The Campus Magazine, The Beaverbeat, January 2020

LIVING A FANTASY

GAME DAY EXPENSE: SUPPORTING FEMALE ATHLETES

70th ANNIVERSARY OF CCNY GRAND SLAM 1950 NIT & NCAA TOURNAMENTS

1/20 In This Issue

MAGAZINE STAFF Editor-in-Chief: Aspasia Celia Tsampas

Game-Day Expense at CCNY: Supporting Female Athletes and Coaches

Managing Editor: Ania Wojas

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News Editor: Eric Bilach Feature Editor: Jana Makki Opinion Editor: Matthew Romano Lifestyle Editor: Sarah Logan Sports Editor: Anu Shetty Copy Editors: Joey Russo

Staff Writers: Clark Adomaitis, Jaquelin Bautista, Sayra Ilyas, Andrew James, Bernabe Villegas

Art Director: Priyanka Thomas Designers: Chriscel Ann, Justin Gordon, Ze Hector Santiago

CCNY Unveils New Floor at Nat Holman Gym, page 3

70th Anniversary of CCNY Grand Slam in 1950 NIT and NCAA Tournaments, page 10

Living a Fantasy, pages 4-5

Season Review: The City College Women’s Soccer Team, page 11

No Longer Just Ballpark Figures, page 6 Let the Games Begin: CCNY Lacrosse Coach Connor Wilson, page 7 Game-Day Expense at CCNY: Supporting Female Athletes and Coaches, pages 8-9

Protein Tour of Harlem, pages 12-13 Esports and Immigration, page 14 City College Sports Statistics , page 15

Editor’s Note Hi Beavers!

Business Manager: Raquel Palumbo Distribution Coordinator: Clark Adomaitis

Faculty Advisor: Barbara Nevins Taylor Photos By: Joe Clifford of the Athletics Dept.

Welcome to a very special edition of The Campus magazine, The Beaverbeat! Dedicated to all the boisterous beavers, hard-working athletes, coaches, faculty, and supporters of the City College Athletics Department. If you are an athlete yourself, enjoy some articles about your peers. If you are a coach or faculty of the athletics department, thank you for all that you do for all of us Beavers. Or, if you may not know a whole lot about sports at CCNY, use this magazine as a gateway into the community.

First, I’d like to thank the entire Athletics Department for their devotion to the CCNY Community and immense help in putting together this issue of The Beaverbeat. All the amazing photos you see throughout the magazine are courtesy of Joe Clifford of the Athletics Department. Thank you, Joe, for all your cooperation and help this month!

CONTACT US North Academic Center 1/119 CCNYCampusnews@gmail.com CCNYCampus.org

The Campus @CCNYCampus @CCNYCampus 2

In this issue, you’ll find photos of the newly renovated Nat Holman Gymnasium and sport statistics for this season, Additionally, Campus editor Eric Bilach dives into the everincreasing stakes of professional sports contracts, Matthew Romano uncovers the fantasy sports culture at City College, and contributing writer Bernabe Villegas analyzes esports and immigration in the United States. Further, into this issue, staff writer Andrew James sits down with the new CCNY Lacrosse Coach, Connor Wilson and I have the pleasure of taking a look back at our institution’s history, with this year marking the 70th Anniversary of the CCNY Beaver’s 1950 NCAA and NIT championships. Resident food writer, Clark Adomaitis, goes on a protein tour of Harlem, perfect for healthy living this new year. In our centerfold, we have Jaqueline Bautista with a deep analysis of CCNY’s athletic budget with “Game Day Expense: Supporting Female Athletes and Coaches.”

This issue certainly has a lot to offer. We hope you can read this Beaverbeat and find a new appreciation for Beaver Nation at City College!

Enjoy,

CCNY Unveils New Floor at

Nat Holman Gym

By Aspasia Celia Tsampas

After months of renovations, this semester brought the grand opening of City College’s upgraded floor at The Nat Holman Gymnasium. Dawned with the CCNY Beaver seal, the new floor came just in time for basketball, volleyball and other sports to enjoy.

Named after the CCNY coaching legend, Nat Holman Gymnasium is home to the Men‘s and Women‘s Basketball teams, Men‘s and Women‘s Volleyball teams, and the Women‘s Fencing team. Located in the Jeremiah H. Mahoney Hall, in the basement level of the Marshak Science Building, the Nat Holman Gym is also used for various intramural events and activities, all of which were suspended during the renovations.

The 30,000 square-foot facility seats 2,000 people in the purple bleachers with

“CCNY” etched into them. Additionally, an ode to our home of New York City is given with the skyline on the side of the court.

Now, students can join Beaver Nation and cheer on fellow students as they dominate the court.

The Nat Holman Gymnasium features 5 basketball courts, 6 volleyball courts, and an indoor track. It has also been the site for PSAL High School games and various other camps, events, and programs.

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FANTAS Y SPORTS AND THE TRANSCENDENCE

By Matthew Romano

Should I ust drop tley, he seems content with his 200 average”

How many acks did How many BI’s?

ruin your entire fantasy season, rapidly humble your ego, and injure your wallet.

If this “sport” sounds like a fringe, weird, lazy, maybe somewhat sick game, you are probably in the majority. That is exactly the reputation that the fantasy sports world earned during its embryonic stages. Today, however, fantasy is no longer an embryo, but a fully-grown being with a Tom Ford briefcase of statistical papers and contracts. Fantasy is sabermetric for a baseball team, wearing a poker-face and rivaling Phil Ivey’s (at least that’s how I imagine it).

ggla hit last year?

I offer a fair trade he re ects and counters with this ? It’s like here, ust give me your best player’s for absolute SH T

Want to do a mock draft and pi a tonight or not?

Fantasy football was first designed in 1962 by a disgruntled Raiders-fan and the businessman Bill Winkenbach in NYC. Needing an outlet to make the tanking Raiders watchable, he and his friends chose players from the American Football League (AFL) and scored points for their team, commensurate and simultaneous with the players’ scoring in the real game. This early form of fantasy became the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticator League (GOPPPL for short-ish), the following year. Though there is evidence of the earliest forms of fantasy baseball from early-mid 1900s by On the Road novelist John Kerouac and “Baseball Seminars,” most deem Daniel Okrent as the founding father of fantasy baseball and its “Rotisserie” (not the chicken) scoring system at the La Rotisserie Française (a restaurant, not a pricey French call-girl).

Most children’s memories of sports probably involve some combination of little league, throwing a baseball with Dad in the front lawn, and going to their first Yankee game. In my house, however, it was the exchanges above that formed my love of sports. Even before the young age of ten, I played my first fantasy baseball season. These phrases seemed to roll off the tongue, ricochet around the halls, down and upstairs, across rooms, between driver’s and passenger’s seats, while watching the game on TV, heck, even at the stadiums. This love of sports predominated my relationship with my father and even my father’s coworkers, although, it never included my friends.

My peers were much more interested in watching the New York teams that I had been taught to despise by my Cowboy-watching, Red Sox-loving father.

He despised the Yankees (and their broadcasters), was indifferent towards the struggling Mets (although, weirdly enough, liked David Wright), and taught me that the basics of football lie in Eli Manning’s genetic inferiority to his older brother Peyton (uncontestable, even to Giants fans).

Fantasy sports have since risen out of these humble beginnings and energized a community of what is now well over sixty million fantasy “managers” around the world. Today, it is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has redefined sports media on TV networks and internet sites such as Disney’s ESPN, DirecTV, the Fantasy Sports Network, Yahoo, and CBS. It even inspired a sitcom on FX called “The League.” It is also constantly changing and evolving; FanDuel (started in 2009) and Draft Kings (2012), two multi-millIon dollar daily fantasy sites, have taken the world (not just the fantasy one) and

What is fantasy sports, you ask?

They are online games where you choose players from different sports teams (one fake team) and bet on real-life athletes to do well so you can win the most points, matches, and money. Slump? Sub-par year? Un-timely injury (*holds breath*)?

They could all devastate your chances, 4

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their wallets by storm, awarding 90% of their profits as daily prizes for fantasy performance.

No longer just another odd and confusing internet game for a few old men, lazy teens, and women who join “to impress their fantasy-playing husbands” as they say, huh. Statistics taken from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association show that of the now over 59.3 million people known to play fantasy sports in North America alone, 71% are Men, 29% are women(such as many of my high-school teachers who formed fantasy leagues, discussed with me between classes, and sought my not-quite “professional” counsel), and 48% are between the ages of 1834. All this activity reaps a 7.2-billiondollar economic impact.

Fantasy sports have also transcended just the world of “sports,” pervading many realms of popular culture. Reality TV such as The Bachelor (will your prize-pick girl get the final rose?) and The Real Housewives (the fights, the drinks, the drinks thrown, oh, all the points!) now have fantasy games as well. You can even play one where you earn points for picking which celebrities will appear on the most tabloids (you lose points if they do something bad). Political science major? Well, the wide world of fantasy even has something for you: introducing, Fantasy Congress. Draft real-life congressmen and women and earn points for bills they draft, votes they cast, or speeches they make (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has GOT to be winning somebody out there a season, come on).

Which fantasy game will you play? What will you ‘fantasize’ next? (see Fantasizr. com) How will it change your conversations? How will those conversations change the world?

VING A FANTASY

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NO LONGER JUST BALLPARK FIGURES: Examining Modern Professional Sports Contracts

By Eric Bilach It is safe to assume that no student of the City College of New York, past or present, would dare sneeze at the opportunity to land a $100,000 salary within six years of graduating. In fact, for many, after years of schooling and working up the employment hierarchy, such compensation would be a dream come true.

Pretend you are in this position, and now imagine that salary had a chance of increasing by half, say, every six years you remain with the company. Assuming you manage your money correctly, does such a financial proposition not sound bountiful to you, as a City College student?

Now consider the following scenario: you graduated from City College six years ago and after working for a couple of different organizations, you are presented with a guaranteed opportunity to become $324 million richer. Would such an offer not be absolutely life-changing?

Of course, it would be an amazing proposition for most everyone.

As far as the City College student body is concerned, a contractual offer of this magnitude is nothing more than a hypothetical situation -- a mere mental exercise in contemplating the “what-ifs.”

For star Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Gerrit Cole, however, this multihundred-million-dollar fantasy is, as per his recent signing with the New York Yankees, a reality.

On December 10, Cole, awith the simple stroke of a pen, entered into the fourthlargest contract in baseball history. The enormity of his salary, which is valued at $36 million per year for nine years, as well as those of fellow baseball stars Mike Trout ($35.8 million per year for 12 years), Bryce Harper ($25.4 million per year for 13 years), and Giancarlo Stanton ($25 million per year for 13 years), has received some impassioned disdain from disgruntled Americans across the nation.

The exorbitance of these sports contracts has even managed to seep into contemporary political consciousness, with presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders tweeting, “If pitchers can make $324 million, we can pay every teacher in this 6 FF FE EAEAT TUAUR RTE E

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country at least $60,000.”

Between the years of 1999 (the decade in which the vast majority of current City College students were born) and 2014, the average annual MLB salary has effectively doubled from approximately $1.75 million to $3.5 million. In 1999, the highest-paid player was pitcher Kevin Brown of the Los Angeles Dodgers, earning $15 million and in 2014; the highest-paid player was third baseman Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees, earning $27.5 million. The remainder of the “Big Four” professional sports leagues, which include the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), and National Hockey League (NHL), have all experienced increases in their average annual salaries similar to, although perhaps not quite as dramatic, as that of the MLB in the period between 1999 and 2014.

It is important to note that, with the exception of the NFL, all Big Four sports contracts are guaranteed in full, regardless of the player’s performance or injury status. That means for Cole, he could, hypothetically speaking, lose his right arm tomorrow in some horrific accident and never throw a single pitch for the Yankees, yet still be owed every single cent of his $36 million contract.

In discussing the driving force behind these lucrative deals with City College senior Sadaab Rahman, Rahman claims that there has never been a time where owning a sports team has been more worthwhile than it currently is. According to Rahman, “Each franchise has billion-dollar television deals in addition to the actual revenue they make throughout the season from ticket and jersey sales. For example, this year the Yankees made $800 million, which is quite the profit considering their payroll is not even half that. The way they see it with Cole is that they are paying him less than $40 million or, in other words, five percent [of their profits], which sounds like a pretty good deal for them and the player… MLB teams are basically hedge funds with the way they weigh their investments.”

This analysis of the rationale behind contracts asserts that the owners and front offices of these wealthy organizations know exactly, to quote Rahman, “what is best for their bottom line.” The fact of the matter is that deals such as Cole’s, while outrageous to the ordinary individual, comprise only a fraction of each teams’ respective annual budget. Thus, a $324 million investment into a single player has the potential to produce tremendous rewards, namely in the form of a championship. On the other hand, though a failed long-term contract may deflate a team and their fan base’s expectations of winning, these investments are rarely ever costly enough to cause irreparable damage to the organization.

Regarding the equity of modern sports contracts, senior and former collegiate pitcher Christian Barletta claims that the idea of Cole earning, after some mathematical computations, approximately $10,000 per pitch for the next nine years is “mind-boggling.” Despite this, Bartletta concedes that, “Cole has earned everything he has. He’s obviously proved himself. He’s a top-tier pitcher, which he has worked on since he was a kid. If the Yankees can afford [Cole’s contract], then why not?”

With a new decade underway, Big Four contracts are predicted to soar to astronomical new heights. As such, the following three questions, regarding the gravity of these deals, have already begun to crop up in the national discourse: 1) Just how lucrative will sports contracts become within the next 10 years? 2) Do we, as Americans, collectively believe that these contracts are fair, especially when considering the constantly expanding wage gap that exists within our current culture? 3) Assuming Rahman’s supposition that professional athletes are “entertainers,” do we reserve the right to express our dissatisfaction over their enormous contracts?

If sentiments toward athletes’ paydays continue to sour as the next decade progresses, then perhaps it is time to reevaluate what our society values.

Let the Games Begin:

CCNY Lacrosse Coach Connor Wilson Words & Photo By Andrew James

Here is Connor Wilson, recently appointed coach for the new lacrosse team at The City College of New York.

When he sat down with The Campus, he expressed his enthusiasm for the sport and was able to detail the history of lacrosse culture at CCNY.

The lacrosse team at City College was founded in 1888 and at the time competed nationally.

The team itself faced challenges throughout the years, causing the sport to fall off City College athletics culture. Wilson assumed the role of head coach in September of this year, which was the result of the incentive to revive the lacrosse team by the alumni of City College, including Doug Marino who was cocaptain and Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the team in 1971.

As a child, Coach Wilson was active in various sports in native Austin, TX, he recalled, “My dad played lacrosse in high school. My mom played lacrosse. We had those old funky wooden sticks from the 1960s in our garage.

Me, my brother, and my sister were kind of intrigued by these weird wooden sticks. They were unlike any sports equipment that we had ever seen. We started playing in the side yard and both my parents taught us how to play.

In March, we take out the lacrosse sticks, in June, we put them away.”

He would later join the lacrosse team at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, winning a total of 45-50 games in his career. His

experience at Wesleyan led him into coaching college and high school teams, traveling the past ten years before settling in New York City in 2014.

At City College, Coach Wilson went straight to work. He spent the first few months getting to know his team and was astounded with their serious priorities, he states, “They take their academics seriously and I’m a big believer in that. College sports have gotten too professional, especially at the Division I level. We’ve had one of the higher GPA on campus, especially with the lacrosse club…

[The players] are here to create an opportunity and a pathway for themselves. To focus on sports too much is a big mistake.” At least 28 people of various experience levels expressed interest in the club, four of them women.

their lives for 1 ½ or two hours a day. The opportunity to build that culture is something I look forward to.”

Despite a slow start, Wilson believes in his team. His team will begin practicing in February and the first games will take place in March. He looks forward to upgrading the lacrosse team to Division III status. But Coach Wilson will never forget his roots and hopes to share the same opportunities lacrosse created for him, “I really think that over the next few years we can make this club-team a really fun experience for anybody who steps on the field. They have a great chance to learn and a great place of community and support, regardless of status.”

For Coach Wilson, the lacrosse team is more than a sport, it is a community, “One of the best things about playing on a team is the connection that you make with your teammates. You get to see these people every day in a non-academic environment.

It’s a great stress reliever. It allows them to take their minds off of what‘s going on in

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Game-Day Expense at CCNY:

SUPPORTING FEMALE ATHLETES

By Jaqueline Bautista

carpooling, buses, or trains, to take them there.

At the City College of New York, we support our athletes. Whether that means sharing game day information or cheering from the bleachers, we are proud of the dedicated students and coaches that represent us on the fields, tracks, and courts

The most pressing reason for supporting our female athletes and coaches specifically, is that by the age of 14, girls begin to stop playing sports at twice the rate that boys do. The overarching factor that causes so many girls to drop out of sports is the lack of access. Girls have approximately 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than boys do, which forces them to look elsewhere for opportunities that may be unaffordable or nonexistent.

Another concern for female athletes is safety and transportation. The lack of access to sports facilities, especially in many urban areas, can force girls to travel through unsafe neighborhoods to go to practices. Other times, girls stay home if the practice facilities are too far and there are no safe transportation options, such as 8

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The overwhelming list of reasons why women tend to drop out of sports more frequently than men also includes the poor quality of experience. General quality issues include poor practice facilities (especially when compared to the facilities men use), suboptimal playing times, the lack of experienced coaches, and coaches that are more focused on the male team. Issues with funding, which are more prevalent in girl’s programs, can lead to poor equipment and uniform quality, making it more difficult to practice and play comfortably.

Though there has been a higher rate of representation and equality throughout many sectors, there are still proportionately fewer role models for women to look up to, and the social stigma attached to female participation in sports can lead to girls becoming the victims of bullying, social isolation, and negative performance evaluations.

The Campus conducted a deep dive into the makeup of the CCNY teams and coaches to see just how much support and how many opportunities female athletes

have. As of 2018, CCNY had a total of 137 male athletes and 97 female athletes.

At CCNY, there are sports offered to both men and women, such as cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, soccer, basketball, and volleyball, however, CCNY does not have co-ed sports. The only sport offered exclusively for men is baseball, and the only sport offered exclusively for women is fencing.

What is striking about the sports department at CCNY is the lack of female representation in the coaching staff. All of the men’s sports teams, besides the baseball and volleyball teams, have parttime head coaches. The baseball team has a full-time male coach and the volleyball team has a part-time female coach. Additionally, each of the men’s teams, besides baseball and volleyball, have 5 part-time male employees or volunteers to fill the roles of assistant coaches. The number of assistant coaches does not change for the women’s teams.

When analyzing the number of male and female assistant coaches for each time, it becomes clear that the number of male assistant coaches far exceeds the number of female head coaches. The

men’s teams have a total of 30 male assistant coaches and only 2 female assistant coaches. Similarly, women’s teams have a total of 16 male partners assistant coaches and only 2 female coaches.

When analyzing the funding allocations, we discovered that male and female full-time head coaches are supposed to make an average annual salary of $56,000, however, there are no full-time female head coaches for any teams at CCNY. The funding allocations began to get interesting when we analyzed the operating, or game day, expenses for both men and women’s teams at CCNY. For example, the men’s soccer team has 33 team members while the women’s team only has 19, however, the gameday expenses for the men’s team is set at $293 per player, making the teams total expense $9,679, whereas the expenses for the women’s team is set at $592 per player for a total of $11,251.

Though the women’s team is smaller, the game-day expenses are much higher per player for women than for men, making the difference in total expense seem very similar.

This trend can be seen for multiple

teams on campus, including the men and women’s basketball team. The men’s basketball team has 16 players and the game-day expense per male player is set at $1,083 making the total team expense $17,321. The women’s team, on the other hand, only has 10 players, but the game-day expenses are $1,684 per player, making the total team expense $16,837.

By quickly glancing at the report, which leaves the total expense for the men’s teams at $253,000 and the total expenses for the women’s team at $247,500, one cannot gauge the large discrepancy in per player cost that exists. So the question then becomes, where do the extra expenses per female player come from?

teams spent an average of $1,451,000, while women’s teams spent $819,000.

Across all sports nationally, we found that men’s teams generally spent more in total than women’s teams, including specific areas like transportation and medical services. The question then remains, why are game-day expenses higher for CCNY female athletes teams? If we want to show the female athletes at CCNY that we support each one of them, we need to answer questions like this one and make sure their ability to play on a team is not dependent on financial inconsistencies.

The City College Equity in Athletic 2018 report did not go into the details of the allocations of uniforms, meals, and transportation costs which contribute to the game-day expenses. In order to gain a better understanding of the funding disparities amongst male and female teams, an analysis of the 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) revenue report was conducted and showed that for equipment, uniforms, and supplies, men’s F

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By Aspasia Celia Tsampas

of CCNY Grand Slam in 1950 NIT and NCAA Tournaments

70th Anniversary 10

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Original photo of the 1949-50 CCNY Beaver Men’s Basketball Team with Coach Nat Holman

Seventy years ago, under the leadership of Nat Holman, the namesake for the City College gymnasium, the 1949-50 men’s basketball team became the first and only team to win both the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and NCAA Tournament in the same year. This anniversary is celebrated by the publication of “The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team” by John Goodman, about the events of this momentous occasion and more.

While the CCNY Beavers had an impressive 17-5 record that regular season, no one expected the team to triumph in the NIT, the principal tournament at the time. Out of the twelve teams chosen to participate, City College was the second to last pick. The team was comprised of only Jewish and African-American players, making it the most diverse team at the time. Goodman states, “In becoming the only team in history to win the NIT and NCAA championships in a single year, the Beavers carried a college‘s — and a city‘s — brightest hopes, of racial harmony, social mobility, and the triumph of the underdog.“ It was this unexpected victory at the NIT Championships against top-ranked Bradley University that spurred an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Again, in the final showdown, the Beavers faced

Bradley University. City College won the tournament, 71-68, and became the first and only Grand Slam in the history of college basketball.

This double win sent shock across the nation. Coach Nat Holman even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show after the win.

However, not all the shock was good.

This win was not without controversy.

After the games, it was revealed that players had taken money from gamblers in the point-shaving scandals during the regular seasons game that year. While it was concluded that no foul play had occurred during the post-season tournaments, the scandal certainly put a damper on City College’s achievements.

After the historic and unexpected win, the NCAA Committee changed the rules of participation, preventing teams from playing in both the NIT and NCAA Tournaments. Subsequently, City College became the first and last double champions.

On November 22nd, 2019, City College hosted the Inaugural Basketball TipOff Banquet, welcoming the new season and commemorating the 70th anniversary of this momentous championship. At the event, the 1949-50 squad was honored, including Floyd Layne of the class of 1957, the last living member of the team, who received a standing ovation before sharing his memories from that season.

Season Review:

The City College Women’s Soccer Team

By Sayra Ilyas

The CCNY Women’s’ Soccer Team finished with a 7-9 deficit in the regular season but bounced back with a 3-2 lead in the conference games. The team entered their first CUNY Athletic Conference Championship Game since 2012.

Unfortunately, the team was short from claiming the title after a close 1-2 loss to John Jay after having a 1-0 advantage for the majority of the game. The final blow from John Jay came in the 89th minute with CCNY unable to recover in the last 90 seconds.

Overall, the team has performed with consistency, finishing third in the standings in both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Tatiana Zuluaga, who plays as a midfielder, praised the skillful players that constituted this season’s team. However, she was quick to add that although the team performed phenomenally at the individual level, it lacked a degree of cohesiveness that might have cost them the championship. She described how there were many gaps “on and off the field” that need to be sorted out if this team wants to continue to excel and eventually claim a championship title.

ring the conference game. She continues to have high hopes for the team as they were able to persevere another season against a tough division.

In addition to enhancing performance, the athletic department took the initiative to bring the team together by hosting a family day. The dinner event took place on October 26th and included the players alongside their family members to commemorate the accomplishments of the team. The players were also given brand new Nike equipment, courtesy of the athletic department.

Overall, it looks like the women’s soccer team has overcome plenty of uphill battles to get to where they are now. A championship title for this team is very probable. They just need to make a few final touches to get there.

Alexandra Barrera, who plays as a defender, agreed that the one thing the team needed to improve on, given its success over the past couple of years, is to work together. She did admit that towards the end of the season, she saw the team progress and become a more united front as opposed to the beginning. Her personal achievement came with finding confidence within her abilities as well as becoming a better overall team player. Alex described that the team’s main goal, as such for all sports teams, was winning.

This comes as no surprise, especially for a team that came up as the underdog du-

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!"#$%&' Words & Photos By Clark Adomaitis

Fruces

Suhail Deli

Protein added to your daily meals can make the experience thicker and more filling. It can also help with muscle building. How much protein should someone intake? According to the American College of Sports Medicine, athletes looking to build muscle should consume 0.5 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Shown are the best places that athletes and non-athletes can get their proper protein intake near our campus.

Location: 133rd St. and Amsterdam Ave.

136th St. & Amsterdam Ave.

Food Item: “Mean Green” Smoothie with added Almond Butter

Price: $9.75

Price: $7.99

Yumminess: I ordered a big salad with chicken, spinach, chickpeas, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, corn, feta cheese, croutons, and Caesar dressing. The chicken I requested was actualized as a hefty amount of grilled chikken breast. The salad’s vegetables were fresh and vibrant in my mouth. Creamy, smooth, delicious, and very filling. The salad was massive. When I thought the bowl could not keep going deeper, it did.

However, the salad energized me, where a sandwich might have put me to sleep.

Nothing about this salad disappointed me. I would recommend this salad to anyone looking for a fulfilling meal that is high in protein and vegetables.

Protein Amount: 9.3g Yumminess: the thick, creamy, yet fresh energy of this smoothie invigorated me.

I felt like Superman after filling my stomach with its glory. The smoothie is large and it seems to never finish. The consistency is thick and creamy due to the almond butter, yet the kale and spinach make it light and playful. The added banana and mango make it gently sweet.

Its texture is smooth to the throat. The cool temperature makes this a soothing experience.

Rating || 10/10

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Food Item: Grilled Chicken Salad Protein Amount: 54g

Rating || 9.5/10

$#(")#*)+,"-%.

Benny‘s Bodega

Protein Amount: 20g Yumminess: this epic birthday-cake-flavored protein bar is extremely thick. It feels as if I have just eaten a small meal.

Eating it is not as quick or light as eating a regular granola bar. The bar crunches but it is also creamy because of its birthday cake frosting. The rainbow sprinkles add texture and a burst of sweetness. The large amount of protein and its availability on campus makes it a great option. The downsides of this bar is that even though it only has 200 calories, it has a little bit of sugar (3g), sugar alcohol (15g), and saturated fat (3.5g). Also, most of the ingredients have long names, such as Hydrolyzed Gelatin, Soy Lecithin, Calcium Caseinate, and a few different Protein Concentrates. These are all food additives and are unnatural.

Rating || 7.5/10

Family Community Deli

Popeye‘s Kitchen

Location: 129th St. & St. Nicholas Terrace

125th St. & St. Nicholas Ave.

Food Item: Turkey Wrap with Egg Whites and Swiss Cheese

Price: $3.99

Price: $6 Protein Amount: 23.2g Yumminess: turkey, egg whites, and cheese are all filling ingredients. Although the wrap may seem small, I still feel full of power. If you live near the Towers and are looking for a massive amount of protein to start your day, get this wrap. However, the sandwich is a bit bland. One could imagine adding spinach, avocado, ketchup, and pepper to beef it up. Nonetheless, this gave me muscle mass.

Rating || 7.3/10

Food Item: Classic Chicken Sandwich Protein Amount: 28g Yumminess: Popeyes’ chicken has a magical juiciness on its inside but a pleasant crunch on the outside. The chicken on this sandwich is no different, and the piece of meat is large. It seems a bit bigger than even their largest breasts. Also, because this chicken is boneless, much more meat is present. While the meat amount is high, it is not too massive of a sandwich. I am not extremely full, but perhaps I will feel it later. Where this delicious sandwich loses points is its unhealthy fast food elements, including its 1443mg sodium (61% of recommended Daily Value) and 14g of saturated fat.

Despite these elements, the high protein amount can feed your muscles.

Rating || 6.9/10

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Esports and Immigration

By Bernabe Villegas Esports is a growing billion-dollar global industry, and nearly half of it is centralized in the United States. Since major competitions are hosted in the US, many professional foreign players encounter challenges when competing here. There is a variety of visas that foreign players can use for entry into the US: B-1, B-2, H-1B, O-1A, and P-1A. The most coveted types of visas for esports players are the O1-A and P-1A visas as they both apply specifically to international athletes.

Whether esports players are considered actual “athletes” has been hotly debated over the years. If esports professionals are not classified as “athletes,” then they do not qualify for “athlete” specific visas.

Furthermore, not qualifying for these visas makes international esports players lives more difficult when competing in major competitions in the US. This situation can have a negative effect on the US; esports titles would have to host more competitions overseas, denying the US of positive esports growth, and ultimately not stymieing economic benefit to the US. As of 2013, Riot Games successfully lobbied in support for recognizing esports players as athletes. Now, as recognized athletes, esports players in League of Legends (Riot’s game) are eligible to enter the US with a P1-A visa. The P1-A visa allows professional and amateur competitors to train and compete in the US. This type of visa, however, has been hard to extend into other competitive esports titles. Even gaining P1-A visas for League of Legends players has been

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unpredictable, making players turn to the last resort: a B-1/B-2 visa. Training and competing under these visa categories places esports players in violation of the terms of these visas. Under these visas, esports players are not allowed to be employed and compensated while living in the US. If esports is considered a sport and by extension, esports players are athletes, which visa is best for them? B-1/B-2 visas would be out of the question, since esports players’ salaries far exceed the allowed amount for these visas. The next type of visa is the H1-B, which is for individuals who meet specific education requirements, type of occupation, and employment in the US. Esports players would not qualify for this last visa because many of them are teenagers/young adults who have either quit school or are still in school to pursue a career in esports. The O1-A visa, as opposed to the P1-A visa, is for “outstanding individuals in their field of study and practice.” The O1-A visa is extended to athletes, raising the question of whether esports players are athletes.

The term “athlete” is not a legally defined term when it comes to attaining these kinds of visas. In the end, I believe, as many others, that esports professionals should be considered athletes because of the amount of training and skill it takes to play a video game professionally.

There are also other distinctions between the P1-A and O1-A visa. The P1-A visa allows for esports players to compete in a specific event. On the other hand, the O1-A visa can be used for up to three years. It is arguably easier to apply for and get a P1-A visa for a competition by competition basis, as the O1-A visa requires more time and information than the P1-A. By attaining a O1-A visa, an esports athlete is able to apply for a green card, which is a positive step towards their future careers as esports players. To conclude, many teams rely on international talent to field their esport teams. Various teams are putting in millions to attain these players and have them signed to their teams.

However, difficulty in attaining player visas has left esports teams less likely to sign talent from overseas. Questions such as “why does someone need a visa to compete in an online game?” have come up frequently, especially to immigration lawyer Genie Doi. This question comes out of the bigger misunderstanding that is yet to be fixed: “what is esports?”

CITY COLLEGE

SPORTS STATISTICS Women‘s Soccer (7-9, 3-2) CCNY

Women‘s Volleyball (12-9, 4-3)

OPPONENTS

CCNY

OPPONENTS

Women‘s Basketball (0-10, 0-1) CCNY

OPPONENTS

GOALS

52

32

SETS PLAYED

71

71

TOTAL POINTS

519

906

GOALS PER GAME

3.25

2.00

KILLS PER SET

9.45

7.93

POINTS PER GAME

51.9

90.6

SHOTS

263

264

ASSISTS PER SET

8.80

7.20

SHOTS MADE ATTEMPTED

175-618

357-856

SHOTS PER GAME

16.4

16.5

RECEPTION ERRORS PER SET

2.52

3.17

REBOUNDS

386

610

SHOTS PERCENTAGE

153-264

126-264

DIGS PER SET

14.17

12.66

ASSISTS

54

194

PENALTIES

10

6

BLOCKS PER SET

.65

1.26

Men‘s Basketball (0-10, 0-1)

Men‘s Soccer (3-13, 3-4)

CCNY

OPPONENTS

TOTAL POINTS

682

803

3.69

POINTS PER GAME

68.2

80.3

156

339

SHOTS MADE ATTEMPTED

255-622

301-643

SHOTS PER GAME

9.8

21.2

REBOUNDS

335

435

SHOTS PERCENTAGE

.103

.174

ASSISTS

118

168

PENALTIES

21

18

CCNY

OPPONENTS

GOALS

16

59

GOALS PER GAME

1.00

SHOTS

S T A T S

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