Facebook recently bought Instagram for  $1 billion dollars, showing how valuable this app has become. But somehow only half of BHS students know Instagram is even though the app is gaining popularity rapidly.

In October 2010, Instagram was launched into Apple’s App Store. The application allows users to make an account on their mobile devices, and lets them upload pictures. Users can edit photos with the app’s photo filters. The photos are cropped into a square shape, like a Kodak Polaroid image: this is Instagram’s signature edit. You also have the option to directly upload the images to other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“Instagram is a really quick and easy way to edit my pictures,” said Senior Shanlee Braun. “I like having an app at my fingertips. It’s convenient.”

Many people see Instagram as “just another social networking site,” as opposed to others who see it as an artistic outlet. People compare the app to Pinterest and Tumblr, but there are many differences between them: unlike Pinterest and Tumblr, Instagram is restricted to only being an app, and the pictures can only be accessed over the internet if they have been shared to other websites.

Facebook is not only a site that you can upload your Instagram images to; in April 2012, Facebook became the parent site of Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, bought the mobile company and its’ 13 employees for around $1 billion in cash and stock.

“I do not have an Instagram simply because I don’t have a smart phone,” said Junior Maddie Loomis, “I wish I could have one though. It seems pretty cool.”

The future for this app’s popularity is looking bright, and subscriptions should continue increasing. At BHS, about 16% of students have an Instagram account, but there are over 30 million users in the world. With these growing statistics, there is no doubt that the company will continue to expand.

Saturday’s game was played to honor Sam Munoz. Sam was a Buffalo baseball player who died in a car accident when he was a sophomore. He loved baseball and every year the varsity team plays a game in memory of Sam.

Junior Jason Senger pitched the whole game.

“Saturday was so much fun to play in front of a huge crowd and win a close game,” said Senger. “We beat a very good team and hopefully we can carry that win to sections. Everybody played that game for Sam, because he loved the game of baseball.”

The Bison were down 3-1 going into the 7th inning, it was their last chance to come back. With bases loaded junior Brennan Gilyard ripped a base hit into the outfield scoring two runs to tie the game. Next, with runners in scoring position Chaska moved in an outfielder to have 5 infielders to try and stop the runners from scoring. Senior Tim Kunze hit a base hit to right field scoring the winning run.

“Coming out with a win against a good team like Chaska shows a lot about our team,” said Senior Colton Haight. “It puts us in a good spot for sections to push farther into the playoffs. It’s the way Sam would have wanted to be remembered, with us playing the good game he loved.”

The Bison’s next game is Saturday when they face New Prague in Sections.

Photos by Mariah Brings

Sophomore Andrew Iverson was the starting pitcher in the game. He pitched into the 6th inning, then junior Brennan Gilyard came into pitch.

In the 5th inning, with runners in scoring position, a routine ground ball was hit to short stop junior Jared Wycoff who fielded the ball and fired to first, the first basemen, sophomore Mitch missed the ball and two runs scored. Later in the inning with bases loaded, Iverson walked two batters adding two runs to the Chanhassen lead.

Iverson started pitching the 6th inning and had the runners in scoring position when Chanhassen hit a double to score two. Junior Brennan Gilyard came in to finish the game and gave up one run before ending the inning.

Senior Colton Haight gave a great effort during the game playing catcher. He blocked almost every ball thrown in the dirt.

The Bison lost the non-conference game against Chanhassen with a final score of 8-3.

Tonight the Bison take on conference rival the Big Lake Blue Jackets, 4:30 at home.

Photos by Mariah Brings

Sophomore Mitchel Annis through Friday’s complete game shut out. Junior Jared Wycoff started off the first inning with a solo home run. Senior J.D. O’Donnell also had a two run home run in the fifth inning. “It felt good hitting and scoring because as a team we haven’t been producing as much runs as we should be,” said O’Donnell.

On the defensive side, Senior catcher Colton Haight threw out all four attempted steals by Fridley.

“I think that putting together timely hits and trusting the defense to make plays behind our pitcher has really put us in control of each game, we all enjoy playing together,” said Haight about Tuesdays win.

Tuesday night against Becker, junior Jared Wycoff had 3 hits and Sophomore Mitchel Annis hit a 3-run home run.

The Bison take on their Conference rival, the St. Michael Knights, at 4:30 at St. Michael Thursday night.

Photos by Mariah Brings

It was a tough start for the Bison when Rogers started off by scoring 4 in the first inning. They were all earned runs. The Bison didn’t give up and added two runs in the 3rd inning.

In the 5th inning the Bison were down 6-5. Junior Jared Wycoff had his first at bats since injuring his hand and hit a double in the 6th inning and scored. The Bison would add hits from sophomore Andrew Iverson, Senior Nick Mattson,and Senior Colton Haight to put the Bison up 9-6 in the 6th. Sophomore Andrew Iverson went 3-4.

Junior Jason Senger started pitching the game and gave up 6 runs, he pitched into the 7th inning until giving up a couple hits then Junior Brennan Gilyard came into the game to pitch. Gilyard got the next three batters to finish the game with a Bison win of 9-6.

The Bison are now 1-1 in the conference. They play Monticello, away at 4:30 on Thursday for another conference match up.

photos by Mariah Brings 

Senger started the 8th inning and gave up two-run home run. The Bison defense couldn’t stop the Bluejackets in the 8th inning and they scored three runs putting them ahead 5-2. Senger started pitching the 8th inning and gave up two-run home run. Senior J.D. O’Donnell came into relief for Senger and gave up one run before they finally retired the Bluejackets. Buffalo didn’t answer back and fell to Cambridge-Isanti 5-2.

Buffalo’s next games aren’t until Saturday where they’re on the road to Wilmer to play Wilmer and New Prague. Neither are conference match ups. The Bison have a record of 0-3 overall, and 0-1 in the conference.

The Bison’s next conference game is Tuesday April 17th against Rogers at home.

The grass was bright green which is unusual for Minnesota in middle March. The grass was imported from Colorado. Underneath the grass they have various types of dirt layered. When it rains the soil will absorb the water and the field can stay dry enough to play. The field can hold seven inches of rain per hour, this reduces the amount of rain delays the Minnesota Twins will face during the season. They recycle the water that falls, some of it is cleansed and used for drinking water.

The stadium is ironically built next to a trash burning facility but it works out well for both Target Field and the trash burning facility.   The field is heated during the winter consistently 33-36 degrees. All of the burning of the trash happens within the facility. Target Field uses the steam and heat from the burning to heat the coils under the grass so it’s recycled heat! There has been no complaints about the smell of the trash. Target Field puts air “febreeze” so the smell does’t reach the field.

The field is built like a cup cake. Small at the bottom then moves outward as the stadium gets higher. Target Field has the smallest footprint in all of baseball.

Inside the building the designers tried to incorporate the Twins history and as many Minnesota items and symbols as they could. Every corporate suite in the stadium is named after a Minnesota lake. The American flag is the same flag they used in the original Metropolitan stadium. The only difference is Target Field had to cut the flag pole down from 90 ft. to 45 ft. so it could fit in the building. There are five gates for Target field. Left Field gate is #6 in honor of Tony Oliva. Center field gate is #3 honoring Harmon Killebrew. Target Plaza gate in right field is #34 in honor of Kirby Puckett. Right field gate is #29 in tribute to Rod Carew. Home Plate gate is #14 in honor of Kent Hrbek. The Target Plaza gate has 9 topiary frames shaped like bats 40 ft. high. Each lights up according to what inning it is. If it’s the 5th inning five bats are lit up. This way Twins fans that aren’t at the game know what inning it is.

Each game Target Field goes through on average 250 kegs of beer and 20,000 bottles of beer. They have 15 rooms that are just keg rooms. In the stadium they have 15 miles of piping that just carries beer throughout the entire stadium.

Click the Infograph below to enlarge it.

The last time the Bison met with STMA, the Buffalo girls came out strong and defeated the St. Michael Knights 57-44. Last year, the Bison beat STMA to not only win the conference, but also to take the section title and advance to state.

Tuesday, to start the game the Knights started with hitting a three point shot seconds after tip-off. The Bison trailed the entire first half. Buffalo had difficulties under the solid defensive pressure from the Knights and fell behind 19-22 at the half.

The Knights led off the scoring in the second half as well, but the Bison kept fighting. Jamie High tied the game with a lay-up to tie the game 24-24. The Bison led by five with six minutes left in the game. It was their biggest lead so far. Both teams were in double bonus near the end of the game. The Bison clinched the conference title and held on to the traveling trophy when they defeated the Knights with a final score of 44-39.

Senior Jamie High led the Bison with a career high of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Emily Spier added 11 points and Senior Alexa Thielman 9 points in the Bison victory. Thielman also had 6 steals and Spier had 2 blocks. The Bison’s strong defense held the Knights leading scorer Christine Thorn, averaging 16.2 per game,   to 4 points.

Winning this game the Bison are still undefeated in the conference with a conference record of 11-0 and overall record of 22-3. They play their last regular season game, which is also senior night, tomorrow at home against Cambridge-Isanti. Buffalo is the number 1 seed for section 8AAAA and will play Brainerd on Tuesday February 28.