The Lancer

At home in the pool

adviser — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:40:24 +0000

Spending most of his time in the water has done nothing to dampen the thrill of the game in sophomore Jacob Rosenfeld’s eyes.
Rosenfeld has been swimming competitively since he was 12 years old, and swimming for fun even longer. Having been exposed to aquatic sports since a young age, Rosenfeld has never felt any fear of swimming or being in the water.
“I have been swimming since I first got into the water, and I have loved it just as long,” Rosenfeld said.
He decided to give water polo a chance when he was in seventh grade, and he has been playing consistently since then.
Since beginning to play for the school, he has had a substantial amount of time in the pool and hopes for more to come.
“I had a good amount of playing time my freshman year. I love the water, and it keeps me in shape,” Rosenfeld said.
Since both of his parents have had water polo and swimming experience, it seems that his passion for the sports and the water run in his family. Rosenfeld also enjoys spending his time wakeboarding, wakesurfing and snowboarding.
“[My activities] keep me out of trouble,” Rosenfeld said. “I like being active.”
While participating in aquatic sports, he manages to stay up do date with schoolwork as well. Along with his studies, Rosenfeld keeps up with the other swimmers. He holds the fastest recorded speed in school history for both the 200- and 500-meter freestyle events. During his freshman year, he placed second in both the 200-meter freestyle and the 4×100 relay.
When he isn’t focusing on his studies, he is fixated on improving his strength and speed.
“Swimming is very hard work, and if you don’t stay in shape it gets even harder,” Rosenfeld said. “If I’m not working with the school, I am keeping in shape by swimming in my free time.”
Over spring break, he broke his right wrist in three places in a snowboarding accident at Mammoth; he launched himself too quickly off a jump and landed painfully on his wrist.
Rosenfeld may need to have surgery on his wrist, but his main concern lies with his inability to indulge in his love for aquatic sports. Rosenfeld still attends swim meets to support his teammates, however, and is anxiously awaiting his return to his beloved sports.
“Once [I am] back, [I will] make sure that I am as strong and quick as before,” Rosenfeld said. “I can’t let an accident slow me down.”

“Every Lancer Has a Story” is a recurring feature on a randomly selected student.

Car’s perks outweigh risks

adviser — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:40:47 +0000

It may not be the most comfortable or the most economic, but junior Carolyn Ruffino would not trade her 1966 Ford F-100 pickup truck for a newer car if she had the choice.
“I wanted a unique car,” Ruffino said. She got just that—along with poor gas mileage, rough driving and no air conditioning.
However, despite these deficiencies, Ruffino knew the truck, bright red with white scallops, was exactly what she wanted when she saw it while looking for a car with her father.
After a year and a half of shopping around, she discovered the truck at the end of the last school year. She had been looking specifically for older cars, especially trucks. As she discovered, the 1966 truck—equipped with a V8 engine—is also quite durable.
Neither the paint job nor the stereo system is the one with which the car was manufactured. The stereo system, though not the most advanced, is much better than the original.
She was first attracted to the car because of its looks, especially the age and paint job.
“I thought that classic cars [were] really cool and different,” she said.
Ruffino’s father, though not a die-hard classic car fan, did not object to his daughter’s choice.
And in retrospect, the Ford truck has proved to be an excellent choice for Ruffino, whose friends agree that something about the car fits her personality.
“I kinda do my own thing and I stand out,” she said. “I have an adventurous, wild side.”
For Ruffino, all of the inconveniences of owning and maintaining a classic car are worth it to complement who she is.
“It’s either that or a normal car,” she said.
The choice isn’t a hard one for Ruffino.

Smith’s career starting early

adviser — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:43:53 +0000

Millions of people left the theaters without watching the credits of The Hunger Games. Had they waited a few minutes longer, they would have seen junior Taylor Smith’s name scrolling across the screen.
Smith auditioned along with about 1000 other teenagers for a part in the movie. He submitted a tape of himself performing a scene and was called a couple months later by Gary Ross, the screenplay writer, who told him he was to play a tribute of District 13.
“I was so unbelievably happy,” Smith said.
Unfortunately, the scene he was in was cut from the final production. He will, however, be given an opportunity to audition for Catching Fire, the second installment in the trilogy. Even though his scene was cut, he hasn’t given up on his dream of becoming an actor.
He had no such dream until three and a half years ago, when his younger sister Lexie signed up for lessons with Pamela Shae, the casting director for movies such as Neowolf and The Ghostmaker.
“[Lexie] signed up for lessons and then she said she didn’t want to go when it came time to go. So I said ‘I’ll check it out and I’ll go.’ When I went the first night I fell in love with it,” Smith said.
Through that stroke of serendipity, Smith has honed his acting skills, learning how to improvise and practicing audition techniques.
“I really love expressing myself through different characters. When you do a scene really well, you get that butterfly feeling in your stomach and it just feels really good,” Smith said. “I also like it when the people I’m acting in front of feel something too and it means I’m doing my job right.”
Shae has also become an very influential person in Smith’s budding acting career, helping him whenever he has an audition or taping.
“She’s always there for me. She’s super supportive and is backing me 100 percent and it feels good to have someone in the industry doing that,” Smith said. “She knows everything there is to know and every time I have a question she always has an answer.”
Along with Shae, Smith’s mother has also given him her full support, driving him to auditions before he got his license and staying with him on sets.
“She has been helping me out and letting me know this is worthwhile,” Smith said.
He has auditioned for many parts at different studios, including Universal, Nickelodeon and NBC. Although The Hunger Games is the first movie in which he has acted, he feels that even when he does not get the part, these auditions are beneficial to him.
“I’m constantly learning different things, and it helps a lot when you go on an audition because they provide different scenarios and they require you to make choices about character emotions,” he said.
Smith prefers acting on screen over acting on stage because of the different challenges it presents.
“In screen acting, you can express so much more emotion,” he said.
But, in the competitive arena of getting auditions (and he has had many), let alone landing a part, Smith knows there will always be disappointments.
“It’s discouraging for a split second but immediately afterwards you’re wanting to go for another audition,” Smith said. “Just because you didn’t get the part doesn’t mean you’re not a good actor, you just weren’t right for the part.”
He is continuing to work on his long-term goal, having just been called back for an audition. Smith was unable to disclose the title of this movie.
“I want to make this my career, to be an actor,” Smith said. “This is what I love and what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life.”

twesrt

adviser — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:12:16 +0000

Nick’s Notes: A day off, Ferris Bueller style

adviser — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:39:15 +0000

Think of blue skies, summer sun, the beach.
When this year’s senior picnic was announced, my mind immediately began dreaming of the litany of things I wish I could do on senior picnic day on the Monday of graduation week.
First, I will call in, or rather have my lovely mother call in my absence due to a convenient illness, doctor/dentist appointment and funeral, all of which are to take place on the brilliant day. Upon finding this out, some freshmen will probably collect some coins in a jar for me or something like that because of my obviously tragic situation.
I get my best friend along with my very attractive girlfriend out of school (this will inevitably actually be another friend, as having a Sloan as my girlfriend is just as likely to occur as this fantasy, but we all ponder about living out our dreams).
Anyway, we’ll then proceed to have a day off—Thousand Oaks style. And no, I don’t mean going to the Oaks and hanging out with some 12-year-olds or going bowling in Simi.
The beach. Perfect.
I’ll be cruising down the highway with my friends, top (not) down and not in a Ferrari—because I’m driving my mom’s ‘97 Toyota Camry. Well, at least it’s a stick and my mom does keep it in an unlocked glass room. No, actually I’m lying about the former but she does keep the garage unlocked.
Nonetheless, we’ll at least roll the windows down and cruise down Kanan to the downtown Chicago of So Cal. When we get there, we’ll run wild and free and reminisce our high school careers. I must apologize for Grouplove being the soundtrack but it’s very fitting (considering living out dreams, cruising down the highway and running wild and free).
After that it gets a bit clouded in my mind but I think I twist and shout in a parade, stare at a painting, eat at a fancy restaurant, catch a foul ball and drive home in reverse.
Just before any sort of bad luck befalls Mr. Lichtl, however, I snap out of my chronic case of senior-esque day dreaming (one of the symptoms of senioritis, evidently) and it’s time to decide whether or not to attend senior picnic.
Finding out that attendance will not be taken for seniors on the day of, however, I realize that although it’s one guaranteed way of preventing senior ditch day, it takes all the excitement and rebellion out of my dream.
Therefore, it will most likely forever be left to my imagination because I definitely wouldn’t want to do anything on any day between now and then to get myself kicked out of graduation ceremonies—or else my mom might not give me the marvelous Camry, and that would be a crying shame.
If you didn’t understand this story, you should take the day to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
You’re still here? It’s over.
-Nick Laumann

Twelve scientists advance to state level science fair

adviser — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:34:50 +0000

It would seem that having a friend take a scalpel to your face in the name of science wouldn’t be first on the to-do list. Such is the plight of senior Logan Hicks, who valiantly sacrificed his acne for an experiment in this year’s science fair, earning him and his partner, senior Cole Bracken second place in the Senior Human Biology division of the Ventura County Science Fair behind senior Samir Malhotra.
“We isolated the bacteria from Logan’s face with a scalpel—really harmless, actually—incubated it, and let it grow,” Bracken said of his project, an experiment designed to test the effect of several essential oils on the acne-causing bacteria.
Bracken, Hicks and Malhotra will all advance to the state science fair at the USC Science Center on May 1 along with seniors Nina Sobers, Jade Chaves, Rebecca Drake, Elizabeth Mazeika, Lyndsey Marsh and Stephanie Baum, and juniors Adam Protter, Noah Fields and Brittany Salyers.
In order to advance to the state level, students had to place either first or second in their categories.
“After all the hard work, it was nice to know that your efforts have been honored out of so many amazing entries,” senior Lauren Parris said, who received an honorable mention in Human Behavioral Sciences.
Because students will present the same basic experiment at the state fair as they presented at the county level, they can choose whether or not to conduct additional research.
Notably, this was the school’s first competition to feature students from Dr. Malhotra’s Scientific Research class, which helped students with their projects. The class provided HPLC machines that proved crucial to several students’ success.
“The heightened level of the projects made it much more nerve-racking,” Bracken said. “It’s funny; you’d think it’d be the opposite.”
Not that the new class did all the work—quite the opposite, in fact.
“All of the projects were each students’ own kind of creation,” Bracken said. “The Scientific Research class basically gave us the tools and the road map, but we were actually driving the car.”

Seniors work to defend last year’s Powderpuff win

adviser — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:26:13 +0000

The long-standing junior-senior rivalry will play out in Lancer Stadium at the annual Powderpuff game this Friday, April 13 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 with a SAC card and $7 without and can be purchased at
the game.
“It’s going to be a big game for sure,” defense coach senior Daniel Gober said. “We’re looking very good, but we can’t get cocky—we have to keep our cool.”
Last year’s upset by the juniors challanges this year’s senior class to uphold their defending champions title.
“We do have big shoes to stand in, [but] we’re not thinking ‘This is nothing. We don’t have to do anything,’” offensive lineman senior Bethany Pile said. “We’re definitely in it to win it.”
Although Pile admits the juniors’ speed is a factor, Gober feels arduous practice leaves the senior girls prepared on the defensive end.
“I tell [the girls] to stick to them like glue, and to watch their hips,” he said. “It’s like Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’—wherever their hips go is where they’re going to go.”
Despite the seniors’ typical loss of half of last year’s junior team, they retained the majority of their starters. Pile feels their experience provides an advantage over this year’s junior team.
“It’s a new, different team that we’re playing, but we’ve played [the game] before. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are, and we’ve been able to tweak those,” Pile said. “I know the juniors have more speed, but we know what to expect.”
The junior girls, however, are not so intimidated. Linebacker junior Lindsay Neuner cites their versatile quarterback and fast receivers as advantages over the seniors, along with a less-quantifiable trait.
“As a whole, we don’t like the other team, and we’ve bonded based on that,” she said. “All I can say is: we’re going to bring it.”

The Lancer Staff 2012-2013

adviser — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:47:25 +0000

Editors-in-Chief:

adviser — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:46:10 +0000

Jason Gardiner
Grade: 12

Ali Wire
Grade: 12

Website Editor-in-Chief:

adviser — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:45:30 +0000

Megan Bowser
Grade: 12