Monthly Archives: April 2024

Movies/TV/Theaters

My top 10 favorite Pokémon, with reasons

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By: Julia Yang

These will be based on the anime and not the game since I’ve never played, but you saw the title, let’s just get into it.

Number 10, Pancham

When I say Pancham, I’m talking about Serena’s Pancham from ‘Pokémon XY(Z)’.
I love his personality. He’s sassy, stubborn, bossy, and reserverved. Well, now that I’ve said it like that, he doesn’t seem like the best Pokémon— but I swear he’s an angel.

Pancham’s glasses, his moves, his charm, there’s nothing to not like about this Pokémon if you ask me.

He may be last on this list, but that’s only because I like the 9 others on this list more than him, not because he’s my least favorite of all time.

Number 9, Plusle and Minun

These Pokémon are old but gold. They’re just little Pichu’s with more color and cheer. They’re adorable cheerleaders to support you along the way. You can’t have one without having the other, isn’t that cute?

In the anime, there’s an episode where a trainer is sick and his Plusle and Minun are just on his hospital bed trying to cheer him up by doing their little cheer routine.

This is so impossibly heartbreaking, I love them.

Number 8, Popplio

Popplio is just an outstandingly skilled and talented Pokémon. They’re the destined entertainers of their world, not to mention how charming they are.

Lana’s Popplio from ‘Pokémon Sun and Moon’ is just so fun and bubbly to watch. Popplio usually have a fun, silly, and cheerful personality which makes everyone love them.

The power to create basically indestructible bubbles is also an awesome power to have, like, who thought of that?

Number 7, Grookey

Grookey is basically literally just a monkey with a stick and it’s perfect, I couldn’t ask for anything more from this Pokémon. All Grookey does is just hit things with their stick, and cause trouble. A pretty good Pokémon if I do say so myself.

Number 6, Sobble

Most people either don’t like Sobble or they hate them, but I love Sobble. Sobble are just silly little Pokémon who want to go home all the time, who want to do no harm. They cry and cry, waiting for someone to make them happy again.

The thought of an extremely overpowered move to cry and force others in the area to cry is just a funny thing since Sobble are the scaredy-cats of Pokémon; so emotional, timid, nervous, and all of that with zero confidence.

Number 5, Diance

Diance is just such a stunning Pokémon, and her abilities are incredible. Imagine being able to make diamonds. Isn’t that insane? No wonder why people were trying to track her down. Diance is such a sweetheart in the movie, she just wants to make everyone happy whilst trying to keep herself safe.

Another thing, have you seen her mega evolution form? It’s extremely ethereal.

Number 4, Mew

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always taken a liking to Mew ever since I found out Mew was a Pokémon. Mew is just an overpowered baby if you really think about it— like Jack Jack from ‘The Incredibles’ movie. If you don’t know for some reason and are reading this article, Mew’s power is to become any Pokémon of its liking. Mew has every single Pokémon DNA in its body, allowing it to become the Pokémon and do/use whatever the Pokémon does.

This counts for legendaries and mythicals too. Now you get the scale of its power, right? Insane.

All of this power given to this playful and unintentionally dangerous Pokémon— and don’t even get me started on its passive abilities. This Pokémon is such a danger, I love it.

Number 3, Chespin

I want to make this very clear. When the name ‘Chespin’ comes out of my mouth, I’m only talking about Clemont’s Chespin, I couldn’t care less about any other Chespin.

Clemont’s Chespin is like Grookey, but 10x better.

He’s effortlessly funny, he’s sarcastic, he’s relatable, he causes trouble, and he’s expressive. We have all of this information about him, but he can’t even say anything other than his name. That’s how expressive he is. I’ve loved him since day one.

The best Pokémon personality to ever exist.

Number 2, Zeraora

Zeraora’s backstory is what gets me— its purpose for wanting to live is what gets me.

Zeraora— in the movie ‘The Power of Us’— is the guardian of the surrounding forest. Swearing to protect the nature and wild Pokémon inhabiting it due to humans/trainers burning it down in the past.

As long as Zeraora had lived, that forest would never be touched by mankind.

Zeraora is a Legendary Pokémon, making it extremely rare and difficult to catch. Throughout the movie, we see Zeraora getting hurt as a result of Pokémon hunters wanting to catch the all-powerful Pokémon of the forest. They never catch Zeraora of course, but they always get close.
Anyways, Zeraora is a fantastic Pokémon with a fantastic story, I’d highly recommend watching ‘The Power of Us’.

Number 1, Hoopa

Words cannot describe how much this Pokémon means to me. I believe Hoopa was in the first Pokémon movie I had watched, so it holds a very special place in my heart.

Hoopa is an extremely playful Pokémon with a curse of having its larger and more powerful form have an evil presence in it. Hoopa shows throughout the movie, it doesn’t want to hurt trainers and Pokémon, all it wants to do is impress everyone and have fun.

Hoopa has the ability to make portals with it’s hoops, isn’t that fun? I’d enjoy having Hoopa around anytime. Hoopa could turn big after the curse is gone, and we’d have a jolly time together.

Hoopa just seems like an extremely fun and exciting Pokémon to be around, and I think we all need a Hoopa in our life.

I believe fun and troubling Pokémon are the best, but I think we both have figured that out by now.

I hope you enjoyed reading my ranking with reasons.

Editorials/Student Voice

The pink tax: Yet another case of everyday sexism

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By: Lila Dingmann, Serafina Zambreno, and Erin Moore

Over one lifetime, the gender wage gap adds up to $500,000. If women were paid as much as men, the female poverty rate would be cut in half. There is a 44% income gap between senior men and women. However, the wage gap is still denied by a large portion of the world.

Women experience sexism in a variety of forms in their daily lives, yet because they don’t see, understand, or relate to it, many men deny its presence. The gender wage gap is believed to be made up by roughly 50% of men according to an online poll of nearly nine thousand people.

However, it is undeniably true that women make $0.82 for every $1 a man makes and women of color only make $0.79 on that same dollar. This already sets women at a financial disadvantage, but on top of that is something even lesser known than the gender wage gap: the pink tax.

The average price on feminine products is higher in comparison to their masculine counterparts. This includes the unnecessarily expensive prices on period products, birth control, feminine hygiene products, and most items targeted toward women. Products are indirectly made for women when they are decorated with glitter, pastels, flowers, or the color pink–hence the name, “the pink tax.”

In 2010, consumer reports showed that women may pay up to 50% more than men for identical products. Women pay $1,351 more per year because of pricing, which becomes around $2,300 when adjusted for modern inflation, according to a California study in 1994. A study by the New York Department of Consumer Affairs in 2015 found that women’s products had a higher price tag 42% of the time, over double the 18% of the time that men’s products were more expensive.

Companies try to explain this increase away by the fact that women’s products are more expensive to manufacture, however, in many cases, the only difference is the item’s color.

Feminine products are priced 7% higher on average than their masculine equivalents (the smallest difference being 4% found between children’s clothing and the largest being 13% found between hygiene products). Examples of this include the following: BIC “for her” pens were double the price of a gender-neutral pack of pens, a pink wireless mouse was 39% more expensive than an identical blue mouse, a women’s pack of razors was 51% more expensive than the same men’s pack of razors, and a feminine train set costed 11% more.

Services, such as haircuts and dry cleaning also show very similar results: unequal prices.

In addition to being paid less than men, women also must spend more for the same products. This is only a small portion of the daily effects that sexist ideologies have on our everyday lives.

Some companies have recently begun making efforts to end the pink tax, which proves with enough unity and work, we can make a difference. CVS, as of February 2023, reduced the price on period products and decided to cover the sales tax for feminine products in twelve states.

This article was written to spread awareness about the pink tax, as it’s a very prominent financial issue for women, but not enough people know it exists. To combat the pink tax, you can purchase the cheapest versions of feminine products, buy masculine products instead, or speak up when you notice gender-based pricing in a store to leaders and other people in power.

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Movies/TV/Theaters

MOVIES COMING OUT IN APRIL

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BY: Hermekay Dehaney

As we step into April, there are a bunch of movies to look forward to. This includes a wide range of different genres that you can watch at the movie theater and at home on streaming apps. 

Start marking your calendars because in this article I will tell you all the movies to anticipate coming in April. 

  1. ‘The First Omen’ (April 5)

Horror/Mystery/Thriller – 2 hours 

‘The First Omen’ is released in theaters, and is a prequel to the classic horror film ‘The Omen’, released in 1976. It’s the sixth film in ‘The Omen’ franchise. 

The movie stars Nell Tiger Free who plays Margaret, Tawfeek Barho who plays Father Gabriel, Sônia Brags who plays Sister Silva , Ralph Ineson who plays Father Brennan, and Bill Nighy who plays Cardinal Lawrence. 

The storyline follows an American woman who is sent to Rome to work in a church who soon discovers a terrifying encounter with some sort of darkness that makes her question her faith, and leads her to uncover a sinister conspiracy aiming to unleash evil. 

Here is the trailer for ‘The First Omen’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmN1Op8ygno

  1. ‘Monkey Man‘ (April 5)

Action/Thriller – 2h 1m 

‘Monkey Man; is being released by Universal Pictures. The movie is directed by Dev Patel who also stars in the lead role along with Sharlto Copley who plays Tiger, Pitobash who plays Alphonso, Adithi Kalkunte who plays Neela, and Sobhita Dhulipala who plays Sita. 

The movie follows an anonymous young man who goes on a journey to take revenge on the corrupt leaders who are responsible for his mother, Neela’s, death. 

Latest trailer for ‘Monkey Man’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqa3YTtwvaU

  1. ‘Civil War‘ (April 12)

Action/Sci-fi – 1h 49m

‘Civil War’ is set to be released by A24. The movie stars Kirsten Dunst who plays photographer Lee, Wagner Moura who plays a reporter Joel, Cailee Spaeny who plays Jessie , Stephen McKinley Henderson who plays Sammy, and Nick Offerman who plays the President. 

The movie plot is about a group of reporters that travel around the United States trying to reach Washington D.C. before it turns into a dystopian dictatorship. 

‘Civil War’ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA4wVhs3HC0

  1. ‘Abigail’ (April 19)

Horror/Thriller 

‘Abigail’ is based on the 1936 film ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. This movie features  Angus Clouds, and this was his final acting role before his passing last July. 

This movie focuses on a group of kidnappers who kidnap Abigail, played by Alisha Weir, who is the daughter of a very powerful underworld figure for ransom. They quickly realized that this girl is not an ordinary girl but is a vampire who starts to hunt people down. 

This movie will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. 

Trailer for ‘Abigail’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsP8MFH8p0

  1. ‘Challengers’ (April 26) 

Sport/Romance – 2h 11m

‘Challengers’ is a movie directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The movie stars Zendaya who plays Tashi Donaldson, Mike Faust who plays Art Donaldson, and Josh O’Connor who plays Patrick Zweig. 

The premise of the movie is that after Art Donaldson experiences a series of losses, his Grand Slam champion wife, Tashi, enrolls him in a challenger event where he will compete against her ex lover. 

The movie will premiere in theaters. 

Trailer for ‘Challengers’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VobTTbg-te0

I hope this article gives you a little more insight to these upcoming movies, and something to look forward to in the month of April. 

Music/Concerts

REVIEW: Exploring the concept and depth of Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’

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By: Charlie St. Dennis

This year, we celebrate the 8th anniversary of ‘Lemonade’, Beyoncé’s concept album released after news broke of her husband and longtime partner, Jay-Z, cheating on her. The album explores all of the emotions she went through, and how she dealt with the circumstance. As Beyonce braces to release a new album this month, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore one of my favorite pieces of work by her, one track at a time. Here is my review of ‘Lemonade’, in formation.

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1. Pray You Catch Me – 8/10

The opening track of the album, “Pray You Catch Me” serves as a beautifully soft and gentle opening to the song. A piano-backed ballad, it finds Beyonce learning about her husband’s infidelity. The line “pray you catch me…” is a plea by Beyonce for her husband to find her snooping and to realize she knows what he’s been doing. I love this piece, and think that there’s a lot more to it than just piano and vocals.

2. Hold Up – 10/10

This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. With a beautiful instrumental, a loose sample of Andy Williams’ “Can’t Get Used To Loving You,” the song also touches on the societal standard that women who have been wronged by their partners are supposed to behave. We see this in the video, which begins with a spoken word piece with Beyonce in denial, but then once that’s done, she walks down a city street with a baseball bat, hitting every object in sight. Beyonce challenges these standards with the lyrics “What’s worse: being jealous or crazy? Or like being walked all over lately, walked all over lately?” She ends up deciding, “I’d rather be crazy!”

3. Don’t Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White) – 7/10

Beyonce uses “Don’t Hurt Yourself” to dabble into Rock & Roll, and she succeeds. While Rock is not necessarily my thing, I have immense respect and admiration for her for stepping outside of her bubble. This also features the first guest on the album, rocker Jack White, who carries a verse in the later half of the song. Lyrically, this song is a plea for Jay-Z to recognize that he is married to one of the prettiest, most successful women in the world, and that he needs to show her more respect. The song has been likened to the late 60’s plea by Aretha Franklin, “Respect”.

4. Sorry – 8.5/10

This is definitely Beyonce’s most unapologetic song on the album. It is also the song that makes it most clear that it is about Jay-Z. She references “Big Homie,” which is the nickname Jay-Z gave himself on their duet, “Crazy In Love”. It uses some techno-R&B and dancehall influences, which I really enjoy. She also closes the song with the lyric, “you better call Becky with the good hair,” which I feel is a fun way to introduce Jay-Z’s infamous mistress.

5. 6 Inch (feat. The Weeknd) – 6/10

“6 Inch” samples Isaac Hayes’ rendition of “Walk On By” and is a power anthem of being hardworking, while also talking about Beyoncé’s own vulnerability. The feature from The Weeknd is great, but unfortunately, I feel this song is a bit forgettable.

6. Daddy Lessons – 9/10

I *love* “Daddy Lessons”. It’s Beyonce’s first attempt at country, and boy was it successful. I love the story this song tells, and the classic Country sounds like banjo in the background. Truly a beautiful song.

7. Love Drought – 8.5

I really enjoy “Love Drought”. Lyrically well thought out, and incorporates not-frequently-heard instrumental sounds. My favorite lyric is “10 times out of 9 I know you’re lyin, but 9 times out of 10 I know you’re trying so I’m trying to be fair,” because I really think it well sums up the difficulties she is having while trying to justify her husband’s infidelity.

8. Sandcastles – 10/10

This song was quite the emotional rollercoaster, but I’m here for all of it. She begins the song discussing the “sandcastles” she built with her husband that have since washed away. She struggles with moving on, and doesn’t know why it’s so difficult for her. By the time we get to the second part of the song, she slowly has a change of heart and realizes that she is gonna try to work things out with Jay-Z.

9. Forward (feat. James Blake) – 6/10

By far the most forgettable song on the album. Sorry, not sorry! Does this mean it’s bad? No, it’s just nothing that stands out. The song is almost entirely James Blake, who has a nice, soulful voice, but we aren’t listening for him! We want Bey! I do genuinely like the song, just wish it had more Beyonce.

10. Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – 10/10

I’d say this is one of the best off the album, for both its message and its melody. The song details the struggles that black women in our country must overcome, and the mindset they need to have. It features families of victims of police brutality, who have been forced into the movement, and have to fight regardless of whether they like it or not. It also features young black figures like Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, and Quvenzhané Wallis. And of course, Kendrick Lamar has a feature, which is beautiful. The song became a protest anthem, and has been used at Black Lives Matter rallies.

11. All Night – 10/10

Two of the best on the album, back to back! The song is essentially about forgiveness, and how Beyonce has resorted to making up with her husband and moving on. It’s a really great song, and I also applaud her for her decision here, because that must’ve been hard, and it is probably not the decision I would personally go with.

12. Formation – 10/10

Oh my goodness! So many levels to this one. While not about her husband’s infidelity, this is an ode to Beyonce’s identity and the culture she was surrounded by, notably her mother’s background in Louisiana. The entirety of the video was filmed in New Orleans. The song begins with a sample of Bounce musicians Messy Mya and Big Freedia exclaiming “What happened after New Orleans?” This is said as Beyonce stands on a police car sinking into flooded waters in the Third Ward, which is supposed to symbolize how police and the government didn’t support the predominantly black city, and how the city had to stay on top by sustaining themselves. The song has been studied at universities, used at protests and marches across the world, and captured the attention of conservative commentators who called it “Anti-American.” I won’t speak to that, but I will stay that I Stand With Formation!

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You might not know it, but you will go through a “Lemonade” moment in your life. There will be a “Pray You Catch Me” moment where you long for someone to see what you’re going through. There will be a “Don’t Hurt Yourself” moment where you discover your worth and you realize that you didn’t deserve what happened. There will be a “Love Drought” moment where you get in touch with your emotions, and a “Sandcastles” moment where you make a decision of how to go forward. And of course, there will be an “All Night” moment where you move on and you thrive. These moments have happened, are happening, or will happen, and you can resort to this album for guidance.

While my calculations have my average review being 8.5/10, I would give this album a 9/10. It is Beyoncé’s first conceptual piece, and I think that it was a brilliant way to touch on different aspects of her identity: her cultural identity, marital identity, and familial identity. She remains #1 in my book.

I hope you enjoyed this review, and I implore you to check out the album and accompanying visuals. Let me know your thoughts!

Movies/TV/Theaters

Oscars summary

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By: Daniel Kendle

The Oscars is a ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, with this year’s annual ceremony hosted on March 10, 2024. As usual, the awards were directed towards movies and the people surrounding them, making for 23 different categories. Today I’ll be looking at every win in alphabetical order, what I may have wanted instead, and some statistics about the winners overall. Let’s begin!

Also, I was originally going to list the nominees individually as well, but due to time and them making the article skyrocket in size, I had to dial it down to just listing winners. Here they are:

  • Cillian Murphy won for Best Actor in ‘Oppenheimer,’ and I think it was well-deserved. I would’ve also liked it if Colman Domingo won, but this was a pretty obvious pick that made sense.
  • Robert Downey Jr. won Best Supporting Actor, also for ‘Oppenheimer.’ This was also a deserved win, though I was also partial to Robert De Niro. Still, a good victory.
  • Arguably the most controversial win of the night was Emma Stone for Best Actress in ‘Poor Things.’ A lot of people really wanted Lily Gladstone to win for her role in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ as did I after watching the film. However, I think both actresses did well in each of their roles; Emma Stone may have been my 2nd choice for the award, but she still did a great job in her respective film. I don’t really like getting up-in-arms over this subject, as I find it weird to be so heated over real people; it’s a bit cruel.
  • Finally last for the Acting category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘The Holdovers.’ This was another easy pick, but again, a deserving choice.

Now that we’ve talked about the 4 actor awards, we can finally get into the bulk of the winners.

  • ‘The Boy and the Heron’ won for Best Animated Feature, which was my favorite out of the nominees. I was sure that the ‘Spiderman’ movie from June was going to win, but I’m glad it didn’t. My 2nd choice for the win was ‘Robot Dreams,’ actually.
  • ‘Oppenheimer’ won for cinematography, which was alright. I preferred ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’s’ staging, but this was alright.
  • ‘Poor Things’ got Costume Design, which is pretty cool. I don’t have a dramatic opinion on this category compared to others, so this was just a nice win.
  • Best Director went to Christopher Nolan, also for ‘Oppenheimer.’ I’m happy with this; he hasn’t won the award yet despite multiple past nominations, so this was cool to see. My runner-up was Jonathan Glazer for ‘The Zone of Interest,’ however.
  • Documentary Feature Film was given to ‘20 Days in Mariupol.’ I haven’t seen it, but I’m sure it was deserved.
  • To follow that up, ‘The Last Repair Shop’ won for Documentary Short Film. I also haven’t seen this, and my 2nd choice was ‘Nai Nai and Wai Po,’ which I watched prior to the ceremony.
  • Film Editing went to ‘Oppenheimer,’ which was alright. Similar to Cinematography, I preferred ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’s’ editing, but it’s whatever.
  • ‘The Zone of Interest’ won the award for International Feature Film. It’s a bit annoying how obvious it was; it’s the only nominee to be up for Best Picture; of course it was going to win. That’s nothing against it, but just a stray thought.
  • Makeup and Hairstyling is another category I don’t care too much about. The award went to ‘Poor Things’ which was deserved.
  • ‘Oppenheimer’ won the award for Original Score, which was a great choice. A bit of an easy pick, but if there’s one category ‘Oppenheimer’ should’ve won over any other, it’s this one.
  • ‘What Was I Made For?’ By Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell got Original Song, which was a fine choice. I liked ‘I’m Just Ken’ and ‘Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)’ more, but this was an obvious win.
  • ‘Poor Things’ won for Production Design, which was a good win. ‘Barbie’ had my vote, but this was alright.
  • I haven’t seen any films in the Animated Shorts category, so I can’t say much on that front. The winner was ‘War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko.’
  • ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ got the pick for Live Action Short Film, which was awesome. This is Wes Anderson’s first win at the Oscars, which was great. It was my pick for the award and I was so happy to see it win.
  • Another awesome win was ‘The Zone of Interest’ getting the award for Best Sound. I love ‘Oppenheimer,’ and I was so sure it was winning this category, so seeing a surprise victory for a lesser-known film was cool. My 2nd choice was ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.’
  • The last of this trio for awesome wins was ‘Godzilla Minus One’ for Visual Effects. This was the franchise’s first nomination at the Oscars, so it was nice to see them win, too.
  • For the 2 screenplay awards, ‘American Fiction’ won the award for Adapted Screenplay, and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ for Original Screenplay. Both deserving picks, especially for the latter.

Finally, ‘Oppenheimer’ won Best Picture, cementing it the biggest winner of the night, with 7 wins. ‘Poor Things’ came next with 4 awards, and ‘The Zone of Interest’ in 3rd place with 2. Some widely-acclaimed films went home with no awards, including ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ ‘Maestro,’ ‘Past Lives,’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ ‘Napoleon’ and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

The ceremony had a lot of good picks overall, and was fun to watch.

Badminton, Golf, Lacrosse, Scoreboard/Schedule, Softball, Tennis

Sports schedule for: Apr 1-6

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  ATHLETIC EVENTS SCHEDULE: APRIL 1 – APRIL 6  
MONDAYAPRIL 1 
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
  Boys / Girls Lacrosse BeginsCentral High School
4:00pm Badminton vs. CentralHOME
TUESDAYAPRIL 2
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
V – 3:00pm Boys Golf vs. TartanOak Marsh Golf Course
4:00pm3:10pm | 7:30pmVarsity Badminton InviteEdina High School
WEDNESDAYAPRIL 3
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
    
THURSDAYAPRIL 4
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
V – 3:00pm Boys Golf vs. SPA & TartanHighland National GC
4:00pm Badminton vs. Como ParkHOME
V – 4:00pm JV – 4:00pm Boys Tennis vs. Cretin-Derham HallV: CDH JV: HOME
4:30pm V/JV Softball Scrimmage  vs. VisitationVisitation School
FRIDAYAPRIL 5
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
V – 4:00pm JV – 4:00pm Boys Tennis vs. RosevilleV: HOME JV: Roseville High School
SATURDAYAPRIL 6
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION