The Helderbarker » Top Stories

The Return of the Birdcage

adviser — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:11:12 +0000

Picture the scene: a cold December night, a packed gym, with music blaring, then out trots the Voorheesville Blackbirds basketball team through a tunnel of cheerleaders. As the team jogs out for pre-game warm-ups they are welcomed especially by the student section, the birdcage, a severely missed part of last season. This has been the scene for the Blackbirds first three home games as this student section has been crowded, energetic, and raucous. They roar as the team comes out and refuse to stop chanting until the final buzzer. The self titled “purple nation” has been out in full force and shows no time of fading any time soon.

The return of the birdcage has been an unexpected, but greatly appreciated, part of the boys’ basketball season. After a rough year last year, many questioned whether or not the birdcage had been permanently damaged. But that question has undoubtedly laid to rest as at each home game the birdcage is packed and ready to cheer. The birdcage has been a real sixth man for the team that has gone 2-1 at home and 3-2 overall. The student section has seemingly even found its way into the heads of the opposing players with their chants during foul shots and at other crucial parts of the game. The return of the birdcage has eliminated most of the sting of the 2-17 record of the previous year’s team and has filled the team with energy and excitement.

This year’s birdcage has taken it a step beyond the rest with their pre-game planning. Twice this year the birdcage has planned a white out and a purple out, where all members of the birdcage wear white or purple, and both times have been extremely successful. This year’s group has even resorted to singing songs from SpongeBob, and incorporated it into the favored cheers of the past. Purple nation has truly been one of the great surprises of this year’s season, along with the early success of the team itself. At the moment, the future of the program, and the birdcage itself, seems bright, and full of noise.

Diversity’s Debut

keira — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:59:59 +0000

The Performing Arts Center has been the venue for many plays, musicians, and motivational speakers, but it has never seen the likes of Diversity. This was a fact that I quickly came to realize as I watched their first ever performance. Diversity is an accurate name for Voorheesville’s dance club because many styles of dance were represented in their performance. The members of the club are diverse as well: some have no dance experience while others have been professionally trained for years. Whether they have experience or not it is clear that the people that make up Diversity all love to dance. They have been working hard choreographing and rehearsing their own routines since last year and all their hard work paid off; they put on a great show.

The first number really set the tone for the whole show when the entire group danced to Youtube remix of “Waka Waka”. Not only was it very entertaining, but it was impressive to think about the fact that the students came up with the choreography on their own. One of the cool things about Diversity’s show was all of the different kinds of music that they danced to. They performed to songs by Skillet, the Dixie Chicks, and even more familiar tunes such as the Fairly Odd Parents theme song. It kept the show interesting because no two dances were ever alike. Another interesting aspect of the show was that some dancers performed in pairs or smaller groups which showcased the dancers’ technique and showmanship. The crowd favorite was the finale, a group hip hop number to track that put a new twist on a song from Disney’s The Lion King.

One of the things that stood out about the show was that there were only female performers. When asked about this Mrs. Fuld, Diversity’s staff advisor, said she hopes to have some boys in their next show. Having both boys and girls in the next performance would allow the club to perform to even more styles of dance including ballroom. This is only one of the goals that the group hopes to achieve in the future. Because they are such a new club they are not funded by the school yet so the proceeds from their performance, as well as other fundraisers that they have put on throughout the year, will go towards funding the club itself. Mrs. Fuld said that going to a competition is not a possibility at this point but isn’t out of the realm of possibility for the future. However this would probably require school funding as well as formal auditions, which would be a first for the club.

Diversity’s show felt like a celebration. It was very clear from watching the performance that all of the members of Diversity simply enjoy dancing. This club and this recital gave them an opportunity to do what they love to do. Congratulations to everyone involved in the Diversity’s performance and best of luck in the future.

Goodbye Midterm Week! Well…Sort of

adviser — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:49:52 +0000

In May of last year, New York State had made a decision not to have January regents for the 2012 school year because they could not get the money from the State legislator. The State needs roughly $1.5 million to fund the standardized tests and legislature refused to pay for the funding of these tests because of the declining economy. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a man determined to help students in high school get the advantage of being able to take the Regents Exams in January. Mayor Bloomberg made phone calls to five private donors asking if they would help fund the standardized tests needed to help students pass. All five of the donors that he called said yes, and he also put in money to pay for these tests.

The January exams are very important to graduating in New York State. Students have to pass a math, science, American history, global history, and English to graduate from high school. The Regents that are set up in January are important to students who have failed the regents the previous year or for those who are graduating high school early.

While there was confusion for a while over the January Regents, many teachers were not sure about giving midterms since the midterm week seemed to be cancelled. Now that the Regents are definitely being given, some teachers are opting out of giving midterms, while others are asking students to take the test during their normally scheduled classes. Those who are giving midterms are giving them within the last two weeks of the marking period. Teachers are considerate and asking their students what other subjects they are being tested in and which day so that they are not overwhelming the students with multiple tests in one day. The school has asked that math teachers give their tests within the first week, if they decide they want to give a midterm.

This new schedule can be stressful for some students, especially waiting to hear if they will have a midterm in certain classes. Students who do not have any tests will be thankful. For those students that do have tests, they may be worried about how they will study when they have homework to do for other classes after getting home from school. Students are advised to talk to your teachers and make sure you have the correct day for your tests. Also, ask teachers if they will be doing in class reviews, as well as after school. If they are not doing after school review and you feel that you need more time to review the material, ask them if they will help you one on one. The nice thing about being in a small school like Voorheesville is that the teachers have more time to spend one on one with the students for extra help. Good luck to all students taking any Regents in the upcoming weeks as well as those students taking regular midterms for your classes!

Making a Difference, One Athlete at a Time

keira — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:23:43 +0000

Ron Greenfield is a trainer at No Limits Fitness gym located down in the village of Voorheesville. He bought the gym about 5 years ago and has been there to this day. He is certified in both personal training and sports conditioning; he trains kids and adults of all ages both individually and in groups. Besides the people in Voorheesville who go to his gym he also helps kids and teams from Guilderland and Bethlehem with their strength and conditioning training. He currently is training the lacrosse teams for Voorheesville and both the girls and boys lacrosse team for Guilderland, but all kids are allowed to join the sessions if they wish. He also trains the basketball team and football team for Voorheesville during their preseasons along with conditioning workouts for anyone who wants to go during the summer. He doesn’t charge the sports teams at all to come and train with him; it’s all voluntarily as long as the teams come to train hard because these are not workouts for those who wish to take it easy.

If a coach wants Ron’s help in training their teams all they have to do is contact him and ask, he is always glad to help and enjoy the experience. The gym is a place to train but it’s also a place to learn life lessons because, just like in sports, you aren’t given the starting spot on the team for showing up, you have to do the work to get there. He has helped kids for many sports prepare for college, and all the kids always come out of the training better then when they went in. All he asks for from the kids is a signed picture of them in uniform or on the field so that he can hang them up around the gym in his hall of fame of sorts to those kids who trained hard and gave it their all. He offers college and high school athletes a special $50 membership over the summer, and to those who can’t afford the membership Ron allows them to come in the gym and train with him for free.

In the fall season Ron runs a joint 360 Combine with different sports trainers for high school athletes from freshmen year to junior year to not only get in shape but also to help show college recruiters the potential of the kids. The combine is located throughout the capital region and is designed for high school and college students. Ron has been helping the community for years now and has never asked for anything in return; he is just another good guy who just wants to help kids and athletes train and work hard.

If you ever want to stop by the gym and see if Ron will train you to his address is 18 Drywall Lane, Voorheesville, or you can check out his web site online at .

SADD Makes A Stand During Red Ribbon Week

keira — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:18:11 +0000

On the week of November 14th to 18th students against destructive decisions or SADD for short put on Red Ribbon week for the students and faculty of Voorheesville high school. During this week the members of SADD went around to ask students to make a pledge against underage drinking, use of illegal drugs, and all other destructive decisions that would affect a person’s life. It was also a time for gratitude for all the lives that remain drug free, to remember those we have lost in the fighting against drugs, and to commit and think before we act and make smart decisions.

Throughout the week SADD members did different things each day to try to make kids more aware of the choices they make and become drug free. On the first day all the members of SADD wore a red ribbon to show who was in the club and show that they were against destructive decisions, and then gave them out to all the faculty members to wear. Then on Tuesday kids were allowed to make a pledge against the usage of illegal drugs and underage drinking by signing a sheet of paper during periods 6,7, and 8 in the Commons. The paper said “I would make a stand against destructive decisions” and then all names were hung up on a poster board to show everyone who had signed up and to join them. On Wednesday, SADD then went to all the students and handed out candy; attached to all of the pieces of candy were little notes, on the Dum Dums it said “don’t be a dumb dumb don’t do drugs,” and on the smarties it said “be a smarty and take a stand against destructive decisions.”

There was a poster contest too during the week called the “Kick Butts Poster Contest.” The students had to make a poster to encourage people to stop smoking, not start smoking, and help create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. The winner of the contest was given a $25 dollar gift card to any store they wanted. Last, on Friday was the Great American Smoke Out, which encouraged smokers to use November 18 to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day. To celebrate this day the members of SADD went around again to students during lunch and make a pledge to take a stand against tobacco companies and tobacco, they were all given a paper to sign, which again was hung up on a poster board during all the lunch periods. Over all the week was a great success with many people signing pledges and taking a stand against destructive decisions.

You Have No Idea

keira — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:52:31 +0000

Some people under estimate cross country, to them it’s just a whole lot of running, but to those people I say “you have no idea”. Cross country is 3.2 miles of mental toughness and athletic ability. Cross country courses are all different, some are full of hills, some have a few hills,others are flat and some are a mixture. But one thing is for sure “All that it takes is all that you’ve got. “ There are no benches and no time outs.

The boys and girls cross country team took part in 17 races this season. The Voorheesville girls cross country team has a long history of success; they made it to the state meet in the 2008 season, 2009 season and came in second at sectionals last year. This year’s team unfortunately had a slow start to the seasons; we had lost our number three runner to graduation, and two other varsity runners. Also, Hurricane Irene did no justice to the courses. Three words sum up the season: mud, mud and more mud. Cross country isn’t like most sports because the varsity teams is based purely on ability and can change week to week. On Tuesdays varsity and JV run together and the top seven from Tuesday’s race run varsity at the Saturday invitational. Also, the scoring is different; the lower the score the better and the top 5 runner’s scores add up as the teams score. But the next two runners are important because they take the place of someone having a bad day or displace otherteams.

Sawyer Cresap started the season off with a win for the blackbirds, coming in 1^st out of 36 varsity division one girls at the Fonda Fultonville invitational, Labor Day weekend. The varsity girls’ team of Michelyn Little, Sawyer Cresap, Courtney Reilly, Robin Wakeley, Faith Cunningham, Carla Planz and Allegra Fasulo won the Queensbury invitational on September 24^th, out of 8 teams and 68 varsity runners. This was a big win for the team, because we had won this meet three years in a row. The varsity team of Michelyn Little, Sawyer Cresap, Courtney Reilly, Robin Wakeley, Faith Cunningham, Maeve Brennan and Anna Norris, came in 7^th out of 18 teams at the big Burnt Hill invitational on October 15^th. Over all it was a very successful year for the Voorheesville girls cross country team, we came in fourth out of 11 teams in the colonial council meet. Also, the top 10 runners, Michelyn Little , Sawyer Cresap , Courtney Reilly , Robin Weakeley , Faith Cunningham , Carla Planz , Allegra Fasulo , Maeve Brennan , Alex Relyea and Mackenzie Powell finished the year off coming in 6^th out of 15 teams at sectionals at SPAC on Friday November 4^th.

The boys cross country team had a great season. This year the boys tried very hard to get as close to the top as possible. Joe Becker carried the team coming in 1^st out of 97 at our home invitational on September 10^th. He also won the Queensbury invitational out of 76 boys for the second year in a row. Joe would have a great year finishing strong at the end of every race. Joe came in third out of 70 at the Colonial Council meet and he would also be the fifth and final individual boy to make it to states out of 173 class C section two varsity runners. But Joe wasn’t the only one to have a great season. The entire boys’ team ran their hearts out, knowing that they would lose four out of the seven varsity boys at the end of the year. The varsity team of Joe Becker, Quinn Treadgold, Breaden Morrison, David Vandervort, Mark Dollard, Evan Treadgold and Andrew Maloney came in 4^thout of 8 teams at the Queensbury invitational. The same team finished 11^thout of 22 at the Burnt Hills invitational. The JV and varsity boys would combined and finish 3^rd out for 6 for the colonial council league standings. Finally , the top ten runners; Joe Becker , Quinn Treadgold , Evan Treadgold, Breaden Morrison, Ben Denn, Jack Weakley, David Vandervort, Mark Dollard , Andrew Maloney and Richard

Decker would finish the year off by coming in 7^th out of 20 class C schools during the sectional championships last Friday. Congratulations to both teams and good luck for those runners who qualified for States to be held on November 12.

Sports Injuries: The Challenges of Returning

adviser — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:19:24 +0000

The tangible effects of a sports injury may be gone, but the psychological effects may still be there. A sports injury, simply put, is a traumatic effect, one that can produce lasting damage to an athlete’s confidence in his or her own abilities. A player can return to a sport as the same person physically that they were pre-injury, but they can be drastically changed by the injury. A sports injury can be destructive to the way an athlete performs and the results of their performance. A sports injury can still limit an athlete even after all the pain is gone and the doctor has given the O.K. Now-a-days with a major increase in the number of adolescent athletes, there comes an increase in sports injuries to adolescents (about 3.5 million injuries per year). Now, with more and more injured athletes, more and more people are asking the question – how do I overcome this?

One of the best things an athlete can do after an injury has healed is to let it all go and just pretend they were never injured. Unfortunately, this is something that is easier said than done, and it can take time for an athlete to fully trust in a healed body part. The best way for an athlete to regain his or her confidence is to crawl before they walk and walk before they run. In other words, start small; start with small, simple drills. Next, move on to more complex and more active drills, then, move on to a practice with a team. Practice is extremely important, being that it is a confidence builder. Confidence, for athletes, is one of the most important things to have. Confidence will push an athlete to his or her highest level and its confidence that can help an athlete regain what was lost during the injury. Finally, get back into the game!

Furthermore, one of the most important steps that an athlete can take to overcome the mental effects of a sports injury is to realize that they are fully healed. An athlete needs to come to the realization that the time they took off from the sport, or the work they did in physical therapy, was enough for them to be fully healed. Also, if an athlete purposely holds themselves back, or over relies on a part of their body that has not been injured (such as putting extra weight on your left leg to take weight off a previously injured right leg) another injury can occur. The idea of the strength of one’s mind is a key aspect to overcoming the destruction of confidence and fear of re-injury brought on by a sports injury.

While an athlete may appear to be healed, or even better than before, on the surface; an athlete can be lacking confidence in their abilities, and fearful of a re-occurrence. Although this can be damaging to an athlete’s performance, it can be combated as well. The most important thing that an athlete needs to comprehend is that they are fully healed and they’ll be ok. Furthermore, just like in rehabilitation from the injury, an athlete has to start small and build up. Doing so can build confidence and prepare the athlete to return to a vigorous training schedule. Recovery from a sports injury simply takes a sound body and a sound mind.

Is the School Paranoid?

adviser — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:31:15 +0000

Most people believe that paranoia is a crippling state of mind, but I see it more as a double-edged decision maker. There’s plenty of irrational fear and unwarranted stress, sure, and that’s not exactly peachy, but paranoia also serves as a great check to arrogance- reminding us that people don’t always love you unconditionally- and can actually save your skin when it forewarns you of sketchy dilemmas. That latter point is particularly noteworthy because that seems to be the modus operandi for our school’s authorities this year. Over the past couple of years, security measures have increased fairly noticeably, and I’m not sure if the school has a keen eye or if they’re just rattled. I’m not saying the school is going crazy, but between the infamous new backpack rule and the recent repealing of the freshman classes’ rights, things around here are getting a slightly out of tune.
So far, the only perceivable effects of the backpack rule have been increased tardiness to classes, disorganization of supplies, and complaining. Oh, and my fly messenger bag has to stay cooped up in a locker all day. That’s actually a terrible track record.
Now, I concede that danger is out there. Evolution has not made us invincible, nor has it made us peaceful. But the danger that is relevant to our schools is notable for two characteristics- its relative rarity, and its inability to be stopped by petty school rules. The backpack rule is simply ineffective for the types of things it plans to prevent. Drugs and alcohol, for example, are small enough to be smuggled in pockets or bulky coats, and people who already deal in these things on or off campus already have enough guts to smuggle their magical leaves wherever it makes them profit; the backpack rule is just a minor speed bump in their business. Similarly, though a bit scarier, if a student was going to bring a weapon to school, the backpack rule would simply limit his options to whatever fits in a coat pocket (which is a lot of them). Add to the fact that backpacks are allowed on campus anyway, and the point of the rule practically nullifies itself. It’s trying to enforce a rule without crossing a line and taking away backpacks completely, and the result is that it’s handling too much with too little.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that school officials are overreacting to a nonexistent problem. Yes, drugs and guns are illegal. Yes, they are dangerous. But compared to other public schools, Voorheesville is generally more protected from these dangers because of its small size, not to mention relative isolation from the city. And this isn’t just some lamentation from a disgruntled student living a small town- studies show that smaller schools lead to a better education because students and faculty all know each other far better than urban schools, which leads to more attention towards each student’s individual needs. Actually, scratch that- everybody knows everybody because there’s so few people to keep track of? That’s just logic. Plain and simple, the fact that everybody in this school is connected to each other through our own networks makes it much safer here- after all, we all recognize each other enough to tell when our friends are feeling down, and our guidance counselors have evidently done an excellent job making sure that our peers are mentally stable (well, mostly…).
Plus, as I’ve previously said, the only thing that the backpack rule has done is inconvenience us. Unless you have a perfectly tuned schedule that drifts you seamlessly from class to class, chances are you’re only just starting to adjust and apply a routine that doesn’t involve carrying all of your stuff at once. Simply put, a backpack is a convenience. It’s not necessary for surviving school, but students have enjoyed the privilege of our portable lockers since forever; you’d better have a darned excellent reason to take it away.
On a lighter note, I heard vague something-or-others about some food fight in the cafeteria earlier this week. Apparently, Voorheesville actually has legitimate food fights on occasion (I can’t believe I missed it!). Now, I don’t advocate fighting (oh, who am I kidding, I play video games), but a little mock combat isn’t a bad thing to loosen up after a long day. And food fights are the quintessential high school rebellious activity, right? I would assume that the officials let it slide-
Oh, wait, they didn’t. In fact, the reaction was the polar opposite of chill- school officials completely shut down all lunchtime privileges for the freshmen class indefinitely. No talking, no cell phones, no sitting next to other students, and no buying lunch. Come to think of it, that’s literally everything you do during lunchtime. Officials are making it clear that the freshies won’t get their rights back until they prove they can act like high schoolers, although with such harsh restrictions in place it’ll be hard to prove that they’re even sentient.
I usually dislike grade-wide punishments, for obvious reasons. Though I’ve never been on the receiving end of one, I shudder at the thought of losing rights just for being in the same grade as a bunch of idiots (I love you guys, really). By extension, I empathize with those who’re suffering for other’s foolishness. Most of the grade was in on the fight, but the few level-headed ones shouldn’t be grouped in the same category as the rest. I keep hearing mentions about “the freshmen” and their fight, but I have to remind myself that it’s not the whole class they’re actually referring to.
More than anything, however, this punishment is a bit too mean for simple good natured immaturity. Food fights may not exactly be the most civilized fair, and clean up obviously isn’t fun, but at the same time, it’s just mob mentality manifesting itself in a human’s innate desire to hit things. We’re genetically coded toward aggression, it’s how our ancestors survived. Why not let our genes do the talking in the most non-lethal way possible? It’s fun. Of course, I may be shining a positive light on all this, but I’m not trying to make the food fight into a good thing. It does property damage, it causes mob chaos, and it ruins shirts. I’m just saying that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. As long as no bones or hearts were broken, the ruckus is innocent, and there’s no reason an entire grade should be considered less because of it.
In the end, though, it’s the school’s rules, and we’re helpless to stop them. They’ll enforce rules grounded in their own reasoning and logic, and we’ll get annoyed, but ultimately follow it out of sheer respect for authority. To their credit, the school officials haven’t gone full Orwellian on us (yet), so I can forgive them for not meeting my lofty standards. And with such competent and respectable people governing us, I can hardly stand to satirize them for a full article. Actually, I’ve probably gone too far already, so I’ll just end this quietly to avoid them getting too angry at me. Maybe I’m as paranoid as they are

Fall Fling Firsts

keira — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:10:39 +0000

Every year the Regents physics students look forward to participating in the Fall Fling, an in school field trip that Mr. Simons puts on at the end of the first quarter. Students are required to build human powered devices that can fling a tennis ball across the football field. Well, that’s the plan anyway. No class time is spent studying projectiles or working on the devices before the Fling, it is completely up to the students to figure out which device will be most effective and how to build it. Although the Fall Fling has been held at Voorheesville for over ten years this years’ Fling, which was held on Halloween, broke several long standing records.

Although the weather in the Northeast is almost always uncertain this time of year, we rarely have to worry about snow on Halloween like we did this year. Mr. Simmons warned everyone involved in the Fling to watch the weather forecast and dress appropriately because the Fling was going on no matter what. So the students launched their catapults and trebuchets with extra caution because some of the parts were so cold that they became brittle and easily could have broken. Don’t worry, no one was seriously injured in the making of this Fall Fling. Everyone was clutching their cups of hot chocolate just to get a little feeling back in their hands. The 2011 Fall Fling was the first ever to be held while there was snow on the ground.

Fortunately the weather wasn’t the only aspect of the Fall Fling that set a record. The Fall Fling is made up of two contests, one that measures accuracy and one that measures distance. The device that won the distance portion of the contest blew the standing record out of the water. The combined efforts of Troy Brock and Everett Hart resulted in a tennis ball cannon that used pressurized air to launch a tennis ball over 150 feet while most other teams capped off at around 70 feet. Although theirs was not the only tennis ball cannon on the field that day it was by far the most effective and the team received their prize for winning the distance portion of the contest; five points added on to their Fall Fling grade.

By now most of the devices built for the Fall Fling have either been thrown in the dumpster or saved for a particularly competitive snow ball fight. But the results of the 2011 Fall Fling will not be discarded so easily. For the sake of future students I hope that this year will be the last Fling that has to be held on a football field covered in snow. But it will be interesting to see how long it will take future students to fling a tennis ball quite as far as this year’s champions.

Voorheesville Singers to Sing on WMHT Music for the Holidays

keira — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:41:31 +0000

Just two weeks ago, the Voorheesville female and male select choirs joined together for a one hour long rehearsal, to practice, and to quickly perfect two Christmas songs to be sung for an audition for WMHT’s Music for the Holidays show. As a member of the Phoenix Club, I knew that our choir’s chances of getting into the show were slim, but that getting onto the show would come as a great opportunity, so I sang the songs to the best of my ability, as did the rest of the choir.

The audition that Mrs. Abba-Gleason, the head of Voorheesville Select Choir, mailed to
WMHT, was videotaped by Mr. Turski, and included “Christmas Time is here”, from Charlie
Brown’s Christmas, and “Ding-a-dong”, a unique carol that is not well known, but probably set the Voorheesville Choir apart for the others. As a choir, we were up against other schools that have the opportunity to rehearse together on a daily basis, for a full period. Our select choirs, however, can only rehearse after school for a half hour each Wednesday.

The female portion of Select Choir at Voorheesville, also called Phoenix Club and the
male group of Select Choir singers, called the Testostertones, joined together during the first few rehearsals of the school year, even though the choirs usually rehearse separately, and sing different songs. The choir prepared for Music for the Holidays together, auditioned, and was recently told that it has been accepted onto the show!

The choir will be going to WMHT’s studio to record the previously mentioned two
songs, and a third, which has yet to be decided on November 17th. The week before Christmas, and during Christmas, the songs sung by Voorheesville will be shown during the evenings on WMHT, randomly mixed in with songs sung by other schools. The Voorheesville choir has not been able to participate in the holiday show for two years, and is, as a whole, delighted, and looking forward to the recording session of the music, and the showing of their songs on television during December.