Brandon Judoprasetijo

From FBI agents to head chefs, the broad spectrum of professions to be represented on campus in Career Day on April 1 is seemingly endless and diverse.

Prepare for a night of fashion and fun as approximately 117 student models prepare to dress to impress in the annual Benefit Fashion Show. The event is set to take place on April 6 7 p.m. in the Large Gym.

It seems red pride only goes so far.

The school’s mathletes have recently been hard at work preparing for one of the most critical competitions of the year: the American Mathematics Competition (AMC).

It seems red pride only goes so far.  At least, that’s the result after a recent movement to change the boys’ graduation gowns from navy blue to red. 

Principal Paul Robinson has taken admirable strides toward becoming a pillar of school unity this year, according to many students.

Sophomore Kevin Chiang likes AP Calculus BC because of the subject’s variety and its emphasis on understanding.

After being at school for a few monotonous months, students look forward to the change of pace Homecoming brings. For all of its redeeming qualities, this year’s Homecoming lacked in one major point: the fundraiser. This year’s intended fundraiser, Toys for Tots, started late and ultimately fell through.

The ASB and administration issued a stern warning prior to the Oct. 13 Homecoming dance: If a single person were to fail a Breathalyzer test at the dance, the Sadies dance would be cancelled for everyone. 

On Homecoming week of Oct. 8, expect to see Captain Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes and Kevin McCallister all together on campus.  The overall theme this year is Tetralogy-land, which means that each series consists of four movies. 

Most users begin their YouTube experience in a similar way: a harmless click on an initial video that often results in hours of video surfing addiction. However, the breadth and versatile types of videos on YouTube makes each individual’s connection to the site unique.

During the summer, junior Eric Wang attended a camp where he met a lot of people in Taiwan. After making many new friends, he was worried he would never be able to talk to or see them ever again.

Despite coming into the season with five out of six of its top players having graduated last spring, the boys’ tennis team still managed to maintain an overall record of 15-7 compared to last year’s 18-6.

While many students may recognize senior Brian Wai as president of the chess club or a Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP) attendee, few know that Wai is talented in physics as well.

Last year, May 1 seemed like another typical adult league soccer game for English teacher Meg Battey, who was playing defender until an opponent’s miscalculated kick landed full force against Battey’s right hand. 

Despite not being at full strength, the 8-5 boys’ tennis team managed a 4-3 win over school rivals Los Gatos on April 23 but lost to Monte Vista earlier in the month. 

Ever visited President Obama’s 2012 campaign twitter feed? Chances are, the man behind the tweet may may have been senior Anshu Siripurapu.

No. 1 singles: the slot in tennis held only by the best singles player on the team.

With an estimated 750 million users as of July 2011, Facebook accounts have become quite common among most high school students.

To become fearsome on the mat as a wrestler, one must not only have a conditioned body but also a strong mind. According to wrestling coach Joe Pele, having a strong mindset is what separates senior captain Connor Mullaney from the average wrestler.

Walking into a Friday math club meeting, you would expect to see a group of dedicated students working diligently on problems or listening to a student-run lecture. Instead, you might be surprised to find yourself in front of a horde of squirrelly middle schoolers, working alongside the high school members on problems of equal difficulty.

The wrestling team recently placed 12th out of 30 teams after competing in the Webber Lawson Tournament at Fremont High on Dec. 11.

A single season of sports is often a powerful enough catalyst to transform two individuals from strangers into best friends. Every moment of triumph or defeat bonds members of a team closer to one other as each match or practice passes.

How would students react in the event of an intruder on campus during a tutorial?

At the start of first semester, students found out that they would be graded on a pass-fail system for team sports, cheer and band. This system was enacted because the majority of the sports team coaches and supervisors do not have proper credentials in physical education, the state standard for assigning a letter grade in physical education.

When a 6-year-old Matthew Lee first witnessed his older brother’s middle school math team winning a national competition, his immediate reaction was a desire to achieve the same—yet not out of passion for the subject. He simply wanted to win the complementary laptop.

Apart from Media Arts Program, many teachers offer video projects for their classes. World history teacher Jerry Sheehy has been assigning video projects for over a decade now, in an effort to help students bring long-ago historical events to life.

Boys of varying sizes and builds walked into the wrestling room on Oct. 31 all ready to hit the mat once again and wrestle after being away for six months. This year, the team will be under the direction of coach Joe Pele, who started coaching the Falcons last year. Pele has high expectations after seeing what the team had to offer last year. “Last year was our first year together, and that is always a challenge for coaches and wrestlers,” Pele said. “The greatest strength was the courage displayed by the Falcon wrestlers each and every time they stepped on the mat.”

Despite finishing the season strong with a record of 10-2 in league and 21-5 overall, the boys’ water polo team fell one win short of qualifying for CCS.

Senior Mac Hyde was driving through town during the summer before his junior year when a glaring “for sale” sign stuck on a golf cart caught his attention. The cart belonged to his neighbor, the town butcher, and it was exactly the kind of mobile vehicle that Hyde, the son of assisstant principal Karen Hyde, had in mind for the office members at Saratoga High to use.

The boys’ water polo team won two major victories last week, starting with an 8-6 win over Wilcox High Oct. 18. In addition, the boys’ water polo team won 16-13 at home over its undefeated rival Lynbrook on Oct. 20.

During Homecoming, the expectations for the freshman class have always been notoriously low. While most classes fall under the stereotype of doing poorly their freshman year, the class of 2015 impressed many with the feats it pulled off to the theme of Rumplestiltskin.

Scoring a goal is one of the most rewarding feelings for any athlete. Sophomore Steven Cho experiences that exhilaration more than eight times every game.

The rhythm of competitive math has become long familiar to experienced members of the math club, and one common theme runs along each contest—they are almost all male-dominated.

Class of 2011 alumnus Albert Gu lives in Saratoga High history as one of the greatest mathletes the school has ever had. Although most people knew “Champ Gu,” (a name his friends adorned him with), as a whiz in mathematics, many did not realize that he was one of the top high school programmers in the nation as well.

The boys’ water polo team suffered its first loss of the season in a close 11-10 game against Wilcox on Sept. 22.

The boys’ water polo team kicked off its season with a 4-game winning streak in the Watsonville Varsity Tournament on Sept. 9. The Falcons defeated Gilroy 17-6 in the first round, then won over Harbor 16-6 and Christopher 13-5. In the final round, the Falcons faced off against Harbor for a second time and won 11-6.

Coach: Courtney Crase, entering first season as head coach for the boys’ team but has previously coached the girls’ team. 2010 Record: 11-4 (Overall record), 9-3 (League Record) 2010 Recap: After battling their way up to the league matches, the Falcons were unable to beat Wilcox in a key match that ended up spoiling their chances at leagues. The team finished third in their league last year. Star Player: Sophomore Steven Cho, Utility Key Departures: Goalie Gavin Peake and driver Tim Rollinson Key Additions: Junior driver Jim Speedy and sophomore driver Cameron Borch

The district’s updated Academic Performance Index (API) score released on Aug. 31 revealed that Saratoga was awarded a total of 933 points and Los Gatos, 883, marking a two- and 10-point improvement to each school’s score in the previous year.

It was a sad day for the math club last June when its three leading seniors, often called the “Three Musketeers,” graduated together in one fell swoop. Besides just helping the club to improve mathematically, alumni Albert Gu, David Zeng and Amol Aggarwal added irreplaceable character to the group with their one-of-a-kind camaraderie.

Carnegie Hall. If there were ever a single building in the entire world that symbolized the epitome of greatness and success in any musician’s career, Carnegie Hall would be it. While some people spend their whole life working toward their moment in Carnegie, senior marimba talent Desmond Chan managed to earn his chance in the short time of three years.

No. 1 badminton singles player, junior Jeffrey Kuo and boys’ tennis No. 1 undefeated singles player senior Nikhil Jayashankar dominated their CCS competitors and each took first place in their respective tournaments.

“Saratoga is dead; it doesn’t have any spirit,” my rather pessimistic sister Brittany said when I asked what rallies and Homecoming were like when she went to Saratoga High. Before I entered high school, older friends shared with me their stories of how school spirit makes high school memorable.

During the first two weeks of May, 475 students enrolled in AP classes put eight months of hard work to the test—the AP test. However, the tests seemed to arrive at the worst possible time for many, as various spring sports and other extracurricular activities reached the peak of their seasons and exams piled up from other classes.

Powderpuff heated up the competition between classes once again as the week of Spring Fling began on March 28. Students hurried to the football field during lunch in order to catch all the action of girls playing football against each other. Though seemingly harmless games of flag football, the competition lived up to its famed intensive nature.

Having overcome numerous challenges throughout the season such as inexperienced newcomers, injury and the loss of players, the wrestling team stayed strong and sent four of its wrestlers to CCS at Independence High School on Feb. 25 and 26. Those wrestlers were juniors Graham Grant and AJ Murabito and sophomores Zach Hansen and Henry Wei.

The school’s math stars have been busy taking tests and bringing home prizes in recent weeks:

Regardless of the nervousness emanating throughout Gilroy High school during the weekend of Jan. 22, the wrestling team remained staunch and wrestled their way into the upper rankings of Mid Cal, one of the most difficult wrestling tournaments in California.

Senior Amol Aggarwal’s road to becoming a finalist in the Intel Science Fair began with a geometry project he was working on: how to find the maximum number of distances in the most efficient way.

Think only women are picky about their weight? Think again. In the world of wrestling, even the smallest weight gain or loss can send a wrestler tumbling through various weight classes and training; indeed, a wrestler’s dieting plan can rival the harshness of the Atkin’s.

As a student at Aragon High School in San Mateo back in the 1970s, Caitlan Sullivan remembers the day congresswoman Jackie Speier came to speak about public safety and risk with her arm in a sling. Having been shot just a few months earlier at an airport tarmac during the 1978 Jim Jones cult investigation in Guyana, Speier had managed to survive by playing dead while bleeding to death. Through Sullivan’s eyes, these actions had deemed Speier as a hero she could look up to.

“Keep calm and carry on,” was the British motto during the beginning of World War II, when invasion was imminent. Through the hectic beginning of the wrestling season, with a new coach, injured captain and an extremely young team, the wrestling team has also lived by this motto, managing to pull through with surprisingly strong results.

Running in the state meet last month, senior Kyle Fukui found himself in an unaccustomed position: in the middle of the pack and struggling to keep pace. “State was amazing,” said Fukui. “I was in the back middle of the pack when I came through the first mile at 5:03. I’ve never experienced a race quite that fast, where I can’t even manage the top half of the group.”

After three and a half weeks of running a successful food catering business, seniors Brian Vo and Jesse Yung were faced with disappointing news: Their business was in violation of a school contract with the cafeteria and they would have to stop immediately.

After going through a season of hard work and success, runners on the boys’ cross country team will see their season coming to an end soon. Looking back, senior co-captain Garrick Chan is pleased with the team’s achievements.

The wrestling season began on Nov. 1 with a fresh source of motivation: a new coach. Joe Pele has coached the Lynbrook High team for four years and the Miller Middle School team for six years in the past and is now looking to guide the Falcons in wrestling.

As the San Francisco Giants fought their way into the playoffs and battled the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies for a spot in the World Series, seniors Kent Paisley and Greg Johnson showed their support by sporting what is known as a “playoff beard.”

Almost each class in high school can be categorized in some way. The freshmen are annoying and short, the juniors study 24/7 and the seniors dread college applications. However, one class seems to stand out awkwardly in high school hierarchy. It just so happens that I am part of this class—the sophomore class. Being a sophomore is, of course, better than being a freshman, especially at rallies. We are no longer helpless fresh meat, victims to the notorious “go home, freshman” chants, and we actually know what to do when it comes time for us to yell our class cheer.

Under the leadership of new head coach Dan Ambrico, the boys’ cross country team has smoothly transitioned into the season as familiar faces continue to dominate on the track. Now, the team is focusing on achieving its goal of making it to the state competition at Woodward Park in Fresno.

It was like any other day at ice hockey practice, executing drills and scrimmaging with teammates, when freshman Jaycie Luo noticed her dad talking with men in red and yellow warm-up suits. Shortly after, she found out that the Chinese Olympic Team had offered to allow her to practice with them and possibly later get recruited depending on her performance.

While the school is struggling to maintain a stable financial status, it is taking admirable strides ahead in trying to become more efficient and greener than in the past. However, in tough financial times, the upgrades must be made wisely.

Hundreds of eager runners from various high schools such as Wilcox, Los Althos and Cupertino made their way to the Saratoga High track to participate in the Saratoga Invitational cross country meet on Sept. 21.

During the summer, junior Eric Wang attended a camp where he met a lot of people in Taiwan. After making many new friends, he was worried he would never be able to talk to or see them ever again. Thanks to free video chat services such as Skype, Oovoo, and Tokbox, Wang is able to continue communicating with his new friends.