the herald for sept. 24
DESCRIPTION
The Herald for Sept. 24TRANSCRIPT
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
ONTHEWEB www.ASUHerald.com
Informing the campus and community since 1921
Volume 92, Issue 8
Red Wolves WinThe Red Wolves took on Alcorn State Saturday, winning 56-0.
Sports 4
Monday, September 24, 2012
This week in history:In 1991, The Herald reported the university’s beginnings of Rugby Club. At this point, the club began by learning the rules of sport, however today, the team is nationally acclaimed.
“ “Each game from here on out is going to be a grind and we are going to have to bring our A-game.
Days left until
homecoming
17
�
Sports|4
QuoteableWhat’s InsideOpinion...........................2
News................................3
Sports..............................4
PARKING, 4
Staci Vandagriff | Photo EditorThe small parking lot by the NorthPark Quads and the Red Wolf Den, which was once visitor parking then resident parking, is now back to visitor parking. The switch has made it inconvenient for residents who prefer using it as an alternative exit out of the Quads.
CAITLIN LAFARLETTESTAFF WRITER
ASU’s 2012 Master Plan proposes future additions for parking, including new garages and surface lots on the out-er edges of campus.
One garage would be placed behind the Carl R. Reng Student Union in place of the International Student Center. The plan proposes different services to be added to the garage such as a parking of-fice and other ground floor uses.
A new lot near the Armory has also been proposed. This addition would bring about the demolition of the Fac-ulty and Academic Circle housing.
According to the plan, ASU wants to “increase walkability of campus and de-crease unnecessary automobile trips.”
Al Stoverink was unavailable for fur-
ther information on the proposed plans, but David Handwork, director of plan-ning, design and construction, said in an email that these ideas are not definite yet.
Other than these future plans, several changes in parking have occurred since the beginning of the semester.
Lot N-5E in NorthPark Quads (NPQ) has undergone such modifications. These spaces were previously designated for students, but Vera Forrest, customer service manager of Parking Services, said that last week these spots were giv-en back to visitors.
The initial transition to student park-ing came about because of a shortage of resident parking.
“After surveying NPQ and Red Wolf Den parking lots this year, the lot was reassigned back to visitor parking,” For-
rest said. By switching these spots, 25
residence spots were lost to visitors.Michael Smith, a sophomore graph-
ic design major of Little Rock, said the change to visitor parking hasn’t affected him very much except at night. He said that it is during those hours that he has trouble finding a place to park while the visitor spots remain almost empty.
Students who actually live in building five next to the visitor lot have been hit hardest by the change.
Shawn Moore, a sophomore chemistry major of Paragould, said he now has to park far away from his build-ing.
“It’s mainly just been really in-convenient,” he said. He added that it is now harder to get out of the parking lot with only one exit open.
Parking still causes problemsOfficials look to improve problems in master plan
The registered student organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), won the National Award for outstanding new CUFI chapter while at-tending the CUFI Sum-mit conference.
The conference was held this past summer in Washington, D.C.
“We were able to do a lot of networking from students from all over the country,” Sarah Grubbs said, a chem-istry graduate student of Jonesboro. “We met people who had the same views of Israel as us.”
According to the stu-dent organization de-tails on the ASU web-site, CUFI provides on-campus association for people to speak and act in support of Israel in matters related to the Bible and politics.
“Right now Iran, is the biggest threat facing Israel,” Korey Speaight said, a sophomore ac-counting major of Camp. “They are working on nuclear weapons capa-bilities. Israel is such a small nation that if they just shoot one nuclear missile in the middle of Israel it would devastate the economy as well as destroy almost the whole country.”
Students who became a part of CUFI have bib-lical reasons and po-litical reasons for their support towards Israel, Grubbs said.
“I like this organi-zation because I love America, and Israel is an ally to the U.S.,” Grubbs said.
Josh Waters, a senior economics and pre-law major of Jonesboro, said he is part of the orga-nization because of the biblical mandate that supports Israel.
“My pastor started getting involved and then I went to a summit. I learned so much about the political side as well,” Waters said.
“I really like how this organization brings people together,” said Rebekah Dancy, a soph-omore nursing major of Sherwood. “I would have never met these people if it wasn’t for this orga-nization. These are peo-ple I will be friends with for a very long time and they understand me.”
“(CUFI) has given me a median to push my support towards Israel and see results,” Speaight said. “Going to Wash-ington was the greatest thing because we got the speak with our represen-tatives about the cause.”
CUFI wins bigat conference
TANYA GIRALDOSTAFF WRITER
CUFI, 4
Caitlin LaFarlette | Staff PhotographerNatalie Lyons, Juan Robles and Kayla Hardy put up their Howl hands at Viva La Noche Wednesday night
in the Pavillion. The cost to get in was a school supply item that would be donated to the Hispanic Center’s After-School Program. Viva La Noche also featured authentic Hispanic food, music, dancing and
entertainment for all the attenders.
Trapshooting comes to ASUViva La Noche!
When James Wray came to Arkansas State University, little did he know he would be able to continue doing something he has enjoyed his whole life — trap shooting.
The senior from Payneway has always hunted and partic-ipated in skeet shooting, but it was always alone until he attended Ridgefield Christian High School in Jonesboro. In his final year, he was able to shoot competitively for his school.
“I started shooting my se-nior year at Ridgefield and I didn’t shoot again until after I got to ASU,” said Wray. “We didn’t have a team at Ridge-field, but I helped get one started. It was a lot of fun. Even though I’ve been doing it all my life, getting involved with a team is just a way to keep doing it.”
Once he enrolled at ASU,
he became involved in cam-pus activities thinking his competitive shooting days were over. He is treasurer of the College of Republicans, an engineering senator in the Student Government As-sociation, member of Sigma Chi fraternity, member of American Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the student leadership team at Rising . . ., involved with the college ministry of Central Baptist Church, part of the Honors College Association and a member of the Na-tional Society of Collegiate Scholars.
“One day, Pat Turnage (the head of the Harrisburg Trap Club), called me and said ‘Hey, we’re getting a team go-ing on campus and we need you to come to a meeting,’” continued Wray. “I went to the meeting and was elected vice president of the group. A week later, the president had
ASU PRESS RELEASE
Photo courtesy of ASU Press Release
Wray poses with the trophy he won at the Grand American Championships in Sparta, Ill.
TRAPSHOOTING, 4
Contempt is an expression we’re all familiar with. You’ll no-tice first the lip drawn up on the dominant side, eyes unable to quite make contact. It’s more than just disgust.
Psychologists associate this look with a feeling of moral supe-riority, which is notable.
It’s an expression that I have earned a home on the receiving end of, because I, like almost a fifth of my countrymen, make the choice not to believe.
For a growing number of Amer-icans, the freedom to choose dis-belief is one that is exercised with considerable social penalty.
Atheism, a lack of religious ob-servation, regular church atten-dance and the inability to prove one’s willingness and capacity to
attend to religion with his chil-dren, has been used to deny cus-tody to non-religious parents.
Atheists and agnostics needing a kidney transplant are less likely to receive it than Christian pa-tients with similar medical needs.
Why are we allowing a group of citizens to be so marginalized? Who are the non-believers, and what’s causing the animosity?
A common answer is atheists are as militant and dogmatic as the religious zealots they oppose, which is true in some cases.
But just as most Christians or Muslims are not extremists, most atheists are indistinguishable by their belief alone.
In fact, I would argue the ste-reotypical proselytizing atheist is missing the point.
The central critique of a reli-gious metaphysical world view has to be that it operates as a system of competing monologues.
Adding another dogmatic nar-rative to the scheme does nothing for the advancement of epistemol-ogy.
But in defense of your neigh-borhood anti-theist, the battles
faced are considerably different. At the end of a discussion on reli-gion, I walk away thinking at worst that my fellows in conversation are wrong.
Many of my friends really be-lieve in a place called Hell, and re-ally believe my outlook on life has condemned me to suffer eternally there, as if such a thing even made sense.
The step forward is to collec-tively prefer a dialogue over com-peting monologues.
The key move here is decon-struction of false representations about those with beliefs different than ours. That street goes two ways.
Prominent critical writers like Sam Harris would discontinue use of the term “atheist” altogether, insisting that it’s a useless buzz-word. After all, there is no word for a non-believer in Zeus. And that is significant.
We are all atheists about a ma-jority of the gods that mankind has written into existence, some people just take it one god fur-ther.
Submission GuidelinesStory ideas or news tips may be emailed to [email protected] or [email protected]. The Herald welcomes com-ments, criticisms or ideas that its readership may have. We encour-age you to send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
TH
E
LINDSEY BLAKELY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CHELSEA WEAVER, NEWS EDITOR
DANIEL MCFADIN, OPINION EDITOR
STACI VANDAGRIFF, PHOTO EDITOR
CALEB HENNINGTON, LIFESTYLE EDITOR
ASHLEY HELLIWELL, SPORTS EDITOR
RACHEL CARNER, ONLINE EDITOR
JANA WATERS, AD MANAGER
BONNIE THRASHER, ADVISER
Editorial PolicyOpinions expressed in personal columns are those of the writ-ers and may not reflect the opin-ions of the staff as a whole. “Our View” represents the opinions of the editorial staff and is written by members of the editorial board. Columns, letters to the editor, cartoons and other content on the opinion page are the views of the author. Content does not neces-sarily represent the opinion of The Herald.
Statement of PublicationThe Herald is printed every Mon-day and Thursday during the se-mester, except during finals and holidays. Single copies of The Herald are free. Additional copies are 25 cents each.
The Herald office is located in room 224 of the Communications/Education Building. Newsroom: 870-972-3076 Ad Office: 870-972-2961 Fax: 870-972-3339
“Why are we allowing a group of citizens to be so marginalized? Who are the non-believers, and what’s causing the animosity?”
- J.J. Thompson
Our ViewCash Festival brings recognitionBecause of our growing population and because we are a col-
lege town, we are likely to bring entertainment acts to our city and campus which will help expand our profile to outsiders and potential tourists.
The Johnny Cash Music Festival, recently being named to the “American Bus Association’s (ABA) 2013 Top 100 Events in North America,” exemplifies this.
The event, scheduled for Oct. 5 at the Convocation Center, is only in its second year but is already doing a great deal to bring the attention of music and history lovers to Northeast Arkan-sas.
Founded to help raise money to renovate the childhood home of Johnny Cash in Dyess, as well as establish the Johnny Cash Boyhood Museum, this year’s installment will include Willie Nelson, Dierks Bentley, The Civil Wars and Cash’s eldest daugh-ter, Rosanne.
We are excited that Arkansas State, Jonesboro and the rest of Northeast Arkansas is being recognized on a continental level by the ABA.
With this kind of recognition, we can become a place where people from all over will visit to share in their passion for the arts.
Our region is embracing the history that surrounds us to help itself as it moves forward.
There’s more to Jonesboro than being the location of Arkan-sas State. It’s a place where people come together in support of something that is greater than themselves in hopes of telling a story we can all appreciate.
“Our View” is written by the editorial staff. The opinions are not neces-sarily reflective of the student body, faculty or administration of Arkan-sas State University.
Every year third through eighth grade students sit nervously at their desks with their sharpened No. 2 pencils as a teacher passes out sheets of paper which bear more re-semblance to a Sudoku puzzle than an academic exam.
I’m talking about standardized testing and the No Child Left Be-hind (NCLB), legislation which pol-iticians in Washington created to fix our education system.
Ten years later, most would say that plan has failed, and if we’ve learned our lesson, we should ques-tion any plan by the federal govern-ment or the next president to fix the current system.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from being an education major, it’s that politics are heavily mixed into educational policies and proce-dures.
State standards, molded from federal expectations, have forced many classroom teachers to teach the test so their students can at-tain “proficiency,” and the general frameworks the state uses do not always flow chronologically.
I learned this from several teach-ers I know, including the one I was assigned to observe for my Field Two education class.
She explained to me the frame-works’ illogical flow can make an otherwise simple lesson plan diffi-cult to work with.
I bring this up because there seems to be a major disconnect between the political whims and ideas of what education should be and the reality of the situation in the classroom. Schools’ hands are tied,
the teachers can’t always teach what they want to teach, and kids come out knowing how to take a test, but are quite often ill-prepared for col-lege and the real world.
It’s no wonder that by Sept. 10 of this year, 44 states and educa-tion agencies sought a waiver from NCLB, according to an article from Alabama Local News.
And yet many of us seem to be more concerned with the presiden-tial candidates’ stance on education than the possible solutions present-ed at the state or local level.
While I appreciate Romney’s position on vouchers and school choice, and Obama’s position on merit pay and higher school stan-dards, I’m not sure I feel comfort-able having these debates at the national level when they should be decided by individual states and communities.
If there’s anything we should all agree on, it’s that the closer you are to home, the better you know how to fix what’s broken. Another fed-eral plan or national solution easily gets too bureaucratic and difficult
to implement.This is why I’m hopeful about the
Common Core State Standards Ini-tiative, a set of standards adopted by 45 states, including Arkansas, and developed “with teachers, school administrators and experts,” ac-cording to the official website core-standards.org.
It was not implemented by Con-gress and the President but by in-dividual states, and while the goals are similar, each state or locality can implement them as it sees fit.
Certainly, NCLB was a noble plan, and there are still many good elements to it, like school account-ability, school choice and qualified teachers.
But we are naïve to think any law or policy from distant Washington politicians could ever fix the educa-tion system, especially since it chal-lenges one of the best methods to deal with problems—local control.
When policy makers can sit down and accept the fact that schools and teachers need more autonomy, not central planning, we might actually get something fixed!
Teachers struggle with NCLB“Kids come out knowing
how to take a test, but are
quite often ill-prepared
for college and the real
world.”
- Jeff Davidson
PAGE 2ASUHERALD.COM MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 2012
“I wish you could phone a friend on these quizzes.”•
“Benjamin Franklin did a •
lot of stuff.”
“I just want to put my head in a pot of boiling peanut •
butter and die.”
Atheists don’t get fair treatment
Correction: In our Sept. 20 issue the Letter to the Editor incorrectly reported the endowments for the Universities of Harvard, Texas and Stanford to be in the millions of dollars. All three of the endowments are actually in the billions of dollars.
For more comments overheard on campus, visit us on Twitter @OverheardAtASU.
PAGE 3ASUHERALD.COM MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 2012
PARKING, Continued
Have a news tip?We want to hear from you.
Please send your tips [email protected]
Who may apply?Juniors and Seniors (60+ ASUJ hours) with GPA • of 2.50 or higherGraduate students (12+ ASUJ hours) with GPA • of 3.50 or higher
Previous recipients are ineligible.
Who’s WhoAmong Students in American Universities & Colleges
Application available athttp://www.astate.edu/a/student-affairs/vcsa/
WhosWhoApplication.pdf
Application deadline is Friday, October 5.
Who’s Who Among Students is a nationally recognized program that honors outstanding student leaders
who enhance the positive image of American youth through their contributions to community and school.
Significant involvement in extracurricular, civic, and student professional activities, along with academic achievement, are attributes of students selected for Who’s Who recognition.
Moore has noticed that the visitor lot isn’t used very much.
“It’s always empty, except on Fridays and Saturdays when it’s game night,” he said.
Other building five resi-dents have also voiced con-cerns about having to park far away, especially at night.
The lot in NPQ is not the only one to be reassigned.
At the beginning of the semester Caraway Road be-tween Collegiate Park and NPQ was designated for resi-dents of Red Wolf Den and NPQ. These spots are now for commuters.
Forrest said it was deter-mined that enough parking was available for residents that the parking spots could
be given to commuters. Parking in the Armory has
also been offered to those living off campus.Despite an addition to commuter spots, students still feel like parking isn’t sufficient enough.
John Yerger, a graduate student in music of Jones-boro, said that contract park-ing should be removed to allow everybody to have a chance at spots close to their classes.
“If we do have contract parking, it should be for those students taking classes in that building,” Yerger said.
Yerger gave examples of how art and music students have equipment they have to carry long distances when they can’t find a close parking spot.
Yerger has to park in the parking deck and has raised the issue of parking permits costing $50 in addition to paying the parking deck fee.
Patricia Purvis, a graduate student in math of Cave City, also has problems with park-ing.
She said there isn’t enough parking and when it is avail-able, it is too far from her classes.
Changes in parking are common at the beginning of fall semesters, Forrest said.
During the first few weeks of school UPD and Parking Services survey the parking needs of the campus and ad-just parking accordingly.
Students can find a list of current changes in the ASU Daily Digest.
Staci Vandagriff | Photo EditorA Nettleton High School drum major stands by at half time where high school bands from around Arkan-sas performed “The Final Countdown” by the Swedish band Europe alongside the ASU band.
to resign and I was elected president. We got registered with the Amateur Trapshoot-ing Association (ATA) and began competing against other colleges.”
That work paid off as ASU recently sent two five-member teams to the Grand Ameri-can world championships in Sparta, Ill.
Behind the coaching skills of Turnage and the administrative leadership of Dr. Gauri-Shankar Guha, associate professor of Eco-nomics and Finance and associate director of ASU’s International Business Resource Center, the two squads made a haul of both team and individual awards and finished third overall.
“The ASU program has been in existence only eight months,” said Dr. Guha. “These stu-dents are really committed to the sport. We are really thankful to Dr. Rick Stripling (vice chancellor for Student Affairs) and Dr. Len Frey (vice chancellor for Finance and Admin-istration) for helping us find a way to go to the competition.”
Both Guha and Turnage say that with the success of ASU’s trapshooting program, the two are hearing from students who want to transfer from other colleges who don’t have the shooting activities.
About 30 to 40 colleges and universities compete on a regular basis and the Amateur Trapshooting Association, through which shooting events are scheduled, is working to get more universities involved.
That organization then hopes to approach the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) about setting up trapshooting as an intercollegiate sport.
Currently, Lindenwood University is the only school to provide private scholarships.
Wray says that Lindenwood is the model for how good trapshooting programs should be.
“We compete against Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee-Martin, Arkansas, Mis-sissippi College and Lindenwood right now,” continued Wray. “We’re hoping to get those programs here for a shoot.”
Trapshooting can be an expensive sport as
the students must have their own guns, fees, shells, and practice targets.
Turnage said guns, a 12-gauge shotgun, can cost up to $20,000 and are individually ordered.
“They can be expensive because they are precision made,” continued Turnage. “But, the expense is not necessarily the gun as most people who shoot already own their gun and have been shooting for a while. Also, the gun can be resold. And, not all guns are that ex-pensive.”
Dr. Guha and Wray concur that the shells are the most expensive because once they are spent, they can’t be reused.
Dr. Guha became involved with the pro-gram without ever having shot a gun.
“I had never shot a gun before last October, but Pat showed me how. Now I can shoot! It’s really fun.”
Good vision is the number one criteria for a good trap shooter.
Dr. Guha says the clay target comes out of the trap house at 42 miles per hour.
The shotgun uses a two and three-fourths inch shell that travels approximately 1,180 feet per second.
Wray agrees that trapshooting is fun and 90 percent mental 10 percent physical.
“You get the mechanics down and then it’s all mental,” he said. “You have to be totally fo-cused or you’ll miss it. Sometimes, if some-one misses the target ahead of you, and you hear, ‘lost,’ you might start thinking about that and you lose focus and you’ll miss it too. It becomes contagious. And, then you have to put your gun down, set your mind and get fo-cused again.”
Wray shoots pretty quickly — maybe a lit-tle over a second.
“I say, ‘pull’ and then boom! You’ve got to be ready to shoot and be focused at the same time. It’s awesome.”
“It’s a good sport,” concluded Turnage. “It’s a sport you can do for the rest of your life. Other sports can end on you, but not trap-shooting.”
TRAPSHOOTING, Continued
“There was so much we learned at the summit,” Grubbs said.
“There was a session about the Israel and Palestinian conquest,” Waters said. “It was good for me to learn that the media portrayed Israel differently than what actually occurred.”
“I’ve learned a lot about the cause and I got to go to Israel with the organization in August,” Grubbs said. “The military over there gets so much negative publicity, and I was able to see that they ac-tually go to great lengths to protect their citizens.”
According to Waters, said he hopes that the U.S. will be-gin to support Israel.
“With how dangerous the Middle East is right now and how small Israel is, I am now aware that the U.S hasn’t been supportive of Israel, our big-gest ally,” Waters said. “This semester we are looking to have Irving Raw, a holocaust survivor who is tentatively scheduled, to speak on Nov. 15, but it’s not confirmed yet.”
“What we do is not a char-ity organization,” Grubbs said. “We are just seeking to educate people about the state of Israel.”
CUFI, Continued
The Johnny Cash Music Festival, hosted by Arkansas State University, has been named as one of the Ameri-can Bus Association’s 2013 Top 100 Events in North America.
The ABA selected Cash’s event as one of the events to watch, which is a new catego-ry this year.
Top 100 Events in North America is used as a guide for people such as travel profes-sionals and the general pub-lic. It is designed to come in handy when planning group tours and vacations.
“We are honored that our festival has been named an Event to Watch for 2013 by the American Bus Associa-tion, which we consider a sig-nificant partner for the future
success of our Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project,” said Dr. Ruth Hawkins, executive director of Arkansas State University’s Arkansas Heri-tage Sites and the driving force behind the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home restoration project. “We are especially grateful to our friends at the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism who have promoted our festival as a motor-coach friendly event.”
The Cash family is work-ing with Arkansas State to de-velop an annual Johnny Cash Music Festival, with proceeds each year going to restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home and the establishment of a museum. The university acquired the original Cash homeplace in Dyess and restoration of the structure is underway. The university
also plans the establishment of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Museum in the New Deal Era Administration Building at Dyess.
The Johnny Cash Music Festival is only in its second year and is scheduled for Oct. 5 in ASU’s Convocation Center, 217 Olympic Drive in Jonesboro, at 7 p.m. Perform-ers include Cash’s daughter Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Dierks Bentley, and the Civil Wars.
Tickets are on sale at www.tickets .astate.edu<http://www.tickets.astate.edu> or by logging onto the official website of the Johnny Cash Music Festival, www.johnny-cashmusicfest.com<http://www.johnnycashmusicfest.com>. Call to purchase tickets toll-free at 1-888-278-3267 or locally at 870-972-2781.
Festival named as Top 100 eventASU PRESS RELEASE
Xinzhong Zhao | Staff PhotographerYearbook staff members Muriel Aston and Paige Walker help out during Picture Day Thursday afternoon
in the Student Union. Almost 1,500 students had their picture taken during Yearbook Photo Week.
Picture Day
PAGE 4ASUHERALD.COM MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 2012
Interested in writing and benefiting from the extra cash?
Meetings are held every Monday at The Herald Office, located on the second floor of the Communication
building at 5:00 p.m. or contactAshley Helliwell at
LOVE SPORTS...
Concentration and confidence leads to a shutoutASHLEY HELLIWELL
SPORTS EDITOR
Shine Huang | Staff PhotographerTim Starson tackles an Alcorn State player. The defense held the Braves to four of 17 on third down conver-sions.
Travis Sharp | Staff PhotographerDefensive player Ronnell Wright celebrates after recovering a fumble from Alcorn State.
With a shutout of 56-0 over the Alcorn Braves, Arkansas State took its second home win at Liberty Bank Stadium Sat-urday night in front of 21,559 proud Red Wolf fans.
“I am real excited for our team tonight, getting a shutout in college football is extremely hard,” head coach Gus Malzahn said.
The Red Wolves would lead 7-0 within the first five minutes of the first quarter when defensive player Ronnell Wright recovered a fumble made by Alcorn State quarterback, Jordan Payne.
It would be the defensive touchdown that would give the Red Wolves the momentum to up the ante on the pace and take control over the Braves.
‘The defense gave us a shot in the arm, which would loosen us up to be able to play,” Malzahn said.
Ryan Aplin, the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year broke the ASU career record for touchdown passes, taking the title from Cleo Lemons with 49 touchdowns. The Red Wolves would finish the first half with a 42-0 lead.
“I think coming in we had a good game plan, when the run game is effective it opens up the passing game, the O-line did a great job opening up run lanes. I don’t even think I got hit tonight. Hats off to them for protection,” Aplin said.
Aplin would finish 12 of 13 for passing completions, before handing the job over at the start of the third quarter.
“It was good to hit Jarboe, Mckissic, Jones and whoever else, because we are going to have to have the vertical pass game and be able to run the ball, hitting big plays and I thought the ball was coming off Ryan’s hands really good tonight,” Offen-
sive Coordinator Rhett Lashlee said.Junior running back David Oku rushed for 92 yards, and
would making a career high 2 touchdowns. It would be Don Jones’ interception and his 23-yard return, that put ASU at Alcorn’s 18-yard line.
In a matter of 2 minutes, 5 plays and 18 yards, Oku would finish the drive for a1 yard rush giving the Red Wolves a 28-0 lead. Oku was seen as the wild card in the third quarter getting some playing time as quarterback. As the season unfolds Oku said he is just rolling with what is happening now.
Senior wide receiver Taylor Stockemer is still out, but his absence has given the Red Wolves an opportunity to gain depth interchanging positions and seeing different run options among the youngsters. “We have had some guys step up and are getting more action in his absence, but it is going to help us when we get Taylor back and in full strength look at J.D. Mckissic,” Lashlee said.
Mckissic would connect with Aplin for 33 yards completing the night with a game high six receptions, 49 yards and one touchdown.
“Mckissic has only played 4 games, and he is ready to be a weapon for us,” Lashlee said.
Thompson praised the team for its focus. “The two things we talked about this week was concentration and confidence and that really showed tonight,” Defensive Coordinator Jon Thompson said.
Defensive player Chris Humes finished the night with 5 tackles, while Tim Starson ended the night with four tackles.
“Tim Starson is exactly what you want there, he plays very well against the run, rushes the passer. He is in to what we are doing and taking the bull by the horns,” Thompson said.
With the win over Alcorn State, ASU ends its non-conference games and shifts its focus to conference play. In the first few weeks the Sun Belt Conference has made a statement and is being recognized with SBC teams winning against big teams like Auburn and Arkansas. “Each game from here on out is going to be a grind and we are going to have to bring our “A” game,” Aplin said.
The Red Wolves will host Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Saturday, Sept. 29 as the Red Wolves begin the journey to defend its title as SBC champions. Kick off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
CONFERENCE PLAYSept. 29 Western Kentucky Liberty Bank Stadium 6 p.m.
Oct. 4 Florida International Miami, Fla. 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 South Alabama Liberty Bank Stadium 6 p.m.
Oct. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette Lafayette, La. 7 p.m.
Nov. 3 North Texas Denton, Texas TBA
Nov. 8 Louisiana-Monroe Liberty Bank Stadium 6 p.m.
Nov. 17 Troy Troy, Ala. 2:30 p.m. Dec. 1 Middle Tennessee Liberty Bank Stadium 2 p.m.
A student-athlete is a student and athlete at the same time, but it is more than that. The relationship between athlete and student is hard work.
Being a long distance runner has the stigma of being physically and mentally tough, but this is an understatement. There are days when runners must let their bodies recover, and they must take it slow. There are those days where you have to give a workout or a race everything you’ve got.
When I explain long distance running to a non-runner, I say, “Imagine you have run hard for a few miles and you think you are running as hard as you possibly can. Instead of stopping or slowing down, you run harder. And you do this type of running two to three times a week.”
When I say, “run hard,” I mean gut-wrenching, breath-taking, don’t-think-I-can-move-another-step hard. It is a sport that is often more mental than physical.
Being an athlete and being in the classroom during season is the toughest part about being a student-athlete. Athletes put ten or more hours into their sport every week, and must also focus on homework and tests like all other students.
We compete in cross country during the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring. We only had two to three meets at home every year, so almost every weekend is spent traveling. Going out of town almost every weekend caused me to miss a
majority of my Friday classes and many Thursday classes. Missing lectures and notes make it harder to learn class material, and rescheduling a test is frustrating for students and professors.
In addition to physical and mental exhaustion, athletes must deal with all kind of pressure a typical college student does not have.
There is pressure during a meet to perform well, but there is pressure at each practice to push the body to a new limit and mentally block out pain. There is also the ongoing demand from the body to recover by getting good food and lots of sleep. There is pressure from academic coordinators and coaches to maintain grades and stay eligible.
There are so many factors within the student-athlete relationship that make it feel impossible at times. The student hinders the athlete by not allowing it more time to recover and practice, but the athlete hinders the student because of the scheduling of meets and practices.
I admire my fellow student-athletes for what they do on and off the field.
The stress that comes with being a student-athlete is incomparable to anything else I’ve experienced, but it is well worth it all.
I am now in my fifth year of school, ninth semester, and I am out of NCAA eligibility, which means I can no longer compete for ASU. Although I will never be able to run in a Red Wolves jersey again, the things I learned while wearing scarlet and black will never leave me.
Life as an athleteCHELSEA WEAVER
STAFF WRITER
The Lady Red Wolves opened conference play this weekend against Florida Atlantic Saturday and Florida International on Sunday.
ASU defeated FAU 23-25, 25-22, 29-27, 25-17 giving the Red Wolves its first victory in conference. Jasmine Terry and Marie Hadar led ASU with 14 kills each, while Kelsie Hodges added 12. Allison Kearney had 44 assists, 14 digs and four kills.
After taking the victory at FAU, the Red Wolves would fall
short to the FIU Panthers Sunday. According to a press release head coach David Rehr said,
“We just didn’t have a very good performance today, The key for us will be to get back at during practice and prepare for a pair of very tough matches next week at home.”
ASU will be back at home Friday, Sept 28 at the HPESS to take on North Texas
Courtesy | Sports Information