WEEKLY PRINT EDITION
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 – TUESDAY, FEBRURY 9, 2016 VOLUME 102, ISSUE 20
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1913
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2 NEWS
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: JAMIE BALLARD • NEWS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#STREETPREACHERS
Street preachers share their stories NATALIA XIBILLE STAFF WRITER ____________________________________
Street preachers are a common sight on San Diego State’s campus. NATALIE XIBILE, STAFF WRITER
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Many students see them while heading to class or stopping to grab something to eat. They stand with their Bible in hand, preaching the word of God as people rush by. They are the street preachers of San Diego State. Street preachers are a common sight on campus and have been for some time now, SDSU Police Sergeant of Special Services Steven Harshaw said. “It’s a bit of a sideshow,” senior Amanda Piccus said. “It’s just a little entertainment between classes.” Aside from being seen as a source of entertainment, some students, such as senior and former Christian Michael Villalobos, are bothered by the sheer number of street preachers across campus. “They’ve been coming one after another after another and it can just get really tiring,” he said. Among these preachers is Keith, who gave The Daily Aztec just his first name. He can often times be seen and heard feverently debating with students in front of East Commons. “I usually don’t tell anyone what I do because there’s so much stigma to it,” he said. As a former member of the finance industry, Keith now dedicates himself full time to visiting college campuses across the country to spread the gospel. “My main goal is to announce the gospel, but then secondly, I also want to challenge the students intellectually on the things that they believe,” Keith said. “Thirdly, they might hear in their classes certain things about Christianity, so I want to provide a defense.” Although they have the right, street preachers exercising their freedom of speech are not always well received by the student body. Keith recalled an occasion where he was punched by a student at a Colorado campus and, more recently, when an SDSU student threw a drink at him. “It’s meeting aggression with aggression because the message is so extreme and exclusive,” said Angela Feres, professor of religious studies and Asian studies at SDSU. Some of the student body find the messages street preachers share to be, as Feres said, “extreme and exclusive,” but also aggressive and harsh. This idea may come from messages like “whores burn like s’mores,” a phrase said by a street preacher who refers to himself as Brother Mikhail. Keith denied using language used by Brother Mikhail, but he acknowledged that at times he may raise his voice more than he should. He justified it by saying it’s the students that determine the tone of the debate and the way he preaches is consistent with the way Christians have been preaching for centuries. “If you read the scriptures, Jesus was kind of an aggressive preacher,” Keith said. “Where the apostles would preach there were sometimes even riots.” Judgment is another issue related to street preachers that concerns students. “God says not judge, but then here they are judging people,” Piccus said. Keith said the argument of street preachers not being able to judge others is based in an illogical double standard. “Everyone says, ‘Oh you can’t judge, you can’t judge,’ but then they say racism is wrong,” he said. “Well aren’t you judging the racist? If I was out here
being a pro-choice group and a pro-lifer chucks something at me, people would be like, ‘Oh how dare you do such a thing,’ but when I’m out there suddenly the standards have changed.” It would be easy to assume these preachers have always been religious, but this is not the case. Douglas William, a street preacher that’s been visiting SDSU for about 12 years, said he found his calling through divine intervention William stands by Hepner Hall with large signs about abortion, sex out of marriage and creation. He was an atheist as a kid, but he experienced several odd occurrences that led him to consider the possibility of the existence of a God. He never took it seriously until one night. Every now and then, William would get intense headaches. They were so bad that he said they caused damage to one of his eyes. One night, he woke up with a particularly bad one. “Just as a figure of speech I said, ‘God, why do I have to have these headaches,’ and to my horrendous surprise, something started happening,” he said. He said about 10 feet in front of him were purple letters spelling out the name Jesus. “And I thought, ‘Well great, now I’m hallucinating too,’” he said. The letters started vibrating, shrinking as they moved closer to him. They entered through his right ear, revolved inside his skull, exited out the same ear and instantly the pain and letters vanished, as well as the problem with his eye. “I have a background as being a skeptical person and I had a hard time believing what had just happened to me, but I thought, ‘Well I know two things for sure,” William said. “I’m not in pain anymore and I can see.’” After this experience, William began to take Jesus more seriously and he converted to Christianity. “I know it sounds kind of funny, but I felt like God wanted me to do this,” he said. William said he heard the voice of God, an actual voice, ask him to go out to college campuses to preach. “This is the best time of your life to think about ideas,” he said. “That’s my main goal: to get people to think about the biggest picture possible.” Despite their intentions of doing good, Feres and Roy Whitaker, an assistant professor of religious diversity, said they both believe the sermons some of these street preachers give may divert from the original message that their religious leader, Jesus Christ, taught. “The problem for these individuals could be what is called moralism,” Whitaker said. “You not only have a moral standard, but you hold it so rigidly that you become condemning to others if they don’t hold it in the same way you hold it.” Even though they know how people view them, the street preachers are determined to keep sharing their message. “Are people going to look at us and think we’re religious nuts? Yeah of course, but if you come and see if anything good can come from these religious nuts, I think that they would see that we’re very normal and in many ways very different,” Keith said. “We’re human beings, we’re made in the image of God, and we love justice and mercy.” For more on this story, visit thedailyaztec.com.
NEWS 3
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: JAMIE BALLARD• NEWS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#INTERNATIONALSTUDIES
Lecture series examines Zionism
Lia Tarachansky will speak on Feb. 15 COUTRESY OF THE CHARLES HOSTLER CENTER
ADRIANA MILLAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ A lecture series presented by the Charles Hostler Institute on World Affairs set to begin Feb. 15 will offer new insights into the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The series will cover the history of dissenting Jewish Zionist positions, or those that opposed having a Jewish nation state, said Jonathan Graubart, director of the Charles Hostler Institute on World Affairs. The series is linked to a class also taught by Graubart.
The purpose of the lecture series and accompanying class is to give a new perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that looks at it from the side of those deeply connected to the Jewish community and to the idea of Jewish self-determination, but worried about the direction that Israel took, Graubart said. “I want them to know two central things: One, that there is a longstanding internal Jewish opposition to an exclusive nation state that doesn’t seriously come to terms with the Palestinians, and secondly, that this tradition continues on in the Jewish dissenting tradition, including within Israel,” he said. Discussions of the Israel-Palestine conflict have heated up at SDSU since 2008, Graubart said. “I wanted to bring an angle that lets people know there are actually are alternative traditions you can be connected to the Jewish community without being hostile towards Palestinians,” Graubart said. Business administration junior Stephen Weinberg recently returned from visiting Israel over winter break and said he would probably not attend one of the events. “I have done so much research on the issue already … and I know that something like this would probably just frustrate me because no one’s opinion on the issue is really going to change
anyway, unless they literally know nothing about it,” he said. The series will begin on Feb. 15 with filmmaker and journalist Lia
American University of Beirut President Peter Dorman spoke about “The Challenges of the U.S. Higher Education Model in a Dynamic, Contentious
“ YOU CAN BE CONNECTED TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY WITHOUT BEING HOSTILE TOWARDS PALESTINIANS.”
- Jonathan Graubart, political science professor Tarachansky. Her presentation, “Collective Denial, Moral Responsibility and the Naqba of 1948” will follow a screening of her documentary “On the Side of the Road.” Other lecturers include writers Peter Beinart, Amira Hass and Ran Greenstein, as well as the Jewish Relations Coordinator for Breaking the Silence, Avner Gvaryahu. The series runs through April 18 and covers many Israel-Palestine issues like the significance of Zionists, the military occupation of Israel, and new forms of dissent in the region. Past lectures have covered topics such as moral responsibilities in world affairs. intervention in Syria, national security concerns, international law and global justice, and American Foreign Policy. In fall 2015, former
Middle East.” The lecture was co-sponsored by the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies. The annual lecture series is put on by the Charles Hostler Institute on World Affairs. The institute was founded in 1942 as the Institute on World Affairs with the goal of informing students, faculty, staff and the wider public of global affairs. Notable international speakers including Nobel Laureates Willard Libby and Linus Pauling have visited and presented at the center. In 2012, Hostler and his wife gifted $3 million to SDSU to support international studies. These events are free and open to the public. More information on the lectures and speakers is available at hostler.iwa.sdsu.edu.
#CAMPUSCRIME
Crime beat: Domestic violence, trespassing ALEX PISCATELLI STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ DOMESTIC VIOLENCE On Tuesday, Jan. 26, shortly before 3 p.m., a domestic violence incident was reported at Parking Structure 5. A woman was screaming and a man was bleeding from the ear and saying he was OK, according to San Diego State Police. The woman drove away. The man, a non-SDSU student, was arrested and transported to the county jail for domestic violence. DISTURBING THE PEACE A man was screaming at people walking between Maya Residence Hall and the housing office on Jan. 26 around 4 p.m. SDSUPD received multiple reports on the subject. When they arrived on the scene, they determined no crime had occurred. BATTERY On Jan. 26, shortly before 5 p.m., battery occurred at Parking Structure 4. According to a report, a male subject followed a woman to the top level of the parking structure. He approached her and threw water at her. The man then screamed profanities at her and looked intoxicated, according to SDSUPD. The woman reported no injuries. SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES On Friday Jan. 29, around 3 p.m., SDSUPD received a report that a subject was filming people without their
permission. The subject was on Campanile Drive on campus. He was described as a 6-foot man, around 28 years old with dark hair a little longer than a buzz and a dark goatee. He was unable to be located, according to SDSUPD. TRESPASSING On Sunday, Jan. 31, around 5 a.m., SDSUPD received a report there was a man setting off alarms, going into people’s rooms, watching them sleep and taking pictures of them in University Towers. SDSUPD later received a second report that at around 4:30 a.m. a man stood over a woman and her roommate and took pictures of them with a cell phone. The subject is described as a Hispanic male, around 5-foot-6-inches tall with medium build, dark hair and facial hair. The subject was unable to be located, according to SDSUPD. PETTY THEFT On Monday, Feb. 1, shortly after noon, an SDSU student was arrested for petty theft from the Aztec Shops Bookstore on campus. The student attempted to steal a book and a calculator from the store. According to SDSUPD, the student was arrested, cited for petty theft and released. PUBLIC INTOXICATION On Monday, Feb. 1, at 8:43 p.m., SDSUPD received a report of a disturbance in the Conrad Prebys Student Union dining room next to Chipotle. A male was reported to be drinking, making a scene and bothering students. Officers responded to the scene.
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4 NEWS
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: JAMIE BALLARD • NEWS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#BEINTERNATIONAL
Georgia study abroad opens JASMINE BERMUDEZ STAFF WRITER ____________________________ San Diego State beat out 27 other universities for a $30 million grant, the largest grant in SDSU history, from the Millennium Challenge Corporation in order to establish an SDSU-Georgia exchange program set to start fall 2016. Twelve SDSU students from the chemistry, biochemistry, electrical engineering and computer engineering departments will be chosen to study abroad and take SDSU courses in exchange for 12 students from the country of Georgia. “This is a wonderful opportunity for chemistry and engineering students because they often cannot find the courses they need abroad, now these are our courses offered in English to our standards,” professor and Provost Emerita Nancy Marlin said. The money will be allocated toward renovating labs and improving the quality of higher education. “The labs and equipment looked like they were from the 1960s,”
Marlin said. “Graduates didn’t have the skills and abilities they would need, particularly in the science, technology and engineering areas.” She said the MCC wanted an American accredited U.S. degree to be offered in Georgia because Georgia needed higher education to meet the standards of emerging democracies. “MCC gives money to the countries they are working with for things the countries feel they need to meet all the standards of emerging democracies,” Marlin said. “For example, human rights, and voting and wonderful standards that reflect what democracies are about.” SDSU and Georgia exchanged faculty as part of the agreement. The Georgia faculty were mentored and taught to teach SDSU courses according to SDSU standards. According to an article on SDSU Newscenter, once the program is fully established, target enrollment is 2,000 students.
International security and conflict resolution major Adrian Sanchez traveled to Tbilisi State University for 10 days as part of a separate SDSU study abroad program during the summer. He said Georgia is a wonderful, eye-opening country to visit because of the lessons and memories that could not be made elsewhere. “Tbilisi is a really green city full of humble and friendly people,” he said. Marlin said with this opportunity SDSU is improving the education of an entire country. “They have never had higher education before, so we are really a model for the world (by) doing this,” Marlin said. She said Tbilisi State University gets SDSU coursework and students can travel there at no additional cost. “We are not doing physical structure, we are partnering with Tbilisi State University and using their
buildings but we are offering our classes,” Marlin said. The exchange program is a semester-long program targeted toward sophomore students. Students are eligible for a $700 scholarship from the Office of International Programs, with housing and meals provided. Students pay regular tuition fees to SDSU. Marlin said Tbilisi is a wonderful, vibrant city located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Sanchez said he traveled to the Caucasus Mountains, historic monasteries, Georgian orthodox churches, the museum of Joseph Stalin and the Georgian parliament. Georgia is located by the Black Sea, Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. With a population of 4.6 million, the country of Georgia has a population slightly larger than the state of Alabama. Marlin said she hopes SDSU students can continue to travel abroad every fall semester to Georgia through the partnership between SDSU and Tbilisi State University. Students can apply online at Aztecs Abroad. The priority deadline ends on Feb. 20. Students who want to learn more about studying abroad in Georgia or other countries can visit the International Student Center.
Who’sWho? EDITOR IN CHIEF Kelly Hillock MANAGING EDITOR Matthew Bain NEWS EDITOR Jamie Ballard SPORTS EDITOR Ryan Posner ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Anthony Reclusado OPINION EDITOR Joseph Ciolino ARTS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR Ryo Miyauchi ASST. ARTS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR Olivia Litsey PHOTO EDITOR Cristian Rangel DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR Annalise Dewhurst VIDEO PRODUCER Daniel Galuppo PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Kaylee Andrews Hannah Lingle-Veale VOLUNTEER WRITERS Lilly Glenister Alissa Kasawdish Nicole Sazegar Natalia Xibille Alex Piscatelli Jasmine Bermudez Mackenzie Boss Jimmy Janszen Mayor Pohold Brandon Truffa Kris Keehl Brendan Price Maxim Garshman Meghan Lanigan Austin Gayle Matthew Fierst Sydney Olmstead VOLUNTEER PHOTOGRAPHERS Kristian Carreon Sarah Smith _____________________________ ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Radbeh Rabaz SALES MANAGER Matthew Volk ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Alexis Evans-Bendel Alex Gamboa Christopher Garcia Kamisha McKnight Keon Siavoshani Kelsey Silver Matthew Volk John Weil ACCOUNTING & CONTRACTS Alfonso Barajas Kalie Christensen _____________________________ GENERAL MANAGER Jay Harn GRAPHICS SPECIALIST Chris Blakemore _____________________________ ADVERTISING 619.594.6977 advertising@thedailyaztec.com EDITORIAL 619.594.4190 editor@thedailyaztec.com PRINT The Daily Aztec publishes 5,000 copies of its weekly print edition on Wednesdays. WEB Daily content is available at www.thedailyaztec.com MOBILE The Aztec App (available for iPhone and Android)
SOCIAL MEDIA facebook.com/dailyaztec twitter.com/thedailyaztec instagram.com/thedailyaztec _____________________________ Weekly in print, daily online. The Daily Aztec has been San Diego State University’s independent student news source since 1913.
The Narikala Fortress in Tbilisi is an important Georgian landmark. COURTESY OF SDSU STUDY ABROAD
OPINION 5
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: JOSEPH CIOLINO• OPINION@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#ARCMEMBERSHIP
ARC membership should be free MACKENZIE BOSS STAFF COLUMNIST ____________________________ The Aztec Recreation Center, lovingly known as the ARC, should be free for all San Diego State students, not just those who live in specified residential housing on campus. Many studies show that college students are under more stress and pressure now than they ever were before. According to the Spring 2014 National College Health Assessment, 87 percent of students polled reported feeling overwhelmed by their responsibilities. Also, according to the the American College Health
Association, only 43.6 percent of college students are reaching the recommended amount of exercise. Working out has been proven to reduce stress. According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise helps with stress relief by “pumping your endorphins, putting meditation in motion and improving your mood.” Going to the gym also has various other benefits besides relieving stress. For example, exercise has been linked to a higher GPA. According to a study done at Purdue University in Indiana, students who worked out at their gym at least once a week were shown to have a higher GPA than the students who
worked out less or not at all. With all the obvious and some not-so-obvious benefits to working out, students should not have to feel like they cannot take advantage of the great gym facility we have on our campus simply because we have to pay extra for it. Any SDSU student who lives off-campus must pay the $19 monthly fee in order to be able to use the ARC and its amenities. By charging all off-campus students a monthly rate, the gym becomes a place that not all students can afford. According to the ARC website, as a member of the ARC you have access to the gym, indoor climbing wall, ARC
indoor courts, Aztec Aquaplex, group fitness classes, tennis, racquetball, intramural sports leagues, bowling at Aztec Lanes, the track, ARC express and free equipment check out. The ARC could still make money if all SDSU students received free memberships. It could continue to charge nonstudents for membership, as well as make students pay extra for the special programs they offer that are more costly. Other California State University schools, such as Sonoma State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Chico State, have implemented this system and chosen to include their gym membership in their tuition price. Because of this,
students do not pay an extra fee to use the gym. SDSU should follow the model of some of its fellow state schools and also allow all of their students currently enrolled to have full access to the ARC free of any extra charge. In turn, this will allow SDSU to give students a chance to relieve more stress and live a healthier, happier life. SDSU does a great job promoting a healthy lifestyle and by making the gym more accessible to all students who live off-campus, not just the ones who can afford it, it would continue to reinforce the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
#PACIFICBEACH
Do yourself a favor: Move to Pacific Beach JIMMY JANSZEN STAFF COLUMNIST ____________________________ The surrounding neighborhood of San Diego State known as College Area is a drag. There isn’t a large bar scene, the ocean isn’t close enough to provide a nice breeze and students continually run into the same faces all too often. Living on or near campus can make it difficult to appreciate San Diego for what it actually is. The beach communities are truly what make San Diego such an extraordinary city. College Area has neither the college-town atmosphere like Tucson, Arizona, nor the urban feel of a university like New York University. SDSU’s College Area neighborhood is a peculiar blend of college students and families living in
the same area and, because of this, it lacks a legitimate college feel. However, San Diego has something that Tucson or New York City doesn’t have: over 60 miles of coastline with a rich beach culture. It’s no wonder why most travel advertisements for San Diego depict some bit of beach culture. As an SDSU student you should take full advantage of it. Seventy-two percent of freshmen live on campus, partially because every firsttime freshman admitted outside of SDSU’s local admission area is required to live on campus. But after freshman year, students should try to get out of College Area and move to the unofficial beach community of SDSU, Pacific Beach. While Mission Beach is typical of University of San Diego students, PB is bustling
with SDSU students. Because PB is one of the most popular areas of nightlife in San Diego and the beach culture is so vibrant, it’s an easy choice for SDSU students. Living in one area for the entirety of college is repetitive and mundane. Moving out of College Area can open up a new perspective of San Diego. SDSU alumnus Ryan Nolen relocated to Pacific Beach his senior year after living in College Area for the first three years at SDSU. “Pacific Beach provides a community of young people,” Nolen said. “There are options for both nighttime and daytime activities like better parks, bars and restaurants.” Not only did the dynamic atmosphere of PB entice Nolen to move there, but the lack of what College Area could provide also had him wanting out.
“College Area lacks a university identity,” he said. “I didn’t think the neighborhood had a college atmosphere. College Area is just a label. The reality is that it’s not a college area, it’s misleading.” While PB may not have the Aztec pride that College Area lacks, it does have a college atmosphere that is particular to San Diego. Every day in PB there are deals on drinks at a plethora of bars on Garnet Avenue or Mission Boulevard. Whether it’s bottomless mimosas in the morning or shots of alcohol at last call, many SDSU students and others visiting from out of town crowd the streets and beach boardwalk to let loose with people their age. Plenty of the PB bars also have deals on drinks during an SDSU football or basketball game. SDSU students and alumni gather together at
those bars supporting their beloved Aztecs. It’s a great environment for someone wanting to experience SDSU not too far from campus. Aside from the partying, PB offers some great surf. On certain swells, waves will break cleanly off Crystal Pier to form clean, open barrels. There are peaks from the Mission Beach jetty all the way to PB point that line up the coastline all yearround. College is the time to experience as much as possible, so why not take advantage of some of the most consistent surf in the country? Whether it’s to enrich your college experience, get out in the ocean more or to simply gain a larger perspective of San Diego, SDSU students best move out to Pacific Beach. Plus, it has to get old seeing the same faces and going to the same frat parties at SDSU.
#BIKELANE
We’re all to blame for bicycle-lane issues JOSEPH CIOLINO OPINION EDITOR ____________________________ Hello, bike lane, my old friend. Here’s to hoping I don’t crash into a pedestrian again. Every morning I travel upon you. Every morning I hope there’s no one walking to their doom. Yes, this is for real. I can’t keep count of how many times I’ve seen bicyclists and skaters swerve and veer off the designated path in order to dodge a walker (no, not “The Walking Dead” type, although that would be awesome). A walker — one that does not choose to ride a skateboard, bicycle, penny board, long board, hoverboard, scooter, electric scooter, unicycle,
roller blades, tricycle, roller skates, tandem bike or Segway down campanile in order to get to class. These are people that will meander into the bike lane with their cellphones in their faces oblivious to the oncoming traffic that is traveling at a much faster rate of speed than they are, and has the potential of knocking them through the wall into the bathroom stall of Hepner Hall. OK. I’ve let it out. As a bicyclist I am starting to feel a little better about calling out people that walk into my zone that’s supposed to be designated for my bike travel purposes. But the walkers aren’t entirely to blame. Some trashcans are placed
on the opposite side of the bike lane in the grass in the middle of Campanile, so if walkers need to throw something away, they have to cross the bike lane in order to do so. Not a very great idea. These need to be moved to the opposite side of the bike lane where people are actually walking. There are some trashcans already there, so why are there stray ones sitting in the grass on the opposite side? Also, we bicyclists and skaters and the like are not so innocent. We still ride across the sky bridge (it’s just so much fun, though), and we still ride through campus where it clearly states with bold lettering on signs that doing so is not allowed.
Since the bike lane was implemented, it hasn’t really changed much in the way of making people safer. “(The bike lane) didn’t do what we expected it to do,” said Robert Schulz, associate vice president of real estate, planning and development at SDSU. “We certainly hoped that it would limit skateboards and bikes to the bike lane but it’s clearly not what happened.” In fact, it has made things worse. The concrete path in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union that is designated for disabled individuals still sees bicycles and skaters rummaging through. “We’ve had a lot of complaints from the ADA
community because of this,” Schulz said. OK, now it’s gone a bit too far. Fellow non-walkers, we definitely need to respect these types of pathways. It will only take a few more seconds to dismount and walk across these areas. So we are all at fault. Walkers need to mind themselves when crossing over the bike lane. Look both ways before crossing. Take the time to put down your cellphone or iPad for a few seconds and make sure you secure a safe passageway across the lane. Bicycles and skaters: We’re not innocent. Let’s try to be more respectful of areas designated off-limits to us, as it may lead to injury of another person.
6 Arts & Lifestyle
feb. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC editor: ryo miyauchi • entertainment@thedailyaztec.com
#entreprenuership
JMS senior debuts coffee business ALISSA KASAWDISH STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ Journalism and media studies senior Teal Cooper had her first coffee vending machine experience in Florence, Italy — a city full of espresso-lovers. Though she’d already been a coffeelover, she fell deeper in love at Florence University of the Arts while studying abroad in spring 2015. Coffee was accessible 24/7 with a java vending machine in the center of campus. She liked the idea so much that she decided to partner with her brother, Tristan Cooper, to bring that machine back to San Diego. “My brother called me one night while he was cramming for this test at 12 a.m.,” Cooper said. “He needed coffee, but nothing was open, and that’s when he said we should open a 24/7 coffee machine.” Tristan is a sophomore studying economics at the University of Texas in Austin. The two combined their creative and entrepreneurial skills and founded VendiBean, the first fair-trade organic coffee house inside of a vending machine. “I came back home from Florence, did a lot of research and found out there were no appealing and organic coffee vending machines in America,” Cooper
said. “I’ve been doing my homework all year to make this project come alive in the SDSU community.” Journalism and media studies senior Daniella Sanchez is a strong coffee-lover and relates to the struggle of an “allnighter.” “It comes to a point where a boost of caffeine to get you through the night becomes more than vital for survival,” Sanchez said. “Coffee to many is equivalent to the blood that runs through their veins since it keeps them going and alert throughout the day.” Cooper worked with her friend and graphic designer Jordan Harmon to design the vending machine. Inside is a European-designed brewing and filter system with quality coffee distributed by Caffé’ D’arte, an Italian fair-trade organic coffee roasting company. Coffee drinkers have different tastes, so consumers can choose from the decaf or regular brew and choose to add sugar, Nature’s First natural creamer or both to their customized mix. VendiBean offers four blends: espresso, café latte, cappuccino and French vanilla cappuccino. Cooper said the menu will change as they grow, but these seem to be the most popular blends among young people. “They will satisfy their needs in a quick manner through the vending machine while still experiencing a trendy, personable coffee-house feel,” she said.
The new vending machine is set to launch at BLVD63. courtesy of vendibean
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VendiBean is largely targeted toward millennials, so Cooper designed coffee cups to engage with customers on social media. With their slogan “Coffee Because…” on the cup, consumers are left to fill in the blank with the reason why they drink coffee. Cooper encourages consumers to be creative by posting a picture of their personalized cup on social media. The most creative response wins free prizes. “Our main goal is to create one big Vendi family through coffee and creativity,” she said. Cooper is excited to launch VendiBean from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at BLVD63 Apartments located at 6345 El Cajon Boulevard. They will be giving out coupons for $1 off of a customer’s first cup of coffee. Free VendiBean shirts and hats will also be given away to people who share the most creative social media posts of their VendiBean cup. Kind Bars will also be available. After starting out near San Diego State, Cooper and her brother hope to expand their business to gyms, libraries and college campuses so others can brew their own coffee with VendiBean.
HORIZONTAL
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYO MIYAUCHI • ENTERTAINMENT@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
ARTS & LIFESTYLE 7
#PSYCHOLOGY
New hire pioneers ‘the final frontier’
Prfoessor Jillian Wiggins joins San Diego State to extend her research in brain imaging. COUTRESY OF JILLIAN WIGGINS
NICOLE SAZEGAR STAFF WRITER ____________________________ Professor Jillian Wiggins never meant to start studying psychology as an undergrad, but her involvement in clinical science and research in brain imaging makes her a perfect fit as a new professor in the department of psychology at San Diego State. While working at SDSU, Wiggins has the opportunity to create her own research program and further her research by scanning children in the MRI.
She is also looking for students who want to be research assistants. The position requires helping run children through the MRI, working with families, helping kids fill out questionnaires and managing data for two semesters. Wiggins received her bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, her master’s degree from Texas A&M University and, eventually, her Ph.D. from University of Michigan. While at Michigan, Wiggins started researching children who have autism. After she
graduated, she started her research at National Institute of Health, a biomedical research facility, to work with kids who have a variety of disorders. “I came (to SDSU) because it was sort of the perfect fit for me,” Wiggins said. “It had the people I wanted to work with, it had the resources that I wanted — it had the teaching opportunities that I wanted to do, too.” Her research examines the brain profiles of children with and without disorders. She then works to determine the different functions of each child’s social and emotional centers, their cognitive abilities and the brain regions which may affect their disorder in order to help find a specialized treatment. “You don’t want to throw treatments at somebody until something works,” Wiggins said. “You want to be able to predict what treatment is going to help a particular person, and that’s really important because as people are trying to go through all of these different treatments, they’re suffering.” In her past research, Wiggins found when autistic children
are forced to look at a person’s face as that person expresses emotion, their amygdala — the region of the brain which activates when people are distressed or fearful — fires off
Wiggins’ research is set to revolutionize a visit to the doctor’s office for a mental health disorder in the future. Instead of a doctor prescribing multiple treatments to a patient
“ ... THE BRAIN IS THE FINAL FRONTIER. IT’S THE REAL FRONTIER.”
more than people who don’t have autism. Wiggins hopes to ultimately further her research by examining children with a variety of disorders with the opportunities provided by SDSU. “One of the toughest but also most exciting things about being a brain researcher, particularly in clinical science, is that the brain is the final frontier,” she said. “It’s the real frontier. We barely know anything about the brain, and it makes me really excited to be able to be working on something that we’re just scratching the surface of.”
-Dr. Jillian Wiggins, psychology professor with depression, he or she would be able to use brain profiling to scan a patient’s brain and find one particular treatment to work best. Wiggins’ colleague, researcher Arjero Zerr, hopes to utilize Wiggins’ knowledge in her future projects to revolutionize future medical treatments. “We’re really excited that Dr. Wiggins is here now,” Zerr said. “We’re planning on working on some projects together, so we’re using her knowledge about brain development and our expertise with treatments to combine those to better adapt treatments in the future.”
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SPRING SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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Spring sports: Sweat and sunshine RYAN POSNER SPORTS EDITOR
As the weather in Southern California begins to heat up, so does the sports scene at San Diego State. Baseball looks like it has something special cooking on the diamond. Flip through pg. 8-13 to see what head coach Mark Martinez and company have in store this season. For softball, it’s business as usual for a team that has made eight straight postseason appearances. Pages 14 and 15 are where you will get your fill of softball stories. The water polo team returns four All-Americans (pg. 19) and lacrosse coach Kylee White will look to make good on her contract extension (pg. 20). Two track and field stars from very different backgrounds have come together to shine for the team (pg. 20). The women’s golf team will tell you how a video made just for fun has now well over 2 million views on YouTube (pg. 21). And lastly, the men’s and women’s tennis teams adjust to a more team-oriented spring season while also trying to mesh cultures from all around the world together (pg. 22). As basketball season comes to a close, new seasons on the Mesa will be born and this issue is a one-stop shop in preparation for them.
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SPRING SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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#AZTECBASEBALL
Plethora of new faces for baseball However, this certainly doesn’t mean that all is lost for the Aztecs on those fronts. IN WITH THE NEW
Redshirt-senior right-hander Dalton Douty is one of few regulars returning to the pitching staff. SARAH SMITH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MAYER POHLOD STAFF WRITER ____________________________ With the San Diego State baseball team coming off a successful 2015 campaign in which it captured a third consecutive Mountain West title and an NCAA Regional berth, there are many different storylines going into the 2016 season. CONTINUING PREVIOUS SUCCESS While last season ended abruptly at the hands of USC in the NCAA Regionals, the Aztecs still saw a lot of success
out of their ballclub. “As a coaching staff, we look at it that we have to outwork everybody and that’s what we try to do everyday,” head coach Mark Martinez said. In addition to being MW champions, they also captured their second consecutive 40-win season for the first time since the 199091 campaigns. OUT WITH THE OLD The Aztecs will be without their two best starting pitchers from last year, as well as two of their best hitters. After pitcher Bubby Derby was drafted and signed with
the Oakland A’s organization and pitcher Mark Seyler followed suit with the New York Yankees, SDSU is going to be turning to some new players to rely on for the win every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “You’re replacing them with guys that have pitched in big moments, but they haven’t been in primetime week-in and week-out,” Martinez said. On the offensive side, catcher and home-run leader Seby Zavala and third baseman Ty France, now with the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres respectively, have left holes at their positions as well.
While not necessarily new, the SDSU squad has many returning players that are going to be asked to either step up into the spotlight or step into a different role than last season. Those returning veterans are joined by some new faces who are expected to contribute immediately. One such new player is freshman infielder Jordan Verdon, who is a possible replacement for France at third base. “He’s a left-handed bat, he can sit in the middle of our lineup, drive in a lot of runs, play first or third base,” Martinez said. “He’s a newcomer we’re going to hang a pretty heavy load on.” There are many key players returning as well. Pitchers like junior Marcus Reyes, junior Brett Seeburger and redshirt-junior Cody Thompson are going to be there to establish themselves as big-time competitors and examples for the younger players. “We have a great core group of guys that have played on tournament championship (teams) the last three years, so there’s guys that are battle-
tested,” Martinez said. “It’s nice to have some veteran leadership, (but) they’re going to be asked to move into the limelight.” On the defensive side, sophomore All-American outfielder Chase Calabuig is going to lead he outfield and man center field. Last season’s closer, redshirt-junior CJ Saylor, is returning to his true position behind home plate. COACH MARTINEZ INKS A FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT Jim Sterk, SDSU’s director of athletics, announced this January that Martinez has signed a new contract set to keep him with the program for another five years. “I’m just honored and humbled for the opportunity, I’m very fortunate and lucky that (previous coach Tony Gwynn) brought me here to help get the program going the right direction,” Martinez said. “Having the opportunity to be the head coach is very humbling for me.” Martinez took over as head coach for the late Gwynn during the summer of 2014. The season opens play at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Feb. 19, when the Aztecs take on the University of Oregon, with MW play beginning March 4 against Fresno State.
#AZTECSOFTBALL
New outfield in the spotlight for softball SYDNEY OLMSTEAD STAFF WRITER ____________________________ San Diego State softball has earned a trip to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship for eight consecutive seasons and 11 times in the last 15 years. In her 19th season leading the team, head coach Kathy Van Wyk believes this will be another strong season for the Aztecs, despite a few challenges. A YOUNGER TEAM After losing seven seniors, the team remains positive about the upcoming season. Van Wyk thinks the biggest challenge is going to be in the outfield. “Our outfield is all brand new and that’s the biggest factor,” she said. “Not to mention the offense. We lost two .400 hitters and about 40 home runs. It’s a lot to replace so we need people to step up. We have the people to do it, it just might take some time.” Van Wyk has faith in her young team, though it may take time to get in the swing of things. “We lost seven seniors and
regardless of how much playing time those people had, that’s a very mature group of individuals to lose all at once,” she said. “At the same time, I think we’ve got a tremendous amount of talent. In some ways, we shouldn’t miss a beat, but we will.” Despite the struggles that come with a younger team, last year’s No. 1 pitcher, junior Erica Romero, looks forward to starting the season with some new faces. “I’m excited every season, but this season especially because we have so many new girls,” she said. “I’m excited to see what we can do and how far we can go.” The team has seven freshmen this season and just three seniors. However, age seems to mean little to sophomore catcher Jenavee Peres. “We’re like a family,” she said. “I mean, we argue and get in fights, but that’s just how every team is. It happens. I think it just brings us all closer. We’re all cookoo so it’s good.” The positive team chemistry that is already brewing with the Aztecs will be a strong factor in making the upcoming season a successful one.
CONFERENCE RIVAL Last season the Fresno State Bulldogs seized the Mountain West championship and also earned their spot in the 2015 NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. This makes Fresno State the conference team to beat this season for SDSU. However, there are many other big-name schools the Aztecs will have to face early on in the season, including Texas A&M University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and Oklahoma State. Van Wyk recognizes how crucial it is to beat Fresno State and its six-time MW Pitcher of the Week, senior Jill Compton. “It’s always fun to play the bigname schools, but in conference it’s going to be Fresno,” Van Wyk said. “We’ve got to beat them and Jill Compton. If we can get by them, I think we will win our share of games against the other teams so we can maintain and win another conference championship.” SDSU will face its first bigname team when it hosts University of Kentucky on Feb. 18 in the home opener. Later
in the season, the Aztecs will take on the Bulldogs April 1-3 in Fresno. DYNAMIC DUO One of the best things the Aztecs have going for them this season is the pitcher-catcher duo of Romero and Peres. After appearing in 56 of the team’s 58 games last season and leading the country in wins (36), Romero is ready to settle into her role as a team leader. “I think I’ve grown a lot, leadership-wise and pitchingwise,” she said. “Overall, I’m more outspoken. My voice has gotten louder and my pitching has gotten stronger.” The bond between Romero and Peres is crucial to the team chemistry on the field. As a freshman, Peres was calling all the pitches in games with guidance from Van Wyk coming only between innings. This makes a difference in how both Romero and Peres perform on the field. “I think Erica loves it,” Van Wyk said. “She wouldn’t have made it through last season had it not been for the fact that Jenavee was back there and
brought her that much more confidence. It’s not so much that I think Jenavee calls a perfect game, but she calls it with confidence and it makes you believe this is the right pitch and it’s the right thing to do. And so Erica believes that too.” For Peres, it’s about making sure Romero is at her best. “It’s about just knowing her strengths and pitching to her strengths instead of to other teams’ weaknesses,” Peres said. “We’re really close because I keep her on her game and she keeps me in check too.” The confidence between these two players spills over to the rest of the team and makes a difference in chemistry on the field. Van Wyk recognizes this as one of the team’s greatest strengths. “I am 100-percent positive everybody on that field feels it,” she said. “If Erica shows that she’s feeling good, everybody feels good. If she doesn’t, everyone feels that as well. It’s a big burden and I think Jenavee takes a lot of that burden off of her.” SDSU will start the season on the road Feb. 12 against Canisius College.
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SPRING SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#AZTECBASEBALL
Injury alters Adkison’s perspective
Redshirt-sophomore outfielder Tyler Adkison is back with the team after a broken jaw sidelined him for the 2015 season. COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO STATE ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
RYAN POSNER SPORTS EDITOR ____________________________ The 2015 baseball season was supposed to be a special one for San Diego State redshirtsophomore outfielder Tyler Adkison As a freshman in 2014, Adkison played in 52 of the team’s 63 games and batted .291 with a .361 on-base percentage. Those kinds of numbers had him slated for an every-game role in the outfield for 2015. Even his bio on the school’s athletics website had him listed as the probable starting right fielder for the upcoming season. In preparation for his breakout campaign, Adkison was participating in one of the team’s regular intersquad scrimmages on Jan. 29, 2015. During these scrimmages, it’s common for the team to work on situational defense, like bunting practice, in between innings before the actual scrimmage resumed. So, Adkison stepped to the plate against the team’s unquestioned ace — and one of his roommates — Bubba Derby (who is now in the Oakland A’s minor league system) and was preparing to lay down a bunt, something he’s done countless times throughout his baseball career. “I knew he was squaring around to bunt, so I wasn’t going up there trying to throw it past him,” Derby said. “I was just like, ‘I’m going to throw it over the middle, let him make contact
and then we’ll start the inning out.’” What happened next, though, is something out of a baseball horror story. Derby, who only throws a two-seam fastball that cuts in to right-handed hitters like Adkison, “let one go” as he threw a 70-percent effort fastball. “I remember in slow motion just watching the ball keep tailing up toward his face and in my head I was saying, ‘Please get out of the way, please get out of the way.’” Adkison wasn’t able to get out of the way. The ball hit him squarely in the face, causing a double mandible fracture and a handful of shattering teeth. “We knew that he lost a couple teeth, because we picked them up off home plate,” Derby said. Adkison’s potential breakout season was put on hold. Not to mention, he had no idea of the injury’s effects outside of baseball he was going to have to tackle. “I remember everything, I was conscious the whole time,” Adkison said. “I was trying to convince my trainer that I could still play and he was doing these tests on me and he told me no. I was trying to convince myself I was fine because the pain wasn’t horrible.” With a mouth full of blood and some of his teeth sitting at home plate, Adkison was taken to a nearby hospital for X-rays. Back at Tony Gwynn Stadium, it was still business as usual — sort of.
“I was just so mentally rattled after what had happened. After he got hit and left the game we started back up again and I was still pitching,” Derby said. “At that point I didn’t care, though, I just wanted to get to the hospital. I just wanted practice to be over. I just wanted to get in my car and go and see if he was OK.” At the hospital, it wasn’t looking good. After an understandably sleepless night, Adkison had surgery on his jaw and had a couple of metal plates inserted. His parents, who moved from Orange County to Idaho when he came to SDSU, took the first flight they could to San Diego and arrived after their son was out of surgery. “I woke up and I couldn’t open my mouth. It’s a kind of feeling that I can’t even explain,” Adkison said about waking up with his mouth wired shut.
After everything that happened, especially losing a potential breakout season, it’s expected that Adkison would be pretty peeved about the whole situation. Right? “I think that it was a good experience because I had time to not only think about baseball, but life in general,” he said. “It was basically like a pause button for a little while. I had a lot of time to sit back and collect my thoughts and think about what I wanted to do.” The team officially redshirted him for the season, once they realized the severity of the injury. Not being able to go on road trips with his teammates, who are like brothers to him, was a “tough pill to swallow.”
THE RECOVERY
The time came for Adkison to get back on the field in May and that came in the highly competitive Northwoods League, a summer wooden-bat league. He was sent out to the league extra early to give him some more at-bats to make up for lost time, meaning he would miss the team’s NCAA Regional in Lake Elsinore. He had just one request, though, for his summer ball coach. “I told my coach that if we made it to the super regional, I was out, I was going to go to the super regional,” he said with a
He spent almost a week in the hospital after developing a post-surgery fever and, with his mouth wired shut, was not able to eat normally so he lost a lot of weight. Outside of baseball, Adkison was trying to stay afloat with his grades in a challenging business program at SDSU. Just like the weight, the grades dropped too. He’s since been able to get back on track, helping the baseball team keep up a GPA that was at an all-time program record last year.
GETTING BACK ON THE HORSE
laugh, although the team did not make the super regional. Stepping into the batters box for the first time, it was tough for him not to be mindful of the injury that had put him in the precarious position. “It crosses my mind, but I don’t think it affects me. Before I get into the box I just have to convince myself that everything is going to be OK,” he said. “When I’m in the box I’m pretty much locked in.” He was especially locked during the summer, batting .271 and belting six homers in 51 games for the Eau Claire Express. Now the next step will be translating that success from the summer back into Tony Gwynn Stadium. Head coach Mark Martinez knows Adkison is going to be extra excited about stepping onto the field, and hopes he can hone that in. “It’s understandable,” Martinez said. “The biggest thing will be getting him live in-game at-bats. Those are the kind of things you can’t recreate.” Martinez expects him to contribute in the outfield and at first base for the upcoming season. Adkison genuinely seems at peace with everything that happened to him. He’s ready to move on to the next phase of his career, but there’s still one thing he’s waiting on. “(Bubba) said he’d buy me In-N-Out after everything happened,” he said. “He still hasn’t gotten me In-N-Out.”
SPRING SPORTS ISSUE 12 SPECIAL
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#AZTECBASEBALL
COMMENTARY
Perfect storm brewing for a 4-peat
Sophomore outfielder Chase Calabuig looks to continue success from his first season. FILE PHOTO
BRENDAN PRICE CONTRIBUTOR ____________________________ If two is company and three’s a crowd, then what’s four? San Diego State’s baseball team opens up its season at home against University of Oregon on Feb. 19 with its sights set on a fourth consecutive Mountain West
championship. Despite the losses of four first-team all-MW players, the Aztecs have more than enough to pull off the feat. Starting with coaching, SDSU recently announced the five-year contract extension for head coach Mark Martinez. Martinez’s tutelage in the dugout has helped the Aztecs weather the loss of its star
players, due to Martinez’s skill in developing players from year to year. Adding Sam Peraza as the new pitching coach is a stabilizing hire. Peraza constructed program-best staffs at his previous stops at Florida International University and Cal State Northridge. He returns to his alma mater to grow and guide the young Aztec pitching staff, with Cody Thompson, Jacob Erickson, and Marcus Reyes being thrust into bigger roles in the pitching staff. The Aztecs also have three of their top six hitters returning. Senior outfielder Spencer Thornton and sophomore outfielder Chase Calabuig, who both hit over .300 last season, and junior infielder Andrew Brown, who finished at .297. Sophomore outfielder Tyler Adkison, who redshirted the previous season due to a fractured jaw, will return for the Aztecs to help offset the loss of now-graduated Steven Pallares in the outfield. Martinez said Adkison may
also contribute at first base. Furthermore, second baseman Alan Trejo returns for his junior season, looking to step into a run-producing role and provide much needed glove work up the middle of the diamond. Competition and newcomers also augment the Aztecs’ lineup this season, with plenty of chances for both. Returning senior CJ Saylor and freshman recruit Dean Nevarez look to both fill the shoes of drafted catcher Seby Zavala. Local freshman Jordan Verdon (Granite Hills High) was a 24th-round pick in last year’s MLB draft, but elected to come to the Mesa instead. That shoulde help mitigate the loss of Ty France in the Aztec infield, who was drafted by the San Diego Padres after last season. The competition in the MW weakens a bit, much to the benefit of the Aztecs. University of Nevada hired new head coach T.J. Bruce in the offseason and has to replace its top three power hitters and run producers. Third-place finisher, Fresno
State, lost its two top pitchers in Jake Shull and Garrett Mundell and 50 percent of its roster is underclassmen. Finally, the Aztecs have a favorable schedule for conference play and a few tough tests sprinkled throughout the nonconference slate. Matchups with perennial College World Series contenders UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, and a pair of games against crosstown rival University of San Diego, await. That will help round the SDSU nine into form before conference play. During MW play, only one road trip extends beyond four games and over half of SDSU’s conference schedule will be played before having to travel to Albuquerque and Fresno to play the Lobos and Bulldogs, respectively. A perfect storm is converging on this baseball season for the Aztecs, between their additions and other teams’ subtractions. Once the storm dies down, the Aztecs seem headed for another title.
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SPRING SPECIAL SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 --9, 9,2016 2015••THE THEDAILY DAILYAZTEC AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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13
COMMENTARY
Youthfulness will make 4-peat tough
Redshirt-senior right-hander Dalton Douty is one of few regulars returning to the pitching staff. SARAH SMITH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
KRIS KEEHL SENIOR STAFF COLUMNIST ____________________________ San Diego State’s recent baseball history has been short and sweet. Before the 2013 season, the Aztecs only managed to make it to NCAA Regionals, the equivalent of March Madness, one time in 21 years.
Then in 2013 the baseball team won the Mountain West tournament, and did it again in 2014 and once more in 2015. The tradition generated by three consecutive conference tournament championships is something the baseball program should take pride in, but the Aztecs are not likely to win a fourth this year.
The College Baseball World Series is the pinnacle for any Division I college baseball team, and there are only two ways to get there: an at-large bid following a great season or winning the conference tournament. Players and coaches will tell you that winning one tournament championship is incredibly difficult, and winning three consecutive is nearly impossible. From a logical approach, the odds are squarely against the Aztecs winning a fourth straight conference tournament, but that doesn’t mean they won’t play well enough for an at-large bid. What makes it possible for the Aztecs to win a fourth straight is the fact that Mark Martinez is still manning the top spot in the program. With Martinez on the coaching staff the Aztecs have been to four NCAA Regionals — three consecutive from winning their conference tournaments, and one in 2009 as an at-large bid. The two most recent appearances were made
with Martinez running the program, one officially as head coach and the other while then-head coach Tony Gwynn battled health issues. In short, coaching is not the issue, but personnel is. For the 2015 season, Martinez landed a top-20 recruiting class, but those players are in their infancy as collegiate athletes, and they have to grow by leaps and bounds to replace what the 2015 Aztec roster lost to the MLB draft. The key position players that left SDSU at the end of the 2015 season accounted for 36 of the Aztecs’ 47 home runs and 231 RBIs, and three of the five key losses on offense had batting averages of at least .300. SDSU also lost its top two pitchers to the draft when Bubba Derby and Mark Seyler were drafted in the sixth and 19th round, respectively. Derby and Seyler made a combined 33 starts on the mound, which accounted for more than half the starts made by all pitchers. In addition, these two led the
team in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts and ERA. The Aztecs are young. On a roster with 35 players, 22 are listed as underclassmen. There is no fault in being a young team. However it means that young players are going to have to step up and make plays in the field, have strong pitching performances and be able to put together offensive performances that negate the loss of key players. It’s not that winning a fourth straight conference tournament championship is impossible or that it won’t happen. It’s that given the personnel losses and the need for multiple players to mature in a hurry, it is highly unlikely to happen. But going into this season, Aztec baseball should count itself lucky to have Martinez at the helm. If there is one person who can put this all together and win the conference tournament championship, it’s him.
DANIEL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DANIEL GOBLE INVENTED A PORTABLE INSTRUMENT TO HELP DIAGNOSE CONCUSSIONS AFTER SPORTS-RELATED INJURIES. HE LAUNCHED HIS COMPANY FROM SDSU'S ZAHN INNOVATION PLATFORM (ZIP) LAUNCHPAD, WHERE STUDENTS, FACULTY AND ALUMNI TURN GREAT IDEAS INTO VIABLE BUSINESS VENTURES. IT'S NO WONDER THAT FORBES RANKS SDSU AS ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITIES. VISIT CAMPAIGN.SDSU.EDU
SPRING SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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Peres brings raw tenacity to Aztecs
Sophomore catcher Jenavee Peres enters 2016 as a preseason All-American. COURTESY OF SDSU ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
MEGHAN LANIGAN STAFF WRITER ____________________________ Sophomore catcher Jenavee Peres had one heck of a freshmen season and is looking to do the same in 2016 for San Diego State’s softball team. “My goal is just to produce for my team and do as best as I can, so we can get as far as we can,” Peres said. “We want to make history this year.”
The 2015 Mountain West Freshman of the Year begins the 2016 season as an AllAmerican and MW Player of the Year candidate. Peres’ .347 batting average in 2015 was good for third-best on the team, which is where she also placed in hits with 58. She was second in RBIs with 48, third in runs with 30 and tied for third in home runs with nine. Her on-base percentage was .411. Peres helped Team USA win
the gold medal at the 2015 XI World’s Baseball Softball Confederation Junior Women’s World Championships. “I just love playing the game,” Peres said. “I just love that we all have the opportunity to just come out here and play because not everyone has this … this chance.” The Aztecs finished second in the MW in 2015 with an 18-6 record and swept Boise State, Nevada State College and Utah State, and won five of their seven MW series. Their two series losses came against Fresno State and San Jose State. “Our conference is always tough, but I think we can pull it off,” Peres said, referring to playing well against San Jose State and Fresno State, two of the team’s biggest competitors. “I mean, I feel like we want to beat everybody.” A possible source of that tenacity comes from a bloodline that includes her uncle Troy Polamalu, a former safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Peres had 73 at-bats in conference play and racked up
16 runs, 28 hits, 26 RBIs and five home runs. She said her favorite game last year was in May against Texas State at the NCAA Regional in Los Angeles. She homered in the seventh inning to tie the game and the team eventually won 4-3. “That game was very high emotion, very intense,” Peres said. Off the field Peres is majoring in criminal justice and also takes being a role model very seriously. “I absolutely cannot express how much it inspires me just to do better in everything I do,” Peres said about young girls looking up to her. Her 7-year-old sister also plays softball and wears the same No. 43 on her jersey, the same number their uncle Polamalu wore during his NFL career. Peres said her sister hit her first home run in her first atbat and came up in the stands in the middle of the game to give her a hug. That kind of moment reminds Peres to not hang her head after a bad game because she doesn’t want to be
a bad example for young kids watching her. Peres also played volleyball and basketball for Garden Grove High, just two hours away from SDSU. Peres said she played basketball in high school, which helped her stay in shape for softball, but playing other sports did something else for her. “Playing another sport away from softball makes your love grow for the game even more,” Peres said. “It goes by so quick.” Being away from home can be hard for Peres, but she thinks the distance from her Garden Grove home to SDSU is just right. “I feel like it’s the perfect distance where I can be my own person, but if I need to go talk to my mom about something, I can just drive home, hop on the 5 freeway and be there,” she said. Peres didn’t want to dwell on her stellar freshman season, but she knows she made an impression. “The more you put into the game the more you get back,” she said.
COMMENTARY
#AZTECSOFTBALL
Intramurals should not use softball field
San Diego State softball has made eight straight postseason appearances but must share its field with the school’s intramural teams. FILE PHOTO
BRENDAN PRICE CONTRIBUTOR ____________________________ Spring semester is over two weeks old, which means intramural spring sports are about to get started. Basketball, indoor soccer and volleyball are hosted at the Aztec Recreation Center. Bowling is hosted at Aztec
Lanes in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union. Outdoor soccer is hosted on football practice fields and the field by the Exercise and Nutritional Science building. Softball, however, is hosted at the San Diego State University Softball Stadium, home of the SDSU softball team. Practically, the use of the
field isn’t a major issue. The objection to it is more symbolic than practical. Playing intramural sports at the softball stadium is something that, however clearly unintentional, disrespects the hard work put in by head coach Kathy Van Wyk, her staff and her players. The softball program has made eight straight NCAA
tournament appearances, and having an autonomous playing surface is key to continuing that success. “I want to be as cooperative as anyone, but I believe that for us to be a highlycompetitive program, this field should not be shared by an outside entity,” Van Wyk said. Moving the games from the softball stadium over to the fields buttressing Peterson Gym, which are more than adequate enough for softball, could be a reasonable solution for all. Logistically, it would not require much. A three-to-four hour block once or twice a week for a month to six weeks at most during the fall semester seems doable. Student-athletes put forth an effort and a sacrifice that can’t be understood by a regular student because they have demands and require efforts that are different than the general student population. The softball stadium is a tangible reminder for the players, the coaching staff and the grounds crew of their sacrifice. After countless workouts, injuries, practices, road trips and struggles, the team gets to play at their home in front of their fans. The grounds crew works to put the field in pristine shape, both as part of their jobs and as a sign of respect. “There are guys that work
grounds around here that work really hard and take pride in that and the students won’t,” Van Wyk said. “It’s a different level of understanding and they won’t understand that.” Other sports venues around campus are treated with nothing short of reverence, because of the success of both the teams and players that have passed through. It’s a reverence that stems for our respect and awe of their achievements. The softball program is meritorious of the same reverence, and the fact that they don’t get it is incomprehensible and unjust. However, Van Wyk points out the arrangement is, for now, just the way the ball bounces. “It’s a philosophical problem … I have almost come to the conclusion that I would be better off to not waste the energy and put my energy towards other things and then just keep an eye on things,” Van Wyk said. “I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s right, but it’s something we have to live with.” If this situation involved basketball, football or any men’s sport, I find it hard to believe that an arrangement like this would exist. Sharing Qualcomm Stadium for intramural football or Tony Gwynn Stadium for intramural baseball seems ludicrous, so why doesn’t this?
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#PLAYERSTOWATCH
Aztec athletes to watch this spring ANTHONY RECLUSADO ASST. SPORTS EDITOR ___________________________________ VICKIE PORTER LACROSSE
In only the program’s fourth season classified as a Division I sport, the 2015 San Diego State women’s lacrosse team posted its first winning regular season, 9-8, and sent out its seniors on a high note. However, with the changing of the guard comes the loss of production on the offensive end. The team lost five of its top 10 goal scorers, who accounted for 101 of their 199 goals, and their top two assist leaders that tallied 43 of the team’s 84 assists. That is where junior midfielder Vickie Porter steps in, who finished last season third in shots (42) and tied for third in goals (20) for the Aztecs. Coming off the bench in 16 of SDSU’s 17 games, Porter was a “super-sub” for the Aztecs as she scored in 12 of those 16 matches off the pine, including six multi-goal games. Nevertheless, production is only part of the shoes that Porter aims to fill with the previous senior class graduating. “I think I need to be more of a vocal leader for everyone on the team,” Porter said. “We are like a new team this year, so I am really excited to play with them. But I definitely need to step up a bit.” That excitement stems from the fact that SDSU brought in a highly touted 12-person freshman recruiting class. Porter has set lofty goals for her team. “I want to win a championship,” she said. “We’ve had time to build and I feel like this is the year for our team to shine.” Porter and the SDSU lacrosse team will open the season on Feb. 12 when they travel to North Carolina to take on Elon University.
MATT FIERST STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ JAZMEN BUNCH TRACK AND FIELD
San Diego State sophomore sprinter Jazmen Bunch had a superb freshman year, finishing in third place in the 200-meter sprint at the Mountain West Track and Field Championships and being named to the 2015 all-MW track and field team With a year of experience and respectable freshman accolades behind her, Bunch will look to become a major part of the women’s track and field success in her sophomore year. In the offseason, Bunch trained with her high school coach on parts of her game she believed needed improvement. “I worked with my coach who trained me in high school and we worked on endurance and time,” Bunch said. “(We also worked on) doing my drills right so it could help me transform into how I run with my mechanics.” Bunch is eager for this upcoming season because of more pure talent on the team in comparison to last season. “We have so many people transfer-wise and freshmen and we have higher talent than we did last year,” Bunch said. “I feel that our expectations will be higher.” Bunch is also enthusiastic to see the strength of the team come out and be put on display. “We have so many strong people individually which makes us even stronger in force when we all come together as one,” Bunch said. While she’s focused on her team competing at the highest level, Bunch has also placed some pretty high expectations on herself individually. AUSTIN GAYLE CONTRIBUTOR ____________________________________ HENDRICK JEBENS MEN’S TENNIS
At 6-foot-5, 190 pounds, junior Hendrik Jebens has found a great deal of success on the tennis court. Jebens initially experimented with the sport of tennis at 4 years old in his hometown of Stuttgart, Germany, but surprisingly enough he put down the racket to pursue his stronger interest in field hockey. Eventually, an injury pushed Jebens to pick up a racket yet again at 7 years old, and he hasn’t looked back since. He soon formed a close relationship with a coach in Germany that would ultimately become his primary motivation to continue to pursue the sport of tennis. Jebens benefited from the consistent coaching, as his childhood coach remained with him from 8 years old up until he left for the U.S. at 18. “He kept me really interested in the sport, and I never really felt any pressure from anybody,” Jebens said. “I was playing for fun and just got better over time.” Coming off easily his best season at San Diego State, Jebens is now entering his third year with the team. In 2015, Jebens was selected to both the all-Mountain West singles and doubles team, as he posted a 22-5 record in singles and a 19-6 record when paired with Co-Mountain West Player of the Year Freddy Gelbrich. Of Jebens’ 22 wins, he was undefeated against nationally ranked opponents: No. 67 Karue Sell, No. 72 Filip Vittek and No. 82 Samir Iftikhar. Given his recent rise to stardom, the idea of pursuing a career in tennis beyond the college level has become relatively tangible. However, Jebens seems to fully understand that he must continue to take advantage of his remaining years here at SDSU by continuing to build on prior success.
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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BRANDON TRUFFA SENIOR STAFF WRITER ____________________________________
SYDNEY OLMSTEAD STAFF WRITER ____________________________________
EMMA HENRIKSON LACROSSE
ERICA ROMERO SOFTBALL
A young team always needs some sort of veteran leadership. Emma Henrikson of the San Diego State women’s golf team is the lone senior on a squad with three sophomores, two freshmen and one junior. Originally from Malmö, Sweden, Henrikson is the assigned team captain, and believes her experience of year’s past is a huge benefit in helping the younger members on the team. “I think that they look up to me, and I try to be a leader,” Henrikson said. “But I try to lead by example instead of telling them what to do.” Last season, Henrikson earned her third first-team all-Mountain West honor, finished as the team’s top golfer in four tournaments and tied for the team lead with a 73.93 scoring average. Henrikson has continued her individual success through the first half the 2015-16 season. She finished first in the Golfweek Conference Challenge, finished third in the Branch McGuire Invitational and leads the team with an average score of 70.83. Over the break, Henrikson returned to Sweden for a short time before heading back to the U.S. to train with the Sweden national team in Florida. But for Henrikson and the Aztecs, the spring season is dawning and the anticipation of returning to the course is higher than ever. With only four tournaments before the MW Championship and NCAA Regionals, SDSU is looking for a strong finish to its already successful season. “I’m looking forward to (regionals), just because in my college experience so far we’ve never done well at regionals, although I think we deserve a spot at nationals,” Henrikson said. The Aztecs will tee off the spring season in Peoria, Arizona, at the Westbrook Spring Invitational on Feb. 21-22.
The San Diego State softball team found itself in a bind last season when it ended up with a limited pitching rotation due to injuries and other circumstances. Junior Erica Romero not only stepped up to the challenge of taking the mound game after game, she ended up leading the country in wins (36). On Sept. 23, 2015, Romero received the NCAA plaque for “Most Wins in ‘15”, making her just the second Aztec in program history to lead the NCAA in a statistical category. She finished the season with a 36-17 record and a 3.29 ERA over almost 319 innings. She was named Mountain West Pitcher of the Week four times and appeared in 56 of the team’s 58 games. Though the season was rough on her, Romero believes it shaped her in a positive way. “Knowing what I did last year and taking that into consideration when things get tough will help me this season,” she said. “Even if I don’t beat my own record, I know what I’m capable of doing.” Romero is also thankful to have more pitchers ready to go on the team this season because it will give the Aztecs an advantage over teams that have faced Romero many times. “I’m excited that we have more pitchers because the teams that we’ve played know me like the back of their hand now,” she said. “There’s so much film of me out there I could make a movie.” Head coach Kathy Van Wyk anticipates a well-rounded pitching rotation this season, but is also confident in Romero and her experience on the mound. “In conference we play the same team three days in a row,” Van Wyk said.
MAYER POHLOD STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ ANDREW BROWN BASEBALL
The 2015 Mountain West champion San Diego State baseball team was filled top to bottom with key performers. As goes with collegiate sports, however, most of those players have moved on to better things, some even getting drafted into Major League Baseball. One of the few starters with previous experience heading into this season will be junior infielder Andrew Brown, who will be heavily relied on in the 2016 campaign. As one of only six returning Aztecs with at least 100 at-bats last season, along with sophomore infielder and pitcher Alan Trejo and redshirt-senior outfielder Spencer Thornton, among others, Brown will be expected to head SDSU’s offensive attack in the upcoming season. Brown had the most at-bats, hits and RBIs in the 2015 season of any returning player. Last season, Brown hit .295 with 75 hits and 32 RBIs in 64 starts for the Aztecs. Likewise, Brown was a defensive standout in his sophomore season. He was involved in 20 of SDSU’s 41 double plays in 2015, and committed only seven errors in 457 chances for a .985 fielding percentage. As one of the few returning starters, Brown is expected to not only repeat his performance from last year, but take on an increased role on the defensive side of the ball. New pitching coach Sam Peraza spoke highly of Brown. “He could possibly be one of our best defenders, if not our best defender,” Peraza said. He is not simply a great defender, Peraza went on to explain, but a versatile one. “He will be starting at second base, but he can play anywhere,” Peraza said. “He can play the entire infield.” Remember the name and learn the face, because one will be seeing more of Andrew Brown in the Aztecs’ infield this season.
MEGHAN LANIGAN STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ CAROLINE ISRAELS WATER POLO
Junior Caroline Israels plays utility for San Diego State women’s water polo and returns this season as an Honorable Mention All-American. She was also named Golden Coast Conference Co-Player of the Year and first-team allGCC. These honors present new challenges for Israels because other teams are now looking at her and what she can do. “Other teams are scouting for you so you know things that you have done in the past aren’t going to be as easy to do,” Israels said. “It’s just a matter of changing, not necessarily how you play, but adding different things that makes it different for other teams that they can’t scout you.” Israels led the team last season with 61 goals on 210 attempts. She tied her career-high of five goals scored in one game against UC Santa Barbara and scored another four goals against Brown University. Israels also scored in 11 consecutive games, which was the most for any player. She is used to breaking records and receiving accolades for her performance in the pool, but she said she doesn’t think about beating her records each season, especially this season. Instead, she’s turning to her teammates. “In my mind I know I’m going to have to play different this year so I know I need to rely on them more,” Israels said. Israels also said she may be looking to people who aren’t necessarily on the scouting reports for other teams, such as drivers junior Makena Magro and senior Nicole Ferrari. “They do a lot of the dirty work that doesn’t get them on the stat sheet but they are a huge part of our team,” Israels said.
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FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#AZTECSOFTBALL
Van Wyk still has one goal in mind JACOB SISNEROS ASST. NEWS EDITOR ____________________________________ More than 1,000 games into her coaching career, San Diego State softball head coach Kathy Van Wyk’s goal still hasn’t changed. Despite taking her team to the NCAA tournament a school-record eight consecutive times, and 11 out of the last 15 years, the coach entering her 20th season isn’t done. “I want to go further than (NCAA) Regionals, I want to go to (NCAA) Super Regionals and the College World Series. That’s what I have always wanted and it’s what I have always preached to these kids,” Van Wyk said. “That’s the goal and that’s what keeps me coming back and thinking we can always improve.” Van Wyk has turned a program that didn’t make the NCAA tournament in its first 20 Division I years into a perennial contender at the tourney. In the 20 years before Van Wyk was head coach, the Aztecs had two winning seasons. In her 19 years at the helm of the program, Van Wyk’s teams have had 17 winning seasons. “Part of it was I had to change an attitude about the game that wasn’t just in the players — it was in the administration, it was in the people in the weightroom, it was in the trainers
— because I took it seriously and I don’t think anyone before really had,” Van Wyk said. A big turning point for the program came in 2001 when the team came within a game of heading to the College World Series. The Aztecs lost 11-0 to UCLA in the regional championship game and current assistant head coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz was the catcher for UCLA at the time. Nuveman Deniz graduated from UCLA in 2002 with the program record for most career home runs at 90 and she won two gold medals (2000 and 2004) and a silver medal (2008) with the U.S. Olympic softball team before joining SDSU softball’s staff. The offense has improved incrementally since Nuveman Deniz
bases (758) and hits (484) last season. Assistant coach Mia Longfellow was a four-time all-Pac-10 selection at Oregon State and is entering her seventh season coaching the infielders. “So much of the success we have been able to garner the last few years has been because of (the coaching staff),” Van Wyk said. “It really has, and I feel like we have a complete and experienced staff.” Van Wyk primarily works with the pitchers and she was quite the pitcher herself, having posted the best alltime win streak of 33 games during her 1982 season at Cal State Fullerton. She also threw two back-to-back perfect games that year. “I’m very hands-on with the pitchers,” Van Wyk said of her
“ SEEING GROWTH IN SOME OF THESE YOUNG LADIES, IT MAKES ME GET TEARYEYED.”
-Kathy Van Wyk, SDSU softball head coach joined the staff and the Aztecs set school records in batting average (.312), slugging percentage (.486), runs (324), home runs (63), RBIs (293), total
Softball head coach Kathy Van Wyk has coached more than 1,000 games. COURTESY OF SDSU ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS
coaching style. “At the same time I think I spell out my expectations with them and then I like to let them go.” She grew up in Holland, Michigan,
playing softball, basketball, baseball and football with her older brothers in the backyard. She played three sports in high school before deciding softball was her favorite. Van Wyk played softball for three years at Texas Women’s University before the college decided to cut the program before her senior year. She then transferred to CSUF to finish out her playing career and was asked to stay on at Fullerton as the pitching coach after she graduated. “I could tell by the way I studied the game and the feeling I had,” Van Wyk said about becoming a coach. “I was always a cerebral-type player. She said it’s always a challenge coaching a new group of studentathletes because they stay the same age while she is always getting older, but she loves to see the players develop. “Seeing growth in some of these young ladies, it makes me get tearyeyed,” Van Wyk said. “There have been kids here who you never hear about — who would never be an All-American, who would never be a scholar athlete, but they got a degree because of this sport and they never would have if it weren’t for this sport.” The Aztecs start their quest to reach the College World Series on Friday, Feb. 12, with a doubleheader against Canisius College and CSUF.
FEB. 3 - 9, 2015 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
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#AZTECWATERPOLO
Water polo familiar with success MEGHAN LANIGAN STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ San Diego State’s water polo team enters the 2016 season ranked No. 16 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s preseason poll. It also has four returning All-Americans under head coach Carin Crawford, who has coached the team for 18 years. The Aztecs play a schedule that will not only challenge them, but also test them physically and emotionally. “We put together a schedule to test ourselves against the best competition that we could schedule,” Crawford said. “So to me, those are the games I’m really looking forward to as a way to gauge ourselves against the best competition and to get the experience of playing up.” The four returning All-Americans are senior goalkeeper Rachel Mitchell, junior utility player Caroline Israels, junior defender Ioli Benekou and junior center Alyssa Diacono. Mitchell, one of five seniors on the team, has recorded 927 saves, good for second all-time in SDSU history. She said the hardest part about competing at this high of a level is staying focused. “I think it’s more of a mental game,” she said. Chemistry also plays a part for the team and the players say they need to be consistent with putting in hard work. “We also have to make sure that we’re holding each other accountable in order to stay focused during practice,” said Israels, who led the team last season with 61 goals. Diacono, who led the team with a .395 goal percentage, and named to the Golden Coast Conference AllTournament Team and the GCC AllAcademic Team last season, also said playing together for an extended period of time has helped get them to this point. “There’s a big chunk of us that have played together,” Diacono said. “This is our third year playing together so we know each other’s tendencies and we know how to communicate with one another.” For some players, such as Benekou, who is from Greece, these girls are more than just teammates. “This is my family right now,” Benekou said. Diacono also shared Benekou’s feelings of the solidarity and bond this team has cultivated. “I think we’re more of a family in a way that you don’t really choose your family and it’s not like we chose to be on the team (with each other),” Diacono said. “Ultimately we love each other, and we do anything for one another, inside the pool or outside the pool.” This family will face tough competition this upcoming season and one game all the girls are looking forward to is the Harper Cup on April 22. The Harper Cup is the annual matchup with UC San Diego, where SDSU holds an impressive 13-1 record over the Tritons. “Every year I always look forward to the Harper Cup,” Mitchell said. “It’s the San Diego rivalry.” SDSU will also play an exhibition game against the Chinese national team at the Aztec Aquaplex on Feb. 6. “It’s going to be a great experience for the girls,” said Crawford, who also knows the Chinese team’s head coach, Ricardo Azevedo, who is the former head coach at Long Beach State.
Another game Crawford is looking forward to is the game against Cal State Fullerton, who used to be in the same conference as the Aztecs. “We get to play at Cal (State Fullerton),” Crawford said. “I think that will be a great opportunity. We’ve always had good competitive rivalry with them.” Crawford knows her team could face Cal State Fullerton again in the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship in May, so to get an opportunity to see its game before the tournament could be beneficial. “We’re ready,” Crawford said. “Not being in the same conference, we’re kind of depending on meeting them in the tournament, which you just aren’t certain is going to happen. So it’s nice to have them on the schedule.” One theme all the girls agree on for the season is challenging each other in the water. “Most of the teams that we play don’t play similar to each other,” Mitchell said. “Every team is different. It’s a lot of work to keep that up and to challenge ourselves every single game and practice.” Diacono said she gives a lot of credit to the scout team players, who she thinks are put into a more dynamic role because they’re expected to play different types of schemes at a high level in practice during the year. Even though the team has four returning All-Americans, Crawford doesn’t want to have to rely on just them. “I think we’re strong at all positions,” she said. “We really need to look to the players who aren’t All-Americans to make sure that they’re ready to make an impact for us and know how important their role is.” The team is also excited to host this year’s GCC championship. “Last two years we’ve made it to the championship game and came up short, but this year there’s a bid on the line,” Crawford said. “We’re hosting. We’re ready to change the course of history.”
San Diego State water polo enters the 2016 season ranked No. 16 nationally. FILE PHOTO
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#AZTECLAX
Lacrosse coach has loaded resume ANTHONY RECLUSADO ASST. SPORTS EDITOR ____________________________________ In 2002, Kylee White capped off her collegiate career with the most successful season for Ohio State’s women’s lacrosse team with an 11-5 record and a No. 12 national ranking. For a year like that, which came a year after helping her native country of Canada place fourth in the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations World Cup, it’d be natural to think she would continue training or find a coaching job right out of college. But that wasn’t true for White, who stuck true to her bachelor’s degree in education and went into the world of teaching. It wasn’t until her time as a teacher in a boarding school that she found her love for coaching. “Part of our responsibilities were to coach a couple teams and from there I fell in love with it,” White said. “It’s like teaching but something that I am even
more passionate about.” That passion has propelled a 10-year career that has seen the Ontario native coach at Stanford University, OSU, Loyola University and University of Maryland. And for the last four years, she’s been the head coach at SDSU. In 2007 she also was named an assistant coach of the U-19 Canadian National Team, which had she played on 12 years prior. In her time as an Aztec she has turned a fledgling program that was granted Division I stature in her inaugural season at the helm into a dark-horse contender in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Last season White guided her team to its first winning campaign in school history in the program’s fourth year, which was a feat in itself, as the program had a rocky start. “(The first year) was very exciting, but also very challenging because I was by myself for that first year because I was hired so late and couldn’t hire a good assistant until later in the summer,” she said. “It was very tough.”
That year the Aztecs went 5-10 overall and 2-5 in conference, both record lows. However, fast-forward four years and White will remain the only head coach in Aztec lacrosse history until at least the 2018 season, as she had her contract extended earlier this year. The extension could not have been easier for SDSU Director of Athletics Jim Sterk to offer White, who carried the momentum of her best season at the reins into her best summer of recruiting. The 12-person freshmen class is the best in program history and will contribute immediately, White said. This almost-overnight success for SDSU and White has been in part from her ability to command respect and relate to her players on a deeper level than a coach usually can. While most athletes trade in their cleats for a whistle after their playing career is over, White was still competing on the world stage during her coaching tenure, including her time with the Aztecs. A four-time member of Canadian
World Cup teams, White has participated in three world championships while a member of a college coaching staff. The most most recent time came in 2013, when Canada lost in the finals to the U.S. Aside from the awe factor that it provides in recruiting, White is constantly reminded of the rigors and wear the sport could put on one’s body because she still plays it. “It was awesome as a coach to still be playing, because it is very easy to get out of playing and remember what was, while not being really realistic of how it feels,” White said. “When I was training I really took notice of how my body and how it was feeling and how hard drills were. I have used that to tweak my team’s training to keep them fresh.” While her playing days are behind her, that does not mean that this former boarding school teacher’s passion has diminished. In fact, it has only allowed her passion for coaching to take center stage, and if it is anything like her playing career, it will be a fun ride.
#AZTECTRACKANDFIELD
Track and field stars ready for new season San Diego State track and field junior Micha Auzenne and sophomore Bonnie Draxler took different paths to San Diego State, but now they are looking to be key parts to the success of the team. For Auzenne, from East Palo Alto, her first step in becoming an Aztec started in Tempe, Arizona. In her lone season at Arizona State, Auzenne competed in the 100-meter hurdles, where she finished 35th at the NCAA West Preliminaries with a time of 14.07 seconds. She also competed in the 200-meter hurdles, where she recorded a time of 24.65 seconds at the ASU Invitational. After her freshman season as a Sun Devil, Auzenee decided a change of scenery was necessary and transferred to SDSU. “Once I got to Arizona State, I would see San Diego State at a few meets
and see the type of talent that they had,” Auzenne said. “When I left (ASU) I wanted to go closer to home, so I looked into (SDSU) and immediately fell in love with the program and the coaches.” In her first season at SDSU last year, Auzenne started the outdoor season with a first-place finish in the 100-meter race at the San Diego Collegiate Challenge with a time of 11.79 seconds. She followed that up with a fourthplace finish in the 200-meter race at the Collegiate Challenge with a time of 24.38 seconds, a personal record. In anticipation for this season, Auzenne points to the team’s overall mindset and teamwork as differences compared to last season’s squad. “The vibe of the team is so much different,” Auzenne said. “We’re a lot more team-orientated this year, which I think is very helpful to the success that we’re planning on having.” Coaching has also played a large role
STUDENT & EDUCATOR DISCOUNT
in the development of the team. “From the beginning of the season the coaches made it clear (that it’s going to be) team before self and we have to stop being selfish and put the team before ourselves and I think that is in our heads now a lot more than it was last year,” Auzenne said. Auzenne added that she wants to be a model for how her teammates should act on and off the track. “Although I’ve only been (at SDSU) for two years, sometimes I feel like I have to set an example on and off the track for what’s expected,” she said. For Draxler, a native of Wrightstown, Wisconsin, the path to SDSU didn’t include a transfer, but rather multiple offers out of high school. “I chose San Diego State because I really liked the coaches and the weather here is awesome,” Draxler said. “I was tired of training indoors in Wisconsin.” In her freshman year, Draxler made her debut at the Northern Arizona
University Friday Night Duals, where she won the pole vault with a 13 feet, 8 1/4-inch mark. Draxler also cleared her best mark of her freshman season at the Mt. SAC Relays, where she cleared a height of 13 feet, 9 1/4 inches. Pertaining to this season, Draxler hopes to contribute points and take a leadership role in the absence of key senior leadership. “Last year it was different as a freshman and I had three older seniors above me and now they’re gone,” Draxler said. Draxler alluded to the presence of younger players as an advantage for the team this season, because they can bring a newfound energy. “We have gotten a lot of new girls here,” Draxler said. “I think that’s really helping out everybody else.” Draxler said that if everybody does they’re job as they should, then this team has a good shot at taking home the conference crown.
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Golf trick shot video a viral sensation
Senior Emma Henrikson was part of the viral video. FILE PHOTO
BRANDON TRUFFA SENIOR STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ Everyone knows of at least one viral video sensation on YouTube. Whether it be Rebecca Black belting
an autotuned song about Friday, a man begging people to leave Brittany Spears alone or a man getting too excited at the sight of a double rainbow that stretches all the way across the sky. These sensations have become pop culture phenomenons, with no rhyme or reason why. But what some San Diego State students might not realize is that over the past year the SDSU women’s golf team has become a viral video sensation of its own. In February of last year, the team heard about a nationwide contest which called for NCAA teams to create a one-minute video of their team pulling off creative trick shots. The winner would receive a monetary grant for their program. So, the Aztecs decided to give the competition a shot and spent some time after a Friday practice at The Farms Golf Club trying to come up with some creative moves. “It took us about maybe two, three hours,” senior Emma Henrikson said. “Nothing was really planned, we just kind of did something that was fun at the time.” However, the competition the Aztecs hoped to enter was called off. “The competition ended up getting cancelled, but we decided to make the video at that point, so we just kept making it anyway,” junior Sirene Blair said. The video was shot and edited by Kristina Lynn, who was the team’s
manager at the time. Lynn added Mark Ronson’s hit song “Uptown Funk” to spice up the video, and decided to upload the video to YouTube for fun. At first, the video was picked up by a few local news channels and papers, and retweeted by websites like BuzzFeed and Total Frat Move. But eventually, the video caught the eye of a few major national news outlets, and began gaining huge popularity. Websites like Bleacher Report, Golf Digest, USA Today, The Golf Channel, ESPN and even the Professional Golf Association (better known as the PGA) shared the link to the video on their websites. Pretty soon the video that was made for fun saw its number of views climb rapidly, and today, the video has been viewed by well over 2 million people on YouTube. “ I have no idea how that happened,” Henrikson said. “We were betting on the final number in the beginning. We were like, ‘OK, if it gets over a 100,000 it’s so good,’ and then it kept increasing.” Being from Sweden, Henrikson has also heard people mention the video to her from overseas as well. “All of the sudden I had friends back in Europe who were like, ‘Oh I saw you in this thing on the internet,’” Henrikson said. Blair also mentioned how the team is recognized for the video when they travel as well. “When we travel and we’re at airports,
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that’s when we get the most recognition I feel like,” Blair said. “We’re all a team and have all of our gear and stuff, and people kind of stare at us for a while and they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re from the internet YouTube thing.’” In the 55-second video, the Aztecs pull off some Harlem Globetrotter-esque moves, which include juggling the ball with two clubs, volleying the ball between their clubs, clothes, and bodies, and ending with the team standing in a line and sinking their putts into one hole. Before making the video, Blair claims the team did a little research and searched Instagram to spark some ideas. “We kind of looked at some other people who had just done one trick for each little video clip, and we kind of compiled all of those clips that we saw together and attempted them on our own,” Blair said. Blair and Henrikson said the team putt that concludes the video was their favorite, but also the hardest to pull off. “That took us a long time to get that one done,” Blair said. “Probably like a solid hour or so.” “All of us would make it and one person would miss, and I was that one person multiple times,” Henrikson said with a laugh. As for a sequel, the idea is still up in the air. “We’ve been thinking about it,” Henrikson said. “If we have time, I’d love to do it. Maybe, we’ll see.”
HORIZONTAL
22
SPRING SPORTS ISSUE
FEB. 3 - 9, 2016 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYAN POSNER • SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#AZTECWTENNIS
Women’s tennis lives for spring season MAXIM GARSHMAN STAFF WRITER ____________________________________ All professional sport seasons have a beginning and end date. There may be a week pause for an all-star break or for some an Olympic break, depending on the year. For collegiate sports, sports seasons are determined typically by the actual season: Soccer is played in the fall, football is played in the fall and winter, basketball is played from the end of fall to the beginning of spring and so on. However, collegiate tennis is one of the few sports that starts its season in the fall and ends (if the team’s lucky) by midMay. A few tournaments to determine individual rankings are played in the fall, followed by about a five-week winter break. All collegiate teams not in season must suspend play over their school’s winter break. Then within about a two-week span of returning, teams begin their seasons. NCAA regulations limit the amount of days and hours spent on the court in the fall season. For example, in late November teams could only practice for eight hours a week with just two of those hours being tennis-related. “Essentially, it was two full months before we started practicing again,” head coach Peter Matera said.
While this peculiar schedule isn’t ideal by any means, Matera can’t help but be excited. “Once we get to the spring, though, it is totally different (from the fall),” Matera said. “It’s 24 dual matches (with) each (being) so important to our team’s success and really the team’s success is the big ticket item here. We live for the spring.” The schedule intensifies dramatically with multiple matches played each week. “It’s not like the fall is less serious, but in the spring you have to be on all the time,” senior Tami Nguyen said. Turning the switch “on” varies for each player, but they feel it helps more when it comes to team matches. “When it’s spring we are thinking as a team, not individually like Tami or (senior) Isabelle (Hoorn) or me” senior Dora Somoracz said. “How we train is different, too, in the spring. It’s more focused on what’s good for the team.” Instead of the focus being on individual ranks, the team now has to come together to capture success. However, that brings on its own challenges. “There’s less room for error,” Nguyen said. “You can make the mistakes in the fall, but not now.” In the fall if a player loses a match, it only affects the individual. But with four total wins needed to seal a team victory in the spring, the team becomes more dependent on each other. Even with the added pressure, all of the
#AZTECMTENNIS
Cultures mesh in SDSU men’s tennis AUSTIN GAYLE CONTRIBUTOR ____________________________________ With a roster constructed of players from the U.S., Germany, Mexico, Croatia and Denmark, San Diego State’s men’s tennis deals with cultural barriers that most other athletic programs often overlook. But it’s clearly no problem for the Aztecs. In 2015, the team finished 19-9 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Redshirt-junior Freddy Gelbrich was named the Co-Mountain West Player of the Year, while he and junior Hendrik Jebens earned a spot on both the allsingles team and all-doubles team. Jebens, from Stuttgart, Germany, is a part of the larger demographic, as the team is primarily German. He still understands that in order for the team to come together they must work toward improving communication. “We help each other, especially off the court, if there are language barriers,” Jebens said. “When new guys are coming in, of course it’s harder for them to learn English. I think it’s definitely helping us bond because we all have a similar experience coming from another country to the U.S. and a big Division I school.” Though it would appear as if he could remain comfortable within his group of German friends, Jebens’ effort to bring the club closer as a whole allows the entire roster to build confidence as a contributing member of the team. Sophomore Santiago Cevallos was the
only new addition to the team in 2015. In turn, the Queretaro, Mexico, native initially found it difficult to overcome the language barrier, but he quickly benefited from the support of his team. Cevallos’ doubles partner, junior Marko Goles-Babic, grew as the season progressed on the court and off the court. Both Cevallos and Goles-Babic said they developed a close relationship over the course of last year. The two finished 6-4 in doubles play. While it’s ultimately up to guys like Goles-Babic and Jebens to take on leadership roles in the locker room in what can be such a difficult situation, head coach Gene Carswell has also done his part to develop a winning culture through establishing a sense of camaraderie and community. “We talk about things within our group about having Aztec pride and fighting for this university. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all a part of. We are all a part of that bigger picture,” he said. “Here we are in a beautiful city like San Diego, playing for a great university and we are very fortunate. We’ve got a group that really has bonded well and likes each other.” With 2015 being his best season in the last decade, Carswell is looking to build on what his team has already accomplished and continue to grow as a unit. “We’re trying to set the bar a little bit higher,” he said. “We are trying to take the next step and without a doubt I believe we have a group that is capable of qualifying for the NCAA (tournament) and making some noise there.”
The women’s tennis team is currently 1-2 and have 24 dual matches scheduled this spring. KRISTIAN CARREON, SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
players like playing the spring more than the fall. “I like having my teammates next to me,” junior Kennedy Davis said. “You feel better on the court.” On top of that, the players get more involved in the match off the court. During the fall season, players might take a walk after a match or have a discussion with a coach about their individual match, but once spring starts every player has their eyes glued to the court. “It’s about having each other’s back,” Hoorn said. “Sometimes if you lose yourself and you see your teammates playing well, it can help you.” For some, a simple acknowledgment goes a long way. “I remember one time I was struggling a bit last season, (Hoorn) would be watching my court and when she saw
me struggling, she would always bring me a banana and a Gatorade,” Nguyen said. “It just really made me feel like I had someone right there with me.” The team not only becomes closer, but coach Matera believes spring brings out the best in them. “These girls have proven time and again that when they’re kept busy, on task and have a lot on their plate, that’s when they do their best,” Matera said. “They do their best in the classroom and they do their best on the court.” Davis is definitely someone to keep an eye on in 2016. Davis is coming off a 20-plus win season last year and has improved her doubles game exponentially. “She’s a match player,” Matera said. “When it’s go time Kennedy is one you want on the court.”
CROSSWORDS
ACROSS 1 *Where deliveries may be left 9 Adorn in relief 15 First three of ten digits 16 Bad guy 17 *Airport pickup 18 State with conviction 19 “It’s __ cause” 20 *Modest garment 22 Extra-play qtrs. 24 Influenced by, in recipes 25 July baby, maybe 26 *Hiker’s pouch 31 Storm winds 33 Have yet to pay 34 NFC South team 35 Part of rpm 36 Whipped cream amount
38 Musical sequence found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues 40 Authoritarian figure 44 Chair part 46 Balderdash 47 Poetic tribute 48 Volunteer’s offer 51 *Infant’s dietary prohibition 54 Buck’s mate 55 Sun Devils of the Pac-12 57 Afternoon social 58 *Breaking point 62 Giant 66 Where it originally was 67 *History book chart 69 Had to have
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70 Cordial with a licorice-like flavor 71 Prone to avarice 72 *Words of admonishment DOWN 1 Swimmer Torres with 12 Olympic medals 2 Pitcher Hershiser 3 Wine lover’s prefix 4 Exposes to the cops 5 Absent-minded, to a Brit 6 Front-of-bk. list 7 Red-coated cheese 8 Prefix with scope 9 Text alternative 10 Many a text 11 Get some rays 12 “The Hairy Ape” playwright
13 Yes or no follower 14 Brief arguments 21 Divided terr. 23 Cramp, say 26 Weather condition in the final scene of “Casablanca” 27 Belt maker’s tool 28 Opposite of paleo29 Flight coordinators: Abbr. 30 Light cigar wrapper 32 Part of a ring 35 __ point: embroidery stitch 37 Groceries quantity 39 “u r a riot!” 41 Menagerie 42 Excitement 43 Like the bull in the Chicago Bulls’ logo 45 __ peanuts 48 In neutral 49 Temporary wheels 50 Tenant 51 California’s Big __ 52 Can’t stand 53 Didn’t hit the books? 56 Hit the books 59 It has its highs and lows 60 Minimally 61 Skid row regular 63 Jackson 5 brother 64 Voting no 65 Discontinued depilatory 68 Part of rpm: Abbr.
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FEB. 3 - FEB. 9, 2016 • THE DAILY AZTEC EDITOR: RYO MIYAUCHI • ENTERTAINMENT@THEDAILYAZTEC.COM
#HIPHOP
Predicting the new Kanye album RYO MIYAUCHI ARTS & LIFESTYLE EDITOR _________________________________ Kanye West’s new album “Waves” will be out next week on Feb. 11, and this writer is hoping to hear the rapper release what could be considered his dad album. There’s no need for him to act any differently in “Waves” if he’s going for a dad album. In fact, it’s been due time. Even before he became a father a few years ago, he has been workshopping his role as dad on record since his debut, “The College Dropout.” Marriage may not have been the priority for him in those days. However, he already had the corny sensibilities of a dad down to a tee. Cheesy punchlines have been his thing since he declared himself “the Red-Nosed Reindeer of the Roc” on that first album. Albeit more brash than his early days, he has been consistent with his dumb-fun brand of humor after a decade of rapping. “Rock Forever 21 but just turned 30,” he rapped in one of the tamer lines in “Bound 2” from his album “Yeezus.” Kanye, the dad, is still hip to what’s cool in the present as he calls up collaborators such as U.K. emcee Skepta. Yet, he likes to talk up the heroes of decades past more than the acts of today. He sometimes sampled their songs, such as Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” and Michael Jackson’s
“P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing).” He also likes to claim he’s the equal of people such as Steve Jobs and Andy Warhol. In one interview done months after “Yeezus,” he compared his catalog to Bruce Springsteen’s. He likened his last album “Yeezus” to the rock veteran’s “Nebraska” — a stark departure from his usual sound, much like Kanye’s record. He also said his next album is going to be like Springsteen’s cheerful pop album “Born in the U.S.A.” With now two kids, a wife and successful ventures in fashion, the songs recorded by a proudly smiling Kanye should sound like Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” — a giddy pop anthem that gets happy feet moving. His recent
collaborations with Paul McCartney further suggested what kind of music Kanye, the dad, would make with “Waves.” In “Only One,” he sings a dedication to his newborn daughter North, as well as his late mother. Meanwhile, the Beatle plays a soft, warm melody on the piano perfect for a lullaby. He played more of a drunk uncle role in “FourFiveSeconds,” which also featured Rihanna. That said, neither of the two were included when he shared the tentative track listing, handwritten by the rapper himself, on Twitter last week. The singles actually from “Waves” — “Real Friends” and “No
Kanye West might channel his new role as a dad in his upcoming album. THINKSTOCK
More Parties in L.A” — are the complete opposite in vibe and a total bummer. They’re great songs that bring back the soul-inspired sound found in the rapper’s early days. However, Kanye doesn’t seem like the goofy dad I had hoped he would be — someone like Springsteen or McCartney. He’s instead a grouchy geezer in “Real Friends” and an anxious parent in “No More Parties in L.A.” He’s too busy with his immediate family to catch up with his cousins. His kids need protection from paparazzi. His jokes lighten the vibe, but both songs essentially say being Kanye sucks despite his family there to make it better. To be fair, Kanye’s music has always been about how it sucks to be Kanye despite his success and wealth. But can’t a fan hear an album with the rapper singing in joy for once? It has been a while since his record reflected a happy phase in his life, which at least dates back to his third album, “Graduation,” released in 2007. These past few years seemed like a good time to hear from happy Kanye again. Keep in mind, though, “Waves” is not out yet so anything is still possible. Those songs can be the only low points, or Kanye might show that being a grumpy dad actually inspires incredible music. Maybe Kanye will prove me wrong. He always has, and he probably will.
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WINTER IN WINE COUNTRY
Editor in Chief Kelly Hillock took this Western-esque photo in the wine country of Temecula, her hometown.