Abhi Venkataraman

Within seconds of the game clock expiring, the green turf of the Benny Pierce field was replaced with a sea of red, as students and alumni flooded the field, screaming and chanting in celebration of the Falcons’ first regular season victory over Los Gatos since 1982. The Falcons managed to end the 27-year streak in a thrilling 21-17 victory over the Wildcats under the Friday night lights on Oct. 22.

The speech and debate team finished its last team tournament at Santa Clara University on March 28. The team's months of training and practice seemed to pay off, as a total of 12 team members advanced past elimination round, many of whom did so for their first time this year. In varsity Parliamentary debate, senior Rishabh Jethanandani and junior Karthik Annaamalai ended their stellar season in style, placing third overall as the tournament's fourth seed after posting a preliminary record of 4-1.

Since its inception in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), former president George W. Bush's controversial brainchild, has brought Washington, D.C., considerable flak from critics who claim that the bill has been ineffective and even detrimental to educational system.

Forty Redwood Middle Schools got their first taste of speech and debate at the high school level Jan. 24 at a short camp organized by speech and debate captain Varun Parmar —the first such meeting that has occurred in many years. The camp included an overview of high school speech and debate, an explanation of the events available and an introduction to public speaking.

Gilbert Arenas, superstar guard for the Washington Wizards, has always been known around the NBA as a prankster and a character. Fans enjoyed reading his quirky "Agent Zero" blog on the league's website and watching comedic videos of him joking around during practices on YouTube. However, on Christmas Eve 2009, Arenas took the joke too far. After losing a bet to teammate Javaris Crittendon, Arenas reportedly pulled out an unloaded gun stored in his locker intending to make humor of the situation.

Hundreds of students stormed into UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall on a mid-November morning and took control of the administrative building, dumping piles of week-old trash, barricading the hall, and ignoring police requests to relinquish control of the building. Using loudspeakers to address the crowd of students and policemen gathering outside the window, protesters angrily voiced their complaints over a recent university announcement that tuition fees would be hiked by 32 percent at the university.

Applying to colleges and anxiously waiting for a reply at one's mailbox is hard enough without being blindfolded. The content of recommendation letters has been kept under lock and key—so much so that they have become a thing of mystery and anxiety to seniors. The current system is understandable—if not to students at least to teachers. It prevents kids (or their parents) from taking up arms to go to their teacher's house, knocking on their front door and demanding a recommendation letter more complimentary to their college repertoire.

Twenty hopeful students nervously sat in history teacher Margarita Morrelle's room on Oct. 13 waiting to be called in by mock trial head coach Dr. Hugh Roberts to try out for roles on this year's team. For tryouts, each student had to act out the role of a prosecution attorney, defense attorney and witness based on an evidence packet that had been given out earlier. Roberts posted the team's line-up Oct. 16, and the 17 members went straight to work the next Tuesday.

Not even an inspirational speech from 49ers coach Mike Singletary could provide enough fire for the football team to avoid its 30th straight regular season loss to Los Gatos on Oct. 23. The final score was 47-0.

Since taking to the campaign trail, President Barack Obama has continued to stand steadfastly behind America's policy in Afghanistan, defending it as a "war of necessity." However, in light of recent developments, including the resurgence of the Taliban and the corruption-laden re-election of President Hamid Karzai, it is looking more and more like this "war of necessity" is devolving into Obama's Vietnam.

The recent controversy surrounding President Obama’s proposed health care reform bill has set off a right-wing propaganda mill, generating numerous lies and misconceptions and effectively inundating the public with a flood of misinformation. This fallacy-perpetuating conservative machine  has only served to muddle  the issue at hand, preventing any real and substantial debate from being held over this much needed reform.

Although roster size has always been a problem for varsity baseball coach Manny Steffen, the dedication and perseverance of his players never has. Despite having fewer players than most teams, the team managed to clinch the El Camino League’s division title, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by Saratoga since 1994. They sealed the deal with a 5-3 home win over the Fremont Firebirds on May 7.

“Take one minute to memorize this list of 60 random words and jot down everything you are able remember in thirty seconds.” This is just one of the 27 out-of-the-blue experiments members of Seema Patel’s AP Statistics classes are testing on fellow SHS students this spring. In place of assessing how much students have learned through cumulative final exams, Patel is taking a different approach by allowing her students to work on a final project in which students can apply specific concepts they learned. Although this project was first introduced by former AP Statistics teacher Mike Navrides, Patel continues to assign this project because she finds it a very competent and fulfilling way to wrap up everything learned throughout the school year in a "fun and enjoyable" way.

The San Jose Convention Center was packed to the brim with colorful tri-fold posters and students displaying homemade robots on March 18 as over 800 students from schools from the Bay Area competed in the Synopsis Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship. Five teams from Saratoga competed in the prestigious competition. “The Synopsis Science fair is a great opportunity for people who are really interested in science and actually want to do scientific work instead of just reading about it in school,” said junior Dhruv Seshadri. “There are college professors and scientists who talk to you about your project and sometimes even offer you a summer job if they really like what you did. ”

The Falcons, who stand 2-5 in league and 9-12 overall, sustained a devastating league loss to Lynbrook at home on Feb. 6 With less than a month left in the regular season, the team has dropped six of its last seven games and fallen to fifth in the El Camino league.