Girls’ Golf Team Wins TCAL Championship After Undefeated Season
By Mavi Hodoglugil and Oliver Rosenthal
The Albany High girls’ golf team finished their season with an undefeated 6 - 0 record and went on to win first place in the Tri-County Athletic League championships for the first time in the team’s history.
The Tri-County Athletic League, or TCAL, holds annual championships for high schools in the area. The finals this year took place on October 14th.
Having played and beaten all of the teams in their league during the regular season, the girls were hopeful going into the TCAL championships.
“When we went, we were hoping that it would still be the same and that we would be dominating the score,” senior Erin Montagh said.
This prediction proved to be true, and the team excitedly took home the championship banner that will soon be hanging in the gym.
The team had plenty of opportunities for celebration this season. Junior Minju O’Rourke, who started playing last year, explained the team’s post-win tradition of getting drinks together.
“Boba definitely motivates people to win - it’s a big one,” she said, laughing.
Power Outages Affect East Bay Communities
By Ethan Sims and George Song
Between October and November, hundreds of thousands of homes in Northern California were affected by power outages initiated by PG&E.
Many people had their daily lives thrown off course due to PG&E’s decision to turn off the power. These power outages had many economic repercussions, with an estimate of 2.5 billion dollars in commercial and industrial losses, according to calculations made by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Nexant.
Small businesses around Albany experienced losses as well. Amber Dinov, a special education resource teacher, expressed concerns about neighborhood businesses.
“There was less access to grocery stores, salons, restaurants,” Ms. Dinov said. “A Halloween parade was cancelled that would have led to an increase in revenue [and] sales.”
PG&E decided to shut off the power to reduce the risk that its equipment would start more wildfires. PG&E equipment has taken blame in the past for starting destructive wildfires that have ravaged the state. The company was financially penalized and publicly criticized for involvement in the Camp Fire of November 2018, the deadliest fire in state history.
Teachers and students around the community have been impacted by these power outages as well. Over 80 percent of 169 survey respondents knew someone who was affected or were directly affected themselves.
“I had to go to Burger King to do homework until 11pm,” sophomore Eileen Cai said.
Social studies teacher Karen DeHart complained that the recent outages were unnecessary and poorly planned.
“They should have warned people, [and] they should have monitored the weather more carefully. There was no reason in terms of weather to shut off the power,” Ms. DeHart said.
To prevent outages in the future, some critics suggest transitioning to underground transmission lines, although this option would cost more than 200 billion dollars according to Forbes. Another alternative is to create a system similar to San Diego Gas & Electric, which developed a network of battery-powered microgrids after the 2007 Witch Creek Fire. According to Forbes, the microgrids are more cost efficient and have less environmental impact.
“[PG&E] should have and must enhance their infrastructure. They’re a utility, [and] they should be monitored better by the state,” Ms. Dehart said. “It should be in good working order. The power lines: they’re old and can’t handle the weather.”
Activist clubs organize forum to spread awareness about climate crisis
By Emily Bohr and Sasha Goldman
On September 20th, in tandem with the international Climate Strike movement, Albany High School’s student clubs organized a discussion-based forum about the climate crisis. Young Democratic Socialists of America, Feminist Club, and Earth Team coordinated speakers, a slide show, and discussion for the event.
Junior Dahlia Wilson, president of YDSA, pointed to the science of climate change as a reason for the forum.
“There are a lot of really scary statistics about what will happen in a few years to our climate and by having a forum, and hearing the ideas of others, people can find a way to deal with those realities in a healthy and productive way.”
Wilson believes “that mass movements are the core of any political change because no matter how important the small actions of citizens may be, they are minute to what mass movements are capable of.”
Wilson also said that our government and corporations mislead the public about the significance of small actions citizens can take.
“Large oil companies have known the vast scale of the damage they are doing to the environment and know that individual actions are never going to counteract that. However, we have been lied to by those corporations.”
Wilson said that the activist clubs who organized the event focused on participating in the Climate Strike locally because “we need to be focusing on ways that we can reach out to all communities and pressure our politicians, in order to counteract the climate crisis.”
Author of Juliet Takes a Breath visits Albany High School
By Wendy Chen and Isabel Hall
Writer, youth mentor, and activist Gabby Rivera visited Albany High to talk about her new book, Juliet Takes a Breath, as well as her other work and her life. Interested students and classes signed up to attend her talk on September 22 in the Little Theater.
Sophomore Tatiana Lira introduced Rivera with a speech about identity and the importance of Latina and LGBTQ+ representation in the media.
“When I heard that Gabby Rivera was coming and what her book is about my heart, once again, melted. This is what I’ve been looking for, this is the start. I’m really happy to see all of this representation in this beautiful book and in her work,” Lira said.
After Lira’s introduction, Rivera took the stage, speaking about her life and work, reading from her book, and answering questions.
When asked about how she came up with the idea for her book, Rivera responded, “I thought it would be fun to write a book about being joyful--about someone who’s in love with themselves and likes making out with girls and wants to learn and be a fully functioning and compassionate human.”
Librarian Mary Ann Scheuer invited Gabby Rivera and organized the event. Last year she arranged a visit with Elizabeth Acevedo, author of The Poet X and With the Fire on High.
Ms. Scheuer also mentioned a plan for an author visit next year and has already contacted Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, who focuses her stories around Indian mythology, and the author of Frankly in Love, David Yoon. She is very excited to see if these work out in the future.
Girls varsity water polo team wins their first game of the season against Hercules High School
By Jetsun Jungney and Melia Oliver
The Albany High School varsity girls water polo team won their first game of the season—and ever—on September 19th.
At the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, AHS formed their first women’s water polo team. According to current varsity captain Cricket Baldwin, the team started out with “no clue what to do.”
Now, a year later, the team has improved significantly, thanks to returning players with experience and the motivation to improve. The head coach, Jesus Salcedo said that the experience has made all the difference.
“I think that’s a huge dynamic that’s happening this year that a lot of the other players are helping the newcomers on the team.”
In addition, the rise in the number of players this year has prompted the formation of two teams: junior varsity and varsity. “It is nice to have a varsity team that knows a bit more what [we] are doing,” Baldwin said. “We are practicing with people who are a bit more advanced.”
This practice paid off when the team won their game against Hercules High with a score of 13-7. Baldwin said that the team went into the game hoping to improve from last year.
“We all went in like ‘oh we lost our first game to Hercules last year 21 to 3, let’s just try to not have that big of a loss.’”
On the other hand, Salcedo expressed more optimism.
“Having the knowledge base and how our workouts had been prior to the game—I think we felt very confident in our ability to hold our own.”
Both people, however, did not express any expectations to win.
It was during the second half of the game that the team's hard work at practice was able to pay off.
“That nine [points] scored in the 3rd quarter was because of our endurance and speed,” Salcedo said.
After AHS had taken the win, Baldwin recalled that the opponent’s coach and referees expressed that they were “really surprised as to how much we had improved.”
Reflecting on the game, Baldwin said, “We were all just super proud of ourselves—proud of all of our players. It was a really good start to our season.”
Start with Hello Week at AHS aims to improve social wellness
By Emari Jorden and Ezri Mayeri
Students and staff organized the second annual Start with Hello Week event at Albany High School. The national week is designed to address social isolation in schools after a group of concerned parents tried to find solutions that would prevent school violence.
“Start with Hello Week was started by the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. It is a non-profit run by families who have been impacted by school violence,” said social studies teacher Mariflorence Hudson, who organized the week at AHS. “However, Start with Hello week is about building a sense of community in schools and decreasing social isolation. It hopes that the activities in this one week can lead to friendships.”
At Albany High, Start with Hello Week encouraged students to start conversations and build comradery in the student body. Some of the daily events prompted students to say hello, give compliments, and hang out with new people at lunch. On Friday, students and staff wore green to promote awareness of social isolation.
Ms. Hudson saw the week as an opportunity to create a sense of community.
“I think it has a positive impact,” Ms. Hudson said. “I think we all get busy in our own lives and forget to look around and see who might benefit from some attention. Or we even fail to notice someone that we would be friends with but just haven't had an opportunity to talk with before.”
The week ended with a welcome lunch for students transitioning into a new school community at Albany. Ms. Hudson and English teacher Hannah Edber organized a lunch for new students at AHS.
“The atmosphere at the new student luncheon was very upbeat,” Ms. Hudson said. “We had almost 50 kids attend. They did seem eager to get to know each other. It was a fun time, and I would definitely want to do this again in the future.”
Organizing and publicizing Start With Hello week was difficult because this is only the second year for the event. Ms. Hudson emphasized changes for next year in order for it to be more effective.
“I really think we need more publicity and organization. It is tough because it is new to Albany High and it comes at the beginning of the year, but I do think we have the heart and the willingness to make it bigger and better.”
Intro to Cougar Bites
Hello Albany!
We are the Albany High School journalism class, a group of motivated students who are dedicated to uncovering the truth and delivering it to our community.
We’ve been quiet on Cougar Bites recently, but we have worked hard over the past few years studying professional techniques and learning to see our community through the eyes of journalists.
Now we’re ready to share credible, quality journalism with the Albany community.
We will focus on all aspects of news, from STEM to sports, arts to administration, clubs to class projects. We will report on current events relevant to student life, summarizing key information that will keep you up-to-date.
Over the next week, we will share some of our work from the first quarter. We are currently developing a schedule for more timely news coverage in the future and writing articles for a new online publication, coming soon.
In the meantime, come to Cougar Bites for quick, real news about Albany.
XC Runs Well at NCS; Harmon to State
Albany High School competed on Saturday, November 18 at the 2016 North Coast Section Cross Country Championships in Division 4.
Junior Riley Harmon finished the three-mile race in twelfth place with a time of 18:55.1, which qualified her to run as an individual at the state championships in Fresno. She is the first female runner from Albany to qualify for the state championships.
Senior Darren Leung finished eleventh with a time of 15:57.5 but did not qualify for state. He did not qualify for state as an individual, as only the top five individuals who do not qualify with their team may qualify as individuals.
John Doe / AHS Journalism
Neither the men’s nor the women’s teams qualified for the state championships. The men’s team finished fifth of 22 in team scoring, with a score of 145 (lower is better), while the women’s team finished eighth of 19 with a score of 249.
Overall, Bishop O’Dowd won the men’s Division 4 race as a team with a score of 65, and senior Ryan Cutter of Hercules placed first with a time of 15:13.3.
Miramonte won the women’s Division 4 race as a team with a score of 55, and sophomore Cassidy Haskell from Miramonte placed first with a time of 17:34.8.
The weather during the Division 4 races was cool and overcast but not rainy.