Miles Albert

Currently, all over the country, the debate of whether fantasy sports should be considered gambling or not has been extremely active.

As senior small forward Tyler Yoshihara made the free throw at a home game against Lynbrook on Jan. 13, the boys on the bench immediately began cheering and dabbing, the team’s celebratory dance move.

The Falcons look to improve on last season's 18-7 overall record (10-2 El Camino League finish) and make it into CCS in the El Camino League.

This year, junior Theo Luan has created the MIT Launch Club, an entrepreneurship club sponsored by the MIT Launch summer program he attended this past summer.

With social media and school-wide events, ASB and Leadership are trying to improve the school’s atmosphere and create a greater sense of unity.

Perhaps in response to the increasing amount of students taking the ACT, the College Board redesigned the SAT to align with the new Common Core standards. The new test will be administered starting in March 2016.

Two major activities Common Roots will focus on for the rest of the year are “weekly missions” and working with the Application Developer’s Club to create a Common Roots app, which will allow students to communicate with peer counselors and CASSY counselors.

The Internet has evolved significantly in the last few years — for  better and for worse. Too many times have we  heard our parents tell us to “get off of Facebook” or “stop Instagramming food.” But while the Internet can serve as a distraction, it has also connected the world to enact change in unbelievable ways.

As part of Speak Up for Change week, the Leadership class asked students and staff what wishes they would like to be granted.

We entered the Chinese pastry shop Kee Wah Bakery with high hopes and empty stomachs, expecting to be amazed. The bakery had received rather generous reviews on Yelp, perhaps due to its friendly staff and lovely ambiance. However, its hours were too short and its pastries were too small for the price, leading to a rather disappointing visit.

Deeming itself the “anti-Facebook,” the new social network “Ello,” which boasts a simple and private yet also ad-free interface, is turning many heads. While the website, still in an invite-only beta stage, is committed to retaining an optimized user experience, it is dooming itself to failure as an ineffective and unsuccessful business.

For many teenagers, playing video games full time for money is only a fantasy. But with the rise of a booming gaming industry, that dream is coming to life.

With virtually no one actually paying attention, announcements are becoming completely ineffective and are often a waste of time.

The city of Saratoga will be holding elections for three four-year term positions on the City Council this November. 

Juniors Aakash Thumaty and Spencer Yen created "YoFrom," a simple messaging app based off the popular app "Yo."

The Falcons ended their memorable season with a 2-1 home loss against Bellarmine in the first round of CCS on May 21.

The school should change its policies to allow underclassmen to go off campus for lunch. Since many sophomores get their license during the school year, it makes no sense for the school to prohibit them from leaving campus.

What does it mean to play football all the way to the pro level? “I have had seven knee surgeries, a shoulder surgery, degeneration and stenosis in my neck, two lower fractures in the lower spine, and have broken both hands several times in addition to fingers. I’ve had my front teeth busted out and received 12 stitches in my left arm from a large gash. Besides that, I feel good.”

As the spring season is underway, increasingly more underclassmen are starting the college process early by visiting colleges. Because many students vacation near potential colleges, they use part of their vacation time to explore different colleges campuses.  

Homecoming, on the outside merely a celebration, presents a great battle between two opposing forces: apathy and school spirit. 

Baseball has no time clock. Theoretically, a game could go on forever.

In an effort to raise awareness about the many alternative paths graduating seniors have and reduce students’ stress, PTSO hosted “OMG! I Forgot to Apply to Harvard!!” on Jan. 28 and presented multiple speakers who talked about their own life experiences.

On Jan. 1, Snapchat, a popular photo messaging app, was hacked. The hackers released the usernames and phone numbers of approximately 4.6 million members onto the website SnapchatDB.info.  This security breach happened just a few days after Snapchat acknowledged a possible security vulnerability in which someone could potentially compile a database of Snapchat usernames and phone numbers. The anonymous hackers said the hack was intended to urge Snapchat to tighten its security measures.

"This year we want to duplicate our success from last season and then go further in CCS,” said senior Jason Aoki.

On Feb. 5, senior Mady Fagan committed to the University of Georgia, a Division I (D1) school, for track and field and became the first student to sign to a D1 school for any sport in years.

This spring, Paypal's San Jose Headquarters will be packed with high school developers programming in languages like HTML5 and Java. Sophomore Spencer Yen has been recruited by the hackathon to raise interest among other students.

Senior quarterback Jonathan Walters stands a few feet away from the open door of physics teacher Matt Welander’s classroom. As he shifts his weight back and forth, he begins to describe his first concussion.

Since Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, the company’s stock has steadily increased. YouTube’s content is improving and expanding, and people usually don’t mind watching 30-second advertisements for each video — or at least as long as they need to watch before hitting the skip button. The company’s revenue is growing, and so is the number of monthly users. 

Imagine being inside of a large building with hundreds of strangers for 24 hours straight. Some people have their headphones wired in while intensely staring at their computer screen, others are participating in a nerf-gun war and many are scattered around sleeping on the floor. 

It was our first time grilling hamburgers. A pair of sophomore boys might not be ready to take on chef Gordon Ramsay, but we weren’t going to let our lacking of cooking experience stop us —  we had a mission. A mission to make the most delicious, mouth-watering holy hamburgers known to mankind for the judges in order to win the newspaper cooking competition.

NAME/GRADE: Erica Tran, senior NAME/GRADE: Matthew Tran, sophomore

More than 20 new clubs, ranging from the Harry Potter Club and Baking Club to The Social Impact and Cultural History Film Club, have surfaced with the new school year.

The transition between middle school and high school can be overwhelming, but as the class of 2017 begins to assimilate into Saratoga High School culture, they have picked up the essentials of how to survive high school.