thelegendonline Sports

Cheerleaders take first place

By Marques Mosley

Piedmont Hills Cheerleaders get into the history books by getting first place in their 1st event of the year. That is the first time it has happened in the history of cheerleading at Piedmont Hills High School. By having the best routine and hitting all their marks during it to make it look perfect.

“This is the first time this has happened in the years of competitions we have been and it’s a great feeling” comments Varsity Captain Cheerleader Danyel Lee

The competition was held on Saturday Sept 26 at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Going into the competition the girls had a lot of excitement but also they were nervous.

“Lots of people were there and I was scared I wasn’t going to hit my stunt.” said Danyel

Routine was the major part for the team’s victory at the competition. Every day during practice the team would practice their routine to perfect it and make it great any way they could. They would add new moves in the routine each day before they were settled with the best routine.

Team chemistry has not been an issue on the team this season. The girls work well together on and off the mat. They have a tight bond with each other which some cheerleaders say this team is better that last year’s.

“This year’s team has better communication between one another than last year’s.” exclaimed Varsity Cheerleader Gaby Beltran

“I wasn’t on the team last year but the other years I have been on the team we had much conflict but with this team we have no conflict and we work really well together.” said Danyel

With the heat blazing hot the girls felt heat exhaustion. But it didn’t stop them as they finished first in their division in the competition. By winning the team qualified for the National Cheer Competition event in Anaheim, CA at Disneyland where all the top cheerleaders in the United States compete.

The cheerleaders feel very confident within themselves to win some more events before Nationals. With their good team chemistry, great routine, amazing performance at the competition, looks like the cheer squad is making a big name for themselves, “National Champions, Oh Yes!”.

thelegendonline Cultural Corner

Ghost stories from different cultures

By Michelle Fong

From around the world, people share their culture in various ways such as food, clothing and holidays.  But do people ever share the ghost legends from their culture?  Every culture has its unique ghost that haunts little kids into behaving.

One unique ghost is the toilet ghost from Japan, called Hanako-san.  Hanako-san is said to be the spirit of a young World War Two girl who haunts school bathrooms.  Legend has it that if you go to the third stall of the girls’ bathroom on the third floor, knock on the door three times and ask “Are you there, Hanako-san?” you will hear a small girl in a red skirt with bobbed hair answer “I’m here.”

Another classic ghost story originating from Irish culture is the Headless Horseman.  The Headless Horseman, also known as the Irish dulachán, is a headless fairy riding a black horse while carrying his head and a whip made from a corpse’s spine.  Once he stops riding or calls out a name, someone dies.

Perhaps one of the most famous ghosts in history is Anne Boleyn, who haunts England after her execution in 1536.  Many people have claimed to see her haunt several famous buildings including Hever Castle, Blicking Hall and the Tower of London.

Many of the ghost legends arise from the “truth” that someone saw; others come from the imaginative mind of an elder who wished to scare some children.  Either way these stories help form the different cultures around the world.

thelegendonline Sports

Baseball Team wins CCS first time in history

S.08 CCS Baseball.Hannah Tong

BADABING BADABOOM! The Piedmont Hills Baseball team run to join together in a doggy pile celebration of their win against Pioneer.

Photo courtesy of Val Bobias

By Hannah Tong

Immediately after the swinging strikeout, catcher Danny Garcia threw the ball to first basemen John Kelly, costing the Pioneer’s their last and final strike.  The boys ran and piled on each other, extremely overwhelmed in joy and completely in disbelief that they had finally won the whole thing.

On the morning of May 30, the Piedmont Hills Baseball team stopped for breakfast at Denny’s for one last team bonding before they went on face Pioneer High at the CCS Baseball Finals.

After a tough but victorious match against Milpitas just two days earlier, Piedmont Hills was ready for their next opponent.

They showed up to Pioneer’s field at about 5:30pm and immediately did their warm ups and stretches.  Their coach gave them a quick pep talk, firing and hyping them up for the game.

Right when the game began, Piedmont Hills hit four doubles just in the first inning, giving them an early lead of 5-0.  Starting pitcher Christian Castaneda pitched all five innings and gave Pioneer no mercy and no chance to score.

“Cameron Castaneda pitched a gem, and they weren’t able to hit it past our defense,” informed left field Matthew Leffler.

Five out of the six batters were able to get on base in the first inning and continued to pound all of the pitches Pioneer threw at them.

By the fourth inning, Piedmont Hills’ Pirates led 10-0.  Finally, with two outs and two strikes, Castaneda struck out the batter to win the game.

“It was the best feeling ever,” expressed designated hitter Danny Bobias.  “We were all huddled on the mound [which] turned into a dog pile.”

Their four hour practices full of game situated scenarios involving defense and offense had paid off.

The Pirates really showed up with their A-game on, being the first Piedmont Hills Baseball team and the only 16th seed team to ever win CCS.

“After we won, I felt like I was on cloud nine.  It was the best thing I have ever felt,” commented Bobias.

thelegendonline Captain's Log

Blurbs

By Sommer Fowler and Rosa Lin

Blogilates at Piedmont
Every Thursday after school Good Karma Club hosts a pilates session based on the popular YouTube series Blogilates.  The routine is designed to suit all levels of capability and music is played during session to encourage participants.

Historical Society Hosts Movie Night
The last Friday of every month is celebrated by the Historical Society in Ms. James’s room with a movie.  The movie serves as a reward to members after a month of learning history.

Interact Attends FLC
Interact kicked off their club activities by attending the annual Fall Leadership Conference on Oct. 11.  The conference took place in Independence High School’s gym and garnered approximately four thousand attendees.  A total of 13 areas attended the event, which lasted from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.

PHHS Students to Attend Light the Night
PHHS clubs are set to participate in the Light the Night event at discovery Meadow tomorrow night at 5pm.  The mission of this walking event is to find cures and give access to treatment to all blood cancer patients.

PHHS Students to Donate Blood
The Red Cross Blood Drive will start Nov. 20 in the library from 9am to 2pm.  Donors must be at least 16 years old and meet specific height and weight requirements.  Certified nurses from Blood Centers of the Pacific will be drawing blood and donors will receive a free shirt and refreshments.

Art of MOBA Tournament
Art of Moba plans to hold a fall League of Legends titled “League of East Side” in November.  The tournament will be double elimination, allotting the first place team 50% of the total entry fees collected, and the second place team 20% of the total entry fees collected.  Additional prizes will be included if more than eight teams sign up for the tournament.

KFC’s Cooking Workshop
KFC (Korean Fan Club) members are instructed by officers how to cook Korean cuisine in room B-02 the second Friday of every month.  The workshop designed to provide insight into Korean culture starts at 3:10pm and ingredients are provided to members.

Scary Story Contest
To welcome the spooky holiday, PHHS Creative Writing Club hosted its annual Scary Story contest, which closed on Thurs. Oct. 22.  Winners will be revealed on next Wednesday, shortly after counting the public votes.  Submissions ranged from short stories to fan fiction and contained both fiction and nonfiction works.

thelegendonline Opinions

Introduction: We Know

By Jacqueline Nguyen

It’s no secret that physical copies of newspapers are an endangered species.  Once every month a few come tumbling down the proverbial hillside into oblivion, and with them a little piece of my heart.  Just kidding about the last part.  What used to be romanticized as risking life and death in order to uncover the truth is now “19 Pictures That Prove Man Buns Have Gone Too Far” and a “Who is your Disney daddy?” quiz.  Those are from Buzzfeed.  Google them.

The topic isn’t taboo.  If it was, you wouldn’t be reading this, or skipping to the comics as you are all more likely doing right now.  It seems like we arbitrary group of nerds here at The Legend just don’t get that the world is changing, and traditions cannot last forever.  One of those is true.  But this isn’t even about the family finally coming to a silent agreement that no one has the patience for a full game of Monopoly every Friday night or Dad not realizing that simply earning a perfect SAT score is not going to get you into Berkeley anymore.

Maybe we should all be home in our underwear behind a screen, leisurely doing all our interviews on Facebook and uploading everything solely onto the internet like 12-year-olds in the YouTube comment section, well partially.  Maybe, just maybe, people would look to our quaint little website a little more often instead of googling news.  Easier and faster?  Of course!  Better?  Arguable!

Call me lame and cliché when I say this, but I like the feel of newspaper toner rubbing against fingertips I just washed.  I feel like my own version of a superhero when I’m out uncovering the mystery that is why the band teacher chose to have his students play a song that I can’t even pronounce.  Writing the guide to asking a girl out to prom was also a blast.  I like to think I’m my own comical genius—but enough of my rambling.  I’m here to give you all a preview of what’s to come within the next several months.

There will be a lot of your monthly logs of Interact’s activities, your comics that you will probably be compelled to criticize, maybe a once in a lifetime happenstance that we might have to be sensitive about and your opinions and editorials that give our perspectives on the world.  There will be your people doing homework during class who shouldn’t be, journalists being turned away for doing their interviews the day before publishing date and your editorial staff being frustrated at said journalists.  There will also be your pizza layout parties, your random displays of affection and group of people who act as one big idiosyncratic weird yet fun family.

So sit back.  Enjoy the show.  Don’t focus too hard on the statistics and beware of lots of factual mistakes.  We hope those won’t happen often this year.  Without further ado, this is the 50th Anniversary of PHHS The Legend.  We hope that you will continue supporting us throughout this year and help keep this tradition alive for years to come.  However, I beg of you: Please don’t make us work at home in our underwear.

thelegendonline Cultural Corner

Easy DIY Costumes

By Sommer Fowler

Simple Mask

Materials:

  • Construction paper
  • Felt
  • Scissors
  • White glue
  • Hot glue
  • Strip of elastic or decorative straw or ribbon
  • Feathers, glitter, markers, etc.

Cut construction paper into the desired outline of the mask and cut out eyeholes.  It may be helpful to first draw the shape of the mask on a sheet of paper.  Cut a piece of felt into a similar yet slightly smaller shape so that when placed over the construction paper, the paper is visible around the edges of the felt, like a border.  Glue the felt on top of the construction paper, making sure the eyeholes are aligned.  Decorate the mask using materials like markers, glitter or feathers. To create a hand-held mask, hot glue a sturdy decorative straw to the back of one side of the mask.  For a hands-free version, hot glue the ends of an elastic strip measured about an inch smaller than the desired head size.  It is also possible to use ribbon in place of elastic and tie the ribbon in a bow at the back of the head.

 

Fast Face Décor

Materials:

  • Eyelash glue
  • Rhinestones, glitter, lace, etc.

Apply a thin layer of eyelash glue to the desired area.  Wait 30 seconds then apply rhinestones or brush on glitter.  Cutouts of lace can also be used.  Gluing different colors of glitter can create an ombre effect.

 

Easy Colored Hair

Materials:

  • Newspaper
  • Tape
  • Comb
  • Colored hair spray

Tape newspaper around the neck until it resembles an apron.  Any part of the hair to be left uncolored should be covered.  If the hair is long, section the hair into small parts.  Spray the colored hair spray onto the hair while combing through one section at a time.  Using a hair dryer while combing can speed the process.

 

Tips

Almost any of these materials can be substituted, the beauty of DIY is that it allows creativity.  When working with messy products like glitter or colored hair spray, make sure to work in an open space.

thelegendonline Sports

Girls Volleyball beings season

S.03.Volleyball.Michelle Lin

WATCH DEEP SERVE! PHHS Varsity Girls Volleyball eagerly await for the ball to be served over.

Photo courtesy of Vince Pereira

By Michelle Lin

The season for the PHHS Girls Volleyball team kicked off back in late September.  After winning 3-0 against Del Mar High School on Oct. 15, the team is currently first place in the league.

“We won in three out of five,” commented Varsity player Taylor Garvey on the tie-breaking game.

“Watching from the bench, I really got to see a perspective of the audience and our team,” stated Junior Varsity player Erin Kerr, who was unable to play once because she was sick.  “I thought our energy was really good.  The girls picked each other up, and we did really well.”

As one united team, the girls are all very close to each other, which is necessary when they all play together on court.

“A good team would have no cliques, and I’d like to say that our varsity team would have no specified groups.  We all mesh well together, so we’re all friends with each other.  The bond just shows on court,” claimed Varsity captain Kim Cordero.

“We work together really well.  We all get along.  We’re all friends on and off the court,” junior Allie Pereira stated.

The girls all contribute their efforts whenever they’re playing on courts, and that is what leads to a successful victory each time.

“Every girl on the court shows their highest potential and what they can really do to help in the efforts of the winning the game for the team.  Everyone does their job, and when people do that, we win games,” continued Cordero.

The team this year has been comparably much stronger than past years.  As first place in the league, the girls are confident that they will make it to CCS (Central Coast Sectionals) this year.

“I am positive we’ll make it to CCS this year,” asserted Cordero.  “I think this year our team is stronger because we have really good freshmen.”

The team has been practicing in the gym every weekday from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

“We mostly run a bunch of drills in the beginning of practice, and then towards the end, we do game play against each other,” Garvey remarked.

The season will end sometime in November.

thelegendonline Features

HOSA partakes in Regional Leadership Conference

By Angelina Nguyen

Members of HOSA (Health Occupation to Students of America) attended the RLC (Regional Leadership Conference) last Saturday at Petaluma High School.

“This is going to expose our new members to what HOSA really is and it’s going to help us gain new members and kind of build up the club,” states HOSA Co-president Brian Hoang before RLC.

RLC is a conference hosted by the state organization that allows HOSA members from Region 2 to learn more about HOSA, expand members’ knowledge of the medical field, advance their leadership skills and become more aware of upcoming events such as SLC (State Leadership Conference).

“I want them [the members] to be able to learn more about the health field and broaden their perspectives,” hopes HOSA Co-president Silvia Liu.

Over 120 members were able to participate in workshops that focused on leadership, health, and team building.  This was the first year sophomores and officers were able to experience RLC.

“It was pretty fun bonding with other HOSA groups from other schools,” exclaims HOSA member Cindy Chang.

HOSA’s main focus is to provide students with more information on jobs in the medical field.  It is a CTSO (Career Technical Student Organization) which supports school studies as well as work studies.

“If you need opportunities or information, HOSA gives you those opportunities,” replies Brian.

HOSA provides members with an early connection by helping them to get internships, experience, and standing by them though high school and college and finally when they are hired in the health industry.

thelegendonline Features

Big Bobby Tables attends Cyber Forensics competition

By Michelle Fong

Seniors Walt Leung and Benton Liu and sophomore Addison Chan participated in the 2015 HSF (High School Forensics) team competition hosted by CSAW (Cyber Security Awareness Week) and NYU (New York University) Polytech School that ended Fri., Oct. 9.

Their team, Big Bobby Tables, was able to reach eighth place in West Coast but was unable to continue onto the final round.  Only the first place of every region or the top ten in the country can move onto the final round in New York.

“The hardest part (for me) was decompiling a file and seeing what a file does,” reveals Benton.  “What you didn’t know was (the) hard (part).”

For the past few years, HSF was a murder mystery type of competition where competitors reason from the information given and information painstakingly found to deduce the culprit.  However, this year it has changed; HSF is now more of a “Capture the Flag” type of competition.

“Competitors race against each other to solve multiple challenges scattered across various topics in cyber security,” explains math teacher and team advisor Stewart Kuang.

This is the third year Piedmont Hills has participated in HSF.  The first challengers from PHHS, Class of ’15 Claire Shu and Class of ’13 Rachel Guan and Amy Shu, were able to pass the qualifying round and continue on to the final round.

thelegendonline News

New staff on campus

By Diane Tran

Michelle Flores

N.03.New.Staff.Flores.Diane.Tran

How did you feel about getting a position here at PHHS?

“Since I graduated from Piedmont, it [has] always been a dream to come back and work here, just because I felt like this was the school that got me on the path to wanting to become a teacher.  So, I was really excited when I was finally able to come back to my higher ship.”

What is one thing you love about PHHS?

“The kids. The kids are really caring towards another.  They are really motivated in school.  They treat each other really well.  It’s just a very good atmosphere compared to other schools.  It’s just a good community.”

Interesting fact: Ms. Flores used to be a former Pirate and taught at Live Oaks!  ### 126/80

 

Justine Kunkel

N.03.New.Staff.Kunkell.Diane.Tran

How do you feel about counseling at PHHS?

“I was really super excited.  You know I used to work here as a PARA (Parent Education in the Special Ed Department) about two years ago.  I really loved working here.  The staff is awesome, the students here are awesome.  Counseling is something I am really passionate about.  I’m glad to be back here as a counselor.”

Interesting fact: Ms. Kunkel is a freshman advisor and she used to work at Piedmont Hills and James Lick High School.

 

Katherine Lighty

N.03.New.Staff.Lighty.Diane.Tran

Why History?

“I really like history.  I’m fascinated by the choices the people make and the interactions between different cultures and different eras.  So, history allows me to study people and the way their behavior [impacts] a larger scale.”

What is the difference between Piedmont and Palo Alto Preparatory?

“Some of it is just the scale of things.  The last school where I was we had about 75 students in grades 9-12.  It was really small. Generally, my class sizes would be between 7 and 12 students.  So getting used to being at a school that has 2000 students has been fun, but it is definitely different than where I was before.”

Interesting fact: Ms. Lighty has blue/purple hair, can eat fire, and loves to knit.

 

Gerald Johnson

N.03.New.Staff.Johnson.Diane.Tran

Why Nutrition and Home Economics?

“Well, normally in the past, I would’ve taught performing arts (music).  However, this year there was an opening and I had taught five weeks last year and I really liked it.  I like the school.  I like the kids.  I love the subject, being able to help everyone eat and cook healthy nutritious food.”

What have you done before teaching at PHHS?

“I taught at Yerba Buena for six years.  And then I went into high technology and worked primarily in sales for twenty years, Oracle, Apple, and a bunch of startups.  Then I realized I wanted to get back into teaching.”

Interesting fact: Mr. Johnson used to teach computer technology and music.  His degree originally was in music.

 

Ryan Lundell

N.03.New.Staff.Lundell.Diane.Tran

What was your aspiration besides being a teacher?

“Mainly, I wanted to be a NBA player.  As I got into high school, I wasn’t going to get much taller than I am and I [couldn’t] really jump, so I knew at that point I needed to get a second career.  But I never really knew what I wanted to do, and even after college it was still like, ‘Do I really want to teach?’  Once I started student teaching, that’s when it became very evident that this is fun, you can have a lot of fun doing it, you can be very creative, you have quite a bit of freedom to use your creativity in the classroom in the way which you like.  That is why this [has to] be my career, it is so much fun. I really enjoy it.

Interesting fact: Mr. Lundell taught at Andrew Hill, Oak Grove, and Yerba Buena. He was a bartender for 8 years.