NWN Anchor Ramsan Younatham is sitting with his co-anchor in Broadcasting class, editing their script for the forthcoming morning announcements. The script looks like the usual stuff they say on the NWN: sports meetings, information about textbook returns, and yet another announcement about Volleyball open gyms. Ramsan scrolls to the middle of the google doc to an announcement about the Girls Track and Field Meeting, and edits it to say, “Girls Track and Field (which is technically not even a sport) will have a meeting today after school. “It just so happens his co-anchor senior Lindsey Karp, is one of the captains of girls track and field. Unsurprisingly, Ram is quickly punched in the arm for his audacity.
“Oh gosh, well… he’s a good asset to the class, for is funniness and creativity. I don’t know what this class would be like without him,” says Karp of Ramsan.
Behind the scenes of the announcements, Ramsan acts like he has done them every day of his life, for he appears calm, cool, and collected. He has a basketball game later today, so he’s wearing a gray sweater, with black dress pants and dress shoes. After the necessary light and teleprompter checks are done, Ram and Lindsey run through the show for practice. Ram tries out his “ooooohhhhh!” in a girlish voice and his “This book is one semester only” in a robotic droid voice. In between commercials, Ram managed to take a vote- saying, “All in favor of Lindsey getting hair tips from her sister raise your hand!” in addition to making a fake fart sound in order to blame it on Lindsey, saying, “Ewww Lindsey that’s gross, that smells like 10 bucks right there, hey, make sure to put that in the paper”–and also continued to beg her to go to Turnabout with him.
After practicing, the blinking red light on the three cameras facing the immense green screen goes on, Lindsey intros the announcements; Ram gives a quick smile; and the announcements begin.
You may have seen him on the morning announcements, his “Ram VS” skit, or on the basketball court, but do you really know senior Ramsan Younatham? Did you happen to know that his favorite color is green, his favorite movie is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, his favorite basketball player is Reggie Miller, and his mom’s chicken and rice is his favorite food?
Ramsan wakes up early this morning to do his homework. He had a late practice last night and got home at around nine, so it was straight to bed for him. A few minutes before he’s ready to leave his Morton Grove home, he remotely activates his car with his keys. He brushes his teeth, gargles some Listrine, takes the lunch that his mom has made him (what a great mom!) and heads off. He picks up two of his friends and parks in the same section of the lot every morning. Much like his classmates, his schedules in and out of school rarely change.
Broadcasting, taught by teacher and freshman basketball coach Eric Lueder, is Ramsan’s first class of the day.
“Ramsan does very well as an anchor for us. He’s definitely our funniest and by far most requested anchor by students and teachers alike. They’re always asking me ‘When will Ramsan be on?’ People love his ‘Ram VS’ skit, so he’s very popular with everyone in the school,” says Lueder.
Overall, Ram likes being an NWN anchor, but he does have some complaints.
“It’s fun, but I still say the lights are too hot, and my teachers say I talk too fast or something, I’m not really sure. I mean, I like skits like ‘Ram VS’ more.”
As for the speed of his voice, Lueder recognizes it as one of his small flaws, saying with a chuckle, “Well, it’s true that he needs to bring down his speed, but we’re working on it.”
When asked about “Ram VS,” Ram was, surprisingly, humble (quite the opposite of his incarnation).
“Well, it was actually my idea. When broadcasting took a field trip to WGN, I saw they had a skit called ‘Pat VS’, so I thought, why don’t we do ‘Ram VS’? Oh, and I can’t talk about this without giving a shout out to Vishal Piryani and Lindsey Karp. They’re way more involved in it than I am. I mean, the skit’s name is Ram Vs, so you’d think I’d be the most involved, but no. They’re, like, the best editors I’ve ever seen come through here.”
Ramsan is taking some pretty challenging classes (such as Astronomy and Trigonometry/Pre-Calc), but the hardest part of his day comes after the last bell has rung.
“After school, I go to basketball practice, and… it’s tough. Not just physically, but mentally, but that’s what a sport is, right? I love it, so I keep coming back.”
Ramsan has been on a member of the Varsity Basketball team since his sophomore year and has been playing organized basketball since he was in 5th grade. He also played club basketball up until last year; however, this has been his, and the team’s, most successful year.
“Over the last few years, we’ve really grown into great players,” he said. “Our basketball IQ has improved a bunch, we run plays better, our fundamentals are better, and we’re faster, stronger, and more skilled. Us seniors have really been preparing for our final year, but we haven’t even peaked yet. We’re a good team, but there’s always room for improvement.”
As captain of the team, Ram tries to lead as best he can.
“I try to lead by example, if my teammates see me do well, then it helps the team get better, but I’m mainly a vocal leader. I feel like even though I’m the captain, the main leader of our team is still our coach, Bob Williams. He teaches us a lot about not only about the game, but about life. It’s beyond basketball. I definitely consider him as my role model. I’m getting all sentimental here,” says Ram with a chuckle,“but I really mean it.”
While at practice, it’s clear that Ram is very hard-working; he takes basketball very seriously and works very hard in order to get better; but it’s also clear he’s having boat loads of fun. He’s always smiling and enjoying practice even though it might be tough. He also never gets down on his teammates or himself.
During a practice scrimmage, coach Williams noticed that one of the players on the team opposing Ramsan was bouncing the ball off the backboard too low while going for a lay-up. Even though he made the lay-up every time, there was always something to critique. After a few tries, Ramsan began chanting and clapping to support him. Soon, the whole team followed. Vocal leader sounds like a good description to me.
Head basketball coach Robert Williams speaks highly of Ramsan as well, saying, “He’s a great captain, player, and kid. The thing with Ramsan is, he’s not only a great basketball player, he’s a great person, which is what really matters.”
