Plans for an MLS bid are in the works By DREW WAYLAND For fans of professional soccer, living in the Raleigh area can be a frustrating experience. The best soccer players in the world play on entirely different continents, and America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) teams never invested in a franchise between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. For the past ten years, the only professional soccer club in the Triangle has been the Carolina Railhawks, a North American Soccer League team that plays at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Since their formation in 2006, they have drawn a considerable fanbase as they take on teams like the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the San Antonio Scorpions. Many Enloe soccer players and fans have worked with the team in one of their many youth programs, including former Enloe junior George Marks, who recently transferred to a new school so he could work with the Railhawks full-time. But now, the Railhawks are taking advantage of their increasing fan base and seemingly unlucky location. Just a few weeks ago, outspoken owner Stephen Malik (who also owns several large biotech companies in the Cary-Morrisville area) announced that the mid-level soccer team is rebranding, with a focus on a new stadium and an “aggressive MLS bid” by 2020. “We know how much potential this club has,” said Malik during the press conference. “All we’re doing is capitalizing on that and planning for the future of soccer in the Triangle.” The Carolina Railhawks are officially no more--now WakeMed Soccer Park hosts North Carolina FC (Football Club), a brand new team with a slick NC-themed crest logo to replace the old orange cartoon hawk. The color scheme is a deep red and navy blue to match North Carolina’s iconic state flag. “We really like putting the ‘North’ in front of the team name,” said Malik in response to a question about cutting out any South Carolina fans with the name change. “None of the other area teams do that, and this team is all about our state.” Malik of course references the Carolina Panthers and Hurricanes, who chose regional monikers in attempts to widen their brand. “That’s not us, though. North Carolina is a great state and we want to represent it as best we can.” With the rebranding, of course, comes big plans for the next five years. In order for a team to be considered for MLS status, they must have a home stadium with more than 20,000 seats. The stadium in Cary, while impressive for an NASL team, seats only 10,000. The team is currently looking at eight possible locations for a new stadium to be built by the end of the decade. Six of the eight options are in the downtown area, with one particularly enticing option just across the street from Red Hat Amphitheater. The team has also expressed interest in combining the stadium with a future light-rail system, so fans from Cary, North Raleigh, and even Durham can get to matches easily. Once the new stadium is in place, Malik plans to aggressively pursue a plan for the team to join the big leagues. “The soccer culture in this part of the country is absolutely unrivaled. If anywhere can support a franchise, it’s the Triangle.”
0 Comments
SAM BRINKLEY
The staff of the Enloe Literary Organization (ELO) have once again begun the arduous process of producing the annual literary magazine, Stone Soup, to showcase the work of Enloe’s best and brightest student writers, photographers, and artists. The undertaking requires this close-knit group of humanities-lovers to make careful selections out of over a hundred edited submissions, then format and incorporate students’ work into a fluid and aesthetically pleasing magazine. Here are their thoughts when pressed with several questions about their organization and creating the magazine. What does ELO represent to you at Enloe? Why is it special and important to our school? Megan: “It represents a community of friends, and it’s important to celebrate the artistic endeavors of our students that aren’t often recognized.” Pooja: “I think it’s a really fun place, and also it’s just nice to have a group of people that enjoy the same things I do because a lot of people are like, ‘Oh I really love robotics or technology!’ Nowadays there aren’t a lot of people who say ‘I really love art and books.’ This is a place where people of different interests can meet and collaborate on something to make it really nice.” What is it like to work on Stone Soup? Where do y’all draw inspiration in your creative process? Meg Kulikowski, co-chief: “It takes the better part of the year to put together the poetry and short stories and art that we collect from students, and we for the most part will work the heaviest in the springtime to get the magazine out in May. So starting in the new year, we’ll start to put together pages of the art and works that we receive, and make them look like a book. We all look over each other’s pages, we all help each other out, get advice from each other, all that kind of good stuff. I love doing it because I love getting to know these people and working on something for hours after school is sort of a bonding experience, and these people really care about what we try to do here. I enjoy the fact that we get to work on it for the better part of the year, and make a final product to give to people at the end of the year, to show that it’s a conglomeration of everyone’s efforts throughout the year.” Maia Sichitiu, prose editor: “As far as inspiration, we try to take artistic liberties with the actual design and page layout, but we also try to stay true to the artists’ and writers’ original pieces, and try to also fit them together to create a nice looking product.” Andrew Chun, prose editor: “Sometimes I like to take inspirations from famous magazines that I look through. Generally I just like to switch it up and be creative with how I organize things.” Christie Zhong, art editor: “Yeah, cause we’re also designing the actual spreads. It’s not just publishing the works in a boring way. So we try to make sure the pages are sometimes experimental, and we like to put graphics and arrange the text in a way that emphasizes the meaning, and also pair them with art that we think would make a really big impact or emphasize the writer’s overall message.” How are submissions chosen? Are there any guidelines you use or things you’re looking for before you start to review? Megan: “They differ--we have a group of two editors per subject, like poetry, art, prose, et cetera. They work together and collaborate in an attempt to find out what they find to be a creative work, and then the whole group itself works to find a way to fit it into the magazine, and make it aesthetically pleasing as well as creative.” Pooja Murarisetty, publicity editor: “From what I’ve seen of Christian [Okoth] reviewing poetry, it’s been something that makes her feel something very strongly, or something that evokes a lot of imagery. If it doesn’t do that, it could still be put in, but there’s a less likely chance. So we can see the person who made it through it, at least a part of them. What kinds of pieces are you looking to put in the magazine? Maia: We’re trying to get a variety of pieces, so overall we have pretty loose guidelines but it just has to be something that we think represents the general talent of Enloe and that everyone can appreciate. It’s not--we do have a certain sense of individuality cause we are kind of judging the pieces, but we try to make sure that there’s something that everyone can understand and appreciate throughout all of Enloe so that all of the talent can be observed, and not just something that strikes a chord in us. Christie: So I’m the art editor, and the way that we pick the art is like--I’m an art student here so I go to the classes that I have and my teacher, and we just ask all the students like if you’re proud of work or something, then we’ll put it in the magazine, and then my teacher will give me piles of work and we’ll just photograph it, and if people are okay with it then we’ll use it in the magazine. Because there’s so many talented artists here that they don’t necessarily know about ELO, I try to go out and find artists that are- that I think would be good in the magazine, and then I put them all in a drive, and we pick the ones that would correlate to individual stories, and the ones that are good when they stand alone, because they have individual pages that they go onto. So how do you all combine this individuality with the need to work with the group, in that you’re each acting in your own individual roles, and that you’re each passionate about each one of those, but then you also have to create a final product from that… Andrew: I think in general, we as a group are really close, and we really respect each other’s opinions and different ideas, So when choosing a piece, we really respect what other people have to say about it. Meg: “There’s a lot of back and forth, and there’s a lot of joy in finding something interesting about a piece, and I think that we do a very interesting job that other people at school may not have the privilege to have, which is really completely collaborating and feeling dependent on each other for each other’s ideas and opinions and tastes. I think from my memory of last year, once we had a rough idea of a list--we compile a lot of lists--of the things that we liked the most, we eventually just became kind of one big group, and looked at everything. I looked at Christie’s stuff, I looked at short story stuff, I looked at poetry stuff. So it was all just, it just sort of came together. There’s something about having a small group like this--with people who have sort of similar tastes but obviously not the same--but just talking it out, and laughing about it, and expressing our opinions about it is very rewarding to me.” Maia: “I think that ELO does a really good job of getting new members in and making them feel like they’re essential to the group. And there’s a lot of collaboration, you get to know the people a lot better. If you show up to a lot of the meetings, then you will definitely get this feeling. And by the end of the year if you keep on working towards the goal, it’s just really rewarding when you have the final product sitting in front of you.” Meg: “It’s kind of like, ‘How did we get here? How did we combine all these things that are so different…’” For new people, you may have been just in ELO, but maybe if it’s you’re first time working as an editor, what’s your position, or what’s your impression of that position? Pooja: “So I’m a publicity editor, and I really just wanted to work on the magazine in general. I didn’t have a specific preference for like ‘I only want to look at prose or something,’ so….initially I applied as a junior editor, but I’m really glad that I got the publicity because it’s nice being able to collaborate with all of you, get your ideas for what you want to be put as our representation of ELO, and just getting it out there. And I’m looking forward to getting to work with everyone on the magazine cause as hard as it’s gonna be, I think it’s gonna be really rewarding and really fun!” Joey Marmaud, junior editor: “So I’m the prose editor, and I think that ELO is really sort of like a camaraderie but we still have our own individuality., it’s sorta cool like as a freshman to be in a club that’s so supportive of new members and new ideas.” As a freshman, what is your impression of this club’s interactivity as opposed to ones you may have been in before? Joey: “As opposed to middle school, where a lot of the extracurriculars or clubs were mainly teacher led, or they were really hierarchical, ELO Is really great at incorporating students into the magazine. Although [Ms. Chappell] is the advisor for the club, it’s totally student run and we choose all of the stuff that goes into the magazine and everything. So it’s really different coming from a middle school perspective where you don’t have this foreknowledge of independence, and then going into a club where you do.” So would you say there’s a feeling of ownership that you have of that entire experience? Maia: “It’s partially because Ms. Chappell is not condescending with us, but she talks to us like we’re really making contributions to this even if she knows- like she does all the structural work at the foundation of this club, like she’s really important, but we also add a lot to the club and she makes sure that we know that.” So what’s the deal with this award ELO got? Meg: “We were rated the best literary magazine submitted in the state out of high schools by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. And so, that’s a pretty big deal, and I was overjoyed and was jumping up and down. I was just elated. What would you say set ELO apart? What from the feedback that you were given was really the thing that drove that home? Megan: “I think that a big portion of it is the actual works that we got. More than just our portion of it, it’s what we built upon, and that was really what the students of Enloe made for us, and what they submitted.” So in a way the award is a lot more for the school… Megan: “It was what we consolidated to one object and was actually meant for the whole of ELO, and all our writers and all our artists, and their work. The layout was nice but…” Christie: “It’s their work.” ELO expects Stone Soup to be released in early May of 2017, but only with your help! Submit your art, poetry, and prose to the magazine at [email protected]. High quality photos and shared or attached documents are preferred. Enloe organization fosters discussion around young people and the NC justice systemBY CAMMY RIEMANN
Energized by the success of their event held last April, Enloe’s Beyond the Bars club members are teaming with promise and excitement as they navigate through their second successful year of operation. According to its mission statement, Beyond the Bars hopes to “facilitate an informed and candid dialogue amongst diverse voices that cultivates an appreciation of the complex interactions between juveniles and the justice system.” However, this year’s board members hope to achieve this mission in a different way than they did before. Last year, the club ran in a way not dissimilar to that of an advocacy group. They aimed to show attendees that incarceration detrimentally impacted the mental health of inmates, that the school-to-prison pipeline was a huge problem, and that specific prison policies, like solitary confinement, were inhumane and unjustifiable. As board member Quinn Okoro says, “Beyond the Bars had more of a focus on advocating for the rights of prisoners and juveniles within the justice system, but this year we’ve all agreed to maintain an environment where we’re fostering all sorts of discussions related to the topic, rather than dictating to an audience.” This model, they believe, will be much more effective in fostering understanding between those behind and beyond the justice system. Board member Sam Brinkley says, “We think this new approach is more true to ourselves, and is ultimately the better method of conveying our mission and vision.” Another change the club is making this year is the addition of schoolwide monthly meetings. As described by Quinn, these meetings are a way for the club to “bring together our school community and introduce us as an organization.” They will be discussion-based meetings, where a plethora of topics centering on juveniles and the justice system will be discussed by a diverse audience of Enloe students and staff.. Through these meetings, they hope to emphasize the idea that, as Quinn says, “the audience is the speaker,” and there are no real right or wrong answers to any of the complicated questions they will be pondering. As much as the methods and meetings have changed, the end goal of the club has remained the same. Sam says, “The organization operates chiefly to create an event at the end of the year where we bring together a lot of different people from various backgrounds, from all over the job and government spectrum, including schools. We want to really talk about these intersections between juveniles and the justice system that are not always prevalent, but [which] people have differing opinions or perceptions of.” Another board member, Meghana Sankaran, summarises: “The purpose of Beyond the Bars is to bring all sides of this incredibly complex and polarized equation together and leave each person more aware of [the relationship] to exemplify the power of discussion, of seeing the opposing side, and of empathy.” BY MOLLY MILLS
Ah, the holidays. The best time of the year; that is, the most socially acceptable time of the year to stuff as much wildly unhealthy food into your mouth as will physically fit. Holiday food has the magic to bring even the biggest Scrooges joy, and is sure to swell the heart of any grinch, especially when the food enjoyed is a national tradition. Here’s a bit of insight to a few cultural foods eaten around the world during the winter holidays. In Venezuela, families enjoy hallacas, the most popular Christmas food eaten in the country. Hallacas are a type of dumpling made using corn dough and stuffed with meats—often beef, pork, chicken, or seafood—as well as raisins, capers, and olives. They are wrapped in plantain leaves and tied shut with a string, then boiled and served. Popular enough to be considered the national food of Venezuela, hallacas are similar to what many Latin and Central American countries call tamales, another typical meal around the holiday season. Regardless of whether Japan celebrates Christmas as a national holiday (they don’t), there are some Christmas traditions that just can’t be passed up. Like--as to fit the general theme here--food. You’d be hard pressed to find a Japanese household on December 25th that isn’t digging into a big bucket of KFC ‘Christmas Chicken.’ That’s right. Ever since KFC’s strikingly successful “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas!) marketing campaign in 1974, the “finger lickin’ good” meals have been enjoyed from coast to coast and north to south in Japan. Poland is really into Christmas, so much so that their meal on the day of typically consists of twelve dishes, signifying good luck in the next twelve months for many, and for Catholics, it may also symbolize Jesus’ twelve disciples. Their Christmas dishes traditionally don’t contain any meat, a homage to the animals who delivered baby Jesus to the manger. Back to the important stuff, the main dish is a typical Polish Christmas dish called barszcz, a type of beetroot soup. This dish is one of such importance that it’s obligatory to eat it during Christmas dinner. If you really hate it, though, it’s okay to substitute your barszcz with some mushroom soup instead. But of course, Christmas isn’t the only holiday celebrated this time of year. It would be a sin to neglect Hanukkah here. Latkes and jelly donuts are some notable holiday staples savored worldwide by Jewish populations. Contemporary latkes are potato cakes made by shredding the potatoes and frying them in oil, but in earlier centuries before potatoes spread to Eastern Europe, the first latkes were made of buckwheat or rye, and were cooked with schmaltz, which is animal fat used for cooking. With so many different cultures and traditions celebrated, the holidays aren’t just a time for giving--they’re a time for discovering and experiencing. So when your family starts cooking Christmas dinner this year, why not try out one of these iconic favorites? Enloe’s Crescenloe A Cappella Group Dazzles |
The Eagle's EyeBest of the Nest since 1981 Archives
January 2018
|