Title: Warrior Post
Date: March 1, 1993
Category: School Newspaper
Current Status: Preserved for posterity
One of my favorite events, from any of the schools I have ever attended, is the release of the school newspaper. I always enjoy seeing both what is going on in my little academic world and also see what people I know are doing. Sometimes I even contributed to the paper, adding my own touch of stupid to periodical history.
My high school, James Martin in Arlington, TX, had a monthly release called the "Warrior Post." I had many friends on the staff by senior year. In fact, I became the unofficial mascot of the newspaper staff.
The newspaper staff met during 7th period. I didn't have a class during that period my senior year. My best friend was on the staff and the room was right across the hall from my last class of the day (6th Period Drama I). So, I usually went down the hall and hung out for the last hour unless it was production week. Production Week was when everybody went insane trying to get the paper ready and the stress levels were high. James Carroll could often be found with a pair of scissors, racing around the room screaming, "I'm running with scissors!"
The teacher/sponsor/zookeeper of the paper staff was Robbie Griffin (or, The Griffin). She was totally cool. I mean, she let me hang around for no good reason and just ignored Keithney making out in the production room. Oh, crap... I just realized that I haven't introduced Keithney yet. Yeah, I wrote all the other stuff and then came back after posting all the pictures and added this bit just before posting it so I'm talking about something that I haven't actually written about yet even though I actually wrote it earlier today.
What? Huh? Um.... yeah... where was I... oh yeah. Griffin rocked. I think she teaches in Mansfield now.
Anyway, it was a pretty good paper. I daresay that the quality of the ol' Warrior Post is superior to many college and professional papers produced today. I found this one recently, and so, I'm gonna share it with you.
The Front Page: Superstar Speedster Casey Custer gets the spotlight. I had several classes with Casey. She was pretty amazing. I think she ended up running at Florida State. I always thought I might see her in the Olympics one day.
Bottom right photo of Casey by James Carroll, taken in the amazing Mrs. McBride's English class.
Page 2: Editorials. Kara Cespedes writes about PDA. Ahhhhhh.... there are few subjects that seem more characteristic of high school than PDA concerns. I'm pretty sure this one had some inspiration from a couple of Post staffers. Keith Weiland and Courtney Heritage started dating around homecoming that year and then became inseparable, often liplocked. Long before the Benifers and Brangelinas, we decided to give them the easy to say combo name "Keithney." (BTW, they got married had kids and are still together).
Girls playing football? I didn't even remember that was a topic of discussion that year. That's a goofy picture of Calvin Kuo.
Page 3: Rocky Stanzione and the editorial staff get called out for being wishy-washy and/or one-sided on the topic of abortion. No softball topics in this paper! Well... except for PDA, I guess
Suzanne Nowrooz weighs in on girls playing football and Casey Custer gets tossed into the discussion.
And Lisa Geier's piece on racism shows that not much has changed in the last 20 years.
Page 4: ADS!!!! Yay, money!
Let's see, as far as I can tell, Adeba's Tailor and Bridal no longer exists, that Mama's Pizza location has been closed for a long time, but there is still a place called Outrageous Car Audio & Customs.
Meanwhile, the Mother Daughter Sorority Rush meeting just sounds weird.
Page 5: Paul Minor (former guitarist for The Grown-Ups and the Fonk Chickens) lays out how the seniors can get out of taking final exams.
Academic Decathlon! Yay! There's my name! I managed to get a complete set of medals (1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze) that are in a box somewhere. If I remember right, I won more individual medals than anybody else on the team... which surprised pretty much everybody.
Where are you going on Spring Break? Me... nowhere. And Ray went to Washington DC with some other newspaper & drama nerds so I just worked at Minyard all week.
Page 6: There's ol' Ray with his interview of the Martin Sundancer team sponsor, Staci Stephens. Staci was also a member of the Dallas Mavericks dance team and a former TCU Showgirl (she must have seen a lot of terrible football games)
Mr. Danielson. That guy could easily get a blog of his own. When I was there, he was legendary as the AP Economics teacher. "Crazy" was often used as a description of him. He'd jump on desks, shout, and do pretty much whatever it took to hold your attention. He was missing some fingers.
Unfortunately, there were also some rumors of inappropriate behavior that tarnished his rep.
He passed away back in 2002.
Page 7: Profile on our class valedictorian, Michelle Hicks. She was a great person. Shy and quiet, but nice as could be.
I'm pretty sure I made her nervous what with all my hijinks.
Page 8: More ads! Woot!
Whatchamacallit is still around, as is that specific Subway. The tan place is long gone. Is tanning even still a thing?
Page 9: Rocky talks up the benefit to raise money for the Martin literary magazine, The Coup. Mentions a band called "Drip." Don't remember them at all.
Ray gets to do a piece on one of his favorite things ever: Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Page 10: I had completely forgotten about Telly. He's the only person I know that shares the name of that monster from Sesame Street. Telly advocates naps. Telly had the right idea.
Buy a yearbook! Capture the memories! I did! And now I can't find it!
Lea Angel/L.A. Tuxedo - gone.
Join the Marines! NO!
Mr. Jim's - gone
WTF is a Personal Attack Alarm?!?! Oh... wait...
they still exist. And much cheaper now, too.
Page 11: UIL one-act play. That year, it was "
And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson." I was in Drama I that year (because I needed an elective and it was the most interesting choice available) and tried out for one-act. Despite having almost no experience, I managed to make call-backs. If I remember right, I ended up being the last cut and narrowly lost out to Ben Cruz. Sometimes I still think about doing some acting, but who has the time?!?! Now, if somebody in the area does Oliver!, I might have to go out for Fagin though.
Rocky reviews Groundhog Day (oooooohhhhh... timely). I actually have watched that movie over and over again. Watched it yesterday in fact. Saw it in the theater back in '93 too.
Page 12: NERDS!!!!! Also mostly my friends. There's Calvin again (remember him from Page 2?) Behind him in the center is Baskin. Those two were this goofy dynamic duo that I think were Commies or Socialists or something. The guy with the hair is Craig. He played bass in a failed attempt at a band we put together (other notable members: Keith Weiland, Rocky Stanzione, and Ray Grabeel). Far right is Alexis. I always felt like she was "Most Likely to Succeed." I also mercilessly teased her in 5th grade. The other female is Elicia. I didn't get along with her, but I really don't remember why.
...and then there's a bunch of other congratulatory bits that I don't feel like reading. You can if you want.
Page 13: Swimming results. The only thing I ever knew about the swim team was that Gabe Werth was really good. And I used to make fun of his car.
The 1993 Warrior Baseball team. Possibly the greatest single athletic team the school has ever had (definitely on the boy's side... the girl's soccer team was also a force to be reckoned with). State Champions. Included two guys who would go on to play in the majors: Ben Grieve & Matt Blank (both Juniors). Also had one of my oldest friends, Johnny Hunter. Yeah... that was a great squad. (Trivia Time: At one time, I played T-Ball and 5-pitch with Matt Blank for the YMCA. That's pretty much my only link to anything remotely interesting about playing baseball).
Geez... more girl's football stuff....
Page 14: Basketball... I never really followed basketball. Apparently our boy's team was good and our girl's team wasn't. That was somewhat typical... our teams were usually either really good (baseball, soccer) or terrible (I'm looking at you, Warrior Football).
Tennis. Ray and I played tennis a lot in our spare time. I guess that's why he had to write this story. I might have paid attention to the tennis team more if they had tournaments like "The Piece of Cheese Classic" or played the variations we created: Anarchy Tennis and 4-Man Death Match Tennis.
Page 15: See! See! I told ya we had good soccer teams. Ray played on the soccer team for like one year and then decided he wanted to be a journalist. Now he sits at a desk and makes up cost projections for building tool sheds or something.
Wrestling... yeah... no.
Page 16/Back Cover: Aladdin Beauty College... apparently still exists for those that want to study the cosmetological sciences.
Wet 'n Wild... yeah... I associate Wet 'n Wild with pruny, scraped up feet, the smell of chlorine and suntan lotion, and swallowing water after slamming into a pool because it's "fun." That and the time that David Irvin made me wait 45 minutes to leave his dad's house to go to the orchestra party at Wet 'n Wild so he could make sure his hair was perfect because there was a girl he had a crush on.
J. Saunders... I don't know what that is.
More tanning! The '90's was all about tanning!
So there ya go. That's Martin High in early 1993. I'm hoping to find the previous issue so I can find out what Rocky wrote about abortion.
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