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Leo the Lion Triumphs at Post Nationals!
Month: October 2017
Screaming, shouting, clipboards smashing against white boards—the sounds of a typical high school football locker room.
It’s no secret that football coaches are “passionate” about football. “Varsity Blues,” a classic American high school football movie, is a perfect demonstration of how disgruntled coaches can react when things don’t go their way. However, not all coaches emulate the “indignant, discontent coach” that most people picture.
Malcolm Floyd, McClatchy’s head football coach, former Fresno State and Houston Oilers wide receiver, was born in San Francisco, in 1972, and moved to Sacramento in 1974. He had a difficult childhood, as he grew up poor in Oak Park, but what he did always have was a supportive family. “My family always taught love,” Malcolm Floyd said. Unconditional love and respect, something his family had taught him, is something he tries to teach not only his football players, but also his students.
Of the football players interviewed, they all think he’s a great coach, and that he boosts morale and helps them improve in their day to day lives. Malcolm Floyd uses a different method of coaching than what you’d expect. Instead of being a hot headed, malicious coach that rules with an iron fist, he tries to have fun with his player because at the end of the day, “football is just a game.”
Mr. Floyd said that “teaching is better than being in the NFL,” as, “being in the NFL is all for me, all for making the money because you don’t make a change.” For those who don’t know, Malcolm Floyd attended C.K. McClatchy, and his experience at this school wasn’t so great. The reason he came back here to teach and coach was to make a difference in the lives of the students he has the privilege to work with. Being at this school and teaching not just academics and football, but also important morales like respect, love, discipline, and dedication, helps him influence the future generation into a better one.
Malcolm Floyd teaches his students and football players the importance of respect and love every day, and that’s what makes him such a loved coach, teacher, and person.
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The Poetic Nature of Fall
Fall of Memories
By: Emily
My September boy who brings cold wind that nips at my skin
He sends mischievous leaves to tangle in my hair
When we are together the days seem to last for a moment but the nights forever
Walking with him I can hear the leaves announce our presence with joy
Without him the oranges reds and yellows fade to grey and the beauty of fall seems to have never lasted
Día de los Muertos
By: Victoria
Family skulls of the past come at night
Their cold embrace brings comfort not fright
A Celebration during day, they are back some might say
We all missed you, my friends
Come and gather so this party may never end
You see there is an altar,
It’s what represents you and your life
With kisses as sweet as death
We will miss you
Thank you for your presence
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Should they Kneel?
In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, knelt as the national anthem played at his team’s football game to protest police brutality against people of color. Since then, other athletes have joined in his protest. Many, most notably President Donald Trump, have condemned the athletes’ use of kneeling as a sign of protest, saying that it is disrespectful to the American flag and military.
At first, Kaepernick protested not by kneeling, but by sitting down as the anthem played. He changed to kneeling because he believed it was more respectful than sitting. Kneeling also carries more powerful symbolism: people traditionally kneel when they wish to show reverence or respect. For example, athletes might kneel when a fellow player is injured on the field.
The Prospector polled 102 McClatchy students to gauge their feelings on this issue. When asked if athletes should have the right to kneel during the national anthem, most students said yes: a majority of 59.8%. 14.7% answered no, and the remaining 25.5% said they were undecided.
Although most McClatchy students agree that athletes should have the right to kneel, not everyone necessarily supports the protests. One ROTC student, who wished to remain anonymous, said athletes do have the right to protest, but added that “just because they have the right to protest, doesn’t mean it isn’t disrespectful.”
While this poll showed how students feel about the kneeling protests, many media outlets have covered the controversy around the kneeling, but hardly mentioned that they were started as a protest against police brutality. Many wonder if perhaps the controversy around the protests was distracting people from their intended message. The Prospector decided a second poll was necessary, this time to determine the students’ thoughts on police brutality — the issue itself.
The Prospector polled 55 students to determine if they thought police brutality in America was an issue worth protesting. Of these students, 89% said yes, 7.3% said no, and 3.6% were unsure.
It is clear that the large majority of students believe that police brutality in America is a serious problem worthy of protest, despite their colder stance on the use of kneeling. While we are not sure how many of these opinions were affected by the kneeling, the athletes involved likely would be glad to hear that so many young people are paying attention to the issue.
This controversy is not the first time athletes have used their sport to protest. Legends like Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and many other athletes like them were politically active. At the 1968 Olympic Games, runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a black power salute during the national anthem, as they were given their medals. Afterwards, they were expelled from the Olympics and harshly criticized.
Some McClatchy students recently showed support for the protests at the Homecoming Rally. With the ROTC Color Guard standing at attention as senior Ashley Reid sang the national anthem, several seniors took a knee, presumably to show solidarity with the protesters. Though their actions were met with some shouts from students across the gym, who yelled “Get up!” or “Are you kidding me?” the seniors continued to kneel.
It seems that while a majority of McClatchy students agree with the purpose of the protests, some may believe that kneeling isn’t the best medium for protest.
McClatchy has had a successful speech and debate team for years. Our debate team qualifies for the National Championship Tournament and our speech team makes it to the Grand National tournament regularly. But if you ask around, not many people seem to know exactly what these teams do.
To understand speech and debate, one must know that the two entities are separate. Speech and debate meetings even occur on different days of the week (Monday and Tuesday, respectively). Though they sometimes compete at the same tournaments and both involve public speaking, there are very distinct differences between the two.
“Speech is an academic competition that offers a variety of events for high school students to compete in. Those events range from improvisational, to competitions of works that students compose themselves, to interpretations that come from dramatic and humorous plays,” says Mark A. Hernandez Sr., the head coach of McClatchy’s speech team and Executive Director of the Sacramento Urban Debate League.
The McClatchy speech team of 6 students tends to specialize in the interpretation events, in which contestants partake in what is essentially competitive acting of 10 minute monologues, though there are those who compete in events like impromptu, where a topic is given two minutes before each speech, and the competitor then must give a 5 minute speech on that topic.
Though events in speech are mostly individual, new and old students alike still feel a close knit and communal bond with their small team. “This is my first time being here, and automatically when I came in I felt accepted in this room,” said Dylan Anderson, a Junior attending his first speech meeting.
“[Speech is] somewhere I can always come and know that I have a home, and it’s something I always look forward to every Monday. It’s a very welcoming, fun community,” said Molly Martin, a senior who has done Speech and Debate all 4 years of high school.
Debate at McClatchy is much larger than speech. The team is growing fast, with around 20 members already. The team has 3 coaches in Sacramento alone, and another based in Washington state. Many of these members come to McClatchy as freshman having debated in middle school. “I did speech and debate in middle school, so I decided to continue doing that here … I heard McClatchy had a really good speech and debate program — it’s one of the only reasons I came here,” said Freshman Eden Getahun.
As with speech, there are many different forms of debate. McClatchy mainly focuses on the form of debate known as policy, which entails “two teams of two discussing different ways to go about a resolution, [and] we have the same topic for the whole school year,” said Molly Martin. The topic usually involves political policy within the United States.This form of debate allows for thorough discussion of the topic from various angles. Often, teams will get creative in round to prove a point, from reading poetry to literally hexing Donald Trump.
CKM debate also includes parliamentary debate, which involves two teams of two debating a topic that was given to them 20 minutes before a round.
Even though work is involved outside of meetings, such as going to tournaments over the weekends, researching, developing and preparing arguments, most say any sacrifice is small in comparison to the benefits of debate, “Debate is really fun, and the sacrifices involved are worth it.” said Sophomore Adrienne Marcin.
Debate is an activity that comes with many benefits, according to much of the team. Of course, there’s the intellectual gain –“It’s a greater understanding of philosophy … things that are less obvious, in terms of a subject at hand. Allowing us to find responses that aren’t so inherently visible.” said Sophomore Ian Keithley.
Then there’s the social gain. “I have a community of friends that I can count on for the rest of my life,” said Molly Martin.
Even though many of us do not know much about speech and debate, it continues to be a quiet powerhouse, consistently attracting talented freshman to our school, and producing outstanding and successful students.
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CKM Volleyball, at its Peak!
This year, the CKM volleyball team has been doing amazing–the best they have ever done! They have been on a winning streak and are 10-3, but their only losses have been in preseason. After speaking with two of the captains, Madisen Pearce and Kate Widman, The Prospector was able to get the inside scoop on the team.
Pearce and Widman explained the differences between this year and last year, “It is so much better than last year, no drama. The players are better and more committed. We all work really hard and have a qualified coach.” With all of these really great qualities, they have the recipe for winning.
The key to success is great team chemistry. They can trust each other, leading them to many wins. The team believes they can go really far in the season. Not only this season, but also next season. Because Pearce and Widman are Seniors, they won’t be able to play for CKM next year, but they have very high hopes. They believe the team will continue to do really well next year. “The future team has a lot of potential” they remarked. Overall the CKM volleyball season is going very well. And no matter what happens, not only will the Captains still love their team, but CKM will too. Madisen Pearce repeats a High School Musical quote to her team before each game, “Lions, get your head in the game!”
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Freshman Year, Hit or Miss?
Many new faces here at McClatchy don’t really know what to expect. From new class to clubs and sports, many don’t even know where to start. But a lot of Freshman have adjusted well, feeling welcomed and loved within such a large, and sometimes confusing, campus. Some freshman, like Jacob Morales, so far love McClatchy, saying it is “fun and exciting!” However, coming from a small middle school, many are intimidated by McClatchy’s large size. But, many freshmen have become used to it, as once you have been here for a couple weeks, you already feel like you are apart of the school.
To get more involved, some students have joined sports teams or have gotten involved in other school activities. Others, like Max Jernigan, have participated in McClatchy’s events, as he “liked the dance!” Max, like many other freshman has loved the opportunity to start making new friends. Many of the Freshman have a lot of upsides and very few dislikes. Their dislikes include “having no service on the campus” and “how the days are 7 hours instead of 6, like in middle school.” Even though it has only been 3 weeks, most freshmen can already see themselves having a great 4 years at McClatchy!
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AFJROTC’s New Indoor Soccer Team
Besides water polo, tennis, and football, there’s a new sport team at McClatchy–AFJROTC’s indoor soccer. McClatchy’s unit competed with other AFJROTCs in seven tournaments and competitions. These tournaments included basketball, volleyball, softball, fun Olympics, and even chess. The first sport tournament was on Saturday, September 30th with indoor soccer. Everyone was welcome to watch.
McClatchy took home third place that day. McClatchy had five matches and one penalty kick. McClatchy tied with Del Campo but won the penalty kick, thanks to 11th grader Nico Prosh and 9th grader Emmanuel Rodriguez. McClatchy also beat Casa Roble 3-1 and Hiram Johnson 1-0. But our streak ended when McClatchy lost to Whitney 2-6. McClatchy then fought Fairfield for third place and won 2-1.
Indoor soccer was held in Del Campo’s gyms. Nine high schools competed: McClatchy, Whitney, Hiram Johnson, Valley High, De Anza, High Lands, Casa Roble, and Fairfield. For every win, the school earns three points, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss. Games were 10 minutes without breaks. Only the semifinals, fight for third place, and championship were 20 minutes and had half-time. Each team sent five members to the field, and substitutes switched. Our team had 10 members.
There were many memorable moments throughout the tournament. One was when 9th grade Fate Garcia scoring a last minute goal against Casa Roble. Other JROTC students, who didn’t play but cheered, hyped up the team before the games. The cheers rang for every time McClatchy got closer to the opponent’s goal. McClatchy roared for every point, especially Emmanuel’s tiebreaker in penalty kicks and blocking Del Campo.
But there were frustrating moments, such as the first half against Fairfield. Both teams fought the ball back and forth but scored no goals. It was painful to watch and dread about another future penalty kick. And to make matters worse, two opponents crashed into Emmanuel. Emmanuel switched with Preston to be forward. After the crash, he had a foot injury, and Alejandro substituted for him.Thankfully the constant tugging ended in the last half when Chenxi and Elena finalized the score.
Overall the first indoor soccer tournament was a success. The unit can’t wait for next year’s tournament. As for now, McClatchy’s AFJROTC has to prepare for another tournament coming up–softball.
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Goodbye, Mr. Dobrescu
Gino Dobrescu, McClatchy’s beloved Vice Principal, recently left to become Principal of Pony Express Elementary. Dobrescu’s career in education has seen him as a math teacher at Sutter before taking up an administrative position here at McClatchy. As Vice Principal, Dobrescu had many jobs around the McClatchy campus, including helping students to sign up for AP tests, and being part of the morning announcements, as well as giving the weekly robocalls and emails to inform parents about McClatchy events. And those are just the things McClatchy students saw him doing. As Vice Principal, Dobrescu had many other administrative duties as well, like scheduling repairs and filing paperwork.
C.K. McClatchy’s students have been saddened by the loss of Mr. Dobrescu. Emilio Prince, a junior, says, “I’ll miss his positive attitude.” Most students have seen Mr. Dobrescu running around school taking care of different tasks as a vice principal. He was always friendly towards students and staff when going around the school. Despite losing Mr. Dobrescu, the students are still happy for him.
Ariadne Casteneda, a junior, says, “I’m happy for him to have a better job position. However, I am sad he left. He was very important to our community and will be missed.”
Jake Dean, a sophomore, says “It’s a loss for the school, but I’m glad he’ll be able to help out another school.”
Mr. Dobrescu was always friendly and active at school. He could be seen at concerts that the music department put on, checking in on classrooms to see how they were doing, and would always participate in school events. When the Japanese room was changed back to its original room, Mr. Dobrescu would peek his head into the classroom and check how things were going until the broken air conditioner was fixed. Mr. Dobrescu did alot for the school and his presence will be missed by the students. Although we are sad to say goodbye to Mr. Dobrescu, the McClatchy family wishes him good luck in his new job as an Elementary school principal.
Last Year, the SCUSD (Sacramento City Unified School District) started Early Release Thursdays. Schools release students one hour earlier than normal on Thursdays to allow time for teachers to attend mandatory meetings. According to the SCUSD website, these meetings “give teachers dedicated time every week to get together and plan lessons, share ideas and discuss ways to improve instruction.” In practice, however, Early Release schedules have proven confusing to teachers and students alike.
To determine how teachers felt on this issue, I polled several teachers, asking them if they thought Early Release Thursdays were productive. Of those I polled, the large majority supported the policy: 20 of the 32 teachers polled said that Early Release Thursdays were productive, the information gained by the meetings was worth the confusing class times. Of the remaining teachers polled, 6 said they thought Early Release Thursdays were not productive, and the other 6 teachers were undecided.
As a student, I enjoy that Early Release Thursdays provide us with extra time on Thursdays to meet up, or work on projects, or just relax. However, the Early Release bell has been known to catch teachers off guard, often in the middle of a lesson. While this was humorous for a while, it has gotten old fast.
Mr. Warren, a biology teacher, was particularly frustrated with the Early Release system. “It shortens my class!” he told the Prospector. “My students would be better served by me teaching them rather than by me being in a meeting.”
Whether or not we like the Early Release policy, it seems to be here to stay for the time being. And although the shortened periods can be very confusing and annoying, most CKM teachers agree that the informative staff meetings are worth the large inconveniences the system can cause.
Plus, some extra leisure time for students each week doesn’t hurt.