FOX FIRE Issue 2 King George High School’s Place For News November 2011

IndexNews...........Page 1Sports....Pages 2-3Editorials.....Pages 4-5Features.......Pages 6-8

Hollywood Nights HomecomingBy: Desmond Jordan

On the evening of October 15, 2011, KGHS held its homecoming dance in the cafeteria. This year’s theme was Hollywood Nights as the cafeteria was decorated accord-ingly. The new décor included a red carpet, a walk of fame, and even sky-scraping Gram-mies. This year a new addition to the homecoming dance was an open bar that served sodas, snacks, and candy. The walk of fame was a collection of

each senior’s name signed on golden stars. Being that homecom-ing is one of two dances held at KGHS, students made sure to dance the night away. Upon entering “Hollywood Nights,” each student was given a wristband that could face the possibility of getting taken away if inappropriate behavior on the dance floor takes place. A well-talked about topic came about after the

homecoming dance: the music. The Deejay for the evening was actually a KGHS teacher, Mr. Speik-er. Last year Speiker did an exceptional job being deejay of the dance accord-ing to many students. However this time around, there were mixed feelings about song choic-es. “I felt that some of the songs were outdated. Only a couple songs played should be a year old, not

a few,” stated Junior Chyna Chatman. While Chatman felt the deejay could have done better, Senior Amber Wilson said, “I really enjoyed the music! He played really good songs and I had a blast!” The fun has ended, for now at least, while the stu-dents head back to more pro-ductive things such as school work. KGHS will have to wait about seven months until their next party opportunity, prom.

Scream, Shout, and Show your Spirit By: Christian Jones Spirit week and the homecoming game, all things high school students look for-ward to every year. The icing on the cake is the pep-rally; students squeeze into the gym, ready to go crazy for their school and grade. The KGHS pep-rally was all school colors, students wearing blue and gold, even Waldo imperson-ators found them-selves sitting in the hard blue seats in the gymnasium. The ex-citement from the pep-rally had a more dramatic effect on the youngest of the KGHS student body, the fresh-

man class. Unlike the rest of the student body, the class of 2015 was experiencing the high energy of spirit week for

the first time as a high school student. “It’s [pep-rally] a lot bigger in high school,”

said freshman Brennan McCoy, “Everything was so loud, but it was still pretty awesome.”

One could only imagine how high the energy level would have been if the game had actually been Friday. Still the perform-ers delivered a rock-solid performance, leaving everyone on their feet until the final

crescendo. The final act stole the show. Led by the voice of Eian Chase, the

KGHS chorus sang pop hit “Tonight Tonight” by Hot Chelle Rae. Students began to pour onto the court singing along to the chorus. As the students watched their peers on the court; a mutual feeling of togetherness seemed to hang over the gym.

Corey Rodriguez gets his senior class pumped up.

SPORTS Page 2

Fox Fire Staff Box Amanda Pasko-Co-Editor Desmond Jordan-Co-Editor Christian Jones- Sports Editor Alli Trainum-Public Relations Eleni Johnson-Feature Editor Nicole Josemans-News Editor Maure Buckley-Editorial Editor Robert Weiss-Photographer Daniel Styer-Newspaper Adviser/Sponsor

The sophomore class came out victorious over the freshmen, juniors and seniors in the Powderpuff games on Saturday October 22, 2011. The tournament included three games. The first game of the evening was the sophomore vs. freshman game. The game started with a quick touchdown by the freshmen class in the first few minutes putting the score at 0-6. Although the sophomores were quickly humbled by their underclass-men, the sophomores did not quit their aggressive playing. The sophomores were able to tie up the game with a touchdown by Summer West putting the score at 6-6. The sophomore ladies were able to quickly put themselves ahead with another touchdown by West putting the final score at 12-6. The second game of the night, Senior vs. Junior, was a much tighter game without any touchdowns in the first

and second halves. Although the scoreboard did not show it, there were some very bright moments for some of

the girls on the field. Junior Haley Armentrout had several break-aways but never was able to make it into the end zone. Although it was flag football,

it quickly turned into tackle football with even a few punches thrown. Many of the girls were tackling

their opponents in order to get to the flags. Some girls suffered from a variety of injuries including bloody noses and swelled knees.

With a score of 0-0 at the end of the second half, the game was forced to go into overtime. The juniors were able to score in their first attempt with a touch-down by Haley Armentrout making the score 0-6. This would have ended the game with a victory for the juniors. The senior team had complained that they were supposed to win the Powderpuff game because, well, they were seniors. So the officials let the game run on until the seniors were finally able to win. The seniors were un-able to return a touchdown to tie up their score until their second attempt, put-ting the score at 6-6. The juniors had many close misses including Haley Ar-mentrout getting stopped by senior Sarah Davis on the one yard-line and

Sophomores STOMP SeniorsBy: Marure Buckley

Continued on page 3.

Sophomore Summer West avoids defenders as she attempts to score a touchdown.

Page 3SPORTS

The Chancellor Chargers robbed the foxes of their win on the homecoming game Monday, October 18th in a tough loss. Within the first nine minutes of the first quarter, KG had thrown an intercep-tion that soon turned into a touchdown and field goal by the Chargers, who were lead-ing the game by 7 points. After a foxes timeout, junior Doug Newcomb ran 15 yards for a 1st down. Senior Trey Graham then completed a pass and ran for a touch-down, setting the score 6-7. Junior De’Shon Brown was not able to run for the two point conversion. With few complete passes and yards ran by KG, no further points were scored by either team until the sec-ond quarter. Chancellor was able to score a touchdown, leading the game 13-6.

The third quarter was led with a face-mask flag on the Chargers. Brown then was able to work past the Chargers defense on a quarterback sneak from sophomore Corey Henderson to score another touchdown, making the game 12-13. The two point conversion did not go through. Brown then picks up the first down on the draw and gained 6 yards on the handoff. Towards the end of the fourth quarter, no further points were made between either team. King George called one last time out, before the game ended early with 20 seconds left.

By: Nicole Josemans

Varsity Foxes Fall Short

It was an emotional night for seniors Jasmine Daniels, Katelyn O’Campo, and Giovanni Burstion. The gym was decorated with blue and gold and many posters were dedicated to the seniors. Before the game, there was a special cer-emony for the senior girls.It included fellow varsity player, junior Jessica Swen-son, announcing what each plans to do after graduating. Each senior also received a special blanket embroidered with their name and num-ber, and several bouquets of flowers. Throughout the night of the final home game, several players ended their night with several key moments. Kills for the night went to Daniels (12), O’Campo (4), Carley Ar-mentrout (3), Swenson (2),

and freshman Lauren Howard (1). Serving aces were made by Madi Parker (5), O’Campo (5), Howard (4), Daniels (3), Armentrout (3), and Burstion (1). On the defensive side of the game, blocks were made by Daniels (8), Swenson (2), and Armentrout, Howard, and Parker each had one. The night began with happy tears, but ended with dejected tears as a result of the devastating five-game loss. Game scores: 25-14 (KG), 25-21 (Caroline), 30-28 (Caro-line), 25-11 (KG), and 15-10 (Caroline).

Emotional Night for Lady Foxes

By: Alli Trainum

junior Jackie Grover passing the ball over the end zone, but was called off by the of-ficials. Haley Armentrout scored again for the junior class put-ting the score at 12-6 juniors which was returned by the senior class just a few min-utes later to tie the score up at 12-12. The seniors were finally able to get ahead al-lowing the game to end with a score of 12-18 seniors. The final game deter-

mining the overall winner of the evening was between the senior and sophomore classes. The first and second halves of the game went scoreless forc-ing the game to, yet again, go into overtime. Christian Porter passed a ball to Summer West to score for the sophomore team putting them ahead 6-0. The senior class was unable to return the score against the sophomore defense. Porter and West scored yet again put-ting the score at 12-0 sopho-

mores. The seniors were unable to score making the sophomore class the 2011 Powderpuff champions. As the Sophomore rejoice in their victory, speculation on the conua-tionof the PowderPuff Games ignites. The inappropriate playing in the games has brought up the question of whether King George High School will continue the powder puff games. “Be-

cause of the actions of players, the administration and I are reviewing whether we are go-ing to have powder puff games anymore,” said KGHS princi-pal, Cliff Conway. Although administration is considering banning the games, Principal Cliff Conway says that they still “have ideas of ways we can have it,” but they are “not going to let it get to that point.”

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Page 4EDITORIALS

Code of Ethics-Fox Fire does not publish plagiarized material-Bribes will never be accepted-Stories will not reflect bias or conflicting issues-Sources will be verified by reporters-Fox Fire accepts, but reserves the right to printletters to the editor

Facebook Fetishes By: Maure Buckley

Facebook can be great. It keeps you in con-tact with your best friend from middle school that moved away, your older brother in college and your cousin who lives on the other side of the country. Facebook can also drive you crazy; well the people of Facebook can drive you crazy. This article contains just a few of the things that you see on Facebook that will make you cringe every time you see it. Pointless Statuses: Everyone has at least one of those friends. The friend that seems to update their status every time they do anything and each of them is as annoying and pointless as the last. These are the statuses you read and just think, “WHO CARES?!” Things that say stuff like, “today I was really thirsty, so I bought a coke. LOL” The people

on Facebook do not wish to know your every thought and every little thing that you do. So the next time you think about telling all of your friends that you just poured yourself a glass of milk, just remember, no one cares.Like my status for: “To be honest”, confes-sion, inbox me a question, why, what’s up? Facebook users post these and other things as their status and for every person that ‘Likes’ their status they will do a different wall post, status confession or other annoy-ing things that floods the homepage. “Whn pple shrtn thur wrds”: “Game 2nite, @ the pit! cant w8!!!!” These are the statuses that take more time to read and comprehend then they do to think up, type and post. The people who post these are people

who are too lazy to take a few extra seconds to type the oc-casional vowel or punctuation mark. They will drive your inner English teacher crazy with their misspelling and inappropriate use of numbers. If you are really lucky, you might even be able to see the occasional group-of-letters-re-placed-by-a-number.“I <3 ME” pictures: Both the female and male citizens of Facebook are guilty of this habit. “I <3 me” pic-tures are when an individual takes a picture of themselves, by themselves. These pictures can take form in several dif-ferent ways. There is the self timer, where a person puts the self-timer on their camera and sits away from it, the above-the-head angle, the web-cam and of course, the mirror picture. The mirror picture takes vanity to a whole new level; these pictures are for the people who are so in love with themselves that they can

not bare to look away from the mirror for even a second to take a picture of them-selves. Many of these “I <3 me” pictures involve a sig-nature pose and face. Most females choose the hand on the hip pose while sticking their side out so far it looks as though they have a se-vere case of scoliosis. The majority of female-Facebookers usually have one face that they make in all of their pictures. These can range somewhere in-be-tween a very fake smile or a facial expression looking as though they just ate a lemon or smelled something very unpleasant. And do not forget all of those guy mirror pictures where they will typically be wearing a tank-top undershirt trying to flex their muscles with out looking like they really are and wearing a tough-guy scowl.Fake Names: Now, by fake names it does not mean someone saying their name is Tom when it is really John. We are talking about people who try to think up cute little nick names that might describe them, such as, “JonnyGoHardSmith.” These names tend to be ironic, because although

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Page 5EDITORIALS

On Saturday Octo-ber 8, King George County held their 53rd annual Fall Festival Parade announced by Kelly Strauss. This parade included several community political lead-ers, groups, clubs, and businesses. The effort put into each float was definitely portrayed. They showed that they did not have to be elaborate to stand out from each other. One float that got the most laughs and biggest applause was the Virginia Commonwealth Plumbing. Two people sat on toilets made to look like go-karts. Whether the float had a large focal point or people on the float throw-ing candy, each one was noted. The parade also included numerous sports teams, including King George Little League and KGYAA Football. The ex-

this person might think that they “GoHard,” in real-ity they are just a boy who buys all of his clothes from Hollister and gets driven to school every day by his mother in her blue mini-van.Vague Status: “Wow, you really did that? Smh” “Sometimes I

wonder if it is really worth it” These are the statuses that leave one wondering: “What’s wrong with Sally?!” These Facebookers try to reel people by posing a vague status hop-ing someone will comment, “what’s wrong?” and then they will be able to blab their sob story to the world of Face-

book in hope that everyone will comment on how wrong the other person was.Poking: Now, Facebook poking is just as annoying on Face-book as it is in real life. When someone continuously pokes you on Facebook, it is as if your younger brother is com-

ing out of the computer and poking you on the arm every two minutes. Why Mark Zuckerberg added this feature is beyond us.

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citement in each of the young athletes’ eyes proved that it

did not matter how great their float or sign was; just being in the parade was all that mat-

tered to them. Along with the athletes,

the Fall Festival Pageant contestants, who participated in the pageant the fol-lowing day, rode in their donated cars. In their dresses. they clad, as their family and friends followed behind them. One of the contestants, Hailey Lawrence stated, “I always love dressing up and get-ting my hair done for the pageant. When pageant time comes around, I always get a lot of community support, it’s always nice to know that people care for you.” The parade con-cluded with a “bang”

as a float commemo-rated to the deceased Virginia State trooper, Adam Bowen, made its way down the street.

Family Fun at Fall FestivalBy: Alli Trainum

Each person that rode on the float or walked along side it wore a blue shirt that stated, “In Lov-ing Memory of Trooper Adam Bowen” while confetti cannons were set off to signal the end of parade. The family fun was all that mattered. Sophomore Michael Hundley responded, “It was nice to have a family day at the parade, but of course it was good to be with my friends too.” Standing on the sidelines, you could see how much fun everyone, of all ages, was having. The community definite-ly came together to pull off an exciting Saturday for King George resi-dents.Families pet the miniature ponies.

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The number one social rule in high school is fit-ting in. Whether a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, the continuous pressure of be-ing in style is always in mind as the student makes his or her way down the hall in the vicinity of their friends and enemies. While fitting in is the goal, there will always be one thing that could make you the laughing stock. At the time of the humiliation, the automatic feeling is that this is the end of the world…or at least the end of your popularity status at high school. It is an under-standable feeling, but the comforting quote by Ironicus Maximus: “Sometimes you’re the pigeon and sometimes you’re the statue” means that some days you could be the statue getting “pooped” on, and sometimes you could be the pigeon “pooping on the statue.” To fit high school, it could translate to mean that some days it could be you getting laughed at, and other days it could be you doing the laughing.

“Sometimes you’re the pigeon and sometimes you’re the statue”

Whether it seems like it or not, everyone has moments where they wished the world would open up and swallow

them from the mortification. Having moments where you say something stupid or act without thinking is common, and rather humorous. A lot of people compare those times to ones with certain hair colors although every-one (not just blonde people) is capable of making a fool of themselves. The only difference is how you react to the embarrassment. There is no des-ignated way to overcome embarrassment. Crying is a common reaction, but could almost cause more trouble than it is worth. For only a moment of relief from the tears, you have the rest of your time at high school with the title “cry baby.” While sometimes the tears cannot be stopped, the red, heated cheeks, are un-deniable. The best decision could be to laugh and shrug it off. It is reasonable to assume that whatever could have happened was awful, but to everyone else it was comical and would soon be forgotten with time. Shun-ning yourself while you wait for the incident to pass will not make a difference. There are especially times when walking down the stairs seems to be a more difficult challenge than you remember and before you know it, you have fallen flat

Just Keep SmilingBy: Nicole Josemans

Continued on page 7.

Latest Fall FashionsBy: Alli Trainum

A new fall season brings new fall fashions. The 2011 fall season has ar-rived and it is time to bring out the boots and scarves. Glamour.com stated that “The fall 2011 fashion season is all about the jack-ets gathered at the waist, vests, and blazers.” Even though jackets usually hide your waist, they encourage ladies to find the jackets that complement your ladylike figure. Jacqueline Collins stated, “I love complement-ing my t-shirts with a blazer or vest. It just completes my look.” As for the plaid, they suggested to wear tights with an oversized plaid shirt and boots. The lace, they suggest, should

be a little more understated; a shirt with a lace-covered back or a blouse with lace-covered shoulders. The new hair trends, as stated in Allure.com, are loose braids, low ponytails, hair accessories, and touches of color. Senior Jasmine Daniels agreed, “Hair acces-sories are like my best friend. You will never see me come to school without something in my hair.” To accent your fall fashions, Allure.com sug-gests toning down your makeup, use natural colors to compliment your natural beauty, but if you must add that punch of color to your face, consider a red lipstick or gloss. Bring on Fall 2011!

Amanda Lynn Short was crowned as the newest King George Fall Festival Queen. Short had beaten out nine other of King George’s fe-male contestants fighting for the crown and the glory of being a queen. Each of the contestants had competed in a variety of competitions in order to win the pageant including a talent competition, photogenic com-petition, and a parade float competition.

Each of the contestants rode in the King George Fall Festival Parade in their own float the day before the pageant featuring them-selves and their sponsors’ company. The pageant was held on Sunday October 9th 2011 in the King George high school auditorium. It began with an introduction of Miss Ray Celeste Tanner, the 2010

Fall Festival PageantBy: Maure Buckley

Continued on page 8.

Romantic Fall DatesBy: Amanda Pasko

The average teenage date: The boy comes over with the DVD, Fast and Furious. Two hours later, when the movie is over, the guy just cannot stop talking about the movie, and the girl is nodding her head to agree with him. That date would be okay if the boy-friend or girlfriend have been dating for a while, but for the first date, definitely not! Instead, try something fun and creative… some-thing out of the ordinary. First dates can be much better and might help to get you another date. Fall is a perfect dating season because it is not too hot. Sweating from the heat, hands and feet being frozen from the cold are out of the picture. There are lots of local outdoor things you can be doing instead of sitting

on the couch and watching movies together. Maybe berry and apple picking, then go home and make an apple pie together. Fall is known for pumpkin picking and hay rides which can be done at Belvedere Planta-tion, only 45 minutes from King George, every Friday night is $11. In the Free Lance-Star, find a coupon to make it cheaper. Get lost in the corn maze, or swing in the hay barn. Go on the hayride, or pick pumpkins. And the pumpkins picked could bring a second date of pumpkin carving or making a delicious pump-kin pie. Another idea is going on a date which involves being active. Get two bikes or maybe a tandem (one bike that needs two drivers) and go

FEATURE Page 7

to the park to take photos of the beautiful fall leaves and maybe take some wacky ones. These ideas are a great way to get to know your date. Girls love when boys plan cute dates for them to do together so get thinking guys! If it is a chilly day and you want to spend some-time inside, do not just watch a movie. There are many creative things to do like baking yummy fall treats, but get creative with it; make some peanut butter cookies shaped as leaves, or even candy apples. If you need some fall dessert ideas you can visit: http://familyfun.go.com/autumn/fall-recipes/fall-desserts/. If baking des-sert went well for you, then you can try cooking a whole dinner together. Do not pull a bag of chicken nuggets and french fries out of the freezer; go for something that

will challenge both of your cooking skills. Try making homemade chilli and some homemade ice-cream. And if it does not turn out tasty, just think of the laughs you can share afterward! Use the seasons to your advantage and do not just sit at home. There are tons of cute and romantic dates you can take your part-ner on. Be creative!

on your butt in front of the whole school. Almost every student can attest to at least doing this once. “I was going up-stairs when I fell, and this girl was laughing at me and I told her, ‘I don’t usually do that.’ But then I fell a second time, and the worst part was I was wearing a dress,” stated sophomore Megan Yanchulis, who con-

tinued that, “At the time, it seemed so embarrass-ing but now I don’t really care.” Sophomore Savan-nah Carabin said, “I fell asleep once in class, and when I woke up, I spazzed out and everyone started laughing at me. It was so embarrassing.” So everyone has moments they wish they

Continued Just Keep Smiling could take back. Sometimes it could be spitting water on a girl next to you during lunch as did junior India Smith, or splitting your pants while try-ing to show off as senior Ty-ler Lumpkin did when he was a freshman. It is all about being a good sport when it happens, and just laughing at yourself along with everyone else. Sooner or later you will eventually realize that it was

quite funny, and find yourself regreting overreacting at the time. High school is all about making mistakes and having fun. If you have to have a few shameful moments on the way, why not?

Page 8FEATURE

pageant winner, who would present the crown for the next fall festival queen. Each of the contestants came out and presented themselves to the audience and then did a group dance to the Lady Gaga song, “Born this Way.” After the introduc-tion and group dance, a slide show featuring a number of pictures of each contestant was shown for the Miss Photogenic contest of the pageant. The talent portion of the show began with Rachel Catlett’s speech about why she is proud to call herself a King George resident. Tabitha Conner followed her

with a performance of “Hero” with her mother playing the piano and Logan Wood recit-ed a poem about the pride of King George. Amanda Lynn Short followed Logan with a performance of “Sparks Fly” on the guitar while singing. Although her microphone went out, she still continued to sing showing that she was a true performer. Following Amanda, Ti-yanna Brown did a cheerlead-ing-like dance to “Yeah” by Chris Brown and Jacqueline Collins played “Amazing Grace” on the violin. Hai-ley Lawrence did a comedic dance routine to songs from the past few decades that

displayed her upbeat person-ality. Victoria Bail danced to a number from the ballet Sleeping Beauty for her tal-ent and Amber Wilson sang the Adele song, “Someone like you.” Kendall Powell ended the talent portion of the show with a speech talking about the meaning of pride and how people should be proud of themselves and proud of their flaws. Following the talent portion of the evening, the contestants were presented in their formal wear dresses where they were presented with their awards. Hailey Lawrence was voted Miss

Congeniality by her fellow contenders, Kendall Powell won the Miss Photogenic contest and Jacqueline Col-lins won the Most Creative Conveyance prize for her superb parade float. After the awards were given out, the finalists were announced. Kendall Powell, Victoria Bail, Amanda Short, Jacqueline Collins and Am-ber Brown were the five with the top scores making them the finalists. Kendall Powell was named as the second run-ner-up followed by Victoria Bail as first runner-up and finally Amanda Lynn Short was crowned as the Fall Fes-tival Queen for 2011.

Continued Fall Festival Pagent

Freshman Rachel Catlett Sophomore Amanda Short Junior Tabitha Conner