The Smoke Signal

By: Sherry Xiao MSJ’s third annual 3v3 basketball tournament, held in the spring in past years, began early on January 17, Matches were ten minutes each and were played every day at lunch from January 17 to February 10 with breaks during finals and the wrestling tournament. The winning team in the championship bracket was the Shooting Stars with Seniors Patrick Andresen, Shray Bansale, Param Bhatter, and Ilene Tsao. They defeated the Junior Ballerz 5-4 in overtime. The winning team in the compensation bracket was Teachers with Social Science Teacher Bill Jeffers, History Teacher Jason Cain, Geography Teacher Joshua Hunter,…

By Sherry Xiao The annual MSJ Wrestling Invitational organized by Head Wrestling Coach Thomas Thomsen brought over 70 teams and 450 wrestlers to MSJ. Of MSJ’s 42 wrestlers, Senior William Booth, Senior Corbin Lee, Junior Alex Dornfest, Senior Issac Garza, Senior David Kim, Junior Shane Keenan, and Senior Swahib Kaba were selected to compete in the tournament. Varsity Captains Corbin Lee and David Kim both placed third in their respective weight classes. As a team, MSJ placed 13th overall. Clovis High School won the tournament title for the fifth consecutive year. Thomsen said, “[Our team’s performance] has stayed pretty consistent.…

By Sai Chilakapati Aside from the commotion that the Super Bowl causes for avid football fans, the Super Bowl is also known for its multi-million dollar ads that captivate and entertain viewers. However, this year’s commercials failed to meet the Super Bowl standards. Most commercials were too obvious as in the Toyota Ad which promoted its brand with a direct emotional appeal rather than entertaining the audience. Here are the Smoke Signal’s top five picks for the best 2012 Super Bowl commercials:   1. Chrysler – “Its Half Time America” This commercial was the most powerful and emotionally riveting commercial of…

By: Frank Chen At every school assembly, every football game, and every Girls volleyball home game since the start of the school year, MSJ spectators can find a group of animated girls dressed in black, green, and white. With a smile on their faces and pom-poms in hand, MSJ Cheerleaders tirelessly lead the way in school spirit. A couple of years ago, there were only a few students on the squad. In 2009, however, with the help of their new coach, Ashley Dollard, the MSJ Cheer team has been growing . Cheerleading, just like any other varsity sports team,…

By: Sai Chilakapati With yet another month of NBA canceled due to the lockout, more and more NBA fans will have to turn to college basketball as a substitute. But this upcoming college season will not disappoint them. With many high-caliber teams, eager returning players, and a talented freshman class, the upcoming season seems to be a perfect sub for the NBA. The Duke Blue Devils, with their disappointing loss to Arizona in last year’s sweet sixteen round matchup, are primed with new talent to show America that they can win a title. Though they lost three of their best…

  By: Nihar Parikh What do sports mean to us? For most, maybe a day relaxing at the stadium or the rush from cheering for one’s team. Sports bring people together and are meant to be an escape from their tiring lives; but unfortunately, the actions of a few extreme fans might ruin the experience for the rest. Some fans seem to develop extremely strong attachments to their local sports team and translate an offensive argument towards their team as an offensive argument towards themselves. This radical notion has caused numerous instances of violence around the world. Just last week,…

By: Ditha Balaji Athletics Director Tom Thomsen, the esteemed coach of wrestling and physical education teacher, was recently just named Coach of the Season for his exceptional accomplishments. Focusing on wrestling, Coach Thomsen is known for his can-do attitude towards his athletes. The Smoke Signal sat down with him to discuss his recent successes, the season, and sports in general. Smoke Signal: Did you wrestle in the past? Tom Thomsen: I wrestled all through [out] high school and college. My dad was a wrestling coach and three of my brothers [also] wrestled. I grew up in a family that…

By: Sida Lu Super Bowl XLV got off to a sloppy start as both teams made earlier mistakes. The Steelers went three and out while Packer Tramon Williams muffed a punt and almost turned the ball over. Green Bay’s quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, came out of the gates with quick passes in an attempt to negate the Steeler’s formidable blitzing. Behind the running of rookie James Starks, Green Bay got into Steelers’ territory and Jordy Nelson caught a 29 yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to allow the Pack to draw first blood, 7-0. Nick Collins picked off Ben Roethlisberger the very…

By: Aishwarya Thakur Interested in having some fun playing badminton with your friends, while raising money for a charitable cause? Then come to Key Club’s fourth annual badminton tournament fundraiser held in the MSJ gym on Saturday, February 26. All proceeds will go to Pediatric Trauma Prevention to help support preventing accidents that can happen to children and children who suffer from traumatic experiences. Key Club asks that players register to participate. This year players may not register at the door, so they must pre-register. The deadline for early bird sign-ups is February 6 and the amount for registration is…