Lauren Kuan

The highlights of being a professional sportswriter are mind-blowing: terrific seats at the greatest sporting events, access to athletes and an opportunity to be paid just by talking about sports. Of course, there is far more to the profession, but I got a taste of just how rewarding the job can be when I participated in the SAP Open tennis tournament at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on Feb. 9, as part of the High School Writers Day.

On the day of perhaps the most important match of the season, one that would secure the No. 1 seed for the team in CCS, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find girls running around on the tennis court in pajamas with fanny packs and visors.

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.

Winning the Fresno tournament earned Saratoga the title of best high school girls' tennis team in California. So far, the girls have met and surpassed the high standards other schools have set by defeating their opposition. "The expectations are now very high, and that puts a lot of pressure on our players to perform each week to their capabilities," said coach Tom Uyehara. "As long as the team stays focused, I think we will do very well this season." Falcon players said they need to stay humble and consistent by winning all their league matches.

Located in the small, old fashioned Quito plaza only a few minutes away from school, The Prolific Oven offers delicious baked goods as well as a peaceful ambiance.

In sixth grade, junior Eric Chuang tried out for the track team as a way to stay in shape but came to find that he had a real passion for it. After trying long jump for the first time, he discovered a natural talent for the event and has stuck with it since, excelling at it and becoming one of the best long jumpers on the team.

Summer was coming to an end in 2007, and junior Eric Chuang was at home playing video games when he suddenly heard his mom screaming for his dad. Soon after, he was stunned to hear his older sister Karen had been mugged, shot and killed by an assailant in San Diego. His sister was 27 at the time of her death. Her killer was never caught. Eric was about to enter into eighth grade at Redwood Middle School. Karen's tragic death was devastating because in many ways he considered his sister to be his second mother.

The Princess Project ended on March 9, collecting new or slightly used Prom dresses and accessories to donate to girls around the Bay Area who otherwise could not afford these pricey items. Ever since this program was started eight years ago by two graduates from Saratoga High, SHS has implemented this program every spring.

During a visit to Suzanne Herzman and Natasha Ritchie's English 11 Honors classes on March 2, professor Michael Warren, a renowned Shakespeare text expert, aided students in examining Shakespeare's play "Hamlet." With his British accent, the professor led the students through key scenes in the play to give them a deeper understanding of the text.

More than $18,000 worth of instruments and equipment was stolen from the music department's band and choir rooms in two separate incidents in early and mid January, though there was no evidence of forced entry. Two privately owned violins, a school-owned bass clarinet, a computer system belonging to the choir, some percussion instruments and several tuners were missing after students came to school on Jan. 12. Among the violins stolen, one belonged to junior Yuning Yang and another to junior Anthony Sutardja. The violins were worth $600 and $5,000, respectively.

After graduating Saratoga High in 2007, aMichael Nguyen, a junior at UC San Diego studying human development, decided to go to around Tanzania last fall to teach HIV/AIDS awareness through One Heart Source, a program that helps house orphans in Africa. Nguyen felt that it was an opportunity he would not want to miss.

The choir department is at their busiest time of year when they encounter most of their events. In the course of three months, they will have more than six competitions and performances. All of the choir students recently attended an overnight trip to San Francisco on Dec. 17 where they watched the musical “Wicked” and caroled at three major hotels. “I thought the trip was a lot of fun; it was a chance for the choir to just have a break and hang out with all of the other choir members as well as have an early start to Christmas break,” said junior Cid Diaz.

The world of scholarships is so vast that every high school works to find the best way to get information out to its students. This year, the guidance department has made some major changes such as reorganizing its webpage on the school's website and making the process of applying for scholarships easier.

Every five seconds, a child dies from starvation and 9.7 million children die before they reach their fifth birthday. Fifty percent of the people in the world go to sleep hungry and 85 percent of the world live in low-income households. These issues and facts were discussed during the Hunger Banquet that took place Nov. 10 in the cafeteria and was organized by the leadership class. The Hunger Banquet, a simulation to display the hardships of poverty, had a turnout of 50 very surprised students, who were originally told they were invited to a special charity dinner.

After winning CCS for the first time in school history, the girls' tennis team managed to end its season with a second-place finish at the CIF Norcal Team Tennis Championships on Nov. 22. After beating longtime rivals, Monta Vista, to win CCS on Nov. 18, the Falcons weren't able to come away with a repeat victory against Matadors, who changed their lineup this time around, and lost 4-3.

For the first time in school history, the girls' tennis team became the CCS champions. They defeated archrival and No. 1-ranked Monta Vista at the Courtside tennis courts by a score of 5-2 on Nov. 18. Keying the victory was the team's ability to win all of their first sets except for one match.

The Falcons at first received the No. 3 seed in CCS behind Monta Vista and Mitty. They were excited about their seed due to the match up against Mitty in the semifinals. "Our league is by far the toughest league to compete in with three out of the six teams seeded top six in CCS. No other league has as many teams capable of qualifying for CCS as ours," said head coach Tom Uyehara. The team defeated Sacred Heart in the first round of CCS 6-1 on Nov. 11 and beat Homestead in quarterfinals 7-0 on Nov. 13.

Following two close losses to their toughest competitors, Archbishop Mitty on Oct. 21 and Monta Vista on Oct. 20, the Lady Falcons tennis players hoped to regain some ground before the upcoming CCS tournament, which will take place at the end of November.

A second-place finish in CCS is a tough act to follow, but that's exactly what the current girls' tennis players intend to do after having achieved that feat last season. In fact, with the current impressive singles and doubles line-up, the team expects to place first or second in the league this year. “This year a lot of teams have added depth with some incoming freshmen, but at the same time we have depth too in our lineup,” said head coach Tom Uyehara, who is coaching his fourth season of girls’ tennis this year. “That’s what is going to help us.”

For years, many people had not even heard of the city of Saratoga’s Youth Commission, but members hope to generate a lot more publicity this year. The number of students in the commission has reached an all-time high of 18. Recreation supervisor Adam Henig said this record is a result of the wide variety of talent city council members saw during interviews. “There were so many qualified applicants who gave fantastic interviews that the City Council had trouble saying no to them,” said Henig. “Truth be told, they would have liked to expand it to 25 students if they could.”

Twelve tennis players, decked out in nerd attire, Fresno T-shirts and red knee-high socks paraded the halls on Sept. 24, getting pumped up for their first home match against Lynbrook. Fully "nerded out," they creamed the Vikings 7-0.

At the annual New Student Barbecue held Aug. 20, there were a few more burgers and hot dogs to dish out than usual. That's because as the new school year approached, the number of new students planning to attend the gathering increased. Last year, 60 students attended the barbecue while this year 100 students attended the gathering.

Instead of buckling his seatbelt in a car, sophomore Matt Kemble straps on his helmet before riding to school on his bicycle during Bike to School Month. The event, organized by senior Nyssa Spector and freshmen sisters Meghana and Antara Rao, has created to promote physical activity among students. Spector said she started this event as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project, which with creating was the new sidewalk near the back parking lot. Spector continued her project with a Bike to School month.

Like many students in high school, current senior Jason Huang experienced confusion in deciding which classes to select in high school. After completing English 9, Huang was encouraged to continue writing by poetry teacher Judith Sutton and moved on to take Poetry 1 his sophomore year. Huang, however, never could have imagined how much he could achieve in poetry, winning one of the most prestigious poetry prizes in the nation this year.

In the recent National Youth Poetry Contest, 14 of Saratoga’s own poets from the Creative Writing: Poetry class won top prizes in multiple categories. The poets won more prizes than any other single school in the nation, a great accomplishment for the poetry program. The contest is sponsored by the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc., the oldest and largest poetry organization in California. Although the CFCP is a state-wide organization, the contest was held nationwide.

If there was only one symbol that you could choose to represent yourself, what would it be? This is the one question that faced most of Genevieve Garcia’s Chemistry Honors students. Garcia offers extra credit to students who make their own personal quilt square which she will later sew together into a quilt and hang around her classroom.

After both the boys’ and girls’ varsity swim teams started the season with two wins in dual meets against Lynbrook and Los Gatos, both teams suffered their first losses. The girls’ defeat came against Monta Vista on April 2 and the boys’ suffered a similar fate against Monta Vista on April 15.

Both the boys’ and girls’ swim teams began their seasons with dominating victories over Lynbrook at home on March 12. The girls’ 100m backstroke was the only varsity event that Saratoga lost and the girls’ 50m freestyle was the only event in which no Falcon swimmer qualified for CCS. “It’s amazing how many people qualified for CCS at the first meet,” said girls’ coach Kristin Thomson. “We have never had that many at a first meet.”

Most people think that only boys could possibly love football because it is such a physical sport. They are always huddled together in the parking lot tailgating before a game or preparing to watch their favorite football team battle it out on Sunday. But, even though I am a girl, I am passionate about football, too.

When the lunch bell rings, upperclassmen rush to their cars and drive off campus to restaurants like Chipotle, Togo’s and McDonald’s, while underclassmen line up to buy pizza or pasta from the cafeteria. On December 19, however, students are scheduled to eat lunch on-campus and be catered food from both Chevy’s and Red Robin. The event will be hosted by the leadership class in order to raise money for the school. Fifteen percent of the money paid will go to the school. The food was previously ordered; each student who wanted some had to fill out a form and turn it in to the office. The menu includes burgers with fries, quesadillas, flautas and tacos.

On Nov. 25, Saratoga High held its annual Code Red drill. The students barricaded their rooms as soon as they were notified and sat tight for a few hours.

The Creative Writing: Poetry class has decided to create a calendar that includes the students’ poems, which were inspired by their recent field trip to Old Grandview Ranch, an awe-inspiring chateau of 25 acres located in the Saratoga foothills.

After a 12-week season, freshman JV tennis player Priyanka Arunkumar was looking forward to a nice, relaxing break. To her surprise, she found out that she only had two weeks until she would have to go to a sports P.E. class to complete her semester requirement for physical education.

Hundreds of students gathered around the stairs of the quad anticipating an exciting performance by the seniors during their quad day on Oct. 3 at lunch. Onlookers came away impressed with the seniors’ presentation of their theme “Cairo,” which included Egyptian music, dancing and costumes.

This year in the freshman elections, the administration has improved the voting method by handing the responsibility over to the students. Unlike in past elections, freshmen voted during two lunch periods instead of having ballots passed out in class. Although the number of votes was not as great, the new system will provide a more realistic voting experience. “You have to make an effort if you want to vote,” said assistant principal Karen Hyde. “Nobody comes to your house, your place, or business to ask you to vote for real, so it’s not that far from what happens in the real world.”

Last spring, students from Judith Sutton’s Creative Writing: Poetry 2 class put on a presentation at the Saratoga Library portraying the bombings on Mutanabi Street in Iraq. The bombings had taken place in March 2007 and devastated the entire city of Baghdad. The street had originally been a lively market where ideas, books and thoughts were exchanged freely. The students wanted to spread the knowledge of the impact of the attack. The reading left the audience with a call to action. What could they do to help? Their answer was a small press publisher by the name of Studio 1801.

Last spring, students from Judith Sutton’s Creative Writing: Poetry classes put on a presentation at the Saratoga Library portraying the Mutanabbi Street bombing in Iraq. The bombing took place in March 2007 and devastated the entire street, which had served for several years as a lively market where ideas, books and thoughts were exchanged freely. Not only were all books destroyed, but some 75 people were seriously injured and 30 people died.

New students from different districts, even countries, were welcomed on Aug. 21 at the annual new student barbeque in the quad. About 45 new students, as well as some students not new to the school, attended the barbeque planned by the new student commission with the help of the ASB and administration. During the barbeque, students mingled and conversed with each other while eating hamburgers and hot dogs. The barbeque gave students who already attended the school a chance to talk with the new students.