Girl’s Tennis

Marina Gephart
Editor-n-Cheif

The spring sports season has definitely been a wet one and, at times, a snowy one. Vancouver’s out-of-the-ordinary weather really puts a damper on the Girls’ Tennis team, a team who eventually gets to enjoy the sunshine of early spring. “The weather has been a factor this season—a negative factor. It has been moist. That is bad,” says Coach Joel Bieker. Rainwater makes the tennis courts especially slippery, eliminating any chance for the girls to play on them. Their only options are postponement or to manually dry the courts, which is a particularly unpleasant experience.

But the team has been managing well, especially with returning players: seniors Teresa Makar, Kristine Madsen, Erin Roetker, Cheyenne Sutcliffe, and Captain Anna Stice. All four-year, varsity players, these girls lead the team in various ways. “Kristine and Anna are providing traditional team leadership (leading cheers, running fast, offering encouragement) while Erin, Cheyenne, and the rest made us a sweatshirt design,”Coach Bieker explained.

Their season hasn’t quite picked up yet, with only a few matches under their belt, but Captain Anna Stice is optimistic, “We have a solid team and once we get some more practice time in, we should do great. We have a lot of heart.” To keep the mood up, the team uses a beat-up, mismatched radio aptly titled “Ghetto Blaster” during the scant sunny day. All of the team can agree that they all can pull in some wins this season. “We’ve only been on the court seven times this season, but I think we can win a number of maches,” Coach Bieker offers.

The saddest part of the upcoming season is the departure of Stice, Madsen, Roetker, and Sutcliffe, who were friends before tennis and have grown closer because of it. “The four of us came out our freshmen year not really knowing what we were doing but we’ve really grown as players and now it’s a big part of our lives,” Stice says. Coach Bieker feels the same way. “It has been really fun just to play tennis together and start the season, but also time is slipping away. Kind of like the way you feel on the Friday of Spring Break: you still have a weekend, but you also wonder where the week went (and wish you could get it back). I guess I’m just sorry for myself because I will miss them.” But all in all, Girls’ Tennis 2012 should be a pleasant experience for all involved, despite the shuffling of the team.

Lacrosse

By: Tyler Moulton
Reporter

Spring time is lacrosse time, so get ready to play. This year, instead of Heritage just playing, all four of the high schools have combined and are practicing at Frontier Middle School. Lacrosse is not a single person sport but a team sport, indicative through the communication and teamwork they use in order to make a good pass and score some points. Luckily for the girls, everybody who got cleared was able to be on the team. “At least a few people from every school joined; there were twenty- five from Heritage, one from Evergreen, eight from Mountain View, and twenty from Union, so with an overall of fifty- four players,” says Shawn Perez, five year head coach for lacrosse. Some returning players are Senior Jocelyn Cole, Junior Dawn Lumen, Junior Emily McCoy, and Senior Hunter Armstrong.

This year, the lacrosse team is in the Varsity Nisqually league. “We have a very talented team this year. I think we will do very well,” says Coach Perez. “There is no state competition for lacrosse. Instead, it just goes to a playoff system and Heritage has not gone to playoffs,” continues Coach Perez. Their goal this year is to mainly win games at the varsity level. But also, to win 4 games at the JV level so their program will continue to grow. “Practice, practice is the key. The game of lacrosse is so new to everyone, they just need to practice cradling, throwing, and catching,” says Coach Perez.

If the team continues to practice on their techniques, they should be as good as they plan to be, for their goal is pretty big.

Easter: Then vs. Now

By: Marisa Love
Online Editior

As a child, you would wake up on Easter morning, excited to get an Easter basket and go out searching for Easter eggs with your family. It was a day to look forward to; you would get so much candy, a giant chocolate Easter bunny that would take you hours to eat.

For most of us, as teenagers, it’s just not as exciting. Some of us still get Easter baskets, and candy and get to enjoy dying eggs. But for most of us, it’s nothing to look forward to. Sophomore Camper Ruybal said, “Now we don’t do anything. It like any other day,” compared to as a child he would color eggs and go on Easter egg hunts. Easter just isn’t the same anymore, as kids it was so much better.
Freshman Rebecca Aguayo disagrees though. In her family things haven’t changed that much. “As kids, for Easter we would make confetti eggs. We would smash them on people’s heads and they would get confetti in their hair,” and now, traditions have remained the same.

Instead of Easter baskets, more often you hear about people getting money or jewelry or video games, or just something rather than candy. “Now if we do Easter hunts it’s usually for money,” said junior Emilee Winfield. Some people might like this better as not everyone is a big fan of candy, but other people would rather stick to the Easter tradition, of candy and a giant chocolate Easter bunny.

Freshman Yana Zaytseva said, “I like my childhood Easter better than my now Easter because it was more fun and I got presents.” Although presents are good, Keirstyn Obermiller has a different view on Easter now, instead of getting presents or candy she just has a nice dinner with her family. “I like Easter now better because I like food better than eggs,” she said.

So whether your Easter has changed drastically or stayed practically the same, Easter is a day to look back on all the memories you have made throughout the past years with your family. Enjoy Easter, and make more memories for and your family to look back on and remember because you never know, one day you might not have the same traditions anymore.

New social networking sites

By: Anna Tomlinson
News Editor

When we hear the phrase ‘Social Networking’, many instantly think of Facebook. There’s no denying its popularity, but other sites have recently begun rising from the shadows, gaining attention, and recognition as well. Two of these sites are Pinterest and Tumblr, both allowing users to post their own interests for a multitude of followers to enjoy.

Tumblr has become the online posting board of today’s youth. Users have the ability to create a page all their own, and follow others whose posts fall into their category of interest, as well as upload their own pictures, videos, messages, etc. Pinterest, on the other hand, has become greatly valued by those of all ages as it has relatively similar qualities to Tumblr, however, the additional organization, sophisticated layout, and searching ease has drawn the attention of a vast crowd.

Senior Bevin Madden has had mixed feelings about Tumblr while managing to put it to good use. “Tumblr is the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. It’s provided me hours of entertainment, but it’s made me the biggest procrastinator in the world.” This theme seems to show true of late as students use social sites to vent the massive amounts of work they have yet to complete, though Madden managed to add a unique spin to a class presentation by ‘blogging’ her research along with classmate and fellow senior, Elizabeth Pring.

Pinterest, being the more recently created of the two sites is little known, but those in the loop have much to say about it. “It opens your eyes to new things that you’ve never seen before; new and exciting and creative things! For example, an old light bulb used for porch flower planters,” said junior Payton Bryant.

It is clear that social networking sites won’t be fading away anytime soon, and embracing their unique offerings allows us the benefit of utilizing what they have to offer to our best abilities.

Gas prices

By: Michael Noriega
Reporter

Over the past years gas has increased at a drastic rate. In 1995 the gas prices were $1.15 per gallon. Now currently the gas prices are at an all time high at $4.20 but soon to average $5.00 by the summer.
This is a problem for a lot of people like for people who use their cars frequently like to get to their jobs and school.

“They’re too high! And my car only gets like 15mpg,” says Junior Connor Heinz.

“They are kind of high right now. But I think when society adjusts to the change it will not be a problem,” Say’s Junior Emily Ulsh. This is a problem that affects particularly more to teenagers, because it’s a fact that teens 13 through 18.

This costs the teens who can drive and their parents a lot of money to drive back and forth. Gas prices had never been a big deal before because gas prices were reasonable. But now a lot of parents are putting their feet down on giving rides to their kids because the gas prices are too high for them to be wasting to trips to the mall and other places.

“I think the rising gas prices are a huge sign that we need to start thinking more ecofriendly in our lives and switching to a more efficient way of transportation. As the years pass the number of hybrids will be outnumbered by fuel powered cars,” say’s Junior Jay Ulrich.

People need to stop and think about this because this problem is showing signs that it’s only going to get worse before it gets any better. Maybe going ecofriendly is the best thing to do at this particular moment in time.

Senioritis

SENIORITIS
 Planning your summer escape / exploration of the world!
 Triple checking your credits to make sure you have all the credits you need to graduate.
 Taking it a little easier on classes when you know you’ll pass for sure and don’t care so much for that A.
 Starting the weekend on Thursday… ending on Monday.
 Skipping classes more often.

Above are the most common symptoms of Senioritis. Senioritis is diagnosed in most high school seniors. If you find yourself ditching class, not getting your work done on time or as fast, then you may have senioritis. The cure? Graduating. Now some people may claim that they have “Senioritis” but it may just be a case of being lazy. Senioritis is typically diagnosed toward the end of senior year. The students are excited to graduate and get out of school so they think “what’s the point?” The last few weeks of your senior year may be a piece of cake but they still matter. It may be exciting getting to go out in the real world and start your life as a college kid but you just have to push through these last couple of months and then you’ll be free.

Benefit Concert

By: Kelley King
Reporter

Benefit Concerts seem to be an increasingly popular method of fund-raising, perhaps because the donors know that they are not only contributing to a worthy cause but also receiving musical dividends in the bargain.

Every year members of the group seek an opportunity to serve in the community.
Rosiland Hall said the service they render is one of the ways they are striving to accomplish that goal “I think the combination of service and music touches hearts in a unique way,” Hall said. “I often say to the Men’s Chorus that our ultimate goal is to change the world. If we can use that music to do even more good in the world than we accomplish just by singing a concert, so much the better.”
Abe Collier, second-year chorus member, said he just loves the chance to do some good.

“This has been an amazing opportunity for me to see the effects of my labor,” Collier said. “All throughout my time in college I’ve been grateful for chances I have, not just to go forth and serve, but to start serving now that I know and have the habits when I go out.”

The Heritage High School Choir has been holding benefit concerts to help pay for things to help the choir. There were three concerts held. The concerts were held at Heritage High School. The choirs performed greatly, making a substantial amount of money to support them. We have a really good member of the choir in our very own newspaper class, Ronnie Hester.

Artist of the issue: Jordan Ulrich

By: Ashley Davis
Opinion Editor

Jordan Ulrich, also known as Jay, is a junior and it is very likely that you have seen some of the videos she has either filmed or edited right here at school. Ulrich has taken nearly every class related to video and photography. Currently she is the only Heritage student in Video 6, meaning she has taken every video course she could get her hands on. She has also taken Photo 1 and skipped Photo 2 to head straight into AP Photography.

Currently she is in Multimedia, Video 6 and AP Photo. Ulrich is actively involved in every aspect of video production. She writes scripts, films, and edits. Her favorite aspect of video and what she considers her most specialized area would be the editing and cinematography aspect. Ulrich says, “When making a video I am very technical.” Whether the artistic effects go in with editing or with angles and lighting right when being shot, she always puts her own touch into her videos.

Ulrich was not a huge fan of photography when she first explored it, but when she entered Mr. Strong’s Photo 1 class, she saw it in a whole new way, “because he was a really great teacher.” So now Ulrich uses the skills she learns in Photography and applies it to video, and vice versa.

She plans to continue taking video and photography classes and plans on pursuing video making and photography as a career. She says, “Next year I’m going to Full Sail University to get my bachelors in science.” Ulrich is currently working on her own independent film called Guru. Auditions for the film were held in Mr. Strong’s room on March 9.

She explains why she is so passionate about creating stories through video and photography; she says, “Making movies is an escape from real life. You can make your own reality.” We are sure to see much more from Ulrich as she continues pursuing her passion and making art.