The Tufts Daily - Friday, March 7, 2020

Despite reproduction, ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ disappoints see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

TUFTS LACROSSE

Men’s lacrosse is back, ready to dominate NESCAC

Saffitz’s top 5 cooking videos for Bon Appétit’s YouTube channel see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXIX, ISSUE 28

Friday, March 6, 2020

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Mail Services prioritizes World Peace Foundation panelists electoral mail following concerns discuss internationalization of of lost ballots African conflicts

by Yiyun Tom Guan Contributing Writer

THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The mail room is pictured on Sept. 20, 2000.

by Alexander Janoff Assistant News Editor

In response to recent difficulties among students in receiving their absentee ballots, the Mail Services Department initiated a new process for voting-related mail. This initiative was launched in coordination with JumboVote to ensure ballots are not mishandled.

“Since the mail room became aware of possible problems with the normal procedure for sorting mail in regards to ballots, the mailroom employees started looking for and pulling out ballots to ensure no ballots were still awaiting delivery,” Jeff McKay, director of facilities operations, wrote in an email to the Daily.

Lidya Woldeyesus, the student co-chair of JumboVote, explained that JumboVote involved themselves as soon as they heard about the issue.

“Tisch College was doing what they could to remedy the situation,” Woldeyesus, a sophomore, said. “I was talking to students individually, but also [we were] trying to figure out what the long-term solution [is] because the primary season isn’t over.”

In one of these cases, sophomore Eli Goodrich requested an absentee ballot on Feb. 3 from his home state of Maine so he could vote in the Democratic primary election on Super Tuesday. After a month of waiting, with the election come and gone, Goodrich has yet to receive his ballot.

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Goodrich suspected that the ballot either never reached Tufts — in which case it is an United States Postal Service (USPS) issue — or that it may have been mishandled and misplaced by Mail Services.

“A bunch of people told me that they were also having issues getting their ballots and had issues in the past getting other important mail,” Goodrich said. “I believe there’s one instance in which one of the students was waiting for a credit card or debit card and it hadn’t gotten there, and it had been two to three months.”

While some students reregister to vote in Massachusetts when they move here to attend school, others, like Goodrich, feel their vote is most useful in their home states, so they request absentee ballots, which are sent in the mail by USPS. “I’m a Democrat, and Massachusetts is a very safe democratic state,” Goodrich said.

“Massachusetts does not need my vote. I wouldn’t call [my district in Maine] safe enough so that I feel like I should skip out on voting.”

McKay explained that mail is meant to arrive in students’ mailboxes within two business days of reaching the mailroom.

“Within one business day of arrival, the mail is sorted and then placed in the correct bin for distribution to the correct residential hall,” McKay said. “If mail is correctly addressed, it is delivered to the see MAIL SERVICES, page 2 For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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Noel Twagiramungu, a fellow at the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation, gave a talk on Monday titled “Transnational Conflict.” The panel examined the conventional wisdom regarding African regional conflicts, and questioned the effectiveness of prevalent research methods in political science.

Hosted by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the Cabot Intercultural Center, the panel presented on the paper titled “Introducing the Transnational Conflict in Africa Dataset,” which revisited violent conflicts in Africa from 1960–2010.

The data recorded attributed causes to African conflicts at the time so that they reflect contemporary hindsight.

The panelists asserted that considering historical sources of information, such as memoirs and personal histories, is more informative than only the raw data published at the time of conflicts.

According to the panelists, this additional historical analysis is essential to understanding the reality behind many African conflicts.

According to the paper, African states often conduct their conflicts covertly and using proxies instead of being burdened by

civil wars, which the panel explained is the conventional wisdom.

“If you’re relying on contemporary sources in the media, and you’re relying on coding a conflict according to the recognized belligerent forces killing one another, then clearly if there’s a covert war going on, or if war is being put by proxy, it wouldn’t be evident in your dataset,” de Waal said.

The data-driven methodologies that are standard practice in political science obscure the undercurrents researchers try to explain, according to Twagiramungu and de Waal. They added that this leads to a knowledge gap between academia and real-life policymakers.

Twagiramungu argued that political scientists who studied the region usually based their scholarship on the assumption that African conflicts were mostly civil wars. According to Twagiramungu, they ignore the external influences on the political actors in these disputes.

“Most of the quantitative political science and international relations work on Africa are only concerned with the questions of the causes of rebellions and operations of non-state armed groups,” Twagiramungu said. “We talk about genocide in Rwanda, we talk about civil wars in parts of West Africa and Liberia, but we cannot understand those without taking

see CONFLICT, page 2

SOPHIE ELIA / THE TUFTS DAILY

Noel Twagiramungu speaks at an event titled “Transnational Conflict in Africa” at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on March 2.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, March 6, 2020

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JumboVote partners with Mail Services to prevent future absentee ballot delays MAIL SERVICES

continued from page 1 residential hall. The goal is for delivery to take place within two business days.”

This process is true for students living in most residential halls. Miller Hall and Houston Hall, however, do not have student mailboxes; therefore, students living in these halls need to travel to Mail Services to pick up their mail in a process similar to that of packages.

“For USPS mail arriving for Miller and Houston Hall, after the mail is sorted with the correct address, an e-mail goes out to the residents of the two dorms letting them know that they have mail in the Hill Hall mailroom,” McKay wrote. “The goal is that this e-mail goes out within one business day.”

McKay asserted that the process by which mail is sorted at Tufts has not slowed

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down recently, nor has the mailroom been understaffed.

“We are appropriately staffed,” McKay said. “This is not a new problem, however a lot of the methods of handling peak volume are new within the past 3 months … The goal is to sort mail and packages and/or send notices to recipients within 1 business day. However, if the mail doesn’t have the correct address information, that makes the process slower.”

McKay suggested that students ensure? they are making sure their address information is correct whenever they expect to receive mail.

“It is very important the address has the correct name, building name and room number,” McKay said.

Woldeyesus assured that, after the changes were made in mail services, most students received their absentee ballots.

“When we found out everything, we were able to work really quickly, and most students were able to get the absentee ballots in time,” Woldeyesus said. “From now on, [for] any piece of election mail that comes into Mail Services, the student will be sent an email immediately, telling them that their mail is here.”

If students believe their ballots are taking an extremely long time to arrive, Woldeyesus recommends they reach out to JumboVote as soon as possible. She also explained that come the general election in November, this type of problem would be unlikely now that JumboVote is aware of it.

“What we asked students is that the second that they feel like something is fishy with the absentee ballot … they reach out to us immediately, because then we have more time to figure out what’s going on,” Woldeyesus said.

Rwandan genocide evidence of conflict internationalization, researcher says CONFLICT

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continued from page 1 into account the transnational dimensions [of these disputes].”

The paper, which was co-written by Twagiramungu, de Waal, senior researcher at ETH Zurich Allard Duursma and senior fellow at the World Peace Foundation Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe, classified only 14% as “internal” of two-sided conflicts in Africa between 1960 and 2010, as opposed to 86% as “internationalized internal.”

The authors of the paper contrasted their analysis to the data of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), the leading provider of data on organized violence and armed conflict, which estimates solely “internal” two-sided conflicts at 82%.

De Waal later described his reservations about the UCDP’s methodology, which he criticized for not revising data after its initial release.

“The real difficulty comes when you want to use these datasets … to draw larger political connection[s] about the nature of the conflict, and that’s where [UCDP] is simply not a good disclosure of reality,” de Waal said.

He argued that another deficiency he perceived in academic work in this area was the lack of informal conflict resolution in formal analysis. Many conflicts, however, are solved within African political establishments in informal settings, according to de Waal.

During the question and answer session, Fletcher student Andreas Hahn asked

the panel to describe what it believed were the consequences of researchers failing to recognize the shortcomings of their own methodology, which the panelists criticized earlier.

Twagiramungu, who is originally from Rwanda, cited the 1994 genocide in his home country as an example of the inconsistencies in responses to atrocities. “[The Rwandan Genocide] is a civil war within the context of an internationalized war. So we see the Arab movement from Uganda invading Rwanda, then Rwanda calling upon external supporters in Congo, France, Belgium, [among other countries],” Twagiramungu said. “Thus when the genocide happened, the war was already polarized … so we have France, we have the U.S., we have the U.K. supporting different sides.”

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Features

3

Friday, March 6, 2020

Emma Rao Revisiting introversion and extroversion

Learning from each other, part 1

I

ntroverts can learn from each other just as much as they can learn from extroverts and vice versa. As I’ve mentioned before, introversion and extroversion are on a spectrum, meaning that every introvert has a different threshold for stimulation. Understanding and respecting people’s differing capacities for stimulation and the way that this might impact their behavior is crucial to any type of relationship, whether it be that of friends, significant others or siblings.

This came up in a significant way for me in terms of the last case, with my brother.

For reference, my brother is two years younger than me and might be one of the most introverted people that I know.

As a pretty introverted person myself, that’s saying something. He’s a kind and intelligent person with a surprisingly dry sense of humor, who also happens to get overstimulated easily. Large family events like Thanksgiving can prove to be overwhelming after an hour or so. Even the full length of a school day and all that happens within it can be enough for him to reach his capacity for stimulation, effectively draining his battery. When this happens, he responds by being quiet, withdrawn and reticent. After long days at school, the last thing that he wanted to do was have meaningful conversation with me as we sat in traffic on our way home.

Upon getting home, he would hole up somewhere to do homework, headphones on, the world effectively blocked out.

Dinner-time conversation would often consist of my parents trying to squeeze details from his day out of him, and me trying to fill in the silence and gaps with a 50/50 success rate. Needless to say, this is something that both my parents and I, sometimes with great frustration, have had to contend with.

It was, and still is, incredibly frustrating for me sometimes. After driving him to and from school and all around town for two years, flowing conversation was the exception, not the rule. That’s not to say that we don’t care about each other.

My brother and I have been close in that unspoken, I-knew-what-his-baby-speak meant kind of way. If he didn’t want to play with my toys when we were younger, I happily took up his current interests, resulting in what’s now our mutual love of penguins. But we didn’t reach the close, confidante level that many of my friends with siblings reached in high school. I aimed for that during my junior and senior years of high school but, no matter how hard I tried to establish a solid rapport, I was ultimately unsuccessful.

At the time, I pinned it on a lack of willingness on his part, that he didn’t try to reciprocate my efforts of developing a stronger sibling relationship. But thanks to hindsight and reflections on my own introversion as well as his, I’ve come to realize that the issue didn’t just lie with my brother. I do still believe that he could have tried a little bit harder to develop our sibling bond; after all, relationships are two-way streets. But part of the problem was also with me.

Emma Rao is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Emma can be reached at emma.rao@tufts.edu.

4 Friday, March 6, 2020

ARTS&LIVING

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‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ stays out of fast lane

by Sam Heyman Arts Editor

During the pre-title sequence of the new film “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020), the protagonist is told by his mother figure that he must “never stop running” from those who would hurt him to harness his super-speed.

Over the next 90 minutes, you realize that that’s the whole point: trouble finds Sonic because he can run very fast. The film’s Big Bad is just mustachioed danger for danger’s sake. It feels somewhat lazy. You feel somewhat disappointed.

That feeling pretty much encapsulates the experience of watching “Sonic the Hedgehog,” a movie whose cultural relevance precedes its content. The movie first generated buzz outside of gamer circles following controversy over the titular hedgehog’s nightmarishly anthropomorphized animation. The original poster for the film, which featured proto-Sonic’s grotesquely muscular man-legs, sparked initial outrage from everyone and their mother, including Yuji Naka, who was literally the lead programmer on the team that made the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” game series. Oof. The outcry reached a fever pitch when the film’s first trailer went live on April 4, 2019. It unveiled now-infamous images of what could easily have been a taxidermied fursuit slicked with hair gel, complete with blank, glassy eyes and mouth full of human teeth. Superfans of the franchise had a host of other issues with the film, including the pandering tagline and Sonic’s blue arms, but the animation drowned out the voice of all other grievances. Folding like a card table under the weight of universal ridicule, Paramount Studios offered fans a mea culpa in the form of a delayed release and a bottom-up redesign of Sonic’s character.

On Nov. 12, the studio released a new trailer featuring a revamped cartoonish Sonic and all was well. (Claims that the studio staged the controversy to raise the film’s public profile have been largely debunked.)

Despite (or more likely because of) its much-memed pre-release teaser material, the movie has enjoyed tremendous success

at the box office, raking in an impressive $70 million during its first four days in theaters.

It thus beats the opening weekend box office record for a film based on a video game, which had been set last year by the objectively superior “Detective Pikachu” (2019).

This brings us to the subject at hand.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” presents the story of Sonic (Ben Schwartz), a rapid gem-toned kid hedgehog growing up on the island of Mobius under the wing of an archetypically protective owl-mother. After a plot device forces him to flee his beloved home, he ends up in the small town of Green Hill (get it?).

There he meets good cop Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), a bored man with a good heart and a cool wife. The two team up to fight and ultimately defeat Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who was hired by the U.S. military to investigate the mysterious power outages caused by Sonic’s antics, but who really intends to do evil science on him.

As a whole, the film is inoffensive.

Schwartz is charming and predictable as Sonic, breathing comedy at reasonably regular intervals into a mostly cardboard script. Marsden did the best he could with what he was given. Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik carries himself as most of his characters do, and as one can only imagine the actor himself does in private moments. The second-round animation looks undoubtedly better than the original would have — that is, extended exposure to this Sonic’s countenance won’t conjure a poltergeist to follow you home from the theater. The movie is not challenging, and it is not bad.

That’s not to say it isn’t disappointing.

The thing about video game movies (and TV shows, which seem to be all the rage nowadays what with the recent success of “The Witcher” (2019–) on Netflix and the release of “Castlevania” (2017–) season three slated for Thursday) is that they aspire to channel a small, dedicated subculture into a universally beloved franchise. Big budget productions like “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Detective Pikachu” promise the keepers of these cultural milestones their day in the sun in exchange for the protective aura of a

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020) is pictured. passion project. Actors perform media stunts averring their video game bonafides not to win the trust of superfans, but because catering to superfans makes

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them and their product look genuine. It’s a shame this movie didn’t turn out better, if only for the sake of the people to whom it actually mattered.

Friday, March 6, 2020 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

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The 5 best gourmet makes from Bon Appétit’s Claire Saffitz

5

JAMES HALE / TUBEFILTER

A photo from Bon Appétit is pictured.

by Christopher Panella Arts Editor

One of YouTube’s best offerings is the Bon Appétit channel, a page with over 5 million subscribers and a variety of wonderful videos, including chefs making gourmet treats, teaching kitchen skills and recreating food from tasting it. The channel is a part of Bon Appétit’s B — the monthly American food media magazine — increasingly online pressence and ability to relate to viewers with ,varying experience in the kitchen. m Watching a Bon Appétit video — particularly last November’s Thanksgiving meal preparation — is a calming and learning experience that provides both free serotonin and plenty of wonderful moments. With plenty of chefs making appearances throughout the videos, Bon Appétit’s best personality is Claire Saffitz.

With a degree from Harvard, gorgeous grey streaks in her hair and a smile that quite literally brightens everyone’s day, this professional pastry chef is the ideal YouTube host. When she talks about making gourmet candies and snacks, it’s impossible not to fall in love with her.

She’s also a meme icon; her disassociating meme went viral and brought the internet to confess its appreciation for Saffitz.

In honor of Saffitz and her upcoming first cookbook, here are the five best gourmet snacks (in no particular order) Saffitz has made on YouTube.

Saffitz makes gourmet Peeps Peeps are the best spring candy; the sugar-dusted marshmallows are tasty and fun to eat. But Saffitz’s take on the iconic sticky candy is incredibly thoughtful. She takes her time researching the candy, dissecting its ingredients and understanding how to actually shape the marshmallow. After attempting to make the Peeps, Saffitz learns more about the air exposure of the treats and coats them with their sugary toppings. But it’s not all smooth sailing. When the Peeps stick to the baking sheet, Saffitz learns that the Peeps need to be carefully handled. It’s a process of trial and error, but Saffitz ends the video with a wonderful result that looks almost better than the original product.

Saffitz makes gourmet Takis Saffitz spends her time understanding how Takis are made, watching manufacturing videos and really digging into how to make the hot, perfectly crispy Takis. The main concern when making Takis from scratch is the dough — she reaches out to a few other peo-

ple at Bon Appétit for assistance in the process, but eventually Saffitz prevails.

And when she makes the Takis powder successfully and tests the various spices and peppers, there’s a real focus on getting every detail right. She describes the process as having plenty of highs and lows, but the final products look quite tasty.

Saffitz makes gourmet Twinkies As people from Bon Appétit taste the Twinkies that Saffitz is trying to dissect, she notes a long list of ingredients.

This might be harder than she thought.

It gets even harder when it’s difficult to keep the cream from disappearing into the cake — there has to be enough cream and it has to stick. But once the fluffy cake is made and baked, the buttercream filling piped and added, the gourmet Twinkies look just like their from-the-box counterparts (if not better). It’s impressive that Saffitz is able to understand the inner workings of one of America’s favorite snacks and proves just how talented she is.

Saffitz makes gourmet Hot Pockets This video is quite literally one of the best episodes from the test kitchen.

Saffitz brings something fresh to the idea of the Hot Pocket, including real ingredients that produce a fluffy, light,

wonderful version of the frozen meal.

It’s a difficult process to get there; after one test, the insides of the Hot Pocket leak out and burn on the pan. When Saffitz runs through the final instructions on how to make the Hot Pocket, it’s certainly a complicated process.

What makes this video so fun is its complexities — fun to watch, but it would be incredibly difficult to make. But Saffitz keeps a smile the entire time and does a great job making the perfect gourmet Hot Pocket.

Saffitz makes gourmet Butterfingers Here, Saffitz remakes the complex and incredibly tasty Butterfinger. It’s a wonderful process to watch, especially when Saffitz really breaks down the Butterfinger to understand its insides. That crunchy, layered core is what makes Butterfingers one of the best chocolate candies out there (but also, one of the best candies to remake for a Bon Appétit video). Saffitz has some trouble with the insides of the Butterfinger, but she eventually is able to make the perfectly flaky substance that looks like the real thing. And following Saffitz throughout that process, watching her trials as she works through making gourmet snacks, is exciting at every turn.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Friday, March 6, 2020

F &G FUN & GAMES

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Hannah, to Tys: “You had a LinkedIn as an 8th grader”

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Pisces (Feb. 19–March 20)

Balance your physical actions, work and exercise with good food and sleep.

Don’t worry about money (or spend much, either). Guard your energy.

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Thursday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

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Opinion

7

Friday, March 6, 2020

Matt Rice Primary Colors

The best 4 days of Joe Biden’s political life

J

oe Biden first announced he would run for president in June 1987, only to bow out three months later amid a series of embarrassing scandals and gaffes. About 20 years later, he announced he would run for the 2008 nomination. On the night of the Iowa caucuses, Biden received no more than 1% of the vote and subsequently bowed out of the race. Nearly 33 years after first running, Joe Biden won his first Democratic presidential primary.

Moments after the polls closed at roughly 7 p.m. in South Carolina, the state was called for Joe Biden. The former Vice President left the primary night victorious with 38 delegates, having won every single county and 61% of the black vote.

“Just days ago, the press and the pundits declared this candidacy dead,” Biden told the crowd in Columbia during his victory speech. “Now, thanks to all of you, the heart of the Democratic Party, we just won, and we’ve won big because of you. And we are very much alive.”

Within 48 hours of his primary victory, three Democratic candidates had dropped out: Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. By Monday evening, Klobuchar and Buttigieg were sharing a stage with Biden in Dallas, singing his praises. Mayor Pete said Biden would “restore the soul” of the nation, while Klobuchar said he would restore “decency and dignity” to the White House.

Biden’s post-South Carolina momentum was more powerful than Bernie’s movement or Bloomberg’s money. Without opening a single office in Vermont, Maine or Minnesota, and without holding a single public rally in Massachusetts, Biden either won or came in second in each of those states.

In Elizabeth Warren’s home state of Massachusetts, Biden was polling in fifth place at around 10% just days before the primary. Biden shockingly won key cities and towns such as Springfield, Attleboro, Brockton, Quincy and Fall River.

On the day Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the presidential contest, Biden was expected to win 23% of the vote in her home state of Minnesota. One day later, Biden carried the state with nearly 39% of the vote.

“We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar,” Biden told his victory party crowd in Los Angeles.

By far the most important part of Biden’s coalition is his support from suburban America and older black voters in the south.

He swept every primary south of the MasonDixon Line, and he placed second to Bernie Sanders in California.

Delegates are still to be allocated, but the current count shows Biden with 595 delegates and Sanders with 526 delegates. While the votes are still being counted, one thing is very clear: The Democratic Party will either nominate a 78-year-old democratic socialist or a 77-year-old former vice president.

Matt Rice is a junior studying political science. Matt can be reached at matthew. rice@tufts.edu.

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Sports

8 Friday, March 6, 2020

Henry Gorelik Off the Gridiron

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Men’s lacrosse wins big in 1st 2 games

Okuda, Simmons make their case

M

edia coverage of the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft has been centered around three players: Louisiana State University quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow, talented University of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and generational Ohio State University defensive end Chase Young. The hype around these three has taken away from the attention on two special defensive prospects, Ohio State cornerback Jeffrey Okudah and Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons.

Jeffrey Okudah This past season in Columbus, Okudah earned a starting spot and established himself as the top cornerback prospect of the 2020 draft class after leading the team with three interceptions and nine pass breakups. He was named to the Associated Press’ All-American first team, the All-Big Ten first team and was a finalist for the JimThorpe Award, which is given to the top defensive back in the nation. Just as much as scouts love his production, they are captivated

by Okudah’s elite physique at 6′ ‘1” and 205 pounds.

Okudah’s large frame allows him to stay with larger receivers while his explosive speed prevents him from getting beat over the top. His impressive production in college combined with his physical traits are the reasons why he was given a chance to be a top selection even before the NFL Combine weekend.

Despite his already strong reputation coming into Combine weekend, Okudah’s performance throughout the weekend certainly secured him as a top five pick in the draft. He displayed top-tier athleticism with a 4.48 second 40-yard dash, 41 inch vertical and 135 inch broad jump. Furthermore, a video of his hypnotizing footwork went viral after it was posted on The Checkdown’s social media accounts.

When a reporter asked him about his supposed tendency to commit penalties, Okudah asserted that he had not committed any pass interferences or holdings and encouraged the reporter to take another look at the tape. Despite a nasty fall during which he hit his head and neck area, Okudah’s performance on the field and behind the podium is impressive.

Isaiah Simmons No longer a secret in football circles, Simmons busted onto the scene with his 89-tackle sophomore season. He vaulted himself into the category of elite collegiate defenders this past season, in which he accumulated 102 tackles, eight sacks, three interceptions and nine pass breakups. His incredible season earned him the Butkus Award (given to the nation’s top linebacker), a spot on the Associated Press’ AllAmerican first team, a spot on the All-ACC first team and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Scouts rave about Simmons’ versatility, as he has shown the ability to play safety, linebacker, corner, outside corner and edge rusher. The combination of his versatility, explosiveness and sideline-to-sideline range has scouts looking at him as a potential solution to the mobile quarterbacks that currently populate the NFL. While Simmons is an incredibly unique and talented prospect, his stock was not quite as high as Okudah’s.

Similar to Okudah, Simmons’ performance at the Combine only boosted his draft stock. Simmons impressed scouts with his 4.39 second 40-yard dash, 39 inch vertical and 132 inch broad jump. Simmons’ 40-yard dash time is particularly impressive considering he measures at 6′ 4” and weighs 238 pounds.

Simmons’ Swiss-Army-knife-like functionality is perfect for modern NFL defenses, tasked with stopping mobile quarterbacks and deceptive play-action designs. Simmons would shore up the middle defense of any team in the top 10, and would allow them to structure an incredibly flexible defensive scheme. Simmons’ Combine performance only proved that he has the talent to anchor a defense and is probably worthy of a top five selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Henry Gorelik is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Henry can be reached at henry.gorelik@tufts.edu.

ALEXANDER THOMPSON / THE TUFTS DAILY

Midfielder Bryce Adam looks to pass during a match against Colby at Bello Field on Feb. 29.

by Alex Viveros Managing Editor

With freshly shaven heads, a dominating pair of opening wins and a squad ready to fill the shoes left behind by a particularly eclectic group of seniors, there’s no doubt about it — Tufts men’s lacrosse is back. After winning their ninth NESCAC title last year prior to their untimely exit in the NCAA quarterfinals, the Jumbos have quickly cut to the chase in proving why they are one of the most dominant Div. III programs in the country.

Kicking things off properly in the competitive NESCAC, Tufts decimated Colby in its season opener on Saturday by a score of 24–10. Three nights later, the Jumbos walked away with their first non-conference win of the season against the Springfield College Pride in a 25–6 blowout. With their 49 total goals, the Jumbos lead the NESCAC in scoring, as well as assists.

For the Jumbos, who are led by fourthyear coach Casey D’Annolfo, the opportunity to pick up the sticks again energizes the 53-man roster.

“I think something that we’re trying to focus on this year is just have fun out there,” senior co-captain Matt Treiber said. “We work hard every day and it gets stressful at times, but on game days, it’s just really a time for us to go out there, show our stuff, and have some fun.”

The electrifying opening victories come as an encouraging sign toward the success the team hopes to achieve this year. Last year, the program produced an all-time-high of 10 USILA AllAmericans. Out of that group, four were graduating seniors, including attackers Danny Murphy (LA’19) and Ben Connelly (LA’19), defenseman Arend Broekmate (LA’19) and midfielder Stewart Stockdale (LA’19). In total, 14 seniors graduated last spring.

“Really, really awesome class, really great group of guys, on the field leaders and off the field leaders, which I think was pretty impactful,” D’Annolfo said. “[Murphy] and Brian Powers, who were both in that class, are on the coaching

staff this year, which has been huge for us to have those guys as emotional leaders and be a bridge between the players and the coaches.”

Undoubtedly, the departure of the 2019 graduating class was a challenge that the Jumbos were forced to address coming into the 2020 season. The attacking core of Murphy and Connelly both scored 150 goals while at Tufts, leaving them tied for third for most goals in a career in the program’s record book. The mark also designates them as the highest-scoring duo in program history.

That being said, the Jumbos are fortunate to have one of the most talented rosters in the country. D’Annolfo claims that one of the great things about his group is their focus on succeeding as a team.

“No one’s being selfish,” D’Annolfo said. “They’re bypassing good shots for great shots, and they don’t really care who gets the glory or who gets those points. They’re just all about how many goals we can score.”

Tuesday night’s rainy win over Springfield proved that this team is ready to bounce back to the same levels of dominance they’ve consistently held over the course of the last decade. The win saw the continued aggression of the returning midfielder core consisting of junior Garrett Samuelson, senior Nick Shanks and junior Bryce Adam.

The trio combined for eight goals on 21 shots. Defensively, the Jumbos held the Pride scoreless for almost three quarters, with senior goalkeeper and co-captain Mason Pollack recording his 31st career win. Five goalkeepers got the chance to protect the net in the game, propelling the Jumbos to their 19-point-differential victory.

Prior to the game on Tuesday, the win against the Mules gave the first glimpse of this year’s Jumbo playmakers taking charge on the offensive front. Samuelson, Shanks and Adam all combined for a whopping 10 goals on 29 shots.

Despite the 33-point-differential over the first two games, D’Annolfo noted that there were lessons to be learned in their success.

“I don’t think it’s an indication for the rest of the season,” D’Annolfo said.

“Colby was missing some pretty key components to their team, so it wasn’t like we saw their best version, and they’ll get better throughout the course of the year. I think we played well on that day.

Certainly pulled a lot of things out that we could have done better.”

D’Annolfo also emphasized the importance of playing with speed in the upcoming weeks.

“Overall, I was pleased with the speed that we played with,” D’Annolfo said.

“You know, that’s one of the things that we’re trying to accentuate this year — playing fast.”

One key Jumbo playmaker was absent from the opening week action. Junior attacker Max Waldbaum led the Jumbos last year in goals scored with 68, good for the second-most individual goals in the NESCAC. Listed at 6’ 2” and 235, he is one of the biggest members of the team and one of the best players in the country, according to D’Annolfo.

“He’s day-to-day, and we’re hoping to get him back sooner rather than later,” D’Annolfo said. “I would assume that when he comes back, he’ll be pretty impactful for us.”

Looking ahead into the next week, the team faces Amherst tomorrow and Ithaca College on Tuesday. The Mammoths — who won both of their first pair of games by a score of 16–8 — ended the Jumbos’ season early last year in a close NCAA championship quarterfinal game.

“It’s a rivalry game, so everybody’s jacked up for it,” Treiber said. “But I wouldn’t say that it’s anything different than the past two games. We’re really just striving to be the best version of ourselves.”

Treiber made clear to give a shout out to the scout members of the lacrosse team. According to Treiber, the information they provide on upcoming opponents is crucial to the Jumbos’ success.

“They are essential to our wins, and they always give us good looks,” Treiber said.

The matchup against Amherst will be on Saturday afternoon at Bello Field.

Face-off is at 1 p.m.