February 5, 2010Volume 15, Issue 5

Cheer surprises Girls B-ball pg. 2

Snuggie offers comfort

pg. 4

Local teen races pro in motorcross

pg. 12Think Pink - learn more and attend the gamepg. 6-7, 14

Jessica RobertsPhoto Editor

Students have heard about MORP for a while now. First it was cancelled, then it was back and then it was cancelled again. It is important to figure out whether the event will hap-pen, so that students can make plans for the evening.

The final word is that there will not be a MORP dance this winter. In fact, it was never even on the calendar for this year. “MORP has never been a well-attended dance here despite the perception that everyone loves it,” said Activities Director Kim Bair. “The attendance to this dance has not exceeded 300 or so for the past several years, and the behavior at this informal, low-attendance dance has always been an issue.”

Almost all informal dances have been taken off the calendar this year. One of the reasons is the behavior

from those who attend. At infor-

mal dances, students disregard the rules, which include danc-ing, dressing and

acting appropriately. Another reason is that

no one buys any tickets. The Welcome Back Dance, which was also removed from the calendar this year, only sold 20 tickets last year and had to be cancelled.

Unless students demand to have these dances back, they shouldn’t expect to see them on the calendar in the fu-ture. “I don’t expect any of these dances to be replaced,” said Bair. “We had abso-lutely no reaction to not calendaring the Welcome Back Dance, and to be honest, if my students had not jumped the gun with a poster saying ‘MORP is back!’, I doubt anyone would have said a word about that dance either.”

Students can still look forward to dances like Aurora and Quad Dance.

MORP dance again

2 Wolf Pack Press News Editor, Jency James

February 5, 2010Volume 15, Issue 5

Jency JamesNews Editor

Jaws dropped, eyes teared up and expressions of shock flooded the room as the Woodcreek Cheer team walked onto the WHS basketball court Friday night, Jan. 22, and presented the Varsity Girls Basketball team with a check for $1500. This money replaced tournament funds that were stolen from the Lady Timber-wolves after a break-in to the school in mid-December.

The cheer team decided that help-ing the girls basketball team get their money back would be a worthwhile cause. “It’s a great team,” said Donna Huss, assistant Cheer coach. “We know how hard it is to fundraise and we just wanted to do a random act of kindness.”

The girls brainstormed what they could do and the idea of a jump-a-thon came to mind. “I was really happy with it. I thought it would make a big improvement for the basketball team and help them in a positive way,” said freshman cheerleader Emily Elliot.

The girls raised money through a variety of sources. “In one week’s time the girls went door-to-door, called rela-tives and asked teachers and friends. The entire Woodcreek community helped them,” said head Cheer Coach Melissa Tremaine.

Most of the money raised came from flat donations while 25% were donations pledged per jump. “I had girls that woke up at 9AM [last Monday], put on their uniform and went door-to-door,” said Tremaine.

“We made sure not to ask anyone affiliated with basketball and asked

Cheer hosts jump-a-thon to replace stolen basketball fundsteachers but told them to keep it a se-cret,” said senior Cheer Captain Natalie Whelan.

The girls raised over $2000 in just a week. “We estimated $1500 to cover the stolen money and the snacks and drinks that were also stolen,” said Tre-maine. The team will donate the rest of the money towards finding a cure for breast cancer at the Think Pink game on Feb. 11.

The actual jump-a-thon consisted of the team completing as many toe-touches as they could in one minute. “It was really tiring, but it was fun,” said junior cheerleader Courtney Powell.

“We lined up and our coach timed us to see how many toe-touches we could do in one minute. I made 23,” said Elliot.

Woodcreek Cheer presented the check to the girls varsity team in-between the JV and Varsity game last Friday. “I was shocked,” said senior basketball player Amanda Pettinato. “I was surprised they would help us like that.”

Coach Ray Beck expressed similar sentiments, “The fact that they thought of another program and did this out of the goodness of their hearts was great.”

“I know for me, it brought me to tears. We worked so hard this year to try and not cost parents any extra mon-ey and we thought that would be impos-sible with the money gone,” said Booster Club parent Carolyn Barroom.

Before the check was presented to Coach Beck, the girls basketball team and the cheerleaders lined up opposite each other. Elliot said, “They were really shocked. They walked i n a single-file line, shook every

cheerlead-er ’s hand and said, ‘ T h a n k y o u . ’ ” Then the Lady Tim-berwolves invited the cheerlead-ers to join t h e m o n the court for the Na-tional An-them.

As the N a t i o n a l A n t h e m w a f t e d through the speakers to reach the awed and more-than-slightly choked up crowd of students, parents, and coaches, a general feeling of goodwill and team spirit (regardless of whether they were on a team or not) washed

over the gym. With the earnings from the cheer-

leader’s fundraiser and a newfound feeling of hope, the Lady Timberwolves went on to win a close victory over Ne-vada Union 60-59.

GIVING BACK: (Top) Cheer Coach Melissa Tremaine surprises Girls Bas-ketball Coach Ray Beck with a check for $1500. (Bottom) The cheer and girls basketball teams exchanged gratitude and high fives.

AP Physics rumors dispelledJoe NavarroNewbie Reporter

Rumors that the AP Physics class was in danger of being dropped are not true. The class, taught by science teacher Brook Reed, has a current en-rollment of 12 students.

While it may not sound like a popu-lar class, there were more people who actually signed up for the course than the current number reflects. According to Reed, over 30 students signed up, 24 registered and 12 people got in. Those students who were originally signed up and dropped did so for various reasons. Some of these reasons included that some students didn’t have the required qualifications to meet the standards while other students had to choose be-tween AP Physics and Spanish 4.

AP Physics is usually a small class but just not this small. However, this is not the lowest amount of students that have been enrolled in the class.

According to Reed the least amount of students that have ever been in the class is eleven, which is only one less than now.

Reed thinks that the class will be much bigger in the future because out of 39 Calculus students, 19 plan to take the course instead of Conceptual Physics.

Reed has taken matters into his own hands by personally talking to some potential students about taking the class because they may be more eligible than required.

Having a low amount of students in a class may not be good for the class, but it is much better for the students.Stu-dents say that it’s usually much easier to ask questions and make comments in a class of this size.

Many students like senior Billy Bullard, who is currently enrolled in the AP class, say they took it for college. “It just looks good on my transcript,” said Bullard.

PHOTOS BY JOHN RAYL (www.johnraylstudios.com)

NewsFebruary 5, 2010

New Prep class benefits studentsEvan CarboneStaff Reporter

In an effort to help students achieve greater success in their college quests, the school administration has decided to partner with Kaplan to host a SAT prep class.

Juniors enrolled in English this semester have experienced one of the most recent offerings that the Wood-creek administration has instated. During English this year all juniors (either this semester or last) have gone to a preview workshop for the Kaplan College SAT preparation course. During the workshop students wrote an essay from a previous SAT prompt under SAT conditions (25 minutes to write a four to five paragraph essay). After the writing portion concluded, Katherine Plomer, a representative from Kaplan College, went over common mistakes students make on the SAT essay. Plomer then informed students of ways to prevent making the same mistakes during the SATs and gave them useful tips and strategies to do well on the SAT essay. Students have or will be receiving their graded essays by mail within a month of taking them. These will show them how well they did without the tips and solutions that Plomer had to offer.

This preview workshop was ar-ranged to help promote greater access and awareness about the SAT prepara-tion course that Kaplan College will be putting on at Woodcreek High School starting this year. By preparing stu-dents for the SATs, the course aims to improve overall SAT scores and relieve the anxiety of the test itself. The course helps students prepare for the SATs by, “Having them [students] take practice tests and review their results weekly,” said Assistant Principal Heather Schla-man.

The first mock SAT was held on Sat-urday, Jan. 30. Students signed up for the exam in the Career Center for $12. The results will be expected to return in February, so students can look over them and target their strengths and weaknesses. All proceeds from the entry fee go to Woodcreek High School.

Plomer has been working directly with Woodcreek teachers and admin-istration, specifically Schlaman and Kathy Eisenhower, the SAT Prep Co-ordinator. The school provides a space for the course to take place on campus, and in return Kaplan offers the course at a discounted price to Woodcreek students. In addition Schlaman and Eisenhower work with Plomer, guiding what the course focuses on to target what Schlaman and Eisenhower think Woodcreek students need the most help on. “Teachers know their students best,” Plomer said.

The course is now open for sign ups and forms can be picked up in the Career Center. There is an entry fee for the course, but students on the re-duced cost or free lunch programs can get up to a $100 discount on the course through funding provided by the School Site Council.

Sara GibbonsStaff Reporter

For those unaware, ROP, short for Regional Occupation Program, is a public education service offered at schools nationwide that provides hands-on experience in the career you choose. Most of the classes have two locations - an actual class, where all the book knowledge required for the chosen career takes place and a jobsite, where experience and hands-on work comes into play.

Most of Woodcreek’s offered courses are found in Auburn, and many dif-ferent schools participate, making for a diverse and interesting class. The classes first consist of six weeks of book learning, followed by three weeks of an internship.

ROP is designed to prepare stu-dents for a real job by providing them with entry level job skills, resume writ-ing techniques and interview skills, all while earning high school credits, college credits, and even a Certificate of Completion. Students must be a Junior or Senior to participate, which makes sense as transportation is not provided and somewhere between 2 and 3 hours are spent in class daily.

Woodcreek offers a variety of ROP choices to choose from, including Arts and Animation, Automotive Technology, Computer Studies, Culinary Arts, and Business Finance, the last two of which are actually offered here on campus

what he wants to do until he retires. Ru-bin has wanted to be a firefighter since he was a little kid. “Just learning about the Fire Service is interesting in itself. Our Captain is awesome,” he said.

by Susie McGuire and Paul Hayes, respectively.

One student enrolled in the ROP program is senior Devan Burke. Burke is taking the Veterinary Sci-ence class in Auburn because she wants to have her own horse training business.

Though she doesn’t want to be a vet, Burke decided to take this class because it’s good to have the experience. She said, “It’s impor-tant to have that training in case of an emergency.” The class mostly consists of basic and straightfor-ward knowledge. Burke is currently learning about the skeletal system and dissecting fetal pigs. She said that her favorite part of the class is “learning about the diseases and how they can affect the animals.”

Another student enrolled in ROP is senior Jeremy Rubin. Rubin is taking Fire Science, which is cur-rently the most popular ROP class available. When asked his opinion on why he thinks it’s that popular, Rubin said, “It’s because getting into the Fire Service is the best job you can ever have. Kids know that.”

Taking this course will jump-start his career and give him an extra check mark on his resume. However, even if this class didn’t give him a leg up on his career of choice, Rubin would still enjoy it.

Rubin is very enthusiastic about his choice, and even said that this is

News Editor, Jency James

TOMORROW’S LEADERS: Kim Bair teaches these underclass-men teamwork in order to prepare them for future leader-ship roles.

PHOTO BY JESSICA ROBERTS

Taking the lead: underclassmen join in new specially designed leadership classSara GibbonsStaff Reporter

What comes to mind when some-one talks about the new Frosh/Soph Leadership class? Pep rallies? Making posters? School spirit? That’s all fun, but the Leadership class is so much more than that.

This new class is about developing not only the student as a person, but about learning to lead others by becom-ing confident in yourself. It’s a very comfortable environment, according to sophomore Abby Ledbetter. “You can just relax and be yourself,” she said.

The first half of the semester is a lot of surveys and games that help students learn to be confident, speak up and get involved with the other students.

Activities Director Kim Bair, defi-nitely makes a difference for the class. Her students all agree that’s she’s funny and approachable. She thinks the same of them. “I loves it! The students in that class are just on fire,” said Bair.

Bair said that her goal for the class is to make it so that the students leave her class with “the skills to be good leaders and successful adults.”

Though they’ve only just kicked off the semester, this class has already gotten busy. They organized “Hoops for Haiti,” an event where they set up a table at a basketball game and collected donations to help Haiti. They col-lected over $400. Bair says she of-fered a little guid-ance, but other than that, she didn’t really have much of a hand in the event.

So what’s next for the class? Right now they’re watch-ing the mov ie “Rudy” and read-ing the book The 7 Habits of Effec-tive Teens in order to prepare them for their mission statements.

Next semester they will be mov-ing from learn-ing about leading

themselves to learning to lead others. Though it’s only the first year of this class, several students have signed up to join and Bair confidently said that the class is “here to stay.”

PHOTO BY JESSICA ROBERTS

UP IN FLAMES: Jeremy Rubin, senior, prepares to take on an afternoon’s work with firefighters from the Lincoln station as part of his ROP class.

Wolf Pack Press 4

Volume 15, Issue 5 February 5, 2010

Opinions Editor, Irina Levtsenyuk

Brittany AttwoodOnline/Assistant Opinions Editor

Every semester always starts out the same. The first week includes a mesh of new papers for parents to sign, new policies to learn, and of course the dreaded parent orientation night.

Now, I am not saying that the parent orientation does not do anything posi-tive. Of course, it does give the parents an opportunity to meet their students’ teachers and really examine the materi-al that their courses with contain. This helps the parents come in better con-tact with the teachers and helps them maintain the homework standards at home. Parent orientation also gives the parents a chance to purchase school es-sentials such as yearbooks, newspaper

subscriptions, and aid in the booster clubs. All of which would be difficult to do if it wasn’t all available on one night.

All though these are all great ben-efits to this night I still believe having parent orientation night isn’t that ef-fective, at least not having multiple orientations in one semester. After the students freshman year what benefit does the night have? Parents of a freshman want to know just how the high school works. They want to make sure their son/ daughter is in

a safe environment for learning, and they want to make sure there is a clear un-derstanding of course expectations in the home. I believe this is all accomplished in the first parent orien-tation night during the month of August. However, after the completion of fresh-man year both parents

and students seem to get in the swing of things. They are accustomed to the tardy policy, the district wide homework policy, and when and where they can pick up yearbooks.

How can we improve the effective-

ness of the night? Well, because it is a district requirement, I understand it is not possible to get rid of the second parent orientation held in January. So, what if we used the time to have parent-teacher discussions to give par-ents more individualized information. We could continue having a “regular” parent orientation night in August but, in January we could have parents sign up through the office to have 10 min. discussions with their student’s teacher. So this way, the teachers can deal with problems that might occur during the course before they actually happen. This would not only give the parents what they really want, spe-cific teacher-parent comments, but it would also help to make the nights run smoother for all.

Parent Orientation Night May be Due for a Makeover

Amanda NelsonAssistant Special Section Editor

In the strange five-day period spanning from the day after Christ-mas to New Year’s Eve, I vaguely recall sitting in my car along with my best friend and fellow editor and asking: “What is there to do around here?”

Life had resumed after Christmas; but strangely enough, at the same time, it hardly had. Businesses were still running at half-capacity, people seemed to sleepily wonder in and out of holi-day bliss, and my cohorts and I drove around Roseville and Sacramento in a blank haze inquiring again and again:

“What is there to do around here?” New Year’s came and went far too

fast, and then we were left with a blank slate—a new year. Though there was still nothing to do, the haze had all but receded, leaving a raw feeling.

The post-holiday blues. Whether you love being crammed in a room with twenty members of your extended fam-ily for the majority of winter break, the sting still hits you and it hits you hard. After two months of build-up for Christ-mas and even the lesser-celebrated New Year’s Eve, everything is gone.

Mall Santa? Packed away for another ten months. Your neighbor’s Christmas light extravaganza? You won’t see another twinkling bulb until after Thanksgiving. Christmas cookies? You can bet that the next cookie you’ll eat will be decorated with bright red sugar and in the shape of a heart.

And those nagging, horrific, ear-worm songs you heard for two and a half

months straight?

You’ll feel a sad pang in your heart

realizing they will be off your list of things to complain

about until Halloween. There’s just something about Christ-

mas cheer and warmth that brings peo-ple together— even if it is only a small fraction of what it should be, having been devoured by commercialism long, long ago. You see, it is that inkling of a feeling that you felt so long ago ripping Pokémon cards open under the glowing tree while your parents smiled over you that keeps us loving Christmas; and it’s the fact that those nostalgic and warm feelings won’t return for another eleven months that leaves us feeling so down once everything is said and done.

It’s a new year, school’s starting again, and that hazy feeling of ‘we-have-nothing-to-do’ has receded, leaving a rush—a ‘I-have-too-much-to-do’ feeling, if you will—that leaves to longing for that lazy magic of Christmas that you felt just weeks ago.

But by and by, that feeling will pass, gradually being replaced with the promise of smaller, frivolous holi-days and spring break looming months away. By the time summer hits us in the face like a brick wall, we will have all but forgotten those holiday feelings, completely consumed by the unbearable California heat. But they will always be there, waiting and watching to briefly grace us with their presence before tearing themselves away and leaving the post-holiday blues.

Say “hello” to those after-holiday Dani Butterfield

Assistant Opinions Editor

Not many can doubt the immeasurable innovation that was put into fashioning the idea of a blanket with sleeves; its luxurious convenience makes it no less eligible for a Nobel Peace Prize than our current Presi-dent. However, on the flip side, one also could not question the comic genius put into crafting the criticisms against this ground-breaking invention. You know like, “Why don’t you just put on your robe backwards,” it’s simply brilliant. But now, when we hear these contradicting truths, which are we suppose to believe? What is the value of a Snuggie?

The answer is actually something that I cannot tell you. It is something that you must find out on your own, I am simply here to provide the enlight-ening research to help you with your decision and then leave you with my own standing impression.

So let’s start with the pros: Accord-ing to reviews the Snuggie does its job of keeping you warm, which is a plus. It works to fulfill its promise in keep-ing your arms covered so that you may use them to read a book or use your remote control. And as long as you don’t buy your Snuggie on the official website, which was said to be confusing and misleading, and instead buy it in a store, such as Bed Bath and Beyond, its is cheaper than a normal blanket. Therefore you are not getting robbed blind, which again is a plus.

Now for the cons: According to a review by Sandy from Pittsburg the Snuggie has a tendency to leave pieces of its warm fuzziness everywhere is goes much like a long hair cat who can’t af-ford Rogaine. And if you’re like me this would annoy the bejeezes out of you.

Even though the Snuggie was said to do its job in keeping your arms warm, in many reviews people complained that since the Snuggie had an open back, while your front side was experiencing cozy warmth you back side was left jeal-ously exposed to the chill around you. Many also criticized the thin material used to make a Snuggie. One customer said, “I think they are made with very cheaply made fleece. I wouldn’t buy another one.” However after further research I learned that this problem can be swiftly avoided if you make cer-tain to buy the thicker sized Snuggie. So that doesn’t necessarily have to be a dilemma.

After learning all this I came to the conclusion that there is nothing so fallible about the Snuggie that it should be banned from the shelves nor is there anything so extraordinary that law should require all to own one. Its potential handiness simply comes down to your lounging preferences. I personally prefer to form a tight blanket cocoon around myself creating a barrier against all breezes. But that’s just me.

So while I can’t tell you whether or not the Snuggie is going to be worth your time, I can say that it’s definitely not worth my time listening to people argue the perfection and/or idiocracy of this infomercial item. Come on people… really?

The value of a Snuggie

PHOTO COURTESY OF YEARBOOK

CONCENTRATE: Parents sign some of the many papers they are required to at Parent Night

Wolf Pack Press 5

OpinionsFebruary 5, 2010

Opinions Editor, Irina Levtsenyuk

Zachary Bredberg Sports Editor

It hasn’t been too long since places like itunes and Amazon.com started to sell digital music. Before that, it was only physical releases. Today, digital releas-es beat out all physical releases of albums ev-erywhere. It is some-t i m e s c h e a p e r and more convenient for the buy-er. Howev-er, it is not better off for music itself.

With where the music indus-try is today, digital music is where most of the money comes from. It is cheaper to release music and is easier to bring to a variety of people. All of these bonuses about music going digital is great. However, the thing that makes the transition to digital is the loss of art that goes into each release.

The reason for this loss is many artists now are releasing EP’s (extended play) which contain 4 or 5 tracks or singles as opposed to full length CD’s. This is done because most digital music buyers buy individual songs rather than an entire album. With the less amount

of full length albums being released, it has really pushed down the quality of how albums are. Since most people buy single songs, artists now seem to make

4 or 5 good songs on an album that will sell rather than

make an album with actual meaning.

If this was to be done decades

ago, some of the great -est albums of all time would be gone. That w o u l d mean no B e a t l e s ’ the White A l b u m ,

n o P i n k Floyd’s The

Wall, and no U2’s The Josh-

ua Tree. However, with

the release of digital music, we are no longer

seeing those. Artists are also beginning to sell less albums.

They are gaining more revenue from singles as opposed to full length albums which is pushing away from making LP’s.

In the end, while digital music may be more convenient for customers, it is not better for music itself. Because of digital music, less as well as worse mu-sic is being released by artists in today’s age. While I hope this is just a trend, it looks as though it is here for good. I’ll just have to learn to live with it.

Digital music makes well-produced albums obsolete

Amanda NelsonSatire Columnist

Today I sat down and thought: “How can I push the envelope with my satire column this time?”

I definitely wasn’t touching swine flu again. No sir, not with a twenty

foot poll—and especially not after be-ing stabbed in the arm with a vaccine-carrying needle that quelled all need for further panic.

I’ve already told you enough about my boring personal life. None of you would care about how I got into San Francisco state and hopped up and down in glee.

Hmm.And then I thought: of course, I’ll do

a column about the post-holiday blues! Oh wait, I’m already doing an opinions piece on that.

So I thought and I thought (which is really a feat for me, trust me), and after several mental breakdowns and holding a cat hostage in exchange for ideas, I finally realized that its 2010!

“Yay Amanda!” You say. “You know what year it is! Hooray for you!”

But no, gentle reader! No! It is much more than that!

It has been ten years since the New Millennium and the panic cluster that preceded the eminent doom it should bring upon us! And it’s also been nearly four years since June 6 2006, the date which all evil and fireballs were certain to rain down upon our heretic heads! And it’s also less than three years away

from December 21 2012, when the world will crack in two and we will all fall into the lava that resides under the earth’s crust (incidentally, I have this date marked on my cell phone as ‘End of the World).

But fear not of the cursed 2012, dear readers! For I, Amanda Nelson, writer and procrastinator extraordinaire have found that this will not be the end of the world!

Actually, it’s going to come a bit early.

On February 16 2011, the sky will begin to rumble with such a fierce moan that all teenagers will have to turn their iPods up full blast in order to hear their rebellious rock music. Green lightning will fork from cloud to cloud all over the world, leaving confused golfers to gawk up at it and wonder if they should go home and just play Wii sport or just t-off anyway.

Every volcano on earth will begin to spout chocolate pudding, raining its fiery-hot chocolaty goodness upon civilian everywhere, caught between squealing in pleasure at the fact it’s raining pudding and screaming from third-degree burns. Then Miley Cyrus will win an academy award for best

actress. But not before Kanye West inter-

rupts her. Finally, kind and sweet readers, the

unthinkable will happen.Every cell phone in the world will

lose its ability to send and receive text.

Markets will crash. People will run screaming from their homes. Planes will spiral into frenzies and all communica-tion as will know it will have been cut off. In the pandemonium that ensues, I predict that within the frenzied chaos, people will begin to drop like flies. With-out their lifeline of texting, people will simply die. The lack of communication will be too much, and without texting, all the trivial information stored in their heads will cause their brains to explode.

…satire-y enough for you? Good, I hoped so!

As always, I’m not writing this to offend anyone—I’m just expressing my thoughts on the events that made me who I am. This is my own little side-commentary to the world. The Chronicles of Them.

Much love; I’ll see you all next is-sue.

GRAPHIC BY AMANDA NELSON

GRAPHIC BY IRINA LEVTSENYUK

Is the absence of this dance so bad?

Brooke BensonStaff Reporter

Another year passed, another Morp dance cancelled. (MORP: that’s PROM backwards for you freshman). The Sadie Hawkins dance has been cancelled two years in a row now, leaving the only casual dance this year as the Quad Dance.

The picturesque high school ex-perience engraved in our souls by the generations preceding us regards this dance as the one of the major high school experiences not to be taken for granted or missed.

Morp, in actuality, is the red-headed step-child of the dances: an outcast. It’s neither exclusive like prom nor exciting as homecoming. It fits no where: just another casual-dress three hour jumble of bodies to the faint rhythm of blaring, mainstream music.

In modern society, a girl asking a boy to a dance isn’t as unheard of as you might think. The necessity of such old-school classic dances has faded; leaving homecoming and prom to defend the model high school experience image we’ve held since we were preteens, nervously anticipating the arrival of such an episode.

The money usually spent on these meager nights of teenage normalcy can cost up to two thousand dollars.

So naturally the money you would save from one dance that didn’t matter as much to the students would allow you to save money for the dance that would earn the school more money from

students: like Aurora. The success of homecoming was

due in large part to the incredible set-up and décor. Such large scale dances cost money, and by cutting down on the money we spend on dances hardly anyone attends, in the long run benefit a larger percent of the student body.

The roar around such beloved dances as Aurora and homecoming dwarfs the minor buzz created by the approaching casual dances.

Part of the experience, at least for girls, is the dress-shopping, the hair, and the makeup. The pre-dance rush is what makes things interesting: wonder-ing whether or not your heel is going to snap or your dress is going to tear. What’s going to go wrong this time and what exciting opposite gender interac-tion is going to make up for that in the long run. So in theory majority rules. If only we’d had some sort of vote to ap-pease those few irked indivduals who griped for more than a few moments over the cancellation.

Morp has never earned such atten-tion. It’s never been the major focus of students buzzing with approaching end-of-semester jitters. It’s one of the two come-as-you-are, dances, that causes none of the ritualistic body mutilations semi-formal dances cause prior to those few crucial hours of socialization.

The cancelling of Morp, while put-ting a damper on the cliché high school experience instilled in us by countless Disney movies and shows, isn’t a loss at all. The canceling of such a dance will cause a minor rift in flow of things: the small cluster of perturbed students will eventually move on, plagued by some other social atrocity or injustice such as the canceling of much beloved lunch-menu item.

MORP cancelled...again

Special Section February 5, 2010

Pretty in

Special Section Editors, Carley Higgins and Kaitlyn May6 Wolf Pack Press

Breast Cancer: Who is the 1-in-8 in your life? PinkShannon CampbellGuest Reporter

My mom is a survivor. Not as in the Destiny’s Child song or the television show, but a real one. She is a breast cancer survivor. Twice in her life, my mom fearlessly stared down and beat the disease.

The first time doctors diagnosed her with early-stage breast cancer was in 2000, when she was 41 years old and I was eight. Her treatment included a lumpectomy followed by five weeks of radiation. I don’t remember much of that period, but I recall a fuzzy memory of my mother and I sitting in her bed-room while she told me of the diagnosis.

Since I was so

young, I c o u l d n ’ t

fully com-prehend the

seriousness of the disease. The

only other thing I remember is the night

my mom returned home after having the lumpectomy. She forced

down some Carl’s Jr. and went to sleep. From my point of view, that’s about as deep as it gets.

However, my mom’s second diag-nosis had a much bigger effect on me. It was in 2006, when she was 47 and I was 14, trucking through my freshman year of high school. The news came as a shock. My family thought she beat it the first time around. Since I was older, it felt like a new experience to me. Still, I knew my mom was heart-broken. My mom is my best friend, so watching her fight this disease is one of the hard-est things I’ve ever been through. It’s impossible for me to fathom just how

difficult it was for her.Even though I prefer to deal with

problems privately, I couldn’t withhold such crucial information about my family from my friends. Initially, I only told the people I was closest to. Unfortu-nately, some people chose to react by not reacting at all. Instead, they pretended nothing was wrong. I understand every-one has different ways of coping with crisis, but their ambivalent attitudes showed me our friendship wasn’t as strong as I thought. My closest friends today are the ones who supported me every step of the way.

The second time around, my mom decided to have a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery several months later. The first surgery occurred in the spring of 2007, right around my 15th birthday. She braved an infection that required daily trips to a health center where she received antibiotic IVs. This infection and numerous other road-blocks slowed down the reconstruction process. After almost three years of waiting, my mom finally received her implant in November of 2009.

Because of her experience, I cherish

the time I spend with my mom. For the past several years, we have attended the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Every year she gets teary-eyed, thus causing me to hold back tears of my own. We always try to stay as long as possible, but the inevitable always happens: my mom’s allergies kick in. The cause is unknown. It could be the large presence of dogs or the unidenti-fied shrubbery that follows the path. Whatever it is, something within my mom doesn’t agree with it. Because of this, we almost always leave mid-way through the walk and embark on a new journey to Starbucks.

Through my mom’s experience, I’ve learned my fair share of life lessons; especially during these past three years. While one of the largest lessons dealt with friendship, there is so much more I’ve learned. I now try to always look at life with optimism and positivity and have learned the importance of showing appreciation towards loved ones. Even though the road wasn’t perfectly paved, I couldn’t be more grateful to end up where I am today. My mom is a survivor, and I couldn’t be more proud.

Defeating the Disease - TwiceA daughter’s personal reflection

Shy of 200,000 woman contract breast cancer every year in the United States.

40,000 women in the Unit-ed States died of the disease in 2009.

Both women AND men can contract breast cancer.

One in four women with cancer in the United States have breast cancer.

One in eight women in the United States will be diag-nosed with breast cancer.

Both smoking and age in-creases the chance of breast cancer.

Its recommended that self-examinations for breast tumors start as early as age twenty?

Starting at the age of 40, women are recommended to get annual breast examina-tions.

Five to ten percent of cases of breast cancer can be attributied to mutations inherited from mothers or grandmothers.

The current survival rates for breast cancer are 89 per-cent five years after diagno-sis.

The survival rates for ten years after diagnosis are 82 percent.

There is a 75 percent sur-vival rate for breast cancer for fifteen years after diag-nosis.

Amanda NelsonAssistant Special Section Editor

In late winter 2007, basketball mother Barb Tingley approached girl’s basketball coach Raymond Beck with a request. After North California State University women’s basketball coach Kim Yow’s breast cancer returned for a third time, the Women’s Basketball Coach’s association decided to form a mass fundraiser known as “Think Pink” in order to raise funds for the Kay Yow WBCA Cancer Fund, working along-side The V Foundation. As a survivor of breast cancer, Tingley encouraged Beck to have the JV and Varsity girls’ basketball teams participate in “Think Pink”.

In their first year of partici-pation, the games f o r both JV and Varsity teams had the gym completely packed. The girls sported pink socks, while the referees toted pink whistles; portions of the pro-ceeds from the two games—snack bars, admissions and all—went to the WBCA cancer fund. “We weren’t the only ones to do it, but we did it the biggest and the best.” says Coach Beck.

Three years later, “Think Pink” is now known as “The Pink Zone” or “The Pink Games”. The games themselves play just like a normal game (saved for

Special SectionFebruary 5, 2010

Special Section Editors, Carley Higgins and Kaitlyn May Wolf Pack Press 7Special Section Editors, Carley Higgins and Kaitlyn May

Brooke BensonStaff Reporter

Breast Cancer steals the lives of more women every year than any other type of cancer. Its devastating effects reach the lives of millions of individuals a year. Including myself. When I was eight my grandmother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and at her age it wasn’t a fight to be won.

Within two years my grandmother had lost the battle and her family was left to mourn her loss beside the mil-lions of other families that have lost loved ones to this devastating disease.

When I was that young of course I didn’t understand the disastrous out-come approaching with hazardous ve-locity. For the first year of her struggle she seemed the same to my eight year old self: she cooked dinner and turned

on the news channels she said it was good for me to watch. She went on walks around the neighborhood and conversed on a normal level with her usual cluster of friends in her country-fried town of Wheatland, California.

The word ‘cancer’ meant she was sick to me: she could get over it like every cough and cold I’d ever suffered through. When she was hospitalizing right at the start of her second year it dawned on me that this might be a little different than your average winter flu.

Suddenly it was very real: I couldn’t visit her every day because she was al-ways tired, even after they let her out again. She didn’t go on walks, didn’t socialize with other people. She was a shadow of the person she once was and it was in that moment I realized that though she was still there, she was leav-

i n g . And she w a s n ’ t c o m i n g back.

I w a s t e n w h e n s h e passed, and though I felt horribly alone, as time went on I realized I wasn’t. Every day families are plunged into the same horrible situation I was in, left with nothing but a few promised years and the time to ‘get things in order’.

Above all else, I realized that dis-ease, like so many other factors of life, isn’t fair. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, it isn’t reasonable, and it doesn’t choose the lives it takes.

I’d managed to determine that my grandmother hadn’t done anything to deserve what happened. I’d never

seen her so much as

b a d m o u t h a particularly diffi-

cult teenage driver while in my presence. This disease, horrible in its sheer frequency alone, doesn’t care that you’re a Christian or Atheist, black or white. It destroys without cause or discrimination and leaves nothing but pain in its wake, save those few cel-ebrated cases where the battle and the war were fought and won. Each year we celebrate these brave women and the families that stood behind them. And though I can’t join them in their celebrations, I realize now that I’m far from alone.

A Granddaughter Remembers

Getting The FactsBreast Cancer:

Figures and information from the American Cancer Society and The National Cancer Institute

Her Grandmother’s Struggle and The Lesson She Left In Her Wake

the added pink paraphernalia) and are usually scheduled to take place on a game against one of the girls’ basketball teams’ rivals in order to take advantage of the hype and bring in as much money as possible.

Senior Theresa Barrow has been participating in Pink Zone since it be-gan three years ago. Now on the Varsity team, Barrow says that the pink games tend to get her and her team-mates “pumped up and crazy”.

“Last year we played Del Oro and we lost by three points, but it was a re-ally good game.” Says Barrow. “I think its a really good cause. A lot of girls on the team know someone who’s had breast cancer, so its kind of personal.”

So how do the girls’ bas-ketball t e a m s a n d

those at-t e n d i n g

the Pink Zone show their support? “We have the pink mob shirts we wear sur-ing school and the game.” Says Barrow. “Its the only time in the season when the girls team gets both sides of the bleachers. It was amazing to see how many students [at the game] were wear-ing pink; and instead of the black mob, they call it the pink mob.”

This year’s pink games will take place on February 11 at 7 PM. All those attending are encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness.

Girls Basketball Goes Pink

Lyssa BakerStaff Reporter

As with every year, clubs partici-pated in shades and waves and quad at the end of the 08-09 school year. Clubs participated in such events as fundraisers, selling candy, ice cream, popcorn, snow cones and other treats to attendees of the events. Thespian Troupe, Spanish Club, and Key Club were just a few of the participants in the end of the year events.

At Diversity Day in May and Multi-cultural Night in October clubs partici-pated in showing their cultural roots. African American Club, Asian Club, and Hispanic Latina Club performed native dances and songs during the one hour lunch culture extravaganza.

Spanish Club, Asian culture club, and African American club performed at multicultural night, to the benefit of the community.

At the beginning of the 09-10 school year, clubs were given extra days to ad-vertise their organizations. At freshman orientation, clubs like African American club and Sportsmen’s club set up tables to give freshman ideas on what they can be involved in at our school. Dur-ing parent orientation night in the fall, clubs also set up tables in the cafeteria to show parents what clubs their stu-dents can join.

Club day was held on August 24th. 17 clubs participated in the event. This year, to increase aesthetics, healthy completion and school spirit a club booth decoration contest was held to

see who had the most appealing booth. JAMM won by having a mahjongg table that caught student’s attention.

During Homecoming, a new club event was made to increase school spirit. In honor of the homecoming class floats, clubs were offered a spot to compete with their own “red wagon float” that followed the same storybook theme as homecoming at the bonfire ac-tivities after the freshman homecoming football game. Four clubs participated: CSF, Sportsmen’s Club, Asian Culture Club and JAMM club. The floats were Shrek, Elmer Fudd, Mulan and My Neighbor Totoro, respectively. The club that won first place was JAMM and sec-ond place went to Asian Culture Club. This is an event that hopes to carry on in the future. While some participated

in club floats, some clubs decided to fundraise during homecoming week. Make-A-Wish sold glow stick jewelry, Model UN sold nerd glasses to go with the nerd day theme, and Spanish club sold ice cream sandwiches and Sundaes at Bonfire.

This year, clubs took over the role of running the News 10 Coats for Kids coat drive. Spanish Club and Key Club participated in the event, gathering bags and bags of coats for needy chil-dren and families. The coat drive is usually run by student government and the community service commissioners but by allowing clubs to run it, more people became involved and more coats were collected.

The 2009 school year was an overall success for Woodcreek clubs.

Clubs accomplish more than ever in 2009

Nick NguyenStaff Reporter

For our school, 2009 was a par-ticularly significant year in terms of academic success. As of last year, Wood-creek High School, has finally reached, and slightly surpassed, the necessary API mark set by the California Depart-ment of Education

Sixteen years later, Woodcreek has finally reached the necessary API of 817, passing the 800 mark set by the CDE and raising 31 points from our previous score. .

A school’s API is like a report card measure of their academic success. It is achieved by applying a complicated mathematical formula that combines a number of factors, including the results of students’ CST and CAHSEE scores. This year the number of students pass-ing as proficient or above increased in all CST testing areas except biology, which remained the same at 72% and chemistry, which dropped one percent to 43%.

“I am thrilled that our staff and students have done so well recently, and I think it’s a good reflection of our attitude and expectations” stated Principle Jess Borjon. For the last few years, Woodcreek’s scores have hovered around the 750 range, but last years tests and scores finally indicate the growth that we’ve been working to-wards. A combination of new students, renewed enthusiasm for testing, and hard work by every class helped pull the Woodcreek’s API score up to where it is now. “I believe we have hard working

students and teachers, and I’m happy that our scores finally reflect that” Borjon stated.

“But I know we have progressed in things that can not be tested in, like the performing arts, the music and art departments, and its things like that, plus our recent success in tests that have made us a whole.” There are many other numbers that make up the school and its academic achievements, including PSAT’s, SAT’s, enrollment in A-G requirement classes and AVID classes, AP tests and more. 2007 was the exiting year of taking the STAR test without a serious mindset. Dur-ing the 2008-09 school year, PSAT test takers jumped from a total of 265 to 319, and the total number of AP tests taken increased from 496 to 549 with passing rates growing from 241 to 306. Similar increases in participation and passing show in other areas. In addi-tion since more students are enrolled in academic elective classes or advanced elective courses, more CST tests are being taken. “We went in with a serious mentality, we were going to take it, do our best, and the effort paid off.” Even though we’ve come so far, we all need to continue to work hard and take the testing seriously. “Whether we like it or not, like a person’s nose, the API score is the first thing people see. People lead with their nose, and I’m just happy that we finally have ‘a pretty nose’” Borjon said with a laugh.

In terms of testing and education, 2009, was very successful for Wood-creek.

Woodcreek improves 2009 test scores

OTQ February 5, 2010

OTQ Editor, Courtney Force8 Wolf Pack Press

10. Paranormal

Activity

9. Up

8. The Uninvited

7. The Men Who Stare at Goats

7. The Men Who Stare at Goats

6. District 91. Avatar

2. The Hangover

3. Inglorious Basterds

4. Zombieland

5. 500 Days of Summer

OTQFebruary 5, 2010

Courtney Force, OTQ Editor Wolf Pack Press 9

Top Ten Albums

10. New Boyz – Skinny Jeans and a Mic

With their first release, the New Boyz struck gold. Their hit single “You’re a Jerk” ,helps this CD goes down as one of the best of the year.

9. U2 – No Line on the HorizonEven after a gap of 5 years since their

previous release, U2 hasn’t missed a step. Their lyrics are still great and songs still rock, especially“Magnificent.”

8. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3Jay-Z’s 11th album turned into one

of his best. Songs like “Empire State of Mind” and “Run this Town” have brought the album to brilliance.

7. Muse – The ResistanceMuse’s album brought a new sound

that still rocked as hard as any of their others. With the electronic sounds of “Up-rising” this album is one of their best.

6. Owl City – Ocean EyesThis album is one of the catchiest

and happiest albums of the year. With songs such as, “Fireflies”, the album goes down as one of the best.

5. Every Time I Die – New Junk Aesthetic

This hardcore album rocked all the way through. Songs such as “Wander-lust” brought a soft sound to them, but were more mature.

4. Taking Back Sunday – New Again

Following three highly acclaimed albums, Taking Back Sunday do not slow down with their 4th release. Songs “Sink Into Me” and “Everything Must Go” keep that pop-punk sound, but are harder than ever.

3. Fun. – Aim and Ignite With their first ever released, Fun.

made one of the best indie-pop albums of all time. From the catchy, musical-like album starter “Be Calm” to the seven minute ballad that ended the al-bum “Take Your Time (Coming Home),” the album will pull in the listener and almost force them to sing along.

2. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day

Signed by Kanye West’s label and strongly backed by Jay-Z, Kid Cudi had high expectations for this album. And he did not disappoint. The song “Pursuit of Happiness” was the high-light of the overall strong and powerful album which is not only the best rap albums of the year, but one the best of the decade.

1. Animal Collective – Merriweath-er Post Pavilion

The mixture of pop and psychedelic sounds makes this album a modern day masterpiece. Songs like “Brothersport” and “My Girls” are the epitome of trippy and are some of the greatest indie songs ever. The album took sound influences from bands like The Flaming Lips and The Chemical Brothers.

Zach BredburgSports Editor

The Performing Arts Department thrives

Evan CarboneStaff Reporter

2009 was an amazing year in the performing arts departments. Ev-ery section of the department put out top notch shows with dance filling the theatre seats, drama performing some heart wrenching productions, musical theatre astounded us once again with their seamless blend of proficiencies, and choir, band, and guitar proving their musical superiority.

This year in dance the themes of the two shows were Entertainment and Christmas. The Entertainment show in the spring semester of the 08-09 year featured dances to music from T.V. shows and movies, (such as I’m a Believer from “The Monkees” and Men in Tights from “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”) while the Christmas show in the fall semester of the 09-10 year had, obviously enough, dances to Christmas and holiday songs. Both shows ran 4 times and sold out the entire theatre at least once, coming near capacity other nights. Lydia Viduya, the dance director of Woodcreek said that her next steps for the dance program at Woodcreek would be to, “Try and become more ar-tistic and more like a company, to bring everything up a notch.”

Drama played three major shows last year, in order: Day 6, Dark of the Moon, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Day 6 was the professional class’ 1 act show, which was also taken to the State Thespian Festival, Dark of the Moon changed things up by having the audience on stage, turning Woodcreek’s proscenium theatre into a black box, and Arsenic and Old Lace was the first show in 10 years at Woodcreek in which tryouts were open to everyone. The successes of the shows in 2009 prompted Tom Fearon, the Drama di-rector at Woodcreek, to build upon the professional class concept by adding technicians to the class, making the class more of a professional company and less of an acting troupe. With Ar-senic and Old Lace’s success, Fearon also commented that, “Perhaps terms without professional drama will have open shows.”

Even playing only one show, musical theatre was no slouch in 2009 with a magnificent performance of Beauty and the Beast. Running six nights the show sold out or nearly sold out every night. Adrienne Mars, the musical theatre and choir teacher at Woodcreek commented that, “We had a great year in musical theatre.” Saying that there’s a “good program at Wood-creek” and “Woodcreek has dedicated

students with great work ethic.” The only thing Mars wanted to improve upon in 2010 was “bigger audiences and more students involved.”

Guitar blew us away again with Wolfstock in the spring term of the 2008-2009 school year. The second an-nual performance took place in the quad and once again added to the already spectacular rock ‘n roll guitar show. This year guitar has gone back into the theatre, but it doesn’t seem out of the question that Wolfstock might someday return to dazzle us again.

Finally band and choir put on their usual shows of excellence, prov-ing once more why the music programs at Woodcreek deserve so much credit. Both band and choir also exihibited their skills in numerous competitions and outside events, such as the Jazz Festival, Jazz Jubilee, and Tour to Los Angeles. We’ve come to expect greatness from band and choir, and they continue to not only meet, but exceed our high expectations.

Overall 2009 was a magnificent year for performing arts, with spectacu-lar shows from all the divisions. Here’s hoping that the pattern continues.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LYKOS

Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery, but today is a gift; that’s why we call it the present. -Anonymous

Courtney ForceOTQ Editor

11:50 pm. My cousin shifts into the fifth gear of his 2009 Honda Civic Si. I change the song on his Itouch. His GPS tells us to turn right in 1 mile. I check my blackberry pearl.11:55 pm. We’re speeding past light filled houses; televisions and computers flashing. We pull up to his friend’s house. 12:00 am. Welcome to 2010.

Sitting in my cousin’s car in the last few minutes of 2009 I realized how dependent our society is on technol-ogy. It’s unbelievable to think how far we’ve progressed and how much more progression is possible. The pioneers traveled for months in horse drawn car-riages across the country, most of them never again spoke to the family they left behind on the east coast. Now, in 2010, I can text, myspace, or facebook my cousins in Virginia and fly there in six hours.

It’s mind boggling. We have accom-plished things that previous genera-tions never even dreamed of; in 1893 the first successful gas powered car came into existence, the first fully functioning computer in 1939, the first cell phone in 1973 and finally the first mp3 player ap-peared in 1999. Our parents remember a time when these things that seem so crucial to our lives didn’t exist.

With this change in technology, also comes a change in mindset. 2010 finds most of with a lost sense of patience and a new found greed. Take a minute; think about how many times in the last week you’ve used a phone, a car, a computer. Now, how many times have you taken a walk, opened a book, wrote a letter? It seems we trade in sentimentality for the convenience that technology provides.

Most people do not know the jubi-lation that comes from anticipation; walking miles to see a friend, rather than driving there in minutes, waiting weeks to receive a letter, rather than

getting an email after a day. It seems we lose the appreciation of the little things when the anticipation of them is gone. It may be old-fashioned, but I believe the best things in life are the simple ones.

Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of our fast-paced society opens many doors. Our generation has opportuni-ties other generations would have never even dreamed of. We can accomplish so much more in a day than anyone before us. Cars allow us to get places faster, phones let us communicate faster, the internet lets us find things faster. The time that it would take to do things 60 years ago can now be done in at least half the time.

Looking at how far we’ve come then raises the question of how far we can go. Is there a limit when it comes to devel-opment, or is it infinite? How long will it take us to get there? People in previous generations believed we would be in fly-ing cars. Other generations didn’t think

we would even have computers.Will we become the people that our

great grandchildren look back on in dis-belief that we cleaned our own rooms? Or will our great grandchildren find themselves at the same place we are, technologically. Can our developmental knowledge be expanded on or have we reached the limit?

I don’t believe that we have reached the limit; humans have so much poten-tial and there is so much knowledge we have yet to discover.

The pioneers never would have even dreamed of computers and cars. I wonder what’s in the future that we’ve never dreamed of. I wonder what won-drous things will exist 300 years from now and if the human population will exist long enough to see them.

The future is vast and mysterious. The past is definite, but perplexing. And the present is us; everything we use, do and think. It’s what we will be known for.

OTQ February 5, 2010

Courtney Force, OTQ Editor10 Wolf Pack Press

“Robots wi l l rule the world.”

-Alexya Delga-do, freshman

“Touch screen everything.”

-Austin Mason, sophomore

“I’m going to cure cancer.”

-Matt Plouff, junior

“There will be lightsabers, time machines and auto-matic potato peel-ers.”

-Micah Sapien-za, senior

“More advanced than where we are now.”

- Principal Jess Borjon

“I thought we’d be more advanced in medicine, I was hoping to have cured the common cold.”

-Jonathon Becker, history teacher

“Music on iPods is more than I would have imagined.” -Stephanie McGrath, Spanish teacher

“I didn’t think about 2010.” -Keith Rogers, Math teacher

Wolf Pack Press 11

AdFebruary 5, 2010

12 Wolf Pack Press Featainment Editor, Carley Higgins and Kaitlyn May

Volume 15, Issue 5 February 5, 2010

LOCAL TEEN RACES PROFESSIONALLY

Jessica RobertsStaff Reporter

The Shakespeare competition, held by the English Speaking Union of the United States, is a competition in which students have to memorize and perform both monologues and sonnets written by William Shakespeare. There are three stages in this competition: the school competition, the Branch competition, and the ESU national competition.

The school competition was held on January 26, where any student in ninth through twelfth grade could par-ticipate. Each competitor was required to memorize and perform a 15-20 line monologue. The winner, Sophomore Vlada Bazilevskaya will now move on to the local English speaking branch competition, where she will compete two rounds against the winners from the other high schools, performing both a monologue and a sonnet in front of a panel of judges. Bazilevskaya said “I thought that everyone participating in the competition was extremely talented, it is an honor and privilege to have been chosen.”

She earned her recognition by performing Helena’s monologue from A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream; one of Shakespeare’s best and most widely known plays.

Whoever wins the branch competi-tion receives a weekend of acting work-shops and cultural activities in New

Colton McPherronStaff Reporter

At the beginning of last year Steve Williams, the Director of Pupil Personal Services at the district office, teamed up with Strikes Bowling Club to create The Unity through Sports Bowling League. The district of-fice then proceeded to contact each s c h o o l ’ s a s s i s t a n t principals who sent out notices to all the teachers in each of the schools until they found one interested in being the advisor to this new club. Our school’s advi-sor, teacher Les-lie Peterson, t h e n u s e d the bulletin to attract any per-spect ive s tudent bowlers who were interested.

Each school in the district, except Granite Bay, has a bowling club that represents their individual school in the league. There is a maximum of four students to a team with a maximum of 46 teams.

The club meets on Mondays at

Strikes from 3:30 to 5:00 for matches. League members are given a card for two free games a week to practice al-though there are no formal practices. There is a small fee of six dollars for each League competition, one dollar of which goes to a scholarship fund. The scholarship will be distributed at the e n d of the season.

The club is fairly low key, being a brand new

c l u b t a k -ing a vari-ety of bowl-e r s f r o m

veterans of the sport, like

Ryan Swanson who is our schools nominee for the all league player, to first timers who must use the bum-

pers in order for the ball to ac-

tually make i t t o t h e

pins at the end of the lane.

T h e matches

take place during sev-

en week rounds in the spring and the fall, using a handicapped scoring system that adds points to less skilled bowlers. The club is small with only ten members and one team so far. And although the club also needs a Parent Advisor and a Student Leader, it is off to a good start, as far as clubs go.

Bowling Club strikes again

Justien MatsuedaStaff Reporter

At the extremely young age of four, Cameron Beaubier started rid-ing motorcycles. His dad Jeff Beaubier used to race and got Cameron into it as well. Most people don’t really know what they are good at when they’re four years old, but he was an exception. He started racing motocross at age five, and it has obviously paid off; just look at where he’s at now. Beaubier is now a professional MotoGP racer, sponsored by Red Bull.

Out of all American racers, Beau-bier was one of only three who got called to the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies cup. Last year he spent his time in Europe for the Spanish CEV championship as a part of the Red Bull MotoGP Academy. “It’s such a great honor to be picked to race in Europe,” said Beaubier. Many teenagers would die for that opportu-nity, but he was the one who got it.

His life is a little different from an average teenager life, but he’s still a kid who likes to have fun. When he travels

to Europe he stays with a family. “This year I was gone over six months, with no parents,” said Beau-bier.

B e a u -bier likes travel ing to dif fer-ent places but doesn’t like actu-ally flying. The image the televi-sion puts forth about p l a n e s scares him, and doesn’t encourage him about the safety of travelling by plane.

Having the opportunity to stay in Europe has broadened his hori-zons. He has experienced many new things, and found that Europe is a lot different from America. Football is big sport that almost every family sits down on Sunday to watch in America. Well, in Europe motor sports are re-

ally popular. “The tracks in Europe are a lot nicer than here. I love it,” said

Beaubier. Being a professional MotoGP

racer has had some great ben-

efits for him. From racing against the best of the best, to meeting new people, and to just having experiences most

teenagers don’t have.But at the same

time, there are some nega-tives, “I re-ally want to

go to Wood-creek, but I d o n ’ t know i f I can be-cause of rac ing , ”

said Beau-bier. Beau-

bier has been home schooled since eighth grade, and it’s very different from public school. He also misses his family most of the time because he travels alone. His family lives in Roseville and he has a brother who attends Coyote

Ridge.With all of his experiences, you

could say he has a crazy life. It’s not as simple as any other teenager.

Talking to him, you would find that he’s really modest, and he really appreciates his life overall.

ARENALINE: Cameron Beaubier tails one of his competitors during one of his MotoGP races

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOTOGP.COM

York City, and advances on, with the others chosen from the branch competi-tion, to the ESU national competition in New York. Here, students from all over the country will gather at the Lincoln Center.

At this stage of the competition, the participants must perform a cold read-ing, a sonnet, and a monologue to prove their understanding of Shakespearean language. They are competing for a full tuition scholarship for summer study in the UK, a second place award of one thousand dollars, and third place of five hundred dollars.

Bazilevskaya says she is nervous, but excited and hopes to do well. “I am thankful to the judges for choosing me, because this really means a lot to me. I love acting, so it is an amazing oppor-tunity to have been chosen.”

ACTION: Vlada Bazilevskaya won the first round of the Shakespeare competition.

PHOTO BY JESSICA ROBERTS

GRAPHIC BY TYLER BENOIT

Featainment February 5, 2010

Featainment Editors, Carley Higgins and Kaitlyn May Wolf Pack Press 13

Avatar: magical to most The modern Holmes re-invents the classic novelsCarley Higgins

Featainment Co-Editor

A magical world full of giant blue humanoids, fantastic plants and ani-mals only slightly reminiscent of their Earth-bound counterparts, and a much sought after ore ironically called “unobtainium” has captured the audi-ences across the globe. As one of the most looked forward to movies of 2009, Avatar had immense promise to be an instant hit. However, it ended up being more of a hit-or-miss.

I, personally, thought that the movie was very well done. The plot left little to be desired, the acting was better than average, and the special effects were absolutely amazing. So, in all, it averaged out to be an exceptional production. And as for entertainment value, it was one of the most entertain-ing movies I’ve seen in a while.

Made by the director of Aliens, Titanic, Terminator 1 and 2, and one of the multiple Rambo’s, James Cameron, Avatar holds true to the action-packed, special effects-dependent concepts (with the exception of Titanic, of course) that he favors. Throughout the movie, the special effects almost overwhelm the actual plot. This was either accepted by the audience as a positive endeavor on the director’s part or a severe detriment to the overall movie.

If you ask me, it was the special

Kaitlyn MayFeatainment Co-Editor

Cobblestone streets and cult-like murders: Sherlock Holmes was just as brilliant and eccentric as I remembered it being in my child-hood.

The entire production was excel-lent, completely satisfying to both

fans of the classic stories and for movie goers who just wanted to see things blow up- with plot points!

T h e plotline was i n t r u i g i n g and itelligent wi th b lack magic twists and easy-to-follow flash-forwards. The dialouge and dynamics be-tween Watson and Holmes was priceless and perfect.

The direc-

Zach BredbergBack Page and Sports Editor

With their 4th album release, and first on major record label Columbia Records, Motion City Soundtrack has struck gold. My Dinosaur Life mixes the band’s past sounds of power-pop and pop-punk to perfection which makes this album not only the band’s bright-est, but also one of the best releases from the past few years.

After the falter of their previous album Even if it Kills Me, Motion City Soundtrack attempted to go back to the sound of their previous releases to regain their dominance. Producer Mark Hoppus (Blink-182 bassist and vocalist) returned to try to bring them back to the same sound they were in their critically acclaimed album Com-mit This to Memory. He was successful, as the band was brought back to former bril-liance and to making some of the catchiest, most poppy music to date.

The album starts out great with the fast and catchy song “Worker Bee” which just shows exactly what to expect from the rest of the album. The album is filled with many of these fast and poppy

jams throughout the album that sound like a combination of All American Rejects and Fall Out Boy. The albums second single, “Her Words Destroyed My Planet”, is a great example of this as it sounds similar to past favorites “Everything is Alright” and “The Future Freaks Me Out.”

My Dinosaur Life also brings some of the catchiest chorus’ that Motion City Soundtrack have ever written. Stand-out track “Pulp Fiction” brings the brightest and catchiest song on the album that just begs the listener to sing along. And, after a few listens, you will. The song shows the way that the power-pop genre is heading - towards heavy usage of synthesizer which makes the song almost candy to the ears.

Also, Pierre’s voice has improved greatly from previous releas-es. He steps further away from his usual falsetto and used a more mature voice which fits perfectly with the bands more matured sound.

With their fourth release of their ca-reers, Motion City Soundtrack has re-leased a classic album that will go down as one of the best of its

time. The bands new direction is sure to head them for future glory and more fantastic releases.

Zach BredbergLast Page and Sports Editor

It was just a couple of months ago when I made one of the most shocking discoveries of my entire life. One of my childhood cartoon characters that I once thought was a boy was in fact a girl. I was shocked. I am, of course, referring to the dog Blue from the children’s classic TV show Blue’s Clues.

Each epi-sode had the same basic for-mula. Steve in-vited the viewer into his house, Blue wants to do something and would leave “clues” (his paw print) for Steve and the viewer to f ind, and then the mys-tery of what Blue wanted to do was solved. This basic yet c a p t i v a t i n g concept led to one of the best children’s cartoons of the 90’s.

The show was lead by the character Steve who would always wear his sig-nature green striped sweater. However, one of the most shocking and horrifying turn of events in children’s show history lead to a change years into the show. Steve would “go off to college”, introduc-ing a new host: Joe.

Joe was nowhere as good as Steve.

Joe was much more stupid, slow, and just plain more irritating than Steve. Steve was a far better host than Joe, and his absence killed what made the show great.

My personal favorite characters on the show were Salt and Pepper. They were a couple and just a great fit. Together they were sassy and French. That is a combination that cannot be

topped. A n o t h e r

g r e a t p a r t a b o u t t h e show was Mail Time. While the video that came in the mail was al-w a y s m o r e boring than watching CS-PAN, the song that was sang e v e ry t im e m a i l c a m e was just clas-sic . “Here’s the mail, it never fails, it makes me

want to wag my tail, when it comes I want to wail Mail!” Those lyrics are catchy enough to make a 4 year old as well as a 40 year old sing along as loud as humanly possible.

In the end, Blue’s Clues will go down as one of the greatest children’s shows of all time. It’s combination of both fun and somewhat education en-tertainment was something that could keep any child entertained.

tor even added bits to appease the fans: the characters Irene Adler and Holmes’ archnemesis, Moriarty. Holmes was filmed with his iconic violin and there were plenty of drug references that en-riched his character without screaming, “He’s a cocaine addict!”

The action scenes (and there are a LOT of them) were beautifully choreo-graphed and intense, showing off both Holmes’ and Watson’s natural ability in a fight. With hammers. And swords. And guns. And the list goes on.

Detective or no, there is never a dull moment (partially thanks to Holmes’ in-ability to be completely law-abiding).

The thing that I absolutely loved, however, was the fact that the line, “El-ementary, my dear Watson” was never once included in the script. Why? For the simple reason that any self-respecting fan of the original works would know (at this point half of you are laughing at me; “Who reads books anymore?” Well, seeing as you’ve proved yourself literate by reading this, hopeful you, dear audi-ence.) that it was never stated in any of the 56 Holmes adventures.

Were creator Sir Arthur Connan Doyle alive today, I’m sure he’d be proud. With all the loose ends tied up, the movie leaves us hungering for one more adventure. And with Moriarty on the loose, I’d say that sequel won’t be very far away!

e f f e c t s that actu-ally made the movie m e m o -r a b l e . Not that the plot w a s n ’ t good ; i t was just a rather un-original, “good vs. evil” story line that d e p i c t s the overly large, blue n a t i v e creatures known as Na’avi as a p u r e , good race of creatures simply fighting for their homeland and beliefs. The humans, for once, are the “bad guys” in the equation which is a refreshing change from the norm.

These blue humanoids captured both the imagination and the hearts of the majority of the movie-watching popula-tion. However, for the other percentage of viewers, the spe-cial effects just didn’t cut it.

Volume 15, Issue 5 February 5, 2010

Sports Editor, Zachary Bredberg14 Wolf Pack Press

Girls prepare for annual “Pink” game

Rugby begins promising year

Alex AyersStaff Reporter

The swiftness of its destruction is quick and harsh. For those affected by the disease, nothing brings more heart lifting hope than a single symbolic color; pink. Breast cancer is a difficult aspect of life, and an unfortunately common aspect in society. The Woodcreek girls varsity basketball team however, has not stood idly by, but instead taken up arms with the Kay Yow Founda-tion and Placer County Breast Cancer Endowment to fight back against this treacherous enemy.

Starting last year, the Woodcreek Lady T-Wolves basketball team has become involved with the raising of financial aid for those who have been tormented by breast cancer. “[The play-ers] wear pink socks, pink shoelaces, pink headbands, and everyone who goes [to the game] pretty much wears pink,” stated point guard Theresa Barrow. It is a new tradition for the girls basket-ball team, but one that the girls have lived by in determined and devoted care. Last years “Pink Game” against Del Oro High School was a hard fought game and one that eventually came down to a close and narrow loss against an extremely talented team. The game itself, even with a visual loss in the re-cord column, still had profound effects,

Jordan MayNewbie Reporter

Shorts, jersey, cleats, and a mouth-piece. That’s all our players get as they’re thrown onto the rugby field, where blood, sweat, and tears are just a part of the game. Woodcreek’s own players have expressed big goals for this upcoming season. Sophomore, Cody Foland hopes to “Go all state...”

The increase in willing and ready kids this year, the goal of state is defi-nitely possible as the look forward to facing the current top team, Jesuit. Alex Ayers says that being a founding player of the game, his personal goal this year is to “give Woodcreek a name in rugby.” Wanting to play our best against Jesuit, and the running up school Christina Boys. Now that he’s no longer a JV player, and has a shot to lead his team to victory against the two competitors, Alex wants to live by his words.

What is it that makes these guys want to go out play such an injurious sport willingly? The option of football is open to the same boys, all the stress relief, all the hitting and tackling, but at least with pads! That just won’t cut it for our boys. Most have said that it’s the adrenaline. The rush. The risk of getting out there with nothing but the

given attire and their teammates by their sides. That’s the drive behind the players that seems to be pushing them up the field like a force, during intense practices, and even more fierce games and scrimmages. The first scrimmage to catch was Friday, January 22, at 5:30 on the Woodcreek field.

A common misconception about the pressing sport is that most schools would turn their heads to the thought of it. Turns out quite a few schools have picked it up, taking on kids of various ages to get out there and play hard. Another assumption about the game is that the players themselves are “bar-barians” and carry a fraternity-like image. In actuality, Alex Ayers says that it in fact has grown to be a ‘gentleman’s game.”

We hear about the football team making plays to outsmart the oppos-ing team all the time. About how they study and run the, practice, practice, practice. This is where the two sports differ. Rugby has been described to me as a game where ‘You got to be quick on your feet”. Not getting the opportunity like the football team to run through the plays prior to the game, our rugby stars think on their feet, and always think strategically, already proving their low name as “barbarians” wrong.

a n d h e l p e d aid the Breast Cancer founda-tion in its fight against the dis-ease.

The Pink Game has be-c o m e e v e n more than an assisted battle by others help-ing those af-fected by breast cancer, but one that many of the girls on the team can re-late too. Senior, Meggy Schive-ley, has lost a grandmother to this cursed disease, and has stated, “I understand in a personal way, and to be able to play for this cause makes me feel special, because even though I wasn’t able to help my grandma, I am helping other families too.” In a sense, the very reason the Breast Cancer foundation started was to do exactly what Schive-ley aspires to do by playing for this cause; help others as equals, as human

beings, and as a people in pain and suf-fering in need for help.

This year the game is played on February 11, and even more spectacu-larly, it is played on Senior Night. What already hopes to be an eventful night against cross-town rival, Roseville High School, becomes even more anticipated

due to the successful season so far the girls have conducted. With a record of 14-5 overall and 3-1 in league play, the Lady T-Wolves have, so far, progressed through the season living up to Head Coach Raymond Beck’s goals of, “stay-ing contested for the league title and top three in the league.”

With less than half of the season left, and the Pink Game scheduled to be played on the last home game of the year, the girls are now entering the final stretch of the season. With momentum and confidence always playing a crucial part in high school sports, the girls are looking to stay competitive going into the Pink Game. The goal for the sea-son may be to stay competitive for the league title, however the Pink Game is one that cannot be ignored, nor can one fail to take it seriously. Win or lose, the tradition of the Pink Game has become so successful and meaningful nation-wide.

It is one of the most widely recog-nized colors in current day society. For some it resembles the cure, for others it resembles the curse. The color has personal meaning, and has been the proud flag that flies majestically upon the mother ship of its all-caring and all-loving cause. Breast Cancer has be-come a relentless and cruel invader in today’s society, and a demand has been called for and met by those willing to help fight back.

TEAMWORK: The girls listen in as Coach Beck leads them to another Timberwolf victory over Nevada Union.

PHOTO BY JENCY JAMES

GRAPHIC BY TYLER BENOIT

Sports Editor, Zachary Bredberg Wolf Pack Press 15

SportsFebruary 5, 2010

Boys Basketball one of best in state Winter Olympics promise to stun

Wrestling begins season strong Justien MatsuedaStaff Reporter

The pounding of feet against the bleachers surrounds the entire Woodcreek gym. Everyone is going bal-listic cheering, there are twenty seconds left. As the clock slowly descends to zero, the volume of the fans increases louder, and louder. Even the people in the crowed were breaking a sweat. The referee raises the winners arm high in the air. Freshman Ryan DeMatteo has won his first Wrestling Varsity match! All of the wrestlers at this point are jumping around hugging each other; they are now psyched to beat Sierra Foothill League great Granite Bay.

On January 12, 2010 our wrestlers took on Granite Bay in a key SFL match up. “Knowing that Granite Bay has a very talented team we had to wrestle our best to pull it off. The entire team stepped up last night,” said Mason. The thrilled wrestlers didn’t even know what to think. “They were expecting to win, and we murdered them!” said Varsity Wrestler Matthew Plouff who’s a junior. Plouff could not wrestle in the dual due to an injured hand. “Just seeing the great successes made me want to go on the mat really bad,” said Plouff. His heart was pounding into shreds by the demons that wouldn’t let him wrestle. Not being able to wrestle the feeling he could have done good too killed him. The anticipation of everything made everyone crazy and in the zone.

DeMatteo had been injured with a ripped collarbone. After only

Alex AyersStaff Reporter

Opponents who enter the basket-ball gym at Woodcreek High School, to battle against the boys varsity squad,

Lyssa BakerStaff Reporter

Once every four years, world athletes of snow and ice are brought together to showcase their talents in a competition to see which country is the best in the multiple sports and events at the Winter Olympic Games. This year, the games will be held in Vancouver, Canada from February 12 to 28.

The 2010 Olympic Torch Relay began its 106-day, 45,000 kilometer (27961 mile) cross-Canada journey in Victoria, British Columbia on October 30. Before it arrived in Canada, the Olympic Flame was lit in a ceremony in Olympia, Greece on October 22. It traveled throughout Greece before be-ing handed over to representatives of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC).

The fifteen sports that are a part of the Olympic Games this year are (in alphabetic order): Alpine skiing, Biathlon, Bobsled, Cross-country ski-ing, Curling, Figure skating, Free-style skiing, Ice hockey, Luge, Nor-dic combined, short track speed skat-ing, Skeleton, Ski jumping, Snow- boarding, and Speed skating.

Curling is a sport that is similar to shuffleboard. It is played by two teams of four players on a rectangle of ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones down the ice towards the target.

Figure skating, in the Olympics, involves individuals, pairs, or groups that perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice. Freestyle skiing is a form of aerial skiing where athletes perform multiple flips and twists before landing on an inclined land-ing hill.

The event of Luge involves a small one- or two-person sled on which the athletes sled face up and feet-first. Luge is a competition in which these sleds race against a timer down a track. Skeleton, also known as tobogganing, is a sport in which an individual rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down.

Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers have a take-off ramp (the jump), and they attempt to fly as far as possible. In addition to the length that skiers jump, judges give points for style. It is one of the most exciting games in the Winter Olympics and a must watch.

The Games give the host city and country a chance to promote and showcase themselves to the world. With a population of more than 2.5 million people, Vancouver will be the largest metropolitan area to ever host a Winter Olympic Games. The venues for the Games stretch over a 120-kilometer zone from Richmond, through downtown Vancouver and north to the mountain resort of Whistler.

two practices he made Varsity, “I’m the second freshman who could accomplish this honor,” said DeMatteo. Only four days before the match he got the clear from his doctors to wrestle again. To have such a great opportunity even as a freshman, hard work really paid off.

That match was a phenom-enal start to the season. So far in the tournaments they’ve attended they have done, “pretty good,” ac-cording to Plouff. Because the Var-sity wrestling team is so zealous crazy injuries are always happen-ing. In every sin-gle match Junior Corey Butzer had either bit through his lip, or has got-ten a fat lip. The intensity in wrestling is different then other sports out there, a good different.

A lot more peo-ple should go watch the wrestling matches more often. There are a lot of supporting parents out there, but not a lot of cheering students. “The support from the fans re-ally affects our wrestlers.

They absorb it all in and wrestle better. Why can’t the black mob also go to the wrestling matches?” said Mason. If a whole bunch of students attended the matches it would shock all of the wres-tlers. Considering not a lot of people go to support the wrestlers.

DETERMINATION: Angelo Ciaraglia wrestles to secure a team victory in road to a possible SFL championship

may feel intimidated by the motley crew of student fans disguised in all black. However it is the home team themselves that the visitors must truly fear. With over half of the season finished, the boys varsity basketball team is on the verge of school history, with potential for a section championship, and maybe if one aspires to dream, a state cham-pionship.

According to MaxPreps.com, the varsity boys basketball squad cur-rently places first in the section and 20 in state, a position many teams in the area have come to envy. With an unstained record of 3-0 in league play and 16-3 in overall games, Woodcreek High School basketball is beginning to make a name for itself again. There may be some who question the legitimacy of our three losses, however they were all close, hard fought games, and two of which were against Pennsylvania’s fifth ranked Chartiers Valley High School and Ohio’s undefeated, second ranked Mentor High School.

In the 2002-2003 season, Wood-creek successfully battled their way to Arco Arena, to play for the California State championship, however left with an unfortunate loss. Now, with a new decade upon us, and the potential for greatness yet again, the guys on the team have set their eyes on the prize.

When specifically asked what the big-gest goal for the team was, Nick Statho-poulos stated that getting to Arco and playing in the section championship was a definite goal for the team. Shoot-ing guard, Spencer March, was in total agreement that the most important goal for the team was to, “get to Arco Arena and win section.”

Despite the obvious talent on the team, with Nick Milani averaging 17.6 points per game and Michael Kurtz averaging 10.4 rebounds, the team has had key and necessary games to continue their momentum. Oakmont provided that challenge as possibly the toughest team in the league, and a 64-57 win at home has allowed the team to, “continue the rest of the season with more confidence,” stated March. League games at Oakmont, Granite Bay and Rocklin will provide a crucial test for the Timberwolves, and whether or not their hopes and dreams of a section championship are possible.

Determination, natural talent, and a relentless drive have already propelled the tenacious T-Wolves to the top of the section rankings; however, the team must play at the top of their game to achieve success at the peak of high school basketball. There is still a lot of basketball left, but the Timberwolves are hungry for victory.

HOT SHOTS: Ryan Milat lays the ball in during a win over Oakmont.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUG MASON

PHOTO COURTESY OF BURNEL PINKERTON

Last Page Editor, Zach Bredberg16 Wolf Pack Press

Last Page February 5, 2010

For years, communication from teachers to students has been greatly hindered by the inability for students to traslate what teachers say. But fret not! I am here to help

break this barrier!

“The homework to-night is to study”

“There’s no home-work tonight!”

“Do your home-

work for the rest

of the period.”

“Goof off and talk for the rest of the period.”

“Can you guys please stop talk-ing?”

“Please continue

your conversa-

tion in whisper.”

“Let’s go over the homework before I check it.”

“Finish your homework before you tun it in.”

“This test is go-ing to be open book.”

“Don’t bother worry-

ing about it, every-

one will get an A.”