and equipment was re-ally nice, too.”

This year’s team has fewer members than recent years, which presents some problems.

“Our team is small this year, like 20-some people, which can have its draw-backs, because we can only

enter certain events and rac-es,” Wichmann said.

The organization of the swimming team allows mem-bers to compete in areas that they excel in.

“I personally like the

breast stroke. I competed in the 200 breaststroke relay, I swam the 100 freestyle relay, the 150 freestyle relay, the 200 breaststroke relay and the 400 free relay,” Wich-mann said.

Senior Andy Grenier is on this year’s team and compet-ed at the !rst meet.

“I personally did the 50

Nick BandySports Editor

The Manhattan High wrestling team began their season with an eighth-place !nish out of the 15 teams at the Gardner-Edgerton invita-tional on Saturday.

“It’s the toughest one-day tournament in Kansas,” head coach Robert Gonzales said.

Five out of the 12 wres-tlers that MHS took medaled. Freshman Mason Wallace, who is currently ranked third in Kansas class 6A, took fourth. Seniors Kian Clem-ens and Michael Leeper also took fourth after having a 4-1 record on the day. Junior An-thony Renteria took sixth.

“We did decent. We were in the top three to four teams in Kansas,” senior Austin Chauncey said.

Chauncey had the best !nish on the team as he took second after losing in the !-

nal match. He also had the most exciting match of the day. The three regular pe-riods and three overtimes were not enough to decide the match. The match then went to sudden victory, where each competitor has 30 seconds to either escape or take down their oppo-nent. Chauncey lost in sud-den victory.

Gonzales thought the team’s eighth-place !nish was good considering the competition. The meet in-cluded top-ranked teams from Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

The team immediately searched for ways to im-prove after the meet.

“We can improve by not giving escapes while on top and taking advantage of op-portunities,” Chauncey said.

The Indians’ next meet is a dual meet this Friday against Emporia.

Wrestling takes

eighth against

tough competition

“ Everyone did a good job and

a lot of people were surprised

with their times.” - Hayden

yard, 100-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard relay,” Grenier said.

Grenier, an exchange stu-dent, is enjoying swimming so far.

“I like the swim team.

It can be intense,” he said. “I prefer the dry land, you know doing push ups and things like that, because we get out of practice earlier.”

Hayden also has some reasons for liking swimming beyond the competition.

“I like swimming because you don’t get all sweaty like other sports, so that’s good

-- and you can eat a lot,” he said.

A lot of people know Hayden from the swim team due to his many years on the team, and his capability.

“I take that with a grain of salt,” he said. “Everyone al-ways has room for improve-ments. Everyone did a good job and a lot of people were surprised with their times. We pulled through and en-couraged each other to do well.”

The team’s next meet will be against Lawrence High and Lawrence Free State tomorrow at Kansas State University’s Natatorium. Hayden hopes the next meet will go at least as well as the !rst one.

“I expect better for relay and tech skills because we haven’t really covered that much,” he said. “I expect overall improvement.”

Features The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com page 5

One of the newest propos-als is for a Science Olympiad class, making the currently extracurricular program open as a class as well. While this may help some students !t it into their busy sched-ules, many students already have fully-loaded schedules.

“I won’t be able to take part in the class next year, because I don’t have any open electives. Luckily I can still take part in the program if I don’t take the class,” ju-nior Krista Dix said.

“Reigning is basically where the horse is running fast, and doing a pattern. And you have a pattern that you’re looking off of, and you have to make sure they are doing the pattern correctly,” Clemens said.

“And then, Hunter Under Saddle (Hack) is a type of English equestrian, and it’s basically like Western Plea-sure, where they just ride on the edge of the fence. They do a walk, trot and a canter [a controlled, three-beat rhythm in the horse’s trot.]”

There are two other cat-egories, as well.

“Western Pleasure is the same thing, only it’s walk, jog and a lope [a slower, and more challenging pace of run-ning],” she said. “And then for the Halter classes; they have four horses, and each person brings a horse in, and there’s just this huge group of kids. We’re all standing around getting different views of them, and judging them, like their body confor-mation (how they look) and their balance.”

When all of the members had completed their task, they were asked to write out oral reasonings.

“You place the four horses from best to worst, then you give judges your oral reason-ings,” Clemens said. “Oral reasonings are where you write why you placed them

And sometimes, students will !nd out that the medical !eld isn’t their calling.

“I did [want to be in the medical !eld], but after I joined Medical Explorers I changed my mind, because it just wasn’t right for me,” Mi-zuno said. “Even if you’re not interested in being in Medi-cal Explorers, it’s a great way to get a better idea of what you want.

This spring should be a very active one for the club. The students plan to coor-dinate a visit to the K-State veterinary clinic to tour and learn about a veterinarian’s daily life.

The club may also have some volunteer work up ahead.

“We’ve also tried in the past to do volunteer work,” junior Daniel Aramouni said. “A lot of the time, it hasn’t work out as well as we’ve hoped.”

“We’ve cleaned up hos-pital land before. We may do that again in the spring,” Aramouni said.

And on top of that, Dick claimed they may be able to see a real Cadavers.

“It’s kind of like dissect-ing a cat in anatomy, but its a human,” Dick said. “I’m ac-tually really excited for that. I just think that stuff is really interesting.”

are really cool,” Evans said. The water bottles will con-tinue to sell for a while and can be purchased for $12.50 each in the nurse’s room and possibly during MHS basket-ball games.

"We are fundraising for National Honors Society,” school nurse and NHS spon-sor Robin Smith said, “and our goal is to be able to pro-vide some type of assistance for a family in need here at Manhattan High School and also scholarships for Nation-al Honors Society members who are going to be going to college. I think it is impor-tant for the students to have a purpose to fundraising and I think it makes it more meaningful when students know that we’re going to ac-tually help a family.”

that way, and then you have to give it in front of the judge. And you only have 10 min-utes to get it all together.”

Though she pulled through, Clemens had her doubts about the competi-tion.

“And I thought I did ter-rible,” Clemens said, “Like I messed up right in the mid-dle of my reasonings, but ap-parently I didn’t.”

The members were split into two teams: the Green-hand (!rst-year members) and Senior. The Greenhand team placed !fth with; the Senior team placed sixth.

Bella Petri, Brendon Kin-sley and sophomore Tan-ner Sanders scored 786 points for the Greenhand team. Clemens, junior John Crowder, and senior Natalie Dick scored a combined total of 866 points for the Senior division.

“Well, horses are a tough category to judge. I’ve spent !ve years just to get where I am with horses right now,” Clemens said. “So, I think they all did pretty good since a lot of them hadn’t judged horses before.”

Clemens mostly works with horses because it’s fun.

“And it was just a blast having a group of kids, like actually a large group of FFA kids come to judge hors-es…,” Clemens said. “So, it was a fun day.”

Senior Marley Evans- December Optimist student

Q: What do you think sets you apart from other stu-dents?

A: “I’ve been given a lot of opportunities to excel and I try to take advantage of them. I have very high expecta-tions of myself.”

Q: What activities are you involved in?

A: “I swim with the Manhattan Marlins year round and on the MHS swim team in the spring, I’m the president of NHS and I’m in AFS.”

Peter Maier- November Rotary student

Q: Is it dif!cult to balance academics, sports, and your social life?

A: “It can be stressful at times but if you set your pri-orities then it’s easy to balance things out. Sometimes sports can take over social life and academics but I need to get back on track”.

Q: What encourages you?

A: “Having a good group of friends to fall back on in times when I need someone to fall back on”.

Q: Who’s your role model?

A: “Tim Tebow because of his positive in"uence on peo-ple’s lives even though he puts up with a lot of stuff, he’s just a good model for me to want to live my life like”.

AFS embarks on

trip despite cold

Students of the Month recognizedPatrick Guvele- December Optimist student

Q: What do you think sets you apart from other students?

A:“Community service. I like to do stuff for my church and academics are really important”.

Q: Who’s your role model?

A: “My mom because she works so hard. She’s getting her Master’s in Human Health with emphasis on infectious dis-ease. I come home and she’s sitting at the computer study-ing and she’s been there for hours. She always says ‘you have to study to do well in life’ and she’s de!nitely a role model for working hard.”

Alaina Schroeder- November Rotary student

Q: What do you think sets you apart from other students?

A: “I’m pretty outgoing and I like talking to people. I also play sports but so does everyone else.”

Q: What encourages you?

A: “People around me doing well, when I see them doing well it makes me want to, and my parents, obviously.”

Q: Who’s your role model?

A: “My grandpa. He’s the funniest person I know and he cares about everyone. I just want to be him but in a female version.”

Sarah ShiOpinions Editor

The cold weather didn’t hinder the foreign exchange students from spending Saturday outside in Kansas City.

The American Field Ser-vice students, along with a few host families, left in the cold at 8 a.m. from the high school and made their way to shop at Legends, then Crown Center to ice skate, and the Kansas City Plaza to see the lights.

For junior Tahir Gadimov, he enjoyed the Kansas City trip for multiple reasons.

“I loved it. First, I got to hang out with friends. Sec-ond, I got to go on a road trip with friends. Third, the shop-ping sales. Fourth, there was a huge ice skating rink,” Gad-imov said. “We should orga-nize more of these where a lot of people are involved.”

Junior Silvan Plattner agreed, but added that he

was a bit disappointed that he didn’t have a chance to meet the mall Santa.

“My favorite part was ice skating. We tried to race each other,” he said. “I missed Santa, though, be-cause the line was so long.”

Eric Ross, a host parent to Ana Dominguez, also traveled with the foreign ex-change group.

“It was a nice opportunity to get out of town to hang out and do something fun. AFS families hosts were invited so we just went as a family,” he said. “Ana said it was ‘very cold’.”

Senior Amy Levin, al-though not a foreign ex-change, went along with the group to shop and ice skate.

“I liked ice skating. It was fun and we bonded well. At Legends I followed Ana and Maddie and we shopped at Forever 21. After that we fol-lowed Tahir into Tommy Hil-!ger,” Levin said. “It was just so cold outside.”

Danielle CookCopy Editor

Thursday night Rezac Auditorium, nearly all of its seats occupied, buzzed with the chatter of concert-goers anticipating the show to come. From the moment Manhattan High’s Big Blue Marching Band was all set up onstage, it had the audi-ence’s eager attention.

This annual indoor march-ing band concert is called “Turf Tunes,” the songs the band played including songs from its routine pre-game and festival halftime shows. Also performing with the band, as usual, were the MHS color guard and twirl-ers.

However, not everything about this year’s perfor-mance was as usual. At this year’s show, gift baskets were raf"ed off to members of the audience, the pro!ts from the sale of raf"e tickets to be used to support the Big Blue Marching Band in fu-

ture endeavors. According to senior Mary Matthews, the raf"e tickets were al-most as much of a hit as the music.

“It [the raf"e] was some-thing new this year, and the crowd really enjoyed it. That was fun, and I think they enjoyed the perfor-mance, as well,” Matthews said.

The audience weren’t the only ones who enjoy the marching band’s !nal event of the season; members of the band, color guard and the twirlers shared in the fun of the concert, cel-ebrating a season of great musical accomplishment.

“I always look forward to it because it’s kind of a ‘last hoorah’ for a great sea-son,” junior Justin Gittle said. “It was really fun this year because we did a fun show that earned a one at our marching festival, and played even better at the concert.”

Marching band closes season

Above: Senior drum major Joe Haug directs the Manhattan High Marching band. Right: Danny Aramouni

performs with the percussion pit. The concert marked the end of the band’s season and they played school

songs and their festival show. Awards were handed out during the concert for most improved band members,

the “Big Blue” award, and section of the year.

Danielle Cook, photographer

From Medical Explorers page 1

From NHS page 1From FFA page 1

From IQ Academy page 1

clothes girls _____________________________shoes boys _______________________________shoes girls ______________________________sports and supplies ________________________music stores _____________________________accessories ______________________________college _________________________________elementary school _________________________The Mentor writer _________________________section of paper/ feature ____________________local band _______________________________dance studio _____________________________park ____________________________________track/field ______________________________fishing/hunting ___________________________hill for sledding __________________________place to hike/jog __________________________place on K-State campus _____________________place to eat lunch at MHS ___________________place to study ____________________________place to “chill”/hang with friends _____________art _____________________________________recently opened in Manhattan ________________how Manhattan relates to other towns __________car dealerships ___________________________cinema/theatre ___________________________museum/history ___________________________church/place of worship ____________________health clinics ____________________________orthodontic/dental clinics __________________Tuxedo/Prom Dresses ______________________

Trending The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com page 6

Staff Members wanted!

Are you interested in writing or designing for the Mentor? We may have a job for you! We� are� looking� to� fill� the� following� positions� second semester:

-Sports Editor-Entertainment Editor

-Staff Writers-Photographers-Ad Sales Reps

We are looking for hardworking individu-als who can commit to joining 5th hour (edi-tors will also need to work after school every Monday.)� Pick� up� applications� in� C107� and� return� by� Dec.� 19.� �

The very best ofManhattanVote for your favorites in each category by writing in the name of a business located in Manhattan, and submit your responses in the main office by noon on Dec. 16, or send an email to mhsmentor@gmail.com to be entered into a drawing for Chipotle gift cards.

ice cream ________________________________breakfast ________________________________open lunch ______________________________hamburgers_______________________________pizza ____________________________________buffet __________________________________Italian/pizza ______________________________Mexican _________________________________place to take a date to dinner _________________gym/workout _____________________________grocery _________________________________gas station _______________________________coffee __________________________________bakery/donut shop _________________________drugstore/pharmacy _______________________department store __________________________brand of candy, pop, etc. ____________________book ___________________________________sandwich ________________________________haircut boys ______________________________haircut girls _____________________________clothes boys _____________________________

Liz Logback Editor-in-Chief

Manhattan is your town, students. And we want to know what you enjoy about it. We have attached a form so you can share your opinion with us.

Where do you like to eat? What is your favorite place to hang out? What is the best place to buy a prom dress?

Junior Isaiah Koppes already let us in on his favorite lunch place.

“Jimmy Johns is absolutely my favor-ite lunch location. They make great sand-wiches. I head there three to seven times a week, at which I order from a variety of items, including the delicious Pepe, the BIG JOHN, or if I am feeling risky, I order the

Billy Club,” Koppes said.He also recognizes the value in support-

ing local places.“I work at a local business, Manhattan

Running Company, ergo of course I support them,” Koppes said.

Junior Reid Beer enjoys Golden Wok buffet for his lunch outings.

“The people there are wonderful, to the part of remembering my drink. The food is great, and I especially enjoy the noodle bar. I spend my money at the Golden Wok,” Beer said.

Take the time to !ll out the form and give us the inside scoop on the best locations in town (and in case that isn’t enough, we will enter your name into a drawing for a Chipo-tle gift card when you submit your form).