by Sara Gerdy

At 4:30 AM on the morning of May 27, eleven Danville students left from the High school to start their journey to Omaha, Nebraska for the National Catholic Forensics League Nationals. These students qualified for the event back in March and have been preparing for this tournament ever since.

Competition started early Saturday morning and the final round wasn’t until 4:30 Sunday evening. Students competed in a wide range of events from debate to original oratory to duo interpretation. The team members spanned all grade levels and were accompanied by Mr. Michael Nailor, Mrs.Kathi Bates, Miss Joan Krick and Mrs. Elaine Berberich.

The team stayed at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Omaha.  The team planned on doing some sightseeing in Omaha as well and visited the zoo.

For seniors Megan Carr, Kristy Oren, Nicole and Andy Hunt, in addition to sophomore Anna Schafer and junior Jake Decoteau, this was their second trip to the NCFL national tournament.  Last year’s national tournament was held in Albany, New York.  For the rest of the competitors this was their first time at the prestigious competition. All eleven qualifiers practiced hard in hopes of bringing home a trophy from the tournament.

Carr and Oren competed in a two person event called Public Forum debate. For this month the team debated on whether the constitutional right to freedom of religion has evolved into freedom from religion.

“When we first looked at it we thought, ‘wow this is really bad’ and then we just spent a lot of time researching and talking to Mr.Nailor,” said Carr when asked how the two prepared for this upcoming weekend.

Another event that Danville qualified in was Extemporaneous Speaking, in which students had to speak on a current event.  Jake Decoteau qualified for this event and expected to talk on things such as “the environment because of the BP oil spill, and Greece.” Anna Schafer, who was the only freshmen to qualify last year, returned again to compete in Declamation, an event in which she presented a speech that was given by someone else. Schafer’s speech, given originally by Dana Joya, talked about how “we need to change our culture from less entertainment to more knowledge and academics.”

The biggest surprise overall, was that a group of the Danville team and adviser Michael Nailor got stuck in Detroit, Michigan when their flight home was canceled on Monday due to bad weather.

by Sean Gregory

Mr. Nailor poses with fellow coach Mrs. Bates at forensics tournament in Philadelphia.

Danville High School librarian Mr.  Michael Nailor earned his third diamond in the National Forensics League recently.

Nailor has acrued over 60,000 points in his multiple years as a forensics head coach.

In forensics since he was a student himself, Nailor never dreamed of being in forensics for this long.

“All this means is that I’m too old,” Nailor said.

He has traveled as close as Bloomsburg and as far away as Las Vegas to coach students at both circuit and national forensics tournaments.

The National Forensics League is an honor society, in a sense.”

-Mr. Nailor

Nailor’s main focus in coaching is on debate, as it was his main forte as a high school student.

“Back in my day, policy debate was the only option for those interested in arguing a point,” he noted.

Policy debate is a fast-paced style of debate, where participants have a prepared topic for an entire season, and continually research their topic.

by Nathan Coleman

After the Boston Celtics knocked Cleveland out of the playoffs, talk of LeBron James leaving seemed to take up more of the news than Jesse James’ affair on Sandra Bullock.  The irony is that instead of the team’s star player leaving, the head coach was fired instead.

Anybody can defend Mike Brown by saying he won coach of the year in 2008-2009, he had more regular season wins than any other coach, and he made it to the playoffs numerous times.  So why, oh why would anybody want to get rid of him?

“He didn’t win a championship,” said sophomore Abed Ammar.  “And that’s what LeBron was set to do.”

Mike Brown was a good regular season coach.  He did his job by telling his team to give LeBron James the ball and to just watch from there.  Granted, it seemed to work during the regular season.  Playoff ball is a totally different beast.  Everyone on the floor needs to produce and to play with extreme heart and confidence in themselves.  This is where Brown failed: the playoffs.

“He definitely could have done a better job in playoffs in a lot of different aspects like calling timeouts when he should have been and gathering his team.  But I think it’s more of an issue of who’s actually on the team,” said senior Megan Carr.

During the Boston Celtics series, when the Celtics played like a team on a mission and the Cavs well, didn’t, what did Brown do on the sidelines?  He did absolutely nothing to help his team or give them a lick of confidence.  Brown could not adjust to the game-play of Boston or even Orlando in last year’s series.

Cavs fans may be saying that he did not have much to work with.  LeBron is not as lucky as Kobe Bryant to have an all-star cast around him.  And to that I would say agreed.  Granted, Brown could not mold together a solid team with the money he had to handle; however, coaching isn’t always about bringing all-stars to the table.  Coaching is about getting the absolute best out of every player on that floor.  Coaching is about adjusting to situations that are new or uncomfortable and Brown failed to do that.

Who is going to replace Brown?  That question is still up in the air.  Coach K from Duke is a prospect but unlikely in leaving his Blue Devils and the Cameron Crazies behind.

“Well, whoever they pick, they shouldn’t just try to cater to LeBron,” said social studies teacher Mr. Michael Mast.

Phil Jackson is also on the wish list, but I believe he is more of a long shot than Coach K.  There are a few prospects though that may do the job.  Byron Scott is a likely candidate who was a former NBA player and coach of the year in 2007-2008.  Mark Jackson is also being looked at which would be a good fit for LeBron in my opinion.

Everyone has their opinion on the off season move of the Cavaliers; however, there is one opinion that I hold close to my heart.

“I don’t know who Mike Brown is but what I don’t like is when I buy a jersey and that athlete gets traded and my kids won’t wear it anymore,” commented Mrs. Michelle Becker.

by Sean Gregory

The hit series Lost reached millions of fans across the country through its six seasons.

On Sunday night, viewers across the country had the chance to view the end of the 6th season of ABC’a saga, Lost. I got home from a Boy Scout meeting at 9 o’clock precisely, just to witness the 30 second pre-show recap. Then it started, and so did the beauty.

The show ran about two and a half hours long, although they definitely could have cut down on the time substantially with the absence of many of commercials. But, ABC needs money, so what are we going to do?

We got to witness many flash forwards and present day shots of the survivors, as the newly appointed keeper of the island, Jack, trekked to the part he was supposed to protect. However, Jon Locke, his alias, tagged along with Jack, determined to extinguish the light and kill of of humanity.

The last several episodes have included many religious undertones with Hurley and Jack both possibly being the savior, and Locke portraying the Devil.

However, by the end of Sunday night’s episode, it was perfectly clear: All of the characters that we’ve met over the past six seasons are dead.

In my opinion, it was a rather generic way to end the series since everyone should have been able to see this coming. But, regardless of the criticism, I thought it was a great way to end a show that has brought millions of viewers to their TV sets over the years to experience the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

by Jeff Hauck

How many people know that there is Challenger Baseball League in Danville? Challenger Baseball is an organization for children with disabilities. This league offers a fun time for children who don’t usually get the opportunity to play on a sports team. It is a time where kids with disabilities who have wanted to play sports can play.

The Challenger Baseball League meets every Sunday at the softball field by F.Q.Hartman Field. The games are two innings long.  Each of the two teams get to bat through their order once, and then they switch. Each player gets a helper who helps him out on the field and with running around the bases.

The Challenger Baseball League is in need of volunteers to help them with the children.  Anyone who is interested in brightening a child’s day or just doesn’t have anything to do on a Sunday should consider donating time to the Challenger League.