NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO

Vol 94 | Issue 18 griffonnews.com March 1, 2012

Daniel Cole juggles classes and playing drums professionally.

See page 4

Meet some of the SGA senatorial candidates. See page 3.

Max the Griffon “jinxes” baseball pitcher Brandon Simmons.

See page 7

Current SGA Executive Vice President Jacob Scott is aiming for a promotion. He is hopeful that the student body chooses him in the upcoming presidential elec-tions March 6 and 7.

Scott cites the students as the focus of his campaign.

“I will always work for the student,” he said. Scott wants to continue to build on the transparency and in-teractive qualities that he feels SGA has gained during current SGA President Ali-son Norris’ administration.

Scott plans to hold many open student forums to com-municate with his constitu-ents if elected. He also plans to use Twitter frequently, al-lowing students to contact him and running mate Lau-ren Upton whenever neces-sary.

“Lauren is a Twitter ge-

nius,” he said. “If we pass what we would call an im-portant piece of legislation then Lauren could immedi-ately tweet that and people could know. They wouldn’t have to wait until Thursday to find out from the Griffon News. They’ll have more time to think about ‘Maybe this issue affects me; maybe we should go to the meeting next Monday and talk about it.’

This interactivity is cru-cial to Scott and Upton’s vi-sion of SGA’s relationship with the students. Upton feels that the accessibility of Twitter will help the student body stay connected to her and Scott.

Caitlin Cress | Managing Editorccress1@missouriwestern.edu

Scott puts student body first

Three students from Mis-souri Western’s music pro-gram competed Feb. 11. and advanced to the second round of the Classical Singer competition.

The national competition, sponsored by the Classi-cal Singer magazine, gave $6,000 in cash prizes for the event and awards cash prizes to the top three con-testants. The competition involves contestants at the high school, undergradu-ate and graduate level to compete for $2.1 million in scholarships.

Kaitlyn Christian, Adri-enne Collins and Donovan Jones competed and are ad-vancing to the next level. The singers said that not a lot of undergraduate contes-tants showed up to compete when they auditioned.

“For the three of us to ad-vance, that was a huge hon-or that all three of us will get to go to the second round in Chicago,” Music major Col-lins said.

Each student competed for personal reasons.

“I want to excel in the mu-sic world,” Freshman music education major Christian said. “One of my big dreams is to sing opera on stage someday, so I want to get my voice out there.”

Jones, freshman piano and vocal performance major, said he competed for the scholarships and feedback from the judges.

“I was very excited to go; I love to compete and per-form,” Jones said. “It was exciting, especially exciting

to get feedback from the judges.”

Each student prepared three classical songs and sang two of them in front of a panel of judges at William Jewel College in Liberty, Mo. Jones, Christian and Collins, who advanced to the second round, were also the only students from Western who sang for this specific compe-tition.

“I really think that if other people would have done it, they would have definitely gone on with us,” Christian said. “A lot of talented peo-ple in this department and a lot more people probably could have excelled.”

The second, semifinal and final rounds of the competi-tion will be held in Chicago, Ill., May 25 through 27.

Natalie Spivey | Staff Writernspivey@missouriwestern.edu

Western singers advance to next round of national competition

Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates Jacob Scott and Lauren Upton promise communication and transparency. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Missouri Western Music stu-dent Kaitlyn Christian prac-tices her high notes inside Potter Hall for an upcoming competition in Kansas City.

Michelle CordonnierStaff Photographer

“Change” is the slogan and goal for SGA president candidate Cory Beyers and running mate Kelsey Sa-menus as both are hoping that their inexperience with SGA will ultimately change things up for the student government elections.

“I was looking at the budget plan and I noticed student government has a $7,520 operational cost, which is up $1,520 from last year,” Beyers said. “With that, they’ve done things like buy new furniture for themselves. None of this has to be passed through student government. I want to take money out of these over-inflated budgets that don’t give money back to the students. With more money for on-campus and off-cam-pus activities, students will be happier and it will make

them want to get involved.”Currently the Samenus

and Beyers duo has been meeting with organizations and trying to find out how to provide more activities and programs for students. Beyers said their main em-phasis is face time with the students.

“If elected I want it so that students are seeing results,” Beyers said. “I want to push things through and get more

done then what is being done now. If at the end of the year the students aren’t happy with the results, I’m going to take the amount that students pay, which is $50 every semester, and we are going to take it to a stu-dent vote and try to get it lowered. “

Eboni Lacey | News Editorelacey@missouriwestern.edu

Beyers promises to cut costs

“Change” is the goal of Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates Cory Beyers and Kelsey Samenus.

Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Students to choose next leader

Black Heritage Ball celebrates unity

Ball attendees watched a video about what it means to be African American. The ball also included a presentation by Sounds of Ambition, reading of a Malcolm X speech and an award ceremony. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Senate Joint-Committee meeting leaves potential student fee questions unanswered

More information will be needed before the Student Government Association can make any decision on a new fee for students.

At a joint committee meet-ing last Wednesday, SGA executives announced that they are still waiting on how the University will respond to the $3.4 million shortfall in the budget. The meeting was open to students and also acted a forum for opin-ion on the proposal of a new fee.

The Joint-Committee ses-sion focused on three main areas of discussion; where should the money from a fee be placed in the budget, how much of a fee should be levied and should the vote a fee be confined strictly to the

Senate?Senator Christina Jennings

proposed that the fee be used for campus expansion or services initiatives. Nick Brothers, a student, believes that this resembles a slush fund.

“Frankly, I believe there’s a lot of room for abuse in that,” Brothers said.

Other Senators and stu-dents believe that the fee should be used strictly to maintain the current condi-tions of Western academic

programs as well as ser-vices. Brothers suggested labeling the fee as a Budget Maintenance Fee for the sake of clarity.

SGA President Alison Norris said that since they don’t have all the informa-tion available, these ques-tions can’t be answered, but they are still listening to the students.

“Before we can come up with a decision, there’s still a lot if information we still need,” Norris said. “We can’t really decide on a flat number and say, ‘put it to-ward this’ without knowing what the university needs.”

Dave Hon | Editor-in-Chiefdhon1@missouriwestern.edu

$10 $50 $100 $200 $301.78fee amount per student(6,296 students total)

3.3%

16.5%

33%

66%

100%

25%

50%

75%

100%

SEE SCOTT PAGE 2

SEE BEYERSPAGE 2

SEE SINGERSPAGE 3

SEE FEESPAGE 2

SGA President & Exec VP:

Beyers/Samenus

Scott/Upton

WAC VP and Vice Chair:

Dillon/Asher

Lauren Prywitch

Marcus Sutton

Mary Beth Rosenauer

Matthew Hunt

Monterio Seewood

Rinnie Treese

Travis Hart

Zach Stuart

VOTING BEGINS MARCH 6

NEWS March 1, 2012The Griffon News

Page 2

Eder

If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to

stories@thegriffonnews.com

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

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CAMPUS INFORMATION

CAMPUS CRIME REPORTSThursday, March 1

• Noon,DowntownNoonConcert,FirstPresbyterianChurch

• 1p.m.,CareerFair,FulkersonCenter Friday, March 2

• 6:30p.m.,ForeignFilmSeries,‘LeHerisson’(TheHedgehog),Hearnes102

• 9:15a.m.,MathematicsWorkshop‘Mathemagics,’AgensteinHall

Saturday, March 3• Noon,‘Fat,Sick&Nearly

Dead,’Eder208

• 3p.m.,MonsterPianoConcert,PotterHallTheatre

Monday, March 5• 3:30p.m.,StressManagement,

TestAnxiety,&Test-TakingStrategiesWorkshop,Eder208 Tuesday, March 6

• 3:30p.m.,StressManagement,TestAnxiety,&Test-TakingStrategiesWorkshop,Eder208 Wednesday, March 7

• 3:30p.m.,StressManagement,TestAnxiety,&Test-TakingStrategiesWorkshop,Eder208

1. No crimes reported

Norris, along with Student Governor Peter Gregory, will be attending the Budget Advisory Council meeting where more information on Western’s 2013 budget will be made available.

“When you give out infor-mation like that, they don’t want panic,” Norris said. “I mean, maybe if there’s jobs being cut…I’m not for sure what decisions they will be making they just have to be very careful how they do

that.”Gary Weidemann, a propo-

nent of a student body vote on the fee, felt that the topic of who will be voting on the fee was not broached.

“It seemed like it turned around into a ‘maybe there won’t be student fees after all,’” Weidemann said.

Mel Klinkner, vice presi-dent for financial planning and administration, said that they aren’t trying to pressure SGA into passing a fee.

“We’ve tried to be very open and honest on where [the budget] is,” Klinkner said. We’re just laying out

the case.”With cuts from the state,

Western faces a $1.9 million shortfall, not including an in-crease in costs.

“If the students decide to cover that shortfall then there isn’t a cut,” Klinkner said, “If they don’t approve it then I can’t tell you today where those cuts are going to be.”

Klinkner said that he doesn’t want to anticipate how students will react when voting on a new fee. He does hope that they real-ize that Western has already made significant cuts in the

past few years. Even with a new fee to make up for the shortfall, Klinkner said that salaries would remain fro-zen.

“I would like to think they would understand,” Klinkner said. “If they don’t understand then they won’t vote for it. I get that.”

Weidemann said that if Senate votes on a fee exclu-sively, then it would confirm for students that SGA just works for the administra-tion’s will and is not repre-sentative of the students.

Norris assures that SGA is always working with admin-

istration but is still the voice for the students, especially with a proposed student fee.

“If we were working for administration then we would have already passed it in Senate, we wouldn’t be holding these meetings asking students what they think, we wouldn’t be asking what a potential budget with be with cuts,” Norris said. “We’re trying to find the in-formation that we can so we can make the best decision for students.”

NEWSNOTES

Workshop features America’s best

math whizThe fourth annual Mis-

souri Western Mathematics Workshop (MW)2 on Fri-day, March 2, will include a keynote speech from Dr. Art Benjamin, the professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Califor-nia who has been dubbed ‘’America’s Best Math Whiz’’ by Reader’s Digest. Dr. Ben-jamin’s presentation, ‘’Math-emagics! The Secrets of Men-tal Math,’’ will be at noon March 2 in the Kemper Re-cital Hall inside Leah Spratt Hall. It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Benjamin is both a pro-fessor of mathematics and a magician. In his ‘’Mathemag-ics’’ presentation, he dem-onstrates and explains his secrets for performing rapid mental calculations faster than a calculator.

Two other presentations are also open to the public: ‘’Math in Games’’ by Dr. Kevin Anderson of Missouri Western at 1:05 p.m., and ‘’Counting Urban Walks’’ by Dr. Keith Brandt of Rock-hurst University at 2 p.m. Both of those talks are also in the Kemper Recital Hall.

Potter Gallery exhibits work of

Clinton RickettsThe work of Clinton Rick-

etts will be displayed in the Potter Hall Gallery at Mis-souri Western State Univer-sity through March 30. The exhibit of prints, titled ‘’The Sundowners,’’ is free and open to the public 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Ricketts is teaching print-making at Western and at Washburn University in To-peka, Kan. He recently re-ceived a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kansas and is the director of the Wonder Fair Gallery in Lawrence, Kan.

.

“If it’s more casual, stu-dents would maybe be more involved,” she said.

Scott said that his term of office with Norris has taught him many things. He indi-cated that Norris’ journal-ism background, which en-courages her to listen and observe, has taught him the importance of listening well to the student body. He said that he often thinks of a Win-ston Churchill quote when making decisions that affect students.

“’It takes a lot of cour-age to stand up and speak,’ which is what I do a lot. I’m a speaking kind of guy. ‘But it takes even more cour-age,’ this is what Winston

Churchill said, ‘to sit down and listen,’” Scott said. “It’s critical in a position like this that you’re constantly listen-ing loud and speaking softly. You want to speak boldly at times, but especially when it comes to listening to the students, you have to really listen and ensure that the position you’re advocating on behalf of students is the correct position. The correct position is always what stu-dents feel.”

Scott promises to do what-ever he can in order to make student voices heard.

“I’m a pretty bold guy, and I’m going to continue to always put the student’s interests first, regardless of the Vice President of Stu-dent Affairs or the President himself,” he said. “If the

student’s voice isn’t being heard, you better believe I’m going to be knocking on the

door making sure they un-derstand.”

Scott said that a major part of his campaign platform is the desire to increase school spirit on campus. He said that the football tailgates and the rally towels for the Northwest game this past se-mester, both initiatives that he was a part of, showed how much school spirit Western is truly capable of. Scott wants to start a spirit squad, like University of Missouri’s “Zou Crew.”

“That will give students incentive to get loud and rowdy and just truly support Western athletics,” he said.

Part of increasing school spirit is allowing the Greek community to be more active on campus. Upton, an active Alpha Sigma Alpha member,

is champion of this cause. She hopes to work towards Greek housing in the dorms during their potential term in office.

Norris said that she and Scott worked as a team over the past year, sharing respon-sibilities and gaining similar experience.

“I’ve really been able to work with him as an equal,” she said. “He does a lot of the same things I do. We work as a team. I couldn’t really think of any better vice presi-dent than Jacob has been this year.”

Norris feels that Scott is absolutely prepared to po-tentially fill her position.

“He’s really dedicated to the students of Missouri Western, so I think he’d do an excellent job,” she said.

Beyers and Samenus’ cam-paign manager Noah Green feels that students should stand behind their message of change and bettering stu-dents financially. Beyers, Samenus and Green have been all working on team campaigning and marketing plans for nearly two months.

“These guys are out here working as hard as anybody can work meeting students, talking to students, talking to organizations and doing their homework as far as SGA goes,” Green said. “I am very familiar with the orga-nization; that kind of helps in preparation.”

Green also feels that it’s

time for someone new to take the reigns, rather then Scott’s team.

“You have all this money sitting here,” Green said. “It’s $50 a semester per stu-dent, and you really provide them with about $10 a se-mester worth of services to what they actually get back. If you don’t vote for Cody and Kelsey, then you’re, in essence, voting for the same. What student government needs is not an insider. We’ve seen how well that’s been working.”

The team’s goals include filling senate, lowering stu-dent fees and making more students aware of what SGA can do for them. SGA Vice President Candidate Sa-menus addresses her main goals of bettering the cam-

pus.“I just want to be a voice

for the students,” Samenus said. “Talking to Cody, he

had great ideas. He is very motivated and determined to change a few things here on campus having to do with the student government. I want to change the parking, school spirit, and campus in-volvement; hopefully getting more people here on cam-pus, keeping them here on the weekends.”

When addressing con-cerns about the other SGA candidates, neither Beyers nor Green are worried about their lack of experience due to not currently being apart of SGA.

“If we are going to bring experience in the question, is it really fair to say he is the more experienced one?” Green asked about Scott. “He personally has been working in the office for a year and a

half. As far as I’m concerned, that’s bad experience. He hasn’t been effective. He is in charge of the Senate, and they can’t get a full Senate.”

Beyers also feels that as President he will take re-sponsibility and attempt to make his team supersede the goals accomplished by the current presidential team.

“I don’t know Alison on a personal basis,” Beyers said. “I can’t say anything bad about her. The couple times I have been into her office, she has been working on getting her wedding plans, which is totally fine. It’s a big deal. But I think there’s other places to do that then in your student government office.”

Beyers hopes his inexperi-ence with SGA will appeal to students.

Jason Brown | Photo Editor

BEYERS: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Beyers runs for SGA on platform of change

Students, senators ask for more information about feeFEES: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Scott brings experience, dedication to campaignSCOTT: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Jacob Scott wants to improve school spirit at Western.

Jason Brown | Photo Editor

NEWSMarch 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 3

Leadership, commitment and an open mind are just a few of the qualities that Resi-dential Life is looking for in those applying to become a residential assistant.

Crystal Carlson, Scanlon residence hall director, said that if students are interested in becoming a resident as-sistant, applications are out now. She said that applica-tions can be picked up in the commons building or at any of the residence hall front desks.

“The last day to turn in applications for becoming an RA is March 8 at 5 p.m,” Carlson said.

Becky Lovitt, Scanlon RA and RA selection committee member, said that becoming an RA is a great experience not only for leadership skills but for making new friends. She also said that those who are hired will receive great benefits.

“Each RA has around 35 to 40 residents, and you build your own community,” Lo-vitt said. “Also you get free room and board, and $150 a month, which adds up to $600 a semester.”

However the process of becoming an RA is time consuming. Carlson said that there is an application process and interviews that students must go through before they are chosen as a likely candidate for an RA position for next school year.

“Students don’t have to be a current on-campus student, however we require that you have had on-campus living experience,” Carlson said. “Students must also answer four essay questions, and have two letters of recom-mendation, preferably by a professional staff member, or

current employer.”The RA selection commit-

tee consists of six resident assistants that were given an assignment along with their daily tasks within the halls, Lovitt said. She said that they work with professional staff and attend at least two of the night sessions for students to come and ask questions.

“We go to information meetings mainly to answer questions that students might have,” Lovitt said. “The committee will also do group interviews starting March 22 and 23 that will consist of activities to show the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.”

Carlson said that she looks for someone who can inter-view well and have good re-sponses to their short essay questions.

“Some people are very ner-vous during the interview, but will shine in their essay questions,” Carlson said.“Or they will have great writing

skills, and shine in the inter-view. But they should come to the interview and dress professional, not in blue jeans.”

Jessica Cato, Scanlon RA, said the position requires time commitment along with a positive attitude because the position is 24/7.

“I absolutely love my job, and have always wanted to do this,” Cato said. “It’s hard work, and once you step

into the building you must change your entire attitude, because it’s a lifestyle.”

Carlson said that students will be notified via-email on April 2 if they were hired for the position.

“They will have a few days after being accepted to get to the contract office,” Carlson said. “At that time they can accept or deny the position.”

The Classical Music Competition is not the first competition these students have been a part of, as they have all competed in nu-merous competitions. The students said this one in particular was very laid

back. They were not re-ally nervous, and everyone was really friendly for the event.

“It’s just a great way to start getting your name out there, when you com-pete and hopefully place or win, it’s nice to start get-ting that recognition, and to hear the feedback from the judges,” Collins said.

SINGERS: CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Classical Music Competition gives students exposure

Improving campus life for all students at Missouri Western is one of the main priorities for the current SGA Senate candidates. The can-didates won’t be take office until next semester, but their making it known that en-hancing the campus for stu-dents will come first.

There are 16 candidates for senate, while the maximum number seats in the Senate is 20.

Director of Student Rela-tions Jordan Carney under-stands that some of the can-didates are new, but there are also some candidates who have experience when it

comes to being a SGA senate, and she feels that the new senators will voice new sug-gestions that will help im-prove Missouri Western.

“I think they will bring in new and exciting ideas,” Carney said. “And also new ways to improve communi-cations while increasing SGA involvement around cam-pus”.

Candidate Julie Hodson feels that living on campus gives her a chance to see what students want to improve and, if elected, she wants to make those improvements to better the campus.

“I have done this for two years and I feel I have a lot of experience,” Hodson said. “I feel that I know more about the students and being part

of the SGA senate helps me get me voice out about what to improve.”

Being involved on campus will be another job that sena-tors will have to take when elected. Candidate Lauren Prywitch wants to be a part of all the new changes, and she wants to give her ideas that will hopefully help.

“I like knowing what’s go-ing on around campus, and I like helping out with making decisions,” Prywitch said. “I like to help out, and I feel that this is a really good ex-perience and opportunity”.

Prywitch also has experi-ence from being on the sen-ate and hopes to continue to put her input on what hap-pens around campus.

While some candidates

may be pushing for changes in one building around cam-pus, candidate Travis Hart is pushing for changes in all the buildings, and not just one in particular.

“I want to eliminate bias in the university,” Hart said. “Where some senators may be advocating for just one specific building, I want to advocate for the entire cam-pus”.

Furthering student in-volvement around campus is something Hart feels will instantly improve the uni-versity. The three candi-dates seemed persistent in the main goal of becoming a senator, which is improving campus life for all students of Missouri Western.

Western students can com-pete to design the university president’s 2012 holiday card for a chance to win $100.

Steve VanDyke, graphic arts coordinator, and Dr. Laurel Vartabedian, wife of Missouri Western State Uni-versity President Dr. Robert Vartabedian, who have de-signed the president’s day holiday card for the past five years, are now leaving it up to students to inspire the im-age on the card. They pro-vided the idea for Missouri Western Print and Design to hold a contest for an image that will be used in the de-sign of the front of the card. The design should reflect the holidays or the winter sea-son.

The contest is open to all Missouri Western students. The student who submits the winning entry will receive $100 cash. They will also give $25 each to two runners up. Deadline for entries is 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 2.

“I am really considering submitting a piece for the contest," Brittany Stanton, art therapy, said. "It’s great that Missouri Western decided to give students a chance to show their art. It will make an amazing piece for a port-folio to whomever wins the contest.

VanDyke and Dr. Laurel Vartabedian decided to make this project a contest do to seeing something similar done by another university.

“Steve and Laurel came up with the idea after seeing a calendar project from anoth-er university that contained student work," Kendy Jones, director of campus printing and design services, said. "Laurel loved the idea, and we all supported the proj-ect.”

The holiday card contest could become a yearly event. This year is a learning pe-riod for the makers of the contest to see if any changes will need to be made in the future. Campus Printing and

Design Services prints hun-dreds of student artwork pieces a year, are amazed with them and are excited to see what students can come up.

“It’s nice to see this cam-pus through the eyes of the students,” VanDyke said.

Those interested in par-ticipating in the President’s Day Holiday Card Contest must follow these specifi-cations: Entry may be an il-lustration, a photograph or mixed media. Card will be 5 by 7 inches with an added one fourth bleed on all four sides. Portrait or landscape format is acceptable, but por-trait is preferred. Resolution should be 300 dpi. Design software should be Adobe Il-lustrator or Photoshop.

Students should submit a PDF of the entry. Campus Printing and Design Ser-vices will require the unflat-tened files with layers. Text is not necessary unless it is relevant to the design. The limit is two entries per per-son. Be sure to include your full name and phone number when entering.

“We feel that the presi-dent's holiday card is a per-fect venue to showcase stu-dent’s talent," Jones said. "Steve VanDyke will work with the student's artwork, lay it out and create the in-terior of the card. This will take place in October and November to have the card in the mail late November."

The winning entry will become the property of Mis-souri Western State Univer-sity. The committee reserves the right to not use the win-ning image or any contest entry on the holiday card. Entries will be anonymous to the judges, with only Jones knowing the artists.

All entries should be emailed to Kendy Jones, director of campus print-ing and design services, at joneskk@missouriwestern.edu. Printing and design services anticipate a good outcome of students, for this being their first time offering the president’s holiday card contest.

The student who submits the winning entry will receive $100.

Two runners up get $25.

Happy Holidays,Dr. Vartabedian

DESIGN DR. VARTABEDIAN’S HOLIDAY CARD!

Deadline: 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 2, 2012E-mail entries to: Kendy Jones at joneskk@missouriwestern.edu.

SGA President & Exec VP:

Beyers/Samenus

Scott/Upton

WAC VP and Vice Chair:

Dillon/Asher

Lauren Prywitch

Marcus Sutton

Mary Beth Rosenauer

Matthew Hunt

Monterio Seewood

Rinnie Treese

Travis Hart

Zach Stuart

VOTING BEGINS MARCH 6

Residential Life looks for next year’s student leadersMatt Hunt | Asst. News Editormhunt8@missouriwestern.edu

Save $2,700 andlive free on campus

Make $600 a semester Give up free time(some week days, 

weekends, and overnights)

Resident Assistant Janica Lowery works at the desk in Vaselakos Hall. Next year, several RA positions will be available. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Students to design Dr. Vartabedian’s 2012 holiday card

Albert Shelby | Staff WriterShelbyalbertl@yahoo.com

Maggie Reil | Contrib. Writer

SGA ballot fails to fill positions, candidates look to improve student life

FEATURES March 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 4

Success is a goal for most students, but for Daniel Cole, it is a person-al trait.

A lot of students’ ca-reers do not start until after graduation, but that is not the case for Cole, a music student who is in Missouri Western’s drum-line and Jazz combo. He has also been in several local cover bands over the years and currently plays drums for a Kansas City cover band called “Har-vesting Jane” and XV, a rap artist who is currently signed to Warner Bros.

Oh -- and he’s only a ju-nior.

“When you add things outside of school, that’s when you got to get your priorities straight,” Cole said in reference to his very busy life. “Know yourself. Know your schedule.”

In 2010, Harvesting Jane received the opportunity to play at the Sturgis mo-torcycle rally in South Da-kota. They shared the set with both Bret Michaels and Billy Ray Cyrus, and the show was featured on TruTV’s reality show “Full Throttle Saloon.”

And it doesn’t stop

there.Playing for Warner

Bros.’ rap artist XV has been an experience for Cole as well. A friend of his is a good friend of XV, so when he heard that XV needed a drummer for a national tour, Cole came to mind. This tour would involve shows from the east coast to the west coast, plus shows in Can-ada. Cole joined the tour and performed tremen-dously.

XV’s midwest tour ran during the semester and would have forced Cole to miss a couple weeks of school.

“I did a bunch of as-signments ahead of time,” Cole said.

He couldn’t do the en-tire tour, in the end, but was still able to do most of the shows. This showed that he is a professional musician, but a student first.

Playing for XV also gave Cole the opportunity to be one of the main charac-ters in a music video shot just last year by director

Rex Arrow. The video was for XV’s song “U.F.C.” Cole dressed up in a clown mask that is a rep-lica of the masks used in the opening sequence for

the recent Batman movie “The Dark Knight.” The video currently has over 362,000 views on You-Tube.

Cole plans to be a tour-ing musician first and foremost after gradua-tion, but he does not want those plans to get in the way of his education.

“The first goal is to fin-ish college, first of all,”

said Cole.All of this is about more

than just playing music, though. All of Cole’s suc-cess is not for self-fulfill-ment.

“I want to use that suc-cess to help people ... to give back to people of the world,” Cole said.

With all of his accom-plishments as a musician, Cole’s clear goal is to af-

fect the world in some way and to not just be another guy behind the drums.

“(I plan to) use the tal-ent I was blessed with to get me there,” said Cole, who clearly knows where he is going and knows how to get there, saying “If you fail to plan, that’s planning to fail.”

Regardless of all the great things I’d heard about “Moneyball,” I was still hesitant to watch it. Baseball is not my favor-ite pastime. Sports of any kind, really, are something that I could just do with-out. Watching a bunch of guys run around a field chasing a ball is not my idea of a good time. I love going to baseball games, but only because I get to eat lots of food and goof off with my sister. Since “Moneyball” added an-other of my least favorite things, math, to baseball, I didn’t think there was any chance that I would like it. I was so, so wrong.

“Moneyball” tells the story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), an ex-professional baseball player turned scout turned general man-ager, struggling to turn around his team, the Oak-land A’s. After a season of losing to teams with bud-gets three times the size if theirs, Beane employs Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Brand uses a computer-based series of formulas to calculate which players are most likely to get on base; the more players on base, he reasons, the more runs the team will score. Brand even calculates ex-

actly how many runs the A’s will need to make it to the playoffs.

Anyone (um, me) who thinks that a movie us-ing countless complicated algorithms to calculate baseball stats would be boring could not be more wrong. The movie may revolve around these for-mulas, but it is the effects that this method has on the team -- the players, coaches, scouts and their fans -- that really makes the film worth watching. Since the film is based on the Athletics’ actual 2002 season, real game footage is often used. The emo-tion shown on the real-life players’ faces only adds to the emotional impact of the film.

Pitt is impressive in his role as Beane. His aging face allows him to show levels of emotion that his pretty-boy smooth skin did not lend itself to as easily. The creases on Pitt’s eyelids show the years of stress and struggle that Beane has gone through to lead the A’s to success. While the business -- and baseball -- oriented scenes

make up the majority of the movie, it is the scenes between Beane and his daughter that really show Pitt’s range. We often see Pitt playing some sort of fast-talking businessman (the “Oceans” franchise, “Inglourious Basterds,” “Burn After Reading”), so seeing him as the father of a 12-year-old girl was touching and refreshing.

While Pitt is undeniably the star of “Moneyball,” Hill’s surprising turn as Brand is wonderful. For audience members that have only seen Hill in his “Superbad”-like roles, seeing him as an almost completely-serious sports analyst is almost jarring. But he absolutely de-serves his Oscar nomina-tion. Once getting over the initial shock of seeing Hill in such a serious role, it was easy to forget that we were watching the ac-tor famous for his roles as pot-smoking, immature slobs and only see Brand, a recent Yale grad who is changing the face of base-ball.

Everyone should see “Moneyball,” even those that have no interest in sports. The movie quickly becomes about cheering on the underdogs, which is something everyone loves, no matter the sub-ject.

One Western student may be seeing a future in script writing; after all, his first play ever written was the best one to come out of Missouri.

Jesse Frazier, a senior Theater & Cinema major, wrote a 10 minute script in his playwriting class that ended up being good enough to be casted, di-rected and critiqued at the Kennedy Center Ameri-can College Theater Festi-val. Missouri’s region falls with Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. This regional contest was held on the University of Oklahoma campus. Frazier’s piece was the only one repre-senting Missouri.

“This was my first play ever written,” Frazier said. “I’ve always wanted to, but I just didn’t know how. I had an idea, but how to approach it I didn’t really know. That class re-ally helped me get a grasp on it.”

Frazier’s play is a fic-tional war story. The most challenging part about writing it was fitting it into the 10 minute time limit. His play was much more of an emotional roll-er coaster than the others were. Frazier touched on faith and religion, the seri-ousness of war and family values, while most of the other plays touched on just one issue. This made it harder on Frazier’s play because his had more emotional changes than the others.

Even though his play is just 10 minutes, his next step for this play is to add to the details and turn it into a solid 30 minute piece. Once successful at 30 minutes, Frazier hopes to blow it up into a full two-hour performance play, in hope that the emo-tional changes will be lon-ger and drawn out instead of having to fit it in such a

short period of time.Dallas Henry, the pro-

fessor who taught the playwriting course, sees a lot of potential in Frazier and his work.

“Jesse is very creative,” Henry said. “He really thinks outside the box and challenges himself. It goes to show with having a cre-ated foreign language and a war, he really pushes his limits.”

All his life, telling stories has been Frazier’s biggest passion. Coming from a large family, and being one of the older brothers, Frazier felt as a kid that it was his responsibility to keep the younger kids en-tertained. Storytelling and creating roles for the kids to play was how he was able to do it. From then on he knew that telling sto-ries was his calling.

“If I could tell stories for a living, that’s my dream job,” Frazier said. “Rather, it’s doing sitcoms, writ-ing books or whatever. I’ve actually put a little thought into maybe teach-

ing one day, but right now it’s just about getting my work out there and seeing what that can do for me.”

From regionals, only two were chosen to go on to the national level. Although Frazier didn’t reach the national level this year, he still received a ton of great feedback.

“One of the directors from one of the other plays asked me if she could di-rect my play back in her home town,” Frazier said.

According to Henry, the scripts written in last semesters play writing class were passed on to this semester’s directing class. The approximately 15 plays written last se-mester, including Fra-zier’s, are currently being handled by 15 directors. Auditions for the roles in these plays just started on Tuesday, Feb. 28. They will debut as plays for the first time Thursday, May, 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Brian Duskey | Staff Writerbduskey@missouriwestern.edu

Caitlin Cress | Managing Editorccress1@missouriwestern.edu Christian Mengel | Asst. Features Editor

cmengel@missouriwestern.edu

Daniel Cole practices on his drum set. Cole has worked professionally as a drummer, going on tour with rap artist XV. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

Griffon drummer exemplifies success

‘Moneyball’ gives audience something to cheer for

Student-written play competes at regional level

allmoviephotos.com

ADSMarch 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 5

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from the library circulation desk.

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Send columns or letters to Ellis Cross at elliscross@yahoo.com

OPINIONS March 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 6

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; addi-tional copies are 50 cents. Content of this paper is developed independently of the facul-ty 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 thegriffonnews@gmail.com. Copy and advertising must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.

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than 350-400 words and guest columns no longer than 500 words. Letters and columns will be edited for style.

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• The Griffon News will not withhold names under any circumstances. Anonymously submitted letters will not be published.

• Views expressed on the opinion pages are not necessarily those of The Griffon News staff or Missouri Western State University.

Managing EditorDesign Editor

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Opinions EditorFeatures Editor

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Dave HonEditor-in-Chief

Caitlin CressAndy InmanBrooke CarterNat LarsenEboni LaceyMatt HuntJason Brown Thomas Huitt-Johnson Kyle Inman Nathan PickmanEllis Cross Blair StalderChristian MengelKyler PenlandKen Rosenauer

The Griffon News Staff

Robert Johnsonjunior

“I think they should take away the Max Experience fee and just transfer it to

that.”

“Why don’t we get rid of the bookstore? Kick Barnes and Noble off campus and keep the profits for ourselves.”

Megan Langdonjunior

Victoria Nwokoriejunior

““They don’t need to apply it to the current students.

Maybe they could add $25 dollars to the new students

for a total of $75.”

CAMPUS VOICEWhat amount would be fair

for a new student fee?

Zack Siskfreshman

“I don’t think they should add on any fee. People

pretty much have to work to cover what isn’t covered by loans and grants. With

gas, rent and utilities, students have to work two

jobs sometimes.”

Brian Liechtijunior

“I believe the fees should be going for the classes so we can graduate on time. We shouldn’t have to wait for an even year to graduate. If I want to

retake a class I shouldn’t have to wait two years.”

SGA ELECTIONS

Beyers/Samenus

Scott/Upton

Dillon/Asher

The Griffon News does not endorse any candidate in the 2012 SGA election. Instead, we want you to read our front page and make an informed decision about who you are going to vote for.

You may not think you care, and you may not think that this election matters, but, in actuality, it does. The winner of this election will lead an organization that manages half a million dol-lars of your money.

In addition to how much money SGA has, the elected official will also represent us in front of administration and to the community. You may have heard their motto before: they are the voice of the student body. If this per-son is in charge of how your voice is bellowed, shouldn’t you at least know who they are and what they stand for?

The President of SGA is a spearhead of new policy and innovative ideas for the student body and SGA. They don’t just represent us

to administration, but they will represent us to students at our university and others.

The SGA President should be the best of the best of us. They shouldn’t just have a high GPA and be involved with lots of extracurricular activities. They should also know the students and be plugged into the network of the student body. While managing the Association itself is an important part of the President’s job, interact-ing with prominent leaders and students on campus is important too.

No doubt, the job of SGA president is important and full of serious responsibility. With more turbulent times ahead for Western, SGA and its president will play an even bigger role in the development of the univer-sity.

Students should take every opportunity to know and understand the candi-date they plan to vote for. Even students who will be

Editorial: Students should not vote blindly in SGA election

I waited a few days to write about this because I really thought Obama would come up with a waiver for the churches and business who's conscience would not allow them to pay for abor-tions and other types of con-traceptives. I find it strange that he didn't supply waiv-ers like those supplied for some of his unions and large employers that wanted to opt out of government con-

trolled healthcare.I'm tired of waiting.Lets take some time to

get the time line right. The presidents healthcare plan included violating the first amendment. Put simply he is forcing individuals and business entities to purchase health insurance for their employees that includes con-traceptive devices, steriliza-tion surgeries and abortions in direct violation of their beliefs.

The president must have,

in part, agreed that this is a violation of the first amend-ment to the Constitution of the United States because he created a compromise. He stated that the organizations and businesses didn't have to pay but the insurance companies would have to provide these products and surgeries for free.

Insurance companies do not provide surgeries and products for free. So, they will have to add it to the bill. I know the president

knows this. Any citizen of these United States knows this, and I am told he is one.

His plan:All non-waivered employ-

ers will pay for insurance policies who will provide abortion and contraceptive products.

His compromise:All non-waivered employ-

ers will pay for insurance policies who will provide abortion and contraceptive products.

Do you see the difference?

I don't either. So, if the first was a violation of the first amendment then why are we supposed to be happy with the compromise? I'm not. He is violating a constitutional amendment (again). Where are the minute men? I'm ready to sign up and support whoever is fighting for my rights, and I know I am not alone on this. We beat back tyranny once in the back-woods of this country, and some are getting ready to do it again.

EDITOR SSOAP BOX

’

BY DAVE HON

WITH ELLIS CROSS

The king compromises on health care mandate, not really

Last weekend I was flip-ping through the channels at home and came across the NASA channel—or whatev-er our government is passing off as NASA these days.

Now, if any of you have read my previous articles about the United States and our Space Program, you know I’m an advo-cate. The US landed on the moon, launched an inter-stellar probe, landed Mars rovers and pioneered the International Space Station.

I’m usually not a radical when it comes to politics, but drastic times calls for dras-tic measures. You see, just before I slipped to the NASA channel, I was watching Sandra Fluke, Georgetown University Law Student and previous president of the law school’s Law Students

for Reproductive Justice, promote the Affordable Healthcare Act’s regulation of forcing insurance provid-ers to provide birth control on their health plans.

Now, besides the long title, Fluke had some good points. Sure, birth control can be used to prevent symptoms of certain syndromes and diseases that afflict women. I’m not here to argue against ‘women’s reproductive rights,’ I’m here to argue for humanity’s reproductive rights.

Why is contraception a good thing?

On an individual level, it allows two people to decide when they want to procreate. The key there is two people. Not one person, not three people: two. Whether they are strangers in the night

or long-term partners, they can control when they have children.

On a societal level, we can control the population. Without contraception, we would be living in a world without meaningless (yet joyous) sex or an overpop-ulated, resource-starved world.

There really aren’t any cons to contraception: Control over bodily func-tions, control over the popu-lation numbers. What’s there to not like? Well, where the line gets fuzzy is abortion. With all religious pretext aside (being an agnostic, I don’t really have any), I don’t agree with abortion. From a societal standpoint, it’s kind of senseless. In most cases, aborted fetuses are valuable genetic material that further the evolution of humanity. At the same time, the more we breed, the more we need. If all the aborted

fetuses in the world had been brought to term, then all those humans procreat-ed, there would be quite a lot of extra people running around. Before you know it, people are soylent green!

Space, the final solutionLike I said, I had a radi-

cal breakthrough, so let me break it to you. Send the fetuses to outer space. If every aborted fetus had been removed from the woman, frozen cryogenically in our best cryogenic technolo-gies, then shot into space, the human genome would forever live in. If we sent 100 ships with 1,000 fetuses each, we’re attempting to save 100,000 genetic individ-uals. If we shot these ships into outer space at all differ-ent directions, the chances of one of them coming across other sentient life, while improbable, could eventual-ly happen. At the very least, the fetuses would preserve

our history for later genera-tions to find in outer space.

Now, like I said, this is radical, but if we used all the money on abortions for this project (plus some for the long-term interplanetary vehicles) we wouldn't have to senselessly waste the product of human breeding.

The Potent ia l Consequences

Worst case scenario, the ships lose power out in deep space, and the fetuses are lost to the vacuum of space. And, an even worse scenario is if the unborn humans are found by a race of tyrannical aliens that enslave and breed humans for free labor. Even in these scenarios though, the human race has a chance. With abortion, the human genome that our race has spent millennium perfect-ing through natural selc-tion and evolution just gets destroyed.

Humans should consider alternative to abortion

SportsMarch 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 7

Missouri Western finished the beginning of its non-conference schedule with a 4-3 record. Now, the Griffons dive into the most important part of their schedule.

The Griffons play Central Missouri -- at top-25 team -- this weekend (March 2-to-4) and will play four games against Central.

No. 3 Mules (4-0) are com-ing off their closest win, a 4-3 victory of Henderson State. After starter Aaron Baker struggled to find a rhythm, the Mules won behind handy reserve Travis Unthank. He earned his first win of the season and looks to see the diamond against Western.

The Griffons played at home this past weekend and

won 3 out of 4 games against Nebraska-Kearney.

After wining the first game 7-2 and dropping the second 6-2, Western won two on Sunday (3-2, 12-5).

“We kind of relaxed, and offensively we kind of came unglued a little bit more,” coach Buzz Verduzco said.

Verduzco has had a pretty good hand of pitchers to deal with. Junior Brandon Simmons has started two games and has a 1.93 ERA. Mason Queen won his solo start, and may be looked upon to pitch more in the fu-ture.

“We’re solid with Brandon Simmons, and we’re solid with Nik Jurado,” Verduzco said. “One kid who has been pitching very well so far in

relief has been Jake Jones.”Verduzco said Matt

Bergin probably won’t see too much time right now, because people know about him. Strong reserves will help the Griffons, not only this week, but also in the fu-ture.

David Chew is hit-ting .400, good for first on the team. Hitter Spen-cer Shockley and Bubba Dotson -- two guys Verduzco spoke highly of before the season -- have popped out a homer so far in the early season, but it is ju-nior outfielder Nate Ramler that leads the team with two.

After this week, Western returns home to play non-conference foe Mary before going back to a conference opponent -- Missouri South-ern -- also at home.

Seconds before a potential no-hitter was thrown by Missouri Western pitcher Brandon Simmons, a mythical creature -- part lion, part ea-gle -- ruined it.

It’s an all-around norm to never talk about a no-hitter. Max Griffon didn’t know about this apparently. Seconds before Simmons threw three straight hits to Nebraska-Kearney and end-ed the opportunity, Max’s tweet read that Simmons had a no-hitter.

The jinx may have ruined Simmon’s chance at finishing out the accomplishment.

The mascot has been hid-ing ever since, and is on the lookout. Before anybody lost sight of him, he had one last tweet to say.

“They say don’t talk about a no hitter, not don’t “tweet” about it!,” Max tweeted. Though minutes later, he did send out an apology to Sim-mons.

Nonetheless, the Griffons won the game. But the game was practically in the bag anyway, so Max remains at fault. Let’s just agree he’s not

Steve Bartman. So why is he hiding?

“We don’t know who’s behind Max Griffon,” Western coach Buzz Verduzco said. “But we got that when Brandon Sim-mons has a no-hitter going, that evidently Max tweeted, ‘Hey Simmons has a no-hit-ter.’ One pitch later, boom, he gives up the first hit of the game, so he lost the no-hitter.”

So the baseball team is def-initely blaming him.

Not everybody is blaming Max. Asst. Director of Athletics for External Relations and good friend Brett Es-

ely is sticking up for Max Griffon.

“I actually have a pretty good relationship with Max, him and I talk on a regular ba-sis,” Esely said. “I went back and looked at the transcript of that conversation, and that actually was tweeted initially at the top of the fifth inning, and let the record show that the no-hitter was not bro-ken up until the top of the seventh inning.”

If anybody has info on where Max Griffon could be, please find him and report him back to the athletics of-fice in Looney Complex.

Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editorthuittjohnson@missouriwestern.edu

Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editorthuittjohnson@missouriwestern.edu

Baseball to start conference play

Max the Griffon hides out

Max the Griffon should watch out for Griffon pitcher Brandon Simmons after “jinxing” his perfect game. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

Kim Robinson catches a fly ball at the Spring Sports Complex during a softball double header this fall. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

In his only at bat in game three, Bubba Dotson sealed the victory with a walk off, two RBI double. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

(Above) Grant Fink (33) hits the ball for a double against University of Nebraska-Kearney on Sunday, Feb. 26. (Below) Simmons threw a 3-hit game to start the weekend play against the Lopers. The Griffons won three games to one. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

Missouri Western took advantage of its final tour-nament to advance in an al-ready upstart season.

The Griffons pulled out five wins in six games, los-ing only their first game of the weekend- a stunning 12-11 loss to Missouri-St. Louis. The shock didn’t faze the Griffons too bad as they won the rest of their games.

“I made a mistake in that, not pulling Emily Moe a little sooner than I did,” coach Jen Bagley said. “In a game like that and your defense starts to break down, you think it’s not your pitcher’s fault that this is happening. But sometimes making a change in the circle at least gets the ball out of the outfield a little bit more, and I probably did my team and Emily Moe a disservice by keeping her in

by probably three batters too many, which ended up be-ing the difference in the ball game.”

The Griffons had an eight-run lead over St. Louis be-fore the squad garnered nine runs. After almost defeating 10-2, Western all of a sudden finally found itself behind 11-10.

The two teams each post-ed a run in the seventh, as it went in the Tritons’ favor, and they won. One player that stood out was freshman Bre Fleschner. The outfielder went 3-for-3 after playing sparingly over the past two tournaments.

Going into Friday’s action, Western had a 9-2 record. Looking to sweep the tour-nament, the quick 0-1 start didn’t look like anything was going in its favor.

However, the 2011 MIAA conference champions beat Southwestern Oklahoma

State 5-0. Western took ad-vantage of a softer Saturday slate, as it defeated Missouri S&T 3-0. Though the offense didn’t have much against S&T, the Griffons exploded back to form later that day, defeating North Alabama 9-1.

“[S&T] had us a little ner-vous that we were going to end up losing one, because we just didn’t have the pas-sion we needed to have in that game,” Bagley said. “But we got it together and turned it around in the third or fourth inning.”

Having to play two tough games Sunday morning, the Griffons sniffed out an eight inning victory over Illinois-Springfield -- who was 4-0 heading into the matchup -- and a 3-1 win over formally top-25 Arkansas-Monticello. This was the rematch (Grif-fons won 1-0 in their first meeting two weeks ago) be-

tween two star pitchers.“[Those] were two very,

very exciting ball games,” Bagley said. “[We’re] look-ing forward to coming home Tuesday. Not being on the bus for eight hours seems like a pretty good deal.”

Taylor Anding, Leah Steele, Keri Lorbert and Mae-gan Roemmich all popped round-trippers during the weekend’s play. Jackie Bish-op improved to 8-0 with 88 strikeouts overall to help the Griffons move to 14-3.

Western has the weekend off for the first time since ear-ly February before it plays its first home game March 6 against Quincy. The Griffons start conference play in less than two weeks, as they head to Southwest Baptist Friday, March 9 and Central Mis-souri the following day.

Softball slugs out five wins, improves to 14-3Thomas Huitt-Johnson | Sports Editorthuittjohnson@missouriwestern.edu

SPORTS March 1, 2012

The Griffon NewsPage 8

Cecil Myers Call Kyle or Tanner Ferguson

at (816) 233-2900

Women keep season alive with winIt was a storybook

ending for the Griffon women as they beat Southwest Baptist 86-69 to seal up a spot in the MIAA tournament on senior night at the MWSU Fieldhouse.

“I thought it was a really special day in a lot of ways,” Coach Lynn Plett said. “We have 5 seniors on the team, and all five seniors played great throughout the entire ball game.”

After losing 11 of its last 12 games, Western needed this win to keep its season alive.

“This is the time of year when everyone is playing for the next day and if you lose

you go home,” Plett said. “We are the underdog, and we need to understand that, and it’s a positive really.”

The Griffons jumped out to a 20-9 start after seniors Jessica Koch, Brittany Casady and Ashleigh Curry all hit early 3-point shots. The score was extended to 42-19 on another 3-pointer by Casady and then 44-19 on a layup by Alex Noble. Western was up 50-26 after a jumper by Koch and never looked back.

Koch led the Griffons in scoring with 24 points on 6-for-16 shooting and became the Griffons all-time leading scorer. She also grabbed nine rebounds and stole the ball six times.

Curry scored 20 points on 5-for-11 shooting and dished out three assists while Casady scored a career-high 18 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including 3-for-4 from 3-point distance and dished out three assists.

Now that there is no chance of missing the conference tournament, a weight has been lifted.

“I don’t think I realized how much pressure there really was,” Koch said. “I was losing some sleep just worried about getting to the tournament. Now we can just go out and play our game the best that we can.”

The Griffons will face Washburn in Kansas City,

Mo., on March 1 in the first round of the MIAA tournament.

Western dropped the last game between the two schools 60-55 but hopes that the momentum from senior night will push them over the top in the tournament. The Griffons sit at 7-19 on the season

“We haven’t won as much, but I think we are going to start peaking in the tournament,” Koch said.

“We need to really go in relaxed,” Plett said. “I thought we played really loose; if we can maintain that kind of confidence with the intensity, then anything can happen in this tournament.”

Kyle Inman | Asst. Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

No. 24 Jessica Koch scored 24 points Saturday, passing Lisa Hughes to become the all-time leading scorer in Western history with 1,751 career points. Hughes’ re-cord stood for 22 years.

“Since freshman year I just wanted to help in any way that I could,” Koch said.

“Every summer I wanted to come back better than the year before, and that kind of evolved into my role of trying to put the ball in the bucket.”

Koch broke the record on senior night while snapping a six-game losing streak for the Griffons with the season on the line. The win on Sat-urday guaranteed the Grif-fons a spot in the upcoming

MIAA tournament in Kansas City, while a loss would have ended the season.

“I’m not sure anyone could have written a script any bet-ter than what it was,” coach Lynn Plett said. “As much we wanted it to get out of the way before the last game of the regular season, it ended up being a good thing be-cause she could do it at home with all of the support and everything here.”

“Our main concern was making it to the tourna-ment,” Koch said. “The scoring record was just in the back of my mind. If that didn’t happen, I wasn’t go-ing to be concerned as long as we made it to the tourna-ment.”

Koch is a versatile scorer, capable of scoring from the inside or outside, but scor-ing isn’t all she can do on the court. She has filled the stat sheet up in every statistical category while improving her numbers in every season of her career as Griffon.

After taking a medical redshirt because of a season-ending knee injury in ‘07-’08, Koch was an impact player right away. She bounced back from the injury to win

MIAA Freshman of the year in ‘08-’09 while starting in all 27 games and leading the team in six statistical cat-egories, including points per game with 12.

Koch’s sophomore season saw her scoring increase to 14.3 points per game while netting a season-high 26 points against Quincy and

being selected as an honor-able mention all-MIAA per-former. She also hit the glass, averaging 7.3 rebounds per game.

As a junior she was select-ed as a second-team all-MI-AA performer after she aver-aged 16.6 points per game, scoring in double figures in every game but one. She also

led the team in steals, assists, and rebounds. She scored a season-high 31 points against Nebraska-Omaha on Feb. 9, 2011.

Koch has upped her scor-ing average once again as a senior, scoring 21.9 points per game and being named first-team all-MIAA. She also leads the Griffons in rebounds, steals, blocks and assists and put in a career-high 38 points at Southwest Baptist, scored 33 at Emporia State, 31 at No. 13 Arkansas Tech and 30 at Nebraska-Omaha.

“Every single time I step on to the floor my thing is that I need to play hard,” Koch said. “The scoring just kind of goes with that. As long as you play hard other stuff is going to come. Some nights you might not be scoring as well as other nights and that happens, but as long as you play hard it’s going to be a good game.”

Koch is relieved to have the pressure of breaking the scoring record and getting to the tournament off her back. She is ready to lead her team into battle on March 1 against Washburn in Kansas City, Mo.

Koch breaks scoring recordKyle Inman | Asst. Sports Editorkinman@missouriwestern.edu

Missouri Western had yet another close game result-ing in a loss, but with a little more sting in this one know-ing its tournament dreams are now over.

Western was put in a must-win situation against Cen-tral Missouri, while needing both Lincoln and Emporia St. to lose for any chance to get into the MIAA tournament.

The Griffons never fell be-hind the Mules until the final three minutes, when their turnovers resulted in big points for UCM, putting a cap on the game at 74-68.

“Winners make winning plays and losers make los-ing plays,” coach Tom Smith

said. “That’s probably the story of our year. We just came up empty.”

The Griffons had control of the first half, at one point reaching a 16-point lead. They were able to end the half by holding UCM to only 23 points.

The second half was noth-ing more and nothing less than a deteriorating lead for the Griffons. The Mules shot 65 percent from the field in the second half, a huge im-provement from their first half shooting of only 35 per-cent. The Mules scoring was led by Dominique Long, who was able to put up the game high 26 points against the Griffons.

The loss was especially hard on senior forward,

Lavonte Douglas, who put up great numbers and grabbed his sixth double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds, only missing three shots from the field.

“It just comes down to the same thing every game, can’t close them out,” Douglas said. “We just got to keep fighting, and we’ve been fighting. We never quit.”

Statistics didn’t mean as much to Douglas after know-ing the effort still resulted in falling short of what the Grif-fons needed most.

“I’d rather take two points and two rebounds with a win,” Douglas said.

Another senior who sadly came up just short of his last MIAA tournament opportu-

nity was T.J. Johnson, who was able to get himself 13 points, 7 rebounds and 6 as-sists.

Johnson was able to see the positives from this team and this season -- good things that he’ll be able to carry on after basketball.

“We’re a family, man, through the bad season we’ve been together,” John-son said. “I’ve got brothers for a lifetime. I know that I can call these guys if I ever need anything, and they’ll be there. It’s not all about bas-ketball. We’re a family and we have to be together.”

The seniors will play their last game as Griffons against Southwest Baptist at 3:30 Saturday, Feb. 25 at MWSU Fieldhouse.

Christian Mengel | Asst. Features Editorcmengel@missouriwestern.edu

Heartbreak continues, tournament chances don’t

Koch’s record-breaking free throw makes her the leading scorer in Missouri Western history, with even more games to go. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

Alicia Bell (22) shoots for two against Southwest Baptist in the final home game of the season. Bell received an All-MIAA honorable mention for her play this season. JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

Douglas puts up two points for the Griffons against South-west Baptist. With a career-high 26 points, the senior finished strong despite a losing season.JasonBrown|PhotoEditor

JESSICA KOCHJESSICA KOCH

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