Author: The Prospector

The “BF” in C.K. McClatchy BF stands for Boettner Fleming, but it could just as easily stand for best friends. It is the name of McClatchy’s premier policy debate team, composed of two seniors, Nate Fleming and Eric Boettner. I had the opportunity to talk to both of them at the same time, and they clued me into not only the dynamic of their partnership, but policy debate as a whole.

CI: Describe policy debate for me in one sentence.

NF: There is a big question and we all argue about what the right answer is, for a year.

CI: What is the question this year?

NF: Should the U.S. federal government curtail its domestic surveillance.

CI: My understanding is that you can either argue yes we should, or no we should not.

EB: The point of debate isn’t to say yes or no to the question, it is to negate what the other team is saying. Me and Nate don’t really talk about the question at all, we just force the other team to answer us.

CI: How?

NF: The affirmative team is responsible for agreeing with the question. The negative is responsible for making the affirmative team look stupid. They have to respond to what the affirmative team is saying specifically. Eric and I typically like to do this by saying that surveillance is based on a fear of death and that makes us hate queer people, so we should become zombies.

CI: OK. That makes sense. How has the season gone for you so far?

EB: Pretty good. We were in a bid round in our first tournament of the year.

CI: So a bid round would be far?

EB: So the way things work is, your final goal is to go to the Tournament of Champions, and to do that you have to “bid” at two tournaments. The bid round at each tournament is during the later stages, where if you lose, you are out.

CI: Why do you love debate so much?

EB: For every class discussion I enjoy in school, there are 10 of those in debate. There aren’t any teachers telling us what we can and can’t say. In the end, it is a competition, and that also plays into why I like it.

NF: Yeah the competition is one of the best parts because you get to have those academic discussions but at the end someone actually wins. There’s a prize attached to it.

EB: They also serve us Chipotle at tournaments.

CI: Do a lot of schools like McClatchy do debate?

EB: No. At a national level, I would say McClatchy’s lack of funding is extremely unique.

NF: Nothing compared to almost all the teams we go up against in the more competitive rounds of our tournaments.

CI: And John Spurlock and Keenan Harris managed to win the Tournament of Champions three years ago?

NF: McClatchy was the first Californian public school to win the ToC in 35 years. Winners of the ToC are almost always private schools. When John and Keenan were in finals they were up against a team that receives 100,000 dollars a year. College Prep, a school, has 13 full times in the last 30 years has six coaches that make 60,000 dollars a year. We have one, part-time coach.

CI: How does the dynamic work with you guys as partners?

EB: I mean, me and Nate are me and Nate. It kinda just works.

CI: Do you guys complete each other, in a sense?

NF: Yes.

CI: How much work do you guys do an average per week, combined?

NF: Around 25 hours, but in the week before tournaments, around 40.

CI: And this is one of those weeks. You guys leave for a tournament tomorrow, October 15th, right?

EB: Yes, in Texas.

CI: What is your goal for the tournament?

EB and NF: Biiiiiiiiid.

NF: If we get in the top 16 teams out of 80, we get a bid.

CI: Are you guys feeling good about the tournament going into it?

NF: Yeah, there are a lot of good teams there, but there are also a lot of scrubs. I hope we face the scrubs. But we’ve already beaten some excellent teams in the two tournaments so far, so we are confident.

CI: What makes the program perform well despite the funding?

NF: We have a real, real, devoted coach, named Steven Goldberg, he helps us out for no money, splitting his time between three schools. Our parents sacrifice a lot, driving kids to tournaments that are sometimes 10 hours away.

EB: As well as just devotion from the debaters themselves. There are three seniors this year that are giving it their all. Shout out to Tony Hackett.

NF: We also have a lot of promise for the next two years. Our sophomores and our junior are on track to be devastatingly good by the time they are seniors.

CI: What would you say to freshman who are interested in policy debate but haven’t tried it yet, and are worried?

NF: Join it, try it out, stick with it. It’s a thing that takes a while to get a feel for. Don’t be terrified by the kids who read at 400 words per minute cause you won’t have to face those people yet anyway.

CI: Thank you, very much.

EB: Woooo, I did it!

McClatchy Women’s Golf Team brought home the title of Division 2 Sectional Champions. After playing 18 holes at Teal Bend Golf Club, McClatchy placed first with a team result of 472, beating Rocklin with a score of 496, and Kennedy with a score of 505. Senior, Katie Low had one of the best individual scores of 76, followed by Senior, Marisa Kwong with a score of 80.

The team started playing at 9 a.m. and did not finish until 3 p.m. due to the large amount of girls present at the tournament. The weather proved to be mild throughout the day. In the morning, the course was foggy and cold, and the green was wet with morning dew. However, as the day progressed, the sun broke out. After playing for an entire day, the team discovered that all of their scores were up, and that they had won Sectionals. All of the girls received their sections champion patches.
“It was a great experience,” said Jeannie Lam (‘16), “It was challenging both mentally and physically since we all pushed ourselves so hard, but I felt like I could have done better, there’s always room for improvement.”

This season, the team faced many other tough opponents, but was undefeated by the end. Kennedy proved to be one of the toughest teams this season, although they were still no match for McClatchy.

“This season was awesome,” said Sophomore, Tori Cano, “I’m so proud of our team and it feels so amazing to have made it to sectionals. It was awesome to have helped the team to be able to win and move on to masters, it’s a great accomplishment.”
The team moves on to Masters, where they will face tougher opponents. However, through practicing nearly every day of the week, the team will be ready for the upcoming tournament.

Ms. Monica Gonzalez has taken on the College and Career center at McClatchy, replacing Ms. Jessica Kunisaki, who is now working as a counselor at California Middle School. Ms. Gonzalez is from Salinas, a small farming town near Monterey. She attended U.C. Davis, and majored in Native American Studies and Chicano Studies.

Ms. Gonzalez found herself at McClatchy because she was looking for work straight out of school and wasn’t completely satisfied with any of the jobs she was finding. She previously worked for 4 years at a center that was based entirely on working with underrepresented minority communities, to help people within them get into higher education and stay there. Ms. Gonzalez knew she wanted to work hands on and help students again with her new job. When she heard about the position in the College and Career Center, she knew it was what she wanted.

McClatchy’s College and Career Center offers all your college needs from applying to UCs, private schools, community colleges, and state schools, to SATS and filling out the FAFSA financial aid form. Ms. Gonzalez is there to help with the process. The center also offers skills assessments, work permits, career planning, and 4- year plans. Ms. Gonzalez is trying to bring in freshman, “to start them off early and get them thinking about what they want to do, and how they are going to reach that goal.” The 4-year plan is centered on that idea of helping students achieve their goals. She is also there for seniors to help with the application process in general because she knows it is a stressful time.

Ms. Gonzalez’s goal for this year is to diversify the College and Career Center and to bring in everybody from 9th grade to 12th grade, regardless of whether or not they think they are going to college. She wants to help “students that have no idea to students whose families have been in college for generations.”

Ms. Gonzalez’s advice for students is that there are so many paths to higher education and they shouldn’t give up. She says that some students “start off really badly their freshman and sophomore years and think they can’t make a comeback, but they definitely can. Junior and senior year are the years that colleges look at most, and if you show that you are on a positive slope it is really exciting for college admissions officers.” Also, Ms. Gonzalez wants to let students know that even if they haven’t done well at all in high school, there are still options. She feels like a lot of students think they have no more chances, but wants them to know “it is not the end of the world. There are so many possibilities for higher education.” She says, “Students should come talk to me for help.”

Every college in America, at some point in time, goes to a high school for a college fair, if they don’t host one themselves. Just a couple of weeks ago, C. K. McClatchy held a college fair, giving many of these institutions the opportunity to show what makes them different than the rest. Such events allow students to communicate with college representatives for a better understanding of what they can expect from each college. Universities also like to go off of statistics of different high schools. This gives colleges the choice of what kind of students they are trying to attract to their schools. Schools like UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis have picked McClatchy precisely for the great student selection.
The CKM Prospector asked seniors about their enthusiasm following the college fair. Jesus Barraza said, “I wasn’t sure about college in the first place. When I went to the college fair it made me feel like I was super important just because I went to McClatchy. I went to the Sacramento State table; they were very friendly, and they were able to convince me that college is important and I should attend any college.”
Deyanira Zapata said, “I have always wanted to go to college. It’s very important to me and what I want to be. When I went to the college fair, I never knew how many colleges were out there. My dream college was there (UC Davis) and I was able to connect and talk to people from [this] great school.”
Isabel Olivas added, “I was iffy about college. I never knew if it was the right choice for me. My family has gone to college, however they say how stressful it is and I don’t know if I want to go through that. When I went to the college fair, it brought an exciting new aspect into my life. Not many people in the world can say they went to college, why waste my opportunity. I ended up getting multiple colleges that I liked and it wouldn’t have been possible if there was no college fair.”
College fairs change people’s minds in different ways, and inspire students to get the highest education possible, if they were reluctant to do so before.

Ask a person in their early 40s to say a big number and they will crack a wry smile. “One million,” they say, the well worn neural pathways of big number identification firing with ease. Ask a millennial to say a big number and there is a good chance they will not even look up from their mobile device, “10, ugh, can I have my participation trophy now?” Defined as anyone born between 1980 and 2000, but more accurately defined as a bunch of good for nothing babies, millennials are a pox on this country.
For a while they had everyone tricked. Articles praised them as the next big thing, poised to rival the Greatest Generation. However, instead of winning two World Wars and escaping the Depression, millennials consciously decided to cause global warming and destroy the world economy. Think about it, there is a direct correlation between the existence of millennials and climate change. It is obviously the result of smoking hot internet data melting the ice caps. And this doesn’t even address the multitude of offenses committed by current high schoolers, whose laziness manifests itself in their infamous free time arithmetic.
As they tell it, students have six hours of homework each night and attend school for seven hours a day. Add the hour to get ready and go to school, three hours for after school clubs and activities, an hour for dinner with the family, eight hours to sleep each night, that leaves…negative two hours to enjoy themselves. In reality, they plagiarize and CliffsNotes their way to a university that teaches them nothing about how to work with their goddamn hands. The nation is in shambles, and the path to salvation runs through a generation of kids too busy whining to notice. Good luck, dummies.

With the 2016 presidential election rapidly approaching, the time has come to watch the candidates fight it out in the debates. On September 16th, the second round of debates kicked off and the country watched as eleven of the Republican candidates took the stage, including Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, and Rand Paul. Because there are so many candidates running, there was also an “undercard” Republican debate which showcased Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki. The debate covered a wide range of topics from immigration and the nuclear deal with Iran to same-sex marriage and federal funding of Planned Parenthood. However, no matter the discussion at hand, those vying for the presidency did whatever they could to win themselves some votes.
Due to her recent rise in the polls, Carly Fiorina was the only candidate to have risen out of the undercard debate and into prime time.The former CEO is also widely reported to have “won” the debate as she was able to refute accusatory statements thrown at her by Donald Trump and make some digs of her own. As expected, Trump was the center of most of the debate’s controversy, going on both the defensive and offensive to address his fellow candidates. As the New York Times reported, he was called “sophomoric” by Senator Rand Paul, “an entertainer” by Carly Fiorina, and “an apprentice” by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and one of Trump’s favorite targets, also issued attacks, claiming that Trump would act out of his own economic interests as president. All of these, of course, issued sassy retorts from the billionaire as he told Bush “[George Bush’s] administration gave us Barack Obama because it was such a disaster.”
While the other candidates may have been a little less dramatic, they still did their best to sell themselves to the American public. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson pushed his unconventional agenda, lamenting modern politics in an attempt to connect with frustrated voters. Senator Marco Rubio reached out to Hispanic voters, talking about the importance of speaking Spanish in his family. Chris Christie placed an emphasis on national security as he shared his personal experience of almost losing his wife in the September 11th attacks. Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich also focused on foreign affairs as they debated over Iran. Additionally, Kasich managed to single himself out as more of a centrist Republican, compared to the right wing candidates around him, as he stressed cooperation and warned fellow Republicans of the drawbacks of a government shutdown.
From Washington D.C. to Sacramento, California, election buzz has also landed here at McClatchy. This year’s Republican debate has seemed to have made an impact, especially to the class of 2016, as most of the students will be of voting age by the time primaries and generals roll around. Some even got the chance to complete their voting registration in advance on Friday, September 25th, during a mock election. Teachers have also been getting caught up in the excitement, including Ellen Wong, who assigned watching the debate as homework to her government students. Whether it be the drama of the campaign or pure democratic passion, it seems as though no one can get enough of the 2016 presidential race.

The sporty side of Sacramento is getting a whole new look as construction continues on the King’s new arena. Given its name in June 2015, the Golden 1 Center is estimated to cost one billion dollars by the time of its completion. Besides a basketball court, the center is set to include a huge public plaza right next to a luxury hotel. The arena has been several years in the making, the first move beginning in 2011 with mayor Kevin Johnson’s dogged campaign to find new owners for the Kings, as well as his mission to persuade the City Council to approve 255 million dollars of public funds to build the Golden 1 Center.
The road to the new King’s stadium has not been an easy one. Controversy still surrounds its construction; residents of Sacramento are torn in their support, as reported by the New York Times in an article about the new stadium. Many consider the prospect of a new arena to be a negative thing and think that the construction costs would drag the city into debt. Those on this side of the controversy point to the King’s losing record of 29 wins and 53 losses last season as well as almost 10 years without an appearance in the playoffs as support for their argument that an unsuccessful team would not bring enough economic interest to the arena.
Conversely, those who support the arena stand with Kevin Johnson in the belief that the addition of the new arena will not only renew Sacramento’s civic pride but also bring in new business and job opportunities, according to the Times. Supporters of the Golden 1 Center believe it has already offered some economic aid since it has replaced the underperforming Downtown mall. Many also feel that having an NBA team in Sacramento is just plain cool and would like to see the Kings carry on.
Even without a city-wide consensus, production continues as the future Golden 1 Center gets bigger and bigger each day. As of now, the arena is set to be ready for the 2016 NBA season. No one knows exactly what the new arena will mean for the Kings or for the city of Sacramento but one thing is for sure – Sacramento is about to get a lot more sporty!