Lunch Frenzy
By Dmitry Gordeev and Ella Nejat
There has been a lot of dispute going on in the CGPS community about out-lunch, whether it be the best food inside of the boundary lines or the fairness of the amount of time allotted to eat. Many students believe that there are a plethora of options for places to go and eat in the restricted area given, but some think that it's hard to go out and eat on the same day when they have clubs. Although it is difficult to have enough time to eat, these students expressed a keen understanding of the importance of the time for clubs.
When asked if the time restrictions bothered her or others, sophomore Brooke Nussenblatt responded, “I feel like the clubs should be a different section of time. It’s too little time to go out and get other food within twenty minutes, but, besides that, I think lunch is fine.”
A person who asked to remain anonymous said that they felt that: “if you want to go to a restaurant, but your order takes a long time to come...you might not have enough time to eat once the food comes comfortably.”
Another strong opinion seen in almost everyone interviewed was that people wanted the border restriction to include Chipotle, located down the block from Whole Foods. The way students described their craving for the cheap food made Columbia students' mouths drool. Sophomore Mia Grasso and sophomore Mia Negrin both were very assertive in fighting for a future containing the hope of entering the “Push To Open” doors of that holy Chipotle.
Unlike the rest of the prep school, who can go out for lunch every day, freshmen can only leave the building for lunch a couple of days of the week. The rest of the days must be spent eating inside.
When asked how she felt about these rules, freshman Ava Kahn said, “I don’t like them. I want to go out to lunch every day, and we are in high school.” Although she has passionate opinions against these rules, she tells us she thinks they are somewhat fair, as they are freshmen. Still, she told us that she prefers to go out to lunch and hang out with larger groups of friends and enjoy some of her food places, such as Joe & The Juice, Sweetgreen, and Trader Joe’s.
While Ava has been attending Columbia for many years, many ninth-graders are new and haven’t had the opportunity to forge many friendships yet. Because of COVID and the importance of practicing social distancing, only four people are allowed per table in the cafeteria. For new freshmen, this makes it harder to meet people and to socialize.
When we asked Ava how some of her more recent friends are limited by these rules, she expressed, “If you happen to run into someone at a restaurant, you could sit down with them, and it could, you know, create friendships.” But this is taken away from these students most days of the week.
There is no doubt that, within the limits, there are some fantastic, mouth-watering food places to stop for lunch. Sophomore Mysha Javeri shared her love for cheese pizza from Little Italy Pizza on 92nd and Broadway. Sophomore Tali Smith commented on the same place. She said, “Such good service and kind people. The pizza is amazing and is such a great experience.” Next to those places, one can find Joe the Juice for a tasty drink, or even just a great cup of coffee. In addition, one freshman says it’s hard to resist the school's amazing churros.
If that isn’t enough variety, sophomore Sammie Ray told us that she loves Whole Foods and can always find something she’s in the mood for there. Just down the street from the school, on 93rd and Columbus, is the Mila Café. Another student told us, “While this café excels in freshly made grilled cheese and french fries, it’s nothing compared to the Columbia Prep sandwich, named after the school. I mean, it’s nice to know that the love for these restaurants goes both ways!”
A Glimpse Into the Life of Coach Pettit
By Jamie Appelbaum
Coach Pettit grew up in Gloversville, NY, a small city between Montreal and New York City. Ever since he can remember, basketball has played an important role in his life. He has a younger brother who played a key role in helping him discover his passion for teaching the sport. Through coaching his little “bro” and helping him improve, he was able to identify the field he hoped to work in. During his undergraduate years, Coach Pettit played basketball at Manhattanville College while majoring in history. He saw history as an “intellectual outlet to go along with sports,” and an opportunity to expand his horizons beyond sports. After graduating, Coach Pettit attended Teachers College at Columbia University and began the track to his teaching career.
Before Columbia Prep, Coach Pettit worked in various coaching positions, including ones at summer basketball camps at Duke, UNC, Clemson, UF, or as he likes to call them, “the big-name schools.” Eventually, he found his way to Columbia Prep where he has coached basketball for 20 seasons. In his first year, he was the middle school basketball coach, then the junior varsity coach, and then head coach for the boy's varsity team. His favorite part of the job is watching his athletes grow and mature within the program.
He said, “it has been a lot of fun to maintain a connection with athletes after they graduate.”
His first co-captains on basketball graduated in 2006, and are both married now. He’s glad they still stay in touch.
Coach Pettit named all of the different roles he has filled at Columbia Grammar, and they are: Strength and Conditioning Coach, Girls Varsity Soccer Assistant Coach, Boys Varsity Basketball Coach, Powerlifting Coach, and Physical Education Teacher.
One of his favorite parts about working at CGPS is working with some of his best friends like Coach Chappell, Mr. Grande, and Mr. Hoek. They coach Girls Varsity Soccer together where they have led the team to ten consecutive league championships.
He also loves the school’s community and thinks there is a “legitimate special relationship between teachers and students that doesn’t exist in many other places.” He considers Columbia Prep to be “our small community within the bigger city of New York.”
You may have seen Coach Pettit walking through the halls with some snazzy new kicks from time to time, but he would like everyone to know he is not a sneaker collector nor a “sneakerhead.” It’s not a hobby of his and he doesn’t attend events like Sneaker Con. Coach Pettit simply likes sneakers and finds them to be a cool form of artistic expression. As a bonus, his wife works in fashion so she is able to get him a cool new pair from time to time.
When asked if he has any advice for the Columbia Prep student body, he said, “live the dream.” So students, live the dream.
CGPS Pink Day
By Leonardo Liu
In the fall, the CGPS community gathered together, celebrating Pink Day to bring awareness to breast cancer. At CGPS, Pink Day is a special tradition where the students and teachers are encouraged to wear pink. This year, the student government held a successful Pink Day Merch Sale and raised around $5,000. The proceeds from the merch sale were donated to Breast Cancer Awareness foundations.
The Girls Varsity Volleyball Team has a significant role during Pink Day, playing their annual volleyball game. But what exactly is the correlation between Girls Volleyball and Pink Day?
Varsity Volleyball athlete junior Victoria Robbins explains, “Dig Pink is breast cancer awareness; we wear it for volleyball to support breast cancer awareness. Hopefully, more people can come to the game to show support not only to our team but also to breast cancer awareness.”
Dig Pink is a national volleyball event by the Side-Out Foundation. It began when the future founder of Side-Out’s mother developed stage IV breast cancer. Since he was a high school varsity volleyball coach at the time, he did much of his fundraising and spreading awareness at volleyball events. He later began Side-Out to challenge the foundations of cancer care, combining it with his passion for volleyball.
This year, however, due to Covid-19 protocols, there are not a lot of parents or students attending the girls’ volleyball games. The CGPS volleyball players are quite unhappy with the lack of attendance. Although there is not a clear solution because we are in a pandemic, the girls expressed their disappointment.
Juniors Sammi Shaw and Corie Meyerowich, two other members of the Girls Varsity Volleyball Team, said, “People not coming to our games lowers our energy.”
Victoria Robbins added, “It’s really sad, it makes us less motivated.”
Mr. Grande commented on the unfortunate situation due to covid, saying, “Early on in the season we had very strict regulations in place. There were really no spectators except for students and faculty in the building, and as the season slowly progressed, we were able to get some parents in. For playoffs and the last few home matches, two parents for each student-athlete could come into the gym. It was unfortunate we weren’t able to get outside spectators in for the Pink Day game, but I still think we had a nice turnout with students and faculty.”
How can we do a better job of cheering up the athletes? This year, students in the CGPS community gathered as a whole and attended the Pink Day Volleyball Game. Both the fans and players wore pink. During the game, the North Gym roared with cheers and chants. The girls ended up obliterating Trevor Day, the opponent team.
This year’s Pink Day was a huge success. Not only did the school raise money and awareness for breast cancer, but the CGPS volleyball team also won. It is great to see how CGPS is slowly going back to normal. Let’s continue showing off school spirit. Go CGPS Lions!
Girls’ Varsity Soccer
By Sam Federman
The Columbia Prep Girls’ Varsity Soccer team has long been a highly regarded team at the school. I sat down with the team’s head coach, math teacher, and tenth-grade dean, Mr. Chappell, to discuss the season thus far.
I first asked Mr. Chappell about how his team was affected by the COVID year. Specifically, I asked about losing seniors who would not be able to play, as well as losing the full year of development. Mr. Chappell said that he was in the same exact situation as many other New York schools: the club soccer players were able to continue playing at a high level, but the girls who did not play outside of school were a bit rustier. He emphasized that the difference between some of these schools is how many club players they have.
Clearly, the Lions were well-suited, as at the time of this writing, they were well on their way to clinch their tenth consecutive regular-season championship. They played some tough non-league games, learned lessons from them, and they sat undefeated in first place in the league. They appeared poised to make another deep playoff run.
Mr. Chappell said that his favorite part of the team’s growth was the passion and enthusiasm in the team culture. He conveyed that sixty percent of the team was playing their first varsity soccer season, so the development of the team’s culture and enthusiasm that one can see at their games and around school was impressive. Mr. Chappell continued, “To learn to love each other and play together so quickly has been really fantastic.”
When asked what part of his team’s growth he is most proud of, Mr. Chappell stated that communication is something that he takes pride in. He also expressed that his team’s ability to face adversity, to come back every day, and to continue to work were other aspects that made him proud. He said that this Lions program is set up well, with great senior leadership having established the culture, and he says that you will only go as far as your culture takes you. Mr. Chappell is optimistic about both the near and distant future.
I took in a game against Lycée Français on September 27th, and the Lions took an early 1-0 lead when an attacker found tons of space in the box and slotted a goal home after just eight minutes and forty-two seconds. The rest of the first half was a battle of attrition, with Columbia mainly controlling possession. The opponents’ key player was shut down, and the Lions went into the second half with the lead. With the ball falling into vacated space in the goal area in the beginning of the second half, Columbia was able to quickly double their lead. It took an absolutely incredible shot from outside the box for the opponents to get on the board five minutes later, but the Lions continued to control the flow of the game. A bit more was asked of the CGPS goalkeeper, Jamie Appelbaum, in half number two, but the Lions persevered and opened up a 3-1 lead in the sixty-ninth minute with another goal. In the last ten minutes of the game, the Lions added two more goals, and they walked off of the field with a 5-1 win.
It was a great performance by the team, and it was a part of their undefeated run to start the league season. The Girls’ Varsity Soccer team won their league, the New York City Athletic League (NYCAL), and their league tournament, but they sadly lost to Poly Prep in their States Tournament. We cannot wait to see what the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team will accomplish next year!