Leader
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DECEMBER 08. 2020
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ISSUE 06 ELMHURSTLEADER.COM
EU students reflect on virtual semester
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ARTURO MAGALLANES
PAGES 6-7
“I am supposed to attend the student teaching program from Monday to Friday, but I only go there three times instead,” she explained. The pandemic also impacted Ninan’s plans to teach abroad after graduating. Though she was looking forward to teaching in Egypt, Ninan has opted to instruct her students remotely for the time being. Phuong Dang, an international student from Vietnam, was given only 3 days to book an airplane ticket and return home in March. Dang now has to take classes online while in Vietnam, regardless of the 13-hour time difference. “I have to stay up late for classes,” Dang said. “It’s a whole new challenge that I have to overcome.” Dang added that “going to classes [in person] is definitely more effective.” Graphic by Hannah Horn TERESA NGUYEN Staff Reporter
“I hope everything gets better soon so I can come back to school,” Dang said.
Elmhurst University students and educators have dealt with significant changes in their learning and teaching experiences due to a largely virtual fall term. “Everything is different this year,” said Christiana Ninan, a senior majoring in elementary education. According to Ninan, EU's education department offers a student teaching program for seniors, where students are assigned to an elementary school. Students are required to complete between 100-120 hours before the student teaching program ends. However, for Ninan, her time spent as a teacher in the classroom has been significantly reduced because students are now being taught virtually. ADVERTISING
After graduation, Dang planned on pursuing a green card while working in the United States. Now, Dang will continue his postgraduate education remotely in Vietnam.
Sophomore Riley Deahl also shared her experience as a commuter student during the pandemic.
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“I am barely able to be on-campus because all the classes turn online,” Deahl said. “It’s not exactly the ideal college experience at all.” Deahl noted that attending classes virtually has eliminated the hands-on experience she requires as an elementary education major. “I was supposed to come to an elementary school to observe for one of my class’s projects, but we had to watch a Youtube video instead,” stated Deahl. For the upcoming spring term, Elmhurst University plans to continue with classes completely online, or through a hybrid method.
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LETTERS & GENERAL
THE LEADER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ROB KENNEDY LEADERNEWSEC@GMAIL.COM
NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD MARISA KARPES Editor-in-Chief GIANNA MONTESANO Managing Editor AFAAF AMATULLAH News Editor JULIA ZAWITKOWSKA Graphics Editor OLIVIA JANICKE Copy Editor ERIC LUTZ Faculty Advisor
DOJ hasn't found evidence of election fraud, Attorney General Barr says AFAAF AMATULLAH News Editor
ASSISTANTS ARTURO MAGALLANES Assistant Graphics Editor MICHELLE CABANAS Social Media Manager
STAFF BAILEY HOENIG ANDREW CRIPE NIKLAS FAULK ISABELLA HERRERA PRINCESS GONZALEZ ESPARZA HANNAH HORN TERESA NGUYEN KEITHLEEN MENDOZA
CONTACT US The Leader Newspaper Elmhurst University 190 Prospect Avenue Elmhurst, IL 60126
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ABOUT US The Leader is the student-run newspaper speaking to the students, faculty, and administrators of Elmhurst University. The Leader is not submitted to any person or organization for prior approval. The contents are the decision of the editor in agreement with the editorial board. Opinions expressed in The Leader do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or its staff and are not intended to represent those of the university at large. No text, photos, or art can be reproduced without direct permission of The Leader.
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Despite Trump’s incessant claims of election malfeasance, the Department of Justice has been unable to uncover evidence of widespread fraud as of yet, according to Trump-appointed Attorney General William Barr. Barr instructed federal prosecutors to review allegations of election irregularities after Republicans refused to concede the presidential election. However, as Barr told the Associated Press on Dec. 1, investigators have vetted individual complaints but did not discover evidence that corroborates claims of extensive fraud. When asked to counter Barr’s statement, Trump told reporters that the DOJ and FBI’s efforts to investigate election fraud claims have been lackluster. “He hasn’t doesn’t anything,” said the president at the White House on Thursday, Dec. 3.
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“This is probably the most fraudulent election that anyone has ever seen,” Trump added, rebuking Barr’s claims that election results will not be undone. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, responded by asserting that “there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation.” Although Trump’s legal team has attempted to contest election results in court, the campaign has dealt with a string of scathing losses. Several courts have firmly dismissed the campaign’s mounting lawsuits. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 21-page ruling admonishing Trump for failing to back accusations with evidence. “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,“ declared the court. “Voters, not lawyers, choose the president.”
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NEWS E-Cellerator speakers spark innovation in students KEITHLEEN MENDOZA Staff Reporter Although less than a year old, Elmhurst University’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, now called E-Cellerator, has hosted eleven speaker events, earning another $30,000 grant from the PNC Foundation for their work. The mission of E-Cellerator is to serve all interested students, specifically those who tend to be underrepresented in the area of entrepreneurship, in particular women and people of color. Monthly events such as the Diversity Speakers panel invites guests to discuss their struggles in a traditionally exclusive and homogeneous space. “We want to make sure we are providing opportunities for students from these [underrepresented] groups,” explained Martin Gahbauer, executive director of the Weigand Center for Professional Excellence. The initiative consists of speakers from various industries, including cybersecurity and healthcare. The program caters to students based on direct feedback, which has resulted in a high turnout rate. E-Cellerator began in response to administrators and many students desiring a program that supported their entrepreneurial dreams. They officially opened their doors on Feb. 19, with their first speaker Mark Heintz, an entrepreneur with experience in establishing several successful businesses. In preparation for the events, the initiative did its research in the form of a focus group and student surveys. Gahbauer, with his experience in helping students fulfill their career goals, and Patrick Yanahan, as entrepreneur-in-residence at EU, work together as founders to meet students’ needs. Using their connections, and those at Innovation DuPage, Gahbauer and Yanahan continue to find speakers who will spark innovation in students. “Speakers are important because of what they provide,” Gahbauer said. “They’re experts in their given area.”
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Graphic by Arturo Magallanes
Handling the pandemic at Elmhurst University and neighboring colleges BAILEY HOEING Staff Reporter With uncertainty concerning the pandemic at the beginning of the semester, Elmhurst University and colleges in the area set strict guidelines following protocols set by the state to continue to combat virus spread on campus. Elmhurst University, North Central College, and Wheaton College all mandated mask-wearing throughout campus with social distancing guidelines in areas such as classrooms. Kayla Pisauro, a senior at North Central College in Naperville, noted that at the beginning of the semester she was hesitant that her college’s plan would stay afloat. “I was a little worried because it sounded like everything could be pulled out from underneath [us],” explained Pisauro. Being an athletic trainer, Pisauro was part of the protocol that tested all athletes and some athletic staff weekly at the start of the semester. Similar to EU, later on in the semester the North Central College campus opted to do randomized testing for certain percentages of the teams. While EU students had the option to stay on-campus after Thanksgiving break, Wheaton College sought the remote learning only route, with an application required to stay on-campus. Wheaton College plans to begin the spring semester in January in a remote-only fashion. In February,
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the college anticipates opening for in-person learning depending on the status of the state. “This change in plans is due to predicted high incidence of COVID-19 cases in January when flu season is at its height and the cold weather drives people indoors,” says the college’s website. Quarantine protocols between North Central College and EU were fairly similar: Ten days of quarantine if a student tested positive and fourteen if exposed. Students in quarantine on both campuses reported facing difficulty with toiletries and other basic supplies in their rooms. At North Central College, students were given all three meals of the day in the morning, with no microwaves or heating sources for meals. EU students have also commented that the food delivery system in place for quarantining students was not well organized. EU has demonstrated a relatively low case count according to a message from the university's task force on Nov. 5. The alert status remains yellow, which means that up to 25% of the available quarantine space on campus has been filled. “Contact tracing results suggest that the transmission rate linked to in-person instruction and campus life remains low as well,” said President VanAnken in a message to the campus on Nov. 22.
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NEWS Biden's win in Georgia reaffirmed after a second hand recount
Graphic by Isabella Herrera
AFAAF AMATULLAH News Editor Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp certified the state’s presidential election results on Dec. 7 in favor of Biden following a second hand recount which was completed at the Trump campaign’s behest. Results of the second recount, available on the official state website, show Biden as the winner with a margin of 11,779 votes. The third count of 5 million votes, whose costs are footed by taxpayers per Georgia state law, has been met with continued accusations of voter fraud from Trump and his supporters. During a press conference last Tuesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pinned the responsibility of growing threats against election workers on Trump. Raffensperger said that the “violent rhetoric” has resulted from Trump’s insistence that the results of the presidential election are fraudulent. Despite Raffensperger’s concerns, Trump has continued to peddle election conspiracy theories and tweeted: “Expose the massive voter
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fraud in Georgia.” In an attempt to block Georgia from pledging its 16 electors to Biden, Trump’s legal team filed a fresh lawsuit on Dec. 4, urging the state court to order a new election and cited, “tens of thousands of illegal votes,” in a press statement.
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On the same day, a news release from Raffensperger’s office mentioned that Kemp has joined efforts by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to expose election incongruities. Saturday morning, Trump called Kemp to request that state legislatures overturn election results, according to the Washington Post. This came only hours before the president’s campaign staged a rally in Georgia, where Trump falsely claimed victory in the state. The president also urged voters to turn their attention towards the upcoming January runoff election for two U.S. Senate races. “You must go vote,” he said. “They cheated and rigged our presidential election but we will still win it.”
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jzawi8213@365.elmhurst.edu
12.08.20
OPINIONS
Editorial
Remembering the on-campus heroes In the previous issue of The Leader, we paid tribute to teachers, who during these unprecedented times, put a lot of extra effort to make sure students are still receiving a quality education at Elmhurst University. While they do play a large part in the success of the university this term, we must also remember and be appreciative of other staff and faculty who may have gone unnoticed in keeping things afloat this term. While professors and educators have the option of teaching remotely — which most of them do — many workers have no choice but to be on-campus to work, further increasing their potential exposure to COVID-19. Cafeteria workers and dining services staff are still very much needed for students still living on campus. While also maintaining their original responsibilities, dining services also had to get creative in the execution of feeding students by providing more options for prepackaged food and delivering meals to students in quarantine. Facilities management has also been hard at work doing their best to keep campus safe and clean for those who are on campus. They also had to be innovative in their approaches in installing and utilizing new technologies. On top of that, they also had to increase their workload in order to better accommodate the need for increased sanitation in dorms and classrooms.
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Another remaining presence on campus is the public safety officers and staff. The issues they deal with did not stop when COVID-19 began, hence they still follow the protocols to keep the campus safe. Besides these groups, there are other staff members that are going on-campus to do their jobs, most likely because it is a job that cannot be done remotely. If we did not mention you specifically, we nonetheless appreciate you too. Before the pandemic, it was normal to get your food served by a dining service during a busy lunch hour. It was common to pass by a facilities management team member cleaning up in a residence hall without thinking much of it. In today’s world, these seemingly small tasks and jobs mean a whole lot. Any job that takes one away from home and into a situation where they can potentially be exposed to COVID-19 deserves extra recognition and appreciation. These people are making sacrifices in serving the campus community. Even if you yourself are not currently on campus, this is something that you can still appreciate for the sake of the university as a whole.
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So, to all the essential workers on campus, thank you for all that you have done this fall term and will continue to do next year. Your work will no longer go unnoticed.
Wri nua te abou nced t issu es! Letter to Editor Submissions Letters to the editor can be submitted below or sent to leadernewsec@gmail.com. Letters must include your full name and Elmhurst University affiliation. All letters should be 300 words or less in length. The editors retain the right to edit letters before publication. Don’t forget to spell-check! The Leader is the student-run newspaper speaking to students, faculty and administrators of Elmhurst University. The Leader is not submitted to any person or organization for prior approval. The contents are the decision of the editor in agreement with the editorial board. Opinions expressed in The Leader do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or its staff , and are not intended to represent those of the university at large. All text, photos and art cannot be reproduced withoutdirect permission of The Leader.
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CONTACT MARISA KARPES @ mkarp0478@365.elmhurst.edu
TO AUDITION FOR A COLUMN
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ARTS + CULTURE
ARTURO MAGALLANES Assistant Graphics Editor
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THE LEADER
12.08.20
ARTS + CULTURE 1. All I Want for Christmas Is You
17. Jingle Bell Rock
2. All I Want for Xxxmas
18. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
The Know
Mariah Carey Slayyyter
Marina
3. Last Xmas
19. Los Peces En El Rio
Allie X
Pandora
4. Holiday
20. Frosty The Snowman
Lil Nas X
Cocteau Twins
5. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree Brenda Lee
6. Sleigh Ride The Ronettes
7. Santa Baby Kylie Minogue
8. Thank God It's Christmas Queen
9. Carol Of The Bells the bird and the bee
10. Winter Wonderland Eurythmics
21. I Won't Be Home For Christmas Poppy
22. Little Saint Nick Best Coast
23. Christmas Wrapping The Waitresses
24. Hard Candy Christmas Dolly Parton
25. Oh Santa!
Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson
11. Holiday Madonna
12. Wonderful Christmastime Kylie Minogue, MIKA
13. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow Dean Martin
14. Lights On Tyler, the Creator Santigold, Ryan Beatty
15. It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year Kylie Minogue
16. X Navidad Cariño
ISSUE 06
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ARTS + CULTURE ‘MANK’ IS THE BIGGEST CINEMATIC WASTE OF 2020 ANDREW CRIPE Film Critic If Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” was the most disappointing Netflix exclusive of the year, then David Fincher’s “Mank” is the most bizarrely bad. It is an unnecessary and overlong act of reverse nepotism; a clueless director resurrecting his bad screenwriter papa’s script in a depressingly amateur-hour attempt to make people believe Jack Fincher was an unsung master. By putting complete trust in his father’s vision for the story of the inception of Orson Welles’ legendary “Citizen Kane,” Fincher throws millions of dollars into the trash so he can take a limp stab at a director who was more original on his worst day than Fincher ever will be on his best. Unlike the majority of the cinephile population (and I don’t say this to cheaply stray from the herd in an attempt to seem unique), I’ve never seen a trace of Kubrick, Hitchcock, or any of the other masters in David Fincher. I think his greatest strength is his diversity, but he doesn’t have a voice. If you take the thematic consistencies of his directorial choices to represent his artistic statements, then the text you end up with is edgy for edgy’s sake, and that’s all the text you’ll get out of him, as Fincher has never written a feature film (more on this later). The tones of “Se7en” and “Fight Club,” which people for some reason still claim are his best movies, sound like cheap college-football-bleacher-pothead nihilism; taking breaks from Nietzsche to cough about Marx despite never having read either. Neither film is bad, but they aren’t significant moments in storytelling, and nobody from the Fincher clan is an important storyteller. At Fincher’s best, he is directing multi-layered epics grounded in a reality that’s impossible to ignore or make dull, like “Zodiac” and “The Social Network.” He really is a producer’s jackpot of a director, opting for stuff that sells and seems like a surefire good idea to invest years of time and focus into. He pulls 75% of these films off with class and a directing style that seems more intricate than it really is (watch any YouTuber essayist’s dissection of Fincher’s style, write what they say down on paper and actually read, syllable-for-syllable, what they’re trying to explain is so special about this guy. It’s maddening nonsense what holiness
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people see in him). The most frustrating thing to me about Fincher is that, because he bides his time for years between projects, people act like every frame of his new films are laboriously carved masterpieces. Yeah, not quite. The real story, for all that it actually counts, is that Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles wrote what was for decades considered by the cinematic world (as represented by the annual “Sight & Sound” polls) the greatest movie of all time. And indeed, today, anybody who watches it — despite the occasional outsider’s attempts to dispel its undeniable cast — agrees that there are few films that reach the Mount Olympus “Citizen Kane” resides upon. But starting with Pauline Kael’s sort-of-kind-of conspiracy theory that the origins of the controversial yet beautiful story could be credited to one man and one man only (Herman Mankiewicz, known in Fincher’s world as “Mank” and played by Gary Oldman), the ship of Charles Foster Kane’s status has always been on the verge of sinking with the weight of its gossip rather than buoyed by the fact it’s one of the best movies ever. This is
Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies
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my long-winded way of saying I stepped into this film with a heaping ton of skepticism because, well, who cares who wrote it? All the key figures involved with its production got ample credit, yet the film at hand acts as though tipsy Mank was being shoveled into the ether by Welles who, despite his tender age during “Kane’s” production, was capable of writing most of the known world under the table. But I’m all for revisionist history. James Ellroy’s “American Tabloid” is my favorite novel, so bring it on. But the focus about the Welles v. Mank authorship is so left-field that it actually threatens to send viewers away with a critically wrong impression of both men. It takes up less than 20 minutes of screentime, barely a subplot, whereas the rest of the film purports to be about how the newspaper mogul of the early 20th century, William Randolph Hearst, went all mob-bossy on Mank for writing a movie that supposedly dedicated the famous sled to Marion Davies’ vagina. What starts as potentially sinister ends up, like so much else in this film, anticlimactically damp and ineffectual. Nobody actually does anything to anybody in this film. Nobody gets touched, threatened, accused, brought down-or-up; we leave the film with everything in the same place it was before we knocked. This movie is too quaint to exist. None of this movie is as edgy or lurid as its real-life interests warrant. Charles Dance, who plays Hearst (and, par for the course of the rest of the movie’s casting, looks nothing like him) has less than five minutes of actual screen presence. The central performance, Gary Oldman as Mank (which, from the trailer’s editing, is for some reason being touted
Internet Photo
12.08.20
ARTS + CULTURE Gary Oldman has already given the two best performances of his career: as John Le Carre’s George Smiley in the 2011 adaptation of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and his Oscar winning role as Winston Churchill in the excellent “Darkest Hour” (2017). You don’t see any actual stretching going on here. Oldman gives the same imitation of a drunk any of us could, and even worse, Jack Fincher’s screenplay never allows him to be a mean drunk, instead opting for him to be a kindly, grandfatherly drunk (despite only being in his 40s, whereas Oldman is in his 60s). The one interesting thing about the trailer is that it makes you think “Mank” will be an unflinching look at a washed up writer’s spiral into an alcoholism so inescapable it killed him (a rot only described in text by the closing credits), but there are no real consequences in the movie for Mankiewicz’s alcoholism. Actually, it only encourages it, displaying alcohol as Mankiewicz’s only resource for masterful writing. To neglect the real-life disease and its devastating effects even further, the people in Herman’s periphery are more than happy to enable him. Why? Because they love the old rascal, cirrhotic warts and all.
Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz Internet Photo
1 out of 5 stars
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as Oscar caliber), doesn’t give nearly enough to deserve anything close to an Oscar, not even the far opposite Razzie (which in and of themselves are embarrassing). I’m not sure anybody knew exactly why they were doing this movie; maybe because Fincher was at the helm despite the fact he’s never actually won an Oscar or done anything except give actors a migraine with his juvenile attempts at Kubrickian filmmaking, making actors lose their minds repeating takes hundreds of times. To acknowledge reality for a second, there are many Fincher acolytes who are calling this movie a masterpiece. I’m sure they have their reasons, and I’m sure there’s plenty that would surprise and challenge me. But I think this is all a fog-sized war and just as easily moved through. Like, think of when you listen or watch a reunion for one of your favorite programs or movies and are shocked to find the actors aren’t playing your favorite characters, but themselves, and they’re depressingly distanced from the work. It’s impossible to imagine anybody involved with this movie ten or more years down the line acknowledging it as their hooking-the-moon moment. Everything we might argue now about “Mank” already doesn’t matter. Even the people who say they love this movie won’t remember it when they’re at the gates of deciding their all-time favorites.
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As much as David and Jack Fincher want to convince you a story is here, there really isn’t. I can tell you about things like a boring subplot involving a director who willingly makes propaganda, who we’re supposed to feel bad for, but it’s not worth it. I can describe Amanda Seyfried’s torturous impression of a Transatlantic accent, but that’s not worth it. I can even let you in on the single undeniably solid part of the movie — the ominous, yet devotionally classic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — but that might make you want to watch the movie, so again, it’s not worth it. This is Netflix scratching Fincher’s back for all the work he’s done for their original programming, but the real reason this movie didn’t find a home on the big screen despite supposedly being decades in the making is that even the most cynical of Hollywood producers must have known it wasn’t worth it. That the material didn’t justify a 2-plus-hour running time; that the requisite huge cast and crew necessary for a black and white, painstakingly authentic period piece wouldn’t pay off; and finally, that both lifelong cinephiles and casual moviegoers wouldn’t stretch to remember a film like this past the brief point of pitifully patting David Fincher on the back for saying his daddy was cool. There have been and will be worse movies to come out this year, but for sheer undeserved stature and embarrassing amount of effort, “Mank” is the biggest cinematic waste of 2020.
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SPORTS NIKLAS FAULK Staff Reporter
This week in sports
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and a lot has happened in the world of sports. In the NHL, the start date of Jan. 1, is now in jeopardy. Kendall Coyne Schofield was named as player development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks, and several teams have announced the possibility of moving
woman to participate in the NHL skills competition where she competed in the fastest skater event and placed second behind reigning champ Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. Coyne Schofield is familiar with the Blackhawks; she grew up watching the team and has worked with many of the local hockey programs throughout the Chicagoland area. She also has her own development program for girls playing hockey called “Golden Coynes.”
Hockey moving outdoors
their home games outdoors for the upcoming season. In the MLB, the Chicago Cubs released Kyle Schwarber at the MLB nontender deadline and the White Sox released Carlos Rodon. Cubs broadcaster Len Kasper joins the White Sox. In the NFL, the Bears fall below .500 for the first time this season and the Pittsburgh Steelers remain undefeated. The NBA offseason has commenced in full force after the 2020-21 start date is announced.
NHL
Kendall Coyne Schofield joins Hawks
The NHL is dangerously close to missing their target start date of Jan. 1, for the 2021 season. Commissioner Gary Bettman originally planned to start the season on New Year’s Day, but there has been no update since. With a Jan. 1 start date, training camps would normally be taking place at this time, but with health and player safety issues, the start date is looking very unlikely.
Bettman stated in an article for NHL.com, “if you're playing a regular schedule of games, you can't quarantine players for 14 days as you're moving in and out of the country, which is why, among the other issues that are going to impact a possible season, is we literally would have to realign and create a situation where maybe the teams in Canada only play each other, and we have to realign the way all of our teams are playing competitively.”
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2020 Winter Classic in Dallas, Texas
Several teams including the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Florida Panthers, and Dallas Stars are considering playing their home games outdoors during the 2020-2021 season. Because COVID-19 is making its second wave throughout the United States, fans would not be able to attend games if they were indoors at their home arenas.
Will we ring in 2021 with hockey?
There are still a slew of concerns waiting to be resolved before the green light can be given to initiate the next step of starting the 2020-21 season. There is still no confirmation whether the NHL will have an all Canadian division, which would cause a realignment of the divisions. Teams that have not played in almost a year will need an extended training camp to get ready for the upcoming season. There is also no clear plan on whether teams will be able to play in their own arenas.
Internet Photo
Internet Photo
Kendall Coyne competing in NHL's fastest skater
Chicago-area native Kendall Coyne Schofield was recently hired as a player development coach by the Chicago Blackhawks. Coyne Schofield is the first woman in Blackhawks history to hold a coaching title. This is the first move to take place since the Marlins hired Kim Ng as their general manager. She joins Dawn Braid of the Arizona Coyotes as the second woman in the NHL to hold a coaching position. While working with the main roster of the Hawks, Coyne Schofield will also be scouting and helping the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Hawks. Coyne Schofield has played professional hockey in the National Women’s Hockey League and won a gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. In 2018, Coyne Schofield was the first
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Fans would be able to attend outdoor games while social distancing, allowing the teams to generate some form of revenue. One issue that was discussed out of this potential plan is how well the ice will hold up for teams located in the southern states. Teams like the Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes would have a hard time keeping the ice solid when temperatures rise in April. The move is set not in stone but is being considered as a viable option.
MLB
Cubs and White Sox stay busy at non-tender deadline
The Cubs and White Sox have been two of the most active teams this offseason. Both the Cubs and Sox have decided to add to their roster moves with the non-tender deadline approaching. The Cubs announced they officially non-tendered outfielders Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora Jr., and veteran reliever Ryan Tepera. The Cubs tendered
12.08.20
SPORTS wildcard game. A loss will likely end the Bears’ hopes of making the playoffs. They currently have a 26% chance of making the playoffs, but have a favorable stretch of upcoming games against the Texans, Vikings, and Jaguars.
third baseman Kris Bryant to keep him on the team for the 2021 season. To most Cubs fans, the release of Schwarber and Almora is the start of a rebuilding process. Both Schwarber and Almora were part of the Cubs offensive woes in 2020. Schwarber played in all but one game in the 2020 season hitting an abysmal .188 and only 11 home runs. Almora appeared in 34 games and hit only .167. Both players were part of the 2016 World Series Championship team and will become free agents.
Internet Photo
Len Kasper during Cubs pregame
caster for the White Sox. The Cubs announced that Chris Myers of Fox Sports will replace Len on Marquee Network.
Internet Photo
Carlos Rodon pitching against Cleveland
The White Sox non-tendered their third-overall pick in 2014, pitcher Carlos Rodón. Rodón missed most of the 2020 season recovering from Tommy John surgery that he had in 2019. Rodón appeared in four games, failing to register a win in all of them. His most notable appearance came against the Cleveland Indians where he blew a 4-1 lead and cost the Sox a must needed win. Rodón has been considered a bust by many, being injured through most of his tenure in Chicago. He was named the 2019 Opening Day starter in 2019 for the White Sox and gave up three runs in just five innings. Rodón has shown flashes of talent when healthy but has been mostly inconsistent with the injury bug during his six years with the White Sox. Nomar Mazara was the second nontender victim for the White Sox. Mazara was brought in to be the everyday right fielder on the South Side but ended up being a major disappointment. He hit just .228 and had only one home run that came at the tail end of the season. He finally started to show potential in the wildcard series against Oakland where he hit .500 with 2 RBIs but with a deep outfielder market in free agency, it is all but guaranteed the Sox will be moving on from the 25-year old after just one season.
Len Kasper switches sides For the first time since 2004, the Chicago Cubs will have a new play-by-play broadcaster. Longtime TV voice of the Cubs Len Kasper has decided to leave his position as lead TV broadcaster and take on the position of lead radio play-by-play broad-
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To most Cubs fans, the release of Schwarber and Almora is the start of a rebuilding process. Both Schwarber and Almora were part of the Cubs offensive woes in 2020. Schwarber played in all but one game in the 2020 season hitting an abysmal .188 and only 11 home runs. Almora appeared in 34 games and hit only .167. Both players were part of the 2016 World Series Championship team and
Steel City dominance
Kasper spent the last sixteen years as the Cubs TV announcer, being regarded one of the best in the game. The White Sox were looking for a replacement for interim radio voice Andy Masur who filled in for the Sox after the passing of longtime radio announcer Ed Farmer. Kasper will join longtime Sox analyst Darrin Jackson in the upcoming season. Internet Photo
NFL
Bears drop below .500
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Trubisky looking for an open man
Fresh off their bye week the Bears showed picked up right where they left off, losing 41-25 to the rival Green Bay Packers. They are now 5-6, falling into third place in the NFC North and falling below .500 for the first time this season. The embarrassing loss on national TV has fans calling for the firing of both Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace. The defense has shown its weakness without Eddie Goldman or Akiem Hicks and the offense has continued to struggle. The return of Mitch Trubisky as quarterback ended up being a failure, as Trubisky threw two interceptions in the endzone and fumbled a ball that ended up being run in for a touchdown for Green Bay. With only five games left in the season the Bears are on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. They will likely have to win out the rest of the season in order to have a shot at hosting a
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Ben Roethlisberger going deep
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the NFL’s hottest team this season going undefeated through twelve games. Veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has shown that he still has plenty left in the tank, throwing 25 touchdowns and over 2800 yards. The offense has done its job averaging just under 30 points a game. The Steelers’ defense sits third in the league only giving up 17 points a game which is the fewest in the league. The Steelers are currently the favorite to get a bye week in the playoffs with the Kansas City Chiefs right behind them. Chase Claypool, wide receiver, has made a name for himself this season with over 45 catches and over 600 yards rushing after catches.
NBA
With just under a month before the start of the 2020-21 NBA season, players have been rapidly on the move. Some of the most recent activity includes the Houston Rockets trading Russell Westbrook to Washington for Wizards star John Wall. Gordon Hayward signed in Charlotte for $120 million over four years after being traded from Boston over the offseason. The Toronto Raptors are without Serge Ibaka as he has moved on to the Los Angeles Clippers. Former Bull Joakim Noah was cut from the Clippers and is likely considering retirement after nearly fourteen seasons in the NBA. The NBA’s season restarts on Dec. 22, which will be playing another shortened season.
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SPORTS Life inside a bubble: The Leader exclusive interview with Tampa Bay Lightning's Rob Kennedy NIKLAS FAULK Staff Reporter
During Thanksgiving break, I spoke to Rob Kennedy about his experience living in two bubbles during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Kennedy is the assistant equipment manager for the Stanley Cup champion, Tampa Bay Lightning. We discussed everything from the marathon 5-overtime game against Columbus, to what kind of adjustments he had to make when transferring from Toronto to Edmonton. Kennedy has been an equipment manager professionally for over 20 years, and has worked for the Chicago Wolves, Florida Panthers, and Cleveland Barons, among other teams. What was going through your mind during the 5OT game against Columbus? Kennedy: Please score the next goal. When we played Columbus last year in the playoffs, by the time we realized this was a different series we were already down 3-0. The next game we both had a level playing field from experiencing the same thing, so it was not as bad.
Do you feel that this experience helped bring the team closer together? Kennedy: No question. There was no team closer to each other than ours. I look at these guys like they’re my kids. Stamkos is closer to my son’s age than mine. In a normal season we might get close to how we were in the bubble, but this experience brought us so much closer to each other. Kennedy hoisting Lord Stanley Do you think the bubble will return next season? Kennedy: No. I don’t think the players would want to endure that again because of how confined teams were. Teams spent an extended amount of time without seeing their families. They want to play in their own arenas. There’s also a better handle on COVID-19 now so there wouldn’t really need to be a bubble. If you could change anything about the bubble setups what would it be?
How did the Victor Hedman ritual start? Kennedy: We don’t really know; we try to look back on where it might’ve started but we’re not sure. We may have won the night before and just kept doing it. It’s been happening for four or five years now. How did it change, preparing for games? Kennedy: When we were in Toronto, we changed rooms at least 50 times. It was the beginning of the playoffs, so there were more teams. In Edmonton, you were in the same locker room for the duration of the round. Everything was the same in Edmonton.
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Kennedy: I would try to make it more even. In Toronto, I was able to go outside and sit out on a chair with a coffee and we were right off the water. In Edmonton, I only went outside a handful of times to go to the rink and get a coffee. When you were leaving in Edmonton, you needed to meet someone to go with you, where in Toronto our team was located in between the practice rink and the arena so we could walk over there on our own. I usually get to the rink early but in Edmonton you couldn’t. Was the adjustment from Toronto to Edmonton difficult? Kennedy: It was somewhat easier. It was a change
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of scenery. There weren’t many views like there were in Toronto. Because it was the final two rounds of the playoffs, players were able to focus more on their game. Some teams struggled. There was no chance the Islanders were beating us in the series against them. They had just played a game 7 against Philly and had to immediately move to Edmonton and be right back on the ice. Teams like Dallas already had eight or nine weeks of experience in the Edmonton bubble because they’re a Western Conference team. Did it feel different without fans? Kennedy: Yes, but once the games started you didn’t really notice it that much. I know when I watched on TV it was weird in the final two minutes or so of the game it was weird not hearing the crowd roar and be on their feet. Kennedy: Now that you mention it, it was a little different because typically teams like the Islanders and the Bruins have next level crowds. The crowd at Nassau Coliseum is one of the craziest in the league. When we were in game 6 of the cup finals, we would’ve been on the road, so it would’ve been different then too.
12.08.20