Su-Valley News
November
Announcments
Hannah Pitcher
Thursday November 10th:
Weekly eligibility due
Friday November 11th: VETERAN’S DAY
PD DAY - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
MS Bball BLUE AWAY @ Nenana for Ice Cream Classic Tourney
HS VBall HOME (Tri-Meet)
Saturday November 12th:
MS Bball BLUE AWAY @ Nenana for Ice Cream Classic Tourney
HS VBall HOME (Tri-Meet)
Thursday November 17th:
Weekly eligibility due
HS VBall HOME Conference Tournament
Friday November 18th:
Mid Q-2 - Grades posted by 8AM on MONDAY, Nov 21
HS VBall HOME Conference Tournament
HS Wrestling AWAY at Menard Center in Wasilla
Saturday November 19th :
HS VBall HOME Conference Tournament
Volleyball Updates
Kayce Sandifer
Su-Valley varsity girls took home first place in our home tournament this weekend, going undefeated in 5 matches and are now undefeated in our conference as well!
Special Shoutouts:
Three of our players were awarded best athletes for their skills out of six teams.
Alana Barron for Hitting
Ryley Delima for Setting
Birdie Pevan for Defense
Our JV girls took a hard loss to Tri Valley JV on Friday, losing in the 3rd tie breaker set. However, we came out stronger Saturday morning to take the win in 2 sets, displaying big improvements and awesome teamwork!
Wrestling Tournament Updates
Bryan Kirby
Largest 1 2 3A meet in the state 38 teams in attendance. This is also the only meet other than state that places to the top 6 due to it size and toughness.
Results.
~Gage: He had 26 others in his weight class and had a strong showing.
~Sawyer: Placed 4th in his weight class having some great matches and showing his improvement over the weekend. He got pinned by a guy from Seward in his first match on Friday but ended up wrestling him again for 3/4 and lost in overtime.
~Ty: Placed 4th as well. He won his first match then lost to the guy who ended up placing 2nd. Then went on a 5 match win streak up until the 3/4 place match.
Overall these guys far exceeded my expectations and looking forward to what comes in the future.
Our next meet is November 18-19 at the Menard Center in Wasilla.
–Bryan Kirby
MSBSD Transportation Cancellation
On August 18, 2022, Durham School Services, the District’s new school bus contractor, shared that they would not have enough bus drivers to run all the regular routes. The rolling bus cancellations will not affect special education routes and all absences will be excused for those who can’t attend school due to bus cancellations. This is due to the national bus driver shortage and competition with tour bus companies. This means that we won’t be able to go on field trips until the problem is fixed. School bus drivers are needed now more than ever. Something you may not know is that school bus drivers have health, life, dental, retirement, and rental insurance eligibility, as well as paid vacation and holidays. You have to be 21 years old to be a school bus driver in Alaska, and the average pay is 18 dollars per hour. Being a school bus driver provides a stable job because students always need moved around. If someone you know is looking for work and is interested in becoming a school bus driver, give the Durham School Service’s website a look. For more information about the bus cancellation go to MSBSD’s website.
What's with all of the Election Posters?
Hazelee Harrison
This month in A.P Government, the seniors have been doing mini-election campaigning. The candidates for the elections are Ethan Bettes, Emma Kehoe, Tre Zeigler-Lemon, and Michael Palmer. Ethan is playing the role of Republican candidate, William Weldon, Emma is Democratic Candidate, Cammie Harrison, Tre’ is Democratic candidate ,Larry Sanderson, and Michael is fellow Republican candidate, Johnny LaSanta.
Recently, there have been a few scandals that were posted about these candidates, and now Johnny Lasanta (AKA Michael), dropped out of the election. The “Republican Party” now fully supports Willam Weldon (Ethan), as his replacement.
Witch's Butter
Living in Alaska I would imagine that we all have seen various different kinds of mushrooms and plants. Witches butter is one that I first learned about last year. I was hiking down Hatcher's Pass to my favorite spot on the creek. When I first reached the bottom I saw something orange growing off a damp mossy log. As I got closer it started to look like jelly, orange jelly. It was very odd to see a mushroom with this very different look. Later on in time I found that the orange jelly on the log was called (Dacrymyces palmatus),or the more commonly known name, witch's butter. Witch's butter is one of the very few fungus that is edible right off the ground, they don't have much of a flavor but they definitely have the potential to be cooked up and seasoned into a tasty treat for even the pickiest of eaters. Witch's butter has wonderful medicinal properties too, they've been shown to have anti-tumor properties, as well as the potential to treat certain respiratory conditions. Studies also show how it can stimulate the immune system, reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol and are useful in the treatment of allergies and diabetes. There are three types of mushrooms with the common name “witch’s butter” and they are all considered edible. They look quite similar, and two of the three are practically identical, with yellow jelly-like fruiting bodies. I’m most familiar with the third variety, which is known as Dacrymyces palmatus that is the kind of jelly fungi I found myself. Tremella mesenterica and Tremella aurantia mushrooms are yellowish-orange in color and found on hardwood trees with bark still attached.
4-Point Line?
Tyler Ebner
The 4-point line, Many NBA practice gyms have added a 4-point line to the floor. The 4-point line allows for more spacing, higher scoring games, and more diversity between teams’, players’, and coaches’ game plans. In recent years there has been a lot of controversy regarding the implementation of the 4-point line in practice facilities, as well as the possibility of adding them to official NBA, college, and even highschool courts. Phil Jackson-Former head coach of the LA Lakers
There are quite a few benefits to the addition of the 4-point line. As mentioned above, this would make scoring from afar more common, which would, in turn, spread the floor making inside scoring easier. This would add more diversity to the way the game is played, and could change the way future generations are scouted.
The addition of the 4-point line has drawn in a lot of controversy for good reason. Adding the 4-point line to official courts would provide an unfair advantage for teams like the Golden State Warriors, or players like Dame, Trae, Curry, who emphasize the deep range shots. Adding the 4-point line would create a more diverse range of skill between different players. This would make training harder for scorekeepers and refs learning the rules, and the current ones would have to learn a whole new range of rules. In addition not all courts would have the 4-point line drawn at the same time, so some games would be higher scoring than others causing caos in the statsheets. Malika Andrews-ESPN Staff Writer has written “Atlanta targeted Young out of Oklahoma in the 2018 draft lottery, with hopes of building an offense around his long-range shooting and passing skills. Because Young is willing and able to shoot off the dribble from well beyond the 3-point arc, defenders are forced to step out to defend him almost as soon as he crosses half court. Although he already had that range before he joined the Hawks, Young acknowledges that not everybody has the natural instinct to pull up from that deep, so it helps to have a visual reminder.”
In conclusion, the addition of a 4-point line could change, not only the way the game is played, but also the way it is viewed. Players Choice-YouTube channel “A change like this could end up going either way for the sport, drawing in more competition and more aggressive play, or it could provide unfair advantages for certain players and teams.” The latter of the two causes controversy between teams, coaches, front office, taking the NBA and basketball as we know it on a downward spiral.
Seismicity of Yellowstone
Chris Spotts
Throughout October 2022 the University of Utah Seismograph Stations reported that there were a total of three hundred and forty-four earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park Region. On October 13th, at 5:13 AM a minor 2.9 magnitude earthquake fourteen miles southwest of Mammoth Hot Springs was the biggest event that happened during this month. There had been a total of two swarms of earthquakes that had hit Yellowstone during the month of October with a swarm of twentyseven earthquakes hitting, and a second swarm of fifteen earthquakes.
The Unnamed Man and Woman Pt. 4
Upon arriving at the police station in Kennington, My Opa was immediately investigated, interviewed, and searched for information from the two unknown criminals. However, there were no traces of them on his person, such as anything about them, their usual whereabouts, or their homes. Officer #1 questioned “Alright, so, why can’t we find anything about them on you? Did you get rid of the evidence? Or was it your first time meeting them?” Opa responded, “There was no evidence about them on me to begin with because I had none. And, yes, it’s the first time I’ve met them, and they seem like good peop..” Officer #2 interrupted, “What did they tell you? Where did you meet them? And why didn’t you report them to the police?!” When the officer had gotten done yelling, my Opa just scoffed at his ignorance. It was tourist season afterall.“It’s Tourist Season! You think I know half of what’s going on? I got here a few days to a week ago, possibly more than that! And you expect me to just report someone to the police without a valid reason? They haven’t done anything to me or the person that joined us! To me it seems like you’re just trying to pin something on someone to show you’re actually getting work done. You’re too lazy to do overtime to try and actually CATCH criminals. Besides, if I did know what they did in the first place, do you really think I’d have the chance to report to you before being killed?” With that being said, both officers froze after being notified that the investigator behind the glass was rather upset at them for making assumptions without proper evidence. Although, it was too late now, several bombs went off all over the country, destroying the Nottingham, Peterborough, Norwich, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Swansea, and Liverpool districts, causing the entire south of the United Kingdom to shake tremendously. As soon as the tremor began, and the explosions went off, nearby buildings in the Vauxhall district began falling apart. The windows began shattering, fires roaring where the bombs when off, as a heat wave consumed the forestry in the entire area destroying everything with the most protected buildings being hospitals, emergency centres and police stations. In that second, my Opa responded, “What was that?” To Be Continued……
Is Social Media Bad For Your Brain?
Social media is a massive part of gen Z culture and has shaped social life in society across the world. But the question of how social media affects your brain on a cognitive and emotional level still arises. Social media has been tied to shortening attention spans, depression, and the radicalization of beliefs. The average rate of Hospital admissions for non-fatal self-harm has increased in girls from 10-14 has increased by 189% since 2009. And suicide rates in this age group have increased by a total of 151%. Overall from the initial social media craze in 2010 to 2012, gen z is more anxious, more depressed, and much less likely to take risks. The rate at which they get driver's licenses have been dropping, and the rate of how many of them have ever gone on a date or had any kind of romantic interaction is also dropping drastically. Attention spans in teenagers have been shortening making it harder to study and do homework. Arguably one of the most despicable and subtle things social media has done to our behaviore is close reading of our watch time to filter certain information through our feed like fake news or things that keep you on the site as long as possible. These companies know that they are exploiting your psychology for profit and making your life harder in the long term. It is hard to ignore the benefits that social media has provided to people as well. Social media has made us more connected than ever before. We are able to exchange information instantaneously from across the world. It’s also quite amazing that you are able to carry around a device that can give you access to practically infinite information. So in conclusion, it’s fair to say that restrictions need to be placed on social media as it’s an amazing tool that gets abused for profit.