O
March 30, 2017
Vol. 54 No. 49
No punts, no problem
High school coach Kevin Kelley lets numbers drive his coaching decisions
Page 10 TEDxUSF gives student a voice Page 3
Side hustle nothing to applaud Page 4
Art in the dark Page 6
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the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966
Editor in Chief Jacob Hoag oracleeditor@gmail.com
Associate Editor Breanne Williams oracleopinion@gmail.com Lifestyle Editor Nicole Cate oraclelifestyleeditor@gmail.com
News........................................................3 Opinion.................................................4 Lifestyle................................................6 Classifieds...........................................8 Crossword..........................................8 Sports...................................................10
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News Briefs Ivanka Trump becomes official First Daughter
news
TEDxUSF gives student platform to discuss depiction of Islam in society UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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USF professor inducted into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame
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Ivanka Trump
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
Ivanka Trump has taken an official role at the White House as First Daughter. It’s classified as an unpaid employee position that will support the President. She has an office in the West Wing of the White House. This formalizes an adviser position she’s been in since the campaign. According to the Huffington Post, she’s added items to the President’s agenda such as sinking a draft of an executive order that would have rolled back Obama-era protections for LGBT Americans.
Senate expands investigation into Russia The Senate Intelligence Committee announced it would be expanding its investigation of Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential campaign and beyond, according to Fox News. The senators announced they’re scheduling interviews and reviewing thousands of sensitive documents while preparing to issue subpoenas if necessary. The first public hearing is scheduled for today.
Richard Gitlin
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
By Abby Rinaldi S T A F F
Yasmine Ezzair spoke at TEDxUSF about taking her experiences as a Muslim woman in America and how she’s using them to sell art, with the money going to support Syrian refugees. ORACLE PHOTO/MIKI SHINE By Miki Shine M A N A G I N G
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Yasmine Ezzair remembers being 11 years old and calling all of her friends the day before starting middle school to ask a single question, “Will you still be friends with me if I wear a headscarf?” And she remembers getting both reassurances and rejections. “I remember vividly walking up to my middle school door … and feeling my knees shake and my stomach clench. I was afraid,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid to be Muslim, I wasn’t afraid to wear the hijab itself.
But I was afraid of how people would react.” At TEDxUSF on Tuesday night, Ezzair, a USF chemistry major, shared her story of taking a step into what she considers to be her freedom and liberation “On that very first day that I took a step … to allow people see me — my soul — before seeing the rest of me, my skin, my bodily appearance. So that very first day that I took that step not only in my piety, not only in my spirituality, but in my identity as a human being, as a Muslim girl, I was called everything in the book that you can imagine.” In high school, Ezzair fought
legally to join the varsity basketball team while wearing her hijab. A battle she won. Her senior year, on her way back from visiting the University of Florida, Ezzair was sitting in the back seat while her father drove when a car ran into the passenger’s side of their car. “I just heard metal crash. I didn’t know what was going on. My head slammed into the front seat, and all I see was glass,” she said. “I remember that moment so vividly because that’s the moment I thought that if I had sat in the passenger’s seat that day, I
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W R I T E R
When Richard Gitlin was growing up in New York, he was the kind of guy who wanted to crash model trains and write computer programs that would force division by zero. Now a professor in electrical engineering teaching a graduate level class at USF, Gitlin holds 60 U.S. patents and was recently elected to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Over his long career in the field of engineering, Gitlin is most proud of having invented the Digital Subscriber Line and the MIMO smart antenna technology, both of which are related to improving the transfer of data on phone networks. At USF, he is proudest of the production of a vectorcardiogram, a wearable electrocardiogram that has
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Opinion
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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Side hustle not lifestyle to applaud
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What you said Associate Editor Breanne Williams asked students if they have ever considered picking up a side job or extra work to make ends meet.
“I know people who have multiple jobs and the reason why is the availability (of hours) isn’t enough, or they need money.” - Vinicius Lage, a senior majoring in industrial engineering
Millennials are being applauded for picking up multiple jobs, when really it is reflective of a broken economy. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
By Breanne Williams C O L U M N I S T
Success. It’s what every person has dreamed of in America. Previous generations viewed the American dream as a house, white picket fence and a family. Millennials simply dream of receiving a decent job in their field. We’ve grown up in the Great Recession; we have no delusions about the state of the economy. We accepted years ago we would simply work multiple jobs to survive. And we do. More than a third of millennials have a side job, according to a 2016 survey by CareerBuilder. But this lifestyle, the “side hustle,” isn’t something that should be celebrated, as is a growing trend among advertisers. Lyft bragged about one of their drivers continuing to pick up ride requests while she was in labor, prioritizing the average $11 drivers make per ride over her need for medical care. Fiverr, an online freelance marketplace, spearheaded an entire campaign called “In Doers We Trust.” One of its ads in New York’s subways said, “You eat a coffee for lunch. You follow through on your follow through. Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.”
There are podcasts, books and blogs all dedicated to praising the “side hustle” and offering tips on how to juggle the gig job, a main job and other responsibilities like school or family. A 2016 study of those who graduated from 2009-13 in MarketWatch found 45 percent of college graduates worked a “noncollege job,” which is any position where less than half of those in the job need a bachelor’s degree. Low-skilled jobs — baristas, waitresses, cashiers, etc. — that average a salary of $23,584 annually, accounted for 19.3 percent of underemployed graduates. Obviously, such low paying jobs are not enough to live off of, especially if you have student loan payments to meet monthly. Hence, the need for at least one side job. And despite our growing economy, millennials are still more disadvantaged than previous genera tions. Pew Research Center compared generations and found 6 percent of millennial college graduates lived in poverty in 2013, double the 3 percent of Baby Boomers who lived in poverty in 1979. To survive, graduates are turning to unconventional forms of work. Driving for Lyft or Uber, freelancing for businesses, making Etsy accounts and settling for side jobs at Starbucks and American Eagle. They pitch themselves to every-
one they meet in hopes of a job opportunity and will work themselves into exhaustion to make rent. The American Psychological Association found people between the ages of 18 to 33 are overwhelmed with anxiety. Over 50 percent reported being kept up all night recently due to “overwhelming worries.” Millennials are tired. Tired of failing to live up to impossible expectations. Tired of going days with little to no sleep. Tired of being so stressed out we literally become mentally ill. And we’re tired of people acting like our struggle is something to celebrate. We shouldn’t have to consume a “coffee for lunch” and have sleep deprivation as our “drug of choice.” Don’t applaud the fact that millennials have found a way to survive in this society, even if it means running ourselves ragged. We don’t want to work ourselves to death, and advertising a business or product by pitching our exhaustion as a fun lifestyle choice is degrading. This isn’t a fate anyone would choose. Instead of using this reality for self-promotion, society should focus on finding a way to remedy it. Breanne Williams is a senior majoring in mass communications.
“I work and have considered a second job, one in my field, and one that’s more social, like in a restaurant. They fulfill two different aspects.” - Yennhi Nguyen, a senior majoring in health sciences
“I’ve considered it, but luckily I live off scholarships. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be working too.” - C.J. Ramsey, a sophomore majoring in creative writing
“I generally work seasonal and live off scholarships, but when I can, I do work.” - Ryan Kelly, a junior majoring in political sciences
USF P.R.I.D.E hosts Equality Prom
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By Nyki Cate S T A F F
Students take part in the annual P.R.I.D.E Equality Prom. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
TEDx
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probably wouldn’t be standing here today.” Ezzair said she took that moment and the adversity she had faced to evaluate her life and the impact she had made on society. “I realized that people hate me,” she said. “For no reason. And I may die at any moment.” She took to Twitter with a pencil and paper and with a talent in drawing. Ezzair received messages from people around the world, sending her pictures of themselves or their families.
“This is great, I’m going to do something for once. I’m going to make an impact,” she said. “I’m going to do something in this world, because if I do leave for whatever reason, I will know confidently that I left something. That I left something concrete.” Ezzair takes the money from her drawings and donates it to relief operations for Syrian refugees. “These are human beings who, just like me, are misrepresented,” she said. “People see them as a threat, people see them as a danger, even though all they want is to be free. All they want is the pursuit of happiness.
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The USF Pride Alliance has been hosting its Equality Prom every year for as long as Cristian Rosario can remember. Rosario is P.R.I.D.E’s president, and has been a part of the club for five years. As the organization has been around since 1974, there isn’t anyone currently involved who can tell how far back this tradition spans. However, tonight, for the first time in the club’s history, it will be combining the dance with its fourth annual drag/ variety show. This contest was originally intended to be held earlier in the month on March 2, but only two people had signed up to perform. “Myself and the E-board didn’t see the point in spending a lot of money on an event that would last 30 minutes,” Rosario said. The Equality Prom is held every spring semester in March, I took that and I identified with their struggle because I’ve been there and I used that specific population as a means of sharing my own struggles.” On that first day in middle school, Ezzair had a boy in her art class wrap his head in a sweater, make a gun out of two markers and make gun noises saying that he’s a terrorist just like her. “I remember feeling so crushed that day because all I wanted and even to this day all I want is to spread peace, to spread love,” she said. “And being misrepresented was one of the most heart wrenching moments because it was the first time I felt injustice.”
so the E-board figured they could combine both occasions. They also decided to keep the speakeasy theme they had arranged for the drag/variety show to give the night a “1920’s club feel.” The dance starts tonight at 7 in MSC 2708. The first hour is set aside as a meet-and-greet portion for the guests, and the drag/ variety show is scheduled for 8. After the winners are crowned, which should be around 9:20 p.m. according to Rosario, dinner will be served. The entire night is slated to go until 11 p.m. There are currently six acts on the agenda for tonight, consisting of both club members and nonclub members. The speakeasy theme will be apparent in the decorations and activities planned, such as a 1920’s car cut-out, jazz trio silhouettes and feathers and boas and fedoras for partygoers to take pictures in.
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“Most of our dances are our biggest events every year,” Rosario said. “This is definitely a more popular event because who doesn’t like a dance?” For attendees, this occasion is meant to be more than a fun celebration. Rosario stated that one of the purposes of the prom is “to promote a safe space for anyone and everyone to be able to come.” He mentioned that this includes people who wish to dance with their partners without feeling discriminated against. “Everyone really loves it, and they have a great time,” Rosario said. “They say that they always feel welcome and safe, and they’re always excited for the next year.” He went on to say that people who want to show up shouldn’t bother themselves with dressing to match the theme, as the important thing is that they come out to enjoy themselves and support the P.R.I.D.E. Alliance.
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LIFESTYLE
Art in the dark: “The Flashlight Play” UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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By Breanne Williams A S S O C I A T E
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A USF graduate has created a play unlike any other. Audience members will follow a trail of glow sticks to an unlit theater, use the password “mungy” to enter and be responsible for choosing the ending of the show. The audience will sit in complete darkness with zero set lights, as the actors highlight each other with whatever glowing object they can carry. Kevin Wesson, a 2016 USF graduate, is hoping to highlight the grim reality that most young artists face upon graduation: Creating art is extremely expensive, and thus unfeasible for most, despite their passion. Wesson said he wrote the play as a direct criticism of the venues and places around Tampa that are not accessible for students. “I came up with the idea when I was back in school at USF,” Wesson said. “None of us have money to rent out spaces and none of the spaces around town, for the most part, are affordable for young artists or artists trying to put out new work. So, we came up with the idea to throw our own secret show. Just break into a venue and do it ourselves because we’re going to put on art whether money ties us down or not.” “The Flashlight Play” is a unique theater experience running March 30 to April 9 at the Silver Meteor Art Gallery in Tampa, which Wesson said is ideal because the owner rents it out for $100 a week, mere “change” compared to the other venues in the area. In the play, three actors sneak
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A group of local actors rehearse for “The Flashlight Play,” written by USF graduate Kevin Wesson (left). ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ into a theater at night and put on their own work without turning on any stage lights. The audience is “snuck in” and warned not to put anything on social media that could alert the police they were there. The only lighting will be glow sticks, lanterns, a laser pointer and flashlights, which will all be brought in by actors throughout the play. Attendees are encouraged to wear all black as well to add to the effect. The audience watches as the actors spook over noises from behind the stage and give detailed instructions on what to do if they are “busted.” Then, they are pulled into the story as they are asked by a character
None of us have money to rent out spaces and none of the spaces around town, for the most part, are affordable for young artists or artists trying to put out new work. Kevin Wesson, playwright of “The Flashlight Play”
named Val to write a “mad libs style” ending themselves. “It’s a play within a play,” said Brianna Larson, the director of the play. “You see what they’re there to present, you see all
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the stories, but the best part is watching these three people have to deal with what they’ve done and deal with the people they’ve brought there.” Riddled with profanities, the
show is written as a satire of the art world in the U.S. Wesson said he hopes older generations might realize the theater, which he says they proclaim is dying, is not being made approachable for younger artists. “I’m hoping the audience walks away with sympathy for younger artists and sympathy for lower ticket prices,” Wesson said. Two of the three actors, Hayden Baker and Johnny Garde, are USF alumni and the third, Taliana Bosio, is currently a theater major at USF. The show is free, and runs for 50 minutes from 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
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Classifieds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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VEHICLES FOR SALE
Specialty dental practice across from USF looking to hire a part time business assistant! This assistant will help us take and manage incoming calls after office hours. Ideal position for pre dental students or students studying business administration/communications. Flexible hours to accommodate your school schedule, especially if you take day classes! Please call (813) 977-2928 or email your resume to mhuynh@implantperio.com
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FOR SALE/MISCELLANEOUS Bumper Stickers “What’s President 140 Done Now?” For other bumper stickers and novelties visit www.zazzle.com/lagooncorps Like Us On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ LagoonCorps/
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been able to predict cardiac episodes down to a few minutes, and of the Miniature and Anchored Remote Videoscope for Expedited Laparoscopy that allows for minimally invasive surgery using a single device. He recalls his upbringing as the son of immigrants as humble. “I was one of those kids who was always interested in how things worked,” he said. “I just always had a lot of curiosity.” In high school, Gitlin was on the math team and the basketball team. His uncle thought Gitlin should be a surgeon like him, so he took him along to witness a surgery first-hand. After the first incision was made and the blood started flowing, Gitlin doesn’t remember much other than being asked if he was all right and telling his uncle he thought he might be a better fit for engineering. He graduated at 15 years old in 1959 before going to The City College of New York for a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and then Columbia University for his master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. When he was earning his doctorate at 25 years old, he noticed something among his peers that would stick with him. “I saw the people who were most highly regarded were the inventors and the innovators,” Gitlin said. He worked as a visiting professor in electrical engineering at Columbia
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University before coming to USF eight years ago. As far as teaching goes, Gitlin said he feels he has a lot to offer people. He likes to get his students to think about other ways to approach problems, because he said he feels this is a valuable skill for them to have out in the real world. Identifying a problem, Gitlin said, is what invention is all about. He said he thinks inventors are optimists. “There’s a certain element of mysticism about invention,” he said. However, he said, it’s not just about the problem, but finding a solution and laying out how to construct that solution. Engineering, he said, is taking a problem and transforming it into a previously solved problem. “If it was conventional thinking, people would’ve already realized this is how you do it,” Gitlin said. Innovation, he said, is different in that it has an application to translate an invention into something people use and change the way people live, work and play. When he was younger, the idea of solving problems in different ways was made apparent to him through his readings of Scientific American, where a writer had a math column that Gitlin would have to wait a month to see the solution to. The author would include multiple solutions. “I consider myself to be a very lucky person, just being in the right place at the right time and having very good mentors,” Gitlin said.
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Sports Two former Up to the numbers Bulls UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
The Rundown
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honored for historic careers
USF News
Gregory hires former USF basketball player USF men’s basketball coach Brian Gregory made the second addition to his coaching staff Wednesday afternoon with the hiring of assistant Chad Dollar. A former USF basketball player from 199093, Dollar returns to USF after a 20-year coaching Chad Dollar career. Gregory and Dollar coached together for five years at Georgia Tech, where Gregory served as the head coach. Gregory said he hired Dollar because of his local ties and prowress as a recruiter. Aside from Georgia Tech, Dollar has also coached at Wichita State, LSU, and most recently, Auburn.
Weekend sports schedule Baseball USF (23-3) @ Tulane (10-15) When: Friday, 7:30 p.m. Where: New Orleans, Louisiana
Men’s Tennis USF (11-6, 3-0) @ Tulane (13-3, 0-0) When: Today, 1 p.m. Where: USF Varsity Tennis Complex
By Josh Fiallo A S S T .
Arkansas high school football coach Kevin Kelley, famous for his alternative style to coaching, has punted just eight times in 14 years of coaching. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
High school football coach uses analytics to pioneer unconventional coaching style By Jacob Hoag E D I T O R
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highlight pops up on the screen. It’s a play from the first series of the 2017 Class 5A Arkansas state title game between Pulaski Academy and Wynne High School. It’s Pulaski’s ball, fourthand-10 from its own 35-yard line. For the majority of head coaches, the logical play is to punt. But Pulaski head coach Kevin Kelley is not the typical coach. Instead, he calls a play-action pass, which his team executes with ease, picking up 13 yards. Four plays later, on another fourth-down attempt, the Bruins score a touchdown on another play-action pass. To the crowd of roughly 200
guests attending the third annual Sports and Entertainment Analytics Conference, he says, with a thick Arkansas drawl, “I’m an offensive genius.” Kelley was one of six speakers on the first day of the twoday conference held at the USF Alumni Center. The conference focuses on the ways analytics affect different aspects of the sports and entertainment industry. As the mastermind behind Pulaski Academy’s “no-punt policy,” Kelley has no shortage of confidence. And to pull off something as bold as going for it every time his team faces a fourth down, he needs it. Kelley, who boasts a 16525-1 record and has taken his program to eight state championships — winning six —, has become a visionary when it comes to using analytics to
make data-driven decision. He has essentially taken emotion out of play calling. “I try and make as many decisions before the game as I possibly can so emotions don’t play a role,” Kelley said. Those decisions include not punting, always going for two and always onside kicking. All of these decisions are based on statistics. Kelley’s team has converted 50.2 percent of the fourth downs it has attempted in the 14 years he has coached. To him, a 50-50 chance of extending the drive is more than enough reason to leave a punter off the roster. The same goes for a field goal kicker. According to Kelley, teams convert two-point conversions at a higher probability than a kicker making an extra
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S P O R T S
E D I T O R
Wednesday night will be one that sticks with two former USF athletes for years to come. Recognized for their outstanding careers as Bulls, Matthew O’Neal and Lee Ann Spivey were honored at the Sports Club of Tampa Bay Hall of Fame induction ceremony at T. Pepin’s Hospitality Centre, along with former USF baseball coach Lelo Prado, who was inducted into the organization’s hall of fame. Both O’Neal and Spivey were among the best athletes to ever compete for USF, with both setting school records in their respective sports. A four-year starter for the softball team, Spivey set a program record for total career homeruns and ranked within the top 10 for numerous other categories such as RBIs and putouts. Though her career as a Bull is complete, Spivey is still pursuing her passion. Currently playing professional softball for the Scrap Yard Dawgs, a National Pro Fastpitch team based in Texas, Spivey said that her career is still on the rise a year after her graduation from USF. “It’s amazing to be honored amongst the greats, because I’m still aspiring to become a great myself,” Spivey said. “I feel like I’m on my climb right now, and for me, it’s amazing to be in the same room with so many people who have knowledge on how to get to where I want to be.” Upon receiving a plaque on stage from athletic director Mark Harlan, Spivey delivered a speech that would lead to a roar
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point. But it would be incorrect to say that Kelley never punts or never kicks field goals. In 14 years, the Bruins have punted eight times and averaged one field goal per season. Kelley also doesn’t field a punt returner because teams lose an average of eight yards on punt returns due to penalties or a bad return. There’s also the risk of turnover and, according to Kelley, the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game 80 percent of the time. Numbers drive every decision he makes. Not his gut or his heart. Numbers. His affinity for statistics started when he was young. His parents were divorced, and his father was an alcoholic. He wanted to ensure he didn’t end up like him. “I came across a statistic that said 75 percent of people whose fathers are alcoholics become alcoholics, and that stuck with me,” Kelley said. “From then on, if you just read random statistics, sometimes they can
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help you.” Those same random statistics have now, years later, put him on the map as one of the pioneers behind sports analytics. It has also led to some of the biggest names in coaching knocking on his door to inquire about his abnormal methods. Kelley has met with managers and coaches from all levels of the sport. Even one of college football’s most successful coaches, Alabama’s Nick Saban, stopped in. All of them wanting to see what he has to say. But none of them adopted Kelley’s methods. “So you see it. You believe it. You know it will help you win. But you won’t do it,” Kelley recalled saying. “I mean I don’t know what to say after that.” As most can infer, despite his overwhelming success with his system, Kelley faces plenty of stiff opposition, sometimes even from his own fans. “A lot of times when people break things down if we lose a game, and we don’t lose much, they like to pinpoint one play,” Kelley said. “It’s easy to pinpoint one play and not take in the whole sample size.”
Kelley’s response is that if you take out all fourth down attempts, the one that may have lost the game in some fans’ opinions wouldn’t have happened. But equally on the other side, a score or two that happened after a drive extended by a fourth down conversion also wouldn’t have happened. His philosophy remains if he does it every time, the probability will remain at 50-50. But that probability doesn’t always go Kelley’s way. In 2013, Pulaski Academy lost a shootout in the playoffs 57-50 after giving up 26 points in seven minutes in the second quarter. Despite the criticism and the occasional game where his system fails, Kelley never secondguesses himself or his system. He leaves it up to the numbers. “Think of every decision I make — every fourth down, every onside kick attempt, the two-point conversions,” Kelley said. “What if every single one of those only has a 1 or 2 percent effect on the outcome of the game. It all adds up, little percentages here, little percentages there.”
Former USF athletes Matt O’Neal and Lee Ann Spivey were honored for their record-breaking careers Wednesday night. ORACLE PHOTO/JOSH FIALLO
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of applause from the audience. “I committed to USF as a freshman in high school, so I’ve been invested in USF for almost 10 years now,” Spivey said. “I can’t even describe how much (USF) has given back to me, and continue to still to this day.” Along with Spivey, it was apparent that the night was a special one for O’Neal as well. A two-sport athlete from Jackson, Mississippi, O’Neal was beaming with a smile on his face from the moment he walked into the ceremony.
Nationally recognized as a track and field competitor, O’Neal earned several honors for the triple jump throughout his career at USF, including six All-American honors, and currently holds the eighth best distance for the triple jump in the world. Though the triple jump is now his call to fame, it was USF’s offer of a soccer scholarship that ultimately pulled him to Tampa. “Most of the scholarships I had been offered were either to do one (sport) or the other,” O’Neal said. “USF was tremendous in giving me the opportunity to become the best athlete I could be. I owe it all to USF.”
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