Monday, Nov. 14, 2022

‘Red wave’ washes Florida, Alachua County stays true to blue

MIDTERMS SAW INCUMBENT SUCCESS, NEW ELECTORAL PROCEDURES

By Heather Bushman Alligator Staff Writer

With a host of familiar faces, a prophesied “red wave” and a pair of electoral changes in Alachua County — this year’s midterm elec tion left its mark.

Election Day is in the rearview, but race results and referendums will impact the lo cal, state and national political landscapes for years to come. The Alligator analyzed general trends and takeaways from the mid term election and compiled the biggest story lines in the aftermath of Nov. 8.

Here’s what the results mean looking for ward in Alachua County.

Florida Republicans delivered in big races Though the promise of a national red wave fizzled out as Democrats secured con trol of the U.S. Senate Nov. 12, conserva tive candidates in Florida largely swept their races.

Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio comfortably regained their seats. DeSantis won his bid for reelection

against Democratic nominee former Rep. Charlie Crist with almost 60% of the vote, and longtime U.S. Senate incumbent Rubio defeated Democratic nominee former Rep. Val Demings with almost 58% of the vote for his third term in Washington.

DeSantis claims the largest margin of vic tory in a Florida gubernatorial race since 1982, when former Democratic Gov. Bob Graham defeated Republican candidate Skip Bafalis with almost 65% of the vote. His win includes a flipped Miami-Dade County, where a 55% vote for DeSantis signaled the county’s first Republican vote since 2002.

The U.S. House also had significant con servative shakeups, with four Florida Con gressional districts — including Crist’s 13th — flipped red. That number skews the U.S. House split from 16 Republicans and 11 Democrats to 20 Republicans and 8 Demo crats, as 2020 redistricting added another district.

In Florida’s 3rd Congressional District, Rep. Kat Cammack won her second term in a decisive fashion, defeating Democratic candidate Danielle Hawk with 62.5% of the vote. The newly drawn district includes all

Lauren Lemasters impeachment resolution dies in Judiciary Committee

RESOLUTION POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

By Alissa Gary Alligator Staff Writer

The Student Government Judi ciary Committee indefinitely post poned the resolution to impeach Student Body President Lauren Lemasters Sunday, effectively fail ing the legislation for the time be ing.

The Judiciary Committee heard 14 pieces of legislation during the Sunday meeting, one of which was a resolution to impeach Lemasters submitted by the Change caucus. The committee reviews all submit ted legislation and makes adjust ments before voting on whether to hear it on the Senate floor.

The impeachment resolution asserts Lemasters conducted mal feasance — or violating a contrac tual obligation — by breaking the trust of other elected officials. The

resolution was brought about for her affirmative vote for Sen. Ben Sasse to become UF president at the Nov. 1 Board of Trustees meeting.

The Judiciary Committee ar gued Lemasters had the freedom of choice to vote in the direction she preferred, which wouldn’t constitute malfeasance, deputy minority caucus leader Gabriela Montes (Change-Liberal Arts and Sciences) said.

Change caucus will continue to find ways to hold Lemasters ac countable, Montes said.

“I absolutely have not lost hope in our ability to continue pursuing measures of accountability and of pressing toward ensuring that things like these cannot happen ever again,” Montes said.

Judiciary chair Sean Harkins hasn’t responded to The Alliga tor’s request for comment as of Sunday night.

How one Nov. 8 referendum changes future Alachua County Commission elections

Commissioners will be voted by district

By Aidan Bush Alligator Staff Writer

Voting in Alachua County will look different in future elections af ter a referendum item passed in the Nov. 8 election despite the wishes of the Alachua County Commis sion.

County commissioners will now only be voted in by residents who live in the commissioner’s district, due to a charter amendment cre ating single-member districts. It passed by a margin of 2,567 votes, or 2.9%.

Previously, commissioners were elected at-large, meaning residents voted in every county commission race regardless of if they lived in the district they were voting for.

The Alachua County Commis sion unanimously voted against the referendum in December 2021. Florida House Bill 1493, filed by Re publican state Rep. Chuck Clemons in January, forced the item onto the

county ballot.

Ed Braddy, former Gainesville mayor and chair of the Alachua County Republican Party, ran for District 2 County Commission and lost. However, he won in some respect with the passage of singlemember districts — a key platform point he ran on throughout his campaign.

The new single-member district system helps preserve the voices of rural residents, he said.

“You’re actually going to have a representative who lives in the dis trict and represents the interests of the district,” Braddy said.

The system has already seen success in Gainesville, he said. The Gainesville City Commission is mainly elected using single-mem ber districts, while the mayor and two at-large seats are elected city wide.

Gainesville’s situation is much different, Mayor Lauren Poe said, as it intentionally has the singlemember districting method to en

Students demand answers for graduate housing closures

SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT

sure minority representation in city office. Alachua County, he said, hasn’t struggled with the same rep resentation issues.

“The county is in a different sit uation,” Poe said. “They have been able to consistently elect minority representation.”

It’s unclear how minority votes would be impacted by the electoral change. In the recent general elec tion, white voters accounted for around 65% of the vote county wide, according to the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections’ dis trict demographics.

Those against the decision fear single-member district voting dis courages collaboration across dif ferent commission seats.

District 3 County Commissioner Anna Prizzia said the vote encour ages future commissioners to fo cus only on their district’s needs, removing a holistic approach to county governance.

“As a result, decisions that get made sometimes aren’t the best de cisions for the whole county,” Priz

Story description finish with comma, pg#

Former Gators volleyball star takes on new role Caroline Knop coaches the same team she used to play for as a volunteer assistant. Read more on pg. 11

Housing advocates feel recent university actions contradict reasoning for closing Maguire Village and University Village, pg. 4 Madrina’s closes its doors for the last time

Owners cite financial reasons after the COVID-19 pandemic for the closure, pg. 8

Rae Riiska // Alligator Staff

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville, celebrates a win against Democratic candidate Danielle Hawk at Granville Plantation Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

2 ALLIGATOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2022

RESIDENTS SAW FALLEN TREES, POWER OUTAGES

By Sophia Bailly Alligator Staff Writer

Alachua County encountered another bout of severe weather last week with Tropical Storm Nicole, more than one month after minimal damages were felt from Hurricane Ian.

Nicole reached Alachua County Nov. 9 with average wind speeds of 30 to 50 mph through Nov. 10. It left downed power lines, trees and more than 1,500 county residents without power in its wake.

While Alachua County didn’t face widespread damage during Nicole unlike St. Lucie, Volusia, Flagler, Palm Beach and Martin counties — there were five county residents trapped under roofs after trees fell on their properties.

A resident of Fairbanks — an un incorporated community between Gainesville and Waldo — was trans ported to UF Health Shands Hospital in critical condition Nov. 10 after a tree collapsed on his shed from trop ical storm force winds, said Harold Theus, Alachua County Fire Rescue fire chief.

The resident was trapped under his roof in critical condition, unable to move, he said. ACFR arrived at the scene and used a front-end load er and a tractor to remove him from the shed after an hour.

“We had to do everything to lift the weight off of him, first of all, and then create a secure environment for us to go in and actually extract him from underneath the tree in the roof,” Theus said.

Fire rescue was prepared for wind-related damages due to a high amount of wooded area in the coun ty, Theus said.

Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nov. 10 in the southeastern region of the county, he said four other people were rescued after trees fell on their properties due to wind speeds of 45 mph.

Rescue operations for the four people lasted about 20 minutes once rescue personnel arrived. They were able to remove themselves from the damaged property.

“A tree on a house is a very com plicated matter because you end up with an unstable structure,” Theus said. “You don't know what part of the roof or ceiling could collapse next.”

Throughout the rest of the coun ty, damage consisted mainly of fall en trees and power lines, Alachua County spokesperson Mark Sexton said. About 1,673 residents were without power as of 3:40 p.m. Nov. 10, according to a Gainesville Re gional Utilities tweet.

Tropical storm winds of up to 70 mph reached Alachua County around 11 p.m. Nov. 10. Residents were cautioned to monitor hur ricane kit supplies and determine whether they needed to stay at a shelter. Sheltering is a last resort, Sexton said.

“We really asked people to as sess their structure, and if they lived in a mobile home or a home that they felt unsafe with, to start mak ing plans to go to a shelter,” Sexton said.

Although not as severe as other storms Alachua County faced over the years, Sexton said the commu nity response to Nicole was incred ible.

Kaley Behl, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said law enforcement officers will often work double shifts during severe weather events to maintain public safety.

When Behl monitored emergency calls Nov. 10, she said she received around 102 weather-related calls for service. For Hurricane Ian, Behl said there were around 96 calls.

Law enforcement officials cut down trees to clear roadways, re mained stationed at shelters and as sisted power companies to clear bro ken power lines and get systems up and running in the aftermath of Ni cole. When traffic lights are down, officers also direct traffic, Behl said.

“It's maybe not always a law enforcement function, but it's defi nitely a safety function,” Behl said.

About 40 trees were cut down by chainsaw crews in the aftermath of the storm, Sexton said.

“Public works was poised and ready,” Sexton said. “Flooding re ally never became an issue. But we were prepared for that.”

In the case of previous hur ricanes and tropical storms, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides aid and financial assistance to rebuild structures and help displaced residents, includ ing those in areas most susceptible to flooding. This is the case for Lee County following Hurricane Nicole, Director of Emergency Management Jen Grice said.

@sophia_bailly sbailly@alligator.org

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Democrats, incumbents win big in Alachua County

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff

Casey Willits, District 3 city commisioner-elect, embraces Danielle Hawk during a watch party at Depot Event Space Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Hawk lost to Kat Cammack for the 3rd Congressional District seat.

Lorenzo Vasquez // Alligator Staff

Mary Alford, Marihelen Wheeler and Ken Cornell pose for a photo at Heartwood Soundstage after winning the District 1, 2 and 4 county commission seats Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff

Voters make their way to the Career Connections Center inside the Reitz Union to cast their ballot in the midterm elections Tuesday, Nov 8, 2022.

Sophia Abolfathi // Alligator Staff

Gainesville mayor-elect Harvey Ward delivers a victory speech to a crowd of about 70 at the Heartwood Soundstage Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Rae Riiska // Alligator Staff

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville, addresses a crowd of nearly 200 supporters during her watch party at Granville Plantation Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

UF coalition bands together to save graduate housing complexes

MAGUIRE, UNIVERSITY VILLAGE TO CLOSE,

By Siena Duncan Alligator Staff Writer

Derek LaMontagne has been trying for more than a year to stop his housing complex from shutting down.

LaMontagne lives in Maguire Vil lage, one of two graduate housing complexes UF has scheduled to close in Summer 2023. The other is Uni versity Village South. Now, with clo sure less than half a year away, he’s forming a coalition with the help of UF political science senior Gabrielle Adekunle to make one last push to get UF’s ear and stop it from happen ing.

LaMontagne has lived at Maguire Village for five years now. Based on his own experience there, he doesn’t see why the village needs to be closed, he said.

“It’s like paradise,” LaMontagne said. “And they’re tearing it down without good justification.”

There are now about 500 avail able on-campus student housing units for around 4,000 graduate stu dents, GAU Co-President Bryn Tay lor said. UF will remove 348 units in total.

But the university asserts the demolition is necessary due to con cerns about living conditions.

Take Action, a progressive stu dent group that Adekunle heads, is part of the coalition. Other groups include Graduate Assistants United, Graduate Student Council, the Black Graduate Student Association, the Alachua County Labor Coalition, the Community Justice Project and the Sierra Club. The coalition is still growing, she said.

“I think this is a vital time to make some change happen with this,” Adekunle said.

The coalition’s efforts come on the tail end of more than a year’s work from various graduate organi zations that has seen little traction.

The housing plan was announced in Fall 2019. Two years later, when LaMontagne realized the plans were

going to go into effect soon, he or ganized protests — including one Oct. 22, 2021, where Calvin Mosley, director of residence life and educa tion, called the police on protestors handing out leaflets at a Maguire Vil lage Halloween event, LaMontagne said.

LaMontagne also wrote up a 2021 petition outlining demands to reverse the decision to close the villages. As of Sunday, it has 1,034 signatures.

But UF Housing often doesn’t respond to his calls and emails, LaMontagne said. He attended a Campus Student Housing Committee meeting Oct. 28 to try and address his concerns about closing Maguire Village and UVS.

He was told the housing closure was necessary for UF to maintain a good position in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, he said. UF currently is the No. 5 public university.

Now, the new coalition is going to present an updated list of demands, Adekunle said. It’ll also call for a criminal investigation of UF Housing and Residence Life for possibly en dangering student families and mis handling Maguire Village and UVS.

Part of the demands include the resignation of Tina Horvath, senior director of housing and residence life, Chad Doering, facilities manage ment director, and Mosley.

“They have been contributing to this problem,” she said.

The decision to shut down the two villages comes from a compre hensive building assessment that determined they were beyond “eco nomical renovation,” meaning it would cost too much to fix problems in the buildings, UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said. The villages could no longer provide quality of life up to par, she added.

The buildings face issues with mold, moisture penetration and plumbing issues, according to the original 2019 UF Housing Master Plan. Combined, both buildings would require more than $35 mil lion in renovations within the next five years.

Renovations aren’t recommend

ed, according to the plan, and im plementing the plan would involve having the two villages slated for demolition before Fall 2023. The es timated demolition costs are about $6 million.

However, there are currently no written plans to demolish the villag es in the current document, Roldan said. It’s unclear what UF will re place the villages with, according to the UF Housing and Residence Life website.

The Gainesville City Commission unanimously voted to recommend the housing plan Jan. 6. But it didn’t happen without pushback — the meeting was postponed multiple times as the commission requested more information about affordable graduate housing from UF director of planning Linda Dixon.

Eventually, the commission de cided to vote yes.

Both Adekunle and LaMontagne take issue with the idea that the villages are beyond fixing. LaMon tagne, as a resident, has had no ma jor issues with his living conditions when it comes to plumbing or mold, he said.

The current conditions at the villages aren’t unsafe, according to the website. But if that’s the case,

Adekunle said, then it doesn’t make sense to get rid of them entirely.

“If they’re not up to date, then why do we have people living in them right now?” she said.

The argument of renovation costs being too high has even come up in a meeting with UF President Kent Fuchs, LaMontagne said. But recent news of the university purchasing apartment complexes Varsity House and The Continuum tells LaMon tagne otherwise.

When asked about the graduate housing issue, Fuchs said he believes the most important issue is keeping up with the other universities UF is ranked against.

“We really have to be compa rable to our best peers and our best competition,” Fuchs said.

The apartments will be paid for with $185.5 million in bonds, more than five times the amount the hous ing plan estimated for village renova tions, as reported in the Gainesville Sun.

The Gainesville Sun estimated new rental rates at Varsity House will be $975 a month, more than $400 greater than rates at the villag es, which are capped at $599.

This kind of solution isn’t what LaMontagne was looking for.

How Sasse’s $1 million deal stacks up

Sasse’s contract doesn’t directly mention his ability to serve on a non-UF board.

“It seems like the wrong way to spend the money,” LaMontagne said. “It’s just not respectful of what we already have.”

Taylor said she agrees.

The union and UF recently ne gotiated a $1,420 increase to the minimum stipend for graduate as sistants — the money they receive each year for their work — raising it to $22,753 annually. However, the package they secured Aug. 18 ended up $15,580 less than GAU’s original offer.

If UF is planning on housing grad uate assistants in apartments that have high-rent costs, Taylor said, it should raise the stipend by those costs as well. The low stipend is why there’s such a demand for low-rent graduate housing in the first place, she said.

GAU plans to use the housing issue to raise the minimum stipend when negotiations reopen in Octo ber, Taylor said.

“It will definitely be in the arse nal,” she said. “If they are dead set on having this being their housing plan, then it’s pretty much their only option.”

@SienaDuncan sduncan@alligator.org

good standing by July 2024, his salary will increase by 4% annually. Fuchs’ contract agreed to raise his annual base salary at the exact same rate.

By Christian Casale Alligator Staff Writer

Sen. Ben Sasse will become UF’s presi dent Feb. 6, 2023, according to his publicly released contract. Upon an analysis by The Alligator, his contract draws many similarities to President Kent Fuchs’ 2014 employment agreement with UF.

Tenure, presidential salary and handling outside activities are some of the most no table differences between Sasse’s, Fuchs’ and former President Bernie Machen’s contracts, which were obtained by The Alligator. How ever, most sections of the contracts remain the same.

A major difference in the contracts was Fuchs’ guaranteed tenure as a full professor — the highest ranking status of a professor — in the UF College of Engineering; while there’s no language regarding tenure in Sasse’s con

tract. The status of his possible tenure would be left up to the Board of Trustees, not the history department, UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said.

Machen was also given a tenured faculty appointment as a professor in the School of Dentistry.

Both Sasse and Fuchs’ contracts allow for them to benefit from outside activities — with some limitations.

“The University recognizes that it may be appropriate for Dr. Sasse to engage in outside activities, such as serving on outside boards, consulting, delivering speeches, and writing, among other things,” the contract states.

Fuchs was limited by the same param eters, but he needed to get prior written ap proval from two UF trustees — which could include the board chair — to serve on a board of trustees for any for-profit or non-profit board of directors.

It also doesn’t directly say his outside activities must follow the bylaws or policies of the Board of Trustees — only that he’s al lowed to engage in such activities as long as he obtains approval from the board chair, according to the contract. The board would weigh in on potential conflicts of interests with UF, or possible inability to fulfill the role of president.

UF will reimburse Sasse for the moving costs of bringing his family from Nebraska to Gainesville. It’ll also pay the costs of utili ties, housekeeping and maintenance of the Dasburg President’s House. UF also agreed to these terms for Fuchs in 2014, who at the time was living in Ithaca, New York, as the provost of Cornell University.

Adjusted for inflation, Sasse’s initial presi dential base salary is 65% higher than that of Machen in 2003. But it’s 7% lower than Fuchs’ 2014 base salary.

Sasse’s base salary will be $1 million a year. If he remains an active UF employee in

Sasse’s performance bonuses can also add up to 15% of his salary, according to his con tract.

Further financial incentives are determined by whether UF reaches designated short-term goals and sees long-term goal progress, which are determined by a strategic plan that has to be developed by Sasse and the 16 UF colleges. The plan will be reviewed by the Faculty Sen ate and approved by the Board of Trustees.

The language about short-term goals and long-term goals in Fuchs’ contract are near ly identical: Both specify that if 75% of the short-term goals are achieved rather than all of them, the annual salary would increase by 3% rather than 4%. However, for Sasse, the annual increase will be 2% only if 50% of short-term goals are fulfilled, and there will be no increase for less progress than that.

Sasse announced he will resign from the U.S. Senate in early January.

Rae Riiska // Alligator Staff

Maguire Village is a student housing facility located off of Radio Road.

Could return to ballot

Others in support of single-member dis tricts felt campaigns were misleading across both party lines.

zia said.

Beyond state involvement, campaign ef forts in favor of single-member districts also drew criticism locally.

Targeted fliers quoting local Black public figures like District 5 County Commissioner Charles Chestnut led the local NAACP chap ter to pursue legal action against the cam paign, according to a WUFT report.

Those against single-member districts felt the campaign was disingenuous and con fused voters.

Evelyn Foxx, president of the Gainesville NAACP chapter, said the campaign miscon strued their stance on single-member districts.

“I think the PAC did an excellent job of confusing the voters,” Foxx said.

The single-member district campaign was funded by large, statewide Political Action Committees, with Leading for Our Future named on some campaign signs.

Leading for Our Future spent about $81,000 in advertising across Alachua County since August, according to the Florida Divi sion of Elections, though it is unclear how much of that funding went toward singlemember district advertising.

Diana Carlson, a 61-year-old Alachua resident and supporter of single-member dis tricts, said the campaign was muddy across both aisles, as a person drew “no” over cam paign signs in her yard.

“I think campaigns as a whole – local, state, national – need to be run clean,” Carl son said.

District 2 County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said given the state’s involvement and the concerted campaign efforts, com missioners may put the item up for election again.

“I think that there’s some talk of putting it back on the ballot in 2024,” Wheeler said.

To do so, the commission would have to obtain around 10% of the voting population’s signatures, according to the Alachua County Home-Rule Charter.

In the meantime, the item is in effect im mediately, meaning any future county com mission elections will use single-member districts.

@aidandisto abush@alligator.org

Alachua stays blue

of Alachua, Bradford, Putnam and Union counties as well as parts of Marion County.

The difference was DeSantis, said Ben Torpey, a 26-yearold political consultant with Ozean Media. With 2020 redis tricting approved by the governor, once-Democratic strong holds like Florida’s 5th and 13th Congressional Districts now swing right.

The new districts were drawn to favor Republicans, Tor pey said. Blue majorities in historically Democratic districts are now overpowered by collections of red voters.

“He absolutely gerrymandered the entire state of Florida for the Republican Party,” Torpey said. “He really just gave the party four seats in Congress.”

National expectations of a Republican surge never materi alized, with a majority in the U.S. House still up for grabs as some races in states like Arizona and Georgia head to a run off. As of Nov. 13, 211 Republicans and 203 Democrats have been elected to the House, with 21 seats still undecided. The U.S. Senate is similarly gridlocked, with 48 Republicans and 48 Democrats confirmed while two seats are up in the air.

But in Florida, the red wave crested and crashed onto the ballot box.

Alachua County maintains blue stronghold

Despite the red sea of statewide Republican representa tion, Alachua County voted Democrat in every race.

Mary Alford, Marihelen Wheeler and Ken Cornell — all Democrats — were elected to the Alachua County Commis sion over Republican candidates. Democrats like Yvonne Hayes Hinson, Rodney Long and Brandon Peters also won over Alachua County voters in races for the Florida Legisla ture, despite only Hinson winning her seat as the District 21 representative in the Florida House.

Alachua’s influence didn’t matter much for races that transcend county borders, with Republicans like Cammack and state Sen. Keith Perry earning reelection.

Of about 183,000 active registered voters in Alachua County, 87,000 are Democrats, 49,000 are Republicans and 46,000 are non-party affiliates.

A Republican hasn’t won Alachua County in a race where all precincts reported since 2010, when Marco Rubio defeated Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist, who ran with no party affiliation, with 40% of the county vote.

In partisan races where all 64 of Alachua County’s pre cincts voted, Democrats won with an average of 58% of the vote. The county favored both local candidates, who won

their races, as well as state and national candidates like Crist, Demings and Hawk, who lost their races.

Turnout took a hit

Despite a record-setting number of voters in the 2018 midterms, this year’s election saw Alachua County turnout deflate back to its typical numbers.

Turnout this year reached 53%, a stark decrease from 2018’s 64% turnout. But that total falls in line with the Ala chua County’s 53% midterm average since 1996.

This year’s turnout wasn’t an outlier, Alachua County Supervisor of Elections spokesperson Aaron Klein said — 2018’s was. The Reitz Union opened as an early voting spot that year, which Klein said could have contributed to a spike in voter enthusiasm that had worn off by the time this year’s midterms rolled around.

High-profile races on 2018’s ballot also factored into the high turnout, Torpey said. Democrats were specifically mo tivated to vote in the wake of Republican former President Donald Trump’s term, he said, which drew more voters than usual for a midterm to the polls.

“It was folks coming out of the woodwork to vote directly against Trump,” Torpey said. “That’s what folks were ex cited about.”

With the absence of a marquee race, midterms usually fare worse than presidential election years. Alachua County’s midterm average of 53% is more than 20% lower than the average in presidential elections at 74%.

National turnout is estimated at almost 47%, according to a preliminary study from UF’s U.S. Elections Project. In Florida, almost 50% of active registered voters turned out, per the study.

Incumbents won the day

Several candidates from this year’s ballot are gearing up for a repeat performance in their respective offices, as almost every incumbent up for reelection on Alachua County tickets won their race.

At the state and national level, DeSantis, Rubio, Cam mack and Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody were all confirmed for a second term. Despite district changes, Hinson, state Rep. Chuck Clemons and Perry won their bids for reelection.

Locally, county commissioners Alford, Wheeler and Cor nell all won like they had in 2020. Despite a 2020 win with 63% of the vote, Alford was replaced by Republican Com missioner Raemi-Eagle Glenn when she was found in viola tion of her residency requirements, but she won back her seat with almost 59% of the vote this year.

Alachua County voting will look different

With the passage of two major voting amendments, local

elections will look different from now on.

Alachua County passed the single-member district refer endum, which allows only residents of county and city dis tricts to vote for the candidates running to represent them, with 51% of the vote. Prior to the amendment, every Ala chua County resident voted for the representative in every district, despite only living in one.

The referendum will change the shape of the county com mission in future elections, Torpey said. With Democrats concentrated in Gainesville and Republicans in cities like High Springs and Newberry, Torpey said single-member vot ing will likely put more Republicans on the commission from red districts.

“It looks like there’s going to be one, two seats guaran teed,” he said.

Alachua County also voted to call special elections in the case of a vacant seat on the county commission. The vote changes the current process of filling vacancies, which al lows the governor to appoint a commissioner to fill the seat.

Under the previous system, DeSantis appointed EagleGlenn to Alford’s empty seat. The amendment passed with 64% of the vote.

Campaign finance data didn’t tell the whole story

Past trends have shown the candidate who spends the most in their campaign usually wins their race, but that sta tistic didn’t stick in a few key races this year.

Demings, who out-earned and out-spent Rubio, lost the U.S. Senate race with only 41% of the vote. Ed Braddy, the Republican candidate for the District 2 seat on the county commission, also totaled more in finances than Wheeler, his opponent, but lost his race.

For Demings, Torpey said the data didn’t match the make up of the Florida electorate. The state’s recent shift toward the right is more meaningful at the polls than higher cam paign receipts, he said.

Florida Democrats face an uphill battle for the foreseeable future, Torpey said, with conservative momentum building from a DeSantis win and other successful Republican cam paigns. Liberal candidates will have to do more than amass considerable funds to pull out a win, he said.

“The Florida Democratic Party’s all but collapsed,” Tor pey said. “It’s really tough to go up against the superstar power of DeSantis.”

Similarly, Braddy’s loss comes at the hands of a predomi nantly blue electorate. Alachua County hasn’t voted for a Republican commissioner since 2010, when it elected Susan Baird to the District 4 seat with 54% of the vote.

Despite a last-minute push toward advertising and con sulting, Braddy fell short, earning only 42% of the vote.

Lorenzo Vasquez // Alligator Staff

Various campaign signs line the perimeter of the “Big Max” sculpture outside of the Harn Museum of Art Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Alachua County Forever acquires vital portion of land for conservation corridor

By Rylan DiGiacomo-Rapp Alligator Staff Writer

Brian McNab fondly remem bers many memories from his close friendship with environ mentalist Archie Carr. One sticks with him: purchasing the land — home to a beloved Live oak tree — that Archie convinced him to in the late 1970s.

“He said, ‘the piece of land I’m going to sell you has a little wedge in it and it will be around that tree, so you can’t do anything with it,’” McNab, a 90-year-old retired UF biology professor, said. “It has since then been called Ar chie’s Tree.”

Following years of collabora tion with McNab and the Carr family, Alachua County Forever purchased this land, which is slated to become part of a wildlife corridor southwest of Micanopy.

It will connect Barr Hammock Preserve and Price’s Scrub State Park, a vital development in state wide conservation efforts. The property formerly belonged to Ar chie and his wife, conservationist Marjorie Harris Carr.

Alachua County Forever, a program dedicated to acquiring, improving and managing envi ronmentally significant lands, funded the purchase of the CarrMcNab property through the Wild Spaces & Public Places one-half percent sales tax, which gener ates funds to improve parks and conservation land. The initiative was recently doubled through the

approval of an Alachua County referendum Nov. 8.

Peggy Carr, a 70-year-old Gainesville resident, a retired UF landscape architecture professor and the daughter-in-law of Archie and Marjorie, felt a responsibility to honor their memory.

“We, as a family, decided we wanted to try to protect as much of the land as possible for perma nent conservation,” Peggy said.

Archie was a UF zoology pro fessor and a famed environmen talist that pioneered research in declining sea turtle populations from habitat destruction and over-hunting. He was also a suc cessful nature writer, Peggy said.

As an established zoologist and environmental activist, Mar jorie founded Florida Defenders of the Environment and successfully

blocked the development of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, a body of water that would have connect ed the east and west coasts of the state for trade. This achievement paved the way for future state wide conservation efforts.

“We know how much they loved natural Florida and we know how much they loved the farm,” Peggy said. “By having it permanently protected, we thought it was a great way to add to their conservation legacy.”

Andi Christman, Alachua County Land Conservation Pro gram manager, worked extensive ly with both McNab and the Carr family to ensure their land would be protected through conserva tion sale.

Established as part of the Flor ida Ecological Greenways Net

work, Christman said the CarrMcNab property was kept in its natural state enough to label it as an optimal preservation area.

“[Florida Ecological Green ways Network] is looking at iden tifying what the most important lands in the state are that have not been completely altered from a natural condition that could still provide a state-level network of ecological greenways,” Christman said.

Positioned directly between Barr Hammock Preserve and Price’s Scrub State Park, this land acquisition is part of the Florida Forever Project. It’s slated to be come part of a conservation cor ridor linking these two areas, she said.

“The goal of the project is to establish a corridor between those two properties that would allow wildlife to move freely from property to property,” she said, “but possibly long term in the fu ture might also allow recreational visitors to move from property to property.”

However, the Carr-McNab land is just one piece in a much more complex puzzle of untouched area between both preserves. More property acquisitions by Alachua County Forever would be required to establish the entire corridor, Christman said.

“We have hopes we’ll be able to acquire others that will physi cally create a protected corridor of land between those two larger preserves,” she said.

The establishment of this wild life passage also presents a unique opportunity to link conservation

Based on precedent

of speech.

All members of the Judiciary Committee are Gator-affiliated.

Lemasters defended her vote for Sasse during the Nov. 8 Senate meeting, agree ing her vote was protected under freedom

“First Amendment rights are alive and well within our campus,” Lemasters said. “There's a difference between making your voice heard and taking action against or taking away the voices that are different from yours.”

Lemasters is confident Sasse could ef

fectively serve the student body and would fulfill his promise of “political celibacy,” she said at the meeting.

“I'm taking him at his word that he wants to advance and support every single student,” Lemasters said in the meeting. “I encourage you to be a part of that team, to hold him to his word, to lean into the difficult conversations and the communities that you care about and want to protect.”

SG impeachment procedures are some what dictated by precedence, as the written

efforts between Alachua and Mar ion counties, Christman said.

“It allows us to extend efforts within Alachua County into a broader, bigger picture that in cludes parts of Marion County as well,” she said. “That’s one of the unique and exciting opportuni ties that come from this particular corridor.”

Negotiations to have this area purchased and protected by the county began eight years ago and have finally come to fruition, Peggy said. Linking the Barr Ham mock Preserve and Price’s Scrub State Park will be a long process, but she hopes the Carr-McNab land will be the vital first step.

“This is what we hope is the first phase of protection for the land between those two, and eventually I hope it will be a com plete ecological corridor between the two,” she said.

McNab bought his portion of the Carr-McNab property from Archie himself. They shared a close friendship for many years, he said.

“I’ve been holding it to incor porate into a conservation area and that has now been done,” McNab said.

Exploding development in Gainesville that has reduced nat ural preservation focus was his main motivation for protecting this land through conservation sale, McNab said.

“It’s just a natural thing that a biologist would like to preserve part of nature,” he said.

@rylan_digirapp rdigiacomo-rapp@alligator.org

procedures aren’t entirely defined.

The most recent impeachment proceed ing before Lemasters was that of former Student Body President Michael Murphy in 2019, whose impeachment came in light of leaked emails between Murphy and Trump campaign officials asking Donald Trump Jr. to speak on campus. The resolution to im peach Murphy also failed in Judiciary.

@AlissaGary1

agary@alligator.org

Minca Davis // Alligator Staff

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2022 www.alligator.org/section/the_avenue

Gainesville cat lover raises thousands for strays

GOFUNDME RAISED MORE THAN $7,000

By Luna Boales Avenue Staff Writer

Theresa Sumrall doesn’t spend her lunch breaks conversing with coworkers — instead, stray cats are usually her company of choice.

Sumrall, 38, has spent almost 15 years working with Gainesville’s cat colonies — treating more than 200 homeless cats across the city through veterinary care, end-oflife care and occasional rehoming. Now, she’s turned to the commu nity to ask for donations supporting her cause.

“With a little bit of help from people — a little bit of human sup port — you can see that these cats thrive,” she said.

Sumrall created a GoFundMe in August to pay off past emergency veterinary bills and fund future medical care for homeless cats. Of her $15,000 goal, the fundraiser has received more than $7,000. All funds Sumrall receives go directly toward helping 35 cats from seven different homeless cat colonies across Alachua County.

The majority of her time is spent visiting and caring for cat colonies — groups of free-roaming stray cats who travel together and frequent a particular territory, Sumrall said.

Some strays that have been aban doned by their owners initially are afraid of human interaction, she said, but she makes the effort to make sure they feel safe.

“They’re domesticated cats that never got a chance to know that humans can provide love and kind ness, so they’re afraid,” Sumrall said. “It can take a long time to earn the trust of a cat who’s never had a home or friendly face before.”

As a vegan and self-proclaimed animal advocate, Sumrall said, she’s passionate about taking steps to prevent suffering among home less cats.

Sumrall started supporting local cat colonies in 2008, spending 14 years working with Operation Cat nip, a Gainesville nonprofit, before beginning to work with cats inde pendently. Operation Catnip offers free spaying, neutering and vac cinations for stray cats in Alachua County and releases them back into their territory.

Operation Catnip currently sees about 500 cats a month and has sterilized close to 7,000 cats this year, operations director Melissa Jenkins said.

The high volume of strays is di rectly correlated with Florida’s high temperatures, Jenkins said. Cats re produce primarily in the heat, she said, which prolongs the kitten sea son in the state from around April

to November.

“There’s really a lot that goes against us, mainly our climates,” Jenkins said. “Most communities outside of Florida don’t have the warm temperatures as long as we do, and so that’s when we’re see ing a lot of the reproduction happen with cats outside.”

Operation Catnip primarily fo

cuses on stray cat sterilization, which reduces their reproduction.

Beyond reproduction, Sumrall said, some of the biggest risks for strays in Gainesville are injury from cat fights and urinary blockages among male cats, which is consid ered a medical emergency and can lead to heart failure or death.

Diseases commonly found

among strays range from FIV — the feline version of HIV — to dental diseases like stomatitis, an inflam mation of the mouth that makes eat ing incredibly painful. Often, Sum rall said, cats with stomatitis will find it easier to starve to death than to eat. Even after treatment, most of the cats will have to live indoors on steroids or immunosuppressants for the rest of their lives, she said.

“I’ve had several rescues over the years with that issue,” Sumrall said. “It’s more common than peo ple think.”

Throughout her decade tending to Gainesville cats, she said, she has helped some strays be adopted — but only if they were suffering from medical issues, unhappy with their environment or not an outdoor cat. Cats who were born indoors and then abandoned, she said, often lack the survival skills to live out side.

However, most cats who were born outdoors can thrive indepen dently, Sumrall said.

Precious — a community cat who has received multiple adoption offers — is an example of a stray who doesn’t like to be confined, Sumrall said. Precious has lived her whole life in the same area, Sumrall said, so she’s more comfortable liv ing independently and outdoors.

Read the rest online at alligator.org/section/the_avenue.

@LunaBoales. lboales@alligator.org

Fiesta de la música: UF faculty, students nominated for Latin Grammy Awards

TEAM WILL ATTEND THE CEREMONY NOV. 17

By Ashleigh Lucas Avenue Staff Writer

After Christmas caroling through the streets of After Christmas caroling through the streets of Puerto Rico for the first time, singing under strings of holiday lights with friends and family, then-7-year-old José Valentino Ruiz fell in love with music.

“I told my dad that night that I wanted to become a musician,” he said.

Ruiz, now a 35-year-old UF School of Music assistant professor of music business and en trepreneurship who has has been at UF since 2019, is nominated for two awards in the 23rd annual Latin Grammy Awards: Best Christian Album in a Spanish Language for “Viviré” and Best Latin Children’s Album for “A La Fiesta de la Música Vamos Todos.” The album “A La Fiesta de la Música Vamos Todos” was created in collaboration with a team of professors and

Keep up with the Avenue on Twitter.

Tweet us @TheFloridaAve.

students from the School of Music.

The nominations aren’t Ruiz’s first. In 2015, he was nominated for Best Latin Jazz album, and in 2016, he was nominated for Best In strumental Album. Ruiz also won an Emmy for Best Cultural Documentary in 2018, a Latin Grammy for Best Christian Album in a Spanish Language in 2019 and a Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2020.

While all these awards hold a special place in his heart, he said, nothing beats being nomi nated for a project where he had the opportu nity to partner with a group of talented musi cians.

More than 100 different musicians from 20 different countries contributed to the produc tion of this album, he said, including UF stu dents and faculty.

“This is the most special one,” he said. “My dream was always to be up for a Grammy with students and professors.”

The album, “A La Fiesta de la Música Va mos Todos,” was completed in summer 2022 over the span of two weeks.

The COVID-19 pandemic prepared the team for the challenge that was creating music re motely, Ruiz said.

Thaddaeus Bourne, a 41-year-old UF visiting music professor, worked on “A La Fiesta de la Música Vamos Todos” as a background vocal ist. The experience was a great way to explore creating music in different languages, he said.

“It’s always a lot of fun for me singing in other languages,” Bourne said. “I really en joyed studying the different dialects in Spanish and working with José [Ruiz] to make it sound more authentic.”

Bourne has performed abroad in seven dif ferent countries, including Mexico, Switzer land, Italy and Austria. Still, he said, working with Ruiz and teaching at UF has been an en riching experience beyond traveling and per forming music.

“I love my job so much that for me, it’s a reward just to get up and do it,” he said.

Music has always been a significant part of his life, Bourne said, and sharing it with people who share his passion has been incomparable.

Florida cracks six wins with blowout of South Carolina

Chris Shelton, a 46-year-old UF doctoral stu dent studying composition, was the recording engineer for the album. Seeing the project get such esteemed recognition has been a wonder ful feeling, he said.

“All the hard work that everyone has put into this is being recognized,” Shelton said. “That’s always a really nice thing.”

But this initial recognition is only the begin ning.

The caliber of the Latin Grammy Awards is extremely tough, Ruiz said — about 20,000 albums are submitted for the competition each year.

Silviu Ciulei, a 37-year-old UF guitar studies professor and award-winning guitarist, said the collaboration was the best part of creating the album.

Read the rest online at alligator.org/section/the_avenue.

The Gators picked up their second straight SEC victory behind a stifling defensive performance. Read more on pg. 11. Scan to follow the Avenue on Spotify

Lorenzo Vasquez // Alligator Staff

One of the many cats helped by Theresa Sumrall’s fundraiser eats food outside Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.

Cocktail bar Madrina’s closes after 6 years

BAR HOSTED ITS FINAL EVENT NOV. 11

By Lauren Brensel Alligator Staff Writer

It’s the end of an era, some bar-hoppers say. Madrina’s, a downtown Gainesville cocktail bar, is set to close its doors for fi nancial reasons after six years in business.

The news became public via an Instagram post Nov. 4. Writ ten by TJ Palmieri, the managing partner and one of three of Madri

na’s owners, the post thanked the bar’s loyal customers, bartenders and other staff for all Madrina’s accomplished during its lifespan.

More than 250 local businesses and Gainesville residents com mented on the post with wellwishes, red heart emojis and anecdotes of their favorite Mad rina’s memories.

Alejandra Zavala, a 23-year-old Miami consultant and UF alumna, wrote that Madrina’s was still her favorite bar even after leaving Gainesville. Compared to the bars in Miami, she said, Madrina’s was

more intimate.

“There’s just nowhere I felt so welcomed and so appreciated like I did at Madrina’s,” she said.

But people haven’t flocked to the bar in the same numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic, Palmieri said. The announcement might’ve been a surprise for some, he said. But hosting two good nights a week wasn’t bringing in the funds the staff needed to stay open.

“I think one of my partners was having to put a little bit of money in just to make sure we were making payroll,” he said.

“It’s just a business decision more than anything.”

Madrina’s opened at 9 W. Uni versity Ave. in 2016 but existed as a pop-up spot for a year and a half before that, Palmieri said.

In 2018, Madrina’s was nomi nated for best new cocktail bar in the East alongside bars in Orlan do, New York City and Nashville. It was the first time a Gainesville bar was recognized by Tales of the Cocktail, a foundation that hosts conferences for people in the spirits industry, Palmieri said.

The cocktail bar’s menu fea tured daiquiris, beer, wine and Zavala’s favorite: the espresso martini.

Zavala celebrated her birthday at Madrina’s in addition to the several times she’d pass through the bar each week before graduat ing, she said.

“That’s a big sigh — knowing that whenever I do get to come back, they won’t be open and running for me to get an espresso martini,” she said.

Some of the staff, like Palmieri who’d been working from Califor nia for the past year and a half, didn’t know the bar was closing until the week of the announce ment, he said. Instead, the deci sion was left in the hands of Mad rina’s other two owners.

Though he wholeheartedly agreed with the choice to close, Palmieri said, he might’ve gone about it in a different way. That way, he said, there could’ve been more scheduled time for people to have their last Madrina’s drink. After the announcement was

Santa

made Nov. 4, the bar posted Nov. 8 that it would hold its last event Nov. 11.

“But also, it’s easy for me to say in retrospect, and I’m not the one who’s having to sort of flip the business in the meantime,” he said.

Sarah Millard, a 25-year-old nurse at UF Health Shands Hos pital, attended Madrina’s final event to say goodbye. Whenever she had visitors in Gainesville, she said, she brought them to Madrina’s.

“The bartenders are super nice and super knowledgeable and are always willing to make basically any cocktail that you can even dream of,” she said.

One of the reasons Zavala said she loved the bar so much was because it was a Cuban-owned business.

“I definitely saw a lot of my culture in their environment,” she said. “Even my first time walking in, I was like, ‘Oh, they’re play ing Celia Cruz — like, this is Gainesville. This is not something you find very often.’”

Madrina’s was inspired by Palmieri’s Cuban family and his childhood experiences, he said. In Spanish, madrina means god mother — but madrina was also what Palmieri called his grand mother.

Palmieri’s personal ties to the bar, he said, made it difficult to close.

“To see so many people really positively affected by the whole thing,” he said, “it made me feel great — like my grandmother would have been proud of me.”

@LaurenBrensel lbrensel@alligator.org

College’s new charter school to bolster inclusivity

passion right away and enter into their career at an earlier age,” Debose said. “I think that is a tremendous opportu nity.”

By Claire Grunewald Alligator Staff Writer

More than 70 Alachua County ninth graders will have the opportunity to get a high school diploma, an associate in science degree or two industry certifications at Santa Fe College’s new charter school, starting Fall 2023.

Santa Fe Academy of Science and Technology will be the first of its kind in Gainesville by having a curriculum offering college courses and industry certifications that comes with no costs or specific requirements from stu dents.

There’s no application process and students will be ad mitted into the school on a first-come, first-served basis. Founders of the school see the lack of entrance barriers as a way to guarantee all Alachua County students have equal opportunity to attend the academy.

Jen Homard, executive director of secondary programs at SFC, wanted the school to be a true representation of the area, she said.

“There’s always requirements [for this type of school] and that’s not what we want. We want this to truly look like the makeup of Gainesville,” Homard said. “We want there to be a specific number of students that are minor ity, IEP, ESE.”

Homard approached SFC President Paul Broadie II with

the idea of the school in 2020, she said.

The academy will be a four-year program located on Santa Fe College campus. In addition to general high school requirements, students will have the opportunity to take college classes and industry certification courses.

In order to promote inclusivity within the school, Homard and faculty plan to go out into local communities to inform the public about the school. No student should be prevented from participating in the program, Homard said.

Along with Homard, Bill McElroy and Adrian Debose make up the school’s staff. McElroy and Debose were named principal and curriculum director, respectively, of the school. Both have educational experience in Alachua County, working and leading in public high schools.

The academy plans to hire the rest of administration staff and teaching staff by Spring 2023, Homard said.

McElroy and Debose look forward to leading a new school that provides a different academic experience for Gainesville students, they said.

After the first semester, students will decide their de sired pathways for their associate degrees. The pathway options are biotechnology, surgical technology, computer information technology and information technology secu rity.

“Students have an opportunity to go into their field of

A program where students have the opportunities to follow their passions is something to be admired, McElroy said.

“It is something that’s brand new,” McElroy said. “This has been done in other places, but it’s new to Gainesville. I think it’s going to provide a really unique experience for the kids.”

Along with the excitement, the school administration is preparing for the expected challenges that come with opening a new charter school.

Getting students through their high school require ments, college degrees and two industry certifications in four years is a lofty goal, Hornard said, as they’re offer ing them something that normally should take five to six years.

“Any student that comes our way, no matter where they are with reading or math, we are determined to at tempt to help them get through,” Homard said.

Some of those challenges students will have to face include leaving their peers and coming to a brand new school.

“I think we’re gonna get that sort of student that is bold and wants to take the chance to be a part of the thing that they’ve never had here,” McElroy said. “That’s exciting.”

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff

A bartender makes drinks for customers inside Madrinas during the bar’s “last dance” Friday, Nov 11, 2022.

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The American Cancer Society Road to Recovery Volunteers Needed! VOLUNTEER DRIVERS NEEDED to transport cancer patients to treatment. Flexible schedule. Training and liability insurance provided. Please call 800-227-2345 if interested.

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St. Francis House is a homeless shelter located in downtown Gainesville.

Our mission is to empower families with children to transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency by providing case management, housing, food, training and educational resources in a secure environment. If interested in volunteering please contact the volunteer coordinator at 352-378- 9079 ext 317 or sfhcoor@stfrancis.cfcoxmail.com

St Francis House depends on monetary support from individual donors and community businesses in order to provide meals to the homeless and the hungry. To make a donation by mail, please send checks payable to St. Francis House P.O. Box 12491 Gainesville Fl 32604 or our website at Stfrancishousegnv.org

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DUTIES: The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida is seeking a Data Scientist III for the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Duties and responsibilities in clude: Develop and maintain tools for mod eling and visualizing large volume real-time remote sensing data; Conduct computational aspects of research using machine learning and long-term data to model and forecast the future state of ecological systems; Deploy soft ware and pipelines to high performance com puting systems; Linux systems administration of cloud and local servers; Run the group’s Google Summer of Code program; Develop and maintain dynamic websites presenting the real-time research results; Develop, maintain, and provide support for open source software for acquiring, cleaning, combining, and manag ing large numbers of heterogeneous datasets.

MIN. REQ.: Position requires a PhD in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related field and 1 year of relevant experience in data sci ence, statistics, bioinformatics, analytics, or similar field; a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related field and 3 years of relevant experience in data science, statis tics, bioinformatics, analytics, or similar field; or a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related field and 5 years of rel evant experience in data science, statistics, bioinformatics, analytics, or similar field. Must have scientific software development experi ence with: Python, R, Git, SQL, Linux systems administration, high performance comput ing environments, machine learning, remote sensing, automation of scientific workflows, collaboration with ecologists, and open source software development.

To apply, please email your cover letter and CV/resume to Donna Dyer, Manager of Administrative Services (DKB@ufl.edu) and reference Job ID# 524106.

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2022 www.alligator.org/section/sports

VOLLEYBALL

Return of CK: Caroline Knop’s impact on Florida volleyball

FORMER GATORS LIBERO RETURNED TO COACH FOR 2022 SEASON

By Ethan Eibe Sports Writer

Mary Wise had a dilemma.

There was an open spot in her coaching ranks after her former volunteer assistant coach Skylar Lopas became Flagler College’s head coach, and she needed someone to replace him before the collegiate volleyball season began in the fall.

Wise thought back to a conversation she had in Atlanta, recruiting alongside Lopas at the Big South National Qualifier in April. As fate would have it, she encountered her former All-Ameri can libero Caroline Knop at the tournament, al lowing the pair to catch up.

“CK” was the centerpiece of the Gators squad that made it to the national championship game in 2017, only to fall to Nebraska in four sets. She accumulated 976 digs in her Gators career, ranking 18th all-time in UF history.

After her time in Gainesville, Knop, then 22, joined the College of Charleston as an assistant coach, where she spent the past three seasons under the tutelage of head coach Jason Kepner.

“I was there recruiting for Charleston and we all just happened to be on the same court at one time,” Knop said. “I jokingly said to Mary, ‘pay me enough and I'll come back and be your volunteer.’”

It may have been just a joke at the time, but after Lopas took the Flagler job a week later, Wise knew who would take his place.

FOOTBALL

In late May, Knop got the call.

“I haven't been able to stop thinking about this,” Wise said to her. “You can tell me I'm crazy and to hang up right now. Would you po tentially come back?”

While Knop, now 26, thoroughly enjoyed her time at Charleston, she knew she was ready for a change.

“I just can't say no to my alma mater,” Knop said. “I have so much love for this place. It's like ‘I have to do this. I have to go back.’ So, here I am.”

Knop, who initially encouraged Lopas to take the volunteer position when it became available in 2019, was named to the role July 25.

“For a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents,” Wise said.

Despite the volunteer tag, Knop said Wise has encouraged her to share every bit of advice she can and assured her she’s just as much of a coach as anyone on the staff.

Knop immediately went to work building relationships with her players, she said, trying to foster the same connection she enjoyed with her teammates during her two years at UF. With her playing career only a few years in the rear view mirror, Knop said she’s related more to the player’s perspective.

“I think I've been a voice of reason between the players and the coaching staff,” Knop said.

Knop was originally recruited out of La Salle College Prep in Pasadena, California, by the Uni versity of Michigan. After two seasons with the Wolverines, she transferred to Florida in 2016 for her last two years of eligibility. She wanted the chance to play under Wise and compete for a national title.

Carli Snyder, who now plays professionally in France, played with Knop during her two years at UF and on the U21 United States wom en’s national team. They saw the makings of a great coach early on.

“When I played next to CK my junior year, my passing numbers increased so drastically, but I wasn't doing anything different,” Snyder said. “I just felt more confident because of who I was passing next to.”

Snyder recalled playing alongside Knop dur

ing Florida’s Elite Eight matchup against South ern California in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. UF was down two sets to one and losing in the fourth set, when Knop pulled the team together following a timeout.

Knop’s passion and energy sparked a Gators comeback, allowing them to win the final two sets and advance to the Final Four. It’s the same endless desire to win Knop is trying to impart on her players as a coach.

Rhamat Alhassan, who plays professionally in Italy and was teammates with both Knop and Snyder, recalled Knop’s ability to work with children during UF’s annual summer volleyball camp.

“You can know what you're talking about but being able to put it in a way that other peo ple understand it and then are able to go and execute it,” Alhassan said. “That's what being a good coach is and I saw that from her.”

The biggest adjustment to coaching was discovering how to use words to explain con cepts rather than relying on demonstrations, Knop said. Although some of the players she’s coached are visual learners, Knop has devel oped her ability to teach verbally.

That’s not to say that Knop isn’t capable of hitting the hardwood and showing her players how it’s done.

“People are like ‘CK, you are 26, Do you ever miss it? I'm sure you still got it,’” Knop said. “Yeah, I do still have it, but the point is not for me to get in and play every day. I'm not here to be a practice player. I'm here to coach.”

There are two hallmarks of Knop’s game

Gators send off seniors in the Swamp, turn page on Billy Napier era

By Jackson Castellano Sports Writer

Eighteen seniors were honored for what could be their last game in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Nov. 12. Al though many of the players have re maining eligibility and could return, the annual ceremony held for the Gators’ locker room veterans was an other indicator of the passage of time.

A 38-6 victory against South Caro lina to secure bowl eligibility was an apt sendoff for the graduating class. Although three games remain, firstyear head coach Billy Napier’s team has played its final game in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium this season.

The Gators could look very differ ent the next time they run onto Steve Spurrier-Florida field.

Next season’s team will be more of Napier’s construction rather than his inheritance. It will feature the first freshman class fully recruited by Na pier, and many players who joined

during former UF head coach Dan Mullen’s first season will be gone.

Linebackers Amari Burney and Ventrell Miller both played their final games in the Swamp against South Carolina and led the way in tackles for Florida at four each. The pair has been defensive anchors for the Gators this season, combining for 62 tackles through 10 games.

“We had a little team meeting Thursday. I let the guys know how I felt about this game, how this game is really emotional for me,” Miller said postgame. “I broke down and all that there, Thursday to them boys. I was just happy to see how they came out and dominated on defense, espe cially.”

Another departing senior is safety Trey Dean III who helped bolster the Gators defense against South Caro lina. Florida held South Carolina to just six points and 237 total yards. The Gamecocks relinquished three fumbles and converted just three of 11 third downs. Dean was credited

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with two of the three fumble recov eries.

Offensively, Florida gave its home crowd a flashy finale.

UF dialed up 515 yards Nov. 12, with 374 coming on the ground. Sophomore Montrell Johnson Jr. and freshman Trevor Etienne both eclipsed 100 yards on the day and combined for a pair of touchdowns. The Gators top two running backs, who have combined for 1,277 yards this season, will return and look to make an equal impact next year.

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson put up 112 yards and two touchdowns through the air against the Gamecocks. He added 96 rush yards and a rushing touchdown, bolstering the Gators’ second-largest margin of victory this season.

Although he’s just a redshirt sophomore, Richardson could also be departing the team at the end of this year.

He’s considered by many to be a solid NFL draft prospect, being

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projected as the second quarterback taken in this year’s draft by CBS Sports. Others argue factors such as his Name, Image and Likeness deals and the prospect of further boosting his draft stock could influence the Gainesville native to stay home an other year. On3 Sports reports Rich ardson has netted more than $1 mil lion from NIL deals.

“I haven’t really thought about [leaving UF],” Richardson said. “Af ter the Georgia loss, we have just been trying to get the team rolling again, get back on track.”

Before Napier and the Gators can fully turn the page to next sea son, however, they face the closing slate of their season. Florida be gins its home stretch against its last Southeastern Conference opponent, Vanderbilt, who just won its first game since 2019.

Cross-state rival Florida State caps off the regular season schedule before the Gators head to an unde termined bowl game. CBS Sports cur rently projects UF to face Purdue in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa.

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While Napier would like to cap off the year positively and shift his focus to the 2023 class, whose early na tional signing period takes place Dec. 21-23, he first must see through the 2022 season without a misstep.

Vanderbilt and FSU are a com bined 11-9 against the spread this season. The latter of the two oppo nents will also serve as an in-state recruiting platform for Napier. While some may view his first season as a success already, there are still oppor tunities for further accomplishments or a sour end to the year.

“I would like to think that we go to a bowl,” Napier said. “I’m not re ally worried about a bowl game. I’m worried about getting that group to keep improving. That’s not how we do it. You get consumed with the things that you can do better.”

Florida kicks off against Vander bilt in Nashville Saturday at noon. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

For updates on UF athletics, follow us on Twitter at @alligatorSports or online at www.alligator.org/section/sports.

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff Volunteer assistant coach Caroline Knop calls out to the Florida volleyball team during its game against Louisiana State Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.

Knop heads home

she exuded as a vocal leader on the court: confidence and ef fort. Those elements have become the focal point of her coaching career.

“How can we make sure that these young women understand that it's not just your value to us, it's not just you as a volleyball player, but you as a person?” Knop said. “You should be striving for that each and every day while continuing to be a great volley ball player and continuing to try to have excellence in our sport.”

Three years after Knop’s departure from the Gators, a fire cracker with the same competitive spirit emerged as UF’s next starting libero. Elli McKissock burst on the scene in 2020 and picked up where Knop left off. The 5-foot-7-inch junior has tal lied more than 1,000 digs in her collegiate career and has made herself the anchor of the back row.

McKissock watched Knop sport the orange and blue as a high school player and calls playing for her a dream.

“Being able to be under her and striving to be anything like her is my goal in life,” McKissock said.

Knop pushes the team every single day while demanding ef fort and emphasizing the importance of team chemistry, McKis sock said.

The intensity of playing has translated to her role on the side lines, Knop said.

“I do get just as excited, if not more excited, on the sidelines for our young women,” Knop said. “I'm in practice each and every day with them and helping them work on new techniques and new skills and trying to better their game. When you see it actually happen on the court, that's pretty cool.”

Under Kepner at Charleston, Knop honed her communication skills and explored different styles of coaching. Kepner allowed her to tinker with his game plan, prepare defensive schemes and implement her ideas.

“He was very open about having me come in and be able to run a lot of things that I wanted to,” Knop said.

At UF, she has joined forces with a well-established staff in cluding Wise and associate head coach Dave Boos — the duo that once coached her.

“CK has an incredibly high volleyball IQ and I think she and Dave are just a great tag team together,” Wise said.

Being around volleyball legend Wise has taught her the ins and outs of running a successful program, Knop said.

Coaching under one of the most successful female head coaches in Division I volleyball history is a different animal than playing for her, but it’s a task Knop has embraced.

“It's been a different relationship and a really great one,” Knop said. “It’s trust and knowing that I'm a peer to her now. I am in the same room with her and having the same conversa tions and adding my voice when I can.”

Knop has aspirations to one day become the head coach of a Division I school, she said. But for now, she’s happy being home.

“[Florida’s] a special place,” Knop said. “That’s for sure.”

@EthanEibe eeibe@alligator.org