Verdugo Hills High School

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Dons track and field: Running smoothly

Now that spring is finally here, we can look forward to a more refreshing and exciting season with the spring sports. Track and field is getting ready to give it their all this season. The sport however, plays a lot more differently than other sports. Track and field is a number of categories within the sport. Some of the categories are sprinting, distance, shot put, jumping, and hurdles. Players train in all these areas and excel in some of them. 

Lucas McLeland excels in sprinting, while another runner by the name of Manny Munoz shines at distance running. Virgilio Santiago, another runner, is proficient at sprinting and distance running. During an interview with Virgilio, I asked him what part of the sport he thought was fun, 

“Honestly, it’s the competition. I remember it was last year; I was running against one of the Van Nuys runners… an 800-meter run, [we] were neck-to-neck the entire race, ...I had to speed it up,” he said. “It’s really just the motivation and the competitiveness that makes me drive to be better at the sport. It’s mostly the competition that makes me want to be better at the sport.” 

In case you were wondering, Virgilio won that race and took first place. Last year was a great year for him too, since he managed to break his personal record on a mile. He plans on breaking his personal record for the mile again this year and for senior year, with his senior year finishing a mile in under four minutes.

The players in track and field treat each other as a family, giving advice and helping one another. Some notable players are VJ Jones, Kenneth Ramirez, and McLeland. McLeland is great at sprinting and gets really competitive, while Ramirez is quick on the hurdles. Jones’ stamina is unmatched compared to others. It’s as Virgilio Santiago said, 

“They’re all just a bunch of awesome people and really great friends in general,” said Santiago. “We’re like a family in a way.”

–--Cristian Morales

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Verdugo’s swim team is going swimmingly

At Verdugo, I can proudly say swim is a sport of dedication and vigor. 

“We bus to a different school with a pool, since our pool is not accessible to us … and we basically swim laps and do drills,” says swimmer JoAnna Yortis. 

They practice for about two hours with the usual warm-up, main set, and cool down. The swim team has a handful of swimmers who have swam for all four years at Verdugo, including some that do both water polo and swim, and some swimmers that have swam their whole lives! Swimmer Cade Oost, who swims for both the swim team and water polo team with his brother Cole Oost, has even worked in the water as a lifeguard for Ritchie Valens. Don’t let all these swimmers scare you away if you were looking to join, the swim team welcomes anyone from diehard lifelong swimmers to amateurs and students of the sea.

Verdugo has been in a transitional period as far as coaching goes for swim. 

“Throughout my few years being here, we’ve had a different swim coach every year,” explained Yortiss. “It started out with a coach who had been here for about four years. He had to leave so we got a different coach for water polo and for swim, and now we have Mr. Warren… He’s taking over, and he swam in high school so he’s going to do the best he can. [Mr. Warren] has a good coaching spirit. He has made a big effort looking into everything and trying to help us as much as he can.”

All of Verdugo’s swim meets will take place at the East Valley Senior High Swimming Pool, except the swim meet against Valley Academy High School on April 30, which will be held at the San Fernando Park Swimming Pool. They will take on the Ulysses S. Grant High School Lancers on March 26, face off against East Valley High School on April 9, Cesar Chavez High School on April 16, and Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies on April 23.

–--Edward Tatulian

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Verdugo Hills boys’ volleyball enters a new season

This year’s boys volleyball season will be a major comeback from last year’s varsity season, which was a rebuilding year. Last year’s season saw only three returning players, all of whom are to graduate at the end of this season. 

“I mean, all we were basically doing last year was trying to get better,” according to Captain Daniel Orozco.  “We were trying to make a team for this year, trying to get the team more experienced, and add some players to the team.” 

Even so, last year’s team had a fairly exciting season. Though they hadn’t gotten far in playoffs last season, they did rank third in regard to their win-loss ratio for overall (8-7) and league (7-5) in the East Valley Boys volleyball standings.

This year however, the Verdugo Hills boys’ volleyball team is dedicated to go far this season.

“We plan to go all the way to city this year actually because the team that we had rebuilt from last year,” said Daniel Orozco. “Now we have a lot of experienced players; we have a lot of players from basketball coming over that are good, we got some young players that have gotten better, and we think we’re going to do well this season.” 

“We’re definitely much more of a family unit than other teams in prior years,” according to Brandon Roberts.

Coach Reinhart has called Verdugo his home since 1997, coaching both boys’ and girls’ volleyball since then. At his time at Verdugo, he’s brought great seasons, such as the perfect league seasons for varsity boys volleyball from 2011 to 2013. He is both energetic and immersed in volleyball. 

“[Mr. Reinhart is a] great coach. He knows the team we’re going to have this year,” said Orozco. “He sees a big, big future ahead of us. So he’s going to try to coach us up [and] try to get us prepared for anything that we’re going to need to be prepared for.”

You can catch our varsity boys’ volleyball in action on March 16 at Verdugo. Verdugo will horse around with the Arleta Mustangs on March 23 and then play against Chavez in a home conference match on March 26 for the last game of March. In April, they will play against Grant on the 8th and Monroe on the 10th for away conference games.

–--Edward Tatulian

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Verdugo undergoes an ESBMM transformation

Did you know that students can play a role in this school’s decision-making process? Now that Verdugo Hills is officially an Expanded School-Based Management (ESBMM) school, decision-making is a democratic process, which means that it is something everyone can take part in, whether you are a student, a parent, or a member of the community. Students are now permitted to suggest student-centered ideas to change and improve our campus. If interested in the decision-making process at our school, you should check out our school’s website to learn the dates and times to attend events or meetings.

Over the years, LAUSD and UTLA have been supporting the inauguration of ESBMM within LAUSD. UTLA Chapter Chair, English Dept. co-chair, and English teacher, Holly Campbell, said, “The purpose is to establish and improve the collaboration of all stakeholders, teachers, staff, parents, students, and the community, and to place the instructional program and student achievement at the center of the decision-making process, rather than decisions made by the unilateral, autonomous role of a few administrators.”

For many years, our school's faculty has strived to adopt a more collaborative approach to decision making. On March 31, 2014, LAUSD approved Verdugo's ESBMM plan, and we successfully accomplished what our faculty has been working so hard on. Solutions to problems in our school are being resolved following the new plan. Ms. Campbell stated, “Under the ESBMM plan, issues or problems are solved using the four Cs: Collaboration, Cooperation, Communication, and Consensus.” Using these four Cs, the best decisions are reached for the benefit of the students on campus.

The entire faculty participates in several committees: Curriculum and Instruction, Assessment, Professional Development, School and Bell Schedules, Staffing, Technology, Budget and Financial Resources, and Discipline. You are welcome to participate by joining committees or the Governance Council or School Site Council. To participate in the committees, you can check the school website for dates and locations. The Governance Council meets after school at 3:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month, in room 48.

The committees play an important role in which decisions are made. They report to the governance council and may present reports, motions, or concerns. The idea will be either approved or rejected by the council. Ideas may be rejected due to reasons such as the school's budget or the idea being unreasonable.

This is our first year as an ESBMM school, and as of now, it's a learning and adjustment process. The committee members are more involved in the school, and their perspective changed into a more holistic and global manner now. Ms. Campbell said, “We are interfacing our departments, programs, practices, and assessments in such a way that we see the whole, rather than just a part of the picture.” It has solved some past issues, and hopefully it will solve more in the future.

--Linda Trinh

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Verdugo Dons baseball team has a big season ahead

The Verdugo High School baseball team is getting ready to hit it out of the park this season. The team set the school record for wins in a season. The Dons fought their way into the second round of the Los Angeles City Section Baseball Tournament Division 1. Last year’s baseball team ended with a win-loss ratio of 23-12 overall and 9-3 league. In the East Valley league standings, they had the best record overall and the second best in league. Of the 30 other high schools in the Los Angeles City Section Division I, they had the seventh best overall win-loss ratio at about 14 places higher than our rival, Francis Polytechnic Senior High School.

Most of the baseball team is returning, or has some prior experience on the team. Augie Lozano comes into his third and final year of baseball with a strong .354 batting average and .475 on base percentage over the span of 32 games. Grant Mona has impressive speed, especially with the 13 runs he scored since last year.

Dons baseball fans need not worry about getting bored this season with the games Verdugo has stacked up for its baseball team. The Verdugo baseball varsity and junior varsity schedules for February are nearly identical. The difference is that varsity will sneak an extra home game in on the 26th against Van Nuys as part of the Poly Classic Tournament. Whenever varsity plays home, junior varsity will play an away game (and visa-versa). The Verdugo baseball team had its first game of the season against the Granada Hills High School Highlanders, losing 4-1. Verdugo then took part in the Poly Classic Tournament where the Dons faced off against Garfield High School on at home, losing 3-2. The Dons also lost to San Pedro High School 9-5 at home. Varsity’s first away game of the season is against Cleveland on the Feb. 25. Verdugo will then take on Roosevelt High School on Feb. 28 in the Southern California Invitational tournament at East Los Angeles College.

--Edward Tatulian