SIUE’s Department of Civil En gineering is celebrating its 50th anni versary with scholarships, speakers and networking opportunities.
Lisa Smith, director of development, said this event is to celebrate the many ac complishments of the Department of Civ il Engineering and to recognize the ways civil engineering impacts our society.
“Everything that touches our lives on a daily basis, in some way, has been impact ed by a civil engineer at one point or an other,” Lisa said. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate those people who have shaped our present day and are going to continue shaping our future.”
The event will feature St. Louis native Marsia Gelbert Murphey, President Elect of the American Society of Engineers, as a keynote speaker.
“She is a great voice for civil engineer ing and where we’re going in what we need to do to strengthen and continue refining our profession because as we continue to develop new materials, new ways of de signing, new ways of being more sustain able and new ways of thinking about the users of our facilities,” Fries said.
Smith said Murphey will be detail ing what the future of civil engineering looks like.
“We’re looking forward to hearing what she has to say about what the next 50 years of civil engineering may look like,
from her perspective,” Smith said.
Smith said the department has invit ed civil engineering alumni to attend the event. She said there will be many student organizations for attendees to engage with.
“Folks who attend will be able to interact with those organizations and just learn a little bit more about what our students are engaged with while they’re getting their degree here at SIUE,” Smith said.
Department Chair of Civil Engi neering, Ryan Fries, said the department has many alumni from nearly 20 different companies that have come together to help sponsor this event.
“We’re very proud of our alumni and I’m happy for how much support we’ve gotten so far,” Fries said.
Fries said there will be a good mix ture of alumni, faculty and students at the event.
“We’ll have a good contingent of stu dents and faculty over the years,” Fries said. “Faculty that are retired, or I think a good proportion, are still in the area, but some are all over the place, too, so hopeful ly they can make it.”
Smith said there will be one alumni from each decade speaking at the event.
“We’re going to ask them some fun questions and kind of get their mem ory or their recollection of what it was like for them on campus during the time that they spent getting their degree with us,” Smith said.
Smith said the beginning of the event
will be dedicated to networking opportu nities for students and alumni.
“We want those folks to have the op portunity to meet the future engineers that are going to be graduating soon and perhaps applying for positions at their busi nesses,” Smith said.
Fries said the networking aspect of the event will be a good opportunity for stu dents to find employment after graduation.
“Companies are very active in seeking new engineers, so students are very sought after right now,” Fries said. “It’s a good time to be graduating for them, so it’s definitely a good event on both ends to get them together.”
Smith said a large reason for having this event was to raise money to be used towards scholarships.
“That was kind of part of our initiative and the motivation to have this event was to raise scholarship funds for our students going into the future,” Smith said.
Fries said the civil engineering depart ment is aiming to raise $50,000 in scholar ship funds for their students.
“It’d be great that every deserving stu dent that has a need for a scholarship could be awarded these types of scholarships,” Fries said.
The event will take place from 11:30 a.m.- 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 at the SIUE Morris University Center’s Meridian Ballroom.
For more information, you can visit the Department of Civil Engineering’s website.
10.25.22
A traffic accident was reported on Circle Drive near Peck Service Road.
A hangtag was stolen from a vehicle parked in the Prairie Hall Parking Lot.
Marijuana was found in Prairie Hall.
10.26.22
A student was reportedly using someone else’s student ID to enter the Student Fitness Center.
10.27.22
Two traffic accidents were reported: one in Parking Lot 4E and one on South University Drive near Stadium Drive.
A driver’s license was found near East University Drive and North University Drive.
10.28.22
A stop sign was found on Stadium Drive near University Drive.
10.30.22
A subject reportedly left their wallet on the bus. The officer on the scene located another subject from the bus and the wallet was returned to its owner.
10.31.22
A hit and run was reported in Parking Lot A.
On Wednesday, Oct. 12, over 60 staff and faculty members came together to participate in the first Global Zone Internation al Student Ally Training Program. This program educates people on how to support the rising num ber of international students on campus.
Amy Nusser, Lead Immi gration Specialist, said the cre ation of Global Zone was inspired by the growing population of international students.
“We now have a lot of the campus community who are hav ing interactions with international students that hadn’t previously,” Nusser said. “So, I think that fac ulty and staff are looking for these tools to be able to effectively com municate and communicate with and support this new internation al student population.”
Program student adviser Joanna Ford said the intent of Global Zone is to offer train ing and create international student ally groups.
“We wanted something on campus that would teach most ly staff and faculty, hopeful ly students one day, about the unique challenges that interna tional students face and how we can be more compassionate and welcoming in our community,” Ford said.
Ford said that the rising pop ulation of international students requires a long-term program to ensure they feel welcomed on campus.
“I’m very excited that this is a long-term thing because this pop ulation is always going to be with
us and I absolutely love that,” Ford said.
Ford said the most motivating part in creating Global Zone was seeing the enthusiastic responses from international students, along with their willingness to share their personal experiences.
Madeline Schurman, gradu ate assistant for the Campus Ac tivities Board, said the training mainly focuses on things like in ternational student experiences, academic or pedagogical differ ences, culture shock, homesick ness and resources for internation al students.
“We tried to come up with videos for people to watch to make sure International Stu dent voices were highlighted and shown,” Schurman said. “It’s just more sustainable than a panel, because we want to be respectful of students’ schedules and other things.”
Ford said the goal of each competency is to be practical. She said at the training sessions, they’ll bring up issues and offer multiple solutions.
“That’s part of why at the end of the training, the final competency is resources,” Ford said. “We wanted to make sure that this was interactive, that it centered student voices, and that it actually gave practical things that people could do in order to help the international student population.”
Schurman said they tried to make the Global Zone training as interactive as possible, as opposed to only lecturing attendees.
“Each section has an activity and a video to make it more fun, and then content as well,” Schur man said. “We also have booklets
for attendees to follow along and that kind of goes with the slides we have in the training.”
Schurman said they be gin training by defining what it means to be an ally to international students.
“Allies understand what the students are going through, they empathize with the situa tion, knowing that they probably have not experienced that them selves and trying to understand it’s really difficult being inter national students sometimes,” Schurman said.
Schurman said the commit tee started working on creating Global Zone in June and has con tinued to work hard to make each session an interactive and enlight ening experience.
“You have to take the train
ing to know how awesome it is and how much thought and everything was behind it,” Schurman said.
Amy Nusser said they started this session as their pilot training and was offered to a select few fac ulty to gain feedback on how to improve Global Zone. She said they have been sharing this pro gram and their ideas with other schools to help make internation al students feel more included on their college campuses.
“We’re going to continue to rework this training to make sure that it not only meets the needs of the students, but it’s also meeting the needs of faculty and staff as well and that faculty and staff are finding it as meaningful as possi ble,” Nusser said.
Schurman said the first train
ing session was on Oct. 12. She said attendees were offered a survey to fill out and that the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
“I just kept getting emails about people suggesting other people take it and I think that’s so cool that people are so excited,” Schurman said.
Schurman said they present ed this idea at the NASA Region Five Conference.
“Everyone who was in the room came up and said that they wanted the slides, and they’re in terested in doing it,” Schurman said. “Hopefully, it’ll help a lot of students and improve their experiences, because that’s the whole point.”
The next Global Zone train ing session will be held on Nov. 28 and will be open to all faculty and staff members.
EDWARDSVILLE — The Alestle, Southern Illinois University Edwards ville’s student news organization, recently won five national awards during the 101st annual Associated Collegiate Press/Col lege Media Association National College Media Convention.
The Alestle placed 8th in the Best of Show competition at the convention in the Newspaper/Newsmagazine category of four-year schools with less than 15,000 students. Other schools in the Top Ten include Pepperdine University, Virginia State University, Ithaca College, Eastern Illinois University and Northwest Mis souri State University.
Three Alestle staff members also won recognition in the College Media Associ ation’s national Pinnacle Awards.
Online & Opinion Editor Nicole Boyd won second place in Best Cover age of Faith with her May 2022 article “BFA student connects Biblical themes to modern issues.”
Other entries were from The DePau lia at Depaul University; KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion at the University of Kentucky; the Indiana Daily Student at Indiana Uni versity; and the Elon News Network at Elon University in North Carolina.
The Alestle’s Graphics Manager Kirsten O’Loughlin won third place for her design of The Alestle’s nameplate. Other entries in the competition includ ed nameplates from The Daily Titan at California State University, Fullerton, the Daily News at Ball State Universi ty, the Daily Bruin at UCLA and The Collegian at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas.
“I’m very proud of the work The Alestle team has done over the last year. I think we’ve always had a very skilled team, and I’m glad that in the case of our most recent work I’ve been able to lead us to an award at a national level,” Alestle Editor in Chief Emily Sterzinger said.
Sterzinger was also recognized with an honorable mention in the Best Special Section Cover category for her Scooby Doo-themed cover of The Alestle’s Fall 2021 Graduation Issue.
Others honored were from The Ver mont Cynic at the University of Vermont, F Newsmagazine at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, UCLA’s Daily Bru in, UCLA and The Compass at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The field of competitors for the Pin nacle Awards was wide open and not bro ken down by school size or frequency. Any member schools and their news orga nizations from across the country could compete in the same category.
“The Alestle staff has grown in the last few years to become a consistent player in national college media compe titions,” Student Publications Program Director Tammy Merrett said. “I’m very proud of them. They are an example of the finest college students at SIUE.”
The Alestle has placed several times in recent years in the CMA Pinnacle awards, and national ACP Best of Show compe titions, as well as the ACP Individual Awards. The publication is consistently an American Scholastic Press Association top-ranked publication and regularly wins several top awards in the annual Illinois College Press Association contest as well. You can see their work at alestlelive.com.
Day of the Dead (Nov. 1-2)
Though this holiday has already passed, Day of the Dead, also known as Día de los Muertos, is an important holiday celebrated by those in Mexi co/of Mexican heritage. The holiday involves celebrating the lives of de ceased family members by putting up altars, or ofrendas, that contain mari golds, trinkets, candles and food among other things. The holiday is also celebrat ed by visiting graves of the deceased and bringing gifts.
Shichi-Go-San (Nov. 15)
Shichi-Go-San, which translates lit erally to Seven-Five-Three, is a Japanese coming of age holiday that celebrates three and seven-year-old girls and fiveyear-old boys. Families with children of those ages and genders visit shrines and
temples to pray for the health of those children as they grow up. Initially the hol iday is thought to have been celebrated due to higher infant and child mortality rates in the past, but in modern day gen erally celebrates children’s health and happiness.
Thanksgiving (Nov. 24)
Thanksgiving is a holi day traditionally celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in the U.S. The holiday, though it has its roots in protestant traditions, has largely been celebrated as a secular practice. The hol iday traces back to practices of pilgrims in the early 17th century. In modern day, Thanksgiving involves sharing foods such as turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries and other foods common to the holiday with family members.
Hanukkah (Dec. 18-26)
Hanukkah, also known as Chanukah
or the festival of lights, is a holiday origi nally celebrated to honor the reclamation of Jerusalem by the Maccabean Jews. In modern day, the holiday involves giving gifts within families each night, eating tra ditional foods and playing games such as playing with dreidels. A common practice is lighting a candle/oil lamp on a meno rah, a traditional candelabra, one at a time for the eight nights of the holiday.
Winter Solstice (Dec. 21)
Though not inherently a holiday, winter solstice, as the shortest night of the year, is often celebrated by different cultures, and holds special importance to Wiccans, who also know it as Yule. Cul tures that celebrate or have celebrated some sort of holiday practices during the winter solstice include India, Iran, China and ancient Rome among others.
Christmas (Dec. 25)
As this may be one of the most well
known winter holidays the world over, it could not be neglected when writing this list. The holiday originally celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, but in modern day, similar to Thanksgiving, is often celebrat ed in a secular way. The holiday involves giving gifts to friends and family, and uses imagery of Santa Claus, a holiday figure that delivers presents to children all over the world on Christmas Eve.
Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1)
Kwanzaa is a holiday that celebrates African-American culture, practiced in the U.S. from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 yearly. The first Kwanzaa was celebrated in 1966 in the wake of the Watts riots, and was created by Black activ ist Maulana Karenga.
The holiday culminates in a feast on the sixth day called Karamu Ya Imani, which translates to feast of faith.
On Oct. 7, SIUE introduced eight new sculptures which were created by both undergraduate and graduate students.
The butterfly emerging from a cocoon represents Beverly’s personal journey as a transgender man.
“It basically is just me breaking out of my old habits, traditions and mindsets that I used to be in and transforming myself, just like how butterflies do in nature, and really coming to myself being confident in who I am and actually advocating for the transgender community,” Beverly said. (LEFT)
DEBI WORLEY
Created using resin and steel Balance ? opens up the conversation of balance in everyday life.
“It depends on the viewer, what your own sense of balance is,” Worley said. “Maybe you’ll see your own reflection in this mirror in the mirror effect of the ladder or maybe you’ll think of the world and the imbalances that we see going on in the world right now,”. (LEFT)
Remember The Little Things, symbolizes the amount of life that can exist underneath your feet in nature. Taking inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, Retrum makes her artwork large, creating the illusion that the viewer is small.
“As we view the piece, we can see the change in scale where humans become more like insects in a natural environment,” Rectrum said. (RIGHT)
Recollection features a quilt-like texture dropped on top of two figures in a ghost-like manner. To give the sculpture more visual weight, Brummet used a welded steel base under mortar.
He opens the discussion about how our moods change as we recall certain memories. Brummet was inspired by his grandmother’s quilts that were gifted to him and his siblings. (LEFT)
Alone Together is a multi-colored swingset meant to represent what it’s like to look at childhood through an adult lens.
“I was thinking it’s about one person and another person and this idea that the person that interacts with it or can swing on it could sort of contemplate this idea of having privilege, or having something when someone else doesn’t,” Smith said. (RIGHT)
Inspired by a stork’s nest, Schlegl creates an interactive piece where anyone is welcome to go inside and meditate. The piece was created with recycled materials, including structure, wood branches, dirt and clay.
“Within the handmade tiles, there is gold and actually hundreds of fingerprints because when I went to go carve the tiles, it broke under the carving tools, but it didn’t break under the weight of my fingertips,” Schlegl said. (RIGHT)
For Back to The Basics, Hall placed three large steel and concrete shapes outside the engineering building to represent a children’s puzzle.
“The reason I made this piece is because I really love childhood development and learning and I think that we can carry that through our adulthood and kind of have a little bit of fun,” Hall said. (LEFT)
Sculpted using car vinyl that had been adhered with a heat gun on top of fiberglass, Mark of Loo mimics a broken toilet that’s been turned over on its side. Inspired from when she received ten stitches by cutting her hands on a broken toilet lid, Wongchanglaw comments on the challenges of beauty standards and encourages others to embrace the scars as part of each individual’s identity in a humorous manner. (RIGHT)
ELIZABETH DONALD
HAMADE
O’RENIC
FRANCESCA BOSTON LIV KRAUS
LATHAN
KIRSTEN O’LOUGHLIN
TAMMY MERRETT
EMILY
GABRIEL
FRANCESCA BOSTON
EditorBRANDON
NICOLE BOYD
EditorDAMIAN
WINTER RACINE
ZULUAGA-CAICEDO
UDIT NALUKALA
AMINA SEHIC
ANGIE TROUT
opinion@alestlelive.com
All hard copy letters should be typed and
Letters should be no longer than
Include phone number, signature,
rank and major.
We reserve the right to edit letter for grammar and content. Care will be taken to ensure that the letter’s message is not
or
Letters to the editor will not be printed anonymously
under extreme circumstances. We reserve the right to reject letters.
The name Alestle is an acronym derived from the names of the three campus locations of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: Alton, East St. Louis and Edwardsville.
The Alestle is published on Thursdays in print and on Tuesdays online during the fall and spring semesters. A print edition is available every other Wednesday
semesters.
For more information, call 618-650-3528.
For advertising, email advertising@alestlelive.com.
THE ALESTLE STAFF editorial board
“Crossover voting” refers to casting your ballot in an election on the side of a political party that you do not otherwise affiliate with. In an open primary or general election, this could be beneficial when you feel like an individual from the opposite party aligns more closely with your views, thoughts or beliefs, even if it’s only on a specific social or political topic.
In this type of voting, you do not need to be a member of a party in order to vote for
their candidate.
However, in some cases, this can also be used merely to sway the outcome of the election at hand, which is known as “party raiding.” In instances like these, party affiliation was switched after politicians appealed to a state’s demographic and won them over, or if voters wished to deliberately stop a representative from taking the majority and stepping into their position.
This ill-intentioned switching can serve as an argument to stop states from instating open primary or general elections, and instead adopt closed systems
where voters can only side with the affiliation they belong to.
Primaries from either side might also provide incentives for people from either affiliation to cross over, although there is not a fundamental reason as to why this will become a trend in current or future elections.
However, when Democratic or Republican voters genuinely prefer a primary or general candidate from the opposing party, there is no good reason why they should stick with their affiliation simply because of their political group.
If there is a cause that you
believe should be kept or removed from your state, don’t let your affiliation stop you from fighting for your rights. The importance of protecting yourself or the people you care about should be the true priority in deciding where to cast your vote.
Your opinion matters, and your vote counts towards nominating the candidate you think represents you best. All elections largely dictate political outcomes and switching ballots may benefit you and your community if you perceive party affiliations to be a guiding factor and not one that you must blindly follow.
The church was once a body which advocated for a good, moral lifestyle, but modern evangelical Christianity has gradually emerged as a dominant force in the religious scene, and this has had disastrous consequences for the church as a whole.
Evangelical Christianity is marked by a couple key beliefs. According to John Green in his PBS article “Evangelical v. Mainline Protestants,” evangelicals tend to believe that everything in the Bible is to be taken literally, and that the only way to salvation is through Jesus. This creates a very closed-off culture – spreading the word of God is less of a spiritual calling and more of a personal gain.
I will say here that I, personally, am deeply spiritual. I believe in God and an afterlife, and that one should live a moral and selfless life of service and mutual respect. I have not stepped foot in a church since before the pandemic, and while not all churches are so rotten, it is a growing trend in the U.S. that they follow this cancerous ideology.
As evangelicals advocate for their perfect, loving God, they turn around and act as if they follow an angry, petty God who delights in hating his own cre-
ations. God is said to represent unconditional love, but this angry God more accurately personifies control. This is why this version of God is so attractive to the power-hungry.
In ancient civilizations, religion was often used to help corral and control the populace. Take the Egyptian concept of ma’at for example: the soul of a person who died would be measured against this universal metric of truth and goodness, which determined where they would be sent to spend eternity.
It seems like a pretty big hurdle to jump, but the system comes with a cheat code of sorts: act the way this universal truth dictates, and you will be more likely to spend eternity in paradise.
All religions with a heaven and hell duality have some form of this “afterlife insurance,” but evangelical Christianity takes it to the next level by advocating both extensive preaching and active shunning of those who are deemed to have fallen away from God. The Bible has been subject to study by scholars for many centuries, and it is generally accepted that it is chock-full of metaphors and analogies to convey a point rather than to record factual history.
Nevertheless, evangelicals prefer to take every word in the Bible as the literal word of God. And, as God is perfect, nothing
in the Bible can be wrong. Most religions have a hierarchy of clergy as well, and evangelical Christianity is no exception.
The Bible is constantly being translated into new and supposedly more accurate translations for hundreds of languages around the world. Where these translations intersect with power-hungry evangelicals is in the content of the Bible. The Bible was originally written primarily in Hebrew and Greek, languages not spoken by most people in the world. It is easy, then, for a Biblical scholar with an agenda to translate the Bible in such a way as to push that agenda.
This has been known to happen, and with devastating consequences for social cohesion. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is often cited as God’s condemnation of homosexuality, but this is not so.
Many modern translations use the word “homosexuality” within a list of crimes Paul lists, but according to Rev. Adam Ericksen of the Clackamas United Church of Christ, this is an inaccurate interpretation of the original Greek language Paul spoke, where “homosexuality” was not a term that existed to begin with.
Ericksen says Paul used terms meant to condemn sexual abuse that was common in the Roman world he lived in, which goes to show that historical context is also incredibly important
for understanding ancient writings. Paul was not writing for the twenty-first century.
If such a mistranslation is intentional, it can be used over time to shape the culture it produces. This is where we get modern evangelicalism: God’s chosen people, a small group in comparison to the rest of the world, shun the world’s activities because their God says such activities will send them to hell.
As evidenced by many cult survivors, it is incredibly difficult to escape the cult cycle after joining or being raised in such an environment. Family arguments and tension are all too common over the sexual identity of this cousin or the racial identity of that cousin, and much of this stems from the culture of intolerance cultivated by evangelical Christianity. Tension leads to isolation, making a person even less likely to leave their established and familiar belief system.
Such reckless abuse of religion runs rampant in the world, and in the U.S. it is seeping into politics, with many Congressional candidates openly endorsing an American version of Christian nationalism. The Founding Fathers separated church and state to protect the people — it is our job to keep protecting the people.
Junior international busi ness major Roland Prenzler of Edwardsville is a member of the men’s cross country team, and one of its many record holders.
After an outstanding perfor mance last season, Prenzler is one of the team’s top performers.
During the last season, Prenzler was the only runner on the men’s team to break under 25 minutes in the 8k and under 33 minutes in the 10k, beating his next best time by over a minute.
Prenzler said his start in run ning was inspired by running in a 5k with his mother. He said soon after, he tried out for the middle school cross country team and has run ever since.
“Distance running, to me, seems like something that the more work you put in, the more results you get out [and] it’s very direct,” Prenzler said.
In his early high school years, Prenzler was one of the only freshmen to run on varsity and was consistently performing well, but he said that his team vastly improved over his time with them.
“[I believe in] trusting the process and trying to get better every day. It’s just about finding progress wherever you can and celebrating that and building on top of that,” Prenzler said.
Prenzler said he enjoys looking back at all the progress he’s made.
“Sometimes, now that I’m running in college, I see that I hold the same pace over a distance that is a lot further than any dis
tance that I could hold that same pace over in high school,” Pren zler said. “So, sometimes it’s cool to see when I’m running a longer race and I come through halfway and think about [that] it wasn’t that long ago that I was only able to run that fast that far and be able to take it so much further.”
Despite starting in 5k runs, Prenzler said he doesn’t get in volved with them as much any more during off-season but his personal favorite is the Mud Mountain 5k in July held by the Edwardsville Track and Field Booster Club. Prenzler said he is also considering running the Turkey Trot on campus.
Last season saw one of the biggest records Prenzler ever broke, when he made history with the best ever individual fin ish in OVC history at a champi onship meet.
Not only does Prenzler per form well in cross country, but he also places well in track and field distance races with his fel low runner, sophomore Spencer Hielkema of Rockton, Illinois.
It is also with Heilkema where Prenzler once again broke an SIUE record as being the second ever duo to break under 25 minutes in a single meet for the 8k race this season. He also became fourth fastest 8k run ner in SIUE history with a time of 24 minutes and 47 seconds, beating Brian Taghon by about one second.
This particular feat hasn’t been accomplished since 2014, when it was done by Clint Kliem and Keith Mayer at the OVC Championship meet.
As a college athlete, with
cross country in particular, Pren zler said he runs 80 miles every week and runs multiple times a day, and enjoys it solely because it keeps him active.
“It just seems to fit into my life really well. Being physically active is always something that’s been really important to me and it seemed like something that would be really sustainable for a long period of time,” Prenzler said. “With running, it’s not as common to get injured as in oth er sports and most of the time you’re 100 percent on top of tak ing care of your body.”
Prenzler said being a college athlete isn’t entirely what it seems sometimes, and is all too often a humbling experience when com peting against other people who are at the same or similar levels to you.
“Most runners in college were standouts, special runners in high school, so one thing you have to learn is it’s not all about you and you really have to put the team first and do what’s best for you and the team,” Pren zler said. “It’s not as individualis tic as it might seem.”
Despite the difference, Pren zler said he enjoys being able to be in athletics at the college level and what it brings to his life.
“It provides a very unique opportunity to do something that so many people do when they’re younger, but at a higher level and it just teaches so many lessons about accountability, re spect and teamwork,” Prenzler said. “It’s really just the friend ships you make from being to gether and also having a sense of direction and a goal.”
GABRIEL BRADY managing editorA few years ago, when I was just a reporter starting at The Alestle, the editors needed someone to cover an upcoming basketball game. Most of the staff was busy that night, and I was one of the only people who could attend, so I offered to take it. Growing up, my family watched baseball and football mostly, and not many other sports. Howev er, I realized, through attending that first basketball game, that I love the sport. Since then, I’ve started covering basketball every season, as well as keeping up with the NBA games.
But as someone who didn’t know much about basket ball, and only recently got into
the sport, I obviously have less in-depth knowledge on the sport. I know the fundamentals, and I know how to spot a good player or a good play, but I just haven’t been a fan that long, so I don’t have as much history in me.
Regardless of how long someone has been watching a sport of any kind, or when they got interested in it, there’s something that the rookie fans have in common with the vet eran fans. No matter how long you’ve known about a team, when your team dunks a basket after a long-fought game, you are elated. There obviously will be moments when a new er fan has a question for the veterans, or when the older fan will have to fact check a newer fan. But instead of
rubbing it in, or using it as proof of someone being less of a fan, treat it like what it is: a learning moment. It is a beautiful moment where two people who share a com mon interest can enlighten one another about it. Besides, there are even veteran fans who will get stuff wrong all the time (I’m looking at you, Stephen A. Smith).
For newer fans of any sport, don’t be discouraged by older fans who will try to quiz you on incredibly specific information to prove your place as a fan. For older fans, try to be more accepting and willing to greet the new fans. Either way, we’ll all be watching the same game, and depending on how the game goes, we can either celebrate victories together, or console each other after brutal losses.
SPORTS COLUMN: Just because you’re a new sports fan doesn’t mean you’re a less important fan
