Collegian T he Cameron University
www.aggiecentral.com
Monday, September 16, 2019
Volume 101 Issue 1
Photo by Payton Williams
Cameron gets battle-ready arena
Cameron E-Sports Payton Williams Managing Editor @YoureSoVanya
This Fall semester marked the opening of Cameron University’s E-Sports arena, as well as the start of a road toward a promising competitive E-Sports program on campus. The arena, located in room 131 at the Academic Commons on the Cameron Campus, began from the mutual interest and collaboration of I.T. Director Kelly McClure and Dr. Christopher Keller, the Chair for the Department of Communication, English and Foreign Languages. When the two men decided to present a funding proposal for the arena, according to McClure, it was still a kind of pipe dream for them. “We talked about it a lot,” McClure said. “It was an exciting project. Honestly, I don’t think we ever expected it would take off like it has.” In the writing of the proposal, Dr. Keller emphasized how important it was that University funds not be used to start the program. “We were actually very conservative when we wrote the proposal,” Keller said. “I anticipated interest in maybe one or two games on campus that we could really be competitive at, and the response has knocked our socks off.” One of the ways in which Keller and McClure were conservative in drafting of their proposal was in making sure that, at least at the beginning of the E-Sports arena project, they would not need to create a new career track within the University for a new E-Sports coach. Instead, they decided to put management under the supervision of the incoming Digital Media Manager. “We knew that this E-Sports job was probably going to be a full-time job,” Keller said. “But we needed a proof of concept. We needed to see if there was enough interest in it.” As it turned out, there was. At the suggestion of Cameron University President John McArthur, Keller and McClure approached the McMahon foundation about funding for the project. To both Keller and McClure’s surprise, the McMahon foundation provided $110,000 to go toward the building of an E-Sports arena on campus. “We weren’t sure how much money the McMahon foundation might give us,” McClure said. “They were very generous.” The unanticipated amount of funding for the E-Sports arena allowed for a lot of additions
Keller and McClure never expected, including popularity among the student body of Cameron state of the art gaming computers and consoles and the surrounding area. and access to a lot of popular games for the “On the first day of classes this semester future competitors of the arena. alone, I got about 30 emails from students It also created a lot of new possibilities for interested in joining the team,” Cunningham the arena, chief among them, the possibility said. “Now, I’ve already got about 80 emails.” of eventually creating a new career track for The three men have been having regular current E-Sports coach and Digital Media meetings where, based on the pool of emails Manager, John Cunningham. received by Cunningham and the interested Cunningham, who was an IT specialist students stopping by the three-week-long open at Cameron before accepting the position of house for the arena, they discuss the upcoming Digital Media Manager and E-Sports coach this roster of E-sports team members. semester, was very excited about the prospect of With the influx of interest, the job of getting an E-Sports arena at the university. coaching the team is rapidly becoming a full“I’ve been gaming my whole life, since as time job for Cunningham, and Keller talked far back as I can remember,” Cunningham said. about how he hopes to accommodate that with “We wanted Cameron to be involved in the next future grants.” big thing, and E-Sports is it.” “With the quality of coach we’ve been able to The arena idea was first brought to President get,” Keller said. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be McArthur in March of this year, and the speed possible for his career path to lead to a ‘Director with which the project has grown has been a of E-sports’ position here at Cameron.” pleasant surprise to everyone involved. Amidst this growing popularity, Keller, “No one saw it coming, because it happened Cunningham and Kelly all hope to have a roster so quickly,” Cunningham said. “We brought put together sometime in early to mid-October, it up in March, and then all through April, and all three are eager to start competing with May, June, Kelly was ordering top-of-theother schools in the surrounding area. line computers, and we got Maintenance and Cunningham said he has already contacted Facilities over here, and they rearranged the the E-sports coach at the University of room so everything would fit perfectly.” Oklahoma.. Both McClure and Keller attribute the speed “He talked about how excited he was to have with which the arena became operational to a lot a team in this area that might give them a run for of good luck. their money,” Cunningham said. “I had a room in my department that was the For more information about Cameron old adjuncts room,” Keller said. “The way the E-Sports, contact Cunningham at jocunnin@ room had been designed, when we renovated cameron.edu. the Academic World-building: A Cameron University Physical Facilities Commons a few employee works on the early stages of building the E-Sports arena. years ago was that it would have about twelve computer stations, and this worked out for us because we already had functional electric for the Arena.” The E-Sports Arena project’s run of good luck hasn’t stopped at the speed with which it came into being, however. All three men have been entirely shocked by the level to which the Photo by Madison Lyda arena has amassed
What’s Inside New Speech and Debate Coach Page 2
‘Lover’ album review
Coach of the Year
Page 4
Page 6
News
Introducing
2
www.aggiecentral.com
Katie Stringer: Adrianna Finch Assistant Editor
On Aug. 8, Cameron University officially hired Katie Stringer as an Instructor of Communication and the Director of Cameron’s forensics team. Stringer has a background in forensics (speech and debate) from her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Mary HardinBaylor in Belton, Texas. After her bachelor’s, she obtained a Master in Communications and Communication Studies from West Texas A&M. Although Stringer graduated with a B.A. and Master in Communications, she did not plan to do so. She was a nursing major for the first two years of
Photos by Adrianna Finch
September 16, 2019
Director of Forensics
undergraduate school. “I was honestly doing Nursing because that is what everyone told me to do,” Stringer said. “I was talking to my friends one day and said to them, ‘I wish there was a degree that I could major in talking to people,’ and one of my friends told me there was. I looked it up and changed my major the next day.” After changing her major to Communication, she decided to join the forensics team. “Everything just fell into place for me,” Stringer said. As graduation came closer, she realized she wanted to continue her education and get her Master in Communication. “I remember looking at my coach,” Stringer said, “and thinking, ‘That is what I want to do with my life. That is what would make me so happy.’ I talked to my coach and she was like, ‘Do it! Go to grad school, you can make it! And so everything once again fell into place, and I was offered a job as a TA.” It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Stringer; she had some doubts transitioning to graduate school. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll never
Debating it: (Left) Ian Snyder prepares for an upcoming competion and practice. (Below) Katie Stringer coaches Jasmine Jackson on how to present her topic at meets.
make it,” Stringer said. “I’ll never make that. I couldn’t do that,’ because I was the girl that people told me I shouldn’t even go to community college because I couldn’t make it.” Despite what she was told, she still finished school and landed her dream job. “Being a director, I get to call all of the shots.” Stringer said, “I get to decide where we are going, what we are going, how we allocate things,” she said. The biggest difference between her previous job and her job at Cameron is her new dedicated course schedule. Stringer said she loves teaching classes, even when teaching comes with new challenges. Her favorite thing so far has been getting to know her students and seeing their transformations. She loves that there are so many students, traditional and non-traditional, deciding to better their lives, realizing their potential and becoming more comfortable in who they are. Stringer said that she is looking forward to this year and to helping her students gain many things. “I want them to gain knowledge, yes,” Stringer said, “but also confidence. Confidence in themselves and who they are. And that it is okay to be who you are, no matter who you are, and that you just need to stand up for yourself, no matter what that looks like for you. I want them to have the confidence for them to speak up about their opinions and what they believe and feel.” Stringer’s studies at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) informed her feelings about coaching and prepared her for the director position at Cameron. “I went from a school (as a competitor) that was wonderful, but we never hosted tournaments or did any of those kind of activities,” Stinger said. “I didn’t know what to do when it came toward how to run a tournament, so when I went to WTAMU and started being a TA there, I learned how to host and tab a tournament.” In her first year as an assistant at WTAMU, Stringer
came to Cameron to co-host the Christmas Classic with the Cameron forensics team. She said that also helped prepare her because she knew some of the students who she would be working with. While she was searching for jobs after graduation, Cameron came up during her search. “It felt like it was right; this is really my dream job,” Stringer said. Team member Ian Snyder said that the team is in a good place. “We are all feeling good,” he said. “Things are going well for all of us.” Currently, there is a total of five team members on the Cameron forensics team, and Stringer is recruiting more. Stringer said the forensics team is a serious commitment. “I will have a conversation with them about my rules and the time commitments,” Stringer said. “To make sure they understand everything, because this is a big deal. It becomes a big chunk of your life. We have spent every weekend of having ten plus hours of practice. We have a team meeting every week. I have individual coaching with them every week.” Stringer and the team have many upcoming practices and events, two of which take place at Cameron University. This year, the team will co-host the Christmas Classic with WTAMU on Dec. 6-8. The second event is the Sweetheart Swing, also cohosted with WTAMU, on Feb. 14-16. While Stringer is learning the ropes at Cameron, she said she is looking forward to getting to know Lawton as well. “My main [personal] goal is to find a few things that I adore about Lawton,” Stringer said. “I want to find a few things and places that I just adore.” Stringer said she is looking forward to getting more involved with the Cameron community. “I am incredibly excited about being here,” Stringer said, “and incredibly blessed and honored that I have gotten to receive this positon.” For more information about the Cameron University forensics team, email Stringer at kstringe@cameron.edu.
Voices
September 16, 2019 www.aggiecentral.com
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A Student Housing Amanda King Voices Editor
@theamandaking On July 25, Cameron University’s Office of Student Housing sent out emails to all students registered to live on-campus for the Fall 2019 semester. As per usual, this email contained each future resident’s room assignment, and if you only glanced at the email’s subject briefly while scrolling through the daily clutter that hits your inbox, then congratulations—because that means you were spared the ensuing panic that most recipients felt upon opening it. “Fall 2019 Room AssignmentREAD CAREFULLY,” the subject line declared. While most of the text was in your typical black typeface, following the deadlines heading toward the bottom of the page, the email screeched: “****PLEASE READ AS PAYMENT SCHEDULES HAVE CHANGED****” in an eye-catching bolded and underlined scarlet. The first deadline posted under this ominous title was Aug. 1 — wherein the first payment of $600 was due. If you did not pay by this cutoff date, the email said, you forfeited your Fall 2019 housing
HOrror
assignment. Thus, we future residents had exactly a week’s notice that we needed to pay $600 to student housing — or lose our room selections less than a month before classes were to start. Now, they did include a disclaimer stating you could email student housing if you had documentation that you would have scholarships coming in that would total more than a certain amount. But given this was nearly a month before courses would start, how were we expected to provide proof of scholarships that hadn’t been posted yet? What’s more, financial aid informed students that this year’s aid would be dispersing later than it had in previous years. Seeing as how scholarships, loans and grants apply weeks after classes begin, how were students to send student housing financial aid documentation before school started for funds they would not receive until long after school started? The ridiculousness did not stop there. In order to settle student
housing charges, you must “direct” your payment to the Office of Student Housing specifically, a process that cannot be done when paying online or by phone—the two most common ways that housing bills are paid. The only possible way to “direct” a payment is to visit the campus One Stop located in the McMahon Centennial Complex. Let it be known that the One Stop adheres to normal business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and thus student housing gave student residents a week’s notice that they needed to visit the One Stop during the daily operating hours or else lose their Fall 2019 room. I live over an hour away from Lawton and have a job during the summer, so how exactly am I supposed to suddenly drop everything to come pay my student housing charges within the short time span allotted? Moreover, what about students who live even farther away from the Lawton campus? International students? If this new payment schedule fiasco
was difficult for me, it was genuinely impossible for them. If you’re still not convinced of the Housing Office’s ineffectiveness, let me enlighten you about the most confounding part of this entire ordeal: housing charges had not even been posted yet. That’s right, resident’s room and board charges were not added to their bills until Aug. 6. But somehow, the Office of Student Housing expected all of their incoming residents to make their first housing payments by Aug. 1. With such utterly ludicrous planning, it’s no wonder why Cameron University receives so many complaints regarding student housing. The lack of communication and organization within the Office of Student Housing makes life harder for both its workers and the students who have to wade through the nonsense. At this point, it is extremely clear that a vast overhaul is well overdue.
Photo by Amanda King
About Us
The official student newspaper of Cameron University, The Cameron Collegian is available each Monday during the year. It is printed by the Lawton Constitution. The first issue is provided for free. Each subsequent issue is $1.50.
Our Views
The opinions expressed in The Collegian pages or personal columns are those of the signed author. The unsigned editorial under the heading “Voices” represents the opinion of the majority of the editorial board. The opinions expressed in The Collegian do not necessarily represent those of Cameron University or the state of Oklahoma. Our student media are designated public forums, and free from censorship and advance approval of content. Because content and funding are unrelated, and because the role of adviser does not include advance review of content, student media are free to develop editorial policies and news coverage with the understanding that students and student organizations speak only for themselves. Administrators, faculty, staff or other agents shall not consider the student media’s content when making decisions regarding the media’s funding or faculty adviser.
THE CAMERON UNIVERSITY
COLLEGIAN
Letters Policy
Founded in 1926 veritas sempiterna
Letters to the editor will be printed in the order in which they are received and on a space available basis.
Editorial Staff
The Collegian reserves the right to edit all letters for content and length. Letters should be no more than 250 words. Letters from individual authors will be published only once every four weeks.
Managing Editor - Payton Williams A&E Editor - Lea Killian Sports Editor - David Perkins Voices Editor - Amanda King Copy Editor - Kimb Frey Assistant Editors - Cambron Alsbrook, Adrianna Finch Social Media Editor - Abby Gonzalez Photographers - Katie Hall, Stacie Larsen, Cierra Walters
Newsroom Staff
Financial Officer - Susan Hill Staff Writers - Bryan Araujo, Katie Hall, Isaiah Hernandez, Haylee Key, Xavier McClure, Isabel Rosales-Aparicio Circulation Manager - Payton Williams Faculty Adviser - Prof. David Bublitz
All letters from students should include first and last names, classification and major. No nicknames will be used. Letters from people outside the Cameron community should include name, address and phone number for verification. Letters can be sent by regular mail, by e-mail to aggiecentral@ cameron.edu or they may be dropped off at our office - Academic Commons 101 or at www.aggiecentral.com.
A&E
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September 16, 2019 www.aggiecentral.com
Sacred New Beginnings Lea Killian A&E Editor @talkingLea
On Aug. 23, Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated seventh studio album, “Lover.” For months, she teased her fans with Instagram photos of pastel-stricken landscapes, glitter hearts and rainbowinfused red carpet looks at every event. To the unwatchful eye, it seemed insignificant, but fans knew she was signaling something big: The next era of Taylor Swift. The first two singles off the album, “ME!” and “You Need to Calm Down,” rose to the top of the charts. The latter even winning Video of the Year at MTV’s Video Music Awards last month. Upon its release, “Lover” debuted number one on the Billboard 200 Chart, earning 867,000 units within the first week — the biggest overall week for an album since her very own 2017 album, “reputation,” as reported by billboard.com. While there is no doubt the album would have found success on the charts and among varied audiences, or even without Swift’s impressive discography to back her, “Lover” brings Swift back to her romantic roots. Where “reputation” is closed off and guarded, especially in tracks like “I Did Something Bad” and the debut single from the album, “Look What You Made Me Do,” listeners will once again find Swift singing with an open heart on every track of “Lover.” The change is evident from the opening song, “I Forgot That You Existed,” which Swift describes as a goodbye letter to the “reputation” era. “I wanted it to be really simple,” she said. “I thought it might be a fun way to open the album, basically shrugging off things that you’ve been
through that caused you a lot of struggle and pain, and one day waking up and realizing that you’re indifferent.” From there, the album transitions into familiar territory with tracks like “Cruel Summer” and “I Think He Knows,” songs that are reminiscent of her 2014 album, “1989.” What separates these new songs from her earlier work is her newfound, avowable confidence. Swift is no longer singing about what she hopes love will be like. She is singing about what she has finally found― and knows to be true. Nothing proves this more than the album’s title track, “Lover.” “Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? / With every guitar string scar on my hand, I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover. / My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue. / All’s well that ends well to end up with you. / Swear to overdramatic and true to my lover.” With Swift’s layered vocals and dreamy strums of an acoustic guitar echoing throughout the track, listeners understand why she not only chose this song as the title track, but why she modeled the entire aesthetic of this era around it. Furthermore, “Lover” takes Swift into uncharted waters with new sociopolitical stands, adding an unexpected element to the album. In addition to her summer anthem, “You Need to Calm Down,” a song that uses Twitter-verse language and humor to unify against hatred and, instead, celebrate love, Swift has even more to say on the topic of gender equality. On the album’s fourth track, “The Man,” she sings with absolute nerve, wondering how society would view her success if she were a man: “I’d be a fearless leader. / I’d be an alpha type… / If I were a man, I’d be the man.” Prior to releasing her first political statement just before the 2018 midterm elections, Swift remained silent about these issues for the majority of her career, making these songs an exciting endeavor for new and returning fans alike. Before production on the album began, Swift found herself flipping through her childhood journals and diaries, notebooks
filled with guitar picks and polaroids she had taped to the pages, song lyrics and stories. In the opening letter of the physical copy of the album, Swift recounts what it was like sifting through her memories, remembering how easy it used to be to romanticize the world around her. “What shocked me the most was how often I wrote about the things I loved,” Swift said. “Writing a new song, riding in the car with my mom, the purple-pink sky above the soccer field on the walk home, the one night in middle school when none of my friends were fighting... I wrote about tiny details in my life in these diaries from a bygone age with such… Wonderment. Intrigue. Romance.” At its core, “Lover” is a celebration of everything love can be. Whether it is with a significant other, a group of friends or yourself, it is an album that allows listeners to remember what it is like to be truly dazzled by the simple things, like a song, for example, that makes you feel brand new. In the album’s final track, “Daylight,” Swift likens finding a once in a lifetime love to stepping into the daylight after a long, dark night. To the delight of longtime fans, she references her 2012 album, “RED,” comparing her ideas of love then and now: “Maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down. / Maybe I stormed out of every single room in this town. / Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it’s morning now. / It’s brighter now… / I can still see it all in my head, back and forth from New York, sneaking in your bed. / I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden ― like daylight.” As the music begins to fade and all listeners can hear is a soft piano melody, a voice recording begins to play: “I want to be defined by the things that I love. Not the things I hate, not the things I’m afraid of, the things that haunt me in the middle of the night. I just think that… You are what you love.” If listeners choose to define Swift by what “Lover” represents, she will have succeeded in every sense of the word. She doesn’t just step into the daylight; she immerses herself in it―and shines brighter than ever before.
Graphics by Lea Killian
September 16, 2019 www.aggiecentral.com
Student Life
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Photo Courtesy of Theresa Hinkle
Formula for success: (Left to Right) Cameron seniors Stephen Myers, Stephen McBride and Rusty Paris; American Chemistry Society (ACS) Pres. Elect Luis Echengoyen; Cameron Senior Theresa Hinkle; and Cameron Professor of Chemistry Dr. E. Ann Nalley pose for a photo during the San Diego ACS conference. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry honored Nalley for excellence in research.
Chemistry Abroad
Cameron’s globe-trotting chemists By Kimb Frey
selected for this recognition include: a nomination from members from more Copy Editor than one country and the approval of members from at least five countries. On July 10, in Paris, France, “I know a lot of people, a lot of Cameron University’s own Dr. E. places,” Nalley said, “And the reason Ann Nalley accepted the International I know a lot of people, a lot of places Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s is because I was president of the (IUPAC) 2019 Distinguished Women American Chemical Society (ACS). in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering And as a part of that life, I got to travel award. a lot.” Nalley is a Professor of Chemistry Nalley ensures her students have and Clarence E. Page Endowed Chair opportunities to travel and network as in Math and Science Education. well by taking students to conferences She has been instructing and in Orlando, Florida; San Diego, mentoring students in the Chemistry, California; and Oklahoma City, Physics and Engineering Department arranging campus visits to graduate at Cameron for the past 50 years as schools like Baylor University in Waco, well as keeping active in various Texas and by nominating her students organizations around the globe, for internships through the National including the American Chemical Science Foundation (NSF). Society and the Malta Conferences One of her students, Senior in Foundation. Chemistry and Biology Theresa IUPAC honored 12 women from Hinkle, interned in Bordeaux, France, nine countries for their excellence through the NSF’s Louis Stokes in research, education or leadership Alliances for Minority Participation during IUPAC’s centenary Chemistry (LSAMP) program over the summer. Congress. The requirements to be During her internship studying the
synthesis of the polymer polyurethane, Hinkle got to join her mentor in Paris for IUPAC’s weeklong congress, where she attended the award ceremony and met many of the world’s chemistry leaders. “It was really great.” Hinkle said, “I made a lot of great connections. That’s going to be hopefully very beneficial. I’m hoping next summer to do another program. I’m not sure about Bordeaux yet. I know it’s definitely an option. But also, I met so many people, and they’re looking at me to go to their programs. So, it’s nice to have options.” Hinkle is considering internships in Germany and several across the United States for when she graduates in May 2020. Her trip to Bordeaux was her first time traveling abroad, and she looks forward to traveling again. Nalley, Hinkle and some of the other Chemistry students recently returned from the fall national ACS meeting in San Diego, where the students presented their research and received comments from a wide variety of experts.
“This is really nice. Lot of networking,” Hinkle said. “And we also get to meet all kinds of other people involved in chemistry and get very valuable feedback on our research … like, ‘Have you tried this method?’ or maybe ‘Try this compound.’ And it really helps all of us.” Nalley wants to ensure that all of her students leave Cameron with the tools, experiences and skills to be successful in their careers. She does this through sharing her research and through travel opportunities. “So our kids,” Nalley said, “when they leave here [the students] are really well trained.” And so, they too can go on to become presidents of scientific societies and be asked to speak in over 27 countries around the world — just like their mentor. “I’ve been very blessed,” Nalley said. “I just don’t understand why the Lord has given me all the opportunities he has. And I thank Him every day for enabling me to do all the things I’ve done in my life and for giving me the energy and enthusiasm.”
Greek life: Service, Friends, Fun By Cam Alsbrook Assistant Editor
Sororities and fraternities at Cameron University create unique atmospheres of diverse, yet unified individuals. These groups contribute much to the active, bustling life of a Cameron University student. This semester, members of Cameron’s Greek life organizations have worked on recruiting members and setting up for the rest of the Fall semester. Two of the organizations— Omega Zeta Theta (OZT) and Sigma Tau Gamma (STG), took part in Rush Week during the first week of September, which is stacked with events across campus relating to the Greek Life organizations, as well as other organizations on campus. After Rush Week, OZT President Kensey Garrison said the sorority will be starting new member education classes. “Members that accepted bids at the end of Rush Week will learn about the sorority, like our history, purpose, officer positions, philanthropy and other general things about Greek Life,” Garrison said. Fraternities and Sororities
have taken part in a wide array of events, such as Halloween, Christmas, Cancer Research drives (OZT), and Cultural events. STG President Dalton Dorsey said his favorite event is the Trunk or Treat event during Halloween. “ We had over 1,500 participants and had everyone in the community there,” Dorsey said. Organizations will have the chance to celebrate Halloween on campus at end of October, providing family fun and entertainment. Dorsey said he was excited for the development STG has made as a national chapter. “We’ve been able to transform the lives of many men,” Dorsey said. Both OZT and STG put emphasis on their members’ growth in community service toward the general public. Garrison said OZT already has philanthropic activities planned for this semester. “Our main philanthropy event for this semester is going to be using money that we raised to put together comfort bags to be donated to patients fighting cancer,” Garrison said. Garrison said movies reflect Greek life inaccurately. “Most people assume
Photo by Cam Alsbrook
that Greek Life is going to be the way it’s portrayed in the movies. Just a bunch of partying, shallow social bonds, ignoring their classes and generally being reckless and social elitists,” Garrison said. “That’s far from the truth though, because while social bonds are made, they’re developed just like any friendship, with genuine time and respect put into them.” STG alumnus Robert Champ asked for potential members of the fraternity to continue making the
experience better for the future. “What is your why?” Champ said. “Why you joined, kept going, never gave up? You’ll find your why here and we will help you find it.” OZT is a Cameron-born sorority founded on Aug. 3, 2014. As an organization, Omega Theta Zeta strives to accomplish and improve their focus on community service, friendships and academic involvement through events like the “Tell Cancer to Step
Aside Walk-a-thon.” STG is a national chapter that will be celebrating their centennial next year in 2020—and though the scope of future events is private, Dorsey said they would update as more events come into development and closer timing. For more information about Cameron Greek life, contact Cameron Campus life at 5812217 or email the Coordinator of Campus Life, Daniel McFadden, at dmcfadde@ cameron.edu.
Sports
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September 16, 2019 www.aggiecentral.com
Coach of the Year
Josh Cobble
David Perkins
Year, Player of Year, Senior and Freshman of year, Player to Watch, Sports Editor Most Improved Senior Player and In the world of Tennis, Cameron Community Service Awards. So, it’s tennis head coach Josh Cobble has pretty extensive.” Cobble stated. been at it for quite a while. “Then I got a call from one of the “I started playing when I was about other coaches in our conference, and he twelve years old,” Cobble said. was like ‘Hey congratulations.’ And I Ever since the beginning, in those said, ‘Thanks, but for what?’‘Unless I formative years in Duncan, Oklahoma, read the email wrong, you are coach of Cobble has devoted a majority of his the year.’” life to the tennis courts and to the The coach on the other end of the people on them. line was calling in response to an His hard work paid off this spring email received by the coaches after the when the Intercollegiate Tennis awards banquet. Association (ITA) honored him with The award came at the end of a the 2019 Wilson ITA National Coach turnaround spring season when Cobble of the Year award in May after leading would coach the team to a record of 19the CU men’s tennis team to Nationals 5, a big improvement over the previous in Altamonte Springs, Florida. year’s record of 9-11. “We were at Nationals,’ Cobble said, “I had a great group of seniors,” “and we had the awards ceremony, Cobble said, “and that made a and they did all the player and coach huge difference. Vini Santos and awards. They didn’t say anything about Przemyslaw Zielinski, they were the coach of the year. I knew I was a our two seniors who had the most regional winner at that point in time, experience. Both were back after so I was just curious who the national injuries. Przemy was easing his way winner was because they didn’t into the year, so he started off low and announce it. worked his way up through the lineup. “The ITA has a pretty expansive Vini was conference player of the year. awards process. They do different He was the most consistent. He was awards like Assistant Coach of the all American in singles and doubles,”
Cobble said. “Which is possibly the first time that has ever happened at Cameron. He had a phenomenal year. “Throughout the year, different guys stepped up at different times. Overall, it was the entire team. That’s the funny thing about team tennis because there are nine individual matches, but they all count.” “But those two guys provided more than just on court performance, it was the leadership off court too. Which is a big deal for us.” Cobble has learned a lot during his time as head coach. He spent years as head coach at Cowley College in Kansas, gaining experience and insight into what it takes to be the best coach and mentor that he can be. “When I first started it was all about the tennis,” Cobble said. “I was a 23-year-old kid. You know, it was my first gig. “I was a head coach, don’t know what I’m doing besides I am on a tennis court. I went to what I know, which was doing drills and tennis and playing. Working on getting better on the court. And the first couple of years we struggled, we were pretty good, but we could never cross the hump.” Cobble said.
“But the more I started learning, I found out the more you worry about the big picture the more everything comes into focus. Having that focus of being your best at everything.” Cobble said. Cobble’s character is that of someone expected to hold the title of National Coach of the Year. He sees the big picture. He recognizes the importance of being a good person every day in all aspects of life. “I think it all matters, that’s the thing,” Cobble said. “You know one of the things that we talk about with the team is success isn’t just winning matches. It’s winning matches, it’s doing well in the classroom, its being a good teammate, being a good community member, being a good family member, cleaning up after yourself, whatever you have to do.” To Cobble, these are the characteristics he’d like his players to have on and off the court. These character traits also happen to be what constitute a National Coach of the Year. “What you do every day is what is most important,” Cobble said. “that’s more of what makes you successful than what happens in practice or on match day.”
Excellence in action: Head coach Josh Cobble instructs Cameron tennis player Bruno Vietri during Friday morning practice. Cobble won Intercollegiate Tennis Association Coach of the Year for his excellence in leadership in May after leading the CU men’s tennis team to Nationals. Photos By David Perkins