Many big-name artists and bands will travel to Bay Area locations to perform, including Tim McGraw, One Direction and Bruno Mars. For those looking for alternative music, huge summer festivals like Outside Lands offer great opportunities for local fans around the bay to attend concerts from multiple bands in one location.

Palo Alto High School junior Andrew Sternfield is excited  for this summer’s concerts.

Caleb Shomo, the lead singer of Attack Attack!, performs at the Vans Warped Tour in 2011.
Photo by Cathy Rong.

“I’m stoked to see some good music at Outside Lands and Tim McGraw,” Sternfield said. “I’m especially excited to see the Doobie Brothers and the Steve Miller Band at the America’s Cup Pavilion in San Francisco. ”

Below are our top picks of the Bay Area’s summer festivals and concerts.

MGMT featuring Delorean and Kuroma

Frost Amphitheater, Stanford

May 18

MGMT, Delorean and Kuroma

Live 105 BFD (Big F***ing Deal)

Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View 

May 19

Lineup: 30 Seconds to Mars, Jimmy Eat World, Passion Pit, Of Monsters and Men, The Crystal Method

The xx

Greek Theater, Berkeley

June 1

Tim McGraw

Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA

June 9  

Vans Warped Tour

Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA

June 22  

Justin Bieber

HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA

June 26

Bruno Mars

HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA

July 25

The Mrs. Carter World Tour starring Beyonce

HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA

July 2

One Direction Take Me Home Tour

HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA

July 30

Outside Lands Music Festival

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

August 9-11

Lineup: Phoenix, Paul McCartney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Vampire Weekend, Youth Lagoon, Matt and Kim, Young the Giant, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The concert line-up for this summer promises to entertain, so don’t forget your sunscreen as you head out to enjoy good music under the sun.

For 17 years, Bryant has been the face of the franchise, willing them to victory game after game. Fans know all too well of his competitive grit and killer instinct, leading him to be nicknamed “the Black Mamba.” The court is his domain, and few adversaries can be compared to him as equal.

But Bryant’s aura of dominance occupied a different place on that Sunday night: a hospital bed. Bryant pushed himself all season long, but it all came crashing down on the night of April 12, in a home game against the Golden State Warriors. On a hard drive to the left, with rookie Harrison Barnes guarding him, Bryant slowed up just after an explosive first step and fell to the ground, clutching his heel. His Achilles tendon was severed, and he will officially be out of commission for six to nine months.

Injuries go hand-in-hand with sports. Whether a white collar weekend warrior, a professional athlete or a Little League slugger, injury is always a possibility. Few events prove more crushing to an athlete’s spirit than season-ending injuries. Knowing that you won’t be able to lace up for another year is a hard pill to swallow. Tragically, many Paly athletes, like Kobe Bryant, have been afflicted with season-ending injuries.

A particularly nasty injury that makes its rounds in athletics is the dreaded anterior cruciate ligament injury. Countless famous athletes have picked up ACL injuries, and the spread of ACL injuries across sports shows how vital this ligament is to any type of contact sport that involves explosive movements and cuts. In the last year alone, high-profile ACL tears include the likes of Adrian Peterson (running back for the Minnesota Vikings), Robert Griffin III (quarterback for the Washington Redskins) and Derrick Rose (point guard for the Chicago Bulls). At least two Paly athletes in particular have suffered ACL injuries this year.

Hope Crockett, a junior guard for the varsity girl basketball team, tore her ACL in the fall.

“I tore it [her ACL] at the first preseason tournament in late November,” Crockett said. “One of my teammates … also tore her ACL this season. Apparently, girls are more susceptible to ACL injuries than boys but you see this kind of injury everywhere.”

Crockett had no option but to sit out the rest of the season. Prognosis for an ACL injury is at least six months of recovery time.

Gunnar Felt, a junior linebacker and wrestler, also tore his ACL during the 2012 football season.

“I tore [my ACL] towards the end of the season so I missed some big league games as well as the playoffs and postseason.”

Advancements in the medical field have made the future brighter for what used to be a career ending injury.  Arthroscopic surgery, strengthening and rehabilitation techniques now pave a way for return to athletics.

“I had surgery over winter break and have been doing rehab since then at Agile Physical Therapy,” Crocket explained. “I go to Agile twice a week and also have exercises to do at home.”

Felt, on the other hand, has experienced much more difficulty in his rehab. “As far as surgery goes, I got a hamstring replacement. Basically, a piece of my hamstring was removed and inserted where my ACL used to be. Rehab has been rough; there’s a lot of bases to cover. I should be able to start jogging pretty soon (four months since surgery) and after that comes running and cutting.”

Both athletes showed great team spirit by still going to their team’s games, but they also agreed on how hard it was to watch their team from the sidelines.

“It was real hard not being able to go out on the field with them,” Felt said. “In our CCS game against Serra, all I wanted to do was go out and help the team, but obviously my hands were tied.”

Crockett voiced a similar sentiment.

“Not being able to contribute was the hardest part,” she said. “All the same, it was nice to be part of the team and the support and camaraderie that comes with it.”

In a similar fashion to Bryant, injured Paly athletes still watch their team’s games, going from No. 1 scoring options to No. 1 cheerleaders. In the same way, Bryant’s presence stays with his team, and although initially confined to a hospital bed, not a soul doubts that Bryant is on the court in spirit.

What if we’re outside, and you lock the door on us?

This is so depressing.

Screw that, I’m running.

As my teacher outlined how to barricade the door and find the safest position in the room, away from the line of possible gunfire through a window, the students whispered — some anxiously questioning the teacher, others giggling near the back of the room, some muttering under their breaths to their peers.

In the light of the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT in December of 2012, the media has been raging over whether our schools are prepared in the case of such an emergency. In response not just to the news, but also to education code guidelines, Palo Alto Senior High School will have its first Code Red drill in around six years to prepare students and staff for a similar situation, according to assistant principal Jerry Berkson.

The question then for students, parents and faculty alike is, “Is Paly prepared?”

For many students, Paly seems to lack preparation for such a terrifying situation, even if the area is perceived to be in a safe “bubble.” Junior Young-Ju Lee and sophomore Noah Hashmi expressed similar views that Paly has not done much, at least that students have seen, to ready itself for an emergency.

“I was talking to my friends about them [Code Red drills], and we all agreed that we don’t have enough of them,” Lee said. “Our most recent drill was in 8th grade.”

Hashmi similarly echoed, “I don’t remember practicing the protocol for a Code Red Emergency, which is why I feel like Paly students might be slightly less prepared than they ideally should be.”

As returning Paly students, both Lee and Hashmi hope to see an increased number of drills to increase student awareness of the possibility of danger and smooth the actual initiation of the procedure in varying situations. Senior Ethan Cohen added that the drill will probably help the faculty practice and work out any flaws in “the organizational and communication systems.”

“That is probably the most important part of these drills because, after all, it doesn’t take a whole lot of practice to pile stuff up, hide in a corner  and be quiet,” Cohen said.

However, Hashmi, Lee and Cohen all agreed that Code Red drills, despite what their peers might think, are important and should become more frequent, although Cohen adds that the timing of the drill towards the end of the year seems “kind of silly,” especially for the graduating seniors. And while all three students voiced the importance of being prepared through more drills, all are similarly not very concerned about the probability of an armed intruder on campus.

Code Red drills are likely to be done earlier next year and follow a regular, annual basis in the future, according to Berkson. Due to the education code, many schools in California have Code Red drills; for example, Homestead High School also practiced an emergency drill earlier in the school year, and The Harker School holds such drills every year.

Despite any fears, Palo Alto Unified School District administrator Victoria Geen-Lew, who works in the insurance/risk/safety business service with the Palo Alto Police Department, said there is little to worry about.

“I believe we are well prepared district-wide,” Geen-Lew wrote in an email to The Paly Voice. “We partner with the City of Palo Alto Police Department and work with them closely in all our trainings and drills.”

“The two most important things to remember are that we, one, have a plan, and two, take this time we have now to better prepare ourselves,” she added. “The district will continue to work hard to keep our schools safe.”

Besides the drill itself, which Berkson says will mainly serve to give those in the classrooms hands-on practice with the drill procedure like building the barricades, the district has also taken other actions to secure Paly. Recently, it has distributed “door bloks” to the classrooms, which would expedite the Code Red procedure by allowing teachers to keep the doors locked at all times and simply pull the “blok” off the door handle rather than leave the room to lock the room.

What one gets out of a drill, Code Red or other emergency drills like fire drills and earthquake drills, also has to do with how willing one is to take the situation seriously – a fact attested to by my teacher’s grim warning to not “fool around” while the police and administrators patrol the campus.

“Even though many people think that it’s a waste of time, as the super cliché phrase says, I think it’s a good idea to ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst,’” Lee said.

Lee, like Hashmi and Cohen, believe annual drills will help better ready Paly for such emergencies. In the meanwhile, while the kinks of the procedures are being worked out, Lee is comforted by the fact that Paly will have had at least one drill.

Perhaps most important for everyone, however, is what Berkson hopes everyone will understand: No one can ever truly be prepared for a situation like a school shooting.

“You work on some of this stuff, and there’s recommendations on what to do, but there’s no rules,” he said. “The number one thing is to survive, so you gotta kind of adapt to the situation as it unfolds.”

“I would say we’re as ready as we’re going to be in this situation,” Berkson added. ”Again, there’s so many variables at what could be going on that I don’t think you can be always 100 percent ready. I think you can be prepared.”

And that is the purpose of the upcoming Code Red drill.

The basketball hoops outside the gym are going to be converted into parking lots due to increased demand. Photo by Amanda Carlsson.

The new parking lot will be located where the current outdoor basketball courts are, between the Big Gym and the baseball field, according to Assistant Principal Kimberly Diorio.

“Since nobody used the basketball hoops outside the gym I was thinking we could convert that into a parking lot,” Diorio said.

Plans were made before spring break to start the project but the courts remained unpainted after the vacation according to Diorio.

“I asked maintenance to have the lines painted by the end of break, but they never got around to it,” Diorio said.

Construction for the new Media Arts Center and math building has taken over part of the El Camino parking lot, limiting the number of staff and student parking spaces available. Due to the lack of parking spots, many students have unknowingly parked illegally due to the removal of signage and been ticketed next to the baseball field, according to Diorio.

“I think that we shouldn’t be punished for parking somewhere that has poor signage,” junior Becca Althoff said. “It’s also unfair that we are hardly able to contest the ticket because it’s the city issuing the tickets.”

Even staff has found the situation problematic.

“Students shouldn’t have to compromise their parking spots with the staff,” said Carolyn Benfield, assistant to the principal.

Adults observe artwork displayed at last year’s Youth Speaks Out art exhibit. Youth Speaks Out is a project designed for teenagers to express their feelings and personal life experiences about living in Palo Alto through art. “Life is best shared through our stories, and art is the most direct way to illustrate them,” co-creator Carolyn Digovich said. “Art gives you another language to articulate when words fail.” Photo by Audey Shen.

Adults are getting a window into the minds of students through the second annual Youth Speaks Out art show, which opened last weekend at the Palo Alto Art Center.

The Opening Reception was on March 9 at the Art Center, and the exhibition will remain until March 24 at both the Art Center and City Hall.

Youth Speaks Out is a program created by Palo Alto parent Carolyn Digovich and Henry M. Gunn High School visual arts teacher Deanna Messinger aimed at allowing teenagers to express themselves and address sensitive topics through an art medium.

“[Youth Speaks Out] project students conveyed their personal life experiences of being young in Palo Alto, with all the challenges, advantages, insights … and different cultural norms,” Digovich said. “Everything that defines the sense of who they are at the moment.”

Additionally, project coordinators hope the exhibition will strengthen a connection between the youth and adults.

“I want parents and [the] community to know how our young people are doing, by ‘listening’ to their art,” Messinger said. “We’ve been through a lot as a community, and any clear messages that young people can give to adults, might help make changes for a healthier student body.”

Although the exhibitions will feature only visual arts, the opening also featured various performances from teenagers, including Palo Alto High School student musicians Remi & Chloe and the Paly Bhangra Club.

“The theme of the event is Non-conventional Self Portraiture, and even though our [Remi & Chloe’s] art is not a visual art, we really do express ourselves through our music,” junior Remi Wolfe said. “Our music is so important to us, and we think it is important that our community understands the importance that the art plays in so many teenagers’ lives. Not only can we express ourselves and our feelings in a unique way but it also helps us to relive stress, have fun and feel a sense of accomplishment.”

The event displays over 114 works from students all over Palo Alto. However, to enable truthful self-expression and create a safe, non-judgmental environment for student artists, all artwork is anonymous. Artwork from Messinger’s Advanced Drawing and Painting class, Gunn visual arts teacher Jennifer Hogan’s photography classes and Paly teacher Margo Wixsom’s photography program is also being showcased at the event.

“Everyone has an artistic ‘voice’ and something to say, no matter what their art abilities are,” Messinger said. “If students have an artist statement, and the work isn’t too triggering, then they will be in the exhibition.”

Additionally, works from the Lead with Your HeART program, a writing and imagery workshop promoting youth leadership, is on display. Supported by Palo Alto’s Youth Collaborative and Youth Community Services, Lead with Your HeART was a Saturday workshop in February developed by Messinger and Gunn creative writing teacher Tart Wilson.

“It [Lead with Your HeART] gave … students an opportunity to make art that … might correspond to the courage and aspiration to lead, to speak up when it’s not easy to do so,” Digovich said. “Revealing oneself through art is not easy. Neither is taking a leadership role in life.”

Digovich received the idea to create the Youth Speaks Out program in 2010 after volunteering to find a way for students to communicate themselves through art when students at a youth forum expressed a concern for the lack of a “safe place” for teenagers to relax and exhibit their art. Afterwards, Digovich collaborated with Messinger to create a curriculum for the program, and the project was created.

“I thought I would like to be part of the larger community of adults who want to simply take time to listen to our youth, give them a chance to share their true stories through art and see the stories come alive on canvas,” Digovich said. “So I joined Palo Alto Youth Collaborative, which works with local youth through many youth organizations, and the schools.”

According to Digovich, art is particularly important for teenagers because it provides an outlet for self expression.

“Life is best shared through our stories, and art is the most direct way to illustrate them,” Digovich said. “Art reveals and does not lie. This fact affects all of us no matter our age, but especially youth, as they become more aware, because art gives you another language to articulate when words fail.”

Since last year, modifications have been made to the program. According to Digovich, the name of the project has been changed from “Teen Exhibition” to “Youth Speaks Out” to better reflect the goals of the program. The project has also been expanded to include Paly students, a change from last year when the curriculum was only taught at Gunn. Additionally, the artwork will be displayed at two larger venues, City Hall and the Art Center, unlike last year, when the art was shown at multiple small businesses such as Mike’s Cafe and Philz Coffee.

“There is nothing more precious to a society than its youth,” Digovich said. “Many adults in our town care deeply for the well being of youth in the world in general, but especially those close to home, where we might just make a tiny difference … by listening closely and acknowledging what youth are telling us.”

Kenny Jones partook in the long jump with no coach last year. This season, Tolu Wusu will coach the jumpers. “I like to try to get each person to maximize their ability versus just a goal,” Wusu said. Photo by Matt Ersted.

New Palo Alto High School Track & Field jumps coach Tolu Wusu strolls in to practice at 4:30 p.m. on a windy Wednesday afternoon, a good half hour after most of the athletes arrived.

“What have you been doing this whole time?” Wusu asked jumpers Victor Du and Grant Shorin jokingly.

Wusu, Paly class of 2003, went on to be an Exercise Biology major at University of California at Davis. He said that he hit the qualifying marks for the Olympic trials in 2007 for the triple jump, but after undergoing surgery on his leg, he never quite made it to the London Olympics. Wusu uses this experience to teach athletes to make sure they use the right mechanics and also enjoy every moment they compete.

“My surgery changed the way I view athletics, health and performance,” Wusu said.

Senior long-jumper Grant Shorin said that Wusu often has the jumpers change their techniques to become more natural, which in turn helps them jump further.

“The main goal is to use the body in a way that it is meant to be used, and as a result we will be healthier, enjoy jumping and jump higher and farther,” Shorin said. “A big part of what we do is unlearn the technique that we have been doing and understand how the body feels when we are doing things the right way.”

According to Wusu, it is important that young athletes are taught about the specific things they need to do to perform at a higher level.

“Often coaches tell athletes what they need to do to get to a higher level without them actually understanding what they should be doing,” Wusu said.  “They think they are doing what they should be doing, but they are not, so it’s important to explain to them why the results are not happening.”

Wusu said he hopes to help athletes understand this and succeed at Paly and beyond.

“I like to try to get each person to maximize their ability versus just a goal,” Wusu said.

Senior high-jumper Victor Du enjoys having a coach specifically to help with jumping, as opposed to last year when the jumpers were essentially self-coached.

“It’s a lot better than not having a coach when we just had to try stuff out, see what works and what doesn’t,” Du said. “It’s nice having someone that can tell us what to do and fix our mistakes and stuff like that.”

Du also enjoys Wusu’s unique ability to engage in conversation.

“He is probably the most interesting person I know,” Du said. “You could listen to him talk for five hours and never get bored, and he would never stop talking. I’ve had a couple practices when we just talked for two hours after practice.”

Shorin also enjoys talking to Wusu after practice.

“Tolu is really interesting to talk to since he has been through a lot of things,” Shorin said. “After we finish practice, a lot of times, we will talk about random things and end up staying on the track for another hour. You never know what it’s going to be about, but it’s things like dance moves, eating contests, boxing matches, bike jousting and stories about all his injuries.”

All in all, Wusu enjoys working with high school athletes in particular because he can help them develop at an earlier stage to prepare them for later on.

“Being able to get people now and start working with them and figuring out the different things that may affect them in their future whether that’s in athletics or just health in general, is something that I think is good and very beneficial to address now,” Wusu said.

“Sorry, that was kind of a long winded response,” he added with a smile.

Mock trial team members Charlie Dulik, Jessica Tam and Sophia Scholtz prepare for a trial on Feb. 5 at the Santa Clara County Courthouse. The team won one out of its four trials this season. “Overall, we all did very, very well,” Scholtz said. Photo courtesy of Zach Segal.

Palo Alto High School’s days of seeing students carrying briefcases and dressed head-to-toe in a suit and tie are, for the time being, over, as the mock trial team’s season concluded on Feb. 19 with a loss in a prosecution trial.

Even after losing three out of four trials in this season, several mock trial team members praised themselves and their team for a job well done despite obvious shortcomings.

Led by senior co-captains Sophia Scholtz and Nadya Nee, the mock trial team competed against Pioneer High School, Mountain View High School, Cupertino High School and Saint Francis High School over the past season.

Divided into prosecution and defense competitions, the prosecution lost both of its trials by incredibly small margins — in one case only a couple points out of 200, while the defense team won one once by a huge margin, and lost the other competition handily.

The season concluded on Feb. 19 when the prosecution section lost a deciding trial that determined whether their season would continue past February and into the quarterfinals. A record of 2-2 would have made making the playoffs a possibility, but with the close loss the season ended with a 1-3 record.

The team, relatively inexperienced and essentially self-coached, only practiced once every couple of weeks for an hour according to co-captain Scholtz. However, Sholtz felt satisfied with the team’s performance despite its lack of practice.

“Overall, we all did very, very well and hopefully the team is on a good track [for next year],” Scholtz said. “For the amount of effort that we put in compared to other teams… we do pretty well.”

All in all, Scholtz enjoys partaking in mock trial as a fun, low-commitment activity.

“It’s super, super fun,  and it combines debate and acting,” Scholtz said. “It’s a really fun extracurricular activity.”

Nee echoes this positive outlook and also has high hopes for next year.

“It was a good season,” Nee said. “We had a lot of new freshmen, and it was fun to teach them about mock trial. Hopefully, next year will be better because this year we didn’t have that much experience.”

Jessica Tam, another senior team member, thoroughly enjoyed the season despite the losses.

“I thought we did a good job even though we didn’t win every single time,” Tam said. “I think that everyone on the team worked really well together, and I think we all got a lot out of it.”

Next year the team will be led by junior Emily Willick, who foresees a bright future for the mock trial team.

“Our team has a ton of potential,” Willick said. “We have a bunch of really promising underclassmen who will be able to lead the team in a few years. I’m confident that with a little more dedication, we can do really well next year.”

The participants in the San Jose Sharks’ High School Sports Writer’s Night listen to Malcolm Bordelon discuss the business side of Sharks hockey. Bordelon, the Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Sharks, oversees business matters such as ticket prices and advertisements. Photo courtesy of the San Jose Sharks.

Having attended and watched my share of Sharks hockey games over the years, I was eager for the opportunity to experience a game from a different perspective. Thanks to the San Jose Sharks Organization, I was able to do just that during last week’s High School Sports Writer’s Night.

The six other high school students and I started by being led through the large tunnels on the ground level of HP Pavilion, past the locker rooms, ice entrances and offices and to the press room for dinner. There we met each other and talked a little about ourselves and our hopes and expectations for the night. I couldn’t help but notice many people eating by our sides, from the penalty box operators to the ice scrapers, and from announcers Drew Remenda and Jamie Baker to assistant coach Jay Woodcroft. There we were, 90 minutes before game time, seeing just about everyone of importance involved with the Sharks getting fueled up for the long night ahead.

After eating, the group and I were led through the front office to our next destination. The team spirit was palpable, as each desk had at least 17 pieces of Sharks memorabilia and each employee proudly displayed Sharks banners, posters and rally towels. We reached a conference room, where we were to meet a couple people involved with the Sharks to give us a journalism and business perspective on hockey.

First came Kevin Kurz, the Sharks beat writer for CSNBayArea.com. I think all of us in the room envied his job as someone who gets to follow the team and report on it. But we soon learned that he “works his tail off” (as Remenda says so often), producing about three or four pieces of content each day. He walked us through a typical day covering the team: morning skate, followed by interviews, a few hours of work, a quick break, then off to HP Pavilion for pregame commitments, a TV appearance around 7:15 p.m., a view of the game from the press box, some interviews in the locker rooms and a recap story. All told, Kurz starts around 10:30 a.m. and leaves the arena after 11:30 p.m., with just a few hours off in between. I enjoyed learning about the dedication of a sports writer and all that goes into the words on the page.

Next was Malcolm Bordelon, Executive Vice President of Business Operations in the Sharks’ front office. His career path intrigued me, beginning with selling billboards in Texas and ending up in San Jose with a big-time job for the Sharks. Learning about the business side of the Sharks operation was compelling. Bordelon touched on ticket prices, revenue streams (primarily season tickets and sponsorships) and the live arena experience. The last was most thought-provoking to me as a journalist. With the at-home experience getting better and better thanks to HD TVs and the internet, how can professional sports teams enhance the quality of a night at their arenas or stadiums? Bordelon believes that for a sport like hockey, seeing it live is still best and that some technologies, such as smartphones, can get in the way of watching the game. Nevertheless, he is still looking for that magical innovation that would upgrade the fan experience.

“We’re looking at some new technologies,” Bordelon said. “But when you’re at a game, you can’t look down. You’ll miss the whole game. There’s a real struggle with finding out something that is a viable digital activity, interface, whatever you want to call it. I continue to see solutions that are looking for a problem.”

After concluding our pleasant chat with Bordelon, we embarked for the press box, with a few stops along the way, including the ice level Zamboni entrance. Entering the press box, I felt starstruck, similar to how movie fans must feel in Hollywood. I walked past the Sharks broadcasters, ran into former Shark Mike Ricci, who now works as a development coach with the team, and even came across right-winger Ryan Clowe, who was watching from the press box due to his suspension. We made our way across the catwalk to our seats on one of the platforms in the corner of the arena, well above the ice and fans.

From there we watched as the Sharks got out to a lead, gave it back, and won in a shootout over the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2. Even at the highest point in the arena, I did not feel far removed from the action and could identify players without too much difficulty. Watching from a bird’s-eye view almost on top of the action let me see the plays develop and gave a unique panorama of HP Pavilion.

When center Patrick Marleau finished off the game by scoring the deciding goal in the shootout, we made our way back down to ice level, this time outside of the Sharks’ locker room. There we awaited our interviews with center James Sheppard and left-winger TJ Galiardi, who had assisted and scored the Sharks’ second goal of the game, respectively. I was struck by their humility and patience as they answered questions from us amateur journalists. I asked Galiardi if he felt he felt he had anything to prove playing against the team that traded him and the player (Jamie McGinn) it traded him for. He gave a thoughtful response.

“Yeah, you always want to out-do the guy you got traded for,” Galiardi said. “Thus far it hasn’t gone the way I’d wanted it to, but it’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Galirdi summed up one of the night’s lessons with that last bit: the life of a professional journalist is a long grind with many checkpoints along the way. But hard work pays off in the end.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the night was between the two interviews. Having scored against his former team, Galiardi was in high demand with the professional media in the closed locker room. That left us standing outside the door waiting for a few minutes. But those few minutes were the opposite of dull. We watched as the door kept opening, hoping to see our interview subject but instead seeing Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, Douglas Murray, Dan Boyle, Thomas Greiss and Marc-Edouard Vlasic file out.

The night was a great success, from seeing parts of HP Pavilion I didn’t know existed to rubbing shoulders with players and other personnel. While the game was exciting and surely did not disappoint, other parts of the experience were at least as enjoyable, especially talking with Kurz, Bordelon, Sheppard and Galiardi. I would like to thank the Sharks organization for putting on this contest each year and giving high school journalists like me an opportunity to experience a professional sports event. It gave me a new perspective about what goes on beyond the manicured ice of HP Pavilion each night to put on a Sharks game and a better picture of what it’s like to be a professional sports journalist.

Junior Jennifer Wang recently returned to Paly after a week spent at the Bolshoi Academy in Russia. Wang, a ballerina, aspires to be a professional dancer. Photo by Paige Esterly.

Your average five-year-old girl wants to be one of four things: a princess, a movie star, a fairy or a ballerina. Palo Alto High School junior Jennifer Wang may not live in a castle or cast spells with the flick of a magic wand, but she nevertheless leads a five-year-old’s dream lifestyle: Wang is a ballerina.

Wang has been dancing for about 10 years and it envelopes so much of her life that she has time for little else.

“I honestly cannot imagine my life without ballet because over the last 10 years it has practically taken over my life,” Wang said. “During weekdays I go to ballet every day after school, and on Saturdays I have class, and then I usually have rehearsals on Sunday… It’s tough balancing school and ballet, but I can usually manage my schoolwork if I work efficiently.”

Earlier this month, Wang spent a week in Russia taking ballet classes at the Bolshoi Academy.

“I had two classes a day, which were technique and then variation [and] pointe,” Wang said.

Wang, like other passionate performers, has learned important lessons from her dancing.

“I think ballet has definitely changed me,” she said. “It has taught me discipline, and it has made me stronger both mentally and physically.”

Wang is confident in her future in ballet, and says she fully intends to pursue dance after high school.

“I aspire to become a professional dancer,” Wang said. “Most likely I’ll audition for companies senior year, and if I am accepted and my parents let me then I’ll take the job and defer from college for a year.”

So, although Wang may not be able to rule a kingdom or flit about the room on butterfly wings (although both princes and fairies are common characters in the ballets Wang performs in) she nevertheless lives a life enviable not only by five-year-old girls, but many an adult, as well.

Olympic table-tennis player Lily Zhang is a junior here at Paly. She hopes to return to the olympics in 2016.

When is the last time you shared a conversation with an Olympian? For friends of Palo Alto High School junior Lily Zhang, the correct answer is earlier today.

The table tennis playing Zhang is just one of many remarkable Paly students, but nevertheless she has achieved more than most teenagers could ever dream of: competing in the Olympics.

Zhang began playing table tennis at the tender age of seven, and with nine years of practice under her belt she enjoys the achievements she has gathered about her.

“I’ve been on the US women’s team for about four years now but making it each year is still extremely exciting for me,” Zhang said. “Making the Olympics was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my career so far, but traveling to other countries and representing the US in international tournaments is also so amazing.”

But making the team is only part of the story for Zhang, who has also won numerous awards and accolades.

“Some [awards] that come to mind would be winning bronze at the Pan American Games, winning US Nationals, winning the North American Championships, being the youngest in the world to ever win a World Junior Circuit,” Zhang said.

Although she enjoys the prestige that comes along with being an award-winning athlete, the most important part of table tennis for Zhang is the fun of the game.

“I just love everything about table tennis,” she said. “It’s an extremely fast paced sport which I love, and although not many people know [it], a huge part of the game are the mental and physical aspects of it.”

Her love of, and of course success at, the sport have opened up many doors for Zhang helped shape her outlook on life.

“Table tennis has influenced me in so many ways,” she said. “Traveling to different places and meeting so many amazing people has given me a new perspective on the world and so many experiences that have helped me get through challenges.”

Although Zhang, like many high schoolers, is unsure of what her future will hold, she is confident that table tennis will play a leading role.

“I realize that school and an education are very important, but I also hope to continue playing [table tennis] for as long as I can,” she said. “My next big goals would be to make the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and possibly medal there, and then the 2016 Olympic Games.”

But even before the next round of Olympics Zhang has high hopes for her table-tennis career.

“I’m looking forward to playing in the Korea Open Pro Tour beginning of April as well as the North American Cup and then the World Championships hosted by Paris in May,” Zhang said.

Despite her passion for table tennis, Zhang makes a point to take time out of her busy life for fun and relaxation.

“I don’t usually have much time outside of table tennis and school, but when I do get an occasional free day I like to spend time with friends or just relax at home,” she said.