the spectator, 08/28/2014, first issue, fall 2015
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AUGUST 28, 2014 Volume 87 Issue 1
Inside � is Issue - OPINIONS: Doing our best to bring you the best
- FEATURES: VSU student makes discovery
- SPORTS: � e search for the new Blaze is on
On the Web w w w.vsusp e c tor.com
Ex-professor’s letter causes stir
A former VSU professor is at the center of a rapidly growing controversy over an open letter that the professor sent to Georgia legislators condemning government support for Confederate commemora-tions. Dr. Mark P. George, VSU professor until May 2014, is planning to � le an o� cial complaint against VSU for what he said are wrong-ful actions by university o� cials, including the dele-tion of Dr. George’s univer-
sity email account and the delayed release of funds for an organization that Dr. George runs. Dr. George said these actions occurred as retali-ation to an open letter he sent to state o� cials, but VSU President William J. McKinney and VSU Provost Hudson Rogers said VSU is simply following standard University System of Geor-gia procedures and policies. � e saga began on June 23 when Dr. George and Rev-erend Rose Floyd sent an open letter, sent on behalf of the Mary Turner Project and the Southern Chris-tian Leadership Confer-
ence’s (SCLC) local chapter, through Dr. George’s VSU email account to Governor Nathan Deal and Georgia lawmakers asking the state government to remove backing for Confederate holidays and events and to change all state roads and highways named a� er Con-federate leaders. No one responded to the letter, but on July 11, Presi-dent McKinney received an email from John C. Hall Jr., a VSU alumnus and Sons of Confederate Veterans mem-ber. In the email, Hall com-plained about Dr. George’s use of public resources in inappropriate ways.
“� e potential nega-tive publicity and legality of what he is doing could harm my college and I do not want that to happen,” Hall’s email read. Initially, Dr. McKinney supported Dr. George’s actions. � ere was even a response dra� ed to Hall that said Dr. George had not violated any laws. � en, on July 18, Dr. George sent an email to all parties involved responding to Hall’s initial complaints. Furthermore, Dr. George said the MTP’s commentary on political issues does not violate any tax laws because the IRS allows non-pro� t organizations to take posi-
tions on public policy issues as long as they don’t endorse political campaigns or candidates. “Mr. Hall is simply what social science scholars have termed a ‘Neo-Confederate’ wedded to a historically inaccurate and romanticized version of southern history,” Dr. George said, addressing Hall personally.
John StephenMANAGING EDITOR
West Hall gets needed makeover
A� er being under con-struction since spring 2014, West Hall is showing signs of further progression due to the e� orts of architects to meet the scheduled completion date. Construction began as a result of issues with the air conditioning equipment. According to Raymond Sable, director of Physical Plant and Facilities Plan-ning, West Hall’s renova-tions in 1985 consisted of an air conditioning plan that did not consider the heat generated from video projectors or computers in the o� ces and computer labs today. “� e air conditioning equipment in the building is almost 30 years old and is nearing the end of its life cycle,” said Sable . � e replacement of the air conditioning system is broken down into three phases. Phase I is the complete replacement of the system with an updated, more resourceful energy system in the classroom wing. � is phase will result in an upgrade in the digital
controls for this particular wing, landing the budget for Phase I at $916,403.00. Phases II and III involve replacing the air condition-ing system for the north and south administration wings, totaling $2.5 million for all three phases. Although most of the interior work was � nished over the summer, the remainder of this project still requires a few major adjustments. “� e remaining items le� are the construction of a wall around the new transformer, removal of the old air handler, completion of some � nal connections, completion of the ceilings, and a test and balance of the system,” said Sable. � e contract, however, required West Hall to be available for the � rst day of classes with the project not 100 percent done, but completed enough to teach. Students and faculty so far have only had minor problems, along with a few classrooms being too cold and others too warm. � e contractor continues to correct these issues.� e remaining construc-tion is to be completed on weekends and is scheduled for overall completion in October.
VSU to host Fox News personality
Controversy is brewing over a scheduled Sept. 11 appear-ance by a Fox News commen-tator for which VSU is paying $43,000. Titled “An Evening with Dr. Ben Carson,” the event is billed as a non-partisan fund-raiser. A pediatric neurosurgeon and New York Times bestsell-ing author, Carson plans to deliver a keynote speech titled “America the Beautiful: Re-discovering What Made this
Nation Great.” Tables at the dinner are going for $2,500, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitu-tion. Tickets were priced at $20, but according to the VSU website, over� ow seating has been arranged to watch live via television in Jennett Hall for $10. Gov. Nathan Deal has re-served two seats for the event, with the head of minority recruitment for the Georgia GOP having 20 seats, accord-ing to the AJC. Previous planned appearances by Carson at universities have led to negative reactions.
Carson withdrew from a planned event at Johns Hop-kins University in 2013 a� er a backlash arose due to his comments about the A� ord-able Care Act. Carson was hired as a news columnist by Fox News in 2013 a� er serving as the director of pediatric surgery at John Hopkins. He recently began raising funds for a po-tential presidential candidacy in 2016.
Keep a close watch on our website and check out the next issue of � e Spectator for further reading on this issue.
Jessica Cooke STAFF WRITER
Cole Edwards MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
VSU President William McKinney took part in the Ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for ALS on Tuesday. He challenged all University System of Georgia presidents who had not participated in the challenge yet.
Alex Tostado/ THE SPECTATOR
Ice Bucket Challenge comes toVSU
Construction in West Hall will continue throughout the semester
Today at VSU
George
See Professor, page 2
� e Haven- VSU hosts it’s 23rd annual “Hap-pening.” Di� erent groups and organizations will have tents and tables set up on the front lawn from 1- 4 p.m.
Free Tech & Zip Line- VSU students can Zip Line with CORE today from 4- 8 p.m. Meet up at CORE Outdoors (Sus-tella Parking Deck ) and then head over to the Challenge Course.
� is Day in History
Soul Speaks
On this day in 1963, Mahalia Jackson ,
deemed the Queen of Gospel, sang to
an audience of over 250,00 people be-
fore Dr. Martin Lu-ther King’s famous “I Have A Dream”
Speech.
Source: History.com
Weather
Find Us Online
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TWITTER:@vsuspectator
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Today
Saturday
Friday
Stella Henderson/ THE SPECTATOR
Few Showers
Sunny
Clouds
Check out Kenzie Kesserling’s story, “Brown killing unjust,”
on the web!
Volleyball ready to serve up big season See page 5 for more
AUGUST 28, 2014 PAGE 2 | VSUSPECTATOR.COM
Spectator Classifi eds The Spectator prints free classifi eds for cur-rent stu dents of Val-dos ta State Uni ver si ty only. These must be no more than 40 words, or a $9.30 charge will apply. Clas si fi eds for fac ul ty, staff, stu dent or ga ni za tions, stu-dent-owned busi ness es and the gen er al pub lic cost $9.30 for up to 40 words.
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The sudoku grid consists of eighty-one squares in a nine by nine grid. To solve the su-doku, each square in the grid must contain a number between one and nine, with the fol-lowing conditions:
* Each row of nine cells must contain each of the numbers from 1 to 9 once and only once.* Each column of nine cells must contain each of the numbers from 1 to 9 once and only once.* Each of the nine 3 by 3 boxes of nine cells must contain each of the numbers from 1 to 9
Answers on Page 5
9 3 8
6 2769
1
71
85
2
89
2 6 7 5
52
Upcoming Events
Dance Club Auditions
Aug. 296-9 p.m.UC Dance Studio (Room 2108)
If you are a dancer, VSU’s Dance Club wants you to audition for the fi rst ever “So You Think You Can Dance” Competition. Wear loose, comfort-able clothing to dance in.
Labor Day Holiday
Sept. 1
No classes all day. Enjoy the time off!
Police Briefs
Aug. 26
A bike was stolen outside Patterson Hall.
Aug. 25
A student in West Hall reported money stolen from her wallet.
A student reported his bike stolen from Lowndes Hall. Aug. 24
A subject advised that dur-ing an attempted bike theft, the thief badly broke the lock. The subject brought it to the police department’s attention, but was unable to provide enough proof that the bike was hers.
A Centennial resident left for the weekend and re-turned to fi nd her bike had been stolen.
A female student went to the police department to report that her wallet was stolen while she was in the library.
Aug. 18
A male student lost his wallet either on the bus or in the health sciences build-ing.
Aug. 14
A caller advised that a fi re pit set up for an interna-tional student gathering had gone missing.
SGA lays out plans for new yearThe Student Govern-
ment Association (SGA) swore in all of the sopho-mores, upperclassmen and graduate senators before going over their strategic plan for the aca-demic year at their fi rst meeting of the semester.
Last Monday at 8 p.m. in the University Center, the president of the SGA, Tyler Barker, read and explained the SGA’s stra-tegic plan for the upcom-ing academic year. This plan will be made avail-able to the public later this week. It consisted of their objectives, each having its own strategies and goals.
Among the things men-tioned was the smoking policy that will be going into effect Oct. 1. The SGA wants to continue to educate and advocate this policy to VSU students.
Another issue men-
tioned was the GPS track-ing for the shuttle buses, an app that lets users fi nd the location of any bus in transit.
Vice President Nicho-las Buford spoke on the upcoming schedule for the SGA and its mem-bers’ offi ce hours. Buford announced that there are multiple senator spots open for upperclassmen and freshmen. The SGA is also in need of a secre-tary. In order to become a senator of the SGA, one of the steps entails attend-ing three meetings before trying to secure a spot.
The SGA budget, a little over $14,000, was also on the agenda. Student activity fees and community service hours for SGA members were discussed. Also mentioned briefl y were the upcoming Happening Thursday and the bonfi re that occurred Tuesday.
In attendance were many special guests,
including VSU Presi-dent William McKinney and his wife, Dr. Dacia Charlesworth, who each gave a speech after all the senators were sworn in. Dr. McKinney took to the podium fi rst and encour-aged SGA throughout his speech.
“We don’t exist if not for our students,” Dr. McKinney said. “We are here for you, we support you and above all else we will always, always listen. I thank you all in advance for the work I know that you are going to do this year because you always do it and you always do extraordinary things.”
Dr. Charlesworth, who applauded SGA, said, “I am just so impressed with what I saw tonight. You have a lot of work to do and what you set up to do is extraordinary and I wish you all the success.”
Dr. Charlesworth, who is part of Leadership
Lounge, also announced that on Sept. 26, a fi eld day would be held with the partnership of Boys and Girls Club and her group. Any person affi li-ated with VSU can attend for free. There will be many activities including bowling, obstacle cours-es, volleyball, kickball and darts.
“You are our hope, our light and our joy,” Dr. Charlesworth said.
After the meeting, Barker explained what he wanted students to know for the upcoming year, in-cluding the SGA’s desire to have a Homecoming King and to see posi-tive results from the new smoking policy.
It was this personal attack against Hall that caused Thomas Daniel, USG’s senior vice chan-cellor for external affairs, to advise Dr. McKinney to take action to calm the situation.
On July 28, Dr. George sent a follow-up letter to the Georgia General Assembly, asking them to respond to his previous letter. That same day Dr. George’s VSU email ac-count was deleted. Shortly after, The MTP funds from the VSU Founda-tion ($247) failed to be released.
Dr. George said that VSU has failed to provide evidence that he violated any VSU/USG policies.
Dr. Rogers said that Dr. George’s email account was deleted because it is a standard procedure to delete an account 45 days after that person leaves
VSU, and Dr. George’s contract at VSU expired in May.
Dr. George said that he knows of several pro-fessors whose accounts weren’t deleted after leav-ing VSU and believes that he was singled out for this action, an allegation that Dr. Rogers said holds no merit.
According to Dr. McK-inney, the delay of the funds is due to how the money is to be spent and not because of the contro-versy between Dr. George and Hall.
In addition, Dr. Rogers said that Dr. George was not entitled to the same academic freedom of pro-fessors since he no longer worked at VSU.
Dr. McKinney said he shifted from his stance of supporting Dr. George because he didn’t know initially that Dr. George was no longer teaching at VSU.
But Dr. George said VSU has wronged him in several ways, which is
why he is fi ling an offi cial complaint with the USG.
According to Hall, “Professor Dr. George attacking me got his email closed ‒ not his free speech issue.”
Hall said he is fi ne with Dr. George continuing his work with the MTP, as long as he doesn’t use VSU resources to do so. But in response to Dr. George’s open letter advocating against state support for Confederate commemorations, Hall is unrelenting.
-------------For the full story, visit
our website!
Visit us on the web @vsuspectator.com
LaShawn OglesbySTAFF WRITER
Ex-professorcontroversyContinued from page 1
AUGUST 28, 2014 VSUSPECTATOR.COM | PAGE 3
Spectator StaffEditor-in-Chief:Elan WaiteManaging Editor: John StephenBusiness Manager: Kristen VarneyCirculation Manager: Abbie BaggerlyOpinions Editor: Jordan HillFeatures Editor:John Preer
Sports Editor: Alex TostadoPhoto Editor: Sierra KingMultimedia Editor: Cole EdwardsWeb Editor:Tyra MillsCopy Editor: Tatyana PhelpsSocial Media Editor:Jordan Barela
Faculty Advisers: Dr. Pat Miller, Dr. Ted Geltner, Cindy MontgomeryReporters/Photographers:Lia Armistead, Mayah Cantave, Jessica Cooke, Tristan Guice, Ken-zie Kesselring, LaShawn Oglesby, Marquez Slaughter, Kayla Stroud, Taymara Tait, Christopher Webb, Austin Wells, Kristin Whitman
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Opinions expressed in The Spectator other than editorials are the opinions of the writers of signed columns and not neccessarily those of The Spectator and its staff. All rights reserved. Reprints by permission of the editors. Views in this newspaper are not neccessarily those of the Valdosta State University administration, faculty and staff.
Our point of view...
This editorial was written by a member of the editorial staff and expresses the general opinion of The Spectator.
Don’t bring Chinese boot camp to United States Mayah Cantave
Staff [email protected]
Jordan BarelaSocial Media editor
Taymara TaitStaff Writer
[email protected], Ring, Ring! The fire
alarm is going off. You now have to run outside and stand outside your dorm at 6 a.m. in your pajamas when it’s 30 degrees outside. You were not ready for this at all.
Expect the unexpected. Everything you think can go wrong will most likely go wrong. Your internet can go out or your printer can break down 10 minutes before something is due.
Random things can hap-pen, so be prepared. Have a backup plan. Have a backup plan for your backup plan.
Go to class! Going to class sucks; of course it does, it’s class. No one is going to force you to go. This is college; no one cares what you do. Law and Order will still be on the television when you come back from class, and they are re-runs. Promise.
Make as many friends as
possible. You don’t realize how much you need people until you do. Borrowing books, getting study partners, finding parties, and getting just about anything you need. Trust me.
When dorm bathrooms are disgusting and you need a shower, ask one of your new friends to shower at their place. Friends are your connections to the world. Use them. Go hang out in the lobby of your dorm and meet
people. The most important piece
of advice to listen to is this: This is your life. Do with it what you want. Do something for you, not what your parents want, not what your teachers want, just you.
What you give is what you get. Learn, have fun and suc-ceed. This experience won’t last forever so make the most of it.
A letter to the freshmen
Racism is still alive in 2014. Take a second and let that sen-tence sink in. The sugarcoat-ed, happy ending belief is that racism was abolished in the 1960s after the Civil Rights Movement achieved what it set out to achieve. Sadly, it is just a belief.
As a child of an interracial couple, I have seen and heard racism firsthand. Growing up, I was often at odds with what race to identify myself with. Along with this internal battle, I was also facing what people thought of me because of the color of my skin. I was once asked if I even spoke English.
I am not the only one who faces racism, either. Accord-ing to DoSomething.org, 52 percent of non-Hispanic whites expressed anti-His-panic attitudes in a 2011 poll. In another poll the following year, 51 percent of Americans expressed anti-black senti-ments, which is up 3 percent from 2008.
These statistics only further prove the hard truth that rac-
ism is still around. How could racism still be
alive? Interracial marriage is no longer illegal, there are racial discrimination laws in place and we have a non-white president for the first time in history.
While these are landmark achievements in the battle of racism, there are still setbacks. A recent article on USA Today’s website shows the 20 most segregated schools in the U.S. This fact hits home on two fronts. One, what was even the point of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruling if there are still segre-gated schools? Two, one of those 20 schools is in Georgia.
A recent report on CNN explored the belief that Afri-can American males have to
live by a different set of social rules and how some are being taught to live by those rules. This report came after the tragic death of Michael Brown and the social chaos that en-veloped Ferguson, Missouri.
Racism is built on stereo-types. The truth that racism is still alive is already a hard pill to swallow, but the fact the each ethnicity minority and race has a stereotype makes that pill even harder to swal-low. Simply put, a stereotype can affect anyone.
Racism will not truly end until people stop believing in stereotypes. Skin color is color, not a weapon. There are different colors of skin, but everyone is really all the same color — human.
Imagine being locked away in a secluded camp where your Internet surfing rights are taken away. You’re stripped from your days of watching brand new videos like that new Nicki Minaj “Anaconda” video you just can’t miss or searching for those new Michael Kors bags your friend told you about.
Imagine that leisure time is gone. Most people wouldn’t want to be in a camp like this, but if you were in China and addicted to the Internet, you’d be doomed.
In China, teenagers are encouraged by their parents to attend a camp such as this. These camps attempt to tackle Internet addiction discovered by the country in 2008.
Addicted teenagers in China are taken to boot camps where their Internet addiction is focused on, scrutinized and examined for bet-ter solutions.
As a college student who has a book report, research paper, or even a ton of assignments to get done by Monday, you not only want the In-ternet, you need it. Assuming a good majority
of U.S. teenagers and young adults are addicted to the Internet, a hardcore boot camp might not be the solution.
Not to say teenagers and adults shouldn’t take a step back from the Internet every once in a while, but China is doing it wrong! A nor-mal day in one of these boot camps is a strict military-style environment. Why so harsh?
Chinese authorities claim Internet addiction causes mental illnesses and have actually classi-fied it as a mental disorder. Chinese authorities have also said addiction to the internet contrib-utes to 70 percent of crime in China.
According to CNN, there have been reports of abuse in these camps. A 19-year-old woman was nearly beaten to death just for failing to ask permission to use the bathroom.
Why should teenagers be harshly punished just for playing too many games on their iPhone or searching the Internet way too much? Though it is reported these teenagers do go a bit overboard, for instance spending way too much time on the internet to play video games for hours or even days at a time, this ad-diction should be handled in an entirely differ-ent way. The U.S. shouldn’t resort to this kind of behavior by implementing camps like these around our country. Let’s cross our fingers.
Stereotypes affect everyone People PollWhat advice do you have for freshmen?
Photo Courtesy of MCT Campus
Photo Courtesy of Tyler Barker
Kayla Grady Junior
French Education“Have fun, study for
your classes and don’t waste all your money.”
Michael Brown Senior
Interdisciplinary Studies “No matter how bad things get they could be infinitely
worse.”
Latasha Yates Sophomore
Nursing “Join clubs and get
involved in extracur-ricular activities.”
Every Wednesday night the staff of the Specta-tor meets up at 5 p.m. and work, for hours on end, to bring you, our readers, the news.
Many nights have quickly slipped away from us and left us with nothing but a completed newspa-per, empty coffee cups and a more tired version of our normal selves. This is the lifestyle we have adopted and made for ourselves as reporters, writ-ers, photographers and editors of an independent student newspaper. We have taken an oath to bring to light what needs to be shown.
We are here, like any other news source, to pres-ent you with the purest unbiased form of informa-tion that will then allow you to form your own opinion. We aim not to be a mediator but instead to make each aspect of the important issues avail-able to you.
We’ve been criticized in the past as being biased from every side of the spectrum. We consider it
as a job well done if both sides of an issue feel as though we are not siding with them. That’s not what we do.
People have even suggested that we are con-trolled by the university and serve as a mouth piece. We are here to do the opposite. We are a separate entity and our job is to hold those of influence accountable. We are the unfiltered, un-censored voice of the students.
Our editorial section is the space that we use to voice the staff’ opinion on controversial issues that we feel need to be addressed with a more personal touch. This is where we get to say what we feel without tainting the news that we’ve provided.
Freedom of the press is one of our core beliefs as a nation and for good reason. Here at the Spec-tator we believe in it and use it to provide a forum for you to cultivate your views.
Doing our best to bring you the best
Caleb ScottJunior
Mass Media “Balance your time
wisely.”
Tony Pina Junior
Chemistry“Surrounding yourself with a group that you know can
be accountable .”
Photo Courtesy of Michael Lagon
Not so fancy Iggy Aza-lea during the MTV Video Music Award pre-show on Friday, fell off stage while performing, but she was able to get back on stage and unhurt. The VMAs kicked off Sunday night with Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj opening the show. Toward the end of her song, Nicki Minaj had a wardrobe mishap. It seemed as though her zipper in the front of her dress popped open, but she handled the situation with grace and finished the song. The Kardashians are under fire because during the moment of silence for Michael Brown they were caught on their phones. Maybe they were Googling “Michael Brown”? Miley Cyrus won Video of the Year for “Wrecking Ball,” but instead of giv-ing a speech, Miley had Jesse Helt, a homeless teen, accept her award on her behalf to create awareness for teen home-lessness. The show ended with Beyonce performing a medley of her songs. By the end, the rumors of her divorce from Jay-Z were put to rest, with him and Blue Ivy coming on stage giving her a big kiss. So Sunday was about music, but Monday night was about television. The 66th Primetime Emmys kind of snuck up on us. With “Breaking Bad”
ending this past year, the show went out with a bang, walking away with 16 wins. “True Detective” and “Orange is the New Black” did not win as many awards as most of us would have hoped. The real winners were the cast and writers for “Sher-lock.” The BCC/PBS masterpiece show won six awards, including best lead actor in a mini-series, best supporting actor in a mini-series and best writ-ing for a mini-series. Most of us are excited for football to start this weekend, but for some of us it has already started. Madden NFL 15 was re-leased Tuesday, and let’s just say that it is a clean start from Madden 25. The graphics are seam-
less and beautiful. The game now features more choices when making a play. IGN gave Madden NFL 15 an 8.7 out of 10. One last thing, did you know Hello Kitty is not a cat? That’s right, the character we all grew up with and loved is actu-ally a little girl. Sanrio, the creating company of Hello Kitty, issued a statement when Christine Yano, curator at the Japa-nese American National Museum in Los Angeles, described Hello Kitty as a cat at an exhibit. Hello Kitty’s real name is Kitty White. Surprise!
AUGUST 28, 2014 PAGE 4 | VSUSPECTATOR.COM
Brittney PenlandStaff Writer
VSU grad student, Fiifi Agyabeng-dadzie, devel-ops Restriction Associated DNA Tags (RADTags) for the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine serving as the foundation for iden-tifying genetic markers in organisms. “Agyabeng-dadzie’s ini-tial project for his thesis looks at a little hidden fish in VSU’s aquatic lab,” Dr. John Elder, Population and Molecular Genetics professor, said. The fish is a hybrid between the species Kryp-tolebias marmoratus and Kryptolebias ocellatus,
questioning the pro-posed status of the fish. Agyabeng-dadzie became interested in whether the two species are geneti-cally different. “The sequencing he wanted to do has never been done before. As a result, he created the method to do it by devel-oping a set of protocols to produce RADTags that pull out genomic sequencing and allows comparison,” Dr. Elder said. “The new methodol-ogy to produce genomes is extremely accurate and reproducible.” Agyabeng-dadzie’s development paves the way for modern genomic sequencing to be done at VSU.
Dr. Elder currently has two undergraduate stu-dents studying genetics, and is planning on more students basing their work off of Agyabeng-dadzie’s method. “Being the first to do this is a big deal,” Agya-beng-dadzie said. “I’m the foundation and I did most of the work on my own in the lab.” Agyabeng-dadzie ex-pressed interest in genet-ics from a young age. His curiosity as a child drove his ambition to reach this milestone early in his life. “While watching a TV program back home [in Ghana] with my Dad, I saw a big fowl and asked, ‘Why aren’t the livestock running around here that
big?’” Agyabeng-dadzie said. “My dad replied, ‘They were engineered to be that big.’ After that, I knew I wanted to study genetics.” He chose to attend graduate school at VSU after researching Dr. El-der’s work on population genetics. Although he has not finished the initial project for his thesis, he would like to if he had the time and finances. Agyabeng-dadzie’s future plan is to pursue a Ph.D.
Fiifi Agyabeng-Dadzie demonstrates genomic sequencing method in common lab in Bailey Science Center
Brittney Penland/ The Spectator
VSU student makes discovery
Celebrities slip up at awards shows
POPaddictStella Henderson
Happy Tator Day!
Neil FrawleySportS Writer
There are 56 banners hang-ing in the PE Complex and not one is for volleyball.
But when 2013 Gulf South Conference volleyball Coach of the Year, Mike Swan, and his revamped Lady Blazers break in the complex’s new paint job on Sept. 6 against Albany State, adding a 57th banner will be of top impor-tance.
On the heels of a solid 19-win season in year one, now sets in the real pressure of ex-panding on that success and setting the standard of being a GSC title and postseason contender, not only for this season, but for the next sev-eral seasons going forward. Coach Swan is confident that this group of players can live up to high expectations.
“Right now, everybody is really healthy,” Swan said. “Last year at this time we had people who were hurt already... Everybody’s had a good preseason, (and) we just have depth at every position now that I don’t think we did last year. I think the whole level of play has been raised considerably.”
One area Coach Swan ad-dressed over the summer was his team’s inability to control the net when needed. He did this by bringing in Nicole Higgins, Emily Matio, and Julie Masonheimer, a trio of six-footers who expectedly will bring help to a team that finished sixth block average per set at 1.45 percent.
As the saying goes, “defense wins championships,” and if Valdosta State can offer more resilience at the net, an improvement in that area should result in more points. This will also increase op-portunities for setters to assist outside hitters to improve VSU’s kills per set rate, which was third best in the confer-ence.
Joining Higgins, Matio, and Masonheimer is 5’5” freshman, Sydney Chick. Chick was a player at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida, and won team MVP all four years on the squad.
Coach Swan raves about Chick’s athleticism and be-lieves that it will allow her to be an immediate contributor to the squad from day one.
Rounding out the new re-cruits is junior transfer from Germany, Lea Jaklen, who boasts sn extremely versatile game and will provide depth at all areas for the team.
“Lea is very strong, physi-cally (while) Sydney, the new defensive specialist, is very
athletic,” Swan said. “I just think our recruiting class did for us what we needed it to do— to challenge returners and to make us better.”
VSU also can boast about a solid returning cast, especial-ly with seniors Jessica Codato and Jenna Kirkwood both having been named to the preseason All-GSC team. This makes three Lady Blazers who have been selected to the all preseason in the past two seasons, with senior setter, Ashley Lala, being selected just a season ago.
Other notable returning players include outside hit-ter Destiny Berry who was second in kills per set at 2.8 and middle blocker Kelsey Hedman who was second in
blocks per set despite having to sit out for a full month with an injury.
It will be interesting to watch how the new players work with the returning play-ers, as building team chem-istry is always a hurdle that even the best of teams must face. But looking simply on paper, and seeing the depth, the size, and the athleticism, and then the added gift of a full healthy roster: the team has all the right signs of being a great team, and one that will challenge preseason favorite West Florida.
Read the rest of Neil’s story online.
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AUGUST 28, 2014 VSUSPECTATOR.COM | PAGE 5
Volleyball ready to serve up big season
The search for the new ‘Blaze’ is on
Student Affairs to hold auditions Sept. 9
Student Affairs of VSU is now on the search for a new Blaze, the mascot, and is hosting auditions Friday, Sept. 9.
More than one student will be selected to perform as Blaze to fit around busy schedules.
The most recent students who performed as Blaze have either graduated over the previous school year, or de-
cided that their time was not dedicated to the commitment of being Blaze.
Although Blaze does not practice with the cheerlead-ers or Red Hots, he does travel to away events to support VSU with devoted school spirit.
“School spirit is the most important quality of being Blaze,” said Russell Mast, dean of students and vice president of Student Affairs.
The position to be Blaze is open to all students, includ-ing freshmen new to VSU
that have passionate school spirit.
While promoting VSU spirits, being Blaze is also a paid position.
The process of becoming the person in the mascot involves an interview with applicants.
VSU plans to continue the tradition started in 2000 of Blaze bringing his extra energy to the university’s environment. Follow Marquez on Twitter:@mquez
Marquez SlaughterStaff Writer
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‘Meet the Blazers’ draws crowd despite heat
Despite stifling heat and weather dangers, fans braved the conditions to “Meet the Blazers” on Sunday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.
The VSU Blazers football team, the Red Hots dance team and the cheerleading squad conducted clinics and signed autographs for fans.
“Meet the Blazers goes back a long way—way before I got here,” Ric Sisler, VSU director of marketing and promotions, said. “It’s an opportunity to showcase our community affairs and our athletic pro-gram.”
David Dean, VSU head football coach, praised fans for enduring the weather and declared the event was fun for all programs involved.
“I was impressed with the number (of people) that showed up,” Dean said. “We had a heat advisory in Valdo-sta, so I think that scared a lot of people away. We had a lot of kids that were there—both
for the cheerleading part and for the football part. We ap-preciated all of them coming out. Our players had a great time and it was a lot of fun.”
As Dean explained, “Meet the Blazers” gives players the chance to connect with the fans and show their apprecia-tion.
“For us to be successful, we have to have the back-ing of the community,” Dean said. “Any time we can give back to the community who supports us, we’re going to do that. That’s what that day was all about—being a role model and spending time with folks they would never have an op-portunity to spend time with otherwise.”
Sisler admitted that sched-uling and extreme tem-peratures were big hurdles for Sunday’s festivities but he was pleased overall.
“For football, we would ordinarily have it the weekend before the season starts,” Sisler said. “We’ve tried to do it on Labor Day weekend and it was not good—people were out of town and it was not well-
attended.“This year was probably
the worst [time] due to the extremely high temperatures, which was a potentially dan-gerous situation and obvious-ly, we had lightning. Nonethe-less, we were pleased with the folks that did turn out. While it was not as big as it has been, we look forward to having the next one.”
“Last year, we got off to a really good start and then didn’t finish very good,” Dean said. “Three of our first four games are against defending conference champions—that’s a great way to start because you’re tested right off the bat. We can’t afford a slow start and we’ve got to be able to put everything together in a hurry.”
The Blazers, who finished with a 6-4 record last season, start their season against the Albany State Rams on Sept. 6.
Follow Shane on Twitter:@ItsaThomasThing
Shane ThomasSportS Writer
Photo courtesy of VSU AthleticsJenna Kirkwood was named to the Preseason All-GSC team. She is hoping to build off of last season to make a run at the postseason.
Photo by Alex Tostado. Illustration by Sierra King
AUGUST 28, 2014 PAGE 6 | VSUSPECTATOR.COM