October 2007Issue 1Volume 2

newsmagazine

MONA SHORES MIDDLE SCHOOL I 1700 WOODSIDE I MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN 49441

Sailors On the Scene

co-editors-in-chief:katie carlsonsam kuipers

photo editor:cole myhre

section editors:meghan bosmajustin mickelsoncourtney susterich

advisor:mike phillips

editorial board:kristin johnsonbeth prenticeamy stielstratammy sylvestertracie zimmer

lydia birchcourtney eatonbrianna gorylpaige gravespaul juarezkristine kieftnick kurburskistephanie langloiskatie romaniellodeshawn sargent jr.jennifer stegerashley veihlsam vida

kailey bakerchantal balktrevor carlsonpat daughertycody hammerlezach haughrae heslingbrianna hinesmckenzie hineskacey jacksonrobert langloislauren starkekadiey stressmantina triceconnor wernstromtony west

staff writers:

sai lors on the scene ~ staff

Sailor Faces2

cover photo by: cole myhre

In the Lead 3

by: katie carlson I co-editor-in-chief

As cheerleading squad grows so does the dedication and commitment

The 7th and 8th grade football cheerleading squad is a dedicated group of girls who show their school pride by cheering for our middle school football teams.

“ I like cheerleading because I get to hang out and bond with people I usually wouldn’t get to talk to,” Kimmy Al-Shatel said.

The 41 girls that make up this years cheer-leading squad greatly outnumbers last year’s low number of only 21 girls.

“It’s a lot harder having more people on the squad because you sometimes can’t get everyone to calm down and it is not easy to teach everyone the cheers,” Emily Amrhein commented.

At tryouts coaches are looking for girls who show outstanding effort, the right form, are able to jump, and show they can learn and memorize cheers.

“Going into it my second year of tryouts I wasn’t as nervous as I was in my 7th grade year,” Meghan Bosma said.

During the summer while some middle school students are sleeping in late and hang-ing out with friends, other girls are out in the burning sun practicing their half time cheers,

stunt corps, chants, and their teamwork.“Starting in June gives us time to teach the

girls the cheers and stunts they need to know for cheering at games,” coach Shelly Dykstra stated.

They get their cheers from cheer camps they visit, the high school squad, or they just make them up on their own.

“I like it when the high school teaches us new cheers and helps us out,” Lauren John-son noted.

Cheering at games helps keep the excite-ment and energy level up for the football players and keeps the crowd on their feet cheering.

The football cheerleading squad performs their halftime cheer. Above: Eighth graders Emily Amrhein and Stefanie Lemieux and seventh grader Haylee Dykstra are in the box position getting ready to stunt.

Below: Eighth graders Emily Amrhein and Jasmine Young in elevators cheering with the crowd.

photo by: cole myhre photos by: katie carlson

by: cody hammerle I staff writerAnnual Marica McEvoy provides bully training to Middle School students

Features4

Dr. Marcia McEvoy made a trip to MSMS to provide bullying training to the six graders and a refresher to seventh and eighth graders.

For students in grades sixth through eighth, nearly four out of six get bullied at least once a day.

“Everyone gets bullied at least once a day, if it’s kidding around or if it’s serious,” dean of students Ken Byard said.

Six out of ten middle school students witness bullying at least once a day.

“Yes, they have witnessed bullying several times this year,” sixth grader Sadie Vela said

If direct contact is too difficult or dangerous; report it to an adult privately, which happens about 25% of the time.

“Students at the middle school don’t report it that much,” assistant principal Andrew Hogston said “Students think that if they tell they will get hurt.”

75% of the time when you have two or more people you can shut down a bully and make him leave.

“They mostly see eighth graders just fooling around,” sixth grader Rachel Resterhouse said.

Quest for the Cup is a contest between sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students who have the most school spirit.

Students will get points for things like clean hallways, keeping a clean cafeteria after their lunch period, participation in school spirit days, and attendance at after school activities such as sporting events.

“I don’t think it will matter if it’s a contest because we’re kind of like teenagers and teenagers just do whatever they want,” eighth grader Braxton Brinager said.

There will be monthly and semester prizes awarded to the win-ning grade.

“I think that if the prizes are fun then they’ll want to do it more. Like if the prizes are to dress up or extra hours at Sailor Celebration or something,” eighth grade math teacher Marie Betten said.

The front office will be judging the contest during the whole year.

“I think it’s fair that they are judging because they are the ones who get to see our hallways and stuff,” eighth grader Logan Jensen said.

Points began getting awarded the first day of spirit week and will continue to be awarded throughout the year.

“I think spirit week is a good event to start with because everyone is just starting school and it’s pretty fun to dress up when you are first coming back into school,” eighth grader Olivia Brown said.

“ I think earning points will get old because by spring break, everyone will be ready for summer and people will forget about the beginning of school and Quest for the Cup,” eighth grader Meghan Bosma said.

The sixth graders took the lead in the competition, followed by the seventh graders, leaving the eighth graders with the need to

catch up and earn some major points.“In a way, I was surprised because the eighth graders have been

here longer so you think they’d know how to show more school spirit. And then in a way I was not surprised because the sixth grad-ers, well, this is their first ‘real’ spirit week and they are obviously way more spirited than us eighth graders,” eighth grader Cady Christiansen said.

by: rae hesling I staff writerNew program encourages students to raise school pride and spirit

Dr. Marcia McEvoy talks to eighth graders Jeromy McCleary, Jay McMahon, Craig Peterson and Rickey Matthews on how to shut down a bully.

Top: The cheerleaders are pumping up the croud of students at the pep-assembly.

Bottom: Students showing school spirit at the pep-assembly which was the first event judged.

courtesy photo

courtesy photos

Features 5

Box tops for Education is a money-raising program that has been brought to Mona Shores Middle School this year thanks to seventh grade science teacher Kevin Sylvester.

Box tops are small coupons found on many brands of snacks

such as Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Kleenex, Ziploc and Hefty.

10 cents is earned for each box top that is turned in and the money earned from the program can be spent on anything that we want.

“Our goal is to make 10,000 dollars,” Mr. Sylvester said.Box tops can be turned in at any science teacher’s classroom in

the little blue box with the box tops logo on it.“It is the easiest to do and there is no limit on what the money

will be spent on.” Mr. Sylvester said Suggestions from students will be considered before the money is

spent.“The money will be spent on something for the students, some-

thing fun.” Mr. Sylvester said.This program has been helping schools since 1996 and has given

away over 200 million dollars to schools like ours.

New dividers have been installed in the Mona Shores Middle School bathrooms because there were a lot of inappropriate words on them.

“ I think that the school made a good decision buying the new dividers,” seventh grader Devon Sargent said.

The cost of the new dividers was six thousand dollars.“ I think the dividers were worth the money because the old ones

had so much bad writing on them it was time for a change”, seventh grader Joelle Fisher said.

Since the school bought new dividers there are no more inappro-priate words on them and there is no writing the staff can’t take care of.

“ I think that the school made a good decision of getting new dividers,” seventh grader Jake Carlson said.

The school could have spent the money on new textbooks instead of new dividers, but the dividers were a lot more of a concern then getting new textbooks for the school.

“We could have spent the money on new textbooks, but the divid-ers were more of a concern,” dean of students Ken Byard said.

The school also bought new dividers because they were too much of a hassle to clean them every day because of what the students did to them.

“ I think that cleaning the dividers would be a hassle to clean all the time,” eighth grader Logan Jensen said.

by: sam vida I staff writer New activities coming thanks to new program

by: paul juarez I staff writer

Out with the old and in with the new bathroom dividers

Sixth grader Bryce Stempel puts in a box top to help support Sailor programs.

photo by: paul juarez

photo by: sam vida

Opinions6

Improving Sailor Celebrations would not only make more students want to come, but also impress the students as well as teach-ers.

Almost every student you ask says that the Sailor Celebrations should be longer. Opening the doors at 6pm and closing them at 8 pm isn’t long enough. Adding an extra hour or two would give students an oppor-tunity to get involved in all of the activities that Sailor Celebrations offer. By the time we arrive, get in the doors, find our friends, dance to a couple of songs and grab a slice

of pizza, they turn on the lights and the evening is over.

When walking in the doors there is some-thing missing. The thought of door prizes comes to mind. You give your ticket to the check-in people and they give you a new ticket with a number and every 10 minutes they give away prizes. The prizes could include a slice of pizza, a whole pizza, $10, free movie tickets, and even a free movie rental coupon. This would make more students want to come, and then the school could make more money.

Sailor Celebrations need some cooler attractions to grab the students’ attention. In order to make this happen more people would have to attend the Sailor Celebration. Barely any students sing karaoke because they get nervous. The school could buy a rock wall, and about 2-3 more inflatable games, because the lines are always so long. If we had to, we could even have a school-wide fundraiser, or box tops for education to help get these items.

As you can see the Sailor Celebrations

need improvement, which can happen in many different ways, and include a variety of new items to grab more students attention.

Telling middle school students not to chew gum is like telling a two year old not to play with toys; pointless.

We’re different indi-viduals, so the school administrators should give us a chance. You never know what will happen, the students

might be happier and there would definitely be fewer detentions. Additionally, the jani-tors wouldn’t have to clean as much gum off under desks, and the teachers wouldn’t have to keep telling students to spit out their gum. Why make the sixth graders in this school that have never even chewed gum, or any other grade suffer from the mistakes that other students made a really long time ago? Every student thinks we should be able

to chew gum.If we were given the opportunity to chew

gum, we wouldn’t abuse the privilege. We would just get up and throw it away, but now we have to be sneaky about it and stick it places because of the fear we’ll get caught. Even when some students do get caught, a detention isn’t that big of a punishment for them, and they still continue to chew gum. Right now this is a never-end-ing cycle: you chew gum, you might get caught, you get a detention, and it starts all over again.

The “no chewing gum rule” doesn’t stop students from chewing gum. Many students still do it, proven by all the gum under desks, on the floor, and other places besides the garbage. Kids now days know how to hide when they have gum, and know what classes they won’t get caught in.

Giving MSMS students the privilege to chew gum could make students happier

JustinMickelson

Kristine Kieft

Sailor Celebration Needing some Improvments

Opinions 7

This past summer the school purchased new bathroom dividers to replace the aging old ones.

New dividers were purchased because the old ones had graf-fiti and were scratched everywhere. Last year the dividers became

ruined by repainting them, causing them to start to chip. If more research was done, the custodial staff could have found out that they could have sanded them down and then gone back over them with a blow torch to make them smooth.

Almost all of the students believe that we should have spent that money on new lock-ers instead. A survey was taken and showed that 27 out of 35 students would rather have

new lockers than dividers, which proves the students do not mind the writing on the dividers, but what about guests that may possibly visit the building?

Maybe the school could have saved some of the money to buy new lockers, but the amount of money that is to be needed would be about a couple hun-dred thousand dollars. Almost all of the students have already read everything on the dividers and the students said they wouldn’t mind waiting a couple of years for new dividers so we could get new lockers.

The bathroom dividers have been re-placed two other times. The lockers have never been replaced since the school was built. Bottom line is, students would rather have preferred lockers than dividers.

For most of the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at MSMS, lunch is too short and too boring because it is only a 30 minute lunch and we only have a little bit of space.

The students here think that lunch should be longer so that we can have a break after hours of learning and also to hangout with our friends. Besides passing time, lunch is the only time when we can be with all our friends at once.

During lunch you can go outside, but we

only have a little bit of space. Most stu-dents agree that lunch would be better if we could go other places, like the front of the school or the football field so we can have more room to hangout and talk to friends. Then, when it is winter, the only place we are allowed to go is the gym, which is not big enough to hold all of the students at one time. During the winter we should be able to go in both of the gyms, one for basketball and one for just hanging out. This would make lunch more enjoyable for whatever the weather is like.

Right now, lunch is only 30 minutes long. If we made the school day about ten min-utes longer, we could have a longer lunch. The majority of the students interviewed said they would be willing to have a ten minute longer school day in order to have a longer lunch. Students who disagreed to a longer school day, said the negatives would be getting out of school later and having sports delayed. But to make this happen, we should ask the principal and other school

staff if it would be pos-sible to make a change.

Lunch is an important part of the school day, and making a few small changes could make it a lot more fun.

Could the money for the new bathroom dividers have been spent on other areas of the school

Forty minute lunches could lead to a better school day

LydiaBirch

AshleyVeihl

Custodian Garry Bollenbach takes time out of his day to clean graffiti off of the bathroom dividers.

photo by: lydia birch

Former MSMS students now MSMS staff

Center Section8

Loving the community he lived in, Nick Bronsema grew up wanting to be a Mona Shores teacher.

Through middle school Mr. Bronsema wanted to be a professional basketball player or a coach, but in high school he finally realized what was right for him, being a teacher.

Before he succeeded in making this goal a reality, he was a substitute teacher for 3 years along with a little during college at Western Michigan University.

Mr. Bronsema thought it was a huge relief finally getting the teaching job he

always wished for. He was happy it was in the commu-nity he grew up in and finally got his own room to make his own rules and teach in his own style.

Jim Tanis, Mona Shores’ former woods teacher, was Bronsema’s first inspiration because of his positive at-titude.

As a new teacher, he has reasonable expectations for his students that include be-ing respectful, being respon-sible, giving your personal best, and most importantly have fun.

The students at MSMS would like to welcome our new school counselor Stacie Lynn Meyers.

She is a former student and graduate from Mona Shores Public Schools and is currently finishing her master’s degree at Grand Valley State University. Ms. Meyers is married and raising two boys named Hunter age eight and Cole age five.

Ms. Meyers chose to work at MSMS because she went to and graduated from Mona Shores Public Schools. Before working at MSMS Ms. Meyers taught special

education at the high school for six years.

Ms. Meyers is eager to help students with class and schedule issues as well as other problems. She is the counselor for students with the last name M-Z but will help any students that feel comfortable talking to her.

by: zach haugh I staff writerby: stephanie langlois I staff writer

Mr. Bronsema Mrs. Meyers

Hello Sailors!

Student Congress would like to thank you for coming to the Sailor Celebration on Friday the 12th. We hope you all had a great time. It was awesome to see all you students come dressed for 80’s night. If you see any of the staff that helped with Sailor Celebration; such as Ms. Kern, Ms. McKee and Mr. McGough, please take time to thank them for helping make Sailor Cel possible.

Congratulations to 6th graders who made it onto Student Congress this year. We know we can count on you to help with all the events that take place here at Mona Shores Middle School. Also, congrats to all the 6th graders for having the most spirit during this year’s Spirit Week.

We will be holding many fund raisers this year, including a Can Food Drive and Toys ‘4’ Tots. Students Congress will be trying our best to make this school year enjoyable for everyone.

And remember . . . It’s a great day to be a Sailor!

STUDENT CONGRESS CORNER

Center Section 9

Happily married, Ms. Derez-inski changed her name to Mrs. Helsen over the summer.

She was in Paris, under the Eiffel tower when she got engaged in July of 2006. It was a total surprise when it happened. A year later she got married at Camp Blodgett.

Many people still called her Ms. Derezinski for the first couple of weeks of school. She still often signs her former last name. The hardest thing was to memorize the vows; she was very excited about getting married.

Planning the wedding was

difficult, but she had lots of good help. Mrs. Helsen is excited to finally be married.

Getting married is one of the events everyone waits for when they get older.

Getting married also can be very frustrating and nerve-racking, but not for seventh grade social studies teacher Mrs. Jackson, who is now Mrs. Soyars. The change of her last name affects her in several ways. Many students get con-fused and call her Mrs. Jackson still, especially last year’s students, but she doesn’t mind. The school had to change the nameplate on her door, and she had to fill out many forms.

Her husband, Ben Soyars, made a ro-man-tic pro-posal

at the beach. Even though she did not expect that he was going to get down on one knee, but she knew it would be com-ing soon.

Surprisingly, she was pretty calm before and during the wedding. It took several hours and a lot of work planning the wedding, but luckily she had a lot of time to do it.

The orange, red, and pink colors, along with numerous flowers, made the wedding stand out in a special way.

The wedding was held at St. Patrick’s Church in Grand Ha-ven followed by a honeymoon that took place in two different cities; Kauai and Maui, Hawaii.

So far the marriage is going great and will hopefully stay that way

When saying, “I do” it may seem to be a very scary and nerve racking time, but for Ms. Vriesma, now Mrs. Prentice it was a very exiting event.

Her former seventh grade student’s, now eighth graders, may still call her Mrs. Vriesma, but she doesn’t mind it, and she will go by either.

When planning wed-dings you would think it would be a very hard and difficult process, but for her it was easy because she had a wedding planner and all she had to do was email her for what she wanted in the wedding. Mrs. Pren-tice’s wedding was rather small and almost like a

vacation to Mackinaw. The proposal was

unique because, “her to be husband” proposed to her in an airplane flying over Lake Michigan, which he piloted himself. They were engaged for four months, which was not planned and she was surprised about the whole thing.

Mrs. Prentice is now married to Scott Pren-tice, and is still teaching English and honors English for shores seventh grade students.

There is a staff member that was married over the summer.

Some people know her as Mrs. Hahn others know her as Mrs. Hanichen.

Mrs. Hanichen has been teaching social studies for 11 years. She attended Michigan State Univer-sity it is located in East Lansing. Most 8th graders still call her, her former last name (Mrs. Hahn). It was really hard getting used to being called Mrs.Hanichen after she’s been called Mrs. Hahn for a long time.

On the day before the wedding she was not nervous, but it was a lot of work to plan and set up. They were engaged for 11 months and got married on August 4.

The wedding reception

was at the Muskegon Country Club and the wed-ding was at the Greek Or-thodox Church. 150 people attended the wedding. They had Greek music and Greek dancing.

Their wedding was successful and lets hope it stays that way.

Staff Summer Weddingsby

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by: pat daugherty I staff writer

Sailor Days10

What’s your Halloween costumegoing to be this year?

voices

RYAN FRITZ6th GRADE

“A dead hospital patient, because you get to paint your face.”

“Corn, because my friends and I are being vegetables.”

ALEXIS PIERCE7th GRADE

“Something with sports, so probably a soccer player.”

“A cat, because it’smy favorite animal.”

hallsfrom the

TYLAR VARELA8th GRADE

MRS. PHILLIPSTECHNOLOGY/MATH

JENNA KEMP6th GRADE

“A Hawaiian person.”

“French fries, because I’m doing it with a group of friends.”

CARTER SIMPKINS7th GRADE

“A clown, because it’s funny.”

“Mr. Wahlberg, because he’s the goofiest guy in the school.”

TIFFANY MCKENZIE8th GRADE

MR. MORAN7/8 SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER

comic by: jenna lakos

Sailor Days 11

Students

of the month

Student-Athletesof the month

Emma MilekCross Country

How long have you been running?Since 4th grade

Most memorable part of the season?When I got my best time.I was real excited.

Matt Nowak8th Grade Football

How long have you been playing?2 years

Most memorable part of the season?Scoring a touchdown.

McKenzie Jackson7th Grade

Favorite Class:English

Favorite TeacherMrs.. Johnson

Andre Parker8th Grade

Favorite Class:Science

Favorite TeacherMr. Bronsema

Secret Sailor Answers:Teacher: Mr. Moran7th Grader: Landon Kresnak6th Grader: Rachel Steinhauer8th Grader: Rachel Miller

TeacherThis secret sailor has the nickname of “Tator tot”. His middle name is Spence. His favorite color is blue. Cheetahs are his favorite type of animal. Halloween also happens to be his favorite holiday. Who is this Secret Sailor?

7th GradeThis secret sailor’s favorite soda is dr. pepper and his favorite food is steak. He was born in Muskegon. Vanilla with Oreos on top is his favorite kind of ice cream. Yellow is also his favorite color. His favorite actor is Jim Carrey and his favorite kind of cheese is sharp cheddar. Who is this Secret Sailor?

6th GradeThis secret sailor plays the violin and green is her favorite color. Her favorite holiday is Christmas. She has 2 birds named Ariel and Fanzy, a dog-named Lady, a hamster named Kenny, and 2 frogs named Bob and Larry. Jim Carrey is her favorite actor. She loves steak and sharp cheddar cheese. Her favorite color is yellow. Who is this Secret Sailor?

8th gradeThis secret sailor loves to play soccer. Michigan State is her favorite college because her daddy likes it. She has 3 siblings, 2 older brothers named Joshua and Jacob, and a younger sister named Libby. Sarah Hunt and Lauren Carpenter are her 2 bffae’s. Her favorite subject is English and her favorite fruits/vegetables are bananas and pickles. Who is this Secret Sailor?

S e c r e t - S a i l o r s

The Sailors On the Scene staff encourages our readers to send letters and suggestions.However, not all letters can be published, and the editorial board reserves the right to edit letters for

clarity. Guest commentaries and stories may be included if the staff feels that it enhances coverage of a unique topic.

Attacking our ideas is fine; personally attacking our writers is not.Remember that everyone has the right to his or her own opinions, including you. Please sign and

submit your letters to room 38. No anonymous material will be printed.

by: trevor carlson I staff writer

Sports12

The seventh grade football team pulled out a 34-12 win on September 26 against a tough West Ottawa team.

Darnell Longmire was the star on the offensive side of the ball scoring 3 touch-downs for the Sailors.

“I was shocked that I scored three touchdowns against them, because I never thought that I could put up that many points in one game,” Longmire said.

Offensive play was slowed down by the new set of middle school football rules.

“I agree with some of the rules, but the first stringers shouldn’t be penalized just because they aren’t allowed to play if the team is up by a lot,” seventh grade football coach Scott Volkmann said.

Mallory Vandervelde is the only girl to play football on the Mona Shores Middle School football team this year.

“I feel that it would be better if there was a girls and boys football team here at Mona

Shores Middle School,” Vandervelde said. Vandervelde is the kicker and the only

girl on the team.“I like being the kicker because I have

been playing soccer for a while, so I am used to kicking,” Vandervelde said.

In their first three games, the seventh grade football team has out scored their op-ponents, 98 to 18.

“I am very impressed with my team because of only allowing 18 points against us,” coach Volkmann said.

On September 26th, the Mona Shores seventh grade girl’s white basketball team dominated Grand Haven Lakeshore with a score of thirty-four to twelve.

“This was our hardest game this year because they had three players who were outstanding and they worked very well together, but we handled it,” coach John Adams said.

Meredith Smith scored to start off the game and Shores never gave up the lead.

“By scoring the first basket, I do believe this pumped up our team because then we were leading and we were excited for the rest of the game,” Smith said. “Also, it helps us remember that we are undefeated and should win this game.”

Shores held Grand Haven to a scoreless first quarter with their aggressive man-to-man defense.

“Our man-to-man defense was success-ful because we knew who to guard, and since we played aggressively, it was easy to steal,” Marci Northuis said.

At 4:43 in the second quarter, Grand Haven started a forceful full court press and minimized Shores scoring.

“To score more against their full court press, we could have run more plays, a variety of plays, and we could have played more aggressively,” Morgan Smith said.

Shores responded with a full court press of their own at the opening of the third quarter and limited Grand Haven’s scor-ing to only one basket for the entire third quarter.

“I like playing back better because I’m not the greatest stealer,” Corrine Dewitt said.

The ending score of the game was Shores winning thirty four to twelve; which has been the closest game this season.

by: lauren starke I staff writerYoung Sailors Sink Grand Haven Lakeshore

Seventh Grade Football Team Rolling

After A West Ottawa Win

Seventh grader Darnell Longmire on his way for one of his three touchdowns against West Ottawa.

Seventh grader Kaley Deruiter shows great form as she shoots the ball over three defenders.

photo by: cole myhre

photo by: cole myhre

Sports 13

The Mona Shores cross-country team has been preparing for a successful season.

“I feel we are going to have a good sea-son because we have a lot of athletes that work very hard,” cross-country coach Maria Helsen said.

Preparing for meets takes dedication, staying in shape, eating right and practicing often.

“I like practicing because it’s not too much and not too little,” eighth grader Jake Drelles said.

During practice the team runs the course to try and help them find a decent pace, keeping in mind not to get to the point were

they don’t have enough energy to finish. “Yes, I pace myself so I can have energy

to make it to the end,” seventh grader Har-rison Cannon said.

To win the meet they add up the first five runners time and whichever team has the lowest time wins.

All this hard work paid off for eighth grader Erin Schaner, who on Wednesday, October fourth placed fifth.

“I feel I have improved because in the first meet I placed twentieth and now I place between fifth and tenth,” Schaner said.

Most people don’t realize the effects and health hazards that ste-roids can have.

Steroids were first discovered in the late 1930’s to help treat hypogo-nadism, which is a human growth and development condition.

Later on, scientists discovered that anabolic steroids could help the growth of skeletal muscle, which led to the abuse by body builders and athletes. No one should have to use steroids if they stay fit, eat right, and exercise.

Steroids are mainly smuggled into the country from Mexico and European countries and are usually sold in gyms or by mail. Athletes should try to watch more carefully what is actually going on in places like gyms and competitions. When sporting events are held, coaches and even athletic directors should try to keep an eye out to prevent people from using or abusing steroids.

The health effects of steroids are extremely critical. Among adolescents, it will stunt your growth. There can also be reversible and irreversible effects be-tween men and women. Both men and women can experience acne, bloated appearance, rapid weight gain, clotting disorders, liver damage, premature heart attacks and strokes, elevated cholesterol levels and weakened tendons. People should be wiser and not do things that can affect health poorly.

The extent of use in young adults ages 19-28 has gradually increased each year. Young adults shouldn’t be using steroids at such a crucial age. They may not feel or see the consequence now, but will later on in life.

by: mckenzie hines I staff writer

Mona Shores Cross Country team prepares for an outstanding season

Enhancing yourself with steroids is not the way to go

BriannaHines

Girls seventh and eighth grade cross country team getting off to a great start.

Left: Eighth graders Rilee Essenberg, Alexis Gravlin, Michelle Robinson and Courtney Susterich push it to the limits on the cross country trail.Right: Seventh grader Jacob Baker keeps a steady pace.

photos by: cole myhre

How safe is Myspace?

Entertainment14

The Internet website, Myspace, has become a nationwide source of communication and a way of meeting new people online, but Myspace has been talking about putting personal information out on other sites to advertise.

Myspace is a website that is part diary, part photo album, and consists mostly of teens between the ages of 12-17. As of now, about 40 million people are members on Myspace. Students use Myspace mainly to talk with their friends and meet new people. If you are using Myspace, you should be careful about who you are talking to. Many older men make accounts saying they are someone else or younger than they are and use them to meet younger girls. 44% of

people have gone out and physically met someone they have met online according to About.com.

On Myspace you have the choice of private or public view. Less than five percent of Myspace users surveyed said that they believe their informa-tion on the site is strongly protected. The site is start-ing to think about putting users personal information out on other sites to adver-tise their sites.

Myspace can be a dangerous site if you don’t know how to protect your-self. Always keep it on a private view and don’t put out too much personal information.

With all the anticipa-tion and excitement that came with the new release of the high maintenance iPhone, over priced cost, bad battery, and limited wireless company that is offered.

The cost of the iPhone is $599 for an

eight GB and $499 for a four GB. With that high price you could buy both a phone and iPod for a cheaper price.

Battery life for the iPhone is terrible! You only get 5 hours of talk time, browsing, and email. On the iPhone, the battery is not

replaceable so you can’t just go out and buy a new battery because the one in the phone doesn’t work.

Activation is only available through AT&T and will not work through any other wireless provider. Until you activate the iPhone through AT&T, none of the func-tions will work, but soon that will change. This will soon change due to the kid that cracked the iPhone so that it will be able to work through other wireless providers.

With all this hype from this iPhone, it’s really not worth it at all because of the outrageous price, bad battery, and limited wireless company availability.

New iPhone turns people away from the new technology

CourtneySusterich

BriannaGoryl

illustration by: courtney susterich

Entertainment 15

The all-new iPod video Nano is the latest technology from Apple Company.

The new Nano now has the capability of playing music and videos. The eight-gi-gabyte is able to hold 2,000 songs and up to

eight hours of video playback and the four-gigabyte that is able to hold 1,000 songs and four hours of playback. You should make the upgrade because it is much smaller than the original iPod Video and comes in mul-tiple colors such as silver, turquoise, apple green, black, and red to make the product more interesting and decorative.

The Nano comes in a four and eight gigabyte system, and is only 2 inches by 4 inches. This happens to make the iPod very convenient to carry around where the other three iPods are much larger.

Compared to the other iPod the new one

comes with a big two inch diagonal screen equivalent to most digital cameras where the regular iPod has just a 2.5 inch diagonal screen.

Amazingly the new iPod is only $20 more than the old Nano and has the video feature and larger screen by a half an inch with ad-ditional colors to choose from.

Wii would like to play

The new iPod Nano has a little video for everyone

TonyWest

The Nintendo Wii is the best game system you can buy because of the cost, titles of the games, and its interac-tivity.

With this system, you are physically active causing more fun and some exercise, and users probably don’t

know they are getting exercise. Accord-ing to an article on Foxnews.com, a recent buyer lost nine pounds with the Wii. Some people are saying if you combine this with a regular workout, it could pay off big time. Users say they like it because you actually feel like you are in the game.

The graphics are really clear, compared to the Game Cube. With the Game Cube,

the graphics can be a little blurry. But with the Wii, they are really clear. With the Play Station, the graphics can be blurry. It also has many more games. There are some games that are the same, but most are different. Users say the graphics are the best out of all the gaming systems. E3, or Electronics Entertainment Expo says the graphics are the tip of the iceberg, meaning that we are expected to see more colors and DVD capability in the future.

WiFi, or wireless fidel-ity, lets you connect to the Internet wirelessly. It also protects the users informa-tion so no one knows that it is really you. When it is on standby, it can still download information. You can play with friends or anonymous people. Users say that it is awesome.

I would definitely get this if you want to be active. If you don’t want to be active, you can play it on the couch and still have fun.

ChantalBalk

Show Your Spirit

Mona Shores Middle School students show off their pride

during spirt week.

above: Seventh graders Natalle Townsend and Taylor

Sweezer make funny faces for mix mach day.

below: Seventh graders Kelly McMahon, Mickenzie

Carey, Rachel Green, Alissa Dykema, and Hannah Hardy

make a statment.

above: Sixth grader Colin Rabach freely shows of his Spartan strength.

below: Eighth graders Emily Grevel, Amy Marsh, and Trinda Noren posingat the pep assembly.

top: Seventh graders Corrine Dewitt and Kenadi Carpenterdo a superman pose.

above left: Eighth graders Kiron O’Brien, Chirs Grace, Nick Tindall,

Ethan Kemp, and Eric Zokoe show that they are prowd to look like they

just got out of bed.

above right: Seventh graders Alex Mueller and Kenny Olsen boldly show

off there football spirit.

16 Photo Story