Boys Basketball Narrowly Misses State Tournament

By Kevin Agostinelli, staff reporter

Having undergone a moment as auspicious as Sturgis East’s overtime victory over Sturgis West on February 13, one may have bet on the Storm to carry the momentum and win two of the final three games to qualify for the state tournament. Yet, as fate would have it, the Sturgis East boy’s basketball team lost the first two games to Cape Cod Tech and Dennis-Yarmouth, eliminating them from the state tournament.
Sturgis East’s win over the Sturgis West Navigators was certainly one to remember, as the Storm’s big man Mitchell Starr dominated the court with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 shot blocks. Despite Sturgis West leading 37-31 at the half, East’s offense excelled in the second half, tying the score at 68 at the end of regulation. With over a hundred students in attendance, the overtime period was a wild affair, as both sides fought tooth and nail to squeeze by with a victory.

Fortunately for the Storm, Jacob Tobey forced West’s Deikani Cunningham (who had a game-high 32 points) to turn over the ball, and Jonny Gomes hit a key free throw with seven seconds left to give Sturgis East a well deserved 80-76 win. Senior Kyle Garvey was a menace on defense throughout the game while adding 16 points and eight rebounds for the offense. Tobey finished with 15 points on the night, while point guard Luke Chevalier had 14 points and dished out 8 assists.

Sadly, that joy was soon met with disappointment as the Storm let a nine point lead at the half slip away to lose 60-54 at Cape Tech. At the home of the Crusaders on Senior Night, Sturgis East was overwhelmed in the third quarter, giving up 24 points and failing to contain Cape Tech’s Miguel Cardona, who collected 20 points on the night. Luke Chevalier registered 21 points for the Storm, but it was all for naught as Sturgis fell in a seemingly must-win game.

On February 16, Sturgis East was pummeled 65-36 by a very strong Dennis-Yarmouth squad, officially knocking them out of playoff contention. Luke Chevalier led the Sturgis boys in scoring with 16 points and was once again a bright spot for a team that was suffering from the absence of junior center Mitch Starr.

With the states out of the picture, Sturgis East’s Coach Kennedy decided to play a mix of junior varsity and varsity players in the final game against South Shore Christian Academy, and South Shore came out on top 58-40.
Stay tuned for a complete recap of the Storm’s boys' basketball season, featuring interviews and analysis from players and coaches!

Students Learn Ballroom Dances

Stepping Up Their Dancing Skills

Students learn the rumba earlier this month.

Six More Free Lessons Begin Wednesday

By Sam Silverbrand, staff reporter

For the past six Wednesdays at Sturgis East approximately 40 students have participated in a ballroom dance program sponsored by the Cape Cod Ballroom Dance Association. Room 204 was transformed into a ballroom after school as the students learned how to hustle, swing, rumba, salsa, and merengue, all free of charge.

“I thought it was so much fun to learn so many dances which were so different,” said sophomore Emma Brimdyr. “There were fast ones, and more slow ones, complicated and easy, but all were learnable. I’m so glad I was able to do it, it was the highlight of my day.”

Sophomore Dean Smith concurred: “It wasn’t hard to do, and even easier to learn. I plan on going to the next set of classes.”

Smith’s in luck. The first lesson of the next series workshops begins Wednesday. Recently the Dance Association approved funding to continue the lessons for an additional six weeks.

Advisor for the program, Denise Hyer, is thrilled that the pilot program is being offered to Sturgis East students by the dance association: “So many unexpected benefits can be gained from ballroom dancing. Students learn that dancing together in a more “formal” style can be fun, not to mention great exercise. They build confidence in their social interaction, and dancing is a great tool for athletes to help with balance and control in movement.”

During the first three lessons hustle and swing were taught by dance instructor Debbie Israel. In the last three classes of the workshop, students learned Latin dances; merengue, salsa, and rumba taught by dance instructor Ellen Brodsky.

“For Latin dance, I started with the meringue,” said Brodsky. “This easy dance from the Dominican Republic got kids going right away. Later the students would move on to learn the American rumba, and the salsa. “We went on to a Latin ‘diamond’ step used for International rumba as danced by college competition ballroom teams. When I played faster music, the same step becomes the basis for salsa.”

Extending the program for another six workshops gives students another opportunity to learn new dances, improve their dance and social skills, earn CAS credit, or just have fun.

Softball Team Looks Ahead to Season

By Sara Prygocki, staff reporter

This year, Sturgis softball is looking to have a promising season. “It will be a lot different than last year. I feel like this year we are determined as a team to do the best as we can and be the exceed our expectations,” Stephanie Johnson, first baseman, says. Some of the adjustments include new workout schedules for the girls in order to, as Johnson said, “show them that determination and hard work pays off.”

Among the new changes, Sturgis softball is taking on a new coach, the new IB Business teacher Mr. Conti. “It's sad to see Coach Brothers go, but I think this will be a positive change for the team,” Caroline Adams, pitcher, remarked.

Coach Conti along with  assistant coach Lombardi will give the players just what they need. “I think this season the team will be more serious and competitive than last year,” Adams said.

“This season isn't just about having fun. We're really cracking down as a team to make this an unbelievable season and really giving it our all!” Johnson has promised.

Sturgis Students Turn to Social Networking

By Parth Patel, staff reporter

Recently on Twitter there has been an account created called Sturgis Problems which discusses the problems at Sturgis, as well as another account called Sturgis Insults which has insulted students. Both of these accounts are believed to be created by Sturgis students themselves but don’t reflect too well on the students and the school itself. Sturgis Insults was created on January 23rd and only lasted for less than a few days until the owner of the account decided to take it down. It mainly directed insults towards the juniors, which led people to believe that it was in fact a junior. Mr. Marble followed this account in order to see who the insults were directed to and to actually find out who was behind it. It is still unknown at this point who the creator of the account was, but what is known is that the account created drama and debate over Twitter on who was behind the account. “I think Sturgis Problems is a funny way to complain about our school, and I think Sturgis Insults was juvenile and deserved to be taken down,” said freshman Chris Neuman.

On the other hand, Sturgis Problems has become a fairly common Twitter account, and a number of students are associated with it. People who use the hashtag: #sturgisproblems are often complaining about the school and stating issues that students face at Sturgis on a daily basis. This ranges from loss of power, the frigid environment in the school and the number of assignments that students receive in the I.B. Since, this is limited to the lives of only Sturgis students, it does allow students reading the tweet relate to the issue at hand. Although this is a way for Sturgis students to convey their opinions and agree upon what they think, it can also earn a bad reputation for Sturgis. Other schools will start to view Sturgis in a negative manner and gain a misunderstanding of what the school is really about. In the end it seems as though authoritative action is not being taken against the account of Sturgis Problems and that it is here to stay whether for good or bad. “I think Sturgis Problems is funny because most of the tweets are actual problems we have, like the third stall in the girl bathroom, but a Sturgis Insults is not an okay twitter account to make; us Sturgis students get enough insults just being from Sturgis, we don’t need our own peers insulting us as well.” said Sturgis sophomore Katie Roderick.

This brings up the question at hand of why students are suddenly approaching social networking all of a sudden instead of using other conventional high school methods? With social networking, a person or a group of people can distribute information to an audience with much more ease than having it go from person to person in a school. It is more convenient for the person or collection of people creating these accounts and its keeps them unidentified and out of problems with school administrators. It seems as though students at Sturgis have successfully turned away from preceding methods and have learned how implement social networks to gain attention.

Video: Students React to Upcoming Blizzard

Reported by Katie Curran and Khidra Weisman, staff reporters

East-West Dance a Huge Success

By Parth Patel, staff reporter

Photo provided by Jarvis Chen

In an attempt to create unity between both Sturgis East and West, a dance was held on January 25th at the Cape Codder by both Sturgis East and West Key Clubs. The Sturgis East Key Club has decided that the proceeds from the dance will go to host a family at Camp Sunshine. Camp Sunshine provides respite, support, joy and hope to children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families through various stages of a child’s illness. On the other hand, Sturgis West Key Club has decided that the proceeds will go to The Eliminate Project, Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus, a deadly disease which steals the lives of nearly 60,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year.

Photo provided by Jarvis Chen

The D.J of the dance was Cameron Perkins and was assisted by Charley Grossman; who are both students of Sturgis West. There was a disco ball, a smoke machine, lasers and a great deal of lights. It was a really great dance floor and the room was very appropriate for the dance. The dance began when kids from both Sturgis East and West started to show and Cameron decided to start playing all sorts of music. Although, I cannot say that Sturgis East and West were dancing side by side throughout the entire dance there were a good amount of times that both schools mingled by forming conga lines and showing off their dance moves to the entire crowd. Many groups of friends were also able to take pictures together with all sorts of hats scarfs, feathers and other props in another part of the room, which was similar to a photo booth.  

“In my opinion the dance was a success! At this time, there has been a lot of tension between East and West, so it was great to see the two schools come together and show some real maturity by putting aside their differences to help a great cause and have fun while doing so. I hope to see more peaceful collaborations like this one between both schools in the future,” said Krupa Patel, Sturgis East Key Club President. 

Photo provided by Jarvis Chen

The total amount of money raised by both schools combined was $466. Both key clubs will be splitting the earnings and donating the money to their charities. Overall, the dance was an enormous success because it brought the two schools together to have a night of entertainment without any conflicts. It really shows that the two schools can collaborate in the future and not have a continued unfriendliness towards each other, even though we may have our differences.

Experiencing History: Obama's Second Inaugural

By Katie Curran, staff reporter

On January 21, 2013, I stood outside the doors of the gleaming Capitol Building eager to witness the 57th Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Roughly 1 million people were making their way to the National Mall to experience history.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama during the official swearing-in ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House on Inauguration Day, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. First Lady Michelle Obama, holding the Robinson family Bible, and daughters Malia and Sasha stand with the President. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

   While many teens ask to go shopping with their friends for their 15th birthday, I asked for something very different: and that was to attend the Inauguration. When I asked my parents in early January if we could go, it seemed like an impossible dream.  The logistics weren’t in my favor. However, my parents knew how much I loved politics and how one day I want to be President, and so they made it possible. My father and I planned on going, but we didn’t have any special tickets. It wasn’t until my mother got in touch with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office; they gave us tickets to the spectacular event.
The Inauguration theme was “Faith in America’s Future” in correlation with the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Emancipation Proclamation and the completion of the Capitol Dome in 1863.  Obama’s words of “Moving Forward” were echoing in the crowd, as these were the remarks he used in the final months of his re-election campaign.

"Booby Trap" Sure to Catch Audiences

by Sara Prygocki, staff reporter

Left to right: Geronimo Kelley and Alyssa  MacDonald
Photo credit: Ellie Davis

 
Sturgis East will be returning to the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild’s yearly High School festival, and this year the IB junior theatre class will be putting on a one act play “Booby Trap” by Ed Monk.The drama is about a soldier in a dire situation who gets flashes of what did, and what could, happen. 

“This play is definitely an eye-opener,” Tori Maxwell states. “ It makes you think about how short and precious life is, and that you should appreciate every minute of it, because it's too fragile for you to waste away.”

The play stars Geronimo Kelley as the soldier and Tori Maxwell as Caitlyn, backed by Connor Antonellis, John Bondarek, Michael Couto, Ellie Davis, Ali Gomes, Cassie Langtry, Courtney Laperriere, Alyssa MacDonald, Hannah McLaughlin, Olivia Milsted, Charlie Powicki, Sara Prygocki, Robby Treichel, and Angela Young.
 
But before showing in front of judges, they will first perform to a paying audience in Hyannis’ own Guyer Barn on Thursday February 7th and Friday February 8th with 4:00 and 7:00 shows. 
 
“The small space that Guyer Barn provides will almost involve the audience on a personal level,” Ellie Davis remarks. Tori agrees, adding, “It might be a bit of a challenge space- wise, and the audience will definitely be up close and personal with the actors!” 
 

High School Soccer Must Use Headgear to Decrease Concussions

By Kevin Agostinelli, staff reporter

* This is an article written by Kevin Agostinelli that was sent to the Cape Cod Times for the local newspaper’s Classroom Times writing contest. 

Simple soccer headgear can reduce concussion rates.

   Can you imagine high school soccer players wearing padded headgear during games? This idea might seem far-fetched, but as concussions in high school soccer have become more frequent – the concussion rate has increased 15% each year since 2005 – mandatory headgear is something that the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) must seriously consider. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy, high school soccer players had more concussions in 2010 than basketball, wrestling, and softball players combined. In order to diminish the epidemic of concussions in high school soccer, the MIAA should institute mandatory headgear.  

       In soccer, concussions can occur from head-to-head contact, head-to-ground contact, and head-to-body contact. The soccer headgear currently being developed is different from the headgear in football or hockey in that it resembles an enlarged, foam-padded headband, covering the forehead, temples, and occipital bone in back of the head.
       

Video: Upcoming Spanish Trips

Reported by Katie Curran and Khidra Weisman, staff reporters
Videography by Patrick Wanco-Keigans, staff reporter

Girls' Basketball Weekly Recap

By Jacob Tobey, staff reporter

The Sturgis girls' varsity basketball team underwent a decent week of basketball as they won one game but lost two others.  

Their first game of the week was Wednesday, January 23 at Cape Cod Tech, in which they got the win 32-26.  It was a tight game until the fourth quarter, when the Storm broke the stalemate and went on a run to notch the win.  The girls played great defensively, holding their opponents to 26 points, and their offense was key in the win as well.  

The Storm then went on to play at Falmouth Academy and lost a disappointing but hard fought game with the final score of 34-17.  Scoring and offense was a big issue for the Sturgis girls as they couldn’t get anything to drop. Their leading scorer was junior Captain Brittany Gayton, who had 6 points, and they played mostly man-to-man defense versus Falmouth Academy.  In the first half, Sturgis struggled defensively but turned on their defensive pressure during the second half, moving their feet and playing great helpside defense. However, a lack of offense killed any chances of a comeback in the second half. “We played much better defense in the second half but overall we couldn’t finish our shots,” said captain Brittany Gayton. The inconsistent offense or defense, depending on the day, has been the main problem for the Storm so far this season.          

Sturgis’s next opponent was Cape Cod Academy.  The girls were looking for their third win of the season to put them at 3-7 but they lost a close game 46-37.  Meaghan Fitzgerald was the leading scorer for the Storm as she netted twenty-two points in a fantastic offensive effort.  The Storm only lost by nine, getting punished by a lot of missed free throws that may have changed the final outcome. Both teams, Sturgis East and Cape Cod Academy were in the double bonus for fouls in the first half, and the physical play continued in the second half as well.

When asked about how the game went in her opinion, Fitzgerald commented on the effort given by the girls, “ We had high energy throughout the whole game, never gave up, and our defense and offense were really good except for some mistakes.”  The Storm take their 2-8 record and will try to earn their third win of the season when they play Upper Cape Tech today.  There are about two weeks left in their season, and the girls would like to finish the season on a good note and try and get some more wins.  The surely have the talent to do so, but it remains to be season whether talent can translate to success on the court.