The Montage

VOLUME 55, ISSUE 3

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

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WWW.MERAMECMONTAGE.COM

Photos by Ashley Biundo Top Left: Freshman Ajay Sager runs past third base against Saline County Monarchs at Busch Stadium on Sept. 18. Bottom Left: Freshman, Garrison Hibbs slides into second base. Top Middle: Blane Besse talks with his team before the game starts. Middle: Freshman, Luke Lageman throws the ball from first base.

Top Right: Archers baseball walking off the field at Busch Stadium after the game on Sept. 18. Bottom Right: Freshman, Sam Bennett catches the ball.

ARCHERS IN THE OUTFIELD Archers defeated Saline County Monarchs 14-1 at Busch Stadium ISABELLE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER & ASHLEY BIUNDO PRODUCTION MANAGER

O

n Wednesday Sept. 18, the STLCC baseball team defeated the Saline County Monarchs 14-1 right after the Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals 5-1.

Head Coach Scott Goodrich said that it is a really good experience for the team, especially the new players.

“I tell our players, it’s not really about winning and losing here, it’s really about just getting out here and experiencing on the field,” he said. “For someone who’s never been here before on the field, you can tell it; it’s a pretty exciting opportunity for them just to get out here and be in the stadium.”

“This is my first year playing at the stadium. This is actually my first time ever playing at the stadium. So it was

a really good experience,” Freshman, Trevor Abney said. “I’ve walked around the field a bunch of times but I’ve never actually played here. It is a fun time and now me and my teammates are out here killing it.”

Freshman Luke Lageman said that it is really cool to be able to play where the guys at the high level play and Freshman Tyler Ferguson said “it was an experience to remember.”

Playing at Busch Stadium in the preseason every year has brought a lot of positives to the baseball program such as

Is it Worth it? pg. 7

being able to afford the travel expenses for games, according to Goodrich.

“It is a big fundraiser for us that we do

“

It’s not about winning and losing here; it is really about just getting out here and experiencing it on the field.

-Scott Goodrich

”

all year; it’s like a fun opportunity and we had to sell 600 tickets for this, so we made about $7,000,” he said. “It also helps us

Upcoming Events in the Music Department pg. 5

get our guys sweatshirts and sweatpants and hoodies and all those extra things.

We have a really good budget that allows us to do a lot of things with this and it allows us to do the extra things that are good for our players.”

Goodrich said that when they play at Busch Stadium, it is mainly to see his players having fun.

“This is about as low pressure and low intensity that we do so it an opportunity for everyone to have fun and enjoy baseball and not worry about the wins and not worry about the losses,” he said.

“Not worrying about if you make an error. It’s just a good opportunity to have fun with your teammates.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Hustle, Hit and Never Quit pg. 8

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2 NEWS

Sepember 26, 2019

STLCC Rolls out a New Online College College Two Faces Challenges as Faculty, Administration Work Out Kinks

BRI HEANEY NEWS EDITOR

S

TLCC has rolled out an online college, commonly referred to as College Two. Students who were previously taking online classes through one of the four campuses of STLCC are now enrolled through the online college campus that operates in the cloud.

Reneta Luck took over as director of the new College Two this semester as it rolled out. “We operate as a district campus instead of an individual campus within the district,” said Luck.

The campus will draw resources in the form of faculty and leadership from the four physical campuses while offering one consolidated place for students to sign up and schedule online classes, said Luck.

Chancellor Jeff Pittman, who played a major role in instituting the online college program at his former school Ivy Tech in Indiana, has been a part of rolling out the new College Two. “A college the size of St. Louis Community College - when you have four sites for example - there are a lot of inefficiencies in that model,” said Pittman. “The way it was before, I don’t even think each campus knew what

the other campus was offering in online education so you had a lot of duplication.”

Since the online classes don’t actually meet at any one campus, Pittman said he believes that it only makes sense that they be offered in one spot for students to register for and for the college to schedule.

Luck agrees. “You might have had four different English classes on four different campuses and all of them running with low enrollment,” she said. “For example, you might have had one with eight, one with seven, one with 10. By going as a district we are able to offer one English class at full enrollment.”

However, with the reduction in the amount of the same classes offered online there is also a reduction in the amount of teachers teaching those classes. Luck acknowledges that with the reduction of duplicate classes offered there will naturally be a reduction of classes offered for faculty to teach.

Kathy Retino is one of the adjunct instructors who has been affected by this cut in classes. Retino teaches mainly online classes and has for the past five years at STLCC. She said that when she went to check her schedule for the fall semester she didn’t have a single class, a

stark difference to the three classes she said she has been teaching for the past five years.

“All of the sudden there were way less classes for adjuncts which I somewhat expected, but it has been a hard hit to our ability to earn a living with the college while teaching online,” said Retino.

Retino said that while this is symptomatic of the cuts in duplicate classes this is also part of a growing phenomenon of full time teachers taking on more overload classes. Retino said that teachers can make overtime pay for any class load that exceeds five classes, and can take on up to nine classes.

“Some full time professors are able to take on a course load that they would not otherwise have wanted to take on without the online classes,” said Retino.

Denise Sperruzza is a communications professor at STLCC and was originally one of the members of the first task force associated with the online college.

Many colleges, including STLCC offer courses of record for faculty to teach. A course of record is designed by a faculty member and has a detailed schedule and course plan for a particular class. It is taught following the guidelines that the

designer originally set up. Some faculty are referring to the course of record as a course in a box, she said.

“Somebody designs a course and the faculty who are hired to teach are adjunct only and they just teach a course in a box (course of record) that is designed for them. Faculty at the community college have been very resistant to that course in a box concept from the very beginning discussions of the online college,” said Sperruuza.

Sperruzza said that this takes from professors’ abilities to design classes the way that is best for their particular teaching style. The style of making and planning for your own classes takes more time but is better for teachers and students in the long run, said Speruzza.

However, Pittman said he believes that this enables teachers to be able to teach more classes in an efficient manner and quality-controlled manner.

“We do everything we can to keep our tuition low and keep it affordable for students,” said Pittman. “It’s actually about increasing opportunities for full time faculty to be able to teach online because they aren’t so involved in course creation or development.”

NEWS 3

September 26, 2019

Budget Cuts Tied to Economic Recession, Recent Budget Restructuring Campus Civic Engagement Still Lively in Spite of Budget Cuts EVE COHEN STAFF WRITER

A

pproximately 46 campus clubs and organizations are currently active on the Meramec campus.

They serve an important role in student success and achievement.

According to Carolyn O’Laughlin, Manager of Campus Life in Student Affairs at Meramec, academic clubs and organizations are “Impactful, [allowing] students to make social connections with one another; often among students who may have only met briefly in class.”

Most importantly, these connections usher “Informal conversations, guiding students to [other] resources.”

Nonetheless, clubs and organizations may have observed a decrease in funding for events and activities this academic year. There are several factors that account for this.

First of all, the student activities budget is directly linked to student enrollment. The current total student population of STLCC reflects a steady decline in enrollment over the course

of the last decade. Overall, student enrollment recently gathered during census week for this year reflects an estimated 25 percent decrease in student enrolment from the student population count in 2013. Phillip Campbell, Manager of Admissions and Enrollment Services at Meramec attributes the decline in part to the economy. “The economy is up [more people are] taking jobs,” he said.

Consequently, the wane in enrolment is no phenomena exclusive to the region.

The U.S. Census Bureau data coincides with STLCC student numbers, revealing the impact of the recession on campuses nationwide.

Proportionally, according to STLCC board policy, the student activities budget is derived from enrollment numbers.

When students register for classes, $6.50 per credit hour is designated for what is called “College activity fees.” Of that $6.50 fee, $3.00 is designated the activities budget, (the first $200,000 is earmarked for student athletics.) Subsequently,

$3.00 of that $6.50 is divided up evenly into two funds. One for campus activities and the other for student clubs and organizations.

The second major aspect of the change in the student activities budget funding is a recent restructuring of how funds are handled.

“In the past, the committee gave clubs and organizations sums to use all year.

[However], clubs weren’t always active.

Now funds are [distributed] event by event. It’s harder work but it provides a better experience, accountability and transparency,” said O’Laughlin. “Online courses are changing the funding dynamic [as STLCC strives to resolve] with how to serve online students with clubs.”

When submitting a request for funding, clubs and organizations should be mindful of strategic initiatives in relation to outcomes, which are given priority, O’Laughlin said.. They include the degree to which the activity fosters

student success, strengthens community ties or awareness, or even whether it aligns with workforce needs. Another important quality is the extent to which the activity promotes accountability and continuous improvement.

O’Laughlin said additional consideration is given based on how many people on campus are impacted by the activity, the club or organization and the goal and depth of its benefit to campus studens.

Moreover, O’Laughlin reinforced the importance of student clubs and organizations. She said clubs and organizations allow students to put “Classroom skills in action…activities [such as] attending meetings, creating a budget, coordinating with an advisor.

Professional development skills can come from student organizations where students develop an idea, apply for funding, and then see that idea going forward. [They will] articulate those skills later.”

MERAMEC CELEBRATES CONSTITUTION DAY SEPT. 17

Left: Missouri State Representative from the 90th district, Deb Lavender, speaks to STLCC students and faculty during Constitution Day. Right: Karen Francis, Director of Advocacy for women’s voices raised, speaks to students and faculty during Constitution Day.

PHOTOS by HARLAN MCCARTHY

EDITORS

STAFF

JACOB POLITTE ONLINE EDITOR

EVE COHEN

STAFF WRITER/PHOTO

BRI HEANEY NEWS EDITOR

ISABELLE WILLIAMS

STAFF WRITER

OLIVER PULCHER ART & LIFE EDITOR

HARLAN MCCARTHY

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

JORDAN RAYMOND

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MARY WILSON OPINIONS EDITOR ASHLEY BIUNDO PRODUCTION MANAGER SYED ALI PHOTO EDITOR

Shannon Philpott-Sanders Faculty Adviser

THE MONTAGE

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4 ART & LIFE

September 26, 2019

Mock Trial: A Campus Debate

The New Club That Promises to Teach Critical Thinking OLIVER PULCHER ART & LIFE EDITOR

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n Sept. 10, the Student Governance Council for Saint Louis Community College-Meramec voted to approve two new student clubs for the Meramec campus. These two new clubs are Mock Trial and Library Club.

Mock Trial is an imitation trial wherein students take on the various roles needed to fulfill the requirements for that trial. Students may form prosecution or defense teams or act as judges, jury members or witnesses.

Participating students receive case files and prepare to argue the case as real lawyers would. There is then a trial held where the students compete against each other.

“There were multiple reasons I started Mock Trial. The primary one was that I really liked the club in high school and I had a dream of becoming a lawyer.

That sort of changed, but I know that the skills that come up in this club will be useful in whatever career I choose. I like helping people, and one of my main goals is to help teach other students learn how to be more persuasive through Mock Trial,” said Barak Adler, the

“

club’s president.

Adler said he believes that Mock Trial is a strong tool when it comes to building persuasion skills. He argues that anyone who has taken a communications class has given a speech, however Mock Trial requires more mental energy and is a better exercise in persuasion as students have to keep many issues and strategies straight in their minds. The other area where Mock Trial differs from speeches is that students never know what may happen in a courtroom at any given time, and so they have to learn adaptability to be successful in much trial competitions.

“Anyone who would like to practice being more assertive, speaking in front of an audience, or being more able to persuade other people would benefit from the club,” said Adler.

Mock Trial currently has no set meeting times, though the club president plans to set them up within the next few weeks. Adler plans to use the membership within Meramec’s club to either build a league within Meramec for competitions, or to possibly join an external mock trial league.

However, he said the primary goal of Mock Trial is to

I like helping people and one of my main goals is to help other students learn how to be more persuasive.

”

barak adler

PHOTO by syed ali educate students on the processes and rules of partaking in Mock Trial. Further goals of the club will be discussed at the first meeting of this semester.

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ART & LIFE 5

September 26, 2019

5

study tips for Meramec students What Works Best To Help Studying for Tests

MARY WILSON OPINIONS EDITOR

College can be difficult and according to the American Psychological Association (APA), 28 percent of students seeking counseling report problems with their academic performance. Professors encourage students to take good notes, but taking notes is only part of academic success. Below, students will find five tips that will help them succeed.

1

Chew gum while studying: Sciencedaily.com cites a study from Cardiff University that revealed that chewing gum “can help you stay focused for longer on tasks that require continuous monitoring.”

2

3

Space out studying— don’t cram! As tempting as it can be to save an entire semester’s worth of chemistry instruction for one night of studying, the American Psychological Association website asserts that “spacing out study sessions over a longer period of time improves long-term memory.” In other words, it’s better to study for a little bit each night for a week, versus an all-nighter before an exam.

Use memory tricks, like mnemonic devices: According to ldonline. org, a website with resources for learning disabilities, mnemonic instruction can be particularly effective for students with learning disabilities such as ADHD. Mnemonics involves “teaching students to link new information that is taught to information they already know.” According to parent24.com a simple example of mnemonics is “linking the letter “a” to the word “apple”.

4

Put the phone away: According to The Wall Street Journal and The Princeton Review, it takes workers, on average, 25 minutes to return to “what they were working on preinterruption.” If possible, students should put their cell phones away or silence notifications while studying.

5

Don’t be afraid to ask for help: It’s perfectly normal to struggle a bit in classes, but students don’t need to struggle alone.

The Writing Center has professionals ready to help students at any stage of the writing process, no matter the size of the project. Students can also get help with subjects like math. The Academic Support Center, located on the 2nd floor of the library, can help “in any class,” according to the St. Louis Community College website.

The Sounds of Meramec Upcoming events in the Music Department ASHLEY BIUNDO PRODUCTION MANAGER Oct 8th: Choir and Orchestra welcome Singer, Songwriter Sam Bush to Meramec Campus at 7pm and starting at 6pm, STLCC students (with ID) can get a free ticket in the lobby. First come, first served. “He is considered the father of Bluegrass,” says Dr. Jerry Myers, Music Program Coordinator and Professor of Music. The concert is a fundraiser for a new Steinway grand piano for the theater. Tickets are available at stlcc.edu/steinwayfund

Dec 8th: Holiday Concert that includes all of the groups according to Dr. Myers February 2020: Choir concert with the St. Louis Philharmonic.

! r e f s n a r T r u o Plan Y souri–St. Louis is

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Join the Team Meetings every Tuesday at 4 PM in SC 220A (Student Center)

Office hours for STLCC Meramec students: Advising Center–Clark Hall MONDAY–TUESDAY Contact Christy Hummel for an appointment: askchristy@umsl.edu or 314-984-7512 WEDNESDAY–FRIDAY Contact Teri Furlow for an appointment: furlowt@umsl.edu or 314-984-7512

Did you know UMSL offers bachelor’s degree completion programs at STLCC?

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9/9/19 1:27 PM

September 26, 2019

Is it worth it?

OPINIONS 7

Is the Second Amendment worth the 100 American lives lost to gun violence each day?

MARY WILSON OPINIONS EDITOR

W

e need bipartisan, commonsense gun laws, and we need them now.

Even aside from the mass shootings we as Americans have grown so desensitized and accustomed to-after all, we don’t hear of other countries training their schoolchildren to hide in darkened classrooms in the hopes that they won’t be gunned down during math class--100 Americans are killed by guns each day, according to sources like the Giffords Law Center and Everytown for Gun Safety. That averages out to 36,000 Americans each year.

I’m certainly not a mathematician, but this isn’t complicated: there are 24 hours in each day. That means that four Americans are shot and killed every hour. Or, if that isn’t stark enough: almost every 15 minutes, an American is

shot and killed.

Let me repeat that: every 15 minutes, an American is shot and killed.

Aside from the deaths from guns, the Giffords Law Center reports that 100,000 Americans are shot and injured per year. Maybe it’s easy to rationalize this away: after all, surely other countries have similar statistics. Right?

Wrong. The Giffords Law Center claims that “Americans are 25 times more likely to die from gun violence than residents of peer nations.” That means that per 100,000 people, France had 2.4 gun deaths. Canada had 1.9 gun deaths. Germany had one gun death, and Australia, the UK and Japan all had less than one gun death per 100,000 people.

The United States of America had 11.2 gun deaths per 100,000 people.

The United States is only 4 percent

STUDENTS WEIGH-IN

of the world’s population. However, the USA accounts for “35 percent of global firearm suicides and 9 percent of global firearm homicides.”

Suicide is a key part of our gun violence crisis, yet it’s rarely talked about. The Giffords Law Center asserts that guns are used in 51 percent “of suicide deaths in America.” Not only that, but “access to a gun triples the risk of suicide death” If that wasn’t enough, “85 percent of gun suicide attempts end in death.” Less than 5 percent of “non-firearm suicide attempts result in death.”

Everytown For Gun Safety adds that “nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides.”

All of this gun violence has an astounding impact on Americans; according to Everytown For Gun Safety, “58 percent of American adults or

someone they care have experienced gun violence in their lifetime” and “three million American children witness gun violence every year.”

I know, I know: the Second Amendment is covered by our Constitution. Responsible gun owners do exist. And no one that I know of is talking about taking all of the guns away.

These statistics, however, tell a story that we can’t afford to look away from.

It took me about 45 minutes to gather all of the information necessary for this article and write it. In the time it took me to write this article, three Americans were shot and killed by guns.

We need bipartisan, common-sense gun laws, and we need them now.

Who in your life has to die from gun violence before you take action?

“Every day, 100 Americans are shot and killed.

Do you think we as a country need to do more to prevent and stop gun violence?”

JOSHUA UTTERBACK “I believe it’s a health issue, not a crime issue.

Guns have always been in this country; we’ve always had idiots with guns. We’ve always had people who don’t know how to use guns, but mental health is more of an issue than ever, and we need to start approaching crime from the health perspective, and then I believe the results will follow positively.”

JAMAIYAH REDMOND

VICTOR VARGAS

“Yes, because people shouldn’t be dying for senseless reasons.”

“Yes.”

MARY WILSON OPINIONS SYED ALI PHOTO EDITOR

What is Success?

Why We Need to Stop Normalizing That Success Equates Extreme Stress OLIVER PULCHER ART & LIFE EDITOR

T

his weekend I will be attending the fall leadership conference for Phi Theta Kappa’s Missouri Region as President of Meramec’s chapter, Xi Lambda.

This is one of two fall conferences in total that I have been lucky enough to be invited to attend through positions I hold at Meramec.

Since I came to this school as a freshman one year ago, I have involved myself with many of the organizations on this campus. I really enjoy getting involved with various projects and seeing what other students are truly passionate about. It’s exhilarating being around people that you know will one day change the world.

That being said, have I occasionally overdone it with everything I have chosen to involve myself with? Yes, I have. It’s really easy to do that when you

want to just keep pushing forward. And for about a semester and a half, I was fine with overdoing it all the time. I was fine with it because I love this campus and I want to give back what it has given me progress and success.

But one incident made me realize that if I wanted to continue to be involved and still be a functioning human being at the end of the day, I had to balance all the work with self care.

One day last semester I woke up feeling utterly exhausted. I struggled to get out of bed and for about 20 minutes I laid there, wondering if I should even get up. I decided to get up. I rolled out of bed, went to stand, and I fell over. After that I crawled back into bed and proceeded to sleep the entire day. My body felt like it was burning up, and I was barely conscious most of the day. The next day I went to class and a friend who’s a nurse

told me that what happened to me was total exhaustion.

Since that day, I have really attempted to do everything to keep myself healthy and functioning. The truth is that there seems to be this thought that if you are successful, you should be stressed, exhausted, and running on caffeine and dreams alone. This is a dangerous way to live, and as students we should be encouraging each other to do the opposite of these things.

I’m not perfect; in fact, I’m far from it, but the only way I have maintained my lifestyle for this long is by taking care of myself.

To avoid exhaustion, I safeguard my decompression time and my time for sleeping. After seven most nights I won’t answer any work emails, calls, or text messages, including those from the various clubs I’m involved in. And

after 10:30 at night, if my homework isn’t done, the books are closed and the devices shut off.

To avoid crashing during the day I force myself to eat both breakfast and lunch. I also try my hardest to avoid overconsumption of caffeine and I drink plenty of water.

To take care of my mental health I see a therapist regularly. I recognize that the levels of stress I may deal with during any given week are enormous, and I also recognize that I have past issues with trauma and suicide that I need to deal with on a regular basis.

I also regularly go to the gym to help get my body moving.

These things won’t prevent everything, but if we all encourage each other to take care of ourselves, success will be a more healthy and attainable goal for us all.

8 SPORTS

September 26, 2019

Hustle, Hit and Never Quit

Lady Archers Volleyball has a winning record of 11-5 ASHLEY BIUNDO PRODUCTION MANAGER

L

ady Archers’ volleyball team has started their season off with a winning record of 11-5. Head Coach Geoff Davis said he has some high expectations for the rest of the season with this season being his third full season.

“I am just pumped about the opportunities that we have. So I believe that this team has a real good chance of getting out of districts and into national championship play,” he said. “When I first got here, what I told the athletic director was I had a five year plan to get these girls back in contention because of where the program was, and what was necessary in order to do that.”

The Lady Archers have had some successful wins through the past couple years. “We have made it in three last year. We played in the Regional Championship match which was pretty awesome for the group of girls that we had,” Davis said. “We were stronger and more dynamic this year and we got a group of girls that are really committed to the success of the program. And so I see us having the ability to go into all things plan, if we can stay injury free, to really move well beyond the regular season and into postseason play. So I’m pretty pumped about that.”

With midseason coming up, the volleyball team has seen some of their strengths.

“We got a lot of kids that won’t quit

and we’ve got that real strong defensively, and we have really smart hitters this year,” Davis said. “I’m surprised some of the freshmen that came in as our major contributors already and could easily have played that at another level.

I’m happy that they’re here and they’re learning and growing.”

The speed that the Lady Archers have is going to scare people, according to Davis.

“I think defensively our passing is keeping us in a lot of the matches that we play. We’ve come out ahead on most of our matches, and we play the number 12 team seated in the country this weekend,” he said. “We were a point away from going into fifth set with that and it was the first time that St. Louis in at least 16 years had taken a set off of that team.

So, I’m really excited about the fact that that we went on their home court and played them that well. And I think that shows well for the kids in terms of their commitment and belief in themselves as well.”

Throughout Davis’ coaching career, he said as the years go by more and more people are becoming part of the program and seeing all the success the volleyball team has been celebrating.

“We have kind of a story to tell. We’re getting kids in the gym. We’ve had an opportunity to get a lot of kids in the gym over the over the course of the year.

They’re seeing that there’s a program

here and it’s vibrant,” he said. “We’re in the community and we’re trying to make some things happen in terms of visibility. And I think as a result of that, we’re finding a lot more dynamic kids wanting to take it off, take a shot at coming here and trying to make a contribution to the program.”

Davis said he hopes that his team has been learning life skills from being in the volleyball program and hopes that they will use what he teaches for the future.

He said he wants them to build strong character and be not only successful on the court, but off.

“No matter what they want to accomplish, hard work will help them get there and help them reach their goals,” he said. “The stuff that they’re learning in here, getting up at 5 am and being in the gym bright and early, working their butts off for a team that they care for.”

Davis has been coaching for a little over 10 years, with being at STLCC the last four seasons and he said what is rewarding about coaching is that he sees the growth in his players.

“The ability to be able to help somebody become something greater than they think they could have been,” he said. “I just see the growth and the personalities. A lot of the kids come back and say that was a rewarding experience.

Having the ability to be able to help shape lives is a pretty cool thing and so that’s my skin in the game.”

Top: Freshman Haley Vlassos gets ready to hit the ball against Missouri State University- West Plains on Sept 11.

Middle: Haley Vlassos and Kyla Sidener jump up to block the ball.

Bottom: The team getting ready to play the next set.

ARCHERS IN THE OUTFIELD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Although it is preseason, Goodrich said that he is seeing the team’s strengths.

“Pitching has been our strength. We think today was a really good indication that we just do it. I think we only walked one guy all day [at Busch],” he said. “We go in with quality pitching and usually have good defense that is very confident and that’s a good thing to have at this point in the year because I think our offensive can grow and we’ll do that as the year goes on.”

With strengths comes high expectations for the upcoming season.

Goodrich said that this season is no different than before.

“I don’t think our expectation this year is any different than any other

year. We expect to compete to win the regional,” he said. “That’s our goal every year; we want to win the region. Get on a postseason play and hopefully compete at the national level.”

A new year comes with new players, and this season Archers baseball welcome 30 new players. Thirty players in community college is a huge turnover, according to Goodrich. It is also another strength the team has.

“I think one of the really good things like having 30 new players that it’s an opportunity for us as coaches to mold them the way we want to because we only have a handful of players that were on the team last year and the guys that are coming back are very good players,” he said. “They’re very impactful for us. So

Left: Jacob Fleming gets ready to pitch the ball.

Right: Brandon Ulm steps up to the plate and gets ready to bat.

we can really guide those new players to follow the returning players. They know what we expect and know we want them to do so for we don’t have any negatives everybody has started with a fresh slate.”

Goodrich said that it is exciting that they can get the players going the direction they want to go.

The team has had it’s struggles in the past and according to Goodrich, they are working on offense.

“We’re clicking and already really good on that. So we need to grow offensively. For some of the guys who were on the team last year, we struggled a little bit in certain areas,” he said.

“That’s a real focus offensively; we want to reduce our strikeouts and we want to maximize RBIs. We have base runners

on to score more runs and I think if we continue to improve on that little we can be successful in the spring.”

Being able to coach at Busch Stadium every year has been rewarding for Coach Goodrich and seeing all the players expressions as they hit the field, he said.

“The most rewarding thing is looking at people and players that never played here before. And it’s kind of like they’re very wide eyed,” he said. “We brought a couple of the guys on the field before the game and they were like ‘man I can’t wait to go out there and play.’ So that’s really cool. But also seeing the players that never played here and hear their parents cheer for them and hear them when their names are announced. That’s the coolest part about this whole deal.”