Fall 2014 (Vol. 8, Issue 2) by Backdrop Magazine

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EDUCATION BEHIND BARS

INFOGRAPHIC: RICH DIET AT A DECENT PRICE

DOUBLE LIFE:

DATE PARTIES & FIGHT NIGHTS

TAKING A SHOT:

EXAMINING OU’S INVESTMENT IN MEN’S BASKETBALL

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backdrop | Fall 2014

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Higher education is one hell of an investment. As students, we struggle under the financial weight of tuition, housing, bills, textbooks and food. We exhaust scholarships, loans and generous family members to have the potential to earn the credentials we need for our desired paths in life. After four years, we find we must be fiscally resourceful because our minds and wallets have been drained. Some Ohio University students gracefully maneuver the financial strain (p. 18), while others face their challenges with strict planning and ingenuity. Our dorm-bound writer Cheyenne Buckingham breaks down the benefits of making small changes to an unwholesome college diet (p. 30). Where students might think that they’re saving on time and money with fast and easy food options, they’re really paying for it with their health. Our web editor Dillon Stewart profiles the non-traditional OU graduate Sajad Shakoor, who funded and completed his entire education from a prison cell (p. 20). For our cover story, sports editor Chris Manning analyzes the considerable investment OU has made with its recent hiring of men’s basketball head coach Saul Phillips (p. 24). The plan laid out by the university is simple: A successful basketball team will bring in more money for the school, ultimately benefitting the entire student body. But while plans are nice, results are nicer. I’m excited to see how this basketball season pans out, and I want to see the investment pay off. In college, we learn valuable academic, professional and social survival skills to make it the best experience possible. We just need to spend our time and tuition wisely. As students, we have every right to know why our tuition is rising and how it’s spent, especially because we must keep such a watchful eye on our own day-to-day expenses. Students: Be informed and aware, but also try not to cringe at every debit card statement — unless you really did spend $30 on Twizzlers and Pringles at any given point. If so, then you should probably reevaluate your spending habits. Until next time,

SEE THE PHOTO STORY

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

PAGE 36

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURES » 24 Taking a Shot Ohio basketball welcomes new head coach Saul Phillips. But is he worth the price?

Sara Portwood MANAGING EDITORS

Nick Harley & Julianne Mobilian

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Zachary Berry & Colette Whitney

CONTRIBUTORS Olivia Cobb, Amanda Damelio, Andrew Downing, Alex Driehaus, Briana Ekanem, Kyle Ellis, Isaac Gibson, Na’Tyra Green, Alexandra Greenberg, Brianna Griesinger, Michelle Jacobson, Katie King, Evan Leonard, Kaitlyn Pacheco, Sam Parker, Jordan Simmons

20 Confinement to

Commencement Witness the transformation of a student who has earned his degree behind bars.

HEAD COPY EDITOR

Jacob DeSmit

COPY TEAM Olivia Cobb, Cortni Dietz, Alexandra Greenberg, Adam McConville

ON THE COVER EDUCATION BEHIND BARS

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CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Katelyn Boyden

INFOGRAPHIC: RICH DIET AT A DECENT PRICE

DATE PARTIES & FIGHT NIGHTS

Victoria Prichard & Karlee Proctor Jessica Shokler

PHOTO EDITOR

Amanda Puckett VIDEO EDITOR

Alyssa Pasicznyk backdrop | Fall 2014

ADVERTISING DESIGNER DESIGN TEAM Andie Danesi, Natasha Ringnalda, Lizzie Settineri, Adam McConville, Alex Keller, Audra Swan, Rahul Mukherjee, Amanda Weisbrod

DOUBLE LIFE:

ART DIRECTORS Sara Portwood Editor-in-Chief backdropmag@gmail.com

FALL 2014 » VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2

TAKING A SHOT:

EXAMINING OU’S INVESTMENT IN MEN’S BASKETBALL

Cover photo by Amanda Puckett Cover design by Katelyn Boyden

BACKDROP

HOT 4 ATHLETE »

OVERTIME

PUBLISHER

Alexis Johns ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Kerry Crump

1. Walking Distance To Campus

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Rebecca Zook

SPORTS »

Hot 4 Athlete These two athletes’ sporty anecdotes won’t come up short.

LEGACY » 10

ASSISTANT MARKETING DIRECTOR

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Beating The Stereotype One student balances a double life of sorority date parties and MMA fight nights.

ENVIRONMENT »

The Green Goat

Read how Backdrop’s biting predecessor rammed its horns at the students and campus.

Trapping the Wild

A frontiersman embraces the innovations in modern trapping.

Alyssa Keefe

2. Competitive Pricing 3. Best Pool In Athens 4. Tanning Beds 5. 24 Hour Fitness

JUST to NAME A FEW We didn’t even talk about our 24 hour coffee bar

DIRECTOR OF MEMBER RELATIONS

WEB EDITOR

Dillon Stewart

SPORTS WEB EDITOR Chris Manning

Simply send an email to backdropadvertising@ gmail.com to get started.

Check Us Out RiverParkOU.com 740.593.7783 36 N McKinley Ave

Uncovering Titans

Bake, Rattle & Roll

Interested in Working with us?

Stop by one of our weekly meetings, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in Copeland 112.

FALL 2014 » VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2

Discover prehistoric giants with an expedition of dinosaur experts.

16 18

On the Beat, Off the Path See what is behind Athens’ fullservice rustic recording studio.

RECIPE » 28

Homemade Morning Get a seasonal start and fall for these homemade recipes.

See colorful celebrations in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

Muggle Struggle

Exhibit A »

Photo Hunt »

Rant & Rage » Move It Or Lose It

Financial Footwork Six dance majors prepare for their senior show despite poor practice facilities.

Radiant Customs

ON THE WEB »

Meet a decorated baker with divine talent.

ENTERTAINMENT »

CORRECTION

Want an advertisement in Backdrop?

Backdrop Overtime release party!

ASSOCIATE WEB EDITOR

Jacob DeSmit

PHOTO ESSAY »

THE DROP »

Cheyenne Buckingham

Vol. 8, Issue 1, Infographic: “Through the Roof” p. 10. The two-bedroom unit graphic should have a fair market rate (FMR) of 140.95 percent.

Strike three, Backdrop is out! So come join us for our

NOV. 20 7-9 p.m.

MARKETING TEAM Zachary Berry, Kyle Ellis, Sam Parker

Backdrop’s own Kerry Crump tries out a magical sport.

A showcase of creative works by fellow students.

Spot the differences on Court Street during Halloween.

Pick up the pace if you’re caught in front of this angry Backdropper.

INFOGRAPHIC » 30

Affordably Organic Learn how to fund an organic lifestyle.

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4ATHLETE

HOT JAMIE KOSIOREK

UNDECIDED | FRESHMAN | OUTSIDE HITTER

Why did you pursue volleyball? Jamie Kosiorek: It came pretty naturally to me when I was little. I played on a team where a lot of the girls were pretty good, and it came naturally for them, too. Also, at a young age, I was told that I could play at a collegiate level if I worked hard enough. I just really liked it, and I was around great girls and great coaches, and now, here I am. If you could change one rule in volleyball, what would it be? JK: Probably foot faults. I foot fault sometimes when I serve, and it makes me crazy. Who is your biggest fan? JK: My mom — as cliche as that sounds, she literally talks to everybody at home about me. What has been the best advice you’ve ever been given? JK: Hard work beats natural talent. What is your favorite thing about Athens? JK: My favorite thing about Athens is just the atmosphere, obviously. It’s just so much fun, and there are people everywhere, and everyone is so nice. My favorite thing to do outside of playing volleyball is to go to Whit’s with my teammates. Who would you choose to play you in a movie? JK: Jennifer Lawrence. No one else. When did you first learn to serve, and what was the experience like? JK: I was 13 years old when I started jump serving. I thought it looked so cool, and it took me forever to get it down consistently. It probably took me over a year to learn the whole serve, with the toss and consistency. Would you date a hockey player? JK: I’m more of a football/basketball type, but hockey players tend to be on the shorter side. If he was taller than 6 feet 2 inches, as shallow as that sounds, then yeah.

backdrop | Fall 2014

Benjamin Franklin invented swim fins.

BY BRIANA EKANEM | PHOTOS BY ALEX DREIHAUS

MIKE KRETZ

EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY | SENIOR | DEFENSEMAN Why did you pursue hockey? Mike Kretz: I love it. I played a lot of other sports, and they were boring. I’ve always had fun playing hockey. When did you first learn to skate, and what was the experience like? MK: I was five years old, and I couldn’t really skate, at first. I took lessons, and they gave us chairs to hold on to. I guess I just progressively got better. What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? MK: Wake up and be great. What is your diet like? MK: I eat a lot of meat, pretty much with every meal. I guess I just eat when I can, whenever my schedule fits it. Everyone in my house eats pasta four hours before our game and the night before. If you could change one rule in hockey, what would it be? MK: Being kicked out of a game for something, unless it’s really violent. I don’t think anybody should be kicked out of a game for something, unless he really deserved it. What are the biggest challenges you face as a student athlete? MK: Time management, because I also have a job. But sleep is probably the worst. If you could play one other sport, what would it be? MK: Baseball. When you’re not playing hockey, what are you typically doing? MK: Hanging out at my house with my roommates and teammates. I’m probably watching TV or playing video games. What is weirdest or worst injury you’ve experienced? MK: I was cut by a skate on my thigh and have a pretty nasty scar from it. Would you date a volleyball player? MK: I would have to be taller than her. b In 1905, about 20 people died playing football.

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LEGACY

THE GREEN GOAT The history of the university’s premier satirical magazine and the readers who have yet to move on. BY ZACHARY BERRY

any families have a black sheep — the one who brings a less than desirable, though highly entertaining, reputation to the clan. During the 20th century, the Ohio University journalism family had its very own black sheep in the form of a green goat. The Green Goat, an Athens-based student humor magazine, lived by a simple mantra: “The spice of life is jest and wit, but who wants spice by getting hit?” It went about collecting comical spice by targeting different people and organizations around campus. Though it may have found it amusing to poke fun at its alma mater, The Green Goat was passionately loyal to OU. Behind the scenes, the comedic periodical was no stranger to challenge and adversity. The publication underwent two separate revivals by different, but equally devoted, editorial staffs. A spirit of perseverance resided at the heart of OU’s leading humor digest, and although there may not be a Green Goat grazing on College Green today, its legacy lives on in the memories of alumni and the influence it has had on current student publications.

THE O.G. (ORIGINAL GOAT)

In 1912, The Green and White, later renamed The Post, began publication at OU. A year later, The Green Goat of OU was

born. Instead of reporting hard-hitting news, the magazine, headed by editors Virgil Falloon and Carl A. Foss, focused on hard-hitting jokes. “Many battles have been won by sarcasm,” the first issue stated. “And if you are the one to be hit, remember it was done for O.U.’s sake, not yours.” Those battles for humor were not waged for long. After two issues, the magazine was cancelled due to a lack of student interest. However, nine years later, the seemingly forgotten Green Goat was out and about on campus again.

BILLY THE KID

Reviving The Green Goat was a family affair when it returned in 1922, thanks in part to Virgil Falloon’s sister, Fern, who served as editor alongside James Nolan. Like its predecessor, the new staff placed an emphasis on scandalous topics, such as The Prohibition. “I’ve had people say that they couldn’t wait for the next copy to come out,” William Kimok, Ohio University Archivist and Records Manager, states as he recalls alumni testimonials. “They would take it back to their dorms and read it together.” Amusing anecdotes and articles dotted the pages of the magazine, which was affectionately referred to by its staff as “Billy.”

There was once a hick at O.U., Who boasted of his own private brew, But one night just for sport He drank ten pints and a quart, And now he’s a cold Irish stew. - A limerick featured in The Green Goat The publication was contacted by the national cigarette company Camel for profitable advertising opportunities. Revenue from those advertisements led to a financial windfall. Unfortunately, the magazine remained severely under-equipped. Supplies consisted of a few run-down desks and two retired typewriters. “The ‘Goat’ spent many of its 11 years in depressed times,” Lawrence Flinn, editor in 1933, explained in a letter written to the Alden Library staff. “But in a way, that contributed to college humor…students needed something to laugh at and with.” Eventually, financial woes caused by the Great Depression became too burdensome, and The Green Goat suffered its second death in 1933. But in more ways a phoenix than a goat, the publication rose out of the ashes of cancellation one final time.

GRUFF AROUND THE EDGES

Returning in 1954, The Green Goat became an off-campus magazine with an even more mischievous attitude. Previous incarnations had always supported The Post, but that was not the case with the new Billy, which sharpened its horns and set its sights on OU’s premier newspaper. One story listed proper uses for The Post, declaring that it was “Obviously not meant for intelligent reading.” “Things open up as to what is more acceptable when you start getting into the [1950s],” Kimok says. “All of the sudden, there are more things acceptable to make fun of.” Tenacity won the production staff admiration not only from Bobcats but from students attending other universities as well. “From my point of view, a humor magazine is the only real way to transmit the spirit and life of a university,” writes Janet Hart, a student from Denison University, in a letter to the magazine. “And The Green Goat has given me a most favorable opinion of Ohio U.” Every issue was adorned with an illustrated cover, created by various artists like OU alumni Tomas Lipps. Designing the covers provided Lipps with a way to sharpen his artistic skills.

“I had a lot of fun drawing them,” Lipps recalls. “I remember doing one or two in the lobby of Tiffin Hall.” Also included in each issue was a “Bobkitten” section, profiling a different coed. The March 1958 issue of the magazine, a parody of Playboy, even included a mock centerfold of student Janie Howard. But The Green Goat’s love of the ladies eventually landed the publication in hot water. Rumors persist that it ran an obscene image, leading to demands for its cancellation. The validity of such rumors has yet to be determined. Nevertheless, The Green Goat ceased production once again in 1961. Unlike with its last two expirations, the periodical did not recover.

A LEGACY OF LAUGHS

After suffering two separate terminations, The Green Goat’s rebirths can be accredited to its signature blend of humor and wit. The controversial magazine has served as a forerunner for other periodicals. In the late 1960s, shortly after The Green Goat’s final demise, another satiric publication named The Hocking River Valley SILT Magazine was distributed at OU. Cancellations have not kept The Green Goat down in the past. One day, it may yet again return to OU. In the meantime, donated issues of The Green Goat have found a home in the Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, allowing for their creativity to be admired by enthusiasts, long-standing and new. As stated in its debut issue, “The Green Goat is for Ohio University, first, last, and all the time.” b

THE GREEN GOAT

THROUGH THE YEARS:

January 1913

backdrop | Fall 2014

March 1913

November 1922

September 1926

Fall 1927

Fall 1954

January 1956

Spring 1957

Photos provided by Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections

March 1958

THE DROP

UNCOVERING

TITANS BY JACOB DESMIT | ILLUSTRATION BY MARK WITTON

An OU paleontology team is digging its new dinosaur discovery in Tanzania.

backdrop | Fall 2014

hen a team of paleontologists from Ohio University arrived in Tanzania for the 2007 summer field season, its members didn’t know what, if anything, they might find when exploring the dry, dark sandstone along the Rukwa River Basin. “We had no idea whether or not there would even be fossils there,” admits Patrick O’Connor, a vertebrate paleontologist and leader of the excavation effort. What they ended up discovering in the cliff wall along a riverbank were the bones of a new species of dinosaur, called Rukwatitan bisepultus. The finding was one of many, but that specific species, which belongs to a family of dinosaurs known as titanosaurian sauropods, only originated from that part of Tanzania. Working with students and professors from other universities, including the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the team began exploring the region in 2002, with the goal of identifying areas with fossils in Southern and Western Tanzania. Although the Rukwatitan skeleton was first discovered in 2007, the team required an additional field season, which generally last anywhere from four to seven weeks each, to fully excavate the area. African desert climates can produce sweltering conditions in the summer. O’Connor’s team traveled to Tanzania during the relatively cool dry season, however, which spans from late June to October, because they often worked along river cuts when exploring for fossils. “It does get hot, but not blazingly so,” O’Connor says. “It’s actually quite pleasant and not what most people would think. In fact, at night, it can get downright cold.” Football helmets weren’t required for college football until 1939.

Around 8 or 8:30 a.m. each morning, the paleontologists took to the field to prospect the areas near where they found the dinosaur remains by walking, sometimes for hours, along the river cuts in the Rukwa Rift Basin. Each field worker carried a backpack full of supplies, including chisels, plaster and glue. Those tools aided the team in retrieving and stabilizing the approximately 100-million-year-old fossils from the rocks in which they were encased. After a specimen was excavated enough to be placed on a pedestal and plastered for added protection, it was ready to be taken back to the campsite, and, eventually, to be shipped overseas. Once the fossils reached the laboratories at Ohio University, lab technicians worked to further clean and stabilize each bone. The process involved using small pneumatic scribes, which are like air-powered miniature jackhammers, to chip away the remaining rock. When examining the fossils, the scientists were most interested in understanding the morphologies, or shapes, of the bones, specifically for the purpose of trying to understand the functional roles they once served. Once the scientists determined how Rukwatitan differed from other known titanosaurian sauropods, the official documentation of the findings was posed to the scientific community in 2013 for peer review. After a lengthy process of reviewing the scientific article and confirming the discovery, the new species was officially announced in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on Sept. 8, 2014. Ohio University was globally recognized in the news, as it went on to be reported by major outlets including the BBC, ABC News and the New York Times. Eric Gorscak, a graduate student who began working with O’Connor’s crew as a lab technician before acting as lead author of the paper, says he learned a great deal from the experience. “It was quite humbling after the manuscript was published, seeing all the news outlets reporting the story,” Gorscak says. “It hit me that this project is not only important for the field, but also [for] people, both young and old, [who] are still enamored by discoveries pertaining to our natural world.” Though the finding is just one of many from over a decade of research in Tanzania, it validates the commitment that those within OU’s network of scientists bring to their passion and work. “[It] demonstrates Ohio University’s commitment to exploration and discovery,” says Nancy Stevens, a professor in the College of Medicine and co-author of the research paper. “Discoveries like this one help to engage new students to join the research projects, bringing additional energy and strength to an already vibrant group.” Those fans of the prehistoric are now able to interact with the Rukwatitan discovery directly; detailed pictures and interactive 3D PDFs of each fossil are available online. Likewise, Dr. Matthew Lamanna, a curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, says the finding will most likely make its way into museums and educational programs across the world. “One of the greatest things about dinosaurs is that so many people have an interest in them,” Lamanna says. “They’re often the spark that ignites a person’s passion for science, and once that flame gets lit, just about anything can happen.” b Water polo balls were originally made out of pig stomachs.

Photo by Patrick O’Connor

Photo by Eric Gorscak

Photo by Patrick O’Connor

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, e Bak e l t t Ra l l o &R

THE DROP

A local baker creates exceptional sweets from her flourishing home business. BY SARA PORTWOOD | PHOTOS BY JILLY BURNS

top a grassy hill just off of Stagecoach Road in Athens, Ohio sits a well-tended, white-paneled house. Inside, Cheryl Cullop Green has just pulled a hot pan of lemon cake fused with raspberry puree from her oven. An alluring tang of citrus, berry and vanilla fills her kitchen from white-tiled floor to ceiling. Another cake marks another reason for celebration, but that cake isn’t for Green or her family. It’s one of the hundreds of custom cakes that leaves her kitchen to commemorate weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and in this case, a graduation. After turning a passion into a livelihood, Green takes on the challenges of running and expanding her home business, Heavenly Confections, as her only employee. Fifteen years ago, Green never anticipated being a fulltime baking artist. “I was going to be a rock and roll star, not a baker,” she laughs. “That’s not what I expected, but I love it.” She discovered her hobby was marketable after a friend called in a favor for an upcoming wedding. “I was afraid at first. It’s a very important cake for a very special day. And I was not going to be responsible for ruining that for anyone. So at first, I was not interested in doing wedding cakes at all,” Green recalls. “But I had a friend who was getting married, and she begged me to do it.” After unveiling a vanilla, cinnamon, maple-flavored cake topped with bacon crisps, wedding guests immediately asked Green for a business card.

backdrop | Fall 2014

Heavenly Confections began with her starring as “a one woman show” about five years ago. Green, a former web designer with a degree in marketing and business management, utilized all of her skills to get her business going. She has created a fully functioning website, which she designed herself, and she has connected on almost every form of social media to advertise Heavenly Confections to the younger, tech-connected generation of brides. “I’ve always been a very creative person, so I have to have a job that has a creative outlet. I kind of just took to the cakes as soon as I tried it out,” Green says. Her business is now booked two months in advance, and her current staff of one churns out three-to-four cakes per week. Green admits it can be stressful running a business from her household. “My poor husband, who hasn’t had breakfast yet, he can’t even get in the kitchen because I’ve already sanitized everything down,” she says. “But he is extremely supportive.” She and her husband Thomas form an unlikely, artistic team. “Me and Cheryl are apples and oranges. She’s Martha Stewart, and I don’t know what I am,” Thomas laughs. Having been a tattoo artist for the last 15 years, Thomas explains that because of his decorated punk appearance, few would ever guess they are a couple. Thomas owns Temple Tattoo in Gallipolis, Ohio and appreciates that his wife does the accounting and finances for both businesses. In Medieval Germany, bowling was a religious activity.

The couple’s friends often joke that she and Thomas should have a reality show together. “We should name it ‘Ink and Icing,’” she jests. Green proudly sports plenty of her own ink. “I’m the Tattooed Cake Lady, it’s even my Instagram name,” she explains, while rolling up the sleeves of her finely-tailored, light pink double-breasted chef coat to show the bold and colorful tattoos underneath. On her left forearm is a rolling pin surrounded by intricate flowers and a flowing black script that reads, “Bake, Rattle and Roll.” Her right forearm displays an intricate blue and green Mexican sugar skull. Green’s love for baking, however, is more than skin deep. She has dedicated majority of her house to her business. Green has started renovations for the entire first level of her home. She plans on having a separate entrance to the new bakery and design boutique because she currently welcomes clients through her front door for tastings. Green will also build a brand new kitchen in the expansion. Her family will appreciate the developments. “I want her to have a place to work and a place to live,” Thomas says. With a larger facility, Green is able compete with bigger bakeries that use processed products. “They’ll tell you that they’re making everything fresh, but they’re using box mixes,” she says “I wanted to offer my customers something special, something you cannot get at Kroger, or Wal-Mart, because they cannot do everything from scratch,” Green says. She buys all of her ingredients fresh and even supplies all of the eggs she needs from the free-range chickens in her backyard. An auburn chicken named Peaches and a white chicken named Cream can be heard clucking just outside the living room window in the soft rain. Green’s homemade charm has attracted many customers, and her talent keeps them coming back. Gallipolis resident Josie Johnson was extremely pleased with a rather unusual wedding anniversary cake Green made for her and her husband five years ago. “It was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The flavors were unbelievable,” Johnson recalls. For her wedding anniversary, Johnson asked Green to create a wedding cake that resembled the West Virginia Regional Jail. The two-tiered cake was a lively and detailed replica of the building. A blonde fondant bride figure was helping lower her husband off of the chocolate dusted roof of the jail. Between four thick walls of brick patterned, pressed icing, two orange-clad inmates reach their hands up to the shiny coil of faux barbed wire. One inmate extends his middle finger to onlookers above. Green’s quirky craftsmanship was well received. Even now, “Everyone raves about my cake,” Johnson says. As Green gradually expands her bakery, which she hopes to include a full-time assistant in the future, her emotional investment in her work and her clients will help her home business thrive. “I watch people grow — from high school graduations, then they get married, then they have babies, then their babies have first birthdays. It’s really neat,” she says. Green is proud to be directly connected to some of the most enjoyable moments of her customers’ lives. The “Tattooed Cake Lady” hopes to keep her business thriving in a community she knows she can improve one cake at a time. b The official mascot of the University of California Santa Cruz is a banana slug.

ENTERTAINMENT ON THE

BEAT, PATH OFF THE

A local studio is recording up-and-coming artists in an unlikely location. BY MICHELLE JACOBSON | PHOTOS BY EVAN LEONARD

n Elliot Street, hidden alongside a yellow house, sits a rustic blue barn that hosts the most tuneful players in Athens. The barn serves as a local recording studio run by producers Christopher Pyle and Josh Antonuccio, who have been mixing and creating albums for Athens-based and out-of-state bands for the past 14 years. Bands of all styles looking to produce an album can effortlessly collaborate with the skilled 3 Elliot team behind the boards. In 1999, the musical hub started off as Pyle’s debut garage studio. Later, Pyle asked fellow Ohio University graduate and close friend, Antonuccio, to come and produce while Pyle and his wife worked on another project and launched Donkey Coffee. By 2004, the two producers decided the studio needed to be expanded, because they felt limited with the space they had and knew it wouldn’t work

“

You never know what is going to be a hit, but you want to make it something that has distinction. Make it reflect creativity.” Josh Antonuccio Producer at 3 Elliot Studio

backdrop | Fall 2014

with the promise they saw in the bands they were recording. Antonuccio soon became owner and hired interns to help manage the company. “I’m not here to give you a polished pop song,” Antonuccio says. “That’s the wrong way to characterize. It’s more trying to get the vision of the artist into a finished product.” According to him, producing an album is all about personal goals, which lay out the starting lines for each band. Antonuccio meets with bands to find out what they ultimately want out of their projects, because it’s important for him to understand his role in shaping each artist’s album. Once the relationship is established, a plan is laid out for production. Some bands and artists come in a few weekends at a time and wait to mix the album at the end of the project. Once that is completed, Antonuccio is able to upload their work onto cloud accounts, which act as online storage lockers that make the project easier to share. Engineers in different cities can connect through online storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive, a huge benefit that enables them to transport demos faster and easier over far distances. Each engineer can add input that artists can see before tracking, or putting the elements of their songs together. Artists can record, mix and master a record in different cities. “You never know what is going to be a hit, but you want to make it something that has distinction. Make it reflect creativity,“ Antonuccio says. The most recent project he was involved with featured Wilson’s Reservoir, a quartet from Goshen, Indiana, that has collaborated for six years. The band decided to work with AntoThe average NBA cheerleader makes $56,000 per year.

nuccio because, compared to other engineers, he was the only one to truly understand the sound they sought. Antonuccio even helped write “Two Rights Make a Wrong,” a song by Wilson’s Reservoir that came to fruition after Antonuccio played around with some fragmented ideas. “The best songs come out of nowhere and just have their own way of spilling out,” says Ben Wilson, Wilson’s Reservoir band member. The song is about loss and finding an element of hope. It will be added to the band’s current album, which is thematically inspired by the life of Wilson’s grandfather. Based on the fictional point of view of a traveler, the album’s songs focus on his grandfather’s life and his confessions. Determination steered Wilson’s Reservoir into producing several more albums and pursuing performances at venues including the Goshen Theatre in Indiana, a festival at Ball State University and the National Underground in New York City. With elements of electric and folk music but no set style, the band members practice diversifying their efforts so as to not place themselves in a box. “With music, it’s better to be yourself, because something gets lost if you try to sound like someone else,” Wilson says. “It’s better this way in order to build a connection with the audience.”

Athens contains a multitude of music venues that draw people in from near and far, and Wilson’s Reservoir is just one of many artists who has worked with 3 Elliot Studio. Others include Southeast Engine, Old Hundred, Matt Moore and Emily Rogers. The studio produced Rogers’ work, which has since been licensed for use on television series such as Teen Mom. Old Hundred, from Columbus, has gained national recognition since recording at 3 Elliot. One of its songs was used to promote a countrywide commercial campaign, and the band recently performed at Nelsonville Music Festival. In addition to that success, Old Hundred was also voted as one of the top bands in Ohio by Paste Magazine. After years of success, Antonuccio hopes the studio continues to thrive as a place where music is made. He describes it as a place of creation, something that exists outside of the world and that many aren’t aware of. Contrary to a message he was given in the late ’90s, musicians don’t need a big city to record. In his mind, smaller places, like Athens, are the destinations for such work. “As a producer and engineer, I love what happens in the studio,” Antonuccio says. “Something happens here that doesn’t happen in real life.” b

The creator of NBA Jam coded the game so the Chicago Bulls missed last second shots.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Financial Footwork

Underfunded but unstoppable — these dancers still thrive in the School of Fine Arts. BY JULIANNE MOBILIAN | PHOTOS BY BRIANNA GRIESINGER

imble, deliberate feet pound away in concentrated movements inside Putnam Hall on a rainy Thursday afternoon. The scent of fresh dust hangs in the air as Curtis Johnson concentrates on his next dance move. A sagging roof stained with watermarks and paint-chipped walls acts as his audience. Barefoot, Johnson checks his composure in the dingy wall of mirrors surrounding the room. A jackhammer screams in the background as he glides over to the end of a shabby practice hall. Unfazed by his dilapidated surroundings, he carries on with his practice. Like most students in the School of Dance program, Johnson is indifferent to the orchestral sound of construction workers and the tools they operate invading his routine. As a senior in the School of Fine Arts’ dance program,

backdrop | Fall 2014

Johnson and a handful of others will compose their senior dance compositions in the poor conditions that plague Putnam. The seniors can be found practicing their respective solo and group routines in the building’s worn-down rooms. Johnson, Leah Crosby and Annie Scott prepare for their solos, as Becky Sebo, Bethany Logan and Kaitlin Flynn prepare for their group piece. Some might find working among the chaos to be intimidating challenge, but the real challenge, according to the dancers, is due to the lack of funds required to keep the dance program afloat. The school of dance is no longer the thriving program it once was. “We’ve lost a lot of faculty members due to budget cuts and things like that,” Crosby says. “A lot of faculty memA Swedish hockey player once scored a goal by dropping a puck from his pants.

bers have become administrators, and they just haven’t been replaced. The school of dance is actually hurting a lot for resources.” For bringing in so much revenue every year as a school, the dancers worry none of it will reach the arts. “We’re leaving a very different program than we came into,” Crosby says. Putnam has a pipe leakage, so the students can’t use their main practice theater. Currently, they are forced to work in small classrooms that can’t accommodate many students. Students in the program share the frustration of tight spacing and tighter funding. “We have 14 kids in one classroom, and we’re squeezed,” Scott says. “Support the arts!” Flynn yells, laughing and throwing her hands in the air. The dancers are good sports about the situation, but it’s evident their program is financially strained, and it’s taking its toll on the students. Constant buzzing and drilling get in the way of sessions that require deep focus and strategy. Although the funds may not be booming, the dance program remains. “The school of dance here is nationally renowned, and there are so many things really unique about the program,” Crosby says. The program’s main concentration is on modern dance and choreography, but it utilizes and encourages all forms of dance. Now in their senior year, the six students currently enrolled will perform a solo and group piece during fall semester before switching pieces and performing in the spring. That way, each student has a chance to partake in both a solo and a group performance. “We’re such a small class compared to the previous graduation class, which had like, 14 people — so we’re very intimate,” Johnson says of his fellow classmates. Crosby is quick to agree. “We have, quite literally, spent in class with each other a minimum of two and a half hours a day.” And with weekend rehearsals, it could be as much as seven hours, she says. “We’ll walk into our technique class, and it’s at 8:30 in the morning. There are morning people in this room and there are not morning people in this room,” Flynn says. “People are rolling up, rolling out and everyone’s kind of silent to each other, but when we’re in here, we’re just really funny and loud. [We’re] our complete selves.” There may be some drawbacks to spending so much time together, but everyone nods their heads silently at Crosby’s sentiment when she explains the amazing relationships they have developed in both a working environment and an educational environment. “We all feel comfortable critiquing each other’s work in a way that’s legitimately constructive and useful and comes from a place of love,” Crosby says. To create their own pieces, whether as an individual or as a group, the dancers must respond to the prompts they are given from the instructors. “In order to push us to be creative, we are put under very strict parameters, and they will ask us for very specific things,” Crosby says. She compares it to art or photography An average hockey player can loose up to eight pounds of water weight during a game.

projects and how the work must be completed in ways that are true to each person’s aesthetic voice. “How we all move as different bodies in space is an expression of our individuality, and I think that with the senior project, there is more of an allowance to really find your creative, artistic voice,” Flynn adds. “The art is thriving here — it’s just underground,” Crosby says. And even though the dancers deal with budget cuts and construction, they love everything the program has taught them. They will continue to train and practice all year for their performances and hope to see conditions improve for future students. b

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FEATURE

CONFINEMENT TO COMMENCEMENT An unconventional student walked out of prison and across the stage at Ohio University’s graduation. BY DILLON STEWART | ILLUSTRATION BY LIZZIE SETTINERI

ajad Shakoor was different from other students. After immigrating to the United States from Pakistan when he was eight years old, Shakoor could only speak in a tribal dialect, making it hard for him to connect with other students. Children fear what is different and unknown, and that’s what Shakoor was to them. The brutal teasing seemed never-ending. Those early years shaped Shakoor into who he would become. “Kids don’t know how to deal with trauma,” Shakoor says. “I’ve found this out after years of introspection, that trauma did something to me, and I would do anything in my power to escape from that.” Shakoor was starving for acceptance, and local thugs welcomed him with open arms. With the protection of gang members, the bullying stopped. Yet, love from gang members is conditional, and the decadent lifestyle swallowed him whole. “Gangs have a very low bar,” Shakoor says. “They’re willing to accept anybody as long as you do what they do.” That was nothing compared to how he felt the first time he held a gun. Once he bought his first firearm at age 15, Shakoor was never the same. What he didn’t realize, however, was that he had become exactly what he hated — an intimidator, a bully, a thug. “When you hold a gun in your hand the first time, you sense the power of this thing. You’re never the same after that,” Shakoor says. “I liked the way it made me feel, and I liked the way people would squirm when I had the gun in their face, especially rival gang members. As a kid, you’re not supposed to feel that. It was a very unnatural power, and I wanted it.” Shakoor collided with the law head-on. He was arrested at age 18 on 16 felonies, mostly for robbery and weapons charges. He took a plea bargain, which dropped most of the weapons charges and left him with a six-year sentence. His first run-in with the law left him with two strikes, one for each burglary, under California’s stringent three-strikes law. Most writers and historians believe the 1993 murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, among other high profile California homicides, influenced voters’ support for the Three Strike Law, but the political rhetoric of the day matched the tough-on-crime mindset as well. Even President Bill Clinton expressed support for the law. Just one year prior to Klaas’ murder, Los Angeles had 2,589 homicides, an eight percent rise in one year and an all-time high for the city. By a large majority, Californians voted in that law in 1994 as a response to an

backdrop | Fall 2014

Fun fact goes here Fun fact goes here Fun fact goes here

FEATURE

atmosphere of increased violence and fear in the state during the time. The language of the law stated that the goal was to “keep murders, rapists and child molesters behind bars, where they belong.” It pursued that goal by instilling a three-strike system, which imposed a mandatory life sentence on anyone previously charged with two violent crimes. Shakoor served four of the six years of his sentence. Ideally, prison is a place for reformation, but that was hardly the experience Shakoor had. With no high school diploma and a robust criminal history, Shakoor was lost. “When I got out the first time, I didn’t have any education,” Shakoor says. “I had nowhere to go. There was absolutely no direction in my life.” One night in 1994, about a year after his first release from jail, Shakoor was hanging out with a few friends. Two men brawled over a woman, and one of the men was beaten and hospitalized. The assaulter was arrested, but a few days later, Shakoor was surprised to find a warrant out for his own arrest. He claims he was driving to the police department to turn himself in and explain things when he was arrested a few blocks from the station. For the next year, Shakoor sat in jail awaiting trial, though he was convinced he would walk free. To the shock and dismay of Shakoor, his fiancee and his lawyer, he was found guilty of instigating a fight. He was given his third strike and sentenced to 25 years to life in jail. He emerged deeply perplexed, unsure of how his life spiraled to such a dark place. “After I lost, and I’m facing 25 to life, a very surreal mindset replaced that because my brain couldn’t reconcile the sentence with the crime,” Shakoor says. “I had to come to terms with that, and it took a long time.” Slowly, Shakoor experienced a reawakening. Like a freight train, once it started, it was hard for it to stop. It took years of introspection to accept the hand he’d been dealt, but after a few years inside prison, Shakoor began studying independently and discovered a strong interest in literature and Islam. Around the 10-year mark of Shakoor’s

backdrop | Fall 2014

sentence, his independent studies became formal. He enrolled at Coastline Community College in 2004, completing his associate degree by 2007. With an insatiable appetite for knowledge Shakoor furthered his education. Shakoor searched for a program that offered incarcerated prisoners a chance to earn a bachelor’s degree, but his search was disheartening. He found only two programs in the entire country that offered distance learning for incarcerated people. Colorado State University-Pueblo — which only offered a sociology degree — and Ohio University, which offered a general studies degree with a choose-your-own-topic style specialization. By default, he chose OU. Since 1974, thousands of prisoners from across the country have enrolled in courses through OU’s distance learning program. Prisoners often earn their GED or take a few college courses while inside, but few schools offer a program linked to a bachelor’s degree, as OU does. “We do all the comparable services,” says Deb Gearhart, vice provost for e-learning and strategic partnerships. “It’s just a completely different delivery mode.” Completing college is extremely difficult in a maximumsecurity prison. Today’s distance learning programs have mostly moved online. Although that makes them much more accessible and accommodating for the average student, it makes it more difficult for prisoners who aren’t allowed access to the Internet. “You can’t just call a prisoner and talk to them. Everything has to go through the mail, and every prison has different restrictions,” Gearhart says. When prisoners are enrolled in a class, they are assigned an adviser who constructs the lesson plan and receives all completed tests and assignments. Most classes are centered on a midterm and a final, with essay writing in between. Other courses allow the students to test out by passing allencompassing tests. The adviser is essential to that process, but communication

Only two days of the year have no professional sports games.

with an inmate can be sporadic. Barring the occasional phone call, the student typically communicates with his or her adviser through mailed letters, and a proctor eases the process. The proctor acts as a liaison between the advisor and the student. He or she serves as a line of communication, overseeing tests and assignments and occasionally tutoring the student. “That’s a totally different delivery mode, and that’s much more self-directed,” Gerheart says. “So we take that content with the same objective, but we put them into what we call ‘study guides’ in print. They do things that they can write out or do math problems, or anything else, in print form, and that has to be mailed [in].” Not only is the process complicated, it is also costly. Each class totals to $340 for in-state students and $343 for outof-state students — the extra three dollars: a slight jab at the mandatory out-of-state service charge with no minimum. Inmates have some opportunities to make money while inside, but nothing that would equal the $14,000 cost of a degree. Furthermore, financial aid is not offered to prisoners. Shakoor took matters into his own hands. “I made thousands of greeting cards and clocks, made out of cardboard and newspaper, and sold them to the guards,” Shakoor laughs. “They knew my story. Basically, they were paying for my education.” Around the time the three-strikes law approached its 10th anniversary, public opinion about the law changed. Stories about people receiving life sentences for minor offenses after being charged with violent offenses began to flood the media. Not only did nearly half of the third-strike lifers have nonviolent third strikes, but the vast majority of victims were poor and non-white. In 2012, California passed Proposition 36, which allows for the review of thousands of cases in which prisoners were given life sentences due to non-violent third strikes. It also barred California from handing out life sentences to anyone with a non-violent third strike. Since the passing of the law, over 1,000 prisoners have been released with another 2,000 cases still to be reviewed. For Shakoor, the passing of Proposition 36 only promised his case would be reviewed; there was no guarantee he’d be released. Due to his non-violent third crime, his relentless pursuit toward education and his immaculate behavior record, a judge granted Shakoor’s release after 17 years in prison. Athens in the spring is reminiscent of the type of college campus seen in movies. As the trees regrow their leaves and the sun begins to warm the Appalachian landscape after a long winter, it doesn’t take more than a stroll through College Green to remind students why they chose to make OU their temporary, four-year home. Shakoor hadn’t even been free for a year when he stepped foot on campus. “You know, I’ve seen pictures of the campus, but just being there, I don’t know how to describe it,” he says. “I didn’t think I’d get to walk on those greens. I mean, I had a life sentence.” On May 5, 2014, Shakoor sat side by side with his fellow graduates, no longer a prisoner but an equal, free man. As his

Major League Baseball umpires are required to wear black underwear.

“

You know, I’ve seen pictures of the campus, but just being there, I don’t know how to describe it. I didn’t think I’d get to walk on those greens. I mean, I had a life sentence.” Sajad Shakoor Teacher at the Tayba Foundation

name was called, and he walked across the stage to receive his degree, Shakoor became the second person to earn a bachelor’s degree at Ohio University while imprisoned and the first to walk at the commencement ceremony. With 2.2 million prisoners confined, the United States holds the world’s highest rate of incarceration. The Bureau of Justice reports that two-thirds of released prisoners will be arrested for a new crime within three years. After five years, that number goes up to about three-fourths but drops by 43 percent when a prisoner is educated. Unfortunately, the current budget for prison education, which is under $30,000, is at its lowest since the early 1980s, according to the Bureau of Justice. Although it can’t be said for sure whether an increased focus in prison education would combat the troubling incarceration rate, Shakoor can speak from his own experiences. “When I got out [the second time], it was my education that changed my outlook on life,” Shakoor says. “When I got out I worked a minimum wage job before I got hired at Tayba Foundation as a teacher, but I never saw that as my end. I always saw that as a means to an end because my education assured me that I would get a job.” Shakoor fully recognizes the impact education has had on his life, which is why he has dedicated his life to providing others with the opportunity that he had. Currently, his work with the Tayba Foundation educates about 400 prisoners. Although those courses are not awarded with a credit, the foundation is already in the process of applying for accreditation with the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. If it is granted accreditation, courses will be rewarded with credit, and students will be able to work toward an associate degree. When he’s not working with the Tayba foundation, Shakoor studies distance education in a Ph.D. program at the Western Institute at Berkeley. “When I went to prison, I didn’t even have my GED, man,” Shakoor says. “Now I’m sitting here talking to you about getting my Ph.D., curriculum development and national accreditation. This is just surreal for me.” b

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FEATURE

TAKING A

SHOT Ohio University is doubling down and investing heavily on head basketball coach Saul Phillips. BY CHRIS MANNING | PHOTOS BY DANIEL RADER

backdrop | Fall 2014

fter leading North Dakota State University to its firstever tournament win, Saul Phillips celebrated in the last way anyone would expect a college coach to: by sprinting over to the NDSU student section, throwing up bison horns with both of his hands and riling up the only section of Bison fans there. Phillips looked as though he had just won a national championship. All that was missing was confetti raining down from the ceiling, a T-shirt hastily put on over his suit, and a hat quickly placed on his head before the TV interviews started. A clip of Phillips’ antics was included in a Saturday Night Live video titled “NCAA tournament: Best of the White Guys.” That celebration soon became synonymous with Phillips. What the video doesn’t show, however, is how Phillips is always that enthusiastic, even if his disposition is lingering under the surface. The buzz surrounding Phillips is striking, and since being hired in April, he has brought the energy he showed in the SNL video to Athens. Phillips was hired by Ohio University to become the identity and the face of Ohio Athletics. Those types of flashy personalities cost money, and a lot of it. “Once I met him, I saw his passion and energy and understood how he wanted to build the program. He had me,” says Ohio Athletic Director Jim Schaus. “I just love his personality. He lights up a room.” Phillips’ salary of $550,000 a year makes him Ohio’s highest paid administrator. The hope is that Phillips will help Ohio’s basketball program evolve into a mid-major power in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), which would raise the national profile of Ohio Athletics and, by extension, Ohio University. “Salaries for all individuals are based on market value,” Schaus says. “His salary is commensurate with our desire to have a highly competitive men’s basketball program in the MAC.” Ohio’s sports teams have been on the verge of reaching national prominence before. In his 10 years as OU’s head football coach, Frank Solich has been excellent for what was a previously listless program. Since being hired in 2005, Solich has maintained a career record of 69-54 and is the first coach since Bill Hess, who coached the team from 1955-1977, to have a winning record. During the same year the basketball team made its tournament run, the football program was profiled by Sports Illustrated. In the profile, the Bobcats were labeled as the “Next Great BCS Buster” and cracked the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1968. A loss to the Miami RedGolf is the only sport to have been played on the moon.

Hawks a week later ended those dreams. The basketball program has been consistently successful despite a coaching situation in flux. The Bobcats have won more than 20 games in four of the last five seasons and have played in a postseason tournament each year since 2010. Former head coach John Groce had a winning percentage of 60.3 from 2008-2012; Jim Christian won over 70 percent of his games while at the helm during 2012-2014 seasons. Ohio’s successes have come with costs. When the men’s basketball team played in the College Invitational Tournament (CIT) last year, The Post reported that the university spent a total of $112,893.50 on the CIT, $108,000 of which was used to pay for the three home games Ohio hosted. The university spent another $78,793.50 on the Post Season Opportunity Fund, which is a $120,000 reserve that comes from the general fee enrolled students pay annually. Ohio only made $34,100 back in ticket sales from the CIT. Ohio also spent $32,642.08 to send the football team to the Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl last January. Even with those expenses, Ohio’s athletic department made a profit of about $200,000. In total, Ohio spent $27,265,061 on athletics last year, $18,061,353 of which was subsidized — meaning that 66.64 percent of Ohio’s spending was funded by outside sources. At the same time, coaching salaries at Ohio began to rise. Groce had a base salary of $250,000 during his last season in Athens, and Christian had a salary of $433,500 last season. Solich is set to make $488,000 this year. The latter two salaries are higher than the annual salary of Ohio University President Roderick McDavis, who will make $431,270 in 2014 according to a report from The Athens News. Although the earnings of Groce, Christian and Solich may seem high, six-figure salaries are the norm for coaches in college sports. Even in the MAC, men’s basketball and football coaches are among the highest-paid administrators at their respective schools. According to an athletic department budget obtained from the University of Akron, men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot made upward of $600,000 last year between his salary and bonuses. Comparatively, University of Akron President Luis Proenza recently had his base salary increased 18 percent to $500,000. What’s different about Ohio is how costs have risen quickly in a short amount of time. With an increase in salary comes an increase in expectations. “Saul and Frank are proven head coaches and consistent winners. I like all of our head coaches and feel that our future is bright,” Schaus says. “I want our athletic program to compete on a national level and be the premier program in the Mid-American Conference.” But with the recent coaching changes, the basketball program has lacked long-term stability. Solich, in comparison, gives Ohio football a face and name recruits can trust. When Groce left in 2012, Ohio lost Caris LeVert, a three-star shooting guard from Columbus, to the University of Michigan. When Christian left for Boston College, the Bobcats lost a slew of incoming talent, namely in four-star power forward Tariq Owens and junior college transfer Nehemias Morillo, to other schools. Owens ended up at the University of Tennessee; Morillo

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FEATURE

Head Coach Saul Phillips | Photo provided by Ohio Athletics

backdrop | Fall 2014

attended the University of South Florida. Losing recruits happens in college sports, — especially at a school like Ohio. However, the Bobcats’ last two basketball coaches have recruited the correct way. According to ESPN college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman, Ohio has to recruit transfers from nearby schools to maximize its potential. “If you look at Ohio, they’ve had three coaches in four years,” Goodman says. “That’s really tough. If you look at Gonzaga, [head coach] Mark Few has been there. You need a guy who is going to stick around for a little while.” Under Groce, the Bobcats landed a former Top-100 recruit who needed a new home after a rough start at a Big Ten school. That player was Walter Offut, who would go on to be an integral part of Ohio’s Sweet 16 team after leaving Ohio State. In the past five years, some of Ohio’s best players in both football and basketball have been transfers. In football, workhorse running back Beau Blankenship was a transfer from Iowa State University. Current forward Maurice Ndour is a transfer from Monroe College, a junior college in New York. Phillips has looked to continue that trend since being hired. Point guard Jaaron Simmons, who was recruited by Christian out of high school, transferred from the University of Houston and forward Kenny Kaminski transferred from Michigan State. Kaminski, in particular, is a huge addition for Ohio. He was a Top-100 recruit coming out of high school and was figured to play a big role with the Spartans had it not been for academic troubles. Reid Forgrave, a Fox Sports reporter who profiled Phillips in October, doesn’t think the head coach will have any problem getting recruits to at least consider becoming a Bobcat. “If you can get kids to go to Fargo, N.D., you surely can get kids to go to Athens, Ohio,” he says. Phillips has spoken about the future regularly since his introductory press conference, almost as much as he talks about the upcoming season. When he was introduced, he said he wanted his daughter, who is in elementary school, to graduate from high school in Athens “without question.” “You’ve got a unique opportunity here,” Phillips says. “If you build it the right way and you make the right decisions, you can build something pretty special, pretty lasting.” Phillips has reenergized players since the day he was hired and has given Ohio a liveliness it didn’t have in the past two seasons. That change has also been evident since the day Schaus introduced Phillips to the media. “We have a different lookout at things this year,” says senior point guard Stevie Taylor. “It’s the vibe he brings in day in and day out.” Phillips’ persona and previous success at North Dakota State University instill confidence that can build a mid-major power at Ohio. For the Bobcats, that means consistently winning the MAC Tournament, making the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship and getting the public familiar with Phillips and Ohio. Super Bowl referees also receive a Super Bowl ring.

“I want to win conference championships,” Phillips says. “Because that gets us where we want to be, which is the NCAA tournament.” According to Goodman, it takes perfect timing for a coach to make the leap from a mid-major job to a major job. That’s what happened with Groce and Illinois. In 2012, Illinois failed to make the tournament, and Bruce Weber was ousted as head coach. The Sweet 16 run gave Groce a profile beyond the MAC, and he took a bigger job at the first opportunity. “Traditionally, [Ohio] has been a great stepping-stone job,” Forgrave says, “That’s just how college basketball works.” Still, Ohio thinks it has found its own Mark Few a coach that will be in Athens for the long haul and leave a lasting imprint on the program. “Saul has a long-term contract and made it very clear — publicly, when he was hired that he was here for the long haul and to see his family grow up here,” Schaus says. “He and his family are an excellent fit for Ohio University and the Athens community.” Hypothetically, if Phillips is as successful as expected and Ohio decides to invest in him long-term, the potential raises he would receive could largely cut into Ohio’s profit margin. Gonzaga, whose full athletic budget is not available because it is a private institution, pays Few a base salary of $1.187 million, according to USA Today. Phillips is the highest-paid coach in the MAC, replacing Christian at the top. In comparison, Western Michigan University head coach Steve Hawkins, who led the Broncos to the NCAA tournament last year, makes $310,000 per season. Phillips’ contract also has several bonuses built-in. For example, if the Bobcats win the MAC tournament, he receives a bonus of $10,000. If the team makes the Sweet 16, he will receive a $20,000 bonus. Either way, Ohio is looking at a large financial commitment if Phillips succeeds. If he consistently wins the conference and makes even a single run in the tournament, Phillips will take home a larger paycheck. With Phillips’ personality and charisma, a tournament run could be what puts Ohio where it wants to be on the national scale. That is what happened with Groce — the Big Ten seems to have that effect on coaches. Maybe Wisconsin comes calling and tells Phillips that it wants him to be Bo Ryan’s successor. Phillips is from Wisconsin, played for Ryan at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and his wife Nicole is a former Miss Wisconsin pageant winner. At that point, Ohio may have to decide if it can justify ponying up the money necessary to keep Phillips. Although the athletic department’s revenues have increased to Ohio’s highest annual totals in ticket sales, annual giving and other areas, it only made a profit of roughly $200,000 last year. As a result, Schaus doesn’t see a $1 million salary as something Ohio can justify. “I don’t believe that a salary at that level is something that is a fit financially for our program at this time,” he says. b Olympic gold metals are almost entirely made of silver.

MAC BASKETBALL COACH

SALARIES SAUL PHILOhio University

$550,000 KEITH DAMBROT

University of Akron

$400,000 TOD KOWALCZYK University of Toledo

$325,000 STEVE HAWKINS

Western Michigan University

$310,000

ROB SENDERHOFF Kent State University

$225,000 www.backdropmagazine.com

RECIPE

HOMEMADE

MORNING

Cool autumn mornings call for a cozy breakfast. Ditch the dorm microwaves and savor the chance to cook with real ovens and working stovetops. Indulge your inner Martha Stewart with these (almost) homemade fall favorites. BY JULIANNE MOBILIAN | PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE LUCZKOWSKI

Pumpkin Pie Waffles INGREDIENTS:

S’mores Hot Chocolate INGREDIENTS:

backdrop | Fall 2014

min min

min

PREP: MAKES SIX 4½-INCH SQUARE WAFFLES

PREP: MAKES 12

Adapted from theminimalistbaker.com

Adapted from williams-sonoma.com

Adapted from pinkcakeplate.com

The word “soccer” is an 1800s slang term for association.

Preheat waffle iron. Melt butter and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, brown and granulated sugars, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the milk, sour cream, eggs, rum and vanilla together. Mix dry and liquid ingredients together. Fold in the melted butter. Spoon to ¾ cup of batter onto the iron. Bake until golden. Serve immediately, and top with vanilla ice cream or maple syrup.

The state sport of Alabama is figure skating.

min

INGREDIENTS:

PREP: MAKES TWO CUPS

Heat milk and water in a saucepan over medium heat (or in a microwave if you just can’t wait until getting home) until warm — approximately five minutes. Add cocoa powder, chocolate syrup, sugar, Stevia and salt and whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour hot chocolate into mug and add marshmallows. Top off with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Garnish with graham cracker pieces. Serve immediately.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Unroll the crescent dough. Mix the filling ingredients until well-blended. Spread the filling on the dough. Begin rolling at the short end of the dough. Slice the dough into desired size. Spray the pan with baking spray, and place the rolls in a pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown. Add the first layer of frosting while the rolls are still hot. When cooled, spread the second layer of frosting and enjoy! b

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INFOGRAPHIC Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread $4.99 per loaf

We break down how to stay healthy on campus.

Cascadian Farm Maple Brown Sugar Granola $3.29

Y OGU RT P AR F

IT W

ORGANIC AD

SAL

ITH

DIINNOA STIR-FR

Athenos Feta Cheese $3.49 per lb.

Endangered Species Dark Chocolate Bar $2.99

*Prices based on Athens Kroger

backdrop | Fall 2014

½ gallon of Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk $3.49

A F F O R D A B LY

Simple Truth Organic Red Quinoa $7.19 per bag

Simple Truth Natural Grain Fed Large Brown Eggs Grade A $4.19 per dozen

Organic Honey Crisp Apples $2.99 per lb.

LU N

SWEE T PO BUTT TATO ER & WIT A

Cantaloupe $2.49 per lb.

ST A K F T H T OA S T

EANUT ED P ELT ILK H M ND M O LM

Stonyfield Organic Greek Yogurt $1.29

BRE

Earth Balance All Natural Peanut Butter $4.59 per jar

BY CHEYENNE BUCKINGHAM ILLUSTRATION BY KATELYN BOYDEN nderclassmen are not entirely in control of their food supply during their first two years at Ohio University. With selections at the dining halls ranging from pizza and fries to chicken nuggets and ice cream, it can be quite tempting to pile plates with some unhealthful options, all offered at a staggering cost. But there are methods for scoping out the healthful foods in the dining halls. Boyd Hall, Nelson Commons and Shively Hall all supply diverse salad bars, which contain a medley of fresh, colorful vegetables and fruit to slap atop a bed of mixed greens. Shively’s vegetarian station offers wholegrain and legume options — the most common mix made up of black beans, corn and quinoa — on a weekly basis. However, it’s the prepared meals that are found in the hot-food lines that might contain more unnecessary ingredients, such as excessive salt, sugar and hydrogenated fats. Usually these additional

Sweet potatoes $1.29 per lb.

Simple Truth Natural Whole Roasted Chicken $1.99 per lb. Kashi Crunchy Granola & Seed Chocolate Chip Chia Bars (5 bars) $2.99

Simple Truth Organic Spinach (16 oz.) Cucumber $5.99 $0.67 each

ingredients are found in bulk meals for thrifty reasons. “As with all large-quantity food production, the culinary services are trying to control for waste, so they want food to taste good,” says associate professor of nutrition Deborah Murray. But she stresses that the students are the only ones to blame for their unhealthy selections. “They are responding to customers,” Murray states. “If they are running out of the chicken nuggets and pizza, then they are not going to pull that from the menu. It is all about consumer demand.” Convenience is another significant factor in the mass production of food. Murray explains the culinary staff does not have the time or budget to make everything from scratch, so the culinary services rely on premade, processed food items to fill the stomachs of almost 8,000 underclassmen students. In other words, food is not always served in its natural, raw form. Food is typically doused in sauces or creams that contain synthetically-made additives and preservatives, such as partially hydrogenated soybean oil and highfructose corn syrup. For underclassmen, it is almost impossible to avoid dining halls. For students wanting to embrace a healthier diet, understanding basic nutrition helps filter the harmful from the nutritious. “Think about foods simply,” Murray recommends. ”Not heavily breaded, not in heavy sauces, but rather the broiled, baked and roasted versions.” A meal should form a color wheel. The food on the plate should reflect the diet’s balance. According to choosemyplate. gov, half of a dinner plate should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables. An ideal plate’s palette will reveal shades of green, yellow and red as opposed to an unhealthy scheme of beige, brown and white from starches, pasta and bread. “Make the food that you are choosing count, and get them as packed with nutrition as possible,” Murray says. “This is going to be the way to go.” b

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SPORTS

BEATING THE

Stereotype

Jayde Sheeley may look like the modern day Cinderella, but the scrapes and bruises that accompany her pale pink nail polish indicate that she’s more than just another pretty face. BY KAITLYN PACHECO | PHOTOS BY ISAAC GIBSON

ayde Sheeley wears a softly-shaded maroon dress and tall heels as she teeters into the sorority-version of a ball. She only has a few hours left before she must trade her chiffon dress for a mouth guard and return to her life as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. Sheeley, a junior at Ohio University, was practically born and raised at the cage side. She’s the daughter of Scott Sheeley, a twotime kickboxing U.S. Team Member for the World Games and current coach of UFC fighters such as Cung Le and Matt Brown. With her father as her coach and mentor, she has achieved a 2-0 record as an amateur MMA fighter at the age of 21. Sheeley doesn’t expect her peers to understand the contrast between her commitments to both Greek life and MMA training — she just expects them to embrace it. “People are shocked because they don’t understand the sport,” she says. “MMA is growing, but I think that’s why people are surprised when I tell them what I do. They just don’t really understand it.” Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport. It allows the use of striking and grappling techniques in combination with moves from other contact sports, such as boxing and wrestling. Fighters can choose to bring techniques like muay thai or tae kwon do into the cage, which enables them to take down their opponents while also displaying high technical skills. “It’s a big combination of everything, not just boxing or wrestling,” Sheeley says. “That’s why I love it, because it’s everything all wrapped up into one fight.” Instead of watching her dad leave for work in a suit and tie ev-

backdrop | Fall 2014

ery morning, she remembers huddling around the TV with her family to watch him take down another bloody, bruised man. “When I was seven, my dad fought in Las Vegas on a PayPer-View fight, and I remember watching and thinking it was so cool,” Sheeley recalls. “That was the only fight I could ever remember, but I’ve always grown up around fighting.” Sheeley, who started practicing kung fu in middle school, told her father at age 13 that she wanted the chance to enter the cage as an MMA fighter. Scott initially didn’t trust her commitment to the sport. “My dad laughed, and he didn’t take me seriously,” Sheeley says. “He thought I was just going to flirt with boys and hang out and not put in the work.” In spite of her father’s disbelief, Sheeley threw herself into training and began to learn the essentials of MMA fighting. “The hardest part about it is that it’s against your instinct to just stand there and not turn your head or blink your eyes when you get punched in the face,” she says. After a few months, Sheeley’s father began to train her as one of his own fighters. At ages 14 and 16, she engaged in exhibitions which are heavily-padded practice fights for fighters under 18. Sheeley has always received the same tough-love coaching from her father as everyone else. “My dad has a really different style of coaching, and just because I’m his daughter doesn’t mean I get special treatment,” she says. “But it has really helped, because now when I get criticism — especially when I was in ROTC and had people yelling at me — I don’t take it personally.” After graduating from West Liberty-Salem High School, Sheeley decided to put fighting on the back burner during her Honey is used in the center of golf balls.

freshman year at OU. During that time, Sheeley’s roommates convinced her to participate in sorority recruitment, something Sheeley had never considered doing because of Greek life’s negative reputation. But after finding her home in the Zeta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta, she saw that the “total sorority girl” image displayed in pop culture was just a stereotype. “I don’t like the stereotype that sorority girls have,” Sheeley says. “I hate it, actually.” Sheeley admits she didn’t initially want to join a sorority but she eventually changed her mind. “You don’t have to be high maintenance and rich to be in a sorority; that’s not how it works,” she says. “You can still go lift and work out and be an athlete.” Sheeley started to train intensely again during the summer before her sophomore year. After a month at school, a date and an opponent had been set for her first official fight. Sheeley was miles away from her coach and her training facility, and she had only two months to prepare. She utilized her support system within the sorority to help her cut weight and stay motivated. Whitney Hatano, who was living in the sorority house with Sheeley during their sophomore year, said that after watching Sheeley train so hard in the months before her fight, it would’ve been equally as devastating to her if Sheely had lost. “Her routine was school, workout, sleep and repeat,” Hatano says. “As a roommate, it was really hard for the other four of us not to pressure her into going out or ordering a pizza, but we were all so proud and supportive of her.” That November, Sheeley stepped into the cage against 25-yearMore than 1,800 medals are given out at the Olympic Games.

old Areil Duncan and was declared the winner after three grueling rounds. Sheeley describes her first fight as being the most nerve-wracking one yet. “I wasn’t nervous about the crowd, but in practice I used boxing gloves or light [wrist] taping, so I didn’t know how bad it was going to hurt to get punched in the face,” Sheeley explains. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought, because you have so much adrenaline going that you don’t even feel it.” When she returned home to the Alpha Gamma Delta house, Sheeley said her sorority sisters were eagerly waiting to watch footage of the fight and to celebrate her victory. “They loved watching the video,” she says. “They thought I was crazy because they didn’t really understand it at first, and my first fight was filled with a lot of punches and action. So when they saw it, they couldn’t believe I was getting hit in the face, punching another girl and choking her.” In January, Sheeley walked out of the cage with another win under her belt. She is planning on entering as many fights as she can in the upcoming months in order to achieve her goal of becoming a professional MMA fighter. All of these ambitions and achievements are far different than the stereotypical image of a sorority girl, and that’s exactly what Sheeley wants. “That’s the thing: [my lives] aren’t separate.” Sheeley explains. “When I meet people, I make sure that I tell them everything I do. I say, ‘Yeah, I’m an MMA fighter; yeah, I’m going to enlist in the Army and yeah, I’m in a sorority.’” “I love breaking the stigma,” Sheeley says. “That’s my favorite thing.” b

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ENVIRONMENT

TRAPPING THE WILD

WILDLIFE LAND IN ATHENS COUNTY 5

Athens County contains several designated areas for hunting and trapping animals. These lands are home to trappable animals such as red and grey foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, weasels, minks, muskrats, river otters, rabbits and beavers.

2 3

1 WALLACE H. O’DOWD WILDLIFE AREA

2 POSTON PLANT LANDS PUBLIC

HUNTING AREA

BY OLIVIA COBB | PHOTOS PROVIDED BY JIMMY WALSH | ILLUSTRATION BY ADAM MCCONVILLE

3 WATERLOO WILDLIFE AREA 4 FOX LAKE WILDLIFE AREA

Jimmy Walsh helps preserve Appalachian forests by performing a necessary service.

immy Walsh starts his day in the cold wilderness, long before sunrise. At 4 a.m., he marches out over snowcovered fields to check and set a variety of snares to catch animals. Hours pass and he collects the bounty of carefully placed traps. After lugging them home, he stretches and dries the animal furs and skins. Lacking a beaver fur cap and sinister steel contraptions, he doesn’t look like the traditional frontiersman. When Walsh recounts his experiences with modern day trapping, there is no malice, pretensions or backwoods backwardness. Trapping is an often misunderstood, yet essential, part of nature preservation and animal population control. Walsh uses the words “sport” and “hobby” to describe trapping, but for him, it’s a way of life. Since traps must be checked once every 24 hours according to Ohio law, Walsh is uncertain where the fun comes in. “It’s quite a bit of work. I don’t even know why I call it enjoyment,” he admits. Despite the effort and time it requires, he keeps coming back day in and day out. His persistence is rewarded with the satisfaction of a difficult job done right and a workday spent outside. After a lifetime of hunting, it seems only natural that Walsh began to settle into trapping, but it was a far more cognitive decision. He stumbled onto trapping through Allen E. Eckert’s novel The Frontiersmen: A Narrative, a story of the truly rugged men who opened up the Ohio frontier. “That’s what the mountain men did. That’s what Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone and all of them did,” Walsh says. “That’s what opened the frontier of this land.” For him, the experience connects the history of the land to the work of his arms and legs. His early mornings are spent like Daniel Boone, outdoors with nothing but the sky, the wild and the company he chooses. “I wish people understood more that trappers are concerned. They aren’t out there to kill the last animal. They really are good conservationists,” says Dr. Suzie Prange, a

backdrop | Fall Spring 2014 2014

wildlife research biologist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resource (ODNR). “Some of the trap species, like raccoons and skunks, are species that can overpopulate and damage their environment,” Prange continues. “Trapping can be used as a management tool to help maintain healthy population levels, especially those species that can become a public nuisance and a health hazard.” Hunters and trappers are a valued part of the conservationist community. Biologists like Prange often ask hunters and trappers to help monitor animal populations and to collect data on different species. “Hunters and trappers are a lot more conservationist than most people think,” Walsh says. “We spend more money on conservation than anyone else.” As the president of the local chapter of Peasants Forever — an organization spanning across the U.S. and Canada, dedicated to conservation of habitat and resources, as well as the education of the upcoming generation on how to hunt re-

5 GIFFORD STATE FOREST

ANIMALS OF ATHENS COUNTY RACCOON

SKUNK

FOX

MINK

WEASEL

BEAVER*

OPOSSUM

OTTER*

MUSKRAT

sponsibly, Walsh knows about the time and effort hunters and trappers put toward maintaining the land. But even without being involved in those outside programs, any participation in the hunting or trapping process contributes to land and resource conservation. Profits from both hunting and trapping licenses, as well as the required educational courses, go toward the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Although that all seems economically sound, people still squirm at the thought of trapping furry animals. Walsh has much to say on the perceived cruelty of trappers. “Nobody wants to see an animal suffer, and I mean, that’s where I’m at with it, too. I’m not ruthless or a mean-hearted killer,” Walsh says. “It’s controlling a population that needs Babe Ruth used to wear a wet cabbage leaf under his hat to keep his head cool.

Kite flying is a professional sport in Thailand.

*Beaver and otter trapping is forbidden without state permission.

An in-person lottery drawing is held annually at the end of October to issue permits to trap these animals.

to be kept under control.” He explains trappers are making significant progress with modern improvements to traps, like dog-proof traps and having bag limits for the amount of animals a trapper can capture. Trapping seems to reach into Walsh’s roots, and it is something he hopes to share with his family as they grow. Currently, Walsh’s eight-year-old son, James, is his constant outdoor companion. Waking up before the sun to help his father by assisting with all other aspects of trapping, the two have spent many cold mornings and long nights together, enjoying the fresh air and each other’s company. It may be a different vision than the image of the classic frontiersman, but it’s pretty serene. b

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PHOTO ESSAY

ABOVE Women carry baskets of grass on their backs up a hill for a manual labor job.

PHOTOS BY BRIANNA GRIESINGER

Radiant Customs The Kathmandu Valley of Nepal holds a rich and diverse culture. From the heavy influence of Hinduism and Buddhism, the agriculture of rice paddies, and the bright clothing, Nepal is a constant celebration of life. Made up of many ethnicities and religions, as well as an enormous wealth gap, the Kathmandu Valley encompasses a bustling culture sandwiched between Indian and Chinese influences. Backdrop photographer Brianna Griesinger captured it all during her 10-week internship at The Kathmandu Post this summer.

backdrop | Fall 2014

ABOVE Sari shop owner folds up merchandise in his small stand in the Covered Market of Kathmandu, Nepal.

RIGHT A young boy holds up incense towards a temple of a Hindu god on the first day of the Nepali calendar month that celebrates Lord Shiva.

LEFT

A woman prays with incense in her hands to Hindu gods at Kumbheshwor in the Lalitpur District.

ABOVE

A Nepali paper factory on the skirts of the Kathmandu Valley where paper is left out to sundry each day. The paper is handmade made each day by women, from the growing of the plants to the construction of the paper, all they way through the selling in shops in Thamel, the tourist district of Kathmandu.

RIGHT

A young boy sits on a statue of the temple steps in Bungamati during a celebration in the square.

LEFT

A man sells wooden carved flutes during a national holiday celebration for Machhendranath.

ABOVE

A woman holds a prayer candle at a larger religious festival celebration at Kumbheshwor temple in the Lalitpur District on the start of the new Nepali calendar month of Shrawan. During this month, women wear red, yellow, and green bangles.

LEFT

A 19-year-old Hindu bride bows her head during one of many ceremonies that take place over a day long celebration in July.

backdrop | Fall 2014

American football and soccer are derived from the same sport.

A soccer player can run up to six miles in one game.

ON THE WEB

MUGGLE STRUGGLE One Backdrop writer immerses herself into the wizarding world through a trending collegiate sport. BY KERRY CRUMP | ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA WEISBROD

first saw muggles playing Quidditch when I was a junior in high school. I went to Ohio State University to visit my cousin, and as we walked through the Oval for an informal tour, a cluster of students caught my eye. At first glance, I thought the group was playing football or Frisbee, but then I saw the brooms. Students scrambled to reach the two sets of three hoops on each side of the field. My cousin explained they were the Quidditch Club, a new group that practiced muggle Quidditch on the Oval a few times a week. I thought it was strange but I wanted to know how difficult the game could be. I’ve always been an avid fan of the Harry Potter series, and will admit that I was a very disappointed 11-year-old when I did not receive my letter to attend Hogwarts. I’ve come a long way since then, and have since accepted that I am indeed a muggle. And, like OSU, a group of Ohio University students have found their piece of the wizarding world within the walls of the newly constructed Walter Fieldhouse. The Ohio University Quidditch team is in its first year as an official club sport. They compete, travel, practice and con-

backdrop | Fall 2014

dition like any other club sport, such as rugby or lacrosse. I participated in a practice with the Quidditch team, hoping to break out of my muggle state of mind. I immediately noticed the dedication and pride the team had for their sport. To them, it was not make-believe; it was a competition. They practice five days a week in the fieldhouse, and travel across the Midwest to compete in monthly tournaments. AJ Davis, the president of the Quidditch team, has helped to expand the team into the 28-player roster it is today. “This year we had tryouts for the very first time and had 41 people come out,” AJ explains. About 30 people attend every practice. Training is serious. Practice starts off with a run to loosen up, followed by some light conditioning and stretching. Between the push-ups, planks and an array of abdominal exercises, this “light conditioning” left my abs and shoulders sore for a few days. Whether that’s due my lack of athletic ability or the actual difficulty of the conditioning has yet to be determined. Quidditch was a bit more complex and strategic than I exMajor League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.

pected. Beyond the goal of getting the quaffle into the hoop, there are beaters. I caught on to the position of beater the fastest, and I managed to make some crucial hits. As a beater, you throw a bludger (in the muggle world, this is known as a four-square ball), at your opponents. This defensive tactic will force players hit by the bludger to dismount their broom, and retreat back to their home hoops, which they must tag before remounting their broom and returning to the game. And just like in the books, the snitch is one of the most crucial aspects to the game of Quidditch. So of course, replicating an independent flying gold sphere without magic piqued my interest. A neutral Quidditch player, usually gifted in distance running or wrestling, dresses in a specific color, typically gold, and is designated to be the snitch. They can run, jump, and hide wherever they please. Just like in Harry Potter, when the seeker catches the snitch, the match is over. To catch the snitch, the keeper must capture a tennis ball that is placed in a sock and attached to the snitch’s shorts. To make sure that the matches last a reasonable amount of time, the International Quidditch Association — yes, this is a real governing body — has implemented a new rule for the current season. “The seeker and the snitch are not released into the game until the 18-minute mark,” AJ says. “This helps to make sure that matches are longer than a few minutes.” But here’s the kicker — Quidditch is a contact sport. I was not mentally, or physically, prepared for this realization. You can tackle opponents off of their broom, which will also force them to retreat back to their home hoop. While the tackling may not be as forceful as rugby or football, it still can do some damage. “We had two people have to go to the hospital last week after practice,” AJ says. “Nothing serious, but sometimes our practice scrimmages get a little rough and competitive.” Needless to say, the team is now saving the tackling for competition, not practice. After expanding from a student organization to a club sport, the Quidditch team has doubled the number of tournaments they compete in, as well as their membership. They are growing fast, competing hard, and taking on the challenges that lay ahead as their numbers expand. “With us being so new at OU and throughout the country, people are interested to see what we do and see what we’re about. And now that we’re a club sport, I think that really speaks volumes,” AJ says. I did not sustain any injuries during my Quidditch practice, but that doesn’t mean that the team didn’t beat on me a little. I was hit by bludgers, and took a few tumbles after colliding with other players. After just a few minutes of play, I was winded, sweaty, and newly aware that it was a rough and quick sport. Ohio University club Quidditch is always open to teaching students about the game, and the players welcome any students, like me, to their practices. They will be hosting the Dobby Memorial Tournament in February at the Walter Field House, with the date yet to be determined. b South Korea is the birthplace of taekwondo, an Olympic sport since 2000.

RULE BOOK CHASER

SEEKER

THREE PER TEAM OBJECTIVE: SCORE POINTS BY THROWING QUAFFLE THROUGH GOAL HOOPS

MUGGLE

BEATER

ONE PER TEAM OBJECTIVE: CATCH THE SNITCH TO END THE GAME

KEEPER

TWO PER TEAM OBJECTIVE: THROW OR TAG PLAYERS WITH BLUDGER

ONE PER TEAM OBJECTIVE: DEFEND THE GOAL HOOPS

WIZARDING WORLD

MUGGLE WORLD

QUAFFLE

VOLLEYBALL 10 POINTS

GOLDEN SNITCH

PERSON 30 POINTS

BLUDGER

A PLAYER IN YELLOW WITH A BALL ATTACHED TO THEIR WAIST

DODGEBALL NO POINTS

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EXHIBIT A

WANDERLUST A senior journalism student embarked on a daring adventure through Central America with nothing but a backpack and passionate interest in the world she lives in. WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY JORDAN SIMMONS

he needs a serious break. Junior year at OU keeps rolling by and she has no idea why she is there. She walks down Court Street like a sheep in the herd. People are like machines in a system, fearing made up concepts like failure. Athens, Ohio is beginning to haunt her. Ditching her job after the semester and moving to South Carolina seems like a fine idea, but life would be the same: work, party, eat and sleep.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

“You know you would spend way less money backpacking through Central America than you would spend living anywhere in the United States, right?” asks Francis Weiner, an Education Abroad advisor, as she plays pool at Jackie O’s. A fiery voice inside her head repeats that statement over and over again, and she wants to make it a reality. Two weeks pass and a ticket to San Jose, Costa Rica, is purchased. Four weeks later, final exams are over and the traveler is on a plane. With no job that summer other than staying alive, her soul finds a whole new venue to dance in. For six

weeks, she is free from the world as she knows it. Rays of the morning sun peer through the treehouse windows. Sounds of enthusiastic world travelers fill the air. She prances down the steps in her electric blue bikini to find three tall, blonde and sexy Swedish guys indulging in a free pancake breakfast. Elena, the golden skinned, tall and long-haired Israeli host also offers homemade syrup made from organic sugar cane, oranges and ginger. The amazing aromas are impossible to ignore, and she only paid 12 dollars to stay in this artsy, beach-bum hostel. “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, my home is filled with complete strangers,” Elena says. Originally from Russia, Elena moved to Israel and then to Panama, and never imagined she would have her own business in Costa Rica. Her initial plans were to teach yoga; she now thrives as the owner of Downtown Montezuma Hostel in Montezuma. The traveler found that hostel through Methuselah, a powerful and hilarious “Jesus Man” who completed exorcisms in Alaska and fasted for seven days in the Middle East — where he supposedly saw Jesus. Later, she learns that the man’s name is Anthony Smith, and that he had gotten kicked out of

Downtown Montezuma Hostel just weeks prior. Sometimes extreme “Jesus people” tend to create a ruckus, but he was the most entertaining man of the entire trip.

“Are you ready?” asks Regina from Germany. “No!” And the traveler jumps from 40 feet above crashing white water. Time pauses as she is entirely in the “now,” suspended mid-fall with an incredible view from the center of the tropical rainforest. She crashes through the water and loses track of how long she is below the surface. “There is no drug in the world that could make me feel this rush!” yells Berni Guzman, her boyfriend from New Jersey who is along for the trip. Montezuma, or “Montefuma,” aptly named for its tendency to attract marijuana-lovers, is a small beach town that is like a wonderland from her favorite story tales. For a week she wears nothing but a bikini, and for the first time in her life, she does exactly what she wants at every waking moment. There are no social realms dominated by media and no cell phones to distract conversations. Backpacking means having no plans and ultimately trusting in the universe to place you where you need to be. Her loyal intuition guides her spirit through the backpacking experience. It’s like a third eye is awakened and open to a whole new existence. She sees inspiring connections and patterns in every living thing. Inexpensive buses drive her through Central America to find new adventures and unique beaches. She spreads the black sand in Puerto Viejo all over her body as a natural exfoliator and rinses in the warm, soothing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Girls warm their naked bodies under the Montezuma sun. The teal shores of Bocas Del Toro, Panama, display starfish almost two feet in diameter. She climbs to the top of a volcano in Nicaragua with travel buddies from Great Britain and Scotland. The young spirit places her forgiving hands above her heart to open her Anahata throat chakra. Love’s energy fills her with existence. Finding connections is what drives the heart of a world traveler. The traveler’s nights are spent staying up with people from Israel, South Africa, Europe and Australia — places linked by music and similar ways of thinking. These evenings prove how incredible humans are. She finds every individual is like an exuberant ball of energy. Human interaction is simply a dance that moves through the energy found in other people.

Prior to the trip, the traveller spent her days doing the “school thing” and doing the “partying thing.” She was getting by like everyone else, but she wonders if “getting by” is what humans are really supposed to be doing. Humans have been around for over 5,000 years. Are they really supposed to be experiencing so much pain, suffering and confusion, things that come when chasing money or the American Dream? She stands among the ruins of the Purépecha, a Native American tribe geographically close to the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. She strolls down the steps into a seven-foot-deep arena,

backdrop | Fall 2014

RANT & RAGE

FINDING COMFORT IN UNCOMFORTABLE PLACES

HIGH ON LIFE

The first college football national champion was Princeton University.

elaborately crafted into the earth with various rocks and slabs. She learns of a game the Purépechas used to play, pelota Purépecha, which is like field hockey played with a sphere of fire meant to represent the sun. Winners of the game voluntarily sacrificed themselves to the gods to become a shining star. Her heart beats to the passion that once lived on the grounds below. An entire civilization once dwelled there before it was completely wiped out by Europeans. Native Americans depended on the sun, the moon, the stars and the connections among them. They worked with nature rather than against it. They were not “above” anything else. They were one with it. The Guaymi tribe in Costa Rica has less than 200 living men today. The entire tribe and culture may soon be history. She meets the casique, or chief, with two horses to bring her and Berni back to his village to show them for three days how the tribe lives in peace entirely off the land. Wild chickens, pigs and birds are their uncaged pets. It is amazing how closely to nature the tribe lives and how right that feels to the traveler. The casique describes how men of his tribe are living shorter lives because of the use of pharmaceutical drugs in substitution for the natural medicine his ancestors used for centuries. Today, medical students visit the Guaymi village to learn from the casique how to re-introduce herbal medicine into today’s society. It’s senior year, and after a summer like that, nothing can go wrong. She will cry and scream, but she has developed a new friend inside that no one can ever take away. The world could crumble, but nothing could ever destroy her experiences. b

WANT TO SEE MORE OF JORDAN’S STORY?

Check out Exhibit A on backdropmagazine.com.

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PHOTO HUNT

RANT & RAGE Find all of the differences on Court Street from HallOUween.

1 2

T I E V MO OSE IT L

3 4 5 6 44

backdrop | Fall 2014

It is estimated that 30 percent of tailgaters never make it inside the stadium.

Stop hogging the sidewalk and dragging your feet — some of us have places to be! BY NA‘TYRA GREEN

y day already started off late. I do my best to haul ass to class when suddenly I run into them and they’re everywhere — they’re on the escalators in Baker, on the steps outside Copeland Hall and on every sidewalk, crosswalk and catwalk on campus. They are my worst nightmare. The “skank train,” the “bro brigade,” the “never-endingobstacles-in-my-way,” call them what you will. The subjects of my ire are girls and boys who commandeer and dominate all avenues of pedestrian travel. Listen: Just because you are walking with 20 people does not mean you should form a f*****g phalanx. Now this is not to say that I have never walk-blocked someone. I, like everyone else, am guilty of this transgression. Be that as it may, I generally choose a side to walk on unlike the pink-backpacked offender in front of me. Yes, little girl, I realize I am walking creepily close to you, but if you would move your butt I could move on. But they continue to walk at the same broken-down pack mule speed. I mean, really. Do the gods of timeliness hate me? When that bull crap happens, the rage bubbles from deep Touchdowns in college football originally counted for three points.

within my being feels like the blistering heat of Mount Doom. It burns especially bright and painfully for the chick who deliberately walks slowly because one of her shoelaces has come untied. Merciful Zeus, stop moving before you fall and hurt yourself. Seriously, what the goat? Just stop, pull over, fix your shoe situation and remove yourself from my presence. It’s moments like those when I seriously consider hurtling people into a hole, or at least into a wall. There might be some law against that, I don’t know. All I know for sure is that my life has developed a vicious cycle. When I have plenty of time in my pocket, the walkways are as deserted as a Flavor Flav concert. But when I needed to be at work five minutes ago, I witness a miracle of spontaneous generation; people just sprout out of the bricks and construction work. Such is my life. If at any point during the next 26 weeks of classes you hear an unholy roar echo across campus, don’t worry; it’s just me. I will be running late (again), and I will be stuck behind slow moving bros and hos. b

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