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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F LO R I DA
Concussions blur the line between acclaim and anguish
continues By Abby Rinaldi C O - N E W S
Quinton Flowers, (9) QB ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S
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From the blindside sack to the explosive hit that jars the ball loose, fans and players alike enjoy little more than a crushing blow delivered on the field of play. Athletes across the world have made their names by playing sports with a brutal intensity that gives fans the occasional jaw-dropping moments that fill both top-10 highlight reels and hospital rooms. But while these dramatic collisions have elevated sports — primarily football — to new heights, evolving science is revealing the associated risks may not be worth the sought after rewards. Despite how little is known about brain injuries such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), it’s been well documented in recent years that the effects of this disease can be life-threatening. Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher, Dave Mirra, and countless other athletes have not only been affected by CTE, but have taken their lives because of it. In addition to bouts of depression and rage, CTE can have a litany
of effects on the brain including memory loss, problems with attention span, and a loss of balance and motor functions. Dr. Martin Muschol, a USF professor and researcher of physics, has found through experimentation that brain diseases such as CTE could begin when proteins in the brain start to self-replicate following traumatic impact to the head. Muschol, who was given a threeyear, $440,000 grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health to continue work on the causes of brain diseases such as CTE and Alzheimer’s, found that in his experiment, the protein formed from trauma was able to self-replicate in the presence of a natural environment similar to that of the human brain. “Our striking observation was that we could actually separate this aggregation process into two stages,” Muschol said. “We first used harsh conditions to generate a seed. Once we had those seed aggregates, we could harvest them out of the solution and throw them back under new physiological conditions in the presence of the native protein. And surprisingly enough, they
continued to grow from the native protein.” While Muschol stressed that his research may not be the exact conditions that occur in the human brain, this protein seed formation and eventual development may provide insight to the formation of brain disease. “That’s what gave us this idea that there might be a relationship to something like CTE where you have a singular event that induces the initial seed formation, but once these seeds have formed, you can take away these non-physiological conditions that exist perhaps in CTE during repeated head trauma,” Muschol said. “The head trauma goes away and the patient seems to be back to normal, but many years or sometimes decades down the road, all of a sudden this phenomena occurs because this aggregation process that we have now separated shows fast seed formation and slow replication. That’s our idea, that there’s a two-step process potentially relevant to problems with CTE where you have impacts early on and then a long latency face before the problems appear.”
For athletes, like former USF defensive lineman Todd Chandler, the years he spent taking his fair share of hits on the field have already started to take their toll. “I’ve done research on things I’m dealing with,” Chandler said. “Sometimes out of nowhere, I’ll have severe migraines and anger problems. When I saw (“Concussion”), that’s what made me do a lot more research on my own about the anger problems I’m dealing with. “When I was in high school, I noticed off and on out of the blue I would get a bad headache and I just thought it was life and that happens; but as I went on in college, I started noticing it more and more.” Chandler said he had four concussions during his collegiate career, with the worst of them coming in his final game for the Bulls. As the clock ticked down in the final minutes of USF’s season finale against UCF in 2013, Chandler sat on the sidelines, recovering from a concussion earlier in the game in which he briefly lost consciousness. The former Bull hasn’t played football since that final game, but he
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At about 1 p.m., the OneBlood Big Red Bus sitting in the field next to Cooper Hall let down its stairs, opening the way for donors to come in and give blood for Tuesday’s installment of the summer blood drive at USF. The first donor of the day, Carey Whitehair, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, said she hadn’t been able to give blood in a while, as she has just now gotten back on par with the 110-pound minimum weight requirement. Giving blood is something she tries to do regularly. “It’s just the right thing to do,” Whitehair said. “It’ll barely cost me anything.” Blood banks across the nation have seen spikes in donations in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. OneBlood spokesman Daniel Eberts said OneBlood, a nonprofit blood donation service, saw the number of blood donations more than double after the shooting, reaching more than 28,000 from the day of the shooting to the following Saturday. There was also a 40 percent increase in first time donors and a large increase in O negative donors. “For me, the silver lining in that cloud of violence was the humanity coming out, to give blood, to sponsor drives, to bring food to the donors and drinks, just people wanting
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said there are times he couldn’t tell by how his body feels. “It’s been two years since I’ve put on pads, and I still wake up sore like I just played yesterday,” Chandler said. “There’s a lot of stuff that nobody tells you about football, but it comes with it. I don’t complain about it, I don’t tell my fiancee I’m hurting. It just comes along with it because it’s a part of football.” Current USF players and coaches were not made available for this story and the school declined to comment on the issue. For other athletes such as former USF safety Jamie Byrd, the consequences from developing CTE are frightening, but something that must be accepted when a player puts the pads on. “That was scary when Junior Seau died,” Byrd said. “I would rather not hear about those things happening, but once you do hear about it, it does scare you a bit. It kind of backs you off, it makes you think, ‘I wonder if that could happen to me, because they didn’t plan on it happening to them.’ “You have to have your tackling technique down, but when you get blindsided some of those things just come with the game. When you sign up for football, you have to know what you’re signing up for.” A large part of what makes CTE so difficult to study is that the affected brains can only be studied post-mortem. This helps researchers understand the effects of the disease, but lends little insight into the development of the disease and how it can be combated. As has been the prevailing thought in science about CTE, Muschol’s research points toward repeated head trauma, especially in football players and boxers, as the most likely cause of this disease. However, the formation of CTE is still being tested and experimented with. Muschol’s research may point to how brain diseases born from trauma develop, as he links CTE and Alzheimer’s with the aging process of the human body. The human body has cells made to regulate the protein buildup caused from trauma, but as the body ages, it loses the ability to remove the unwanted protein and eventually brain disease, such as CTE or Alzheimer’s, takes hold. “The assumption is that it’s a lack of this machinery to identify and seek out these proteins,” Muschol said. “You constantly generate new
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proteins. When you generate them, they’re typically not properly folded yet. Your machinery is there to seek out the ones that aren’t properly folded and either help them fold properly or dissociate them. “There are pretty scary studies, for example, in the case of Alzheimer’s that your probability of developing Alzheimer’s basically goes up with age, progressively. So it’s not a question of if you will develop Alzheimer’s, it’s when. So that means at some point, your cellular machinery that protects you from this becomes weak enough to succumb to this onslaught of protein that are forming.” From targeting rules in football to new helmet designs, efforts are being made to protect athletes from brain disease, but players such as Byrd don’t see a way to guarantee player safety without dramatically changing the sport. “How I feel is that you can’t really prevent it,” Byrd said. “I don’t want to seem like I don’t care about it because I do because people are getting injured from stuff like that, but it’s so hard to prevent. “If you want to really prevent it, you’re going to have to put big helmets with so much padding it’s going to make players’ games decline.” But as research continues to uncover new information that could help people better understand brain diseases such as CTE, the question that must be asked is if the risk is worth the reward? “I think as a society, we have to ask if we really want to expose athletes to these risks,” Muschol said. “It seems a little bit like gladiator games in a way. As a society we have to ask ourselves as much as everyone likes sports and entertainment — and I’m a big soccer fan — but if you know these people expose themselves to these high risks of getting these devastating diseases, you have to look at that as well and ask yourself if this is really the society we want to have. “It’s already happening that parents are seriously thinking about it, do we really want to have our kids participate in these sports particularly if there is a risk for concussions? And you know, you can’t blame them. We don’t know enough about it. What exactly is the threshold? How many concussions are too many? How prone are you? You may be more prone to these affects. At the end of the day I think parents have to ask these questions and come up with an answer they feel comfortable with.”
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to do something to help show compassion in the face of that tragedy,” Ebert said, adding that OneBlood also saw a 40 percent increase in first time donors. However, the blood used to treat those in the immediate aftermath was not the blood donated Sunday. There is a 24-hour turnaround time for donated blood. Instead, it was the blood on the shelf, donated before the tragedy occurred. “When a trauma happens, you have a huge surge in blood needed immediately, which is why the blood that was on the shelf prior to the tragedy is what gave the initial lifeline to those injured people,” Eberts said. The need for blood on the shelf goes beyond mass shootings like the one in Orlando. One blood serves most of the state of Florida as well as part of southern Alabama, South Carolina and southern Georgia. At present, OneBlood needs at least 2,000 donations per day to meet the needs of patients at the more than 200 hospitals the
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The demand for blood that exists every day is part of why James Bell, a senior in education, makes a habit of donating blood. He said he knows the need for blood is immediate, and he himself has a rare blood type. “You’ll never know when you’ll need (blood) too,” Bell said. From May 17 to July 26, USF is hosting a blood drive, with all donors receiving a $10 Taco Bus gift card and a voucher for a free movie ticket. OneBlood Donor Specialist The OneBlood Big Red Bus was parked outside of Cooper Hall on Tuesday. The bus can be found two Isabel Malave said the bus on to three days a week outside of Cooper, the Marshall Student Center and the Sun Dome. campus sees about 15 to 20 ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ organization serves. replenishing the inventory void more in business, also donated donors per day, depending on “Sometimes it’s a struggle left by the victims of the Pulse blood on Tuesday’s visit in order the bus’s location. The bus to keep up the blood supply,” shooting. to stay in good health and also shows up on campus two to Eberts said. “A safe and availIn order to get the word out help the victims of the Orlando three times a week, during the able blood supply is part of com- and collect blood, OneBlood shooting. He tries to donate at summer mostly on Tuesdays munity health.” uses its fleet of Big Red Buses, least twice a year to keep with and Wednesdays. It circulates The blood serves a variety holds blood drives and oper- longevity, donating old blood locations from Cooper Hall to of purposes, including helping ates donor centers throughout cells so that his body replaces the USF Sun Dome and the Marshall Student Center, the latthose in surgery, people involved the region. Donors must weigh them. in accidents and those fighting at least 110 lbs , be at least 16 The need for certain types of ter of which Malave said usually disease. The portion of need years of age and in generally blood, such as O negative and O brings in the most donors. This summer’s blood drive devoted to people fighting dis- good health. positive is always high. However, has brought in a good number of ease is, according to Eberts, “When you become a blood the need for donated blood in donors in Malave’s opinion. higher than the need for those donor, it’s part of your identity, general always remains. “It’s been staying busy,” she in accidents and those in surger- part of the difference you can “Every day it’s a real story, said. ies combined. make,” Eberts said. too,” Eberts said. “... Blood’s got In this case, it went toward Sabaresh Krishnan, a sopho- to be there.”
Lifestyle
Beware the Cobra’s Curse
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
By Nicole Cate L I F E S T Y L E
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“You are mine. There is no escape from the cobra’s curse.” If you’ve visited Busch Gardens in the past five days, chances are you’ve heard those words. They play on a loop through loudspeakers set up around the park’s newest roller coaster, Cobra’s Curse, which opened Friday. The attraction boasts a 70-foot-tall vertical lift that brings you face-to-face with the 80-foot-tall Snake King before the roller coaster train starts moving on the track. The train reaches speeds of up to 40 mph while it drives across the 2,100-foot-long track. However, according to the senior director of theme park development and USF graduate, Jeff Hornick, the attraction
starts long before you step foot in the car. “The attraction doesn’t start when you get on the roller coaster, it starts when you first step foot in the queue,” Hornick said. “There is a fully developed backstory behind the ride, and we also have such a great queue experience for our guests.” Inspired by Egyptian history and lore, the story starts 2,000 years ago when people worshipped the Snake King. However, when he got too powerful and neglected his followers, they got mad and destroyed his idol. It was then when the Snake King decided to curse the world if the head of his idol was ever put back in its rightful place. While construction started in March
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of 2015, the concept for Cobra’s Curse was developed three years ago. “When we had developed Cobra’s Curse, we had just put in Falcon’s Fury, and that is quite a thrill seeker type of attraction. We wanted to put in something at the park that was much more of a
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family-friendly, family fun kind of attraction,” Hornick said. “We wanted something that would compliment our seven roller coasters, and with this being our eighth roller coaster, it helps solidify Busch Gardens as the thrill ride leader in Florida, and Cobra’s Curse is all about family fun.” Reception for the ride seems to be generally positive so far. Trenisse Cox, a sophomore majoring in education who currently works at Busch Gardens, said the ride had been busy with no signs of it slowing down. “Since the ride just
opened we’ve had crazy wait times,” Cox said. “Some people get mad, some people are anxious to ride it, so it just depends on the person.” For Hornick and the Busch Gardens’ staff, the ride is a completely new class of roller coaster. A press release sent out by Busch Gardens a week before the ride was open to the public described the free-spinning as “a new spin with each ride. Each train spins randomly, with frequency and direction determined by the rider weight distribution.” “We’ve developed a spinning roller coaster that has forward segments, backward segments and it free spins. No one else has done that before,” Hornick said.
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University Police in search of attempted robbery suspects
The USF Police Department (UP) is currently investigating an attempted robbery that occurred outside the USF Athletics basketball practice facility Monday at 1 p.m. The two suspects “battered the victim” in an attempt to steal his cell phone. The description given by UP was a “Hispanic male, approximately 18-20 years of age last seen wearing red shorts and a white t-shirt with red, yellow and green lettering and (2) a black male approximately 18-20 years of age last seen wearing light blue jeans, a maroon shirt and a dark colored hat.” Both suspects were reportedly seen in a silver colored, 4-door Nissan Altima. To report any information students are urged to contact UP. SPECIAL
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Despite growing support, Senate fails to pass gun measures Breanne Williams COLU M N I ST
Our country was once again let down by its senators Monday. A series of gun control measures were brought before the Senate and failed to gain the bipartisan support needed to reform gun laws in the U.S. Many senators — like Sen. Chris Murphy, a democrat who had sponsored a previous failed measure calling for stricter background checks — were in no way surprised by the failed outcome. “I’m mortified by today’s vote, but I’m not surprised by it,” Murphy told CNN on Monday. “The (National Rifle Association) has a vice-like grip on this place.” Let’s ignore for a moment the disturbingly large influence the NRA has on our politics and instead focus on the will of the American people. According to a recent CNN/ORC survey support for stricter gun laws rose to 55 percent, a 9 percent increase after the Orlando terror attack. In addition, 92 percent are in favor of expanded background checks, 87 percent support a ban for felons or those with mental health issues, and 85 percent wanting those on federal watch lists to be banned from purchasing firearms. For those who naively believe the majority of support is from registered democrats, 90 percent of Republicans support the watch list ban, whereas only 85 percent of Democrats did. Despite citizens demanding change, our senators made sure no measures to help protect innocent lives were passed. A proposal to update the background check system, which also would alert law enforcement if someone on a terrorist watchlist purchases a gun? Rejected. A proposal to delay the sale of firearms to those on terror watch
lists? Rejected. Also shot down was a proposal to completely bar gun sales to anyone on the terrorist watch list. The proposals were flawed. They didn’t address those with mental illness or even attempt to put restrictions on the purchase of assault rifles. But they would have made a fantastic first step in meaningful gun regulations. Yes, we as Americans have the right to bear arms protected in the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the NRA and its loyal following fail to accept the fact that the government is not trying to take away citizens’ guns. These reformations would not have restricted your ability to buy a hunting rifle or purchase a Glock. They would have simply made it more difficult for those with terrorist affiliations and those who slip through the current background check loopholes to go home with a weapon that can wipe out 50 people in a blink of an eye. Part of the blame, of course, lies in the gun laws each state enacts. In Florida, you don’t even need a license to carry home an AR-15. You just have to pass a very basic background check. There is obviously a problem with our current gun laws. We are now 173 days into 2016 and have had 143 mass shootings — some as close to USF’s campus at Bearss Ave. and Nebraska Ave. This disturbing reality cannot be accepted as the norm. Regardless of personal beliefs, if the American public has united behind a movement, it is up to our government to protect the will of the people. Unfortunately, Monday proved that is not the case. The question on everyone’s mind now is how many more people must die before our government decides we are worth protecting?
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What you said Disney and Pixar’s “Finding Dory” now sits atop the list of animated movies. Its $135.1 million opening weekend gross surpassed “Shrek The Third,” which grossed $121.6 million in its first weekend. Since most college students today were the prime audience for the movie’s prequel “Finding Nemo,” Multimedia Editor Jackie Benitez asked students their thoughts on the movie.
“It was a good way and a funny way to bring the movies together, but the first one was better.” -Mode Bockchuin, a junior majoring in electrical engineering
“I think the overall movies give a good message to just keep going on like Dory says ‘just keep swimming.’ It definitely teaches a good lesson to just keep going and never give up.” -Radhe Mehta, a sophomore majoring in cell molecular biology and international studies
“I thought it was so cute and it related back to Finding Nemo because they were helping each other out again. I really liked this one a lot.” -Bezawit Hirny, a junior majoring in biology and psychology
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The Rundown
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Women’s Basketball
Williams adjusting to life in the WNBA By Dan Fisher C O R R E S P O N D E N T
Outside USF
Simmons told he’ll be first pick in NBA draft Ben Simmons
Report: Following a workout Tuesday with the Philadelphia 76ers, forward Ben Simmons was reportedly told he would be the top pick in the upcoming NBA draft, according to ESPN. The 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward averaged 19.2 points and 11.8 rebounds in his lone season at LSU. Thursday, Simmons will become the second No. 1 overall pick made by the 76ers since the beginning of the draft lottery in 1985. After trading away the top pick in 1986, the 76ers selected Allen Iverson in the 1996 draft. The NBA draft kicks off tomorrow at 8 p.m.
NBA Mock Draft 1. Philadelphia 76ers 2. 3. 4. 5.
Ben Simmons, F Los Angeles Lakers Brandon Ingram, F Boston Celtics Jamal Murray, PG Phoenix Suns Jaylen Brown, F Minn. Timberwolves Buddy Hield, SG
Just over a month into her rookie season with the Phoenix Mercury, former USF guard Courtney Williams continues to adapt to life in the WNBA. Despite her team facing a 4-8 start to the season, Williams said she is learning a lot from her coaches and veteran teammates on playing up to the WNBA standards. But she is determined to use their wisdom as a blueprint throughout her professional basketball career. “When I came in, I knew that playing basketball professionally would be different than playing in college,” Williams said. “ I think that being willing to learn from your coaches and teammates who have more experience than you is what it means to be a professional athlete, and I know that I am capable of doing that.” So far, Williams has made only five appearances this season for the Mercury. However, Williams showed she could compete during the Mercury’s two preseason games, where the rookie guard averaged 13 points, 5.5 rebounds and shot 54.5 percent from the field. Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello said she understands that for some young athletes, going from college sports to the big leagues can be a difficult transition. “It is always difficult for any rookie player to come out of college and play at the national level, depending on what team they come into, and (Williams) obviously came into a veteran team with players that are older and more experienced than her,” Brondello said. But Brondello sees promise in Williams’ athletic ability. “We know that she can score, which she does great in that area after playing in college,” Brondello said. “She doesn’t have any playing opportunities at the moment because of how rough the season has been for the team, but she does show a great attitude in her role for the team.
Courtney Williams has yet to see much time on the court for the Phoenix Mercury this season, but showed her potential in the preseason when she averaged 13 points on over 50 percent shootng. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU
“As long as she keeps honing her offense and defense skills, Courtney will have more opportunities to show her potential.” In Williams’ senior year at USF, she ranked second in the nation among D-I teams with 308 field goals made. Williams wrapped up her career setting a USF record for points scored in a season with 763. It didn’t take long for Brondello to learn about Williams’ success in women’s basketball. In April, Williams became the eighth overall pick in this year’s WNBA Draft, fulfilling her dream of competing at the national level. Though being far away from home has been something of a challenge for Williams, she said she has found comfort living in the Valley of the Sun. “As a professional athlete, living in a whole new environment is just something to get used to,” Williams said. “So every day, I talk to my friends and family either on the phone or social media, letting them know how I’m doing. And
every day, I tell myself that being a WNBA player is what I want to be and I hope to achieve a lot of success in the future as one.” Despite the tough start, nineyear veteran Noelle Quinn embraces the opportunity of being one of the many players on the team on whom Williams relies for on-the-court advice. “New players (are) always a good thing to have, especially when you have some that are young and new to the sport, like Courtney,” Quinn said. “And what I like about seeing new blood is that they help to build a stronger team, while aspiring themselves to be future champions.” Building consistency over the current WNBA season has been the objective for Williams. After averaging 1.8 rebounds and 0.5 assists in her four appearances, Quinn said her teammate still has a lot to prove. “Whenever she comes in for practice, I have always advised her to ‘be on your P’s and Q’s and follow directions for every game
plan,’” Quinn said. “Every day, she watches players like Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner play, taking mental note on where their strengths are in playing offense and defense. “Based on what I have seen in Courtney so far, she learns on the fly and is a team player, (and) I think those are the things that define her both personally and professionally.” Quinn said what makes Williams different from the other players on the team is athleticism, which she believed to be Williams’ greatest asset on the court. “Every day is a learning experience for her,” Quinn said. “She is quick, she knows what it means to be a professional player, and she works hard at putting herself in position to play offense and defense. She also loves to be in control of dribbling the ball and passing it to her teammates for them to make the basket. And I believe those are skills that Courtney will hone very well as a professional athlete.”