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LANCER
Volume LV, Issue 3 • December 16, 2022
Thousand Oaks High School
2323 N. Moorpark Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
7 • Winter Performances
8-9 • Home for the Holidays
12-13 • Basketball Preview
TOHS Dance, Band and Choir perform for friends, family and peers leading up to the holiday season.
The Lancer takes a look at everything that makes the holiday season festive and fun.
Boys and girls basketball squads have big goals for upcoming league season, which begins in January.
26 GAMES 19 WINS 8 LOSSES I’ll always bleed green, and I hope to watch TOHS football continue to grow and win.
EVAN YABU
Yabu leaves TOHS, joins Notre Dame MICAH RODRIGUEZ Sports Editor
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Head football coach says goodbye after historic 10-0 regular season
A month after the TOHS football season ended with a 10-1 season, including the first undefeated regular season in Lancers history, head coach Evan Yabu announced on Dec. 11 he was leaving the program to take the head coaching position at Notre Dame. In just three years, the former Lancers player-turnedcoach revived the team from a 25-game losing streak before he got the position into a playoff squad during his final two years of his tenure. “While I’m excited about the next step in the journey, my heart is torn to be leaving the amazing Thousand Oaks High School community,” Yabu said in a text message to The Lancer. “I love this place, and the people who make it the place it is. The administration, faculty and student body have been incredibly
supportive. The parents and alumni encouraged our spirit, day in and day out.” Prior to returning to Thousand Oaks, Yabu had a brief run as wide receivers coach at Camarillo High following a three-year stint at Moorpark College, where he began as a special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2017. He rejoined a Lancer program in 2020 that had fallen on tough times, and all eyes were on him to change the direction of the team. While principal Dr. Eric Bergmann initially took a risk in bringing in a young and inexperienced head coach into the program, the result was a high reward. “I owe a massive thank you to Dr. Bergmann for taking a chance on a young, first-year head coach in the winter of 2020,” Yabu said. “He changed my life for the better that day and for that I’m forever grateful.”
Notre Dame reached out to Yabu in early December about their coaching vacancy, left open by the retirement of former head coach Joe McNab, who was an assistant with the Knights for nearly four decades before becoming head coach in 2020. “I am extremely excited about being able to hire Evan Yabu as our next head football coach,” Notre Dame athletic director Alec Moss said in a statement announcing his hire. “Evan’s name continuously came up as a coach who has immense passion for the game of football, for his ability to develop talent and because he cares deeply for the well-being of his athletes.” The allure of coaching at a private school with abundant resources was too much to pass up for Yabu. “I will miss seeing the players and coaches everyday,” Yabu told The Lancer. “I’ll always bleed green, and I hope to watch TOHS football continue to grow. God bless and go TO.”
Present and Future Lancers Future Lancer Night offers a chance for incoming 8th graders to learn about activities, athletics and academics on their soon-to-be campus RYAN WEBER Staff Writer On December 7th, track and field team captain Jeremy Frank stood at a booth handing out team merch and talking to many of the hundreds of 8th graders that showed up to Future Lancer Night. It was all with one goal in mind: To recruit as many people as possible to his team to preserve the integrity of the sport for the future of the program. “Potential freshmen become actual seniors one day,” Frank said. “In four years, these potential freshmen are the people spearheading our programs, the ones winning the championships, the ones creating that team culture and environment that we want to create and maintain.” The track team was just one of dozens of athletic, academic and recreational programs present at Future Lancer Night for the exact same purpose. Organizations such as the swim, soccer and volleyball teams, ASB, Academic Decathlon, The Center for Advanced Studies and Research and the Environmental Club, whose president, Ramon Moreno, espoused the same ideas as Frank. “With Future Lancer Night, we hope to draw as many as possible to our booth and to sign them up for Environmental Club, because environmental awareness is important,” Moreno said. “Freshmen are the future, and without them, there will be no legacy to carry on for our club.” How do they recruit future freshmen? For Moreno, it’s a simple process with a simple outcome.
“[We] kind of work as a team to lure people in,” Moreno said. The gym was abuzz throughout the evening with club leaders and members approaching and persuading eighth graders to join their organizations. Every club offered goodies of some kind, ranging from candy from some clubs to sports like track and field giving away branded bags. The free candy and inspiring recruitment speeches didn’t go unappreciated, as the future freshmen on the receiving end of these proposals generally left with a positive view of Thousand Oaks and its many clubs. Teran Stillwaggon, a potential freshman coming from Santa Rosa, spoke glowingly of Thousand Oaks after seeing Lancers in action. “It’s been a very welcoming environment, and it just makes me excited for high school,” Stillwaggon said. The gym full of clubs portrayed TO to 8th graders as an open community filled with chances to get involved with a variety of school leadership and activities. “There are a lot of opportunities here, so it’s been very educating to learn about what the school has to offer,” Stillwaggon said. The intent of the event for club leaders was not only to secure future members for their programs, but to demonstrate TO’s inclusive and supportive environment. “The track program is an incredible program,” Frank said. “We offer an inclusive, encouraging environment for all sorts of athletes to better themselves and become part of a community working towards a common goal.”
PHOTO » REMINGTON BEAUDOIN » THE LANCER
WARM WELCOME — Kayleigh May and Ava Johnson place stickers on hot chocolate packets to pass out at The Center Table.
1! 2! 3! Victory for Band! PHOTO » CHASE THOMAS » WITH PERMISSION
ALL THE RIGHT NOTES— The Lancer Band poses after their successful competition held at Downey High School.
RILEY KEELER Staff Writer
The Thousand Oaks High School Marching Band took second place against a field of 12 competitors in Division 3A at the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association Championships on Nov. 19. The band works from the summer through the beginning of November, and this year their practice and performance paid off with the silver medal performance. At the state competition, they lived up to expectations under the leadership of drum major Chase Thomas. “I’ve always had a kind of thing for conducting,” Thomas said. “I went to camp in Indiana and I went for the drum major track so I learned a lot about conducting and leadership.”