LRN April 2017

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Lenoir-Rhyne University School of Journalism and Mass Comm LENOIR-RHYNEAN NEWS

Lenoir-Rhyne University School of Journalism and Mass Communication

LENOIR-RHYNEAN NEWS

VOL. 111 — ISSUE 8

APRIL 2017

VOL. 110 — ISSUE 2

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Lenoir-Rhyne University School of Journalism and Mass Communication LENOIR-RHYNEAN NEWS

VOL. 110 — ISSUE 2

SEPTEMBER 20

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VOL. 110 — ISSUE 2

SEPTEMBER 2015

FAMOUS CONSERVATIONIST AND CHILDREN’S TV STAR BRINGS HIS MENAGERIE TO LR

By Leah Bobbett & Florian Lemmel | LRN Monthly Staff Writers

Looking like he just got back from safari, Jack Hanna with his iconic hat in front of LR’s Student Center. FLORIAN LEMMEL | LRN MONTHLY

When Jack Hanna hit the stage in Lenoir-Rhyne’s Shufford Gym on the evening of March 27 he looked like he just returned from a safari. His sand-colored shirt, hiking boots and iconic hat threw a shadow on his weather-worn smiling face.

LR’s gym was packed with kids, their parents and grandparents, along with LR students whose eyes were locked on the stage. Without wasting time for a long introduction, Hanna started talking right away about the things he loves: animals. In his live shows he happily presents short video clips of his travels, allowing his audience to experience his encounters with animals in the wild.

Hanna showed how emotional it was when he witnessed young silverback gorillas making nests to sleep in, young elephants learning how to take a dirt bath, or how various disabled animals have found new joy in life. The audience’s response was wonderful, and Hanna himself seemed as if he could watch these clips a hundred times, reliving those moments with the animals again and again.

More exciting than this, however, was that he brings a number of exotic and wild animals to his shows for people to see in person, many for the first time. The animals that Hanna brings to his live shows can vary from to penguins to cheetahs.

When Hanna visited Lenoir-Rhyne, his entourage included a black footed penguin, a ring tailed lemur, a serval cat, a kangaroo and cheetahs. The juvenile cheetahs in particular were a hit with the crowd. One of the baby cheetahs ran throughout the gym as fast as it could while pulling its handler who holding its leash.

Some of Hanna’s stories are funny; some are sad; some are incredible – like the one he told about the monkey he watched face down a king cobra and come out the victor. The monkey was able to do this because king cobras track movement, according to Hanna. The monkey ran around the cobra in circles until the snake fell down from either dizziness or being

SEE JACK, PAGE 3

NEW DORMS FOR LR AS THE UNIVERSITY GROWS, SO DO ITS STUDENT HOUSING OPTIONS

By Leah Bobbett | LRN Monthly Staff Writer

Crews begin clearing the land for the construction of LR’s newest residence halls. LEAH BOBBETT | LRN MONTHLY

LR’s increasing enrollment is a sign of the university’s health and vitality, but it brings growing pains as well. On-campus student housing is at a premium these days; in fact students have been living in overflow housing in LR’s business building for years now.

That’s about to change. Lenoir-Rhyne will spend the summer building a trio of new residence halls off Sixth Street. The goal is to have them ready for students to move in at the beginning of the 2017 school year.

“Right now on the housing application I have it called Sixth Street Hall because it’s off Sixth

Street,” Lenoir-Rhyne Housing Director Jonathan Rink said. “That will more than likely not be the name. We’re coming up with different ways where we can maybe get some student involvement in naming the residence hall, but its official name has not been picked yet.”

The school most often names buildings after families or people who have donated to LenoirRhyne. However, as these new dorms aren’t being funded the same way as normal residence halls and school buildings are, this may well be a unique opportunity for Lenoir-Rhyne’s students to decide the new dorms’ names. “(I would like) for students to decide (what to name the new residence hall),” Lenoir-Rhyne’s Dean of Students Katie Fisher said. “I don’t want it to be too cheesy of a name. Everything around here we talk about The Cave, The Bears Lair, and we get a little (bear obsessed).”

This new residence hall will be apartment-style living for LR’s sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Lenoir-Rhyne is currently planning to build three buildings, and a fourth is in the works. Each building is expected to house 32 students, four students per apartment, two per bedroom. By the

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time the fourth residence hall apartment is built Lenoir-Rhyne will be able to house roughly 128 students in the new area.

Each residence hall room will have a kitchenette, a living room, a bathroom and two bedrooms.

Each living room will have a TV installed and mounted to the walls like in Price Village. LenoirRhyne’s Information and Technology team will spend part of its summer installing the TVs. But that’s not all the IT team will be doing to help the students in their new rooms this fall.

“We’ll be coming in and putting in wireless access points,” Lenoir-Rhyne’s Chief Information Officer John Rosebrock said. “All the wires for that have to be put in before the walls go up, so we have to get in there during the construction phase to run the phone lines and other cables.”

The new residence hall will be located on the property behind Isenhour Hall in what, until recently, was a wooded area. Already Lenoir-Rhyne has begun to clear the land and the residence hall is expected to be finished by Aug. 1, roughly two weeks before Lenoir-Rhyne students are back on campus to begin the Fall 2017 semester.

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LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

TICK-TOCK

NEWS

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE SHARE THEIR TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS

By Julia Ponomareva | LRN Monthly Contributor

CNBC recently published an article about time management and how to be successful, according to some of the American most famous entrepreneurs. Indeed, most of these millionaires manage to accomplish more in a day than most of us do in a week. They claim not to waste their time on things as phones and TV; they always try to stay fit, which helps their body to stay on top of its abilities; they don’t drink and don’t eat junk food; they create checklists and have time to finish all their work.

Amazing, isn’t it? But what can we, as students, do to maximize our days – and is it even possible to follow all these rules?

Opening the discussion of time management with “workout every morning” is Richard Branson, billionaire CEO and entrepreneur, who claims that he wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. to work out. I asked some LR athletes what they think of morning practices.

“I remember when we had to run at 5 a.m. with the team. I would say that it sounds worse than it is,” Abbi Wood, junior at LR said. “It actually charges you for the rest of the day and makes you feel good about yourself.”

BEING

But is it really productive?

According to sleepfoundation.org, younger adults need a minimum of seven hours of sleep every day, which means that if a student wants to wake up at 5 a.m., he or she has to go to bed at 10 p.m. What am I, a baby? some would say. Indeed, it doesn’t sound realistic for students, as an average student goes to bed around 12 a.m.

The second tip was to make “knockout lists” every morning.

Marcus Lemonis, Camping World’s CEO, proposes to “make a list of the five things you want to get done that day” and start doing those things right away. It’s great if you can do more things in addition to those five, but even if not, you’ll have a productive day anyway.

“As a senior, time management means a lot to me. Sometimes, the ability to do this is the difference between an F and an A,” John Alderson, senior at LR and the captain of the men’s soccer team said.

“Having a knockdown list helped me during my freshman year, and it helps me now.”

I asked people to vote on the tip they consider the most helpful. Of the people I polled, 80 percent said

one of the best time management ideas lies in the difference between the words “over” and “next.”

Television writer and producer Norman Lear said understanding the difference in meaning of these two words sometimes may cost you a lot of saved time.

“When something is over, it’s over.

We’re onto the next,” Lear said to CNBC. “I live in that moment. It took

me 93 years to get there.”

“Being able to manage your time is crucial for students of all ages,” Zorica Djuric, Tennis Graduate Assistant said. “In academics, sports or in anything else - if you know the cost of your time - you will never treat it with negligence.”

For more time management tips visit topuniversities.com or bigfuture.collegeboard.org.

Sara Kalkenova uses a “knockout list” to organize her work in Rudisill Library.

JULIA PONOMAREVA | LRN MONTHLY

YOUR OWN BOSS LR’S INCUBATOR HELPS STUDENTS BUILD BUSINESSES

By Florian Lemmel | LRN Monthly Staff Writer

The first floor of Mauney Hall hosts a unique Griffith wouldn’t invite someone to the incubator embarrassed to use the medical-looking inhaler in space on campus. In front of a big TV screen on class if he wasn’t sure whether his or her idea for public. the wall, white tables create a u-shape, and the a company could grow. Once he believes in an “When we were researching problems, I red, blue and orange seats add little spots of idea’s potential, he stands behind his students and mentioned the idea to a kid. She was a six-year-old color in the room. On the other side of the wall a is willing to give advice – even via text message in girl, and she liked the idea,” Ambroggio said. “She paper printed with the name “Foody-call” hangs the middle of the night. really liked the idea, and she suggested a shape – under the words “Today’s project” written with “One thing that he’s expecting from you is to be she wanted it to look like a princess.” an orange dry erase marker. Another wall has passionate about your idea,” Santiago Ambroggio, His idea didn’t come out of nowhere. Being an colorful drawings on it of computers, a world map an accounting major at LR, said. “When you’re asthmatic himself, he said that he never wanted and diagrams. A man drawn on the wall in blue is (in the incubator class) you need to understand to use the inhaler in public when he was a kid, writing a list with “idea, plan, activities” next to that he’s spending time for your project, so he even when it became hard for him to breathe. words like “work” and “motivation.” want us to do the same. You have to work every The customizable case should change that, This is the classroom for the incubator week, come back with progress, and not make the although Ambroggio had difficulties finding the class, taught by Dr. Ralph Griffith, Professor of assignments just to get the credits, but to push right material to produce prototypes. His first Entrepreneurship and Director of the Center for and turn this idea into reality.” prototypes were designed using a computer Commercial and Social Entrepreneurship at Lenoir- Ambroggio is part of the incubator class. His software and were then created using a 3-D Rhyne University. In the incubator class students idea is it to turn asthma inhalers for people into printer. Now he is working with soft stress-ball and community members learn how to build their friendlier devices by creating a customizable case type cases. The name of his company is “My Buddy business over the course of one semester in 25 for it. This idea is especially for kids, who are Case.” steps.

“I’m a businessman. I know that having a “I think everybody owns a problem – degree is important because it really opens everyone has problems every day,” Griffith your mind, but I don’t want to have a job said. “We teach in (the incubator class) where I just use my degree,” Ambroggio that where others see problems, we see said. “I prefer having my own business and opportunities.” managing my own time and being my own For Griffith, solving a problem is the key to boss.” creating a successful business and the reason Though people might think it’s too why others fail. In Griffith’s opinion, most early to think about business plans in your companies that go bankrupt were only built sophomore year, Griffith still wants to to make money, not to solve a problem. That encourage students to take the next step. is why Griffith does not even need an idea to Taking the right steps is what moves you encourage a student to develop a business. from having an idea to developing a business “We are really problem-based and we use that makes money in the future – and solves a technique that is called ‘design thinking,’ a problem. to identify a problem and define a solution “I often say to them, ‘There is no better using empathy to understand the problem time in your life (to create a business),’” that exists and create a better solution Griffith said. “You don’t have a mortgage for it,” he said. “Then we build a business payment, you don’t have car payments, and model after we have decided that we have if your business fails you still go to the ‘caf’ something for people to solve a problem.” and eat dinner and you still go to your dorm This business model can be orientated on and sleep at night. If you fail outside and existing models on the market, but Griffith afterwards, you probably lost a bunch of your said they would think about creating a whole money, plus you’ve been given no money new model when there is nothing there that and experts to help you commercialize and fits the needs of the problem. “Think outside give you knowledge on how to do it. There the box” is written on the wall in green is no better time ever in your entire life to letters, an important concept when thinking create a business. You never have more time, about ideas that could make a business. And or energy, or creativity in your mind to create not only a one-man business, but a business Santiago Ambroggio shows off his prototypes for “My Buddy Case.” something than now, so now is the time to FLORIAN LEMMEL | LRN MONTHLY that is able to expand and creates jobs. do something and to take some risks.”

NEWS

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

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JACK from page 1 unable to turn his head anymore. Once the snake was down the monkey ran forward and bit its head off. Hanna also told a story about the time he tried to eat bananas like a monkey, but had to throw up after he stuffed six bananas in his cheeks.

Hanna’s career began when he was a child on the family farm that he later turned into a petting zoo.

In 1973 he began working at the Central Florida Zoo. By 1978 he was on to the Columbus Zoo. During his time in Columbus Hanna changed the appearance of the zoo by replacing cage enclosures with natural looking habitats. The number of visitors tripled to 1.4 million annual visitors in 1992.

Today the Columbus Zoo has 2.3 million annual visitors and is ranked the No. 1 zoo in the U.S. by the USA Travel Guide.

Hanna’s success drew media attention and led to his appearance on numerous national hit television shows such as “Ellen,” “Good Morning America,” and “The David Letterman” show. He also got his own show: “Jungle Jack Hanna,” where he gets to explore the world with the intent of learning more about animals on his educational TV show.

“It’s helping people,” Hanna said. “It’s not just learning. you can’t learn something unless you help (and educate) the people. For example, you can’t go and talk about conservation first. You have to go and talk about education – education is the first thing we do at our zoos.”

Hanna, 70, doesn’t just work to educate those who watch “Jungle Jack Hanna” or visit the zoo. Hanna also works to educate and help residents of local areas when it comes to animal conservation. “(I learned years ago that) you can’t go into some place where someone might be consuming a certain type of bird and tell them they can’t do that when (the people) have done it for thousands of years,” Hanna said.

“You have to go into there and talk to them, explain to them and bring chickens. (You have to) show them what a chicken is.”

It’s an approach that’s beginning to turn things around.

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The final gu est of Jungle Jack Hanna’s Shufford Gym show in LR’s : one of thre e little chee F LO R IA N LE tahs.

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FREE SUMMER AT LR LIVING AT COLLEGE OVER THE SUMMER DOESN’T HAVE TO COST YOU A CENT

By Leah Bobbett | LRN Monthly Staff Writer

Not many people know this, but you can live on campus at Lenoir-Rhyne for free this summer. There’s two ways to go about it.

“Students can live on campus over the summer if they’re taking classes,” LR’s Director of Residence Life Jonathan Rink said.

However, just one class isn’t going to get you free room and board for the entire summer. There is a slight hitch.

“It can be any amount of credit hours, just depending on how many credit hours you take will determine the cost for summer housing,” Rink said. “If a student takes 11 or more hours during the summer, housing is free of charge. If they take between eight to 10 hours it’s half price, and anything below eight hours is full price for the summer.”

Summer classes are taught a little differently than most LR classes. The fall and spring semesters are twice as long as the summer terms, so get ready to learn a whole lot faster in the summertime because the same amount of info’s going to be covered in half the time.

The other option for living on campus over the summer for those who don’t wish to take classes is to work on campus for various LR departments, such as Conferences and Events.

Over the summer, LR hosts many conferences, camps and various other events where students are hired to set up, take down and clean up from all the events to help the school run smoothly.

Even though it may seem like you

would do nothing but homework over the summer, student Bailey Jenkins who lived on campus over the summer and worked for Conferences and Events said she had plenty of free time.

“If you’re worried about the job, don’t be,” Jenkins said. “It’s not that hard. … We only had to work two or three days a week, and if we wanted time off then we just had to request it like a week or two in advance.”

All the free time allowed the summer students to get to know each other better. It gave many the chance to spend time with people they didn’t expect to meet and become friends with.

“We had a really mismatched group of people, like they were really just random,” Jenkins said. “I got to meet a lot of different people because of it, and it was really cool, but it was really funny since I never expected some of these people to stay over the summer.”

All students are housed in Price Village units during the summer. This space acts as a central hub for the students to be able to spend time relaxing and getting to know each other.

“It was kind of cool that everyone was in one spot,” said Lenoir-Rhyne student Amanda Mikeal who stayed over the summer to attend classes.

“Everyone was in Price Village, so if you needed help or were looking for someone, you already knew where to go. It was kind of weird, seeing the campus so empty, but it was cool because you got so close with everyone who was there.”

Bailey Jenkins showing the Price Village unit where she lived over the summer of 2016. LEAH BOBBETT | LRN MONTHLY

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ENTERTAINMENT

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

ARE YOU GAME? LR VIDEO GAME CLUB HOSTS A 24-HOUR GAME-A-THON

By Katelyn Mendenhall | LRN Monthly Contributor

With gun in hand, you make your way through the rubble of an abandoned airfield. Waves of the undead, like packs of limping dogs, roam the area waiting to attack whoever comes in their path.

To some, the rush of adrenaline, cold, clammy hands and apocalyptic reality is a nightmare – to others, it’s simply a game.

“You could probably do Zombies kind of based on the honor system,” Joshua Ring, Lenoir-Rhyne University chemistry professor and faculty advisor for the Video Game Club said.

He’s referring to the 24-hour event that the LR Video Game Club is hosting on April 28, where there will be a Call of Duty: Black-Ops Zombies competition, among several others, running for an entire day. The game-a-thon will take place below the Cromer lobby in “The Cave,” and participation doesn’t cost a dime. In fact, the tournaments will be sponsored by Tespa, “the NCAA of competitive video games,” Elijah Blackwell, secretary of the Video Game Club said, which means there will be handsome prizes for the winners.

For those interested in less-deadly games, at 4 p.m., the chaos of Rocket League will begin.

“It’s like soccer, but with cars,” Olivia Gause, president of the Video Game Club said.

She means it quite literally. Instead of players running around a turf field, they drive rocket-powered cars with names like Gizmo, Octane, Road Hog and X-Devil, attempting to score goals. It’s a game where hip checks aren’t just fouls – they’re collisions.

There will be three hours of Nintendo characters battling one another in Super Smash Bros., as well as a few rounds of the strategic spell-slinging digital card game

Hearthstone.

And if you’ve ever wondered what kind of virtual creatures roam around LR in the wee hours of the morning, you may want to join the 1 a.m.

Pokémon Go hunt around campus.

However, it’s not recommended to travel alone, though doing so may have a benefit.

“If I die, I don’t have to stay up the whole 24 hours,” Video Game Club member Tyson Stevenson said.

At 3 a.m., you can disguise yourself “as something as small as an Expo marker” in a game of Prop Hunt, according to Garrett Baker, the club’s vice president.

Several other games will be offered—you’re also welcome to bring your own favorites and a game console or laptop. The grand prize giveaways will be at 2 p.m. on April 29 for those who manage to

keep their eyelids open and thumbs twiddling that long.

“I want it to be a place for people from whatever grades, whatever backgrounds, to come together and play with a group of people you might not have otherwise,” Gause said. “The goal is to have a community.”

The Video Game Club has worked hard to create an atmosphere for gamers who normally play in their dorms to be able to socialize and share common interests with others on campus.

“It really brings out the people and who they really are,” LR sophomore Walter Hernandez said.

The whole idea is kind of a dream.

Imagine playing a game where you never have to stand up, run agonizing sprints or feel the sun blazing down on your back. What if you could

sit in the comfort of a cushioned chair wearing sweats with no more than the danger of carpal tunnel threatening you with injury? Those are some of the perks of being part of the Video Game Club, as well as the social aspect of meeting others with the same interests.

So, after the 24-hour game-a-thon, what’s next? The club has weekly meetings at 6 p.m. on Fridays in “The Cave” as well as a long-term vision.

“I know this might be dangerous to say,” Ring said. “We have a football team, and we have a lacrosse team, and we have a debate team, and we have different teams that are supported through the University in various ways. It would be cool to possibly one day have an eSports team as well.”

Elijah Blackwell and Kati Waldrop play FIFA 17 in “The Cave.”

KATELYN MENDENHALL | LRN MONTHLY

WHO THE LR YOU? LENOIR-RHYNE UNIVERSITY’S JOE BEAR MASCOT REVEALS HIS IDENTITY

By Haley Wilkins | LRN Monthly Contributor

Everyone, meet our school mascot Joe Bear, better known as Jonah Williams.

Williams is a criminal justice major from Kings Mountain. He got started mascoting at Kings Mountain High School where he proudly embodied the Mountaineer for two years. When he came to LR last fall he immediately signed up for Joe Bear mascot auditions.

“The coach couldn’t make the audition, so she went by our applications,” Williams said. “She saw that I had been a mascot before, and called asking if I wanted to be Joe (Bear) – I said yes.”

It’s not an easy job, but he’s up for the challenge.

“My favorite part of being the mascot is the crowd. It’s also the hardest part,” Williams said.

“When your team is down, it takes a lot to keep the crowd lively and still cheering.”

The secret to being a good mascot is a pechant for dancing, a tolerance for heat and a lack of shyness, according to Williams.

“If you are going to be a mascot, you’ve got to give 100 percent all the time. You cannot give any less. You need all your energy going into the crowd,” Williams said. “You also need to have fun – if you aren’t having fun out there, then it’s not worth it all.”

Mascots tend to keep their identities a secret.

The people underneath all the faux fur and giant heads keep their names unknown to keep the character alive. However, Williams has broken with that tradition.

“I think being a school mascot is something to tell people about,” Williams said. “Not many people can say that they are or were their college mascot.”

As a Bear of Distinction, a program where student workers give campus tours to visitors, Williams tells every tour group he meets that they’re in the presence Joe Bear.

“It lets them know what all they can do on campus as students,” he said.

Williams is also a member of LR’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

“Telling my (fraternity) brothers about being the bear was fun,” Williams said. “They would always come see me during games, yell for me while I was dancing or something. They would have just as much fun knowing who I was as I was having dancing and interacting with the crowd.”

So next time you are “Between the Bricks” or at a school spirit event, look for Joe Bear and yell a little louder now that you know the guy underneath it all.

Jonah Williams and his girlfriend, Skylar Smith, having some fun with the Joe Bear costume before a football game. HALEY WILKINS | LRN MONTHLY

CONTRIBUTORS: STAFF WRITERS:

Leah Bobbett Leah.Bobbett@my.lr.edu Florian Lemmel Florian.Lemmel@my.lr.edu

Cliff Barrett II Kyle Cerrito Richard Hall Bryana Hott Katelyn Mendenhall Julia Ponomareva Haley Wilkins

FACULTY ADVISORS: Dr. Lisa Harris Prof. Richard Gould

ENTERTAINMENT

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

LETTING THE CREATIVE JUICES

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DR. JEFFREY DELBERT ENCOURAGES STUDENTS TO GET INVOLVED WITH LR’S RADIO STATION

By Cliff Barrett II | LRN Monthly Contributor

The radio is a way to produce learn those techniques to hone your “consistency and flavor” to The beauty, harmony and express sales techniques. You might also just Lair. He wants to bring a little bit of emotion. create podcasts. We need people everything to the station. It varies Dr. Jeffrey Delbert is the advisor of to talk about a number of different depending on what audience he’s WLRZ 99.3, the Lenoir-Rhyne campus issues on campus that relate to trying to target. station, and he wants students to get students as we really want this to be Beam says what his listeners really involved and get their voices out on a campus forum.” want is variety. the airwaves.

Lenoir-Rhyne student and football “I feel like our students want “There are a lot of creative player Ray Beam’s mission is to bring to hear a little bit of everything. students on campus that have great voices with things to say who may think you have to be a communications major to be able to use the station, but that is not true.” Delbert said. “I would like the students to know that it’s open to everyone. With some brief training sessions anyone can participate.

You don’t have to be onair speaking, but you can create playlists, or you can try to generate some underwriting. If you are a Dahquan Pauling talks on the radio station for the first time in his four years at Lenoir-Rhyne. business student you might CLIFF BARRETT II | LRN MONTHLY

GET READY

Everybody has their own ear for music,” Beam said.

WLRZ wants to stay relevant and keep the students updated with music as well as the topics going on at the school and in our society.

“I’ve been to the radio station only a few times. Each time I’ve been, it was a great experience because I got to know how everything operated even though it was on a small scale,” LR student Dahquan Pauling said. “The only thing I might tell students is that, if you want to do something on campus, whether you have to start the organization or not, get involved because it will be worth the experience you receive.”

WLRZ is looking for a whole new feel to the station. The equipment is there. All that’s missing is the students.

LR’S STUDENT-PRODUCED PLAY IS BACK

OFFICE OF STUDENT LIFE CALLS FOR STUDENT PARTICIPATION

By Leah Bobbett | LR Monthly Staff Writer

By Bryana Hott | LRN Monthly Contributor

TO MAKE A SCENE Making Scenes is a chance for student actors, directors, designers and writers to collaborate on a fully student-produced play. The show happens at the end of every spring semester at LR. For this play, the theater faculty takes a step back and lets the theater students demonstrate what they have been learning in their stage production and management classes as well as their directing classes.

Each of the six scenes will be roughly 10 minutes long, making for roughly an hour and a half long play including intermission. This year there will be a total of six directors who will each be directing one scene. The directors for this show are chosen by their enrollment in the theater directing class. All scenes are chosen from among the submitted scripts. Each director chooses the script that they like the best. “(Making Scenes) is basically a chance for the theater directing students to show what they’ve learned throughout the course of their major or minor and to showcase how far they’ve come,” Lenoir-Rhyne junior theater major and one of Making Scenes’ directors Melissa “Milli” Koncelik said.

Making Scenes is not just for theater students, however. Students from all majors, as well as members of the Hickory community, are

encouraged to audition and take part in the show.

“If you’re interested in doing theater, but not as much the time commitment, (‘Making Scenes’) is the one that has the least amount of commitment,” Lenoir-Rhyne senior theater major and one of Making Scenes directors Justin Chapman said. “Not that it’s not a commitment that requires your focus and attention over some other things, but it’s not as intense as other rehearsal processes.”

Other students agree.

“It’s not as stressful, I would say,” Koncelik said. “It’s a little bit more laid back, because it’s so studentheavy, because I know sometimes it’s intimidating when you go into a room with a seasoned director and you’re a new actor or actress and there’s the pressure to be really good. Whereas for this one, it’s very beginnerfriendly and peer-friendly.”

Auditions for the play have already passed, however there are other ways that students can get involved with the play. Those who want to get involved can contact the theater department and offer to help with stage and prop creation or to help give out programs to the show goers.

The show opens on April 27 and runs through April 29. Each performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Belk Centrum.

Lenoir-Rhyne student director Melissa “Milli” Koncelik choosing the scenes she’ll be directing for this year’s Making Scenes 2017 play. LEAH BOBBETT | LRN MONTHLY

It’s no secret that Lenoir-Rhyne is small. No one who knows LR would call it a party school. Students very rarely stay on campus on the weekends once football season is over. Students here often complain that there’s nothing to do on campus except go to class, eat, then go back to bed.

In early December, LR’s Student Life Office started publicizing a fundraising event called a Dance-AThon. It was to be held in the Cromer Center lobby from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. on March 24. Participants were asked to form teams of six or more people, and each team was responsible for raising $250 as their “buy-in” to the dance. People were allowed to start a GoFundMe, search out sponsors or just fund it themselves. It’s a simple fundraising technique, and all the proceeds would go to Levine Children’s Hospital.

In the last week of February there were only two teams signed up and the office began to actively seek out some involvement so that the fundraiser could go on as planned.

They were unsuccessful. No more teams signed up for the Dance-AThon.

“The event has been completely cancelled,” LR’s Director of Student Activities, Jodi Jabs said.

The dance was originally scheduled to feature a DJ, different vendors, games to play to pass the time, and most importantly to the broke college student – free food! Everything was set up to accomodate a night full of dancing and playing, all while raising money for a worthy cause.

But for that to happen, LR students actually needed to participate. Lack of involvement got the Dance-AThon canceled. The whole plan fell through.

“It’s just frustrating to try and plan fun events for students on

campus and have such a lack of participation,” LR’s Campus Activity Board Vice President Caitlin Waters said. “Personally, I was the same way until I got involved with CAB.” LR’s administration is working on sustainable strategies to enhance student life.

“We have a choice on whether we’re going to give stuff away– which is a good thing– but we can’t only give things away if we want to have good educational programs,” LR’s Dean of Student Life Katie Fisher said.

“So you have to figure out where the balance is so you can do one or the other, but giving things away doesn’t actually provide any stuff to do and doing only stuff isn’t enough to draw people out to participate.”

Many LR students feel that some of CAB’s events are missing the mark.

“I definitely think CAB does some awesome stuff, but I also think that they need to make sure that the programs they pay for are things that the students actually want to do,” said LR sophomore Morgan Bush.

“The winter wonderland and spring fling stuff, I like that; I come to that.”

She said CAB’s efforts at redesigning some events has turned out great.

“Revamping those Spring Fling and Winter Wonderland events,” Bush said. “Like this year for Winter Wonderland, they had the snowboarding simulator thing, and that was so much fun.”

However, many of the students interviewed said that events where CAB gives away free stuff are their favorite events to attend.

“Because we’re broke college students,” LR Freshman Ariona Smith said. “The free stuff is a big draw to come to Cromer and actually participate in something.”

6

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

NOM NOM?

FOOD

IT’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BURGERS AND ASIAN CUISINE COLLIDE

By Kyle Cerrito | LRN Monthly Contributor

Nom Nom: Noun – delicious food/ Exclamation – used to express pleasure when eating, or at the prospect of eating delicious food.

Each dish on the House of Nom Nom’s menu is stolen, yet original.

The owner Mark Vang, 28, admits to it as he sits at a table where he can monitor each of his customers and their satisfaction with the burgers he has crafted for the restaurant.

“We really just took a bunch of food we liked from restaurants back home (in Santa Barbara, Calif.) and put it together here; then we were like, ‘Put it on a burger.’” he said.

“We didn’t want to just shoot for the Hmong community, so we put it on a burger. People know what a burger is.”

A man of Hmong descent himself, Vang calls how he incorporates traditional dishes into each burger “Asian Fusion”, and with only seven variations that range from the more familiar-sounding All American Cheese Burger to the more adventurous-sounding Pho (pronounced fuh) Burger, the burger shop smells one expects of quarterpound Angus beef patties join with the fragrance of char siu, hoisin, teriyaki, grilled pineapple, Sriracha, bulgogi and a dash of cilantro to create a buffet of smells you can enjoy from well beyond the parking lot.

Located at 2101 Catawba Valley Blvd. SE in Hickory, you could never tell that Nom Nom’s storefront used

to belong to a Quiznos sub sandwich shop. To the left of the entrance sits a couch and coffee table combo that, even at 3 p.m., remains inhabited.

The shimmer of hanging light bulbs illuminates the restaurant with a soft, flattering glow. The rear wall that Vang’s sister painted black serves as the ideal canvas for the owner and his sister to display some of their favorite sayings, Bible verses and the definition of nom nom featured above.

“She did an excellent job – drew everything freehand,” Vang said. “I just make the food.”

About three times each day, he takes a break from the chaos of the kitchen and sits down at a table, leans back and surveys his customer base with a broad smile; then, he springs up to check on his clientele.

As he travels from table to table and talks with whoever isn’t completely absorbed by the tastes of their meal, his youthful voice and exuberance betray his relatively young age for a restaurant owner; in fact, almost the entire staff is still in college, according to Vang.

“We’re just a bunch of young kids trying to do something good,” he said.

Nom Nom employee Marla Vang (no relation), 20, was drawn to the restaurant for that exact reason.

“I just really liked the food, and everyone is so young,” she said. “It all felt comfortable and friendly, and the couch is really comfortable.”

House of Nom Nom owner Mark Vang prepares the beef and over-medium egg for his Bulgogi Burger. KYLE CERRITO | LRN MONTHLY

But what excites Mr. Vang the most about his restaurant?

His already broad smile extends to the point you’d think it’d hurt as he revels in the recent success of Nom Nom to attract more than Hmong and young people. He observes that some people in Hickory are easily frightened at the prospect of trying new things, but more and more have been willing to wait in line to try, in a futile effort, to pronounce the menu items correctly. According to Mr. Vang, most people start with the All American or the BBQ Bacon Burger then slowly work their way through the Pineapple Teriyaki, Banh Mi, Bulgogi and Pho Burgers, and few are brave enough to try the non-burger items that round out one of Hickory’s

most limited menus. However, despite the restaurant giving fewer than 12 entrée options, LR student and Nom Nom regular Katelyn Mendenhall, 19, sees it as a bonus.

“I don’t look at the menu and worry like, ‘Oh no, is everything good?’” she said. “I think because the menu is smaller they are able to specialize and focus on making everything delicious.”

Delicious? You’ll have to decide that for yourself, and as Mr. Vang looks to the future, he hopes simply to make a consistently good product that people will like. For more information and House of Nom Nom’s menu, go to www.facebook. com/houseofnomnom.

THE CAF’S SECRET MENU ITEM EXPLORE A HIDDEN DELICACY IN LR’S DINING HALL

By Katelyn Mendelhall | LRN Monthly Contributor

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of the kitchen, a cardboard box rests below the stainless steel countertop on a stool one foot off the ground – inside the box are three sweet potatoes sitting like bars of gold in a safety deposit box. In a few hours, they will be baked to perfection with a sprinkle of brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup and then served on one of the cafeteria’s licorice-colored red or black plates to Edie Webb and Kylie LoPorto.

“Usually if I don’t see them, they’ll come looking for me, which I’ve always wanted,” Chef Robert Hand said. “Women looking for me? Oh yeah.”

The sweet potatoes are Hand’s secret menu item for vegan and vegetarian students eating in LenoirRhyne University’s dining hall, better known as “The Caf.” If you’ve ever ordered something that’s not on a restaurant’s menu, then you know this habit isn’t out of the ordinary for chefs who care about their customers. For instance, the Olde Hickory Tap Room in downtown Hickory has an extensive dinner menu with 12 side items including pub chips, fresh apples and rice pilaf, but no steamed broccoli. But if you request it, you’ll soon have

Edie Webb tries The Caf’s brussels sprouts at lunch as she and Kylie LoPorto talk about the different options LR provides for vegan and vegetarian students—some dishes aren’t their favorite. KATELYN MENDENHALL | LRN MONTHLY

a bowl of the cooked broccoli with fresh, warm scents glistening under your nose. The same concept is true at LR. “For dinner they’ll make us something if we ask,” LoPorto, 19, said.

Every day at lunch, Webb and LoPorto, freshmen friends and lacrosse teammates, journey through The Caf’s salad bar to build a meal they can eat.

They pile spinach in their bowls to create the base—corn, garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries are layered one after the other with balsamic vinaigrette to finish it off. With a quick whiff, one can detect a hint of sourness from the dressing, but it’s forgiven by the appetizing palette of vibrant colors.

At the end of the counter, Webb and LoPorto grab bananas from the triple-level metal baskets stacked with fruit. On either side of the fruit display are two water containers, one with lime and orange wheels floating inside and the other with apple slices. “(If they have it out,) sometimes I spice it up and get cucumber water,” Webb, 18, said.

She makes her way to the area that normally houses vegetarian options. Today’s choices are seasoned rice and an Italian vegetable blend of reds, greens and crinkle-cut carrots. Webb walks away with a few brussels sprouts.

Before they sit down, she and LoPorto are sure to find Hand or another chef and tell him when they’ll be back to eat dinner.

“They’ll usually give me a time,” Hand said. “So I’ll aim somewhere within 15 to 20 minutes of their arrival to pull it out of the oven.”

Webb has been a vegetarian for almost two years, and LoPorto was for five years until she decided to “go all the way” and become vegan, which she’s been for the past year and a half. That means no meat, no eggs, no butter or anything else that comes from animals.

As Webb picks the beans out of her rice and transfers them onto a side plate with the other unwanted portions of her and her friend’s meals, LoPorto crumples a napkin and places it on top of the pile as the crowning touch on their valiant effort to give The Caf’s regular meal a fair shot.

They put their dishes away with an air of

hopefulness because they know that in a few hours, when they return for dinner after practice, a meal made just for them awaits.

“You suit yourself to cook for whoever is there,” Hand said. “You never go in thinking you’re just going to do one kind of a dish, never.”

Hand started cooking in 1987. He worked at a truck stop pumping gas – one day, the breakfast cook didn’t show up, “and the rest is ancient history.” Hand was a chef for 15 years before his girlfriend at the time (now wife) prodded him to go to culinary school. It was a three-year program – he graduated in 16 months.

“We’re not all Gordon Ramsey,” Hand said.

“We’re fun to hang around…when the music’s not blasting.”

With the sporadic playlist, including reggae, opera, heavy metal or anything in between, drowning out the sound of clanging pots and exhaust hoods, he prepares the regular menu and plans what Webb and LoPorto will have for dinner.

If it’s not the sweet potatoes, Hand makes a tofu dish – tofu is blocks of condensed soy that are created in a process similar to the way cheese is made, according to authoritynutrition.com. Hand makes the tofu with different sauces; recently, he’s tried a Cajun-flavored dish and a sesame ginger one.

“He won’t call it going out of his way,” Chef Manager Frank Langley said. “He just calls it doing his job.”

Between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., Webb and LoPorto go to The Caf for dinner. Sometimes Hand brings the sweet potatoes out to them already sliced into bite-sized quarters—the warm aroma of maple and brown sugar fills the air as he leans over to set the plates down. Otherwise, the meal is waiting for them in a food warmer behind the counter.

When there are edible orchids in the kitchen’s refrigerator, Hand garnishes their plates with the purple flowers.

“I live by a philosophy – if you do something great and 10 people hear about it, you’re doing all right,” Hand said. “But in the meantime, if you do something horrible, you’re guaranteed 100 people are going to hear about it – so I’d rather be great than horrible.”

OPINION

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

7

THE RIDDLE OF

PRICE TAGS AND EXPENSIVE DRIVING LICENSES THE LITTLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND GERMANY

My fourth month in your country is coming up, but I still haven’t run out of culture shocks. Believe me, I don’t make them up, but if you want to check them, it is time to schedule a trip to Germany.

Sometimes I think that you like making your lives complicated. No, I don’t want to talk about the advantages of the metric system – I’m talking about price tags. When I went to the book store on campus to buy an LR hoodie, the price tag dangling from it said $39.99. With two twenties in my hand I went to the cashier, only to hear that the amount of money I owed was $43. I know, you have to pay tax, but why do I have to do the math when I want to know how much something costs?

In Germany, well honestly in every country I have ever been to, the taxes you have to pay are already included in the price the price tag shows. So, if the tag says 39.99€ then you have to pay 39.99€. How much tax you have paid for the product is shown on the sales slip. I say it‘s easier this way, but maybe you‘re just used to the way it works here.

But there is a thing in the U.S. that is great, and I would bet that Americans don’t know how great it is. You might say it is one of the most normal things on earth, but believe me, it is great – it’s fantastic! When you order a drink in a restaurant, the server will come back to your table to ask whether you want a refill. A free refill? How great is that. Good luck asking for it in Germany, the country where some restaurants won‘t even give you tap water. In Germany, you have to pay for every glass you drink. So you maybe end up buying three Cokes when your stay is longer.

As far as I know, the reason for that is that restaurants make the biggest part of their profits

By Florian Lemmel | LRN Monthly Staff Writer

with drinks. So the restaurant wouldn’t be as profitable by just selling their food, that’s why they offer beverages and sell them for more than they cost in a store. Maybe that’s not 100-percent right, but either way, you don’t get free refills in Germany. Sad. Another huge difference between the U.S. and Germany is how you can get your driving license. When a friend told me that she took a Driver’s Education class for free in high school, it blew my mind. She said it was fairly easy and that the driving test was basically a drive around the building. Not so in Germany where

the process of getting a license is not only full of beautiful German words (who doesn’t want to take the driving test laced with amtlich anerkannten Sachverständigen or Prüfer für den Kraftfahrzeugverkehr?), but it‘s also very expensive.

To start classes you have to pay around $250, which covers all your theory courses. They consist of 12 general lessons and two lessons about the technology of the car. Each lesson is 90 minutes long. After four lessons you can start with your driving lessons, which cost between $20 and $30 for 45 minutes of driving. It depends on your driving instructor how many lessons you need apart from the required lessons. The required lessons are a five-hour drive on country roads, a four-hour drive on the Autobahn and a three-hour nighttime drive.

Even if you complete all these lessons, it‘s your instructor who decides whether you are ready for the driving test. In the test, which takes 45 minutes, you have to show that you can drive in traffic, park your car in different ways and that you can drive in an environmentally friendly way. (To find out more about the requirements you can read the Fahrerlaubnisverordnung.)

After paying the fees for the theoretical exam and the driving test you have paid between $1,000 and $1,500. I guess that’s slightly more than you paid. And no, you are not all set. The license you get after all that is just a two-year probationary license, so you better be more than careful.

Getting permission to drive in Germany is a money pit.

Does it make us better drivers? I don’t know.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear LRN Editor, I am writing to you with concern on a piece that was published in your February edition of the paper called “Brutality isn’t Love.” Though I understand why this article was posted and the importance of it, I feel its phrasing, words and sentences should have been more polished and edited In Paragraph 5, the writer claims that, “Victims of dating violence can show many different symptoms such as depression and anxiety.” This claim is stated without references or factual research. Anxiety and depression, though they can be symptoms, are also vital issues that merit individual attention – not just being lumped

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My suggestion: Don’t just address the fact that Finally, the last sentence says, “Many suffer February is Teen Dating Awareness Month, but through these symptoms alone, but there are Complet e t he crosswo also state (if you are going to talk about depression many avenues of help.” and anxiety) that May 7-13 is National Anxiety and True, there are many avenues out there to Depression awareness week. help these people, but when you say “they suffer Both issues deserve your attention and alone,” be careful not to generalize a group of consideration. people – because not all go through it alone.

2 Another problem with this story is in your Overall, I feel that this article was a great choice 3 lack of data supporting your claim that, “They to bring awareness to the issue of domestic Name: may resort to drug use.” There is no statistical violence, just be careful when writing about this 4 evidence in your article that leads me to believe serious of a topic that you back up claims with this is true. Putting two broad statements backresearch, facts and data. t he attention crossword to-back,Complet can lose the e readers’ and causebelow Sincerely, 5 them to question your credibility and where your 1Sabrina Powell

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SPORTS

LRN MONTHLY | APRIL 2017

BEARS IN BEASTMODE LR’S SOFTBALL TEAM DOMINATING THE DIAMOND

By Richard Hall | LRN Monthly Contributor

The Lenoir-Rhyne University softball team has been on a hot streak lately, winning their last 16 games. During this winning streak they have beaten teams by an average of 8.5 runs per game.

The Bears started the season being ranked 25th in the nation in Division 2; they have climbed up in the ranks and now are ranked 10th in the nation.

During their win streak, the Bears have scored fewer than eight runs in only six of their games and have only had four games decided by less than five points.

“To keep our win streak alive, we have to keep hitting the ball well,” Christina Walker, a junior outfielder from Roxboro said. Christina is slapper who uses her speed and usually bunts to get on base, but can hit the ball hard if she needs to.

Head coach Shena Hollar has preached consistency throughout the streak and season.

“She tells us to play our game no

matter who our opponent is and to not play down to their level,” Madison Poe, a junior secondbaseman from Siler City said. “We can’t overlook a bad team and think we are going to automatically go out and win. If we do that then we will end up losing a game we know we should not have.”

The Bears’ success may come as a surprise after losing their best pitcher, Emily Kenley, to injury.

Kenley, a sophomore from Charlotte, had to take a medical redshirt this season after breaking her navicular bone in her right foot before the season started. It’s a stress fracture from landing on her foot when pitching. The injury is sidelining her for six months, forcing her to miss the entire season.

The injury to Kenley has forced sophomore Brandi Parks into the top pitching role. Parks has started 11 games this year, winning all of them and finishing all of them except one.

She has posted a 0.72 ERA with 78

strikeouts and has allowed only one homerun.

The Bears want to keep this win streak and momentum high throughout the rest of the season.

“We need to keep our intensity up,” Mackenzie Cates, a junior from Efland said. “We need to practice with high intensity so it naturally carries over to game day.”

The team knows it still has a lot of improving to do.

“As a whole we all need to have good games against good teams instead of just one or two people,” Walker said. “We need to put a complete game together from the top of our lineup to the bottom.”

The Bears are projected to repeat as conference champions this year.

“Statistically, our conference isn’t as strong as it’s been, and we are better than people projected us to be, so we definitely have the potential to be conference champions again,” Walker said.

The Bears still have the bulk of

their schedule coming up and are looking to continue their good play.

The Bears’ next six games are all on at home as they look to continue their streak and improve their national ranking.

Mackenzie Cates taking batting practice at the Lenoir-Rhyne softball field. RICHARD HALL| LRN MONTHLY

BEARS WITH BIG HEARTS

LR TENNIS TEAM HELPED HICKORY’S SPECIAL OLYMPICS TEAM TO IMPROVE THEIR TENNIS SKILLS

By Julia Ponomareva | LRN Monthly Contributor

Lenoir-Rhyne’s tennis team is in the middle of the season, but it hasn’t forgotten to make its contribution to the Hickory community.

It all started in the middle of October when our team visited Catawba County’s Special Olympics tennis courts in Newton, where sportsmen of all ages, boys and girls, men and women, with different abilities, practice competing against other players.

Catawba County Special Olympics is part of the nation-wide chain of Special Olympics organizations. It serves nearly 400 children and adults with intellectual disabilities throughout

LR’s Tennis team is united to help. JULIA PONOMAREVA | LRN MONTHLY

the county. Students can practice and compete in eight different sports including tennis, soccer and basketball. In the spring of 2017, Special Olympics will introduce three new sports: softball, bowling and aquatics, according to Sonic.net.

Volunteers are a huge part of this program – they make the whole thing possible. Anyone can join as volunteer, coach or committee member.

This October, LR’s tennis team traveled there three times to help coaches work with kids and adults who want to play sports despite their difficulties.

“We were very excited to work with special people in our community,” Abbi Wood, LR Women’s tennis captain said. “It was such a great experience for all of us, being able to share our skills with such special people.”

Every time the Bears went to Fred T. Foard High School, a place where Special Olympics athletes practice, they spend about two hours playing different games and trying to improve the Olympians’ strokes. Guys and girls served as coaches and improvised with different tennis techniques as well as improving their communication skills. At first, it wasn’t easy. The Bears know how to play tennis, but it’s quite a different thing to actually teach someone something that you already know how to do and have spent a decade doing.

Besides the great people who were there, it was a pleasure to be in such a beautiful place outside of town, with amazing nature around: green trees, clean air and unforgettable sunsets, as most of the practices take place in the evening.

“I always say though that it’s difficult to be a coach, because we are all different and something that goes for me doesn’t necessary go for everyone else,” LR Men’s Tennis team captain Alex Crespo said. “But it turned out to be a great experience that was useful not only for guys on the Special Olympics team but also for us, as it helps to understand tennis even better. And of course, it’s always a pleasure to meet these incredible people who try to take everything from life. Their energy transfers to us.”

On March 4, Lenoir-Rhyne’s Tennis team introduced Special Olympics athletes to everyone who came to support the Bears in their conference game. Everyone got their round of applause as this year’s Special Olympics Team took part in the regional competition and brought home six golden medals.

“Culture is a very important aspect of our program,” head Men’s and Women’s tennis coach Tom Rees said. “We try to teach our teams to respect each other, be grateful for everything they have and help those who need help.”

D2 ALL-STARS WIN IT ALL INTRAMURAL CHAMPS CROWNED

By Richard Hall | LRN Monthly Contributor

On Feb. 23, the D2 All-Stars were crowned the intramural league basketball champions. We won the championship game on a last second buzzer beater tip-in by Edward Blackburn.

We had to play two games that night the semifinals in which we easily dismantled our opponent, Code Name Kids Next Door, with a 30-pint win. “(The D2 All-Stars) were a really good athletic team that played together,” Dyami Wortham, a player from Code Name Kids Next Door said.

“They were also a very disciplined team that played great offense and defense.”

The D2 All-Stars started off the game by trying to tire out our opponent, running in transition when we had the ball, and when we had

to set up their offense, we kept the ball moving to make their defense keep moving. They jumped out to a 20-point lead to close the half and didn’t look back in the second half.

Taking smart shots and great defense was the key to the win.

The victory against the Code Name Kids Next Door was a big one being that they were the only team to beat the D2 All-Stars all season (the first game of the season).

“It was sweet revenge; we know we should not have even lost to them in the first game,” DQ Pauling, a scrappy defensive guard for the D2 All-Stars said. “They talked a lot of junk before the game, and we went out and beat them by 30.”

Right after the semi-final game, the D2 All-Stars had to face a team they had only beaten by three points in

their game earlier in the season.

“We knew their style of play and knew that we weren’t going to blow them out,” Markus Crutchfield, the all-around player said.

The game was a low-scoring defensive battle, much like the first one. Both teams fought extremely hard on their possessions with the ball and rarely came up with points.

Both teams were frustrated with their inability to score the ball, but neither team forced anything.

The game reminded me of a heavyweight-boxing match between two great competitors going blow for blow at each other. Each team waited for the other to stumble, but it never happened.

The game came to one last possession for the D2 All-Stars. With the 3.6 seconds left in the game,

they had one chance to be crowned champons.

“Vic’s wide open; I throw it to him from the baseline. He shoots it; I can tell it’s in an air ball, so I jump up to grab it mid-air. With just enough time left, I hit it off the glass for a lay-up, and soon as it goes through the net the buzzer sounds – that’s game,” Ed Blackburn, the team’s big man said.

Everybody in the gym was hyped – people that weren’t even on the team rushed the court and dog-piled Blackburn.

“Rich was the first one to me and then came everyone else,” Blackburn said. “I waited five years to win the intramural basketball championship, and it finally happened.”