In the European Union, 50 percent of the population is fluent in more than one language, compared to a mere 25 percent in the United States.

All nations in the European Union, in fact, aside from Ireland and Scotland, require students to take foreign language classes.

Instead of categorizing language classes as electives, Europeans consider these classes part of a student’s core and place special emphasis on language in the lower grade levels.

In around 80 percent of these nations, taking classes in not one, but two, foreign languages is mandatory during the elementary school years.

Despite the obvious benefits of knowing a foreign language, it’s possible to graduate from Granite Bay High School and never have to set foot in a foreign language class throughout a student’s entire educational career.

The Eureka Union School District may be doing its students a disservice by not offering opportunities for foreign language learning in the kindergarten and elementary grades.

This poses the question whether schools are making foreign language learning more difficult than it needs to be, by teaching students after the closure of this critical period.

Most GBHS students’ experiences with foreign languages begin as freshmen, which many language educators, such as French teacher Lynne Guerne, say is much too late. Guerne has instructed both high school and elementary level language classes in the United States as well as in France.

“You’re curious at (a young) age and it is interesting and fun, but also physiologically you are more capable of making the sounds,” Guerne said. “You just soak it all in.”

Ruth Finsthwait, the owner of local Spanish education program Sombrero Time, like Guerne, is an advocate for beginning language learning at an early age.

Finsthwait uses immersion techniques to place her pupils on track to become bilingual in the future and will often hold events at which students can exercise their Spanish outside of the confines of the classroom.

“The earlier you get to learn another language as a child the better,” said Jasmine Foddrill, a mother of two young children enrolled in the Sombrero Time program. “Not only do they pick it up faster, but their accent is better.”

Recently, Finsthwait invited her students and their families to local Mexican restaurant Más, where participants spoke nothing but Spanish to their waiters and friends and enjoyed a lesson on Spanish dancing from a Spanish dance troupe.

“We want to (reach) them young, as young as possible, because we know that the expansion of language is greatest for 7 and under, but we don’t start until 13 or 14,” Finsthwait said.

It is true that children are more equipped for gaining language skills than teens or adults, as their brains are still developing.

“It turns out there is a critical window for language development,” psychology teacher Natalie Elkin said. “And the onset of adolescence or the onset of puberty is the time in which that window closes.”

Initially proposed by psychologist Noam Chomsky, there is a structure in the brain called the language acquisition device, which scientists believe works from birth until puberty to allow babies to develop language skills both in their native language and in other languages to which the child is exposed.

According to Elkin, the door for all language learning does not shut forever after the end of the critical period has been reached, the brain simply stores novel language information in a manner that is less efficient.

“To attempt to learn a second language after (the critical period) is much more difficult because the language centers of our brain, which are stored in the left hemisphere, have stopped developing,” Elkin said. “The way our brains connect to (language) information is neurologically different than when we learn and are exposed to language before the development stops.”

Seniors Michael Bertolino, right, and Koki Arai embrace as they celebrate their victory against Pleasant Grove High School during the Div. I section championship Saturday, Dec. 3.

The football left the hand of senior Granite Bay High School quarterback Brendan Keeney and arched through the clear, cold sky under the watchful stare of thousands of fans at Sacramento State University.

The ball seemed to hang in midair, leaving the feeling that the entire season could be hanging on the outcome of this one play, called “Back Pass Right Y Dancer.”

GBHS had gone up 10-0 in the early stages of the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I championship, but the Pleasant Grove Eagles had come back with a touchdown and field goal to tie the game.

With less than a minute left in the half, this play was the best chance for GBHS to go into the locker room with a lead. It felt crucial for the Grizzlies to rebuild some momentum against an opponent that was not only the favorite to win the section championship game but had begun the season ranked in the top 10 nationally.

As the ball finally floated back toward the ground, it settled into the outstretched hands of senior tight end Spencer Briare.

Touchdown.

That completion restored the momentum, and the Grizzlies went on to win 30-24, collecting the team’s first-ever Division I section title.

Hanging in the Granite Bay High weight room is a sign that reads, “The most important ability is dependability,” and that was the key for the big victory at the end of a big season. No matter what happened, the players stood together and pushed through.

***

The game started rather slowly, but it picked up pace when Granite Bay went up 10-0. Without too many problems, however, the Pleasant Grove offense stormed down the field twice and tied the game.

After the Grizzlies seized the momentum on the Keeney-Briare touchdown at the end of the half, Pleasant Grove started the second half with a touchdown of its own.

The Granite Bay defense came off the field frustrated and angry. A couple of players banged their helmets against the metal bench, setting off what sounded like an angry chorus.

Granite Bay could have wilted. Pleasant Grove had an offense that beat up teams all season and averaged more than 54 points a game. The Eagles were not only favored to beat Granite Bay but had begun the year ranked No. 8 in the country. Besides, Pleasant Grove was led by Arik Armstead, all 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds of him. Armstead is being recruited by just about every major college in the country and is considered by some to be the top line prospect in the nation.

The Grizzlies had to battle nagging injuries and other challenges, but when the GBHS players came off the field, they quickly insisted they were OK and got back in the game. Senior offensive guard Colton Sviba, who had a stomach flu leading up to the game, left the game once to throw up but returned after a couple of plays.

The Grizzlies pulled ahead again, only to have Pleasant Grove tie the game at 24 in the fourth quarter.
Pulling together yet again, the Grizzlies mounted an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended when senior running back Arik Bird rushed into the end zone for a touchdown.

But then the extra point was blocked. A Pleasant Grove touchdown and extra point would win the game.
Bird threw down his water bottle on the sideline without realizing the lid wasn’t screwed on all the way. Water spurted everywhere.

With a little less than three minutes left in the game, Pleasant Grove got the ball. The Eagles, an offensive force, had yet another chance.

Grizzly defensive coordinator Tim Harrington told the defense to “turn the page, dig deep, find a way to get a stop. You got to believe.”

And believe they did. With the rest of the team watching in desperation, willing a stop with their eyes, junior linebacker Beau Hershberger stripped the Pleasant Grove quarterback of the ball, and Briare came up with it.

Briare credited Hershberger for the huge play and said he was just glad to be in the right place at the right time.

“The section championship is like the Super Bowl for high school football,” Briare said, “so I knew I had to step up, and I knew I had to make some big plays, and that’s what happened.”

The Grizzlies took a knee to end the season with a championship, and Keeney did a Lambeau Leap into the outstretched arms of the Tribe. Michael Bertolino, Austin Paulhus, Ian Mook, Beau Hershberger and Adam Wagner stood together on a sideline bench as fans chanted “Granite Bay! Granite Bay! Granite Bay!”

Someone tossed confetti into the air on that blustery day, and the smiles on the faces of the players were a million miles wide.

Senior Gavin Andrews, who plays both ways on the line, picked up anyone and everyone he could find and enveloped him in a hug. Coach Ernie Cooper briefly shared a special moment with seniors Keeney and Andrews, the only three-year starters on the team. Cooper then ran off to hug and congratulate the rest of his players.

“I just found (Keeney) and (Andrews) and asked them if all the hard work they put into the sport was worth it,” Cooper said. “They’ve been through the ringer with me for three years and were a huge part of the win.”

Cooper then said how proud he was of his team and how, even though they weren’t the most talented bunch he’s coached, they still pulled through and brought home a section banner.

“They’re a really special group,” Cooper said. “They had a great bond, and the guys really came together.”
Andrews is 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds and has committed to play football at Oregon State University. He heard all about his match-up with Pleasant Grove’s all-everything Armstead in the days leading up to the game, but he said he just wanted to live up to the offensive line’s motto: “Get nasty.”

“Coming into the game, I knew I was going to have to be my best against the best,” Andrews said. “We just all went 100 percent on him, and it paid off. We just had to make every play count. This was three years in the making.”

Keeney said: “It was a battle. It’s just such an amazing feeling to win a section championship.”

Keeney said he wouldn’t be where he is right now without Cooper and the rest of the team.

“(My teammates) mean everything in the world to me,” Keeney said. “We played well and got things done.”
Senior free safety Alec Naki said the team was excited coming into the game, especially after being labeled the underdogs, or “undergrizzlies,” as he put it.

“It was a team effort,” Naki said. “This team has heart. Words can’t even describe how much they all mean to me; I have 70 new brothers.”

The season as a whole mirrored that final game – plenty of setbacks but a perseverance that won out in the end.

Playing a brutal schedule, the Grizzlies lost on the road early in the year to Vacaville, a team that eventually won the Div. II section title. Granite Bay then put together a string of wins but lost a close one, again on the road, to Del Oro, the eventual Div. III champions.

Granite Bay entered the playoffs as just the No. 5 seed. They beat 12th-seeded Napa 31-7 and moved on to face 13th-seeded Oak Ridge.

On the third play of that game, Keeney went out with an injury. Backup quarterback junior Grant Caraway couldn’t throw because of an injury. Vinny Esposito, the junior varsity quarterback, missed two days of school with an illness that week and couldn’t play. That left the Grizzlies with the 5-foot-5, 135-pound JV backup Josh Neal.

It was easy to tell he didn’t fit in, because his JV uniform didn’t match those of the varsity players.

But a little thing like playing with their fourth-string quarterback wasn’t going to stop these Grizzlies.

Oak Ridge put a lot of pressure on the defense, but it responded with interceptions and other big plays. Neal made a few big plays himself, and, somehow, Granite Bay won the game 21-12.

The next challenge was Lincoln of Stockton, the top seed and a truly dangerous team. Granite Bay eked out a lead and just tried to hold on.

With GBHS ahead 28-21, and the Grizzlies needing a goal line stand to end the game, Cooper couldn’t watch. He took a knee and turned his back to the field. He knew the crowd would tell him what happened.
The silence turned to cheers, and Cooper knew his team had come through with an epic defensive stand. The Grizzlies had made the section final.

“It was all worth it,” senior defensive lineman Austin Paulhus said. “This win means everything to us.”

Senior wide receiver Adam Wagner said it was bittersweet, knowing he had played his last game in a Granite Bay uniform.

“This was the seniors’ fourth year together,” Wagner said. “Every year, we wanted to be champions, and now we are. This team is just a family. We’ve been through so much.”

2001 graduate Noah Frank, who has been at the games all season cheering the team on, said he always believed in them.

“They have been working hard and have enthusiasm,” Frank said. “I’m very proud of them.”

The legacy of great Granite Bay football will live on. On the sidelines during the section championship game were water boys who are playing for the Junior Grizzlies youth teams, just like Keeney, Briare, Wagner and others had done before them.

That’s going to be us someday,” one of the water boys whispered to a friend during the game. “We’re going to be just like them.”

Being the backbone of any school’s personality, a mascot is what produces school spirit, motivates sports teams and ultimately affects the way people view the school.

So what do the students here at GBHS think of the ever-so-humble grizzly that belongs to our school?
Most of the students here would agree that this beast of an animal does an accurate job at reflecting our school’s character.

“I think the grizzly is a great animal to reflect GBHS’ sports life,” sophomore Michael Geraghty said. “It shows we are very fierce and want to win, and as you can see from our tribe, we love to cheer like the wild grizzlies that we are. Plus it has the same logo as California, which is cool because that’s where we live.”

The competitive edge that the grizzly bear has in the wild is also reflective of out athletic performance over other schools.

“Being the grizzlies means that we’re fierce mammals,” sophomore Marc Ellis said. “They’re at the top of the food chain, just like us as a school, plus they are very intimidating.”

The fact is, a school’s mascot is a major factor in stimulating a school’s spirit, a competitive quality that GBHS seems to have quite a lot of recently.

“Regardless of the occasion,” Geraghty said. “If it’s a school sports event, I’m always down to unleash my inner Grizzly. If we were any other animal, I wouldn’t get nearly as fired up.”
That is the purpose of a mascot after all, to inspire school spirit and get students excited about school events.
“A good mascot has to really fire you up,” sophomore Owen McNiff said. “You have to want to be that mascot. You have to feel it, and the grizzly makes me do that.”

Without the Grizzly, some students would venture to say that we would lose a lot of our drive, that the spirit which pushes our sports teams to victory just wouldn’t be there.

“Mascots are 100% important. It’s … the symbol of our school, and it’s the life and breath of our spirit,”
Geraghty said. “I really don’t think we would be as aggressive if we didn’t have the mascot we do.”

Not only does the mascot get students more excited about school events, it also helps athletes perform at their best by increasing crowd support.

“I was in the grizzly bear mascot costume on Sports-A-Rama night,” sophomore Jackson Rodriguez said. “I definitely would say that the way people get fired up over the mascot makes the people in the event try harder.”

Lots of Granite Bay High sports fans even think that the effect of the grizzly goes beyond that of a conventional mascot.

“It’s more of a community rather than just an animal,” sophomore Owen McNiff said. “I feel like everyone who cheers for Granite Bay is part of an association of people who are automatically friends with one another. Like a secret clan of GBHS fans.”

Although most students are proud to be a part of the grizzly community, some still see room for improvement when it comes to our mascot.

“I’m happy being the Grizzlies, but if I could be any mascot, I would definitely be the dolphins,” Marc Ellis said. “They are … as dominant as grizzlies, only they live in water and are way smarter.”

Mascots are generally either ‘hit or miss’ when it comes to selecting a good one. Although we seem to be on the lucky side, some other local schools’ aren’t as popular as our grizzly.

“The Rocklin Thunder is literally the saddest excuse for a mascot I’ve ever heard of,” Ellis said. “How are you supposed to get intimidated by a mascot that isn’t even tangible? It’s a sound, and it’s not even dangerous.”

Ellis isn’t the only GBHS student to find some local schools’ mascots to be uninspiring.

“The Del Oro eagles are pretty lame,” McNiff said. “What are you going to do, fly all over me?”

Overall, the students and surrounding community of Granite Bay are, for the most part, happy to be considered Grizzlies, and wouldn’t settle for anything less when it comes to what represents our school.

“Having the grizzly as our mascot makes it easy to have pride in our school,” said Ellis, “How can’t you when you have such a powerful animal.”

   Granite Bay (12-2) won its fourth section title since 1999, but its first in Division One.

   Granite Bay’s offense was impressive all day against Pleasant Grove, which began the season ranked No. 8 in the nation. The Grizzlies only had to punt once. All other possessions ended in a score—four touchdowns and one field goal.

   The Grizzlies mounted an impressive drive with little time left in the first half, to go into halftime ahead.

   Granite Bay also converted on a fourth and 11 in the middle of the second half on what was probably the play of the game. Quarterback Brendan Keeney, under heavy pressure, hit Tight End Spencer Briare over the middle with a short pass, but Briare was tangled up with a defender and hadn’t yet turned to look for the pass. The ball hit him in the chest, and he reflexively caught the ball without ever really seeing it. The defender hit him a moment later, but he held on to the ball as he fell forward for the first down.

   The defense for Granite Bay then sealed the deal late in the game by sacking the Pleasant Grove quarterback, knocking the ball loose and recovering the fumble.

   In front of a crowd that was heavily in favor of Granite Bay, the team began by taking the opening kickoff and driving for a touchdown.

    After stopping Pleasant Grove, Granite Bay added a field goal early in the second quarter.

   Pleasant Grove then put together a long drive, but Granite Bay held, and Pleasant Grove kicked a short field goal to make the score 10-3.

   The next Granite Bay drive ended in its one punt of the day, and Pleasant Grove then struck quickly. On a third-and-four on its own side of the field, with Granite Bay defending the short pass, Pleasant Grove instead went long and had a receiver wide open for a touchdown.

   This was when Granite Bay mounted a quick drive and scored right before the half, taking a 17-10 lead into the locker room.

   Pleasant Grove put together a sustained drive for a touchdown after taking the second-half kickoff but had its extra point blocked.

   The Grizzlies scored on its next possession after the Keeney-Briare connection deep in Pleasant Grove territory on fourth down; That touchdown and extra point made the score 24-16.

   Another Pleasant Grove drive and touchdown was followed by a two-point conversion, so the game was tied as Granite Bay got the ball again well into the fourth quarter.

    Keeney and the rest of the offense which didn’t have a turnover all day despite heavy winds, never faltered. The team drove steadily downfield and scored a touchdown with six minutes to go.

    This time, it was Granite Bay’s turn to have an extra point blocked, so the Grizzlies were only up by six as Pleasant Grove got the ball back.

   As the team neared midfield, though, the Granite Bay defense flushed the quarterback out of the pocket. As he tried to scramble, the ball was knocked out of his hand from behind, and Briare, playing linebacker, recovered.

   There was still 2 ½ minutes on the clock, and Pleasant Grove still had all its time outs, so Granite Bay needed two or three first downs to run out the clock. That turned out to be no problem. Granite Bay, which had been mixing runs and passes all day, pounded the ball through the middle of the Pleasant Grove defense.

   The game ended with Granite Bay taking a knee twice on about the 10-yard line of Pleasant Grove.

   In addition to Keeney and Briare, Arik Bird was a force at running back, and Adam Wagner made several crucial catches for first downs. Gavin Andrews and the rest of the offensive line had an exceptional day, even though they were up against Arik Armstead, a defensive lineman who is 6’8” tall and weighs 295 pounds and is being recruited by the top colleges in the country. By the end of the game, Armstead was watching from the sideline.

   On the defensive side, in addition to Briare, Andrews had an exceptional game. He knocked down two passes and dominated on the defensive line.  

   Keeney completed 13 of 19 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns.

   Bird rushed for 166 yards on 27 carries and scored Granite Bay’s other two touchdowns.

   “We have a very proud tradition of football here at Granite Bay,” Briare said, “and it’s awesome just to be a part of it.”

Sophomore Tony Ellison stands in anticipation of the play with his fellow Grizzly football players at the Homecoming game vs. Rocklin Thunder on October 28

Sophomores are so rare on the varsity football team that neither of the Granite Bay High School alumi currently playing in the NFL were chosen to play varsity football as a sophomore. Yet sophomore Tony Ellison was brought up to be a flyback for varsity football.

“Some people are just born with talent. Ellison is one of those people,” defensive backs coach Mike Valentine said.

“I was blessed with great skill and speed and I work really hard at what I do,” Ellison said.

He has helped the team out significantly by providing four touchdowns this year via receptions or rushes.

“He is a key asset to our team because of his speed and instincts,” GBHS junior Zak Lilley said.

His speed is something that he provides as both a flyback and a kick returner.

“He is one of the fastest if not the fastest player on our team,” Valentine said.

Ellison excelled at the freshman football level and, according to Valentine, was brought up to varsity because of the injury-prone flybacks and his sheer talent.

“I always dreamed of being brought up to varsity as a sophomore, but I never though it would happen.” Ellison said.

While Ellison is an amazing football player, he is not the only player to be brought up as a sophomore the past couple years.

“We brought up Keeny and Andrews two years ago and they started,” Valentine said. “But last year we brought up Calton and Partridge and neither of them started.”

There seems to be a trend in bringing up sophomores to the varsity team in recent years.

“I am all for bringing up sophomores as long as they actually play like Ellison is,” Valentine said.

Ellison realizes how special it is to be on the varsity team and the pressure that comes with it.

“I feel really honored, and I am not being arrogant about it,” Ellison said.

He agrees that bringing up younger players can be both good and bad.

“(Having sophomore starters) can be good unless they let it get to their head and stop working,” Ellison said.

Ellison is also playing basketball and running track for GBHS this year in order to stay in shape and get better.

“We know he has wheels but when track season comes along and we put him next to people like (Grant High School sprinter) Shaq Thompson, we will see exactly how good those wheels are,” Valentine said.

“I play basketball to keep focused, stay in shape, and build leadership,” Ellison said.

But nobody is questioning his ability on the football field.

“He is a great athlete and can keep up with the best of our players,” Lilley said.

However, some of the older players were not so accepting.

“Some of the older players were angry at me for taking some of their plays, but I feel like I have earned their respect through my playing,” Ellison said.

“It all depends on if you are a team player for what is best for the team, or you want the glory for yourself,” Valentine said.

Ellison wants to play football at a high level as he continues his career.

“My dream is to play football in college,” Ellison said.

Both coaches and players agree with the level of talent that Ellison has.

“He is one of the hardest players on our team to cover and stop,” Lilley said.

“You can’t deny the ability that Ellison has as a football player,” Valentine said. “He was just born with amazing wheels”.

Valentine and Ellison’s teammates hold him in high regard as an athlete and are proud of the level of play he has achieved as a sophomore.

“He is one of the best athletes in the school throughout any sport,” Valentine said.

Senior Hailey Israel holds one of three jobs at Cookie Connection in Roseville.

Every student knows how high school is supposed to work: freshman, sophomore and junior year slowly build up the workload and, consequently, the stress.

But once the last year of high school arrives and rigorous course work has already been completed in the first three years, seniors are as good as done. At least that is what many students think.

Senior year is actually the most important time to impress colleges.

Granite Bay High School principal Michael McGuire created a questionnaire for College and Career Center speakers and admissions counselors to answer this year. Originally, the questionnaires were created to help McGuire determine if the Standardized Testing and Reporting grade bump incentives given last year affected college admission decisions.

Not only did he discover that colleges did not mind the grade bumps that students received, but McGuire learned from the sources themselves what colleges are looking for.

After an estimated 10 to 15 speakers and admissions counselors answered the questionnaire, the answer were unanimous-every college is looking for students who have the holistic package.

Not only must seniors be well-rounded, but, according to the questionnaires, a student’s senior year is one of the most essential elements that colleges look at.

“Any senior who is seeking to go to a (top tier) four-year university, who has senioritis, or who skates through their senior year is not going to get in (to college),” McGuire said.

According to McGuire, state university may be just as demanding as private universities.

State schools may have lower expectations, however, the recent competitiveness should be a cause for alarm among students who are planning to attend a public university.

Although he warns students not to take easy classes during senior year, McGuire recognizes that not a majority of the students take what he considers a year off.

“The fact of the matter is that the seniors who are very much interested in going to a top tier-one university are not taking skate course in their senior year,” McGuire said.

“They are taking the most rigorous courses that we offer in their senior year.”

Senior year may be commonly looked at, however, admissions counselors look at academics from all four years of high school.

Like freshman year, senior year is an indicator to admissions counselors that students have motivation throughout high school, whether with easier course work in their freshman year or a challenging schedule in their senior year.

Because being admitted into colleges has become more competitive and admissions counselors want to see their potential students step up to the plate in a year in which many seniors dismiss.

Although colleges are not able to see seniors’ grades throughout their whole last year of high school, Trevor Oftedal, admission counselor for Westmont College in Santa Barbra, said that all colleges keep track of their admitted students when students send in their final transcripts.

“(Westmont) notices, that if students don’t follow through (with hard classes) senior year, that they probably won’t do well in college because college is all about following through and working hard,” Oftedal said.

Oftedal admits that even if prospective students apply for Early Action, an early admissions process, Westmont College will move students to Regular Decision and, consequently, ask for their senior year
transcripts.

If students are not working to their capabilities, it is possible that colleges will question such students.
“If we see that you failed a class then we might actually revoke our decision,” Oftedal said. “And, if you don’t graduate high school, you don’t get (admitted).”

Despite Oftedal’s concerns, he admits that Westmont is more understanding than stern.

“Numbers don’t always tell the truth because something might have happened your first semester or second semester,” Oftedal said. “If we see that you were a straight A student and then you started getting straight C’s, we might wonder what’s going on and call you. Other schools might not be that tolerant, but that’s just how Westmont (handles those) issues.”

Like McGuire and Oftedal, Advance Placement government teacher, Jarrod Westberg notices that not all seniors are dismissing senior year as an easier year.

In fact, Westberg, who has only taught seniors in his teaching career, said that in recent years, more seniors are challenging themselves.

Although throughout the year, Westberg notices decreasing grades, he remains optimistic that the grade will eventually increase and that the seniors are experiencing what every class before them has
experienced, just small glitches of senioritis.

“I don’t look down at seniors, especially the high- achiever students that have been in AP classes their whole life,” Westberg said. “These kids have been working very hard for a very long time.”

According to Westberg, senioritis do not usually last too long because of our school’s general character.
“This school has always had seniors that have been driven,” Westberg said. “It’s hard to get away from that mentality (because) it just (becomes) second nature to high achievers.”

Senior and AP student Hailey Israel admits that this year she is taking what she calls senior friendly classes.

Among these classes are physiology, in which every two weeks she waits until the night before a test to complete a homework pack, and the Regional Occupation Program, which she will be taking in the spring.

Unlike most ROP classes, Israel’s will allow her to work even more at her three jobs at Cookie Connection, Subway and for senior Haley Harris’s father’s website.

Her reasons for taking AP classes, such as language, art history and government, while still struggling with her elective, art 3, is simple.

“As a senior, I still want to look like I’m doing something,” Israel said. “I just want to make sure that I have the proper course work to impress colleges as a senior.”

However, when it happened to senior Sam Holzer, the cautionary remark was perceived as hurtful and offensive.

Holzer is of the Jewish faith, and the comment had been made by a would-be comedic fellow student who meant to reference the gas chambers and subsequent cremation tactics used by Nazis during the Holocaust.

Some might find this joke merely distasteful; many would find it downright appalling.

To Holzer, however, the joke, while upsetting, was of a quite familiar nature to him.

“I’ve had money thrown on the ground in front of me (by) people who told me not to pick it up,” he said. “They felt like I’d be tempted to. That was the joke.”

Holzer has tolerated comments about his socioeconomic status, his faith’s history or something as commonplace as his nose since seventh grade, when he missed a day of school for Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday of prayer and fasting.

“Someone asked me the next day when I came to class, ‘how was your Jew day?’” Holzer said. “It was the first time comments (about my faith) hadn’t been kind of inquisitive. They were more hurtful.”

Holzer usually tries to laugh off the jokes, but he notices that the stereotyping he experiences at GBHS isn’t a universal occurrence. He attributes this discrepancy to the fact that he is one of few Jewish people in a primarily Christian, conservative area.

Junior Mariam Bereket-Ab, a student of African American descent, experiences similar treatment, in her case for the color of her skin.

“I don’t like running, so people are sometimes like, ‘well that’s surprising,’” Bereket-Ab said.

Bereket-Ab doesn’t let these types of comments bother her, but it strikes her as strange that people use them so liberally.

“Not every black person is the same,” she said. “If someone (says), ‘oh, obviously you can’t swim,’ I think it’s weird, but I just kind of laugh.”

Like Holzer, Bereket-Ab feels that because she is part of such an underrepresented minority, some students feel it is more acceptable to racially profile her. Most of her cousins live in the Bay Area, and she notices a distinct difference in the social acceptability of those comments when she visits them.

“When I go there, (I notice) white people don’t usually say that stuff to black people, because there’s so many of them,” Bereket-Ab said.

Sophomore Cesar Sanchez is of Mexican descent. His family’s taqueria, El Sombrero, is a popular eatery for Granite Bay families. Like Holzer, Sanchez noticed that stereotypical comments about his race became more common once he got to junior high.

“If we see grass or something, (people) will (say), ‘hey Cesar, you should mow that,’” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said most comments he hears reference the stereotyped low socioeconomic status of Mexicans as well as certain jobs that they are perceived as most dominant in.

Senior Gabby Cho is half Korean and feels she does not fit the typical Asian stereotype that many students apply to her. She said that oftentimes people assume her parents are very strict, and that she will be severely disciplined for not achieving the best grades.

“Actually, (my mom) is white, and she’s the one who asks how I’m doing in my classes,” Cho said. “My dad doesn’t even know what classes I’m taking, and he’s Asian.”

English teacher Katrina Wachs previously taught at a more diverse school than GBHS and feels that without exposure to those kinds of diverse environments, students at GBHS cannot comprehend the true weight of their seemingly innocent remarks. At her former school, many of the jokes made by GBHS students were offenses worthy of suspension.

“As educators, we’re doing a disservice to our students if we don’t talk about it with them, because once they leave here and (enter) a more diverse environment… they are going to get misrepresented as bad people (for making those jokes),” Wachs said.

Wachs believes that because the majority of GBHS students have not been truly prejudiced against, they cannot realistically grasp the gravity of the “jokes” they inflict on others from different backgrounds.

Because this type of offensive language has been integrated into most students’ everyday speech, it has become more and more difficult to distinguish the humorous from the hurtful.

“It’s this accepted cultural language, and I don’t believe it’s acceptable,” Wachs said. “Granite Bay (is) behind this curtain, and people do and say these things that outside the curtain wouldn’t be okay.”

This distinct lack of diversity does not go unnoticed by students from other schools, as GBHS has adopted its own stereotype.

“I think that Granite Bay High School is obviously stereotyped as this very rich, kind of affluent neighborhood where everyone drives an Escalade to school and throws these elaborate parties,” Holzer said.

This generalization cannot be applied to all students, however. Holzer, who has heard the views of his friends from schools such as Bella Vista High School and Mira Loma High School, notes that because a few more socially active students embody this image, outsiders perceive them as representative of the entire student body of more than two thousand.

Bereket-Ab tends to hear the racial aspect of the stereotype from people she knows.

“If I tell someone I go to Granite Bay, they say things like, ‘oh, Granite Bay, you must be whitewashed,’” she said. “They think everyone here is (a) stuck-up, bratty white person.”

Sanchez believes the stereotype is a result of jealousy felt by students from other schools.

“I think… it has a lot to do with our athletics,” Sanchez said. “(Nearly) everyone who (plays) a sport here is white and tends to be actually good, so people just get angry about the fact that we’re beating other schools that (in their opinion) should be winning.”

Cho has heard several implications that GBHS students take advantage of the privileges they’re given, which she thinks is a little far-fetched.

“A lot of people (from other schools) think kids at Granite Bay all do drugs like cocaine,” Cho said. “I (also) feel like people think our grades are handed to us, and everything’s a smooth path and we don’t have adversity.”

GBHS may be stereotyped for financial privilege, but Wachs feels that the prevailing advantage of attending GBHS is the allowance of ignorant comments to go unpunished.

“I think the privilege is because there’s not as much diversity here, not (feeling) like you have to be sensitive about what you say, just because that group may or may not be represented on this campus,” Wachs said.

Senior Ian Fitzgerald displays the aftermath of his pie eating techniques.

Pumpkin pies can be a delicious fall favorite, or turn into a pretty nasty dish in a pie eating competition.

Needless to say, the Gazette’s first ever “Gazette vs.” challenge was a hilarious success.

For the first challenge the Gazette staff took on the yearbook staff in a fall pumpkin pie eating contest.

The girls started off our competition, with female Gazette representatives junior Brooklyn Klepl and senior Olivia Cornell pitted against yearbook senior Bridgette Galarza and junior Jenny Woo.

Thanks to the supersized Costco pumpkin pies, the girls were horrified and shocked, giving them a hesitant start.

The girls took a lady-like approach, using their hands to try and eat their pie as cleanly as humanly possible given their pumpkin-y predicament.

Cornell took a careful but steady pace, giving the Gazette girls an edge on the competition.

Klepl got off to a strong start as well, making some solid pie-eating progress.

Woo and Galarza had no trouble keeping up, matching the other girls bite for bite.

By the end of their match, the girls had all eaten around a third of their massive pies.

While all did well, the Gazette had a slight lead, ending with the Gazette for the female win.

On the guys’ side, the contest turned into a messy brawl.

The boys decided to step it up and show the girls how pie eating is done, in cannibal-like fashion.

The stage was set for Gazette senior Kyle Pawlak, yearbook senior Ian Fitzgerald, yearbook senior Taylor Ito and Gazette junior Austin Downs, to chow down for the championship.

Wasting no time, Fitzgerald assaulted his pie with a fast head-into-pie entry.

Fitzgerald continued to eat his pie like a crazed animal, shocking his team, the competitors and the audience.

Little did they know, the sight would get even scarier, as Fitzgerald picked his head up for a short breath.

Every scrap of skin, hair and neck was covered in a pumpkin and cool whip mess.

Sideburns, beard, mustache, eyelashes, eyebrows and everything else was covered, giving him a ghastly, crusty facial glow.

Pawlak’s approach was the complete opposite. He was slow and deliberate, wiping his face between bites.

Downs made a decent start, but didn’t make it very far before making gagging sounds.

He repeatedly mentioned how he hates pie and was disqualified from the competition by Gazette senior ShinEui Park for playing with his food and turning it into a pumpkin pie volcano mountain.

After going to the bathroom, Downs allegedly threw-up, proclaiming once more how foul pumpkin pie is to him.

Ito stayed in the competition nearly to the end, but dropped out as he believed it was not physically possible for someone, in one sitting, to eat an entire Costco monster pie.

Down to the final two, Fitzgerald’s eating slowed, allowing Pawlak to catch up.

Pawlak made steady effort all the way to the finish, and rejected many truce offerings from Fitzgerald before finally accepting after both had eaten most of their now unrecognizable pumpkin pies.

In the end, the Gazette may have won the contest, but yearbook’s Fitzgerald stole the show with his enthusiastic effort.

All in all, the Gazette looks forward to more “Gazette vs.” challenges in the future.

Yet much of what the public has been exposed to is filled with misconceptions and bias.

Even the name Mormon is technically incorrect, according to Granite Bay High School senior Daniel Flinders.

“The actual name of our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” Flinders said.

Senior Chloe Shaw also believes that the student body at GBHS is largely uninformed about Mormon policies and basic beliefs.

“(A) common misconception (is) that Mormons aren’t Christians, but we believe in Christ,” Shaw said.

The fact that such a basic tenant of the religion is largely unknown illustrates just how little most students know about one of the most commonly practiced religions in America.

“I feel like people have a vague understanding (of Mormonism) and they (draw) conclusions about the reasons why we do things,” Flinders said. “(People) tend to stereotype us.”

Mormons study from three different sources: the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.

With so much scripture to study, the list of rules practicing Mormons adhere to is extensive.

“A lot of people just find it kind of cute the way we have all these rules,” Flinders said.

He feels that many students fail to see Mormonism as a lifestyle and don’t understand the need for for so many rules dictating the appropriate standards for dress, language, music, dancing, dating, physical health and more.

“They refer to us as ‘Are you one of those Mormons?’ which sort of has a negative connotation,” Flinders said.

Perhaps the most widely acknowledged misconception about Mormonism is the belief that Mormons traditionally practice polygamy. This is in fact a myth; LDS banned the practice when Utah became a state in 1896.

“The guys always get the jokes like ‘How many wives can you have?’” Shaw said.

Mike Sebesta, a prominent local Mormon authority, had much insight to offer on the issue. As a local LDS bishop and father of two GBHS graduates and one current GBHS student, he has experience working with the youth in his church and is very familiar with the way young Mormons are treated in school.

“My own kids have gone to the high school and they have had comments made about what we believe or don’t believe,” Sebesta said. “In high school it can be fairly harsh… I don’t think out of (a desire to cause) direct harm of an individual but out of lack of knowledge or lack of understanding.”

Despite this, Sebesta believes that the public is becoming more informed about LDS practices and, as a result, young Mormons are being treated with more respect in their schools than in the past.

The Mormon Church encourages community involvement, tolerance and leadership, which plays a significant role in helping the church to successfully establish itself as a major religion.

“We try to be a very big part of the community … and we have the opportunity to be a great example and hopefully just let people know that we are just like everyone else,” Sebesta said.

And yet many young LDS members feel they are not viewed as normal high school students.
“I feel like (our peers) treat us differently,” Flinders said.

While GBHS has not had any serious issues with harassment or bullying of Mormon students, LDS members are sometimes subjected to ridicule and judgment by their peers.

However, according to Sebesta, young members of LDS rarely let this treatment affect their religious beliefs.

“I have heard of situations where some unkind words have been said, but I don’t think it has ever affected the attitudes … of our youth because we believe what we believe,” Sebesta said. “Hopefully when you believe in something strongly enough … you strongly adhere to it.”

While many Mormons feel they are viewed differently because of their religious views, they refuse to reciprocate any judgment passed upon them.

Both Flinders and Sebesta expressed that while they may not agree with the beliefs of other religions, they are taught through the policies of the Mormon Church to view others with tolerance and respect.

This live and let live attitude provides a strong basis for the church and makes members of LDS more accessible to the outside world.

“I don’t focus on what people think we do or don’t believe,” Sebesta said. “We claim the privilege of worshipping the almighty God … and allow all men the same privilege to let them worship how, where and what they may.”

Braly owns a total of about 110 metal lunchboxes that he has collected over the past ten years and rotates his lunchboxes for lunch everyday.

He keeps his lunchboxes on shelves, which cover two walls of his office area at home. When packing his lunch for the day, he simply grabs the next lunchbox in the sequence.

“I have them in order on the shelves and when I get to the end, I go back,” Braly said.

When he gets a new lunchbox, it gets a spot in the front of the line. Braly has enough lunchboxes to get him through a semester of lunches without any repeats.

With such a large collection, Braly has spent an estimated $2,000 on lunchboxes. The average price he pays for one is $25, and the most expensive lunchbox he has is $45. This is his orbit lunchbox, which has a book value of a couple hundred dollars.

This particular lunchbox is expensive because it was made during one of the early Apollo missions and the company who produced it used a picture from the National Geographic magazine on the display without permission, causing manufacture to cease. There are only a few of these orbit lunchboxes in circulation and Braly is in possession of one.

Braly’s favorite lunchbox, also his first lunchbox which got him into collecting, is his dome top Grizzly Adams.
“That’s the holy grail of my lunchboxes,” Braly said.

He remembers carrying lunchboxes to school as a kid: his Land of the Giants, Hot wheels and Land of the Lost lunchboxes. But he was always jealous of his friend with the Grizzly Adams lunchbox. It was one of his favorite TV shows in the 70s.

10 years ago, when Braly spotted the exact lunchbox, it brought back memories from his childhood and he knew he had to have it.

Outside of teaching, Braly and his wife used to work with antique dealings on the weekends. In the business of collectables, he had booths neighbored by other dealers who sold lunchboxes.

“Once you’ve gotten a few, it plants the bug and you start looking for them more seriously,” Braly said.
Braly has accumulated a great deal of his lunchboxes from bidding on eBay and now has a third of all existing metal lunchboxes in production.

His collection is still growing but he is no longer avidly on the hunt for lunch boxes. He still collects today, but not as seriously as when he first started his collection. He finds new lunch boxes at the occasional garage sale and he and his family enjoy going to antique street fairs every month or so.

The last metal lunch boxes were produced in 1985 and Braly likes to collect them because they are memorabilia of the past and they give him opportunities to connect with his students as well as other teachers.

“(Lunch boxes) are a blast from the past and a picture of culture,” Braly said. “It’s nostalgic for a lot of adults to look at them. I’m using (my collection), I’m enjoying it, I’m sharing it with other people and not just putting it on a shelf and leaving it at home.”

Junior Brandon Borjon is in Braly’s Fish and Wildlife class and was also in his Biology class. Borjon said that students found out about his collection because on the way in from lunch, he stands at the door holding his lunch box and makes comments about them everyday.

“I think his collection is awesome and I wish I had the confidence to talk about a lunch box collection openly with other people,” Borjon said. “I bought Mr. Braly a Captain America (lunch box) … and the next time we pass out notes for staff appreciation I’m going to give it to him.”

Braly has received lunch boxes as gifts from other people. Graduate Kevin Hollingshead, a former student and friend of Braly, surprised him with the 1964 NFL lunch box last year, just before graduating. He and Braly had had multiple conversations about his lunch boxes and when Hollingshead asked about NFL lunch boxes one day, Braly told him he had three of the four existing ones in his collection but had never been able to get a hold of the 1964 make.

Braly said that with the economy being down, people are selling their collectables because they are not a necessity. He said collectables are “red hot” and as inexpensive as ever and that now is the perfect time to get into collecting.

“I invite any students (or staff members) who have any interest in (lunch boxes) to stop by,” Braly said. “I’d be happy to talk about them any time.”