MHS Mirror November Edition

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M A T T O O N H I G H S C H O O L M H S M I R R O R . O R G

“Striving to ref lect the MHS community”

MHS tackleshunger issues

Grade policy affects students, teachers

By Kaylie Homann,Editor-In-Chief

A change in the Mattoon High School grading system has been implemented this school year that consists of making tests, presenta-tions, quizzes, essays and the like worth 90 percent of the student’s total grade, while homework is worth 10 percent. This change was made by the PLC Focus Group, which is a group of teachers who represent each department in the school.

According to Michele Sinclair, MHS principal, the result of the new policy is that the student is graded on what he knows and how he can apply this skill into a test, not a homework estimate.

“Homework is practice,” said Sinclair. “It’s not a true assessment of what a child knows.”

One goal for this new system is that the grade will reflect what the

student understands more accurate-ly.

“We’re basing student’s grades

Mattoon communityveterans reminisce

By Sarah Foster,Features Editor

Day by day, student by student. Each has a different life, jour-ney and goal. Some want to heal, some plan to teach, some are en-trusted to lead and protect. These qualities must be constantly uti-lized in the armed forces, along with courage, strength and reli-ability. Soldiers must be brave in high-pressure situations and re-member what they were taught.

The military is a job like no other and not for the faint of heart. This upcoming Veterans Day, Mattoon Community family members and veterans alike rem-inisce on their war-time experi-ences. Each veteran has a differ-ent set of recollections, and a dif-ferent set of experiences, which has led to a different lasting effect on their lives. These are their sto-ries.

Teacher, Leader, Protector – Major Todd Baughman

Meet Maj. Todd Baughman, one of the leaders of the JROTC program at Mattoon High School. Baughman experienced active duty in Iraq as both a recruit and an officer, where the risk of the military was a way of life he had become familiar with.

Baughman recalled his deci-sion to join the military as a way to seek out “something bigger.”

“[I didn’t have] one reason. It’s a great investment, if you like ca-maraderie, a team. Be a part of something big and do something for a cause. It was an impor-tant role, and I wanted to be part of it,” Baughman said, as he sat straight up in his chair.

The essential responsibilities of the military are not to be dealt with alone. The decisions, the stress and the risk these people deal with are only possible with teamwork, according to Baugh-

man.“Combat was difficult. I was

honored to have the folks on my left and right,” Baughman said.

During his time with the mil-itary, Baughman described his obligation as an “armor officer.” He was stationed in Germany for four years as well as located in “six or seven states” in Ameri-ca. Being surrounded with heavy training, he was required to un-dergo extensive periods away from home.

The distance makes the com-mon aspirations of raising a fam-ily and being married difficult to come by.

“[Baughman’s family support-ing him] was a tough job; it was harder than the job I had. My wife was awesome; she raised three kids, many times by herself. I’d be gone for three-plus years, plus training,” said Baughman. “[She was] supportive and under-standing. I missed a lot of anni-versaries and birthdays.”

Despite the difficulty, when there’s a will, there’s a way. Baughman and his wife have been married for 25 years.

Now that Baughman is home, he believes his protection of this country has been appreciated and

recognized. “I’ve been to Iraq three times,

and each time, there are groups of people standing in airports pat-ting our backs and congratulating us. I’ve been out eating with my family, asked for the check, and someone had already paid it and walked out.”

Hugs, encouragement and brief pats on the back can be the most meaningful admirations to a sol-dier. The little things to some people are the most momentous to the brave.

However, despite all of the rec-ognition Baughman has received, he’s humbled.

“I didn’t do it for recognition,” Baughman said.

An Image Still Remains – Mike White

A person with differing ex-periences to that of Baughman is 66-year-old Vietnam veter-an Mike White. America, at the time, was in crucial need of sol-diers. Because of it, he and a few of his friends decided to enlist in the Marines. White explained that if he didn’t sign up willingly, he would’ve been drafted.

“I didn’t have a choice,” White explained. “It was a two-year hitch. Front-line city.”

He speaks about his work with hardness in his voice.

White explained that his Mil-itary Occupational Specialist, or M.O.S., described his appointed task as a “rifleman on the front lines.”

Because of his task, White saw the scary, alarming details of the Vietnam War that are sometimes disregarded. The images he ex-perienced were so disturbing that they kept returning long after the war ended. Because of his in-volvement, White was haunted by

By Kinsey Stapleton,Opinion Editor

Whether students realize it or not, eating a meal every day is a privilege many at Mattoon High School take for granted. Most don’t realize that hunger isn’t just an is-sue happening in third-world coun-tries, it’s happening at MHS as well.

This privilege is especially tak-en for granted in the MHS cafete-ria, where it’s common to see stu-dents throw unwanted food away. While it may seem like part of the routine to some, throwing away rejected lunch items is seen as a waste by others because of the options to donate food, including here at MHS.

The awareness regarding food began for many students when af-ter seeing food in cafeteria trash cans, MHS lunch supervisor Pam Heaton decided to start collecting the fruits and vegetables that stu-dents were not eating in hopes to donate the food to the Salvation Army.

During the lunch hour, Hea-ton walked around with a bucket and asked students if they wanted their required side of either a fruit or vegetable. If the students didn’t want the sides, Heaton would col-lect the food.

“I hated seeing all of that food go in the trash,” said Heaton. “It’s awful that our food goes to waste; a lot of people could use it.”

However, after just one day of doing so, Heaton was told that she couldn’t due to a federal law. Ac-cording to Heaton, students and faculty cannot take food out of the cafeteria.

Heaton was disappointed that she could not collect food but her idea began a discussion on the issue for students and staff.

Some students agreed with the concept behind Heaton’s efforts, such as MHS junior Lacey Miller.

“I get a juice every day, but I don’t drink it, so I think it was a good thing that Pam decided to do that,” said Miller.

Yet, even though Heaton’s idea

PHOTO BY SAR AH FOSTERThese medals show the achievements of veteran Donald Foster, a World War II veteran from Mattoon. Veterans will be honored at an MHS ceremony on Nov. 9 for Veteran’s Day.

HUNGER/2

GRADING/2VETERANS/2

PHOTO BY MOLLY DOTSONAccording to Tammy Munyon, discipline secretary at MHS, peanut butter is the most commonly picked and donated item at the high school’s food pantry.

Veterans Ceremony

Mattoon High School will honor veterans during a ceremonyin the main gym on Friday, Nov. 9 from

10-11 a.m. The community is welcome

and will be seated in the south balcony.

“Homework is just practice. If

we were to put a high percentage

on practice, it wouldn’t be fair

to students.”Deanna MacDonald,

zoology and biology

FYIFor information on

donating to or receiv-ing food from the MHS

Food Pantry, contact Tammy Munyon

at 238-7811.

on what they know and what they’ve learned,” said Sinclair. “We’re talking departmental-ly about ensuring that students are assessed in a variety of ways - not just paper and pencil tests.”

Member of PLC Focus Group, zoology and biology teacher Dean-na MacDonald explained why the group wanted to make this change.

“Homework is just practice. If you were to put a high percentage on practice, it wouldn’t be fair to students,” said MacDonald. “Let’s help [students] before we take the test, then put more points on tests.”

Some teachers said they agree with the new policy and feel it helps students as well as teachers.

“It benefits students because their grade is based on what they know, not assignments that can be copied in the cafeteria,” said Ryan Ghere, MHS math teacher. “In the long run, it benefits teachers because we can

see what they [students] learned and haven’t learned.”

Although Ghere agrees with the new grading system, other teachers at MHS may still have some mis-givings about the policy.

“I believe the number should be more than 10 percent [for home-work],” said Margaret Warrem, MHS chemistry and biology teacher. “Some kids aren’t good test takers.”

However, Warrem said she re-spects the change made by the PLC Focus Group.

“If my superiors have told me to do something, I will conform,” said Warrem.

MHS chemistry and physics teacher Jim Sparks thinks the grade

shouldn’t be split 90 percent, 10 percent, but the grade should be broken down into more categories.

“Homework is 10 percent, labs are 25 percent, quizzes are 30 per-cent and tests are 35 percent,” said Sparks. “Parents like that break down. Ninety percent and 10 per-cent is not much of a break.”

Sparks is starting to see a change in his student’s behavior due to the change.

“Students are taking quizzes and tests more seriously because home-work isn’t carrying them,” said Sparks. “It made it more challeng-ing for them.”

Freshman Zoey Taylor agrees with Warrem. She said she has

problems taking tests because she feels they may not accurately as-sess what a student knows.

“People aren’t at the same lev-el,” said Taylor. “I think it’s bad for bad test takers. When they’re under stress, they do bad on tests.”

Other students at MHS, however, feel as if the new system is benefi-cial to students because they don’t waste their time on homework if they already know the material and don’t need more practice.

“You shouldn’t have to do homework if you know it [the ma-terial] thoroughly,” said Briana Nevius, senior at MHS. “If they know the material, they shouldn’t have a problem [taking tests].”

alarming dreams for 20 years after the war.

“My biggest dream was going back,” White said.

Talking about the war was tough for White. At first he said he “wouldn’t like to get into war stories.” However, White did mention an alarming event briefly – when he was shot.

“I almost gave my life. When I was shot, I was out there [in the middle of the war zone] for five hours before they could get me. Bullets were showering over my head, shooting at helicopters and others,” White explained.

White, to this day, remembers the exact date he was shot, “the 15 of July, 1967.” And to this day, he remembers when his involvement in Vietnam began.

“I went over there in ’66 and got out in ’67. I was in Vietnam for 13 months and two days. And they told me I could’ve gone back,” he said.

Ironically, the memories one wants to forget are those that are re-membered.

According to White, life in Vietnam was relentless. Howev-er, White’s family understood and tried hard to support him during the demanding time. White explained that the family support he was giv-en was very good.

“We really needed socks; it rained every day. My family sent goodies whenever they could,” he said. Vietnam was notorious for its monsoons. This war was tremen-dously different than any other be-cause of the unpredictable weather in that part of the world.

White, who was 20 when he enlist-ed, admits that the work required was a lot to ask at the time because he was

so young. That age is often the time when students are freshly out of high school and beginning college – the pe-riod where they discover their callings and ardors and extending their life, not ruthlessly fighting and making deci-sions that could risk it.

“I saw myself as young,” White said. “I did what I had to do for the country. It was too much to ask of kids this age.”

The recollection of White’s war-time experiences is intense, and so are the details after returning home because he didn’t receive much rec-ognition after his military career ended. It was a common belief at the time that America’s relations in Vietnam were uncalled for.

“They spit on us in California, which was where they dumped us [after the war.] It was by a bunch of those teens going to these rock con-certs that were against us,” he said.

However, White explained that the hate against the relations light-ened up over the years, and even-tually, White’s work changed the lives of millions.

Support Our Families – Noel Gorden On Her FatherThere are signs everywhere

across Mattoon reading “Support Our Troops.” It is often disregarded by people that war is tough on fami-ly members of soldiers as well. After all, they have a difficult job to ful-fill – they must help their soldiers grieve during and after combat.

Noel Gorden, daughter of World War II P.O.W. and veteran, recalls her fa-ther’s experiences from her perspective.

Her father, Donald Vincent Fos-ter, often known as D.V., was a pre-med student when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The following week, he was recruited.

“He was allowed to finish that year of school. Because he was so smart, he tested very well and was going to a special training program

at Stanford. He had his orders and a train ticket. The day before he was to leave, the War Department can-celed the program and sent their very best and brightest into the in-fantry. He landed on the Normandy Coast shortly after D. Day. Watch Saving Private Ryan, that’s how he came ashore,” Gorden said.

Gorden was in constant search for answers about her father’s past. It was a difficult task for her, how-ever, as her father never spoke about his contribution.

“He was very withdrawn. He didn’t talk about it much,” she said.

“The only time Daddy ever spoke to me about the war was late at night over the Thanksgiving Hol-iday. He and I were the only ones up. I asked him how he had been captured. Without any anger, he told me that shortly after his pla-toon had landed, they made radio contact with someone claiming to be a Free French Agent. This per-son told them that there was a rag-tag German platoon that was starv-ing and wanted to surrender. It was a set-up, and shortly, D.V.’s platoon was surrounded by Germans,” ex-plained Gorden.

“They had a fire fight that lasted 17 hours. Finally, his platoon leader surrendered. He actually stood and waved a white flag. The Germans cut off his legs with machine gun fire. DV said this was just a reflex; by then everyone was shooting at any-thing that moved. They were held in a German War Camp. He said they were not treated badly, but they were starving. An old farmer used to bring the prisoners apples. My brother lat-er told me that anyone who looked or claimed to be Jewish was taken out at night, never to return.”

A prisoner exchange then occurred between German and American forc-es. That was how Gorden’s father re-turned to his team. Because Gorden’s

father never spoke about his experi-ences, she had to piece together in-formation that she acquired on her own. The quest required broad re-search, and Gorden recalled that info on her father “was not easy to find.”

“What I pieced together from his letters and from war documents was that he was captured in Octo-ber 1944 and repatriated in January or February 1945. He was taken to a hospital because he was starving, and his feet had frozen. After he re-covered, he was sent back to the front lines. That is how he earned two purple hearts. He was shot again,” she explained.

As it was difficult to uncover in-formation about Foster’s capture, it was difficult to discover his ap-pointed task.

“I suspect that his job was a sniper, but I have not been able to prove that. He was in the 94th In-fantry Division. I hate that I don’t know more about this. It wasn’t un-til we looked at his Veteran’s pa-pers for his obituary that we knew he had earned three Bronze Stars,” said Gorden.

Gorden believes that her father re-ceived a lot of recognition from Amer-ican citizens, as well as other World War II veterans. However, similar to White, Gorden’s father mourned for the rest of his life. He was a likely suf-ferer of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Gorden believes that rela-tionships her father had after his expe-riences were affected.

“My brother told me that he [Gorden’s father] had briefly gone to EIU when he returned home. He had stepped out of class to have a smoke. It was a habit he picked up during the war. When the ciga-rettes first came, the prisoners were so hungry they ate them. One of his professors had, as a friendly ges-ture, slapped him on the back. Dad-dy turned around and decked him.

He was asked not to return. They didn’t have a name for it back then; now we would call that a sign of PTSD,” said Gorden.

Donald Foster died on Nov. 5, 1992. He is held in high regard by colleagues and friends, and former veterans who worked by his side.

Gorden smiling, says, “I see him as a hero.”

A New Hope – Senior Kyle Crary

With the influence of veterans like Baughman, White and Fos-ter, as well as the inspiration of the JROTC program, MHS senior Kyle Crary will to follow in these men’s footsteps. Crary is joining the mili-tary after high school.

“I love the feeling of belong-ing to a family and also this is my home. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect it and everyone that lives in the U.S., no matter what the cost,” said Crary.

Baughman feels that the JROTC program teaches students right vir-tues and values. He believes it’s a great thing for young males, as well as women.

“If I had my way, I would make every male serve. It’s more than be-ing educated; it builds better citizens, builds a better society, especially for males. It makes a better society over-all. Our grandpas all had to do it, and they’re good people. Time will tell; we’ll see if it’s the same for our gen-eration,” said Baughman.

War is scar, evoking fear inside citizens but bravery inside soldiers. Without their protection and their courage, it’s questionable where America would be. They sacrifice themselves for the good of the cit-izens and this nation.

The military is not for the faint of heart. It requires perseverance, dedi-cation, and bravery, but more impor-tant to the veterans of the Mattoon community, heart and soul.

didn’t work, there is an even bet-ter option at the school, which is the actual food pantry at MHS. The pantry was started by the Salvation Army and was originally called the “Backpack Program.”

The Salvation Army would pro-vide food and prepare bags of food for students in need, handing out the bags on Friday afternoons for students to take home for the week-end.

Recently, the “Backpack Pro-gram” is only happening through the Mattoon Middle School and both Riddle and Williams elemen-tary schools, providing students in kindergarten through eighth grade with food.

This decision to change tactics was made by the Salvation Army because rather than just handing food to high school students and not letting the students choose for

themselves, the organization want-ed to teach high school students to shop and make healthy food choic-es for themselves.

The MHS food pantry was then formed. Several faculty members at MHS have taken leadership roles with the food pantry, including MHS Discipline Secretary Tammy Munyon, who helps students in the pantry weekly.

When students come into the pantry, located in the main MHS of-fice, they are able to take a bag of food home with them by using the “Point System.” This system was created to help high school students make better choices when shopping for food and is also used to help de-velop better eating habits, by offer-ing healthy choices for students to choose from when shopping.

“Kids feel good coming in here and taking a bag home with them,” Munyon said.

Having the opportunity to re-ceive food at no cost can affect stu-dents in and outside of school. Mu-

nyon said that eating a meal before school is what makes students more prepared for learning.

“If kids can eat, they can focus better and get along more with their peers,” said Munyon.

Although Heaton’s efforts were short-lived in the MHS cafete-ria, her efforts did help raise some awareness of how much food is be-ing wasted every day at lunch, and how many students would appre-ciate it. Still here, the MHS food pantry is an opportunity for kids in need to receive food, and a chance for students and faculty to donate. No matter how old or mature a stu-dent may seem, according to Mun-yon, every student who walks out of the food pantry leaves with a sense of happiness and comfort.

“The food pantry provides a wonderful opportunity not only for the student receiving the food, but also for the student bringing in the donation,” said Munyon. “This sense of worth is shared by the re-ceiver and the giver.”

T H E M H S M I R R O R NOVEMBER 2012 From one

Page DesignerRiley Trotter2

The MHS Mirroris produced by the students enrolled

in the Journalism II and I courses at Mattoon High School.

Kaylie Homann Editor-In-ChiefJustin Gordon Managing EditorEmma Diltz Advertising Manager/ Sports EditorRiley Trotter Design EditorMolly Dotson Photo Editor/News EditorSarah Foster Features Editor Kinsey Stapleton Opinion EditorPaige Jordan Entertainment EditorLane Plummer Online EditorJarett Martin Distribution/Promotion ManagerAmanda Bright Adviser

Mission Statement:We, the staff of the MHS Mirror, strive to be a public forum that evokes individual

high-level thinking and sparks conversation in a way that defines high school journalism, while maintaining a high ethical journalistic standard.

The MHS Journalism Program2521 Walnut Ave.

Mattoon, IL 61938(217) 238-7877

[email protected] us online! mhsmirror.org

VeteransFrom Page 1

GradingFrom Page 1

HungerFrom Page 1

By Justin Gordon, Managing Editor

Mattoon High School has a va-riety of classes one could chose to take. Down the 400 hallway is a classroom full of graphic design and communication. It is a class where there are products made by students, for students.

Graphic Arts II is a dual-credit class with Lake Land College where students make T-shirts, car window decorations and do all the printing for the Mattoon School District.

“I am bindery, so I package things,” said senior Jackson Tinch. “To be honest, it is probably the easiest job in the class. However, it is still rather difficult.”

Graphic Arts teacher Laura Rob-erts, who worked in graphic design before becoming a teacher, has be-stowed upon her students knowl-edge of the craft and why graphic communication is important.

“With 18 years in the industry, it helped give me experience. So, I know what it is like in the real world,” said Roberts.

This real-world foundation has given students a sense of gratitude towards Roberts.

“Mrs. Roberts is awesome. She really has prepared me for the out-side world,” said Tinch.

Tinch is not the only graphic arts student who feels this way.

“I like Roberts because not only does she push us, but there is a lev-

el of trust there that most teach-ers don’t have in their students. It makes me feel like an adult,” said senior Ryan Croy.

Roberts’s goal with putting them

into departments and giving them quotas is to prepare them for the real world. One group could be designing a product, while another would be cut-ting the designed product.

“I think overall the students en-joy the process. I try showing them that the workplace can be fun and not a bad place to be,” said Roberts.

Roberts said she feels she is leav-ing some impact on her students by providing such an environment.

“I hear all the time that they have Facebook discussions about graph-ic arts. I don’t have a Facebook ac-count, so I just assume it’s all posi-tive,” said Roberts.

Tinch said he made the right choice in taking graphic arts.

“It is honestly harder than my actu-al job, but I love being in there,” said Tinch. “I get to work with my friends, and I am getting ready for life after high school and even college.”

Not only do students have a workplace feel, they participate in class competitions, such as the

homecoming hallway and door dec-oration contest. Roberts is always sure to reward the students for their success.

“When we win competitions, we always celebrate. Usually it’s a piz-za party. However, with our recent victory, the students decided they didn’t want a pizza party. They de-cided they wanted an ice cream so-cial,” said Roberts.

So, whether they are working hard printing everything for the Mattoon School District or winning an annual decoration war, Roberts hopes her overall lesson is learned.

“As I have said before, I have 18 years of experience in the indus-try. I hope with all that I have taught them, they could have years of expe-rience in graphic communication af-ter high school, too,” said Roberts.

3T H E M H S M I R R O R N O V E M B E R 2012 News

Page Designer Molly Dotson

By Molly Dotson,News/Photo Editor

Monthly attendance percentag-es have been increasing substantial-ly since last year at Mattoon High School.

Reasons for this improvement are a combination of positive incentives and the result for truancy instilled this year, according to MHS Assis-tant Principal Michael Shaffer.

“Components that drive students are the positive incentive program, the privilege of final exam exemp-tion and the consequences that re-quire those who are truant to pay a $177 fine per truancy and to make an appearance in court,” said Shaf-fer.

It is the second year of the pos-

itive incentive program at MHS. According to Lynn Darimont, Eng-lish teacher and positive incentive committee member, the goal of this program is to reward students who participate in school and make good choices on a regular basis.

“We wanted to spend more time acknowledging the kids who en-gage in the educational process,” Darimont said.

These incentives, provided by the school, include a pizza lunch, a free visit to the movie theater, and a trip to Six Flags at a reduced price.

However, this year the required point percentage for eligibility in-creases by 5 percent as the year goes on, making it so students must receive 70 percent of the points to

attend the pizza party, 75 percent to go to the movies and 80 percent to earn the trip to Six Flags.

“We wanted to set the bar higher, so it is still achievable, and contin-ues to encourage students to make good decisions,” said Darimont.

Although this system is a good way to motivate students, some ar-gue students should not be reward-ed in this way.

Some believe doing well in school is expected, and in the fu-ture they will not receive entice-ments. One of these people is MHS junior Courtney McFarland.

“I’m not complaining, but when these people enter the work world, they will be expected to show up and do their job without these pos-

itive incentives,” said McFarland.However, Darimont said adults

receive compensated for their good performance in the work environ-ment as well.

“Adults get bonuses for their good work and school is a student’s job, so to me, these incentives are like their bonus,” said Darimont.

Some owe the attendance im-provement solely to positive incen-tives such as final exam exemption, but according to math teacher Su-san Hutchinson two months is an inadequate amount of time to fully determine the purpose for the raise in student attendance.

“Statistically speaking, two months is not enough information to make a valid conclusion,” said

Hutchinson. Another possible reason for the

higher attendance percentage is the Mattoon City Truancy Ordinance, or the result of truancy, established this year.

According to the MHS Student Handbook, “the city of Mattoon has enacted a truancy ordinance that when applied includes fines and a required court date for truant students and their parent/guardian.”

The reason for this citywide law is because, according to Shaffer, the city has become aware that ed-ucation is the foundation of a pros-perous society.

“The city has recognized that education is the key to our city’s growth and success,” said Shaffer.

Attendance improves due to incentives

A CHILD CARE HALLOWEEN

Graphics arts program teaches real-world skills

PHOTO BY MOLLY DOTSONSenior Keith Royse uses the press to print papers. This is his “job”, and he is paid “money” that will determine his grade in Graphic Arts II.

PHOTO BY EMMA DILTZ Child development holds a Halloween party for children in Mattoon High School cafeteria. High schoolers pro-vided activities such as coloring, mummy wrap, obstacle course and other spooky games.

By Emma Diltz,Sports Editor/Advertising Manager

Winding streets are lined with faces, some familiar, some not, but all are waiting for the doors of the funeral home to open. A feeling of nostalgia and remembrance is in the air for those reminiscing on their past experiences with a well-known weather man.

Robert Reese, WCIA 3 meteorol-ogist, died on Oct. 9, at a hospital in Chicago, according to the WCIA-TV website.

Reese had been battling esopha-geal cancer for many years and ulti-mately died of pneumonia.

Instead of dwelling on the loss of Reese, many in the Mattoon com-munity are fondly remembering the type of person he was.

Michelle Englund, fourth-grade teacher at Williams Elementary School, said “he [Reese] was a lot of fun.”

She knows that because eight years ago Reese was the announcer of a tal-ent show that Williams was hosting.

“He was a natural at being an [an-nouncer] and made the kids feel nat-ural and comfortable,” said Englund.

Not only did Reese report the weath-er for WCIA 3, he also reported on WBGL, a local Christian radio station.

“He had a lot of energy, and I really like[d] listening to him on WBGL,” said Englund. “He was just an overall great, fun person.”

Part of Reese’s contributions to the WCIA 3 news out of Champaign involved the Kid Caster program.

This is a program devoted to younger children who are inter-ested in becoming a meteorologist or a broadcast journalist. They tell the news and the weather the same way as the professionals—through a green screen.

Sara Stremming, Mattoon High School sophomore and former Kid Caster, remembers Reese affectionately.

“He was really nice and made me feel less nervous and more comfort-able [on the set,]” said Stremming.

Like many others in the area, Stremming was impacted by Reese’s death.

“I was really sad about it, and I would’ve been anyways, but it was es-pecially hard because of my personal experience with him,” Stremming said.

Perhaps one of the biggest groups of people Reese’s the loss affected were his co-workers.

Rameen Karbassioon, producer/director of WEIU TV, first met Reese in 2002 when he worked at WCIA 3.

“Robert was an easy-going per-son and had a dry sense of hu-mor, but he was very funny,” Kar-bassioon said. “He made a lot of odd-ball comments, but he was great to be around, and he was a genuine people person.”

Along with being so personable, Reese, a meteorologist, led many to depend on him for their weather up-dates every morning.

“Robert told the weather as good as anyone ever did. People trusted him with it,” said Karbassioon.

Many can understand the stress any career brings, but Englund, a cancer survivor herself, had a bet-ter understanding of the strain Re-ese was going through.

“Being a cancer survivor, I under-stood the journey he was on,” said Englund.

“I really liked Robert, and when I saw him near the end [of his life], I was nervous about how he looked.”

Kabassioon saw Reese’s fight with cancer as an unfair battle, but one that was used for good.

“Robert never showed what he was going through. He took his ce-lebrity and put it to good use through Relay for Life and Ribbons for Rob-ert,” Kabassioon said. “He tried to be there for others and was very strong through his years fighting.”

Regardless of how well everyone knew him, it was still hard for even those who had never met him, but watched him or heard his voice as part of their daily lives.

“It was like everyone lost a good friend,” Stremming said. “Even if not everyone personally knew him, it was like they did.”

Rabassioon lost not only a for-mer co-worker, but a friend as well.

“He [Reese] was just anoth-er person that got the short end of the stick,” Rabassioon said. “There wasn’t a nicer person that I’ve ever worked with. We lost one of the re-ally good ones.”

4 T H E M H S M I R R O R N O V E M B E R 2012 Features Page Designer

Sarah Foster

Missing a familar face

Mole Day makes learning enjoyable

By Lane Plummer, Online Editor

To a select group of Mattoon High School teachers and students, chemistry is more than another subject with a large textbook to use as a pillow. In fact to this group of people, chemistry is worth showing up to school two hours before the educational day begins.

“Mole Day is a gathering of chemistry students that’s really a celebration for chemistry students,” said MHS biology teacher Mar-garet Warrem. “It’s an idea to get these kids together and be proud to be chemistry students.”

Mole Day is an annual celebra-tion of Avogadro’s number, 6.022 E23: the bloodline of chemistry and its mathematical core.

Students willing to wake up ear-ly enough to rush over to school at 6:02 a.m. were well equipped with activities and school-encompassing games.

“Here at this year’s Mole Day, we have two new activities. There is the fishing pond game and the obstacle course,” said MHS chem-istry and physics teacher Jim Sparks.

In addition to the new games were the copious amounts of ac-tivities and challenges that attend-ees tackled and participated in with

groups of friends or solo. Returning games included Mole

Toss, the H2O drinking contest, a candy guessing game and plenty of other amusements.

The celebration was alive, even in the very early morning.

There were several students at each of the stations throughout the entire celebration as well as many students walking around with con-fused, puzzled faces.

It wasn’t because of a sudden lost sense of direction, rather a treasure and scavenger hunt.

“They can understand that chem-istry can be fun,” Warrem said “They can tackle and accomplish these challenges. They also can re-alize that the subject isn’t all hard stuff.”

Every year since 2005, Sparks and the Chemistry II students of MHS have been forming these events, and every year brings even more students than the last. The teachers, looking around and ob-serving these students, reflected on this.

“Right now they look l ike they’re trying to wake up,” Warrem said with a laugh. “But they’re get-ting involved. Everyone’s in it, and I think they’re honestly trying to enjoy it. 6:02 a.m. is early, but this is one of the biggest groups yet.”

PHOTOS BY MOLLY DOTSON

Above: Sophomore Hayden Jerka attempts to throw a stuffed mole into

a crate during the game Mole Toss. Right: Sopho-

mores Gunner Davis, Shawn Plankey and Jerka guess how many candies

are in the jar and then convert it to moles.

By Paige Jordan,Entertainment Editor

“Life is full... Of second chanc-es...” says the sign outside. The Coles County Animal Shelter is an organization that offers second chances for animals.

There are seven full-time em-ployees, but volunteers are highly encouraged, too.

According to animal shelter su-pervisor Julie Deaters, any volun-teers are welcome on the weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Many people volunteer because of service hours, but Mattoon High School sophomore Hunter Levings-ton did it for other reasons as well.

“I volunteered for NJHS, but it sounded like fun, and I like ani-mals,” said Levingston.

MHS sophomore Cassy Ramsey

helps out at the shelter every Thurs-day because she loves animals.

“When I volunteer, I clean the kitty litter, sweep, play with the puppies, and clean food and water bowls,” said Ramey

Levingston did similar activities when he volunteered.

“I took all of the dogs on a walk then played around with them in the fences,” said Levingston.

Deaters highly encourages peo-ple to volunteer because the ani-mals need it.

“Yes, animals need to be taken out and played with; we just don’t have enough time,” said Deaters.

Levingston agrees with Deaters about volunteering.

“There is always a cause that needs help no matter what you’re doing,” said Levingston.

MHS students help shelter animals

PHOTO BY PAIGE JORDANThe sign, located in the front of the Coles County Animal Shelter, denotes the home of animals that are for adoption. These animals are found throughout the county, and some MHS students volunteer their time there.

Students arrive at 6:02 a.m. in celebration of the mole

MAT TOON REMEMBERS ROBERT REESE

5T H E M H S M I R R O RN O V E M B E R 2012EntErtainmEnt Page Designer

Paige Jordan

By Paige Jordan, Entertainment Editor

The album “Don’t Panic” is definitely one of the best albums that All Time Low has ever pro-duced. Alex Gaskarth, Jack Bara-kat, Zack Merrick and Rian Daw-son, are the four talented guys who make up the band All Time Low.

“Don’t Panic” is All Time Low’s fifth album. The CD’s ti-tle is a reference from the book “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Gal-axy” by Douglas Adams. The al-bum was released on October 9 and streamed on YouTube days before.

“The Reckless And The Brave,” the first single, is a song about making it in the real world, even when everyone is saying you’re not going to make it.

The only problem I have with this song is when it first came out I got so excited that I over-played it. So now, it is hard for me to lis-ten to it. Other than that, it is a very good song.

The second song that was re-leased as a single was “For Bal-timore.” It has a slow, acoustic feel at the beginning, and then it gets a faster as the song progress-es. This song like many others is catchy and makes it easy to sing along with.

“Somewhere in Neverland” was a song that was first leaked onto the internet. Then when the band found out, they made a lyric vid-eo and just went with it. After hearing “The Reckless And The Brave” and “For Baltimore,” I knew this song wouldn’t fail.

This song’s lyrics have a Peter Pan twist to them, when Gaskarth sings “Wendy run away with me” and just the title “Somewhere in

Neverland.”The last single that was released

was “Outlines.” This song was co-written with “Fall Out Boy” vo-calist Patrick Stump. It also fea-tures Jason Vena from “Accep-tance.” This song is another one of my favorites next to “To Live And Let Go” because both have strong lyrics and a good rock feel.

“Don’t Panic” is a fantastic al-bum. I wasn’t disappointed at all. Even though there are twelve songs, I wish there were more. It seems like they used a lot more guitar in this album than they did in their last album, “Dirty Work.”

Also, the album art is very cool, and it is all cartoons. The art por-trays the world ending and the whole band is cartoons. This is where the album title comes in “Don’t Panic.”

If you haven’t yet, check out All Time Low’s latest album, “Don’t Panic.”

By Sarah Foster,Feature Editor

The rock trio, Muse, has existed for more than a decade now, and they’ve managed to hook a vari-ety of listeners during their musi-cal evolution. They are known for their singer/songwriter Matt Bella-my’s hysteric use of guitar pedals and Rachmaninoff-Gershwin pi-ano melodies, as well as his sud-den abruption into a falsetto sing-ing voice. The rhythm section is equally phenomenal.

Over the years, their sound has shifted due to aging; singing of teenage woes and playing energet-ically as they had in the beginning is no longer possible because they simply aren’t adolescents any-more.

The band, as well as their music, was hyper, but time has brought about a sense of mellowness. This drew new pools of listeners, who were lured because their sound be-came more common.

Because of this, when “The 2nd Law” hit stores, I was hesitant. I approached the music store cov-ering my eyes with my hands, but peeking through the spaces be-tween my fingers. I had low ex-pectations for this album because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I was so attached to the band’s hy-peractivity when they were young.

However, after listening, I am thrilled.

In “Supremacy,” there is a string choir and guitar riff that almost mimics the band’s old sound. Bel-lamy interrupts the song and goes into falsetto like he used to. His voice has changed, but no artist is guaranteed to sing like they were when they were 20 – when vocal chords age, one’s range becomes limited.

“Panic Station,” is accompanied by a simple, yet awesome, slap-bass refrain by bassist Chris Wol-stenholme.

The first single off the album, “Survival,” was the official song of the 2012 Olympics, which guar-anteed it to be a little overdramat-ic and stereotypical because of the event it represented. However, Muse does it well. Bellamy com-posed a simple, catchy piano ar-rangement, and drummer Dominic

Howard does an impressive per-formance.

Toward the finale of the song, there is a bass and guitar-heavy section marked with a falsetto at-tack by Bellamy, where he manag-es to surpass all other female sing-ers of the decade with the last note he reaches. Muse sounds like they are having as much fun as they used to.

Their commercial hit and sec-ond single off the album, “Mad-ness,” was a weaker link. The song incorporates few instruments be-sides an electronic drum and synth track, and features a few second guitar solo. The band, which is musically gifted and able to im-provise for long periods of time in concert, is capable of doing more than pushing buttons on an elec-tronic computer set.

A new revolution in Muse’s evolution is the introduction of the bassist and harmonizer, Wol-stenholme, as a lead singer in the songs “Save Me” and “Liquid State.”

He meaningfully sings to loved ones about his alcoholism. He apologizes for his past behavior and thanks his family for support-ing him. His voice is hauntingly beautiful and pitch-perfect. “Liq-uid State” has a guitar pattern sim-ilar to that of “Queens of the Stone Age,” and “Save Me” is a slow walk through Wolsteholme’s past regrets. These songs are arguably some of the best on the album and give Wolstenholme time to shine.

Muse has changed dramati-cally over the course of their ca-reer and has produced a variety of sounds that have enraged, but also enthused, listeners. They have not entirely bid their old techniques goodbye, however, and their new album “The 2nd Law” proves it.

The band members aren’t teen-agers anymore. Though they aren’t as wild, they are still passionate. The best long-time Muse listen-ers can do is enjoy this album be-cause “The 2nd Law” is unequivo-cally worth a listen.

‘The 2nd law’ is sustainable

‘Don’t Panic’ intrigues ‘¡Uno!’ sets great start for trilogy

Reviewer’s Rating

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By Lane Plummer, Online Editor

In a trilogy of albums, “¡Uno!” is a promising start for Green Day. What the album lacks in variety and originality it makes up for with non-stop thrills, similar to Green Day’s Grammy award-winning major “Dookie.”

“¡Uno!” resembles the band’s earlier works. Songs like “Nuclear Family” and “Let Yourself Go” are very similar to albums like “Dook-ie” and “Kerplunk.” This album has rapid pacing to all of its songs com-pared to Green Day’s last two al-bums, where it was a pretty equal balance, if not leaning towards a slower pace.

The first song, “Nuclear Family,” is a quick song with a touch of sub-liminal message. “Like a Chinese company conspiracy, it’s the death of the nuclear family staring up at you,” displays how our family tra-ditions being controlled by what we see on television. The song results in one of the catchiest on the album.

The other three songs on the al-bum that are worth your attention are “Carpe Diem,” “Kill the DJ,” and “Oh Love.” “Carpe Diem” is one of the slower songs, but is also one of the strongest. “Carpe Diem” is Latin for “seize the day,” and the song examines how life goes on, and to just take full advantage of the cards you’re dealt, no matter who is looking down on or judging you. It’s a subtle and strong social examina-tion.

On a different spectrum, “Kill the DJ” is the most unique song on the album. Green Day hasn’t ever real-ly made a four-on-the-floor dance anthem before, but this song is as unique as it is catchy. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it several times, and the lyrics hint at something less overt than murdering a music player.

Finally, “Oh Love” is the slowest song on the album, but also the most touching. The lyrics seem to reflect on the band’s long-time running ca-reer and that times are changing their way of expressing their love for music. They grew up with punk rock and alternative, so it’s like times are trying to change their mu-sical nature. It’s quite meaningful to listeners who have grown up with the band since they could flail their arms with a beat.

The album is plagued with a com-mon issue: a lack of wholeness. Whereas great albums like “Ameri-can Idiot” are best experienced from the first song to the last, this album is more focused on the handful of solid singles. They’re fantastic, but many filler songs exist, songs that should have more originality, but feel more like reruns of Green Day’s earliest works.

“¡Uno!” ends up being more of Green Day reflecting on old times and styles, with some occasional al-tering of their established formula. The album is a solid start to improve upon with their following albums, “¡Dos!” and “¡Tré!”

6 T H E M H S M I R R O RN O V E M B E R 2012 Centerspread

Who will

By Lane Plummer & Sarah FosterOnline Editor & Feature Editor

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, is the Republican candidate running for the presi-dency of the United States this week.

According to Biography.com, Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 12, 1947, into a po-litically minded family. His father was a former Michigan governor, and with his father’s work, Rom-ney gained an interest in politics.

Romney attended the prestigious Cranbrook School prior to receiving his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University with highest honors in 1971. He was named a J.D. and cum laude from Har-vard Law School in 1975.

Other Romney accomplishments include founding Bain Capital, being elected governor of Massa-chusetts in 2002, and hosting the 2002 Summer Olympics. Romney ran as a Republican candidate for president in 2008, but was defeated by Republican candidate John McCain.

Despite losing to McCain, Romney kept his focus and continued to actively participate in Re-publican politics.

Now it is 2012, and Romney is one step away from becoming the next president of the United States. He has been actively running against President Obama vying for the Oval Office since June

2011. Along with his appointed running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan, Romney has been running an aggressive campaign that has been pleasing his supporters.

MHS junior Ben Righter is one of Romney’s advocates. “Romney is very smart in terms of economy and very good with business,” said Righter. According

to him, all are important qualities of an aspiring president. Economics teacher Vince Walk solidly agrees. “If Romney is elected president,” said Walk, “there

will be more movement in the business world.” Walk believes that Romney will benefit the economy through business expansion in America. Walk and Right also mentioned that they are looking forward to the sudden lowering in this nation’s

debt. Social cuts will be made and loopholes closed under Romney’s program. “[To close the trillion-dollar deficit] Romney will make budget cuts definitely,” said Righter. Romney said he plans to bring down tax rates, while maintaining government revenue, by oppos-

ing lower taxes for the high-income class. “Romney’s looking to simplify, which will help auditing, and he’s going to make a lower overall

rate. Overall, he’s going for simplification – as an upcoming tax payer, this sounds good to me,” said senior John Righter.

Romney also plans on bringing along his health care, which he implemented in Massachusetts, called “MassCare.”

Obama’s opposing health care, ObamaCare, has sparked controversy amongst some like junior Leah Buck. She opposes the Affordable Health Care Act because she believes it breaks the First Amendment.

“I don’t like that [ObamaCare] force religious groups to provide contraceptives in health care plans,” Buck said. “It interferes with freedom of religion.”

Romney is also planning to tackle the education system. Based on politicalguide.com, he has sup-ported merit pay for teachers and charter schools in the past. He also supports standardized testing, merit-based scholarships for students, and English immersion.

Mitt Romney has his focus on winning this election, and has put forth a formidable effort, much like his opponent, President Barack Obama.

MHS junior Kaleb Pollum notices Romney’s advantages over Obama, however.“Federal spending has increased nearly 20 percent, his [Obama] failure to confront China’s econom-

ic policies has cost us millions of jobs, he has raised taxes twenty-one times, and our national debt has increased by trillions of dollars since he took office. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, plans to open new markets for American services and level the playing field for trade. He also is going to decrease our de-pendency on foreign oil, which will help our economy tremendously because we won’t be sending bil-lions of dollars overseas anymore,” said Pollum.

This week, millions of American voters and people around the world will be anxiously waiting for the results of the election of 2012, along with the MHS community.

“I feel more comfortable with him being chief; he’s a smart guy,” said John Righter.PH

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How to vote for the 2012 Presidential

ElectionIf you’re 18 years or older

and have registered, you can vote for president in the 2012 election on Nov. 6. Visit elections.il.gov to find the

location of your polling place. Polls are open from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m.

7T H E M H S M I R R O RN O V E M B E R 2012

Page DesignerKaylie HomannCenterspread

By Molly Dotson & Emma DiltzNews/Photo Editor & Advertising Manager/Sports Editor

President Barack Obama has decided to run for re-election on Nov. 6.Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, Barack Obama was raised by his maternal grandparents,

according to biography.com.Obama graduated from Colombia University-New York in 1983 with a degree in political science. Af-

ter this, he then attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 1991.Obama was an Illinois senator for about four years before he was inaugurated to be president on Jan.

20, 2009.Now, in 2012, the president’s goal is to move “forward” and onto his second term in office in order to

fulfill his goals as president. Our current president acquired office promising change among the nation. According to Jeremy Gibson, Mattoon High School government teacher, the economy is

showing gradual improvement. “I believe our economy is not a short-term fix, obviously,” Gibson said. “But, there

seems to be job creation, and the unemployment rate is going down.”In fact, Mattoon Democrat Tammie Mayhood feels strongly about this economic en-

hancement, and she compared Obama to former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt.“Franklin Roosevelt took presidency in the Depression and turned [the economy] around in

eight years. He got people back to work,” Mayhood said.Other changes Obama has made include the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed into law in

2009, supporting gay marriage, ending the war in Iraq and concluding the one in Afghanistan, ac-cording to sophomore Albert Henderson, who believes these changes are for the better.

“He has done a good job overall on equality and social issues in the United States,” said Hen-derson.

Mayhood agrees with Henderson and also states social programs are the main issue regarding her support for Obama.

“To me, the social programs Obama provides are the biggest reason for him having my vote. When voting, I think about the elderly, poor, students and people who need help,” said Mayhood.

Like many other aspects, the economy is a main issue that is handled by both candidates and par-ties differently.

Another controversial issue, among Republicans and Democrats alike, is health care. Obama has cre-ated a new health care system for the nation dubbed ObamaCare, which is a medical plan aimed to pro-vide all United States citizens with affordable medical coverage.

“I like that [people] are going to be able to obtain [health care], even if they have preexisting condi-tions,” Mayhood said.

Matt Haeger, senior at MHS, agrees with Mayhood, and feels Obama is trying to help the nation by making health care more affordable and available among citizens.

“He’s [Obama] been trying a lot by making ObamaCare to help the lower class,” said Haeger.Another policy, the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act is a bill Obama pushed to limit discrimination while

earning payment.“I’m a big advocate for equal rights, and this is a step in the right direction,” said Henderson.Not only do these issues of interest include minimizing bias payment, but foreign policy as well.Haeger believes compared to Romney, Obama has more experience with foreign policy. Also, Haeger believes Obama “knows what he needs to do to get [issues involving foreign policy]

done.” Henderson agrees with Haeger, and strongly believes Obama covers foreign policy well. Ending the

war in Iraq was a good decision, according to many.“War is not something to be taken lightly. Thousands of people died from the Iraqi war alone, and it’s

nice to see it end,” said Henderson. Several other issues are covered by these two potential presidents, and before voting, it is important for

one to prioritize before making a final decision. “When voting, find the issues that are most important to you, and see who you think carries them out

best,” said Mayhood.

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Mock Election by MHS Honors Government

On Election Day, Nov. 6, the MHS Honors Dual-Credit Government

class will come to your third hour with ballots. Prepare to

have an opinion and a candidate to vote for! The winner will be

announced by the end of the day.

By Kaylie Homann,Editor in Chief

Beatrice Prior walks through a b r o k e n down, worn ou t Chica-go. There are no cars, and the streets show they’ve not been taken care of. Instead of thousands of people we are used to seeing in Chicago, the pop-ulation is small, and the people wear the clothes that show to which faction they belong. Five factions are present in this city: Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Candor and Amity. The citizens must chose when they are 16 which they will live in for the rest of their lives. The only catch: families often turn their backs on the children who change factions.

The protagonist is Beatrice, a 16-year-old in Abne-gation, who is required to take the aptitude test. This test requires the teenager to undergo a simulation, and the choices made determine the factions. Most of the teens get a result of one faction, but Beatrice gets three. This makes her Divergent.

In my opinion, this book was fantastic. It drew me in from the first page, and it was impossible to put down. It was a new story that was unlike anything I’ve read. Also, it was the perfect balance of action with a little bit of a love story between Beatrice and Tobias.

However, a few criticisms dull my obsession with this book. Beatrice is a brave but insecure character, but these are the only traits the author showcases. She isn’t very well-developed, which is problematic con-sidering she is the protagonist. Also, she is very unlik-able and frustrating when she doesn’t express her true feelings to Tobias.

The story also lacks comic relief. There are a few undertones of it, but they’re not developed enough to

give me true break from the constant hardships Bea-trice has to face. I would have liked to see more come-dy between Beatrice and her friends, or maybe a char-acter whose sole purpose was to provide comic relief.

Besides these few flaws, it was a great book. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

8 T H E M H S M I R R O R Page DesignerLane PlummerEntErtainmEntN O V E M B E R 2012

By Justin Gordon,Managing Editor

This is probably the weakest be-ginning to a season “Glee” has ever had. It’s not that any episode was bad; it was just mediocre. Wheth-er it’s the new additions to the cast or the plot points, it’s all been just OK.

As a disclaimer, season 4 has only begun. However, seeing as the show is on a four-week hiatus after a major plot element, it’s fair to re-view the episodes so far.

The previous three seasons have set a bar so high it would hard to reach new heights, let alone match the marvelous run the show has been on. So, maybe this was to be expected that it would drop in qual-ity with the new cast and some key characters moved onto college.

Whereas seasons 1 through 3 started out really strong, season 4 just feels like the writers are play-ing it safe by going back to famil-iar territory. The fact that they did a second Britney Spears tribute show already might be a sign that the writers are out of ideas, which is upsetting considering this would be the perfect season to try some-thing different.

It just feels like more of the same with a new set of faces: Me-lissa Benoist as Marley Rose, Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman, Becca Tobin as Kitty, Sarah Jessica Parker as Isabelle Wright and Kate Hud-son as Cassandra July. With the ex-ception of two, most are sleepwalk-ing in their roles and are OK. This

isn’t really the actors’ fault; they have yet to have anything interest-ing to work with.

The two exceptions are for two completely different reasons. The first cast member that stands out is Jacob Artist. He isn’t really click-ing with me because the writers de-cided to make him related to one of my favorite characters on the show. He does not feel like he is “the same family”; he seems like a cheap imitation of what his broth-er, Noah Puckerman, was. It’s not

really his fault as much as it is the writers’, but still a little more ef-fort would be nice. However, he has a really great voice. The sea-son is young, and he does have me curious as to where he will go as a character. For the time being, how-ever, it isn’t working.

Conversely, the second new cast member, Melissa Benoist, is inter-esting, and her acting goes hand and hand with that. Marley is new at William McKinley because her mother, the lunch lady, decided to

get a job somewhere else. Marley couldn’t make friends because of her mother, and all the students make fun of the lunch lady.

This character could have been cliché and boring; however, Ben-oist brings a lot of heart to this role. She is likeable, and the audience roots for her and her mother.

Going past the new cast, the new story lines are nothing to sing about either.

The major plot element has not been focused on the actual glee

club, but on a former glee member Rachel Berry (Lea Michelle). She is having a rough time in New York as her teacher, played by Kate Hud-son, is harsh. She is also romanti-cally tempted by another man, de-spite the fact she is still in love with Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith).

My biggest problem with this is that we are supposed to side with Rachel, despite the fact that her teacher is believable as an instruc-tor in a performing arts school. The writers are trying to make us hate logic. I can’t sympathize with Ra-chel.

There have been a couple of standout songs. The cover of “Call Me Maybe” was fun and very well performed, and the performances in the second Brittney Spears tribute show were generally very good.

However, the songs in the third episode, “Makeover” were forget-table.

So, the start of “Glee” hasn’t been as ground breaking as I thought it would be, but I will keep my hopes high that the strong musical performances will con-tinue, and that the new charac-ters will break through and take the show to new heights. Hopeful-ly this is just a speed bump to an amazing season of a show that re-taught us to “Don’t Stop Believ-ing.”

‘Glee’ season 4 merely mediocre

By Lane Plummer,Online Editor

Ben Affleck’s latest direction-al effort, “Argo,” is much more than his best movie yet. It is one of the best movies of the year, and the most moving thriller in a decade.

Argo is a historically-accurate film based on the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in the heart of Teh-ran, Iran on Nov. 4, 1979. Fifty-two Americans were taken hostage in the embassy, but six Americans es-caped before the militants reached them, and found refuge in the Ca-nadian ambassador’s home in the same city. However, they weren’t going to be safe for long. Someone had to rescue them before the mil-itants found out not all the house guests were checked in their brand new home.

The story continues with a brisk yet relentless pace towards a stun-ning and suspenseful denouement. Stand-out scenes include a down-town visit deep within food stands and shops, a trip to the basement of the overrun embassy, and a para-noia-inducing airport. Even these scenes don’t complete the whole movie, as so many smaller, more subtle moments in the movie com-prise most of my enjoyment.

Ben Affleck has successfully pulled off directing/acting before, and “Argo” is no exception. Easi-ly his best acting to date, his char-acter is filled with depth and emo-tion. Tony Mendez, a CIA exfiltra-tion expert, is battling internal af-fairs, balancing the demanding job of being a responsible parent and

the stressful undertaking of rescu-ing six refugee Americans in Iran. None of the conflicts become mel-low nor unnecessary, and hold my attention throughout the movie.

What lends the movie the breath of fresh air scene-by-scene is the clever, humorous and well-written dialogue. Writers Chris Terrio and Joshuah Bearman crafted a script so unique that the movie would be so much less without it. I found a wide spectrum of evocative emotions from the writing, from side-split-ting humor to inescapable tension. The writing engaged me to witness events through the hostages’ eyes. I rarely feel for an on-screen charac-ter, but the personality-driven writ-ing pushed forth an urgent sense of emotion into my relationship with the characters that grew and adapt-ed in front of me.

Leaps beyond Affleck’s two prior directional efforts, “The Town” and “Gone Baby Gone,” Affleck amaz-es on his third attempt with a mas-terpiece. Any doubts of acting/di-recting in the same movie should be wiped away. “Argo” is sure-ly going to be a hit at the upcom-ing Oscars. The movie, with pre-cision and stand-out performanc-es, stands above any nationwide release this year, resulting in one of the most nail-biting and pulse-pounding movies in years. Sim-ply put, “Argo” is why we go to the movies.

‘Argo’ confirms Affleck’s talent

‘Divergent’ restrained by character

PHOTO BY K AYLIE HOMANNA cold slushy splashes on Justin Gordon’s face in reference to the new season of “Glee.”

8 T H E M H S M I R R O RM AY 2012 EntErtainmEnt

By Austin Keating,Design Editor

“Dude, this is awesome!” said my friend as we entered the gates. “Yeah,” I said with a daze, my eyes fixated on the performers playing at the stage directly in front of us.

The lead singer of the band started off their set with an elon-gated wail followed by a sud-den crash of inaudible guitar riffs. His greasy, skunk colored hair re-mained motionless as he jumped in his tight jeans and his earlobes (gauged the size of Ritz crack-ers) shook as he landed on his torn Chucks.

The crowd, predominantly made up of carbon copies of the singer, screamed and moshing ensued. Eyeliner was smeared, vibrant-ly colored square sunglasses were broken, fl annels were ripped and I just stood there in the chaos struck by an epiphany.

However, the train of thought was soon ended when I was pushed into a circle pit and forced to run for my life. A few bumps and bruises I suffered that day make it hard to recall exactly what thoughts caused me to freeze up in a pit of angsty emo kids; but I do still remember the general idea. When you hear emo, there’s

a stereotype that comes to mind, something akin to the audience/singer at the concert I mentioned before; unenthusiastic and melo-dramatic teenagers that express themselves through their dark fashion and the whiny, soft-core music they listen to.

The idea that struck me in that pit of death is that today’s emo scene doesn’t fi t into that stereotype in that it’s not about expression; it’s about dressing the way the lead singer of so and so does.

Let’s take a minute and look at it from a historical perspective with the help from some all-knowing musical masterminds from allmu-sic.com.

While kids my age were still in diapers, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Drive Like Jehu made edgy, expressive music with frenet-ic passion that, while intensely cre-ative, did not meet with great suc-cess outside of their cult-like fol-lowing.

Skipping forward a bit to a time when kids my age were rocking out to Smash Mouth and learning how to write in cursive, emo was be-coming its own specifi c genre be-hind the scenes of the music indus-try.

Dozens of bands like Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Saves the Day,

Brand New and The Get Up Kids popped up and released masterpiec-es with deeply confessional lyrics and unique styles.

All of these were fairly unno-ticed by the mainstream media aside from Weezer’s Pinkerton, which was rated horribly by re-viewers precisely for the confes-sional lyrics that made it emo.

By 2002 though, emo hit it big. The music genre entered nation-al consciousness with the release of Jimmy Eat World’s new album, Bleed American.

New Found Glory and Saves the Day followed Jimmy Eat World’s example and released albums with a poppy charge. Soon, emo became the next big thing.

This is where it all went wrong; the edgy, progressive style that had been emo’s guiding infl uence for all this time was traded off for a more streamlined and appealing pop-py sound. The dozens of new emo bands cared more about making a catchy chorus than having mean-ingful lyrics; they cared more for looking stylish than having their own unique musical style.

In that crowd of emo kids, I re-alized this wasn’t the place for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love and identify with emo music; I love the idea that emo musicians can find

new and out of the box ways to ex-press themselves.

However, the self-proclaimed emo band on stage that day, wasn’t interested in expressing themselves. The only things they wanted was to look “scene,” to regurgitate the same sounds the bands on the sur-rounding stages at the festival were

and in making songs that would at-tract the most people

Seeing as how I can’t catch a ride with the Doctor on his time ma-chine to get to the 90’s where emo visionaries would play edgy songs in small, unnoticed venues; I guess I’ll be content to just complain until emo goes out of fashion again.

By Hayden Rawlings,Online Editor

“The Cabin in the Woods” was an interesting movie, incompara-ble to any other I have previous-ly watched. A combination of hu-mor, jumpy scenes and gore made this one of the best movies I have watched this year.

The plot of the film involves five friends, Dana, Curt, Jules, Marty and Holden, who use their break to visit a remote cabin in the woods where they get more than they bargained for. Together, the group of friends must work to-gether to survive and discover the truth about the cabin in the woods.

On the way to the cabin, they stop at an old abandon gas station in an attempt to purchase some gas. A creepy, rude man appears and foreshadows the cabin. Yet the group still goes. I never under-stand this part of horror movies, I always find myself thinking that

I would immediately turn around still the characters always contin-ue. I feel like horror movies would be a greater scare if the viewer could relate more to the characters or situations.

Once they go through a small tunnel, a bird fl ies the same direc-tion next to the cave and smash-es into a honeycomb-like invisi-ble force fi eld. At this moment the movie progressively shifts from its happy vacation mood, to the horror waiting to be unleashed. A painting of weird beasts killing an animal occupied a wall in Hold-en’s room. He quickly decides it is too creepy and removes it only to find himself gazing through a one way mirror into the room next door.

My fi rst predication arose at this point. I just knew that someone was going to be killed and Holden would be forced to watch it help-lessly. One of my favorite parts about horror movies is predicting how people will be killed. Once they settled into the house and spent the remainder of the day at the lake, they pop open the beers and play the cliché game of truth or dare.

As the party intensifies, the movie fl ashes to a group of techni-cians taking bets on what appears to be a list of nightmares: fore-shadowing at its best. When the smart, innocent Dana’s turn comes around, she is pressured into dare. Jules was interrupted by a cellar door automatically opening in the house, which was work of the two technicians. Dana was dared to go into the cellar which she did. After she safely made it, the group came down also and began playing with

toys that they found. The horror part of the movie

starts to take its toll when Dana finds a very detailed book about the killing of a family. At the end of the book, a Latin saying was in-scribed within. Now who would say the Latin phrase, honest-ly that’s like asking to be killed. Marty the stoner tried to warn her not to read the phrase because he started hearing things. Howev-er, she continues to read it and raise the dead family she had read about. Meanwhile the technicians are mad because they had lost the bet, but the other laboratory work-ers are celebrating.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with the outcome of the movie and I would defi nitely recommend that anyone who likes horror, thriller or even funny movies go see “The Cabin in the Woods.” The scare factor was lacking a little, but a lot of jumpy scenes made up for it.

By Justin Gordon,Opinion editor

It’s no secret that many movie franchises come and go. Some are based on horror with a killer run-ning amok, while others are based on an action hero trying to save the world, one evil genius at a time. However, one fi lm franchise in par-ticular is often misunderstood as just a gross-out comedy and forgets that each movie in this series has a ton of heart. The franchise im talk-ing about is “American Pie.”

“American Reunion,” is about Jim (Jason Biggs), his wife Mi-chelle (Alyson Hannigan), and his friends from high school Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Oz (Chris Klein), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thom-as) and Stifl er (Sean William Scott) trying to have a good weekend be-fore their high school reunion while solving mini-conflicts they are in-volved in. Jim and Michelle are try-ing to bring back the spark in their love life. Stifl er is working in a go

nowhere temp job. Kevin is scared by the resurgence of feelings he has for his high school sweetheart Vicki (Tara Reid) despite being married. Oz is a successful sports TV person-ality but wants to settle down and start a family. Yes, his fast paced lifestyle and girlfriend prevents him from doing so, and fi nds love for his ex-girlfriend Heather (Mena Sur-vari). Finch is a self-proclaimed traveler seeing the sights and sound of the world while trying to find love with someone other than Sti-fl er’s mom.

“Reunion” has many subplots and this is kind of a problem. Jim and Michelle’s problem is the main focus, which is how it should be considering he is the main charac-ter. Surprisingly Oz’s subplot is the second most fl eshed out. They focus

more on Oz than the other friends which I really enjoy. Considering Oz wasn’t in the previous sequel, it was great to catch up. However, Finch, who played a prominent part in “American Wedding,” gets lost in the shuffle and barely gets any screen time. You kind of forget he is there.

Besides that, the acting was what you wanted in an “American Pie” movie: great comedic timing from everyone, especially from Jason Biggs’s and Sean William Scott. Eugene Levy plays Jim’s dad and steals every scene he is in through his humor. Yet, the acting is not without fl aws. Tara Reid looks like she is trying to have fun but that’s just it, its not genuines. She was re-ally good in the first “American Pie.” What happened?

The jokes were of course per-verse as you would expect in any “American Pie” movie (Mostly from Stifler), But I also felt real care behind the jokes. There is a

humorous scene where Jim is giv-ing his dad a “make-over.”

That was unbelievably clever and funny. It’s small jokes like that give these movies an edge. There are also numerous jabs at shows like “Dancing with the Stars.” Oz was on a show just like that. When they show the footage from the show, they play up the cheesiness for laughs. I really enjoyed this parody like humor. The humor in this movie was done well.

Another aspect I’d like to touch on is the heart this movie and the other pie movies have. In this one, you genuinely believe Jim and Mi-chelle love each other and are try-ing to get out of this rut questioning if there is any chance of re-igniting that spark. Oz’s story with his rec-onciliation with Heather is also re-ally heartwarming and has a ton of heart. Even Kevin’s story is more heart than comedy.

Overall, “American Reunion” was a great comedy. There are many co-

medic and touching scenes with nos-talgia sprinkled in here and there. This wasn’t titled “American Re-union” because it was about a class reunion. It was because it felt like the filmmakers serving us fans of the “American Pie” franchise a re-union with the group we’ve grown to love and laugh at.

American Reunion: the fourth piece of pie

‘Cabin in the Woods’ meets expectations

Modern emo music is disappointing

PHOTO BY AUSTIN KEATING


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Testing, studying, homework and more testing. Preparing for college in high school can be a stressful and scary task for students. While the attempt to strengthen our test-taking skills for college is appre-ciated, we, the staff of the MHS Mirror, believe that Mattoon High School should more fully prepare students for the actual college ex-perience, particularly concerning deadlines and study skills.

In order to be accepted into a reputable college, a higher ACT score is a huge factor. During the short years students spend at MHS, there seems to be more than enough ACT preparation. These prepara-tions consist of 10-minute reads, which include ACT style questions. Also, there are the EXPLORE and the PLAN, which are practice for the ACT itself.

To be successful for testing, a student must have great knowledge on the subject, have the ability to focus and the skills for testing. The weeks spent preparing for testing can prepare a student for the ACT, but not necessarily the work eth-ic and responsibility that is needed while in college.

We feel there is too much fo-cus on being accepted into col-lege, rather than how to survive the amount of work and studying that comes with college.

Teachers can often be too le-nient with homework due dates, which is certainly not going to

help students in college because classes are more strict than they are in high school.

Even though making the home-work assignment dates more strict may cause students’ grades to fall, it will help prepare them for what college and even the real world will be like.

In fact, many professors don’t care if their students aren’t turn-ing in assignments and will let stu-dents fail, and this is an issue for which students at MHS need to be prepared and learn to take more re-sponsibility.

We also realize that if students’ grades were to fall because of stricter homework rules, it could make the teacher look bad or at fault, but we feel that the disci-plined homework system would help us as students the most, and that is the most important consid-eration.

Having a class at MHS that fo-cuses on teaching students time management, as well as study hab-its and stricter deadlines, or weav-

ing these skills into required cours-es would be strongly beneficial to MHS students. If students had an opportunity to learn how to actual-ly study while still in high school, the work load that comes along with college wouldn’t seem as in-timidating.

Generally, teachers don’t inten-

tionally teach study skills to high school students that will help them in college.

But if students were taught dif-ferent ways to study that are fit for college curriculum, it would strong-ly benefit all students once they are in college.

The ACT, as important as it is, is only one part of what it takes to succeed after high school, and it shouldn’t be the main focus of MHS’ college preparation.

Alternatively, we feel that MHS should introduce students to bet-ter study habits and a more strict homework system in order to help students realize what they will need in order to truly be successful in college and beyond.

9 T H E M H S M I R R O RN O V E M B E R 2012

Page DesignerKinsey Stapleton OpiniOn

The MHS Mirror Editorial Policies

Opinions in editorials reflect the consensus decision of the newspa-per staff and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Mattoon High School. Opinions expressed in columns are solely those of the author.

To submit a letter to the editor, email [email protected]

Editorial

College preparation should go beyond ACTMHS Mirror editorial board encourages tighter deadlines, more study skills

Voting this November: Will it matter?When one turns 18, a lot of big

responsibilities come his way. The biggest responsibility in my eyes is one most don’t use; the responsibil-ity of voting for our nation’s leader.

I am voting for the first time this year, and I want to make it clear that at the time of writing this, I have no idea for whom I am voting.

In my opinion, both candidates have strong points and weak points, but this isn’t an opinion story bash-ing either side. This isn’t about be-ing a Republican or a Democrat.

The biggest reason I am having a hard time deciding is that I some-how feel both men are unfit to be our leader because of all the nega-tivity they bring about.

Not agreeing with each oth-er is healthy in a Democracy, but when both Obama and Romney are

complaining about trying to make change and the other parties are stopping them in their tracks, it tells me that without any agreement or middle ground, no progress can be made.

This isn’t just the presidential election either. You can’t turn on the TV without seeing a political ad bashing the competition. For most, it is just routine.

It really shouldn’t be this way. I interpret it as the person running

for office trying to showcase his competition’s flaws, in hopes that the public won’t notice his own.

I feel there should be a sense of unity to get our country on the right track, not the schoolyard tactic of bullying.

I honestly don’t want to be swayed by “this man running for senator didn’t budget his money in the right places; he is a joke, vote for me.” It makes me feel like I am supporting negativity and not what’s best for our country.

Anybody running for office should only present what he or she is planning to do and how these policies will better our state or country. However, I feel if that if a candidate were to do that, he wouldn’t receive any votes.

It is as if our country is fueled by

negativity. This may make me sound unreal-

istic by shouting “Why can’t we all just get along!?” Yet, I don’t know how all the fighting and slandering is going to help America rise out of the rut it’s in.

Much more would be accom-plished if we respectfully agreed to disagree.

We should not be focused on the flaws of the other party and instead focus on making our party the stron-gest. That is how a candidate should win votes, not the sleazy route.

I am not saying Republicans and Democrats have to absolutely agree with each other. We are human beings; we are born with different opinions. I just feel it shouldn’t be cut and dry. It just makes me feel that whoever my first vote goes to, I would have

given it to a sleazy crook. Alas, I will be at the polls, cast-

ing my vote. It is a responsibility I feel I should follow through on, even if I don’t feel right doing so. I am casting my vote in the hope that change really does occur because I really do love my country and want it to thrive.

However, to those people saying this election is pivotal and will be a game changer, I must say you are mistaken in my opinion.

No matter who is living in the White House next year, nothing is going to change. I’ll be voting for the man I feel has the most chance of making a difference.

Whether they really do make a difference is unlikely, but as I said before, voting is a responsibility I intend to follow through on.

Justin Gordon

Managing Editor

Express your views!Write a letter to the editor for the December edition.

Letters should be 300 words or less and signed

by the author. Send letters to

[email protected]

10 T H E M H S M I R R O R N O V E M B E R 2012 OpiniOn Page Designer

Justin Gordon

Music in 2012: From adult to child If you have been singing along

to either “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd or “We Are Never Ever Get-ting Back Together” by Taylor Swift, you may have been singing some of what I believe to be the worst songs of the year because music today has become quite ju-venile.

Now, this lack of maturity hasn’t been all across the board. There have been a couple of good songs. Maroon 5 is still turning out real-ly inspired hits. Fun is still the little indie band that could, Adele created an amazing “James Bond” theme, and even Neon Trees made a return to the charts this year. It has not been all bad.

Yet, 2012’s music has been gen-erally negative. The year started with an odd transition from the big club smash hits of 2011, such as “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO or anything Pitbull does artistically, to somewhat of an uprising of so-called indie darlings, like “We Are Young” by Fun and “Somebody

That I Used To Know” by Goyte. Whether one liked either of those

songs isn’t the point; I can’t deny they were something different from the usual, “I am going to the club, I got money and I got women.” These hits used non-computerized instru-ments, the lyrics had deeper mean-ing and they felt human, not robot-ic. Even though I wasn’t particularly fond of Goyte’s mainstream debut, I had a great appreciation for what his music was doing. He made an interesting break-up song that had a weight and significance to it.

Then, “Call Me Maybe” by Car-ley Rae Jepsen took America by storm. My problem really isn’t with the song in question. I think it’s just an average song that peo-

ple found catchy. My problem is with what it represents: it lacks depth and is a shallow, unintelligent way of talking about a crush. You can even look at the lyrics and see that there is nothing to this song. “Your stare was holdin’, ripped jeans, skin was showin’ hot night, wind was blowin, where you think you’re going, baby?” It’s the equiv-alent of overhearing a conversation between seventh-grade girls about a boy. It lacks the maturity and effort it takes to be a hit song.

Yet, ever since “Call Me Maybe” became an overnight hit, the pop charts have been looking like one of those teen magazines you pick up at Wal-Mart.

The biggest example of this is Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” (The title itself is proof of this.)

Swift was never the beacon of maturity. However, at the least she had a high school level of mental development, not the junior high or elementary school maturity she

presents with this song. It is exactly what a kid in sixth grade would say after his or her first break-up.

I am positive that was not her in-tent, but the way it is sung and writ-ten, it can only come off as that. “I say, I hate you, we break up, you call me, I love you. Oooh we called it off again last night. but Oooh, this time I’m telling you, I’m tell-ing you. We are never ever ever ever getting back together.” This is immature because I’ve never heard a high school student say this with-out using it as satire. It is something you would hear while in the sand-box with your grade-school friend.

Another song that screams pre-teen is that new Cher Lloyd song, “Want U Back.” It’s about a break up, go figure. However, “Want U Back” is a mean-spirited break-up song about a girl who breaks a guy’s heart. The guy dates another female, and she wants him back be-cause he is with someone else.

Not only does this come off as something a little kid would do, but

it’s also mean. The lead singer is outing herself as a vain, jealous and selfish human being.

In essence, almost every ma-jor hit this year has been a break-up song. Starting with Goyte’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and continuing on to Kelly Clark-son’s “Whatever Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger).”

Even some of the bands I thought put out quality work this year, such as Maroon 5, have been all about break-ups, with “Payphone” and “One More Night.”

Here is what the year of 2012 will be remembered for. It started off as a transition from one over-used brand of adult music to a new brand of adult music than quickly morphed into junior high drama.

If this trend continues, I am afraid that 2013 will be filled with songs straight out of pre-school. Flo Rida’s next hit will be “Wheels on the Bus Go Right Round” and Nicki Minaj will top the charts with, “The Teletubbie Shuffle.”

Weighing in on the issue of weighing P.E. students

Justin Gordon

Managing Editor

Kinsey Stapleton

Opinion Editor

It’s typical to expect exercise in P.E. class. After all, the point of the class is to keep students active and in shape.

However, recently at Mattoon High School, as decided by the MHS P.E. Department, students have been required to be weighed as a part of fitness day to help stu-dents keep track of their health.

While there may be good inten-tions behind this choice, weighing students in class is not the best op-tion.

The purpose of P.E. class is to keep students who may not be active outside of school fit and healthy. Although it isn’t assessed, in order to make sure this is actu-ally happening, P.E. teachers will

ask students to weigh themselves and have that student write down his or her in order to keep track of that weight.

Self-confidence issues are very common among teenagers, and having to record their weight would certainly not help. P.E. teachers do not intend to harm a student’s self-confidence, but being weighed in class could potentially do this.

Having to be weighed with a

teacher nearby cannot be a com-fortable situation, especially doing it with peers in the same room. If a student is overweight or under-weight, he most likely knows it al-ready and doesn’t need to be re-minded of it in P.E. class.

Fitness day shouldn’t be dread-ed because of the reminder that the weight a student has isn’t where it’s supposed to be, and that the student needs to gain or lose weight before the next fitness day.

The focus should be more geared towards teaching students tips on how to stay healthy and active, rather than just focusing on a spe-cific weight in order to be consid-ered “healthy”.

Alternatively, if teachers want

to keep track of students’ weight, they could ask students to record their weight more personally with-out being weighed at school. While students may still not want to do this, it would be much less public. If students were able to track their weights at home, for example, they wouldn’t have to worry about feel-ing self-conscious in front of their teachers and peers.

Also, although other students are not within the range to witness the scale, students could be taken into a separate area away from other stu-dents and be weighed in order to provide a less public setting.

Unfortunately, there is always a possibility that students would lie about their weight if they were to

record it themselves, which would defeat the purpose of tracking stu-dents’ weights.

Still, regardless of the fact that students may not take this option seriously, it’s still a better way to check a student’s weight and im-prove overall health.

School just isn’t the place to be weighing students like they’re at the doctor’s office. Of course P.E. is about being healthy, but that shouldn’t involve the possibility of making students feel uncomfort-able.

Checking students’ weight in class isn’t necessary, and the goal of keeping track of students’ weight can be done in a different and more private way.

11T H E M H S M I R R O RN O V E M B E R 2012 SportS Page Designer

Emma Diltz

See the May

edition of the MHS

Mirror for an

updated list of

athletes signing at colleges.

By Jacob Harris,Contributing Reporter

For most high school athletes, their sports career ends at the high school level, but for Mattoon High School senior Kacey Starwalt, her sports career is advancing to a Di-vision 1 University. She will be signing in the second week of No-vember to the Butler softball team.

According to Starwalt, Butler’s “great academic program and top-notch business program” have driv-en her towards going to that school.

The business program made in-

timidation a factor during Star-wal t ’s f i r s t trips to Butler.

“I was in-timidated at first, but it was less intimidat-ing the more I went to the campus,” Star-walt said.

F r i e n d a n d teammate, junior Kaitlyn Bath, is positive that Starwalt will rise to the challenge as a student and

member of the softball team. “She is going to do awesome there,” said Bath.

Starwalt is less confident than her teammate; she isn’t sure if she’ll start in games at Butler, like she did at MHS.

“I’ll have to work hard to earn my spot,” Starwalt said.

Bath said it will be different not having Starwalt around the team anymore; Starwalt and Bath have been together for a long time.

“It will be pretty weird not play-ing together anymore since we’ve

been playing together since we were 8 years old,” said Bath.

For Bath, losing a good friend and a great teammate is hard, and it will also be difficult for MHS varsity softball coach, Nicole Trower, to see her go.

“[Starwalt] has grown mental-ly and matured a lot,” Trower said. “She helped out as a freshman throwing in some varsity games when Reynae Hutchinson [former MHS pitcher] was out,”said Trower.

Trower thinks Starwalt will grow from her MHS experience and

greatly improve, and several fac-tors will help her to be prosperous.

“Butler has a great coaching staff. They will help her gain the skills she needs to become very successful,” Trower said.

Starwalt said she is very fortu-nate to have had the assistance at MHS, as well as the help of others along the way.

“There have been many coach-es who have helped me to become better as a player,” Starwalt said. “They’ve helped me to adapt to dif-ferent styles of coaching.”

Starwalt headed to Butler University for softball

By Sydney Edwards,Contributing Reporter

Mattoon High School’s students and staff love the football season, but Lindsay Spitz, Meghan Em-mett, John Campbell, Bryan Lunds-ford and Kelsey Wilford are the ones behind the scenes who help make the football season possible.

“They manage supplies for the team, not just water. If a helmet breaks, they have the parts.” said David Vieth, assistant principal and athletic director at MHS.

The athletic director isn’t the only one who appreciates the work the managers do; the coaches said they need them, too.

“[They] take a lot of the work off of the coaching staff,” said Chris Brown, vocational teacher at MHS and freshman football coach. “The managers are just a part of the team as the players,”

At practices, the environment includes both the players and the managers. The players feed off the energy of the managers, as well as the way they encourage the players to keep going, even when they are frustrated.

At the request of coach, a play-er is running laps for his behav-ior, when a manager gives him a pep talk to keep going. That player takes the pep talk to heart, running faster until he is back in the game.

Derek Brown, sophomore at

MHS, also agreed that the team needs the help of the managers.

“Without them, everybody else would have to do [the tasks] for themselves,” Derek Brown said.

Other players, like senior wide receiver Skyler Hartbank, enjoy having the managers’ company while out for an injury.

The managers make conver-sation with the senior as they go along with their duties. Hartbank talks about his surgery and his ripped tendon, and takes off his bandage to show his stitches.

All the managers share a minute of disgust, showing the relaxed re-lationship the managers and play-er share.

“I got to know everyone,” said freshmen John Campbell, MHS football manager.

Campbell also said [he] learn[s] more about football and plans to be on the team next year. He wants to be on the football team but was un-able to this year due to a heart con-dition.

“I didn’t want to keep the team waiting,” said Campbell.

Campbell still wanted to be a part of the teams so he joined the managing staff, and he said he is enjoying every moment of it.

The managers are at every game, devoted as ever, with their supply boxes and their water bottles ready for a Green Wave victory.

Managers help pave way for MHS football players By Emma Diltz,

Advertising Manager / Sports EditorThe Mattoon Greenwave football team

hasn’t seen a playoff game since 2007 -- until this year. Even though the team put its heart into the game, they fell to Jerseyville, losing 39-7 in the first round of playoffs on Oct. 27.

Derek Pierce, MHS junior safety, was proud of the effort his team showed, but he said he wished they could’ve done more.

“We played good in the first half, but we let the game get away from us,” Pierce said.

Jeremy Woodyard, MHS senior linebacker/full-back, said the game fell through with the offense.

“We played really well on defense, but our

offense was a struggle,” Woodyard said. “We had a few breakdowns [in our offense], and it hurt us when Mitch Hirsch got injured.”

Even though there was a solid amount of effort given, there were still mishaps through-out the game.

“People were messing up, and it wasn’t just a single person,” Pierce said. “We made mistakes that shouldn’t have happened this late in the season.”

Yet, during the entirety of the game, there were positive aspects in addition to the negative ones.

“We never gave up,” Pierce said. “We never stopped fighting.”

The Greenwave ended their season with a record of 5-5.

STARWALT

Season ends in playoffs for MHS football

By Riley Trotter, Design Editor

Throughout the 2012 MHS vol-leyball season, many records have been set. This year, the team was 31-4, which is the winningest sea-son in MHS volleyball history- and in the Sweet 16.

The season went just as they had hoped.

“We wanted to avenge last year’s regionals,” said Jamie Packer, senior member of the team.

Now reflecting back on their winning season, each had a dif-ferent reason for joining volley-ball.

“My mom was in volley-ball, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps and be as good at sports as she is. Also, all of my friends were in it,” said Samantha Thompson, sophomore.

Though the reason may be fam-ily-related for Thompson, it’s dif-ferent for other members.

“I wanted to try something new to stay active. It also looked fun,” said junior Riley Phipps.

For some members of the team, there may not be one exact reason for why they joined the team.

“I really didn’t have a reason. I started in sixth grade in intra-murals and had a good time, so I stuck with it,” said junior Carley Leitch.

There are also various favor-ites for each member about the sport itself.

“[The best feeling is] being on the court and feeling that rush of adrenaline when I go up to spike,” said Leitch.

Though for Leitch it may be the rush of adrenaline, for Thompson it’s the fun of the sport.

“We all click,” said Thompson. “It’s fun competing with other teams, and winning the Apollo Conference made it even better.”

Regardless, the volleyball team agrees that the season went well and was a great experience for all of the members.

“We got a lot better and played well as a team, which was shown through our record,” said Packer.

Volleyball makes it to Sweet Sixteen

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MACIE DRUM,

MHS YEARBOOKAbove: Shelby Cox, junior

middle hitter, serves the ball. Right: Katelyn Fisher,

sophomore libero, sets the ball in the senior night

match against Paris.

PHOTOS BY K AYLIE HOMANN

The MHS soccer team kick starts the last game of the 2012 season against Highland. MHS lost to Highland in the sectional match, 0-3, but ended season 14-7.

T H E M H S M I R R O R Page DesignerJarett Martin SportSN O V E M B E R 201212

By Emma Diltz,Advertising Manager/Sports Editor

Spirited crowds roaring, cam-eras flashing and players on the court are often expected, but one aspect of the game that is fre-quently overlooked is the players on the bench. Just as there can’t be a singer without a band, there can’t be a team without support.

Hannah Pruden, junior right side hitter on the MHS volley-ball team, is a long-term volley-ball player who has a passion for the game.

“My love for the sport keeps me playing volleyball, even though I don’t get that much playing time,” Pruden said.

She has been playing for six years, and even though she doesn’t see much floor time, she preservers because of her teammates.

“I have the best team,” Pruden said. “They make it worth playing.”

Jessica Taylor, a junior defen-sive specialist for MHS volleyball, agrees with Pruden’s logic.

“My passion for the sport and my teammates keep me playing,” Taylor said.

As a volleyball player since sev-enth grade, Taylor said she under-stands how much the word “team”

means when playing sports.“The team has a really strong

connection,” Taylor said. “I love supporting my team, even if I don’t play a lot.”

While the stars of the team are in the spotlight more than not, the “second team” players tend to boost the morale of the team.

Clay Warfel, senior starting short stop for the MHS baseball team, said, “they’re the cheer-leaders, and the cheering helps the starters. It boosts the morale of the team.”

Ryan Hutchinson, MHS junior guard, agrees with Warfel.

“When they’re happy with not getting minutes and just glad to be there, they make the atmosphere more positive to be in,” Hutchin-

son said.Not only do they keep up the

confidence, but they also aid each other in improving their skills.

“They give the starters more practice since they’re [at practice],” Warfel said. “Without them, it’d be hard to get better.”

“They’re really helpful in prac-tice because when we scout other teams and see what their offense and defense are like we can play our of-fense and/or defense like we would against another team,” Hutchinson said.

Even if playing time is lack-ing, there’s always a reason to stay faithful to the sport they play.

“No one should ever let anyone get in their way of doing what they love,” Pruden said.

Second-string players still important part of teams

By Jarett Martin,Promotion/Distribution Manager

Soccer is more than just a sport at Mattoon High School. It’s a competition between two schools to see who has the bet-ter soccer team at each and ev-ery game.

This year’s post-season for MHS soccer has shown that Mat-toon players are some of the best out of high schools in the state of Illinois.

According to MHS soccer players, the sport is not about one member; it is about working as a team.

Freshman Zachery Lensink

said they work well as a team, and communication skills are es-sential.

“We work as a team really well; we trust each other on the field,” said Lensink.

Junior Dylan Wolf said the players have to be close to be a better soccer team.

“We are friends on and off the field,” said Wolf.

Even with the team mentality, soccer coach and math teacher at MHS Ryan Ghere said that last game of the season against High-land was simply against a tough team.

“[We] played a team that was better than us,” said Ghere.

After the soccer season ended this year, some of the team mem-bers have reflected on their best moments.

“[My best moment was when I] scored my goal against Effingham St. Anthony,” said Lensink.

Not only does Lensink have some best moments in soccer, but Wolf noted some memorable moments, as well.

“[My] best moment was when [we played] Charleston to send us to the regional championship,” said Wolf.

Senior A.J. Nichols shared his best moments in soccer, which in-cluded breaking a school record.

“My best moment was when

I scored the 29th goal against Charleston in regionals and that it was my fourth goal [that game],” said Nichols. Nichols also broke the school record this year of 31 goals in one season.

Ghere said that this is not first time the MHS soccer team has had a winning streak.

“Our best year was in 2003, when we went to state,” said Gh-ere.

Nichols said he thinks it has been this team’s best season.

“[I] think that it has been my best season overall as senior and in my four years playing soccer,” said Nichols.

Ghere hopes that they have a

good team next year.“We will have a new group

next year. This year, seniors made 61 goals out of 85 goals,” said Ghere.

Nichols said he hopes that after seniors leave, that the juniors will pick up where they left off.

“There are eight seniors on the team and I hope that juniors re-turn for next year,” said Nichols.

The soccer team’s future plans are to take it easy.

“We will take some time off and do three days a week prac-tice in the summer. Then, we’ll take some summer camps and get ready for August,” said Gh-ere.

MHS soccer ends successful season

By Sarah Foster,Feature Editor

It’s a great feeling when a suc-cessful season has come to an end, but for senior Cassy Shaffer’s last year of high school, it’s even bet-ter when her whole varsity Mat-toon High School Cross Coun-try Team has endured their way through numerous competitive teams and is going to state.

“It’s pretty darn awesome. [The girls] ran awesome all season. Most of us have been working to-ward this since the end of track season last year,” said Shaffer.

The team, who only had one state competitor representing MHS last season, had to rethink a few strategies in order to reserve its spot, according to Shaffer.

“We’ve been more careful this year. The week of sectionals last year two of our varsity runners got hurt,” Shaffer said.

Preventing injuries can some-times be hard when the team must

put its all into practices. Howev-er, the girls have managed to do so and have had one of the most suc-cessful seasons imaginable.

“We worked hard all season. We ran so many races. We’re tougher mentally than a lot of other teams,” Shaffer said.

The MHS girls team competed last Saturday morning at Detwei-ller Park in Peoria. Before Shaffer unleashed her team at the state-wide competition, she said she wanted competitors to know her team’s secret.

“We have depth. We have sev-en really good runners. Other have three or four and that’s it,” she said.

The results of the competition weren’t known as of press time.

Cross country excels to State

Winning TeamThe Mattoon High School girls cross

country team members who are

headed to state include:

Megan Shaffer, Cassy Shaffer, Victoria Drake,

Michaela Drake, Lexi Kremer, Melinda Holmes, Whitney

Maninfior and Hunter Worthey (alternate).

“The team has a really strong connection. I love supporting my

team, even if I don’t play a lot.”

Jessi Taylor, MHS junior

MHS Mirror November Edition

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