Freshman Lindsay Marty

If you could be any animal what would you be?

A horse

What is your favorite book?

The Hunger Games

What is the best thing to do over summer vacation?

Sleep

Do you believe in aliens?

No.

If you could pick any celebrity to be your best friend, who would you pick?

Taylor Swift

What is the best frozen yogurt flavor?

Strawberry

Sara Beil, a senior, has been in  Drama, been President of the Drama Club and on media’s Team Black.

How do you manage being part of Drama and Media while keeping up on your classes?

It has been hard, especially around tech week when we have five hour rehearsals … every day after school. Sometimes I would do homework during rehearsals. I also do theater outside of the school and it has sometimes been difficult being part of many different productions while still being involved in school. But, I have learned to manage my classes and pass with good grades. I have learned to handle the stress and the pressure and how to function on less sleep.

What have you learned from being a part of drama specifically?

Drama has taught me to open up more, as I used to be shy … (it) has helped me become more confident and be more self secure. I am able to talk in front of people easier and have no problems doing presentations for other classes now. Also, I have met a lot of new people with different views and opinions and overall it has taught me to be more open and accepting and to just have fun.

What has been your favorite Drama production?

My favorite production has definitely been The Office. It was the first play that I wasn’t part of the cast, as before then I had only acted or been a stage manager.  It was a really different experience because I was in charge of everything.  The cast was so wonderful and was definitely my favorite cast I have ever worked with. It was a really cool experience to be able to sit in the audience and actually watch the play rather than being on stage. It gave me a whole new perspective of things and I learned a lot.

BY CHRIS PEI……

As an avid Poe fan and connoisseur of all things gory and gruesome, this film was an absolute must-see for me.

Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), The Raven chronicles Edgar Allan Poe’s last days in a thrilling, fictional re-imagining inspired by the poet’s works.

The plot revolves around a series of grisly murders that take place in 19th century Baltimore, Maryland, where the infamous Poe (John Cusack) toils day and night, living the arduous, dreary life of a writer.

The serial killer who committed these murders, obsessed with Poe’s writing, attempts to model each of his murders after his works in hopes of drawing the poet’s attention.

In response to these murders, Inspector Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) recruits the help of Poe in order to delve into the psyche and motives of the killer, in hopes of tracking him down.

As a starting note, Cusack’s portrayal of Poe isn’t how I envisioned the tortured genius of a poet to be at all.

Although Poe was indeed notorious for his alcoholism, he was also a deeply pained and troubled man, a concept that the film neglected to capture.

Instead, Cusack’s Poe is construed as an arrogant literary snob whose dark demeanor acts merely as a façade.

However, it was incredibly satisfying to see how McTeigue interpreted Poe’s nightmarish, macabre visions of death.

The appearance and atmosphere given to the likes of “The Pit and Pendulum” and “The Premature Burial” did not disappoint; both were bone-chilling and gripping.

The scene inspired by “The Pit and the Pendulum” was particularly gory, depicting a man being bound on a table, tortured and hacked in half.

From that point forward, the film’s genre transitions into mystery, rather than horror or thriller.

In fact, at one point, I almost felt as if I was watching Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for the second time.

The Raven is an entertaining, fast-paced and suspenseful film, but it won’t leave you awe-struck, or even anxious to see it again.

However, if you, like myself, are excited at the notion of seeing Poe’s literature come to life on screen, then give it try; it won’t disappoint.

Grade: B

It’s the second round in the 2006 football playoffs and Union Mine High School is up 20-10 over the Granite Bay High School Grizzlies with seconds to go. Emotion prevalent on everyone’s face, two captains #9 and #7 walk off the field knowing that they have scholarships to San Diego State and Fresno State respectively.

That is the last game that Miles Burris and Devon Wylie played in a GBHS uniform.

Five years later, Burris and Wylie appear again, this time in a large national spotlight.

Both the football players have been invited to the 2012 National Football League Draft.

“It was always my dream (to play) in the NFL,” Burris said.

After graduating together in 2006, the two players found themselves continuing their childhood dreams.

‘My best friend Miles Burris played with me all throughout the GBHS program, we both ended up signing with division one teams, and now we are both entering the NFL Draft,” Wylie said.

Both players excelled in their craft throughout their collegiate football careers, placing them in the top 150 eligible draftees in the nation by most analysts’ hypotheses.

“Both of them had the physical abilities to make it all the way to the NFL,” GBHS varsity football coach Ernie Cooper said.

Miles Burris

“I started playing football in 5th grade,” Burris said. “The team was practicing right across from my house so I went out and played.”

The now 6’3”, 240 pound man that bench pressed 225 pounds an astounding 31 times was once a boy playing pee-wee football with the other 5th graders.

“It was immediately my favorite sport and became a passion of mine,” Burris said.

From 5th grade until his senior year for the San Diego State Aztecs, Burris has been shutting down running backs as a middle linebacker.

After all of his years of learning the position, he is ranked by most scouts as the 7th best middle linebacker in the draft.

“I have played linebacker my whole career and I have loved it since the first hit,” Burris said.

His junior year and senior year at GBHS, he lead the Grizzlies to two playoff appearances, losing in the second round both years.

He was a captain his senior year, voted in by his fellow teammates as a leader and team captain.

“(Burris) was very physical and aggressive with great work ethic,” Cooper said.

Yet Burris didn’t miss a beat playing for the San Diego State Aztecs, who gave him a scholarship to play football at their school.

Burris “redshirted” his freshman year, which means that he played as a reserve for the team while learning the system and playing on the special teams unit.

He rose to a starting position his sophomore year and was an All-Mountain West linebacker his junior and senior years.

“The most important thing is that we had two winning seasons,” Burris said. “We turned the program around and took the team to two bowl games for the first time in a long time.”

Now a graduate of San Diego State’s business management program, Burris is awaiting the results of the NFL Draft.

“It’s all a big waiting game right now,” Burris said. “I’m hearing everything from (being drafted) in the 2nd to the 5th (rounds).”

Burris has very specific requirements for who is to be his new NFL team.

“Whichever team that is willing to pay me,” Burris said jokingly.

Devon Wylie

“(Wylie) is the fastest and shiftiest player I have ever coached,” Cooper said.

Wylie, a 5’10” 185 pound wide receiver played football since he was in 4th grade.

“I always wanted to play football,” Wylie said.

He played a mixture of flyback and wide receiver in the Granite Bay system from 4th grade to his senior year.

“The GBHS football system is fantastic,” Wylie said. “Cooper is a great coach and a blast to play for.”

With 19 touchdowns and over 1,500 total yards his senior year, Wylie helped lead the Grizzlies to the second round of the playoffs his junior and senior year along with Burris.

With his athleticism and gaudy stats, he was quickly recruited and given a scholarship by Fresno State.

Despite being injured and “redshirting” his junior year, Wylie put up good numbers in college.

Playing the slot and outside receivers, Wylie caught for 1,327 yards and eight touchdowns throughout his collegiate years along with significant punt and kick return duties.

“The biggest difference between playing in high school and college is that you can’t just be an athlete, you have to be able to run routes,” Wylie said.

He went the NFL combine and ran a 4.39 second 40 yard dash which proved to be one of the fastest among eligible draftees.

Yet it is not just his athletic skills that separate Wylie from other NFL-bound wide receivers.

“(Wylie) could sit down with an NFL wide receivers coach and have an intelligent discussion with him,” Cooper said.

Wylie is projected by some analysts as high as a 4th round draft pick.

“I’m expected to be drafted but I don’t really know when or where,” Wylie said.

With a draft party at his house in Roseville, Wylie will be sitting and waiting for the call from an NFL team offering him a job as a player for their team.

“I am really excited to be able to go out and make my dream into a reality,” Wylie said.

Burris was picked at the 129^th pick by the Oakland Raiders.

While some analysts had Burris Being drafted higher or lower, the general consensus was around the fourth round and the Raiders chose to select him in the 4^th round of the NFL draft.

Wylie was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs at the 107^th pick in the 4^th round.

The Chiefs talked about using him in the return game and as a slot receiver.

Various analysts called the pick one or the best in the draft and a steal for where he was taken.

The answer: only members of the GBHS Trap Shooting Club.

The club, only being on campus for four years, and has both male and female members from freshmen to seniors.

Senior Chris Beck joined the Trap Shooting Club when he was a freshman. As the senior who ran the club graduated that year, Beck took over the lead role to keep the club alive.

Beck’s sophomore year, he became president, and from then on, trap shooting became not just a club, but a team.

“We have a ton of different venues from the bay area to Auburn,” Beck said. “High schools like Del Oro, Woodcreek and Roseville have teams, and we shoot and are compared to them when we compete.”

Daniel Eitzman, a freshman, signed up for the Trap Shooting Club on club day.

“When I joined the club, I already knew how to shoot,” Eitzman said. “(But after a few competitions), I learned how to focus and concentrate better…as well as have quick reflexes.”

Eitzman found the sport to be fun and exciting but he also joined the club to hone his skills.

“Within the club, there are ranks that you can achieve, and I wanted to become an extinguished expert, which means you are really good at shooting,” Eitzman said. “I want my skills to grow.”

Along with the growing skills of the players, the sport itself is also growing. The GBHS team now consists of 32 members, whereas last year there were only 17 members.

“Within the district, there are only those four teams, but the sport is growing state wide,” Beck said. “Four new teams have been created within the last year or so.”

The campus faculty advisor and assistant coach of the Trap Team, Scott Braly, has also noticed the improvement throughout the sport.

“Two years ago, we were third in state for the Junior Varsity team, and last year our JV retained that position,” Braly said. “Our Varsity squad also came in second at the U. S. Open in Las Vegas this past summer.”

Braly said that the Trap Shooting growth was mainly concentrated in the Northern California areas.  The growth in this area causes him to be excited because of the increasing amount of teams that the GBHS team can compete with.

After the four years of growth of the trap team at GBHS, the team was recognized by the National Rifle Association. Because of the organization, the team actually owns three donated guns.

One of Beck’s favorite aspects of the sport is that it is versatile.

“The sport is cool because you can shoot as an individual or as a team,” Beck said. “Your team can be compared to other teams and an individual can also can be compared to other individuals at that same event.”

The core goals of the team, even though there has been an increase in popularity, have not changed.

“Safety has always been the first goal, because if there was ever an accident, it would be the end of the sport,” Braly said. “Also, other things we as coaches hope the students feel and accomplish are camaraderie, enjoyment, team building and skill development.”

   With senior Brendan Keeney as the starting pitcher, he held RHS to a scoreless first inning while senior Nick LeBeau was able to pull out the first run during the bottom of the 1^st inning.

   However, RHS came back hard and ended up pulling out four runs leaving the score at the end of the 2^nd inning at 1-4.

   The outlook was looking grim, with GBHS only gaining one more run by the bottom of the 5^th inning, at only 2-4.

   Nevertheless, GBHS pulled through with amazing strength during the 6^th inning and was able to tie the score up by the time the bottom of the 6^th.

   Sophomore Devin Lehman was able to put GBHS in the lead with an RBI after his hit went through second base and shortstop to the outfield.

   But what really sent the game over the edge was a hit to right field by sophomore Mitch Hart which sent junior Ryan Rosa home

   Senior Jordan Black then proceeded to hit triple to right field and send Lehman and Hart home to leave the score after the 6^th inning at 8-4.

   Keeney continued to pitch for the majority of the game, up until the 7^th inning when junior Jake Peterson came out to the mound.

   Even though RHS pulled out another run in the top of the 7^th inning, Peterson was able to end the game by striking out an RHS batter.

   GBHS celebrated their win but sportsmanly shook hands with the RHS varsity baseball team.

   GBHS was able to pull out a win in this game but this was just the first of a three-game series vs. RHS that the Grizzlies are participating over this week.

College and Career counselor Cindi Underwood advises waitlisted seniors to remain hopeful but to have a backup university.

For the past couple of months, Granite Bay High school students have been anxiously waiting for college acceptances.
Now that college acceptances have been released, students have until May 1 to submit their Statement of Intent to Register form.
Many individuals found out they would be attending a four-year university; however, for some the waiting game is not over.
A handful of seniors were waitlisted at a wide array of schools. This leaves seniors in the dark for yet another month and even two months for some.
Because of recent budget cuts and an increase in applicants, seven UC campuses have implemented waitlists.
Susan Wilbur, the UCs’ system-wide director of undergraduate admissions, said this year’s waitlists were implemented in order to admit as many qualified students as possible without over-enrolling each campus – a problem that has troubled the UC system in the past.
The only problem is that UCs have no way of knowing how many people they will admit from the waitlist – the entire process is quite arbitrary.
“Because it is impossible to know how many applicants ultimately will be admitted off the waitlist, students should submit by the stated deadlines an SIR and the requisite deposit to an institution to which they have been admitted,” Wilbur said.
College and Career Center counselor Cindi Underwood also advises students to commit to another college even if they were placed on the waitlist.
“The best advice I can give is that students should commit to another school even if they are still waiting to hear if they have been accepted through the waitlist,” Underwood said.
Many seniors are encountering this predicament and must commit to an alternative college.
“I was waitlisted at three schools: University of Chicago, Northwestern and Wesleyan University. University of Chicago is my top choice,” senior Madeline Ochi said.
Essentially, waitlisted students are presented with two options: accept admissions offers from other universities or stall those offers and wait for a response from a waitlisted campus.
“University of Chicago will notify me by June 30 at the latest about whether I will be taken off the waitlist,” Ochi said.
The waiting game for Ochi seems everlasting, for she will have to wait well into summer to figure out where she will be officially attending college.
Ochi will send in her SIR to Tufts University in order to guarantee herself a place at a four-year university.
Similarly to Ochi, senior Kelly Greco faces a similar problem.
“I was waitlisted at my No.1 choice, UC Santa Barbara,” Greco said. “If I get off the waitlist, I will go to UCSB. But, I won’t know until May 31 at the latest about whether I have been admitted off the waitlist or not.”
Greco will enroll at San Francisco State for the fall in order to ensure she will be attending college, but she will wait until she hears back from UCSB.
“Another problem is that there are a bunch of upfront fees that I will have to pay,” Greco said, “a $100 registration fee and another housing fee for San Francisco State, even though I might not end up even going there.”
Familiar with the waitlisting process, Underwood only has one tip of advice for seniors with an unclear future.
“The only thing that seniors can do… is wait for the results and hope for the best,” Underwood said.

As the school year nears its end, Granite Bay High School juniors have begun preparing for the SAT and college applications to submit in the fall. However, two students out of this 572 are preparing for something else as well: Boys’ and Girls’ State.

Boys’ and Girls’ State is a program that allows two representatives (one girl and one boy) from every school to go to a state convention that teaches them the importance of being a citizen and how government works. The students who are involved in the program have the task of making all the rules for the week-long camp, while participating in a mock legislative and judiciary system and receiving firsthand experience with government operation.
Boys’ State is held at Sacramento State University, while Girls’ State is at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
Although the Boys’ State and Girls’ State programs are at different times and places, the process of choosing the representative is similar.
First, the school faculty votes for students based on a list they receive of all the students with above a 3.5 grade point average. Any student who receives two or more votes moves on to the second round. The long list of students is then narrowed down, and there is another round of voting.
The top five girls and the top five boys are those who continue on to the interviews, which are sponsored by an outside organization called The American Legion.
College and Career Center director Cindi Underwood is in charge of overseeing the distribution of ballots and making sure the paperwork is completed by the students.
“The faculty chooses students they’re aware of and that would best represent (GBHS),” Underwood said. “They look at strong leadership capabilities, and it’s not based on popularity.”
Although the program itself has not gained wide recognition on campus, junior Emma Farrell, this year’s Girls’ State representative, has had friends and cousins who participated in this program as well.
Farrell is honored to have been chosen and excited for what the program has in store for her.
“I guess the reason why I was chosen was because of my interview and what I wrote in my personal statement,” Farrell said. “Maybe it showed that I was somehow interested in government, which I am. Maybe I’m a good representative of the school because of my involvement with student government and the
leadership skills I have already.”
Farrell hopes that through the program, she will cultivate her leadership skills so she can make a positive impact on school culture.
Junior Patrick Carroll, who is this year’s Boys’ State representative, is also pleased to be chosen as one of the two representatives.
Although Carroll feels that the other candidates were excellent and well-qualified, he thinks that what made him stand apart is his philosophy of staying well-rounded.
“To me, three things that are equally important in my life are academics, athletics and community service, and I keep those as my highest priorit(ies) in my life,” Carroll said.
He is an active member of Eagle Scouts and will soon be the varsity boys’ water polo team captain. In order to prepare for Boys’ State, Carroll will continue to practice his leadership and public speaking skills.
“After coming back from a program like Boys’ State, where there is a huge emphasis on leadership and community service, I think that I (will) be able to bring back to Granite Bay a great deal of leadership experience I gained over that week, and I will fully take the lead in the activities I do,” Carroll said.
Both Farrell and Carroll are eagerly awaiting the summer convention to take part in this educational experience.
Senior and former Boys’ State representative Brad Smith feels that the program expanded his knowledge in ways he could have never imagined.
Although government operations are demonstrated on a small scale, Smith said the convention accurately depicted how the system operates. It also showed him the benefits of being able to rally for campaigns and specific action to take if he wanted to make a difference in the community.
“(Boys’ State) has helped me substantially in classes like Advanced Placement Government, because while I learn about it in the textbook, I’ve actually experienced it firsthand through the program,” Smith said. “It made AP Government very easy, because I knew a lot of the legislative and judiciary processes already.”
Whenever possible, Smith is glad to share his experience with his peers, recalling events he experienced and explaining lessons he learned.
One of Smith’s favorite memories occurred during a mock city council meeting.
During the meeting, the “mayor” was under scrutiny from the rest of the “city” because no one believed that the mayor was doing a good job. As the town meeting progressed, an unhappy citizen stood up and took out a fake pistol and “assassinated” the mayor.
Everyone in the Boys’ State program then had to deal with the hypothetical financial aftermath and go through the judicial process of prosecuting the shooter.
“The amazing part of Boys’ State is (that) while there are counselors to supervise the program, none of the events are planned,” Smith said. “The citizens were unhappy, so one boy took it on his own personal belief to assassinate the mayor.”
Smith advises future Boys’ State representatives to study for the Boys’ State Bar Exam because it is essential to all Boys’ State positions.
“Enter with an open mind and a friendly attitude and make sure you get to know everybody, because everyone is really great,” Smith said. “Try to also be involved with the program, because there are people that just sit out and don’t do anything. Those who are involved have the most fun.”
The Boys’ and Girls’ State program is about being an active citizen. Whether it is on a small or large scale, these students have the opportunity to one day use what they learned in the outside world.
“They could maybe write a policy that could make a difference in a law,” Underwood said. “Maybe they could make a difference in the world, particularly learning how to write and change what needs to be changed or changing the way people think.”
could make a difference in the world, particularly learning how to write and change what needs to be changed, or changing the way people think.”