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Best Kobe Bryant Moments

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By: Bradley Friedrich and Mat Fluker

Recently, former NBA star Kobe Bryant passed away in a tragic helicopter accident. Kobe provided us basketball fans with a plethora of memorable moments, so we ranked our top 10 favorite Kobe Bryant moments in his honor.

10. 1 on 1, to 100: He made his high school teammates play 1 on 1 with him to 100, instead of the typical 11 or 21, so Kobe could get as much practice as possible.

9. Kobe don’t Flinch: NBA player Matt Barnes attempted to make a fool out of Kobe by pretending to throw a basketball at his face from point blank range. Kobe, to Barnes’ surprise, did not flinch even a bit, leaving Barnes labeled as the fool and fans with one of the memorable moments of Kobe’s career.  

8. Left Handed Kobe: He hurt his right hand, and trained himself to shoot left handed so he could play. Later in his career in 2015, Kobe checked into a game and proceeded to shoot left handed in order to help his team win. 

7. Playing through pain: Kobe averaging 40 points per game in the month of March despite having a torn labrum

6. 62 points in 3 quarters: Kobe Scored 62 points in three quarters; the team he played against, the Dallas Mavericks, only scored 61 during that time. 

5. Kobe… TO SHAQ!: Alley Oop Game: In the win or go home game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, Kobe Bryant threw an iconic alley oop to teammate Shaquille O’neal, who promptly threw it down to go up by two scores on the Trail Blazers with 30 seconds left in the game, effectively sealing the series. 

4. “This was your fault”: Scored 61 points in Madison Square Garden after Spike Lee berated him, so he sent Lee the scorecard with his signature saying “This was your fault” 

3. Achilles game: Kobe Bryant got fouled, and tore his achilles.However, he proceeded to shoot, and make, both free throws and walk to the locker room on his own power before getting medical attention.

2. Kobe’s Final Game: In Kobe Bryant’s final NBA Game, he scored 60 points on 50 shots against the Utah Jazz, leading the Lakers to a win in a game that epitomizes Kobe Bryant and his play style.

1. 81: On January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored a whopping 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. This is a Lakers’ team record for points in a game, and is the second most points anyone has scored in a single game in NBA history. 

Rest in peace Kobe, and thank you for everything you did for the game of basketball.

The Bachelor

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By Liza Miller

*SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST TWO EPISODES*

It’s that time of year again: Bachelor Season! This season is full of competition, drama and love, all in the hopes of scoring Pilot Peter as a hubby. Out of 25 women, it seems America has already picked their favorites, so let’s review.

Kelley – Kelley claims she met Peter before the season started at a hotel during a wedding, and coincidently, the show kicks off its premiere at that same hotel. Kelley and Peter reenact their first meeting and Peter continues to explain his “special feeling” about her. 

Hannah Ann – At first, Hannah Ann was the obvious winner: pretty, outgoing and ruthless when it comes to stealing Peter away for time. Whether it’s painting a picture, walking the runway or stealing champagne, more on that later, Hannah Ann seems able to entice Peter every episode

Kelsey – As previously mentioned, Hannah Ann stole someone’s champagne, but whose? Kelsey’s! Kelsey couldn’t wait to share the bottle of champagne she brought all the way from her hometown of Des Moines with Peter. Come to find Hannah Ann has opened it with Peter, and Kelsey isn’t hesitant to share some pretty aggressive words with Hannah Ann. This was followed up with a good bathroom cry sesh. As the night goes on, Kelsey cools off and agrees to share a new bottle of champagne with Peter. It obviously isn’t Kelsey’s lucky day, as she continues to spill the champagne all over herself, creating the moment bachelor nation refers to as “champagne gate.”

Victoria P – Our first introduction to Victoria P was on the first group date – a little look into Pilot Pete’s profession which could ultimately result in Victoria winning a private flight with Peter himself. However, Victoria P stood out in the challenge as she recounted her traumatic childhood experience on the spinning tea cups when the girls were required to do a motion simulator. She remembers how nauseous the spinning ride made her feel as a child and got nervous as she did not want Peter seeing her in such an ill state. After a few runs on the flying simulator, Victoria P. was on her way to the bathroom with Peter close behind. Thanks to the producer’s editing skills and Victoria P’s weak stomach, this dramatized yet humorous moment went down as one of the highlights of the season so far.

Madison- Lucky contestant Madison Prewett got up close and personal when it comes to Peter’s strong family ties. Madison scored the first one on one date with Peter, and where does Pilot Pete take her? You guessed it! His parents wedding vow renewals. How romantic! Although, many are criticizing the act. Bachelor nation has pegged the date as too personal, too soon! Either way, Madison had fun dancing it out with Pilot Pete’s eccentric family.

These are just a few of the passionate contestants after Pilot Peter’s heart! Looks like there’s much more romance and drama to come!

UPDATE: This recap was just on the first few episodes, so don’t worry. Things have only gotten more complicated and intense as they travel all over South America from Costa Rica to Peru (looks like Pilot Pete’s skills are coming in handy)! 

MLK Day

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By Lauren Cohn

On January 20th, our country celebrated MLK Day to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. While some may have only noticed the holiday because of the much-needed day off from school, many others joined together in a day of service to give back and remember his lasting impact. 

Riverwood’s Community Service Club partnered with The City Springs to host and volunteer at an event aimed at educating the youth of Sandy Springs through fun crafts and interesting discussions, called Martin Luther King Jr. Day Art and Film Festival. The stations at the event focused on different aspects of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, including his childhood and career, and a movie about his life played in the background to offer additional information. The Art and Film Festival’s stations were led by Riverwood students whose passion to give back resulted in a very successful day of service.

The children were ecstatic to fill their paper bags with MLK’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, create puzzles using photographs, and draw out their own deepest goals. These stations and more brought in great crowds, and the excitement in the air only became more apparent as the day went on.

Riverwood students had a great time volunteering and teaching others about the legacy of this African American activist who revolutionized our country and brought about changes that still impact our lives to this day.

Photos by: Blakeslee

Languages At Riverwood

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By AJ Powell

How Linguistically Diverse is Riverwood?

Riverwood takes pride in its International Baccalaureate programs which allow students to broaden their education “through intercultural understanding and respect” that our school strives to instill in its students. Naturally, one of the primary tenets of intercultural understanding comes through the teaching of foreign languages. Riverwood administers 5 language classes, including Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, and ASL. It also offers the opportunity to take German and Latin within online courses. For a school that offers this many opportunities for cultural insight, one could reasonably ask the question “How many languages are represented at Riverwood in total?”. Of course, English and Spanish are very prominent, but what about the dozens of other major languages that are spoken throughout the world? As a result of hearing some of these languages offhand from being in the county for several years as well as asking around, I found a total of 17 languages that are spoken by the students and staff of our IB school, though it is not an exhaustive list. This map puts into perspective the extent to which different cultures are represented at Riverwood and serves as a more direct representation of our diversity as a school. 

Language breakdown by family/region:
Germanic: English, German, Danish
Romance: Spanish, French, Italian
Slavic: Russian, Polish, Bosnian
Semitic: Arabic, Hebrew
East Asian: Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese
Other: Persian, Hindi, Tamil, Albanian

Sadie

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By Emily Taylor

Attention Riverwood! It’s that time of year again… SADIE! If you are new to Riverwood or have never been to Sadie before, trust us, you don’t want to miss it! The theme for this year’s Sadie Hawkins Dance is Riverwood Glows Crazy, presented by the class of 2022. Prepare for an exciting night filled with all your favorite songs, peers, and of course, the dancing. Mark your calendars because Sadie is on leap day this year, Saturday, February 29th. If you are thinking about asking someone, we encourage you to take a picture of your “ask” and send it over to the Riverwood Sadie Instagram @ricssadie20 for a chance to be featured. New to Riverwood this year, the National Art Honors Society will be offering a quick online form open to everyone to help you with your poster ask needs. Sadie ask posters can be extremely time consuming and even challenging, but NAHS is here to help. Buy a personalized sign, and all proceeds will go to Team Summer, a charity that supports kids with cancer. Team Summer was started by a former Riverwood student, Summer Dale, who lost her fight with cancer back in 2012 at the age of 16. Raiders, let’s work together and donate towards this fantastic cause while producing some beautiful posters. Thank you, National Art Honors Society. Fill out the form and email NAHS president Gabriela Jones at gabrielamariej@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns. Sadie is the perfect way to spend your Saturday night and get into the Riverwood spirit. Hope to see you there, Raiders.

(Sadie 2020 Logo, Designed by Anna Edmondson, Devon Green, Hannah Levy, and Emily Taylor.)

Metro Swim Meet

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SPORTS FEATURE- SWIM by Kara Schwartz

Many teams from Fulton County came to participate in the Metro Swim qualifying meet. The meet occurred on Saturday, January 18 in the early morning with warm ups starting at 7:45. The meet took place at the private school, Westminster, in their beautiful facility. Students were able to swim their desired events, such as the 4×50 relay and freestyle to attempt to reach their goals of making state and dropping time. In addition, this swim meet is one of the last meets that students are able to swim in before States, which is another qualifying meet with certain time cuts for an individual to be able to participate. The Metro Meet is a “prelims” and finals meet, meaning that a  swimmer has to qualify in the top 20 to swim later in the day for finals. The meet offers an A and B final, so the placements of 10-20 go to the B final while the top 10 swim in the A. After a very long 3 hour prelims portion of the meet, students got to go home or to get lunch. Then, the people who made finals came back at 5:45 pm for warm ups. However, everyone who came to the meet was encouraged to stay to cheer on their friends. The pool was definitely cold but refreshing at the same time. The Riverwood swimmers did an amazing job, not only were there many personal bests, but also some people made state. Macy Rose and Kayla Hodges swam their best in the 100 freestyle resulting in them both making state. Also, TJ Shannon swam a great race in the 100 fly and placed in the A final. Tj Shannon and Trevor Arndt were asked a series of questions pertaining to the meet. Tj replied to, how he thought the team did and if he does anything to psych his competitors out, in a very positive way, “we did pretty well, we got third overall in the 4×50 relay… I want to beat them (competitors) at their best.” Trevor had a more humorous approach to answering the questions, “motivating myself to try is very physically exerting, it takes a lot from you… I shake my arms out and I slap myself to get the blood flowing. I love the rush of adrenaline provided by my vicious slapping.” Another question from these two swimmers is if they listen to any music to get them hyped up before a swim. Trevor answers by saying, “I listen to Yummy by Justin Bieber.” Tj enjoys listening to xxxtentacion to get ready for a race. In conclusion, we as a team placed 6th for the boys and 7th for the girls out of 32 teams.

(On the left it is Piero Maddaleni, next to him is Sasha Wildstein, then Nina Ouellette, and on the right is Jaden Manuel– taken by Kara Schwartz)

Australia Fires

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By: Sahil Bashir

This newspaper has covered global warming in the past. In the previous issue, we discussed the Paris agreement, Trump’s decision, and what those mean for the rest of the U.S. citizens. In this issue, we will continue the discussion of global warming, but we’re going to look at a more severe, impactful problem occurring right now in Australia. This is, of course, the bushfires. 

The Bushfires, starting in September 2019, are currently ravaging Australian forests and towns. Fueled by the drought Australia faces and sparked by both human and natural causes, lightning has been observed as the main cause. Dry lightning was particularly responsible for fires in the Victories East Gippsland region in late December. That fire then went on to travel 12.4 miles in just 5 hours. There have been incidents where many humans had attempted to start fire. It was speculated that 75% of the fires were caused by arsonists, according to Heather Wheeler, a foreign office minister, but this was quickly corrected by Kerry McCarthy, a Labour MP. She stated that the true figure of arson was less than 1%. Most of these cases were unintentional, such as children “playing” with fire or people who don’t take proper precautions. However there are cases where those who intentionally start fires. These cases usually see arsonists with psychotic tendencies, and the situation allows them to be able to act upon them. Dr. Paul Read, co-director of Australia’s National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson, explained that “The general mayhem of fighting bushfires, the evacuation of people, enables them to be furtive [attempt to avoid detection]. They know they’re not likely to be identified. It’s like planting a tree in a forest.” CNN states that at least 24 people have been charged by the New South Wales police for intentionally starting bushfires, and an additional 183 people are being taken to court for fire-related offences since November.  

The fires have claimed at least 28 lives, 300 homes, and 10.4 million hectares of land, according to Global News. The sheer size and damage of the bushfires makes it six times more deadly than the 2018 California bushfires and almost twice the damage of the Amazon fires. New South Wales has been the most affected Australian city, and it’s most populated. Almost every state has been affected, including Sydney and Melbourne.  

People are not the only casualties of the fires. Around half a billion animals have been affected with millions dead. Ecologists claim the total amount of affected animals could be over a billion. These include birds, reptiles, mammals (excluding bats). Almost a third of koalas have been killed, and they lost around a third of their habitats. Certain animals, such as the koalas, are not at too much risk from becoming extinct due to widespread bushfires, but other animals in more niche environments, such as frogs or birds, are at a higher risk, according to BBC. 

The fires have also brought other hazards to Australia. Canberra, the capital, has been hit with hail storms that have damaged buildings, businesses, and homes, as well as flash floods. In the western region, covering Broken Hill, Dubbo, and Nyngan, is a 186 mile wide red dust cloud carried by 66 miles-per-hour winds. Flash floods rained down on Brisbane and Queensland state, though these rains have not put out the fires. Below is a picture of the dust storm.

So what is being done to stop the fires? According to the BBC, around 3700 firefighters, including volunteers, are deployed around these areas, as well as another 3700 army reserves, 440 emergency personnel, and 240+ firefighters from the US, Canada, and New Zealand. The NSW Rural Fire Service has around 100 aircrafts in the air when fires are bad, and the Victoria Country Fire Authority has 60. 

As for what you can do at home, there are many websites that take donations such as UNICEF, WWF, or people can donate directly to the fire stations in Victoria and New South Wales. These donations help the firefighters by purchasing equipment, medical kits, and gear. Simply talking about the issue is a great way to help. By spreading word of the issue and raising awareness, you’re bringing the issues to light and making more people aware of what is going on. This has many benefits. People who are aware of the issues in Australia would be more careful and take more precaution while people around the world will take action, through donations and even through volunteering.

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