April 3, 2018

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

C al Poly, S a n Lui s O b i s p o

w w w. mu s t a ng n ews . n e t

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E s t a b l i s h e d 1 916

Content NEWS

PUBLIC HEALTH ..........................................4

ARTS

GRAND AVE BAND .......................................5

BACK TO SCHOOL

SPRING FESTIVALS .....................................6 BABY ANIMALS ............................................6 MCC EVENTS ...............................................7 SPRING HOUSING ......................................7 CHARITABLE SPRING BREAKS ...................8

OPINION

SENSATIONALISM AND GUN CONTROL ...15 GUN CONTROL DEBATE ...........................15

SPORTS

CLUB SPORTS ...........................................20

Mustang News TODAY ,S ISSUE TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 2018 VOLUME O, ISSUE 23

CONTACT EDITORIAL (805) 756-1796 ADVERTISING (805) 756-1143 CLASSIFIED (805) 756-1143 FAX (805) 756-6784 Graphic Arts Building 26, Suite 226 California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

EDITORS AND STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Naba Ahmed MANAGING EDITORS | Gina Randazzo and Brendan Matsuyama NEWS EDITOR | James Hayes ARTS EDITOR | Mikaela Duhs OPINION EDITOR | Elias Atienza SPORTS EDITOR | Erik Engle SPECIAL SECTIONS COORDINATOR | Megan Schellong COPY CHIEF | Bryce Aston COPY EDITORS | Monique Geisen | Clarisse Wangeline | Quinn Fish LEAD DESIGNER | Zack Spanier DESIGNERS | Jessie Franco | Tanner Layton

THE PAIN REMAINS

The current opioid issue began with the abuse of prescription opioid pain relievers like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet.

Photo by Megan Healy, Mustang News.

FAR FROM FIN-ISHED

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| From left to right, Shaun Wixted, Brandon Baldovin, Tynan Guerra are designing the perfect surfboard fin.

Three graduate students are designing the perfect surfboard fin Alyssa Mavor Special to Mustang News

In 10 years, riding one of today’s surfboards will be a little bit like driving a Subaru Outback at a Maserati convention: functional, but comically slow and unsophisticated.

Thanks to the innovation of three Cal Poly aerospace engineering graduate students, the future of surfboards may be closer than ever before. Using complex computer modeling and wind tunnel testing, Shaun Wixted, Brandon Baldovin and Tynan Guerra are working to craft the perfect surfboard fin — one that allows surfers to ride faster, turn on a dime and track their every movement.

The idea began with 29-year-old Wixted from North Carolina. Prior to graduate school, Wixted was recruited to play Division I baseball at West Point Military Academy.

After his time there, he spent five years as an active duty U.S. Army officer and was deployed to Kuwait for 10 months.

It was not until he left the army and enrolled in Cal Poly for graduate school that he fell in love with surfing and realized he could use his engineering degree to improve the sport.

“Shaun noticed that we have a window to try and sneak in and innovate here,” Baldovin said. “It’s crazy that the surf industry hasn’t changed in the past 40 or 50 years. There’s kind of the attitude of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’”

But in an engineer’s mind, a fin that is not

optimal for water travel is as good as broken.

Wixted’s plan to create a startup company began to take shape October 2017 in the Cal Poly Wind Tunnel. He was discussing his passion for surfing with aerospace engineering professor Graham Doig when inspiration hit. Using the low-speed wind tunnel, they could craft a perfectly proportioned surfboard fin, designed specifically for speed and turning.

That day in the lab, Wixted pitched the idea to Baldovin. Before they left the lab, they had a name for their new company. Lost Coast Surf Tech was born.

Under the guidance of Doig, the pair quickly entered Cal Poly’s on-campus startup incubator within the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), the Hatchery, and recruited aerospace engineering student Guerra to be their chief engineer.

Guerra, like Baldovin, formerly interned at NASA and could not wait to get his hands dirty with a new, intriguing project.

“I think it’s super exciting to bring a fresh outlook into an industry that hasn’t changed in many years,” Guerra said.

In addition to building specially-shaped fins, Lost Coast plans to outfit the fins with GPS and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) devices. The fins will measure the movement of surfboards through water and transmit data to a user-friendly app on surfers’ phones.

For the first time, surfers will be able to visualize their rides with charts and graphs and improve their skills by identifying where and

how they could have maneuvered differently.

“It’s a seamless integration for the surfer,” Wixted said. “It’s like a Fitbit for a surfboard.”

Lost Coast is still in the ideating and testing phase of their product, but they plan to have a physical prototype completed before Cal Poly’s entrepreneurship competition, Innovation Quest, at the end of April. Wixted could not be more thrilled to be a part of the entrepreneurship community.

“I’m totally about the whole startup thing, eating ramen noodles and sleeping in the garage and just doing what you love,” Wixted said. “There’s moments in your life where you get some perspective and there’s a window to be able to do things and this is one of those times.”

“Shaun’s trying really hard to not get a grown-up job,” Baldovin said.

The three graduate students aspire to win funding at Innovation Quest and go on to enter the CIE HotHouse Accelerator program in downtown San Luis Obispo over the summer.

“I am very confident that they’re on to a winning idea. They’re all very highly skilled, effective engineers,” Doig said.

In 2016, surfing was voted into the Olympic Games. The sport will premiere at the 2020 games in Tokyo. The trio of entrepreneurs can only imagine what it would be like if their surfboard fins made it to the Olympics and perhaps, were disqualified.

“How cool would it be to get banned from the Olympics?” Wixted said.

Quinn Fish @ quinnafish

Maternal obesity. Chronic disease. Injury.

Endocrine disorders. Cancer. The effects of aging. These threats are just a few of the reasons kinesiology professor Suzanne Phelan helped establish the new public health degree at Cal Poly starting Fall 2018.

More than 500 incoming freshmen applied for approximately 45 spots in the new public health major, according to Kinesiology and Public Health Department Chair Kristine Jankovitz. Current students will be able to switch into the major starting Fall 2019.

Public health promotes and protects the health of the people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play, according to the American Public Health Association. Or, as Jankovitz put it, “Doctors save one life at a time, but public health saves thousands of lives at a time.”

The new major falls within the College of Science and Mathematics in the Kinesiology and Public Health Department, formerly the Kinesiology Department, and would earn students a Bachelor of Science. The major was adapted from the health promotion concentration within the kinesiology program, according to Phelan. There are four possible concentrations in the new program: community and public health, culture and society in health, physical activity in public health and worksite and university health promotion.

The public health major is the brainchild of Jankovitz, who began working on creating the major approximately five years ago, though said she had been thinking about the idea for 20 years.

The inspiration for the major ultimately came from both societal need and student interest.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected national growth in jobs from 2016 to 2026 is 16 percent in health education, 15 percent in nurses, 37 percent in physician assistants, 29 percent in medical assistant jobs and 9 percent growth in epidemiologists.

Jankovitz emphasized the significant increase in the need for health educators.

“If just telling people what to do worked, no one would have smoked a cigarette after 1964 when the U.S. Surgeon General said that smoking is hazardous to your health,”

Jankovitz said. “Just giving people the information is not enough, it’s helping people find a way to integrate it into their lifestyle with all of the stresses and strains that come into people’s lives to make a change.”

Microbiology sophomore Ayesa Kearns volunteered at Children’s Hospital Oakland in high school and recalled working with a public health educator who communicated with families of sick children to translate medical jargon into relatable terms. “[Public health] is so much more impactful,” Kearns said. “Doctors can tell you so much about what’s going on in your body, but you don’t understand the terms or anything; that’s where someone like [her] could step in and explain it to you.”

Kearns plans on applying to switch into the new major with the ultimate goal of becoming an epidemiologist or serving on the board of a hospital.

“I think of public health as … the front lines and the people who are actually out in the field and are really making that connection with people on that personal level,” Kearns said. “The interactions with people are really important, and just raising awareness and educating people on medicine is so interesting.”

QUINN FISH | MUSTANG NE W S

PUBLIC HEALTH continued on page 5

TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2018 | NEWS | MUSTANG NEWS

New Public Health major marries science and society

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Student band Grand Ave brings coastal country music to Cal Poly A business card tossed into a tip jar elevated the student band, Grand Ave, from the streets of the San Luis Obispo’s Farmers’ Market to their first single and EP. The up-and-coming coastal country duo consists of recreation, parks and tourism administration senior P.J. Repetto and industrial technology and packaging senior Derek Breshears.

The two met their freshman year in their Theta Chi fraternity pledge class and bonded over their love for music. However, they didn’t create Grand Ave until their junior year. It was then that they began playing at the Farmers’ Market.

“The first time we played Farmers’ [Market] and we got $50 in tips, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? People paid us to play a song?’

Like, I could [not] believe it. So, the fact that people come back and tip us, it’s insane to me,” Breshears said.

One day, Blast 825 owner David Ferdinand gave the duo his business card and a regular gig. Bartender and Sauce Pot studio owner Rick Loffman saw the two performing and invited them to record at his studio.

Grand Ave released their first song “805 Summertime” on Spotify and iTunes March 1. They will release another song, “Cut Me Off,” this PUBLIC HEALTH continued from page 3

Kearns explained that much of her initial interest in switching to public health came from her interest in studying abroad with a program that would allow her to engage in public health in another country. She also expressed her excitement about internship opportunities in the field.

To implement Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy, a public health internship is offered as an alternative to the senior project in the new major’s curriculum.

“Our mission is to serve the students and to make sure that they’re employable upon graduation, and/or prepared to go to earn advanced degrees,” Phelan said. “Given that this is a growing field and a growing need, we need a work force and we need students equipped and ready and prepared for this.”

The Kinesiology and Public Health Department has been in contact with the San Luis Obispo County Department of Public Health and has had several students intern with them for a number of years.

“I think an internship is essential in this type of [field] because it really gets your hands into what public health is,” Kearns said. “It’s not a hard science, it’s not [al-

week and plan on having an EP out, consisting of five songs, by mid-to late-April.

“We felt like the five songs, as a whole, gave a lot about us,” Breshears said. “So there is ‘805 Summertime,’ which is like a beachy, cool song, and later in the album a song called ‘Storm’ is a totally different, very real vibe.”

Both Breshears and Repetto play guitar, sing and write their own songs. However, the two draw inspiration from different musicians.

Breshears looks to modern country artist Thomas Rhett, whereas Repetto connects deeply with John Mayer.

“It’s cool because we both have the same taste in music, but I think we specialize in different kinds of music and so, like, I think that’s kind of reflective in our songwriting,” Repetto said.

According to Breshears, the duo writes songs about anything and everything, pulling from their own life experiences.

“They are like our babies, right, because every song you write represents, like, a different time in your life,” Breshears said. “It starts with, like, a sound or, like, a feeling, so P.J. could pull out his guitar and play this one chord and then that just strikes you in a certain way that makes you think this is going to be this kind of song.

It’s really wild.”

Repetto said their songwriting process ranges from writing down lyrics in notebooks to ways] in a lab, you know, it’s working with people and figuring out these social issues and diseases … and what it means to them and how it affects them.”

While the required curriculum includes courses in health, kinesiology, anthropology, sociology, biology, chemistry, microbiology, nutrition, psychology and statistics, the ultimate goal of the degree is to prepare students for careers in a wide range of fields.

Because a portion of students are joining public health to pursue medical careers, such as becoming nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists or medical assistants, Jankovitz wants students to have a strong grounding in the social determinants of health.

Other careers in the field of public health include city planners, healthcare managers, healthcare advocates and medical administrative assistants, to name a few.

Jankovitz and her colleagues are incredibly hopeful about the new program and encourage collaboration amongst other programs that coincide with public health, which they feel is a majority of the university.

“Public health is not one discipline, it is by nature many, and so it would have to be, by definition, a multidisciplinary collabo-

BROS

SOPHIA O’KEEFE | MUSTANG NE W S

| The duo of Breshears and Repetto write their own music and perform locally.

recording parts of melodies on their phones.

Either way, the two are very involved in the process, collaborating and bouncing ideas off one another.

“It would be very different if it was just one of us writing. The fact that we have each other to bounce stuff off of and, like I said, we have different styles, it makes it easier,” Repetto said.

“It’s cool that we have different strengths.”

Grand Ave’s infusion of beach and coastal inspiration with country music has branded them within the San Luis Obispo community.

The band frequently plays at Blast 825 and Farmers’ Market. They recently played at Battle of the Bands and Theta Chi’s Sorority’s Best Dance Crew competition and will perform in the Julian A. McPhee University Union April 12.

PUBLIC HEALTH

The duo said whenever they perform their original songs, they feel both humbled and overjoyed.

“There is a moment when you’re singing a chorus,” Repetto said.

“It’s a rush, it’s a thrill,” Breshears interrupted.

Although both knew music would be a part of their lives, neither imagined it could be a potential career path. However, with the response they have received, they decided to go to Nashville over spring break to see if they could be propelled further into the country music realm.

“If it goes well, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t just send it and go to Nashville when we graduate, because, you know, you got one life to live,” Breshears said.

QUINN FISH | MUSTANG NE W S

| The new major will cover courses across nine different disciplines.

ration, so we welcome [collaboration] and we rely on it,” Phelan said. “Get involved, whether it’s small research projects or deciding to major in the degree, but come and learn more about it.”

Informational sessions on the new major will be held April 12 and 26 from 11 a.m.

to 12 p.m. in Kinesiology (building 43A), room 150, as well as April 19 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., location to be announced.

Students can submit an inquiry form about changing their major to public health through the Change of Major Portlet on the Cal Poly portal.

TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2018 | ARTS | MUSTANG NEWS

Cassandra Garibay @ cassandragari

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TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2017 | BACK TO SCHOOL | MUSTANG NEWS

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Upcoming spring festivals on the Central Coast Grace Arthur @ CPMustangNews

The Festival season is upon us, bringing numerous opportunities to celebrate music, art and even cider. California is home to many festivals, each unique in its own ways.

Shabang Shabang is a bi-annual San Luis Obispo music and arts festival featuring alternative and indie rock performances. While it began as a oneband show with 30 people in attendance, an estimated 3,500 people will attend this year to see five performing acts. Shabang creates a festival experience unique to San Luis Obispo. Last year, Shabang donated $1,000 of its proceeds to Woods Humane Society. This year, Shabang plans to donate $1,000 to another local charity.

“The Shabang is really focused on supporting local groups, local bands, local charity, local restaurants and breweries,” Shabang Director of Public Relations Myles Franklin

said. “And that is something we are still very focused on.”

This season, Shabang will take place May 5 at Laguna Lake Park and there is a lot to look forward to.

“This year, the production budget is going to be increased pretty drastically, you can expect bigger infrastructure and then a few bigger artists that will be playing that are going to be from the Central Coast, but there are out of town bands as well,” Franklin said.

Lightning In A Bottle Lightning In A Bottle is an annual music and arts festival with a health and wellness twist.

The website states the festival is “designed, built and curated based on a core ethos centered on sustainability, harm reduction, cultural respect, and most of all, creating an environment for extraordinary experiences.”

At this festival, attendees have the opportunity to take mental and physical wellbeing courses including everything from dance workshops

IT’S FESTIVAL SEASON

to meditation and yoga. This year’s line-up includes artists like Anderson .Paak and The Free Nationals, Tipper, Nicole Moudaber and 29 Palms. The festival is scheduled for May 23-28 at San Antonio Lake in Bradley, California, just one hour north of San Luis Obispo.

Central Coast Cider Festival The Central Coast Cider Festival, put on by the City of Atascadero, is returning May 13 for its third year at the Atascadero Pavilion on the Lake. The festival celebrates the cider

New animals spring to life in the Cal Poly agricultural fields

FOAL OF LIFE

Z ACH DONNENFIELD | MUSTANG NE W S

| This spring, foals, calves and lambs will be born on Cal Poly’s campus.

Krista Balster-Gee @ CPMustangNews

Spring at Cal Poly brings warmer weather, blooming flowers and the start of a new

quarter. As students return from spring break, the community will welcome baby sheep, cows and horses to the on-campus pastures. For many students in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental

Z ACH DONNENFIELD | MUSTANG NE W S

| Get out and experience the concert hype this spring quarter.

Sciences (CAFES), this offers an opportunity to help in rearing and caring for the new additions.

In the Cal Poly Equine Center, mares and foals roam pastures with several barns nearby. The 150-acre plot of pasture will be home to 14 new foals this spring, according to Equine Center Supervisor Julie Volk-Yuhas. Like the other animal centers on campus, students play an active role in the care of different animals.

Cal Poly’s Sheep Center includes a 140acre pasture that helps to sustain much of the sheep’s diets. The sheep and goats’ grazing benefits the land and offers nutrients to sheep and the newborn lambs.

Cows give birth multiple times per year and this coming spring, Dairy Operations Manager Cedric Blanc estimates 17 new calves in April and another 21 calves in May. These newborns receive care from animal science and dairy science students led by Calf Care Manager Will Greenwood.

The workers in the Dairy Unit give calves the food and care vital in their early stages.

The entire process is student-run.

revolution spreading across the country. “ “We are looking forward to discovering the new up-and-coming producers on the cider scene,” event manager Jennifer Bravo said.

This year, attendees can taste 60 handcrafted ciders from more than 15 producers, as well as a pig roast meal, all while listening to a live, local band.

Whether you want to try handcrafted ciders, enjoy the music of local bands or sing along to world-renowned artists, you can do it all during this festival season.

Animal science students get some of the most hands-on interactions with these baby animals. In the Swine and Dairy Centers, students participate in vaccinating, feeding, and maintaining animals from birth.

Animal science freshman Kenna Doeden spent nearly 30 hours with animals at Escuela Cow-Calf Enterprise Fall 2017 in Advanced Animal Production and Management Enterprise (ASCI 490).

“The cows will calve by themselves and each morning and evening, groups go out to check for new babies,” Doeden said.

After finding new calves, students tag and weigh the animal before returning it to the pasture.

According to Doedon, they also branded calves, gave them vaccinations and castrated bull calves. These skills and techniques can be developed through practice with the baby animals.

“They really do it all,” Blanc said, referring to how each aspect of the calving process is handled by students.

The student-run care and management of newborn animals encapsulates much of Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy.

For students not involved in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, these newborn animals can still be seen grazing through pastures at the northwest end of campus near Poly Canyon Village.

Nicolas Gonzalez @ CPMustangNews

Cross Cultural Centers Lead Coordinator Jose Leon is working to make memorable college experiences for Cal Poly students.

“Coming to college is an amazing experience if you’re building a community and connected,” Leon said. “Part of our responsibility in the MultiCultural Center is to do that for any student that comes through the doors here in the [Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU)].”

The MultiCultural Center (MCC) has a schedule packed with several events for students to attend spring quarter.

PolyCultural Weekend Prospective students can look forward to PolyCultural Weekend, one of the major events the MCC has planned for Spring 2018. The MCC welcomes newly-admitted high school seniors and transfer students to this event.

“Other students may already know how to navigate simply because their parents went to college and had the opportunity to tell them, ‘Hey, look at this, talk to this individual, seek out this counselor,’” Leon said. “We put all these resources in a package for the event.”

PolyCultural Weekend will happen April 6-8.

Prospective students who attend are housed overnight for these days. Throughout the

weekend, students have access to informational sessions and workshops to answer any questions they might have about Cal Poly and the admissions process. PolyCultural weekend is also intended to promote diversity at Cal Poly.

Student of Color Summit One event that has MCC coordinator Samantha Tran particularly excited is the Student of Color Summit (SOCS).

The SOCS event will be held for the second time at Cal Poly May 19. This time, the theme is “Weaving a New Generation.” Cal Poly leaders designed this event to bring together students of color and build community on campus.

“The hope is that people will gain newfound motivation to spread knowledge from workshops and gatherings and find the courage to move others to become social justice advocates,” Tran said.

The event was created for underrepresented minorities, but Tran said allies are welcome as well. If students are interested in attending SOCS, links can be found to sign up on the MCC’s social media pages. The MCC is accepting workshop proposals for this event until March 23.

Southwest Asian North African Heritage Month The MCC will also celebrate Southwest Asian North African (SWANA) Heritage

Month. At the beginning of April, the MCC is hosting Another Type of Groove, its monthly open mic event with a SWANA Heritage and Pride Month theme.

Tran says the event to look out for this month is the “racialization of the Muslim,” a talk and panel taking place on April 24.

individual groups.

“Some of the groups have had the same composition for three or four years,” Leon said. “You could imagine after having that long-term relationship people can get very deep with what they’re sharing and the connections that they have.”

State of Women Series The State Of series will also make a return in spring with the State of Women event.

The State Of series was designed to examine different marginalized communities and discover what each community faces.

Leon says that anyone who identifies as a woman is welcome to the event.

“We want to make sure that all voices are heard that are in the identity group that are considered to be women and not be restrictive in that sense,” Leon said. “Sometimes people can do that. It doesn’t allow for inclusion and it doesn’t allow for the whole spectrum of experiences.”

Talk About It Tuesday Talk About It Tuesday is open to all Cal Poly students. Students share personal anecdotes and perspectives on a wide range of topics. One topic that students deliberated on last year was unrequited love.

These dialogues usually see an attendance of about 30 people.

If any students are interested in learning more about what the MCC has to offer, Leon encourages them to check out the center’s Facebook page or walk into the center itself (UU 217).

With all these events and opportunities, Leon said the MCC enables change and progress in students’ lives. However, he said the impact of that change is not instantly seen.

“It’s not short term. It’s a lot of longterm work with people,” WWLeon said.

“Our work is relational. It’s about people. It’s about reflection, conversation and discussion, and that’s what I get excited about.”

Dialogue Series The MCC’s Dialogue Series also continues into spring quarter. Due to the personal nature of what is shared in groups, these dialogues are usually restricted to students who align with those groups. Leon said if a student outside the group would like to sit in on a dialogue, they should ask the

Spring graduation hotel crisis Graduation can be something of a logistical nightmare, especially for parents trying to book reservations. During graduation weekend, most hotels in town are completely booked. Finding housing accommodations is integral to a stressfree graduation.

The hotels must also prepare for the influx of people. Micaela Board is a front desk agent at La Cuesta Inn and understands the reasons for booking and pricing troubles. “[Given] the general demand, mixed with the fact that it requires the hotels to stock more amenities than usual and staff more employees than any other day of the entire year, it makes sense that prices would increase,” Board said.

The spring hotel crisis The massive increase of visitors to local hotels and motels has led graduates’ families to get reservations nearly a year in advance. Cal Poly parents can tell us why: “Because San Luis Obispo is a small town, hotels for special events like Move-In, Open House, Mustang Family Weekend, and Commencement always get booked up and the hotels raise their prices by two times,” Cal Poly parent Traci Libby said.

Libby’s hunch that hotels fill up during the graduation season was similar to Cal Poly parent Leslie Tobia, who made her reservations one year in advance.

“We made hotel reservations back in July of 2017 for June of 2018,” Tobia said. “Our first choice was to stay in an Airbnb — those were already booked. Most hotels were booked at the time as well. Crazy!”

When should you book?

How far in advance should Cal Poly parents plan? On the Cal Poly Parents Facebook page, most parents recommend planning at least 11 months in advance, both for hotel accommodations and dinner reservations.

“For Spring commencement, it’s the norm to make your hotel reservations almost a full year in advance,” Libby said. “We made our hotel reservations for Spring 2018 Commencement in July 2017, as we did with our reservations for a graduation dinner.”

Board agrees on the early reservations and advises people to be aware of deposits.

“I recommend people call around 11 months in advance to book a room,” Board said. “Guests should be willing and ready to put down the first night’s rate and taxes as a deposit.”

Board noted most hotels will refund that deposit if the reservation is canceled within 30 days

Nicholas Dockery @ MNDockery

Z ACH DONNENFIELD | MUSTANG NE W S

of the reservation date.

“It is better to have a room and not need it than to not have a room and need one,” Board said.

Solutions and alternatives While the best solution is to plan ahead, there are other last minute ideas to consider. In addition to hotel accommodations in the nearby towns of Paso Robles and Pismo Beach, there are other rental options.

“For parents who don’t have hotel reservations yet, they may have better success looking at hotels or VRBO [Vacation Rentals by Owners] in the surrounding areas of Morro Bay, Pismo

Beach, Cayucos, and Paso Robles,” Libby said.

For those willing to adapt, there are far more creative solutions.

“We decided to book a campsite [at El Chorro Park] to alleviate the stress of finding (and budgeting for) a hotel,” Cal Poly parent Amy N said. “That being said, we still made the camp reservation six months [in advance] for ourselves and extended family.”

The best solution to finding housing for graduation is to plan well in advance. That means for anyone graduating in spring 2019, let your family know they should start looking for reservations now.

TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2017 | BACK TO SCHOOL | MUSTANG NEWS

MultiCultural Center events happening in the spring

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TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2018 | BACK TO SCHOOL | MUSTANG NEWS

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Spring Break stories: Students give back to impoverished communities Anna Reck @ a_reckk

Many students spent their spring breaks relaxing after a difficult quarter. However, some compassionate students forgo relaxation and go abroad to help those in need. While attending a top university in a developed country, it can be hard to imagine a life without access to basic human needs. At Cal Poly, one can walk minutes to get filtered water for free; in many countries, children and women have to walk hours to get water, which is often times contaminated.

found his second home and family in the Dominican Republic.

Engle began going to La Descubierta with an organization called ‘Una Vida,’ started by one of his high school teachers. Through high school, he worked with families to build houses for poor families.

“It is truly amazing to witness a family with 10 plus people going from living in one room with a dirt floor and one mattress, to living in a house,” Engle said. “There is something extra rewarding about helping someone that would otherwise not be able to have a home.”

Engle said doing community service work in La Descubierta helped him discover a great deal of who he is; the lessons he learned there have been some of the most important educational experiences he’s had. His past experiences in the Dominican Republic play a big role in terms of motivating him to film the documentary.

“Some of best people I’ve ever met have come from situations that people in developing countries have gone through. I’m excited to continue to make a positive impact on the people that live there,” Engle said.

A documentary in the Dominican Republic Journalism senior Erik Engle spent his spring break filming a documentary about water access issues in La Descubierta, a village in the Dominican Republic.

“The reality of it is 80 percent of the world has a poverty issue,” Engle said. “We forget about it a lot because water is so accessible to us here.”

Engle is documenting La Descubierta as a way to spread awareness about the global water crisis.

According to Water.org, one in nine people A Mission trip to Tijuana their lives without access to clean water. That’s 844 million people across the globe.

Civil engineering sophomore Kelsey Nickel also This lack of access to clean water not only affects chose to give back during her Spring Break. the health of individuals, but it also Nickel went to Mexico for the disproportionately affects womfirst time during spring break en. Every 90 seconds, a child in 2013 with Visalia First dies from a water-related Church of the Nazerene illness. Women often Youth Group, and it Some of best people I’ve suffer most since they changed her life. are often the ones “When I told my ever met have come from friends I was going getting the water for their families. On to Mexico for spring situations that people in average, woman and break they would developing countries have young girls spend six say ‘Oh like Cancun hours per day traveling or Cabo?’ to which I gone through. replied, ‘No, southern to get water. This takes time away from school, Tijuana’ locally called The ERIK ENGLE Canyon,” Nickel said. families and work, trapping many in poverty.

Those living in Tijuana expeAlthough Engle is trying to spread rience extreme poverty. Since Nickel awareness about this topic, he also wants to and her mission group stayed host families as emphasize the happiness that radiates from the opposed to in a hotel, they had to be extremeinhabitants of the Dominican Republic, even ly conscious of their resource usage, especially without access to safe water. water. In Tijuana, the cost of a shower is equal “I find that many documentaries tend to emto the cost of a meal, so the group did not take showers for the entire five days they spent with phasize the bad parts of life in a developing country. However, when people walk hours everyday their host families in attempt to use as little water to get their water in the Dominican Republic, as possible. they don’t appear upset,” Engle said. “They seem Nickel described the incredible impact that her very happy, even with their most basic needs not mission group had on the children, and what met. It’s a social event to get water; they use it a true joy is was to worship with the Mexican as an opportunity to hang out. I’ve noticed the children. They had so much love to share with individuals there manage to find enjoyment in her mission group. She observed that their culthe simplest of activities.” ture was incredibly focused on spreading joy Spring Break wasn’t the first time Engle visand happiness throughout their community. ited La Descubierta. Having traveled there “Even across a language barrier, love can be six times since he was 14 years old, Engle has translated so easily,” Nickel said. “Coming on

the trip we all thought that we were going to teach the kids about Jesus, which is true and it did happen, but the kids also taught us so much about what it means to be genuinely loving.”

Because of her profound first mission trip in 2013, Nickel returned to Tijuana this Spring Break. She reflected on her past trips before leaving.

“The reason I go back is because I love what mission trips do for the people on the team and the people in Mexico,” Nickel said. “I now have another family in Christ in Mexico, where God is abounding in love and weaving together friendships across linguistic, cultural and physical barriers.”

This Spring Break trip was the seventeenth time Nickel has been to Tijuana in the past five years.

“Every single time I’ve been to Mexico, I see this change in my life and in my friends from there and in my friends on the mission team; this is why I continue to return,” Nickel said.

“Just because one mission trip may change you forever, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have more room to change yourself and others. We are imperfect people after all.”

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12

You’re not going to lock your way up out of this problem Katie Grainger

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN HEALY | MUSTANG NE WS

Lindsay Mann and Megan Lynch Special to Mustang News

Grover Beach resident Ryan Thole was 6-yearsold when he walked in on his father injecting heroin in the bathroom. Thirteen years later, Thole shot up for the first time. By the time he was 26-years-old, Thole was dependent on the drug, roaming the streets and searching for his next high.

“It was like everything that was wrong about my life, heroin seemed to fix,” Thole said.

With more than 42,000 American opioid deaths in 2016, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the opioid crisis has been declared a national emergency by President Donald Trump. There are currently 115 Americans dying every day from an opioid overdose, according to the CDC. Opioid overdose deaths are down in San Luis Obispo County by 40 percent from their peak in 2016, but the problem remains a national crisis and local public health issue.

Some people dependent on opioids, like Thole was, have moved on from prescription pharmaceuticals to heroin due to its low cost and prevalence in San Luis Obispo County.

While the term “opioid” encompasses anything that acts on the brain’s opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects, the current crisis is rooted in the rise of prescription opioid use — brand names like OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin. But before the pills, there was the pain.

The rise of prescription opioids Programs like Value-Based Purchasing were implemented in the 1980s to incentivize physicians to provide excellent care for patients. However, in a recent study, 71 percent of doctors said they felt pressure to prescribe opioids and 98 percent said they felt patient satisfaction scores played too large a role in reimbursements.

In 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Purdue Pharma’s application for OxyContin, its brand name for the semi-synthetic opioid oxycodone. This drug was touted by Purdue Pharma as a more powerful painkiller that only had to be taken twice a day and had little risk for addiction.

However, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation, Purdue Pharma was aware that OxyContin was not effective for 12 hours as advertised. Meanwhile, a study conducted by three pharmacists and pain management specialists argued that a 12-hour dose regimen for OxyContin was justified under the FDA’s standards. Others like Dr. Ken Starr, a medical doctor specializing in addiction and recovery in Arroyo Grande, maintain that OxyContin’s dose period still falls below 12 hours.

“For Purdue to come out with a new, novel product that people would pay for, it had to be different,” Starr said.

Starr explained that patients needed more doses per day than Purdue Pharma claimed because the drug lasted closer to eight hours instead of 12. Patients who were limited to two pills per day often suffered from withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, anxiety and dysphoria. Once the prescription ran out, patients often sought additional ways to combat their pain, according to Starr.

“The price [of prescription opioids] has gone

up and accessibility has gone down, so people go to heroin,” Starr said.

For Thole, there were other factors in his life contributing to his drug dependency. It escalated when he got into a car accident and was prescribed Vicodin — a combination of the semi-synthetic opioid hydrocodone and acetaminophin, or Tylenol — for back pain. When the prescription ended, Thole turned to heroin.

As Thole explained, the need for opioids became less about getting high and more about avoiding withdrawal symptoms, or being “dopesick.”

“It doesn’t matter how much you love somebody, your family, your kids or your job,” Thole said. “The fear of getting dopesick is going to take precedence over that.”

While Thole was able to beat his opioid dependence, not all have been as fortunate.

The impact of opioids in San Luis Obispo County Atascadero resident Ty Graham was 22-yearsold when he died of an opioid overdose.

“He was smart, he was funny, he was clever, [and] he loved to take things apart,” Graham’s mother, Kim Lacey, said.

Graham also loved costumes and participating in Renaissance fairs and living history events.

But he faced challenges associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and struggled with anxiety.

“I think along with [ADHD and anxiety] came readiness to use drugs, try drugs,” Lacey said.

Graham made it through his first year at Cuesta College before dropping out and losing his job. Lacey explained that this is when she really saw his drug use escalate.

Eventually, Graham was sent to rehab in Santa Cruz, California. Lacey said she really saw a change in him while he was there.

“It was great … you begin to wonder if the person who used to be there is still in there,” Lacey said. “It was all there and it was coming back.”

In May 2016, Atascadero police paid a visit to Lacey’s home and she knew immediately that the worst had happened. Atascadero police told Lacey and her husband, Dan Graham, that Ty had passed away from an overdose of heroin and methamphetamine. Lacey was stunned.

“It’s like the tails of tsunamis where the ocean rolls back really far, and that’s what it felt like at first,” Lacey said. “And I knew the ocean would roll back in. But there was just sort of a void.”

During a visit to New Hampshire, the centerpiece President Donald Trump’s address on the crisis focused on cracking down on drug dealers.

“If we don’t get tough on drug dealers, we’re wasting our time,” Trump said. “That toughness includes the death penalty.”

Katie Grainger, SLO Opioid Safety Coalition's naloxone action team member, sees a different approach to the crisis.

“You’re not going to lock your way up out of this problem,” Grainger said. “Law enforcement has a part to play … but you can’t solve a public health crisis with a law enforcement solution, you need a public health solution.”

Thole agreed with Grainger, emphasizing that people dependent on opioids are humans.

“They don’t see people. They see trash,” Thole said. “I’m a dad, you know what I

mean? I am the way I am because my heart was broken, because my kids were taken from me, because my wife divorced me. Everything that happened along the way just hurt me that much more to, ‘Why stop now? I’m in too much pain to stop.’ Change their perception and there might be a chance for change.”

How San Luis Obispo is fighting back The SLO Opioid Safety Coalition was formed in 2016 and aims to address the problem of opioid addiction and raise awareness of treatment options throughout the county.

Candace Winstead, coalition member and Cal Poly biological sciences associate professor, talked about how being part of the coalition has allowed her to learn and engage with more people in conversations about opioids.

“I’m really excited to be a part of the Opioid Safety Coalition and all of the people that are working on these different action teams towards the same goal,” Winstead said.

In addition to her involvement in the coalition, Winstead volunteers with the San Luis Obispo Syringe Exchange, providing program evaluation and overseeing student research.

The needle exchange operates Wednesdays between 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of San Luis Obispo County’s Public Health Department. The program allows drug users to exchange used needles for clean ones, receive overdose prevention training, receive HIV testing and receive doses of the opioid-overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

Last August, the exchange received a state grant of $27,500 to stock 686 doses of Narcan — the brand name for naloxone — nasal spray.

Grainger explained that once Narcan is administered to someone suffering from an opioid overdose, it competitively binds to the opioid receptors in the brain, but does not activate them. Overdose symptoms lessen within minutes as the drug prevents the body from responding to other opioids.

“At the syringe exchange, they reported 75 reversals just in the last six months,” Grainger said.

Those reversals, combined with other efforts, may be having an impact. San Luis Obispo County saw a significant drop in the number of opioid-overdose related deaths in 2017.

Narcan kits are in stock at certain pharmacies and local wellness centers, as well as the Syringe Exchange since 2015.

Recently, the Syringe Exchange received another grant of $28,000 from the national foundation AIDS United. This grant allow them to hire a part-time site manager and move forward in expanding the program.

“I’m really excited that this might make the program more stable and it’ll reward the work that’s already being done,” Winstead said.

From someone who has experienced the ups and downs of drug addiction and is now clean, Thole shared his advice.

“What I tell people is to engage in recovery.

Don’t close any doors as far as recovery goes,” Thole said. “Don’t close any avenue, because you just never know how strong this thing is going to pull you.”

READ FULL STORY ONLINE mustangnews.net

Why stop now? I’m in too much pain to stop Ryan Thole

ILLUSTRATION BY ZACK SPANIER | MUSTANG NE W S

Chase Dean @ chdean96

Chase Dean is a political science senior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News.

Here we are again. A debate we’ve unfortunately become all too familiar with here in the United States. What’s to blame? The guns?

The people? Even the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, was still not enough to evoke change from lawmakers.

Those on the right continue to see mental health issues as the cause of mass shootings.

This argument generalizes mental health issues, assuming anyone with a mental illness is at risk of shooting up a school. This, however, is far from true and perpetuates stig-

mas surrounding mental illness. According to therapist and clinical social worker Jonathon Foiles, people with mental illnesses are far more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of violence. Additionally, those with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis are actually 2.5 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime than the general population.

The left, on the other hand, continues to push for common sense gun reform legislation, like stricter background checks and bans on semi-automatic rifles. However, they can’t seem to get a bill through Congress despite enormous support from the American public.

Luckily, some Democratic Party leaders such as Nancy Pelosi have made gun control legislation a top priority, even stating, “I would rather pass gun safety legislation than win the election.” There is no doubt gun control will be a

hot-button issue in the 2018 midterm elections for both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Despite the current discourse, there is a third crucial cause I believe is being neglected: the men.

I imagine the male readership is cringing right now and feeling victimized to a certain extent. First and foremost, I want to make it clear that I don’t believe men are the single root or cause of mass shootings. Rather, I believe the culture surrounding men in the U.S. is one of many major factors contributing to mass shootings.

The U.S. has a special breed of masculinity called “toxic masculinity.” Toxic masculinity, for the purpose of this article, can be defined as an adherence to male gender norms which work to both suppress emotional expression and restrict what emotions are acceptable for men to feel. This creates young men who lack the ability to deal with emotions like anger or sadness.

This inability to sort through emotions eventually leads to acts of violence resulting in issues like domestic violence. There even seems to be a correlation between perpetrators of mass shootings and those who commit domestic violence. National Public Radio reports, “While perpetrators of domestic violence account for only about 10 percent of all gun violence, they accounted for 54 percent of mass shootings between 2009 and 2016.”

It is my belief that our culture raises young men to believe the only qualifications to be a “real man” are toughness and a lack of emo-

tion. Contrary to our culture’s belief, this is far from true and harms not only those men, but those around them.

When we look at statistics pertaining to mass shootings, the numbers speak for themselves.

Of the 153 shooters reported by the Washington Post between 1966 to 2012, all but three were men. That number was striking considering the frequency at which mass shootings occur in this country. I don’t believe men are somehow biologically more inclined to act in such horrific ways, but rather, we don’t provide men with the necessary coping skills.

If it was, in fact, some biological disposition, we would probably see this rate of mass shootings in other parts of the world with different norms surrounding masculinity. In other words, it is not specifically men who are the issue, but our cultural expectation of the ideal man.

So where does the solution lie? It seems the solution is multifaceted, but one aspect could be found in intersectional feminism.

Intersectional feminism provides men with the tools to deconstruct societal notions of masculinity and move past toxic behaviors and expectations. Using this mode of thought is nowhere near a quick fix. It is something that will probably take decades of shifting our culture and our understanding of masculinity in tandem with sensible gun control laws. Now is the time to face some hard truths, like toxic masculinity, and reframe the debate surrounding gun control around those truths.

The sensationalism over gun control Elias Atienza @ elias_atienza

Elias Atienza is a history junior and Mustang News opinion editor. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News.

Gun control has been in the headlines for the past month ever since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were brutally murdered by a white supremacist who etched swastikas into his ammunition magazines, and spouted racist epithets against Jewish people and black people. Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott signed a sweeping gun control bill that raised the age for purchasing long guns from 18 to 21, imposed a waiting period of three days and banned bump stocks.

Gun control has become one of the most partisan topics today, even in this age of polarization. Say you don’t want to ban AR-15s and members of the left will call you a National Rifle Association (NRA) terrorist who stands on the graves of dead children. Say background checks should be more stringent

and universal and members of the right will call you a gun-grabber who wants to register all gun owners.

People on the right will point to the fact that places such as Washington, D.C. and Chicago have high rates of gun homicides despite having strict gun control laws while also ignoring that most of those guns come from out-of-state firearm dealers. People on the left will point out that semi-automatic rifles are the preferred weapon of choice for mass shootings while ignoring that these rifles account for less than 5 percent of total gun homicides and that the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 had essentially no effect on crime.

It’s willful ignorance on both sides. Gun control advocates will point to mass shootings while ignoring the Black lives lost daily in inner cities. Gun rights advocates will gleefully highlight these deaths while continuing to advocate for the same policies —the war on drugs and the police state—and strawmanning Black culture.

You won’t hear politicians talking about this because it means the gun violence problem extends beyond simply just guns and access to guns. It’s an issue that many Americans are

simply ignorant about. Despite gun homicides dropping to around half since their peak in the early ‘90s and crime dropping overall, many Americans believe that crime is actually increasing. Fifty-seven percent of registered voters believed crime in the U.S. has gotten worse since 2008, even though it’s not true.

The crux of this problem goes far beyond just guns. It has to do with issues such as mental health, socioeconomics and other factors.

As Congressional candidate Steve Cox said, countries with lower rates of gun violence do better in terms of socioeconomics and vice versa. It’s why countries such as Brazil, which has one-eleventh of the guns that the U.S. does, has a gun murder rate that is about six times higher than the U.S. has due to poor living conditions.

In addition, gun rights advocates should push for more universal background checks, fixes to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and keeping the guns of felons and the mentally ill. While this does not mean “taking the guns first, due process second” as President Donald Trump has suggested, it does mean there should be more robust enforcement of gun control laws we already have on the books.

In addition, there should be widespread support for non-gun control measures, such as Ceasefire. Lois Beckett in ProPublica has an excellent breakdown of how this program worked and why it needs support. She writes, “More than 20 years of research funded by the Justice Department has found that programs to target high-risk people or places, rather than targeting certain kinds of guns, can reduce gun violence.”

Of course, this won’t stop all shootings or even most. But there are fixes that do not infringe on the common law-abiding American’s right to own a firearm for self-defense as highlighted in the cases District of Columbia vs. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. Nor does it really affect an American’s ability to resist a tyrannical government.

The U.S. will always continue to be a nation of guns. Guns are a symbol of personal freedom, a way of defense against a tyrannical police state and an effective way to defend oneself from those who seek to harm them.

Blanket bans on ‘assault weapons’ won’t help solve the issue of gun violence, but tackling the root causes might.

TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2018 | OPINION | MUSTANG NEWS

The gun control debate: a missing link

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TUESDAY • APRIL 3, 2018 | SPORTS | MUSTANG NEWS

20

Club Sports Round Up: Ultimate Frisbee, Women’s Water Polo, Rugby and Roller Hockey Brian Truong & Nate Edelman @ CPMustangNews

No longer the underdogs: Ultimate Frisbee Over the last three years, Cal Poly’s Ultimate Frisbee club team has grown from a mid-major squad to a national powerhouse. Led by captains Jeremy Dolezal-Ng, Caleb Merriam and Ian Sweeney, the Mustangs are looking to reach nationals for a third straight season.

“In the past, we’ve been underdogs because the culture has been building,” Dolezal-Ng said. “There’s some teams that have been [to nationals] year in and year out. We’re trying to build a program that can create a legacy.

We’re trying to build a path so in the future, [the] program will be just as successful, if not more successful.”

Dolezal-Ng is confident this year it is more likely for the team to earn a playoff bid and go to nationals.

The team is coached by Kristie Merkousko, who played for the San Francisco Fury, an elite women’s team, and Cody Mills, a former Stanford ultimate frisbee coach.

After bringing in new freshmen during Fall 2017, the team was knocked out by Stanford and finished fifth in the Santa Barbara Invite, their first tournament of the year.

Over President’s Day weekend, the Mustangs bounced back and finished second in the President’s Day Invite in San Diego, which improved team morale.

“It was definitely an uplifting performance for us,” Dolezal-Ng said. “This year we showed that we were one of the top teams in the country.”

Despite the competitive culture of the team, Dolezal-Ng and the other captains make sure that there is still comradery within the team.

“Despite being so competitive, people are here to make friends and have fun,” DozealNg said. “Balancing that while trying to push each other to improve is the goal.”

“The most important thing is player development,” Dolezal-Ng said. “No matter how good the player is, they will be gone eventually. You can always develop someone who has never played before into a superstar. This program has shown it could do this.”

According to UltiWord.com (the news media site for ultimate frisbee), the Mustangs jumped seven spots after the President’s Day Invite and are currently ranked number nine in the nation amongst Division I schools.

This year, Cal Poly applied and won the bid to host regionals this year for the Southwest Division.

A winning tradition: Women’s Club Water Polo Cal Poly Club Women’s Water Polo started the season strong, following a second place run at last year’s national championship. In

the first tournament of the season, the Cal Poly A-team opened conference play by going 4-0 against other Pacific Coast opponents, an impressive but unsurprising result to club president and goalkeeper Sierra Sheeper.

“We knew we had a pretty strong team this year, but it was definitely exciting,” Sheeper said.

To Sheeper, the most exciting part of the new season is the addition of the club’s B team.

“Adding the B-team this year has allowed us to provide so [many] more opportunities for all the girls on the team,” Sheeper said.

Before, only half of the players in the club were able to travel to compete. Sheeper hopes this will help develop players, as the club looks to build off of its recent success.

The club team took first place at the national championships for three consecutive years from 2009 to 2011. However, the national championships appearance last year marked the first appearance for the club since 2013.

This year, the team is looking stronger.

“We have quite a few really good incoming freshmen, a lot of girls that put in a lot of work in the off season,” Sheeper said. “Everyone came back a lot stronger.”

In the most recent ranking poll by the Collegiate Water Polo Association, Cal Poly was ranked the second best women’s club team in the nation, one point behind defending national champions UC Davis. Last May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cal Poly lost 8-9 to UC Davis in the finals.

Cal Poly recently hosted the final regional tournament. The club’s A-team went 8-0 to claim the first seed in the Pacific Coast Division Championships, as the B-team split their season 4-4 for the fifth seed.

The A-team will start regional championship play against UC Riverside, followed by the B-team against USC Sat., April 14 at UCLA’s Spieker Aquatic Center.

A history of success: Rugby Cal Poly Rugby Club’s season is underway as the main team sits at third place in the California Conference of the Division IA College Rugby league. The team rebounded after losing its first two matches, taking down Santa Clara and USC in the most recent league tournament.

While rugby is a relatively small sport in the U.S., senior club president Alex Wormer was introduced to the sport in high school and has not stopped playing since.

“I love free flow-ness of the game, it’s not as scripted as football,” Wormer said. “It allows for a little more creativity.”

The Cal Poly Rugby Club has a rich history, dating back to its founding in 1966. Since then, the club has made national championship appearances multiple times.

“We’ve had a history of success,” Wormer

LET’S DO HOCKEY

BRIAN TRUONG | MUSTANG NE W S

| The Cal Poly Roller Hockey Club faces Bethel University at nationals.

said, identifying the club’s history as an aspect that drew him to attend Cal Poly to play rugby.

“When I came to school my freshman year, we were ranked sixth or seventh in the nation.”

Since then, the club has struggled as it failed to make the conference playoffs last season.

However, Cal Poly Rugby continues to develop players as it welcomes new members of any skill level.

“There’s a part in the club for anyone who wants to join,” Wormer said. The club has 60 players spread out across multiple teams, including a women’s team. As a club with more than 50 years of history, Wormer noticed former players continuing to support Cal Poly Rugby.

“There are a few people that played for Cal Poly Rugby in the ‘70s that still live in [San Luis Obispo] and come out and help the club,” Wormer said. “It’s really cool having an alumni support system that’s so deep. It’s a lot of fun hear their stories, seeing what the club was like in other eras.”

Cal Poly Rugby traveled to UC Santa Barbara Sat., March 17 and are now 9-2 in 15s play after taking down the Blue-Green rival 49-3.

Mustangs on the rise: Roller Hockey Cal Poly Club Roller Hockey is hunting for its first national championship title after finishing second in the western conference.

After an impressive season, the club’s Division III Gold team will represent Cal Poly at the national tournament in Fargo, ND. The team went 15-1 in the regular season of the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League, tied for first place with Arizona State Uni-

versity. In the finals of the regional tournament, the Mustangs faced off against the Sun Devils, who have become a closely-matched division rival.

“Those are our most lively games,” team captain and senior forward Nick Peterson said. “Those are the games that everyone looks forward to the most. You know when we’re playing each other, it’s going to be a battle.”

The team lost 7-4 to claim second place in the conference and received a bit to the national tournament.

“Hopefully we’ll be seeing them again at nationals and have the opportunity to beat them there,” Peterson said.

The club’s Division I team entered regional as the third seed, taking down No. 2 seeded UC Santa Barbara in double overtime to face ASU’s Division I team in the finals. The Mustangs again fell short of the regional title, losing 3-2.

In the club’s 25 year history, the team has never won a national championship. The Division I team fell short of a national title in 2011, losing in the final round and finished in the top 16 last year. This season, it’s the Division III Gold team looking to bring a title to Cal Poly.

“There’s a lot of excitement, nobody on the team has actually been to nationals before,” Peterson said. “So it’s going to be a really good experience for everybody.”

Cal Poly Division III Gold team play against Bethel University, Fri. April 13 at 9 a.m. All games will be live streamed by the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association.

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