january 20, 2015
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Volume 71 Number 15TRANSCRIPT
Volume 71, No. 15 January 20, 2015
Pages 6-7Meet the students on the Vipers’ dance teamA bunch of Charmers
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The Rio Grande Valley is the fourth sickest area in the U.S. according to USA Today. The report came in the midst of the current flu season and a muta-tion in the latest influenza virus has resulted in the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion predicting “this season may be severe.” The disease is widespread in 46 states includ-ing Texas. So far 26 children have died in total, one a 4-year-old boy from Port Isabel.
Flu season lasts from early October to late March and usually peaks in February. Mutations in the virus, called “drifts,” occur every year and sometimes during flu season. Because of a drift that formed around the start of October, the
CDC s a i d the cur-ren t l y - a c t i ve vaccines lack the anti-bodies to fight the widest circu-lating virus known as H3N2. This has diminished the dose’s effectiveness from the usual 61 percent to 23 percent and UTPA Assistant Nursing Pro-fessor Beatriz Bautista ex-plained why.
“The strain is more aggres-sive than we thought it was going to be. Because the vac-cination content, the viruses that are put together through
the World
H e a l t h Organization, are recom-
mended in the spring time. It takes about six months for them to put it together,” she said. “The WHO gives a list of the viruses that will be here next year and the FDA puts the vaccine together, then the CDC does the rest, but this mutation isn’t covered by the vaccine.”
However, Bautista believes getting vaccinated is still the best defense against the highly-
contagious flu.On its website the CDC
warns that this disease can spread up to six feet away from an infected individual if they cough, sneeze or even speak. This allows droplets of the vi-rus to land on an individual’s mouth or be inhaled. Another method of inoculation is com-ing into contact with an in-fected surface then touching the face.
According to the CDC, 60 percent of Americans did not receive their vaccination last season. They are also report-ing higher hospital visits with influenza-like illnesses, or ILIs, compared to the previ-ous season. However, the Texas Department of State Health Service’s most recent influenza
surveillance report indicated activity is going down, decreas-ing by 3.64 percent during the week of Jan. 4, - Jan. 10. The week prior it had increased by 4.34 percent.
Bautista, who also works as a doctor at the Preventive Care Institute in McAllen, said she has been seeing more patients with ILIs this season than in past years. Local hospitals have noted spikes in infected indi-viduals recently with doctors in Cameron County seeing more than 450 patients with flu-like symptoms every week. Dr. Adrian Sandoval, lead profes-sor of pharmacotherapy labora-tory courses at the University, believes locals are particularly vulnerable to infection for vari-ous reasons.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
By May OrtegaThe Pan American
Jan. 20 - 29
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Francisco Rodriguez/ The Pan American
January 20, 20152 opinion
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Letters to the editor
Loud. That’s how my friends and family would sum me up in a single word, and it’s true.
“May, I could hear you from down the hall” is a phrase I hear often. I laugh loudly, speak loudly; even my whispers can be heard from across the room.
But I also quiet down to lis-ten to others. Learning about people’s experiences and their beliefs help me expand my views. Their stories present
things in a light that I’ve never considered and that’s helped me become more open minded throughout my life.
That’s why I became a jour-nalist. I use my love of writing to tell these people’s stories to a mass audience in hopes that they will learn about a life be-yond their own as well. From an army-training beauty queen to the mourning family at the center of a local murder, each
story is as unique as the indi-viduals who are kind enough to tell me about their struggles and successes. I’ve learned something from every article I’ve written and passing that knowledge on to my communi-ty through what I love doing is more rewarding than anything else I’ve ever done.
After more than two years at The Pan American I’ve climbed the ranks to become one of two
editors-in-chief this semester. As I rise and prosper with a tal-ented staff by my side, so will this paper. I can talk all I want but my capabilities will ulti-mately translate through this publication’s quality of work.
I have big shoes to fill and I won’t exchange them for a smaller size. So, determined is how I sum myself up. Loudly.May Ortega
Co-Editor-in-Chief
1201 West University, ARHU 170 Edinburg, Texas 78539Phone: (956) 665-2541
Fax: (956) 665-7122
The Pan [email protected]
ediTors-in-chief: Andrew VeraMay Ortega
sPorTs ediTor: Marco Torres
arTs & Life ediTor: Nerio Celaya
PhoTograPhy ediTor: Jon Nutt design ediTor: Francisco Rodriguez muLTimedia ediTor: Michael Aguilar
sociaL media ediTor: Nathaniel Mata
coPy ediTor: Andy De Llano adviser:Dr. Greg Selber
adminisTraTive associaTe: Anita Reyes
adverTising manager: Verónica Rodríguez
WebmasTer: Cesar Gonzalez
Becoming an editor-in-chief
Vol. 71, No. 15
Time to quiet down and listen up
The Pan American is the official student newspaper of The Univer-sity of Texas-Pan American. Views presented are those of the writ-ers and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or university.
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3news
By Elsa Cavazos The Pan American
“In the Rio Grande Valley the ease of transmission may be magnified by multiple factors such as access to healthcare or personal beliefs. Many RGV residents do not have the abil-ity to visit a healthcare provider due to lack of insurance, other financial reasons or issues such as transportation,” the Texas A&M University alumnus said. “These same residents may also be unaware of the free health-care available in the area or may be afraid to seek this help if it is known to them. There may also be cultural or religious factors that discourage RGV residents from receiving the in-fluenza vaccine.”
Ironically, the Rio Grande Re-gional Hospi-tal in McAllen was one of 724 American hos-pitals penalized by the U.S. gov-ernment for having a high hospital-acquired condition rate. This indicates that people may enter the cen-ter healthy and leave having contracted a disease due to im-
proper conditions. The hospi-tal will be penalized by having a 1 percent cut in its Medicare payments and must pay about $515,193, according to a Dec. 30 report by KRGV.
Despite high risks locally, Bautista believes the number of residents who receive their annual vaccine is much lower than the national average, giving the virus more power to spread. She said mis-conceptions on contagious illnesses among Hispanics are common due to personal beliefs or a lack of informa-
tion; one such myth is that the vaccine causes the
flu when in reality the viruses in it are
either inactive or completely absent.
The University’s College of Health Sciences and Human
Services will host a panel discussion on critical
issues in health care in UTPA’s Ballroom from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 22. This will give the commu-nity a chance to ask questions to a panel of medical professionals and
debunk any misconceptions.Not to be confused with
a cold, influenza attacks the respiratory system in a more aggressive manner through symptoms such as a fever, headaches, chills, sore mus-
cles and a sore throat. If left untreated, these
symptoms could lead to pneumonia and become fatal. Bautista, who has
worked at UTPA since 1996, said catch-
ing the flu will “have a healthy person out for a week.”
“Your body will hurt and you’ll have a fever, so it knocks you down,” she con-tinued. “People who already have allergies and asthma feel miserable with the flu.
My patients who come in are very sick. It can kill you if you have a weakened im-mune system.”
The virus is most lethal for children and adults older than 65 because of their weaker immune systems, so the CDC highly recommends vaccinations for people in these age groups.
However, college students are also routinely exposed to contagions on and off cam-
pus. Bautista said there are several methods to use in avoiding these risks including keeping visits to the Student Union short and being cau-tious around busy places.
“ M a k e sure you al-ways have hand sani-tizer. Peo-ple touch doors, walls and elevator
buttons. Wash your hands,
don’t touch your face and if any of your colleagues are sick, they need to stay home because that’s the only way we can stop it. It’s a virus that goes on and on,” Bautista said. “But the first thing is to get your vaccine. A lot of peo-ple think it’s not necessary, but you need it.”
The vaccine can come in the form of a shot or a nasal spray. Sandoval stressed the importance of receiving one, explain-ing how they are easily ac-cessible to everyone, whether they have health insurance or not. Vaccinations are also available to students via the University’s Student Health Services for free. The center accepts walk-ins, or appoint-
ments can be scheduled by calling 665-2511.
“Today most pharmacists are immunization-certified and are available to im-munize walk-in patients throughout the day,” he said. “Since immunizations are a preventative measure, it is completely covered by most insurance companies. If the person does not have insurance, the estimated cash price of the influenza vaccine in retail pharmacies is around $25 to $50. You can also get the flu vaccine from your physician, nurse, physician-assistant or other qualified healthcare provider.”
January 20, 2015
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
A new form of social me-dia where users post pictures and videos anonymously was launched last May and has since expanded to 200 cam-puses in the U.S. and Canada, such as Texas A&M University at College Station and, most recently, UTPA.
Unseen is the first social me-dia app that does not require any personal information or the need for an individual to sign up to use it. CEO and co-founder Michael Schramm created it exclusively for college students and alumni. Students from different campuses use the app by taking a picture or writ-ing a comment and uploading it without an account. UTPA students have already begun to post statuses and pictures from their daily in-school activities.
The app differs from other social media applications such as Snapchat and Instagram be-cause it is built around user pri-vacy, according to Schramm. The purpose is to have a place where students are able to express them-selves while keeping their per-sonal information safe. Unseen is completely secure on a technical
level, which means the informa-tion is encrypted. According to Schramm, there is no way a hacker could track an individual or make use of their data.
“We created Unseen to give students a space where they can candidly express themselves and connect with their peers without having to worry about their digital footprint,” Sch-ramm told The Pan American. “There is so much pressure to look cool, active and employ-able on public profiles. Unseen is a place where it’s okay to make mistakes, ask questions or say something unpopular.”
Unseen is available to ev-ery four-year accredited col-lege and university in the country, regardless of the size of student body. A school’s feed is “launched,” meaning their posts are shown on the app when a minimum of 100 downloads are seen relative to the amount of the student population of the school.
Fabiola Salinas, a UTPA ed-ucation major, thinks the app can have a positive impact on a student’s self expression via social media.
“I had heard about apps where you can be anonymous
before, but never about one where you didn’t have to give your personal information to use it, which I think is a first,” said Salinas a Monterrey, Mex-ico native. “Being able to use an app without having to wor-ry about making a new pass-word or giving out other info that might make you uncom-fortable seems to me like a cool new way to express yourself.”
However, junior public re-lations major Valeria Mon-temayor believes this new app could lead to issues such as cyber bullying or the spread of gossip.
“Whenever someone has the option to go anonymous and be able to say whatever they want it can become inappro-priate and even unsafe for oth-er people,” said Montemayor, who currently resides in Mis-sion. “I am not sure I would feel comfortable using an app where identities are not re-vealed and they feel more free to attack (someone).”
Laura Leal, a UTPA busi-ness major, thinks the new app is secure for students to use and said it’s an innovative way to use social media.
“I am always concerned my
personal information will be used for spamming or some-thing worse. I am glad they created a place where you can post whatever you want without having to give your email or date of birth,” the sophomore said. “I think there should be more applications where you can be sure your identity is safe. I am definitely glad they created something like this.”
Schramm sees the app grow-ing in time, saying he antici-pates good feedback and an in-crease in the number of people who use it. Additionally, he is hoping to expand the usage outside the U.S. and Canada starting in January.
“We live in a digital world where every day more and more of our day-to-day inter-actions and experiences take place online,” said Schramm, a Texas A&M alumnus. “If mass communication is ever going to be truly free and open, the public needs to have avenues of total privacy. Anonymity on the web is the way of the future.”
In the Rio Grande Valley the ease of transmission may be
magnified by multiple factors such as access to healthcare and per-sonal beliefs. - Adrian Sandoval
Pharmacy professor
Anonymous social media app for students launched
Alicia Rangel/ The Pan American
*Source: Pew Research Internet Project
4 newsJanuary 20, 2015
For states like Texas that were reaping great gains from oil and gas, those lower prices
could mean trouble.
- James Boudreau Assistant professor
By Claudia V. LemusThe Pan American
While low gas prices at the pump brought initial joy and relief to holiday consumers, experts now fear that the oil industry could be facing its latest downturn. Oil prices have plunged 60 percent since June 2014 to a six-year low of $44.20 per barrel, accord-ing to a Dallas Morning News article published this month.
The article reports that economists at the Federal Re-serve Bank of Dallas say the nation’s job growth may drop aong with falling prices. They expect the job growth in the state to slow to between 2 and 2.5 percent in 2015 from 3.6 in 2014, which could result in about 140,000 fewer jobs cre-ated than last year.
Furthermore, according to a January 2015 New York Times article, part of the rea-son for the downturn is Her-cules Offshore’s December announcement of its plans to lay off more than 300 em-ployees working in four oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and about 2,300 people lost oil and gas jobs in Texas in Octo-ber and November 2014. The layoffs and slow growth are countered by more money in the average consumer’s pock-et and it is too soon to tell whether the price drop will be positive or negative down the road.
Lower prices are still ex-pected to boost the econo-my due to U.S. households spending about $550 less on gasoline in 2015 as pre-dicted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in a December 2014 Wall Street Journal web article. But economists are not sure the boost will be enough to compensate the predicted losses in the oil industry.
According to James Bou-dreau, an economics and fi-nance assistant professor at UTPA, the decrease in gas prices is as much of a blessing as it is a curse.
“Falling gas prices are not necessarily good for the economy as a whole,” said Boudreau, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 2009. “For states like Texas that were reaping great gains from oil and gas, those lower prices could mean trouble.”
While Texas became the top oil-producing state in the U.S. in 2014, the price drop during the last six months has resulted in a loss
of $83 million per day of po-tential revenue for the oil in-dustry in the state, according to a New York Times article published last December.
The decrease in the price of oil has been so drastic that it has made analysts like Texas Monthly Senior Editor Erica Greider fear the state’s econo-my could suffer a bust in the market similar to the one that decimated the state economy in the mid-1980s, which re-sulted in a recession.
In the mid-1980’s more
than 221,000 jobs were lost in Houston when oil prices sank below $12 per barrel, accord-ing to a New York Times article published in December 2014.
The oil plunge three de-cades ago caused the state’s oil and gas industry to lay off workers, some banks to declare bankruptcy and the housing industry to undergo losses, but some economists like Boudreau believe that Texas is no longer as vulner-able as it once was.
“The state’s economic con-ditions aren’t as tied to oil as they used to be, though that varies by region,” he said. “West Texas, for example, saw a major surge in fracking-re-lated employment in the past few years. The key, though...is that employment is tied to production levels more than anything.”
Fracking is a newly devel-oped technique used to recov-er oil and gas from shale rock, unlocking once unreachable oil reservoirs.
According to a USA To-day article in January 2014, a large gas and oil reservoir in South Texas known as the Eagle Ford Shale – along with the Permian Basin in West Texas - are driving the surge and could make Texas one of the leading oil producers in the world. Last year more than 7,000 oil and gas wells were drilled or scheduled for drilling in Eagle Ford Shale, according to the Texas Rail-road Commission. With the
current rate of extraction and the amount of wells be-ing drilled, the TRC estimates that Shale could produce for another five to 10 years, that is, unless the price drops affect development of wells, which has been the case, short-term.
While a disaster in the oil industry would not be prom-ising for Texas, according to a December 2014 Houston Pub-lic Media article, cities with a more diverse economy like Austin and Houston would not be as affected. However, boomtowns that have experi-enced sudden growth in busi-nesses and population would.
“This relates to my ex-ample of West Texas, where many such boomtowns are,” Boudreau explained. “A sus-tained lull in the oil price would therefore be very harmful to those towns, as a huge percentage of the popu-lation depends on that in-dustry for employment. The populations of diverse cities such as Houston or Austin, on the other hand, are no where near as concentrated.”
While the economics pro-fessor agrees with some as-pects of the Houston Public Media article, he does not think the region would be negatively affected by the de-crease in oil.
“I would not consider South Texas an oil-related boomtown at all,” Boudreau said. “Our region’s economy is primarily
based on interaction back and forth from the maquiladoras, in addition to the education and health industries.”
Maquiladora is a term that refers to assembly plants in Mexico that run on a tariff-free, duty-free basis, which Boudreau said may be the reason the RGV’s gas prices are lower compared to other U.S. regions.
“Since the maquiladoras largely produce consumer products, and their costs are very related to the price of gas,” he said. “I’d say if any-thing we should be helped more than the average place by falling oil prices.”
While the economics professor feels that the Rio Grande Valley would not be as vulnerable during another recession, he admits that he’s not so sure how gas prices could ultimately affect the University of Texas System, which made $1 billion in oil and gas revenue from produc-tion in the Permian Basin in 2013. Access to Permanent University Funds is one of the main reasons UTPA is merg-ing with UT Brownsville. The $17 billion in funds come from state oil and gas rev-enues.
“As for the UT System’s oil-related funding, it will likely take a hit in the short run, but from what I’ve heard there is quite a lot of build up in that account already,”
he said. “Unless the prices stay down for a very, very long time, I very much doubt the system’s resources will be permanently altered.”
Boudreau also said that de-spite the industry downsides of falling gas prices, the econ-omy could still benefit.
“There could surely be eco-nomic gains,” he said. “For most consumers it simply means cheaper living for a while and that’s a very good thing, especially if they spend that money on other things.”
Current consumers like Pablo Campos, a UTPA alum and current manager in-train-ing at Enterprise-Rent-A-Car in Mission, have witnessed such positive gains.
“Thanks to lower gas prices I’ve seen a higher percentage of customers renting vehicles like pickups and SUV’s,” said Cam-pos, who graduated from UTPA fall 2013 with a bachelor’s de-gree in business management.
However, despite the ben-efits he’s seen from low prices, Campos also expressed his worry for family members and friends with lifelong careers in the oil industry.
“Even though gas is cheap and I’ve saved money espe-cially during the holidays,” Campos said. “I can’t help but worry for family and friends who work in the oil rigs and could end up losing their jobs this year.”
Plummeting prices Good for consumers, bad for oil industry
*Source: GasBuddy.com Alicia Rangel/ The Pan American
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The Rio Grande Valley Vipers basketball team’s Snake Charmer dance group has grown popu-larity since their creation in 2007 with more than 2,000 fans on Facebook, while more UTPA stu-dents have begun to join the dance team.
BEING A CHARMERThe one thing all 19
women have in common is their passion for dance, as most of them have been doing it from an early age. For example Tikisha Renee Nelson, a 21-year-old student at UTPA, began dancing as a child and has since committed her major to it.
“Being on the team is a great experience, I have learned a lot as a dancer and performer from my dance sisters and my di-rector throughout the short time that I have been here,” said Nelson who has been with the Snake Charmers since June. “It is great that I have been able to make new friends and share the stage with girls who are as passionate about dance as I am.”
Positions with the
Snake Charmers are not limited to only dance ma-jors. Yesenia Yvette Guer-rero, a biology pre-med major, got her started at an early age much like Nelson, and this passed summer joined the crew that entertains at halftime during the Viper games.
“I’ve been dancing since I was three and the first program that I started with was actually started by a high school-er that wanted to give back to her community and teach little girls how to dance and cheer,” the 20-year-old said. “So the first time I was dancing was not professionally, but it was done more by volunteer work.”
From there Guerrero made it to the UTPA Blazers dance team in her 2012-2013 school year.
“I got to do a lot of per-formances at school it was a great experience, I loved being a Blazer, but the difference is that these are die hard fans of the Vipers and some people are season ticket holders they know their reputa-tion is set by the Vipers and the Snake Charm-ers... So we want to be able to give them the best performance we can pos-sibly give, so I feel like it’s a huge challenge.”
She explained that the process of becoming a Snake Charmer involves two days of rigorous in-terviews, along with learning routines quickly.
“We were interviewed about ourselves, extra-curriculars and our ac-complishments. We were
also questioned on the Vipers. We have to know a lot about the team, the players, the president, the championships; all the important informa-tion that a true Vipers fan would know,” the biology major said. “We submitted headshots and we learned a few routines and we tried them out in front of a panel of judges and from there they se-lected the team.”
The RGV Vipers were created in 2007 as an ex-pansion of the National Basketball Association’s Development League and have won two champion-ships in their division,
one in 2010 and the other in 2013. The Vipers have three more home games this month on the 23, 24 and 30 at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo.
Sarah Echavarilla, a kinesiology major, is a two-year veteran who was formerly part of the
Blazers with Guerrero. Afterward she became a member of the Snake Charmers.
“I was part of the UTPA Blazer dance team for four years,” the senior said. “Throughout my years on the team some of my teammates eventu-ally progressed on to the Snake Charmers dance team. Seeing that they were able to do that it in-spired me to do the same since I love dancing and being in front of a crowd. I wanted to continue my dancing career and chal-lenge myself onto bigger teams.”
According to Echa-
varilla being part of the team does not guarantee one will perform since they have to try-out for every performance and the competition amongst themselves keeps her moving.
It’s very challenging,” she said. “We learn
dances at a fast pace and it be-comes competi-tive amongst each other because only 12 girls are al-lowed to dance at games, so we have to audi-tion for every game.”
Aside from the perfor-mances that the women and fans have grown to love, the Snake Charm-ers also give back to the community with appearances at schools and local events. Nallely Cazares, a rehab major with a concentration on addiction studies, tells of her favorite memory with the team.
“(I’ve enjoyed) making appearances and trying not to be shy while talk-ing to elementary stu-dents about how drugs were bad,” Cazares said. “One of my favorite ap-pearances was this past October when I helped
the RGV Down Syn-drome Association and got to interact with special kids that make you see life a lot differently. I really enjoyed being around them because they were full of joy and just seeing them smile made my heart melt.”
BEING A STUDENT
Between school and performing these young women have learned to manage their time properly to achieve what they want, ac-cording to Nelson.
“When I tell people my schedule as far as taking 16 hours at school, having two jobs and being on the Snake Charmer team they seem to freak out and do not under-stand how I manage my time,” the junior said. “...For some it may seem tough hav-ing to attend school, work, practice and performances, but for me in the end it is all worth it.”
Not fretting at the challenges of time management, Cazares said high school pre-pared her for college.
“Having to go to school and perform
isn’t tough because when I was in high school I was in drill team and also danced at a studio and had college courses, so I was always stressing. But it really got me prepared for college,” the Pharr San Juan Alamo North alumna said. “It can be a little overwhelming but I’ve learned to manage my time.”
Overall all the ladies said they love their team and what they do together.
“Being with the Snake Charmers has been a re-ally rewarding experi-ence and I’m really proud to be part of the team,” Guerrero said.
For Echavarilla the team has other rewards that are more meaning-ful to her.
“I love hearing the crowd cheer for us before and after routine,” the senior said. “I also love knowing that we are role models to younger girls who wish to dance on this team when they are older. Seeing the smiles on their faces when we greet them at the games and seeing the excitement they have when we take pictures with them makes my day. I love being an inspira-tion to others.”
THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN January 20, 2015 January 20, 2015 Page 7Page 6
Story by Nerio CelayaPhotos by Jon NuttThe Pan American
Being with the Snake Charm-ers has been a really rewarding
experience and I’m really proud to be part of the team.
- Yesenia Yvette GuerreroBiology major
Students from the Vipers dance team tell of their experiencesReal life charmers
Yesenia Yvette GuerreroSarah Echavarilla
Nallely CazaresTikisha Renee Nelson
The Rio Grande Valley Vipers basketball team’s Snake Charmer dance group has grown popu-larity since their creation in 2007 with more than 2,000 fans on Facebook, while more UTPA stu-dents have begun to join the dance team.
BEING A CHARMERThe one thing all 19
women have in common is their passion for dance, as most of them have been doing it from an early age. For example Tikisha Renee Nelson, a 21-year-old student at UTPA, began dancing as a child and has since committed her major to it.
“Being on the team is a great experience, I have learned a lot as a dancer and performer from my dance sisters and my di-rector throughout the short time that I have been here,” said Nelson who has been with the Snake Charmers since June. “It is great that I have been able to make new friends and share the stage with girls who are as passionate about dance as I am.”
Positions with the
Snake Charmers are not limited to only dance ma-jors. Yesenia Yvette Guer-rero, a biology pre-med major, got her started at an early age much like Nelson, and this passed summer joined the crew that entertains at halftime during the Viper games.
“I’ve been dancing since I was three and the first program that I started with was actually started by a high school-er that wanted to give back to her community and teach little girls how to dance and cheer,” the 20-year-old said. “So the first time I was dancing was not professionally, but it was done more by volunteer work.”
From there Guerrero made it to the UTPA Blazers dance team in her 2012-2013 school year.
“I got to do a lot of per-formances at school it was a great experience, I loved being a Blazer, but the difference is that these are die hard fans of the Vipers and some people are season ticket holders they know their reputa-tion is set by the Vipers and the Snake Charm-ers... So we want to be able to give them the best performance we can pos-sibly give, so I feel like it’s a huge challenge.”
She explained that the process of becoming a Snake Charmer involves two days of rigorous in-terviews, along with learning routines quickly.
“We were interviewed about ourselves, extra-curriculars and our ac-complishments. We were
also questioned on the Vipers. We have to know a lot about the team, the players, the president, the championships; all the important informa-tion that a true Vipers fan would know,” the biology major said. “We submitted headshots and we learned a few routines and we tried them out in front of a panel of judges and from there they se-lected the team.”
The RGV Vipers were created in 2007 as an ex-pansion of the National Basketball Association’s Development League and have won two champion-ships in their division,
one in 2010 and the other in 2013. The Vipers have three more home games this month on the 23, 24 and 30 at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo.
Sarah Echavarilla, a kinesiology major, is a two-year veteran who was formerly part of the
Blazers with Guerrero. Afterward she became a member of the Snake Charmers.
“I was part of the UTPA Blazer dance team for four years,” the senior said. “Throughout my years on the team some of my teammates eventu-ally progressed on to the Snake Charmers dance team. Seeing that they were able to do that it in-spired me to do the same since I love dancing and being in front of a crowd. I wanted to continue my dancing career and chal-lenge myself onto bigger teams.”
According to Echa-
varilla being part of the team does not guarantee one will perform since they have to try-out for every performance and the competition amongst themselves keeps her moving.
It’s very challenging,” she said. “We learn
dances at a fast pace and it be-comes competi-tive amongst each other because only 12 girls are al-lowed to dance at games, so we have to audi-tion for every game.”
Aside from the perfor-mances that the women and fans have grown to love, the Snake Charm-ers also give back to the community with appearances at schools and local events. Nallely Cazares, a rehab major with a concentration on addiction studies, tells of her favorite memory with the team.
“(I’ve enjoyed) making appearances and trying not to be shy while talk-ing to elementary stu-dents about how drugs were bad,” Cazares said. “One of my favorite ap-pearances was this past October when I helped
the RGV Down Syn-drome Association and got to interact with special kids that make you see life a lot differently. I really enjoyed being around them because they were full of joy and just seeing them smile made my heart melt.”
BEING A STUDENT
Between school and performing these young women have learned to manage their time properly to achieve what they want, ac-cording to Nelson.
“When I tell people my schedule as far as taking 16 hours at school, having two jobs and being on the Snake Charmer team they seem to freak out and do not under-stand how I manage my time,” the junior said. “...For some it may seem tough hav-ing to attend school, work, practice and performances, but for me in the end it is all worth it.”
Not fretting at the challenges of time management, Cazares said high school pre-pared her for college.
“Having to go to school and perform
isn’t tough because when I was in high school I was in drill team and also danced at a studio and had college courses, so I was always stressing. But it really got me prepared for college,” the Pharr San Juan Alamo North alumna said. “It can be a little overwhelming but I’ve learned to manage my time.”
Overall all the ladies said they love their team and what they do together.
“Being with the Snake Charmers has been a re-ally rewarding experi-ence and I’m really proud to be part of the team,” Guerrero said.
For Echavarilla the team has other rewards that are more meaning-ful to her.
“I love hearing the crowd cheer for us before and after routine,” the senior said. “I also love knowing that we are role models to younger girls who wish to dance on this team when they are older. Seeing the smiles on their faces when we greet them at the games and seeing the excitement they have when we take pictures with them makes my day. I love being an inspira-tion to others.”
THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN January 20, 2015 January 20, 2015 Page 7Page 6
Story by Nerio CelayaPhotos by Jon NuttThe Pan American
Being with the Snake Charm-ers has been a really rewarding
experience and I’m really proud to be part of the team.
- Yesenia Yvette GuerreroBiology major
Students from the Vipers dance team tell of their experiencesReal life charmers
Yesenia Yvette GuerreroSarah Echavarilla
Nallely CazaresTikisha Renee Nelson
January 20, 20158 arts & life
2015 is here and with a new year comes an opportunity for change. For some t h i s
change will be more drastic than others, as students across campus scramble to work on their New Year’s resolutions.
The top resolution for the year is a recur-
ring theme: f i t n e s s . According
to USA.gov, fitness and weight-loss-related c o m m i t -ments are the most
frequently d e c l a r e d , with 47 percent of the coun-try’s res-olutions f a l l ing
into that category. Ferny Sali-nas, a 22-year-old student and employee at UTPA, has be-come a part of this statistic and explained his rationale.
“I know that I don’t need an arbitrary date to start working towards my goal,” Salinas said. “But having a concrete date to work towards makes it easier to measure my progress and stay motivated.”
Other health-related reso-lutions include trying to quit unhealthy habits such as drink-ing, smoking and consuming excessive junk food, with 38 percent of the country follow-ing this trend. Marco Contre-ras, a December 2014 graduate from UTPA with a bachelor’s in philosophy, explained why he vowed to quit drinking this year.
“If you do the math, it’s a lot of money spent (on alcohol) with no real gain from it,” the 28-year-old Sharyland resident said. “After all these years, it just started to seem like a poor investment. It’s like you’re bor-rowing happiness from tomor-row, but at a high interest rate.”
While some resolutions may be rigidly structured, there are also some lighthearted ones such as that of 23-year-old Joel Shircliff.
“My New Year’s resolution is 3840x1080,” Shircliff said jokingly, indicating the screen resolution of a dual-screen computer monitor setup.
However, not all Americans chose to create resolutions. Ac-cording to The Washington Post only 40 to 50 percent of the U.S. populace do it, with
individuals going an average of six weeks before giving up. Gil Casas, who works full-time as a Fred Loya insurance agent in Pharr, believes a new year goal is not necessary.
“I don’t need a New Year’s resolution. Nobody re-ally does,” said the 22-year-old graphic design student. “I get that it helps some people stay motivated, but we should all be pushing for positive change every day.”
Regardless of whether or not one subscribes to New Year’s resolutions, Contreras had some encouraging closing words on the matter.
“It really doesn’t matter if you do or do not make reso-lutions,” he said. “As humans we naturally grow, be it physi-cal, emotional or intellectual
growth on a daily basis. Some of us just pursue it more ac-tively than others. Maybe the people who haven’t made reso-lutions just accept the change that will happen regardless, but take a less active role in its outcome and direction. I would definitely want my kids or any other student to have another opportunity that maybe I did not have the chance to have, especially to the one’s that are not able to pursue an education somewhere else.”
By Michael MedinaThe Pan American
One step closerThe beginning and the end
of graduate school from two different perspectives give a look at what both sides are and how they differ from a first year to a second year graduate stu-dent.
Graduate school is where a student goes to get a master’s or doctoral degree. The former typically takes one to two years to complete and the doctoral takes as long as three to seven years to finish. Students have to take several examinations to determine their competence as scholars. At UTPA there are 2,665 graduate students pur-suing their master’s degree af-ter choosing from more than 60 programs such as art and computer science. According to UTPA’s graduate program website, the University is list-ed third in the nation in the number of graduate degrees awarded to Hispanics with 579 degrees given over the past four years.
Laura Avalos, a counseling major at UTPA, moved from Monterrey, Mexico to McAllen in 2006 and completed her first semester of grad school in De-cember. Her strongest memory
since starting graduate school is seeing how people stand up for what they believe in during class discussions.
“One time in rehab coun-seling class we were discussing Modernism versus Postmod-ernism,” Avalos said. “That time really stuck out to me because there was this girl in
class who started giving a dif-ferent point of view according to her beliefs and stood up for them and that created a space for other people to also give an opinion about the subject and what they think about every-thing.”
Although she’s in the begin-ning stages of her master’s pro-gram, she knows going through grad school will be worth it in the end.
“It is a more strict environ-ment in many areas where you have to discipline yourself and
do your best,” the 24-year-old said. “But it is also enjoyable since you get to know the pro-fessors and people from the group who feel the same way and support each other and also receive help from the ones that have been in the program longer.”
Avalos wants to take every-
thing she’s learned thus far and apply it to her future job to help those in need. She hopes to become a counselor and help people on a deeper level.
“I want to be able to feel confident about my knowl-edge, take all the tools I learned to the real world, apply them properly, help the people who need help in these matters, cre-ate awareness and prevention in the younger community,” she said. “To make a better place for everyone and trust God through it all.”
Starting in Fall 2015, all stu-dents, including Avalos will be graduating from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Johnna Schwartz, a 22-year-old second-year occupational therapy graduate student, moved down to the RGV to be-gin graduate school. She stud-ies two to three hours per day and on days where a project or test come up, she studies seven to eight hours at a time. Her strongest memory about school so far is getting to work hands-on in a clinic. Schwartz will re-ceive her degree this December and is hoping to get her dream job as a licensed occupational therapist.
“Last December I was given the opportunity to volunteer fieldwork hours at a facility specializing with children with hearing impairments,” the San Angelo native said. “Seeing the childrens’ faces light up every single day will forever be in-grained in my heart and mind.”
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which opens in the fall, will have 50 programs to choose from and 12 full on-line programs. Those already in the graduate program at either UTPA or University of Texas at Brownsville will have automat-ic acceptance into the program at UTRGV.
She believes she has come a long way finish school. Her sense of optimism is what keeps her going to graduate.
“Once all is said and done, every sleepless night and every second spent of studying will have been worth it. Day-by-day, it is easy to get discour-aged and not see the end result of graduate school,” she said. “The easiest thing in the world is to feed yourself with negative thoughts of ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I’ll never finish.’ However, the small voice in my head saying ‘you can do this,’ keeps me go-
ing and motivated.” To Schwartz, graduate
school was the best thing that could have happened to her. She’s grown as a student and a person and she feels her future looks bright.
“Any gains, whether large or small, will have made graduate school a personally gratifying experience.”
By Angela CantuThe Pan American
UTPA students share their New Year’s resolutions
Life through the eyes of a graduate student
Once all is said and done, every sleepless night and ev-ery second spent of studying
will have been worth it.- Johnna SchwartzOccupational therapy major
Juanita Renee Rivas/ The Pan American
Francisco Rodriguez/ The Pan American
Renee Alicia Rangel/ The Pan American
January 20, 2015 ADVERTISEMENT Page 9
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10sports January 20, 2015
The spring season is almost under way for UTPA’s tennis teams as they aim for success on the court starting Jan. 21. Both teams will welcome new talent with the men’s team introducing five freshmen to the second part of the season. As for the wom-en’s team, it is looking to build upon a solid 13-8 record from last spring and carry over that success to this season.
WOMEN’S PREVIEW
The women enter the 2015 season under fourth-year head coach Stephanie Vallejos, who returns all six players from the fall season and adds four fresh-men for the spring list.
The Broncs’ incoming fresh-men include Dominique Es-parza Fuster, a business admin-istration major recruited from Preparatoria Abierta de Yucatán in Veracruz, Mexico. She was a bronze medalist at the 2012 Youth Tennis Championships in Mexico and earned a top-10 nod in her home country.
Also being introduced is Maria Trujillo Hoyos, a psy-chology major recruited from El Instituto Andino De Bachil-lerato y Capacitación out of Popayán, Colombia. She was ranked No. 4 in her home country in singles and dou-bles competitions in the U18 Colombian National Rank-ings.
UTPA, led by junior Reegan Greenwood, sophomores Katia Stavroulaki and Mariana Ran-zahuer, will start its season by hosting the University of Mary-land Baltimore County at the Orville Cox Tennis Center - lo-cated on the southeast side of campus. Start time is 1 p.m.
“It is exactly how I want to kick off what I think will be a great season,” Vallejos said. “It is exciting to start our season at home and I am looking forward to the energy that I know a first match at home will bring.”
UTPA will be on the road for the following trio of matches, including a try against No. 15 Baylor in Waco Jan. 30. This is a rematch of last year’s clash as the Bears were able to outlast the Broncs 6-1.
“The matches we have on the road will make us stronger on the court and help us come together as a team off the court,” Vallejos said.
All five conference matches will be played on a neutral site as the Broncs prepare for the Western Athletic Conference championships. The Broncs will
travel to Las Cruces, N.M. to face Grand Canyon University March 20 and Seattle March 21.
“It is a benefit to be able to play conference competition in a regular season before the championship,” Vallejos said. “It is important that we take ad-vantage of those moments and learn something about our com-petition.”
After a couple of non-con-ference games, the team will re-sume WAC play in Phoenix, facing New Mexico State April 3, Chicago State April 4 and University of Missouri - Kan-sas City April 5 to end confer-ence play.
The WAC championships start April 24 in Kansas City and the National Collegiate Athletic Association champion-ships set for May 14 in Waco.
MEN’S PREVIEW
Second-year head coach Brandon Stokes will lead the men’s tennis team into the 2015 spring season with seven of eight players back from the fall.
Hector Ramirez and Juan Cruz Soria are the veterans on the team that features five fresh-men. Ramirez and Soria com-bined for 15 of 31 Bronc wins last season and look to continue leading the team with a veteran mentality.
Koby Jansen, a kinesiology major, was recruited from Sun-shine Coast Grammar School in Queensland, Australia. He had much success there as he was ranked No. 8 in his age group for singles and doubles com-petition his junior year of high school. He led SCGS to the State Open finals and went un-defeated his final two seasons.
Stokes also added that Miguel Alvarez-Hevia brings his talents in from Instituto De Educación Secundaria Ies El Piles in Astur-ias, Spain. His accomplishments include a doubles runner-up performance at the U12 Spain Championship and a first-place victory at the U13 Spain Cham-pionship in 2010-11.
Scheduling for the Bronc sea-son features three teams that are nationally ranked, posing strong competition according to Stokes.
“The Texas region is one of the toughest in the nation,” he said. “The region also has three teams that finished ranked in the top 10 nationally last year that included Baylor, Tex-as A&M University and Texas University.”
Like the women, the men start their season play as hosts
to the University of Maryland Baltimore County at the Or-ville Cox Tennis Center Jan. 21 at 10 a.m.
“It is special for our guys to open the season on our home court in front of fans, friends,and the Rio Grande Valley tennis community,” Stokes said. “The energy will be awesome and the competition at high levels.”
The next stretch of match-es consists of one of three lengthy road trips in the season. They will face Rice University Jan. 23 then Prairie View A&M Jan. 24. After a week off, the Broncs travel to Col-lege Station to face No. 10 Texas A&M University in a rematch of last season’s 7-0 defeat.
After a short homestand, the Broncs travel to face a 10-game road trip scattered throughout the state of Texas.
“We play 12 of the 14 teams in our region,” Stokes said. “The competitive standard is set in-credibly high. Our guys love competing within our region. Familiarity creates rivalries and rivalries lead to intensified com-petitiveness on the court.”
The 10-game road trip will conclude as the Broncs face No. 25 Oklahoma State University March 18, University of Texas at Arlington March 19 and No. 9 University of Texas to close out March 22.
“One of the first steps we must make as a program is to develop a winning overall record within our own region,” Stokes said. “As we do this, we will rise in the national rankings.”
The Broncs start conference play as they host Grand Can-yon March 27, New Mexico State March 28 and University of Missouri-Kansas City March 29. They will continue in Illi-nois for back-to-back matches against Chicago State April 10 and Seattle April 11.
The Broncs will end their regular season on the road at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi April 15 as they prepare for the WAC championships beginning April 24. The National Colle-giate Athletic Association Tour-nament will start May 8.
“Our fans were terrific last season and we will build on that energy and volume to create a match day environment that is simultaneously exciting, engag-ing and meaningful for fans and our team,” Stokes said.
By Kevin LaraThe Pan American
Head men’s tennis coach Brandon Stokes looks onto the action at the Orville Cox Tennis Courts in Edinburg last spring as the Broncs won 4-0 against the University of Missouri - Kansas City. He hopes for results with seven of eight athletes returning from the fall semester.
Head women’s tennis coach Stephanie Vallejos walking off the courts after a 5-2 win against Incarnate Word last April at the Orville Cox Tennis Courts. She is looking for her team to compete as she returns all six players from the fall.
Michelle Garcia/ The Pan American
Arturo Villalobos/ The Pan American
January 20, 2015 11sports
Before starting the outdoor season at the Border Olympics March 7, UTPA began its in-door run Jan. 16 with the Tex-as A&M 13-Team Invite in College Station.
Prior to this week the Broncs’ only competition had come in the annual Green and White Alumni Meet held Dec. 5. It served as a warmup before the holiday break and also gave the current team a chance to honor seniors and alumni.
According to Broncs Head Coach Xavier Richardson, it was an important meet for the team and an event that the athletes and performers look forward to every year.
“It is the first opportunity for those that don’t participate in cross country to compete and for everyone to earn some brag-ging rights before our season begins,” Richardson said.
This month the Broncs start-ed their indoor season at the Tex-as A&M Invite, although Rich-ardson was unsure how his team would perform after month of being off.
“I know that emotionally they are ready,” he said. “We’ve been looking forward to it for some time, but they’ve been
training on their own for the whole break. As a coach you have the expectation that they are ready physically, but we’ll know for sure when practices begin again.”
Helping the Broncs against Texas A&M was Trey Tay-lor, who won the weight toss by being the only participant to surpass the 17-meter mark, hitting 17.06, The mark is ranked third in program his-tory in the weight toss. Taylor also finished in seventh in the shot put as he put up a mark of 14.56 meters. Last year he finished in 12th place in the shot put with a throw of 11.76 meters at the Western Athlet-ic Conference Indoor Champi-onships.
Returning long-distance run-ner and Cottonwood, Ariz., na-tive Jose Juan Wells placed ninth in the mile at College Station with a time of 4:22.24. He al-so teamed with two freshman and a fellow junior in the dis-tance medley relays, coming in at 10:37.56, which was good enough for fourth place.
On the women’s side Rob-in Galloso, an Edinburg High School product, landed second in the mile run with a time of 5:07.80, a performance that earned her fourth in program history. Following Galloso was
freshman Jennifer Zapata of Los Fresnos who ended third with 5:10.05.
In the field event senior Leocajuan Williams posted two top 10 finishes. She placed sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 11.24 meters and ninth in the long jump with a mark of 5.34 meters.
Richardson knew that rust is expected in the early part of the season, but the also knows that the team will look different in the beginning than in the end.
“I expected the weekend to give us an indication of where we are right now as a team. There will be some rust we have to knock off, which is expected,” he said. “So, we’ve really got to just get out there and get to it. Things always change between the first indoor meet and the last; we want our change to be for the better.”
With one weekend down, UTPA is scheduled to have four indoor track meets and the next competition will be at the Masked Rider Open in Lubbock Jan. 30-31. Last year the Broncs claimed 10 top-10 finishes at that meet. After the Masked Rider Open UTPA will contin-ue on the road to the Houston Tune Up Feb. 13 then compete at the WAC Indoor Champi-onship hosted by the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs Feb. 23-28.
If any of the athletes place in the WAC Indoor Championship they will advance to the Univer-sity of Arkansas where the Na-tional Collegiate Athletic Asso-ciation Indoor Track and Field National Championships will be held March 13-14 in Fayette-ville, Ark.
“We’ve got the team travel-ing to three different, albeit fa-miliar, venues this indoor sea-son,” Richardson said. “It will give them a chance to compete in those different facilities as we prepare for Colorado, which is a venue we’ve never been to be-fore. They should be well pre-pared for it when we arrive.”
After the indoor season is completed the Broncs will head outdoors to compete in seven meets in Texas. Four of them will occur in the month of March starting with the Border Olym-pics March 7. Then the Broncs will head to Corpus Christi for the Islander Open March 13-14. Seven days later they will com-pete in the IBC Bank Cactus Cup March 21 in Kingsville.
The team will close out March with two separate events with some athletes competing in San Marcos for the Bobcat Invi-tational and others participating in the prestigious Clyde Little-
field Texas Relays. The latter is one of three big-name relays in the NCAA that allows athletes from the Southwest and Mid-west to compete; it will be held in Austin March 25-28.
“We like to start our out-door season in our normal comfortable and low-key fash-ion,” Richardson said. “We usually compete in several of the same competitions that we are familiar with as we move to-wards the heart of our compet-itive season and work towards conference and the NCAA Championships. Those meets certainly provide some of the in-state competition that makes being in Texas so great. We will have numerous opportunities to test ourselves against many varying programs and will rare-ly be short of a challenge.”
After the Broncs finish the Is-lander Dash, their seventh con-secutive Texan event, April 10-11 they will make their way to the West Coast for the Cal State Los Angeles Twilight Open, Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, Calif. and the Long Beach State Invite in Cerritos.
“We always look forward to the Mt. Sac Relays weekend,” Richardson said. “It gives those that qualify a great chance to compete against our more west-ern competition that we don’t
see until the preliminary rounds of the NCAAs. It has always treated us very well and we tend to put together some great per-formances that weekend. Hav-ing that competition to sharp-en us comes at a great time in our season as we are looking for those NCAA qualifying marks.”
The WAC Outdoor Cham-pionships follow in Orem, Utah as Utah Valley University will host May 13-16. If any athlete should advance they will com-pete in the NCAA west prelim-inary round hosted by the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin. The NCAA Outdoor Champion-ships will be held in Eugene, Ore. June 10-13.
“We always aspire to move forward as a program and qualify more for the prelimi-nary rounds,” Richardson said. “Qualifying for the NCAA Di-vision I Championships is among the highest honors in college competition. It is why we do what we do. We certain-ly hope this year to continue to improve as a program and have more competitors there to repre-sent our program and university at that stage.”
Approximately 1,400 miles away from each other and five hours apart, both UTPA bas-ketball teams started West-ern Athletic Conference ac-tion Jan. 10. The Broncs began their conference season with a matchup against Chicago State University and both walked away with conference victories.
UTPA’s basketball season got underway in November and there were similarities between the two squads during the non-confer-ence portion of their 2014-15 schedule. The conference open-ing wins came after two months of playing contests outside of the conference.
Hot starts were the memo on the court as the men won their first three games for the first time since 2006-07. The women’s nine-game start of 6-3 was tied with the 2007-08 and 1991-92 teams for the best in program history.
MEN’SNon-conference action did not
come without trials and tribula-tions for the Broncs. Head Coach Dan Hispher’s athletes had a re-cord of 5-4 after a Dec. 13 win over Lamar University at the Field House, but a five-game road trip followed in which the Broncs were unable to find a single win. The average margin of defeat throughout the losing streak was 12.4 points. They also averaged a 10.4 point deficit going into the halftime break during those five matches.
Senior guard Shaquille Boga knew homecoming was impor-tant for the Broncs as the team won at the Field House imme-diately returning from the road. After a 87-78 win Jan. 7 over Our Lady of the Lake Universi-ty, Boga cited comfort as a rea-son they were able to find suc-cess again.
“We had been on the road (for a while),” said the 5-foot-11 guard, averaging 11.8 points per game. “I came home and fo-cused in, cleaned up my room, stayed in the gym, ate healthy. Just tried to focus, get a win and get this thing rolling. We’re go-
ing to score the ball. If we can get stops defensively and get the offense going we can be a spe-cial team.”
Scoring has not been an is-sue for University of Missis-sippi transfer and Estonia na-tive Janar Joesaar. Coming into
the first WAC game, Joesaar lead the conference in points per game at 19.6 and as of Jan. 14 his 18.8 points per game earned him 38th in national Division I scoring.
Coach Dan Hipsher gave his predictions for the upcoming season before the conference opener.
“New Mexico State is the horse, no matter what, with the
size and strength they have,” the second-year coach said. “But...it looks like we can beat just about anybody. All teams have had some great wins. It’s going to be a night-in night-out grind like most conference seasons.”
The Broncs are currently 1-2
in conference play and return to the Field House Jan. 22 to host the Utah Valley Wolverines.
WOMEN’S The women’s team non-con-
ference record was 7-8 but a look at the strength of the op-ponents the women faced show how the schedule challenged them before WAC games began.
The Broncs faced four teams
ranked in the top 25 of the Na-tional Collegiate Athletic Asso-ciation; three away and one in a neutral site. The team faced No. 6 University of Texas, No.11 Baylor University and No. 5 Texas A&M University out of the Big 12 Conference. In the Maggie Dixon Classic they played host school No. 6 DePaul University from the Big East Conference. While they were unable to earn a win against these teams, soph-omore Shawnte’ Goff knew there was value in the games.
“They didn’t do anything but prepare us,” said the Copperas Cove, Texas native, who is av-eraging 16.1 points per game. “We’re supposed to win the ones we want to win and go steal us a couple against those big confer-ence schools.”
In the Broncs’ third game of the season the team played Texas A&M in their Maggie Dixon Classic finale Nov. 16. The Aggies were ranked fifth in the country and only defeated the Broncs by 2 points.
“We definitely believe we
can win the conference,” Goff said when asked if the Broncs’ goals include winning the reg-ular season championship. “We were picked second and that’s a good reward for us, but recently the team sat down and thought about ‘what is second?’ Even though we were picked sec-ond we were picked to lose. We know who our biggest competi-tion is and we’re ready to try to get this job done.”
The only team picked above the Broncs in the preseason WAC Coaches’ Poll was Cali-fornia State Bakersfield. UTPA beat the Roadrunners in their first meeting at the Field House Jan. 17 by a score of 77-60. The win marked women’s basket-ball’s first 3-0 conference start in any conference they have been a part of.
The women return to the Field House Jan. 31 to face the New Mexico State Aggies.
By Marco TorresThe Pan American
By Nathaniel MataThe Pan American
All teams have had some great wins. It’s going to be a night-in night-out grind like
most conference seasons.- Dan HipsherHead men’s basketball coach
Renee Alicia Rangel/ The Pan American
January 20, 2015ADVERTISEMENTPage 12
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Present this coupon when ordering.
2 FREE BONELESS WINGSwith any Wing Purchase.
Mix and Match Regular & Boneless Wings!VALID AT N 10TH, E EXPRESSWAY 83 &
W UNIVERSITY LOCATIONS ONLY
1/29/15
1/29/15