Men's basketball cranks up mid-season

Natalia Ghan
Staff Writer

Jon Jones makes a basket at Cary on Tuesday night. 

This year’s men’s basketball team is currently standing with a record of 4-0 in the conference despite what Coach Neil describes as a shaky start with “some good wins and some bad losses.” Since the start of the season the team has come a long way in terms of chemistry and mental toughness. Returning seniors T.J. Wells and T.J. Evans have led the team in guard play this season. The two have played together since the 8^th grade, and over the years have developed a good sense of one another’s playing styles.  T.J. Evans affirms, “We definitely know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.” Although Wells and Evans have played basketball together for five years, not all members of the team have. Junior Jon Jones, who moved from Texas at the start of his junior year, has adapted well into the team and is playing significant minutes. When asked about team strengths, Jones replied, “In terms of players, Wells has good ball handling and Evans is an excellent shooter.” Amongst the starting juniors and seniors an underclassman is in the mix, although sophomore Ian Boyd is certainly tall enough to be mistaken as an upperclassman. Boyd made a memorable dunk during the High School OT over winter break that senior John Kitoko recalls as “one of the best plays this season.” The men’s most recent victory at Cary Tuesday night will hopefully be followed by another victory at Panther Creek tonight. If the boys continue to play well as a team as they have recently been doing, they may very well have an excellent season. As Wells puts it, “Our goal is to win the State Championship. We have already won Conference twice, and we kind of want to move up a little bit."

 Photography by senior Brianna Belicic

Snowden makes headlines once again

Nicholas Chupka
Editor-in-Chief

Twenty-eight year-old self proclaimed “computer wizard” Edward Snowden made national headlines earlier this summer after leaking thousands of classified documents containing evidence linking the National Security Agency, also known as the NSA, to the illegal collection of private information of United States citizens. To avoid being taken into custody, he fled to Moscow, Russia where he was granted temporary amnesty. In editorials published last week, both the Guardian and New York Times pleaded for President Obama to drop charges against Snowden and to allow him to return to the U.S. with the New York Times saying, “Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service.”  A sentiment that I and many other Americans would agree with. Snowden risked the only life he’d known to inform the American public of the crimes being committed against them.

Super Bowl looms on the horizon for eight playoff teams

Michael Lyday & Adam Mancini
Staff Writers

The 48th edition of the Super Bowl will be held on February 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After a crazy Wild Card Weekend, only eight teams remain in the hunt for the Lombardi trophy. Here are our picks for the Super Bowl.

Ask Apex: New Year's Resolutions

Emily Nguyen & Devon McCarroll
Staff Writers

Happy New Year’s! To commemorate the first school week of 2014, we visited the lunch periods to see what kinds of New Year’s resolutions students and staff members had made over break. Out of the sixty-five people polled, only seventeen had created resolutions. Here are some of the resolutions your friends and teachers have made this year:

Drink less soda

Stop cussing

Use the "cool guy sunglasses" emoticon more

Lay off the sugar

Make friends

To land a varial heelflip on flat ground

Get good grades in school

Control diabetes better

Be Beyoncé

Drop a jean size

Say 'no' more often

Be more confident

Go to bed earlier

Lose weight

Don't disappoint self

Work out/exercise more

New Shows Ring In the New Year

Sarah Kebea 
Staff Writer

Proceding the beloved show, Boy Meets World, comes Girl Meets World.  The show centers around the tween daughter, Riley (Rowan Blanchard), of the main characters from Boy Meets World, Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga Matthews (Danielle Fishel).  Once you get past the cheesy Disney Channel spin, the show may live up to its potential.  The show’s premiere date is yet to be announced.

 

The first season of the upcoming drama series, True Detective, will follow two detectives, Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) as they retrace their steps from a homicide they “solved” seventeen years before in 1995.  Each season of the series will feature a different cast of characters with a different story (the anthology format).  True Detective will air January 12 on HBO.  

Enlisted is a comedy ready to capture your heart.  The show surrounds three brothers, who each get assigned to the same Florida military base (Fort McGee).  The oldest is in charge of supervising a troop at the base, that includes his two brothers.  Enlisted takes a rather comedic approach to military life, stirring in some emotional scenes between the laughs.  The series will premiere Friday, January 10 at 9:30 p.m. on FOX.  

Rake follows the life of a criminal defense lawyer, Keegan Deane, played by Greg Kinnear (“The Kennedys”), as he deals with his ex-wife, his son, and his intense job.   Rake will premiere Thursday, January 23 at 9 p.m. on FOX.

Returning Shows:

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will make its debut on Monday, February 17.   The last Tonight Show with Jay Leno will air February 6.  Seth Myers will take over Jimmy’s spot at Late Night on Monday, February 24 at 12:35 a.m.  Both shows will be aired on NBC. 

Teen Wolf premiered yesterday for their second half of Season 3 on MTV.  Will Scott, Stiles, and Allison remain on the side of good? 

Scholar Athlete, Jordan Woertman

Natalia Ghan
Staff Writer

Sport: Wrestling

GPA: 4.16

Best Athletic Moment: “Throwing a guy over my head, and hearing the loud slam on the mat before I pinned him.”

Inspiration: “My Uncle and Grandpa. They wrestled before and if I ever have questions about a move or what I should work on in the weight room, I can ask them.”

Clubs: Boy Scouts and CAR (Children of the American Revolution).

Hobbies: Reading, hanging out with the family, playing videogames.

Favorite Food: “The meat lovers super meaty pizza, with sausages and pepperoni.”

Favorite Class: “Honors U.S. history with Ms. Taylor, because I like history and it was a lot of fun.”

Future Hopes: “After high school, I hope to attend N.C. State for Engineering or work in the airforce.”

2014 U.S. Winter Olympic hopefuls in Sochi

Shauna Hines
News and Features Editor

The 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia will begin February 7, and here are some athletes to watch out for.

Upcoming Olympics in Sochi

Shaun White hopes to defend his gold medal for the second time in the halfpipe, and hopefully show off even more new tricks.

Member Steve Holcomb‘s life story proved himself to be inspirational last winter Olympics. He had a degenerative eye disease that almost cost him his vision and caused him to suffer from depression, which led to a suicide attempt before recovering. Later, however, in the 2010 Olympics, Holcomb and his team ended a 62-year U.S. gold-medal drought in bobsledding. In Sochi, they will be defending their gold.

Hannah Kearney will be defending her Olympic gold medal title. In doing so, Kearney would become the first American to win multiple golds on the moguls.

In the 2006 Olympics, Shani Davis became the first African American athlete from any country to win gold in the winter Olympics. In 2010, he became the first speedskater to ever win two consecutive gold medals in the 1,000 meter. Now, he is skating for a third Olympic gold and a spot among America’s winter Olympic all-time medal leaders.