Volume 137 No. 7

(Photo Courtesy of Garrett Cote/The Student)

A life-changing adventure

The Alternative Break club experience has given participating students a new perspective on community service, and this year the group has four trips planned during the month of March.

es to people that were really struggling during the pandemic, and were amazed with the amount of people that it affected.

“We worked with an organization one day… and we were there all day,” Elvers said. “All we did was package food into boxes and put them into people’s trucks, and all day long there was a steady group of people.”

a growing concern as cli mate change has become a more distressing problem.

Described by students as a once in a lifetime opportunity, Elvers and the rest of the Alterna tive Break club urge any new members to take the plunge into a life changing adventure.

Traveling to new places, experiencing new cultures, and giving back to the community are some of the most fulfilling undertakings in life. The Alternative Break club on campus is accomplishing each with its valuable trips and activities offered to Springfield College students.

The club provides ex cursions for any students interested in important community service and getting involved in social justice issues, with each journey into troubled communities having a specific problem they are looking to address.

“The mission of the club really is to provide immersive service experi ences that also address a social justice issue,” said Charlene Elvers, the club’s advisor.

A common service the club performs is going into a community and working on houses in

_ By Patrick Fergus _ @Fergus5Fergus

order to provide homes for the homeless and families in need of afford able housing, as a part of Habitat for Humanity.

The members not only learn how to build new houses, but they also get personal and valuable interactions with the families that will later call their creation home.

To hear the stories and struggles that people go through can be a very valuable moment for some students.

“We learn about the system of how housing works, and why it’s im portant to own a home…. and more importantly, why it’s hard for some people to get to that point” said Elvers.

Each trip typically lasts about a week, an import ant set period of time for Elvers, as she wants these excursions to be an engag ing experience for all the students that attend.

“I feel like that impact

is when you immerse yourself in this….and you live it and you work it and you talk to people,” Elvers said. “You gain a perspec tive that you don’t always get when you just go out for an hour.”

This perspective has truly impacted students over the years, accord ing to Elvers, with some joining the Peace Corps for years after taking part in the club.

Past trips have ven tured out to San Diego, a city with more than 8,000 homeless people. The club worked with organizations there to help the homeless get food, medicine, and eventually a place to live.

Even COVID couldn’t prevent the club from making a difference, with the focus shifting to the local communities that were in need.

The club worked tire lessly with local organi zations to provide good food and helpful resourc

Students will be excit ed to hear that the club has four riveting trips planned for spring break in the middle of March. This chock-full lineup includes a journey to a Native American reser vation in South Dakota to learn more about the histories of the tribes that live there. There will also be a more environmen tally focused trip, which is

“In the end it’s us, we get changed, our hearts get changed, our minds get changed, and we have a renewed perspective,” Elvers said. “I’ve seen students, kind of, change their trajectory after hav ing this experience.”

Applications for the upcoming trips are due by Nov. 4. For more infor mation about joining the club and the application process, contact the Cen ter for Service and Lead ership.

Alternative Break club applications are due by Nov. 4. (Photo Courtesy of Charlene Elvers)

Humanics in Action

SCPD officer Robert Johnson helped orchestrate the rescue of two stray dogs, both of which had been severely mistreated.

_ By Luke Whitehouse _ @Lwhitehouse12

As darkness settled, a thunderstorm began to embark last Tuesday night as Springfield College Police Officer Robert Johnson start ed to head back to the station.

Johnson was coming back from a call he had received earlier in the evening, and proceeded to enjoy his regularly scheduled night shift.

But this quickly turned into no ordinary night shift.

As he began driving up Hickory Street, ad jacent to International Hall, he noticed a dog.

As best as he could tell through the blur of the pouring rain, he noticed something peculiar surrounding the dog’s face. At first glance he thought it may be some sort of muzzle.

“I was [initially] in shock,” Johnson said. “I just thought it was very weird… very out of place.”

As he inched closer, to his surprise, he saw something very disturb ing.

The dog had tape

around all of its paws and draped around his mouth, a clear act of abuse and inhumanity.

He knew he had to do something.

“It was pouring rain and it [again] seemed so out of place,” John son recalls. “So I hopped out of the cruiser and I began to follow the dog [down to the park].”

As Johnson ap proached the park, he noticed another dog with residue on its mouth from tape, as well as tape on its paws.

Both dogs would not be easy to catch, and Johnson knew if he had any intentions of rescu ing them and bringing them to safety, he had to act quickly.

“I [tried to] grab the male dog,” Johnson said.

“[The female] actually ran into a pricker bush, and so I called another officer to [help] lift her out.”

Once the female dog had been brought to safety, the focus was now on the male one, who was still frantically running through the

streets.

According to West ern Mass. News, John son had called Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control Center for backup, who went out to find the male.

This evolved into a full team effort, as John son, dispatcher Deen Jaghi, and the animal control officers helped over the course of the night.

“Throughout the night we had three sep arate sightings,” John son said. “By the end of my shift, my uniform was soaked.”

The male dog was eventually cornered in a nearby property and the animal control officers were able to rescue it by the morning.

The positive thing was both dogs were in good standing, despite the tape that was draped all over them.

“Other than the duct tape, the dogs appear to be in good condi tion. They appear to be social, they’re clean, they’re a little bit thin, but not concerningly

so,” TJO Animal Con trol Supervisor Hannah Orenstein told Western Mass. News.

Both Johnson and Jaghi knew these dogs deserved a new and more caring home so that this type of situ ation wouldn’t happen again.

In response, as soon as the female dog was caught, Johnson decided he was going to adopt her.

Johnson later named the dog Justice – going along with his other dog, Liberty.

And then when the male was finally caught, Johnson recalls Jaghi

saying: “Nope, he’s mine.”

Jaghi elected to name the dog Elmo.

“It’s extending our courtesy of life,” Jaghi said. “It makes my whole family happy to be able to give some thing extra to an animal that doesn’t have [a lot].”

Both dogs were later determined to be broth er and sister, and now each gets to spend their lives with their new families. They will for ever remain a big part of the SCPD family as well.

Johnson braved a torrential downpour to help rescue two dogs during his shift last Tuesday. (Photo Courtesy of Western Mass News)

With Love Comes Harm

_ By Garrett Cote

@garrett_cote

As Friday, Oct. 14 winded down, yet another typical fall semester week was coming to a close for the Springfield College community. Classes were wrapping up, sports teams were putting the finishing touches on practices and weekend activities on cam pus were set to begin.

Aidan Harmer had other plans.

When the Springfield College senior walked out of his final class of the week, he rushed to practice to prepare for his cross country meet the following day. After his workout, Harmer scoot ed over to Cheney and downed a plate of food before hopping in his car and picking up his friend, Charles Duncan. Soon enough, Harmer was off to his next stop: Yale University.

Harmer and Dun can were set to shoot a music video for their single September that was released on Sept. 16 (Harmer’s birthday), and Yale was a midway point for them and their New Jersey-based cameraman, Andre Costa. Once they recorded enough foot age for the video, they

returned back to Alden Street at 1 a.m.

Now it was time to sleep in and enjoy the weekend. But the only problem was that Harmer had to be on the team bus at 7 a.m. the next morning to leave for his meet at Connecticut College.

“His work ethic is crazy,” Duncan said of Harmer. “He works so

hard. He put together all the stuff for the song. He’s the engineer, the producer, he does every thing. He’s dedicated, and he already has his own production company and his own name. He knows what he wants to do, and he’s smart.”

Although Harmer, a Hawthorne, N.J.. native, didn’t perform to his

standards in that meet at Connecticut College, he understands the sacrifices that have to be made in order to balance all of his passions while also being a full-time student at Springfield.

“[That weekend] was an example of having to balance everything,” Harmer said. “I ran ter ribly that next day, but

it’s a sacrifice I have to make. I had so much fun the night before. I’m like living a dream for myself, making a music video with my friends. Being able to make these sacrifices, I have to know what’s going to last.”

During Harmer’s first year on campus, he lived across the hall from Duncan on the fifth floor of Reed Hall. As the two grew close, and Duncan opened up about his ties to New York City and the connections he has with rappers such as French Montana and A$AP Rocky, it would have been silly for Harmer to not dive right into collaborat ing with Duncan.

“My big brother is re ally connected, he knows a lot of people,” Duncan said. “Like A$AP, that’s his boy, like he’s cool with him. He knows a lot of people in the music industry. Anytime, to put someone on, I’m not gonna hold them back. I want Harmer to be great. If I can set him up in any position, I will. It’s just being a good person.”

Similarly, Harmer – or A Harm, his stage name – had the same mindset when he began working with Duncan.

“When I first met him,

Duncan (left) and Harmer (right) have made several songs together, most recently ‘September,’ which dropped on Sept.16 of this year. (Photo Courtesy of Aidan Harmer)

Despite majoring in Physical Therapy and running for the men’s cross country team, Aidan Harmer has still found time to do what he loves most: make music with his friends.

I was like, ‘This kid is from the Bronx, and he always talks about know ing French (Montana) and all that. If I don’t take this opportunity to work with him, I’m missing out,’” Harmer said.

Harmer’s musical talents didn’t transpire overnight. This is some thing that he has been manifesting since his early years of high school.

A Squared Produc tions, a business started by Harmer and his high school friend Alex Za wojski, was set to DJ the 2016 homecoming event at Hawthorne High School. This group consisted of only Harmer and Zawo jski, who were two young sophomores with a love and devotion for music.

After the event went so well, A Squared Pro ductions was essentially merged into Blue Bands Productions, another record label started by other students at Haw thorne that was a bit further along in the music industry than Harmer and Zawojski at the time.

“[The homecoming

event] introduced us and pushed our name into them, and that ended up just being a huge music production group in my high school,” Harmer said. “Those guys pushed me to start making my own stuff because they were doing it first.”

It didn’t take long for Harmer to begin dropping his own music, and that year his very first single, Nightfall, was released on SoundCloud.

“My first song, I had a bunch of kids from my high school’s soccer team come over and record,” Harmer said. “I would show people in the hall way, and they would be like, ‘Okay, the hook is good, but the verses are trash.’ That’s because all the kids on the soccer team did the verses.”

Music continued to be something Harmer turned to constantly as high school progressed, and as he got closer to the start of his collegiate years, he knew it would be what he leaned on for an escape during his free time.

Because both of his

parents, Brian and Lea Harmer, participated in track and field at Spring field College, the decision for Harmer to follow in their footsteps and run for the Pride was effortless. He didn’t get to official ly compete in an event until this season, however, despite being a member of the cross country team for all four years.

Injuries have plagued Harmer and his terrif ic running abilities, but being a Physical Therapy major has helped him with the recovery process as he better understands how his body works in certain situations.

“I told myself I could either be upset about it, or keep on moving forward,” Harmer said in reaction to the injuries. “I focused on cross-training. I had no other options except to put my head down and keep on working. Luckily, with my background in PT, I’ve been able to build up a routine of strength exercises and rolling out every night. It’s all stacked on top of each other.”

Being in an environ ment like Springfield also helped his music prosper like never before.

“I’m able to find con nections from all over the country and be around people who have the same interests,” Harmer said. “I’m a little scared for after college, because [Springfield has been] such a great outlet to pro mote music and be around a bunch of people who will listen.”

On Tidal, a platform to stream music, Harmer has reached over 50,000

Harmer dropped his first single during his sophomore year of high school. (Garrett Cote/The Student)

streams, and was even compensated for those numbers. To grow to something this big was always a goal for Harmer, but watching it come to fruition is a feeling like no other.

“All the love he’s been getting is crazy to see,” Duncan said. “Nobody does this expecting something big, but peo ple actually mess with it. Harmer can really rap. All your friends are gonna say you’re doing good because they’re your friends, but seeing other people that you don’t really know say that you’re making good music, that’s when you start to realize.”

Despite all of the success in the studio, and despite finally being fully healthy and feeling free during cross country meets, Harmer knows his future relies on his efforts in the classroom. And above all, that’s what mat ters most, especially con sidering physical therapy

is one of the more difficult majors at Springfield.

“Academics always comes first for me,” Harmer said. “Running and music are just outlets. My whole undergraduate career, it’s been getting my homework done first, and then running is just ingrained in my mind.

Then it’s like, now it’s okay for me to focus on music a little bit.”

With Harmer set to drop his first album, With Love Comes Harm, on all platforms at some point this November, it is clear his dream is no longer just a dream. It has now become a reality.

The Aidan Harmer spotlight is only getting brighter, and there’s no stopping him now.

“I’m telling you right now, this boy (Harmer) is going to be legendary,” Duncan said. “He already got the plan. He’s going to be great, for real, for real.”

Harmer records and mixes his music from his personal setup at his off-campus home. (Garrett Cote/The Student)

Reported ‘suspicious activity’ on campus leaves students concerned

___ By Cait Kemp @CaitlinKemp09

Last Tuesday night, the Springfield College Police Department Instagram and Facebook accounts posted a photo of a car from the Learning Com mons surveillance footage that had been reported as engaging in “suspicious activity” on campus. The post included that the occupants of the car were “shooting an air-soft gun, a gel blaster, or BB gun.”

This post left many students concerned, as it is not uncommon for stu dents to walk Alden Street at night utilizing the li brary and other buildings on campus.

The next day, the Col lege community received an email about the suspi cious activity from Public Safety. This gave more details about the incidents, reporting that between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, two groups of students were shot at with an air-soft gun from the car. Only one student was hit by the air-soft gun and was not injured in any way.

Due to the timing of the reports in accordance to when the incidents hap pened, Chief-of-Police Joe Tiraboschi decided that posting on social media would be the quickest and most effective way to inform students and the community about what was going on.

“When it comes to the time of the report and the

time of the incident, those are really crucial in what steps we would take,” Tiraboschi said. “Due to the fact that there was some time gap between the actual incident and when it was reported to us, and the second report was even after the first, we wanted to get something out quickly to our commu nity.”

He continued, “We know social media is a popular platform for stu dents to check after hours late at night and then in the afternoon when we sent out that email to kind of give the whole community a sense of what occurred, how we are looking into it and try to ask for help from the community to let us know if they see anything so we can further look into this.”

Tiraboschi communi cated the incident with Vice President for Student Affairs, Slandie Dieujuste, in order to make sure that the administration of the College was aware of the situation as well.

“There is certainly concern and I appreciate the Chief’s leadership in this,” Dieujuste said. “We are always on high alert when it comes to students’ safety.”

It appears to the police department to be a random act, however Tiraboschi urges students to travel in groups late at night and report any sus

picious activity when they see anything. The police department is continuing to investigate the incident and search for the vehicle and operator to figure out what happened and hold the individual accountable, but it is not believed to be a continuous threat for the campus.

Coming up next week end is Halloween, which is also rumored to be ‘gang initiation’ in the city of Springfield.

“That’s a rumor that goes through the campus. Every single time Hal loween hits, we hear this rumor of ‘gang initia tion,’” Tiraboschi said. “It’s something that we put on our radar as Public Safety, but at the same time it’s no different than any other weekend.”

Campus police will be patrolling areas of cam pus as they normally do each weekend so Tirabos chi encourages students to stay in groups with friends, be aware of their surroundings and not be

afraid to call and report anything they may see or experience when out on weekends.

If students do not feel safe going out on the weekend, there are many events that are occurring on campus for Halloween that students can partici pate in.

“We have a number of activities planned on campus to give students options if they don’t want to go off campus,” Dieu

juste said. “I met with my staff and we talked about adding more to Saturday night to give students an option to be here if they feel like they need to be here.”

The campus police de partment is committed to keeping students safe and are always available and transparent about what they can do to help the College community.

SCPD posted to its Instagram page to alert students the night of the activity. (Photos Courtesy of Springfield College)

Springfield College Chief-of-Police Joe Tiraboschi urges students to travel in groups late at night and report any suspicious activity if they see anything.

No cap? Not so fast

Why first-year students at Springfield College wear beanies and the history behind the treasured tradition.

If someone did not like donning the beanies, they were far from alone. Monseau feels that, for the most part, first-year students were not over ly enthused about the tradition, but took part nonetheless.

“That’s usually the im pression that I get, that it’s tolerated. Most peo ple don’t enjoy wearing the beanies,” Monseau said. “But when I ask students whether or not they wore theirs, most say they wore theirs.”

“I think most feel like it’s nice to be a part of something, that it’s nice to be a part of tradition,” Monseau added. “So, in my eyes that seems to be the main thing.”

As a matter of fact, Monseau said that a few years ago, the percentage of students who wore their beanies was above 90 percent.

In terms of why stu dents wear these beanies, Monseau has heard sev eral different reasons.

While the majority of students simply wear the beanies because they want to, or because they don’t have any valid reason not to, one would think that at one point or another there has been a strong reason to not put on the beanie. As it would be, this did happen, back around the time of World War II.

Monseau shared the story of how a good number of students who came to Springfield College after the second World War were on the G.I. Bill, a piece of legislation that gave help to veterans returning from war. It should be noted that some of these soldiers weren’t too hap py with having to wear beanies.

Notably, one person put up a particularly strong fight against the notion of having to wear a beanie. Eventually, this person went before a board to get permission to not wear it.

One of the initial instructions first-year students are given on move-in day every year is to go check-in for New Student Orientation, where they would receive their t-shirts and beanies.

T-shirts definitely make sense. After all, someone can get a t-shirt for just about anything these days. But beanies? What’s the point of that? Wouldn’t wearing a standard baseball cap, or

__ By Tucker PaqueTTe __ @tpaquette17

no hat at all, work just as well?

Well, as it would turn out, there’s far more to this tradition than just the pursuit of style points. In fact, according to Springfield College Archivist Jeff Monseau, first-years at this school have been wearing bean ies since 1926.

Monseau also men tioned how the beanies used to be green, as op posed to the red and gray

ones worn now.

“As a first year, you were ‘green,’” Monseau said. “You didn’t have a lot of knowledge.”

For those who didn’t enjoy the experience of wearing the beanies, it could have always been (much) worse. Monseau said that previously, Springfield College first-years had to wear the beanies for the entire school year, not just during NSO weekend.

“[One of them being] to mark you, so every body on campus would know that you were new, that you hadn’t gone through all those expe riences that made people true Springfield College [students],” Monseau said.

Furthermore, the tradition of wearing beanies has been enforced consistently throughout Springfield College’s past.

“Early on in the school’s history, if you go back to the ‘50s and beyond, [wearing bean ies] was a very import ant part of that early collegiate experience for the students,” he said.

Monseau notes that while this student ulti mately prevailed in his case, this story displays the weight of this tra dition, as even a soldier had to get the required clearance to not wear a beanie.

So, while many students likely won’t look back very fondly on the beanie-wearing experience, they can at least take solace in the fact that they are doing their part to uphold a longstanding tradition at Springfield College.

Beanies were first worn at Springfield College in 1926. (Photo Courtesy of Springfield College)

Grace Majka and Meredith Healy

The Springfield Student Women’s Athlete of the Week had a very active and competitive poll, and it re sulted in Grace Majka and Meredith Healy being co-winners, with both of them getting 32.8% of the vote.

Majka is a senior forward for the field hockey team, and she received the honor after scoring the go-ahead goal in the Pride’s 1-0 win over Smith on Saturday.

Healy is a first-year forward for the women’s soccer team, and she was a co-winner after scoring a goal in Springfield’s 3-1 victory over Whea

ton on Wednesday.

The rest of the field garnered at tention as well. Emma McLaugh lin came in third place with 18% of the vote. The junior forward for the field hockey team scored two goals in the Pride’s 4-0 win over Mount Holyoke on Tuesday.

Ally Townsend received 16.4% of the vote after continuing her excellence on defense. The grad uate libero for the women’s vol leyball team combined for 43 digs in Springfield’s three matches this past week.

Billy Carr

The Springfield Student Men’s Ath lete of the Week was also very close at the top, with Billy Carr edging it out with 39.4% of the vote. he junior linebacker for the football team com piled nine solo tackles, two tackles for losses, a sack, and a forced fumble in the Pride’s 45-7 win against WPI on Saturday.

Not far behind Carr in the poll was Parker Thornton with 37.2%. The first-year forward for the men’s soccer team scored the go-ahead goal in Springfield’s 4-1 victory against Clark on Saturday.

Dante Vasquez earned 20.2% of

the vote to get him in third place. The sophomore running back for the football team combined for 150 yards from scrimmage, which included a 64-yard touchdown re ception in Springfield’s 45-7 victory over WPI on Saturday.

Nicholas Parakilas received a nom ination after a great showing on the pitch. The first-year midfielder for the men’s soccer team scored a goal and added an assist in the Pride’s 4-1 win over Clark on Saturday.

Be sure to follow The Student on Twitter @TheSpfldStudent to vote in the next poll!

Billy Carr. (Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)

Grace Majka (left) and Meredith Healy (right). (Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)

‘Everything was about men’s sports, and women’s sports were secondary’

Jan Bethea, a former athlete and Division I administrator who is now a professor of Sport Management, reflects on how Title IX has brought about change.

they realized I was better than all of them when we went down to the park to play pick-up basketball. I had six boy cousins, so we had a full team and two subs. The boys on the other team couldn’t say, “No she isn’t allowed to play” because my cousins weren’t having that.

Tingolie: What was the process of getting recruited to play col lege basketball like?

friends were cheerleaders or didn’t play sports, so I was an anomaly.

Tingolie: Were there any major contrasts between your team and the men’s team?

don’t want them to get too strong because then they will start looking like a man.” So the training was different because the mindset was different.

___ By Michael Tingolie ___ Contributer

Dr. Jan Bethea has been involved in sports at every level. She was an athlete as a child and played basketball in college. After she finished her playing career, she worked in wom en’s basketball as an administrator, most notably at the Uni versity of Nebraska as the Director of Operations. Now she is educating the next wave of people who will work in the world

of sport, as a Sport Management profes sor at Springfield Col lege. Michael Tingolie talked with Bethea about how Title IX has affected people at every level – including her – and how it has progressed.

Tingolie: Being the only girl in your fami ly, were you allowed to play with the boys?

Bethea: Allowed? Yes, I was allowed to play because I was better than all of them, and when

Bethea: In sixth grade I played half-court bas ketball because women weren’t allowed to play full-court basketball. We would play 3-on-3 or 6-on-6. I graduated in 1981, so there still weren’t a lot of athletic scholar ships offered to women. I was being recruited by Penn State and other top programs but I didn’t want to move far away from home. So I went to East Carolina, which was not recruiting me at all, because that’s where my friends were going.

It was bittersweet because my father came from a time when women didn’t really play sports, so I didn’t get a lot of support from him. My freshman year in college I played intramural sports. The [basketball] coach saw me and said: “Why don’t you come to play for us?” That’s the way I got on the team. All my

Bethea: Absolutely. Heck, that still goes on nowadays. But in the ‘80s, everything was about men’s sports, and women’s sports were secondary. We always got the worst prac tice times. One time, my coach threw a fuss because we had to practice at 6 a.m. The guys would al ways get the cool jerseys, and they would get two or three pairs of shoes, where we only got one. But back then we didn’t understand that there shouldn’t have been a dif ference. We were trained that that’s how it was sup posed to be. In those days, you didn’t really argue against the system. We were just happy to play, and it wasn’t till later that we felt that we had a right to play.

Tingolie: Was there a difference in your training regimens?

Bethea: The trainers and strength and condi tioning coaches were still figuring out [if] wom en should condition or lift weights. The whole thing was, “If women start lifting weights, you

Tingolie: When you worked in basketball later in life, were the differences the same or did the times start to catch up?

Bethea: I noticed a change because I worked at a lot of elite programs. But I heard the war sto ries from my colleagues. The big story from the NCAA March Madness [last year] was the dif ference in women’s and men’s workout equipment. It’s again the mindset of, “Oh, women can do that? Women work that hard? They condition different?”

But there are still a ton of Title IX cases in athletics with women not being treated the same, and I experienced that [at Nebraska] with our budget being lower than the men’s. I put up a big stink because we played at Iowa, and it was about a six-hour drive by bus. The men got the charter, while we had to catch buses. My first couple years I pushed because it wasn’t fair. Finally, that third year, we got to charter too. Sometimes you have to call people out on their implicit bias.

Bethea is a former Div. I administrator and now teaches Sport Management. (Photo Courtesy of Jan Bethea)

A new level

Springfield women’s volleyball player Ally Townsend has been a defensive presence for the Pride after playing multiple years of Division I volleyball.

___ By Chris Gionta @Chris_Gionta

In November 2021, the Springfield College wom en’s volleyball team was at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the Pride’s first time in the NCAA Division III Tournament in three years. Among the crowd was a Division I player with experience in the national tournament. She was on track to graduate from Towson University, and showed interest in attending graduate school along with playing volley ball at Springfield.

“It showed how invested she was in the program,” said Springfield head coach Moira Long.

Her name is Ally Townsend, and she has become a pillar of the Pride’s defense this year. Not only has she been a presence in Springfield’s back row, but the graduate student has been a guide for the young roster.

“She raises our standards because of her knowledge and because of her experi

ence,” Long said. Townsend grew up in central Pennsylvania, where volleyball was not the most popular sport.

“Volleyball is really not big around there — it’s really field hockey-driv en,” Townsend said. “So, I think everyone was really pushed into field hockey. I tried that, I didn’t like it.” However, she was still able to find her niche at a young age.

“Around the fifth grade, my mom found a fly er for club volleyball,” Townsend said. “And she had played in high school, so she was like ‘Let’s give it a shot’, and so I went to tryouts, and ended up loving it.”

Eventually, she went to Lower Dauphin High School in Hummelstown, Pa. Townsend earned All-State honors as a setter twice, was selected All-Conference all four years, and set the school’s all-time record in assists and service aces.

However, she had high hopes for her collegiate career, and knew she would need to undergo a positional change in order to reach her goal.

“When I was 14 or so, I had this goal to play D-I volleyball and I realized I wasn’t going to be much taller than 5’4”,” Townsend said. “So I was kind of like, ‘Let me focus on defense, stop setting, and focus more on being a defensive specialist or libero.’”

From her impressive resumé and skillset, plenty of Division I schools had interest in Townsend. After she contacted those schools, they came to her games, talked to her over the phone, and had her come to their sum mer camps. Through this process, she found and committed to Towson.

There, she was a part of two teams that reached the national tournament. In 2021, she gathered over 100 digs, and in Towson’s tournament game against Penn State, she had 10 digs.

She graduated from Towson after three years majoring in psychology, and had a good idea of what she wanted to do for graduate school as well as where she wanted to go.

“I knew I wanted to go into some type of sports psychology or athletic counseling ever since I was a freshman in high school,” Townsend said. “So Springfield has been on my radar since high school.”

She contacted Long early in the 2021 season, who was impressed with the skillset the libero present ed.

“Throughout the season, I just watched Towson matches, and was like, ‘Oh yeah, she can totally help our team,’” Long said.

Along with her defense, Townsend’s attitude and investment in Springfield made an impression.

“In our first conversa tion, she asked a lot of good questions,” Long said. “She watched al most every one of our matches that she could, and she always texted me

afterwards and would be like, ‘Hey, I watched your match! Great win!’”

Townsend has made a great transition with the Pride, as she has gathered 471 digs and averaged 5.35 per set. Her impres sive back-row defense has earned her NEWMAC Women’s Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week three times, includ ing twice in the first two weeks of the season.

She also provides per spective and experience that is especially vital to a young Springfield roster.

“What she brings is the knowledge of the game, volleyball IQ, her ability to see the game and teach the game,” Long said.

“And I think her level of play is high so it raises the level of play around her.”

Springfield currently stands at 17-7 overall with a conference record of 7-3. Last year, Townsend attended a national tournament game for the Pride. This year, she may be a large reason why they are playing in it again.

Townsend leads the team in digs. (Springfield College Athletics).

‘These are the hardest-working players on campus’

The Springfield club men’s rugby team has dominated the regular season and aims to reach nationals in Arizona.

season, Salls developed a new approach.

“We started from scratch all over again, and a lot of schools do not realize that,” he said.

The Pride had a very straightforward game plan last year, whereas in 2022, there is more freedom from a player’s perspec tive.

“We left it up to the players on how they want to run the game – there is a lot more decision mak ing on their end.”

The team is now enter ing the postseason, with its first game coming on Saturday against Central Connecticut State Univer sity at 4 p.m.

“[Our mentality is to] keep doing what we are doing. Nobody has been able to keep up yet,” Salls said.

college longer solely to play rugby and only for this team,” Noe said.

As Noe’s reign and collegiate career come to a close, along with other seniors, it is time for them to pass the torch, but keep the blaze of the rugby team alive.

One great example is sophomore Ajae Olsen. He joined the team late last season with no prior experience in the game of rugby at all.

“His attention to detail separated him. What I said, he applied – and it had a ripple effect on ev ery player,” Salls said.

Looking ahead to the near future, the Pride hope to make a deep playoff run with their undisputed momentum.

___ By Sean Savage @SeanSav13

A chilly Tuesday afternoon on the campus of Springfield College sig naled the end of another October day for students; it also signaled the start of another men’s rugby practice.

“Our practices are like the rugby world cup final mentality. It is nuts, it’s crazy,” said senior member Alec Noe.

The sun dwindled away at Stagg Field as their practice ended. The Pride knew they were one day closer to playoffs.

According to Noe, the

team had two choices:

“It is a club sport – we could either just have fun and not work for anything, or we could hold our heads high, lift trophies, and walk off the field each day know ing that we left it all out there,” he said. “And that is what we decided it is going to be.”

The Pride are led by coach Luke Salls, who has yet to concede a loss in the regular season through two years at the helm. Salls cultivated his knowledge as he was

once a former player and 2021 Springfield College graduate.

“There is just a lot of knowledge and details that I can share,” Salls said.

The Pride’s attention to detail has led them to two back-to-back unde feated seasons.

“This is the hardest [working] group of players on campus,” Noe added.

However, the Pride suf fered an early first-round exit to Hofstra University in last year’s playoffs, so coming into the 2022-23

Through 130 years of club rugby at Springfield, the team feels like it has taken off in recent years. They now have a website and store open daily at any time to purchase team merchandise.

“Even in the past four years, the team has progressed so much,” Noe said. “Our Instagram is fire – we have gained like 70 followers in the past week alone.”

There have been a lot of small, incremental changes that have built Pride into the powerhouse of the team they are today.

“I want to stay at this

Everyone plays with an extra edge in playoffs: “We are going to take it gameto-game,” Noe said.

There is also a chance they will have a rematch against Hofstra. If the Pride manage to prevail, they will have the chance to continue on with Na tionals.

“If we can get to that point, hopefully we have the funds to fly down to Arizona to finish out the season,” Salls said.

The Pride are on the right track with no signs of slowing down – with their deep commitment to the game, they certainly have a real shot of taking it all the way.

The Pride are undefeated in the regular season. (Photo courtesy of Springfield Men’s Rugby Instagram)

‘Beating big-name teams is not off the table’

The Springfield men’s and women’s cross country teams intend to defeat top competition at their NEWMAC meet on Sunday.

___ By Carley Crain @carley_crain12

The men’s and wom en’s cross-country teams enter championship season this weekend, as NEWMACs are being hosted by Wheaton at Highland Park, Mass. MIT is eyeing anoth er clean sweep on both sides, as the Engineers are the reigning champi ons for both the men and women.

MIT has sat at the top of the conference for as long as Spring field College senior John DeRosa can remember, but he is ready to chal lenge the top contenders on Sunday morning. Last season, both MIT and WPI qualified as teams for the Division III National Championships.

Springfield wants to be right in the mix with both squads and knows that pack-running will be the best way to accom plish that.

“Since my freshman year, we have been nar rowing the gap little by little with big teams in the conference,” DeRo sa said. “A turnaround does not happen over night, but our team has been working hard in all areas, whether that be in workouts, long runs, the weight room, or recovery. Beating big-name teams is not off the table.”

On the men’s side for Springfield, the duo of junior Chris Vayda and DeRosa have been lead ing the pack this season.

Seniors Aidan Harmer and Adam Mula round out the top four runners for the Pride. The men have had two top-three finishes this season at larger meets, which has fueled their confidence for NEWMACs.

“The work is there, the fitness is present and as Coach Steinman says, ‘The hay is in the barn.’ If we believe in our selves and race to our full potential, we will have a great showing,” DeRosa explained.

For the women, this year’s field is set to pro vide some tough compe tition. Last year, three NEWMAC institutions qualified as a team for the DIII National Champi

onships: MIT, Smith and Wellesley. This year, the Springfield women have had three top-5 finishes, most recently finishing second at the Connecti cut College Invitational.

With about 113 student-athletes com peting in the women’s race, Springfield had five runners place in the top 30 – showing how strong their pack-running is this season.

The trio of upper classmen – seniors Brenna Lachapelle and Elizabeth Rose, as well as junior Kate Bonanno – have been leading the charge this cross-coun try season for the Pride. With the combination of their experience, strategy

and competitiveness, they are ready to fight with the other top athletes in the conference.

Sophomore Shae Gallagher and first-year Megan Sullivan have also been consistently rounding out the top five for Springfield and will be two athletes to watch out for during the 2022 championship season.

Springfield will toe the start line this Sunday for the 2022 NEWMAC Championships, with the men racing at 12 and the women at 11. To watch the meet live, head to the NEWMAC Conference website: https://new macsports.com/champi onships/wxc/index

(Photo courtesy of Springfield Athletics)

Playing with a message

The Springfield field hockey team honored the 50th anniversary of Title IX with legendary guests at the Pride’s game on Tuesday.

___ By Braedan Shea @braedan_shea

The Springfield Col lege field hockey team recognized Title IX’s 50-year anniversary by honoring pioneers Dot tie Zenaty and Chickie Poisson, along with edu cating local youth team following their game

As the scoreboard on the far side of Spring field College’s Stagg Field ticked close to ward zero, signaling the end of warm-ups, both

the Pride and Fighting Scots of Gordon Col lege field hockey pro grams lined up against their respective side lines. It was just part of the pregame process, as each unit would make their way in a single-file line toward midfield for player introductions and the national an them.

But this was no ordi nary pregame. And not

just because the weather was uncharacteristically warm for an October afternoon.

Rather, both teams were being led to the center of the field by two of the most influen tial field hockey figures at not just Springfield College, but in the sport as a whole: Dot tie Zenaty and Chickie Poisson.

As part of honoring

the 50th year of Title IX, the Pride wanted to recognize the incred ible achievements of these two field hockey pioneers. Poisson is an inductee in five athletic halls of fame, including being a member of the inaugural 1988 class of the U.S. Field Hockey Hall of Fame.

Zenaty also has achieved a long list of accolades, including coaching Springfield College field hockey to 15 winning seasons — three of which were undefeated — being a member of the nation al coaching staff of the U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Development Program, and having been inducted into the New Agenda Northeast Women’s Hall of Fame in 1989.

“I think it was great having them walk the team out,” said Pride head coach, Mia Olsen. “It was really special and nice.”

In such a big game, the Pride rose to the occasion, and defeated Gordon 3-2. Spring field was led by senior forward Maddy Dunne, who scored once, and gave teammate Audrey Dolan a beautiful feed to give her team the lead; one that they would retain by game’s end.

“I mean, that was great,” Dunne said. “I’ve heard amazing things about Dotty, and I know that [Mrs. Poisson] was amazing, too. It was a cool experience to be a part of.”

Following the game, Springfield wasn’t done playing. The Pride in vited a youth team from Holyoke, Mass., to join them on the field to play with them, as well as to learn more about Title IX and its impact.

The youth team had a blast under the lights of Stagg, participating in several drills and a quick scrimmage. But the purpose of bringing out the kids was deeper than just having a good time.

“As part of Kather ine Mangano’s Title IX Humanics Project, we decided as a team to do this Title IX game and have youth players come as our advocacy project,” Senior Cait Kemp said. “We invited Holyoke youth field hockey to come, and to get them involved and educate them a little bit about Title IX.”

Inviting the youth of the sport to spectate such an important game – while also learning directly from collegiate athletes themselves –was a special moment for both the kids and the members of the Pride.

“I think it’s awesome just to show them that girls at this level real ly compete,” she said. “Field hockey is not a super popular sport; and by having them here we can educate them about it, and show that they can play at a high er level. I think it’s just important for them to see.”

Dottie Zenaty and Chickie Poisson in the pregame ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)

From walk-on to pro

Springfield alum Jack Weinberger has worked his way through independent professional baseball leagues after a successful career pitching for the Pride.

__ By Nick PaNtages @nick_pantages22

The life of a minor league baseball player is often fluid and tur bulent, but Jack Wein berger has taken full advantage of every op portunity he has gotten.

Weinberger’s journey from small-town pitcher in Sunapee, N.H., to the professional ranks could not be completed with out his time on Alden Street.

Weinberger always wanted to be a PE teacher, and knew Springfield was the place for him.

“I like sports, I like be ing active. I remember coming to Springfield for the first time, and there was a bunch of people playing games outside… it just seemed like me,” Weinberger said.

Arriving onto the cam pus in the fall of 2014, Weinberger knew he wanted to play baseball at Springfield College. Despite not being recruited, he made the

team during the tryout. His willingness to im prove is what he thinks helped him achieve this.

“I was coachable. I listened, I took people’s feedback, and tried to

implement it to the best of my ability,” Wein berger said. After struggling for his first two years, a conversation he had with coach Brandon

Kincaid changed his fortunes. Kincaid told Weinberger to con vert to being a sidearm pitcher, instead of the over-the-top motion he had used his whole life.

Weinberger recalls Kin caid telling him, “You might as well try some thing different and see if it works or not.”

He used this new mo tion to excel in a bull pen role for the Pride his last two years.

Following his grad uation in the spring of 2018, Weinberger landed a job as a middle school physical educa tion teacher in Miami at Palmer Trinity School. He had found a job he loved, and he had “hung ‘em up” on his baseball career.

However, the urge came back for Wein berger. “As the spring started to roll around, I thought how much I missed baseball,” he said.

During his time off from the sport and as a teacher, Weinberger said he started to eat better, lift more, and gain weight and muscle mass, something that helped him as a pitcher, while still throwing to keep his arm ready.

Finally, an opportunity

Weinberger on the mound for Springfield. (Photo courtesy of Jack Weinberger)

presented itself.

“I met this guy at the airport, I threw a water bottle into the trash and he said something to me and we started talking,” Weinberger said. “[It] turned out he was a baseball scout.”

The scout helped Weinberger get picked up by a team in Puerto Rico, called the Puerto Rico Islanders. Wein berger thought of the experience as an ex citing summer activity to make up for him not teaching.

However, after an incredible season during which he posted an earned run average under 1, his confidence grew.

“I was like damn, I can do this,” Weinberger said.

He returned to teach ing after his time in Puerto Rico, and then the pandemic happened. He got a connection with a team called Black Sox Pro Baseball of the Yinzer league, another independent baseball league.

Through this, Wein berger struggled, but learned a lot.

“There was a lot of talent…it was a learn ing curve for me,” he said. “I was getting hit.”

After the season, with his dream still alive, Weinberger distributed film to all the Frontier League teams, the low

est of three indepen dent leagues funded by the MLB. After being picked up by a Canadian team, he was told he could not play because U.S. citizens were not allowed to cross the Canadian border.

He then connected with Jared Lemieux, a Springfield College grad, and a bench coach for the New Jersey Jack als, of the same league.

After pitching well, and being surrounded by MLB caliber play ers, Weinberger recalls being called into his manager’s office. He was told about a team in the Atlantic League — the highest level of independent baseball — called the West Virginia Power, who needed a relief pitcher. When asked if he wanted to play, Weinberger said, “Hell yeah!”

Getting to West Vir ginia, he was impressed with the talent sur rounding him.

“Our bullpen was filled with dudes that have MLB experience,” Weinberger recalls.

After his short but successful stint with the Power, Weinberger made the decision to pursue baseball as a full time career. He moved to Los Angeles to train at a facility called MIMO Elite Athletics, where he also works in the offseason.

After a full season with the Lexington Genomes, also of the Atlantic League, Wein berger is now in posi tion to make the next step into affiliated minor league baseball.

“I have a couple show cases coming up for affiliated teams and hop ing to sign an affiliated contract and show up to MLB Spring Training,” he said.

Through all the twists and turns that his career has brought, Weinberg er will continue to bring his hard working atti tude to the table in or der to reach his dreams.

However, without his time at Springfield College, Weinberger believes he would not be where he is today.

“I just don’t think I would have gotten an opportunity to play at

many other schools. When I came in, I really was not good,” he said.

Weinberger’s journey through the murky uncertainty of minor league baseball can show to all the impor tance of hard work and how nothing is ever impossible. The mes sage is best delivered by Weinberger.

“Take advantage of your opportunities.”

Weinberger in professional baseball. (Photo courtesy of Jack Weinberger)

Sticking Up for Title IX

(Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)