April 11, 2017

NEVADA SAGEBRUSH SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893

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By Madeline Purdue

VOLUME 123, ISSUE 28

ADDRESSING CAMPUS ASSAULT Sexual Assault Awareness Month brings attention to national issue

INTERNATIONAL NORTH AMERICA LOOKS TO HOST WORLD CUP The United States, Canada and Mexico announced Monday, April 10, that the three countries would be entering a bid to host the 2026 men’s World Cup, despite President Donald Trump’s aggressive nature towards Mexico.

United States Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati told CNN that they have had the complete backing by President Trump to continue on with the bid and include Mexico.

“We have a unique opportunity to be the first country to host three World Cups. As such we are filled with pride and committed to make it the best ever,” said Mexican Football Federation President Decio de Maria in a press release.

North America previously hosted the men’s World Cup in 1994 in the United States.

President Donald Trump will not be in office in 2026 because of term limits. FIFA is expected to announce the host of the 2026 World Cup in May of 2020.

1/6 Survivors received assis20% Of tance from female victim service students agencies report to law enforcement

Male college students are 78% more likely than male non-students to be sexually the age of 16, assaulted

NATIONAL GORSUCH SWORN INTO SUPREME COURT Neil Gorsuch became the 113th Supreme Court Justice when he was sworn in on Monday, April 10, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Gorsuch was sworn in by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a man whom Gorsuch once served under as a law clerk.

Gorsuch’s seat on the Supreme Court cements the high court’s conservative bonafides, with five justices leaning conservative and four liberal. He is taking over the seat left empty after Justice Antonin Scalia, a staunch constitutional originalist, suddenly died 14 months ago.

Gorsuch was confirmed by Congress last week after the Republicans used the “nuclear option” to avoid a filibuster of the nomination. Democrats were refusing to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee after Republican leaders refused to meet with President Obama’s choice for the same seat, Merrick Garland.

“To the Scalia family, I won’t ever forget that the seat I inherit today is that of a very, very great man,” Gorsuch said after the ceremony, as reported by the Associated Press.

LOCAL WENDY’S CHALLENGES RENO TEEN ON TWITTER A Manogue High School teen is trying to get 18 million retweets in order to earn a year’s supply of chicken nuggets from Wendy’s fast food company.

Carter Wilkerson, 16, tweeted at the company’s twitter “Yo @ Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?” on Wednesday, April 5.

Wilkerson told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he tweeted it as a joke and didn’t expect a response. However, the company tweeted back at him that he needed 18 million retweets, to which he responded, “Consider it done.”

Wilkerson’s father said that he talked to Carter about reaching out to Wendy’s about giving the reward to people in need.

Wendy’s has been a supporter of Wilkerson’s journey by tweeting out when he hits milestones.

As of this printing, the teen has reached 2.2 million retweets. To help him reach his goal, retweet his tweet that says “HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS” and tweet with the hashtag #NuggsForCarter.

Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.

By Madeline Purdue Preventing and reporting sexual assault on college campuses has become a national conversation in the last few years, and the University of Nevada, Reno, has not been exempt from the issue.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women and one in 16 men will be sexually assaulted while in college.

Nevada law defines sexual assault as “any unwanted, forced, or coerced sexual act,” according to UNR’s Counseling Services website. It also notes that there are certain people who cannot give consent legally. These people include those that are under

under the influence of alcohol or drugs and/or mentally or physically challenged.

In 2015, UNR’s Title IX office handled 16 reports of sexual assault, increasing dramatically from one report in 2013 and six in 2014.

Denise Cordova, director of the Title IX office on campus, told the Reno Gazette-Journal in 2016 she believes the increase in reports is because the university has increased education on consent.

She also said that low percentages of people report sexual assaults.

“The information is getting out there,” Cordova said in a 2016 interview with The Nevada

More than 50% of college sexual assaults College women occur from are 2x more August likely to be November sexually assaultUNR reported ed than robbed 16 sexual assaults in 2015 23% Of female students and 6.4% of male students experiences violent sexual assault

Sagebrush. “We’re doing everything possible for our faculty, students and staff to know who to report to if there is sexual assault or any interpersonal violence.

We’ve been pushing this information out there since 2012 to get the information to everyone.

The increase [in sexual assaults reported] is directly related to us getting all of this information out.”

The month of April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The

Lawmakers pass bills to protect LGBTQ children

By Rachel Spacek

The Nevada Legislature celebrated Equity Day last Tuesday, April 4 when the Senate approved two bills to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy and to require foster parents to undergo training on working with LGBTQ foster children.

Senate Bill 201, sponsored by Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, prohibits mental health professionals from providing sexual orientation or gender identity conversion therapy to a minor.

If the bill passes in the Assembly, Nevada will join five states and the District of Columbia that have laws

Katie Hutchings lived in a studio apartment with two other girls when she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams after graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno. Less than 10 years later, she is a director at Heavenspot, a public relations agency whose clients are major players in the entertainment industry.

Hutchings described her journey to success at PReimagined, the regional conference hosted by members of the Public Relations Student Society of America at UNR. Members of other PRSSA chapters at other universities attended the conference, including students from California State University, Sacramento.

They focused on four things: relationships, enterprising, news and

THE HEAD AND THE HEART

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do if they are sexually assaulted.

“It takes survivors step-by-step through the myriad processes involved in the aftermath of the assault, whether they need help navigating the medical system, the adjudication system at their college or the criminal justice system,” Zandi said.

The app is specific to the university a survivor attends. After downloading the app, the user chooses which university they attend and the app gives the user the resources available to them based on their location. It also tells the user which services will keep them completely anonymous.

See ASSAULT page A2

ASUN women push for greater representation

prohibiting conversion therapy for minors.

“Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that falsely claims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It is opposed by mainstream mental health practitioners and organizations,” Parks said.

SB 201 passed 15-5 with Republican Senators Pete Goicoechea, Don Gustavson, Scott Hammond, Joe Hardy and Becky Harris voting no.

Hardy voiced concerns with the bill both in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Labor and Energy and in

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UNR hosts student-run PRSSA regional conference

By Madeline Purdue

cause was given its own month in the 1990s in order to bring more awareness to the issue. In more recent years, the conversation has turned to preventing and reporting sexual assaults on college campuses nationwide.

Jack Zandi and the three other members of Capptivation in Chappaqua, New York, were astounded by the statistics of campus sexual assault and decided to create an app to help survivors of sexual assault navigate their options in a free and anonymous way.

The app, Reach Out Editions, is an all-inclusive interface for those who do not know what to

opportunity.

“Public Relations as an industry is rapidly changing, so as pre-professionals we have to constantly reimagine our capabilities and skills,” said conference committee chair Melissa Ung in a press release. “PReimagined will help illuminate new strategies, tools, challenges and opportunities for a new generation of communicators in a new era of strategic communication.

It’s also a great opportunity to connect local, professional communities to a millennial market.”

The conference was entirely student run. According to Alison Gaulden, the Faculty Advisor of PRSSA Nevada, there were about 30 students who participated in running the conference.

See PRSSA page A3

DEALING WITH COOL PARENTS

Jacob Solis/Nevada Sagebrush

Hannah Jackson, Speaker Pro Tempore of the ASUN Senate gives a presentation during the speaker of the senate elections on April 13, 2016. Jackson said she hopes to address the issue of females not running for ASUN office in the next senate session.

By Rachel Spacek In the state of Nevada, female lawmakers have seen success in recent years.

The Nevada Legislature saw female lawmakers obtain 40 percent of the seats this session, the highest percentage of women in legislatures across the country. However, on campus at the University of Nevada, Reno, female students may be struggling to make the final decision to run for a position within the government of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, according to Hannah Jackson, Speaker Pro Tempore of the current ASUN Senate.

In the 2017 ASUN elections, only 7 women ran for seats in the Senate, compared to 25 men who ran. In addition to this year’s election, there has not been a female ASUN president in over a decade.

The last female president was Sarah Ragsdale in 2007.

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“ASUN student government is about representing students as a whole and when we have such a gap in the amount of male students and female students who are in elected positions, females do not get as much representation as they possibly could,” said Steven McNeece, ASUN Elections chair. “We are looking at approximately half and half in the student population, but that is not represented in ASUN. The ratio is very different.”

Nicole Flangas was one of the few female students who ran in the last election. She won the senate seat for the College of Liberal Arts and said she doesn’t think the problem is that women on campus are not prepared to run for office, but that there are very few women in ASUN offices for them to look up to and find a mentor in.

“You put your name all over campus

See WOMEN page A2

OGATAKI: PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

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A2 | NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

SENATE RECAP

NEVADA SAGEBRUSH

THE

APRIL 5

By Rachel Spacek

Student voice of the University of Nevada, Reno, since 1893.

Volume 123 • Issue 28

LEGISLATION SENATE CHANGES NAME OF THE PACK PROVISIONS PROGRAM

Editor-in-Chief • Jacob Solis jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

News Editor • Rachel Spacek rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu

Asst. News Editor • Madeline Purdue mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu

Sports Editor • Brandon Cruz bcruz@sagebrush.unr.edu

Asst. Sports Editor • Javier Hernandez bcruz@sagebrush.unr.edu

Opinion Editor • Ryan Suppe jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

A&E Editor • Joey Thyne jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

Andrea Wilkinson/Nevada Sagebrush

Katie Hutchings poses for a photo at PReimagined on Saturday, April 8. Hutchings was the keynote speaker at the conference.

Design Editor • Nicole Skarlatos nskarlatos@sagebrush.unr.edu

Photo Editor • Andrea Wilkinson awilkinson@sagebrush.unr.edu

Copy Editor • Dominique Kent dkent@sagebrush.unr.edu

Copy Editor • Clay Temme jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

Multimedia Editor • Bailey MeCey bmecey@sagebrush.unr.edu

Web Manager • Willis Allstead wallstead@asun.unr.edu

Illustrator • Zak Brady jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

Social Media Manager • Alana Ridge aridge@sagebrush.unr.edu

Staff Writer • Emily Fisher efisher@sagebrush.unr.edu

Distribution • Michele Cardnuto jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

Distribution • Natalie Delbecq jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

Media Adviser • Blythe Steelman

PRSSA

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“PRSSA Nevada had to bid for the opportunity and there was one in Salt Lake and one is San Diego and they won the Regional Conference,” Gaulden said. “It’s an experience that’s fantastic that they can carry with them, and not everyone can say ‘I’ve run a conference.’”

Around 80 people attended the conference despite concerns that weather would impact turnout. The conference started Friday with different public relations agencies, with a mixer that followed that evening.

“This is the first time I’ve come to a conference, so I had no idea what to expect and it’s been very good,” said California State

University, Sacramento student Maria Porras. “I’ve had a good time.”

Saturday morning started with a speech from Hutchings, who was the conference’s keynote speaker. Hutchings has worked her way up to running public relations accounts for major entertainment companies such as Netflix, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks Animations.

Hutchings moved back to her hometown of Las Vegas after graduating from UNR and joined a corporate public relations firm. She found that it wasn’t what she wanted to do and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of working in entertainment. She has since worked on campaigns for Harry Potter, Orange is the New Black and many more films and shows.

She offered the students advice

about breaking into the industry and talked about things that she had to teach herself in the field.

“I feel one thing about this journey, I feel like as you grow and you graduate you have a set goal for yourself. You have this plan, or at least I did. What school didn’t teach me was to throw out your expectations,” said Hutchings during her speech. “While it is hard, and while it is exhausting, it is equally rewarding. In the end, it was really worth it in everything that I do.”

Hutchings then hosted events during the conference to offer additional advice from her ten years of experience in the entertainment and public relations fields. Programs and discussions during the conference were held by other top industry professionals in order to prepare

students for the field they plan to enter.

Gaulden believes the experience of this conference will help the attendees going forward into their career.

“The beauty of getting other colleges and networking opportunities is that students today will be networking for the rest of their lives and to make contacts now and make friendships because of this conference experience will last a lifetime, and you’ll never know when those friends that you met at that conference way back in Reno is going to turn into job opportunities or friendships or whatever it turns into,” Gaulden said.

Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.

bsteelman@unr.edu

CONTRIBUTING STAFFERS Patrick Hardin, Jamie Peters, Gabriel Selbig

DISCLAIMER The Nevada Sagebrush is a newspaper operated by and for the students of the University of Nevada, Reno. The contents of this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those opinions of the university or its students.

It is published by the students of the University of Nevada, Reno, and printed by the Sierra Nevada Media Group.

ADVERTISING For information about display advertising and rates, please call the Advertising Department at 775-784-7773 or email adnevadasales@gmail.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters can be submitted via email at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

CORRECTIONS The Nevada Sagebrush fixes mistakes.

If you find an error, email jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu

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Women

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and you don’t know what you’re doing unless you ask people who are in the positions, and if it is male dominated, it continues to be male dominated because as a woman, who do you go to,” Flangas said.

“Who do you feel comfortable with?

It is a repeating process, but we have to break that cycle because the more women we have represented, the better [ASUN senate] president, etc. [we are going to have.] Each time we elect a woman, we come more towards the equilibrium where we should be.”

McNeece said he planned on bringing to campus a program called Elect Her to help women running for ASUN positions with their campaigns and platforms.

Elect Her is a program used in almost 50 colleges and universities across the nation that offers day-long workshops to help encourage women to get involved in their student governments. During the workshops, students are taught about why it is important to have women in student government and then are given guidance on their platforms and support networks.

In addition to implementing programs like Elect Her, Jackson said she would like to see female lawmakers in local government come to advise students running for positions in ASUN. “I want to get people in that interested group to actually move into the group that is going to be running for office and have their name on the ballot,” Jackson said. “To be able to see women like you in those positions is really helpful and that’s why I think bringing those people to campus from the state legislature or city council to talk about that experience would be really beneficial.”

McNeece said he plans on passing the idea of implementing Elect Her or a similar program down to the next year’s Elections Commission.

“It is the first step,” McNeece said.

“The thing with [Elect Her] is it only helps females who have already filed

to run, it does not address the issue that not as many females are filing.

We need to figure a way we can get that information out so that all students are aware of our info sessions, so more females can go to those and get them interested in running in general.”

The recent ASUN election was plagued with questions of diversity after several racially insensitive tweets surfaced from 2013 and 2014, sent by ASUN President-elect Noah Teixeira. After getting elected, Teixeira promised to create an Assistant Director of Diversity and Inclusion position.

Both Flangas and Jackson said they want to focus on the inclusion of women in ASUN government. Both agreed that getting more women to run for office is about changing the culture of running for offices within government.

“This is not only a trend in student government at our university or student government in general, but nationally women are not running for office,” Jackson said. “I think it is a huge problem. I don’t think it is that women are not ready, I think it is just about how they think they are not qualified. Even if they are interested I think it is harder for women to throw themselves into something like this, and say I have the experience for this, it takes encouragement from other people or having experience within the government.”

Jackson said out of the seven female students who ran in the ASUN Senate race, six won, showing that the issue isn’t that females are not supported once they decide to run.

“I think we need to keep pushing women to run for things, the problem is not that once you get in there, people don’t support you, it is just that [women] are not choosing to run in the first place,” Flangas said. “Once you chose to run, I think it is a really liberating moment. You are out there and you are meeting people and I think that first step is crucial and Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

Sexual assault Continued from page A1

Zandi said that by keeping the information anonymous, the trust between survivors and resources increases.

In the app, there is a tab labeled “Start Here,” with the steps of what to do after an assault. By clicking on each step, there is more detailed information about what to do and who to contact at that step.

These steps include finding a safe place, preserving evidence, medical attention and ways to recover from the assault.

“The numbers are appalling: one in four women, one in four trans people, and one in four men will experience some form of sexual misconduct by the time they graduate,” Zandi said. “This is a public health crisis, and there exists a dearth of solutions. Even more worrisome is the backlash against those who are speaking up about campus assault. The crisis is being denigrated as paranoia, but the numbers don’t lie.

Assaults are being committed at extreme rates, and everyone needs to step up to abate the crisis.”

Reach Out Editions has been very successful since it was released. It has now expanded to uses beyond college campuses, including high schools and the military. It has also expanded to address issues survivors face, such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

UNR will be hosting events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On April 28, there will be a Women’s Advocacy Exposition held in the Jot Travis Building from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Attendees can work with Justine Hernandez, a campus project coordinator for Nevada Reduce Sexual Assault, Violence and Stalking who specializes in violence prevention education.

Hernandez released an article with NSights, which is part of NevadaToday. Her article is titled, “Getting real about the realities of sexual assault.”

“It is a conscious choice from the perpetrator to violate another person at the deepest level,” she said in the article. “The White House reported that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college. The numbers are too large to ignore and they require our immediate action and dedication to ensure that all students can receive an education and have a memorable college experience without being impacted by violence.”

u u Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@ sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.

In the last meeting of the Senate of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, the senators breezed through several pieces of legislation, the first being a bill to amend the title of the ASUN Pack Provisions Program.

The bill would remove the word “program” from the University’s food pantry. The legislation said that the word “program” makes the organization seem only temporary when it is a permanent service.

The legislation passed with no discussion and unanimous support.

SENATE AMENDS RULES OF THE SENATE The next piece of legislation would amend the Rules of the Senate. The amendments included adding duties to the description of the Committee on Academics and the Committee on University Affairs.

The legislation states that since the Association has grown so much in the recent years, the duties of the Committee on University Affairs have also grown. By adding some duties to the Committee on Academics, it would give both committees a more equal workload.

The legislation passed with unanimous support.

SENATE PASSES NEW CLUB FUNDING MANUAL Director of Clubs and Organizations, Richard Long gave a lengthy presentation to the senators on Wednesday evening of his amended Club Support Funding Manual and asked them to approve it.

The Club Support Funding Policy Manual outlines the criteria in which clubs are reviewed to receive various levels of funding from ASUN. The Department of Clubs and Organizations examined the manual and proposed various changes that they said needed to be amended immediately. The department changed the manual’s structure to combat confusion and overlap between separate financial tiers of funding.

Senators praised the department for their extensive work on the new manual and passed the legislation with unanimous support.

SENATE TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION IN THE NEVADA LEGISLATURE The last piece of legislation the senators heard during their last meeting was a controversial bill that would support legislation going through the Nevada Legislature this session. The bill would provide tax deductions to businesses that provide paid internships to university students.

The legislation said businesses should be incentivized through tax deductions to provide internships to students in the Nevada System of Higher Education.

The Pack Internship Grant Program provides over 50 paid internships to students and 900 students applied for internships through the program in the 2016-2017 academic year. The legislation said the numbers indicated a greater need for paid internship opportunities at UNR. Senators raise several concerns about the legislation, including the important role taxes play in the community. Senators questioned the fact that increasing tax deductions would impact resources the community relies on.

After a lengthy discussion, the senate passed the last piece of legislation of the 84th session.

Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

NEWS | A3

@NevadaSagebrush | nevadasagebrush.com

Proposed Trump EPA cuts could affect local initatives battling climate change

Photo via the US Environmental Protection Agency

The Enviornmental Protection Agency building as it stands on September 10, 2014. EPA was also founded 1970 and could experience a 31 percent budget cut proposed in President Donald Trump’s budget.

By Rachel Spacek and Gabriel Selbig Last month, President Donald J. Trump proposed a 31 percent budget cut to the Environment Protection Agency, a move that even Republican lawmakers in Washington are expected to fight. Nevada is already seeing the effects of climate change according to University of Nevada, Reno researcher Maureen McCarthy, and the proposed budget cuts could have significant impacts in the state.

More than that, even the City of Reno could be seeing effects of these cuts sooner rather than later.

“Some of the more significant issues in the long run, if the EPA is gutted, specifically are the city’s plans to launch a better building program, which asks commercial building owners to voluntarily benchmark their energy efficiency,” said

Lynne Barker, sustainability manager at the City of Reno.

Better Buildings is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, proposed by President Barack Obama in 2011, that is designed to make homes, commercial buildings and industrial plants more energy efficient.

In a press release from the White House in 2011 they said, “The President’s Better Buildings Initiative will make commercial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient over the next decade by catalyzing private sector investment through a series of incentives to upgrade offices, stores, schools and other municipal buildings, universities, hospitals, and other commercial buildings.”

The Better Buildings initiative is used in over 100 cities in order to help cities and communities work with building owners to reduce energies in the commercial and

building industry.

In addition to affecting the City of Reno’s plans to launch the Better Buildings initiative, the EPA cuts could also disproportionally affect the city’s lowincome families, Barker said.

“Some impacts already identified in Reno are increased heat waves and air quality,” Barker said. “If the Clean Power Plan is cut, low-income families, seniors and other vulnerable populations will feel the effects first.”

McCarthy, a senior researcher in physics at UNR and the Desert Research Institute, told KNPR that Nevadans need to start worrying about the effects climate change will have in the state.

McCarthy said the major floods in Elko and the record-breaking amounts of snow in the Reno/Tahoe area are evidence of the local effects of climate change.

McCarthy said Nevadans should not

expect the weather to change steadily, she believes the next few years will experience temperatures that are 20 degrees higher than normal with more record-breaking amounts of snowfall, rain and floods.

“That average is going to come from much more extremes - very low years followed by very high years. Unstable communities, whether they are here in the U.S. or abroad, they are a source of instability,” McCarthy told KNPR. In Washington, Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei released a statement in which he discussed his commitment to a resolution expressing his commitment to “conservative environmental stewardship.”

“In order to legislate effectively, Washington must have a willingness to have frank and honest discussions on the issues that affect us all,” Amodei said in a statement. “I’m pleased to be joining the

Climate Solutions Caucus with Congresswoman Bonamici and I look forward to joining the rest of my colleagues in examining fact-based policy and research.”

The Trump administration’s proposed cuts would shrink the EPA’s spending from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion. The cuts would also eliminate a quarter of the agency’s jobs.

Along with Amodei, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the chairperson of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee is skeptical of the cuts and reminded Trump last month that his budget request is only the first step in a long process of decision-making.

Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

FREAKY FAST! FREAKY GOOD! ®

File Photo

The Nevada Assembly meets on the opening day of the 79th Session of the Nevada Legislature in Carson City, Nevada on Monday, Feb. 6. The Senate passed two bills on Tuesday, April 4, that would protect LGBTQ children from conversion therapy and emotional abuse.

Conversion Therapy Continued from page A1

the Senate floor meeting.

A Boulder City physician and member of the Mormon Church, Hardy said the bill could prevent a church member from counseling a minor on sexuality if the minor comes to them first.

Other concerns came from Janine Hansen, state president of the Nevada Families for Freedom.

“Our concern is that this significantly undermines the rights of parents as secured by the Supreme Court to determine the upbringing of their own children and this is just the beginning of how these rights will be undermined,” Hansen said. “This is just the beginning of how these rights will be undermined.”

Hansen said the bill would undermine the freedom of religion and the rights of parents.

In addition to testimony against the bill were several emotional statements from

proponents, some of which being individuals who endured conversion therapy and those who helped patients recovering from the therapy.

Shirley Van Damme, a reverend in hospice care in Nevada told an emotional story of one of her patients, a Vietnam War veteran named John.

She said John never recovered from his conversion therapy and said sometimes John would tell her that the conversion therapy he endured was worse than what he went through in Vietnam.

Alongside SB 201, the Senate passed Assembly Bill 99, which would require foster parents to undergo training on working with LGBTQ children and would require state and local agencies to treat a child in their care as having the gender in which the child has chosen to identify with.

The bill also heard emotional testimony from individuals who had experienced emotional abuse when they were placed in the care foster families that did not give them the LGBTQ care they needed.

The Senate passed the bill 18-2 with only Hardy and Gustavson voting no.

Rachel Spacek can be reached at rspacek@ sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @ NevadaSagebrush.

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A4 | A&E

PACK N THE EVENTS THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR THIS WEEK

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

SIGNS OF LIGHT FOR THE HEAD AND THE HEART

By Joey Thyne

COFFEE HOUSE SERIES: COMEDY NIGHT DATE: Tuesday TIME: 6 p.m.

LOCATION: Food court in

the Joe INFO: Get ready to laugh your heads off Wolfpack.

Every comedy fan needs to check this out.

Comedians Chad Neidt and Derrick Knopsnyder are stopping by UNR for your entertainment. Free coffee and muffins will be provided.

RINGS DATE: Thursday TIME: 6 p.m.

LOCATION: JCSU INFO: Get ready to scream

your heads off Wolfpack.

Every horror fan needs to check this out. This installment of “The Ring” franchise is the scariest yet. Be prepared to have nightmares of girls crawling out of TVs for weeks to come. Admission is free for UNR students.

Complimentary snacks and beverages will be provided.

KARAOKE NIGHT DATE: Thursday TIME: 8 p.m.

LOCATION: Blind Onion INFO: Blind Onion is

having its own karaoke night, a perfect platform to watch your friends embarrass themselves. So swing by, grab a slice and build up enough courage to belt out your favorite ballad. Don’t listen to that nagging voice inside your head, everyone wants to hear your rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

DRAG SHOW DATE: Wednesday TIME: 7 p.m.

LOCATION: Glick Ballroom INFO: The Queer Student

Union is throwing their annual Drag Show as a part of ASUN’s Unity Week 2017.

With sections for fashion and performance, local drag queens will compete for the ultimate UNR Drag Queen. This event is hosted

by Katya of Rupaul’s Drag Race. Admission is free to students.

EURYDICE DATE: Friday TIME: 7:30 p.m.

LOCATION: Glick Ballroom INFO: Eurydice, written by

contemporary playwright Sarah Ruhl, is a new spin on the Orpheus myth. This adaptation is directed by UNR's Adriano Cabral. The play also shows April 15, 19 and 22 at 7:30 p.m. and on April 23 at 1:30. A limited number of $5 student tickets are available. Seating is general admission, so first-come-first-serve.

Joey Thyne can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @joey_thyne

Emily Fisher/Nevada Sagebrush

The Head and the Heart performs at the Grand Sierra Resort on April 7. The band stopped in Reno on their way to Coahella.

By Emily Fisher The Head and the Heart lit up the stage Friday night in Reno for the first show on their most recent tour. The popular American Folk band is one of the groups stopping in Reno on the way to Coachella, including Empire of the Sun, Kehlani, the Avalanches and Tacocat. Judging by the adoring reaction of Friday’s The Head and the Heart show, their Coachella sets are bound to be big hits.

The Seattle band has come a long way since their last performance in the Biggest Little City a little over three years ago at the Knitting Factory Concert House downtown. Going from playing in a small local venue to the Grand Theatre in the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, the band members seem to carry a world of experience on their

shoulders.

Before the Head and the Heart took the stage, Dreamers, an up-and-coming band from L.A., attempted to warm-up the crowd. After the first couple songs, a lot of noise and an overwhelmingly heavy synth, it was a miracle the audience wasn’t deaf. The group did regain themselves after playing their hit single, “Sweet Disaster,” with a catchy melody perfect for singing along and an added amount of rockstar head flips from the three men onstage: Nick Wold, Nelson and Jacob Wick.

This wasn’t a case where you leave the theater having enjoyed the opening act almost as much as the band you came to see. Dreamers was good, but not memorable. If anything, the audience was even more excited for the main act.

The stage was simple and familiar feeling, left open wide for the band members to move around easily. Various house plants and shrubs gave it a calm, home-like feel, while a neon sign reading “Signs of Light," the name of their most– recent album, complemented the color-changing orbs of light in various places across the set.

The ensemble kicked off the show with their popular hit “All We Ever Knew,” followed by the equally upbeat ode to Los Angeles “City of Angels.” Both were from their new album, setting the show in full swing.

The crowd, which didn’t quite fill the entire GSR venue, was lively but not obnoxious, clapping along to the rhythm of their favorite songs and belting out fan favorites like “Ghosts” and “Lost in My Mind.”

Lead vocalist, Jonathon

Russell, seemed to guide the crowd along the familiar words of “Down in the Valley,” one of the bands most popular songs.

“That’s how you do it! You guys are crushing it!”

The artistic transition between “Oh My Dear” and “I Don’t Mind” was the most musically intricate transition of the evening. Jon Russell, floating on the dark stage in a single spotlight, soulfully serenaded the audience, and plucked away at his guitar as the band re-joined him onstage for the more upbeat sound of “I Don’t Mind.”

It was the perfect example of the band's ability to mix heartfelt, mellow, classic ballads reminiscent of their earlier music with the newer “indie rock” sound mixed into their new album.

The audience erupted in ap-

plause whenever lead female vocalist and violinist Charity Rose Thielen belted out her solos and the group came back for a well-deserved encore with “Library Magic.” The last song of the evening, and arguably the most popular track the band has produced from their first album, “Rivers and Roads,” had almost the whole audience up on their feet singing along.

Despite challenges late last year when their co-lead singer and guitarist Josiah Johnson took a break from the band to recover from addiction, the band felt nothing but whole and connected onstage, seeming to all run off the same heartbeat, never once appearing tired or bored of even their oldest songs.

Emily Fisher can be reached at efisher@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @nevadasagebrush

NPR TINY DESK WINNER COMES TO RENO

By Joey Thyne Musician and activist Gaelynn Lea brought her emotively haunting violin work to the Sierra Arts Foundation in Reno on Saturday, April 8. The show was a benefit for Note-Able Music Therapy Services, hosted by Parlor Shows.

Last year, Lea won NPR’s 2016 Tiny Desk Concert Contest, which received over 6,000 video submissions. This experience has allowed Lea to steadily tour the country ever since. Her music is often heartbreaking.

“It’s just the songs that have come out,” Lea said. “If you have a disability...over the years, part of you realizes that life is beautiful and challenging and fleeting at the same time. I think my songs just reflect those realities that I have felt in the past. I’m a really happy person...I think it’s just the way that music helps us process a lot of bigger emotions that we don’t face head on.”

Lea was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or, as it's more commonly known, Brittle Bones Disease. Because of her condition, she holds the violin in front of her like a cello. She uses a looping pedal to create a full, layered sound on her own.

Aside from playing music, she also speaks publicly about disability awareness.

“My main goal with speaking is to get disability to become part of the main cultural dialogue,” Lea said.

“I think a lot of times when we talk about social justice, we think about minorities or economic differences or gender...but we aren’t really talking about disability very regularly yet, especially as an empowering group. We see it as a charity thing. I want that to change and become a diverse segment of society that is a valuable part.”

More than disability awareness, she also talks about disability pride.

“Disability pride...is not viewing disability as a negative thing, so much as a diverse part of the human experience,” Lea said. “Then we can start to look at the positive contributions people with disabilities make to our culture and what kind of creative ideas can come out of a disability, seeing it as an aspect rather than a liability.”

Lea began playing the violin at the age of ten when she was encouraged by a teacher to join the orchestra. In high school, she studied classical music. In college, she got into Irish fiddle music. She still likes to incorporate certain Celtic melodies into her music to this day.

“I want to keep those songs alive in a new way and introduce [them] to different audiences,” Lea said. “People always ask me why I don’t do more singing, but you can see at the live shows that the people connect with the instrumentals in really powerful ways...They’re such good melodies, they’ve been around for 200 years and been passed down by ear.”

After college, she started playing in a variety of folk bands. One of those groups was A Murder of Crows , a duo with Alan Sparhawk. Sparhawk was the first person to encourage her to write her own songs. After years of working as a music instructor, a student told her about the Tiny Desk contest.

In her free time, she enjoys listening to Simon & Garfunkel, the Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, Wilco and the White Stripes, as well as artists from her hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, like Charlie Parr.

While she loves music, she finds a unique fulfillment from public speaking. Lea believes that fighting for disability rights is important now more than ever.

“When Trump’s administration was trying to reform health care, that would have damaged people with disabilities probably more than anyone,” Lea said. “It was going to kick a lot of people who really have no other options. A lot of the services and the technology I have is never covered by private health care. You need public health care, and if you cut people off of that, some people would end up in nursing homes, some people may have died because they wouldn’t have gotten the care they would have really needed.”

When asked how it felt to have a president who has openly mocked people with disabilities, she answered, simply, “Not awesome.” Still, she says she tries to see the positives.

“Maybe people will at least be motivated because it was so obvious and egregious to do that. He did get

a lot of backlash,” Lea said. “But I want to progress the dialogue beyond where he’s at, which is making fun of people. It’s more than just not making fun of people, it’s realizing that they’re valuable. He’s so far from that, obviously. It’s hard to swallow that that’s the president right now. But I know a lot of people aren’t like that.”

In her recent Ted Talk and throughout her speeches she incorporates the idea of sexuality, criticizing society’s ideal of standardized beauty.

“It was just the revelation that I don’t fit the norms,” Lea said. “You can feel alienated or sad about that, or you can realize that the norms are just fabricated by capitalism to make you buy stuff. When you realize that the norms are meant to oppress you rather than help you fit in, then you can really be yourself. I think that applies to a lot of people, but I think it came faster to me because of my disability.”

Despite the tyrannical powers that be, she is still able to find solace in performing.

“It’s probably the one time I feel the most centered, it’s more of a spiritual connection,” Lea said. “There’s some calming energy that comes from playing. I feel like whatever you go into a show feeling like, you always feel better in some way by the time it’s over...You have to be focused, you can’t think too much about what’s going on in your head.”

In the future, she looks forward to recording her new album. She is still DIY, unsigned to a label. Although she says it is not entirely out of the question, for the time being, she enjoys the freedom. On her first two albums, "All the Roads that Lead Us Home" and "Deepest Darkness, Brightest Dawn," she made use of crowdsourcing websites like GoFundMe or Kickstarter. People who donate are gifted a free album. She says the album will feature more singing and more experimentation.

In addition, she hopes to publish a book about disability issues. After Reno, her tour will take her up the pacific northwest to Oregon and Washington.

Joey Thyne can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @joey_thyne

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

A&E | A5

@NevadaSagebrush | nevadasagebrush.com

Father John Misty creates a bitter yet warm critique of society

By Jamie Peters Father John Misty is no stranger to saying what is on his mind, most notably in interviews with music journalism establishments. On his most recent album, “Pure Comedy,” Misty (real name Josh Tillman) calls out L.A. archetypes, the wish for closeness in a growing world of distancing technology and other facets of this confusing new world.

Prefacing the release of “Pure Comedy,” Tillman wrote an 1800-word essay released alongside the title track and a 25-minute short film about the making of the album. In the album’s title track, Tillman gives one of many hot takes on what he refers to as “the comedy of man,” where he critiques the many depraved qualities of our society, portraying it in a dark yet ironic manner.

Leading into the next single, “Total Entertainment Forever,” he starts off with the headturning line “Bedding Taylor Swift / Every night inside the Oculus Rift.” He premiered it on Saturday Night Live, initially causing a rather humorous and evocative flurry on social media.

Tillman had to further explain that line of the song was not meant to be in any erotic fashion, but rather describing the increase of technology and its use for the human connection beyond emotion.

The next single to come off the album, “Ballad of the Dying Man,” which Tillman first played live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, spins a tale of an internet troll contemplating his final moments on earth. It asks if he would continue his old ways up until the big end or if there would be a meaningful reflection on his life up to then.

This leads into the 13-minute epic “Leaving L.A.” where Tillman sings about the culture of Los Angeles in his signature bitter lyricism yet, with warm empathy and tone in a 10-verse chorus-verse style with small anecdotes focusing on various people and parts of L.A. life.

The album lasts a whopping 75 minutes wherein Tillman calls out just about anyone and everyone. In “Pure Comedy,” the album

marks a stylistic departure from his previous albums. 2012’s “Fear Fun” and 2015’s “I Love You Honeybear”. Much of the instrumentation has a slower pace to it and focuses more on the jazz instrumentation with the horns, saxophones and clarinets rather than the intricate folksy pop sound Tillman has in previous works.

The warm and intimate tone of the album makes the subject manner of the album easier to take in while being serious about it. This is the album 2017 needed and wanted. When the times are as frustrating and confusing as they have ever been, it is weirdly reassuring to have a voice in the music world to say these points to the masses. “Pure Comedy” is truly an album of our times. Tillman has come into his own, and with “Pure Comedy” he has set yet another standard for folk rock of the future.

Jamie Peters can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush. unr.edu or on Twitter @joey_thyne

SUNDAY 4/9

MONDAY 4/10

Celebrating India’s Festival of Color in partnership with the DOSA club. Traditional food and performances by Reno community.

FREE T-SHIRT FOR FIRST 100 PEOPLE

Come support Unity Week by grabbing a free grilled cheese, some free swag, and socializing with your fellow undergraduates!

HOLI FESTIVAL

I AM AN ALLY 11:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.

10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M. (or until supplies last).

Knowledge center Lawn

MANZANITA BOWL

TUESDAY 4/11

WEDNESDAY 4/12

Come hear the voices of Nevada undergraduates during Unity Week, and showcase your own voice in the form of poetry and spoken word. Free pizza will be provided by Blind Onion Pizza!

ASUN will put on the Queer Student Union’s Annual Drag Show hosted by Katya from

POETRY & PIZZA

DRAG SHOW RuPaul’s Drag Race.

7:00 P.M. – 10:00 P.M.

6:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M.

GLICK BALLROOMS, THE JOE

BLIND ONION AT UNR

THURSDAY 4/13

DEAR WORLD Share a story only you can tell. Students are able to represent themselves in a portrait with words unique to them written across their bodies.

Share your story and listen to those of fellow students.

OPEN SHOOT

STORY TELLING

9:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M.

7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.

FIRST FLOOR OF THE JOE

DAVIDSON MATH AND SCIENCE ROOM 110

Album Review ‘PURE COMEDY’ Release Date: April 7 Genre: Alternative/Indie

For more information please contact Mia Kinel at emilia@asun.unr.edu

Opinion

@NevadaSagebrush | nevadasagebrush.com

A6

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

STAFF EDITORIAL

Why you (probably) don’t need to freak out over Syria

O

n Thursday, the U.S. launched 59 tomahawk missiles from the decks of two destroyers parked off the coast of Syria. Their target was the Shayrat airbase, the base from which Syrian planes carrying sarin gas — the chemical weapon used to kill dozens of Syrian civilians early last week — took off.

That chemical attack, the deadliest since the 2013 attack on Ghouta where 1,400 died, formed the impetus for President Donald J. Trump’s first major military action. More than that, it forms a major reversal of policy on Syria at a time when just a week ago Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that regime change (read: dealing at all with Syrian president and dictator Bashar al Assad) was not a priority.

In the days since the attack, concern from Americans at home over possible ramifications, such as the retaliation of Russia or Iran, which both back the Assad regime, have largely quelled. Even so, there’s been at least some anecdotal evidence that a non-zero number of students at this very university were perhaps overly worried, to the point of tears.

If you are still worried, know this: be concerned for those who’ve endured six long years of civil war with no end in sight, but don’t be afraid. The odds that Russia or Iran actually retaliate against the U.S. mainland for aggression in the middle east is low, especially considering the amount of poking and prodding the U.S. has leveled at its historic adversaries in the past.

This is obviously speculation, and deserves to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s not productive to assume that any level of provocation in the region is somehow grounds for World War III. Let’s not forget that Syria is complicated and even calling it a quagmire is an exercise in understatement. Not only must the U.S. contemplate the long-term effects of regime change on the region, but there’s still the matter of ISIS and the refugee crisis to contend with at any given moment.

There’s also the matter that there is a certain business-asusual feel to the whole ordeal because of the very much-ado-aboutnothing aftermath. The Photo via the White House missile strike was a shot across the bow that saw President Trump is briefed on the situation in Syria at the White House on April 6. After a deadly gas-attack on civilians, Trump wide-ranging bipartisan ordered 59 tomahawk missiles to target Shayrat airbase in Syria. support in Congress, and saw little more than posturing from it sparked during 2011’s Arab Spring. There tacks or the refugee crisis.

America’s foes in the region. will be no easy way to end this war, but even They all deserve our attention.

Ultimately, all these problems are tough so, that shouldn’t be a reason to be afraid of nuts to crack, and taken as a whole, it’s why what could happen. Instead, be concerned The editorial board can be reached at jsolis@sagethe Syrian war continues to this day after with what is happening, be it chemical at- brush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.

What to do when your parents are cooler than you

US should elminate income tax

T

he tax deadline is upon us, and many of us still need to file our returns or are waiting for their refunds to hit their accounts. (Me, I filed in January, that money is LOOOOOOOOOOONG gone!) One thought I keep thinking is, can we just not do this?

Most people seem to agree that our tax system needs to be repaired in some way. The rich could pay more, the rich could pay less, there shouldn’t be so many deductions, etc. I keep asking why should we even tax income period?

Right now, the more money people make, the more you get taxed. This is a harmful paradox of our financial system. If you make more money, you should not be rewarded with a higher tax rate. You should be rewarded with more money.

Let’s eliminate the income tax completely. It is sheer lunacy that we reward increased producPatrick tion, increased work, increased performance, Hardin with increased taxes. The income tax seeks to transfer any positive outcomes due to earning an income from the individual to the government. We should replace the income tax system with a system that taxes people based on their consumption and takings from the environment and society- a national sales tax.

One of my Reynolds School of Journalism professors, Ben Birkinbine, taught me that if you buy a good, whether it be food, clothing, electronics, etc., you prevent someone else from using that good.

Every bite we take, every thread we wear, every gallon of gas we guzzle, we take from society. We take the resources needed to make it, we take the time it took to make it, so on and so forth. If we’re taking something away, that’s when we should pay. A national sales tax would serve as society’s charge for consumption.

My idea is derived from the FairTax, a national sales tax designed to replace all income and corporate taxes. First, the FairTax would be 23 percent inclusive sales tax on all goods and services at the final point of sale. That means if you spent $100, $23 of the price goes to taxes.

This translates to a 30 percent sales tax in the traditional sense. Also, corporations do not pay the tax if the good or service is meant for resale or for strictly business use. Another large feature is the “Prebate”, which would be a check sent to every American every month in order to cover the costs of the FairTax for household necessities like food and clothing. All these factors together make for a rather nonsensical application of the sales tax. I suggest the following corrections:

A THREE RATE SYSTEM Photo via Keoni20/Wikimedia Commons

Fireworks light the sky at Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in 2016 in Las Vegas. EDC attracts over 100,000 electronic dance music fanatics each year. Hopefully, two of those fans aren’t your parents.

D

o your parents wish they were Millennials? Are your parents actually successful at being Millennials? Having cool parents is usually a good thing, but sometimes you’re left wishing they could just be lame like everyone else’s parents. Having a dad who eats, sleeps and breathes golf is easier than a dad who eats, sleeps and breathes electronic dance music.

Smartphones and the Internet have made it a lot easier for older Ryan people to keep up with Suppe the latest trends. Parents are cool again, but it’s important that we remind them of the boundaries that still exists as a father or mother of another human with his/her own reputation. The following are some dos and don’ts for living with parents who just want to be young again. I recommend sitting down with your parents and talking through some of these topics.

invite them to music festivals with you. Believe it or not, your parents have a lot more experience in this department than you do.

Getting drunk with your dad and watching him mosh is life changing.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FASHION

DO:

DO:

Share music with your parents and

DON’T: Let your parents go to EDC unless they are police officers. EDC is not a place for your creepy old dad to hang out while teenage girls run around naked. Honestly, nobody should go to EDC for any reason.

SOCIAL MEDIA DO:

Tattoos are socially acceptable now, and if your parents really want to be Millennials, they’re going to feel left out if they aren’t inked yet. Getting a tattoo with a parent is liberating. It’s like having a beer with your priest or casually using the f-word with an old high school teacher.

DON’T: All old people fashion rules still apply here. No skinny jeans, frosted tips, tank tops, Oakley sunglasses, tight shirts, etc.

Fedoras and Crocs are okay.

POLITICS DO:

While a main feature of the sales tax is a flat rate (in Nevada), if a national sales tax were to be implemented, we should institute three tiers of taxes based on the nature of the good and service. For simplification, the tiers would be five, 10 and 20 percent. Five percent for essential purchases, such as food, medicine, routine health services, etc. Another category for the five percent rate is anything that reduces energy consumption to serve as a tax break/thank you for responsible ecological decision making. Lastly, five percent would be applied to purchases made in charity shops, like Goodwill or Savers.

The ten percent tier would be for most goods and services, like clothing, books, etc. A 20 percent rate would be attached to items that are “luxury” in nature, such as gas-guzzling cars, yachts, vape pens, etc.

With three rates, we can try to steer public buying towards categories that are better for society as a whole and away from the needlessly wasteful. Also, many states have multi-tiered sales tax systems, so the logistics can be relatively easy to solve.

NO PREBATE We should follow the Walmart and Winco example, keep the rates low enough so that large-scale welfare programs such as the Prebate are not necessary.

CORPORATIONS PAY

Follow your parents and interact with them on social media. The days of hiding your Myspace account from your parents is over. Sending your mom a snap is painless, and watching her use Snapchat filters is hilarious.

Disown your parents if they voted for Gary Johnson. Consider an intervention if they voted for Bernie. Parents are supposed to be there to tell you “you’ll be a conservative when you grow up and have a real job.”

DON’T:

Let your parents say condescending things to you like “you’ll be a conservative when you grow up and have a real job.”

You’re a Millennial and they envy everything about you, especially your woke, liberal political views.

I’m for tax fairness, corporations should pay taxes at the same rate people do, there shouldn’t be a rule that allows corporations to not pay taxes.

A beauty of a national sales tax is that it would spread the tax burden as far as possible, to any person or entity that utilizes our national resources. Everyone pays according to their consumption. If people save their money and invest, they won’t be taxed. We need to consider a national sales tax as a legitimate avenue for revenue and growth. The income tax penalizes personal economic prosperity and has become a symbol of America’s problem with special interests, complexity, and needless traditions. We need to demand our leaders change the way taxes are paid.

Ryan Suppe studies philosophy. He can be reached at ryansuppe15@gmail.com and on Twitter @salsuppe.

Patrick Hardin is a noted idiot. He can be reached at pkchardin@ gmail.com and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush

Let your parents on Tinder, especially if they’re still married. I don’t think I need to get into the details on this one. Tinder is off limits no matter how hip your folks are.

Get matching tattoos with your parents.

DON’T:

Sports TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

SPORTS | A7

@SagebrushSports | nevadasagebrush.com

Otagaki fosters new culture for women’s soccer

Photo Courtesy of Nevada Athletics

Wolf Pack Women’s Soccer head coach Erin Otagaki discusses tactics with Nevada forward Morgan Beye. Otagaki is prepping her team for their upcoming campaign by holistically developing her players.

By Brandon Cruz

Just two hours after the sun gradually ascends over the Biggest Little City, head women’s soccer coach and mother of two Erin Otagaki finds her way to her Legacy Hall office to quickly rid herself of her bag. She then proceeds to head straight to the soccer practice fields for the team’s usual 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. workout.

After practice, Otagaki and her coaching staff move back to her office to discuss tactics and what’s next on their agenda. Otagaki has found herself in the middle of the most critical eight months before the team begins their 2017 campaign.

Ogataki is new in the sense of head coaching experience, but has been around the Nevada Women’s Soccer program for two season, serving as an assistant coach two seasons ago.

After one season as an assistant coach, Ogataki was promoted to interim co-head coach.

Although Otagaki now resides in a winter wonderland, she didn’t always have to trod through six inches of snow to get to work. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Otagaki started playing soccer around age five, just as the majority of children who had more energy than they knew what to do with.

“I had a lot of energy so I think getting on the fields, running around playing two to three games a week was ideal for me,” Otagaki said.

“Probably my parents too.”

But unbeknownst to Otagaki, this way to expend excess amounts of stamina would actually become one of the most important passions in her life.

This passion and love for the game came in two separate waves.

“I think in the beginning it was all about running around, moving and playing soccer with your friends,” Otagaki said. “As I got older, it was about competing. Trying to be the best I could be.”

Following her play in Hawaii with her youth team, the Pandas, and her high school career, Otagaki made her way to the University of Washington to begin her collegiate career as a Husky. From the jump of her freshmen season, Otagaki faced an uphill battle.

“I tore my ACL my freshmen year,” Otagaki said. “I was kind of on the back burner to begin with.”

As many know, any tear or breakage in the knee is extremely difficult to overcome. The pain is grueling and the rehabilitation period can feel like a lifetime. This unfortunate happening placed an ultimatum at her feet.

“You come to that fork in the road where you’re like my option is I can complain, whine and not try,” Otagaki said. “Or I can go after it! I can say ‘I’m going to give it my all and leave it up to the coaches of whether or not I play.’”

She refused to allow this massive injury to hinder her aspirations to be the best soccer player she could be. No, it is not an easy feat to bounce back from any injury, let alone one that affects the main tool for contention in soccer. But her drive, motivation and willingness to put in that work finally earned her a starting position two years into her collegian career.

Otagaki used this as a learning experience, never allowing it to bog down her true wants as far as soccer goes.

“I think that sometimes those lows are highs,” Otagaki said. “Maybe not at the moment but it becomes a high because you look back on it and say ‘wow, I got through that.’”

Otagaki’s optimistic nature is a characteristic every coach should have, and she got a lot of it from her mentor at the University of Washington, head coach Lesle Gallimore.

“When I was playing I hung on her every word,” Otagaki said. “’Okay coach! What do I need to do?”

By making it a point to break

down every piece of advice given to old freshmen to a 22-year old senior, her from Gallimore with a purpose, you see how deeply you can influOtagaki assisted her team in its ence their lives in a positive way. quest for gold as the Huskies won its That’s what Lesle did for me and first women’s soccer Pac-10 cham- that’s what I hope I can do for young pionship, making the University of women as I coach them through Washington the first team outside of their college years.”

California to do so. Along with this Every head coach wants to win, prestigious accolade, Otagaki and but some crave victory so much that her team visited the NCAA tourna- they sacrifice everything and anyment on three separate occasions. thing to get it, sometimes including a But all good things must come to complete disregard for their athletes an end sometime, which was the mental and physical health. Otagaki case with Otagaki’s playing career. is unique in the sense that she has a However, Gallimore’s impact on deep-rooted emotional connection Otagaki didn’t stop with her playing to her athletes. She wants her playdays. ers to develop holistically, not just in “As I got older and graduated I went a soccer sense. to grad school and volunteered at The women’s soccer program Washington,” Otagaki said. “When I appears to be in good hands, as was volunteering and flipped on the the team finally has a direction. A coaching side of things I had a deep direction that stems from a woman respect for what she did and how who may be petite in stature, but she ran the program.” whose heart, pride and willpower This deep respect that Otagaki seep through her pores and are had for Gallimore allowed her to more than prevalent in every word set aside pride and take things from she speaks Gallimore that evolved her into a “My goal is to really help young loving, caring and motivating coach. women identify themselves and “I not only wanted to give back, figure out its worth it,” Otagaki said. but also get involved in something “Even if you fail, you have to get where you have a great opportunity back up and try.” to help these young women develop as soccer players and as people,” Brandon Cruz can be reached at bcruz@ Otagaki said. “To see the amazing sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @ maturation process of an 18-year Sagebrushsports.

Nevada Softball takes two in three game series

By Javier Hernandez It was a busy week for Wolf Pack Softball. The team (20-16, 6-6 MWC) won back-to-back games against the New Mexico Lobos before dropping their final game in the three-game series.

The series took place last week from April 7th to April 9th. Heading into the series, the New Mexico Lobos were at second place in the conference.

Below is a game-by-game look at the series.

Game 1 (April 7, 2017) The Nevada Softball team is an offensive-minded team that thrives on being the frontrunner in many of its games.

Heading into their series against New Mexico, they boasted a record of 9-2 in games where they jumped out to a first inning lead.

The Wolf Pack was able to improve this record as they got on the board with a two-run lead through the first inning.

In the middle of the third, the Wolf Pack already led 7-0 en route to a dominating 14-6 victory.

As a team, the Wolf Pack hit 14-of-33 at a clip of .414. The explosive offense was led by Kenzi Goins and Nikki Orozco who had three hits apiece. Sienna Swain and Aaliyah Gibson each contributed two hits on the day.

Game 2 (April 8, 2017) While the offense was once again able to propel the team to victory, the Wolf Pack rode the coattails of its pitcher, Kali Sargent, who pitched an impressive complete game. On the day, Sargent only allowed two earned runs on five hits, throwing 108 pitches that included three strikeouts.

While Sargent was able to shut down the New Mexico offense, the Nevada offense was hot once again as they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead through the middle of the fifth inning.

The offense was led by Gibson, Swain, Melissa Arriaga, and Erika Hansen who all had two hits each. As a team, the Wolf Pack hit 13-of-32 and scored eight total runs. With the firepower from the offense coupled with Sargent’s strong pitching performance, the Wolf Pack cruised to another victory by a score of 8-2.

Andrea Wilkinson/Nevada Sagebrush

Nevada Softball outfielder Aaliyah Gibson rounds the bases against San Jose State in their 12-8 home loss on Apr 24, 2016.

The Wolf Pack sit at third place in the Mountain West Conference Standings following their series against New Mexico.

Game 3 (April 9, 2017) In the final game of the series, the Wolf Pack was unable to complete the sweep.

While the Wolf Pack was able to get ahead of the Lobos in scoring through the fourth inning, they blew their 3-1 lead as the Lobos fired back with an eight-run fifth inning.

The Wolf Pack tried to rally a comeback later on during the top of the sixth

as they were able to add three more runs to the scoreboard. However, the lead was too big for them to overcome.

Nevada was led by Alyssa Mendez who had three hits and scored two runs. Arriaga had two hits on the After their road trip against the Lobos, they return home to Hixson Park to begin their intrastate rivalry series against the UNLV Rebels in another three-game series. In addition, the games will count for points towards the Governor’s Series.

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Javier Hernandez can be reached at jshernandez@nevada.unr.edu and on Twitter @Sagebrushsports.

Sports A8 | SPORTS

@NevadaSagebrush | nevadasagebrush.com

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

Don’t be Cavalier on Westbrook’s monumental season

Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons

Russel Westbrook goes up for a finger roll layup against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015. Westbrook broke the NBA single-season record for triple-doubles against the Denver Nuggets eliminating them from playoff contention.

With another thrilling conclusion to a championship game in the NCAA Tournament, College Football

H

in full Spring Football mode, the NFL Draft still a few weeks away and MLB teams only a few games into their

eading into last Sunday’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets, the electric point guard from the Oklahoma City Thunder tied Oscar Robertson’s single-season record for triple-doubles at 41. Capped by a buzzer-beating, gamew i n n i n g three-point dagger to end the Denver Javier Nuggets’ Hernandez playoff hopes last Sunday, Accounting We s t b r o o k cemented his place atop the record books with a masterful 50-point, 16-rebound and 10-assist performance to surpass Robertson’s record.

162-game season, the attention of the sports world quickly shifts into the tail end of the NBA regular season.

The battle for the MVP has mostly been a two-horse race this season, with Westbrook being the frontrunner and Houston Rockets combo guard James Harden being the other contender. In Harden’s postgame press conference, he shared his sentiments, believing that winning should be the most important determinant in the MVP race.

“I think that’s the most important thing,” Harden said. “I thought winning is what this is about—period. I’m not going to get in-depth with all that, but I thought winning was the most important thing. If you set your team up in a position to have a chance at the ultimate goal. That’s the most important thing.”

While Harden doesn’t want to go in-depth with his argument, let’s delve a little bit into this

The NBA Playoffs are quickly approaching, with the first game beginning this coming weekend.

reasoning. While the Rockets do have a considerable eight-game lead in the win column against the Thunder, it is important to note that fellow superstar Kawhi Leonard has led the post-Tim Duncan era San Antonio Spurs to the second seed in the Western Conference with an eight-game lead over the Rockets but isn’t nearly talked about as a leading MVP candidate.

Furthermore, the Rockets have just as much of a statistical chance to win the championship as the Thunder. It’s not like the Thunder are out of playoff contention. In fact, if the playoffs started last Sunday, the Rockets would be facing the Thunder in the first round.

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As the regular season wraps up and as teams gear up (or rest their players, a discussion for a different column)

T

for the Playoffs, below are two of the biggest storylines heading into the playoffs. The first storyline is about Rus-

he Cleveland Cavaliers have had a rough go of it in their last 22 games.

Starting with their loss to Boston on March 1, the Cavs have lost 12 of their last 22. They currently sit in a lover’s quarrel atop the East with the Celtics. Now, this is concerning for a multitude of reasons.

First off, the Brandon games the Cruz Cavs are losing mainly Journalism h a p p e n within their own conference.

This is especially terrifying because it is common knowledge that the Eastern Conference in the NBA has less talent

sell Westbrook’s historic regular season, his triple-double average, and the MVP race. The other storyline is about

than the West. Along with a good amount of their losses coming from Eastern Conference teams, it seems as if the Cavaliers are playing down to the level of competition they are competing with. Instead of setting the standard, they’re waiting for other teams to do so and then playing catch-up.

They are losing to subpar teams such as the Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons, who have no business beating a powerhouse organization like the Cavaliers. A good amount of their losses can be attributed to inadequate team play, along with an inability to take care of the rock.

Offensively, the Cavaliers are still a force to be reckoned with. Where their woes truly come to play is in the defensive category. Although they have had key players such as Kevin

the Cleveland Cavaliers’ struggles towards the end of the regular season.

Love, Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert miss time over this long stretch, the foundation that helped them put together the greatest comeback in NBA finals history was still there. Lebron James and Kyrie Irving need to start searching for a fix to their defensive inconsistencies sooner rather than later. Let’s face it, as much as people say Tyronn Lue is the Cavaliers head coach, he’ll always have Lebron in his ear telling him what they should do. So Lebron, I’ll speak for sports fans everywhere and say please help the team find its defensive identity again!

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