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News 1,2 Sports 3 Classifieds 4 Games 4 SCENE Insert
Volume 94 | Issue 6
Rainy 89° / 69°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
UNT partners with Confucius Insitute BY CAROLYN BROWN Senior Staff Writer
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOBBY ELLIS / BALL STATE DAILY NEWS
Lance Dunbar, a sophomore running back, sprints through the Ball State defense during Thursday’s victory. Dunbar ran for 63 yards and a touchdown.
Defense leads Mean Green football team to 20-10 victory BY ERIC JOHNSON Senior Staff Writer
The Mean Green football team, winners of just one game in 2008, overcame the long odds against the Ball State University Cardinals, pulling off a 20-10 upset on the road. The Cardinals won 12 games last season. What was supposed to be an offensive fireworks display turned out to be a defensive battle. The Mean Green defense showed why Todd Dodge had so much confidence in them going into the opener, holding the Cardinals’ offense to just 304 total yards, compared to the 512 yards UNT amassed. “It is not a mistake that we won this game,” Head Coach Todd Dodge said. “Our defense and our team have a whole new attitude and put in the work this offseason. We earned this win.” Senior running back Cam Montgomery led the Mean Green rushing attack and helped ease the pressure off quarterback Riley
Dodge with his fourth career 100-yard rushing performance. UNT ran for nearly 300 yards controlling the ball for almost two-thirds of the game. The receiving corps showed they did not miss former receiver Casey Fitzgerald with junior receivers Jamaal Jackson and Mike Outlaw stepping up for the Mean Green. The offensive line kept the Cardinal defense away redshirt freshman Riley Dodge and on his feet, clearing the way for the running attack. UNT shut down the Cardinal offense in the first half, but only managed to take a 10-0 lead into the locker room after a few mental mistakes and a turnover. “I know we left a lot of points on the board, but I felt we dominated them,” Riley Dodge said. “We got the W [win] and I promise that we are going to win this season.” The Cardinals got it together in the second half, and were able to even the score early in the fourth quarter after a fumble by sophomore running back Lance Dunbar
Mean Green vs. Cardinals X-Factor: The Mean Green Defense The 10 points the Mean Green defense allowed is 37 points lower than the 47 points per game last season. UNT kept Cardinals quarterback Kelly Page on the run the entire game and held Ball State to just 4.1 yards per pass attempt.
Getting the job done: Offense does enough Redshirt freshman quarterback Riley Dodge and senior running back Cam Montgomery combined to run for 216 yards on 30 carries. Riley Dodge was also 23/33 passing for 216 yards and one touchdown.
inside Mean Green territory. Riley Dodge looked like a quarterback who is ready to play at the college level as he made the most of the next drive, connecting with Jackson for 59 yards, setting up a touchdown pass. “I am so proud of what Riley did tonight,” Todd Dodge said. “He kept his head, made great decisions and lead his team to a victory.” Senior linebacker Toby Nwigwe
put an end to any comeback attempt with a forced fumble late in the fourth quarter deep in Cardinal territory to secure the victory. “This is the beginning of the shock the nation tour,” Nwigwe said. UNT has not won its opening game since 2005, and now will have some momentum going into the home opener next Saturday against Ohio University.
People who wonder what Confucius, dragon boats and Pink Floyd have in common may soon find out. The three topics comprise one of severa l workshops offered this month through a partnership of the UNT history department and the University of Texas at Dallas’ Confucius Institute. T h e t w o g r ou p s a r e hosting the workshops to help middle and high school teachers learn to use Chinese history and culture in the classroom. The Confucius Institute was established by China Three Gorges University and the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007. The institute is part of an international net work of pa r t nersh ips intended to help promote a better understanding of China’s culture, according to the institute’s Web site. T he i nst it ute of fers training and certification for teachers, Chinese language and culture courses, and workshops and programs for Adva nced Placement courses. Ha rold Ta n ner of t he UNT histor y depa r t ment i s d i r e c t i n g t he w or kshops. He will also present or co-present at t hree of t hem, including “Strange B e d f e l l o w s : C on f u c i u s , Dragon Boat s, a nd Pi n k Floyd.” The workshops are part of the National Consortium for Teaching about A sia, a prog ra m f u nded by a g ra nt f rom t he Freema n Foundation to encourage the teaching of Asian culture. L ea r n i ng about Ch i na is pa rticula rly importa nt now because of its role as a powerful growing economy a nd Un ited States t rade partner, Tanner said. “I want them to take away some perspective on Chinese culture and history that they ca n incor porate in t heir classrooms,” he said. Jessic a Hea ston, a n
“I want them to take away some perspective on Chinese culture.”
—Harold Tanner UNT history department
economics junior who is working on the events, said about 30 people signed up for the first workshop, and the program has a capacity of about 90 people. Although the program is targeted at secondary school teachers, it is open to the public, she said. “We get a lot of teachers. They like to go because it’s free and they get teaching materials,” Heaston said. She sa id teachers who attend will receive a certificate of completion, but will not be awarded continuing education credit from UNT. However, some individual districts may choose to give teachers their own credits. “W hat’s a lways f u n is to see what kind of questions the participants have,” Tanner said. “The professors enjoy interacting with the teachers, and they don’t have to grade them afterward.” T he work shops w i l l take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 12, Oct. 3, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12 at the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, in Richardson. A t hree-hour workshop will also be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Confucius Institute. The workshops are free, but pa r t icipa nt s must register at least four days in advance. The events w ill include f ree pa rk i ng a nd a f ree continental breakfast and lunch. For more i n for mat ion v i sit w w w.h i st .u nt .e du/ confuciusbrochure.
Alumni create organization, help children in need BY A MBER A RNOLD Senior Staff Writer
Bruce and Denise Kendrick sit at a picnic table in a McKinney neighborhood park. Subtly but frequently, they glance toward the playground where their four children play — three of them biological, and one, a foster child. The Kendricks, both UNT alumni, now devote their time to the nonprofit organization they created in an effort to help those in the foster care system. Since they began fostering children, the couple estimates to have housed 25 children. However, as if opening up their home wasn’t enough, the Kendricks said they wanted to reach out to others struggling in the Texas foster care system. This led the couple on a path to creating the Embrace ministry in October 2007. As a ministry, Embrace works to help foster and adoptive families with obstacles they might encounter, according to its Web site. It also serves as a medium for churches to create orphan care ministries and helps provide the means to get them started. Volunteers and donations are
what keep the nonprofit organization alive and opening one’s home to a foster child is not the only way to help, Denise Kendrick said. “Even people who are probably not going to adopt or become a foster parent – just have a heart for these kids,” she said. “They come and they volunteer and work with these children, and they end up supporting Embrace.” Before creating Embrace, Cindy Coffman, the organization’s Executive Director, began as a person who just wanted to help. With her children preparing to go off to college, Coffman said she was an empty nester. “I was praying about what I was going to do after my kids went to college,” Coffman said, “ I was listening to the radio and heard something about orphan ministries, so I asked Bruce and Denise what they thought about it.” Since its inception, Embrace has expanded out of the north Texas area to help those in need across the nation and worldwide. It has also connected with other organizations including
Child Protective Ser vices, Buckner Children and Family Services, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and private individuals. The Kendricks have been foster parents for six years, and in that time, they’ve experienced different situations that they are able to share with other foster and adoptive parents. At one point, the Kendricks welcomed a 4-day-old baby into their home, who was born with an addiction to cocaine. “He didn’t use his hands and he was really stiff,” Denise said. “He didn’t lay over your shoulder like a baby should, it was like holding a little wooden doll.” However, when the child left the Kendrick’s home, they said he was right in line with his peers. Some children hoard food because they’re afraid they won’t eat again, some act out sexually, but all of them usually have some sort of emotional or physical issue, Denise Kendrick said. “Some parents coming into this don’t understand why their kids are acting in bizarre ways,” she said. This is why they both hold
PHOTO BY JAYDA QUINCEY / PHOTOGRAPHER
Bruce Kendrick catches his 3-year-old son Shepherd as he jumps off a small landing at a playground. support groups for the parents, like the “coffee shop moms” group that meets periodically and brings in professionals to speak. The group also gives parents the opportunity to network. “When we got started, I think we felt like we were just on an
island by ourselves,” Denise Kendrick said. “But we realized that the more people that invest in these kids, the more it helps them.” The Kendricks began foster parenting without the intention to adopt, but recently they
have changed their minds and are in the process of adopting 16-year-old Brandan. “God just opened our hearts, and when we met Brandan for the first time, I just knew he was mine,” Denise Kendrick said.