Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2007)
Sports 10 Octob Debs hope to improve on sixth place State finish K aitlyn R agan Staff Reporter The Debs are back for a new and promising season after receiving sixth place at State competition last March. They have big plans for the upcoming year and are off to a good start. The Debutantes will be dancing at half-time at several home sports events, throughout the fall and winter season. Their first competition will be on Nov. 3 at Gladstone High School. At this competition, the team plans on participating with four routines: jazz, lyrical, kick and hip hop. The members competing lyrical will be chosen on a try-out basis since only sixteen girls will be performing that particular routine. "Trying out for routines makes us all work a lot harder to perfect the choreography and really perform at practice," Katie Warmack, senior captain, said. The team began practices in late August with a week of daily doubles where they learned two football routines and a kick routine for competition. However, each dancer was required to take at least 20 classes at Dance Vision studio in Clackamas throughout the summer to improve skills in a variety of areas all the way from ballet to hip hop. There are 34 girls on the team and they practice three days a week for three to four hours, working on learning choreography and improving technique. The team has four coaches, Amanda Wilcox, Geoff Wishart, Angie Sharpe and Karissa Peterson. They each incorporate their own unique choreography and style into the team's various routines. Each of the coaches participated in their high school's dance teams at various schools around the state and continue their passion for dance through coaching their own team. "Practices have been going really well. The girls are working really hard and we have already improved a lot," Mindy Orolin, senior captain, said. Near the end of December the team will be learning its State routine. The routine this year is based on the historical figure Marie Antoinette, and the theme's name is "Let them eat cake." They will be dancing a 4-6 minute routine Kathryn Warmack, senior captain, practices the team's fall hip-hop to the song "Like it or not" routine. The Debs have been practicing in preparation for their first by Madonna. State will take competition in November. Photo by Kira Matsuoka place on March 12-13 at the Memorial Coliseum. Blazers suffer devastating loss I saac C allagan Staff Reporter After another off-season filled with wheeling and dealing, the Portland Trail Blazers are set to embark on year two of their rebuilding One Sport or 3 Sports Hometown Sports has you covered. , -V J r ' . . . • * Jn . 9 SPORTS APPAREL • SPIRITWEAR • CUSTOM ORDERS • GUARANTEED SATISFACTION program. Expectations for the team were high before the loss of Greg Oden. With a busy draft night punctuated by three trades, the Blazers are ready to set out with a new cast of players towards a common goal. Bolstered largely by the addition of Oden, profiled by many, including ESPN and other scouting web sites, to be the best big man in a decade, the Blazers secured several other solid additions in Josh McRoberts, Taurean Green, James Jones, and Charming Frye. In a case of addition by subraction, the Blazers traded Zach Randolph to the New York Knicks. That move has received positive reception from some Blazers fans around the school. "I'm glad we got rid of Z- Bo. In fact, I'm stoked," Chase Gray, senior, said. "Z-Bo" of course, as die-hard Blazers fans know, is the nickname of former Trail Blazer Randolph. This move brings complications as Randolph averaged a walloping 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds the previous year. The scoring burden will have to be picked up by second-year players Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. The drafting of Oden with the first pick was easily the highest profile move the Blazers made this summer. The big man's arrival has generated considerable interest around the school. Students such as Blake Ford, senior, have been observed sporting Oden T-shirts and voicing their support. "Oden to the Rose City," Jordan Hongo, senior, said. The expectations on Oden for his rookie season were rather large. "Second straight rookie of the year," Gray said, referring to the award given out to the best rookie of each season. For someone with such high expectations, Oden's career has started roughly. During the summer league he missed 60% of the games due to a nasty case of tonsillitis, and just recently was scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery at a Washington-area hospital. The main concern was pain and swelling during practice, and no injury was expected to have occurred. However, on Sept. 13, after Oden came out of surgery, the news was grim. Doctors operated on Oden with a procedure called microfracture surgery. The procedure involved drilling into Oden's knee, after which the surgeon then tore a small hole into the bone in Oden's knee. The goal of the procedure was to stimulate bleeding in the knee. After the wound clots, a new, albeit not as effective, layer of cartilage is formed. The typical recovery time for a surgical procedure such as this is six months up to a year. The news came as a shocker to Blazers fans. On one Blazers fan site, BlazersEdge.com, within 10 minutes of the notice being posted, many people had commented on the unfortunate situation. The mood among some students is somber after hearing the news. "I was excited about Oden," Ryan Connolly, senior, said. However, expectations for the team remain high for the coming season. After the evident success of last season, (the Blazers finished 11 games better, at 32-50), people have been looking forward to this year. "I'm predicting 55-27," Gray said. While most expectations are not that grand, people still are excited. "I expect the rookies from last year to step up and take leadership roles," Connolly said. It is evident from the reactions of these students that a positive vibe has surrounded the upcoming season. It will be up to the Blazers, old and new, to fu them.
