The Mariner Compass

By Isabelle De Armoun

 He stands  5’10 will scraggly hair, tattered Carhartts and a smile that’s says, “I didn’t do it,”  He’s Parker Sorensen. Some might say he’s boy creating chaos in the halls, other might say he’s an extremist, but when I look at him I see a boy living his life to the fullest.
When many see trash in a dumpster they think it’s trash and that’s why it’s there, but not Sorensen, I have seen myself how this boy can take trash or thrown away science equipment and use it as  makeshift snow skates that turns  into a fun time of gliding down snowy stairs.

 He’s a person not defined by words or timing or atmosphere, he lets nothing hold him back and goes for anything, even if it’s to unicycle down a suspended beam 60 feet above the ground. He sees a tree and doesn’t think climb but jump.
 
I feel rather lucky having spent the time I have with Sorensen. He has taught me to look past what’s in front of me to beyond. We have climbed snowy trees to the very top, when I reached the top I felt accomplished and frightened a little at the same time but not Parker. He jumped below, plummeting in to countless feet of snow. Looking back up is where he finds his accomplishment.  For him its not about the climbed up the tree or the fall down but the whole experience itself. 
 
Parker might not be your average high school senior right now, but he’s filled with senioritis and excitement like the rest. He’s not going off to college like some of his other class mates, but he is looking forward to his next adventure of traveling with friends by his side.

Soccer Season Preview

By Ryan Navrot

It’s almost time. There’s less than ten days to cross out on the calendar. It’s as exciting as that moment where you realize that you’re no longer a boy, you’re a man.

Homer High School’s soccer season.

Preseason has already begun, for soccer; players are already starting to get ready for the eventful season that awaits them. There are at least two big trips already planned: their first game, where the varsity boys plays Palmer in the Dome in Anchorage is a rematch against the team they lost against in a PK shootout in regions, and a trip up north against Chugiak.

There are new faces on Homer’s team this year, so many new faces that coaches Warren Waldorf and Sue Rennolds might be forced to find another coach for a C team. However, if budgets will not allow another coach, the team might be cut from 45+ players down to thirty six.

Many of this year’s freshmen are trying out for soccer, freshmen who “have high expectations for themselves,” said Coach Waldorf. One of his concerns was whether or not the underclassmen can live up to their reputation. He stated that he was excited to meet all the new players, and was curious to see if they have what it takes to “make their dreams come true.”

One of the new faces, Porter Livingston, seems to, as Warren said, “have what it takes.” He actually taught soccer to younger kids over the summer. But freshmen aren’t the only new faces. Dan Adickes, senior, said that he might try out for soccer for the first time since middle school. Our exchange students, Lennart von Schlichting and Vegard Unhje, from Germany and Norway respectively, will also be going out for the team.

Dedicated soccer fanatic, Pedro Ochoa, who jumps at the chance to even kick any sort of ball around, is among one of other familiar faces. Pedro claims to have been training for soccer all summer, also participating in sports such as wrestling to get into shape for his upcoming soccer season. He says he plans to take more shots during games and be a real team player. Pedro said to all potential players “Just go for it, it doesn’t hurt to try!”

This year a new system was established to give $34,381 out of $170,000 to traveling teams on their way up to sports events, in order to pay for expensive bus rides and fares. Every team got a slice of the money to make the cost on students easier, every team except DDF.

DDF, or Drama Debate and Forensics, has a yearly admissions cost of $190, all of which comes out of the student’s pocket. Additionally adding bus fares, hotel fares, and food money, and now every member of the DDF team spends on average $400-500 to be on and compete with the team.

This year’s DDF team has been increasingly successful at competitions, taking first and second overall at regular meets and placing third in Forensics and Drama at state. This success has drawn the eye of Homer High Principal Dr. Allan Gee, who has already asked site council about the idea of funding the DDF team.

“I hope that they will look at the fact that we are a successful team, and place at state,” said Amy Christianson, recent winner of the “DDF Coach of the Year” award.

By: Megan Gee

The transportation meeting was held on February 21 at 7 pm in the Homer High School theater to discuss the potential changing of school times across the southern peninsula. Fifty two people came to argue their points and try to solve the problem we currently have.

The assistant superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, Dave Jones, traveled to Homer to explain why the school times need to change. He explained that we need to save $750,000 on transporting students to and from school. To do this the southern peninsula needs to go to a two-tiered busing system. We currently use a single-tiered system. If we switch to the two-tiered system, it will eliminate about half the buses we use, which would save close to $350,000.

Jones identified a problem with the two-tiered system; the times schools start. In order for this system to work, the elementary schools will either need to start earlier at 7:40, or later at 9:00. The middle school and high schools are facing the same dilemma.

At the meeting parents bantered back and forth about which school should start earlier or later. Dr. Gee said, “ We can’t start later. We are already having a hard enough time contracting with other schools to start games at 3:30. There is no way to start any later.”

An elementary school parent angrily commented, “So this decision is going to be made based on the high school, and the elementary school will not even be considered.” The parents of the elementary school students felt that their children should start earlier. Some parents worried that if they started later they will not be able to find child care for after school when they are working.

In the school poll to see what time students wanted to start school 61% of the Homer High School students want to have the earlier start time of 7:40. The other 39% want school start at 9:00. An earlier start time would release students earlier to start work or sports practices could begin earlier. A later start time would make practice start later, and students may not be able to work if they need to.

The next meeting to discuss the transportation issue is the board meeting on March 5th. Whatever is decided will be put into place by the start of school in August.

Picture from studyhalldaycarecenter.com

By:Tabitha Drover

“WHAT?! She’s retiring?! That sucks! She’s one of my favorite teachers!” Kayla Roach expressed her opinions at Mrs.Thompson retiring after this 2011/2012 school year.

Sharon Thompson, a teacher of biology, earth science, and physics, is retiring from Homer High School after working since fall 2002. “It’s time for me to retire. My children both live in the lower 48. My daughter lives Colorado with her husband. My son is in graduate school in Oregon, and I want to see them more then once a year. I’m not going to miss the paper work but I’m going to miss the kids.”

Many freshmen who are in her biology class talked about how she teaches so they can understand but also so that the classroom is constantly full of laughter. But how do her co-workers feel?

“She’s a really good teacher. She helps a lot of new coming freshman get adjusted. She also gets along well staff and everyone really likes her. She’s a really nice person. I shall miss her professionally as well as personally,” said guidance counselor Lin Hampson.

Emily Schmidt, senior, said “I’m going to miss her, but I’m happy for her. I hope she’s happy and enjoys whatever she plans to do.”

“She really helped me a lot my freshman year! It’s sad she’s retiring but I’m happy she’ll be able to go on and do the stuff she wants to,” said Adella Sundmark.

“I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we wish her the best when she leaves,” Roach added.

Coach Mark Casseri, Credit: Homer Tribune

By Lauren Cashman

Midway through the Seward Invitational Basketball Tournament a few weeks ago, the Lady Mariner basketball program found themselves in a serious predicament; due to uncontrollable events, they were in need of a coach in the midst of a tournament.

Dennis Welch approached Mark Casseri, the boys’ basketball coach, and requested that he cover for the weekend while he left town on family business.

Mr. Casseri said that he would “help in any way that he could,” and promptly took on the daunting task of coaching both basketball teams for the weekend.

Upon arriving back at school, Mr. Welch decided he needed to remain with his family; Dr. Gee agreed with his decision and transferred the responsibilities of the girls’ basketball program to Mr. Casseri, who became head of both programs.

In addition to the departure of Mr. Welch, the other member of the girls’ coaching staff, Dan Miotke, received a once in a lifetime opportunity to float the Colorado River with his wife, and left the program as well. Tim Daugharty, one of the other coaches for the boys team, also agreed to help run the program.

With his program almost doubling in size, the teams consist of 28 boys and 18 girls, Mr. Casseri jokingly said that “it’s a lot of late hours and more headaches.” He is adamant that there should be a female chaperone on all trips and is taking seriously the responsibility of being a male coach in a female program.

Casseri said that he is really getting back to basics with the girls, saying that “we’re doing in February what we would be doing at the beginning of the season.” He is working on physicality with them and says that his practices are focused around nonstop movement. He can already see a difference in their physical abilities, saying that their recovery time is increasing, whether it’s during a free-throw or a time out, and they’re not fatiguing as much.

The coaches are not the only people noticing a difference in the girls’ performance; sophomore Megan Gee claims that “practices are much more intense now.” Junior Maggie Graham said “the first practice was really intimidating, because it’s Mr. Casseri, but the team really pulled together, and we’ve been working hard.”

While Mr. Casseri will not return as the girls’ basketball coach next year, he plans to finish this current season out and lay a strong foundation for whoever is going to coach the program next year.

By: Megan Gee & Tabitha Drover

In most Homer High School classes  kids have unlimited hall passes and just get the class pass and leave with the teacher’s permission. Lately a new pass has been put into place in Mrs.Webb and Mrs.Thompson’s classes. The pass limits the students so they can only leave class a certain amount of times during the semester. With Mrs.Webb’s passes students may only leave four times. But with Mrs.Thompson’s passes students may leave eight times.

Mrs. Webb, said when she first started teaching she had students leaving the classroom everyday. She then decided to limit the amount of times students could leave the classroom to stop the abuse of the pass.

Mrs.Thompson, a science teacher who implements the limited hall passes, said “I had people abusing the pass. People were taking their cell cell phones and leaving for the bathroom for 10 minutes. “I got tired of trying to battle it, so I limited the passes,” said Mrs. Thompson. “Some students need to go to the nurses more ofter then others actually need to, so I let those people just take the regular pass.” Do all people feel it’s fair?

Some students do not approve and feel it causes discomfort for kids who actually have to use the bathroom but can’t because they’ve used all of their passes. Robert Hockema, freshman, said, “I think it’s pretty stupid. You can’t expect students to not need to go to their lockers at all and have everything ready for class. 4-5 minutes typically isn’t enough. Plus, we have bladders. The teachers decide when we need to go to the bathroom, so the ‘you have plenty of time during the break’ thing doesn’t work.”

Limited hall passes has not had a great effect on some other students, however. Sophomore Rachael Doan said the limited passes has no effect on her whatsoever. She feels she can still go to the bathroom or get a drink of water whenever she needs. Most of the time she said she never uses her passes.

Students do not seem to have a problem having a limited number of hall passes. They can use the restroom during the 5 and 10 minute breaks given between classes and at lunch. The hall passes are just there to lean on when they need an item out of their locker, or a quick stop at the bathroom. The passes did not make them feel like they could not use the bathroom, it just put a limit to how much class time they are missing.

By Akane Fujimura
     Theo Noomah

Reviews of Homer’s annual Mass Choir performance passed from director Mark Robinson, friends, families and audience members; “emotional,” “moving,” “powerful,” “blew me away.” Perhaps just as important as the musical performance was Homer’s outstanding professionalism, which Dr. Peter, the guest conductor, recognized as one of Homer students’ defining features.

Each high school performed two songs independently, except for Nikiski and Seward who combined their choirs. Kenai, who hosted this festival, also broke the trend by singing three songs with orchestral accompaniment, an ordeal that lasted nearly thirty minutes and bordered on the excessive. Skyview’s Director Kent Peterson commented on Homer’s performance. “I always look forward to the Homer choir performance. Mr. Robinson does a great job preparing the choir and they always sound great.” Vernel Schneider, Soldotna’s director, agreed, “I heard only a small part of the Homer performance. What I did hear was excellent.”

This year, there were eight soloists, four of which were from Homer. Everyone, students and directors alike, seemed to agree that Dr. Peter had a sound method of picking soloists. Joey Bishop, one of the soloists from Skyview, said, “At first, during the auditions, I was so over whelmed and I couldn’t perform the piece well, but Dr. Peter was able to see past that apparently. When I was preforming on stage during the concert, I wasn’t that nervous and was able to focus on singing and having fun.”

Duncan Brewer, a student from Kenai, who soloed in “The Water is Wide”, gave his impression of Dr. Peter, “The guest conductor was the best I have ever had at a choir event in Alaska. I really liked him because he was calm, knew our limits as a choir and did not try to use weird techniques to get us to sound good. He was simply a great conductor.” Lucas Schneider, who soloed with Duncan agreed, “He’s never over the top and screaming or shouting- very focused and knows what he’s doing.”

"The Water is Wide" soloists; from left, Duncan Brewer, Lucas Schneider and Joey Bishop

Few of the KPBSD directors had worked with Dr. Peter before. “I know very little about him except what I learned at the festival. He seems to be a great individual and certainly a talented and effective clinician and director. I enjoyed his sense of humor and his ability to portray that to the group and to handle their response,” Vernel Schneider said.

The combined Choir performed six songs. The advantage of Mass Choir is the size. As Vernel Schneider says, often smaller groups do not have the ability to do difficult literature and sing in a large ensemble with all choral parts. “Each year quality literature is performed and great clinicians are brought in to lead the groups.” Kent Peterson gave his impression about the music. “The music was challenging but very attainable for the large group. The variety of music was also very good, everything from Franz Haydn (1700’s) to Requiem (2008).”

Director, Mr. Robinson reminded his students not to develop an attitude, “Walk our walk, don’t talk it,” he said at the end of the discussion. His emphasis on maintaining humility, along with strong musicianship has developed a choir that is professional, musical, and respectful.