Vol. 88 Issue 42
November 16, 2010
A Rivalry Continued:
WHAT’S INSIDE
CSUF vs. LBSU
OPINION U.S. ranks higher in confidence than education ........................................4
See CSUF and LBSU, page 8
Irvine campus to open
DETOUR Delorean brings electrodance music to Hollywood ........................................6
Fitness center will be available to students, faculty and staff and will open at the beginning of the spring semester See IRVINE, page 3
SPORTS For some athletes, too much emotion brings pain ........................................8
CSUF athletes share their stories about their conference opponents
new recreation center
dailytitan.com The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Student overcomes hardships FRANCINE RIOS Daily Titan
With a warm smile and genuine look in his eyes, senior Kevin Villicana greeted a passing friend while he sat outside of Yogurtland. “Hey man, what’s up? Hit me up soon!” said his friend, interrupting a telephone conversation to acknowledge Villicana. “That just made me look cool, but I’m really not that cool,” Villicana joked as his buddy walked out of sight. Anyone who knows Villicana will say this is a typical example of his down-to-earth demeanor, but Villicana himself will say that this attitude is a result of a difficult past spent in the foster care system. “I’ve spent a lot of time being negative,” Villicana said. “Now I’ve decided that I’m going to be happy.” With the help of the Cal State Fullerton Guardian Scholars program, which offers full-ride scholarships to emancipated wards of the court, Villicana is on his way to a brighter future.
all the people involved. The play selection committee, which is arranged to determine what will play when, is all about the funds. The group consists of faculty representatives from each department; the department chairman, business managers, marketing people, set designers, lighting, actors and directors all with the goal to come up with an affordable and carefully tailored semester show list. For each play, the following factors are included; how many cast and crew will be required, whether or not it’s a period piece that will demand lots of wardrobe and set, and what the royalty requirements are.
Born into the system Villicana’s journey began in the northern California town of Madera. His biological mother had a drug and alcohol addiction, which was the reason Villicana was born with detectable amounts of drugs in his body. “I was born into the system,” Villicana said. “Being born into the system, I feel, put me at a disadvantage. Growing up, I always had to have a back-up plan. It felt like everyone else was already ahead in life.” While his mother battled her demons, the infant Villicana was sent to live in a home. He says that he doesn’t remember much from those days because he was so young. But he was placed back in his mother’s care by age six, only after she was deemed healthy enough to be a parent again. However, this would not last very long. Soon, Villicana and his five siblings, who all have different birth fathers, found themselves caught up in their mother’s old habits of drinking, drug use and partying for the next seven years.
See THEATRE, page 5
See VILLICANA, page 3
JOHNNY LE / Daily Titan Staff scenic artist Gaye Willson Berger paints a set window for the theater performance of Rent, the musical, which premieres on Friday, November 19. Berger oversees set painting for the Department of Theatre and Dance.
Theater thrives through sales Box offices sales help keep the Theatre and Dance Department running while state funding continues to be cut from the program HEATHER REST Daily Titan
The halls of the Performing Arts Building come alive at night after the mundane drone of the afternoon is over. School books and assignment sheets are stuffed out of sight, setting the artistic students free to do what they love. Rehearsal stages are packed with lighting and costume checks, and random outbursts of beautiful singing fills the air. While the economic downfall has affected almost every person in this country, the community of art lovers in Orange
County has kept the Theatre and Dance Department afloat through its box office sales. State funding is almost non-existent, as pennies have been pinched, but as a result, some of the most meaningful art has emerged. This proves that art, and possibly very few other things, lives above the financial iron fist. “Money doesn’t make art,” said Jim Volz, a full-time faculty member of the Theatre Department. “It can help facilitate the visionary process of the art, but you can do theater on a shoe string that is just as poignant and just as brilliant.” As the production of each show gets closer to opening night, the concept of a budget moves further away from the minds of
CSUF goalie helps lead Titans to first finals Goalkeeper finishes the season fifth in the nation in saves per game with an average of 5.95 per contest WILLIAM CHEN For the Daily Titan
He bends his knees to squat. His back arches forward. The Titan goalkeeper is ready to pounce. He has to make a decision in moments as the opponent quickly advances towards him. The opponent kicks a bullet. He lunges left, palming the ball with both hands and tucking it securely to his stomach as he lands. Another goal prevented. Junior goalkeeper Trevor Whiddon began his soccer career at a young age. His dad played soccer at San Diego State University and encouraged young Trevor to follow his steps. His mom drove him to practices and games and purchased the equipment necessary for Whiddon. He was also trained and nurtured by coaches and teammates that shaped him into the formidable goalkeeper he is today. Whiddon began playing soccer at five and competitively at 10. There was no moment of epiphany for Whiddon that caused him to pursue soccer seriously. Rather, he devoted himself to watching soccer with his dad at a young age and trained persistently. He particularly remembers
ALAYNA DURAN / Daily Titan Titan junior goalkeeper Trevor Whiddon finished the 2010 campaign with 12 saves against UC Santa Barbara Nov. 13, the 10th best in the nation for one game.
training with his little brother. “We’d always go to the park and kick the ball around,” Whiddon said. “We would also have the neighborhood kids that played on the same club team join us as well.” He was not originally a goalie in those early years. Prior to being a goalkeeper, Whiddon played the forward position. He explains that
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in the tender years of childhood a kid can be molded into any position. “I started off as a field player,” Whiddon said. “And when I was 10 a coach called my dad and asked if he could convert me into a goalie.” From that point on he guarded the area between the posts. College soccer brought more challenges than he has ever faced be-
fore. For one, nothing in his life has compared to the physical conditioning in college. “There’s a thing called ‘The Cooper’ where you have to run two miles in 12 minutes,” Whiddon said with a sigh. “We also do goal-to-goal sprints where we run about 220 yards in 37 seconds. It’s pretty bad.” In addition, Whiddon has to calibrate his reaction time and up-down movement as a goalie through specialized training. But all this conditioning did not go to waste. In a home game Sept. 29 against UC Santa Barbara that resulted in a 1-0 Titan win in overtime, Whiddon performed phenomenally by nabbing 10 saves. “It seemed like every five minutes I was on the ball,” Whiddon said. “Not many goalies have that many saves in a game.” In an interview after that game, he humbly deflected the glory by saying it was a team effort. “He basically was the man of the match,” said Titan Head Coach Bob Ammann referring to the game. “There have been a number of games that Trevor’s played very well in.” See WHIDDON, page 8
JENNIFER CHUNG / Daily Titan
Debate continues over future of violent games CHRISTOPHER PARK & ALVAN UNG For the Daily Titan
Earlier this month, Supreme Court justices debated on the subject of violent video games, with justices seemingly split on whether or not to uphold a law in California that would prohibit the sale of violent video games to minors. California Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini appeared in front of court arguing for the measure,
comparing violent video games to sexually-explicit material, which states can and have restricted the sales of. Morazzini was met with resistance and support from the justices. “We do not have a tradition in this country of telling children they should watch people actively hitting school girls over the head with a shovel so they’ll beg with mercy, being merciless and decapitating them, shooting people in the leg so they fall down,” said Chief Justice Roberts, according to a transcript of the hearing. See GAME, page 2