“It’s about supporting the team and the wrestling program,” junior Jack Johnson said. “It’s one of our last things to do before we go wrestle at districts. It’s almost like a rival match.”

Prior to the event, there was much talk about Pack the Pit, including an official preview video broadcasted throughout the school to pump up students during W4 on Jan. 24. It promised to be a big event for parents, students and all other AHS faithfuls.

“It’s an AHS tradition that’s been going on for a long time,” varsity wrestling head coach Keith Sholders said. “It’s great to hear all the students talking about it and getting hyped up and behind the wresters. It’s not just about the wrestling team, but about getting behind the AHS sports program and all its teams.”

On Friday January 20th, the AHS swim and dive team gathered at Mt. Vernon RecCenter for its final meet of the season against the T.C. Williams Titans. The seniors were honored prior to the meet. The meet was victorious for both the girls and boys teams.

“Do or do not. There is no try,” Head Coach Neal Jarvis said, quoting Master Yoda of Star Wars. “We’re entering into a vision quest.”

Although the boys team will likely earn a victory, the Titans have a handful of girls who could pose a serious challenge to the girls team in the individual events.

“It will be interesting to see how we stack up against those teams,” sophomore Trevor Barry said.

After starting the year 2-0, the Atoms fell to West Springfield and W.T. Woodson on consecutive nights to drop to 2-2. The boys swim and dive team therefore felt it necessary to bounce back with a victory. The oys came out strong in their following meet, beating West Potomac by 39 points with a score of 177-138 on Jan. 6.

“We brought our A-game tonight,” sophomore Noah Wolfenstein said.

“I must say the team had a quality meet,” junior Joe Rolen said. “I cut three seconds in my 200-yard freestyle, so I was pretty boosted.”

“I dropped a ton of time in my 200-yard IM,” junior Dylan Gore said.

The strong performance of the dive team once again proved to be a major factor in the boys victory over the Wolverines.

“The dive team helped the swim team win by sweeping first through fourth place,” junior Paul Helfgott said. “We also provided them with encouragement to try and be as good as we were that night.”

“We carry the team,” freshman diver Kyle Goettlicher said.

The girls team lost by a score of 101-211, causing them to ell to fall to a record of 0-5. Despite the loss, the girls showed tremendous improvement after having lost to the Wolverines by almost 200 points last year.

“The girls team did way better against West Potomac this year than we did last year, even though we lost,” junior Tessa Iglesias said. “We tried our hardest and had a lot of fun.”

“We improved tremendously since the last time we faced them,” sophomore Melanie Bennett said.

The girls dive team looked much-improved as well.

“We’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the year, but we still need to improve more,” senior dive captain Jazmine Bounds said.

Many AHS supporters attended the meet, which created a spirited environment for the athletes.

“It was definitely our best meet this season as far as team spirit,” senior Adam Wattenberger said. “Also, a lot of people had best times.”

The team hopes to maintain this momentum heading into districts.

“Districts really captures the essence of what swim team is all about,” junior Alex Lash said.

Last week’s meet against Robert E. Lee ended too late to be covered in this print issue of The A-Blast, but official scores and results can be found online.

This possibility, however, soon faded from the minds of those in attendance, as Lake Braddock scored two points on its following possession and the Atoms were left helpless to watch as their valiant effort fell short in the 56-58 loss.

“Our team played very well against Lake Braddock for almost the entire game,” senior Monte McCarthy said. “We had them beat up to the last four minutes of the fourth quarter, but we failed to execute and lost it.”

Despite the loss, many members of the team are aware of the strides they have made, recognizing the improvement that has marked their season thus far.

“It showed major improvement and I feel confident we will be very successful in the rest of our district games,” McCarthy said.

“It was our best game so far and I was excited and proud of the team,” senior Amiel Terry added.

Head Coach Robert Terry also cited the team’s improvement, noting its increased energy and strong defensive performance in the loss to Lake Braddock.

“The energy has improved drastically since the start of the season,” Terry said. “I thought defensively we pressed them and caused chaos.”

Now halfway through their season, wins have not come easy for the Atoms, who also fell to nationally ranked Montrose Christian 24-77 on Jan. 11. The team was 1-10 before taking on South County on Jan. 13 and T.C. Williams on Jan. 17, both of which ended too late to be covered in this issue.

All that remains for the team are seven district match-ups, giving the Atoms a chance to face off against opponents they have already seen once this year. This will begin on Jan. 20, when they square off against W.T. Woodson at home.

“The key to breaking them is to press them and execute our offense,” McCarthy said.

“I’m excited to play Woodson on our home court,” senior Tyler Schwartz said. “Our team is more equipped and skilled to win the game.”

This match-up is especially important to the Atoms, as upsetting one of the district top seeds could supply the team with much-needed momentum heading into the postseason.

“[We need to] continue to grow offensively as far as execution and knowing when and where to take good shots and what a good shot is,” Terry said. “I think our kids are starting to realize our potential and we’re going to be hard to beat the second half of the season.”

To view the results from the Atoms’ games against South County and T.C. Williams, visit www.thea-blast.org.

“I don’t think it was fair [for the owners to earn more money from the lockout] because the players work harder, therefore they deserve the benefit of getting paid more,” sophomore Danney Davalos said.

The Washington Wizards played their first game at the Verizon Center on Dec. 26 against the New Jersey Nets. Despite their optimistic outlook on a new season and new uniforms, the Wizards lost 84-90 after squandering an early 21 point lead.

“I think they were doing really well in the beginning and they had a big lead over the Nets, but they started to fall apart a little and it’s upsetting that they lost,” junior Christina Uglietta said. “It’s hard to say [how the rest of the season will be] after only seeing one game, but I’m hoping they will do well.”

Some watching the game may have noticed one Nets player in particular, Kris Humphries, the former husband of 72 days to reality TV star Kim Kardashian. Fans at the Verizon Center booed Humphries towards the end of the game.

“It was weird because I see him more as a reality TV star than an NBA player and it’s weird seeing him on the court,” Uglietta said. “I think he was booed because of how he acted on TV, but I think that it’s wrong of people to do so because his personal life is none of their business.”

Due to a lack of success from their hometown team, many AHS students are looking to other teams as fans.

“[I’m most excited to watch] the [Los Angeles] Clippers because [Chris] Paul will be throwing the alley-oop to [Blake] Griffin,” sophomore Noah Wolfenstein said.

Others are also excited to see Paul perform.

“I think the season will be exciting because of all the trades,” Davalos said. “I’m especially excited to see the L.A. Clippers because of Chris Paul.”

With the season limited to fewer regular season games, it will be exciting even more exciting for fans, as each game will be unpredictable and each outcome more vital to the success of each team’s season.

“It was kind of weird watching basketball again after the lockout, but I’m glad it’s back on,” Uglietta said.

Wright (center) goes to recover a ground ball in a tournament game with her Future Elite Lacrosse Team.

Q: Why did you choose to attend Occidental College? What is your favorite part about the school?

A: I chose to attend Occidental because it has my major (diplomacy and world affairs), gives a lot of study abroad opportunities that I would be able to do outside of lacrosse season, has a direct tie to the UN, is somewhere new and away from home (Los Angeles) and also has college lacrosse for me. My favorite part about Occidental is probably its location. All that is has to offer me made it stand out from other colleges I was looking at.

Q: What was the recruiting process like?

A: The recruiting process was really…back and forth. One month you could be talking to multiple colleges then the next, when you don’t have as many tournaments, you wont be talking to but a few. Now that I am done with recruiting I can say it isn’t as bad as it seems while your’e going through it. Everyone will find where they belong even if it isn’t the first place you fall in love with.

Q: Did any other schools express an interest in you? If so, what were they and why did you choose not to attend?

A: By the end of my decision process, I also applied to Drexel University, Temple University and American University with the chance to play on their team. I chose to go to Occidental because it has everything I wanted.

Q: What made you want to play lacrosse in college?

A: I wanted to play lacrosse in college because I can’t imagine myself playing my last game this coming spring. I want to play for as long as I can. Thinking about where i wanted to go and what I wanted to do, I couldn’t see myself going months without playing lacrosse as I would if I wasn’t playing in college.

Q: How did your parents react to you committing to Occidental College?

A: My parents were super excited, happy and proud of me.

Q: What do you hope to achieve while playing in college?

A: I hope to get better at and excel at a higher level of lacrosse.

Q: What will be the most challenging part of playing college lacrosse?

A: I think the most challenging part of playing lacrosse in college will be time management.

Senior David Croghan guards one of Westfield's players.

The boys varsity basketball team had its fourth game this season against Westfield at AHS on Dec. 13. They were not able to defeat the Westfield Bulldogs due to an early shortfall that they could not bounce back from. They ended up losing to Westfield 58-65, dropping to 0-4 for the season.

The game began with freshman Austin Hall, junior Sanar Shamdeen, freshman Ahmed Elnour, senior Amiel Terry and junior Khalid Claudius as the five starting players. They were tied at the beginning, but a few minutes into the first quarter Westfield took the lead, and kept it throughout the game.

At the half, the Atoms trailed behind the Westfield Bulldogs with a score of 22-29. Westfield was in the lead for the entire second half of the game.

Sanar Shamdeen scored the most points for the Atoms, leading them closer to the Bulldogs. Even the multiple shots from Shamdeen could not get the Atoms to beat the Bulldogs.

“I think that we definitely played better tonight than the previous three games with the fewest amount of turnovers we’ve had this far,” freshman Austin Hall said.

Even though the team is on a losing streak, players are still optimistic about the rest of the season. They feel that they will continue to improve on their skills. As the season continues, the team members hope to improve on their performance on the court, and to win a lot more games.

“I think we’re turning it around right before the start of district games,” Hall said.

Many of the players thought that this was going to be the first win of the season. This evidently was not the case, yet players are still hopeful for the rest of the season.

“We came out thinking that we’d get our first win but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” sophomore Michael Tran said.

The team has many more games left in the season, and with a positive mindset from each of the players, the team wishes to excel and win most of those games.

“We’ve just got to keep our heads up and hopefully we can turn things around this season,” Tran said.