The Northerner Print Edition - February 24, 2010

NEWS

VIEWSWhat are you looking at?:Dating outside own race isn’t a matter of what you see.

A&ENewest play conveys our past:The Colored Museum delivers powerful images of race and racism.

COVER STORYCelebrating Black History:NKU serves up opportunity to learn from our past.

6 & 7

4 & 5

8

9

Accessibility concern addressed:Blocking access ramp will result in penalties.

3February 24, 2010

The NorthernerUniversity Center Room 335Highland Heights, KY 41076Editor in Chief: (859) 572-6128News & Sports: (859) 572-6677Features: (859) 572-5859Advertising: (859) 572-5232Fax: (859) 572-5772

E-mail: [email protected]

furtherdetailsEntire content is copyright of The Northerner and may not be reprinted without prior con-sent. Views expressed do not represent those of the administration, faculty or student body.The Northerner is considered a designated public forum. Student editors have authority to make all content decisions without censor-ship or advance approval. The Northerner staff respects the right to a free and open dialogue as allowed under the First Amendment.

PRINT EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMark Payne[[email protected]]

WEB EDITOR-IN-CHIEFEmily Teaford [[email protected]]

PRESENTATION EDITORKarli Wood[[email protected]]

A&E EDITORJeremy Jackson[[email protected]]

PHOTO EDITORCharlotte Etherton[[email protected]]

COPY EDITORSEmily Christman[[email protected]]

Zach Grady[[email protected]]

Chad Hensley[[email protected]]

ADVISERGayle Brown[[email protected]]

AD MANAGERWilliam Fisher[fi [email protected]]

northernerstaff contactinformationEDITORIAL CARTOONISTPatrick Delaney[[email protected]]

ASST. PHOTO EDITORCassie Graves[[email protected]]

STAFF WRITERSMichael Willis[[email protected]]

Alex Owsley[[email protected]]

Brandon Barb[[email protected]]

Jesse Call[[email protected]]

Vern Hockney[[email protected]]

WHAT’S INSIDE

SPORTS 10 & 11Men’s team wins, heads to tourney:Team snaps back in the game and pulls a win against Indiana.

COPY DESK CHIEFBetina Kemker[[email protected]]

SPORTS EDITORDrew Laskey[[email protected]]

EDITORIAL ADVISERRyan Clark[[email protected]]

WEB CONTENT MANAGERJim Clark[[email protected]]

Cassie Graves/Assistant Photo Editor

Comedian and actress Damali Ayo spoke at NKU for Black History Month.

NEWS

4 Edition 45, Issue 7

Complaints have prompted the university to place a no parking sign in front of the ac-cessibility ramp in front of Uni-versity Suites.

For more than fi ve years, Pat Skrocki, a retired schoolteach-er who independently volun-teers to assist NKU students with special needs, has been ac-tive in trying to get the univer-sity administration to enforce the parking restriction. She said access to the ramp is es-sential when she transports stu-dents with mobility limitations. When the ramp is blocked, she must either wait for the ramp entry to clear, or lift students on her own from the vehicle.

Skrocki feels that she has been “given the runaround” by the university on this issue after having her request for-warded several times. She had been called by the university in August 2009, and was told the problem would be resolved. Skrocki said this is one of many of NKU’s failures: caring for the needs of students with disabilities, and maintaining a blasé attitude regarding them. Her most recent formal com-plaint was addressed to Steve Meier, associate to the Dean of Students, in November 2008 after reading an article about a Student Government Associa-tion safety walk in The North-erner. Again, she was told twice that her complaint had been forwarded.

The duty to enforce parking rules is in the hands of Univer-sity Parking Services, and Uni-versity Police can also enforce them. Peter Trentacoste, direc-tor of University Housing, said that housing staff usually do not enforce, nor report, park-ing restrictions.

According to Larry Blake, assistant vice president for Fa-cilities Management, the main cause for the lack of enforce-ment was that there was no

sign regarding parking at all.Blake was the person who

ultimately received Skrocki’s request that the area be marked. After he was asked about its status, Blake became very apologetic and admitted he had not done the proper fol-low-up to make sure the area was adequately marked.

“(After receiving the com-plaint), I requested the ramp area be painted yellow and marked ‘no parking’ that same day but the weather at that time made it impossible to do the painting on the pavement. Unfortunately, I did not follow up later — I just assumed it happened,” Blake said. He also said he would personally make sure that a temporary sign be posted immediately until the weather improves.

“I am very sorry that I did not follow-up to ensure that the ramp area was marked as ‘no parking.’ We will get something in place as soon as possible,” Blake said. “I have also asked campus Police to frequently patrol the area and ticket those who choose to block the ramp.”

But an apology and a tempo-rary sign was still not enough to appease Skrocki.

“Too bad, though, that any courtesy toward myself in re-sponding to my e-mails over the years has yet to be deliv-ered. Until the time that some-body in the administration and/or its division of labor gives me that courtesy, NKU will remain in my mind, as a rude, and in-different entity,” she said. “I have heard the president speak on this campus, and he has al-ways invited students and par-ents to express any concerns. I do believe that this gentleman is genuine; and it is too bad that his hired hands in his admin-istration do not possess that same respect for students and parents.”

Accessibility concern addressedBlocking University Suites access ramp will result in penaltiesJesse CallStaff writer

Charlotte Etherton/Photo Editor

Temporary “No Parking” signs were placed in front of the access ramps in front of Norse Hall, Norse Commons and University Suites. Permanent signs will be placed there soon.

NEWS

5February 24,2010

SGA held their fi rst meet-ing in two weeks Monday, Feb. 22, after a two week re-cess. This meeting addressed poignant issues for the stu-dent body because presenta-tions of proposed fees domi-nated the meeting.

Peter Trentacoste, direc-tor of University Housing, discussed housing fees that students would see begin-ning in the fall. The proposed weighted fee increase for housing residents will be ap-proximately 4.64 percent, ac-cording to Trentacoste’s pre-sentation. A large reason for the proposed fee hike is be-cause renovations are needed to some of the residence halls exteriors among other reno-

vations that may be made over the summer months.

Andy Meeks, director of Business Operations and Auxillary, provided the body with a look at food services. His presentation indicated that students should watch for their meal plans to be-come more expensive with proposed increases ranging from 4.82-5.06 percent. There is a glimmer of hope as meal transferability for students living in dorms and eating at the residence cafeterias’ looks as if it will be in the fi -nal plan for next fall. Howev-er, this will be available for an additional fee which will be built into the meal plan cost and comes with stipulations.

Meeks also gave a pre-sentation on the increase of parking fees for university students. The annual student pass proposed will to rise to $195 and the annual pass proposed for Callahan Hall will cost $122, according to Meeks’ presentation. Meeks also said that the university is looking at raising the cost of event parking for the Bank of Kentucky Center but said students with a parking pass will not be charged.

Ken Kline, director of the Budget offi ce, updated SGA on the possibility of per-credit-hour tuition. As the universities policy stands now, students pay per-credit-hour for hours one to 12—12

through 16 hours is a fl at fee and hours 17 and up are charged per-credit-hour with a 50 percent discount. Kline says that the university is still in the early planning stages but two models are seriously being considered for the sub-committee in charge of inves-tigating the possibilities. One model would keep the same model NKU has now, but would charge per-credit-hour for hours 17 plus with no dis-count. Another model would charge per-credit-hour for hours one through 12, with hours 13 plus being charged at a discounted rate per-hour. Kline stressed that it is im-portant to note that ideas are still being discussed and no

fi nal decision has been made.Kelly Beane, vice-president

of the Sociology Club and Meredith Sparkes, president of the Sociology club present-ed a request to SGA for as-sistance communicating with other NKU organizations, particularly concerning their March 22 event of the card-board village during which students will sleep overnight on the plaza in cardboard boxes in an effort to bring the impact of homelessness to campus.

Three new senators were also sworn into the SGA body Monday: Nate Burton, Mike Johnson and Brittany Neal are the newest additions to the SGA senate.

First meeting in two weeksSnow causes a delay on Student Government Association businessVern Hockney Staff writer

Celebrating Black HistoryNKU serves up opportunity to learn from our pastJeremy JacksonA&E Editor

The United States has long been regarded as the ultimate melting pot, a tremendous vat by which large throngs of race, culture and religion were once assembled to form a homo-geneous clump-de-void of the spirit and history that defi nes a people.

But since 1926, the month of Feb-ruary has sought to dismantle part of that cultural-ball with the estab-lishment of Black History Month. Throughout the nation and at North-ern Kentucky University alike, the month has impacted many by remem-bering the struggles, celebrating the accomplishments and preserving the cultural variance of African-Ameri-cans, past and present.

“Black History Month is an inte-gral part to this campus,” said Priscil-la Green, a senior Electronic Media Broadcasting major. “The programs that African-American-oriented groups instill allow us to reconnect with our past and each other.”

Groups such as the Black United Students (B.U.S.), whose mission is to strengthen African-American stu-dents’ leadership skills and to seek social justice across the campus, is working in tandem with the African American Student Affairs (A.A.S.A) offi ce throughout the month, accord-ing to B.U.S. president and junior EMB major Cierra Harris. The two groups have invited various speak-ers and scheduled 14 Black History Month events for February.

This is a change compared to past years when NKU hosted only a hand-ful of events centered on black his-tory. But A.A.S.A. and B.U.S. real-ized it wasn’t enough and wanted

to increase the events, Harris says. “We wanted to have an impact this year in terms of our history,” Har-ris said. “After all, you don’t know where you’re going until you realize where you came from. Many dynamic speakers are coming in to ensure we don’t forget that.”

Although various groups are show-casing Black History Month, students like Green feel not enough is being done by the university as a whole.

“I see more fl iers on the walls about Valentine’s Day than Black History Month,” Green said. “The university should do more to present icons of this month like Rosa Parks and Mar-tin Luther King Jr.”

Too often black history is relegated to the confi nes of February, Green says. She contends that society should seek to make black history a part of every day living, and that that should begin at the university level and is in-delibly connected to a strong African American community.

“People like Blanche Pringle-Smith and Michael Griffi n were both huge parts of ensuring a strong Afri-can-American community at NKU,” Green said. “They both were dedi-cated to us knowing who we are and where we came from. It is because of them that many African-American students succeed at NKU.”

In the wake of Pringle-Smith’s re-cent termination, due to not getting along with new leadership (according to an NKU Corrective Form obtained by The Northerner) and the termina-tion of Griffi n as coordinators in the A.A.S.A. offi ce, many students ques-tion the continuance of black history

awareness on the campus.“The A.A.S.A. offi ce must be kept

stable and strong to act as a conduit for black history to the students at NKU,” said Brandon Hill, vice presi-dent of Students Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R.) and senior Inte-grative Studies major. “Right now, the mentorship and role models of that offi ce are absent — this breaks the confi dence of students.”

Although there has been recent in-stability in certain departments, NKU has enjoyed many years of growth among the African-American student body. The number of African-Ameri-can students in 1989 was a paltry 1.26 percent of the entire student body. But, the numbers have incrementally increased to nearly 6 percent today, according to a document published by the Offi ce of Intuitional Research at NKU.

Hill believes the steady increase is due in part to successful re-branding attempts made by the university.

“In the past, NKU was perceived as a no knowledge university, as a redneck school and a preppy white school,” Hill said. “The university has done a great job to turn that around and made it appealing for more di-versifi ed students.”

With the increase in African-American students, it is imperative that they’re immediately directed to an organization on campus or they may suffer from alienation and lack of support, says Hill.

“Coming here for many students, it is their fi rst opportunity to get a sense of the world,” Hill said. “As fellow black students, we need to reach out

and help them be a part of the black community at NKU.”

Another way of ensuring success among the African American student community at NKU exists within other programs, says Chelsea Nichols, publicist for B.U.S. and a junior EMB major.

“A.A.S.A. has a tremendous pro-gram called NKU ROCKS,” Nichols said. “It is required for incoming Af-rican American freshmen, allowing them to familiarize themselves to the campus, as well as acclimate to col-lege life a few weeks before the se-mester starts.”

ROCKS, which stands for Respon-sibility, Opportunity, Community, Knowledge and Success, is listed on the NKU Web site as a four year pro-gram that informs students of the history of black scholars, and gives guidance that enables success while attending a predominantly white uni-versity, among its many programs. NKU is 86 percent white.

Although the recent instability of A.A.S.A. has sparked many ques-tions concerning the continuance of its successful programs, Nichols says it is the responsibility of the African American students to safeguard their continuance.

“I feel like this month and all that it stands for, as well as all the programs of the university are up to us to con-tinue,” Nichols said. “We don’t have Blanche (Pringle-Smith) and Michael (Griffi n) anymore. So, the black stu-dents need to pick up the slack of the programs previously in place. In the long run, this will strengthen the black community at NKU.”

6 Edition 45, Issue 7 7February 24, 2010

Upcoming Events in honor of Black History Month:February 24th:

• The Norse Intergroup Dialogue Project: Race vs. Class: What’s the bigger issue? Student Union 104 12 p.m. - Lunch will be served For more information and to RSVP, contact 859.572.5214.• Wiffl eball League All-Star Game Albright Health Center 5 p.m. This All-Star Game commemorates the important contributions of the Negro Baseball League to American Society. For more information, contact Jeremy Chipman at [email protected] or (859) 572-6570 Sponsored by Campus Recreation.• Tom “TJ” Leyden. Turning Away from Hate Student Union Ballroom 7 p.m. After 15 years as a neo-Nazi white supremacist activist and recruiter, Tom “TJ”

Leyden experienced a profound change of heart, turned away from hate and began teaching tolerance. Co-Sponsor: Offi ce of Student Life.

February 25th: • W.A.T.E.R presents: A LOVE LIKE NO OTHER Student Union 102 5 p.m. Admission: $1 (a percentage of the proceeds will go to charity)

For more information about Black History Month events, contact African American Student Affairs at 859-572-6684.

Opposite: Damali Ayo speaks to students at NKU for Black History Month.


VIEWS

A couple of months ago, while working on my family tree, I found out something cool: I have an African-American great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. This got me to thinking, what would it have been like to date someone of a different race at that time? Inter-racial dating is something that is a little more acceptable now than it was then. I believe that interracial dating is perfectly fine. People are people, and skin color is nothing but a level of melanin. Even from a religious stand-point, the Old Testa-ment mentions that the predomi-nant Jewish leader, Moses, married an Ethiopian.

Junior Emily Hill says she is fine with the idea of interracial dating.

Her stance is, “Why would their race matter?” And I agree completely. Not only does Junior Jewel Gilbert think that interracial dating is okay, but she brought up an amazing point, “We’re all interracial of some

sort.” Isn’t that the truth? Hasn’t America always been known as a great melting pot?

It’s now 2010 and there is a lot less of a chance of being looked down upon for doing so, but dat-

ing interracially can still get you some sideways looks. I have dated interracially so I know what it’s like. People make fun of you, ask you what you are doing. Things may be a lot better than they were 50 years ago, but you can still expect to be gawked at. But, as student Grace Maute points out, “It’s a social is-sue.”

If there is anything in my life I am grateful for, it is parents who taught me that it is what’s on the inside that counts. Student Meggie Baker says it’s all about, “If they make each other happy.” My favorite response came from student Kaitlin Shupert who says, “Love is a univer-sal language. Let’s actually speak it.”

M. Gordon WillisContributing writer

What are you looking at?Dating outside own race isn’t a matter of what you see

Love is a universal language. Let’s actually speak it.

- Kaitlin Shupert, NKU student.

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9February 24, 2010

A&E

The newest production of Northern Kentucky Univer-sity’s Theatre Deparment is part social commentary and part history lesson. The Col-ored Museum opened with a group of college-aged stu-dents watching the results of the 2008 presidential election. During their celebration over President Barack Obama’s victory, they are morphed into a kind of alternate universe where they experience The Colored Museum and its in-teractive exhibits. The actual play is made up of 11 differ-ent vignettes, all of which are satirized African American stereotypes — some of which include “Git’ on Board”, “Cookin’ with Aunt Ethel”, “The Photo Session” and “Soldier with a Secret”, all of

which are hilarious, but some-times makes you think, “Oh, I shouldn’t be laughing at this.”

“Git’ on Board” was per-haps the most moving, as it portrayed images of racism across the span of hundreds of years. Slaves with their backs whipped to ribbons, police unleashing fi re hoses on pro-testors and the hope-inspiring face of Martin Luther King, Jr. are just some of the im-ages that ran across the screen while the annoyingly perky stewardess, Miss Pat, outfi tted in a very patriotic red, white and blue ensemble, directed newly-captured slaves on the way to properly fi t their shack-les to their wrists and continu-ally reminds them that “there is no drumming allowed on board.”

Director Brian Robertson elaborated that when Miss Pat reminds passengers (and theater-goers, at the end of the production) that “any be-longings you leave behind, we’ll trash” is supposed to be a reinforcement of the ideol-ogy of “trashing racist percep-tions” to better understand and identify with our fellow man.

The Colored Museum was written by the African-Ameri-can dramatist George C. Wolfe in 1985 and premiered in 1986 at The Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J. Accord-ing to Wolfe, penning it was “an exorcism” (according to a mention in the playbill).

“It’s about getting rid of stereotypes - not only that so-ciety has of black people, but

that black people maintain,” said NKU student-actor Ro-meo Armand Seay, who en-tertained with his portrayal of multiple characters, including Guy, Kid and Waiter, com-mented after the show.

Audrey Weatherby, who was the TV studio garments designer, said that the play gives a “controversial view of black America” and rightly believes that an appreciation for diversity “is much needed on (NKU’s) campus.”

I went into the theater not knowing a thing about the per-formance, and I think that if I had known beforehand that the play is actually made up of the 11 different vignettes, then that would have enhanced my enjoyment, because the scenes move very fast and I some-

times found myself wondering what was actually going on.

The costumes were very impressive, especially those worn by Miss Roj. The char-acter was played by fresh-man Montez O. Jenkins, who should have gone by the title Miss Fabulous, as he strutted across the stage outfi tted from head to his go-go booted toe in silvery-white sequins and blue eye shadow, with a huge “R” emblazoned on his se-quined belt.

Opening curtain times will be at 8 p.m. through Saturday, Feb. 27, and at 3 p.m. on Sun-day, Fen. 28, which will be the last show. Student tickets are just $8 and are available at the Fine Arts Building in Room 259 of the Corbett Theatre Lobby.

Betina KemkerCopy Desk Chief

Newest play conveys our pastThe Colored Museum delivers powerful images of race and racism

Courtsey of NKU Theater Department

Montez O. Jenkins is one of the many actors in “The Colored Museum”. This play speaks a powerful message of race and ethnicity.

SPORTS


The Northern Kentucky men’s basketball team snapped their two-game los-ing streak by upsetting No. 2 Southern Indiana University 68-56 on Feb. 18.

Senior center David Palmer led the way for the Norse with 15 points and nine rebounds. Freshman forward Corey Sor-rell added 14 points and junior guard Dennis Gagai contrib-uted 12.

Southern Indiana Univer-sity (23-2, 14-2 Great Lakes Valley Conference) came out strong against the Norse and played competitively in the opening minutes. With the score tied at eight at the 11:30 mark of the fi rst half, NKU put together a 16-6 run over the next six and a half minutes and headed into halftime with an 11-point lead. The Black and Gold maintained their lead for the beginning of the second half, but when SIU put on a full court press seven minutes in, the momentum ap-peared to shift in SIU’s favor.

With 6:53 left in the game, SIU tied the game at 49 with a pair of free throws. Despite the number of close games that have escaped the Norse this season, NKU did not let this one slip away. A steal by Scott Bibbins led to a transi-tion three-pointer by Den-nis Gagai, which gave NKU a fi ve-point lead after Tony Rack hit three free throws on the possession before. The next play down, Dennis Gagai drove it to the basket and laid it in for two, which added to NKU’s 19-7 run in the fi nal six minutes to close out the game.

“Doing this after two really tough losses on the road says a lot about our makeup,” Coach Dave Bezold said. “We may not have looked good at cer-tain times, but they’ve picked it up. Generally, we’ll fi nd a

combination of guys who are going to play really, really hard and sometimes they’ve gotten themselves into a hole too big to get out of, but they’re al-ways battling,” Bezold said.

SIU is the fourth ranked team NKU has beaten this season.

On Feb. 20, NKU was vis-ited by the team that handed the Norse their fi rst confer-ence loss of the season, the University of Indianapolis (12-15, 6-12).

In their last meeting Dec. 3, Indy narrowly escaped the Norse 55-54 with a game-winning free throw. This time, however, NKU was on the other side of the outcome as they defeated Indy 65-61.

On his senior night, David Palmer was the go-to-guy for his team like he has been all season long. He carried the Norse with 20 points and nine rebounds and the support-ing cast of Dennis Gagai’s 15 points and junior forward Yan Moukoury’s 10 points helped NKU to their second straight win. NKU clinched the third seed in the East division of the GLVC tournament with this victory.

David Palmer played only one season with NKU but his impact was felt immedi-ately by his team, and their opponents. He’s averaged 17 points per game and pulled down eight rebounds per game and leads the team with 48 blocked shots on the sea-son. He originally transferred from Seton Hall University after his freshman year to Iowa University. After play-ing two years at Iowa, Palmer landed right here in Highland Heights, Ky.

“It wasn’t just a good sea-son for me -- it was a good season for everybody,” Palmer said. “We didn’t win as many

games as we would have liked to because we had a lot of close losses early in the sea-son, and we had some guys go down, but we kept pushing and working hard and believ-ing -- and down the stretch we put together a lot of big wins. We’re going to keep building off that, keep it moving, and we’re going to keep playing one more game, one more game, one more game, and hope it takes us far,” Palmer said.

The other senior NKU will be graduating is guard Scotty Bibbins. Bibbins has been the offensive catalyst for the Norse in his fi ve seasons with NKU. He averaged eight points per game and dished out 118 assists on the year.

Bibbins also leads the team in steals with a total of 26 this season.

“I’ve been here a long time -- I have a lot of good memo-ries here,” Bibbins said. “I’ve won a lot of games and last year we didn’t lose here so it was very important for me to win this last game here.”

Coach Bezold says Bibbins has been through a lot – the big games of conference tour-naments, the big games of NCAA tournaments, so noth-ing is going to faze him. He’s going to be able to handle the situations and he’s the guy he (Bezold) can always fall back on if things aren’t going well for the team.

“We’re starting to fi nd our stride,” Bezold said. “We are

the one team on any given day that can beat anybody in the nation, and nobody else has proven that but us. There’s only one other team in the conference that can say that and that might be Kentucky Wesleyan. But nobody else has had those wins that we’ve had. When you get to this time of the year, your job is to play one more game – to play well enough to get yourself an op-portunity, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Bezold said.

NKU will play Missouri S&T at 1 p.m Feb. 27 at St. Joseph’s. The winner of that game will play St. Joseph’s on Feb. 28. NKU topped Missouri S&T in their last meeting 72-54 Feb. 6.

Drew Laskey & Nick JonesSports Editor & Contributing writer

Tim Downer/Sports PhotographerDennis Gagai (30) dribbles past Indys Ryan Sims (11). NKU beat Southern Indiana University 68-56.

Men’s team wins, heads to tourneyTeam snaps back in the game and pulls a win against Indiana

11February 24, 2010

SPORTS

The No. 4 ranked University of Indianapolis’ 44 free throw attempts helped carry them past Northern Kentucky Uni-versity’s women’s basketball 80-69 on Feb. 20 in NKU’s fi nal home game of the season.

Sophomore guard Casse Mo-gan led the way for the Black and Gold with 21 points. Senior guard Rachel Lantry scored 15 points and senior forward Brandi Rayburn added 13 points and eight rebounds on NKU’s senior night.

It was a competitive con-test in the opening minutes of the game as neither team took much of a lead, but a late fi rst half run gave Indy (25-2, 16-2 Great Lakes Valley Confer-ence) an 11-point cushion head-ing into halftime. As the Norse struggled to defend the paint, they committed a number of fouls throughout the game, giv-ing Indy plenty of easy oppor-tunities to extend their lead at the line.

“I was a little disappointed in the way that they were able to just dominate us inside,” Wins-tel said. “I knew they were aw-fully good inside, but they just dominated us inside, and it was tough for us. I was proud of our kids, the way we battled — I thought our guards in particular battled awfully hard. As much as you hate to say it, you have to give Indy all the credit in the world. When you get beat like that you just have to shake their hand, but we didn’t quit,” Win-stel said.

To put in perspective how much signifi cance each free throw held, Indy sank 38 of their 44 attempts — NKU made 15 of their 21 attempts. That’s a difference of 23 points from just the foul line. That not only sheds light to how strong Indy was from the line, but also how hard NKU played to make up for those lost points elsewhere.

NKU will lose two seniors, Rachel Lantry and Brandi Ray-

burn, at the end of the season. At the conclusion of the game, Coach Nancy Winstel took to center court and publicly ad-dressed the crowd of 1, 321 about how grateful she was for having coached such fi ne young ladies.

“Probably the two toughest things a coach does during their career is deal with injuries and says goodbye to their seniors,” Winstel said. “But I don’t ever say goodbye to my seniors. I always tell them, ‘you know where I am, my phone number hasn’t changed in like, 100 years, and once a lady Norse, always a lady Norse.’”

Senior forward Brandi Ray-burn averaged 14 points per game and grabbed six rebounds per game for the Norse.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you only knew what this young lady (Rayburn) has gone through to play this year…every day she spends more time in the train-

ing room than she does on the basketball court,” Winstel said. “She loves the game and she wants to play and she gives it her all. And you have to respect that.”

The other senior is Rachel Lantry. In her senior campaign, Lantry averaged 10 points and four rebounds per game, she led the team with 26 blocks on the season and was second in total steals on the year with 28.

“I have gotten to play with some of the greatest girls that will be life-long friends of mine,” Lantry said. “My team is my family and I will continue to cheer for them even when I’m gone. I have really enjoyed my time here and it is going to be sad leaving but I know these girls, coaches and staff will be a part of my life forever. I ap-preciate everyone in the athletic department for getting me to where I am today, I am a bet-ter person because of all them,”

Lantry said.This loss was the second in

the row for the Norse, as they dropped a close one to South-ern Indiana University in double overtime 75-72 on Feb. 18, snapping their previous 10-game win streak.

NKU had three players score in double fi gures against SIU, lead by the double-double of senior forward Brandi Rayburn who scored 20 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Rayburn was joined in double fi gures by sophomore guard Casse Mogan who scored 18 points and junior guard Jessie Carmack who add-ed 10.

USI (21-7, 12-5 GLVC) netted eight of their 20 three-pointers for the game, including a deep three at the beginning of the second overtime that put USI up in front for good. USI also held a large advantage from the free throw line, attempting 13 more foul shots than NKU

and knocking down seven more than the Black and Gold.

NKU jumped off to quick starts in both halves, but USI never let the game too far out of reach as they climbed back into the game with runs of their own. USI took its fi rst lead of the game eleven minutes into the second half with a 13-2 run, putting the Norse on their heels. The teams traded baskets until Rayburn was able to put the Norse up 51-47 making two free throws. USI then went on a 6-0 run to give them a 53-51 lead within the fi nal minute, but Mo-gan hit a jumper for the Norse that sent the game into its fi rst overtime.

Both teams struggled from the fi eld in the fi rst overtime, but a USI layup with 35.7 sec-onds gave them a 59-57 advan-tage. The Norse struggled to fi nd an open shot on their fi nal possession until sophomore center Whitney Levering hit a jump shot with 1.7 seconds left, sending the game into its second overtime. At the begin-ning of the second overtime, USI hit a quick three to begin the half, which ended up putting the Screaming Eagles ahead for good. This was the fi rst loss for the Norse since Jan. 13.

The University of Indianapo-lis won win the GLVC Eastern Division so NKU will enter the conference tournament as the second seed from the East. The tournament begins Feb. 26 and would last until March 7 if the Norse advance to the champi-onship game.

Rachel Lantry is as confi dent as ever in her team’s chances.

“Anything is possible,” Lantry said. “I think it is all up for grabs and I still think we can go all the way -- it doesn’t matter how young we are.

NKU will play Kentucky Wesleyan at 1 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Wisconsin-Parkside. The win-ner of that game will play Wis-consin-Parkside on Feb. 28.

Women’s team heads to WisconsinSeniors Lantry and Rayburn say goodbye to Bank of Kentucky CenterDrew Laskey & Nick JonesSports Editor & Contirbuting writer

Tim Downer/Staff photographerBrandi Rayburn struggles to get to the basket. The Women’s team heads to GLVC tourney.

Two English Bulldog puppies (male & female)need new home.

They are both AKC registered.

If you are interested, kindly send an e-mail to: rowlandblake70@yahoo.

com

The Northerner Print Edition - February 24, 2010

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Transcript of The Northerner Print Edition - February 24, 2010