Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Marissa is a Junior Editor of the print edition of the Wingspan. Her favorite part of newspaper is the companionship of her fellow staff members.

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Diane is the Editor of the online edition of the Wingspan, as well as a Junior Editor of the print edition. She enjoys reading, writing non-fiction and participating on West’s Mock Trial team.

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

The men’s tennis team had finished the regular season with an undefeated conference record and was preparing for their playoff match against Ashbrook High School. After the singles matches, West had a 4-2 lead and only needed one more win to advance to the second round. However, the team lost all three of its doubles matches.

Even after this hard-fought loss against Ashbrook, the men’s tennis team was able to look back on a promising season. The team finished with a 12-6 record and was undefeated in conference.

This year’s team was anchored by senior Michael Turlington. He said that the team was successful because they were able to work together.

“I didn’t expect that we would do this well because we lost three of our top four players,” Turlington said. “The juniors really stepped up and helped fill the holes that we had. I know that the team will continue to do well next year.”

Junior Adam Greer also played a vital role in the success of the team this year. Greer and Turlington worked together to win the conference doubles tournament.

“The win felt really good because Michael is a senior and you want to do as well as you can with him so he goes out on a good note,” Greer said.

Greer and Turlington along with juniors Cody Martin and Landon Rimbault, who placed second in the conference standings, competed at the individual regionals tournament on May 4 in Morganton.

At the tournament, Martin and Rimbault lost in the first round, but Greer and Turlington placed fourth, which allowed them to compete in the state tournament on May 11 at Burlington.

It was a great experience to be able to go to state,” Turlington said. “Even though we lost in the first round to the team that won the whole tournament, I was glad to be able to go.”

Next year, Greer and the rest of the team have high goals.

“Next year my goal is to be the number one player on the team and to put our team in a position to win games,” Greer said. “Hopefully we can all get better and win conference for the third time in a row.”

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

The golf season went well, especially for junior David Capps and freshman Brandon Capps. The two brothers held positions in the top three this season.

“My brother is pretty cool,” Brandon Capps said. “Having him on the team is a lot of fun because we mess around a lot.”

The team had a strong finish and played well throughout the season. At the conference tournament, the team finished in second place out of the seven teams that competed.

“We wanted to do really well at conference,” Senior Jason Taylor said. “We knew that we wanted to finish in the top three, and we were able to finish in second.”

Junior Jordan Kitchen also had a successful year. In the second day of the conference tournament, Kitchen finished with 76 strokes. This was the lowest score for the day.

“I was really excited,” Kitchen said. “I finally got a breakthrough performance at an important tournament. I played very well.”

The team finished in second place in the tournament to Tuscola. West lost by 32 strokes during the four day tournament. However, they were able to get revenge at regionals when they beat Tuscola by six strokes. West finished in sixth place at the tournament with 325 total strokes.

“I always look forward the most to playing against Tuscola,” Taylor said. “They offer the most competition every time that we play them.”

Next year, the team is looking forward to another solid season. All of the top three players from the team will return.

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Holding hands, two characters in a teenage girl’s favorite show confess their love for each other. But something’s different. They’re both girls. Everywhere she goes, homosexuality is a topic that just can’t be avoided. From legalizing gay marriage to watching two characters of the same gender start their own love story, she sees the media portray homosexuality in a multitude of different lights.

“Well, of course, there’s always political commercials. Like that Rick Perry commercial that says, ‘I don’t believe that gays can openly serve in the military, but we aren’t allowed to pray in school.’ Stuff like that. But other than that I don’t think homosexuals are portrayed negatively,” senior Brad Baker said.

Homosexuals are a minority group; about four percent of adult Americans describe themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, according to the Williams Institute devoted to LGBT research.

Glee, a popular TV show, depicts LGBT students in a contemporary high school environment. In 1992, years before Glee, the first program on TV to portray the life of a homosexual was MTV’s The Real World. Since The Real World; there have been many shows and movies that depict homosexuality. For example, Will and Grace was a sitcom that was originally based upon the relationship between William Truman and Grace Alder. Though the show was criticized at first for the portrayal of homosexual characters, it went on to become one of the most popular shows featured on NBC’s Must See TV Thursday night line-up.

“The way the media portrays homosexuality is the main reason there’s  homophobia. People just assume that all homosexuals are all up in your face, always gay. I think a lot of people would be surprised at the number of people that are actually homosexual,” Baker said.

As most recently seen in the political world, the legalization of gay marriage is an extremely controversial topic. Religion plays a big role in the current debate. Religious groups have varying views on homosexuality based on their interpretation of the Bible.

President Barack Obama recently announced that he supports gay marriage. Republican candidate Mitt Romney does not.

Julia Duin, a news reporter for the Washington Times recently reported on the effects of the portrayal of homosexuality in the media.

“Last night, Boy Meets Boy, a dating game for homosexual men where some straight men are thrown into the mix, aired on NBC’s Bravo cable channel. This came on the heels of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, another Bravo show that last week got bumped up to prime time, the same night that NBC airs its homosexual-themed sitcom Will & Grace,” Duin said. “But there has been a backlash. People feel there is a wave coming, so there’s a resistance.”

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Joshua Bolden, now 15, was 12 years old when he revealed to his parents that he “likes” boys.  One evening Bolden, a student at Erwin High School, and his mother were sitting on the porch while he tried to explain to her how he didn’t like to kiss girls. He had a girlfriend at the time, and she kept trying to get him to kiss her. While his mother thought about his comment, she took a drag on her cigarette, then asked him:

“Josh, are you gay?” she said. Shocked by the question, he responded truthfully, “Yes.”

“My mom ran inside and texted my dad. The text read, ‘OMG I KNEW IT.’  My dad took me on this really awkward long walk. Although the walk was to tell me he was OK with it, it was still awkward, and I was very uncomfortable the whole time,” Bolden said.  The first time Bolden hinted to his parents about his  sexuality was in elementary school. “Mom, I don’t think I like girls. I like boys,” he told her.  His mom brushed off the statement.

Braden Harvey, 14, attends Enka Middle School. He is comfortable with telling anyone who asks that he is gay. When he shared with his mom that he is gay, she had an overall positive reaction. “Well, I came out to my mom, and she was really just wondering how I was holding up and if there was anything she needed to do to help,” Harvey said. “She was definitely confused and needed to educate herself. When I came out to my dad, I think he was expecting it, and he really didn’t have a reaction. It’s just one of those things where he wasn’t really sure of his feelings.”

Jay Choker, 17, is an openly gay student in the area. He first came out to his his grandmother on a Sunday morning. Choker sat through the church service feeling uncomfortable because of the church’s disapproval of homosexuality.  He ended up writing down on a piece of paper, “I’m bisexual.”

Youth Out Right is an area organization formed for LGBT teenagers between the ages of 14 and 23. It meets in area churches and is dedicated to empowering LGBT teenagers.  “It’s helped me find more people I can relate to. Regardless of how big Asheville is, you know how small it is. It’s like a large town with a small town feel; its easier to find people you can relate to,” Choker said.

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Thousands of North Carolinians, same-sex marriage supporters and opponents, held their collective breaths waiting on the results of the May 8 statewide election. As it turned out, more than 60 percent voted to add a ban on same-sex marriage to the state’s constitution.

The state already had a law defining marriage as between one man and one woman, but the amendment to the state constitution makes it harder to change state law to make gay marriage a possibility now or in the future.

The amendment reads, “The marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”

Sophomore Jacob Browning supported the amendment, which became known as Amendment One, and believes it will help protect the sanctity of marriage.

“My personal opinion is that I’m opposed to gay marriage. I feel like it (marriage) is a biblical institution, and even if you don’t believe in it, it should be respected,” Browning said.

Senior Anna Decker, on the other hand, thought that Amendment One confused religious or personal beliefs with legal rights.

“It’s one of the most pointless things ever. We shouldn’t be trying to take people’s rights away. Marriage should be something that’s available to all people no matter who they want to marry,” Decker said. “I think we really need to enforce separation of church and state and allow human rights to be as they should.”

Earlier this spring, N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis, a Republican, predicted Amendment One would pass, but that it would be repealed in the future. Jeremy Kennedy, campaign manager for the anti-amendment Protect All N.C. Families, issued a comment on March 27: “Thom Tillis’ statement reveals not only the growing opposition to Amendment One, but also that even its primary proponent is now having second thoughts about the necessity and longevity of this constitutional rewrite,” Kennedy wrote. “Why would you strip kids of their health care, threaten domestic violence protections and muddy parental rights to their children — all in a last ditch effort to codify a poorly written measure that future generations will be forced to clean up?”

The John Locke Foundation, which is traditionally viewed as a conservative group, had president John Hood expressing opposition to Amendment One in a recent column.

“I think amending North Carolina’s constitution to forbid gay and lesbian couples from receiving any future legal recognition, including civil unions, is unwise and unfair,” Hood wrote. “In my opinion the real threat to marriage is not the prospect of gay people getting hitched. It is the reality of straight people too quickly resorting to divorce, or never getting hitched in the first place.”

President Barrack Obama also expressed opposition to Amendment One. “While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples,” Cameron French, Obama’s N.C. campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “That’s what the N.C. ballot initiative would do — it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples -— and that’s why the President does not support it.”

Some opponents questioned why the amendment was placed on a primary election rather than a general election ballot. “It probably tilted the balance toward the Republican viewpoint, which tends to be opposed to it, because the voters were mainly going to be either independents or Republicans,” civics and economics teacher Frank Gerard said. “I think the fairest thing would probably have been to put the position on the ballot in November.”

Citizens on both sides of the issue had been working to inform voters about the amendment. Opponents faced difficulties because similar measures had passed in every state where it had appeared on a ballot.

“Gay marriage is a relatively new political issue, so anytime you get new political issues people polarize pretty quickly,” Gerard said.  “If current trends continue, I think the majority will end up supporting gay marriage rights.”

A recent poll taken by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service found that 52 percent of Americans think gay marriage should be allowed.

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

In the past eight months, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association realignment committee has been going through numerous proposals and appeals for the final conferences that will be in place beginning in the fall of 2013

The first draft of proposed conferences was based on school enrollment numbers. The first draft included West, East Henderson, North Henderson, Burns (Cleveland County), Crest (Cleveland County), Freedom (Burke County) and Patton (Burke County).

“Hardly anybody across the state liked the conferences that were created in the first draft. There were a lot of unintended consequences,” Principal Dean Jones said.

After an appeals process, the committee proposed a second draft that put West in a split 3A/4A conference with East Henderson, North Henderson, A.C. Reynolds, T.C. Roberson and McDowell.

The principals of West, North Henderson and East Henderson wrote letters to the committee discussing how changing the conference would affect each of the schools.

After a second appeals process, the NCHSAA chose to leave the conference unchanged with West, North Henderson, East Henderson, Pisgah, Tuscola, Brevard and Franklin.

“If it does stay the same, I like the conference we’re in,” Jones said. “We have a good working relationship with the other schools. We know the logistics of where the side events are and the times, and we have our own conference bylaws. We have our own way of picking all-conference athletes. For the most part, our schools and our coaches get along, and our kids like to compete against each other. I am happy with our current conference.”

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

The gun rang out as senior Cory Fisher took off in the 4 x 100-meter relay at the Jus’ Running track meet at T.C. Roberson. Since the beginning of the season, the four men had one goal — beat the school’s 4 x 100 meter relay record.

As junior Evan Williams received the baton in the third leg of the race from senior Jacob Creasman, he knew that the team was pulling ahead of their best time.  Williams passed the baton to senior Saben Nuw, the anchor leg for the relay, and waited for the race to end. Nuw crossed the finish line and waited with anticipation for their time to be called.

The team gathered around Head Coach Randy Lytle, who held the stopwatch. It read 43.85, a new school record.

The 4 x 100-meter relay record was the first record to fall this season, with more possible. Senior Landon Siske broke the 110-meter hurdles record and Nuw broke the long jump record by half an inch. Junior Heidi Brickhouse also shattered the shot put record by more than a foot at the Western North Carolina Athletic Conference track meet.

“Track is usually thought of as an individual sport, and each person on the team has done well this year,” Creasman said. “But overall you want to win the meet, so everybody has to contribute with their points. We are going to keep winning individually and as a team.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams have continued to win meets. For the 11th consecutive year, the women’s team took first place at the conference meet. The men’s team also won for the first time in four years. Because of the teams’ performances, Coach Walt Fletcher and Lytle were named the WNCAC coaches of the year.

“The most noticeable difference from last year was we only had a strong long distance team. This year our team has much more diversity in all events,” Creasman said. “The sprinters, mid-distance and field members have really improved and so that gives us the ability to score points across the board.”

At the regional meet, the women’s team finished in third and the men’s team placed fourth. Many of the athletes placed high enough to make it to the state tournament. On the women’s team, Brickhouse won the shot put and came in third in the discus. The 4×800 relay team, juniors Kelsey Vaughn and Angela Gross, freshman Amy Turlington and senior Ashley Heywood, placed third. Gross also finished in fourth in the 800 meter run. In the 4×100 relay, sophomores Kaleigh Kelley and Melissa White, freshman Holly Jacobs and junior Caitlyn Dollar finished in fourth place. Senior Courtney Thomas also placed fourth in the pole vault.

The men’s team had two individual champions at the meet, Siske in the 110 hurdles and senior Sean Rapp in the 800 meter run. Senior Zach Bryant finished in fourth in the 400 meter dash. All of the men’s four relay teams made it to state. The 4×800 relay team, Rapp, Bryant, junior Conor Kennedy and sophomore Joe Chapman, finished in first. In the 4×400, Kennedy, Creasman, Bryant and senior Kyle Vale, placed fourth. The 4×200 relay team, Nuw, Bryant, Creasman and Williams, finished in third, and the 4×100 relay team, Fisher, Creasman, Williams and Nuw, also placed third.

“Our coaches work really hard and that makes us want to try harder for them,” Creasman said. “They always talk to us one on one and they help with the little things that end up making a big difference.”

Marissa Treible –– Junior Editor

Listen to the rumor mill around school and it would be easy to believe that “everyone is doing it.” Watch a few popular TV shows and movies and it would be easy to think that the more sexual partners a person has, the better.

The media suggest that promiscuity is the norm, and students make assumptions that in turn affect their decisions relating to sex and their sexual activity.

Many students assume the vast majority of their peers are sexually active when statistics prove otherwise. According to the N.C. Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2009 only 47.6 percent of high school students have had sex, but when students were asked to estimate the number of their peers who are sexually active they tend to overestimate. In a Wingspan survey of 238 students, more than 70 percent assumed the sexual activity rate of high school students to be 70 percent or more. Only 12 percent of students assumed the number of sexually active high school students from the 2009 survey.

“I do think a good number of people do have sex, but I do think that people say they have just to say that they have had sex,” senior Courtney Hayes said. “Tons of people think that just because they hear a rumor that everyone is sexually active, but in reality, probably the majority of students at West haven’t had sex. Just because one person has sex in a group of friends makes other people think that the majority of people are having sex when it’s really only a few people.”

The cause of this increased perception is partly due to the increasingly sexual influence in adolescent media. Movies and television shows display sex and sexual promiscuity as casual and widespread.

An average hour of primetime television on the three major U.S. networks includes approximately 15 sexual acts, words or innuendos. According to a study done by sexual motivation researchers, nearly all of these instances involve unmarried partners, about half of which have no prior romantic involvement, and few communicate any concern for birth control.

“The media is full of sex; they make it seem cheap, like it’s just for fun, like it’s not a big deal when in actuality it’s one of the most beautiful, precious things in life,” Hayes said. “In movies for guys, all sex is about is a hot girl, and they hook  up. It means nothing. But in girls’ movies they show true love, like in The Notebook. All those movies like James Bond where a guy just picks up a girl for sex teach people that that is OK and that it’s what is expected. It teaches girls that in order to get a guy they have to be sexy and that guys don’t have to be emotionally involved with someone to get sex. What the media protrays is unrealistic.”

Such exposure to sexual material in adolescence produces a passive if not casual attitude towards sexual activity. There has been a shift from a culture of abstinence to now nearly a nonchalant attitude towards sexual activity. Adolescents perceive a high rate of sexual activity, which can influence their own opinions and actions towards sex.

“Personally I think sex is a big deal but I don’t think a lot of people do. Movies like Friends with Benefits make it more casual like sex isn’t a big deal. It lessens the seriousness of it,” junior Kelsey Vaughn said. “People think sex isn’t serious and that it is just something that happens all the time.”