Will Bennett, fourth youngest senior and Jon Wendt, resident SWAG expert. Photo courtesy of Matt Conrad.

On Tuesday, May 24 I finally attended my first Leesville women’s soccer game. It was with a solemn feeling that it occurred to me I attended my final athletic event at Marshal L. Hamilton Stadium.

During high school, a lot of things are taken for granted. For example, I never realized which meal in the cafeteria would be my last, and I never realized which trip would be my final on the school bus that I rode so loyally from fifth to tenth grade.

Then there’s also the events that one realizes will be their last. For example, during the first round playoff loss against Middle Creek, I and every other fan in the stands that night knew we would never watch another football game as high school students.

We realized that this Winter Break and Spring Break would need to be memorable, lest we leave high school without ever enjoying one.

Finally, we realized that after these last few days and the following summer, we would likely never see each other again.

However, we cannot look upon these events with regret.

As much as many hate to admit it, these past four years shaped us into the people we are. The events we went through emulsified our personality, humor, and overall outlook.

It’s the events we relish in, but don’t appreciate at the time that shape us.

In my case, traveling to the state semifinals game freshman year, applying for newspaper during my sophomore year, never getting my license junior year, and getting suspended senior year.

As far as newspaper is concerned, this is the last article I will ever write before attending North Carolina State University in the fall. I appreciate the comments and views readers gave me throughout the years.

And to my editor Alex Stewart, I apologize for being so difficult to deal with.

The end.

Bennett and Wendt prior to downfall.

When Will Bennett was a young staff writer of sixteen, everything came so easily for him. News articles, features, editorials, and sport spotlights would flow from his elegant fingers into the computer for his dedicated followers to read.

Bennett’s life was a luxurious one, laden with beautiful women beckoning to his every call, and his readers contributing lucrative sums of cash if he ever needed it. He rarely did.

“Yeah, I remember Will. He was the kind of guy that parents wanted to call their own, the kind of guy that women wanted to claim, the kind of guy that everyone wanted to be friends with,” said Jonathan Wendt, perennial procrastinator.

“Will Bennett? Who doesn’t remember that guy; he single-handedly transformed The Mycenaean from an average high school paper into the pride of North Carolina,” said Eric Broer, newspaper advisor.

Unfortunately, as Shakespeare taught us, all tales of greatness and heroism eventually end in unrequited sorrow and tragedy.

Somewhere between his junior and senior year, everything came crashing down around Bennett.

Swept up in purchasing gratuitous amounts of Polo by Ralph Lauren, Bennett quickly lost his passion for writing, and in turn his ability to write.

Slowly, his life began to crumble. As his articles stopped coming in on time, his readers stopped following him.

These same readers stopped paying Bennett his usual cash benefits, and, in turn, women stopped flocking to him like sheep.

The life of glamour was over.

It is rare that great men fall this far: Richard Nixon was vilified for the Watergate scandal, but was pardoned by Ford only a year later.

Charles Kane fell off the face of the Earth into a life of unhappiness and loneliness, but in the end he still lived in the palace Xanadu.

Bennett, however, would have no Xanadu to shelter him, and no Ford to pardon him.

Biographers claim that Bennett’s downfall was due to his fascination with freshmen. They claimed that he realized that there was absolutely no hope for the rest of the world.

Jimmy Carter, former US President, general nice guy, and close friend of Bennett, believes differently:

“Will would always complain about how his newspaper editor [Alex Stewart] would never read his articles anymore; he was always rambling that she didn’t care about him, bless his heart,” said Carter.

In an exclusive interview, this reporter sat down one on one with the infamous William Christian Bennett.

Upon entering his room, Bennett was crumbled in a twisted heap on the carpet of his home, stained with his dignity.

Three empty bottles of IBC Root Beer surrounded his filthy, shirtless body.

“I don’t know how it happened; one minute I was having the time of my life, and the next I’m the most hated man alive. I wouldn’t wish this nightmare upon anyone else,” said Bennett, fighting back tears.

To any rising seniors expecting to slack off their final year of high school, intending to replace articles with Polo, this is a cautionary tale.

Movie release poster for <i>Water for Elephants</i>. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox Studios.

When my girlfriend first told me we were going to see Water For Elephants, a film directed by Francis Lawrence, needless to say I was less than enthusiastic.

However, led by a superb cast featuring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, the film immerses viewers into the prohibition-riddled world of the 1930’s, with immaculate costumes and fantastic cinematography.

Water For Elephants follows the story of Jacob, a college-age boy who was forced to drop out of school at Cornell after the untimely death of his parents.

To overcome his misfortune, Jacob winds up sneaking onto a circus train where he is eventually enlisted by the ringleader, August, to train their newest attraction – an elephant.

Jacob falls in love with August’s wife along the way, adding an element of forbidden love that will keep any chick-flick aficionado wide-eyed and attentive.

The aspect that sets this film apart from every other romantic movie in the past ten years is its ability to attract a vast spectrum of audiences.

While it is essentially a love story, there are also momentary scenes of violence, as well as camaraderie between Jacob and some of the other various circus workers which results in momentary flashes of comedy.

Even though critics claim the opposite, the cast has excellent synergy and play their roles effortlessly and seamlessly. For example, dialogue between characters seems natural and unscripted, as do their interactions.

Viewers will connect to the character of Jacob, because he is good of heart with kind intentions with a quick wit – precisely the kind of person that the majority of society strives to be. When a character exists in a movie that an audience can connect to, the film becomes more interesting for everyone involved.

The film achieves a perfect suspension of disbelief, that is to say it manages to be “out there” enough to entertain, yet realistic enough as to ensure that viewers do not become distracted. There were no contrived elements that would eliminate realism.

The movie takes viewers back into the 1930’s with flawless decor, scenery, and costumes that portray the time period perfectly, allowing viewers to feel as though they themselves are immersed in the time period, becoming a part of the movie.

Water for Elephants is a movie that will keep its viewers interested throughout its entire 122-minute length, and that will appeal to a huge audience.

This film is one you don’t want to miss.

While many children were watching cartoons, trading Pokemon cards, or simply passing the days away in the woods, a select cadre of youth were coming to school early and occasionally leaving late to practice singing varieties of songs – from African folk music to Christmas tunes.

These children were filling the halls of school with angelic voices that soothed the soul like a warm bath on a winter morning.

These children were members of Cubs Choir.

“Cubs Choir changed my life. It started my love for music; it was very important,” said Morgan Burke, a senior who partook in the group during the fifth grade.

Burke admits that Cubs Choir was the start of her path to choral greatness, as she is now in the high school’s Capital Pride.

“If you were in the choir, you were cool,” she added.

Alex Lawrence, senior, was a member of Cubs Choir for both his fourth and fifth grade years, and he too clearly recalled the glory days.

“I joined because I loved the teacher and wanted to score points with the older ladies in the class.”

However for Lawrence, the class also taught him deeper lessons.

“[Cubs Choir] made me a more outgoing person; it also taught me that being out there is okay. Life isn’t all about what other people think of you,” he said.

Not all students were able to be a part of Cubs Choir, and this was a very bitter point in their lives.

Kristi Stout and Robert Granecki, seniors, attended Hilburn Elementary School instead.

“Our choir didn’t have a name, and we only sang for shows. Leesville filled me with hatred; I was very jealous,” said Stout

“The only cool thing I got to do was dress up as a grape, but Leesville did all sorts of cool things. It made me so mad. I just wanted to tag their music room; that would’ve shown them.” Granecki added.

Parents also offered insight into the Choir:

“Cubs Choir was a wonderful experience for all the children involved. The teacher was fantastic, and it helped them all become more outgoing and personable,” said Valerie Bennett, mom.

Cubs Choir was indeed an organization to be envious of. The group held two chorus concerts a year, and every student involved received a unique T-shirt to commemorate their involvement.

No matter how students’ singing careers turned out, it is clear that Cubs Choir was a memorable experience that taught valuable life lessons that will not soon be forgotten.

Photo courtesy of a google search.

On April 3,I wrote an article in an attempt to coax North Carolina State University to hire Shaka Smart as quickly as possible.

On April 4 Debbie Yow, Athletic Director of State, gave Smart an offer he simply couldn’t refuse reportedly worth 2 million dollars a year.

Unfortunately, he refused.

Smart, who was making 375,000 dollars a year, decided instead to remain at his Colonial Athletic Association school of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Now I understand that the task of coaching with the likes of Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams may appear daunting, any self-respecting coach would be up to the challenge.

Just because you take charges like a man doesn’t mean you are one.
Now this rant is all based on the fact that I’m assuming that Smart pans out. In all honesty, he’s only coached two seasons at VCU and hasn’t finished higher than fourth-place in the CAA.

George Mason coach Jim Larranaga also made a miraculous Final Four run – his successes since then? Two NCAA appearances without going farther than the second round in five years.

If this is the road to Hall-of-Fame Coaching, then by all means, Shaka Smart made the right call by sticking true to VCU.

Now I understand Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall’s decision to refuse NC State’s offer as well.

The man has been coaching mid-major schools for almost thirteen years, and is clearly quite happy doing so.

But you, Shaka, could have been something great. In only two short years you could have gone from coaching a perennial bubble team to a contender in a major conference.

Imagine if Coach K had refused the job at Duke and instead spent the rest of his coaching days at Army. We would have missed out on a man considered by many as the greatest college coach of all time.

The decision for Smart to stay at VCU not only hurts the Wolfpack faithful, but also college basketball as a whole.

Shaka Smart could have had a faithful, loyal, red-and-black-clad fan base by his side. He could have gone down as one of the greatest coaches the game had ever see, but for now the college basketball world is deprived of that because of one not-so-Smart decision.

The day started ordinarily enough – Wendt ate five strips of bacon, two sausage links, two eggs, a banana, two cups of coffee – black, and a bowl of Cheerios.

After finishing his breakfast, Wendt lifted his two younger brothers onto his shoulders and spouted encouraging words into their ears before he finally left for school.

That’s where his life changed.

Wendt walked into his newspaper class only to be met by the cry of damsels in distress, a sound all too common in his life.

“I’ve been saving helpless women since my preteen days. Pulling them out of fires, crashed cars and burning buildings… you know, the usual, so this was nothing new,” Wendt said.

The source of the distraught cries from the girls was a massive spider, approximately the size of a silver dollar and, more than likely, extremely venomous.

However, Wendt showed no fear, sprinting over the spider, quickly extinguishing its life in a single, furious stomp.

Immediately after, Wendt pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the tears from the crying girls’ faces.

“I felt saved. Who knew what would’ve happened if he Wendt] hadn’t been there,” said Nia Doaks, sophomore.

“I thought it was going to attack me, and without that guy [Wendt] it probably would have,” said a grateful Kimmy Stewart, sophomore.

Though the majority of the student body has no idea who Wendt is, it is the little men, the unknown heroes of the world, that keep it functioning properly.

So for that, Leesville thanks Jonathan Wendt, hero.

Bennett's friend Wendt with some "freshmen"

When we last met, I informed my loyal readers that I had sworn off writing about freshmen. Their immature antics baffled me, their awkwardness confounded me, and above all else, their innocence infuriated me.

However, as two weeks passed by, I felt myself bound by an inescapable allure. I was like a shark chasing blood in the water; I needed freshmen in my life.

It was then that a thought occurred to me: Perhaps the reason that freshmen act the way they do is merely intimidation.

Since freshmen are so terrified of seniors, they lose their minds and begin to act mindless, spouting off excruciating levels of immaturity.

After all, as a senior, I am rather horrifying. I am approximately two feet and four inches taller than a fourteen year old on any given day.

In addition, my toned, well-oiled muscles could crush their tiny, wiry frames at any given moment.

Anyway, back to my experience.

In a charitable attempt to dismiss the stereotypes that prevent wonderful friendships from blossoming, I decided to traverse the school, interviewing random freshmen to help them overcome their fear of me.

First on my list was Andreas Escobar, a laid back individual who could only be described as a stud.

“I don’t have much of an opinion. I mean, [seniors] are a bit scary, and kind of big, but they’re nice. Yeah, I don’t really care.”

Alright, so my theory may have been flawed, but I still figured that it had to be true of some freshmen. As my peers say: “On to the next one.”

Matt Cessari was my next target.

“Seniors don’t really scare me. I have a sister [who is a senior], and she has a lot of senior friends, so it’s nothing new. There’s a big age gap [between freshmen and seniors], so they’re going to act a little different.”

Okay, this just wasn’t fair. He has a sister who’s a senior. That’s an absolute wild card. For research purposes, I threw him out of consideration.

Thankfully, just as I was about to pound a wall in frustration, I saw Camille Churchwell, freshman, out of the corner of my eye.

Glowering, I asked her quickly if she had any stereotypical beliefs about seniors.

“I mean, not really. They’re mature and independent. I’m not scared of them, but I don’t have senior friends or anything.”

Okay, we are extraordinarily mature, being the pinnacle of evolution and whatnot, but come on, no stereotypes?

I sat down in the middle of the hall and hung my head low. This was a humbling experience, seeing as I am never incorrect. Yet my theory had gone so tragically wrong. Just then, a single crystalline, salt-encrusted tear worked its way down my supple cheek.

I heard a voice cry out in the hall: “Why are you crying mister?” Slowly, I began to explain my plight to him.

Turns out, he was a freshman as well, named Jordan Binkermeier, and he was absolutely terrified of me.

This was because Binkermeier trembled every time he was even in the presence of seniors and even got a little nausea.

Even more fascinating, Binkermeier was extremely immature. He was spouting of crude jokes, insulting my mother, and even tried to place a whoopee cushion under my rear at some point during our interview.

It turns out the only reason Binkermeier acted immature was because of how simply terrifying big-bad seniors were.

Having proved my hypothesis exactly 100 percent right, I smiled. The world of freshmen was one I understood quite well.

The rascals were quite immature, but it was only caused by a massive amount of nervousness.
At long last, I had discovered a theory that eluded man for many generations: Why the freshman is immature.

Hard at work outside of the office?

On February 28, Robert Pope joined the ranks of the Leesville Road administration staff. Pope was hired to replace Mrs.Jackson, who left in December.

Pope is the second administrator hired under principal Scott Lyons this year, the first being Sherri Golden.

Prior to his work at Leesville, Pope worked at Southern Nash High School in the same position while coaching the football team for several seasons. Prior to that, he taught Health and Physical Education at Southern Nash Middle School.

Leaving a school in the middle of the year is never easy, and Pope is a testament to this conundrum. “I’ll miss not seeing students graduate that I’d been with for three years. They’ve come a long way, and they’re going to be successful,” he said.

However, Pope is excited to build similar relationships with the students at Leesville.

Pope stated that the main difference between Leesville and Southern Nash is the enrollment size.

Leesville holds around 2,400 students, while Southern Nash had only 1,200. Pope is very excited to meet this new challenge.

Pope attended East Carolina University where he received both his undergraduate and masters degrees, the latter in Administration.

Pope has a friendly personality, a quick sense of humor and an interesting philosophy on high school.

“I want to do everything possible to provide students with the resources and tools to be successful in life,” said Pope.

Leesville has recently been immersed in a massive reshuffling of the administration staff, beginning with the departure of Mrs. Credle, capped off with Mrs. Jackson’s leave in December. In fact, only a single administrator, Dr. Higgins, from the 2007-2008 school year still works at Leesville today.

Pope has several goals for his time at Leesville: “I want the student body and school to be better academically and in character before I leave.”

A worthy goal indeed.

The Falcons began the game strong scoring two quick runs in the first inning off starting pitcher Ben Duncan, senior.

However, the top of the first inning was the only success that Green Hope experienced the entire game.

Starting off with Logan Bible’s lead off single, the Pride loaded the bases quickly and began scoring in rapid succession.

Leesville batted in fourteen runs in the first inning alone but not without plenty of help from the Falcons.

Their starting pitcher did everything except throw strikes. He walked batters, hit batters and threw pitches nowhere near the strike zone.

The Green Hope fielders dropped routine ground balls and overthrew their basemen more often than not.

In fact, the entire spectacle appeared more like an episode of the Three Stooges than America’s great past time.

After going through the entire batting order twice, Tyler Foreman, senior, popped up for the third out to finally end the brutal gauntlet of an inning.

The massacre continued for the duration of the game while the Pride held the Falcons scoreless throughout.

“We wanted to get out to a quick start, so we came out prepared,” said Ryan Mulligan, a senior who is being recruited by Penn State.

Leesville’s next challenge is against the Northern Durham Knights.

Buckles was born in Bethany, Missouri at the turn of the century in 1901. Buckles was only sixteen years old when he enlisted for the United States Army, though “[I] gave my solemn word I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible,” Buckles told CNN.

Prior to his acceptance in the Army, Buckles was turned away by the Marines for being under 21 and the Navy for being flat-footed.

Buckles served in both France and England during the war driving motorcycles and ambulances.

Following the Armistice, Buckles escorted prisoners of war back to Germany.

Buckles was working for the White Star shipping company, which took him to Manila in the Philippines when World War II broke out in 1942..

He was captured by the Japanese as a civilian and forced to live the next three and a half years in a prison camp during his stay in the Philippines.

Buckles remained strong, leading fellow inmates in calisthenics despite becoming malnourished and weighing under 100 pounds.

Buckles was rescued on February 23, 1945.

During his life, Buckles was the recipient of the World War I Victory Medal, French Legion of Honor and the Army Occupation of Germany Disorder.

Following his death, President Barack Obama ordered that the flags at all government buildings be flown at half mast to commemorate Buckles’ life.

Claude Choules and Florence Green of the United Kingdom are the last two surviving veterans of World War I.