Friday, April 3, 2015 Volume 55 Edition 21

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By Staff Writer Sarah

The

HI-LINETiger

MALLINBy Staff Writer Mikaela

School of RockNew club bringing inspirations to the Tiger’s Den/Page 3

On Feb. 16, CFHS food service staff members implemented several changes in the cafeteria. Students were met with new trays, an extended veggie bar, a broader a la carte, a new condiment bar, as well as the opportunity to start serv-ing themselves in the main line.

Due to the success of these initial changes, another change is coming on Monday, April 6. Starting then, a new extended main line menu will offer four daily hot entree options. On a three-week rota-tion sched-ule, this new menu will include some stu-dent favor-ites, as well as some new selec-tions, such as ordered-in pizza and pasta bar.

On each day, food service staff plan to have two of the hot entrees served on one line, while the other two will be served on the other. Each line will be clearly labeled with it’s individual hot entree options. The cold entree op-tions, fruits, vegetables, desserts and beverage selections will be the same on each line.

Martha Korneisel, CFHS food service secretary, said the staff has been making these changes as an attempt to increase student involvement in the lunch pro-gram. Though the Cedar Falls School District houses around 5,000 students, only about 3,000 eat school lunch daily, and the graph pictured on the right shows that, ever since the installment of Michelle Obama’s federal Healthy, Hun-ger-Free Kids Act of 2010, student par-ticipation in the high school lunch pro-gram has steadily declined, dropping from 95,043 meals served during the 2010-11 school year to 74,127 meals served during the 2013-14 school year.

The food service receives a state re-imbursement for each meal served, and because the number of meals served is decreasing each year, the program is losing more and more money. The Act’s restrictions on the fat, calorie, carbo-hydrate and sodium contents of meals extremely limited what the food service was allowed to serve, causing student lunch participation, and thus essential revenue, to drop.

“It’s been a struggle not just for us, but for schools around the country. Many have low participation and are los-

ing money,” Korneisel said. To combat the decline, first, two staff

members travelled to two stable school lunch programs in Iowa — Waukee and Linn-Mar — to see what they were do-ing that kept students eating. The major positive element they noticed was pres-ent at each school: students were able to serve themselves. It just made sense. Not only are high school students old enough, self-sufficient enough and re-sponsible enough to serve themselves,

this approach also cuts down on the program’s labor and paper waste costs, which rais-es it’s net value.

Second, by taking daily inven-tory and holding monthly menu meetings, staff members easily discovered which entree items were most popu-

lar. Staff members hope that cutting the original six-week cycle menu into a three-week cycle menu and including more of the most-liked entrees each day will appeal highly to students.

Finally, manufacturers are also aiding in the attempt to raise student participa-tion in the CFHS lunch program. “Initial-ly, many of our manufacturers couldn’t change their recipes fast enough [to ac-commodate the Act.] Now they’re finally getting there, so it’s getting easier to provide a broader variety of options like you’d have if you went to a restaurant,” Korneisel said. This will include a larger, more appealing selection of main line and a la carte items, making increased involvement in the program more prom-ising.

Though some staff members are ap-prehensive of allowing students more freedom in their meal and condiment portioning, due to the strict punish-ments the program receives if students receive a higher of content of fat, calo-ries, carbohydrates or sodium than al-lowed, they’re all ready to be more trust-ing and lenient with students if that’s what it takes to increase involvement. “Our goal is simply to feed children who might not have enough. Kids aren’t eat-ing, so are we even meeting our goal, or have we forgotten it completely?” Kor-neisel asked.

Similar changes are being made in the CF elementary schools. They are oc-casionally offering those students alter-native entrees, similar to the bagel and cereal meals found at the high school.

They also now have the choice between milk and bottled water.

Even after the early fixes in Febru-ary, it looks like the changes are work-ing. Before the changes, the high school was averaging 8,236 meals served per month, but since the changes, that num-ber has slightly risen to 8,306.

Many CFHS students are responding in a positive manner as well. Junior An-drew Nurse said the wide variety of fruits and vegetables offered “makes me feel healthier about my food choices,” and senior Hiram Marquez said, “I love to have more options. Plus, I like how [be-cause the veggie bar was moved to the end of the line], people can’t cut me.”

Junior Lizzie Swanson said, “I like the extended salad bar because I like to get spinach every day. I’d also like hav-ing more entree options because when there’s only one option that I don’t like, I don’t eat much that day,” And junior Ethan Smith said, “I like that they are re-turning Pizza-Hut pizza.”

Of course some students still have some hesitations. “I like the old trays. They had more space. It’s hard to stack the blue trays,” senior Adrian Amjadi

said, and sophomore Grace Kivett said, “I wish we had lines back.” Staff mem-bers are doing their best to accommo-date everyone.

They themselves even have mixed feelings about it all. They love that there are more fruit and vegetable options available, but they don’t like having to follow state and federal guidelines. “They make it hard for us. Plus, they aren’t right for everyone. We get com-plaints from parents saying their kids are still hungry. An athlete has to consume more calories than others. They need more. The system’s flawed, but we do the best we can,” Korneisel said.

Anyone can submit their thoughts, insights, ideas and complaints to the food service program by emailing nutri-tion@cfschools.org or contacting high school food service manager Rachelle Compton or assistant manager Sarah Schumacher. Hearing students’ per-spectives on how to realistically make the lunch program more appealing is the best way they can increase student involvement.

“It’s been a struggle not just for us, but for schools around the country. Many have low participation and are losing money.”

—Martha KorneiselCFHS food service secretary

Food service staff hope to lure students back with more choices, greater freedom

New RecipesFor Success

Mikaela Mallin Graphic/Logan Cole Photo

Friday, April 3, 2015 HI-LINETiger

The

OPINION2Our View

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Fridays to read during their fifth period classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is present-ed weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the majority of the editors listed below. Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Monday for publication in the following Friday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limita-tions. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editor-in-Chief: Austin AndersonOnline Editor: Zuhayr AlamCopy Editor: Annebeth AhrenholzStaff Writers: Sommer Danielsen, Agatha Fenech, Taylor Hylton, Ben Louviere, Mikaela Mallin, Malcolm Musoni, Dino Odobasic, Josie Speltz, Skylar Starbeck and Sarah Stortz

Contact Us

Bieber Roast, the trending topic of this week has caught the eye of millions of viewers who were delighted to see no other than the infamous Justin Bieber get verbally de-stroyed by many well known comedians.

On Monday night, Comedy Central hosted the Bieber Roast, which had been long awaited after Bieber continued to get h i m s e l f into many dilemmas these past few years. Stars like main host K e v i n H a r t , Shaquille O’Neal, Martha Stewart, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Hannibal Buress, Jeff Ross, Pete Davidson, Chris D’Elia, Natasha Leg-gero and even special guest Ron Burgundy all were in at-tendance to roast Bieber.

This episode attracted a whooping 4.4 million viewers, being the third most-watched show ever for Comedy Cen-tral. It was a trending topic all over social media with the hashtag #BieberRoast everywhere. The roast had viewers in delight as Bieber was faced with several brutal insults.

One topic that seemed to be brought up a lot in the roast was Bieber’s past relationship with Selena Gomez. One remark that was made about Selena was, “Selena Gomez wanted to be here, but she’s dating men now. Is it true you dumped her because she grew a mustache before you?”

While each celebrity had their turn of roasting Bieber, viewers couldn’t get enough of the overflowing comedy presented. It brought viewers who either like Bieber or do not like him together to watch things heat up.

As Bieber got burned with numerous jokes referring to his feminine look, past mistakes and relationships, there was an underlying theme to the roast. Bieber needs to start growing up and becoming a role model rather than con-tinuing on the same path he was on, being a bad example. Bieber concluded by shocking viewers with his roast against the other celebrities. His roast even impressed roast master, Kevin Hart, as Hart was standing on top of his chair most the time, uncontrollably laughing.

This TV event may have brought tears of laughter to viewers eyes or caused them to shake their heads; however, following the roast, Bieber took initiative for his mistakes and apologized to the public, promising to make things better and change his ways.

After the vicious ribbing at roast, Bieber points to brigher future

Bieber needs to start growing up and becoming a role model rather than continuing on the same path he was on ...

There was a time time when music release dates were stan-dard. A couple of months prior, an album would be announced and then the release date, but now that entire concept has be-come dated.

Labels are trying to make money off their artists while still giving the fans the music at a considerate price. In order for labels to do this they have had to find a way to prevent leaks from happening. Once albums are leaked, it presents less of a chance that fans, no matter how big, will actually go out and sup-port said artists, so now when artists surprise release their al-bums on iTunes, their sales have more than doubled compared to what they would have earned had these albums been released in stores first. Using this ap-proach, the demand is so heavy that fans don’t think twice about spending $12 or so on albums with surprise releases on iTunes.

Taylor Swift went so far as removing all of her music from Spotify right before her latest al-

bum, 1989, was released. Spotify is a great place for the listener, but at the end of the day, the musicians aren’t receiving even half of the profits they should due to allowing their entire cata-log to be streamed for virtually nothing.

But even reluctant artists know that streaming is the wave of the future. Recently, news broke that Jay Z had bought a Swedish music streaming site, Tidal, which is like Spotify, and he met with some artists including Swift, Rihanna and Kanye West to strategize how they can make money off of their music through his new streaming site instead of Spotify.

The site launched this Mon-day, and unlike Spotify there is a $25 monthly fee that the users must pay after completing the 30 day free trial if they chose. The price is so high because when it comes to other stream-ing sites, record labels are get-ting 70 percent of the profit from streaming. The 30 percent is then distributed between the

artists, and the producers and others leaving the artists with not that much at the end.

Some say who cares? So what if they are not getting fully compensated, they are already rich, but it comes to the fact that artists are seeking to paid a fair portion of their profits for their creative efforts.

One of the biggest examples of the record industry trying to be innovative and catch onto the times in the wake of technology is Beyonce’s last album. Beyonce released her highly anticipated fifth album straight to iTunes last December without warning. That album is the reason that led to where we are with artists going that route instead of a standard traditional release. Beyonce’s prior album saw a decrease in sales that can be attributed to the album being leaked a week before the release. The surge in sales that Beyonce saw with the surprise release is similar to what Drake saw when he dropped

As the 2015 year in music un-folds, one thing’s for sure: It’s an incredibly exciting time for hip-hop fans. Among the releases from J. Cole, Joey Bada$$, Lupe Fiasco, Drake, Wale, Big Sean, Action Bronson, Earl Sweatshirt and upcoming releases from Kanye West and A$AP Rocky, it’s safe to say I’m feeling spoiled. However, the pinnacle of sig-nificance attained to this year’s first quarter is the release of acclaimed West-Coast rapper, Kendrick Lamar — “To Pimp A Butterfly.” But why?

Since Lamar’s first album, “Section 80,” it was evident that he possessed an impressive dy-namic — with his nasally voice, he demonstrated an ability to write catchy, relatively accessible hip-hop tracks with personality and a socially conscious edge. Lamar went on to hone his talent and released his major label de-but album, “good kid, m.A.A.d. City.” Acknowledged as one of hip-hop’s best records and one of modern music’s best concept albums, it is a masterpiece of technical rapping and structured storytelling that redefined the

conventions of the genre. La-mar creates a character portrait which accounts his experiences as he grew up in Compton, Calif. Symbolizing an ode to troubled youth, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” consequently fell into the small overlap of critical acclaim and popular adoration.

The album was tremendous-ly appealing, with singles such as the trap-influenced “Swim-ming Pools” — a song with an anti-substance abuse message masked as a trendy drinking song. However, the album left me questioning where Lamar would go as he prepared to re-lease his next project, and he certainly answered. In spite of his prior commercial success, Lamar takes his music to a shocking new direction with an uncompro-mising stride. “To Pimp A Butter-fly” is a whole lot to handle, to say the very least. You may cer-tainly not love this album — and that’s what’s so important.

Rappers tend to align them-selves with the familiar. Rarely do we see anyone trying to in-novate. Innovation doesn’t sell. Formulaic art, however, keeps us

stagnant — to an extent, impris-oned. The sole purpose of art is to evoke, and those who strive to evoke new things are those who embody art itself. There must be a voice willing to progress music and art itself — a voice unafraid to move ideas and concepts for-ward, regardless of the times. Lamar encapsulates ambition and courage with his own voice that will serve as a landmark — putting the final nail in coffin for the era of 2000s bling-rap and swinging the door wide open for a new era of conscious genre progression.

This album is exhausting. There is no “Swimming Pools.” In terms of sonic direction, La-mar pulls influences from jazz, grooves from drums and bass, funk and psychedelic neo-soul - pushing boundaries as the genres burst amongst each oth-er as they manipulate the con-fines of rap-music presentation. Amidst the dizzying sounds and sonic detours of producers such as Flying Lotus, Lamar imple-ments styles of old school rap-

Hip Hop Artists Rewrite Rules Jay Z’s new streaming service gives credit where it’s due

Lamar’s ‘Butterfly’ soars into artistrySTREAMING

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Friday, April 3, 2015HI-LINETiger

The

FEATURES 3

STORTZBy Staff Writer Sarah

There’s a new type of sound emerg-ing from the school’s hallways, but it isn’t one that you’ll hear from the band or choir room, but rather a biology room.

Around the beginning of the sec-ond semester, a brand new club called “School of Rock” which was started by, surprisingly not Jack Black, but sci-ence teacher Jeff Hartman.“It’s been something that I’ve been wanting to do for several years,” Hartman said. “I’ve talked to a couple of students this year, and they seemed really interested in it, so we went ahead tried to get it going.”

What the club essentially does is that they meet together once a week with each student practicing music, whether it’s individually, having the students divide into groups or having everybody work on a song, despite the student’s skill level.

“We’ve been teaching some stu-dents how to play new instruments that they don’t know how to play already,” Hartman said.

One member of School of Rock is ju-nior David Schroeder, who joined when his counselor recommended it to him. Schroeder is no stranger to music since he’s been playing guitar for 12 years, but what is unique for him is how any-body can participate. “Even if you don’t have a lot of experience, you can still go down there and let them know your situation,” Schroeder said. “Nobody judges you. You just play what you’ve got.”

The instruments that the students play range from guitars, basses, key-boards and horns. The variety gives students the opportunity to experiment with their talents. “[Sophomore Mat-thew Kremer] and his piano really brings that in. He likes playing for people and getting other people to join in,” Schro-eder said. “[Sophomore Wesley Gitta] picks up the bass and likes fooling around with it. He likes getting in there, and I think everybody is having a good time.”

Even though the club has been around for only a short period of time, it seems to be receiving very positive feedback from it’s members. “The ones that have been coming seem to be hav-ing a really good time,” Hartman said. “They have the freedom to play what-ever music they want to play. They just hang out and have fun in a relaxed at-mosphere.”

However, all of the practice that goes on doesn’t happen for nothing. The group plays in the Tigers Den ev-ery week. Students are highly encour-aged to stop by and see them perform. Schroeder especially urges students to visit. “It’s a different thing. It’s not the usual norm. You get up in the morning, and you get to hear some live music,” Schroeder said. “Maybe you don’t know some kid too well, but you see him in the Tiger’s Den playing, and it gets him out there. That’s what it did for me.”

Pi. Most people know what it is: the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The value of pi is the same for every single circle: approximately 3.14. The value is approxi-mate because it is irrational, meaning it goes on forever and never repeats itself.

Many mathematicians eagerly await a specific day every year, March 14, known as “Pi Day” because when the date is writ-ten out, it becomes 3.14. This year’s Pi Day was special because it is the year 2015. The next few digits of pi would look like 3.1415, which is what the date looked like on March 14, 2015.

Every year math teacher Richard Strike offers an opportunity for his students to earn extra credit on Pi Day. The task is to remem-ber and recite as much of pi as each stu-dents wants. For every 10 digits memorized, the student receives one extra credit point, with a limit of 10 extra points. Students who memorize more than 100 digits have their name put on a wall in Strike’s room.

For 2 years, 315 recited digits was the re-cord. That record seemed impossible to sur-pass, but this year, juniors Mary Anton and Sam Zhang not only surpassed that stagger-ing amount, but more than doubled it. The juniors tied at 650 digits of pi.

Zhang always had his sights set on the school record.

“Mr. Strike talked about how memoriz-ing enough digits would get your name on his pi leaderboards,” Zhang said. “I wanted to have the school record.”

Anton said that while the two were com-peting, they still stayed friends and motivat-

ed each other.“We tied because we’re friends who

didn’t want the other to lose,” Anton said. “Sam was there for competition, and we helped each other reach such a high num-ber.”

Strike was amazed by what he was watching when the students surpassed 600 digits.

“It was amazing because that’s a talent that I don’t have,” Strike said. “Doing what they did, it requires talent.”

While the two had the same final result, they had different methods of reaching the 600s.

Anton used a pi app on her smartphone to help her.

“I memorize pi 10 digits at a time be-cause longer strings of numbers would over-whelm me,” Anton said. “I found patterns in each group of 10 such as 0011, 1717 or 32823. It all kind of lines up in my head.”

Zhang also used the pi app.“I sometimes memorized sequences

in groups of three or four. I also used pal-indromes like 65756,” Zhang said. “I also grouped the same number together when-ever I could, such as 66.”

Strike’s record wasn’t as high as Anton’s or Zhang’s.

“The highest I got was up to 100 a couple years ago,” Strike said. “Pi day is a unique thing that we do, and it’s very fun.”

School of Rock plugs inJunior David Schroeder is one of the members of the new School of Rock club that meets after school on Wednesday in science teacher Jeff Hartman’s room.

Ashley Brimacomb Photo

Sharing the PiTwo juniors collaborate to smash old record for reciting digits of pi

ALAMBy Online Editor Zuhayr

his latest album, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, straight to iTunes and the same surge that Kendrick will see since he decided to drop his latest album a week before it was supposed to drop in stores.

We are living in a time where artists

pers such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur — the latter being a major influ-ence to Lamar on this project — as well as the incorporation of spoken word samples as his ideas are conveyed.

Lamar’s vocal delivery is as unpredict-able as the rest of the project — each time his voice is heard being unlike the last. From spastic slam poetry to exasperated drunken sobs, one thing is clear: Lamar’s head has a lot going on inside.

In terms of lyrical content, Lamar is fearless and eloquent in addressing the heated political issues of today’s society. While not everyone may not agree entire-ly on the political stances that he takes — bordering on ideas of respectability poli-tics in the past, of which he has received criticism for — it is powerful to hear the

STREAMINGcontinued from Page 2

now rightfully want to be compensated for their art, and we as consumers have no choice but to stand up and support or wait for the music industry to find other ways to make us purchase the music where our pockets aren’t so badly affected.

personal and emotional levels to which Lamar takes these issues.

While it is difficult to briefly address the complex themes of the project, among them are black pride and artistry, racism, the downfalls of fame and success, aspirations, friends and family, and the cel-ebration of audacity in the face of seem-ingly insurmountable odds.

“To Pimp A Butterfly” is a tremendous amount to digest, for any listener. It is in-tricate, bewildering, bold and most sig-nificantly, progressive. Lamar has already proven himself as a rapper. He has now proven himself as a true artist. As hip hop continues to flourish, we can only hope to see more positivity and depth from the glorious evocation that only art can pro-vide.

BUTTERFLYcontinued from Page 2

MUSONIBy Staff Writer Malcolm

LOUVIEREBy Staff Writer Ben

Friday, April 3, 2015 HI-LINETiger

The4SPORTS

Junior Vineel Mallavarapu is looking to get off to a hot start this season and will be Cedar Falls’ No.1 ranked player. He looks to continue his winning streak as he hasn’t lost a singles match since his freshman year.

How much do you run in one match?

Probably a mile or two.How do you fight through

being so tired?Just keep one goal in mind.

The only goal you should be think-ing about is winning.

What motivates you? The feeling of beating some-

one. How important is winning to

you? As long as I know I’m playing

my best, I don’t really care if I win or lose. If I’m not playing my best and I lose, then I get pretty mad.

Do you like winning or hate losing more?

I don’t know. I obviously like the feeling of winning more. I feel like the feeling of losing is more of a strong emotion that causes you to feel worse.

Why do you love tennis?It’s so much different than other

sports. It’s only you and the oppo-nent and no one can coach you, so it’s pretty mental. It’s like one of the only sports where there isn’t a clock, so it’s not that you can’t re-ally take your time, but the points can last forever.

Vineel Mallavarapu Tennis

ANDERSON By Editor-in-Chief Austin

Weekofthe

Athlete

TigersActionin

Women’s TrackApril 4 @ CR Jeff 10 a.m.

Men’s TrackApril 4 @ IC West 10 a.m.

Women’s SoccerApril 6

Metro jamboreeMen’s Soccer

April 9 @ IC High4:15 p.m.

Women’s GolfApril 7 @ Waverly 4 p.m.

Women’s TennisApril 4 Home 9 a.m.

Men’s TennisApril 4

@ Wahawk Invite 9 a.m.

STARBECK By Staff Writer Skylar

Over spring break, Cedar Falls competitive cheer team took on Nationals in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Here they looked to compete against teams who were from all around the coun-try.

The Tigers competed in the largest division comprised of teams with 20 to 36 girls each. The Tigers had a total of 21 girls competing in Myrtle Beach to chase for the title. For the girls’ first performance, they impressed everyone by hitting zero deductions after

hitting every stunt and criteria. Senior captain Kennedy Ki-

ley was especially thrilled with her team’s performance. “It was a huge accomplishment for our team and especially to end the season on a high note.”

The Tigers received a third place finish, pleased with the result and a victory bus ride home.

That victory lap turned bumpy after their bus broke down due to the air pressure in the bus, which would even-

tually lead to bus’s brakes not working. The girls sat in the bus for six hours waiting for the ar-rival of their replacement bus.

However, six hours would not just be the end of their waiting. The cheerleaders waited at a local county court-house on a school bus pro-vided by police officials. There at the courthouse, eight hours passed by until the new bus ar-rived. In the mean time, some of the girls and their parents got rental cars and continued on their journey. The craziness

continued when the final jour-ney time concluded after 36 hours; the original time was supposed to be 18 hours.

Finally reaching Cedar Falls, the exhausted cheerleaders ar-rived early morning Monday following spring break.

Kiley stated, “This whole trip gave our team one last time to perform together. It was a great building experi-ence, and as a senior, I could not ask for anything else.”

It might as well be 3 in the morning on Hudson road on the last day of spring break. A few lonely cars roll through the UNI campus under the pitch black sky and bright street lights past the lifeless J’s Homestyle Cook-ing, where days earlier ESPN cameras gathered to talk about the potential bracket busting Cinderela that the city hoped inhabited Cedar Falls. The roof of the UNI Dome can be seen for miles around and remains lit as some young straglers scurry to their dorm rooms while the eagerly anticipated countdown to 8:40 p.m. grows closer. The traffic lights still change despite the bare road lying underneath them. It’s a Sunday night, and the campus seems resemblant of an apocalyptic ghost town: dead. A switch on the radio dial in one of the rare passing cars to the iconic voice of Gary Rima 1,769 miles away or a quick 26 hours west on I-90 in Seattle would quickly re-veal that thanks to the UNI men’s basketball team, the campus isn’t dead; it’s more alive than ever.

After beating Wyoming in the team’s opening game, the Panthers ran into the Louisville Cardinals at exactly the wrong time. Led by Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, the only coach in NCAA history to take three dif-ferent schools to the Final Four, the Cardinals had one of their best offensive performances of the season against a UNI team that defensively ranks as one of the best in the entire country and beat the Panthers. Initial disap-pointment lingered for players and fans alike, but hearts are far from broken.

Thirty one wins is a school record. UNI was ranked inside the AP top 10 for the first time

ever. A small town Iowa kid, Seth Tuttle, was named a second team All-American and will go down as one of the greatest players to put on a Northern Iowa jersey in the history of the school. No, this team didn’t win a national title like many optimistic fans hoped for, but the 2015 Panthers will undeniably always be etched in the record books as a success. This year’s team rejuvenated the fans to levels only matched by the team that put UNI on the na-tional map after upsetting Kansas and advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2010.

Even though fans are still enamored with the accomplish-ments of the 2015 UNI team, the topic of who was the better team between the two will inevitably be debated up in barbershops for years in the Cedar Valley. The cover boy for the 30-5 Sweet 16 team, Ali Farokhmanesh fol-lowed his alma mater very closely throughout the year and told me the two have striking resem-blances. “They have more depth than we had. We both have un-selfish play, a balanced attack and are hard to prepare for and can’t leave anyone open. Also, they have a great dedication to defense similar to ourselves,” Farokhmanesh said in an inter-

view with the Tiger Hi-Line. Four college basketball pow-

er houses remain in Indianapolis in the Final Four: Kentucky, Wis-consin, Duke and Michigan State. Although the calendar has turned to April and three of those teams are No. 1 seeds and the other is led by a basketball coaching ma-gician, Tom Izzo, this March like those before it, including 2010, has been filled with a max capac-ity of madness.

Farokhmanesh’s dagger re-mains the definition of madness, as in he must have gone mad to pull up from 22 feet away in the biggest game of his life, against the best team in the entire coun-try, when every other person in the Ford Center in Oklahoma City would have pulled the ball out and tried to waste time.

For a name like Farokhman-esh to be uttered without mispro-nunciation in households across the country, something crazy had to happen. After all we are talk-ing about a 5’ 11” white guy who was born of Iranian heritage to two decorated volleyball-playing parents that had a last name that was enunciated incorrectly so many times that he was simply re-ferred to as “Ali” by his own high school play-by-play announcer.

When something that crazy

happens, people don’t soon for-get, and it still gets brought up to him. “[The shot] gets brought up every now and then. More often now during March Madness, it’s brought up. It’s fun to relive mem-ories that I will always cherish and keep close to my heart because those are my best friends and guys that I’m still really close to,” the Iowa City West product said reminiscing.

The shot that ended Kansas’ dreams has led to many oppor-tunities for Farokhmanesh, and a lot has changed in the past five years including being able to play professionally overseas. His current task for the most recent season and next is as a graduate assistant coach for the University of Nebraska’s men’s basketball team where he is able to do any-thing coach Tim Miles wants him to do, including working with the scout team as well as recruiting. “The next step is to be an as-sistant coach at the D1 level,” Farokhmanesh said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to be a coach, and I’m on the right path to doing that.”

Coaching isn’t the only new adventure in his life, however, as he married his fiance Mallory, a former University of Iowa volley-ball player, last June and the cou-ple welcomed a baby boy named Tai who is now six months old.

Fans are once again filled with the exuberance that came with the triumphant defeat of the mighty Jayhawks with the help of Farokhmanesh five years ago. Thusly further proving that some-times all it takes is a split second of incredible courage madness to achieve greatness.

Cheerleaders take long victory lap back from Nationals

Panther hero points to future after historic Madness runs

It’s fun to relive memories that I will always cherish and keep close to my heart because those are my best friends and guys that I’m still really close to.”

—Ali Farokhmaneshmember of UNI’s 2010 Sweet 16 team