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The OccidentalistWatching over the West since 1997

Vol 5 Issue 1 December

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TBAPatriot GameGirls Swim TeamNew TeachersForeign ExchangeBoys Tennis

We’re the

Our journey so far!

Inside This Newspaper...

02 The Occidentalist Letter From the Editors

Editors on the block. . .

1 Cover

20 TBA19 Girls Swim Team18 Madrigal Dinner16 & 17 Patriot Game15 Girls Golf14 Cheerleading12 & 13 New Teachers

11 Girls Cross Country10 Boys Tennis9 Living in the Limelight8 AP Studio Art7 Bleacher Creatures

5 Acts of Kindness4 Foreign Exchange 20133 Closed Campus2 Letter From Editors

22 Library E-Books21 Homecoming Week

Kaitlyn Jewell & Alyssa Ohanesian

6 Back to School & Gaming

School is back from Thanksgiv-ing break, first trimester exams are hopefully passed with flying colors and done with, and students are straightening out schedules for the second trimester. Our staff writers have started their Christmas stories for our second issue as we piece together the pages of the first one. Both editors have had a busy fall schedule beginning their junior years. Alyssa has been busy recent-ly with school and running to train for track season in the spring. Kai-tlyn’s fall cheer season ended on a strong note, they had a success-ful season as they cheered on the Titan Football Team. We are both glad winter is here and can’t wait for the fun activities to come. The staff writers have worked hard on their stories for this issue and given their best effort, many being first

timers in newspaper. We thank you for your patience as you waited for our first issue to be completed and we hope you enjoy it.

23 Dance Class24 We Are West

Feature The Occidentalist 03

Closed Campus? Open campus is a touchy subject when it comes to West Senior High. Many people want it, while others don’t really care either way. This topic has been discussed over and over, but yet nothing has been changed. Stu-dents have asked, complained and even have taken surveys and petitions, yet still nothing has changed. Our administrators of West Senior High seem to not be in favor of open campus. In many of our eyes, we believe that it would only be fair to have open campus consider-ing Central does. Many people here believe that the food is overpriced, it doesn’t taste very good, and they feel that there is not many healthy choices to choose from. Taylor Kehoe ‘15 said, “It would be a good idea to have open campus because we would have the opportunity to go back home in

case we forgot something, or we could go out and get our own lunch, something that we would actually want to eat.” Kehoe ‘15 said, “It would be a great opportunity to take a break from school and clear our mind.” Ashley Dell ‘14 said, “We

would be able to have more opportunities to nutritious lunches if we had our own choice to go out and get food that we actually would want.” Ryleigh Reiman ‘14 said, “It would give us more options of food

and different variety of choices, it would give us more freedom and a break from school.” Our school does provide us with some good and healthy meals but they can be ex-pensive. Some of the days, the lunches provide food that

nobody really has an inter-est in eating. However, I am not being ungrateful or harsh towards what the school has to offer. Cameron Bazner ‘16 said, “Lunches should be longer because it takes a while to drive where the student wants to go and then eat and still have time to make it back to school.” Taylor Kehoe ‘5 said, “Our lunches should be as long as our classes so that we actually have enough time to eat and just relax.” Most of the school wants open campus as well, we should be able to have that freedom, they should trust us with that responsibility. The problem that could be an issue how-ever, is that some might take advantage of the opportunity and decide not to come back to school after they leave. Even if that is a problem, most students still believe that we should have open campus. The only power that we have is our word, we cannot make them give us open campus but we can continue to try.

Stops For Lunch

Top Photo: Mary’s Kitchen Port is a favorite lunchtime destination of many CHS students, the perrenial favorite: “the Gobbler” and a raspberry lemon-ade. Bottom Photo: Can you imagine a line out the door at Slabtown if West had open campus?

Kaitlyn Shepherd Staff Writer / Editorial

Kehoe ‘15 said, “It would be a great oppor-tunity to take a break from school and clear our mind.”

Layout by: Alyssa Ohanesian

TC WEST SENIOR HIGH

Photo Credit: Kerri Wosek

Hosting the Exchange Students

Two Weeks of America Sadly, some German exchange students only visited TC for two weeks. Not only did they get to see Traverse City, but Mackinaw Island as well. While on Mackinaw Island, the German two week students went on a bike ride around the Is-land and got to visit some interesting sites. In Traverse City, the students got to go on the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The students came from The Kaspar Zeuß Gymnasium (Casper Seuss (hard G sound like grr) Gymnasium) in Kronach, Bavaria. The school systems are set up very differently in Germany compared to here. They start with Kindergarten, but it’s not mandatory. Next is primary school or Grundschule (Grund-shoe-leh),

If you went to a Gymnasium, you go to prepare for a univer-sity. A Gymnasium holds grades five through thirteen. In order to go to a university the thirteenth graders have to pass a test called Abitur. The last type of school is a Gesamtschule (Guess-am-shoe-leh) which combines all the previous schools, so students can switch tracks without leaving the building. These schools are usu-ally more challenging than our school system. The German exchange students only came to visit the United States for only two weeks. Being able to visit for two weeks, they got a chance to experience life in the U.S. In reality, two weeks is not that long to visit a whole different country. The hosts explored the town as much as they could within their time limit.

containing grades one through four. After you complete Grundschule and you plan to take the lowest type of job track you go to Hauptschule

(How-pt-shoe-leh), a school which contains grades five through nine. It’s more of a school which prepares you for jobs that require training. After graduation, you can go to a vocational school for two years. However, if you plan to take the second highest

track, you go to Realschule (Re-al-shoe-leh). Realschule is like Hauptschule, but more advanced and prepares you for mid-level business jobs. Unlike Hauptschule, if you get high enough grades in Realschule you can be transferred to a Gymnasium.

“There aren’t many people in this city. There are over 2,000,000 people are in mine.” Natalie Montene-gro said.

What Do You Think About Traverse City?

This year TC West has the opportunity to host some students from all over the world.We are hosting students from Spain, Germany, China, South Korea, Norway, Finland, France, Italy, and South America. America has a different way of doing things compared to other cultures, the food,

language, and other ele-ments of culture for ex-ample, when the South Americans celebrate Day of the Dead around the time we celebrate Halloween. Or how people in Munich (Con-trary to common belief that all of Germany participates) celebrates Oktoberfest closer to the end of September

and the beginning of October. Kelsey and I interviewed some of the exchange students to get their perspective of Traverse City and learn about a couple their customs.

“It is a good place to live with lots of great people.” Car-men Sanchez said. “There are a lot of activities such as sailing.”

“It is beautiful here. There are more fresh food and produce here.”Hai Chan said. It feels clear and fresh.”

Marie Dumont said “I like the scenery. Here it’s very cold and I feel uncom-fortable because there aren’t public transportations.”

“I like the lake and the area with the school,” Marvin Lenz said. “The school here is re-ally nice, and I like my host family.”

“Here it’s very cold and I feel uncom-fortable because there aren’t public transportations like in Italy.” Dafne Carlette said.

“It is my first American city.” Johannes Kestel said. “It is a really good city and has lots of good food.”

The German exchange stu-dents only came to visit the United States for only two weeks.

04 The Occidentalist Foreign Exchange

Kelsey Flaherty Staff Writer

Layout: Tiana Smith

Allie Ranstadler Staff Writer

School The Occidentalist 05

06 The Occidentalist School

Back To School

PC Gaming News

Aaron May Staff Writer

Taylor Reese Staff WriterTyler Workman Staff Writer

As school is getting back and stu-dents are back in school, For some students it’s a fantastic thing to go back to school, while for others it’s just boring. With a new group of Freshman, and a few new Sopho-mores, Juniors and Seniors, comes a brand new school year. A great time for students to start fresh. As the years go on and the students come along, the school is chang-ing into a smarter environment. After several events that happened within the summer and last school year, the security policies have stepped up. West’s school policies have changed and the students are getting used to not using as much paper as they used to. Most West classes are trying to go paperless

and do all their class work on the netbooks that are supplied to the students. With a new year, comes new ways of doing things. West Senior High has been in school for a month now and so many things have happened such as students coming back to school, German exchange students, Home-coming, new school policies and even new teachers, here at West. Some of the classrooms that have gone to a semi-paperless classroom have been turning out great. Another new thing here at West is improved security. It’s more enforced and there is even a police officer that is here everyday since the first day of school. With the school shooting that happened

last year, West is more protective of their students. The wing doors are locked and no one is allowed to enter through them. Another change is there is a security guard that sits in the cafeteria during the school day making sure all visitors go to the main office before going anywhere else in the building. With these improvements, West is a more secure school and the students should feel more safe. The cafeteria also has some changes to it. Some changes that students don’t like, but in the long run, make everything better. It may not the schools fault, but the government is doing it’s best to make schools healthier and this is one step towards it. One of the

PC gaming has jumped to the forefront of the video game spotlight once again with the release of two PC games on the consoles, Terraria and Mine-craft. With those two games getting onto the consoles, it has sparked the interest of many to find out more about the PC community. “PC gaming seems a lot more immersive to a gamer, as well as customizable,” said Shawn Wolf ‘14. PC games some-times get ported over to the Xbox 360 and PS3. Porting games is when the developers make a copy of their game that is con-sole friendly. Twh famous PC games that were ported to the consoles are Minecraft and Ter-raria. What some companies do though, is that during develop-ment (instead of making a com-pletely new interface for a game that would go on the console,) is to change the interface already in the game, changing it from what PC gamers were familiar with in previous versions. Layout: Alyssa Ohanesian

Steam is an important website for PC gaming, as it is one of the longest running distribu-tors of video games for the PC. Some of distributors are Origin and Indievania. Steam has its own site from which you can download it or just browse. Steam downloaded is nothing different, other than having the

user work offline. Something new to Steam is Steam Greenlight, which is a program that puts Indie games in the spotlight. “PC gaming is hit and miss, depending on the game,” said Martin Schworm ‘14. Some games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Call of Duty:World

at War have bigger communities on the PC side of gaming over consoles for the community. After the success of those games the developers released mod-kits where people made maps, extending the communities for these games. Borderlands, a huge game on the consoles, was one of the games that fell through on the PC because of a bad port.

“There is so much you can make and create in that,” said Michael Molnar ‘15, “Like mods and maps that keeps the game ‘alive’ so to speak.” Garry’s Mod has been on the rise in the past year. A lot of youtubers are playing different mods from the community for that game. Garry’s Mod is a full fledged game. It is a sandbox mode in which you can build, destroy, or do whatever you want. There is no winning or losing in that game, and there are many maps built by the community to play with friends. Some of them include Prop Hunt, Slender Man Multiplayer, Elevator Source, and Jailbreak. The most popular one right now is Prop Hunt, in which there are two teams of players. One team becomes props and hides, while the other team becomes hunters looking for the props. Mods, Steam, Greenlight, the porting of games, and finally Indie games are always being added to the community and expanding it. Gaming in general is in a constant state of change, so the community of all of them changes too.

Micheal Molnar ‘15 playing Terraria. All photo credit: Taylor Reese

Shawn Wolf ‘14 playing Minecraft.

“PC gaming seems a lot more immer-sive to a gam-er, as well as customizable,” said Shawn Wolf ‘14.

changes in the cafeteria are the dif-ferent sized drinks and food. The gatorade bottles are smaller in size and the famous cookies are even smaller and made with different ingredients. It’s a change to making the school and students healthier.

Feature The Occidentalist 07

The Orginal Bleacher CreaturesAleah Price Staff Writer

Since its inception, football has had basic things that have made it what it is now. Players, a ball, a crowd. A crowd whose purpose of being spectators to watch their team win. This begs the question, what is a crowd without their undy-ing dedication so many exhibit to-day? Yes, the Bucket Brigade exists at West to get the crowd “pumped up,” and before that? The band? The marching band is the origi-nal Bucket Brigade, and still are a staple in the show that is called football. The state chants of the University of Michigan’s fight song “The Victors”, to my dear distance Rocky Top would not exist without the band playing these fighting tunes. Halftime would be obsolete, it’s the band, that is the glue that holds what is a football game, together. In 1907, at an Illinois football game, the formation P was created by Paul Spotts Emrick, and since then the marching band has been a football institution. Brianne Giddis ‘16 said, “I joined band because it was always something I had always wanted to do.” She is a percus-sionist in the West Senior High Band. Giddis ‘16 said, “My favorite mem-ory was at the last year’s Central vs. West game, everyone was pumped up and excited to be there.” Giddis ‘16 associates this par-ticular memory with band, being it was where the band can perform and get the crowd going. Kirsten

Campbell ‘16 joined band because in 6th grade it was a requirement, but in high school loved to listen to the band and wanted to be apart of it, she plays the clarinet in the West Band. She said, “The purpose of the band at the football games is to get the crowd pumped up and excited.” It can be expected that members of the band may be bias to the latitude the band’s effect on the crowd in the student section, and to crowds of thousands at college games and on, but what to the kids who just attend the games? The opinions are as antithetical as could be. Cam Bazner ‘16 said, “I do not agree to that the band is the original Bucket Brigade, they are two separate things. The band doesn’t dress up in the themes like the Bucket Brigade.” Delaney Brandt said, “The stu-dents are mainly influenced by the Bucket Brigade, we do dance when the band plays, but that’s about it.”

Both Bazner ‘16 and Brandt ‘16 would consider themselves regu-lar attendees of the West football games. The original Bucket Brigade, the copula of the game. The fight song creators, and sustainers. As the

football tradition lives on, as does the band, and the cheer it brings in their songs and marches. It is so ev-ident, in the difference in opinions of band and non-band members. Whether or not the student body

Trumpet and trambone players stand in their for-mation for one of their many halftime shows.

Tuba players entertain the crowd during their half-time show at the third annual Patriot game against Traverse City Central.

Drumline players perform a tune at Thirlby.

Dan Hansen ‘15 during a half-time show.

Nicki Sanford ’14, a drumline major, conducts the band.

Diego Kieliszewski ’15 conduct-ing the marching band.

Band

agrees, there is a compromise that unspoken, the band and the Bucket Brigade make up the cheer that is football.

Giddis ‘16 said, “my favorite memory was at the last year’s Central vs. West game, everyone was pumped up and ex-cited to be there.”

Layout: Alyssa Ohanesian

AP Art In Action AP Studio Art is advanced placement art class. It’s a class for juniors and seniors here at West. The students create a large portfolio of original art-work. AP Studio has specific portfolios; AP Studio 2D, AP Studio 3D, and AP Studio Drawing, each of them is a different class. The class is a three trimester class and they do approximately seven differ-ent projects in a trimester.Ms. Keck said, “This year the class is large and full of very talented individuals.” The class is very open, the students feel very comfort-able sharing and discussing their ideas. A lot of the class time is spent working on their projects, Ms. Keck chooses the projects by doing a lot of research and some of them are a direct result of her training.

Rebecca Sarin ‘14 said, “I took the class because I have loved are ever since she had a crayon in her hand.” Students have all different reasons to take a class. It can go from teacher recommenda-tions to loving art ever since they first held a crayon or marker. Or they had taken it last year and wanted to build a different, bigger, and better portfolio. Steven Bonczyk ‘14 said, “My favorite type or style of art is watercolor and digital.” Art has many different types and styles of art. There is wa-tercolor, digital, and photogra-phy are just some of the many different styles. There also is drawing, screen printing, along with gesture drawings.

“I have loved art ever since I first had a crayon in my hand.” -Rebecca Sarin ‘14

Are you going into a career that involves art?

Graphic design or editorial photography. - Rebecca Sarin

Kenda, photojournalism. - Hanna Price

Graphic design. - Steven Bonczyk

Film production. - Mallory Heiges

Layout: Kaitlyn Jewell

Topanga Wagner Staff Writer

08 The Occidentalist Feature

Entertainment The Occidentalist 09

10 The Occidentalist Sports

Back and Better than BeforeDelaney Johnson Staff Writer

Tennis is coming to an end, and the Varsity boys are all around proud of their accomplishments this season. Before the season is over, they have plenty of goals to accomplish and very ex-cited about each and every one. Getting to Regionals is harder than people think, the Titan Varsity Tennis players are right on track this season. The boys have all differ-ent standards and goals for themselves and the team. Jeff Linenger ‘15 and Erik Anton ‘15 agree that their seasons goal is to make it to Region-als. Their teammates, Taylor Brown ‘14 and John Linenger ‘14 goals are to make it to States. Linenger ‘14 said, “My goal would be to win the Big North conference.” Mitch Winowiecki ‘16 said, “Season is going re-ally well, we want to place second or third at Regionals.” David Mather ‘15 said, “My goals for the season were to take down Central in our Regional, and just keep getting better through the year.” Everyone has differ-ent goals, but they all hope to succeed this year. Brown ‘14 said, “Our team as whole is doing better than last year.” Everyone knows defeating Central is big in any sport here at TC West. The Var-sity Tennis boys agreed their

Twon and I put into practic-ing before our second match against Central, which we were able to win. It took a lot of hard work, but we keep each other on our game and pulled through, said Mather ‘15. Even though Boys Tennis is coming to an end, the boys are still looking forward to a few things. “I am looking forward to playing with Eric Anton at Regionals, because he is an awesome doubles partner,” said Mather ‘15. The Tennis boys compete in both, doubles and singles. They each have done great as a single, and as a double. Mather ‘15 said, “Eric and I only had three losses this sea-son, so we are pretty happy with our season.”

toughest opponent is Central. Even though they have a toughest opponent, their sea-

son so far has been positive and solid. Mather ‘15 said, “Central is definitely our toughest opponent. They are brutal out on the court and they have great shots,

but they have a few weak spots.” From a Titan’s perspective they are doing fantastic. “As a team, we are doing very well so far,” Linenger ‘15 said in excitement. “I am proud of the effort

Sam Vanhoorne ’15 at West, practicing his return to his opponent.

Henry Linenger ’17 is practicing his swing during their team practice.

John Linenger ’14 ready to return a pass to his teammate.

Taylor Brown ’14 is practicing his ten-nis skills.

David Mather ‘15 said, “My goals for the season were to take down Central in our Regional, and just keep getting better through the year.”

Layout: Alyssa Ohanesian

Left to Right: Quinn Hall ’15 challenges herself to stay in front of her Cadillac op-ponent. Amanda Fouchey ’14 running to the two mile mark. Margaret O’Leary ’16 running in front of a Trojan opponent. Kayla Norris ’15 pushing herself through the finish line at the 2nd Big North Conference meet.

Titan Girls Cross Country The Titan Girl’s Cross Country Team at West Senior High is very dedicated to achieving their goals, both individually and as a team. The team’s coaches are Diane Goss and her daughter, Alison Goss. Alison began running when she was nine, so she has been running for seventeen years. Coach Diane Goss said, “I have been running for about forty years. I started in seventh grade. I started coaching at West in the spring of 2005, so this track season will be my 10th track season at West.” Coach Diane Goss has had all three of her children run Cross Country and Track at West. Diane Goss said, “When my daughters ran cross country in the early 2000’s, I would run with the team during the summer months. Just like we have TARC now, the teams back then would meet at the same park and train together all summer long. When the assistant position became available it was offered to me.” Practice is one of the important things for runners, if they don’t

practice, they won’t achieve their goals. “Cross country is hard dur-ing practices and you have to push yourself through difficult runs, but it is also very rewarding,” said Margaret O’Leary ’16. A typical practice begins with a team meeting for attendance, an-nouncements and other important information. We always do a warmup run and drills before doing whatever type of run or workout is planned for the day. Practice always ends with a cool down run, stretching, rolling and core work. It generally takes about an hour and a half to two hours each day. “I do have goals every year for the team, it is more important that the girls set goals for their team. By coming together early in the season as a team and setting personal and team goals, it pulls the group together toward that common goal,” said Diane Goss, “each member is held accountable to work as hard as pos-sible to hold up their end and meet those goals. My job is to help each girl achieve the marks they set as

individuals and as a team and to be the best they can possibly be.” Jessica Gockley ’16 started running cross country her freshman year in high school. Gockley ’16 said, “My favorite things about cross country is the competition and being with the people who love the sport as much as I do. I love that we get to pay off our hard work that was put into our practices at the competition.” Kate Melvin ’15 started out by running track, then Coach Diane Goss convinced her to join the cross country team. “Traverse City Central is one of our biggest competition throughout the season,” said Melvin ‘15. Margaret O’Leary ‘16 said, “They have a really strong team and fast runners.” The girl’s team placed second at the Big North Finals meet in Gaylord and the Varsity team placed 5th at Regionals as a team this year. Jessica Gockley ’16 qualified as an individual from Regionals for the State meet at the Michigan International Speedway.

Run Fun Facts

2nd Big North Conference

A high school cross country race is 5k, or 3.1 miles

Staying hydrated all the time helps runners with their perfor-mance during a race.

Runners have to be focused for their races, meaning you can’t be tired for a race. Sleep is key.

Doing the correct warm ups is a smart choice before a race

Margaret O’Leary ’16 said, “Rest before the meet will help run the race better than hav-ing been tired.”

“Before a meet I try to have a good rest and eat healthy,” said Melvin ’15.Katie Carmichael ’14, “I try to eat healthy and stay strong before the meet to do well.”

“Our team is like a family and we are al-ways there for each other,” said Melvin ’15.

Alyssa Ohanesian Editor

Race Pace is the pace an individual runs during a race.

Top 7 runners on the team are considered the varsity team

Cross country takes place in the fall months

Courses are layed out in an open area or on trails

All Photo Credit: Yearbook Staff

Sports The Occidentalist 11

Layout: Tiana Smith

14 Cheerleading Sports

Top Row: (Left to Right) B.Kurkowski, M.Yagle, A.Dore, A.Webster, O.Chappell, K.Jewell, D.Johnson, M.Kiehle, A.Simon. Middle Row: M.Gudith, K. Gild-ner, T.Smith, T.Melton, J.Langley, K.O’shaughnessy, K.Beehler. Bottom Row: J.Marsh, D.Priest,L.Lucido, R.Brown, D.Heinlen.

Fire Up Titans! The Traverse City West Senior High School Cheerlead-ing Team is coming close to ending their 2013 season. For eleven of the girls this will be their last sea-son as they are seniors. “I’m sad the season is over, but I’m glad I got to spend my last season with all amazing girls on varsity this year, and pass on my knowl-edge to the girls on JV,” said Ashlee Webster ‘14. The girls started their season in June and practiced all sum-

mer long to be prepared for the first game in August. Their summer consisted of working on stunts, preparing cheers

and conditioning in the summer heat. “I think this season went very well. We had a lot of great girls on the team and everyone worked very hard all season,” said Megan Yagle ‘16. Many of the girls on the team had

positive feedback about the season and how much they feel they had accomplished. “This season was fun. We tackled lots of hard stunts that

our coach threw at us. We were able to do several new combinations,” said Webster. This season is winding down with only playoffs left where the cheerleaders will join the football players in Rockford to cheer them to a bring home a win.

Titan Cheer 2013

Phot

o: W

hite

Oak

Pho

togr

aphy

Photo: White Oak Photography

“I’m glad I got to spend my last sea-son with all amaz-ing girls on var-sity this year,” said Webster ‘14.

Kaitlyn Jewell Editor


Cheer Team 2013-14



Titan Girls Golf In the Fall, the boys golf team has it’s shot at playing. But first, it’s the girls turn.

Hunter Kehoe ‘17 said “It’s really fun because we go overnight with the whole team, and you get to bond with the team and miss a lot of school” about why she enjoys golf. She also said “I have missed a lot of school work, so I’m trying to keep up with it and Wednes-day was my first day back since a week or so of missing school”. It seems like a very time consuming school sport, so you’d have to be committed to it if you wanted to do well. Hunter said that her favorite golf course to play at is the Forest Dunes golf course in Luddington, and for a practice course, the team goes to Bay Meadows which is right here in

Traverse City.

Grace Ellul ‘17 said that for her, the Grand Traverse Coun-try Club is the best course to play at, and the reason that she likes to play golf because she enjoys “just being outside” while she plays golf. In terms of favorite golfers, she said “ I don’t watch any golfers spe-cifically. I just enjoy watching women golfers in general”. Both of them seem like they really enjoy golf, and it affects their life lots both in and out of school. The last match was on 10/04/13, so sadly, the season is over for anyone who had been wanting to see them play. How-ever, be sure not to miss the boy’s golf in fall.

Patrick Elmgren Staff Writer

16 The Occidentalist Sports


Friday, September 13th, Traverse City’s West football team played against its most rivaled team, Traverse City Central. Nonethe-less, it was not a regular Friday night football game. This game was dedicated to honoring our military veterans and fallen heroes. “It’s important to remember that many people and their families have sacrificed for our freedom that we sometimes take for granted,”said former West football coach, Mr. Prisk. He has helped to begin the annual Traverse City Patriot Games. One of his inspirations was, “A conversation with Coach Wooer that revolved around too many Northern Michigan kids who

have lost their lives. We needed to do something to say thank you.” During the few weeks leading up to the game, bright-red Patriot Game t-shirts were sold at car dealerships and in our school com-mons area. The money from the purchased t-shirts was donated to the Reigning Liberty Ranch in Tra-verse City. Reining Liberty Ranch is a horse ranch that offers thera-peutic rides in specified areas, such as disabled individuals and veter-ans. It was chosen by our Student Senate out of eight other non-profit organizations in the region. During the game, the football players and students carried noth-ing but pride on their shoulders. “It felt awesome to play for our

military who don’t always get a lot of recognition.”said football player Caleb Breithaupt ‘14, who has a cousin in the Army who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. “It was a great experience because you normally don’t get to meet and thank them personally.”Kaylie Burley ‘16, a student who attended the game said, “It’s important to have these games because our military does so much for us and we sometimes don’t recognize it.” War isn’t what we watch in high action films and suspenseful tv shows, war isn’t all gunfire and bombing, there’s a physical and psychological aspect to it. Many soldiers return home with

emotional and physical damage and hostility from combat. Some handle it well, while others have a difficult time adjusting to a civilian life. The Patriot Game founders recognize this and feel it is impor-tant that we appreciate our military who sacrifice their lives for our freedom. “It’s a great feeling to give back to the men and women who give so much to us and don’t expect anything in return. I want to build a permanent memorial for them at Thirlby Field,” said Mr. Prisk. These games help insure that we will never forget the reason why we’re safe and protected everyday.

West Shows Respect

Photo Credit: Yearbook Photo Credit: YearbookPhoto Credit: YearbookPhoto Credit: Yearbook

#44, West Senior Quincy Rowan, linebacker for the Titans, sprints onto the field.

#79, Thiyo Lukusa, a sophomore, tackled & defensive tackle, heads off the field during the Patriot Game.

#56 senior Alec Coolman, tight end & defensive tight end, leads his team onto Thirlby Field.

Running back, senior Octavian Waugh, stands at his position dur-ing the Patriot Game on Friday night September 13th.

Megan Eschelweck Staff Writer


Let’s Kick One More Zach Gloshen ‘15 kicked the winning field goal for the West vs Central at the Patriot game this year. This is the second annual Patriot game and every year from now on the West vs Central game will be known as the Patriot game. Gloshen ‘15 also used to play soc-cer and that is one of the reasons he is the TC West kicker. Gloshen ‘15 said “I’ve been playing for two years“. The score was tied fourteen to fourteen at the end of the 4th quarter of the game and the two teams went into overtime. This is the first time in the sixteen years of playing each other that these two teams have was able to hold them back and keep them from scoring the touchdown. When it was their turn to kick their kicked kicked but missed the field goal.

Now our team was on offense and the Trojans managed to hold us back. When asked if the pressure was on, Gloshen said “Yes for sure“. Gloshen ‘15 kicked and the crowd went crazy! He had kicked the field goal that had given West the win over Central. When asked what his feelings were after

he knew the kick was good Gloshen “15 said “I was just kind of shocked”. All of the proceeds from the Patriot game each year will now go to the Vet-erans and their families. Shirts are

sold at the schools and around town to help benefit this organiza-tion.This gives the community a chance to give back to the men and women who fight for our freedom.

Q. How was this years game different than those in the past?

A. “This years game was a little bit different for me personally just because we lost last year and I feel like we needed some redemption this year but other than last year it wasn’t much different we just came there and played like we did”. Kaden Gillow 14’

Q. Why do you think the patriot game impor-tant to the community?

A. “Its important because it shows our thanks and helps us respect and give back to those who fight for our freedom”. Cody Gravette 15’

Q. Being your first year on varsity what were some of your feelings going into this game?

A. “I was really excited about it but, at the same time I was nervous because of all of the fans”. Tommy Roush 16’

Q &

A

Warming up for the annual West vs Central game Zachary Gloshen ‘15 prepares to kick a field goal.Photo: A. Newton

A team photo after taking down the Trojans and bring home a win.Photo: School Yearbook

Lining up for the coin toss at the beginning of the game, the captains walk to the center of the field.Photo: School Yearbook

Photo: Autumn Gillow Photo: Lisa Lucido Photo: Talia Polmann

Lisa Lucido Staff Writer


18 The Occidentalist Entertainment

Traverse City Swim Team Alyssa Ohanesian Editor

Natalie Wagner ’16 practicing her butterfly swim stroke.

Becky Stanwick ’14 swimming the front crawl at the Civic Center.

Rosemary Cook ’14 and two other team-mates swimming together in a lane.

Jacqueline Clark ’16 swimming the breaststroke during practice.

The Traverse City Swim Team season is up and start-ed again. The girls are hard at work practicing, getting ready to show off all their skills at their swim competi-tions. Their team consists of girls from all four grades here at West, at Central, and Saint Francis and their head coach, Kelly Smith. Jacqueline Clark ’16 is a member of the Traverse City swim team, she has been a part of the swim team for two years. Clark ’16 said, “For each meet my coach shuffles our events around but typically i’ll swim the 200 individual medley, 500 free and the 400 relay.” Olivia Verellen ’13 is Clark’s ’16 team member on the swim team. Verellen ’13 has been a part of the swim team since her freshman year in high school but she’s been swim-ming competi-tively since she was five years old. Verellen ’13 said, “I participate in the 200 individual medley, 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay, and 100 breaststroke.” Verellen’s ’13 said, “My

favorite memory from being on the swim team was when I had to swim practice in a t-shirt and sweatpants be-cause I shaved my legs.” Bailey MacDermaid ’16 has been on the high school swim team for two years but has swam on a team before

that. At swim competitions MacDermaid ’16 usually swims the 200 medley relay, where she swims the back-stroke, the 100 freestyle, 100

backstroke and the 400 relay. MacDermaid ’16 said, “My best event would probably be the 100 backstroke.” Suha Augenstein ’15 is MacDermaid’s ‘16 teammate, she has been on the team since her freshman year. Augenstein ’15 participates in diving on the swim team. She said, “During our practices we warm up, practice our diving, and we train dryland. Our dryland training work-outs include ab workouts, leg workouts and we work out with medicine balls.” The girls agree that there are too many amazing memories to count, our team continues to make great memories together everyday. Augenstein ’15 said, “We are all one big family and we are continuing to make great memories as we compete and train together.”

Clark ’16 said, “For each meet my coach shuf-fles our events around but typi-cally i’ll swim the 200 individual medley, 500 in-dividual free and the 400 relay.”

Dominant Photo: Bailey Mac-Dermaid ’16 practicing her back stroke at their team practice.Bottom Middle Photo: Kyla Poley ’16 working on her breast-stroke.

Photo Credit: The Odyssey Year-book Staff Layout: Alyssa Ohanesian


TBA Prepares Students Here at West students have the opportunity to go to TBA for most of the school day. TBA helps students get on track for their future by helping them find out what they might be interested in, career-wise. Zachary Witkop ‘15 said, “TBA is an alternate school that focuses on certain career paths. It helps you get skills in them.” Since TBA is a different school, it is a total different experience compared to going to highschool. Some people really like the feeling of getting to go back and forth between the different types of schools everyday. It gives students time away from West for a bit and they have classes with people they might not see dur-ing the day at West. OB Fearnow ‘15 said, “TBA gives me an idea of the workplace that I’m going into. Instead of teaching me individual skills like a math class would, it gives me a feel for the actual job.” At TBA the classes are meant to prepare students for the future career of their choice. They get the students prepared for real life situations

Cooking, whether it is a class, a job, or just a hobby. Shale Nowland travels to TBA for his culunary class during the pm. “I have always loved cooking. I like that I can take any old food item and create great food.”

tion technology, web programming, and public safety. TBA has numerous dif-ferent locations at which involve the job you are looking into. Students not only get the chance to work in their area of interest, but get to work with people who have a job in that area.If you would like to know more about the TBA Career Tech Center: Go to: www.tbatc.orgOr call: 231.922.6320

Explore the Differences

Shale helps the stu-dents who are taking the class for their first year as the teacher. “I cook for the restaurent and teach the first years skills that I have learned and also learn new skills from them. I gain the respect the first year and then they will always help me.”

For Shale, becom-ing a teacher helps him gain experience for his future career as a chef. “I want to become a chef here at TBA.” Attending TBA can really help you pre-pare for your future. Shale already has his future planned along with many other stu-dents. By: T. Smith

The TBA Graphic Design studio has creative mediums and high-tech tools for students to design with.

Builder’s Trade & Construction has a huge space, TBA has constructed a Habitat for Humanity House here.

In the TBA Greenhouse, students learn landscape design, horticulure, and upkeep the greenhouse.

The “Hot Line” of the kitchen serves as a teaching area. Here, meals are prepared for the onsite restaurant.

In the TBA Automotive Depart-ment, jacks and lifts of all sizes are capable of raising everything from a motorcycle to a full-size truck.

Academy. There are programs in welding, culi-nary, graphic design, auto-motive skills, a film and new media program, agriscience & horticulture, teacher acad-emy, health sciences, electrical occupations,

building trades, informa-

that can happen with the career that they choose. Students get to be in the enviorn-ment of their choice. There are 181 West Senior High students attending TBA, and there are a few attend-ing the related M-Tech

Preparing the Dish

Chris Cortright Staff Writer

“TBA gives me an idea of the workplace that I’m going into. Instead of teaching me in-dividual skills like a math class would, it gives me a feel for the actual job.”-OB Fearnow ‘15

Layout: Tiana Smith

20 The Occidentalist School


Getting the right dress, or asking the right person isn’t what home-coming is all about. There’s so much more to it than that. Be-hind the scenes workers, posters, campaigning, the whole nine yards. There’s a lot more work being put into one week than everyone see’s. For some people, spirit week is all about looking the part. Showing up in the best superhero costume, or showing who has the most school spirit. But for others, it’s coming to school early to work on banners, it’s designing and printing hundreds of flyers campaigning for king or queen. There’s so many people who put hard work and dedication into one week. This is

a once a year thing. One time a year when our whole school comes together as one. To support our team and our school. We like to call them our “workers” because all the do is work. And dedicate themselves to this week. For some, like let’s say, the football team, homecoming is a lot of pressure. Everyone’s count-ing on you to bring home a big win for homecoming. We hosted a game called “The Patriot Game” in honor of all military members who are serving, have served, intend on serving or have been killed in combat. One trait we hold our school as well as our teams to, is good sportsmanship.

No matter if it’s the homecom-ing game or a scrimmage. Being a respectable and honorable player is always a good thing. So that even if you lose, you can walk off the field saying you did your best and you’re still proud to be a titan. During spirit week, being a titan is brought out in all of us. We have a different dress code everyday. Monday: Dress fancy day, Tues-day: college apparel, Wednesday: Superhero/Owen day, Thursday: class shirt day, Friday:Titan wear. Each and every day you can come to school excited and proud to be a titan. On Wednesday night we hosted activity night. The senior and junior girls

Homecoming 2013

participated in flag football. Seniors in pink, juniors in purple. The intensity of the game was fierce. The coaches, Zac Schwert, Zach Mcguire, and Geordan Carter, were just as enthused to be a part of the game. You could hear them yelling from across the field. The girls went just as hard as the boys would in a real game. Besides the fact that it wasn’t tackle football.

Mackenzie Tyler Staff Writer

Seniors end the game with their last huddle to strategize their last win.

Freshman, Ally Ranstadler embraces her inner “spidey” on Super Hero day for spirit week.

Scoreboard shows Seniors taking the lead in the spirit weeks 2013 Pow-der Ruff football.Photo: Makenzie Tyler

Photo: Makenzie Tyler

Photo: Makenzie Tyler

21 The Occidentalist Feature

Hundredsof at

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22 The Occidentalist Entertainment

TCAPS Band members from Central HS, West HS, East MS, & West MS, perform all together at the 2nd Annual Patriot Game at Thirlby Field. Great weather and a great cause made for a memorable night for stu-dents, parents, and Military Veterans.

Far left: Andria Hunter ‘15 performs in a classic ballet sequence. Middle left: Kai-tlyn Kotimko ‘16 performs a latin style dance. Middle right: Jennifer Browning ‘17 smiles at the audience during her tap routine. Olivia Coolman ‘17 taps in tandom with her dance partner.

Dance students show their talent Dance is a great activity that many girls do after school. It’s a ton of fun and a great way to get to know new people. There are many West Senior High girls who take dance classes after school. We wanted to get the inside view on dance class, first we spoke to Katlyn Kotimko ‘15 to get her point of view. She has been in dance since the age of three, “I started when I was in preschool,” Kotimko ‘15 said. We asked her what dance meant to her, she said, “It is a great way to be active and keeps her busy. It’s a lot of fun.” Katlyn got into dance when she was three. Her dad tried to get her into skating, but it really didn’t work out. Her mom suggested dance classes at her school, so that she could be more interested in her school. She has been dancing at the Dance Center for about four years now. Andria Hunter ‘15 has been dancing since she was three. Dance means a lot to her. She said, “Dance is the one way I can express myself.” Some of her favorite classes are ballet. “It’s beautiful to watch and my second favorite would be contemporary, because it is the opposite of ballet and I can express myself a little more.” said Hunter ‘15. “My mom is a dance instructor and she got me into dance. I love it.” Andria has been dancing at the Dance Center for five years now. Jennifer Browning ‘16 said, “I have been dancing for eleven years and I like it because I like to be with my friends.” Her favorite classes are ballet and pointe because it’s something that is very pretty to watch. It’s very graceful. “I begged my dad around the age of five if I could dance because it sounded really interest-ing,” said Browning ‘16. Olivia Coolmen ‘17 said, “I have been dancing for eight years and it is a great way to express myself.” She got into dance because she needed to do a sport and dance sounded fun. “I don’t have a favorite class because I love them all, each one has their own great qual-ity,” said Coolman ‘17. Olivia dances at the

Dance Center as well. The Dance Center has been running since 1996. Every year, the Dance Center holds a christmas concert and a spring concert for the dancers to show off their talent to a huge audience. This year, the Dance Center will be putting on Snow White along with the christmas and spring concert. Snow White is a big produc-tion that the dance center hosts. Many of the dancers work really hard after school and spend hours rehearsing along with their normal dance classes. Every year the dance center puts on a different performance. They get the money to fund these performances by selling tickets and flowers at the concert. They usually have a full auditorium at every performance. Olivia Coolman ‘17 is performing in Snow White this year along with Jennifer Browning ‘16 They both have been working really hard to do their best in this performance. Each year the Dance Center sends out papers to see if you are interested in perform-ing in the big Christmas production. For the Dance Center’s regular Christmas concert on December 14th, they pick out certain classes that get to perform in the show. There are two shows, one in the morning and one in the evening. All the girls work hard on their perfor-mances and practice every week. The Christ-mas concert is just as important as the spring concert they have every year in May. In the spring concert, the teachers can pick any type of song of their choice and create a dance with it. They perform from May 11 to May 14. If you come to see the show you’ll see a wide range of colors on dresses and a numer-ous amount of talented dancers. Each year they put their heart and soul into each of their performances which make them fun to watch.

Students perform at the Dance Center

Oliva Coolman ‘17 and Molly Barnes pose for their photo shoot before the Snow White performance.

Outside of School

“Dance is the one way I can express my self.” -Andria Hunter ‘15


Alyssa Bunker Staff Writer

Layout: Tiana Smith

Emily Beckwith Staff Writer

24 The Occidentalist Staff

We are West

Top left: Powder Ruff players in action, top right: Choral Aires sing at the pep assembly (Hayden Elshaw ‘14 solos), middle left: Olympia Sanchez ‘14 atop the TC West Cheer Pyramid, middle above: Mr. Durbin joins in the toilet paper mummy race at the pep assembly, middle right; West Seniors get their class spirit on, lower left: Natalee Ostrowski ‘15 creates a drawing in the art room at West, lower right: Maya Breneman ‘17 & Francie Flores ‘17 show off their superhero t-shirts during spirit week (In honor of Owen Williamson)S

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