Royal Raider Regiment!

Parade and Field!

by Robert Garcia

Most of the Royal Raider Regiment (also known as the "Southwest High School Marching Band") had their first parade and field show competition on Saturday. Nervous and wondering : will they rise up to the challenge? They all had butterflies in their stomachs. All week, just days before field show and parade, the band had been practicing and working on their music and field show. As the time to "Judgment Day" approached, most of the veterans who have already done field shows and parades were worried. Would they be ready? On Thursday the band had to make a very tough choice. "Do they go?" Many of them could not get through their 3rd movement of the field show. But they came to the fact that they are going to work hard on Friday. When Friday practice rolled around everyone had been working endlessly to get down their 3rd movement piece and they did. At the end of Friday practice the choice was made - they would go.

Saturday the Royal Raider Regiment members woke up around 3:00 in the morning to make call time by 4:00. As the band members arrived tired but ready, and loaded the bus and headed out. As they were running late, they arrived ready to do what they came to accomplish. They made their way to the field. Only having a 1-3 minutes of warm-up from running late, they weren't fully warmed up. First Movement began in a flash and they did all right. But as second Movement approached it came crashing to a hault. But, being Raiders, they didn't give up they tried and didn't do well, but it was good considering the fact that they only had one minute preparation. At the end of the field show everyone was discouraged because they didn't do their best. But Mrs.Clark stated that she wasn't ashamed of them. And neither were any of their coaches because they lifted their heads high and knew when it came down to the next one they will do better! Overall, the day continued with their Parade and they enjoyed each other's company and did really well on the parade! Everyone enjoyed Chino, and even though they didn't do their best in the Field Show they all had fun being part of the band and had nothing to be ashamed about!

Update Got Spooked?

Two new stories have been added to the "Got Spooked?" Article GO CHECK THEM OUT.

Warning! May Scare you!

ROP

Career Pathways show off our school

by Elma Gonzalez

Last Friday, the ASB, Band, Color guard, Cheerleaders, and ROP teachers and students woke up early in the morning to 'show off' our school to Fox News. But 'show off' what exactly, you may wonder? Unfortunately, not many students know about our school's many assets.

One of them - also the main reason for Fox News' visit- is our ROP program. SOH is one of the few schools in the county with classes like Culinary Arts and Autoshop. In fact, according to Dr. Armstrong, "We are the ONLY school in the county with 'state-of-the-art' equipment for these classes".

What does this mean? Well, SOH culinary arts class not only has the best pots and pans, but convection ovens that bake cookies in ten minutes, and video cameras that zoom in to the teacher's every move so that students know which cutting method is best for a given recipe. Autoshop has machines that lift up cars so that they can be looked at from every angle, and tools used in a professional auto repair shops. Yes, our ROP program is the best there is.

Are we the only school with ROP classes? Ms. Mesa, Culinary Arts teacher, explains that almost all schools in the district have them. However, the ROP coordinators focus only on one or two different programs per school. For example, at SOH we have the best Culinary Arts and Autoshop classes; at Olympian, they have the best Audio Technology class equipment.

Sometimes SOH students are so busy complaining about the bad things, that they forget about what makes our school unique. Joshua Brown, ASB president stated during his Fox News interview that what set our school apart was that we were “…the most spirited”. However, it is more than just being the school that screams the loudest; programs such as the above-mentioned, and others in the Bio-medical field offered here give students the preparation they need to go to college or to jump into work field. In the end, maybe we should thank Fox News for coming to remind us we have much to ‘show off’.

Spike It

Lady Raider Volleyball completes successful season
by Omar Arce

Last Friday the SOH women's Volleyball team played their last home game. Their opponent was the Sweetwater Red Devils. The game started with a brief ceremony recognizing the senior members of the team. Despite the brief moment of celebration, the Lady Raiders came out focused to play. In less than 10 minutes the Lady Raiders had an advantage of 18-4 in the first set with a lineup dominated by seniors. Sweetwater attempted to make a comeback with an 8 point streak. To stop the streak the Raider coaches, Mike Alviz and John Baino called for a timeout. This certainly helped, because as soon as the game resumed SOH scored. The Lady Raiders eventually won the first set 25-20 with a service error from Sweetwater.

The Lady Raiders started the second set with less seniors giving a chance to the other underclassmen to play. Nonetheless, they played as good as their senior counterparts. The Red Devils tried to win this set, obtaining a one point advantage of 13-12, but the Lady Raiders overcame the situation and won the second set.

It was the third set and the Lady Raiders only needed one more set to win the game. It looked easy, according to the previous sets, to win the third set. But it was not. The Red Devils won the first point and tried to cling to a 1-point advantage throughout the firs half of the set. But little did they know that the Raiders would overcome the deficit and finish the game in the third set with a kill by Denisse Atualevao, who was the only player to play the three sets continuously.

With this victory, SOH finishes the season with a record of nine victories and three losses, in second place of the Southbay League. The Lady Raiders will start their voyage into the play offs Tuesday November 10 at La Jolla

Zinch.com

Be More Than Just a Test Score
by Martin Zazueta

When applying to college and conducting scholarship searches students may feel that they are unjustly being over judged on their GPA and SAT/ACT scores. This can be very frustrating because many students know or feel that they have more potential than what just a few numbers can say.

However, those students need fear no more for there exists a website whose motto is: "I'm More Than Just a Test Score". This website is called Zinch.com and it is a sort of combination of Facebook and Scholarship.com. Here students can make an account to help fill out an academic and social profile in which they will be given a chance to show their full potential to universities. The website is filled with chances to show off your student accomplishments. Any clubs and sports you've participated in, any award/honor you've received or community service activities can be and are encouraged to be included in your student profile. Zinch even has a spot for student work called "Talent Show": here students can submit any essays, poetry, videos, and pictures that they would like colleges to see (try doing that on Scholarships.com).

The bread and butter of Zinch is that most colleges are actively using the site to search for potential students. Even better yet students can send "shout outs" to the universities that they are interested in receiving more information from those colleges which, in turn, can then review the student's awesome profile. Also Zinch takes all the information from the students profile and uses it to find scholarships whose criteria matches the student's profile. You might say that Scholarships.com and Fastweb.com but the fact is that Zinch will list for you most of the same scholarships that the other websites will list and even more scholarships that are rarely seen in other places.

So, don't delay any longer, students if you are going to spent hours online, instead of updating your myspace profile go make a Zinch profile at http://www.zinch.com/ to start finding scholarships and connecting with colleges.

World Series

Yankees Do It Again!
by Bob Chan

Paint the town in pinstripes! Nearly a decade after their dynasty ended on a blooper in the desert, the New York Yankees are baseball's best again. Hideki Matsui tied a World Series record with six RBIs, Andy Pettitte won on short rest and New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 on Wednesday night, finally seizing that elusive 27th title — the most in all of sports. It was the team's first since winning three straight from 1998-2000. Matsui, the Series MVP, powered a quick rout of old foe Pedro Martinez. And when Mariano Rivera got the final out, it was ecstasy in the Bronx for George Steinbrenner's go-for-broke bunch. What a way for Alex Rodriguez and Co. to christen their $1.5 billion ballpark: One season, one championship. It certainly ended a lot better than it started — with a steroids scandal involving A-Rod, followed by hip surgery that kept him out until May.



For Chase Utley and the Phillies, it was a frustrating end to another scintillating season. Philadelphia fell two wins short of becoming the first NL team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds. Utley tied Reggie Jackson's record with five home runs in a Series. But Ryan Howard's sixth-inning homer came too late to wipe away his World Series slump, and Phillies pitchers rarely managed to slow Matsui and the Yankees' machine. Steinbrenner spent billions trying to win another Series. At long last, his team did.Fittingly, it was dedicated to the 79-year-old owner, who has been in declining health and didn't make the trip from his home in Tampa , Fla.



For the Four Amigos, it was ring No. 5. Jorge Posada, Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera came up together through the minors and were cornerstones for those four titles in five years starting in 1996. Playing perhaps his final game with the Yankees, Matsui hit a two-run homer off Martinez in the second inning and a two-run single on an 0-2 pitch in the third.A designated hitter with balky knees, Matsui came off the bench in all three games at Philadelphia . Still, he had a huge Series, going 8 for 13 (.615) with three homers and eight RBIs. His go-ahead shot off an effective Martinez in Game 2 helped the Yankees tie it 1-all. Matsui's big hits built a comfortable cushion for a feisty Pettitte, who shouted at plate umpire Joe West while coming off the field in the fourth. Still, Pettitte extended major league records with his 18th postseason win and sixth to end a series.



It had been nearly a half-century since players had won five titles with one team. The last to do it? Of course a bunch of Yankees: Yogi Berra (10 titles), Mickey Mantle (seven) and Whitey Ford (six) in 1962, according to STATS LLC. For second-year manager Joe Girardi, a three-time Yankees champion as a player, it was the fulfillment of a mission. When he succeeded Joe Torre in October 2007, Girardi chose uniform No. 27, putting his quest on his back for all to see.