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The first phase has begun on a multi-decade-long project that will ultimately serve to make Abilene prettier and give residents a fun place for recreation and economic expansion. And it’s all thanks to one nonprofit and a bunch of toilet wa-ter.
The Cedar Creek Waterway will link six Abilene parks with trails along Cedar Creek on the east side of town. The trails will run 12 miles as the crow flies from Kirby Lake Park, located just south of the Loop, to Seabee Park, north of I-20.
The waterway will also run through or next to Kirby Park, Cal Young Park, Stevenson Park and Will Hair Park, located a few blocks from ACU’s campus.
Phase 1 of the plan includes the middle section of the waterway, from North 10th Street to South 11th.
Eventually the waterway will
run north from Kirby Lake to Fort Phantom Lake.
The project’s vision includes kayaking, horseback riding, out-door concerts, restaurants, dams and waterfalls.
The creek is not as interesting today. With less than three inches of rainfall since September, most of the creek is dried up. Some puddles dot the skinny waterbed here and there, while other stretches of the creek are up to three feet deep.
The additional water would be recycled water from the city, which already carries up to 4 million gal-lons per day to college campuses (so yes, that is former sewage wa-ter in ACU’s sprinkler system), golf courses and lakes in Abilene. With an increased amount of recycled water directed to Kirby Lake and its spillway into Cedar Creek, the creek would be able to flow all the way through consistently, accord-ing to the organization planning the project.
However, today it’s easier to find trash in the creek than knee or
waist-deep water. That’s one of the issues holding the waterway back that infuriates Randy Barnett, one of the project’s organizers, who said a large amount of tires and couches get dumped into or near the creek by people “too lazy to haul it to the appropriate place.” Barnett, the de-
velopment’s spokesman, said one time he even found a grand piano dumped in the creek.
A few weeks ago, more than a dozen students and faculty from the Department of Agricultural and
Abilene Christian University
FeaturesPage 5
vol. 101, no. 44 friday, march 20, 2013 1 SECTION, 8 PAGES
Highways & BywaysNothing gets students more excited in Chapel than Dr. Steven Moore’s signature song
Creek project to link city parkslocal
all photos by mandy lambright CHIEF Photographer
Kelli Spencer, junior business management major from Littleton, Colo., enjoys the pleasant
spring weather in the grassy mall area of campus with her dog.
see creek page 3
Moody undergoing construction
Seats have been tossed aside in preparation for a minor Moody face lift.
The United States Con-gress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which in part requires estab-lishments to accommodate disabled individuals if pos-sible. Scot Colley, executive director of risk management and construction, said the Office of Construction and Risk Management has been
complying with the law by doing what it can to make popular spots on campus more accessible.
“The Americans with Dis-abilities Act states that you need to fix what’s readily at-tainable,” he said. “So each year, we try to fix things that are readily attainable.”
Last year, Construction and Risk Management in-stalled a ramp and acces-sible seating in Cullen Au-ditorium. Construction is responsible for the work cur-rently being done, along with several outside companies.
Colley said Moody Coliseum had been on their radar for a while.
“We have an accessible seating program,” he said. “Each year, we try to do more things to make campus more and more accessible.”
While Moody will receive an update in preparation for the move to Division I, the construction currently being done has nothing to do with that transition.
“There’ll be some new striping and some new paint
campus
see moody page 4
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Some of the lower sections in Moody Coliseum are being renovated
to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and add wheelchair
ramps. Construction will conclude by the end of April.
FUN
Dr. Ken Cu k row s k i has been a p p o i n t e d to dean of the College of Bibli-cal Studies. Cu k row s k i has served the position in an interim capacity since last March.
Dr. Robert Rhodes, pro-vost, sent an email to facul-ty and staff announcing the appointment on Thursday evening.
“Dr. Cukrowski brings extensive experience to this role, including 14 years in teaching and ad-ministrative roles at ACU,” Rhodes said in the email. “I appreciate Dr. Cukrowski’s willingness to serve in this capacity and am confident in his ability to lead the College of Biblical Stud-ies.”
Last summer, Rhodes commissioned a search committee to review ap-plications for the position, name and interview final-ists and make a recommen-dation to the provost. The committee, led by Dr. John Weaver, dean of the library and educational technol-ogy, interviewed two final-ists last month: Cukrowski and Dr. Mark Hamilton, as-
Interim named deanof CBS
see dean page 4
administration
mark smitheditor in chief
theoxfordcommablog.wordpress.com
Marissa Jones, our Oxford correspondent, details her latest experiences abroad
INSIDE
acuoptimist.com
OME AND BSA present Black History Production, ‘Ruth’
Page 8
Page 8
Women’s basketball team falls in first round of regional tournament
Redbox and Netflix making waves at the movies
Page 4
acuoptimist.com
Justice Week to host authors, slam poets in April
Page 3
ONLINE
acuoptimist.com
Students enjoy Second Chance Dance
Page 6
Forward LENE, a new women’s running group, gaining members quickly
Page 3
Two staff members describe their experiences on SBCs
Lent season challenging students
Baseball team defeats No. 1 Delta State and No. 24 Incarnate Word
OPINION
NEWS
VIDEO
VIDEO
OXFORD
NEWS
NEWS
SPORTS
SPORTS
NEWS
Page 4
New camp directors preparing for summer
NEWS
josh garciamanaging editor
mark smitheditor in chief
cukrowski
curtis christian stafF Photographer
Randy Barnett, Cedar Creek Waterway spokesman, points to some potential future plans in the
waterway to Mark Smith, editor in chief of the Optimist.
SUNIN THE
20 21 22 23Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
All Day - Track at Bobby Lane Invitational
12 p.m. Eucharist and Ecclesiology
10 a.m. Baseball at Texas A&M Kingsville
9 a.m. Women’s Tennis vs UTEP
1 p.m. Baseball at Texas A&M Kingsville
1 p.m. Softball vs Tar-leton
3 p.m. Men’s Tennis at Austin vs University of Texas
4 p.m. Women’s Ten-nis vs UTPB
All Day - Eucharist and Ecclesiology
11:30 a.m. The “Hot Seat” 83rd Legislative Session
6 p.m. Softball vs Tarleton
7 p.m. Baseball at Texas A&M Kingsville
7 p.m. Young Profes-sionals Empowerment Banquet
7:30 p.m. Keeli Swim/Clint Perdue junior recital
9 a.m. ACU Women’s Tennic at NCTC
2 p.m. Men’s Tennis at Midwestern State
2 p.m. Women’s Ten-nis at Midwestern State
1 p.m. Eucharist and Ecclesiology
9 a.m. WCTCC Tri-University Teacher Job Fair
10 a.m. WCTCC Ca-reer Expo
7:30 p.m. Reach for a Difference Recital
8 p.m. Movie in Cul-len: Unconditional
Police Log
57 42@acuoptimist
The Optimist
Wednesday 03.20.13 2
Announcements
Around Abilene
Mar. 20
7:30 p.m. Larry Gatlin will per-form “Texas Flyer” in Van Ellis Theatre at Hardin-Simmons. Admission is $15. For tickets visit www.hsutx.edu/tickets or call 325-670-1405.
Mar. 21
8 p.m. The annual Sager-ton Hee Haw will be at the Sagerton Community Center. Music will begin at 7 p.m. with the cafeteria open from 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. For reservations, call 940-997-2688.
Mar. 22
11 a.m. The Honey Bees Extension Education Club of South Taylor County will sponsor its annual pre-schoolers at the Lawn Base-ball Field. Participants should bring a basket.
Mar. 23
7 p.m. A dance will be 7 p.m. at the American Legion Post 57, 302 E. South 11th in Abilene. Muddy Creek will perform. Admission for non-members of the Legion/Auxiliary/SAL is $3 per person or $5 per couple.
Abstract submission for the Undergrad-uate Research Festival is now open. The 5th annual ACU Undergraduate Research Festival will be Apr. 4-5. To submit your abstract or get abstract writing tips and information on the review of abstracts go to the Research Festival Blog at blogs.acu.edu/researchfest.
The ACU Career Center is now on Pin-terest. Go to pinterest.com/acucareer-center to begin following the boards from the ACU Career Center Pinterest today.
Lost & Found, ACU’s annual film festival, is March 22. For more information or ques-tions email [email protected].
ACU’s Mu Phi Epsilon members will be performing music March 21 at 7:30 p.m. to support the Reach for a Difference Foundation which seeks to reach out to kids on the autism spectrum. Admission is free but donations are accepted.
A student body officer interest meeting will be held March 26 at 5 p.m. in the SA office. Students interested in running for student body president, vice-president or treasurer should attend.
Women for ACU are offering a scholar-ship of $2,000 to men and women who have sophomore or higher status. The application is due March 22. For more information visit acu.edu/WACUscholar-ship.
SA is accepting entries to The Greatest Idea Challenge. Videos must be shorter than three minutes explaining why your idea is the best. The top video submis-sion will advance on in the competition. Cash prizes will be given out.
This semester’s graduation fair is March 25 from 12 p.m.-6 p.m. and March 26 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the campus store. Caps and gowns, official graduation an-nouncements and official ACU rings can all be ordered here.
Abilene Civic Center is hosting a career expo March 21 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Over forty employers are participating. Pro-fessional dress is required. For more in-formation visit www.wctcc.org.
Volunteer Opp0rtunities The Center for International Education is looking for conversation partners for international students to practice Eng-lish, conversations and cultural learning. Partners meet for one hour each week at a time and place determined by the partners. For more information contact Laura McGregor at 325-674-2821 or [email protected].
St. John’s Episcopal School is seeking volunteers to paint metal playground equipment anytime Monday-Friday after 3 p.m. and Saturday anytime. For more information contact Rebecca McMillon at 325-695-8870 or [email protected].
Center for Contemporary Arts needs a gallery assistant to greet patrons, an-swer phones and answer basic questions about the Center and its programs. This opportunity is open Tuesday-Friday. The Center for Contemporary Arts is located at 220 Cypress Street. For more information contact Jessica Dulle at 325-677-8389 or visit: http://www.center-arts.com/.
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to take pictures and videos in preparation for the launching of their new website as well as maintenance of the site after the launch. This opportunity is open Mon-day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Kathy Walker at 325-677-7722 or [email protected].
The National Center For Children’s Il-lustrated Literature is looking for vol-unteers to greet patrons, assist with art activities, sell books and make visitors feel welcome. Help is also needed for special events like Artwalk and exhibit openings. The NCCIL is located at 102 Cedar St. For more information on times and dates contact Debby Lillick at 325-673-4586 or visit: http://www.nccil.org/index.htm.
The Christian Ministries of Abilene: Food Pantry is searching for volunteers to greet and interview neighbors, do computer
entries, shop with neighbors, take grocer-ies to vehicles, bag, stock and pick up orders on Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. The Food Pantry is located at 701 Walnut St. For more information contact Becky Almanza at 325-673-1234 or [email protected].
The Christian Service Center is seek-ing volunteers to help assist with filling requests for items such as clothing, bed-ding, kitchen utensils, etc. from the dona-tion center, sort and organize donations and occasionally pick-up donated items. Volunteers are needed every weekday and the first Saturday of each month be-tween 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Roberta Brown at 325-673-7561 or at [email protected]. For more information on the program visit: http://www.uccabilene.org/ministries/csc.htm.
The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs volunteers to help sort and stock food and other items any weekday Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The Food Bank is located at 5505 N. 1st St. For more information contact Janice Serrault at 325-695-6311 or [email protected].
Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to deliver afternoon meals to se-niors and adults with disabilities Monday-Friday between 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. Training is provided. For more information contact Samantha Barker at 352-672-5050 or visit: http://mealsonwheelsplus.com.
The Salvation Army is looking for vol-unteers for a variety of needs including sorting and pricing items in the thrift store, helping in the kitchen and/or doing yard work. Times are flexible. Volunteers are needed throughout the week Monday-Saturday. The Salvation Army is located at 1726 Butternut St. For more information contact J.D. Alonzo at 325-677-1408 or
visit: www.satruck.com.
The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Mon-day-Friday from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Contact Keith Loftin at 325-672-6061.
The International Rescue Committee is seeking volunteers to work with refugees who recently moved to the U.S., teach-ing English, helping with homework and mentoring. Contact Susanna Lubango to make an appointment at 325-675-5643.
The Covenant Place of Abilene is seek-ing volunteers to lead singing and/or play piano for residents. For more information contact Ann Erwin at 325-793-1144.
University Place is seeking volunteers to help with the resident birthday party for residents the third Wednesday of each month at 2:30 p.m. For more information contact Linda Tijerina at 325-676-9946.
Breakfast on Beech Street is seeking volunteers to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income folks any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 a.m. or Tuesday at 5 a.m. B.O.B.S is located at First Christian Church on 3rd St. and Beech St. Service times must be scheduled in advance. To serve on Mondays contact Jody Depriest at 325-669-3312 or [email protected]. To serve on Tuesdays contact Allen Daugherty at 325-660-6949 or [email protected]. To serve on Wednesdays contact Jane Harvey at 325-695-0092 or [email protected]. To serve on Thurs-days contact Margaret Beasley at 325-692-4149 or [email protected]. To serve on Fridays contact Rachel Brown at [email protected].
Christian Homes & Family Services is seeking volunteers to do minor landscap-ing such as raking, trimming bushes, minor apartment repairs and general upkeep Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Shay-
lee Honey at 325-677-2205 or [email protected].
The Abilene Public Zoo is seeking volun-teers to help clean/feed animals, assist zookeepers and assist with educational classes any weekday any time between 12 p.m.-4 p.m. They are also seeking volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and painting any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. For more information contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487.
Hill Resources is seeking volunteers to encourage and entertain mentally de-layed individuals Monday through Friday any time between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information contact Michelle Es-pinoza at 325-673-3346 or [email protected].
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/ccsl/ministry-service/volunteer-opportunities/The Oaks at Radford Hills is seeking vol-unteers to participate in activities, go on outings and provide social stimulation for residents any day at any time. For more information contact Michelle White or Sonia Serrato at 325-672-3236.
Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to work at the adoption center doing a variety of tasks including cleaning, social-izing and grooming the animals Monday - Saturday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. For more information contact Mindi Qualls at 325-698-7722 or [email protected].
The CAC Department is seeking volun-teers to participate in Special Olympics, by helping mentally/physically chal-lenged people play games and sports Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. For more infomation contact Angel Seca at 325-690-5235.
For additional volunteer opportunities visit: www.acu.edu/campusoffices/ccsl/ministry-service/volunteer-opportunities/
Chapel checkup
Environmental Sciences cleaned up a portion of the creek for about four hours.
Barnett said current freshmen and sophomores should be able to see the first effects of the water-way development while they’re still at ACU. But the entire project won’t be done anytime soon. In fact, it’s barely begun.
Cedar Creek Waterway Development, a nonprofit organization created to support the waterway, is seeking permission from private property owners along the trail in Phase 1 to allow the public to walk and bike on the trail. It’s taking longer than expect-ed.
“Unfortunately, the city doesn’t own all the prop-
erty, so there’s a number of private land owners that we’re having to appeal to for them to grant us ease-
ments for the public to go across their property,” Bar-nett said. “We had hoped to have that done by now.”
Barnett said one of the three landowners yet to agree to the easements is Union Pacific Railroad, which ones the property below the bridge for its track that runs across the creek.
Until the landowners agree to the plan, the or-ganization can’t move for-ward with the next step in Phase 1: setting up fences
to keep out litterers and establishing trail markers.
“We have a budget of $10,000 to build some gates and barriers to keep the dumpers out of here and to get the trail signs up so citizens can use the trail,” Barnett said. “We’d like to have the trail set up so people can use it. That will spread the word and encourage people to en-courage the city council that this is a great project and we’d like to expand it.”
Some students hope the
trail becomes open to the public soon.
“I’m really looking for-ward to the completion of the trail,” said Jonathan Martin, junior biology ma-jor from San Antonio and president of the Triathlon Club. “Outside of the Lun-sford Trail, there are few places to bike and run long
distances safely.”For more information
or to get involved with the project, go to www.cedar-creekdevelopment.org or email Barnett at [email protected].
Forward LENE is a new run-ning group for the women of ACU. It was started by Kelti Rippenhagen, junior nursing major from Austin, as a way to make exercising an enjoyable and social ac-tivity.
What began as a sim-ple conversation between Rippenhagen and fellow running enthusiasts has transformed into a team for female runners seek-ing community through exercise. People of every stage are welcome to join the initiative, running any-where from 1 to 13 miles at practice. Different practices take place the first Saturday of every month for short distance runners, includ-ing sprints, drills and relay practice.
“The goal is to have a group of women that share a passion for running, while having the accountability,
encouragement and bond that comes with being on a team,” said Rippenhagen.
According to Rippenha-gen, members of the team are free to do their own thing while running. Every-one starts the run together around the Lunsford and/or surrounding neighbor-hoods. And whenever the girls get tired they’re wel-come to slow down and head back to campus.
Also, there is no obliga-tion to attend every Sat-urday practice or to run a specific distance. The group was created solely as a means of community and safety for any girl previously running through the neigh-borhoods alone.
Then team meets every Saturday morning at 9 a.m., and starts off by introduc-ing the new members. Then someone reads from the daily devotional book Jesus Calling to help center the girls’ minds before they hit the pavement.
Laci Butler, senior nurs-
ing major from Sunnyvale, started going to practice while training for the Big D marathon in Dallas in April.
“I like the idea of making running something bigger than exercise,” said Butler.
Over time, Rippenhagen wants to sign up for mara-thons as a group, using the team foundation as a train-ing resource.
Though Forward LENE is not an official club at ACU yet, they’re gaining members quickly. And if the team is recognized next year as a student group they hope to organize more practices throughout the week, along with different strategies of training.
Students interested in the group can email Rip-penhagen at [email protected] for more information and updates, or join the Forward LENE group on Facebook.
ACU students have been participating in Lent dur-ing the month of March by giving something up or taking something on.
Lent is the 40 day pe-riod leading up to Easter Sunday in which Chris-tians are called to give something up in remem-brance of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert.
Christians observe Lent in a variety of ways. Some people choose self-denial by giving up a luxury of life, while others take on new challenges that aim at bettering their spiritual lives.
Blair Agan, junior com-munications and political science major from Lake Jackson, has chosen to challenge himself by giv-ing up something very im-
portant to him during the 40 days of Lent.
“If we’re trying to live our life in a similar fashion to Jesus and he gave up ev-erything for 40 days while wandering the desert then we can at least do some-thing to make our lives more uncomfortable dur-ing Lent by giving some-thing up, and that’s what we’re called on to do,” Agan said.
Agan has reduced his use of technology to the bare minimum during the 40 days of Lent by allow-ing himself to only use technology to stay in con-tact with his family and for schoolwork.
“I’m trying to create space in my life. I use a lot of technology and I feel like it has created a distance between me and my relationship with God, so I’m trying to reduce my use of technology,” Agan
said.While many people
choose to give something up during Lent, Jordon Herrera, senior ACU base-ball player and exercise science major from Hous-ton, has chosen to take on a new challenge in order to strengthen his spiritual life.
“I’ve committed myself to reading from my Bible every day for the next year. I’ve put together a sched-ule that will allow me to read the whole Bible be-fore the beginning of Lent next year,” Herrera said.
Herrera’s commitment has not been without its challenges.
“It’s definitely been hard to keep up with the schedule because of my time commitments with school and baseball, but in the end I think it will be worth it,” Herrera said.
Agan has also found it hard to keep up with his commitment because of how heavily technology influences life at ACU.
“The first week was re-ally rough. Putting tech-nology away has been re-ally uncomfortable but I have definitely noticed a space where God has come in and filled my life with more peace. There is a lot more time for me to be present in situations,” Agan said.
wednesday 03.20.133 news
continued from page 1
contact the optimist [email protected]
emmett nilandstudent reporter
religion
Lent challenging students
Running group teams up ACU women
LOCAL
Creek: Not everyone behind development
contact smith [email protected]
contact the optimist [email protected]
student groups
Jordan herrerasenior exercise science
major from houston
I’ve committed myself to reading from my Bible
every day for the next year.”“
britanny jacksonstudent reporter
@acuoptimistThe [email protected] ACUOPTIMIST.com
map illustration courtesy of cedar creek
waterway development
Jonathan martintriathlon club president
Outside of the Lunsford Trail, there are few places to bike and run long distances safely.”“
wednesday 03.20.13 4news
Sitting in a seat that who knows what all has been spilled on it, eating a $5 box of chocolate covered raisins, and that one kid sitting behind you who will not stop talking.
It seems that experi-ence is not as common as it once was.
With the introduction of Netflix and Redbox, the numbers have begun to shift in this day and age when consumers are all about the instant gratifica-tion.
In a Facebook post dated Oct. 25, 2012, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, announced that the com-pany had reached 30 mil-lion streaming members.
Redbox, like Netflix, has put a damper on the relevance of a video rental store.
According to their website, there are 38,500 Redbox kiosks in the U.S. across every state and 68% of the U.S. population live within a 5-minute drive of a Redbox location.
According to market research firm HIS, Netf-lix jumped from less than 1 percent of U.S. online movie revenue in 2010 to 44 percent in 2011.
“Everything is about pushing a button. It streams. You can get any movie you want on your iPad right now,” Patti Har-ris, co-owner of Box Office Video, said.
Harris said that it was the customers, the peo-ple of Abilene, that have kept her video rental store open.
“It’s our customers that are keeping us going,” Harris said, “they’re awe-some.”
Although the numbers seem to speak volumes, some still enjoy the movie theater experience and all that it entails.
“I’ve even gone to the movies by myself before. Sometimes it’s most con-venient if I really want to see something to just go
by myself so I don’t have to work around other people’s schedules. But I still enjoy watching a good
movie socially,” Toni Mai-sano, junior communica-tions major from Burnet, said.
Indoor theaters are def-initely feeling the impact of their digitally streaming competitor though.
Abilene is one of the few towns across the country that is lucky enough to be home to a drive-in theater.
“A drive-in is more of a nostalgic thing because there’s not one in every town and so we’re a little different than indoor the-aters,” Ray Andress, owner of Town & Country Drive-In, said.
Andress said that his business had not really seen a negative impact from the online streaming services.
Not only are the busi-nesses seeing the impact, the people behind the scenes of the movies have seen the changes first-hand.
“Hollywood movies started becoming very ge-neric and way over budget. More and more movies just started being made just because Hollywood’s next big actors needed to build fan bases,” Anthony Gutierrez, a Dallas-based independent filmmaker, said, “I think this is why fewer people are going to movies and because they are just choosier about what they are willing to spend $10 on.”
Gutierrez said that he believes that low box office ticket sales are a reflection of poor movie making de-cisions on Hollywood’s part, but that the internet was probably the biggest single factor in movie pro-
motions.“Facebook alone, with
all its millions of users can make and/or break
a movie at the box office. You have millions of Face-book users saying a movie sucks- you can bet that movie won’t last,” Gutier-rez said.
Cody Pottkotter, a working actor from Ty-ler, agreed that price has become a huge factor for the entertainment choices that people make.
“When you have to spend almost $18 to go to a movie, when you could just buy it online, I think that’s had a big impact,” Pottkotter said, “I think the prices are what’s driv-ing down ticket sales.”
Seeing the impact first-hand, Pottkotter said that it has made the drive for him to be involved in bet-ter, more affordable indie movies that much stron-ger.
“It has, if anything, helped me out because it has become so popular to make indie flicks now and it’s easier now that every-thing is digital,” Pottkotter said, “Movies that will only get limited release or indie films that people will pay $1 to $5 at your local indie theater, there’s more of a drive for that and more of a demand, so if anything, it has helped me that the Hollywood style theaters are charging way too much.”
All this means is that the future of the movie in-dustry is not set in stone.
All we, as entertain-ment consumers, can do is sit back, watch the movies and put our money where
brittany williamsspecial contributer
local
Movie theatres face foes
contact the optimist [email protected]
continued from page 1
on the floor,” said Colley. “That’ll be in the summer.”
The accessible seating project would also normally have been completed in the summer, but it would have interfered with the D-I proj-ect.
“We really wanted to wait until the summer, but we have to redo the floor,” Colley said. “If there’s any damage done to the floor, any damage, any scratches, it’ll be fixed in the sum-mer.”
Along with ramps, a to-tal of 30 handicapped seats
will be installed. Colley said the project will be complet-ed by the end of April.
“It is going to make our campus better. We do need to be more handicapped accessible,” Colley said. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
The Chapel Office has no involvement in the con-
struction project. Mark Lewis, assistant dean of spiritual life and Chapel programs, said he had fore-seen potential issues with students getting all their chapel credits due to the construction.
“With the construction I was anticipating it might
take longer to get everyone in and out of Moody, so we were looking at extending the slide-in time a couple minutes, and making an effort to end Chapel a few minutes early,” he said.
Lewis said in spite of the construction, procedures went normally Monday.
“Everyone had slid out by 6 minutes after Chapel was dismissed. We’ll con-tinue to monitor this close-ly,” Lewis said.
Moody: Chapel unaffected by constructioncampus
contact garcia [email protected]
sociate dean of the Gradu-ate School of Theology and professor of Old Testament.
Cukrowski, who served as associate dean for aca-demics for 11 years, said his experience in the college helped him prepare for the position, and he he’s look-ing forward to working with
the faculty and staff of the college.
However, the position, mostly administrative work, requires him to teach only one class per school year. He’s more than halfway through his second one.
“I love teaching. That’s why I’m teaching both se-mesters instead of just one,” he said. “I like being
in contact with the stu-dents. I wasn’t trying to flee the classroom to do admin-istrative work. That’s prob-ably what I’ll miss the most, but this is an opportunity to serve.”
Cukrowski said the most noticeable changes stu-dents may notice would include the undergraduate Department of Sociology
and Family Studies’ move into the college, the col-lege’s work with the recent-ly begun Siburt Institute of Church Ministry and an increased effort to include more required CORE and Bible classes in online sum-mer listings, which will pro-vide more classes students said they’d be interested in.
Cukrowski served as vice
provost before succeeding Dr. Jack Reese, who stepped down from the position as dean last February.
The academic year be-gan with interim deans leading three colleges and search committees plan-ning to find the next perma-nent deans of the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human
Services and the CBS. All three interims were recom-mended by the commit-tees and appointed by the provost. Dr. Greg Straughn in the CAS and Dr. Donnie Snider in the CEHS were appointed in December.
Dean: CORE, Bible offering more onlineadministration
ACU has had Leadership Camps on campus every summer since 1982. This summer the camps are un-der new direction.
Each summer hun-dreds of children rang-ing from first graders to high school graduates at-tend one of four different camps. KidQuest is a day camp for first through third-graders, Learning to Lead hosts fourth through sixth-graders, MPulse is designed for campers in middle school and Kadesh is for campers entering 10th grade through their
high school graduation.ACU students serve as
counselors at the camps under camp directors. This year David Moses and Mary Beth Cuevas will direct the camps for the first time.
David Moses, director of camps, comes to the job after 19 years of both youth and pastoral min-istry. He said he is excited to work with the staff of students. He attended Kadesh as a volunteer for 16 years and anticipates gaining a new perspec-tive.
“As a volunteer you come in for a week and you see these students and know they’re doing
amazing things behind the scenes,” he said. “I think the thing I’m most looking forward to is get-ting to be behind the scenes.”
Moses knows the sum-mer will not be without challenges. He said one of the biggest struggles for both him and the entire staff will be energy.
“I want that last Friday to be as exciting as the first Monday at the beginning of the summer,” he said. “I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge.”
Moses also said he is ex-cited about working with Mary Beth Cuevas.
“I think we’re going to fit together really well be-
cause she’s an educator at heart and I’m a minister at heart,” he said. “There are different aspects of being an educator that I don’t get. I think it’s likewise from an educator’s per-spective. I think we’re go-ing to work hand-in-hand in that way.”
Mary Beth Cuevas, as-sociate director of camps, brings many years of ex-perience as an educator in public school systems to the job. Like Moses, she is excited about working with the student staff.
“I’ve never worked with college students in a con-sistent manner,” she said. “It is so impressive to see the spiritual maturity of
the majority of these col-lege students. I think that’s what excites me the most. Secondly, just being able to be a part of the curriculum process, and then when I’m at the camps seeing the [college] students tak-ing the whole process and making it work.”
Due to tax laws the camp staff is required to work morning and after-noon shifts. Cuevas wants to make sure that the shift transition runs smoothly.
“The biggest thing is trying to make sure that we have ample time for our counselors to do the shift change,” she said. “That’s going to be the hardest part. We’re trying
to make it a little more in-tentional.”
Cuevas agrees she and Moses will work well to-gether.
“We’re both relational,” she said. “We both really like to get to know people. He is very spiritual. His walk with God is just phe-nomenal. I’m definitely a teacher. I love to train and present information.”
The Leadership Camps student staff has begun training for the summer and will continue to train throughout the semester.
New camp directors prepare for summersummer academy
contact the optimist [email protected]
continued from page 1
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brantly houstonstudent reporter
cody pottkotteractor
When you have to spend almost $18 to go to a movie, when you could just buy it online ... I think
that’s had a big impact.”“
heers erupt in Moody Coliseum when the sharply dressed worship leader starts waving his arms back and forth in front of him.
“To this day, I don’t understand why [High-ways and Byways] strikes a chord with stu-dents,” laughed Dr. Moore.
Eleven years ago, Steven Moore, assistant professor of English, was scheduled to lead Chapel, but the Chapel coordinator at the time had never heard of the song; Moore had to teach the song and all the hand motions to him and the other praise leaders. And then the Chapel coordinator said to him: “This song is never going to f ly.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong.The Moore twins came as a surprise to their
parents, who thought they were only having one baby, so the boys were called Baby A and Baby B for a while until their parents could come up with names. Neither Steven nor his brother Daryl were given middle names, but when Moore graduated with his master’s de-gree he said, “I decided to honor my dad by taking on his name, so that’s why around here I’m Steven Troy Moore.”
“I’m from Virginia,” Moore said, “but my dad was in the military, and we moved around all the time.”
Some of the places he lived were particu-larly interesting and exotic. As a teenager, Moore lived with his family in Panama during the U.S. invasion of Panama because Manuel Noriega, a corrupt dictator, was in power.
One day while the twins were at school “General Noriega and some of his troops sur-rounded the American busses. They had [ma-chine] guns that were pointed at us, while we were on the bus,” recalls Moore.
It was a terrifying experience for the par-ents.
Daryl is now a captain in the United States Marines, and their eldest brother, Eric, lives in Washington D.C. as a communications en-gineer.
Students can hardly imagine an ACU with-out Dr. Moore, but teaching was not his first job.
“When I was a [junior] in high school I worked at a pie shop. I was a waiter, a greeter and a busboy.”
For college, Moore attended the University of Wisconsin where he earned his bachelor’s
degree in English.“And while I was in school, I started work-
ing for Walmart,” Moore said.After going through a management pro-
gram, he eventually became a manager.“There is so much that [goes] on behind
closed doors in terms of design, or merchan-dise … pricing and ordering, and dealing with employees and wages,” Moore said. “And I thought ‘Oh, this is awesome. Working for Walmart and dealing with people.’ But then I grew out of love with it. I remember mornings waking up at three in the morning or four in the morning just going out there to work…and that was something that was not appeal-ing to me.”
It was then that Moore felt a stirring in-side him, reminding him of another of his dreams—to teach.
After applying to the University of Nebras-ka, Moore received a full-ride into the col-lege’s MA program. While in school there, he taught at York College, a small, private Chris-tian college. And as soon as he had graduated with his master’s degree, York hired him as a full-time professor.
Moore loved the five and a half years he spent at York, but when he met Darryl Tip-pens, ACU professor of English at the time, the two clicked and had a thorough conversa-tion about life, faith and literature.
“We became friends immediately,” Moore said.
After their meeting, Tippens told Moore about a job opening at ACU. Moore came down for the interview, and he said, “I just fell in love with the place, fell in love with what I saw.”
Wearing the usual crisp, black suit and shiny silk tie, Moore beams as he passes and greets students and coworkers on campus. The 41-year-old professor is highly beloved on campus and is known for being one of the most fun and interesting teachers.
Briana Burton, senior biology major from Abilene, said Moore’s teaching style bettered her learning experience.
“Moore is one of the most open, inspira-tional and encouraging professors I’ve ever had,” Burton said. His love of literature is in-fectious, so the students can’t help but share his enthusiasm.”
Moore’s favorite class to teach is American
Literature after 1900 because of all the poetry and the various movements.
But teaching can present challenges. Moore said, “I think the hardest thing about being a teacher is when you are working with a student who does not believe in him or her-self.”
Moore’s first class here was full of students who hated writing and literature and had a hard time engaging in class. So Moore “had them all go outside and we formed a circle. And I quoted Walt Whitman to them; ‘I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.’”
Then each of the students, as they stood around in a circle, had to shout their very loudest and most barbaric yawp, recreating the scene from Dead Poets Society.
After that experience, the class became significantly more engaged because Moore had proved to them that he really valued them and their education.
One of Moore’s greatest passions is in Mi-chael Jackson, a musical icon he has loved since childhood. A couple of years ago at a conference, Moore presented a literary paper on Michael Jackson, and just recently, Moore received a book contract from a publisher to write an academic analysis on the King of Pop himself.
At a few select events throughout the se-mester, some students are lucky enough to see Moore moonwalk across the stage to “Smooth Criminal,” wearing a single silver glove and black hat.
Cameron Morris, junior youth and family ministry major from Alvin, said he’s enjoyed having Moore as a sponsor of his social club, Trojans.
“It is amazing to have Dr. Moore as an ad-visor because he doesn’t only care about the club itself, but he genuinely cares about ev-ery single individual that makes up the club,” Morris said.
Moore’s love for students, literature, and other faculty has contributed to his reputa-tion as one of the most well-known and ap-preciated members of ACU’s campus. This is why Praise Day participation spikes when Dr. Moore leads, reminding students to take the Lord with them everywhere they go.
Wednesday 03.20.135 featureS
photos by stephen reyes staff Photographer
In addition to teaching Core and English courses, Dr. Moore serves as the sponsor for the Trojan social club, here pictured
at their dodgeball rush.
Above photo: Professor of English for 11 years, Dr. Moore engages with students during his Literature class.
C
story byKatie Cukrowski
HIGHWAYSBYWAYS&
For me, spring break has al-ways been about travel.
I wanted this spring break to be different, so I made the split-second decision to sign up for a Spring Break Cam-paign. It was definitely a leap of faith because I didn’t have the money to pay for the trip and there were only three weeks left to raise it. But I felt called to go.
So I joined the SBC to Sa-
lem, Ore.With the help of several
generous donations I was able to pay for the cost of the trip. March 8 we flew to Portland and then drove to Salem.
It was a week of service, unexpected adventure and a lot of doughnuts and coffee.
Because it was spring break, we did reserve some time to enjoy ourselves. We
spent our first Saturday at the coast. We ate seafood, trekked around tide pools, saw a lighthouse and took pictures by the rocky coast-line. We even went whale watching, which soon turned into “no-whale” watching. But it was still fun.
We also made a few trips back to Portland. While Sa-lem is the capitol of Oregon, Portland is the largest city and has a very different envi-ronment.
Our days were spent working with a church called Soma in the Edgewater dis-trict of West Salem. “Soma” means “body” in Greek. The Soma church focuses on be-ing a physical expression of
the love of Christ in an area of the city that has dealt with challenges such as poverty and drugs.
We helped out with kids in an after-school program. We deep cleaned the church building, moved furniture to a women’s shelter and cleaned a child development center. We also passed out fliers around Edgewater and participated in a family out-reach event for Soma.
We also spent a good bit of time working with the homeless. They prefer to be called “urban campers,” be-cause many of them have made camps within the city.
One of our biggest proj-ects was to clean up one of
these camps after some of the inhabitants were flooded out. We weren’t just picking up trash and litter. We were picking up the remnants of people’s lives. We picked up all of it: clothes, packages of food, broken tents, bags of who-knows-what. Most of the garbage was moldy and covered in mildew. We had to wear heavy-duty gloves to protect our hands from glass and other sharp objects. We were warned to be on the lookout for hypodermic needles. Thankfully we didn’t find any.
One thing stuck with me from that day. Some of the urban campers were clean-ing with us. One of them
asked the camp leader if he was having a good day. The leader responded with, “Ev-ery day is a good day.”
Of all the people I met on the campaign, the ones who had the fewest possessions were the most content. They gave of what they had and assured us they were cer-tain of their futures, because their futures were destined in Christ.
I went to Salem to serve and minister, but in the end I wanted to thank the people I was serving. They taught me a lot in a week.
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, died March 5, at the age of 58, two years after revealing his cancer diagnosis.
As the grandson of Cu-ban immigrants, my first reaction was to wonder how on earth former Cu-ban dictator Fidel Castro managed to outlive his best bud Chavez. Castro’s smoked at least 1,000 acres of tobacco. But I digress.
Chavez was a dominat-ing figure in Latin Ameri-can politics. He was un-
willing to surrender to the “Western way” of doing things and often criticized the greed so often seen in the capitalist world. His amendments to the Ven-ezuelan constitution often addressed human rights. Along with Cuba and Iran, he stood up to nations like the U.S. for their intrusive policies. For this, his many supporters praised him.
But Chavez’s numer-ous opponents accused him of fixing elections; censoring the media and
the citizens of Venezu-ela; manipulating and op-pressing the people; and leaving his state in an im-poverished, crime-ridden condition. Chavez led a socialist government from 1999 to 2013, winning four consecutive elections. And though the process was democratic, some remain skeptical that Chavez played a fair political game.
Maybe there’s a bit of truth in both views. The entire world doesn’t have to operate the same way as the U.S. does, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with Chavez want-ing to strike out his own path, even if it’s one many Americans might disagree with. But it’s unacceptable to overlook the crimes of
Chavez in order to praise his way of doing things. If what his opponents have accused him of is true, Chavez cannot be consid-ered a political hero, even if he managed to accom-plish some good as well.
Like Castro, Ahmadine-jad, or the beloved man-god Kim Jong-il, Chavez was an associative figure, one that is hard to replace, like or hate. On April 14, Venezuela will conduct a presidential election, though it’s difficult to say where it will lean political-ly or what the future holds for the country.
By Madeline Orr, Optimist copy editor:
Humans like to label. We label to organize. To categorize. We even like to re-label. To rename the things that make us un-comfortable. We even re-labeled the term “relabel,” and instead we use euphe-misms.
We relabel our actions. It’s not downloading mu-sic illegally, it’s “file-shar-ing.” We aren’t counting the number of civilians dead, just the “collateral damage.”
Last week I went on Spring Break Campaign to Manchester, Conn., and spent most of the week vol-unteering at a food pantry, soup kitchen, and night shelter. I encountered a plethora of people and activities to label. Some-times we called the home-less people “guests,” and sometimes we called the guests “homeless people.” I don’t think one is more politically correct than the other, but the context in which I was discussing the subject determined the la-bel. And by the end of the week, I discovered it wasn’t the label or the context that mattered at all.
One of the opportuni-ties I had last week was to spend the night in the shelter. I met a lot of peo-ple over the course of the week; volunteers, guests, homeless, whatever you want to label them. But getting to spend the night in their home was when the labels dissolved and they became individu-als. Putting names with faces and motives behind the actions forced me to see past any label I could stick on or use to catego-rize. It forced me to see the heart. When you see the heart behind the face, or the heart that goes into a service provided, there’s no going back to the ini-tial label. The “homeless man” becomes “Mario.” The “hand-out” becomes “Mario’s toothbrush.”
I think we are all aware of how we stereotype people around us, but it’s the labeling we do of our own lives that slips by unnoticed. When it’s our own actions, we relabel them without even think-ing about. So what really caught me off guard this week was not the labels I was giving to the people I met, but it was when the people I met challenged me to think about the la-bel I was putting on my own life.
ACU does a really good job of drilling its mission
statement into students’ heads. “To educate stu-dents for Christian service and leadership through-out the world.” It’s plas-tered above doorways and printed on every syllabus. I believe it does such a thorough job of applying this label to my education, that I have come assume that no matter what I end up doing when I gradu-ate, I will undoubtedly be a Christian servant and leader in my workplace.
The night I spent in the shelter, I had a conversa-tion with one of the guests that shattered this belief. This conversation clearly revealed the subconscious assumptions I have been making about the career path my education should take me on.
Seconds after introduc-ing myself to this guest, explaining to her where I was from and what I was majoring in, she asked me how I planned on be-ing a Christian in my job. She didn’t beat around the bush or use any labels. She didn’t want some answer about the way I live or how I was going to slowly be noticed for being slightly different. She wanted to know what action I was going to take to share Christ with others around me, and how majoring in journalism could do that for me.
I fumbled around with shallow words about the need for Christians in the media and all I could of-fer her was an answer of words regurgitated from what I occasionally hear my professors say. I didn’t have a plan I could tell her I hoped to follow, only la-bels.
I realized that until I made the conscious de-cision to act in Christian service so that I can be-come a Christian leader, the mission statement was just going to be another label on my resume, not something I had actually accomplished.
Manchester allowed me to reevaluate the labels I have been applying exter-nally and internally. Over the course of the week more labels were dissolved and more hearts were heard. We cannot eliminate the burden of homeless-ness, but we can help those who suffer from it escape the labels. I cannot deter-mine the direct path of my future, but I can assure you I will label it accordingly.
EVAN’s marks evan marks
6Wednesday 03.20.13Opinion
contact orr [email protected]
column
column
column
Salem SBC serves alongside Soma ministry
Manchester campaign evaluates labels
CROOK IN THE GUT
JOSHUA GARCIA
Chavez still controversial in death
hashtagACU
@nataliegoin
@gabersgguerra @hayleysissy
1:50 p.m. Mar. 19
9:49 a.m. Mar. 18
This 3rd-trimester food baby brought to you by Paula Deen’s cooking. Y’all.
@amandamac89@allisonlynn23
11:17 a.m. Mar. 18
10:46 a.m. Mar. 18
Eating peanut butter like it is my JOB.
It should concern me how much even the thought of black coffee motivates me in the morning.
When the teacher makes us stand up be-cause we’re tired, I take that opportunity to do the pants dance & pull mine up. #girlprobz
Nothing makes the first day back in class more exciting than the pro-jector blowing up....
5:43 p.m. Mar. 12
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@bpbailey @salvatoreangela @eric_schumann
11:10 a.m. Mar. 188:39 p.m. Mar. 13
STOP. Inhaler time.
Dear professor, you don’t have to say “The highest grade in the class was __.” We know who youre talking about; we know what the grade was.
I just met you / And this is crazy / But we’re at the laurdomat together, / And I just saw literally all your underwear.
7:59 p.m. Mar. 18
DISTURBANCEIN THE FORCE
MELANY COX
wednesday 03.20.137 sports
Teams tune up during breakThe Wildcats served up a traveling, tennis-filled spring break.
Saturday, March 9, the teams played a dou-ble header to start their streak of games.
The men traveled to Houston, where they faced Prairie View Uni-versity and won 6-1.
The singles matches of Hans Hach and Jason Proctor went unfinished in an effort to save time for Rice.
Overall the team com-pleted 4 singles matches and won in 2 of 3 of the doubles matches. When faced against Rice later in the day, the team couldn’t keep pace and left Hous-ton with a 0-4 loss.
While the men were in Houston, the women’s team was in Kingsville, where they matched up against Laredo Col-lege 6-0 and Texas A&M (Kingsville) 9-0.
Sunday, March 10, both teams geared up in San Antonio to play the University of the Incar-nate Word.
The men were able to make a comeback from their loss against Rice and won 7-2. The women continued their celebra-tion of the weekend with another 9-0 victory.
“The wind was a tough condition for us all week-end,” Micah Hermsdorf said about the the San Antonio match. “I feel
like we won the wind bat-tle and came out on top against a decent team.”
Both teams put on their best game faces as they spent three days of their spring break in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tuesday, March 12, both teams couldn’t catch a wave as they were defeated by Hawaii Pacif-ic University.
Ending day one in Ve-gas, the ladies won only 1 of 3 singles and 2 of 3 doubles matches, leaving them with a 3-6 loss.
The men’s team fell short with a 1-8 loss. Nicklas Wingord was the only one to gain point for the team, defeating Max-ime Half lants 6-4, 6-3.
Day two started to look better as the match of the day was against Fresno Pacific University.
The men’s team im-proved from their previ-ous match, but it wasn’t enough. They dominated in half of their singles matches and only one of their doubles matches. The team added a 4-5 loss to their season.
The women’s team came back to win 6-3. They were victorious in 4 of 6 singles and 2 of 3 doubles matches. Mogin, Kaysie Hemsdorf, Em-ily Conrad and Jamie Lee Denton all had victories.
Their last day in Vegas, both teams couldn’t find the jackpot as they faced off against Armstrong At-lantic State University.
The men’s team could not seem to find any luck
as they suffered their first no win loss, 0-9. They matched with four play-ers that were ranked in the top 25 in the nation.
The women’s team fell from their previous
triumph, 1-8. The duo of sisters Julia and Laura Mongin were the only to gain the team point as they defeated Barboa Krtickova and Aleksndra Filipovski 8-4.
“Vegas was a great wake up call for us,” Hermsdorf said. “We played good teams, hope-fully we’ll see them again at nationals.”
“Having great matches
and competitors makes us stronger,” Julia Mon-gin said.
tennis
curtis christian Staff Photographer
Micah Hermsdorf steps into a backhand at the Eager Tennis Pavilion. The girls beat Fresno Pacific University, 6-3.
brittney johnsonsports reporter
contact johnson [email protected]
‘Cats disappointed after 4-6 spring break
The ACU softball team did not get the spring break they hoped for. The team played a total of six games over the course of the break, and lost four of the six.
The team started with the 2013 Best Western Pre-mier Spring Fling held March 12-13 against St. Ed-ward’s University and Tex-as A&M International Uni-versity. St. Edward’s forced the ‘Cats two shutout losses 0-1 and 0-7.
Early in the second inning of the first game
against St. Edward’s, ju-nior all-conference pitcher Peyton Mosley took a line drive shot to the face from St. Edward’s infielder Ken-dall Lucas, which led to a possible broken nose. Her return to the mound is questionable at this point.
“My nose is fine. I’m not having any problems with it, pitching or otherwise,” Mosley said.
Senior pitcher, Caitlyn Crain took over after the injured Mosley. She pitched 4.2 innings and let only one earned run pass home plate; but that is all starting pitcher Katelyn Klug needed to seal the 1-0 victory. The
‘cats had several players in scoring positions late in the fourth and fifth innings, but couldn’t capitalize from the defense behind the mound.
“Every loss is tough. We were looking for revenge considering the first time we played them they run ruled us,” Crain said. “I feel like we fought the whole game; it just didn’t end in our favor.”
The Hilltoppers finished their sweep with a 7-0 score the next day.
The next opponent in TAIMU was a hard-fought comeback victory. Keanna Winkfield’s unearned run in the bottom of the sixth in-
ning helped the ‘cats to a 6-5 win over the Dustdevils.
Each inning had many lead changes.
Courtney Flanary re-corded her fourth home run of the season at the start of the third inning, which gave the ‘Cats the lead 4-3.
Sara Vaughn would score an unearned run in the fourth to give the team their biggest lead 5-3. In the top of the fifth, Hilltopper infielder/catcher Rochelle Nash blasted a two-run shot over deep-left center field to tie the game 5-5.
The winning run by Winkfield was just the ic-ing on the cake for the of-
fensive day she recorded. She finished 4-for-4 with multiple RBI’s.
“After winning the game against TAIMU, it was a huge relief,” Wink-field said. “We knew we needed to carry exactly the energy we had into the games against Texas Wom-en’s University.”
The ‘Cats handed the Pioneers of Texas Woman’s University their first Lone Star Conference defeat of the season on Saturday with a shutout victory of 9-0.
Out of the three games they played TWU, they won one. The other losses were close scores of 7-8 and
2-3. The last game the ‘Cats were up 2-1 in the fifth, but a game-tying RBI triple to the right-center gap by Lizzy Kelly, and a solo shot in the sixth from Jordan Readicker gave the Pioneers the win.
Tuesday, the ‘Cats played a doubleheader against the Falcons of the University of Texas Perm-ian Basin, and won both games 3-2 and 10-1.
The Wildcats return to action against LSC rival Tar-leton State University this Friday at 6 p.m.
softball
jimmy isbellsports reporter
contact isbell [email protected]
Hot: Pitching shuts down top ranked teamsgame in an offensive bat-tle, 12-8. They lost the first game of a double header on Saturday, 5-1 but came back with a 3-2 win in the second game.
The second game turned out to be a pitching struggle between ‘Cat starter Aar-on Lambrix and Cardinal starter Jesus Berduzco.
Lambrix (2-2) tossed a complete game and al-lowed one earned run, while Berduzco threw 6.0 innings and gave up three earned runs.
ACU closed out the se-ries in walk-off fashion on Sunday with a 5-4 victory in 10 innings.
Senior J.R. Roland pinch hit in the bottom of the 10th and belted the first pitch he saw into right field scor-ing sophomore Tyler Eager from second base. Eager led off the inning with a single.
“We haven’t had a con-ference series win in a while,” Schuetze said. “It was awesome to have a guy come off the bench and have that kind of impact.”
Closer Brady Rodriguez (1-0) earned the win. He worked himself out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top half of the 10th after getting a 6-4-3 double play.
Schuetze ended several memorable streaks against UIW. He was 0-for-4 at the plate in the first contest Sat-urday which snapped his 14 game hitting streak and 22 game reached-base streak.
Bonneau said Schuetze has been a key component of the offense this season.
“He is very consistent,” he said. “He puts the bat on the ball and hits the ball hard.”
“If I can keep contribut-ing to the team the way I am, I’m all for it,” Schuetze said. “I just want to help this team win.”
The ‘Cats faced Bellar-mine and Delta State over spring break.
The top ranked States-men took the first game, 6-5 but were blown out in the second contest, 10-4.
Kyle Giusti led the charge for ACU against Delta. He went 3-for-4 in the second game with four
RBIs. Infielder Seth Spivey and Schuetze both had good games as well as they each went 2-for-4.
Against Bellarmine, the Wildcats won the first two games 5-2 and 4-2, respec-tively. The Knights avoided a sweep in the series finale with a 5-4 victory.
ACU will continue con-ference play this weekend when they travel to Kings-ville for a four-game series against Texas A&M Univer-sity-Kingsville.
baseball
from page 8
contact isaacs [email protected]
Buzzer: Last second shot ends season
Renata Marquez added 13 points and four rebounds. Lankford was shut out the second half as she finished with eleven points.
As a team, ACU was 7-11 from the free throw line and 9-21 from three. UTPB was 10-17 from the charity strike, most coming in the late going.
The Falcons were 4-16 from the three point line. The ‘Cats were also out-rebounded 50-39 on the battle of the boards.
The Wildcats finish their last Lone Star Conference season as co-LSC champi-ons with a 21-7 overall re-cord, 16-4 in the LSC.
They were 11-2 at home, 8-3 on the road and 2-2 on neutral courts. Lankford was the Wildcats leading scorer with 14.1 ppg., while Smith was the leading re-bounder with 7.1 rebounds a game in her final season.
women’s basketball
contact zepeda [email protected]
from page 8
travis schuetzeutility-manACU BASeball
It was awesome to have a guy come off the bench and have that kind of impact.”“
The Wildcats season came to a heartbreaking end on Friday when they fell to the University of Texas Permian Basin Falcons, 70-68 in Grand Junction, Colo., in the NCAA Divi-sion II South Central Re-gional tournament.
ACU battled back in the late going and was able to tie the game off a deep three from fresh-man Kynzie Newman with 11 seconds left.
UTPB quickly in-bounded the ball and was able to drive all the way down the court and convert a layup plus a foul to give them the lead with 2.6 seconds left in the game. The Falcons missed the layup, but re-covered the rebound, and ran out the clock.
ACU entered into the NCAA tournament as the No. 5 seed, while UTPB was ranked fourth. The first half was extremely close, as the Wildcats were able to jump out to an early 20-8 lead with 13:55 left in the half.
Big threes from junior Mack Lankford really helped the ‘Cats grab the lead, as she had 11 first half points, including 3-3 from beyond the three point arc.
UTPB fought back with lockdown defense and was able to grab the lead 21-20 with 9:25 left off a 13-0 run.
The Falcons out-rebounded the Wild-cats and were able to take advantage of of-fensive boards and sec-ond chance points. Both teams went into the half with the score still very close, ACU up 40-36.
The second half be-gan with aggressive play and a lot of early fouls on UTPB. The game re-mained close as the Wild-cats would establish a five or six point lead, only to have the Falcons come
back and make it a one or two point game.
ACU hurt themselves as sloppy playing filled with bad passes, mis-communication and a lack of urgency paved the way for UTPB to take the
lead 58-56 with 9:39 left in the game.
Senior Kelsey Smith made a huge play for the Wildcats, converting on a three point play with 27.3 seconds left to cut the UTPB lead to one.
The Wildcats battled vig-orously and gave every-thing in the end, but it was not enough as UTPB was able to leave with the win.
Smith and sophomore Sadie Dickinson led ACU
scoring with 16 points each. Smith added 13 re-bounds to give her a dou-ble-double in the loss. Dickinson was 2-5 from beyond the arc. Junior
The women’s tennis team plays a double-header against North Central Texas College and Midwestern State in Witchita Falls Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The men’s tennis team plays at Midwestern State at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The softball team hosts Tarleton State University at 6 p.m. at home Friday in a conference matchup.
The baseball team travels to Kingsville to take on Texas A&M Kingsville in a four game set. The first game begins at 7 p.m. Friday.
women’s tennis
standings
briefings
Who’s Hot
The ACU football team began spring practice Tuesday in Abilene. The Wildcats will practice three times at Shotwell Stadium and will be in full pads every practice except Tuesday’s initial practice.
Former ACU track and field coach Roosevelt Lofton was removed from his position over spring break. Assistant coach Jerrod Cook will serve as the interim coach for the rest of the season. Lofton won one national championship in his time as ACU’s coach.
men’s tennis
TeamACUUIWCameronMSU
Div.10-98-311-17-4
Ovrl.1-01-10-00-1
Senior golfer Alex Carpenter won his 18th ca-reer golf tourna-ment last
week in California. Carpenter shattered the course record by four strokes when he shot a final round 63 to run away from the pack. Carpenter is the number one golfer for the fifth ranked ACU golf team. Carpenter will lead the Wildcats to his hometown of Little Rock, Ark. to play at his home course in their next tournament.
TeamACUUIWCameronMSUTSUTAMU-K
Div.12-57-67-26-47-71-2
Ovrl.2-01-21-11-02-00-2
wednesday 03.20.13 8sports
Carpenter
baseball
TeamTSUTAMU-KACUWTAMUCameronUIWASUENMU
Div.4-03-1 3-1 2-2 2-2 1-3 1-3 0-4
Ovrl.15-6-1 18-5 15-10 14-8 8-11 15-7 16-9 11-10
softball
TeamWTAMUTWUASUMSUUIWTSUACUCameronWNMUTAMU-K
Div.5-15-15-14-23-33-32-42-41-50-6
Ovrl.21-221-719-720-615-1014-1116-148-147-2310-19
upcoming
curtis christian Staff Photographer
Sadie Dickinson looks to pass the ball up the court in Moody Coliseum. The girls were beat by the University of Texas of the Permian Basin 70-68 in the D-II South Central Regional tournament.
Wildcats beat by buzzerwomen’s basketball
daniel zepedasports reporter
see buzzer page 7
Carpenter conquers Mission Viejo
Senior Alex Carpenter stole the spring break spotlight by winning his 18th career individual medalist title and break-ing a course record in the process.
Carpenter shot a 63 to break the Mission Viejo Country Club record in route to a five shot come-back at the Southern Cali-fornia Intercollegiate.
“Sixty-three was the lowest I’ve shot while playing an ACU tourna-ment and that round ac-tually broke the course
record by four shots,” Car-penter said. “I have shot a 61 before actually and that is my lowest round. I have 18 wins now, and my goal is to get to 20 before I graduate.”
Despite shooting the first two rounds above par, Carpenter finished with a f lurry of birdies and won by five strokes, posting a 6-under-par-207 for the weekend.
Carpenter had several stellar holes, including a pair of eagles to go along with his 16 birdies.
“It was pretty neat shooting such a low score on such a tough track,” Carpenter said. “I was
glad to be able to help out the team and lea us to a strong finish at a big event like that.”
The fifth ranked ACU golf team finished in fourth place overall as a team with a total of 907 strokes, 16 strokes off the pace set by Cal State Stansiaus.
Two other Wildcats fin-
ished in the top 25 along with Carpenter. Corbin Renner finished in 19th place at 229 strokes, and Ian Evans tied for 24th af-ter posting a 232.
“Corbin has had a great start to the year,” head coach Mike Campbell said. “He has won a tour-nament and is ranked in the thirties individually
in the nation. I have con-fidence in all those guys and they played well. That is the hardest course that we will play all year.”
ACU will be back in action when they play in the Arkansas Little Rock/First Tee Classic at Chenal Country Club on March 25-26 in Little Rock Ark.
“It will be fun to be able to go home and play an event at my home course where I grew up,” Carpen-ter said. “I have a lot of good memories there.”
golf
matthew sloanassistant sports editor
contact sloan [email protected]
‘Cats beat No. 1 Delta St., No. 24 UIW
The Wildcats have hit a hot streak in their season over the past two weeks. The team has defeated the likes of Bellarmine Uni-versity, No. 1 in the coun-try Delta State and LSC foe No. 24 Incarnate Word.
The ‘Cats are 6-3 in their last nine contests, which includes taking 2 of 3 from Bellarmine, splitting two games with Delta St. and taking 3 of 4 from University of the Incarnate Word.
Senior utility-man Travis Schuetze has en-joyed playing these top ranked teams.
“It’s a real confidence boost,” he said. “Emo-tions are high in these games and I’m really im-pressed with our pitch-ing staff.”
“That win against Delta
was huge for the morale of the team,” said head coach Britt Bonneau. “It gave them a lot of confidence. We’ve had some great wars with Delta State at region-als so to beat them in our last meeting was a good feeling.”
The squad is now sit-ting at 15-10 overall and 3-1 in Lone Star Confer-ence play.
The Wildcats played their first conference se-ries this past weekend when the Cardinals came to town.
The team won the first
baseball
Edward isaacssports editor
mandy lambright chief Photographer
Pitcher Aaron Lambrix releases a pitch at Crutcher Scott Field over spring break.see hot page 7
alex carpentersenior
acu golf
Sixty-three was the lowest I’ve shot while playing an ACU tournament and that round actually broke
the course record by four shots.”“
britt bonneauhead coach
acu baseball
That win against Delta was huge for the morale
of the team.”“
