Baseball’s Jaxson Weatherford wins Bobcat AOTW

Owen McDaniel Staff Writer

Junior first baseman

Jaxon Weatherford was awarded Bobcat Athlete of the Week for the week of April 1118 for his outstanding performance over the four games during that timespan. Weatherford batted .438 during that four-game stretch, blasting three home runs, driving in seven runs and scoring four times.

Weatherford’s contributions helped the Bobcats win three out of four of their games that week, including a three-game sweep over Claflin University.

In the second game of the series against Claflin, the Bobcats’ chances were looking slim after Claflin scored four runs across the seventh and eighth innings to take a one-run lead. However, Weatherford saved the day, hammering a threerun homerun with one out in the ninth inning to lift the Bobcats to victory.

Weatherford believes that his improvement of his hitting mechanics contributed to his recent success.

“[I’ve been] having a better plan in the box,” Weatherford said. “[I’ve been] working on my load and just trying to have my foot down when the pitch is coming.”

Although receiving honors like Bobcat Athlete of the Week do not impact Weatherford greatly, he still appreciates the recognition.

“It’s not bad to get a couple accolades along the season,” Weatherford said. “It gives you some confidence, and it’s really important to have confidence inside the box.”

“Jaxon is a really good hitter,” said Brandon Bellflower. “I realized that when he came in over the fall, but when Jaxon catches fire, it’s really something special to watch. The amount of power he can bring to the table, and at the end of the day, still control the barrel, still find singles, he’s very important for us.”

Bellflower sees Weatherford as a “silent leader” on the team, meaning a player who speaks with his work ethic rather than his words.

“He doesn’t say much, he comes to the field every day, gets his work in and does all the right things to prepare,” Bellflower said. “I don’t think he’s one of the guys who is going to ‘rah-rah’ you to death, but he’s definitely a silent leader.”

Head baseball coach Nolan Belcher pointed out how Weatherford’s hot streak provided a spark for the other players.

“I think it energiz- es everybody,” Belcher said. “The whole team knows he’s a good player, and when he starts to play well, it energizes the dugout.”

The GC bats were certainly energized during their series against Claflin, in which they scored 39 runs across the three games, forcing two mercy rules.

The Bobcats faced Columbus State over the weekend for their fi- nal regular season home series of the season. They came up short in the series, 2-1, and fell back to fifth place in the Peach Belt Conference. They will have to play Columbus State once again to begin the PBC tournament as the four seed faces the five seed.

Round one will take place on Friday, May 5, at 2 p.m. The game will be played at Georgia Southwestern University.

Women’s World Cup summer 2023

Rebecca Meghani

News Editor

With less than 100 days until the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, people around the world are gearing up to watch Australia and New Zealand, this year’s host countries, to prepare for what is expected to be the biggest Women’s World Cup yet.

The tournament has already sold over 650,000 tickets, and it is projected to sell 1.5 million tickets total.

“FIFA’s mission is to organize the biggest and best Women’s World Cup in history this year,” said Fatma Samoura, FIFA’s secretary general.

This year, each federation’s kits are inspired by what makes their country unique, which is meant to showcase the diversity in every country. The United States Women’s National Team’s, or USWNT’s, kits are inspired by abstract expressionism, an art movement that began in New York in the 1940s that shifted the art capital of the world from Europe to the U.S., like how the U.S. women’s team did for soccer. The USWNT away kit’s uniqueness is represented through stars, stripe print and red blades meant to look like the tip of stars, and their home kit features a drippaint-technique pattern.

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup is the absolute pinnacle of the sport capturing the imaginations of both current and new fans across the globe,” said Sam Handy, vice president of product and design at Adidas Football. “With the tournament being held in Australia and New Zealand, two countries with iconic landscapes, we want to create a common theme throughout our kits, in celebration and appreciation of the wonders of the natural environments that can be found around the world.”

Other federations feature their natural diversity. Germany’s kits showcase green woodlands, Sweden includes their glacial rivers and Columbia has the many colors of its Caño Cristales river.

There is much to be celebrated about this year’s World Cup along with celebrating the diversity of each country, like this year being the first Women’s World Cup to have more than one host.

The United States women’s team has immense support and excitement behind them, as the hope for a third straight consecutive tournament win builds.

The U.S. currently holds four world titles, with the most recent being 2015, in Canada, and 2019, in France. Currently, the U.S. is leading in the FIFA world rankings, with their total points being 2091.38, followed by Germany, Sweden, England and France, respectively.

While the excitement has been high, FIFA has not been without its faults in preparing for the World Cup. Controversy continues to follow the organization, including its previous plans to have Saudi Arabia’s tourism authority be named as an official sponsor of the tournament.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has been investing in sporting events as a way to “sports wash” its reputation. The country has been accused of issues like human rights. The World Cup host countries have expressed that they are not comfortable with it.

“Football Australia has consulted on this matter with key stakeholders, including government and commercial partners, and it was an overwhelming consensus that this partnership does not align with our collective vision for the tournament and falls short of our expec- tations,” said Football Australia Chief Executive James Johnson.

Players around the world have also disagreed with FIFA’s course of action on this front.

“If we want to push women’s sport on, we want it to be supported by people who share the philosophies and the views that we share as players and as a game, which is supporting women, which is a high-level sport, high-level football, fully inclusive,” said Lucy Bronze, England fullback and Barcelona player.

“We welcome everybody to our sport. So we’d like to think that the people that support us and are pushing the game have similar views and interests and opinions as we do.”

To have a country with women’s rights abuses, the use of the death penalty and imprisoning women’s rights campaigners, having Saudi Arabia as a sponsor has been called an exploitation of the sport.

“Obviously we want the best and we want inclusivity, but equally it’s not about going there and being political at the same time,” said Keira Walsh, England midfielder and Barcelona player.

The US Soccer Fed- eration, or USSF, said it would also voice concern, while Amnesty International has already spoken out. FIFA has since dropped this proposed plan but still remains faulty.

Brazilian Adriana Lima was named a global ambassador meant to develop, promote and participate in global initiatives prior to the World Cup. FIFA former council member Moya Dodd described this as tone-deaf.

“When a girl plays football, the world sees her differently,” Dodd said. “Instead of being complimented on her nice looks of her pretty dress, she is valued for her game-saving tackles and brilliant goal-scoring, shes admired for what she can do, rather than how she looks, putting her on more equal footing with her brothers in a way that can alter the whole trajectory of her life’s ambitions, in a FIFA world cup year, that’s the message that should be ringing loud and true around the world. Where a supermodel fits into this is truly baffling.”

Considering Lima’s public image, many have found it a confusing move for FIFA, an organization that claims to empower girls and women.

Additionally, there is a new qualifying tournament that will fly 10 teams to New Zealand to decide the final three places at the tournament.

“I’m sure FIFA will say they’ve done it to help the women’s game grow,” said Diane Caldwell, Ireland and Reading defender. “Of course, we all want the game to grow, but it can be done in a sustainable way and not by flying 10 teams from different continents to New Zealand to compete. I think it could definitely have been avoided.”

While FIFA has been dealing with its conflicts, there have been independent issues in participating countries. Canada, Spain and France have each had disputes between players and federations.

Fern Whelan, former England and current Brighton & Hove Albion defender, expressed her worry of the turmoil in international football but that the rapid development of the game has brought issues to the forefront.

Though many issues have risen through this year’s World Cup, it has not hindered the excitement and anticipation for this summer. All eyes are on New Zealand and Australia as we get closer to July 20.

Eras Tour

Continued from page 1

Although every single era was given the same love and energy, getting to see “Reputation” live was extremely exciting and had the crowd going wild. It was also sentimental to be able to see early albums like “Fearless,” “Speak Now” and “Red” performed once again, especially for those that grew up with Swift. Each of her songs and albums represented a different time of life, and for many young women today, Taylor Swift’s songs played a pivotal role in their ability to heal and grow from heartbreaks and first life experiences. She became like a big sister to a generation, and seeing her relive these moments in concert was a life-chang- ing experience for many.

It was also an incredible opportunity to hear both “Evermore ‘’ and “Folklore” songs performed live, as these albums were recorded and released by Swift during quarantine. While she has performed a few songs from these albums live since, neither one was able to have its own concert or tour. Swift delivered with a huge theatrical flair, dressed whimsically in a beautiful dress and elaborate dance numbers complete with fire, diving into a mysterious pool and climbing onto a table. It truly was the experience of a lifetime.

One of the most notable aspects of Swift’s character is always evident when she speaks candidly to her fans. In-between many songs, Swift took the opportunity to speak a bit to her fans and show her gratitude by expressing her love for her audience. She spoke about her thankfulness to her fans for always having her back and her desire for her fans to be able to have a personal connection to her music.

Every concert was rewarded with two surprise songs, and during the Friday performance, the people of Atlanta got to hear “The Other Side of the Door” from the “Fearless” album and “Coney Island” from “Evermore.” It was an extremely exciting surprise to hear “The Other Side of the Door,” which is not one of the most well-known of the “Fearless” songs.