the griffon news fall 2011 issue 10
DESCRIPTION
Thr Griffon News is the student publication for Missouri Western State UniversityTRANSCRIPT
November 10, 2011
NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE
PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO
GRIFFonMISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITYthe
news
Missouri Western fans rush the field after the big win against Northwest Missouri State Saturday.
Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Roger Swafford is stepping down as director of pub-lic relations and marketing, but said he is stepping up to do what he loves best.
A l t h o u g h Swafford will be leaving his PR posi-tion, he will continue as a faculty mem-ber teaching at the Craig School of Business.
“I’ve taught on the college level for over 15 years. I will be teaching introduction to marketing and the class I’ve been teaching for the last 7 semesters, marketing and promotions,” Swafford said.
“I have always enjoyed teaching, and, at this point in my career, it’s time to give back. I’ve been a professional for 30 years and I learned a lot of things on the job, which I hope to pass on to the students. My students have an advantage that they can carry into their careers and hit the ground running, and I’m just hoping I can be helpful to them.”
Assistant Public Relations and Marketing Director
Kent Heier said that Swaf-ford has done a great job as PR Director. He understands the value of Westerns brand and has been very active in making others understand
that value as well.
“He told me this op-portunity for him to teach full-time is an opportunity he couldn’t pass up; now he can teach even more, and I think that was a major fac-
tor in his deci-sion,” Heier
said.Heier said Swafford has
been a part of a growing sense of pride that the cam-pus has and the community has in Missouri Western.
“Swafford has been and will continue to be very ac-tively involved in the com-munity in terms of organiza-tions, and that helped solidify the relationship that Western has with the St. Joseph com-munity,” Heier said.
Dan Nicoson, vice presi-dent for university advance-ment, said Swafford has been a valuable member of the staff.
Western continues to search for the next Student Governor. The deadline has been set for Friday, Nov. 11. It’s hard to determine if the Student Governor has found the right candidate for his successor, but with the exten-sion he may.
The current Student Gov-ernor, Peter Gregory, is re-sponsible for submitting the names of three candidates to Jefferson City, Mo.
“We have extended the deadline, not because we don’t have quality candi-dates, but we want to give ev-eryone a chance to apply for this position,” Gregory said. “I know that there are stu-dents out there who just don’t know about the position yet and would be qualified for the position.”
According to Gregory, this is the only student govern-ment position that lasts lon-ger than a year. This may
affect student interest in the position.
“If a person is set on grad-uating within four years, then that would eliminate both juniors and seniors,” Grego-ry said. “We are looking for freshmen and sophomores that we can draw from, and it will be worth it, and it’s a great experience.”
The fact is that the position takes time, and the person chosen must be ready for the commitment.
“The work varies from week to week,” Gregory said. “The biggest responsibility is to attend the monthly board meetings, the Governor’s Advisory Council meetings, and, at times, work with the Student Government on projects.”
According to SGA Presi-dent Alison Norris, Gregory should chose someone ready to go to work.
The fans rushed the field Saturday at Spratt Stadium as No. 25 Missouri Western defeated rival No. 3 Northwest Missouri State 31-28.
“It was a hard-fought game,” coach Jerry Partridge said. “I didn’t feel like we had it won until the very end. We played as good as we could play.”
The victory snaps an eight year losing streak for the Griffons against Northwest.
“It feels great to get Coach P. that win again,” Defensive Back Ben Jackson said. “We hit him with the Gatorade after the game, and it’s just a rival. It’s always good to beat your cross-town rival.”
“I think we believed the whole time; we be-lieved the whole week,” safety Jack Long said. “Coach has been preaching to believe it and we all did.”
The Bearcats high-powered offense was on display early as they scored on their first two possessions. Northwest led 14-3 at the end of the first quarter. The Griffon defense forced three punts and gave up no points in the sec-ond quarter.
“Down 14-3, I don’t think anybody flinched
at all,” Long said. “I think we were ready to go the whole time. It’s a long football game.”
The Griffon offense was able to put together their first touchdown drive midway through the second quarter. Travis Partridge hit Adam Clausen and Reggie Jordan for gains of 20 and 14. Partridge dove the ball into the end zone on a one-yard run to make the score 14-10. Greg Zuerlein added a 53-yard field goal to make the score 14-13 at half time.
“The second quarter was awesome, and that’s really where the momentum changed,” coach Partridge said. “They had total com-mand of that game for a little bit. Our second quarter defense put us back in that football game.”
The Bearcats’ James Franklin broke off a 37-yard run early in the third quarter to give Northwest a 21-13 lead. Partridge responded by getting loose for a 51-yard run to start the Griffons’ drive. He completed a pass to Jor-dan for 19 yards and then Michael Hill ran it in the end zone. Partridge connected with Jordan again on the two-point-conversion to tie the game up at 21.
griffonnews.comVol 94 | Issue 10
Griffons win!Western football defeats rival
Northwest 31-28
Top: Wide Receiver Adam Clausen takes a moment to himself as the clock runs out Saturday in Spratt Stadium.
Left: Travis Partridge (12) hands the ball off to Wide Receiver Tyron Crockum.
Right: Corner Ben Jackson backpedals as Northwest Missouri State hikes the ball.
Even injured players like Marcus Thompson rushed the field. Ice from the cooler litters the field after Coach Partidge’s celebratory Gatorade bath. All photos by Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Director of PR steps down, opts to teachJerrod Huber | Staff [email protected]
Search continues for next Student Governor
Roger Swafford
Kyle Inman | Assistant Sports [email protected]
Matthew Hunt | Staff [email protected]
See Swafford page 2
See Football page 8
See Governor page 2
Students had “The Time” of their lives when they flash mobbed halftime at the football game Saturday.
See page 3
Head men’s basketball coach Tom Smith has had an illustrious career. Read all about it on pages 4 and 5.
What did you think of last week’s editorial? See one student’s re-sponse on page 6.
Letter Letter to theto the
EDITOR
Beshears Hall
Juda Hall
Commons
Leaverton Hall
Griffon Hall
Scanlon Hall
Vaselakos Hall
Missouri Dept. of Conservation
Griffon Spring Sports Complex
Blum Union
Fulkerson Center
Leah Spratt Hall
Hearnes Center
Remington Hall
Murphy Hall
Eder HallPopplewell Hall
Spratt Stadium
Baker Family Fitness Center
Griffon Indoor Sports Complex
Looney Comlex
Wilson Hall
Potter Hall
Logan Hall
Downs Drive
Missouri Western’s Stu-dent Government A s s o c i a t i o n kicked things off Mon-day night with a brief pre-sen tat ion from new Athletic Di-rector Kurt McGuffin.
McGuffin seems to be getting comfortable in his new role as he joked and talked to the Senate about his thoughts and goals for West-ern.
“In the insider video, I said, ‘my most favorite sports memory was going to be the first win over Northwest Mis-souri State,’” McGuffin said. “I didn’t know it was going to come four days later, but I’m very pleased it did.”
McGuffin went on to talk about the possibility of host-ing a playoff game, which would be the first time in school history that Western has done so. McGuffin said that he was pleased with the attendance for the Northwest game, but he also said that Western needs to keep it up if we’re going to have a shot at hosting a playoff game.
“That playoff game [if Western gets it] is going to be on Saturday when you get off Friday for Thanksgiving break,” McGuffin said. “I know that’s sometimes hard for campus to maybe hang around one extra day or whatever, but we’re going to need everyone in the stands just like we did Saturday [for Northwest].”
A concern facing students for the game will be that campus--including residence halls--closes on Friday for the fall break, which means stay-ing around could be a prob-lem.
In addition to talking about a potential playoff berth, McGuffin discussed the current state of athletics with the Senate while fielding questions.
"When you look around at facilities on campus, what two things would you look at and say, 'these are really pri-orities to me'?" Senator Justin Beavers asked.
"A front door to the Loo-ney Complex that would maybe extend out to the west," McGuffin said. "That we would maybe host a hall of fame area in that would be 'the' entrance and people
would know where to go."McGuffin also said he
would like to see the football stadium receive some updat-
ing efforts so that fans and students can
get the most out of going to the games.
SGA also heard from Amber Ri-vera giving a plug to the
Polar Plunge that will be tak-
ing place Feb. 18 at Lake Contrary. Rivera
said that they wanted to start getting the word out early so that they could raise aware-ness of the event and hope-fully beat Northwest in fund-raising.
"Last year they [North-west] won; they raised $1,000 more than us, and they also had about 15 less plungers," Rivera said.
Rivera said as an incen-tive the winning organization this year will a pizza party for raising the most money, which will all go to the Spe-cial Olympics.
There were three pieces of legislation passed at the meet-ing: the first was an authori-zation to the Max committee to review student traditions, the next was a support of the recommendations made by the Governmental Relations Committee regarding the transportation study on cam-pus, and finally the Campus Advancement Committee's request for $2,000 to be spent on an event called Crossover of College.
All of the legislation passed the Senate vote.
The Crossover of College will use the money to coach two 10-boy teams in basket-ball as a way to get students more involved in the St. Jo-seph community and also give under-privileged youth a helping hand. The par-ticipating 6th to 8th grade children will also have the opportunity to attend a West-ern basketball game of the group's choosing and will be provided a lunch for the day as well.
Noah Green, director of communications, said, "The students that this will draw are in a very impoverished socioeconomic class that does indeed exist in St. Jo-seph. It's great that we can take them out and have them play a game of basketball and perhaps enrich their lives and the lives of all the Mis-souri Western students that participate."
News November 10, 2011
The Griffon NewsPage 2
Campus Crime Reports
NEWSNOTES
Calendar of Events
If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to
Thursday, Nov. 10• Zumba class, Blum 223, 3 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 11• Volleyball vs. Pittsburg State
University, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 12• Children’s Opera, Potter
Theatre, 3 p.m.• Volleyball vs. Southwest Baptist
University, away, 4 p.m.• Men’s Basketball vs. Fontbonne
University, Looney, 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 14• Men’s Basketball vs.
Manhattan Christian College, Looney, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 15• Jazz Concert, Potter Theatre,
7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 16• WAC Talent Show, Potter
Theatre, 8 p.m.
1. Stealing 9 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28, (Code not provided)2. Property Damage 1 p.m., Monday, Oct. 31, Lot O3. Warrant Served 2:45 p.m., Friday, Nov. 3, Lot F
NEWSNOTESWestern presents one-act operas
Missouri Western State University will present the one-act comic children’s operas “Little Red Riding Hood’’ and ‘’Monkey See, Monkey Do’’ at 3 p.m. Satur-day and Sunday, Nov. 12 and 13 in the Potter Hall Theater. General admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. Admission is free for Western students, faculty and staff, with free-will donations ac-cepted at the door.
‘’We wanted to present a family-friendly show that would make opera accessible to a large number of peo-ple,’’ said Dr. Susan Carter, Western’s director of vocal studies and the show’s direc-tor. ‘’These two operas are big hits with audiences of all ages. The music, the cos-tumes, the story are all great fun. I really think people will enjoy their afternoon at the opera.’’
Each opera is about a half-hour in length, with a brief intermission between shows.
Movie nightMark your calendars for
Nov. 15, for Movie Night campus premiere of “The Book of Eli” will be in Mur-phy 110 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Movie Night is sponsored by The Garden, formerly known as Connexion. The Garden is a religious organi-zation promoting religious, academic-based discussions. The group leader Jeremy Blevins decided “The Book of Eli” would have a great approach on discussing Christianity shown in Hol-lywood.
“I feel this movie has re-ligious undertones that will help ignite free discussion.” Blevins said. “We encour-age every one of all faiths to come out and join us.”
“The Book of Eli” stars Denzel Washington in a post apocalyptic world. He was told to deliver a mysterious book to the west coast of the U.S.
Self-defense class offered
Make cowering in a cor-ner a thing of the past; come join American Correctional Association on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Looney Com-plex (small gym) for the one and only original self-defense class you will ever need.
This event is sponsored by WAC, BSU, and Pride Alli-ance and is FREE to all stu-dents and staff. Bring your-self, bring your friends and bring your enemies.
Calendar of Events
If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to
RetractionsThe Nov. 3 issue of The Griffon News contained a contributed story about a Griffon Volley-ball game which took place on Oct. 29. After publication, The Griffon News was informed that two of the quotes in the story were fabricated. The Griffon News apol-ogizes for this error and will continue to make strides to prevent this in the future.
In the same issue, photos were printed with a story about Duncan Miller, a freshman music major. Miller was not in these photos. Once again, The Griffon news apologizes for these errors.
Todd Fuller | News [email protected]
New AD McGuffin pays visit to Senate
A Northern Michigan U. professor is being threatened and criticized after giving students an extra credit op-portunity to attend a local protest.
Assistant NMU professor of sociology Jeanne Lorent-zen gave her SO 101 stu-dents the option to earn 20 extra credit points if they participated in the Occupy the Upper Peninsula protest held Saturday, Oct. 15.
The students were also given another option sent through an email Oct. 13 to her entry-level classes. It was to write a 20-page paper about a social movement.
Lorentzen stated in the email that the paper “should
be a critical sociological analysis of a particular social movement and must include at least five substantive con-cepts from the course text.”
It also said if students chose to attend the march they “must make a protest sign as long as it’s not offen-sive, rude or divisive you can write anything and sign an attendance sheet twice, once at 9:45 a.m. and once after the march is over.”
“Overall, I feel that Dr. Lo-retzen’s extra credit opportu-nity was politically biased,” said President of the NMU Chapter of College Republi-can Sarah Morrison. “There was no equal opportunity presented for students who held opposing view points. There needs to be more di-versity of opinion in our aca-
demic programs.”Northern received several
complaints stating the paper was not a fair alternative to attending the protests.
“Instructors are expected to make assignments for their courses and it is not the uni-versity’s place, as a whole. To approve or disapprove them,” said Cindy Paavola, NMU director of communi-cations and marketing.
Paavola said she is not aware of any special rules for extra credit, but all course as-signments, whether manda-tory or for extra credit, must relate to the course topic in some way and must be fair.
Shaina James | UWireThe North Wind
Professor criticized over selective extra credit
Nicoson also said he brings perspective to the depart-ment that somebody only out of corporate public relations, like Swafford, would be able to.
“He has always wanted to teach and has been teaching part-time ever since he has been here, and now he has this opportunity to move to teaching full-time, and it’s something he looks forward to,” Nicoson said.
According to Nicoson, Swafford has been a big champion of making sure that the Western brand is promoted and protected.
“Swafford’s work with the brand and his help to insert Western out in the commu-nity has helped Western be recognized as the quality that is reality here,” Nicoson said.
Nicoson said the search for a new PR Director will begin at the first of the year.
“The qualities of a good Student Governor to me consist of someone who is dedicated, hardworking, and represents the students,” she said.
Western student Amanda Curtis believes the time com-mitment plays a role in why students won’t apply.
“Freshmen and sopho-mores, to me, probably are still getting used to the col-lege,” Curtis said. “I work 30 to 40 hours a week, which makes me not a good candi-date, like most students.”
A downside for the Student Governor position is that it has no voting power in SGA. Gregory disagrees with this rule.
“Personally, I believe its okay for the Student Gover-nor to have voting rights: if they were appointed to the position, earned their way to this position, then they are smart enough to have a vote,” said Gregory.
Gregory goes on to state that even though he doesn’t
have a vote, he is never over-looked by the Student Gov-ernment or administration.
“The primary responsibly of the Governor is to rep-resent the students to the administration, and the ad-ministration to the students,” Gregory said. “That’s why we have a student governor, so the administration has someone to go to for student opinion.”
According to Norris, the Student Governor gives in-put and works with SGA on occasion.
“The role of the Governor is similar to mine: we both are on the EBoard, except the position doesn’t offer any sort of scholarship,” Norris said.
Student Keisha Davis be-lieves the position needs more advantages for students to want to apply.
“I think that if there was some kind of leverage or some kind of advantage to being involved, more stu-dents would be willing to be
involved,” Davis said. “I per-sonally would not be able to apply because of my already busy schedule.”
The process of becoming the next Student Governor is time consuming, according to Gregory.
“All candidates must go to the first interview, and then once they make it past the first section, they are inter-viewed by Western Presi-dent, Robert Vartabedian,” Gregory said. He goes on to state that once the student pass that process ,then they are interviewed by Gov. Jay Nixon’s office. Once the can-didate is selected, they are asked to come to Jefferson City, Mo., for appointment at a Senate hearing committee.
Gregory is committed to searching for the best candi-date for the job.
“We want someone dedi-cated and willing to serve their university,” Gregory said.
SGA seeks new student governor Governor: continued from front
Swafford to step downSwafford: continued from front
NewsNovember 10, 2011The Griffon News
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The Missouri Humani-ties Council awarded a $700 grant to Missouri Western Oct. 26.
The grant will help fund and support programs at Missouri Western and the Al-liance Francaise of St. Joseph that have a focus on French Canadian heritage and the musical and cultural tradi-tions of the northwestern area of Missouri.
The MHC is the only state-wide agency in Mis-souri devoted solely to edu-cating people of all ages on the subject of humanities.
The MHC awards grants to organizations all across the state of Missouri to help support programs whose ob-jective it is to create learning programs that will remain
with students for life.During 2010, around
83,000 Missouri residents received aide from MHC
programs and grants. The goal of the MHC during the next five years is to expand so that they may provide pro-grams and support projects throughout the entire state.
Marilyn Webster-Brown, program assistant for the hu-manities council, said “If we see an organization, more specifically from a univer-sity that needs a little help and has the right intentions in mind, we will give them grants for their respective programs. Our organization always wants to help out the young people; after all, they are the future of not only our state, but this country.”
The music department at Missouri Western is happy to be awarded the grant.
William McMurray, a mu-
sic history professor, says that the awarded grant money is a little help for the department.
“When an organiza-tion, such as the Humani-ties Council, gives you any amount of money, you are thankful that they are willing and able to help you out,” McMurray said. “Even if it is just a small sum, every little bit helps.”
Students in the music de-partment will benefit from the grant. Funding from the grant will allow faculty members to provide mate-rial in the classroom that will educate their students on the French Canadian heritage and various aspects on the music and culture of north-western Missouri.
“Because of this grant money, it won’t be about just sitting in a classroom being lectured at by professors,” junior Cindy Martin said. “It
will be more entertaining to have items from that time pe-riod to help teach us students on what went on for what-ever it is we’re being taught.”
On March 20 and 21, Dennis Stroughmatt will be coming to St. Joseph. Stroughmatt, a French Cre-ole musician and speaker, will be performing two musi-cal programs that consist of songs from story tellers and singers, traditional fiddle mu-sic and a wealth of stories on Creole French traditions of Mardi Gras.
“I am personally looking forward to Mr. Stroughmatt coming to the St. Joseph area. He provides anyone that is in attendance a program they won’t forget,” McMurray said. “For students, it’s a first-hand opportunity to learn outside of the classroom.”
“Hey! Get off the field!”“What is she doing?!”Some students in the Mis-
souri Western crowd at the rivalry football game were yelling at the Northwest Mis-souri State University stu-dents who had rushed to the middle of the field during half time last Saturday. Oth-ers were left scratching their heads.
“I was really confused,” onlooker Lauren Dillon said. “All I thought was, ‘Who are these jerks interrupting half time?’ after they came out behind the band members.”
Then she realized one of the “Northwest” students dancing was her friend Rob-in Ussher.
Ussher and the other three dancers ripped off their green and white cloth-ing to reveal Western gear. The confusion was over; the crowd went wild. They con-tinued breaking it down on the field while several other Western students (46 total to be exact) randomly joined in sync.
Six months ago, student Erin Williams began to think of ideas to market Missouri
Western virally for her in-dependent study. 'How about a flash mob?' she wondered. Williams took
the idea to her teacher, Dallas Henry, and he was on board right away. Williams, her classmate Shaun Allison and Henry did a lot of research on flash mobs at different schools, but they weren’t very popular—which made the idea even more significant. There was one during a bas-ketball game at Kansas Uni-versity, but the students only did it in the stands, not on the court. Williams planned on having the flash mob ac-tually on the playing field, which would separate West-ern’s flash mob even more from others.
Williams thought it would be a good idea to do the flash mob at half time during the Northwest football game because nobody would be expecting it. They originally chose Katy Perry’s “Fire-work” for the song, but then they changed it to The Black Eyed Peas' “The Time (Dirty Bit).”
“We wanted a steady beat that was good enough to pump up the crowd,” Wil-liams said. “We also wanted a song that the band could jump in and start playing.”
Williams, who has been dancing since she was 3 years old, was deemed the chore-ographer. She came up with the total choreography in two days, four hours apiece.
“I wanted a dance that was cool and easy to learn for people who don’t dance,” Williams said.
The next step was recruit-ing students and teaching them the steps.
Everything was approved Saturday before the game, so Williams had them rehearse that night. Only 12 showed up. However, more students became involved as they re-hearsed three more times.
“Everybody caught on fast,” Williams said. “Our rehearsals only lasted about two hours each.”
The final time the stu-dents rehearsed was on the field the morning before the game. They kept the event pretty quiet, considering the band didn’t know anything about it until that morning. Williams had told the drum line about the flash mob in advance, and member Dan-iel Cole thought it was nice change for half time.
“I wasn’t sure if it was go-ing to work out at first, but it was a cool idea that broke away from the same old rou-
tine of half time,” Cole said.Henry and other Theatre
& Cinema students set up a total of ten cameras around the stadium before the game. By the end of the second quarter, the “flash mobbers” started getting giddy.
“We were really looking forward to the response of the crowd; we wanted to see just how confused they were,” Williams said.
The crowd was confused all right. Two minutes into half time, the “Northwest”
students followed the drum line as they left the field. When the music started, that was their cue. The students, like Dan Banks danced dur-ing the whole song and en-joyed every minute of it.
“It reminded me of the old days playing football in high school,” Banks said. “It was great to be in the center of the field again. I was hyped up.”
The main goal of the flash mob was to promote West-ern, and it has been going pretty well considering the YouTube video (which can be
found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNBr3Osigkk) has received 1,622 hits after only two days of being uploaded.
Banks, who was one of the two cops in the flash mob, thought the video looked very professional because of all the different camera angles. He thought the expe-rience of the flash mob was that much better because Western had defeated North-west.
“We also won the game, which was just icing on the cake.”
Football game flash mob takes audience by surpriseBlair Stalder | Features [email protected]
Humanities Council awards grantCaleb Jones | Staff [email protected]
Misty Ballew (center), Daniel Banks (left), and many other Western students storm the field at halftime for a surprise performance.
Oh, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most talented one of us all? No, nobody is going to be auditioning for the next season of Ameri-can Idol, X-Factor, Glee or America’s Got Talent, but it is pretty close.
Can you sing? Dance? Maybe juggle chainsaws?
Well, if you have any type of talent, or think you possess some talent that will leave people in a state of awe and
wonder, and then maybe you should consider showcasing your talents.
The Western Activities Council held auditions for their annual talent show Nov. 7 and 8. WAC vice president Lauren Dillon, who helps orchestrate the talent show, says she wants to see all vari-
ous types of talent for the an-nual talent show.
“We want to see everything we possibly can,” Dillon said. “Everything from dancing, rappers, singers, to spoken word artists. We hope to see a little of everything.”
Dillon also talks about why students should come out to the talent show.
“It is a chance for students to get involved on campus, so that they’re not just sitting
in their dorm rooms play-ing videos games or surfing the internet,” Dillon said. “On top of that, people are awarded prizes for showing their talent.”
The talent show usually has about ten to twelve vary-ing types of acts. Sophomore George Williams, who audi-tioned for the talent show, describes why it is a good op-portunity to show the people what he can do.
“I haven’t done this before, but I think it will be a really good chance for people to see someone like myself showing what I can do,” Williams said. “It is great exposure. You’ll have a chance to show a lot of people your ‘hidden talents’. It’s good for every-one.”
Attendance for the talent show has always been pretty good, says WAC president Robin Ussher.
“The show usually brings a big crowd,” Ussher said. “We expect to be at full ca-pacity. We’ll probably have about 300-350 people.”
The WAC Talent Show will be taking place Wednes-day, Nov. 16 at 8:00 p.m. in-side of the Potter Theater.
“Tell everyone you know; we want to see as many peo-ple as we can,” Ussher said. “We’ll have different types of acts to appeal to everybody.”
WAC holds student auditions for annual talent showCaleb Jones | Staff [email protected]
Erin Williams (far left) and Misty Ballew (far right) with other participants in last Saturday’s flash mob during a Western football game against Northwest.
Jeremy Edwards (left) and Robin Ussher (right) dance during the halftime show.
Sports
nament, the Griffons de-feated Central Missouri in the MIAA Championship game. A three point victory over a team that Smith once coached gave Western its first championship in its first year in the conference. Smith re-ceived Coach-of-the-Year in the MIAA as well as Divi-sion II Coach-of-the-Year in the South Central Region.
The 1989 basketball team was inducted into the Missouri Western Intercollegiate Ath-letics Hall of Fame this past October. And although Smith said he didn’t have much to do with his team at the time, play-ers on the team disagree and said the coach gave the team spirit. Known as a motivator, former guard Heath Dudley said during the season that is exactly what Smith gave them.
“He did not give himself enough credit for getting the coach-of-the-year award,” Dudley said. “He always told us not to give up and to keep playing our best.”
Smith was never wanted by people in St. Joseph. The week he was hired, the local news re-ported that Western had hired a losing coach, given his losing record. The school newspaper even published a letter stating why Smith was a bad decision. He shrugged the comments off and just coached. 429 wins later, he remains a Griffon.
A true golden Griff
Smith said that the 1988 and the 1989 teams were two of the most enjoyable years as a coach. Throughout the next 20 years, Smith’s coach-
ing style affected his team to the point where he would be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2006. Among his achievements, Smith won the MIAA regular season title five times. He has been named the MIAA Coach-of-the-Year twice and has coached All-Americans Mike Cor-nelious and Darrol Wright.
“[1988 team] was the one I inherited,” Smith said. “We were NAIA with that team that preceded the hall-of-fame team. We were fortunate. We didn’t have time to recruit anybody.”
With the team that he hard-ly knew, he was one win away from going to the post-season tournament. Only five guys remained on the team the next season, but the teams stay close together. After the Hall-of-Fame ceremony, Smith said both teams went to his house to celebrate that night. Those teams, along with a great run in the early 2000s, helped Smith reach his win total.
When he first arrived at Western, he never dreamed of winning 600 games. Com-ing from a school that had to drive hundreds of miles to each game a night, Smith never felt much respect at Valparaiso. It once played a game against Notre Dame at home, where the scoreboard read Home vs. Notre Dame.
“I interviewed for the job, and I knew it wasn’t a good job, but I took it,” Smith said. “We all think we’re great. We all think, ‘the guy before me couldn’t win, but I can’.”
Now though — with 600 within one game — he feels the love.
“I came here because I want-
ed my gun loaded equally with the guy I’m shooting against,” Smith said. “My gun wasn’t loaded at Valpo. It wasn’t fair.”
You can’t keep a Griffon down
The 67-year-old coach has never been fired. He said he left Central to take a chance at Division I, and not that he regrets it, but he knew that after a few years it wasn’t the smartest decision. When he went to the NCAA Final Four in Kansas City, Mo., he found out about the West-ern job, and although a late
candidate, Smith was hired.He is tied at No. 61 in
overall wins in NCAA Men’s Basketball. He is ranked No. 19 for active coaches. Still, the man once thought that he couldn’t handle any pressure in coaching says it’s not him, it’s his team.
The Gary native recently attended his 45th college re-union. Smith went to Gary on his way through Indi-ana, and said it changed a lot since he was little.
“It’s unbelievable. I told Mar-cus [Rhodes] I used to walk to the Palace Theatre. He said ‘you ain’t walking there now’.”
Now that he is out of Gary and in St. Joseph, Smith’s 24th
season as head coach is about to tip off. He doesn’t seem tired. He isn’t going to calm down and take it easy. The coach just wants to watch his team perform. In doing so, more wins and achievements look destined for the man in charge. He is more laid back, however. His attitude this sea-son with his first three-fresh-man class and returning se-niors like All-MIAA selection TJ Johnson, should help. John-son said he is ready for this season to celebrate the 600th win and play some basketball.
“Coach gives us the free-dom to just play,” Johnson said. “We need to use our ath-leticism to get to the basket
and get everyone involved.”Smith agrees, and says al-
though it may not be his most talented team, they definitely have chemistry and makes it fun to come to work.
“Great teams beat great guys every time.”
A guy whose basketball ca-reer looked like it was over when he played his final game against Phil Jackson, 11-time NBA champion as a coach, at North Dakota when the Crusaders played North Da-kota, is still around the game. Smith decided to take it to the next level: coaching. 600 wins later, he is still the same guy.
November 10, 2011The Griffon News
Page 4 SportsNovember 10, 2011
The Griffon NewsPage 5
Graduates from Horace Mann High School in Gary, Ind.
Plays at Valparaiso, where he was an
All-American Announced as Head Coach for Central Missouri
Leaves Central to coach at his alma mater, Valparaiso
Announced as the Head Coach for
Missouri Western
Leads Western to win the MIAA Conference
Championship Western’s first year in
the conference
Westerns wins its first and only NCAA Divisions
II Tournament game
Becomes the winningest coach at Western,
passing Gary Gilbert
Claims his 500th career win
Inducted into the MWSU Athletics
Hall of Fame
Early life of a Hoosier
Trophies lie around the school, longing for a place to sit.
The gym is completely dark and the floor is distorted. It has been empty for years, but de-cades ago, the gym was packed.
Horace Mann High School, which has since been board-ed up, still stands on Gar-field Street in Gary, Ind., just south of Jefferson Park.
Famous people that once called Gary home include
the vocal group Jackson Five, former middle-
weight champion Tony Zale, Heisman winner Tommy Harmon,
1983 American League Rook-
ie of the
Year Ron Kittle and former NBA player Glenn Robin-son. Although the accolades don’t come off as great for a Division II coach, among the names that top the list of former Horace Mann at-tendees and Gary residents is Missouri Western Men’s Bas-ketball Coach Tom Smith.
Smith played his high school basketball career at Horace Mann, where he received Honorable Mention All State honors. His basketball jour-ney didn’t run parallel to his high school. It didn’t die and wasn’t buried into a ghost town legend; Smith pros-pered. He went to Valparaiso and was an All-American. He loved that school so much, he would even coach there for eight seasons after he gradu-ated. To this day, Smith re-members his time in Indiana.
“I went to a grade school, and all my friends played on the football team,” Smith said.
He didn’t follow his friends, and decided to join a basket-ball team. Gary was one of the few cities where blacks and whites could play on the same team. So after high school, Smith could have found him-self taking part in history.
“[Don Haskin’s] link to Gary was my high school
coach,” Smith said. “I remem-ber him trying to talk me into going to Texas Western. But he was actually trying to get Haskins to recruit the others guys and take me. So I end-ed up going to Valparaiso.”
Those other guys Smith was talking about included Orsten Arnis and Harry Flournoy, two key players on the Texas Western’s Men’s 1966 basketball team, a team that won the NCAA National Championship by starting five black players for the first time.
Smith went to Valparaiso and started at point guard. He took them to the confer-ence tournament in 1984 as the coach. It was the Cru-saders’ first appearance in the tournament in the pro-gram’s history. Shortly after his stint with the program ended, Smith was hired as the men’s head basketball coach at Missouri Western. That’s when history hit full effect.
The start of a real leader
Western made the NCAA Tournament and won its first NCAA tournament game, de-feating West Texas State 73-71, in Smith’s second season at the helm. Though they fell in the next round, the Griffons team remains in Smith’s memory.
“That team was pretty good,” said Smith, whose sea-son ended to Southeast Mis-souri State. “In those days, the number one team didn’t host. You had to bid for it. So Southeast, whose place holds 7,000, they got the regional.”
On their way to the tour-
Coaches his 1000th career game
Could become just the 60th Head Basketball
Coach at the collegiate level to win 600 games
Leads his best three seasons, claiming a Coach-of-the-Year
award, an MIAA Most Valuable Player (Lamont Turner) and leads the Griffons to the NCAA Division II Tournament
Brooke Carter | Graphics Editor
Left: At last year’s annual tip-off Coach Tom Smith spoke to the crowd at halftime about how the season was going to turn out. Coach Smith was hired in 1987 and will soon claim 600 wins at the collegiate level, something that has only been achieved by 59 other collegiate coaches. Smith has claimed several honors at Western.
Photos on left by Brooke Carter | Graphics EditorPhoto at top left of page by Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Left: Coach Tom Smith discusses a new strategy with the team during a time out. Top right: Smith cuts down the net in celebration of the Griffons’ victory over Central Missouri State University in the conference championship game. Bottom right: Through the St. Joseph Parks and Recreation Department, Smith gives a workshop at Missouri Western for aspiring coaches.
Missouri Western 1990 Yearbook
Western’s winningest coach approaches 600 winsThomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports [email protected]
Opinions November 10, 2011The Griffon News
Page 6
Pierce Karguthsenior
“Government spending. I think they spend too much elsewhere and not enough at home.”
“Absolutely the student loans. I don’t mind paying it back, I just want it to be fair.”
Chris Maynardjunior
Shanice Williamsjunior
Check out the full responses at
GriffonNews.com
“Student loan forgiveness, to pass that bill.”
CAMPUS VOICE
What political issue is most
important to you?
Josh Ralstonsenior
“We would say education, my fiance and I. We are here for education degrees.”
Leona Geyerfreshman
“Healthcare for children that parents don’t make enough money.”
The Griffon News is written and published by students of Missouri Western State University during the fall and spring semesters. The first copy of each issue is free; additional copies are 50 cents. Content of this paper is developed indepen-dently of the faculty and administration, or other campus organizations or offices. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas, information and advertising to The Griffon News office, Eder 221, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, Mo. 64507, or by phoning (816) 271-4412 (advertising and news room). You may also e-mail [email protected]. Copy and advertis-ing must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.
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will not be published. • Views expressed on the opinion pages are not necessarily those of The Griffon News staff or Missouri
Western State University.
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Dave HonEditor-in-Chief
Caitlin CressAndy InmanEboni LaceyJordan JenkinsBrooke CarterJason Brown Todd FullerThomas Huitt-Johnson Kyle Inman Matt GleavesEllis Cross Blair StalderRyan ScrogginsKyler PenlandBob Bergland
The Griffon News Staff
WITH ELLIS CROSS:
A new era began for Mis-souri Western Athletics on Halloween when Kurt Mc-Guffin officially took over as Athletic Director, and his first week on the job couldn't have gone any better.
The Griffon Football team gave us all something to be proud of on Saturday when it beat rival No.3 North-west Missouri State for the first time in eight years. The Bearcats are the highest ranked team that the Grif-fons have ever defeated.
The Northwest offense was averaging 56 points-per-game and had looked unstoppable all season long. With the game and possibly the season on the line, the Griffon defense stood tall in the end causing the Bearcats' high-powered offense to turn the ball over on downs twice in the fourth quarter to seal up a 31-28 victory.
A loss against the Bearcats would have likely kept the Griffons out of the playoffs. The top six teams in Super Region 4 get into the playoffs and Western was ranked No. 7 going into the game. After
the win, the team jumped to No. 4. The third and fourth ranked teams will host a playoff game Nov. 19. That means with a win at Fort Hays State this Saturday, a playoff game at Spratt Sta-dium is likely.
After shouldering some of blame for a 2-2 start, Quar-terback Travis Partridge has led the Griffons to six straight wins and put the si-lencer on any critics. He is the first player to rush for 100 yards against Northwest in 10 years, and is 1-0 as the starter against Western's big-gest rival. The Griffons are ranked No. 17 in the AFCA top 25, and have a record of 8-2 on the season.
The home crowd was one of the keys to victory for the Griffons on Saturday. The visiting stands were com-pletely packed with North-west supporters, but the deafening Western crowd drowned out any efforts for them to fire up their team. The student section was filled with painted faces and signs showing support for the players, it was evident how
badly we wanted our team to win that game. The Grif-fon players feed off the crowd energy and the opponent is disrupted by it, and it should be everyone's goal to make Western an impossible place for the opponent to come get a win.
Just hours after the big win, Griffon Volleyball broke a losing streak of their own, de-feating Truman for the first time since 2002. After falling behind 4-0 in the fifth set, the Griffons rallied and won 16-14 in an emotional five-set victory on senior night.
Western could be the site of another special day this Sat-urday when Men's Basketball Coach Tom Smith will go for his 600th career win against Fontbonne University at the MWSU Field House. He will enter elite company, becom-ing only the 6oth coach at any level of collegiate bas-ketball to win 600 games. Only 19 other active coaches have won 600 games. This is his 24th year as the coach of the Griffons. This historical win will only happen once, and Coach Smith deserves a
packed house for the game. We should all feel privileged at the chance to witness a Hall-of-Famer reach this his-torical milestone.
With all these special things happening, there is a buzz
around campus about Grif-fon Athletics. It is important that the players, coaches and fans seize this momentum and continue toward the goal of taking Western Athletics to a championship level.
Editorial: Western defeats No. 3 Bearcats
me-OWWWWWWW
We have less than 365 days. The next presidential election has been heralded as the most important elec-tion in American history and will be the election felt around the world. Put aside all of your feelings about the way things are and how you think things aught to be for the length of this column. You have only three choices. Either you will go to the vot-ing booth informed, ignorant or stay home. It’s up to you.
I’ve been asked to help get out the “student vote” and work to get more students registered. I’ve been thinking about that a great deal lately and I hesitate to encourage some students to vote. Stay
with me. I’ve been doing a little research about the youth and students of Amer-ica in an attempt to see what makes them tic.
I find myself to some de-gree agreeing with Christian Smith, one of the authors of Lost in Transition: The Dark side of Emerging Adulthood. He said in his review of the book titled A Generation Detached, “Frankly, I don’t want the youth to vote. They don’t own property, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t have kids to send to school. They have no financial stake and little moral stake in so-ciety and, until they do, I’d prefer they stay the heck away from the polls.”
One of my personal con-victions is, if you have served this country in the military you have earned the privi-lege to vote. Smith goes on to say that sociologist report that what we used to call adolescence has extended into 20 years or more. Young people are not committing to anything. The statistics place the median age for marriage for men at 28 and women at 26. It would appear that the youth of today are more in-terested in themselves, their needs and delaying adult-hood. Students seem to lack a sense of community and good citizenship.
These students are not un-intelligent. They just don’t
ask questions about morality, or what is important to live a good life. When it comes to politics they seem to have a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. They don’t want to admit that they have not been edu-cated properly about their government and have little clue how it works. In turn, they don’t talk to friends about political topics.
All of this lack of informa-tion leads to believing any-thing. Uninformed people usually vote for the most popular candidate. After all, everyone wants to be on the winning side, right? Recent history has proven again that the popular vote may not win the white house and the most
popular candidate may not be the best for America.
You have less than one year to get ready if you plan to vote. You have been trained to listen to well-informed people. Most students have learned to do research. We have all the tools and profes-sors on campus that we need to educate ourselves. Voters have to ask themselves, what are my convictions? What is important now and what will be important in my future?
The first step in learning is admitting you don’t know something. Educate your-self before voting or just stay home.
Students are educated, but need to be informed
The staff editorial “Oc-cupy Missouri Western” re-quires a response, as its mud-dled mix of misinformation will give readers an inaccu-rate portrayal of the Occupy movement and grassroots ac-tivism in general.
Griffons are told that they, as students, “are not part of the 99%.” This alone reveals a fundamental misunder-standing about the Occupy movement, and what it rep-resents. One cannot opt out of being in the 99%, it is a statistical measure. While you may not agree with Oc-
cupy sentiments for whatever reason, if you or your family made less than $343,000 per annum since 2009, you are in the bottom 99%.
Is it really hard work that guarantees success, anyway? Since 1979, the productivity of the American worker has climbed two-hundred forty percent, while wages have stagnated. New technology alone does not account for that increase. Americans work hard. They work long hours. They do more than ever for virtually the same pay as they did in the 1970s.
All the while, the gross do-mestic product has grown by leaps and bounds. And while our fourteen trillion dollar economy can’t seem to push the median wage over fifty-thousand, the top one per-cent’s share of the wealth has doubled in the last twenty years. Did every Wall Street executive earn that money with “hard work?”
The article also seems to imply that there is a surfeit of activist sentiment on Ameri-can campuses that must be quelled by cold, hard real-ity. I wish that were the case.
Despite dismal jobs prospects and a collective student loan debt of nearly one trillion dollars, an opinion piece in a campus publication excuses student apathy and the pro-to-solipsistic worldview that perpetuates the destructive “look out for number one” attitude that we know for cer-tain does not make the world better. This is ultimately unsurprising however. Stu-dents and citizens in general throughout this country have been conditioned to believe that mass movements change nothing. On the contrary,
mass numbers of ordinary citizens have changed society in the past, and they can do so in the future.
Yes, your job is to be a stu-dent. Just don’t let anyone tell you that you can only learn in a classroom.
Nicholas BrothersPolitical Science Major, OccupierMissouri Western State University
Political science student responds to editorial
Obviously the Editor has a good point.
The first point I agree with is that we aren’t working. We are in college to learn how to be better people for society. We are given tools from the classes we take to utilize and make this society as a whole a better place. No one said that college would guarantee anyone of us a job.
-Robby Malone
I am one of the occupiers, and I always laugh when people drive by us and scream “Get a job!” Well, I have three jobs. I work very hard despite health prob-lems and am doing quite well in school. I am not sure where the idea comes from that three internships will make a job appear from the sky where there was none before, but I have never been into the practice of
magic, so it is a bit over my head.
-Amber Marie Nold
As soon as I heard about the movement I was inspired to my very core to jump on the streets and shout my voice out – I feel this today, still, boiling in my blood and stinging in my bones – and being heard, start-ing a national dialogue, is the first step toward change;
change of the system which needs renovating, and in turn change of ourselves as we are not separate entities, but one coexisting organ-ism.
-Dillon Frank
COMMENTSYou can comment on last week’s editorial at
griffonnews.com.
FeaturesThe Griffon NewsPage 7
November 10, 2011
The Griffon NewsPage 7
Museum horrifies with gruesome realityHave you ever wondered
what it would be like to swal-low 453 nails, 42 screws, 164 safety pins, several spoons, salt shaker lids and hundreds of buttons?
Probably not, unless you are the man featured in the Glore Museum who ingested these items. As for what hap-pened to him once he ate these things, the Glore Muse-um can lend more informa-tion, along with other eerie displays.
The Glore Museum is lo-cated at 3406 Frederick Ave, along with the St. Joseph Museum, the Black Archives Museum and the local Civil War Museum. These muse-ums detail different aspects in time of the history of St. Joseph and have more than 22,000 visitors per year.
The museums offer an abundant amount of dis-plays that include artifacts and models that are designed to give the visitor a glimpse back in time. The Glore Psy-chiatric Museum has been, according to their website,
recognized as “one of the 50 most unusual Museums in the country,” and it is also featured in a book called “1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada.”
Kathy Reno has worked for the St. Joseph Museums for 28 years. Reno says she feels that the museums are of great importance to the St. Joseph Community and is partial to the Glore Psychiat-ric Museum.
“My feelings are, when you know where you are coming from it helps understand how far we have actually come,” Reno said. “This is especially true in mental illness.”
As soon as one walks into the Glore, an eerie feeling descends. The treatment dis-plays offer great insight into how they dealt with mental illness in the past. Some are very disturbing and leave the visitor with a feeling of sadness for those who went through them.
The Glore may be the most famous of the muse-ums, but the others do not disappoint. The Civil War Museum is very expansive in detailing the impact it had on
St. Joseph and the State of Missouri as a whole. Displays outline the timeline of the Civil War in Missouri, com-plete with original artifacts that are overshadowed by the original Confederate Flag of one of Missouri’s most fa-mous regiments. No doubt Missouri Western history majors would get an awaken-ing experience from it.
Jackie Lewin, executive di-rector of the museums, has worked for the St Joseph Mu-seums since 1973. She feels that all of the exhibits of are equal importance with its own history.
“It would be extremely dif-ficult for me to single out one to be my favorite,” Lewin said. “I would like to see stu-dents and the community to come out and judge for themselves.”
Lewin also encourages any students looking to volunteer or intern to stop by the mu-seum or give them a call. She says the museum has had sev-eral Western students work there in the past and some have even designed displays in the museum.
Wilma Walmsley, a retired secretary from Nebraska,
said she has been to the mu-seum six times. She continues to bring friends and family to see all the museum has to of-fer. Walmsley also said she loves history and believes it has great benefits to any-one wanting to learn about the past, whether it be the Civil War or the evolution of methods in mental health. The one thing that really sad-dens her is the lobotomy dis-play.
“The first time I came to these museum was by acci-dent,” said Walmsley “Every time I come back here I see something new that I must have missed on one of my previous visits; it’s just a won-derful place
The museums are very en-tertaining. It is a great place for Western students to come out and do some research or find a topic for a paper. The museum offers something useful for almost every ma-jor at Western. Students in the nursing and psychology departments at Western are usually encouraged to tour the museums. Students can gain admission to all of the museums for $3 with a stu-dent I.D.
Jesse Bilderback | Staff Writer [email protected]
This mannequin represents a woman being burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft. Others were beheaded, strangled and hung. Brooke Carter | Graphics Editor
This movie was a drama from beginning to end, but the decision to cast someone as goofy as Will Ferrell for the lead role might have ruined its potential.
‘Everything must go’ is a drama starring the well-known comedian Will Fer-rell.
First off, the story was very well written. The story was original enough that you didn’t know what was go-
ing to happen next, and you couldn’t tell how it was going to end.
Ferrell plays the role of Nick Halsey, a man who was fired from a very well-paying job and comes home to find out that his wife left him, changed the locks and alarm system, moved all of his stuff to the front lawn and put a hold on his bank accounts. The story is about how he chooses to handle the situa-tion and makes you think the entire time about how he will recover, if at all.
“Everything Must Go” is
another one of those mov-ies that is going to make you think about how you would h a n d l e the same s i t u a -tion. It will put a little bit of “real w o r l d ” fear in you.
This movie can be very much believable, which is the scariest part. He quickly loses the life that most people wish they had.
This is by far the most seri-
ous role that Ferrell has ever played. He is known world-wide for his ability to go to
the extreme to be a standout character. He is more memo-rable for his outrageous char-acter roles than his jokes. Every
comedian has jokes, but not every comedian can take a character and make it their own.
The role of Halsey was no “Ron Burgundy,” no “Ricky Bobby,” no “Frank the Tank”
and no 40-year-old jobless momma’s boy (both “Step Brothers” and “Wedding Crashers”). Halsey was rath-er dull.
That was the only real problem this movie had -- Ferrell cast as serious char-acter. This movie won’t crack your heart like most dramas try to do. It is a depressing story that fails to make you feel depressed.
Just looking at Ferrell will bring the comic relief. Some actors, who are great at com-edies, are talented enough to play serious roles, such as
Will Smith, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx and Tom Hanks. Ferrell is not on this list.
This movie had a “Punch Drunk Love” vibe, being quiet and slow with a come-dian as the dramatic charac-ter, but better in almost every category.
This movie had a much better story line and was eas-ier to follow. Adam Sandler might have been able to bring more drama to the role, but then again, prob-ably anybody could be taken more seriously than Ferrell.
Christian Mengel | Staff Writer [email protected]
Will Ferrell ‘must go’ as boring dramatic character
CAS equals success
In the next few semesters, imagine seeing Western achieve an increase in re-tention rates and a decrease in students enrolled in the freshman level reading, math and English courses. Picture Western with an increase in overall GPAs and possibly even a higher graduation rate. This won’t be due to any magic or super intelli-gent genies that decided to land on our campus. It will be because the Center for Aca-demic Support, Western’s tutoring center, has grown in membership, services and certifications.
In October, the CAS was re-certified for another five years. This re-certification, through an international or-ganization called the College Reading and Learning Asso-ciation, promotes a tutoring program with special skills and assets that can be benefi-cial to every student at Mis-souri Western.
Assistant Dean of Student Academics, Corla Dawson has been at the CAS for over 15 years. She is currently the CAS director and writ-ing coordinator. She helped push the certification process through and is very excited about the CAS’s hopeful fu-ture.
“If we follow CLRA guide-lines to train our tutors and to certify them, we think we get high caliber tutors as a re-sult,” Dawson said. “It allows us to offer a lot of training when we hire tutors, especial-ly math and writing tutors. We put them through the certification training process as a result of the certifica-
tion. Then, as they complete level one or level two, they become more highly trained, and, as a result, it benefits the students that they work with.”
Dawson also explains that the re-certification process this time was a lot more dif-ficult then in the previous five years. Only 800 programs are currently certified in the U.S. and eight other coun-tries.
“They required a lot more documentation,” Dawson said. “We were waiting and waiting to hear. I think we had everything probably in May, and we just learned we were re-certified in October.”
CAS Administrative Assis-tant Karen Luke feels that in addition to more proficient tutoring, the certification will also keep the tutors and pro-gram in check.
“Their program is set up to where they give us good guidelines and expectations,” Luke said. “It keeps us in line with what we need to be do-ing as a good qualified pro-
gram. The training and the workshops we provide are geared to what tutors need to be focusing on to provide the best services possible to our clients.”
In addition to the certifica-tion, the CAS also received comments about the center and their tutoring services.
“One of their comments was that they felt our tutor-ing program was very solid,” Dawson said. “That was good to hear. They were very complimentary with their comments. That further vali-dates the re-certification.”
Veteran tutor senior Gary Weidemann has been tutor-ing at the CAS for three and a half years. He feels the certification gives students a better knowledge in the pro-gram they need help in.
“It allows [tutors] get more in-depth on certain aspects and gives them more quali-fication,” Weidemann said. “They should know that we are here to be used as a re-source. We can provide them with the help they need.”
Students can receive tutoring in any class they are enrolled in at the Center for Academic Support. Eboni Lacey | Online Editor
Eboni Lacey | Online [email protected]
Center receives re-certification
Sports November 10, 2011The Griffon NewsPage 8
Jeremy Weston intercept-ed a pass from Trevor Ad-ams on the next possession to give the Griffons the ball at Northwest’s 42-yard-line. The Griffons offense took advantage as they moved the ball up the field, and Partridge hit Clausen for a two-yard touchdown pass to give the Griffons a 28-21 ad-vantage. Northwest tied the game at 28 on a three-yard run by Jordan Simmons.
Zuerlein hit a 58-yard field goal to put the Griffons on top 31-28 with 11 seconds left in the third quarter. The kick is the longest in Western history, breaking the record Zuerlein set earlier in the year of 57 yards.
“Coach gave me a chance, and I had a good snap, good hold, and I made it,” said Zuerlein, who has made an MIAA record 16 consecu-tive field goals. “I didn’t think that I hit it the best. I had some luck, I guess.”
Zuerlein made all three of
his field goal attempts on the day.
“We need points every time,” Travis Partridge said. “There’s no point to force things. Other teams have to force things but we will just be safe and take the three points.”
The Griffons pulled off a huge goal line stand to start the fourth quarter after Northwest got the ball in-side the five-yard-line. With the ball at the one on fourth down, Northwest elected to go for it instead of taking a field goal that would have tied the game. The play resulted in David Bass dragging the back down for a three-yard loss and a turnover on downs for the Bearcats.
“I’m sure they are regret-ting the decision to go for it now,” Long said. “I felt that if we stopped them right there, we would swing the momentum so much that they wouldn’t be able to come back from something
Griffons beat NorthwestFootball: continued from front
like that, and it held true.”Long recovered a fumble
on the next Northwest drive. The Griffons continued to run clock and punted the ball back to Northwest with 2:31 remaining in the fourth quar-ter. The defense held tough and forced a fourth down and six. Jackson, who was beat deep early in the game, tackled the receiver one-yard short of the first down to se-cure the victory for the Grif-fons.
“As soon as I tackled him, I knew he was short, and I knew that was our game right there,” Jackson said. “As a DB, you got to have a short memory, and in the end I ended up making a nice play for the team.”
Jackson led the Griffons in tackles with 12.
Travis Partridge is 1-0 against Northwest as the starting quarterback of the Griffons. Growing up with Griffon football, beating his rival is a dream come true.
“There’s been great quar-terbacks before me that have never had a chance to beat them,” Partridge said. “I’ve had this dream so many times in my life -- it just feels surreal. There’s a lot of emo-tion involved. It feels amaz-ing.”
Partridge threw for 111 yards and a touchdown and ran for 106 yards and a touchdown on the day. The Griffon offense had no turn-overs in the game.
“Travis played great. He’s a very good competitor,” coach Partridge said.
Clausen led the Griffons in receiving with 52 yards, and Hill ran for 80 yards and a touchdown.
The Griffons improve to 8-2 on the season and 6-2 in the MIAA conference. They will take on Fort Hays State next Saturday in the final game of the regular season. The possibility of a home playoff game exists with a win.
Sport: Football
Year: Sophomore
Position: Quarterback
Stats this week: Completions - 12Total Yards - 217Touchdowns - 2
TRAVIS PARTRIDGEPartridge led a come-from-behind victory and put Missouri Western in position to host a playoff game
after it defeated Northwest Missouri State. Partridge, who had zero turnovers, dusted off a
51-yard run in the third quarter to start a comeback that would eventually end up in the win column.
TRAVIS PARTRIDGE
Sophomore running back Dalton Krysa (20) carries the ball while other Western players make key blocks.Jason Brown | Photo Editor
Travis Partridge walked into the press conference and sat in the corner by himself.
He put his head down and let his emotions clear. The sophomore quarterback had just pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Missouri Western football history.
Down at the half, Partridge led a turnover-free game, and pulled his team together when it needed him to; for the first time in his short ca-reer, he looked like a leader.
“This means everything,” Partridge said. “There’s a lot of emotion involved, and that’s a team victory if there’s ever one. It’s gigantic.”
Partridge had help from a great defensive game plan, as well as players Jack Long and Ben Jackson, who played one of the better games they’ve played all year. The defense not only prevented North-west Missouri State from scoring its 56 points-per-game average, but Western cut it in half — 28.
Still, the game changed when the quarterback had the ball down by eight. Par-tridge stepped back to throw, but slid through the pocket
and ran the ball 51-yards down field. On that run, the momentum switched and the fans erupted.
A few plays later, a one-yard run by Michael Hill and a two-point conversion pass from Partridge to Reggie Jordan tied the game. From there, Partridge connected on a two-yard touchdown to Adam Clausen, marking the score 28-21. And from there, Greg Zuerlein nailed a school record 58-yard field goal. Just like that, a 31-28 victory over Northwest gave Partridge and his family one of their biggest victories.
“It feels amazing,” Par-tridge said. “It’s surreal. I don’t want this feeling to end.”
The day has ended, but the memory will always be in his mind. He watched several quarterbacks go up against the Bearcats, and almost all of them have failed. But his first start, Partridge didn’t fail. He succeeded, and no-body can take that away from him.
“Honestly, I keep stop-ping and [wondering] is this a dream?” Partridge said. “I’ve had this dream so many times in my life.”
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Quarterback’s dream realized Saturday Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports [email protected]
Griffons show skills in exhibition basketball game versus Livin’ the Dream
Thursday at the MWSU Field House, Missouri West-ern men’s basketball gave fans a glimpse of what they will see on the court this sea-son, as they defeated Livin’ the Dream 102-63.
“I thought our defense was pretty decent,” coach Tom Smith said. “I thought they played together, our passing at times was very sharp; for the most part I was pleased.”
The Griffons have focused their efforts on becoming a solid defensive team, and it showed Thursday as they forced 25 turnovers and held Livin’ The Dream to 63 points on 19-for-45 shooting from the field.
“We are way better defen-sively right now than we ever were last year,” Smith said. “If that continues to get bet-ter, we have a chance at being a decent defensive team.”
TJ Johnson led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting and 4-for-5 from the free throw line. He made two three-pointers and showed his leaping ability with some big dunks.
“That’s what I like to do,” Johnson said. “I like getting the crowd involved. If my teammate throws it up, I’m going to go get it.”
Deionta Mitchell scored 15
points on 5-for-8 shooting in 20 minutes. He also contrib-uted three assists and a steal. His long range game was on display as he went 2-for-3 from three point distance.
“Last year I really didn’t shoot the ball that well,” Mitchell said. “That was a goal of mine this summer, so I just stayed in the gym a lot getting shots up. Tonight my teammates found me and got me open shots.”
James Harris scored 16 points on 7-for-13 shooting and dished out four assists. He had his hand wrapped up, and Smith said that he had only practiced two times before the game due to the
injury of his left hand.“Harris getting healthy has
made a difference,” Smith said. “He’s probably our ac-tual starting point guard.”
Dylan Frantz scored 14 points and handed out four assists.
“You have to love Dylan Frantz because he is a kid that just gives you a 100 per-cent every time,” Smith said.
Shawn Tarver scored 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting. The 6’8” big man had his mid-range jumpshot on dis-play.
“This team will have to de-pend on playing together,” Smith said. “I think that they shared the ball well, and I think they had fun doing it. That’s the biggest thing.”
The Griffon women had their talents on display also, as they defeated Livin’ The Dream 96-52.
Jessica Koch led all scor-ers with 30 points. Koch, a second team all-MIAA selec-tion and the Griffons’ leading scorer from last season at 16.6 points per game, also pulled down 11 rebounds and had seven assists.
Brittany Griswold scored 12 points, Brittany Casady had 11 and Caitlin Linihan scored 10. The women fin-ished with a team total of 27 assists, 52 rebounds and shot 46.6 percent from the field.
Kyle Inman | Asst. Sports [email protected]
Dylan Frantz drives the lane for a layup.
Jason Brown | Photo Editor