Category Archives: Front/Home

Homework’s not as bad as you think

     Weekends are days where students can sleep in and relax, but homework can get in the way of those relaxing days.

     Homework, whether during the week or on the weekend, is something most students are not looking forward to doing. Getting home from a 7-hour school day to look at 2-3 hours of homework a night can be a drag. While most students dread homework over the weekend, it is also okay to bring school somewhat into students’ lives outside of the classroom.

    “[Homework on the weekends] is sort of debatable, some students do not even think about school on the weekends while there are some students who are in honors classes who get homework over the weekend.”said freshmen Jason Liu.

     Unfinished projects or papers sometimes need that extended time the weekend offers. Some students work after school or are involved in extracurricular activities, so they are not able to get what they need to get done during the week. It is true in which some students have events that take the entire weekend and homework over those days are added stress, but those are not very often. On top of that, most teachers are lenient on giving extensions for unplanned circumstances.

    While it can not be helped, homework should not happen all the time over the weekend, only when it is necessary. Most students do not mind doing a little bit of homework here and there sometimes, but when it starts to get in the way of their family life and such, then it starts to become a problem for them. Students would much rather go and hang out with their friends then do homework, but there are times where students have to sit down and get work done.

     “[Teachers should not give students homework over the weekend] because that is the student’s only free time during the week. It is [their] only two days off from school during the week,” said sophomore Brianna Erler.

    It is not a bad thing for students to bring home work from school but some students believe that school work should stay in school. Although this is understandable, there is not enough time during the school day to finish all that needs to be learned. Going home and doing some school work helps students remember what they were taught in school. It also allows them to get help from older siblings or parents if there is something they do not understand.

Even though most students would disagree, having homework over the weekends is not as troublesome as they think.

Strong start for Speech and Debate

    By Sophia Boris

The SMFHS speech and debate team began their year on a good note.

There are weekly tournaments held at different schools including the high school, Kimpton and Lakeview. This past weekend the students at SMFHS participated in a tournament at Stow high school.

Perry High School placed first overall for the tournament. Stow ended up placing third overall.

Coach of speech and debate team Ms. Theisen said, “Overall the results were very well.”  

Also sophomore Sarah Laubaugh said, “Stow did really well, I am proud of my entire team.”

Teams are not just judged as a team but also by individual and team performances. There are multiple categories you can choose to compete from. For example, one category you can choose from is argumentative. Every category has a winner.

The speech team at Stow had a  successful weekend in these individual and team performances. Seniors Matt McCombs and Cam Stebbins placed third in duo interpretation. Also juniors Savannah Novak and her partner Elizabeth Angeletti placed fifth in duo interpretation. Along with these performances seniors Maddy Light and Samantha Wilcox placed 2nd in duo. Lastly junior Chloe Holm topped it off by placing 1st in poetry.

Stow’s speech and debate team having a triumphant weekend, Theisen looks to have further success this year.

“Each week the teams getting better,” Theisen said.

These weekly tournaments are preparing the team for districts and states later this season.

There was a huge turnout for this event, with 663 people, and 179 adult judges.

“We could not have done all of this without the help of our parent boosters who fed everyone, the wonderful administration who lets us use the schools for these events, and special thanks to the TWE that stayed all day and helped with electrical issues,” Theisen said.

The speech and debate team does not only work together in school, but they act as one unit. They are like a family.

The SMFHS speech and debate team strives to continue their season on a good note.

Sophomore Annemarie McCombs said, “Ms. Theisen is the light of my world and the love of my life.”

Browns’ history doomed to keep repeating itself

The Cleveland Browns have had a poor record for a historically long time. Most fans say that the team is “close” to being on the next level, but others see zero signs of them being “close” in any aspects of the game.

For starters, the Browns have had 23 different starting quarterbacks since 2000. Even for people who do not understand a touchdown from a field goal, they can probably figure out this is not a good stat for the team.

It is not like any of the quarterbacks have had much potential either. Quarterback Brady Quinn had very high hopes coming into Cleveland. Fans believed he could have been the quarterback to take them to the next level; however, in 12 games, Quinn posted a 3-9 record.

All the blame cannot go on the quarterback, just like all the praise cannot go towards him. The quarterback needs to be surrounded with offensive weapons or a good defense in order to succeed. Neither of these have been the case. The Browns had high hopes in star wide receiver Josh Gordon. This was, of course, was until he could not stop smoking marijuana and found himself getting suspended more than he was actually playing. While Joe Haden has been a lockdown corner for the past five years, he has fallen off a cliff his past two seasons. This is due to him just getting burnt too often by Steeler wide receiver Antonio Brown or just getting injured every one out of every three games.

The signing of wide receivers Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline were supposed to bring life to the Browns offense. They have done just about everything but that. The Browns have virtually zero weapons on the offensive side of the ball. If they had decided to trade away Joe Thomas before the trade deadline, some would come close to saying that their defense has more of a chance to score than the offense.

The defense has had tons of problems all year. They had high expectations coming into the season, and they did not meet any of them. The Browns rank in the bottom three for almost every category of run defense. They give up the most amount of yards and are bottom three in touchdowns and yards per carry.

It is just silly to say that the Brown’s are “close” to anything really. They do not have much potential to do anything unless they hire guys who know how to find players out of college who will succeed. No one knew the likes of Time Brady; however, picking Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel over Odell Beckham JR and Khalil Mack is just not going to get it done. Unless of course, the organization secretly wants to lose, because sometimes it honestly looks as so.

Bulldogs sting the Brecksville Bees

The stings from a buzzing swarm of belligerent Bees are feeble in comparison to the rugged toughness possessed by a Bulldog.

On the night of Oct. 23, Stow rolled into the hive of the Brecksville Bees, looking to keep their undefeated record intact. Prior to the game, Brecksville held a 7-1 record, but continuing to play with the absence of two key startersone of which is their quarterbackcertainly would hinder their offensive presence.

On the first play of the game junior quarterback Kyle Vantrease’s pass was deflected, falling into the hands of a Brecksville defender. Though finding themselves in prime scoring position, the Bees were unable to convert and turned it over on downs. From there, sloppy play and punting were the subjects of the opening minutes.

Stow would be the first to focus in, shed the sloppiness, and begin to control the game.

“We slowed it down and started playing like we usually do,” junior wide receiver Joe Andrassy said.

With twenty-six seconds left in the first quarter, Andrassy was the one to take action, going 56-yards into the end zone after a short pass from Vantrease and putting Stow on the board first to close the quarter.

Brecksville had some energy of their own to start the second quarter, opening the first seconds with an 86-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7-7. Stow fired back four minutes later with another Andrassy touchdown assisted by the arm of Vantrease. With 3:56 left to go in the half, senior running back Jayson Gobble decided to jump in on the action with a 24-yard touchdown run of his own to extend the lead to 21-7.

Brecksville’s defense knew the threat the Bulldogs have in the backfield and if they wanted a shot at winning this one they would need to lock down Gobble. With that, they did a decent job containing Stow’s run game, but Stow did not flinch, in turn, resorting to the aerial attack, and with great success. Vantrease stepped up to the Bee’s defense and completed the night with 279 passing yards and a rushing touchdown of his own. Andrassy lit up the field, ending the night with 190 receiving yards and two touchdowns, while sneaking in the special “Tode Package” for a moment.

“We weren’t expecting the run game to be so sloppy, but when they weren’t covering the bubble screen, we just exploited it and got the pass game going,” Andrassy said.

After a 35-yard field goal from junior kicker Austin Burnham, Stow was on top 24-7 going into halftime.

As any team with the opportunity to squash an undefeated record, Brecksville showed they were not to be taken lightly. A 37-yard touchdown pass cut the Bee’s deficit to 24-14 with 7:50 left in the third. Senior kicker Garrett Rigby booted in a 32-yard field goal shortly after, to bump the score to 27-14 going into the fourth quarter.    

The Bee’s took stride in the last quarter after a 76-yard touchdown connection to trim the deficit to 27-21 with 7:49 left to go. Both teams relied on the passing game to support their offenses. Brecksville was testing Stow’s defensive backs with long shots down the field, many of which to the benefit of the Bee’s. Now Stow found them in a position where a Brecksville touchdown, provided with an extra point, gave them the lead. This was quickly dismissed as Rigby booted another field goalthis time from 38-yards outwith 6:15 left to go in the game and a 30-21 lead.

With 4:55 to go, Brecksville shot deep again, finding a receiver for a 68-yard play, that subsequently resulted in a 1-yard touchdown punch to bring the Bee’s within two points. With the score at 30-28 in favor of Stow, the Bulldogs found themselves with a crucial possession. Vantrease showed his confidence with the ball, and  reliability to come up big when needed, after he took a fake handoff 45-yards to the end zone to seal the victory for the Bulldogs with a score of 37-28.

“We knew we needed to win this game to win the Suburban League, so we just wanted to go out and make some noise,” Andrassy said.

Noise was definitely made by the Bulldogs, as it has been all year, and there is more to come, as they extend their record to 9-0, and bump Brecksville’s to 7-2. Stow will take on North Royalton (3-6) to wrap up the regular season at home on Oct. 30. With sights on double-digits in the wins column, an undefeated year is a confidence boost Stow will likely need to obtain, and maintain, entering the playoffs.

Andrassy said, “We want nothing more than to be the first 10-0 team at Stow so we’re going to go out and win this next game for sure.”