Print Edition of The Observer for Thursday, November 15, 2018

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Volume 53, Issue 57 | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

Panel examines impact of election results Professors discuss race, gender implications of midterm elections at “Pizza, Pop and Politics” event

By LUCY LYNCH News Writer

The Center for Social Concerns’ ND Votes kicked off its first “Pizza, Pop and Politics” event of the semester Wednesday night in the Geddes Coffee House.

The panel discussion, titled “Unpacking the 2018 Midterm Elections Results: W hat We Know and W hat it May Mean” featured political science professors Darren Davis, Christina Wolbrecht and David Campbell presenting different aspects of the elections.

Davis spoke about the presence of racial resentment in the recent midterm elections.

“W hite Americans are angry and anxious, and this was evident and exploited in the 2018 midterm elections,” Davis said.

He said that explicit racial prejudice cannot fully explain this phenomenon; instead, he said, it is racial resentment, the idea that African Americans and minorities make illegitimate demands on the political system.

“This deep fear and anxiety, this racial resentment, comes from the thought that the white way of life and status quo is changing,” he said.

According to Davis, racial resentment is a “system see MIDTERMS PAGE 3

Baraka Bouts profits to benefit mission school

NOAH CHA | The Observer

Political science professor Darren Davis weighs in on the effects of the recent midterm elections at “Pizza, Pop and Politics,” hosted by the Center for Social Concerns in Geddes Hall on Wednesday evening.

Student company to bring the Bard’s work to life

By MARIAH RUSH News Writer

Faked deaths.

Real deaths. An evil stepmother. Conspiracies. Betrayal.

Love. Ghosts. A god. You can catch all of these elements at the Not-So-Royal (NSR) Shakespeare Company’s production of “Cymbeline,” which is running from Thursday to Saturday.

“I think it’s one of the most intense plots Shakespeare ever wrote … I like to think of it as Shakespeare’s fairytale,” junior Mary Elsa Henrichs, who is directing the play, said. “It’s got a lot of those elements. There’s a wicked stepmother, a princess who runs away in disguise and kidnapped princes. There’s also decapitation and a war

between Britain and Rome … so there’s a lot of elements going on.”

Henrichs described the play as “genre-breaking,” and said it takes elements from tragedies, comedies and romances.

NSR is a unique Shakespeare troupe as it is see CYMBELINE PAGE 3

Usborne Book Fair pairs with SMC association ANNA MASON | The Observer

Senior Nicole “The Not-so-Nice Canadian” Waddick of McGlinn Hall fights in her quarterfinal match Nov. 5 in the Dahnke Ballroom.

By NICOLE SIMON News Writer

With the championship round to take place Thursday night, the women of Baraka Bouts are preparing for the end of the 2018 season.

ScenE PAGE 5

Notre Dame Women’s Boxing Club, more commonly known as Baraka Bouts, is a group that serves as an athletic team, social club and charity organization. In see BOXING PAGE 4

viewpoint PAGE 6

By MARIROSE OSBORNE News Writer

For the ninth year, the Usborne Book Fair has returned to Saint Mary’s College. Every year, the organization brings books of every kind, from coloring to reference. The books will be available from Nov. 15 to 16 in the Saint Mary’s Student

viewpoint PAGE 7

Center Atrium, and there will be activities for kids at the event.

Usborne normally partners with The Learning Tree at Saint Mary’s program, which is a resource education center for those in the SMC community. The center is normally used by education or communication, sciences and disorders majors,

nd m basketball PAGE 12

which use them for classrooms or clinics. This year, half of all proceeds from the book fair will be contributed in books to the Learning Tree’s library, Jane Fogle, the director of Learning Tree, said.

It will also be possible for students to order books for see BOOK FAIR PAGE 4

hockey PAGE 12

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TODAY

The observer | thursday, November 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

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What is your favorite Disney movie?

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ANN CURTIS | The Observer

Belles attend the “Henna on my Hands” event at the Saint Mary’s student center Wednesday afternoon. Sponsored by the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership, the tattoo event is part of the annual International Education Week at Saint Mary’s.

The next Five days:

Want your event included here?

Email news@ndsmcobserver.com

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

IBM Lecture Series: “How to Bake Pi: Mathematics Made Tasty” 141 DeBartolo Hall 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Volleyball vs.

Louisville Purcell Pavilion 7 p.m.

The Irish take on the Cardinals.

Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 11 a.m. - noon

Concert: John Schwandt DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 2 p.m.

Organist performs.

Exhibition: “There’s No Place Like Time: A Novel You Walk Through” Snite Museum of Art all day

Edison Series Lecture: “Disease and the Problem of Evil” Jordan Auditorium 7:15 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

Play: “The Imaginary Invalid” Decio Theatre, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Syracuse Game Watch Midfield Commons, Duncan Student Center 2 p.m.

Matinee: “The Imaginary Invalid” Decio Theatre, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 2:30 p.m.

Music Lecture Recital Series Moreau Hall 114 (SMC) noon - 1 p.m.

Presented by the music department.

News

ndsmcobserver.com | thursday, november 15, 2018 | The Observer

Midterms Continued from page 1

justifying belief” in which the individuals who benefit most from the status quo are more sensitive to threats to the system and are most likely to defend it.

Racial resentment was present in specific elections during the midterm, Davis said. There was an overt appeal to race and ethnicity in races such as the Florida and Georgia governor races, as well as in ads from Trump himself.

“I have never seen a current president air advertisements during the midterm elections until Trump,” he said.

“Trump’s controversial migrant caravan ad was trying to activate that sense of fear.”

Most important, Davis said, “racial resentment and system justifying beliefs are alive and functioning in politics today from the president

Cymbeline Continued from page 1

entirely student run — from the production design to directing to marketing, the students are at the reigns of the project.

“I think it’s really special and amazing that we have this club on campus, because I think it’s one thing to encounter a text of Shakespeare in a class, and that can be really wonderful and beneficial, but I really believe they were w ritten to be performed and w ritten to be seen,” Henrichs said. “To be able to bring plays, one a semester, to the Notre Dame campus communit y so that we can experience Shakespeare in the fashion that he w rote for, rather than just reading it on a page or even SparkNoting it, is really great.”

Henrichs is a veteran of acting in Shakespeare plays and said “Cy mbeline” is one of the reasons she fell in love w ith Shakespeare’s works.

“I’ve been in 15 of Shakespeare’s plays, and this was the one where I think I

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down in stoking anxiety.”

Wolbrecht spoke on the impact of women candidates and women voters in the midterms.

She said there was a major spike in women running for Congress and winning seats. Most of this nomination jump came from female Democrats, who have had more female nominees than the Republican Party for the past 30 years, Wolbrecht said.

“The only thing slowing women is men already sitting in the seats,” she said.

“Almost 200 women ran and much fewer were elected, that is just the reality of incumbency in the U.S.” Wolbrecht showed recent headlines and magazine covers attesting that many women were running because they were inspired by Trump, wanting vengeance against his actions.

“In reality,” Wolbrecht said, “most women said, ‘no, it’s not about Trump.’ Many ran

because they cared about their local community, health care or other policy concerns.”

In regards to the female voter, Wolbrecht emphasized the diversity of this demographic.

“There is no female voter,” she said. “Women are as diverse as, hold onto your seats, men.” However, she said the biggest difference this election was that women, especially women under 40 and those who are college-educated, were more likely to vote for the Democratic party.

Campbell spoke about turnout in the 2018 midterm elections. The 2018 midterm elections had the highest turnout in a century, and the increase was thanks to “a whole bundle of things,” he said.

“When it’s not just a boring public service announcement, but young people like yourselves encouraging other people to vote, that is when

there is success,” Campbell said.

However, he said this turnout spike needs to be put in context. The 2018 turnout almost reached 50 percent, and these numbers are not unprecedented — this number looks even worse on a 0-100 percent scale.

“Historically, it is not as high as it could be,” he said. “America’s exceptional, I guess you could say,” Campbell joked.

His joke was in reference to a chart of voter turnout among other democratic, developed nations where the U.S. ranked nearly dead last, having only stronger turnout than Switzerland.

The 2018 midterms were expected to have high turnout and they did have a spike — the 18 to 29 age group clocked in at a high of about 31 percent.

“Kids are turning out but they are still slackers compared to their parents and

grandparents,” Campbell said.

Back in the 1990s, the 18 to 29 age group voted very evenly between the two major parties, he said. Since then, young people have grown increasingly Democratic, with a major Democratic increase happening in the 2018 elections.

“I am troubled by this increasing party split among young people,” Campbell said. “I am troubled that we have parties that are divided by so many social divisions, and adding age to that mix will exacerbate party polarization.”

Campbell encouraged Notre Dame Republicans to remain active in their party — he says the current divide is not healthy and he hopes the Republican party can move away from the fringes and back to the center right.

fell in love w ith acting,” she said. “ … It’s just such a w ild plot for actors to be spinning together. So I think it offers a lot to its actors and its creators. It’s a show that ever yone has to work together to bring together.”

Henrichs said there is also value in producing a lesserknow n play.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure to be haught y for some prestigious play, but we are the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Company, so we’re able to take on these pieces and bring a cool life to them,” she said.

Junior Ellis Sargeant is acting in a production of “Cy mbeline” for a second time after first acting in it in high school. This time he is taking on the role of Posthumus Leonatus, a character whom Sargeant said he can relate to, although the character does go through some things that most people w ill not, such as ordering the murder of his w ife.

“One of the reasons I was really draw n to the role is that, although murder is a bit much and it’s about royal figures in life and death, the actual things that he’s

going through is stuff that I can actually relate to, like heartbreak and betrayal,” Sargeant said.

Sargeant said “Cy mbeline” is an interesting play to perform, because Shakespeare incorporates many of the t y pical fair y tale archet y pes that we know of today, even before most of those t y pical fair y tales were w ritten.

“You have these fair y tale elements,” he said. “ …

There’s the ev il potion given by an ev il stepmother.

It’s follow ing all of these tropes and predates all the Disney mov ies that we’re familiar w ith. Despite being a ver y little know n play, it actually shows up a lot in our cultural consciousness. We understand the archet y pes of the characters that are in it. We know what it’s like to have the v irtuous heroine. We know what it’s like to have the fallen hero. We know what it’s lik e to have the trickster, the ev il stepmother or the blind king.”

This particular production of “Cy mbeline” uses key props to both set the stage of the play and as plot dev ices.

A couple of these, according

to Henrichs and Sargeant, are a trunk and a v ial of something that may or may not be poison.

“We consistently throughout the play are pulling things out of the trunk and building the world around us. We even build the theater around the audience in order to start the show and expose just a little bit of the artifice in order to bring people into the stor y,” Sargeant said.

Sophomore Isobel Grogan, who is play ing Cy mbeline’s daughter Innogen, said “Cy mbeline” has many of the qualities that Shakespeare is know n for including in his works.

“If you had to pick one play of Shakespeare’s that perfectly encapsulates all of his tropes and his weirdness and his issues and his strengths, I think ‘Cy mbeline’ is the best one. It’s got a lot of moving parts,” Grogan said.

Grogan said each character has a specific prop throughout the play, which works towards their goal in stripping the play of many of it’s more complicated frills in order to simplif y it for the audience.

“We’re play ing w ith the

idea of ever ybody hav ing one emblematic prop that defines their character. [We are] taking away as many frills as possible to get dow n to the base of the stor y and let that speak for itself,” Grogan said.

Sargeant said the beaut y of performing this fair y tale-esque play instead of something more realistic or relatable is grounded in our ever-present stor y telling as a societ y and as people.

“We constantly tell stories about ourselves,” he said.

“There is not an aspect of our lives that we don’t tell in the form of a stor y. No one can actually condense themselves dow n to something that’s able to be given to another person w ithout a stor y, w ithout a narrative.

“You always pick and choose which details you’re telling … and bring[ing] the audience into them rather than hiding them I think is a good way to have people look at it in a way that’s different from how it’s normally done.”

Contact Lucy Lynch at llynch1@nd.edu

Contact Mariah Rush at mrush@nd.edu

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Book Fair Continued from page 1

themselves, which w ill be stored in Learning Tree until they’re picked up.

This year, Usborne has also partnered w ith Saint Mar y’s education and nursing programs in Uganda, which w ill be in its 10th year this summer. With this partnership, people can purchase books for the Sisters of the Holy Cross Moreau Nurser y and Primar y School in Kyarusozi, Uganda. The school hosts students from primar y school to seventh grade.

Ever y year since 2009, Saint Mar y’s has sent six students, three from education and three from nursing, to Uganda. Education professor Dr. Mar y Ann Tra x ler, who started the program, explained how education

Boxing Continued from page 1

many ways, it is “uniquely Notre Dame,” according to senior Jessica Zlaket, one of the team’s 10 captains.

“Overall, it touches fitness, community and charity all in one,” Zlaket said. “As a Notre Dame student, I think a lot of us have those three parts of our personality very ingrained because of sports, faith and school. And all of that comes in to boxing in so many ways.”

Zlaket, who played soccer in high school, was hoping to find a similar environment when she came to Notre Dame. Not only did she want to stay in shape, she said, but she wanted to find a community of empowering women.

“It’s just like a soccer team, only on a bigger scale,” she said. “It’s almost more powerful in the sense that it’s not 12 girls and two captains, but 200 girls and 10 captains. It’s really empowering because it’s cool to be tough, and it’s cool to be strong, which isn’t really normal for us as girls.

So going to a place where that’s cool and lifted up, to be able to be powerful and be proud of yourself, that’s really empowering.”

Even though Zlaket joined the team her sophomore year and was abroad for the season during her junior year, she always wanted to be a leader in the program.

“I came in wanting to be a leader first and a boxer second,” she said. “Watching girls come in not even knowing how to position their body to stand in their stance, and then watching them on Tuesday get in the ring for the first time and being in their corner … watching someone grow that much over 10 weeks and knowing that I had even a slight

students teach classes from pre-school to seventh grade, while nursing students help out in the local clinic.

“We were able to teach in the school for six weeks in all different subject areas,” senior education major Christina McGuire, who went to Uganda last summer, said in an email. “We would teach together [the three Saint Mary’s education students] as well as alone. The students loved when we incorporated art into the lessons, and were extremely excited to have us at their school.”

Tra x ler said the Saint Mar y’s program has helped the school in Uganda since its beginning.

“W hen we sta r ted, t he school on ly had 20 children,” Tra x ler sa id. “Now, t here a re about 300 children. There’s a new school, more sta f f, student dorms a nd we’ve been ta k ing

over books a nd supplies, a ll while helping to build a libra r y.”

Students are also able to bring over supplies for their classrooms.

“We brought over many resources such as scissors, paper, glue, markers and supplies that are hard for the schools to obtain in Uganda,” McGuire said.

“Donations are essential to keeping this school running and functioning as well as it should.”

The books from the fair w ill be sent over before the students.

However, students going to Uganda may use the books and w ill be encouraged to bring their ow n supplies. They can also work w ith the teachers to plan curriculum around the books.

Contact Marirose Osborne at mosborne01@saintmarys.edu

A student at the Holy Cross Moreau Nursery and Primary School in Kyarusozi, Uganda, smiles while working on a school project.

impact is the best.”

The fact that the girls spend much of their practice time sparring each other in no way lessens the overwhelming sense of communit y on the team.

“Within the communit y, all of us know — and the captains really make sure to emphasize — that we’re here to help each other, and w in or lose, be proud of yourself for getting in the ring in the first place,” Zlaket said.

This year, 99 girls entered the tournament, while about 200 more are part of the team but choose not to box.

Senior Emily DeRubertis, who is also a captain, has been on the team since her freshman year and is looking for ward to getting in the ring one last time for her final tournament.

“It’s definitely a ver y unique experience,” she said.

“Even in practice, we’ll spar and we’ll do ring work dow n in the pit in our g y m, but it’s quiet and it’s contained and there are coaches watching. But when you get in the ring up in Dahnke, all your friends are cheering you on.

You have so much support from all those people, from all the other boxers. It’s just a ver y unique feeling. It’s ver y hard to describe.”

DeRubertis doesn’t only know what it’s like to be in the pit, however. As a captain this year, she’s become heav ily involved in ever y aspect of the multi-faceted club.

“We [the captains] are at almost all the practices ever y week, working w ith girls who want extra practice before or after our practices,” she said. “It’s also really cool to see what’s going on behind the scenes. We’ll meet w ith people and handle all the actual fundraising stuff and handle all the tournament details. It’s definitely

not just the box ing any more.

There’s a lot more that goes into it.”

Baraka Bouts’ greater mission is to support the Holy Cross Missions in Uganda, particularly Holy Cross Lake View Secondar y School in Jinja, Uganda, and Saint Joseph’s Hill Secondar y School in Kyarusozi, Uganda.

This year, its goal is to send $75,000 to Saint Joseph’s to build a cafeteria.

Junior Marisa Perino is another captain who actually spent her summer doing an ISSLP at Saint Joseph’s. She believes in building a stronger connection bet ween the club at Notre Dame and the schools they support in Uganda.

“Our girls didn’t really know where our money was going,” she said. “[Saint Joseph’s] had no idea that we send money there, which is why, when I went there, I realized we need to make this connection, because I

think it would empower the students more to know that there are women who are strong and who are fighting for them.”

Over the summer, Perino taught high schoolers English and literature, in addition to teaching them how to box, which fittingly became the strongest way she and her students bonded.

“I think once I started boxing w ith them, it all went uphill from there,” she said.

“It was interesting how boxing was such a gateway into learning about them and connecting w ith them.”

Perino has worked w ith the SSLP organization to ensure the connection she began this past summer doesn’t end w ith her.

“W hile I was apply ing for it and tr y ing to get it and go myself, I was working to reser ve one of the spots on it for just boxers,” she said.

“And that actually takes effect this year. So now each

Photo courtesy of Patty Meza

year we’ll have one boxer going to one of our schools.”

For Perino, the work Baraka Bouts does for Holy Cross is less about charit y and more about communit y, which is why she’s worked so hard to strengthen that connection.

“I think it’s so often misconstrued that we’re just helping the children in Africa, or even that we’re helping people who are so needy,” she said. “I think it’s hard to say they’re needy.

We are helping them because we are part of the Holy Cross family. We are helping them because we see them as women, and we want to empower them as we’ve been empowered as boxers. I think it’s more of those t wo connections rather than we need to help them because they’re in desperate need of help.”

Contact Nicole Simon at nsimon1@nd.edu

ANNA MASON | The Observer

Senior Molly “Sugar” LaFave of Welsh Family Hall lands a punch to the face of senior Nicole “The Not-soNice Canadian” Waddick in the Baraka Bouts quarterfinals on Nov. 5 in the Dahnke Ballroom.

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The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

By SARA SCHLECHT Scene Writer

It’s 2018, and nearly everything is political. Terrance Hayes’s sixth poetry collection, “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin,” uses that as energy to explore the current political climate. This collection of 70 sonnets was written during the first 200 days of the Trump presidency, and attempts to grapple with what it means to be American now, considering events of the past and events yet to come. Following a dramatic election season, these poems are particularly pertinent.

The sonnet is a 14-line poem that originated in Italy.

While it exists in many forms, the sonnet traditionally has some sort of rhyme scheme and a strict syllabic structure. Hayes Americanizes his sonnets, rejecting most of these conventions in favor of a style that is truly his own. Each is titled “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin” and has 14 lines, but their contents vary beyond what these basic similarities might suggest.

Hayes addresses both the distant and recent past, criticizing and praising the historical moments that have led up to this point in time. In one of the most

By CARLOS De LOERA Scene Writer

We’re all familiar with the situation. You’re up really late or really early and just trying to watch reruns of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” on ABC Family (that’s right, I have no respect for FreeForm) or “Friends” on TBS because that’s all that is ever on any TV station.

But just as you prepare yourself to sing along to the theme song of whichever show comes on, white letters appear over a black screen reading: The following program does not reflect the views of [insert channel].

IT’S INFOMERCIAL TIME. At this point you’re upset, but for a brief moment, you engage in this game of infomercial roulette. What could it be for? Will it be those ladies who seem very eager for you to call them? Or will it be a message for older men to eradicate some of their physical downfalls? Perhaps you’ll be convinced to buy a new type of grill. If you’re really lucky, an old white man will tell you all about the power of focusing all your energy toward praising the Lord through monetary donation to his questionable “foundation.”

But no, this time around you are gifted with a special presentation from Time Life. Elvis’ “Don’t Be Cruel” starts playing accompanied by a music video.

poignant statements of the collection, he writes, “America, you just wanted change is all, a return / To the kind of awe we experienced after beholding a reign / Of gold,” likely referring to the changes that took place between the past presidential administration and the current one.

The present serves as the unfamiliar middle ground throughout the collection. “Something happens everywhere in this country / Every day. Someone is praying, someone is prey,” he writes astutely. The present is an ambiguous character while its events are not. The topic of race manages to connect it to the time periods actually referred to in the title. As a black man, Hayes often addresses the racial tensions that have existed throughout history and continue to exist today, directing his anger at those who perpetuate this racism and other inequities by preying on others.

In some sonnets, the speaker refers to numerous different individuals and entities as his “assassin.” Sometimes this assassin is named, including Dylann Roof, George Zimmerman and John Wilkes Booth. Another assassin addressed in “American Sonnets” is Donald Trump, who is referred to with mocking monikers such as “Mister Trumpeter” and

“Humpty-Dumpty.” Despite these attacks, Hayes spreads his criticism to past presidents as well, writing, “I carry money bearing / The face of my assassins.”

In other sonnets, Hayes uses the ambiguous “you” to address the one who acts as his assassin. These effectively critique anyone to whom some blanket accusations might apply.

Between the charged lines are the occasional bits of general wisdom. Writing lines like “Probably all our encounters are existential / Jambalaya,” Hayes reflects on the incomprehensibility of contradictions that make up American life. Actions of violence penetrate many of these poems, while American cultural staples like Girl Scout cookies are found in others. These are juxtaposed to create a complicated image of what it means to be American.

“American Sonnets” isn’t for everyone. It’s angry, politically charged and far from neutral, with these factors working together to make the work hard to read but nonetheless compelling. In his anger at the black experience in America, Hayes manages such eloquence that even this negative emotion is beautiful.

After five seconds, it switches over to Ritchie Valens’ “Donna,” then over to Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue.” Hard cut over to an older gentlemen, (older men really have a monopoly in the infomercial game) who apparently was a relevant figure in the ‘50s, with a nickname like Bowzer, and he’s standing next to a younger blonde woman who definitely looks like one of your mom’s friends. You find them standing at a burger stand, pretending to eat some fries and sip on milkshakes, all while standing next to a technicolored jukebox. You know, things that people did in the ‘50s, probably.

The dialogue is painful. Old man says something like, “Ahh, the ‘50s. A time when cars had muscles and so did the men. And women, well … those were the times.” The younger woman nervously laughs, smiles and through the cringe, as you watch her soul being crushed, just says, “You got that right.”

Together they name a bunch of songs from the era, all while showing clips of all the different songs available on the six CD box set they are trying to sell you.

This same formula is then applied to a myriad of musical eras and genres. ‘80s chart toppers? Time Life’s got you. Christian rock songs? Yup, they got it.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances? You already know.

And all you can do is sit there in disbelief. No, not

because of the awful dynamic between the hosts, but because they’re trying to sell you a six CD box set of songs from the ‘50s at the cool price of $135. It’s 2018.

Do they not understand that even the most inept geezer could go on Spotify and listen to all of these bops FOR FREE? But they’re not selling you on the music, rather they’re selling an experience and nostalgia. And they do a good job of it. The hosts address you like you’ve been friends with them for years. They remind you of a time when things were simpler and music was music. A time that you probably weren’t around for, but you somehow feel like you were. They introduce you to songs that you may not have known and remind you of songs you love. That’s where they get you. You almost want to pick up the phone and call before their limited time offer (that in no way is actually limited) is over. Then you remember how ridiculously expensive it is and change course.

Either way, you keep doing you Time Life. Keep swindling people of generations past out of their hard-earned money. Keep educating insomniac children about the great music of the past. Just stay away from my checking account, you thieves.

Contact Sara Schlecht at sschlecht01@saintmarys.edu

Contact Caros De Loera at cdeloera@nd.edu LINA DOMENELLA | The Observer

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The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

Inside Column

Thank you, Zahm Natalie Weber News Editor

Thanksgiving has become an arguably underrated holiday, sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas. I get it — Thanksgiving doesn’t offer free candy, spooky costumes, Christmas carols or presents.

But the day still deserves a little more attention than it currently gets, with the end of Halloween ushering in the Christmas season.

In honor of this under appreciated holiday, I’d like to take some time to recognize a few of the most underrated things on campus for which I am grateful. (Note: This is in no particular order, and should not be taken as a ranking).

The rabbits of Notre Dame Sure, the squirrels of Notre Dame are great, but honestly, the rabbits just don’t get the credit they deserve. They’re equally cute, more elusive and less aggressive. And while I sometimes wonder if the squirrels here are plotting to take over the University — and they scare some of my friends — I’ve never met anyone who’s afraid of the rabbits.

Zahm’s Music This barely edges out the chants of “Modern art! Shopping cart!” I’ve frequently heard Wednesday nights while living in Cavanaugh, but would it really be a football Friday without their music blasting throughout North Quad? Though, let’s save the Christmas tunes until after Thanksgiving.

The bus from the Bulla parking lot to the Dome When people think of the buses on campus that are free, they might think of the bus to Saint Mary’s or University Park Mall.

However, this bus is arguably one of the most important ones on campus, especially when it’s cold, dark and the walk to your dorm is just so dang long.

Free food at McWell Everyone goes wild for the free berries at the dining halls — and those are great — but McWell has free strawberries almost every day, as well as Goldfish crackers, chocolate chips, tea and other snacks. This is easily one of the best things I learned about in Moreau.

The post office Most of my trips to the post office have been frantic and stressful, as I tried to mail something at the last possible minute (sorry for all the belated birthday cards friends!) But did you know you can mail an envelope from the Dome to Rome for less than $5? (Neither did I, until my roommate mailed a birthday card there, almost a week in advance no less!).

Honorable mentions: McWell grants, Bond Quad, Taco Bell’s Cheesy Roll Ups, the basement of South Dining Hall, birthday cakes from the Huddle, the math library and North Dining Hall’s Buffalo Chicken Salad.

Contact Natalie Weber at nweber@nd.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Jewish students’ event points toward liberatory possibilities On Friday, Nov. 9, more than 80 people attended a threehour conference at Notre Dame titled “A World Without Hate: A Discussion Against Anti-Semitism.” Organized by Jewish students (including myself) in just two weeks, the afternoon’s discussion included Latina, African-American, Muslim, Native American and queer speakers who connected their struggles to the fight against anti-Semitism.

Despite the organizers’ divergent views on Israel, we all enthusiastically welcomed the support and participation of Student Voices for Palestine. Friday’s event brought up exciting possibilities for building transformative social justice coalitions.

We picked the date because it marked the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the horrific “night of broken glass” when Nazis destroyed and plundered more than a thousand synagogues. The date also marked the second anniversary of Donald Trump’s electoral victory that emboldened America’s far-right hooligans who have since committed at least 18 white nationalist killings. Finally, the date aligned with anti-fascist Jews’ call for coordinated events “For a World Without Pogroms, For a Future Without Fascism.”

Most directly, we organized our event in rapid response to America’s worst ever anti-Semitic massacre: On October 27, a white nationalist named Robert Bowers gunned down 11 Jews at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. Hours before the shooting, he posted online a conspiracy theory that Jews, through the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), were bringing so-called “invaders” into the country. In a prior post, Bowers had claimed, “It’s the filthy EVIL Jews Bringing the (sic) Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!”

The tragedy made clear that Bowers’s anti-Semitism could not be separated from his xenophobia, Islamophobia or white nationalism. These bigotries reinforced each other, reminding us that we must tear down the entire web of oppressions and not just one strand.

Thus, we chose to build bridges across struggles, recognizing that our own liberation is bound with others’. During the roundtable and panel discussions, religious studies professor Stacy Davis pointed out that hatred of Jews is a central component of white nationalist ideology and that Christian rightists use the same Biblical interpretations to bolster anti-Jewish and anti-black prejudices. The Student Coalition for Immigrant Advocacy’s secretary Odalis Gonzalez commented on how xenophobic and anti-Semitic discourses interlock by portraying immigrants and Jews as feared, hated “Others.” Gender Studies graduate student Marjorie Housely described the troublesome role of “passing” in both queer and Jewish cultures. Muslim interfaith dialogue participant Rabia Shariff and Ariel Niforatos, of Native American heritage, observed how ignorance perpetuates mutually reinforcing prejudices.

Jewish students’ anecdotes about insensitivity in South Bend strengthened my appreciation for the conference’s intersectional approach. When Notre Dame professors leave Judaism out of theology curricula and dock points for absences on Jewish holidays, they probably are also being insensitive to other religious minorities. The same bigot who gave a Jew a malicious Nazi salute probably harbors deep bigotries against people of color. The same students who crib immature “Jewish jokes” from the web probably tell equally unfunny jokes about other ethnicities.

I brought up the first-floor murals in Notre Dame’s Main Building and the exclusionary message they send by celebrating perpetrators of historic atrocities against indigenous, black, Muslim and Jewish people. These paintings glorify Christopher Columbus’s genocidal invasion of the Americas and portray indigenous and black people as docile and uncivilized. Less remarked on, the murals also include a glowing portrait of Spain’s Queen Isabella who, along with her husband King Ferdinand, oversaw the conquest of Spain’s remaining Muslim-ruled territories, initiated the Spanish Inquisition to weed out Jewish beliefs and expelled Jews from the kingdom. I advocated to the audience that we join in support of the Native American students’ current campaign to address these demeaning images.

The audience overwhelmingly supported the idea: Let’s build bridges between movements.

By contrast, more mainstream Jewish voices have chosen to build walls, fortifying themselves from other liberation struggles and from Judaism’s rich tradition of social justice.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claims to represent this country’s Jews in the fight against anti-semitism, but in reality the organization acts more like a hate group. It has defended spying on American Muslims, police departments responsible for murdering unarmed African Americans, and Israel’s frequent, brutal massacres of Palestinians.

The ADL has even opposed Muslims’ effort to build a mosque and community center simply because it happened to be near the World Trade Center site. In response to the Pittsburgh shooting, the ADL’s director wrote in the New York Times reaffirming the group’s absurd position that it is anti-Semitic to oppose Israel’s “right to exist.”

In reality, no nation-state has a “right to exist,” and our own Declaration of Independence reminds us that when a government becomes tyrannical, “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” Plenty of principled anti-Zionists, including Jews such as myself, insist that we should oppose Israeli settler colonialism just as we should oppose U.S. settler colonialism, and we should protest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war crimes just as we should protest those of Trump and any other tyrant (including Putin and Assad, who some on the Left and Right shamefully support).

The Israeli government, falsely claiming to represent world Jewry, responded to the Pittsburgh massacre by doubling down on its opportunistic support for Trump, even though the U.S. president’s bigoted rhetoric has fueled farright violence. When Trump arrived in Pittsburgh after the shooting, Israel’s U.S. ambassador was the only public official to greet him. In a speech ostensibly honoring the recent massacre’s victims, Netanyahu praised Trump and avoided talking about the far-right ideologies behind the shooting.

Instead, he absurdly called anti-Zionism the “new antiSemitism.” For the Israeli government and its staunchest supporters, all that matters is that Trump uncritically supports Israel’s militaristic, ethnocratic, apartheid policies.

Despite Netanyahu’s pro-Trump propaganda, some 72 percent of American Jews think Trump’s inflammatory words and policies are partly to blame for the Pittsburgh attack. On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump refused to condemn the KKK or its former leader David Duke. Last year, Trump praised the “very fine people” among the swastikawielding white nationalists who gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, and chanted “Jews will not replace us!” His repeated demonization of the Jewish billionaire George Soros has invoked classic anti-Semitism tropes.

It is shameful to see mainstream Jewish institutions burning bridges with marginalized groups rather than seeking victories through strong social justice coalitions. It is painful to see them crying wolf over principled anti-Zionism when actual anti-Semitism is so present and dangerous.

Friday’s event pointed toward a much more liberatory approach for grassroots Jews and their allies. It was heartening to see many people stay the whole three hours to show their solidarity with local Jews and discuss how to bring different struggles together. At a time when more than half of America’s religiously-motivated hate crimes target Jews, it is important to realize that we will not achieve security by siding with the colonial, Christian and capitalist status quo that will never fully accept us. Instead, we need to build bridges with other marginalized groups and collectively engage in what Judaism calls “tikkun olam,” or repairing the world.

Judaism’s first-century BCE sage Hillel asked: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?” At Friday’s event, we tried to be for ourselves and for others. The experience brought me a lot of hope.

Daniel Fischer P.h.D. student Nov. 13

The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

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Gay marriage? Love loses.

Jeff Murphy Spilling the Tea

“A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.” the late-Justice Scalia, in dissent June 26, 2015 should have been one of the greatest days in American history (right behind November 8, 2016). For literally thousands of years, samesex couples have been denied the opportunity to join in the institution of marriage. Not until the Netherlands in 2000 did any country in the history of human civilization permit same-sex marriage. Though I am not a wishy-washy person, it genuinely breaks my heart to think of all the love that has been stomped out across the world due to restrictions against same-sex relationships. Thus, as a matter of policy, I supported state legislation legalizing same-sex marriage (and while it is not the topic of this column, I would be happy to make that argument). Though it was low on my list of objectives to achieve (still waiting for the wall I was promised!), I was hell-bent on convincing my fellow Republicans to support bills that would permit same-sex couples to marry. Though the issue was understandably contentious, supporters of samesex marriage were making progress in convincing their fellow American citizens to support the legislation. In fact, by the time the case in question — Obergefell v. Hodges — was decided, 11 states and the District of Columbia had passed legislation permitting same-sex marriage. That all ended on June 26, 2015. In the middle of a robust demonstration of the democratic process, five unelected lawyers stepped in to make the decision for us. America was robbed of her chance to pursue true equality, and far more than just the LGBTQ+ community will suffer for it. A day that should have been filled with joy and triumph is now clouded with an ominous foreshadowing.

It is always very unnerving (and inevitably disappointing) when the Supreme Court goes searching for a new right they are convinced is buried somewhere deep within the constitution. As the left has come to realize, if you cannot convince your fellow Americans to agree with your policy proposals, run to the federal judiciary and have them shove it down their throats. Want a right to an abortion?

Dispatch Czar Brennan! Want to prohibit states from outlawing sexual activities you think are permissible? Send Supreme Leader Ginsburg! If the runaway justices deem it important enough, they will find a way to bend and contort the constitution until aligns with their personal desires. Such was the case in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Empress Ginsburg’s favorite place to search for new rights hidden in the constitution is the

Fourteenth Amendment. The open-textured language of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause leave much room for Almighty Ginsburg’s imagination (and she lets it roam free!).

It is amazing what she and her fellow judicial activists have been able to find within those two brief clauses. Of course, no one ever voted to ratify a constitutional amendment that would mandate the permittance of same-sex marriage. As Justice Scalia wrote in his dissenting opinion, “When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, every State limited marriage to one man and one woman, and no one doubted the constitutionality of doing so. That resolves these cases. When it comes to determining the meaning of a vague constitutional provision — such as ‘due process of law’ or ‘equal protection of the laws’ — it is unquestionable that the People who ratified that provision did not understand it to prohibit a practice that remained both universal and uncontroversial in the years after ratification.” The notion that the Fourteenth Amendment, a reconstruction amendment ratified following the Civil War for (among other things) the purpose of conferring equality upon freed slaves (which is a sore spot for Democrats to this day), requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples could only be cooked up in the chambers of a Supreme Court justice incapable of restraining his or her own policy preferences. The chief justice concurs with Justice Scalia’s remarks, stating, “But this Court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us.

Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be.” Of course, the majority in this case believes the meaning of the Constitution evolves from term-to-term to meet our society’s ever-changing standards of decency and equality. Thus, they believe it is entirely within their role to determine what the law ought to mean today. If only there was a way citizens themselves could decide what those changes should be … if only we had some type of legislative process that was genuinely representative of our nation’s current values. Oh well, how dangerous could it be to let five people unilaterally make these decisions!

If the Supreme Court is not bound by the original public understanding of the Constitution at the time its respective provisions were ratified, it has virtually unlimited power. Justice Alito summarized this point in his dissent, writing, “If a bare majority of Justices can invent a new right and impose that right on the rest of the country, the only real limit on what future majorities will be able to do is their own sense of what those with political power and cultural influence are willing to tolerate.

Even enthusiastic supporters of same-sex marriage should worry about the scope of the power that today’s majority claims.” The chief justice echoed Justice Alito’s warning, writing, “The majority’s

understanding of due process lays out a tantalizing vision of the future for Members of this Court: If an unvarying social institution enduring over all of recorded history cannot inhibit judicial policymaking, what can?”

The only reason supporters of same-sex marriage celebrate the decision in Obergefell is because they like the outcome. They are willing to overlook the incidental implications of the decision as long as they get what they want. If, for the sake of achieving political goals, we encourage the Court to undermine something as fundamental as the agreed upon definition of marriage, nothing is out of reach of Commandant Ginsburg’s icy clutch. The very people who should be the watchdogs of government overreach — those that have the most to lose should one branch usurp the power of the others — have become the cheerleaders of autocracy. To quote Senator Amidala from Star Wars, “So this is how liberty dies … with thunderous applause.” Frodo, from the Lord of the Rings, shares Senator Amidala’s political sense. He was determined to destroy the One Ring, even though he knew there was an opportunity to use the Ring for good. Frodo was able to recognize the possibility — nay, the certainty — that the Ring would eventually fall into the wrong hands and be wielded against the very people Frodo had intended to help. No one can be trusted with the Ring. As a minority group, the queer community doubtless needs reminding of the consequences of centralizing power.

Love did not win on June 26, 2015. Tyranny did.

I hope to God the tyrant that replaces Supreme Leader Ginsburg shares her disposition towards the LGBTQ+ community. If he or she does not, the queer community will have tied the very noose with which they will be hanged.

“If you are among the many Americans — of whatever sexual orientation — who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision. Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it. I respectfully dissent.” - Chief Justice John Roberts Jeff is a senior at Notre Dame majoring in sciencebusiness with a minor in sociology. A native of St. Louis, Jeff believes that his hometown is the greatest city in the world and is always ready to talk about The Lou. In his free time, Jeff likes to play tennis, bake in the sun, read autobiographies, spend time with friends, talk on the phone with his mother or twin sister and listen to Mariah Carey’s voice soar through one of her signature love ballads. Hate mail can be directed to jmurph29@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Join the conversation.

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Daily

The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

Crossword | Will Shortz

Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Put more energy into home, family and bringing about positive changes that will make you happy. Don’t wait for someone else to make suggestions. Look at the possibilities and find the best way to move forward.

It’s up to you to decide what’s in your best interest. Consider how best to make personal improvements that will build your confidence, strength and courage.

Your numbers are 4, 11, 16, 23, 32, 38, 43.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Look over contracts and your financial situations; you’ll discover a hidden opportunity. Rely on your own resources to figure out your best move. A heart-to-heart talk with someone you love will be helpful.

Romance is encouraged.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Research your options before making a change. Talk to people you have worked with or who can give you expert advice. Knowing what you are up against will make it easier to decide what’s best for you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t make a big deal out of nothing. Stay calm and let situations play out naturally. Go about your business and make whatever changes suit you without drawing attention to what you are doing. Don’t mislead others or share information.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Do your thing. What you provide will be unique and draw interest from someone who is in a position to help you excel. Your knowledge and experience will encourage others to listen as well as pitch in and help.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Look at the big picture and get involved in the things you feel will make the biggest difference. Your input, generosity and physical help will result in recognition and an opportunity to make positive changes to your lifestyle.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Step up and do your part. Get involved in something that encourages personal growth. Bonding with people who can be beneficial to your future is in your best interest. Don’t let personal matters stand between you and your success.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Take care of your responsibilities first or someone will make a fuss. Once you have taken care of business, you can concentrate on the things and the people you enjoy the most. A change to your status looks promising.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Spend more time dealing with personal matters. If someone questions your integrity, stay calm and stick to the facts. Anger will not help you or your situation. Be willing to compromise and to work in conjunction with others to make worthwhile changes.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Think big but stick to what’s reasonable as well as in your budget. Don’t let anyone entice you into taking on too much or you’ll set yourself up for failure. Baby steps and thought-out plans are favored.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Keep moving forward, but keep your eye on what’s going on around you. An unexpected change at home or with regard to your position could easily broadside you if you don’t pay attention. Ask questions and verify facts.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Put some passion into whatever you decide to take on. Listen carefully to what’s said and promised. A verbal agreement should be put on paper to avoid any misgivings. A personal change, gift or financial gain is heading your way.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Offer your services, skills and knowledge to a cause and you will make a difference, but don’t let anyone take you for granted. Make it clear what you are willing to do and what it will take. Being up-front will be necessary.

Birthday Baby: You are innovative, excitable and persistent. You are entertaining and changeable.

WINGin’ it | OLIVIA WANG & BAILEE EGAN

Sudoku | The Mepham Group

Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek

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Hockey

Sports Authority

EA must remake NCAA games Thomas Murphy Sports Writer

I have coached the Nav y Midshipmen to six-straight national championships, mentored three Heisman trophy winners and maintained a consistent top-10 recruiting class in my tenure. These are my greatest accomplishments. And yet, I find myself searching for something more.

By something more, I actually mean something new. By something new, I mean a new NCA A Football video game.

Like thousands of other fans, I have long awaited the return of NCA A Football.

Five years ago, EA Sports announced that NCA A 14 would be their last release of the popular video game due to their unwillingness to pay collegiate athletes for their likenesses — a payment that would also probably be disallowed by the NCA A governing committee itself.

But this is a cop-out. EA Sports could have struck a deal with the NCA A and players to keep the game alive.

They could have tossed out some cash to the greedy NCA A governing association and maybe a free game to everyone whose likeness was used. But no. They had to rip my joy away from me.

EA Sports — those sadistic fools — robbed me of my happiness.

Instead, I have dutifully continued playing NCA A Football 14. The game was far ahead of its time, but imagine how much better it could be today. If EA Sports had continued producing NCA A Football, it is possible that humanity would be technologically five years ahead of where it is today. We could have f lying cars. We could have solved the energy crisis.

Instead, we have nothing.

Many of you might say, “Hey, Murph, chill out. Why don’t you just play the new Madden? Isn’t that just as good?”

No, it is not. Madden — much like the NFL itself — is a cold, disheartening game.

Not only were the graphics and physics of Madden

always consistently behind those of the NCA A Football games, Madden also doesn’t let me take a directional state school from the bottom of the MAC to a national powerhouse. Madden doesn’t let me run the triple option down Alabama’s throat. Madden doesn’t let me work my way up from high school recruit to two-time Heisman winner.

Simply put, Madden doesn’t let me live my dreams. NCA A Football does.

Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic. Maybe NCA A Football is just representative to me of a simpler time, of a time spent with friends drinking soda and eating Doritos in our parents’ basements.

Maybe NCA A Football is actually just my childhood, each day drifting farther away as time inevitably stumbles on.

The tide rises, the tide falls.

Or, maybe NCA A Football is what I believe it to be: the greatest sports video game series of all time. At this point, if EA Sports were to release a new game, my console would be way out of date.

Nevertheless, I would buy a new console just to reclaim my former joy. In a way, by not releasing a new NCA A Football game, EA Sports is actually just destroying the economy. The release of a new game would trigger a mass of purchases in the technology sector. The cowards at EA Sports are singlehandedly driving the world into a recession.

I am but one of many loyal devotees to the NCA A Football series. We are a movement. Our voices will be heard. With each day we wander lost through the desert, we move one day closer to the Promised Land.

EA Sports, bring us to the Promised Land. Lead us not into the temptation of Madden, but deliver us to the virtual football joy we have so long awaited.

Continued from page 12

offseason losses of key contributors on both the front and back ends, but particularly offensively.

“It seems like our Saturday nights are better because we lose Friday night. We have to find a way to overcome that,” he said. “I think we’re ready to play, I think we’re working hard, I just don’t think we’re executing the way we need to up front. We changed the routine up a little bit this week, as far as going over things differently. Later in the week, tactical things just so they have a better understanding of what we need to do on Friday night. Because it’s a younger group, they’re a bit too far removed from where we need them on certain things, so we changed up the routine this week so that we’re doing things a little later in the week, just to see if they grasp it sooner, so Friday night we’re a little bit more in-tune.”

One change for the Irish that did occur in the matchup with the Wolverines was a shift in starting goalies from Friday to Saturday. While junior and resident Richter award-winner Cale Morris got the nod to open the series, Jackson opted to start sophomore Dylan St. Cyr, who stood firm between the pipes to hand the Irish the

win.

While Jackson dismissed any idea that Morris was set to lose his starting job, he did point to more rotation in the future. “[Cale is] our guy, but Dylan is a good goaltender, and I do want to get him spot starts in there, get some confidence and challenge Cale.

But I also want to make sure Cale’s fresh for the second half of this year,” Jackson said. “So it’s not just the early part of the season, I’m looking to possibly put in Dylan, spot-starting, and him, not too far apart, but enough so that Cale still gets the majority of the games. But Dylan’s played well in the two games that he’s played, and his puck handling really made a big difference on Saturday.”

Looking ahead to the Spartans (4-4), who will be opening conference play against the Irish, Jackson said head coach Danton Cole has done a good job in keeping his program on the upward ascent, particularly with a front line of junior Taro Hirose, sophomore Mitchell Lewandowski and junior Patrick Khodorenko, who have combined for 30 of the team’s 67 points.

“They didn’t lose much, so they’re pretty much the same team that they had a year ago, which means they’re more experienced,” Jackson said. “They have maybe one of the best, if not the best

9

line in college hockey in their first line. This year, I think they are getting more depth scoring from their second and third lines. They’re very staunch defensively, they do a lot of good things — they are a very well-coached team, and I think that they are a much improved team from last year.”

Ultimately, for Jackson, the key for Notre Dame to earn its first conference sweep of the season will be to control the game on special teams.

“I think the biggest thing right now, is that our special teams aren’t where they need to be,” he said. “If we get the first power play, we don’t score. If we get the first penalty kill, we get scored on.

Frankly, we’ve been putting more attention in our fiveon-five offense as far as trying to do more off the rush, and off the cycle as well, but really, we need to score a power play goal a game, and our penalty kill has been inconsistent as well. In the first period, you need that big penalty kill or you need that power play goal that gets you jumpstarted. It’s a huge factor, and I think that right now that’s one of our biggest concerns.”

Puck first drops for the Irish on Friday night at 7 p.m. in East Lansing, Michigan.

Contact Tobias Hoonhout at thoonhou@nd.edu

Contact Thomas Murphy at tmurphy7@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Write Sports.

Email Joe Everett at jeveret4@nd.edu

Ann curtis | The Observer

Irish junior defenseman Andrew Peeke handles the puck during No. 8 Notre Dame’s 1-0 loss to No. 6 Ohio State on Nov. 2 at Compton Family Ice Arena. Peeke has 5 assists and a single goal on the season.

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Sports

The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

XC Continued from page 12

squad since 2013 to qualify, the women qualified with an at large bid, for which they had to wait to hear of until Saturday.

Head coach Matt Sparks said the most important key to his team’s success this season has been its strongly reliable consistency.

“Really, the talk has been ‘Let’s just do the same things we’ve done at the conference meet and the regional meet.’

The men and women the last two meets have run really well. We are trying to emulate the weeks of practice that led up to those successes. We talk a lot about just controlling the controllable which we plan to do on Saturday,” Sparks said.

Coach Sparks also noted the expectations he has for his team going into the championship, especially after the performances at ACCs. “They’ve been training well and we had a good prenational meet, but it wasn’t a surprise, not just to the athletes but to the coaches and even the national scene,” he said. “After that meet, we have come to expect more of an elite level of performance from the team. The thing that made those elite level performances happen though is the fact that they trained and began to view themselves as such a level of a program.

Seeing that come to fruition

M Bball Continued from page 12

Radford showed it’s a still a quality team, having won an NCA A Tournament game last year and returning several veterans. Senior guard Caleb Tanner scored 20 points to lead the Highlanders (3-0) — a team Irish head coach Mike Brey said he knew was going to be a legitimate threat.

“I was worried about this game because they’re old, they’re good and they’re way better than us right now,” he said. “I take my hat off to Radford. I thought they made plays. We just had a hard time finding an offensive rhythm with our group, so we got a long way to go, which we kinda knew.”

The story of the game for the Irish was John Mooney, as the junior forward hit three early 3-pointers to propel the Irish to a 9-5 lead seven minutes into the opening half. Mooney would continue his hot shooting throughout the half, finishing the period with 18 points on 6-of8 shooting from beyond the arc. Mooney would go on to register a career-high 24 points, and credited the play of the Notre Dame guards for his success.

was a dream come true, and now we just need to keep building upon that. With such a young group, we have the majority of the scoring positions on the men’s team returning next year, along with what we expect to be a pretty good recruiting class.

It gives us confidence in what we can accomplish, not just in the next year, but for many years going forward. … It’d be great if both our teams could finish in the top-10. We’ve been ranked around 10 to 15 all year, and it would be great accomplishment if we could sneak into the top-10.”

Snowfall is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday in Madison. But as a school from the already-frigid North, Sparks said the Irish will not only be ready for the conditions, but are actually looking forward to them.

“We’ll be curious to see how that weather shapes out,” he said. “There is a chance of snow, but we feel comfortable with that, having to deal with that a lot here, and some of the other schools that we compete against are not as adept at training and running in adverse conditions.

Actually, we are kind of hoping for a little bit of snow on the ground.”

The NCA A championships meet takes place this Saturday at Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis. Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu

“All the guards were hitting the gaps. They’re making the play and I’m wide-open because of them, so it’s a testament to how they’re playing … we just got to keep feeding off that,” Mooney said.

“Once you see the first couple go in you just keep shooting, but again, it’s just me getting open because of [the guards].”

Despite Mooney’s hot start, the Highlanders wouldn’t back down, and thanks to some hot shooting from Tanner, they were able to close the Notre Dame lead to 24-23 with just over four minutes left in the opening half. The Irish responded by going on a 10-5 run to end the first, aided by five points from sophomore D.J. Harvey during that stretch to head into the locker room up 3428. Despite trailing, Radford head coach Mike Jones knew the game would come down to the wire.

“We were missing a really big piece to our team [in guard Carlik Jones], and I was really proud of the way our guys rallied and [exhibited] a next-man-up sort of mentality,” Jones said. “We knew it was going to be a 40-minute battle, we knew we weren’t going to knock them out.

A Mike Brey-coached team

Carlson Continued from page 12

and success to Notre Dame.

Carlson wants to create a setting where athletes don’t just win on the track but in life as well.

“We’re trying to create winning culture. That winning is not just in the result of a track meet, or a crosscountry meet. That winning is in the results of the rest of your life, you’re doing things to the best of your ability, you’re winning that day,” Carlson said.

Carlson, who is in charge of recruiting, is pivotal in every aspect of culture-building.

Carlson’s recruiting process involves finding the best students and best athletes in the country from a narrow pool of recruits. One of the things that distinguishes Notre Dame’s recruitment process, however, is that the Irish adamantly stand behind the idea that if Notre Dame is not a recruit’s first choice, that recruit is not the right fit.

“I want guys that truly believe in our philosophy, in our culture, of what we’ve shown them on their visit.

That’s why they want to run here,” Carlson said. “If you get guys in the locker room to buy into that, to come here for those reasons, you’re getting the right kind of [athletes].”

Reminiscent of Herb Brooks’ famous line in “Miracle,” Carlson aims to

is one of the best in college basketball … we knew they weren’t going to make a lot of mistakes [and] that we were going to have to make some plays. I thought our guys came out with the right mentality, I thought we fought hard on the defensive end … we just told our guys to keep battling, and they kept battling.”

That mentality was evident as the Highlanders took a 4140 lead five minutes into the second half. Though the Irish brief ly regained the lead, the Highlanders ripped off a 9-2 run to make it 54-52 with eight minutes left and took the lead for good by making several tough shots. The Irish rally was hampered by offensive struggles, poor shot selection and an inability to get key stops.

“A lot of respect to Radford because their old guys were old and our young guys were younger at times, but they tried,” Brey said. “We threw them in there and they got game-situation experience.

A lot of new guys doing new stuff. We just gotta get back to work. … William & Mary can beat us, Duquesne can beat us — everybody can beat us.

That’s who we are right now.”

Notre Dame will wrap up the Gotham Classic by

find the right runners for his team, not necessarily the best ones.

Echoing the message given to freshmen during orientation, Carlson notes that he wants to teach his runners how to be better people, not just better runners. Notre Dame, Carlson says, is not just about getting students into jobs, “it’s about helping you become a better person, helping you through the next forty years of life.”

Guiding all his young athletes to make the right decisions is what Carlson says to be the biggest part of his job.

His belief is that by helping members of the team become better people, he’s creating a culture in which the team is willing to do anything for the program and willing to fight when a race gets difficult.

Another idea that Carlson tells his team is that despite the members of the crosscountry program being close to each other, they should be teammates first, friends second.

“If you make a bad decision, a friend might kind of justify that for you,” Carlson said. “A teammate is going to give you the honest answer, whether you want to hear that or not, it’s going to be the truth. A teammate isn’t going to be there to protect you, they’re going to be there to support you. That’s what we’re trying to promote, to keep them close.”

The Irish men’s program has had quite the progression

playing William & Mary on Saturday at noon and Duquesne on Tuesday at 7 p.m, and Brey said he is interested to see how the team will rebound from a disappointing loss.

“It’d be great to bounce back and see if we can get a win. This’ll be interesting for this group now … can we bounce back and win a game on Saturday?” Brey said.

“As I told them on the way back from Indianapolis from the Cincinnati [preseason

in recent years, going from middle-of-the-pack to second place in the region in a matter of two years. The success has come so quickly that not even Carlson imagined it happening the way it has.

Now that the team is doing things better than it was a year ago, Carlson wants his team to improve what it’s doing right.

“We need to focus on continuing to do things that we’ve done to get to this point and then just do them better,” Carlson said.

Carlson is very much enjoying his job right now, which he said is no surprise considering the success his team is having. A distinguishing factor for Carlson however, is his ability to take pleasure in the process of improving — something he thinks is important to have in life.

“I enjoy [my job] a lot right now, while we’re successful.

But I also enjoyed the process of building us to this point. I think that’s what you got to enjoy about life and about whatever you’re doing, it’s the process of getting better,” he said.

The Irish will head to the NCA A national championship meet this weekend and are already planning on having a better 2019 campaign.

As for now, the Irish will try to focus on, per Carlson, “doing what’s right, every day.”

Contact Charlie Ortega Guifarro at cortegag@nd.edu

game], I said ‘This is a long road for us, fellas. It’s a long road, we’re all in this together, let’s hang on in there.’ …

Hopefully we’ll grow from it. It’ll be interesting to see Saturday, it’ll be interesting to see practice tomorrow — this is kind of new territory for some new faces … we’re going to be in bounce-back mode a lot. That’s who we are.”

Contact Joe Everett at jeveret4@nd.edu

Annie smierciak | The Observer

Irish senior guard Rex Pflueger dribbles during Notre Dame’s 63-60 loss to Radford on Nov. 14. The Irish loss was their first of the season.

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The observer | thursday, november 15, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

nd men’s basketball | ND 60, radford 63

Hockey

First Irish loss of season Squad set to take exposes early weaknesses on Michigan State

By JOE EVERETT

By TOBIAS HOONHOUT

Sports Editor

Managing Editor

In front of a sparse crowd inside Purcell Pavilion on Wednesday night, Notre Dame lost to Radford 63-60 in its third game of the Gotham Classic.

The Irish (2-1) showed their youth and inexperience in key moments down the stretch and were largely unable to get into an offensive f low throughout the night, side-effects of the type of team Notre Dame has this season.

“That’s just what comes with being a young team,” Gibbs said of the offensive struggles. “We’re doing it, we’re working through the growing pains, but we knew we were going to take some bumps in the road. They’re a good team, and we’re going to keep fighting. We have a lot to work on, but we know we’re going to be OK.”

After splitting their secondstraight conference series last weekend against No. 16 Michigan, No. 8 Notre Dame heads back north this coming Friday and Saturday to take on Big Ten rival and Irish head coach Jeff Jackson’s alma mater, Michigan State.

Last weekend, the Irish (54-1, 2-2 Big Ten) split their first conference road series of the season against the Wolverines (5-4, 1-1), the program Notre Dame defeated to reach last year’s national title game. On Friday night, the Irish dropped the opener 2-1 against a pesky home team that scored on its first two power plays while keeping Notre Dame scoreless in five chances. On Saturday however, Notre Dame rebounded with an offensive explosion, answering Michigan’s opener before slotting four past Wolverine goalie Hayden Lavigne in the second period.

see M BBALL PAGE 10

Annie smierciak | The Observer

Irish freshman guard Prentiss Hubb takes the ball up the court during Notre Dame’s 63-60 loss to Radford on Nov. 14.

For Jackson, Notre Dame’s struggles to sweep stem largely from a lack of consistency.

“Right now, the biggest thing for us is consistency … execute a little bit better on Friday nights, and doing it for 60 minutes,” he said Wednesday.

“The same thing would apply to Saturday, because early on Saturday I thought we were on our heels a bit at the start of the game. They scored the first goal again, and they actually scored the second goal, which we challenged and was disallowed, and that changed the whole momentum of the game. When that goal was disallowed, I thought we started playing — and I thought we started playing real well — for the last part of the first period, and then the second period we dominated.”

Jackson also attributed some of the lack of a groove to a team that is still trying to find its feet, especially after the see HOCKEY PAGE 9

Cross country | ncaa championships

Carlson building winning culture

By CHARLIE ORTEGA GUIFARRO Sports Writer

Seven and a half years ago, Sean Carlson came into Notre Dame as a volunteer to the cross-country team. Carlson had just spent a year getting a master’s degree and had coached at St. Charles North High School in Illinois, before deciding to take an unpaid position as an assistant to renown Irish cross-country head coach Joe Piane.

Working from a cardboard box in the office, Carlson spent four months using his saved money to pay for his expenses. He’d be the first one in, at 7:30 a.m. sharp, and wouldn’t leave until Piane left, usually around 11 p.m.

After four months, one of the six full-time coaches left the program, and Carlson’s hard work landed him the vacant position.

Today, Carlson is an assistant coach at the cross-country program at Notre Dame.

In addition, he is the head of a

men’s team that just won their first ACC championship and is ranked 10th in the National Coaches poll.

A native of the Chicago area, Carlson attended North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. There, he was under the tutelage of Al Carius, who has been coaching the Cardinals for over 50 years.

Carius has coached a dynasty Division III cross-country team. With an all-division record of 18 cross-country titles, 15 second-place finishes and 121 All Americans, North Central has become a behemoth under Carius.

Carlson holds Carius in high regard, saying the esteemed coach is “a better person than he is a coach — and he’s won national titles a lot.”

In addition, Carlson credits Carius for helping him get into coaching.

Coming from a winning culture like the one at North Central, Carlson is now trying to bring that kind of mentality see CARLSON PAGE 10

Notre Dame hopes for success at championship

By JIMMY WARD Sports Writer

emma farnan | The Observer

Irish freshman Jackie Gaughan runs in the 5k event at Burke Golf Course at the National Catholic Invitational on Sept. 14.

Both the Irish men and women qualified for NCA A championships, which take place this Saturday, in Madison, Wis., with no small thanks to their performances last Friday at the Regional championship in Terre Haute, Ind. Coming off a first-place finish at the ACC championship, the men’s team had a runners-up performance at Regionals, with sophomore Yared Nuguse leading the pack, placing third overall, followed closely by freshman Danny Kilrea, who finished ninth. The women’s team placed fourth at the Regional championship, led by senior Anna Rohrer, who placed second in the 6k race.

She was followed by freshman Jackie Gaughan, who came across the line in sixth place.

While the men knew immediately following the action, becoming the first Irish male see XC PAGE 10