SPORTS
5 SEPTEMBER 23, 2020
THE REFLECTOR
New inclusion and diversity committee UIndy Athletics reveals new student-athlete organization focused on race, LGBTQ+, mental health By Kiara Conley NEWS EDITOR
The University of Indianapolis Athletic Department announced its newest committee—the UIndy Athletics Diversity and Inclusion committee on Sept. 4 on their website. Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator for Student Support Jackie Paquette said that the committee is allowing the student-athletes use their voice. “The committee was established to give our student-athletes a space in which to utilize the voice we’ve seen them have in light of the current events going on in the world,” Pauquette said. According to Cody Wainscott, sports information director and one of the committee’s advisers, the committee will be led by student-athletes who want to make a difference by serving on the committee. Following current events, such as the Black Lives Matter
movement over the summer, Wainscott said he and Paquette decided it was time to put together a group on campus. He said that they knew the athletic department has such an impactful voice
WAINSCOTT across the campus, and they began to find student-athletes who wanted to be involved. “We [Paquette and Wainscott] [have] just been facilitating the conversation because we’ve been pretty open from the very beginning that we want the
student-athletes to drive this because the student-athlete population is a lot more diverse, they’re super indulgent, they’re very outgoing and they can have a stronger voice … [that] would mean more rather than [it] coming from two administrators,” Wainscott said. Gillian Santana, a sophomore defensive specialist for the volleyball team, said that the committee wants to spread awareness of unity on campus. “... [By] being part of an athletic team, I feel we like we can spread the word more,” Santana said.” “We have so many of us on our team that... in this group are able to spread the word to our teammates and they can spread the word onto other folks on the campus or in the community.” According to Wainscott, acceptance is the main objective of the committee. He said that the committee started because of racial injustice and has now expanded into areas involving mental health awareness, LGBTQ+
rights and religious beliefs. Wainscott also said that this is a time for listening and learning. D uring one of the committee’s meetings, Austin Bartel of the men’s
PAQUETTE lacrosse team, said that he cannot have an opinion yet because this is his time to sit back and listen, according to Wainscott. “I think that’s… extremely important for all of us, instead of throwing our two cents in all the time, to actually to just
listen and really learn and accept and empathize for other people’s beliefs no matter what they are, not even beliefs, like for just who they are as people,” Wainscott said. The committee will hold events in the future, but much of what they are doing is in idea stages right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Paquette. She said these events will be available to everyone on UIndy’s campus and will be more of informative-based events with possible speakers or panelists. Af ter the committee reaches o u t t o o t h e r c a m p u s g ro u p s , Paquette said some events may be held in conjunction with groups such as UIndy PRIDE and the Black Student Association. Paquette said whatever partnership will be about education “So we are just looking to sort of facilitate ways that we can educate our campus around issues currently in the world,” Paquette said.”
A look back at football’s 2019 season By Jacob Walton SPORTS EDITOR & PHOTO EDITOR
Photo by Jacob Walton
In this file photo, senior exercise science major Ben Hooker looks upfield during an ultimate frisbee game. Ultimate Frisbee is one of the many intramurals that have been affected by COVID-19. Other intramurals, including flag football, will not take place this semester.
Intramural Changes By Giselle Valentin
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many different activities t h ro u g h o u t t h e U n i ve r s i t y o f Indianapolis, including academics and campus life, with intramural sports being another one of those campus traditions that now has new safety guidelines and protocols. According to Assistant Director of Student Activities Nicole Schuch, intramural sports such as flag football and volleyball will not happen this fall. “Most of these sports … would require lots of physical contact [with] very little social distancing at all,” Schuch said. “For the safety of our students, we have to put that on hold.” Although the campus will not have intramural sports this semester, UIndy Campus Recreation is adding a new esports program, according to Schuch. The first esports competition will take place at the end of September. Students can participate in games such as NBA 2K21, Overwatch and Fortnite that will be streamed on Twitch. Those who are interested in participating can sign up via Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Kory Vitangeli’s emails, flyers posted around campus or on UIndy Campus Rec’s social media. Schuch said she hopes that the esports program will continue after
intramurals get back to traditional methods. “This is us dipping our toe into the water at the end of the month,” Schuch said. “Even if we get to a point where we are back to the traditional way of intramurals, we would also add esports to our rolling multi-league or one-day tournaments.” Senior public health major Phoebe Schembre has been a member of the intramural ultimate frisbee team for four years. When writing COVID-19 guidelines for the team practices,
Most of these sports... would require lots of physical contact...“ Schembre said her main priority is to protect the team. “We have to wear masks while we play, which is the same as all of the other athletes on campus,” Schembre said. “We sanitize the disc a couple of times throughout practice [and] before and after,” Schembre said. “We’re not doing any scrimmaging. We just decided that [it] would put people at risk because it would be a lot more breaking the six-feet barrier. We’re going to just do drills and teach people.” According to Schembre, one
of the biggest challenges playing ultimate frisbee this season is meeting in-person. Schembre said scheduling a practice takes a long time because the Office of Student Affairs must approve it with the COVID-19 guidelines. “ We need to meet more than once a month, which the RSO’s are allowed to, but that means we have to do more things to allow for that,” Schembre said. “[That ’s] almost frustrating because I see other RSOs being able to do things and our team hasn’t been able to move forward. It’s harder to get freshmen to play when we can’t play yet.” Campus Rec is taking small steps to ensure the well-being of students during COVID-19, according to Schuch. During Welcome Week, students were able to take part in a corn hole tournament. According to Schuch, it’s simple to enforce social distancing rules and restrict the number of people involved with it. Although intramural sports are not taking place this semester, Schuch remains hopeful for the next term. “The goal and the most ideal situation as the university moves through the phases of the re-engagement process [is] if we can get to a point where we are allowed to have a larger gathering … we’ll be ready to rock and roll with you traditional second semester intramural programs,” Schuch said. “We would love to do that.”
University of Indianapolis football is one of the biggest sports at UIndy and in the past years they have also been successful winning four GLVC championships in the last six seasons. Their current campaign has been pushed to the spring and it is expected that the Hounds, led by second-year Head Coach Chris Keevers, will still be successful again. Last season, the team saw a very successful regular season with a 9-to1 record leading them to their second straight GLVC championship before being eliminated from the NCAA Playoffs in the first round by No.15 ranked University of Central Missouri Mules. According to Keevers, despite a successful season they still have to overcome some issues. “We got in the top 10 at one point we made the playoffs,” Keevers said. “But some of the disappointing things... We went on the road after winning six blowout games and then really struggled in a tight game. We’ve gotta find ways to get our guys to remain competitive after blowing out a bunch of teams.” OFFENSE The team’s offense was led by senior quarterback TJ Edwards, who was sixth in the conference in passing yards per game. Edwards transferred from conference opponent Southwest Baptist University. Junior running back Al McKeller led the rushing front for the Hounds and finished first in the conference in rushing yards per game with 102.18 and finished the season with 1,124 yards total and 17 touchdowns moving him into the first place spot in the UIndy record book for career TD’s. He unseated former UIndy running back Klay Fletcher. If McKeller has another good season he is set to beat out Fletcher for the total rushing yards record. The receiving unit was led by
sophomore receiver Daveon Bell and senior receiver Maurice Robinson. The pair tied with 38 receptions in the season each and combined for over 1,100 yards of offense. Bell averaged 16.58 yards per game last season with Robinson averaging 14.66, but the overall leader in yards per reception last season was senior tight end Ryan Topper who averaged 22.41 yards per reception on 19 total catches. Keevers said that the offense unit is going to remain mostly unchanged heading into this season and that we should expect another good offense. “I think you’ll see a very good football team,” Keevers said. “We’ve got seven offensive linemen that have started in different capacities, two or three off the first team, all conference guys, one is an All-American returning. Our offensive line is really good. We’ve got two of the best [running] backs in the country with Al McKeller and Toriano Clinton, so we’re going to be able to run it.” DEFENSE With the team’s defense, the Hounds were able to hold opposing offenses to an average of 17.73 points per game. One of the leaders on the defensive end was redshirt junior defensive back Conner Steeb who led the team in tackles with 65 total with 38 of them being solo tackles. The Hounds also grabbed 13 interceptions in the season with four of them being snagged by sophomore defensive back William Miles. The team was also able to get behind the line and sack opposing quarterbacks 28 times resulting in 177 yards lost by the opposing teams. Leading in the sack column was redshirt senior defensive lineman Jacob Schmatz who had 4.5 sacks on the season. According to Keevers, the defense lost some seniors last season, but have been heavily recruiting in the secondary. The football team will begin their season in spring 2021 alongside Volleyball, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Soccer. All information according to UIndy Athletics and GLVC.com
Photo by Kiara Conley
In this file photo, senior quarterback TJ Edwards throws the ball upfield during a home game against the Truman University Bulldogs on Nov. 9, 2019. The Hounds won 44-28.