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From a girls’ point of view

December 14, 2011

Cyril Sambrano

Junior Inka Leprince is one of the three girls on the school wrestling team. She is in her second year of wrestling. Every day, she and her teammates gather in the auxiliary gymnasium to practice and workout, coached by Coach Kyle. Her brother influenced her to do wrestling for the winter season by expressing that she could get into shape quickly. Moreover, wrestling appealed to her because it was unique and exciting. Her teammates are a major part in convincing her to continue wrestling in high school.  “I personally feel like they’re my second family,” Leprince says. Despite the majority of the team being boys, Leprince receives no special treatment from her coach. She is expected to try her best and perform all exercises that the boys do.
Leprince states that wrestling is a physical sport and wrestling with boys is not like what most people think. She laughs, “It’s not sexual in any way. The only difference is that when heavier guys wrestle me, they are gentler because they don’t want to be ‘that guy’ who hurts a girl.” Her favorite memory was going to the North Coast Championships (NCS) for a two-day tournament with fellow teammates Brittany Kinney, Kaitlin Loob, and Maryanna Wainaina. Here, she bonded with many of her teammates as well as her coaches. Leprince has high hopes for the team this year, believing that there will be several boys advancing to NCS. “It’s a lot of pain but a lot of gain,”Leprince exclaims.

Bittersweet victory against Kennedy

February 2, 2010

Nicole Pham

The wrestling team defeated Kennedy, 45-36, at the JFK gym, Jan. 27. The boys won 8 of 11 varsity matches. Sophomores Nicole Belingheri, Kaitlin Loob and Brittany Kinney did not have female competitors to play.

Sophomore Dominic Cesena, junior Raymond Chan and senior Mohammad Khalil won their matches with pins. Kennedy didn’t have opponents for sophomore Joel Weintraub, sophomore Joseph Dereis and senior Doran Martinez, so they won points each by forfeit.

Despite the school win, Kennedy’s aggressive tactics left many players bruised. Senior Cole Brower endured three slams in his lost match, and team captain senior Joey Johnson couldn’t continue his match after his opponent slammed him on his back. Wrestlers are allowed to slam opponents if they have at least one knee on the ground. The referee repeatedly reminded Kennedy players to “take it easy” on the magnitude of slamming. In Johnson’s match, the warnings were not enough. He came away with a bruised rib.

The team record stands at 2-2. The next meet is against Mission and Logan, Feb. 3.

Halloween rally draws largest crowd in 20 years

November 13, 2009

Keerthika Ramakrishnan

The amphitheatre packed 500 to 600 students for the Halloween rally, and almost 800 students and faculty members were fed.

“The Halloween rally at lunch on October 30th attracted the biggest crowd I have seen in all my years at Washington,” activity director Helen Paris said.

There were barely any seats available for students who came late to rally. The Halloween rally has been a tradition at Washington High School for the past 20 years.

Unlike other schools in Fremont who usually have international kitchen for a week, Washington hosts barbeques throughout the school year. The rally is funded by money from ASB cards. Most of the money collected through the buying of ASB is returned to students in the form  of rallies. Students purchased food for a $1.00 without a costume and $.50 with a costume; teachers in costume got food for free.

In general, the Halloween rally usually consists of a costume competition, pumpkin carving and bobbing for apples.
The Halloween costume contest contained a wide range of costumes, from a Roman goddess to Po from Teletubbies.
First prize for pumpkin craving went to junior Kaitlin Loob, and senior Alex Tyler won first prize for apple bobbing.
The funniest costume went to the costume group, “Irony,” with two prisoners and a cop.
The most creative costume was sophomore Alex Rich’s hitchhiker.
The spookiest costume award went to the mimes, senior Emily Ives and senior Dylan Jarvis.

For the first time at lunch time, there was a live performance by a new R&B group called New Era who sang a couple songs to end the largest Halloween rally in Washington history.

Dare to explore madness

October 12, 2009

Noelle Fujii

During October, haunted houses are all over Fremont. The Halls of Madness, hosted by the Loob Family, has been around for 12 years. WHS sophmore Kaitlin Loob, runs this place with her family and also helps to collect cans for charity.Loob’s father got the idea for the haunted house when he was a kid. He was inspired by monsters and creepy movies. He also loved to scare people. The Loob family charges $3.00 and two canned food donations or $5.00 with no food donations to go through the haunted house. The money they make goes towards the haunted house to repair things such as screws, wood, fog juice and props. The cans they collect go to the charity S.A.V.E.

This haunted house is popular and the amount of people that come ranges from night to night. They are usually busy on Halloween.

“Lets just say eight years and younger cannot attend. We had adults wet their pants, and one even passed out. Some are too afraid to even take 10 steps.” Loob said.

It takes about one month to set up starting from around the last week in September. The whole family is involved and they also have volunteers help to set up the haunted house and work in it. Every year they would add new props and change things up a bit, such as the interior and exterior decorations.

The haunted house opens on the 23rd, 24th, 30th, 31st dark-11 pm, and on October 25th from dark-10pm. The Hall of Madness is located in the Glenmoor neighborhood and for more information visit their website at hallsofmadness.net.