Relay for Life attracts more than 1,000 students, 7A
Baseball gets swept, tied for first, 2B
honors | 60 percent of students do not complete program , 3A
Central Michigan Life
Monday, April 26, 2010
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
[cm-life.com]
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LeFevour right at home with Chicago Bears By Aaron McMann Staff Reporter
Matthew stephens/senior photographer
Mount Pleasant resident Jody Bass, owner of Faith Fighting, holds a picture from his adolescence. As a youth, Bass had many run-ins with the law and decided after facing jail time to turn his life over to Christ. He is now a father of three, attends seminary school and works at Staples while managing Faith Fighting. “Nobody is too far gone. Man, I can’t express that enough,” Bass said. “Even if at first it’s not about God, what’s wrong with bettering yourself?”
bringing god to the fight
Mount Pleasant man uses cage fighting as a way to share his faith By Maryellen Tighe | Senior Reporter
J
ody Bass is not new to the world of fighting. As a child, he admits he hit some rough spots, including run-ins with the law. But now he is teaching people to fight for a different reason — God. “I had a change of heart and started seeking God,” said Bass, a Mount Pleasant resident. “I decided to use my talents to help other people.” Five years ago, Bass, 30, started a garage ministry in Mount Pleasant to reach out to other people who had a similar childhood. It’s a ministry he has expanded into Faith Fighting, a Christian fighting and training group. Bass moved the group into a barn located behind the home of the pastor of Potter’s
House Family Worship Center in Mount Pleasant. The barn is still there, complete with a cage for fighting, Bass said. A year ago they moved into the current location of Faith Fighting, 1319 S. Mission St. “We have fighters, we have guys who actually compete in cage fights, full contact,” Bass
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said. “The rest of them are just in it to learn to defend themselves and to get in shape.” About half of the 20 people who train with Bass are competitive fighters. While he is not training his body at Faith Fighting, he is training his mind as part of Vessels of Honor, a four year ministry school. Bass doesn’t plan to pastor a church once he is ordained, but he wants to give more legitimacy to the ministry part of his work. “Since I was a teenager I’ve been doing the formal boxing stuff,” Bass said. “The ‘Faith Fighting’ on the door (of our building) raises questions and I am definitely not bashful at all about sharing my faith.” Bass would like to see the mentoring portion of Faith
Inside w See more photos from this story on pages 4A and 5A and online Fighting become more central as his core groups of athletes grow. One athlete who is interested in helping is Lance Marlian. Marlian’s curiosity about the group was sparked by that name on the door. He is a lifetime wrestler, but this is his first shot at training as a cage fighter. “One of the main things that got me was the name,” Marlian said. “When you think about cage fighters, you just think about big bad people who want to kick people’s heads, but you get here and it’s totally different.” A faith | 4A
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Walk into former CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour’s bedroom and you will find Chicago Bears decor lining the walls. Ask him who his favorite player is and he will tell you former Bears running back Walter Payton. Never mind the fact that Payton was retired before LeFevour was even born. A native of Chicago suburb Downers Grove, Ill., things came full circle for LeFevour Saturday when he was selected as the Bears’ 12th pick in the sixth round — No. 181 overall — of the 2010 NFL Draft. “It means everything to me,” LeFevour said in a news release Saturday. “It’s a dream come true, literally. It’s a great day for me and I’m really proud to be a part of that organization.” But before the happy
e n d i n g came some doubt. Many NFL experts, and LeFevour himself, believed he would be Dan LeFevour a third- to fourth-round draft pick. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had him ranked as the fourth-best quarterback in the draft and projected he would be chosen by the Carolina Panthers in the third round. When Carolina’s thirdround pick came up Friday, LeFevour was still on the board. But there was little doubt Carolina would stay away from LeFevour. The Panthers picked Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen a round earlier. He was then forced to wait, watching Northwestern’s Michael Kafka, A NFL draft | 2A
Leadership Institute will be funded again Staff size still to be determined By Maryellen Tighe Senior Reporter
Dan Gaken is excited to continue his work with Central Michigan University’s Leadership Institute. Debate about the institute’s future ended Tuesday when President George Ross announced at a student forum it will be included on next year’s budget plan. What the face of the institute will be, staff wise, is still unknown, said Gaken, interim director of the Leadership Institute. He does not expect to hear any budget updates on staff hiring until after the state budget is finalized. He doubts the university will be able to replace staff this year. “Being able to hear from him (Ross) personally that
he plans to keep it in the budget is really exciting,” said Climax junior Ashley Pryor. “I have personally spoken with him and he told me that the Leadership Institute isn’t going anywhere,” Concerns about the future of the institute arose in early March when Senior Staff Budget Advisory Group recommendations were published. One recommendation read: “From a Leader Advancement Scholar — The two directors of the institute have nicer offices than most faculty, and the few programs that the institute puts on have done very little for me. It is not part of the curriculum, it should be one thing considered for downsizing or removal.” The SSBAG response: “This likely will occur as a result of the recent retire-
A Leadership | 2A
E-cigs allow students to side-step no smoking rules — for now Decision on potential restriction coming in the fall By Tony Wittkowski Staff Reporter
Ryan Prystash has gotten his nicotine fix a couple of times in the residence halls. But not with regular cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars. Instead, he smokes electronic cigarettes. “I started about a month ago,” said Prystash, a New Baltimore freshman. With the e-cig, there is no fire,
tar, ash or carbon monoxide. It’s about the same size as a regular cigarette, only with a few modifications. The end where the cigarette is normally lit is where the battery is located. The part which is held by the smoker is the cartridge containing water laced with nicotine. “The cartridges can be plugged into an outlet,” he said. “I even charged one of them from my laptop.” Prystash said using the cigarettes inside a residence hall has caused some confusion. “I was smoking in my room when an RA passed by,” Prystash said. “She started freaking out until I pulled it apart and showed her what it was.”
He said the RA then allowed him to continue smoking. However, the popularity of the product does present an issue of how it conforms to the rules in nosmoking areas of campus. “We have had no complaints yet,” said Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life. “The FDA is still figuring out how to regulate them.” Currently students can smoke ecigs on campus without being held to the standards of regular cigarettes, he said. “We don’t have enough info now,” Holtgreive said. “We’ll probably make a decision about them
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A E Cigs | 2A
Peter French demonstrates the Regal model of the In Life electronic cigarette. The electronic cigarettes are batteryoperated to release nicotine and a water vapor that simulates actual smoke.