Poll: What is your favorite holiday film?

Amanda Nash, Sarah Muzzillo, and John Santos 
Chief Videographer, Features Editor, and News Editor

Christmas is less than two weeks away, and we've polled the student body to find out what holiday movies Apex High School will be watching over the break. Join us as we count down to the most-loved seasonal film.

10. Frosty the Snowman

9. Eight Crazy Nights

8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

7. The Nightmare before Christmas

6. Die Hard

5. The Polar Express

4. Home Alone

3. A Christmas Story

2. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

1. Elf

Scholar Athlete: Katy Williams

Jake Pedersen
Chief Photographer

Classes: Latin III Online, AP Statistics, Honors Chorus, Physics Honors

GPA: 4.85

If you could eat one food every day, what would it be? Probably pizza. Because I love carbs and because I am a swimmer.

How long have you  been participating in your sport? About eight years.

What sparked your interest in sports? My neighborhood has a swim team, so we started there and then switched to year round swimming afterwards.

Katy Williams competing in a breast stroke event.

What’s your favorite team? My swim team. I don’t follow sports really besides my swim team.

Who’s your favorite athlete? Rebecca Sony. She’s a breast stroker and does the 200-meter breast stroke, which is my event.

What’s your favorite movie? Finding Nemo.

What’s your favorite subject? Math or science.

What is your favorite social networking site? Facebook.

What’s your favorite quote? “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” by Walt Disney.

Describe yourself in three words: Intelligent, introverted, and wacky

How much time do you put into your training? Three hours a day, including Saturday.

In the future, do you plan on pursuing a career in this sport? Yes, hopefully.

Scholar Athlete: Jeffrey Valdini

Greg Calarco
Staff Writer

Classes: Art I, Advanced Marketing, AP Statistics, Honors Physics

GPA: 4.15

If you could eat one food every day, what would it be? Pizza, because I’m Italian, and it is amazing.

How long have you been participating in sports? I have been playing basketball and soccer since the age of 5, and have been a part of the Apex basketball team since 9^th grade.

What sparked your interest in sports? The competition. There is nothing like the feeling of competing.

What’s your favorite team? UNC and the New York Knicks.

Who’s your favorite athlete? Carmelo Anthony.

What’s your favorite movie? Fast Five.

What’s your favorite subject? I don’t really have a favorite, it depends on the teacher.

What is your favorite social networking site? Facebook.

What’s your favorite quote? “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up,” Jim Valvano, legendary college basketball coach. 

Describe yourself in three words: Jeffrey John Valdini.

How much time do you put into your training? A ton. The only days we don’t have practice or a game are Sundays and Holidays. 

In the future, do you plan on pursuing a career in this sport? No, I plan on being a business man.

Scholar Artist: Catherine Shocket

Jake Pedersen 
Chief Photographer

Classes: AP English 12, Pre-calculus, and then I go to work at Lord Corporation for my AOIT Internship.

GPA: 4.67

Catherine Shocket as Thelma Breckenridge in
All Because of Agatha.

Why do you like the arts? It’s a form of expression and communication and a lot of people coming together to make something great.

If you could eat one food every day, what would it be? Capellini Delverde Pasta. I eat it almost every day anyways.

How long have you been participating? Since I was in Kindergarten. My first play was The Pied Piper. I was a rat.

What’s your favorite book? A Tale of Two Cities; I just read it and it was really good. It was really well written, old fashioned, great themes of rebirth and being recalled to life and really great memorable characters and cool stories.

Who’s your favorite artist? My favorite Playwright is Neil Simon. He writes great comedies.

What’s your favorite movie? Rope. It’s so excellent. It has Jimmy Stewart in it, who I love. And suspense and just excellent everything.

What’s your favorite subject? Theater, but I also like English.

What is your favorite social networking site? Who would you recommend following? I am not on any social networking sites. I don’t even know what that means.

What’s your favorite quote? “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men”- Gene Wilder

Describe yourself in three words: Classy, friendly, and abnormal.

Kim MacDonald named new director of AOIT

Courtney Hamilton
Staff Writer

Hometown: Reeders, Pennsylvania

Kim MacDonald

Previous jobs: Most recently, she taught CTE at Panther Creek High School. Prior to that, she worked in the Alamance Burlington School System. Originally from Reeders, Pennsylvania, she taught business in Pennsylvania for five years. She also was a soccer coach at E. Stroudsburg University, and worked in human resources for two years.

Motivation for becoming head of AOIT: “My teaching philosophy has always been that it is important to give students an authentic learning experience, which is created by working with the public and partnering with schools. I just thought that the system you have here is awesome.”

How her time has been so far at Apex: “I have been enjoying my time here so far, the students are phenomenal, and the support from businesses is great.”

2012 ACC-Big Ten Challenge

Jonathon Crighton

Staff Writer 

Don't take the ACC-Big Ten Challenge for granted. In a few years, the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge isn't going to look like the ACC-Big Ten Challenge college hoops fans are used to thanks to conference realignment altering the landscape.

In any case, the 2012 edition of the made-for-TV miniseries didn't disappoint. How could it with nine teams in the AP Top 25 facing off, including each of the top four? 

Based on the performances, there might even be some new teams from these conferences to crack the Top 25 in the near future. Maryland went into Welsh-Ryan Arena and crushed a Northwestern team that hadn't lost and hadn't given up more than 69 points. After taking a two-point lead into halftime, the Terps blew the game open in the second half and won, 77-57. 

Coach Mark Turgeon's squad hasn't been defeated since its narrow three-point loss to Kentucky (ranked No. 3 at the time). And with the emergence of Dez Wells and Ukrainian sophomore center Alex Len, already projected to be a lottery pick in 2013, Maryland just might be a contender to challenge Duke and UNC for the ACC. 

As for the Big Ten, it's early but it might be another year with at least five teams earning spots in the Big Dance. There were six teams in the Big Ten ranked in the Top 25 at the start of the week. Four of them won. Most impressively, Indiana, the No. 1 team in the nation, trounced No. 14 North Carolina by 24. 

Of course, it's only December. A lot can change before the March Madness dance cards are filled out. As N.C. State can attest, a lot can change in two weeks. But that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty to learn from watching these games.

Ed Sheeran new song review

Rebekah Gould 
Staff Writer

Known for his hit song, The A Team, in the U.S., Ed Sheeran’s latest music video is Give Me Love from his debut album, +. The idea for taking the title “Give Me Love” in a literal way was genius; a goddess of love roaming the streets of London causing people to fall in love was the perfect way to present the music video. In the end we all find our true love… even Cupid. The video wasn’t what most fans were expecting, considering it is four minutes shorter than the original version, but it definitely left many of them wanting more. In two weeks the video has over six million hits on YouTube.