The Health Issue Look inside for stories on mental, sexual and physical health. The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Monday March 5, 2018
Democratic California candidates for the 39th District spoke at a Saturday forum. One was excluded. News
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Surfing isn’t the best choice for California’s state sport, despite being an obvious fit. Opinion
Volume 103 Issue 18
Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball has problems to fix heading into the Big West Tournament.
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Sports
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Awosika dreams of becoming a big baller The Titans guard plans to use CSUF as a steppingstone to enter the NBA. HARRISON FAIGEN Web Editor
Nineteen-year-olds partying with NBA stars like Lonzo Ball during NBA All-Star Weekend might be tempted to feel like they’ve already made it. Dancing in the background of a music video as one of their best friends raps on stage might be enough to leave them feeling satisfied. But not Austen Awosika of Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball. Most nights Awosika isn’t found on Instagram stories with his childhood-friend-turned-megawattLakers star. Instead, he’s is in the gym, sweating and trash talking with three other Titans who joined the team at the same time he did. Late at night in Titan Gym, teammates Awosika, Dwight Ramos, Davon Clare and reigning Big West Freshman of the Year Jackson Rowe, engage in spirited games of two-on-two that both sides claim they win almost every time. Awosika said he and Clare “destroy” Ramos and Rowe, while Ramos claims that his friend is just “mad” because he and Clare “lose every time.” The one thing the two
GABE GANDARA / DAILY TITAN
Guard Austen Awosika was removed from the Titans’ starting lineup after the season-opening loss to USC. After working his way back to being a starter, with the help of his trainer Marquis Washington, the team has a 6-4 record.
sides can agree on is that Awosika is a relentless trash-talker on and off the floor, telling anyone who makes a shot while he’s in their airspace that they’re “lucky.” That trash talk is just one piece of evidence of the competitiveness
that drives Awosika to not be satisfied as a mere backup dancer. He might be averaging just 7.6 points and 2.7 assists for the Titans this season, but he wants to be a star. “He wants to be Big West Conference Player of the Year,”
Ramos, one of Awosika’s best friend’s said of his future goals. “I know he wants to play in the NBA.” The drive started from the moment Awoksika’s mother, Darlene, put the ball in his hands at the park
around age four in an effort to give the hyperactive child something to expend his energy on. But by the time he reached middle school, basketball had become more than an outlet for Austen, who had started to work with the man who would become his personal trainer, mentor, confidant and everything in-between: Marquis Washington, from his middle school in Long Beach. Washington told Austen early on that basketball could take him anywhere, from a Division I school to overseas to play professionally, or even the NBA. There was just one caveat: Austen would have to work, and not only in their practices with his travel team. He’d have to sign up for extra, grueling, two-hour-a-day sessions of private practice with Washington after school before going just as hard at team practices two days a week. “He said that he was going to do everything it took and from that day forward we started working out four to five times a week,” Washington said. Right after school, Austen would hop into Washington’s car and head to a local gym, where they would spend two hours working up a sweat as Austen tirelessly practiced his ballhandling, shooting, floaters and conditioning. SEE COMMITTED
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Women’s rights conference held in Titan Student Union
PRISCILLA CARCIDO / DAILY TITAN
The musical event at Aliso County Beach in Laguna was started over a decade ago and continues to draw in new guests.
People jive to drums by the ocean The Full Moon Drum Circle encourages guests to let loose and dance. LAUREN DIAZ / DAILY TITAN
Mitra Samani, a women’s rights activist who was imprisoned by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, spoke about her gruesome experiences as both a woman and a political prisoner.
Advocates gathered to criticize the treatment of women in Iran. LAUREN DIAZ Staff Writer
The California Women’s Society for Democracy in Iran held its annual conference Sunday at
the Titan Student Union to celebrate International Women’s Day and promote change for women’s rights in Iran. “Women are the forefront of the opposition to the tyranny in Iran,” said Nasser Sharif, president of California Women’s Society for Democracy in Iran. “Women, A Pivotal Force for Change,” featured messages from activists and a performance from
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Iranian singer-songwriter Hellena Rezai. In the past 30 years, 120,000 people have been executed in Iran. The country has been condemned by the United Nations for violation of human rights 64 times because of medieval punishments such as gouging eyes and amputating arms, Sharif said. SEE CHANGE
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PRISCILLA CARCIDO Staff Writer
The smell of bonfires and sound of crashing waves is typical of a beach visit, but with every full moon, beachgoers can expect to find a different sound at Aliso County Beach in Laguna. Open to the public, the Laguna Beach Full Moon Drum Circle is an event where people sing, dance and play their instruments by the ocean under the moon.
Deanna Cook used to visit larger drum circles in Miami and Lake Worth, Florida, but she said she prefers Laguna’s more intimate size. A follower of the moon cycles, she’s been coming to the drum circle in Laguna on and off for a few years. “The full moon is really beautiful. To be at the beach with the full moon, the music, the tide rolling in and all the energy — it’s beautiful,” Cook said. Individuals of all ages, genders and interests gathered around a fire to shake off their cares and absorb the energy in the air that seemed to surge through the circle Thursday night. SEE JIG
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