THURSDAY OCTOBER 30, 2014 Vol. XLVIII No. 7
Find out about “Operation Bumblebee” on Pages 4 & 5
FREMONT, CA OHLONEMONITOR.COM
MONEY
Partnership helps students with finances Community colleges team with nonprofit for CashCourse site ABIGAIL MONEDA Staff writer
Haunted house is local treasure 35-year legacy passes on to Ohlone College alumni RYAN PARCHER Editor-in-chief Thirty-five years ago, a drywall installer named Roberto Rodelas climbed onto his work stilts and let his wife make him up as Frankenstein for Halloween. In the years since, Rodelas’ Union City house became a major draw for the local community – a family-operated haunted house with no agenda other than to entertain the kids in the neighborhood. Some Ohlone students from Union City remember it fondly.
LAURA GONSALVES/MONITOR
Top: Decorations adorn the front yard of a haunted house. Above: Roberto Rodelas has been thrilling his neighbors every Halloween for 35 years.
Rodelas and his wife continued to dress him up year after year, and began collecting an accompanying array of robotic Halloween decorations. The Halloween celebration at their house drew so much attention over the years that, starting about 15 years ago, the Searles Elementary School Halloween Parade began making its way down the street and through Rodelas’ house. “My wife was friends with the vice principal, then,” Rodelas said. Monitor sports editor Albert Rebosura, who Continued on Page 3
The California Community Colleges system announced this month that it has partnered with a nonprofit group to provide a free online financial literacy product to students. The product, available at www.cashcourse.org, is provided by the National Endowment for Financial Education, a nonprofit organization that provides financial education and practical information. CashCourse aims to provide students with money management skills through articles, videos, a financial dictionary, and software to help them understand and build budgets. “Promoting a culture of financial literacy on our campuses is key to fostering student success,” California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said in a statement. “This product is easy to use and has several exciting features to help students track their spending, learn about banking or health insurance, and even offers advice on loaning money to friends, making it useful for everyday life.” Some Ohlone students, however, are less than impressed with the free website. “I don’t think people will use it,” communications major Eshino Kalonea said. “It’s a basic skill that people should know.” Graphic design major Pei Tu agreed. “It depends who uses the product – I Continued on Page 3
SPEAKER
Brown recalls escape from Nazi death march ABIGAIL MONEDA Staff writer
LAURA GONSALVES/MONITOR
Magda Brown, a Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, speaks at the Smith Center at Ohlone College.
Magda Brown crouched in a German barn, terrified, watching as the soldiers approached. She was among a group of women who had escaped as they were being marched to their deaths in a concentration camp. Now, they awaited their fate. Brown, 87, told her story of survival and hope last week in two speeches at the Smith Center on Ohlone’s Fremont campus. More than 200 people attended her speech on Thursday afternoon, and the Smith Center was packed to ca-
pacity for the second one on Friday night. Brown was born Magda Perlstein in Miskolc, Hungary. The country was an ally of Germany’s during World War II, but initially refused to deport Jews with Hungarian citizenship to the concentration camps. Then, in March 1944, the Nazis invaded Hungary to implement the “Final Solution” of the Hungarian Jews. Brown’s home was in the exact area that was developed into a ghetto. Her house became home to 40 people – and 40 different Continued on Page 2
Brown urges the audience to remember the 6 million Jewish people who lost their lives.
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NEWS
MONITOR OCTOBER 30, 2014
NEWS BITES Ohlone to host suicide loss day Ohlone will host International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day on Nov. 22 on the Fremont campus. The event invites those who have lost someone to suicide to share their stories and comfort one another. It will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on the first floor of Building 7. Survivor Day was created by an act of Congress in 1999, and since then has been sponsored and supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. There are more than 250 locally organized events held around the world. For more information, go to www.survivorday.org or www. stepupohlone.org, call 510.659.6258 or email strieu@ohlone.edu.
FAIR DRAWS JOB SEEKERS
LAURA GONSALVES / MONITOR
Employers and students mingle Friday at the Fall Career Fair put on by the Ohlone College and Tri-Cities One Stop Career. The career fair allowed students to network, explore career options and learn about job opportunities with area employers.
Skeptical show coming Nov. 22 The Psychology Club will present a 90-minute “skeptical extravaganza” and quiz show on Nov. 22 on the Fremont campus. The cast of the popular science podcast “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” (Steve Novella, Bob Novella, Jay Novella and Evan Bernstein) will join musician and master of ceremonies George Hrab for the event. It will be from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Smith Center’s Jackson Theatre. Tickets cost $15, or $10 for students with ID. Parking is $2. For more information, call the Smith Center Box Office at 510-659-6031.
Students to run workshop EOPS, CARE and CalWORKS will present a “students teaching students” workshop from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday in Room 7101. The students running the workshop will use research and their own stories and experiences “to provide an understanding of how to determine where they are going, how they are going to get there, and the behaviors required to persist in their respective missions.” Topics will include failure, integrity, core values and identifying an agenda. – Compiled by Monitor staff
Brown: `I was praying they’d just bomb the place’ Continued from Page 1 personalities. Magda’s father was the owner of the Meat Market Business in the town, so it was not difficult to feed everyone in the household. Still, life in the ghetto did not last long. After a few weeks, the Nazis marched its occupants through town to a transition camp called “the brickyard.” Adjacent to the yard were railroad tracks. In May 1944, the Nazis began deporting Hungarian Jews to the AuschwitzBirkenau concentration camp in Poland. About 424,000 Jews were sent there in about eight weeks, according to Yad Vashem, an Israel-based group that researches and commemorates the Holocaust. On June 11, 1944, Brown’s 17th birthday, she was shoved into a train boxcar with 85 other people. She stood for three days so her parents could sit on the floor. Three days without food or water. “The one thing I will remember and never, ever forget was that in the corner of the box car was a young woman with her dead baby on her chest,” Brown said. Finally, the train came to
a stop, and Brown and the others were ordered to leave all of their belongings in the boxcar. They had arrived at Auschwitz. The men were immediately separated from the women. “That was the last time I saw my father,” Brown said. About two minutes after she watched her father walk away, Brown was separated from her mother as well. Brown walked into a room where she had to remove all of her clothes. She could hear women screaming at the top of their lungs because the Nazis were shaving all the hair from their bodies. The worst part, she said, was when they rubbed disinfectant spray all over the wounds. The next room was filled with 200 people. This is where they slept. Their pillows were their wooden shoes and their blankets were the body warmth shared throughout the room. In the mornings, they lined up for counting. Brown described their food as a “green liquid with something floating in it.” When she first arrived at the concentration camp, she gagged at just the thought of the food, but then she
learned to love it. “One time, I asked a lady in a uniform where my mother was,” Brown said. “She pointed to five smoking chimneys.” It was then that she learned her family had been put into a room full of people with one big window. Then they were gassed and the bodies were cremated. “Some of the Jews would recognize their own family members while moving the bodies into the ovens,” Brown said. Selection was stressful for Brown. The prisoners stood in a circle with the tops of their bodies fully exposed, while the Nazis observed who had the best upper-body strength. In August 1944, Brown was one of thousands of women “selected” to be sent to a work camp in Allendorf, Germany. The living conditions weren’t nearly as bad as in the camp. Brown was piled into a room with 16 people. They had bunk beds in the living quarters. She and the other women were escorted every day to a munitions factory, where they were exposed to bomb-making chemicals that discolored
their skin. They had no protection. “I was praying they would just bomb the place so we didn’t have to suffer any longer,” Brown said. In March 1945, Brown and her group were sent on a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Brown and several other prisoners decided to try to escape. They crawled to a nearby barn, where they hid in piles of straw for a day and a half. They knew they would be shot if they were caught. The next day, Magda noticed two men walking toward them. She was initially terrified they were German troops, but they turned out to be American soldiers. She and the other women were free. After the war, in late 1946, Brown immigrated to Chicago to live with her father’s siblings. Today, Brown’s concentration camp number is still stitched on her uniform and displayed in the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. For more information about Brown, go to her website at www.magdabrown. com.
NEWS OHLONE COLLEGE
MONITOR STAFF: Editor-in-Chief: Ryan Parcher Features editor: Mitchell Walther Sports editor: Albert Rebosura Photo editor: Laura Gonsalves Online editor: Alizaib Lodhi Staff writer: Abigail Moneda Graphic designers: Emily Burkhardt Payal Gupta Adviser: Rob Dennis Printer: FP Press
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Online: 2005, 2013 CONTACT US: Offices: Room 5310 Call: 510.659.6075 E-mail: monitor@ohlone. edu Website: www.ohlonemonitor.com Facebook: www.facebook. com/OhloneCollegeMonitor Twitter: @OhloneMonitor Opinions expressed in the Monitor are those of the respective authors and are not necessarily those of the staff, the college or the Associated Students of Ohlone College.
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Free haunted house Ohlone to offer brings old tradition study trip to Greece in summer to new generations MONITOR STAFF Ohlone’s Office of Community Education is offering a two-week study tour of Greece, the Ionian Coast and Istanbul this coming summer. The tour, led by history instructor Stephen Hanna, will include the Parthenon and the Agora in Athens; the palace of Agamemnon at Mycenae; the battlefields of Salamis, Marathon and Thermopylae; the theater and ruins of Ephesus; and the site of the city of Troy. The trip is not a credit course; it is limited to a maximum of 50 people on a first-come, first-served basis to anyone age 18 or older. The tour, from May 24 through June 6, costs $4,200 per person. The price includes flights from San Francisco, land and ferry transportation, accommodation, entrance fees to all attractions in the itinerary, and all breakfasts and dinners noted in the itinerary. For more information, including the link to register, a full itinerary and instructor’s biography, go to Hanna’s website at www.2.ohlone.edu/people/ shanna or call 510-742-2303.
New financial tool for students California Newspaper Publishers Association
MONITOR OCTOBER 30, 2014
Continued from Page 1 think it’s useless,” Tu said. To get started, students can go to www.cashcourse. org and register. They’ll be prompted to enter their student information and community college affiliation. Students then will be
brought to the course home page, which offers a variety of topics. Community college faculty and staff also can use information on the website to help build financial literacy courses for students, including homework assignments and quizzes.
Kidango head Miller to retire MONITOR STAFF Kidango Executive Director Paul Miller announced Monday that he will retire after 35 years. Kidango is a private, notfor-profit children’s agency that operates more than 50 child development centers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The agency operated the Child Development Center on the Ohlone campus for 10 years. In February, Ohlone President Gari Browning announced that the center would move off the Fremont campus because of ongoing construction work. “When I joined Kidango back in 1979, the organization was a blank slate open to great momentum, growth and innovation,” Miller said in a statement. “I knew it was the place for me. It has been a gift to work with you all to serve children and families.” Miller will remain with Kidango until his replacement is found. The organization’s board of directors has formed a committee to search for a new executive director.
ASL I NTE R PR ETE D N OV E M B E R 7
Continued from Page 1 attended Searles as a child, remembers parading by the house. “I used to think it was pretty cool,” he said. “We always knew it as the house that went over-the-top with Halloween decorations.” This year, with a threat of rain hanging over Friday’s festivities, Rodelas worries that the kids might not be able to have their parade to his house. Still, he will have his house open, regardless of the weather. “We will put some of the robots in the garage where they will be protected from the rain,” Rodelas said. “We have lots of mechanical decorations, from the Werewolf to Michael Jackson – all singing and dancing.“ He credited his wife for amassing an amazing collection of robots over a 35-year period, and pointed out that his whole family dresses up for the event. Rodelas invited anyone interested to come to his house on Halloween – it’s at 33597 Colgate Drive in Union City. “That’s what it was made for – the kids,” he said. “When we first started, we gave out 100 bags of candy. Last year we went
through 700 bags and then ran out. People kept coming, though.” Eventually, the family just shut down and turned off all the lights around 10 p.m. Attendees of the haunted house this year will not see Rodelas himself up on his stilts. The stilts were retired due to safety concerns, he said. “One year, some teenagers came up and asked, ‘What would happen if we pulled on your leg?’” Rodelas said. “So I told them, ‘I will fall down, and then you better run!’” The incident inspired the family to get another costume that added height by sitting on the shoulders of the person wearing it. That costume has since been passed on to younger shoulders. Rodelas said he doesn’t run much of anything anymore, claiming to be too old. His daughters and their husbands take care of everything now. This community event is one that may be recognized by students of Ohlone from the Union City area. One of Rodelas’ daughters, Griselda Rodelas, met her husband, Scott Mello, while they attended Ohlone College.
FEATURES
FEATURES
MONITOR OCTOBER 30, 2014
Ohlone professor ‘stings’ TV psychic Skeptics organize `Operation Bumblebee’ to expose Chip Coffey MITCHELL WALTHER Features editor Reality TV has been a rising force for more than a decade now. From “Big Brother” to “The Bachelor,” scores of audience members have loved getting to see the camera pointed at “real” people. But can reality TV shows push the envelope too far? Ohlone College psychology Professor Sheldon Helms thinks so. A board member of Bay Area Skeptics, Helms recently participated in a “sting” on Chip Coffey, self-proclaimed psychic and host of the TV show “Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal.” Airing on A&E since 2008, ‘Psychic Kids” focuses on young adults who allegedly show signs of a supernatural gift. According to the A&E “Psychic Kids” website, the show “profiles children who live with an incredible secret: they have psychic abilities. Feeling scared and isolated, these
kids have nowhere to turn ... until now. In this intense journey, the experts draw on their own personal experiences, training and unique outlook on life to bring troubled kids together to show them how to harness their abilities and, ultimately, show them that they’re not alone in this world.” With enough mystery and reality mixed together to cultivate interest, the show has formed a sort of cult following, mainly focused around its host, Chip Coffey. Enough doubt has been raised about Coffey’s legitimacy or lack thereof, however, that skeptics and truth seekers have begun to come out of the woodwork. Helms teamed up with Susan Gerbic and other members of the Monterey County Skeptics for the sting operation. Codenamed “Operation: Bumblebee,” the plan was to attend a public “seance” session of Coffey’s and reveal the falsity of his psychic claims, he said. Neither A&E nor Coffey’s media representative responded to requests for comment by The Monitor. Coffey has been doing a speaking tour for the past several months in which he “divines” the thoughts of the deceased loved ones of the attending audience members. Armed with fake names,
(Wade’s mother) as an Auntie Mame, someone who encourages everybody to reach their full potential, the ring leader, the one who would bring others through and say, ‘Come on! Let’s go do this!’ She was Rosalind Russell! Angela Lansbury! He then stopped to ask whether I knew what he meant, and I said that I definitely knew who Auntie Mame was. `An amazing woman!’ he continued. He heard music around her, she was always singing. I agreed with all of this, and acted shocked and emotional.” Coffey went through the same routine with two other skeptics, before moving on to other audience members, Helms said. Unlike Helms and his friends though, these people were genuinely looking for comfort. Up next was a woman in her early 20s, Helms said. “She had already shared that she was there to seek out a young man who’d died in a car accident,” Helms said. Coffey asked her for information before attempting to connect with her boyfriend, Helms said. “This young woman had lost her boyfriend in a car accident a mere five days before, and had spent $150 on a VIP ticket to ask Chip Coffey to contact his spirit,” Helms
EMILY BURKHARDT / MONITOR
COURTESY OF SHELDON HELMS
Ohlone Psychology Professor Sheldon Helms, left, poses for a VIP photo with TV psychic Chip Coffey, right, before Coffey’s presentation in San Jose.
fake stories and fake deceased loved ones, Helms and his crew attended a talk in San Jose. The plan was to plant their stories throughout the night, hoping Coffey’s assistants would lend the information to the man himself and he would use this gathered information as readings from the afterlife – a common psychic trick. “My instructions were to devise a character for myself that: a) had lost a loved one; b) wanted to regain contact with that loved one through Chip; and c) totally believed in psychics and otherworldly claptrap,” Helms wrote in a blog post about the sting. Helms gave himself an alias of “Wade.” “This would be my first foray back into the world of psychics and New Agers since my conversion to rationality and sanity. It was, to put it mildly, a
surreal experience. And, much to our delight, the plan went off without a hitch.” Maintaining that the first hour of the talk set up “the general lameness of the entire event,” Helms said each member of the sting did their part to prove themselves as stark believers in the supernatural. They each provided enough pieces of their false stories so Coffey would feel confident in reaching their deceased loved ones. After a short intermission, Coffey did indeed take the bait, Helms said. Struggling mentally to connect with Helms’ (or rather, Wade’s) dead mother, used the planted information from the skeptics to fuel his “psychic powers,” Helms said. Helms said Coffey then “launched into a flattering description of her
said. “I was sickened. … I have seen first hand the effects of disrupting the grieving process for people, and they are horrible.” Any remorse the skeptic crew had felt for catching Coffey in a lie vanished as he reportedly communicated the young man’s last thoughts as: “You know that old saying, ‘Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse’? He’s saying, ‘By God, I did that.’ ” Helms was mortified. “You know, because corpse is a completely appropriate word to use when talking to someone whose young boyfriend died in a tragic car accident only a few days ago,” he said, sarcastically. “The last thing someone in grief needs is someone derailing this process with fantasies of the deceased person communicating with them through a channeler…and for a price.” After meeting back at a café to go over notes, the conspirators of “Operation: Bumblebee” declared their sting a success, and went home to write up their respective blog entries. They met up with Jay Diamond, the founder of Reason4Reason, who couldn’t attend the talk that night because of prior meetings with Chip Coffey. He had been monitoring them the entire night via cellphone and
facebook. “As exhausting and emotionally draining as it was, we all agreed that it was equally gratifying.” Professor Helms said. “I just have to say this and get it off my chest,” Helms wrote. “There were times last night when I felt a little sorry for Chip Coffey. If this was the best he could do, I really didn’t perceive him as a significant threat.” The sting was not the first time Coffey had been attacked by skeptics and critics during his physic career. The other most notable incident took place on a morning radio talk show on Minneapolis KFAN. Host Cory Cove remained obstinate and skeptic throughout his interview with Coffey. “Chip, if there was ever proof that a psychic could actually do what it did, and it was peer-reviewed, you would win the Nobel Prize for proving the afterlife.” Cory Cove declared. “It’s never been proven. There’s zero evidence. It’s all anecdotal.” From Coffey’s perspective, though, it’s just as difficult to disprove the supernatural as it is to prove it. “That’s my definition of the paranormal. You can’t understand it. Can’t explain it. But you can’t deny that something is going on,” Coffey told his audience, in a clip aired on CBS Sunday Morning.
COURTESY OF SHELDON HELMS
The Operation Bumblebee crew (left to right): Jay Diamond, Jim Preston, Margie Preston, Stirling Gerbic-Forsyth, Sheldon Helms, Jan Wachtel and Susan Gerbic.
The last thing someone in grief needs is someone derailing this process with fantasies of the deceased person communicating with them through a channeler…and for a price - Prof. Sheldon Helms
That’s my definition of the paranormal. You can’t understand it. Can’t explain it. But you can’t deny that something is going on - Chip Coffey, host of ‘Psychic Kids’ TV show
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A Werewolf in retail
OPINIONS
EMILY BURKHARDT / MONITOR
FBI protests against commercial encryption Technology ban will stifle economy and innovation NADJA ADOLF Contributing writer FBI Director James Comey told listeners at the Brookings Institute this month that he is outraged that Apple and Google are now offering their customers privacy-protecting encryption technology. “D e e p l y c o n c e r n e d” James Comey wants Congress to “fix” laws to ensure police can access private data. He insists that if users can keep their correspondence private, it will “have very serious consequences for law enforcement and national security agencies at all levels.” He said of secure encryption: “It’s the equivalent of a closet that can’t be opened. A safe that can’t be cracked.” Such concerns are nothing new. For centuries, politicians and law en-
forcement have demanded bans and restrictions in the name of crime control and national security. Included in the list of technologies seen as deadly menace to society are items such as automobiles, radios, railroad trains, steamships, telegraphs, and telephones. Bans on technology have rarely been effective at either reducing or eliminating crime – but they have succeeded in stifling innovation and harming the economy. England banned early fore and aft sailing rigs (luggers) centuries ago after the government discovered that these boats were far more maneuverable than the patrol boats used to apprehend smugglers. The result was that the British trade and fishing fleets were eco-
CAMPUS COMMENT
THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO JUSTIFY ITS INTRUSION INTO YOUR RIGHTS -EDWARD SNOWDEN nomically handicapped by being required to carry the larger crews needed to handle more cumbersome rigs, while sailors and passengers were exposed to a greater risk of death and injury because the added complexity of the legal rigs made it harder to respond to an emergency. The FBI is trying to sell the myth that there is a magical way of allowing the “good guys” a back door into computer systems that would be inaccessible to the “bad guys.” The EFF notes that this is simply false. What Mr. Comey is really demanding is that everyone be required to use weak security so that if the FBI – or the North Korean security police – decide someone is a “bad guy,” they can easily access that person’s personal in-
formation. The reality is that weak security is not selectively weak for alleged bad guys – it is weak for all of its users. Criminals are becoming more and more successful at exploiting security weaknesses, and prospective customers for American products are unlikely to purchase American products with weak security with other vendors available. Not only do technology users fear hackers, they fear industrial espionage, from both competitors and governments. Economics are not the most important issue in online privacy; the issue is whether or not we have the right to free speech without government harassment or prosecution. Do we speak freely, or do we
self-censor and suppress dissent lest what we say be misinterpreted? To q u o t e E d w a r d Snowden: “ We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We’re subjects, and we have rulers. When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights – you don’t have to justify why you need freedom of speech.” And the penchant for close, secretive cooperation with the government will only cost companies money and jobs, Snowden added, because no one would want to buy a phone made by a company that provides inherent backdoors for third parties to access your information. “The same rights that we inherited, our children deserve to inherit the same way,” Snowden said.
What was your worst Halloween experience? SARAH HAMMONS Art “When I was 8, a guy in a black outfit with red eyes chased me down the street. It was horrible” ALEX DULCAN Chemical engineering “My friend tried to throw a pumpkin out of a car and it hit the window and exploded inside ” KENDALL DAWSON Undeclared “I volunteered to drop a girl off at her house and she threw up in the car”
PHILLIP ANDERSON Fine arts and theatre “In Junior High, people in scary costumes chased me through a haunted corn maze at night”
JASLEEN CHUG Business law “My Dad tried to scare my aunt and uncle with a light; they got so scared they called the cops”
SPORTS
MONITOR OCTOBER 30, 2014
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Basketball preview Continued from Page 8
RYAN PARCHER / MONITOR
Above: The Lady Renegades take a water break during a practice session on Wednesday afternoon. Top-left: Ohlone players participate in a layup and jump-shooting drill. Bottom-left: Freshman shooting guard Gabrielle Duenas passes the ball during practice.
Rizza’s system is based on playing stout defense. She quoted University of Oregon coach Kelly Graves’ saying, “Offense is a variable but defense is a constant,” as inspiration for her coaching method. On offense, Rizza plans on using an up-tempo, fastpaced but controlled style of play. Potter expects the offense’s energetic play to intimidate opponents and get positive results. The roster is at 10 players but is currently down to six healthy players, with four injuries requiring rehab. “We’re still looking for players … we don’t have a deep bench,” Rizza said. “We are looking for any Ohlone enrolled players – freshmen or sophomores.” Anyone interested in joining the squad can contact Rizza at lrizza@ohlone. edu. Only time will tell how far the “Dream Team” will go this season. Watch the Lady Renegades’ first home game Tuesday, Nov. 25, against Sierra College at the Epler Gymnasium.
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SPORTS
MONITOR OCTOBER 30, 2014
Women’s basketball preview See you in 2016
RYAN PARCHER / MONITOR
The Lady Renegades’ new head coach, Liz Rizza (white), watches her team do layup drills during practice on Wednesday afternoon.
THE NO. 1 GOAL IS TO IMPROVE EACH DAY, AS A TEAM AND INDIVIDUALLY - Head Coach Liz Rizza ALBERT REBOSURA Sports editor It’s a new season with new expectations for the Ohlone College women’s basketball team. Last season, the Lady Renegades went 19-9 overall and had a 10-2 conference record. They qualified for the 13th seed in the Northern California Regional Tournament but lost in the second round to Sierra College. With a new coaching staff and six freshmen – it will be a season of transition. “It’s definitely going to be a rebuilding season,” new Head Coach Liz Rizza said. Rizza replaced Julia Allender, who left the team in May, accepting the head
coach position at Sacramento City College. “We’re turning this program around in terms of a new culture,” Rizza said about the Renegades. “The No. 1 goal is to improve each day, as a team and individually.” Joining Rizza are assistant coaches Jessica Potter, who will monitor the guards and the offense, and Mark Escalona, whose specialty is coaching the post and recruiting. He also does strength and conditioning. This year’s team has four returning sophomores and six freshmen. Sophomore point guard Candy De Los Reyes highlights the returning veterans. Last season, Reyes started 14
of the 15 games she played and led the team in minutesper-game and assists. The other returning players are: her twin sister, combo-guard Crystal De Los Reyes, who started six games; shooting guard Mikaela Sabian, who averaged five minutes a game in a reserve role; and center Tarryn Clark, who played in 28 of the 29 games last season. “Most of them want to go to the next level, so they motivate themselves, which is great to have. That makes coaching a lot easier,” Rizza said about the sophomores. “A couple of them are leaders as well as captains so that always helps … a big role for them as the upperclassmen is to take the lead with our six freshmen. Keep in mind, they’re (freshmen) notewor-
thy to watch as well.” Size – or lack of size – is something that the Lady Renegades might struggle with this season. Clark is the only player above 6 feet tall. At 5-foot-10, freshman forward Jessica King is the only other option Coach Rizza can go to inside. The rest of the squad is 5-foot-7 and shorter. “We have to be faster, we have to play more physical and we have to be smarter – it’s all about basketball IQ,” Rizza said about how the team will compensate for their lack of size. Escalona added, “With mental toughness and physical toughness … we’re not a big team but we can play big.” Continued on Page 7
Upcoming Renegades games MEN’S SOCCER
College, Tak Stadium, Fremont
Friday, 4 p.m. vs. Foothill College, Central Park, Fremont
Nov. 14, 2:45 p.m. @ Skyline College
Nov. 7, 1:30 p.m. vs. West Valley College, Accinelli Park, Union City
VOLLEYBALL
Nov. 11, 3:00 p.m. @ City College of San Francisco
WOMEN’S SOCCER Friday, 1:30 p.m. vs. Chabot College, Central Park, Fremont Nov. 11, 4:30 p.m. vs. Cañada
Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m. vs. Skyline College, Epler Gymnasium, Fremont campus Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. vs. Foothill College, Epler Gymnasium, Fremont campus Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m. vs. West Valley College, Epler Gymnasium Fremont Campus
RYAN PARCHER / MONITOR
Freshman shooting guard Mickie Ferrer goes up for a layup.
They did it again. If you somehow didn’t hear the news, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series – again – last night with a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals. The “even-year” champions did it again this year and have won three times in the past five seasons – 2010, 2012 and 2014. This series wasn’t quite the easy walk in the park that the previous two were. The Giants beat the Texas Rangers in five games in 2010 and swept the Detroit Tigers in 2012. It took all seven games and an out-of-this-world performance from Madison Bumgarner to beat the Royals. What makes the win over the Royals more impressive than the other years is that they faced a team that was hotter and had more momentum coming into the series – a role reversal for the Giants. They beat a tough opponent with a roster that’s arguably worse than the previous teams – I think the 2002 World Series roster is even better. How did they win it again this year? Their pitching was inconsistent, Buster Posey didn’t have an extra base hit all postseason, the bullpen wasn’t its usual dominant self and first baseman Travis Ishikawa played left field for most of the series. The only way I can try to explain how they won this year is this: When a teacher tells a class that they need a C-minus to pass a class – that’s how they did it. The Giants did just enough to get that C-minus to win the World Series. I hope the Giants make a statue of Bumgarner after he single-handedly won this series for them – I hope they include a “snot rocket” on that statue too. Manager Bruce Bochy earned himself a ticket to Cooperstown after leading the Giants to victory for the third time – he might’ve earned the title of best manager in baseball as well. Enjoy another World Series win, Giants fans – you have all offseason and the 2015 season to celebrate. We’ll see you again – some of you on a bandwagon – in 2016. If the Giants win it again in 2016, I might self-combust.