One thing college scouts can count on is finding classy and skilled athletes at RAL. This year, one exceptional athlete, J Nusbaum, is keeping the college sports tradition alive.

 On February 3 in the RAL auditorium, Nusbaum officially signed the letter of intent to play football at MSU Northern With a three fourths football scholarship.

Nusbaum played an extraordinary season of high school football which earned him first team all league defensive back and first team all league kick returner along with first team all state defensive back and state honorable mention wide receiver.

“The reason I chose MSU Northern is, just by watching one highlight film,  they made me a scholarship offer immediately,” Nusbaum said

 Nusbaum is following a prestige class of athletes. Last year , two students  received sports scholarships to four year universities: Scott Shelton received a full tuition scholarship to Central Washington University for football, and Bailey Harris received a full ride scholarship to UW for softball.

“So few people get the chance to compete in college sports so I feel that it is an honor to be asked to play anywhere,” Nusbaum said.

J Nusbaum knows that playing at a higher level will not be easy and there is a lot of hard work ahead of him. He plans on hitting the weights  hard this off-season to get bigger, faster, and stronger.

“If I can really get my weight up and maintain my grades, I will be good to go,” Nusbaum said.

J plans on majoring in education and  becoming a middle school or high school teacher. Also, he wishes to get a degree in coaching and become a head football coach someday.

Over 200 students, friends, and family members attended J’s signing ceremony. Athletic Director Ty Morris spoke about his memories of J over the past four years. Following him, head football coach Eric Bertram spoke of J’s ambition and accomplishments and the importance of his teammates. After the speeches a highlight film of J’s senior year was shown and preceding that, the signing of the letter of intent.

It was a close loss as the RAL girls’ basketball team fell to the Monarchs 30-40 here at the Lumberdome on Feb 8.

A slow start was the downfall for the Jills.  They were behind 5-12 at the end of the first quarter and 11-20 at halftime.  Though outscoring the Monarchs in the fourth quarter, the Jills couldn’t pull out a victory.

“Defensively, I felt the girls played extremely well.  They played very physical and aggressive,” said Mr. Ott, girls’ basketball head coach.

The Monarchs’ strong defense prevented the Jills from getting shots up, as well as their dominating rebound stats.

Sadie Petersen 12 led RAL with 12 points and Tirzah Coalman 12 put up six.  Petersen was the high scorer of the game; no Monarch scored more than six points.

In the previous Civil War game, the Jills were narrowly defeated by the Monarchs 40-39.

Of the first loss, Mr. Ott was “happy with our effort.  It was a disappointing loss to a cross-town rival, but I was proud of how the girls played.”

This loss may have been the nail in the coffin for the Jills’ playoff dreams.  Only Jill victories in their final three games of the season can guarantee that the Jills clinch fourth place in league and the district pigtail playoff game.

In the final league games of the season, the Jills faced off against Ridgefield on Feb 11 and were just edged out 59-55 after double overtime.  The game was neck and neck until the very end when the Jills were outscored 4-8 in the second overtime. 

Petersen lead the Jills with 21 points, Coalman had 15, and Christina Driscoll 12 had 11 points.

Also, RAL fell to Hockinson 29-47 on Feb 15.  Petersen and Coalman both added nine points and Driscoll added six.  Coalman also had 13 rebounds, Tara Haas 12 had eight rebounds and Miranda Wilson 12 had seven.

“I was disappointed that we didn’t make the playoffs, but I feel like out team worked hard all season and never gave up,” said Averie Bogner 12.

Overall, the Jills worked extremely hard in league play as they strived to make the playoffs.  With eight seniors graduating this year, next year will be a new beginning for the team.

“I guarantee we will beat them next year, too”, RAL Coach Lindsey said after the rivalry wrestling meet of RAL vs. Mark Morris held a t RAL. A bold statement, but after eight straight years of defeating  the Monarchs, who dares to doubt the RAL wrestlers can go for number nine?

The night kicked off by introducing the alumni of both schools. With alumni present, the last meet of the regular season, and with the cross-town rivalry match on the line, the Jacks couldn’t have had a better night for senior night. The seniors, whom included Zac Williams, Danny Irby and William Yordy, each won their matches.

 The Jacks finished their great season by defeating the Monarchs 45-26 in a well fought battle all the way to the last bout. The Jacks won 10 out of 12 matches with Tanner Ackerly (9), Christian Hudek (11), Jared LaFrance (11), Yordy (12), and Williams (12) all winning by pin.

“Overall, all the guys got after it and did a great job,” Lindsay said. “Those who won, and those who lost, both did good”

The Jacks finished with a winning season this year in league. They walked all over Hockinson finishing 60-12, beat Ridgefield 51-25, and the only defeat was against Washougal in which they came up short 35-36.

“I’m glad I took up wrestling last year and continued it this year. Overall the season was a good one”, Danny Irby(12)  said.

“I do feel like I have also improved from last year”, Irby said.

After placing 2nd in league, the Jacks set off to districts where many of their wrestlers also continued onto regionals. In regionals  William Yordy, Zac Williams, Josh Johnson, and Jacob Collins all placed and qualified for the state tournament on Saturday February 20th at the Tacoma dome.

Collins will be the only Jack with his first state appearance, all the other Jacks have visited the Dome for the final tournament before.

“ I hope to go deep into the bracket this year. I have focused all season for state” Johnson said.

“This is where it counts,” Yordy added.

The Girl’s Bowling season come to an end with 15 wins to 3 losses. Their highest score was 2124 points which was around the same as last year. They placed 4th in Districts.

They didn’t quite qualify as a team for State but two of the bowlers made it through, Harley Dahlquist 12 placed 7th and Kelsey McNeal 11 placed 13th out of 150 bowler’s altogether. This is the first time in four years that the RAL Girl’s Bowling team hasn’t gone to state as a team. Prairie placed first in districts and MM placed second, two of their toughest opponents.

“Our toughest opponent was MM,” Sarah Williams 12 said. The team had a strong year and almost completed all of their goals. The team goal was to place at least 3rd in Districts but they fell short of their goal by only one placement down.

“Our goal was to at least place 3rd, we didn’t make it but we were close,” Sarah Williams said. “We were close but didn’t quite make it because only two of our bowlers went to State,” Varsity Coach Jackie Slechta said.

The team came out even against MM, having won the first game and lost the second game against each other with a score of MM with 2068 and RAL with 1957. Strength of the team throughout the year was teamwork and the only weakness was they had a slow start due to the loss of their seniors and training of new freshman.

“It was like a whole new team,” Kendrah Hessler 12 said. Skills the team improved on were picking up spares and also picking up 7’s and 10’s, which are the two hardest pins to pick up.

 “They had a very strong year, we started out thinking it was going to be a .500 team and on the last game we were fighting for first place,” Slechta said. This year was a rebuilding year for the bowling team due to the lose of their five seniors.

Super Bowl forty-four was an intense match up on the grid iron between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts who both had the best records in the regular season.

The two clashed on February 7^th in Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, which is the home to the Miami Dolphins.

All together the Colts have won two Super bowls in 1970 and 2006 ,and have been a playoff contender every year since 2000. The Saints on the contrary have never been to a Super Bowl.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in 2005 and caused damage to the Louisiana Superdome, the New Orleans Saints were not able to play any home games for the entire 2005 NFL season.

Ever since then, the Saints organization has been going through a rebuilding process and now our Super Bowl Champions.

Two of the biggest names at the quarterback position went head to head. Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, if not the best.
      Going into the game the Colts were the favorites, according to espn.com, but the Saints beat the odds, beating Indianapolis 31-17.

Garret Hartley, the kicker for the New Orleans Saints punched in three field goals throughout the game. All were more than 45 yards out. After a Hartley field goal the Colts went three and out putting the ball back in the hands of Brees.

Brees capped a 59 yard drive and took the lead in the 4^th quarter. With two minutes left in the game Manning had one more shot to take the lead but threw a interception that was ran back by Tracy Porter.

Drew Brees was awarded the Super Bowl MVP with a performance of 32-39 of passing and 288 passing yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions after he hoisted the trophy in shock.  The city of New Orleans streets exploded with happy fans who needed and wanted a championship badly after the disastrous hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Life has been really tough for the Louisianans and this momentous victory has lifted their spirits just in time for Mardi Gras.

         A very important traditional Chinese holiday, the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is falling on the same day as our traditional Valentine’s Day on February 14.

         HOwever, unlike Valentine’s Day, the Chinese New Year lasts for about 15 days.

        Chinese New Year is celebrated by Chinese communities worldwide, and not just in China. The festival’s celebration events include Dragon Dances/Lion Dances, fireworks, family gathering, family meals, visiting friends and relatives, giving red envelopes with money to young teens and children, and decorating with dullian.

Dullians are two lines of poetry that are on the sides of doors leading to peoples’ homes. 

According to Wikipedia, the most common dullian seen within the New Year is a type of dullian called chunlian, which expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year.

The beginning of Chinese New Year, according to tales and legends, started with a fight against a mythical creature called a Nian. The legend was the start of the Lion Dance.

The Lion Dance began when a Nian attacked a village. After the attack, the villagers came up with a plan where drums, plates and empty bows were hit and firecrackers were thrown to scare the Nian away. Lion Dances usually portray the Nian.

Nian were also afraid of the color red and sensitive to loud noises. When Chinese New Year starts, red becomes a very popular color and firecrackers are lit by the hundreds.

The days before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give their home a very thorough cleaning which is believed to sweep away bad luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so the luck cannot be swept away.

Homes are often decorated with cutouts of auspicious phrases and couplets while new clothes are purchased and hair cuts received to symbolize a fresh start.

Within families, red envelopes aren’t the only thing exchanged. Small gifts are often exchanged that usually contain food or sweets that are exchanged between friends or relatives of different households.

Brent MacKenzie 10, and Alex Ahlgren 11, dominated SWWMEA Instrumental Solo Ensemble contest Saturday February 6^th at Kelso high school.

Ahlgren played a piece called “Transfiguration” on snare drum, and placed second in the region, becoming first alternate for state.

Ahlgren doesn’t know exactly why he only placed second for his near perfect performance

“The only other thing I could have done is play a little bit more in the middle of the drum,” Ahlgren said.

Ahlgren’s piece “Transfiguration” is rated as a level 5 piece of music, basically an advanced piece of music.

Surprisingly it did not take Ahlgren that long to learn the piece.

“It took me about three weeks to perfect it,” Ahlgren said.

It is unlikely Ahlgren will go to state because of how small the division we are in is, opposed to a much larger area like Seattle. The way it works is the region with the most performers gets the alternate position.

This was Ahlgren’s second time performing at the regional contest and plans on going next year as well.

While this was MacKenzie’s first time at the competition, nerves did not impact his ability to place first, and qualify to compete at the state competition. MacKenzie played a piece on Alto Saxophone called “Improvisation Et Caprice.”

“It is a pretty difficult piece, the most difficult I have ever played, but it is really worth all the work it took,” MacKenzie said.

 “Improvisation Et Caprice” was originally written in 1952 by Eugène Bozza. It is one of the most difficult pieces played at the competition, and most musicians do not play it until they are at a college level.

In the past years, appearances for RAL band students have been scarce. The last time a band student qualified for state, was in 2005, and even then they did not place.

The state competition takes place in Ellensburg on the last Thursday and Friday of April, MacKenzie plans on playing a perfected version of “Improvisation Et Caprice”.

Girls on the Run has been offered to many young girls twice a year in the spring and fall season in elementary and middle schools nationwide.

The program is designed to increase student activity, fitness level and self-esteem. It also teaches life skills that will benefit the girls’ adolescent years.

“I believe this is a good program for young girls, and it’s good for the girls’ image, self esteem, health and fitness,” RAL’s secretary  Carolyn Kochis said.

 The program needs volunteers to orchestrate it, and to help guide them to the right direction of healthy living. At the end of a twelve-week program, the girls run or walk a 5k race. A 5k race is a little over three miles long, and the girls run it around Lake Sacagawea led by their two coaches and volunteers.

During the two hour practice at Olympic Elementary School the girls will walk or run the track with the coaches and volunteers. They receive many different snacks while they learn lessons about healthy living before they go to the track.

The founder of Girls on the Run is Molly Barker, who created the program in 1996.

She started her running at the age of fifteen when she found herself stuck in the “Girl Box.” The “Girl Box” is when a young girl starts to transform into who she is but becomes a totally different image.

Since she has been running the program, Molly has authored two books ‘Girls on track: A parents guide to inspiring our daughters to achieve a lifetime of self-esteem and respect’, and ‘Girls Lit From Within’.

The head coach of the Olympic elementary school program is Patti Smith. The volunteer coaches are RAL’s  Malinda Peine, Carolyn Kochis, Macy Jones, and Jossie Ingram.

All the girls that are participating get a free pair of new balance running shoes from Bobs Sporting Goods, a free t-shirt, water bottle, pink shoelaces, deodorant, and hair ties. The training starts on Feb. 23^rd and the final run will be open to anyone on May 15^th. The more people, the more fun it is.

“I’m excited about getting to know future Lumberjills. I’d like to teach them about healthy ways and how it affects their life,” Malinda Peine said.

“I always text or talk on the phone and drive; I can totally pay attention, it’s not like I’m gonna crash,” said an RAL senior who chose to remain anonymous. What this Lumberjack doesn’t know is that talking on the phone while driving can slow your reaction time to that of a 70 year old person.

Cell phone use and driving is becoming the new drinking and driving, in terms of level of distraction and number of casualties. However, concern centers around how to enforce anti-texting and anti-calling laws.

“Police are hard pressed to enforce seat belts [laws] already. They’re [policemen] also concerned about taking those resources away from preventing and solving other serious crimes,” Ed Smith said, a senior analyst with the Delray Beach Police Department in Florida.

While Florida is still trying to pass an bill on this issue, Washington recently instated a law preventing cell phone use and driving. There is also a federal law that bans texting and driving across state lines.

However, Washington’s law, unlike that of Oregon, says that texting and driving is not a primary offense, and therefore can only be punished if the driver is pulled over for breaking another law.

“It’s confusing, I can’t really tell if it’s illegal or not. I mean, no one I know has ever gotten fined for texting and driving, so I just do it anyway. How’re the police even going to tell?” an unnamed junior Lumberjill said.

Washington State Senator Tracey Eide is now trying to pass a bill through the Senate that would move cell phones and driving up to a primary offense, and has been working on harsher laws regarding cell phone use in cars for ten years now.

“”We passed the bill out of transportation [committee] yesterday [Jan 25],” Eide said, “I did have three senators vote against it. They think they have a right to talk while driving. I’m looking at this from a safety issue. It took me seven years to get it to a secondary offense. Now we have studies coming back and experts saying [distracted driving] is worse then they thought it was. It’s time for people to hang up and drive.”

Teenagers of the world, buckle up and put down the phone; it’s better to kick the habit now than to pay for it later, either with your money or with your life.

Longview drivers will be happy to know that their days of having to navigate one of the world’s most confusing roundabout intersections are soon to be over. The City has proposed a change of traffic flow around the Civic Circle intersection.

Right now, Longview has one of the world’s only roundabouts where people on the inside of the roundabout have to yield to incoming traffic as opposed to yielding to get into the roundabout.

This causes sudden halts, quick lane changes, and confusion to many drivers.

Changing the Civic Circle intersection will be an attempt to reduce these dangers.

“If the changes are well thought out, then the intersection is going to be better than the gauntlet that it is now. It’s pretty crazy,” Alison Kolberg 10 said.

The Civic Circle has been around for quite some time. It’s a place that has a lot of history.

“Once, my friends and I drove around the circle over and over again, in a row,”  Mr. Woodrum, an RAL teacher, said.

Different opinions of the change are spreading throughout Longview. Some may think change is a good thing, while others may feel the historical value of the circle will be degraded if change occurs.

Jan Shaw, a Longview town’s member, would like the Civic Circle to stay the same.

“Just improve the crosswalk by the library, like with lights or signs,” Shaw said.

However, Matt Sheehy 10 doesn’t feel the change would affect him.

“I really wouldn’t mind the change that much,” Sheehy said.

Some RAL students have come up with some unique ways that the park in the middle of the Civic Circle could be improved.

“I think it could be really cool to have the area more open, so people could play games like Ultimate Frisbee,” Garrett Wittrock 11 said.

Other ideas have come also.

“There should be more park benches added for [people that don’t have a place to stay] to sleep on,” Sheehy  said.

Kolberg and some other students feel that  it should be improve so it’s not so creepy, and more useful to Longview.

Changing the flow of traffic and the park inside the Circle will have a great impact on the city of Longview. Final decisions have not been made.