Lindsey Lee Smith, the 20-year-old junior from New Braunfels killed in the car accident Friday night, will be remembered for her happy personality and ad-venturous spirit.

Smith, an Ad/PR major, attended New Braunfels High School, where she competed in public speak-ing. She was chosen to be a part of the New Braunfels Youth Leadership, a citizen-ship and leadership class

where the city chooses the leaders from each high school. She was also an ac-

tive member of the New Braunfels Church of Christ youth group.

She enjoyed tennis and played on junior varsity team her freshman and sophomore years. She was also actively involved in the theater program. She loved acting and singing and played Annie her senior year in the school musical. Her favorite films included Gidget and My Fair Lady.

Tori Moore, junior biology major from Katy, was Smith’s roommate in Gardner Hall during their freshman year.

“Loving Lindsey leaves you gasping,” said Moore. “She made your sides sore from laughing and your feet

ache from following on her adventures. She sang like a bird and danced like an an-gel and dyed her hair purple because she wasn’t afraid. She loved without looking first. Coming into her life changed yours. We will join hands and pray that we can learn to dance again like Lindsey taught us.”

Smith traveled to South America after her senior year of high school and vis-ited Peru and Ecuador. She studied abroad with the ACU art department dur-ing the summer of 2012, visiting England, France, It-

aly and Spain. She traveled even farther to visit both Australia and New Zealand.

Smith’s parents, Todd and Linda, were out of state when they received the phone call that their daugh-ter died in a car wreck when she and her friends were headed to Oplin Dance Hall for a night of two-stepping. Her parents immediately returned to New Braunfels.

Paige Buck, junior mar-keting major from New Braunfels, had known Lind-sey for a long time.

Six ACU students gathered Friday night to go two step-ping at the Grand Ole Op-lin. It was supposed to be just like every other Friday night. Each of them had enjoyed the weekly open dances on Friday nights at Oplin Community Center many times.

Callie Kerbo, freshman marketing major from Murfreesboro, Tenn., was preparing for the familiar trip, but with an unfamil-iar group. She didn’t know the three smiling faces in the front seat before step-ping up into the back of the pickup cab.

Kerbo had agreed to the night out at Oplin, and then the Guitars and Cadil-lac dance club, with two of her close friends: Deanna Romero, freshman interna-tional studies major from

Omaha, Neb., and Rebekah Cherniss, freshman Ad/PR major from Katy. Some up-perclassmen had invited Deanna to go with them.

“I didn’t know them from Adam,” Kerbo said.

Bo Braddock, senior biology major from Deer Park, picked up the three freshmen from Nelson Hall in his blue-green 1996 Ford pickup. Eric Terrazas, junior Ad/PR major from Argyle, sat in the passenger seat. Between them in the front seat, secured only by a lap belt, sat Lindsey Smith, ju-nior Ad/PR major from New Braunfels. The freshmen loaded up the backseat. Romero sat down behind the driver, Cherniss in the middle behind Smith and Kerbo on the right behind Terrazas.

The six, all between the ages of 18-20, set off toward Oplin a little after 8 p.m.

“We were all getting to know each other,” Kerbo

said. “We knew Eric a little bit, but Bo didn’t know us and I hadn’t met Lindsey before.”

A few miles after merg-ing onto the TX-322 Loop, Braddock exited onto TX-36 on the southeast edge of Abilene. As the group passed Abilene Regional

Airport, he set the truck’s cruise control at 75 mph, the speed limit in that area of the highway. The sky was dark and no streetlights lined the country highway.

“They were making fun of my southern accent, because I’m from Tennessee,” Kerbo

said. “Bo was hilarious, he was cracking us all up.”

Then, at 8:21 p.m., trag-edy struck head on.

“Oh my God, I saw head-lights,” Braddock yelled.

Braddock’s Ford plowed into the front of a 2003 red Dodge pickup. Jeffrey Davis,

27, of Abilene, had run the stop sign turning left onto TX-36 from County Road 107 known locally as Potosi Road. The intersection is not perpendicular, and Da-vis could have cornered the

Abilene Christian University

acuoptimist.comvol. 101, no. 32 wednesday, january 30, 2013 1 SECTION, 10 PAGES

mandy lambright chief photographer

Six ACU students were in the green pickup pictured above. They were driving to Grand Ole Oplin dance hall when their truck smashed into 27-year-old Jeffrey Davis’ red pickup truck, pictured in the background.

Davis and 20-year-old Lindsey Smith died in the accident.

Five students survive head on collision on Friday

night; one student and other driver die on scene

Fatal accident ends trip to Oplin

mark smitheditor in chief

see crash page 9

Accident CoverageWe have been working on extensivereports since Friday night. Check our website for updates throughout the week

Smith remembered for joyful personalitystaff report

inside

Page 8Pages 2, 9, 10 Pages 3, 5

For extensive reports on Friday night’s tragic accident, turn to:

For other news from this week around campus, turn to:

ACCIDENT NEWS

acuoptimist.com

Freshman accident victim describes terrifying experience

VIDEOS

Men’s basketball continue late season push with 82-63 win over Angelo

SPORTS

designs by david singer

1: The six students, driven by Braddock, were headed south on TX-36 in the green Ford pickup. Jeffrey

Davis, 27, was driving east on County Road 107 and approaching TX-36 in the red Dodge pickup.

2: Davis ran the stop sign at the intersection to turn left onto TX-36. His truck collided with Braddock’s

head-on.

3: The trucks bounced off in opposite directions. Davis’ Dodge came to rest facing west, partially still on

the state highway. Braddock’s truck stopped facing east on the other side of the highway.

see smith page 9

photo courtesy of todd and linda smith

Across the university, ACU organizations and events gathered to remember and reflect on those injured and affected by Friday’s car ac-cident.

The crowd in Moody Coliseum stopped for a mo-ment of silence prior to the women’s basketball game versus Angelo State on Sat-urday night.

In light of the tragedy that struck ACU Friday night, John Earle, a former NFL and CFL player who spoke during halftime, said a few words of encourage-ment after the death of Lindsey Smith, the junior Ad/PR major from New Braunfels killed in the car wreck Friday evening.

“My dad shared with me the most important words; ‘Jesus loves you, he will

never leave you nor forsake you,’” Earle said. “To the hurting community, and to the hurting classmates and especially to the fami-lies who have to deal with this, when you can’t make any sense out of things that happen in this world, the only thing that makes sense is Jesus and our hope that we have in Him. Cling to it.”

The weekly Sunday night Nine O’Clock worship at University Church of Christ dedicated its service as a vigil. A crowd of about 850 people packed the vigil for Smith. Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, asked those in attendance to remain faithful in God.

“God’s glory is most pro-found in our greatest weak-nesses,” Schubert said. “When all those questions seem so loud, only God can soothe them.”

Monday morning at 9 a.m., JMC faculty and stu-dents met in Don Morris 320 for a brief time of prayer and devotion. It was the

time and location of Smith’s JMC 100 Media Issues course, where her empty seat will be a reminder for the rest of the semester.

Monday’s Chapel was planned to kick-off a semes-ter series by Dr. Randy Harris. Instead, Schubert led a spe-cial Chapel memorial service to observe the tragedy.

“I know we can’t begin to fathom what the Smith fam-ily is dealing with,” he said. “The depth and breadth of the pain is beyond any-thing we can imaginet. But we’re mindful that even in this community of incred-ible love and strength and support, that God is the only one who can deliver us from that despair.”

For video reports on cam-pus events since the acci-dent, go to acuoptimist.com.

Anne-Marie Coffee, Gabi Powell and Mark Smith contributed to this report.

wednesday 01.30.13 2accident

dr. phil schubertpresident of the university

We’re mindful that even in this community of incredible love and strength and support, that God is the only one

who can deliver us from that despair.”“

contact the optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

Campus, local events honor victimsstaff report

curtis christian staff photographer

Sing Song vocals coach Kristin Ward joins hosts and hostesses Abbie Boyd, junior elementary education

major from Austin, Jarrett Ward, junior musical performance major from Houston, Bree Hembree, junior

vocal performance major from North Richland Hills, and Amanda Jarufe, senior musical theatre major from

Coppell in worship during the memorial Chapel for Lindsey Smith and the victims of the car accident.

adrian patenaude staff photographer

Dr. Kenneth Pybus, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, shares Scripture with JMC students during a Monday morn-

ing service honoring Lindsey Smith, who was a member of the department.

adrian patenaude staff photographer

Dr. Randy Harris, instructor of Bible, missions and ministry, embraces a student after University Church of Christ’s 9 o’clock worship service honoring crash victim Lindsey Smith.

DPS continuing accident investigation

Department of Public Safety officials are still investigating the accident Friday involving six ACU students.

The intersection be-tween TX-36 and Country Road 107 is not lit with street lights, nor is it at a 90 degree angle. Despite this, Sparky Dean, se-nior trooper and public information officer for the Abilene district, said as long as both vehicles had headlights, visibil-ity should not have been a problem. He also said the site of the crash was not prone to accidents.

“That’s the first fatal-ity since 1993 that we’ve worked at that intersec-tion to my knowledge,”

Dean said.Jeffrey Davis, 27-year-

old Abilene resident, drove

through a stop sign on Country Road 107 and col-lided with a truck contain-

ing six ACU students being driven by Bo Braddock. Davis and 20-year-old ACU

student Lindsey Smith were declared dead at the scene. As per procedure, officers took blood tests from both Braddock and Davis to determine pos-sible drug or alcohol use.

Dean said receiving conclusions from blood tests takes time.

“All they checked for here is alcohol. They will forward that sample to Austin,” he said. “We’re several weeks from getting those test results out.”

While DPS waits for the results, Investigat-ing Trooper Cory “Lance” Outland is working to un-cover what caused Davis to disregard the stop sign. Dean said answers are elusive.

“If he’s on that road, I’m assuming he’s familiar with the stop sign. Why he didn’t stop, I don’t know,”

Dean said. “That’s some-thing I’m not sure that we’ll ever know for sure about.”

Jeffrey Dane Davis was born on Oct. 8, 1985 in Baytown, according to his obituary in the Abilene Reporter-News. Davis loved the outdoors. He graduated from Cooper High School in 2004 and aspired to be the foreman of his family’s ranch.

Davis is survived by his wife Jennifer and two chil-dren Jayton and Jeslyn. A funeral was be conducted Tuesday at Elliot-Hamil Funeral Home Chapel of Faith at 11 a.m.

Melany Cox and Joshua Garcia contributed to this report.

contact the optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

staff report

mandy lambright chief photographer

The car accident that took the life of Lindsey Smith happened at this intersection of TX-36 and County

Road 107. The DPS is investigating the accident.

curtis christian staff photographer

Sing Song hosts and hostesses join hands in prayer during the memorial

Chapel for Lindsey Smith and the victims of the car accident.

Hillcrest Church of Christ, located on E. Ambler, has hired a new full-time preaching minister.

Matt Haynes (‘05) has worked at Clifton Church of Christ since 2009 and will begin working at Hillcrest in March. Terry Brown was Hillcrest’s pre-vious preaching minister, serving from 2004 until his retirement in 2012. Hillcrest began searching for Brown’s replacement a little over a year ago.

David Copeland, elder at Hillcrest, said a search committee, church elders and ministerial staff col-laborated with church members to ultimately se-lect Haynes.

“To identify prospects, the search committee asked for suggestions from our membership and other resource people. We

followed up on all of the suggestions we received,” Copeland said. “For the prospects that were will-ing to talk with us, the committee read their ré-sumés, listened to their sermons and personally interviewed several of them.”

Haynes has received two degrees from ACU and is pursuing a third, a Masters of Divinity Equivalency. In 2005, he received a Bachelor of Sci-ence in Christian Ministry and in 2010 a Masters of Arts in Christian Ministry. Haynes worked at Hill-crest in 2004 as an intern.

Dr. Joe Bell, elder at Hillcrest, has personally known Haynes for several years. He said Haynes will make a positive impact on the congregation.

“Matt is a very bright man with a wonderful family,” said Bell, chair of the Department of Ki-nesiology and Nutrition.

“He has extensive experi-ences working across the age spectrum and will be excellent both from the pulpit and performing

pastoral ministry.”Bell said he is excited

about the possibilities Haynes will bring.

“I am impressed with his personality and his al-most photographic recall of Scripture,” Bell said.

Haynes’s first sermon at Hillcrest is expected to be delivered on March 3.

Wednesday 01.30.133 news

Rec Center to offer semester classes for $30

The Student Recreation and Wellness Center is of-fering unlimited group ex-ercise classes this semester for only $30. This is $30 less than the price last year.

This set price lets stu-dents attend any class throughout the week at any of the times scheduled. Classes include Zumba, Yoga, Circumference, Core Performance, Capoeira, Water Aerobics, Boot Camp and Cardio Kick.

Dr. Kerri Hart, assistant professor at the Student and Recreation Wellness Center (SRWC) said, “We decided that we wanted more participation because

that’s our goal. Thirty dol-lars just seemed a whole lot more reasonable for the en-tire semester.”

Hart oversees the group exercise program and hopes more students will get involved at the SRWC.

“The important thing that we would like for people to know is don’t be shy,” Hart said. “No mat-ter what level of fitness you are, our instructors that we hire can teach progression and modification. For ex-ample, when I go to yoga I need a lot of modification because of my knees. And the instructors for yoga are really good about saying, ‘If you can’t do this, try this.’ And Boot Camp is the same way. If you can’t run, walk or walk fast. Whatever level

you are at, don’t feel like you can’t do a class because you aren’t that fit. I hope no-body feels that way.”

To enroll in group exer-cise classes students must pay at the member ser-vices desk.One hundred fifty students have enrolled in group exercise classes this semester already. Forty more students have signed up this semester than last semester.

“Every class we have people slide in so we know the numbers. And we like to keep about seven or eight students in each class,” Hard said. “We switch up the times each semester based on the instructors availability. Every semester we go back and we look at our past attendance and

see hey, this hour was really good, really busy. There is a lot of information that goes into it.”

Dance instructor, Jackie Beth Shilcutt, started teach-ing dance as a senior in high school and then at ACU in 2009. She also spent two summers in Brazil studying Capoeira. She now teaches both Capoeira and Yoga in the SRWC.

“Capoeira is a Brazillian martial art that is practiced in community,” said Shil-cutt, “Legends of Capoeira describe the journey of the African slaves to Brazil who practiced this martial art under the appearance of a dance to disguise the form and to persuade slave mas-ters to let them continue their practice. So while there are many dance ele-ments, capoieristas like my instructor will assert that it is a fight.”

Shilcutt also reminds students that beginners are welcome. Yoga and Capoei-ra contain modifications to challenge students on all different levels.

“I’m hoping that the social aspect is met along with the physical aspect,”

said Hart. “My goal for this facility is to get people in here who haven’t been in here yet their whole college career. People need to real-ize that it doesn’t have to be some intense workout ev-ery time. Just come in and do the rower. Or just come in and take a funny Zumba class and laugh.”

To look up group exer-cise class times, visit the ACU website under the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, go to: http://www.acu.edu/cam-pusoffices/studentlife/srwc/programs-services/group-exercise-schedule.html.

health

Hillcrest hires alum to be ministerlocal

Dr. Joe Bell Elder at Highland

Church of Christ

Matt is a very bright man with a

wonderful family.”“joshua Garciamanaging editor

contact garcia atjtg10b@acu.edu

Kirsten holmanstaff reporter

contact holman atkeh09c@acu.edu

dr. Kerri HartSWRC Assistant

professor

The important thing that we would like for people to

know is don’t be shy.”“

@acuoptimistThe Optimistoptimist@acu.edu ACUOPTIMIST.com

mandy lambright chief Photographer

Friends and family have showered freshman Callie Kerbo, freshman marketing major from Murfreesboro, Tenn., with gifts and notes of encouragement since she was in the car accident on Friday night.

30 31 1 2Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

10 a.m. Softball vs. St.Edwards

2 p.m. Women’s Basketball at Eastern NM U

4 p.m. Softball vs. UTPB

4 p.m. Men’s Basket-ball at Eastern NM U

7 p.m. Baseball at Central Missouri

Bid Night for Spring Pledging

10 a.m. Baseball vs. Arkansas Monticello

10 a.m. Softball vs Texas A&M Interna-tional

12 p.m. Softball vs. Lubbock Christian

7:30 p.m. ACU Choirs Concert at WPAC Re-cital Hall

All Day - Blood Drive 11 a.m. Lindsey Smith’s funeral at Oakwood Baptist Church in New Braunfels

Police Log

16 83@acuoptimist

The Optimist

optimist@acu.edu

Wednesday 01.30.13 4

Announcements

Around Abilene

Jan. 30

12:30 p.m. Free tax preparation is available by appointment at the West Central Texas Center for Economic Opportunity, 1102 N. Third. To set up an ap-pointment call 325-672-8980.

Jan. 31

5:45 p.m. A six week class on learning the game of bridge begins at Rose Park Senior Center.

Feb. 1

5:30 p.m. The Cottonwood Country Musical will begin at Cottonwood Commu-nity Center. The kitchen will open at 5 p.m.

Feb. 2

6 p.m. Chad Robichaux, a US Marine Corps Force Recon Veteran, Pro MMA Champion and PTSD survivor, will dem-onstrate the MMA skills that made him a national cham-pion and also share his story of overcoming PTSD.

ACU Leadership Camps is looking for college students to serve on summer staff. Pick up an application in Room 10 in the lower level of the Campus Center.

ACU Theatre presents its winter musical comedy, [title of show] in Fulks Theatre Feb. 8-9, 15-16 and 22-23. For tickets call 325-674-2787.

The Tedd Tripp Parenting Seminar is Feb. 1 at 6:30-9:15 p.m. and Feb. 2 at 8:30-12 p.m. at South Side Baptist Church. Reg-istration is $12 per person and ends Jan. 25th.

The 6th annual Student Art Contest for Summit is open for submissions. The ACU Ministry Events Office calls any cur-rent ACU student to submit their original artwork, photography, drawing, painting or other creation to visually communi-cate the 2013 Summit theme: Margins. Submissions must be received digitally to summit@acu.edu by Feb. 15. One se-lect work will be awarded a cash prize of $100 and used to advertize the 2013 Summit.

Join Weekend Campaigns for a weekend of fun and service with a VBS style kid’s day and a teen activity night in Belton, TX. No fees apply, just bring enough for a few meals. For more information contact weekendcampaigns@gmail.com.

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 OME is having Cultural Crossover during the men and women’s basketball games Feb. 9. There will be food, deco-rations and music from different cul-tures. Sign up to host a table before Feb. 7 on the link found in the annoucements part of my.acu.edu.

Students interested in joining The Wild-cat Reign can sign up at thewildcatreign.com. The Wildcat Reign aims to provide students the ability to facilitate Wildcat pride on campus and serves as a linking point between students and Wildcat ath-letic events.

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 laura.mcgregor@acu.edu.

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 flores@stjohnsabilene.org.

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 rescuetheanimalsvolunteers@yahoo.com.

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 cmapantry@aol.com.

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 roberta-brown51@hotmail.com. 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 abfoodbk@camalott.com.

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 jody.depriest@gmail.com. To serve on Tuesdays contact Allen Daugherty at 325-660-6949 or ale.al@suddenlink.net. To serve on Wednesdays contact Jane Harvey at 325-695-0092 or jharvread@aol.com. To serve on Thurs-days contact Margaret Beasley at 325-692-4149 or mbeasley5@suddenlink.net. To serve on Fridays contact Rachel Brown at rdb08a@acu.edu.

Eternal Threads is seeking volunteers to help with packing and organizing ship-ments, labeling products, errands and cleaning any weekday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Pam Early at 325-672-6000 or pam@etern-althreads.com.

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 Shoney@ChristianHomes.com.

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 mespinoza@hillresource.com.

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 rescuetheanimalsvolun-teers@yahoo.com.

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

The ACU Spring Break Cam-paign office will be sending groups of students to 10 different cities across the country come this March.

“Spring Break Cam-paigns give students oppor-tunities to step out of their comfort zones, serving the community and God,” said Wilson White, senior his-tory major from Ozona and SBC committee chairman.

Most campaigns will leave March 8 and return March 17. There are still a

few spots open on the cam-paigns to Atlanta; Chicago; Los Angeles; Salem, Ore. and Manchester, Conn. Types of service work the campaigns will see include urban ministry, inner city youth, evangelism, and homeless shelters.

“It’s like a big communi-ty service project with a lot of fun on the side,” Wilson said. “Spring break cam-paigns are a tangible way for ACU to show what great students come from this university with a willing-ness to serve.”

In addition to their ser-vice work, each campaign

has plans for fun excursion days. The Atlanta campaign plans to go to the world’s largest aquarium while the Anchorage campaign will go skiing in the Alaskan mountains.

Campaigners will stay with host homes or fami-lies from churches in their various cities. Most of these churches are great friends of ACU that over the years have built a relationship with Spring Break Cam-paigns.

“The hosts like to sup-port students doing service in their community and they are encouraging to us

as Christian role models,” Wilson said.

The Salem, Ore. Spring Break Campaign needs an additional three students over the age of 21 in order to keep their campaign afloat. ACU policy requires anyone driving on an ACU spon-sored trip to be 21 or older. While the campaign will be flying into Portland, they will be renting cars for their drive to Salem, as well as for transportation throughout the week.

Breanna Barrow, nursing major from Fort Worth, and Colton McCoy, biology ma-jor from Granbury, are co-

leading the campaign.“It usually all comes to-

gether somehow,” Barrow said. “The Lord always puts someone in the way of the campaign.”

This will be Barrow’s second campaign to Salem. She is looking forward to building on the relation-ships she formed last spring break.

“Not only is Oregon a nice change of scenery compared to Abilene, but meeting new types of peo-ple is just as exciting,” Bar-row said.

The campaign going to Manchester, Conn., is also

looking for 21-year-old drivers. They will be work-ing with a local youth group and helping with Hurricane Sandy relief.

If you are interested in going on a campaign, visit the campaign office located in the Onstead-Packer Bib-lical Studies building, room 322. If you are interested in the Salem campaign specif-ically, contact Breanna Bar-row at bsb10b@acu.edu or Colton McCoy at ccm10a@acu.edu.

Basketball and a Chapel fo-rum were combined Saturday night for a unique experience with guest speakers and for-mer NFL/CFL athletes, Guy and John Earle, who gave their testimonies and spoke about “Think Twice Minis-tries.”

To receive two Chapel credits, students swiped in at 6:15 p.m., before half-time of the women’s basketball game, and swiped out at 8:45 p.m. after half-time of the men’s basketball game.

ACU Athletics and the Chapel Office have been in conversation for a couple of years about combining an athletic event with Chapel. The idea was to create a new kind of Chapel forum experi-ence as well as boost atten-dance at ACU athletic games.

Mark Lewis, assistant dean for Spiritual Life and Chapel Programs, said, “This wasn’t something that was thrown together last minute, it was very purposefully thought through.”

In order for the event to be considered a Chapel forum, a spiritual aspect had to be present. The idea was formu-lated to bring in a speaker to talk during the halftime of both basketball games Satur-day night.

“We started networking to figure out who would be good to come into the context of a basketball game at half time and be able to talk,” Lewis said.

John Houser, assistant athletic director, knew of the Earle brothers. He contacted them in December and they accepted the opportunity to speak at the event.

The Earle brothers were professional athletes in both the NFL and CFL during the 1990s. John Earle was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals (1992) and went on to play for the Kansas City Chiefs (1992), New England Patriots (1993), Baltimore Stallions (CFL, 1994-95) and the St. Louis Rams (1996). Guy Earle came out a year later and played for the Washington Redskins (1993-94), Baltimore Stallions (CFL, 1994-95), Houston Oil-ers (1996) and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (CFL, 1996-97).

Guy and John Earle shared their experience of being a part of the NFL and CFL, and how their faith in God brought them through the good and bad times including multiple broken bone injures along the way.

However, Guy and John Earle did not consider them-selves as having a relation-ship with Christ until they finally decided to follow Him during their careers as pro-fessional football players. They grew up in the Catholic Church and thought they had Jesus, but realized what they had was just religion. John came to Christ on March 21, 1991 and Guy came to Christ on Jan. 10, 1995.

Guy talked about the chal-lenges he faced with his faith in the beginning of his profes-sional career.

“Nowadays people are a little more outspoken about their faith. But sometimes people associate faith with meekness, and meekness doesn’t mean weakness. It just means how you go about handling business. Really, humility,” Guy Earle said. “So some of the challenges early

on was being able to be out-spoken, but also living in and competing in a field where you have a lot of money and people are showering you with praise. That’s hard for a person because a lot of pride sets in because of the pats on the back and always hearing how good you are.”

John Earle said, “A good friend of mine once put it this way, ‘The bigger the level, the tougher the devil.’”

Guy shared how some of his fellow players for the Washington Redskins en-couraged him in his walk with Christ.

“I didn’t become a believer until my second year in the NFL. But there were two guys. Darrell Green will probably go down in history as one of the best defensive cornerbacks of all time, just a great player, and he was very outspoken about his faith. Not loud, but people knew that he loved Je-sus. And then there was Tim Johnson who was a defen-sive tackle, him and Charles Mann who was a defensive end really spoke to my heart. In fact one day I was wearing a Christian t-shirt in the lock-er room and I will never for-get, Charles Mann came up to me and said, ‘Do you live the t-shirt?’ And I realized at that moment sometimes we wear these Christian t-shirts, and we put things like a Christian bracelet on and think that it makes us a Christian. I don’t wear a t-shirt, I live a t-shirt. And I live a faith that Christ touched my life. So that is what he challenged me with.”

John Earle also realized being in a community of be-lievers within a professional athletic career helped his own walk with Christ.

“You have to be able to surround yourself by people with good character, you’ve got to surround yourself with individuals that walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk,” John Earle said.

Both Guy and John Earle have also been encouraged by fellow athlete O.J. Brig-ance, who played for the Baltimore Ravens. Brigance was Guy’s prayer partner, and they spent most mornings in prayer for one another. They realized a greater purpose than merely winning games. Their purpose was to live out their faith.

Brigance was diagnosed

with ALS (Amyotrophic Lat-eral Sclerosis) in 2007, which confined him to a wheelchair and took away his ability to speak.

“Seeing him continue to live out his faith is an encour-agement to my brother and I today,” Guy Earle said. “We do what we do today because of people like O.J. who prayed with us. He continues to live out his faith and doesn’t let his circumstances get the best of him.”

The encouragement the Earle Brothers have received from their families and peo-

ple like O.J. Brigance, Darrell Green, Charles Mann and Tim Johnson is what drove them to “think twice.”

In 1997 both Guy and John hung up their jerseys and went into full time ministry. They had worked through other ministries such as Team Impact, Power Team, FCA and Sports World Ministries, but five years ago they de-cided to do something a little different. They decided to start their own ministry called “Think Twice Ministries.”

“Think Twice Ministries” challenges everyone to “think twice” about where they are in any stage of life if it doesn’t incorporate God.

“If someone wants to be an athlete, go and be the best athlete you can be and strive for what you want. But realize in the end if it doesn’t reveal the glory of God then maybe that is not what you should be doing,” Guy Earle said.

This is the message they brought to ACU Saturday night. Their careers shaped the message they have told to many.

Guy and John now average about 70 speaking engage-ments a year, and they stand in front of between 20,000-25,000 people. They have reached over 50,000 people who have come to know Jesus Christ either directly or indi-rectly through the ministry of the gospel.

“We want people to share

our passion,” John Earle said. “If you have a passion for any-thing you do, you are going to find success. But most impor-tantly, if you have a passion for Jesus Christ, people will see that in you and people will remember the words that you share and will see pas-sion. And that’s what we want them to do, we want them to see passion.”

John Earle is a student pastor at First Baptist in Col-leyville and Guy Earle is the executive pastor at Grace Point in Denton.

“It’s not us,” Guy Earle said.“God has just given us a platform and we just want to be a vessel, a mouth piece. We don’t have the ability, we just make ourselves avail-able.”

Many students got the special privilege of hear-ing Guy and John Earle speak Saturday night, be-cause the student atten-dance was almost double of what it is usually at a normal basketball game.

Evan Webb, junior busi-ness management major from Houston was able to attend Saturday night.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the time Jesus and sports do not go well together. However, in-corporating two former NFL athletes into a sporting event, and chapel, to give their tes-timony was very interesting. I thought it was a great idea,” Webb said.

Mark Lewis said,“I think it’s just a real neat experience to see this opportunity. We have a close working relation-ship with athletics anyway because we share the same facility. This reflects that.”

Lewis will gather the stu-dents responses to the event from the end of semester chapel survey. If the majority of students display a positive response, Lewis anticipates that there will be more of these unique chapel forums in the future.

“Different venues have dif-ferent challenges,” Lewis said. “I think in an athletic event, to have someone get up and give a 10 minute lecture about the book of Acts would be kind of awkward. But the context of having an athlete who is very overt in their faith getting up, seemed to be a good mix at least for tonight, and that’s part of what we will look for in

the future as well.”In light of the tragedy that

struck ACU Friday night, John Earle left the ACU commu-nity with words of hope and encouragement.

“My dad shared with me the most important words; ‘Jesus loves you, he will never leave you nor forsake you.’ To the hurting community, and to the hurting classmates and especially to the families who

have to deal with this, when you can’t make any sense out of things that happen in this world, the only thing that makes sense is Jesus and our hope that we have in Him. Cling to it.”

Wednesday 01.30.135 news

Football players encourage during Chapel forumChapel

Spots available in Spring Break Campaignsmissions

contact orr atmco10b@acu.edu

contact holman atkeh09c@acu.edu

Kirsten Holmanstaff reporter

madeline orrcopy editor

Guy EarleFormer Professional

football player

Seeing him continue to live out his faith is an encouragement to my brother and I today.”“

Last Friday, the world grew just a bit dimmer. The loss of one of our own lays heavy on our hearts.

As I scanned the trau-ma room of Hendrick that night, I saw emotions laid out like open books. Tales of heartbreak, confusion, anger and fear were writ-

ten across the faces of the hundreds of students fill-ing the small room. As the shock took over, two words replayed in my head like a broken record - Lindsey died.

There is a gaping hole in the heart of the ACU community, once filled by the beautiful and witty Lindsey Smith. It will be

a long recovery before we can feel whole again.

Our university is over-flowing with emotions, many of which still can-not be understood or ex-plained, and that’s okay. Some are completely numb, and that’s just fine. Many have turned to wor-ship as an outlet, and that’s awesome. Some are still confused and angry, and that’s me.

I am not the “praise You in the storm” type. I wish I was that strong, but I’m not. I’m angry. I’m angry at God. I’m angry at the other driver. I’m angry at people that are much more grace-ful in these situations than I am. I’m angry at myself for being angry. I’m just angry.

And I’m not alone. There are plenty of peo-ple like me - people who think phrases like “she’s in a better place” and “God needed her more than us” sound like nails on a chalk-board, and that’s okay too. We all deal differently.

The truth is, I walked out of that room Friday night an angry woman.

But as I continue to reflect on all that has happened, my perspective is shifting. I no longer see only the tear-soaked faces of hurt-ing friends and family. I see the warm embraces,

words of encouragement and hope. I no longer see hundreds of people that gathered to mourn Lind-sey’s death. I see hundreds of people giving witness to the life that she lived. Hun-

dreds of people, all there because of the impact she made in her short time on this earth, and I am in awe of her for that. I am no longer consumed by the thought that Lindsey died.

A new two-word phrase is ringing in my ears - Lind-sey lived.

Every history teacher preaches the value of memorizing the dates, the places, the names and the speech goes something like this: we learn about the past so we won’t repeat it.

By this definition, France has been handed a silver platter of history.

On Jan. 12, France de-ployed thousands of ground troops and air strikes to the Republic of Mali, a country

in northwest Africa. The in-vasion was an effort to de-feat extremists of al-Qaeda-linked Islamists who seized control of the country more than nine months ago. Ac-tion was prompted when terrorist groups began to close in on the Malian capi-tal, moving France’s presi-dent, François Hollande, to make the bold call of send-ing soldiers to action.

This announcement

sent shockwaves through the country and the world. This was a nation who gave a clear, thumbs-down ap-proval in 2003 concerning the U.S. invasion of Iraq for the War on Terror. What’s more, President Hollande has built himself a name of being a soft, indecisive leader at best. In fact, his spineless style has earned him the nickname “Flanby,” after a wobbly gelatin des-sert.

So for a country timid to raise its involvement hand, the Mali invasion speaks volumes of the progression of France as a country. To you, France, we give a round of applause for standing for something. The United Nations Security Council

agreed, giving its blessing of unanimous support.

We are not making an ar-gument whether this action is “right” or “justified,” but simply believe the crepe-eating lot has a lot to be learned from us, the land that stole the french fry bit. The French have yet to set a clear objective or timetable in reaching that goal. And our country has a 10-year testament that refereeing for another nation comes with unforeseen conse-quences.

France’s next move is un-clear. Twenty-five hundred of the country’s soldiers have been sent into service and France has declared it will “stay as long as need-ed in Mali,” but has called

upon the African nations to take charge in backing the Malian armed forces. The true test of France’s take on the Spiderman moral

“With great power comes great responsibility,” will come after rebels have been subdued, and then Mali must face its own shambles. While the French’s quickly executed efforts could very well have been the deliver-

ance for the African nation, it must be the Malian peo-ple alone who fully restore their country.

News of this revolution has a hushed presence in the American media, a si-lent war in comparison to the U.S.-Iraq conflict. As of now, America has aided French forces in the refuel-ing of their aerial services.France has awakened from its activist hibernation and the U.S. has begun to de-bate and discuss furthering its involvement. To both, we say this: study history.

6wednesday 01.30.13Opinion

editorial

column

Not the praise you in the storm kind of night

France, study history so you do not repeat it

#PrayForACU

@beaucarter

1:01 p.m. Jan. 26My heart is warmed by the overflow of love coming from the ACU community. God is making something beautiful from this tragedy. #PrayforACU

Mark Smitheditor in chief

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Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.

Signed columns, cartoons and letters are the opinions of their creators and may not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Optimist or the university.

The Optimist encourages reader response through let-ters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing

personal attacks, obscen-ity, defamation, erroneous information or invasion of privacy. Please limit letters to 350 words or fewer. A name and phone number must be included for verification purposes. Phone numbers will not be published.

Address letters to: ACU Box 27892Abilene, TX 79609

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published by the department of journalism

and mass communication

editorial and management board

editorial and Letter Policy

contact powell atgmp10b@acu.edu

@ZNDavis @dripplet@allShayeveryday

9:53 a.m. Jan. 264:52 p.m. Jan. 26

10:03 a.m. Jan. 26

@jeffportis@itsracheljoyce

12:29 a.m. Jan.26

11:38 a.m. Jan. 25

We only part to meet again. #PrayforACU

Shaken by what hap-pened. My heart aches for all involved. I pray that we can come together to help each other in this time. #PrayforACU

Friends of Anabel Reid, God has equipped you with the experience of a broken heart to comfrot those who were close to Lindsey. #PrayforACU

We may be a small uni-versity in Abilene, TX, but you better believe we have the biggest heart and community in the world. #PrayforACU

Thankful that this life is so much bigger than what we know here. Peace and healing to the families involved. #PrayforACU

The life of a journalist is not an easy one.

In fact, it’s probably one of the most demanding professions.

There’s the late nights, the struggle to meet dead-lines, the sources that never call back and those dreaded Oxford commas.

But there’s even more to it.

Journalists expect that one day they will have to cover difficult situations. And we prepare ourselves for this. But it’s almost im-possible to prepare for a situation that affects us di-rectly.

It would have been hard enough for JMC Network reporters, photographers and videographers to drive

to the scene of a fatal car crash or to wait in a hospi-tal for hours trying to gather information, but knowing the people involved in the crash were our friends and classmates made it almost unbearable.

So why were we there?As word about the crash

got out, people needed to know what happened.

And we needed to tell them.

But we didn’t want to be the stereotypical, apathetic, insensitive journalists. The people around us were our friends, and our hearts were breaking for them. We knew

people were still searching for the truth and we wanted to be able to give them an-swers.

Hundreds of people

were relying on someone to get the word out as soon as possible. We knew this and we wanted to get accurate

information to them as fast as we could.

Within seconds of re-ceiving word about the crash, my phone began lighting up with text mes-sages from friends who wanted to know what was going on. They expected me to have the answers and I knew I had to get them.

The last thing I wanted to do was drive to Hendrick, because I knew all too well what I would find there: a waiting room full of anxious people and wails of agony when the names were final-ly announced.

I knew because I had

been in the same position not that long ago.

Nothing has been harder than watching people I love so deeply suffering from a pain I know too well. I would give anything just to help them feel better. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year, it’s that the simplest ges-tures can go a long way.

A hug can be one of the most powerful things in the world.

column

DISTURBANCEIN THE FORCE

MELANY COX

Reporting with understanding and heavy hearts

the issue

France has invaded the African country, Mali, in an attempt to push out radical, terrorist groups.

our take

The French demonstrated quick initiative , but should proceed with caution, learning from the mistakes of the U.S. war in Iraq.

contact lambright atarl09a@acu.edu

contact cox atmkc09b@acu.edu

EVAN’s marks evan marks

THIS IS NOT MY FORTE

MANDY LAMBRIGHT

There is a gaping hole

in the heart of the ACU

community, once filled by

the beautiful and witty

Lindsey Smith.”

“

As word about the

crash got out, people

needed to know what

happened.”“

By this definition,

France has been handed a

silver platter of history.”“

wednesday 01.30.137 featureS

i. Give me just a minute, the game will be over in 24 seconds,” Jack Mc-Glothlin said. He was standing a foot from his television

screen with his eyes locked on the four-point football game between the Falcons and the Saints.

When the Saints pulled through to vic-tory 24 seconds later, Jack clicked off the TV and walked over to the kitchen table. His glasses sat upon his nose, right above his rosy red cheeks; his white button-up shirt and black dress pants, evidence of his Sunday morning church attendance.

“Are you a big football fan?”Not particularly, he responded – he just

likes close-scoring games. Jack McGloth-lin (’51) has other interests.

Jack began tap dancing four years ago at age 78. He walked through the glass doors of Dance Discovery Studio every Thursday evening at 5:30 for his adult tapping class.

In the waiting room sat two groups of dance students – the eight elderly tappers and the 20 three and four-year-olds. The little kids sat perched atop benches while their parents secured shoes on their feet. Meanwhile, Jack and the elderly struggled to get their tap shoes on un-aided.

The elderly and toddlers split into their separate room when the clock showed 5:30. Jack smiled at the instructor, Jackie Beth Shilcutt, as he walked in the door. He knew her a bit better than the rest of the class – Jackie Beth is Jack’s granddaugh-ter.

“I grew up in a Church of Christ, ‘got-you-God, can’t-go-to-the-movies-on-Sunday, can’t-dance world,’” Jack said. He did, however, go to the movies on Satur-day here in Abilene at the Paramount, the Queens or the Majestic Theater. All of the movies were either westerns or musi-cals.

Jack watched Gene Kelley, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in awe as they tap danced on the big screen. “It sure would be nice to learn how to tap dance,” he thought.

About five years ago, Jackie Beth called her grandfather to relay the news that Dance Discovery had made arrangements for an adult tap class. After the com-ments to his granddaughter through-out the years about his desire to tap, he only had one choice.

“I couldn’t not go, I had to go,” Jack said. “I was the only male in the group. There

were about six or seven older ladies and me,” he said. “I was a widower in that class with all the women and I didn’t get hit up

by any of them. I don’t know if I’m disap-pointed or glad about it.”

“I’ve got to admit, though, that the women were better dancers than I was – each one of them, even the 82-year-old

woman,” Jack said. Though he wasn’t able to do all

of the steps, he mastered the shuffle and slap, flap, buffalo, maxi-four, camp role, military camp role and ball change – just

to name a few. Though he hasn’t tapped in a class for a

year, he hasn’t put away his taps just yet. “I do a few tap steps at work. I work ev-

ery day in the back of a building and I tap when nobody is around.”

Jack works for his son’s company, Orison Marketing.

And just like that, Jack is on his feet in his kitchen exhibiting his skill.

“You just go like this,” he says as he stands tall and swipes the ball of his left foot forward across the tile floor, ending with a tap of his white tennis-shoed heel. “See?” Jack’s still got it.

Jackie Beth, who graduated with a mis-sions degree from ACU in ’04, loved every moment of sharing tap with her grandfa-ther. “He did a great job. It was fun.”

But it was about more than just fun for Jackie Beth.

“I have learned many-a-great-thing from Daddy Jack,” Jackie Beth said. “It was fun to get to share [tap] with him. It was an honor to get to do that.”

Jackie Beth respects her grandfather’s character in many ways. “One of the things I like about Daddy Jack is that he is willing to try new things or look at things in a new way or to figure out a way to make things happen.”

Jackie Beth began dancing at age three and ditched gymnastics early because she hated waiting in a line for the trampo-line. In dance everyone participated. She liked that.

In high school, Jackie Beth often sub-stituted for absent instructors until she was offered a position to teach her own classes. She continued to teach classes in college. After ACU, she studied dance at the University of North Texas and now teaches dance classes at ACU and at Dance Discovery.

Last summer, she taught dance at a deaf orphanage in Kenya, combining her love of dance and missions.

Jack swears by his granddaughter’s teaching. “She’s one of the best dance teachers ever because she recognizes where the problem is and can work on the problem,” he said. “She can more than likely tell you which piece of it can be tweaked. That makes a great teacher.”

Sitting in his kitchen with his grand-daughter, Jack reminisces on his tapping class and laughs a bright staccato laugh. He remembers another motivation for learning to tap.

Jack tapped to keep from walking like an elderly man. “I don’t like the way the old men walk – I don’t want to waddle,” Jack said. “Tap dancing will keep you from doing that. See, there was a method to my madness!”

“Oh yeah, and learn to laugh at your-self. Everything turns out OK.”

gabi powell

Features editor

Jack McGlothlin demonstrates some of his newly aquired tap dance moves in the kitchen of his home.

“H

TAPPIN’ JACK

contact coppedge atjac08b@acu.edu

story and photos byjulie coppedge

The men’s tennis team hosts Oklahoma Christian, Tyler College and Trinity University Friday and Saturday.

The women’s tennis team will be split over the weekend. Friday, they play Centenary College at 9 a.m. at home. They also play at Northwestern State University at 1 p.m. Saturday, the women face Tyler Junior College at 9 a.m. and play at Sam Houston State at 1 p.m.

Both ACU basketball teams travel to Eastern New Mexico. The women play the Zias on Saturday 2 p.m. The men play at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Baseball plays in The Astros in Action D-II Invitational over the weekend in Houston at Minute Maid Park.

Softball competes in the St. Mary’s Spring Invitational on Friday and Saturday in San Antonio.

Track and field is split over the weekend between the New Balance Invitational in New York, N.Y. and the Texas Tech Open in Lubbock.

women’s basketball

standings

briefings

Who’s Hot

Upcoming

Tickets for the men’s and women’s Lone Star Conference basketball championships in Allen are now on sale. It costs $32 to buy tickets to all seven sessions for students and $45 dollars for adults.

men’s basketball

TeamMSUUIWCameronTAMU-KTSUCommerceWTAMUACUENMUASU

Div.8-28-26-45-54-54-54-64-64-62-8

Ovrl.12-512-610-69-810-611-812-610-87-115-13

Senior Kelsey Smith, from Cop-pel, has been on a roll as of late, scoring in double

figures each of her last three games. The post player is in the middle of one of the best stretches in her four years in purple and white, as the ‘Cats have won seven straight games and Smith has been instrumental to their success in the middle. Last week, Smith blocked four shots against Angelo State including a three block performance on the road. Over her last four games, Smith is averaging 11.5 points per contest.

TeamACUMSUTSUUIWWTAMUCommerceASUTWUCameronENMUTAMU-K

Div.10-29-29-28-37-54-64-74-73-82-91-10

Ovrl.15-314-313-412-511-106-97-106-114-133-163-14

wednesday 01.30.13 8sports

smith

Women’s team sets tone with wins

The ACU men and wom-en’s track team has a dy-nasty to protect this 2013 season, and so far they have proved their worth only two meets in.

The teams split up trav-eling just north of Colo-rado Springs, Co. to the Air Force Academy Invita-tional as well as Albuquer-que, New Mexico at the New Mexico Invitational this past Saturday to show they have what it takes to regain their powerhouse status. There were many

highlights, but a few re-ally stood out among the rest. The team combined for three first place victo-ries, 19 NCAA provisional results, two automatic qualifiers in the All-Amer-ica veteran Amanda Oue-draogo in the triple jump, and freshman Elea Diarra in the 400 meter dash.

“Elea and a lot of the other freshmen stepped up hitting some great marks for nationals, said assistant track and field coach Jerrod Cook. “She is a huge asset to the pro-gram, and a blessing to have her here.”

Chloe Susset, the

team’s mile runner, has made a name for herself ranked third in the nation with her mile time down to 5:00.29

“My time is converted at 4:53 which is good for a first meet, but I definitely need to improve because that might not even get into nationals. I’m happy

with the position I’m in at the moment,” Susset said.

Ouedraogo ranked sec-ond in D-II, qualified for the second straight meet. Her paramount perfor-mance at last year’s New Balance Invitational in New York City was the de-fining moment in her ex-ceptional career here.

ACU’s Track and Field head coach Roosevelt Lof-ton and assistant track and field coach Jerrod Cook are pleased, to say the least, about the per-formances from their ath-letes so far this season. As ACU jumps to the South-land Conference at the D-I

level next year, they have already started to build the program. The team added some new faces in nine freshmen.

Coach Lofton made it clear he has high hopes for them as the future of the program continues to im-prove each year.

The team will be head-ed to the Big Apple this weekend to compete in the New Balance Invitational, where Ouedraogo will feast her eyes upon anoth-er personal best jump.

track and field

jimmy isbellsports reporter

contact isbell atjri10a@acu.edu

‘Cats rally late, defeat WTThe women’s basketball team faced off against long-time rival West Texas A&M on Tuesday night in Moody Coliseum. The game was close down the stretch, but the Wildcats were able to take the game 69-60, and move to 15-3 on the season, while WTAM fell to 11-10.

“We all plan to contin-ue to work together, work hard and never take our opponents for granted and just continue to be-lieve in each other,” said Shannon Saunders.

The ‘Cats were slow out of the gate, falling behind early and having to play catch up for the majority of the first half. Junior Mack Lankford and sophomore Paige Parliament kept ACU in the game, as Lankford buried three three-pointers in the first half, and Par-liament added several re-bounds and hustle plays.

“We need to focus on stay-ing aggressive on defense, force turnovers, reduce our opponent’s rebounds and continue to pull together as a team,” Saunders said.

The second half con-tinued to be close, as both teams had increased em-

phasis on defense. A three point make by Sadie Dick-inson gave the Wildcats a 62-52 lead with 1:07 left.

“We started off poorly but we came together to-wards the end which is what matters,” Head Coach Julie Goodenough said. “One of our main focuses was making sure we slowed down the point production from White and Griffin.”

Over the weekend, the Wildcats took on Angelo State and came away with the win, 74-65 as the Lady ‘Cats held on after almost losing an 18-point lead.

“I feel we played really good defense,” Saunders

said. “We caused twenty one turnovers which allowed us to build a good lead.”

The Rams caught fire in the late going, cutting the Wildcat lead to three with two minutes left in the game.

With 45 seconds left in the game, Dickinson drew a charge which gave the ball back to the Wildcats with a 68-65 lead. A con-verted layup off a hard drive by Lankford secured the win for the Lady ‘Cats, as they took ahold of a 70-65 lead with 20 seconds remaining.

“Our team stepped it up, and knocked down

some big shots,” Saunders said. “Mack’s steal and layup was huge and then Newman’s free throws put us over the top.”

A moment of silence was observed before the game in respect to the loss of Lindsey Smith and those who were injured in the car accident on Fri-day night. The Wildcats next game will be on the road against Eastern New Mexico. ACU won the last meeting against the Grey-hounds, 74-56.

women’s basketball

mandy lambright chief Photographer

Junior guard Mackenzie Lankford dribbles past a West Texas A&M defender on Tuesday night in Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats came from behind to beat the Lady Buffs, 69-60. The team has won eight straight games.

daniel zepedasports reporter

contact zepeda atdjz11a@acu.edu

Wildcats chase down Rams at home

The men’s basketball team completed their sweep of Angelo State Saturday night to secure a win for a fan, Lindsey Smith, who watched from streets of gold.

The Wildcats 82-63 vic-tory in Moody Coliseum gives ACU a two game win-ning streak and means the ‘Cats have won three of their last four, and could be rounding into form for a late-season push.

Eric Lawton got the ‘Cats going early with several con-secutive buckets while get-ting the rest of the starters in a rhythm as well, as ACU had six players finish the game in double figures.

“I just wait for my time to come,” Lawton said. “I am the point guard so I have the ball in my hands a lot, so I have to get others involved first. Coach is always telling me to get in the paint and

find others because they collapse on me.”

Lawton had a game high 20 points, followed by Parker Wentz with 14, El-liott Lloyd and Cornelius Cammock with 13 each, and Dosh Simms tallied an-other double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

ACU scored 49 points in the first half and ran away from the Rams early, leav-ing Angelo State down by 17 at the intermission.

It did not get any better for the Rams in the second half, as ACU finished the game shooting 63% from the field.

“There are two bigs they have to worry about with me and Steven being able to score in the post,” Cammock said. “They can’t just double me because it leaves Steven open and they can’t double Steven because then they leave me open, so teams have to pick their poison.”

All three post players fin-ished in double digits, finish-

ing a combined 13-17 from the field, showing a plethora of ways to get to the cup.

“When the defense plays well behind me it makes it easier for me to score,” Cam-mock said. “When they play behind me, I can just attack.”

The Wildcats defense frus-trated the Rams the entire game as well, holding them to just 35% shooting and pre-vented Angelo State to make any sort of run in the second half to narrow the gap.

The ‘Cats have forced their way into the middle of the pack in the Lone Star Conference with their recent run, and are now only one game back of fourth place and two games back of third.

The team has already won more conference games than they did all of last year, and the first post-season birth for ACU in five years could be on the horizon.

men’s basketball

stephen reyes Staff Photographer

Senior guard Eric Lawton stretches for a layup in Moody.

matthew sloanassistant sports editor

contact sloan atmes10a@acu.edu

Jerrod cookassistant coach

ACU track and field

Elea and a lot of the other freshmen stepped

up hitting some great marks for nationals.”“

“Lindsey was my best friend,” Buck said. “She was a blessing not only in my life, but everyone’s she met. I will always miss her, but more importantly, I will always love her. I am dev-astated at the loss of such a great friend, but I know Lindsey is at peace now, and in the midst of all this pain, that gives me some comfort.”

Smith loved to dance

and went every week to Oplin to two-step with her friends. She enjoyed danc-ing in her free time and had recently picked up a hobby of crocheting. She partici-pated in the sophomore act of Sing Song 2012. She was also a part of Seekers of the Word, an ACU drama group. On her Facebook profile, it says, “laughing is my favor-ite pastime.”

Stacy Acton, junior el-ementary education major from Boulder, Colo., said

Smith was full of energy.“Lindsey is the most vi-

vacious girl I knew,” said Acton. “She loved people with her whole heart and did everything with a pas-sion. She made me laugh harder than anyone else, hugged me close, and al-ways reminded me to never change.”

Lindsey decided to follow in the footsteps of her par-ents by attending ACU. Dur-ing the fall semester of 2012, Lindsey had the opportunity to participate in the Disney College program.

She had also recently started working for the president’s office as a stu-dent worker. In Monday’s Chapel service dedicated to the accident’s victims, Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, said Lindsey had a nickname for him.

“I heard that she referred to me as Schubey-Dooby, but she never said that to my face,” Schubert said. “And you know what, that’s great. I’m going to miss her. I know we all will.”

Zach Stromberg, junior psychology and business financial management ma-jor from Putney, Vt., will remember “her beautiful smile, joyous personality and huge heart.”

“We were all blessed to be her best friends. God doesn’t create bad situa-tions, but he sure holds

people close to his heart,” Stromberg said.

Paige Berry, junior mis-sions major from Houston, posted a sad but hopeful sta-tus for Lindsey a few hours after being at the hospital.

“So glad I got to see you

tonight Lindsey. You looked so beautiful. I bet you look even more beautiful before Daddy right now. I can’t believe this is real. I don’t know how we’re going to dance without you... But I heard Jesus likes to two-

step too.”Madeline Orr and Eliza-

beth Weiss contributed to this report.

turn at a high speed when he disregarded the stop sign.

The windshields and windows shattered, the chassis dented and com-pacted, and each seat belt locked to keep all six stu-dents from being thrown from the truck. The two trucks, now totaled, came to an abrupt stop facing oppo-site directions on either side of the highway.

Smith, 20, and Davis were pronounced dead on the scene.

Kerbo stayed conscious throughout the accident and never moved from her seat until after the truck came to a stop. She received seat belt wounds on her neck, chest and abdomen, and some scratches on her arms from the shattered windows and bruises on her face. She looked around the cab and saw everyone else had been hurt worse than she.

“I stayed in the exact same place, but everyone else in the car had shifted,” she said. “Rebekah was un-conscious and had fallen over on top of me, and my jeans were covered in her blood, and so was some of my shirt. Then I could hear Deanna yelling to me, and I knew something had hap-pened to her back. I knew if I moved her, I’d just hurt her more. Eric was conscious, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying.”

In the front seat, Smith had fallen over onto Ter-razas, who was in a great deal of pain. Braddock, who suffered a concussion from the collision, was trying to crawl across them to get out of the cab, but Terrazas pushed him back.

“Then he crawled out of the driver’s side window, and his face was bloody from the windshield shat-tering,” Kerbo said.

Kerbo had pulled her-self out of the open window

first, “NASCAR-style.”Almost immediately af-

ter exiting the vehicle, Ker-bo was met with help.

Marsha Harris, who lived nearby but has no ACU connection, was the first person to come up on the accident. She tried to help Kerbo and the others as best she could.

“She called my mom so I could talk to her,” Kerbo said. “Then the police came, and I told them the details about the others. Then be-fore I knew it, I was in the ambulance on my way to the hospital with Bo.”

Harris told Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, she was amazed with the students’ faith. Amidst the tragedy, Kerbo took her aside and asked, “Would you pray with me?”

“I know that God was there at that very moment,” Harris said.

Matt Barber, freshman kinesiology major from Frisco, was also on his way to Oplin with some friends but stopped at the accident site about five minutes after Kerbo got out of the truck.

Barber, a trained EMT, didn’t hesitate to help the victims. Barber first ran to Davis’ truck, checked his vital signs, and found that he had died. Then he ran to the oth-er truck, where Callie and Bo had gotten out already. Bar-ber then stabilized Cherniss, Romero and Terrazas and stayed with them until they were taken to the hospital.

“I do not try to under-stand why I did what I did,” Barber said. “But instead, how God used me to help

save three lives in such a way that brings Him glory and unifies the student body of ACU together with the friends and families of those who survived and those who passed.”

Kerbo knew she’d be OK, that her injuries weren’t as serious as the others’. She continued to ask her nurses about how her friends were while she lay in the hospital bed, and they told her their conditions among the chaos.

“There was a lot of mis-information going around, but I had a really good nurse who kept me updated and helped me contact my boy-friend and my mom,” Kerbo said. “A couple people from ACU showed up, including Matt, and they told me how my friends were.”

That’s when she learned that Smith had died.

“I kind of already knew right when we stopped ini-tially, that that was what had happened,” she said. “But I found out officially from my nurse.”

She received several surprise visits before she was discharged around 1 a.m. on Saturday, including someone she didn’t recog-nize. He identified himself to her as “the president of the university you attend.”

“Dr. Schubert came in, and I didn’t recognize him because he was in a base-ball cap and a sweatshirt,” she said. “I asked him who he was, and then I was re-ally sorry I forgot his name. He made sure I knew every-one was praying for me.”

A group of close friends met her as soon as she left the discharge room.

“I didn’t want many people to see me because I had a lot of fresh scrapes, but I walked out and all my friends were there, and it was good to see them,” she said.

Hundreds of other stu-dents crowded in the wait-ing room to hear the vic-tims’ statuses. When Smith’s

death was announced, the group’s collective emotion poured out in tears, hugs and disbelief.

Mark Lewis, assistant dean for Spiritual Life and Chapel Programs, said Bar-ber, the first responder to the accident, went with the victims to Hendrick and Lewis saw him pushing Ter-razas’ wheelchair out of the discharge room at 2 a.m. Barber said he stayed with the victims until 5:30 a.m.

Braddock was also re-leased soon after midnight.

Cherniss and Romero are still hospitalized. According to the DPS, Cherniss was the only one Care Flighted to Hendrick. She has im-proved from critical to fair condition after suffering a concussion, but when she is released she will go to her home in Katy and re-cover until she can return to classes this semester.

Romero is in good con-dition and expects to be released soon. She has a fractured L1 vertebra in her lower back, and was put in a back brace on Monday.

Kerbo said the university community’s response has

been more than enough.“I knew ACU reacted

quickly to things like this, but Dr. Schubert was there within an hour,” she said. “It was nice to see that kind of support. I know the entire Mabee dorm went down to the library to pray for us. There was hundreds of people there waiting to see how we were. I had 64 text messages when I reopened my phone, which took me an hour to get all the way through them.”

The university reserved a room for Kerbo and her mother, Susan, who flew in on Saturday, for three days in the Residence Inn near campus. Callie said she’ll return to her dorm room in Nelson Hall on Tuesday. She doesn’t want to rush into classes yet, but she might start return to the class-room as soon as Thursday.

Friends and family of the victims sat near the stage in Monday’s Chapel service dedicated to Smith and the other victims in the accident. During the service, Schubert said God’s kingdom will con-tinue to be glorified.

“As we move forward

may we do so with hope, trust and perseverance,” he said. “Although it may not be easy and the pain may be great, God will walk with us every step of the way.”

Callie said while she didn’t know Smith before Friday night, she will re-member her friendly smile and personality from that trip to Oplin cut short.

“Lindsey seemed re-ally sweet and funny,” Cal-lie said. “We were joking around and she seemed re-ally carefree and fun.”

While she thinks it was a tragic story, Callie believes there is hope to be taken from the accident.

“It was a really bad acci-dent; there really should’ve been no way any of us got out of that, but there was a hedge of protection over all of us,” she said. “And even though Lindsey passed away … I wouldn’t want to come back if I was where she is now. I really think God is working through all of this.”

Wednesday 01.30.139 accident

callie kerbofreshman marketing major

from murfreesboro, tenn.

I wouldn’t want to come back if I was where she is now.”“

Crash: Two students remain in hospital

contact the optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

Smith: Active junior enjoyed theater, sports

ACU community floods Hendrick ERStudents, faculty, staff, friends and family poured into the waiting room in the Hendrick Medical Center trauma unit Friday night to await information about six ACU students involved in a deadly car crash.

More than 250 stu-dents packed the waiting room, filled the hallway and lingered outside the ER. Groups of anxious stu-dents hugged and com-forted each other. Mem-bers of the ACU faculty

and staff mingled with the students, offering support and comfort.

“I was amazed last night, there were probably 250 students, so many in the emergency room that at some point the emer-gency room staff had to ask that we relocate to an-other place,” said Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university.

The accident, involving two pickup trucks and sev-en people, occurred at 8:21 p.m. on TX-36. By 11 p.m., the emergency room was full of anxious acquain-tances.

At 11:50 p.m. Mark

Lewis, assistant dean for Spiritual Life and Cha-pel programs, announced the injured students were Robert Braddock, Rebekah Cherniss, Callie Kerbo, Deanna Romero and Eric Terrazas. He then informed the crowd Lindsey Smith, junior Ad/PR major from New Braunfels, was pro-nounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other truck was also killed in the crash.

Stacy Acton, junior el-ementary education major from Boulder, Co., drove to the hospital with some friends when they heard their friend, Braddock, was

injured and being treated at Hendrick.

“We only knew that Bo was there and we all jumped in the car and drove to Hendrick,” Acton said.

Acton said she knew Smith had been riding in the car with Braddock. She said when the announce-ment of Smith’s death was made she saw people fall-ing to the ground, crying and running away. She said she had never heard so much wailing in one place.

“We just got together, held each other and cried,” Acton said.

Acton said Smith was

one of her best friends. She said the last thing she told her was, “I love you.”

Michael Davis, junior fi-nance and accounting ma-jor from West Lake Calif., also rushed to the hospital after hearing about the ac-cident.

He said details were vague at first and he kept hearing different infor-mation. Davis was friends with Smith and when he heard rumors she had been killed, he said he didn’t be-lieve it.

“We heard the words, we just didn’t believe it,” he said.

As Lewis was reading

the names of the students involved, Davis said he could see Smith’s photo on the sheet with a note writ-ten by it saying she had passed away. He said, at that point, it became real.

“We were all just kind of in shock,” Davis said.

Davis said his friends began to pray.

“We were angry, but we just had to let it out to God and let him know that we still believe and He’s still good,” he said.

mandy lambright chief photographer

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Department and Potosi Fire Department sift through the debris of Jeffrey

Davis’ Dodge pickup after Davis died in a car accident involving six ACU students.

@acuoptimistThe Optimistoptimist@acu.edu ACUOPTIMIST.com

continued from page 1

continued from page 1

melany coxonline managing editor

contact smith atmds10a@acu.edu

contact cox atmkc09b@acu.edu

optimist file photo

ACU President Phil Schubert called on the ACU and Abilene communities to come together in prayer during a press conference Saturday afternoon follow-ing a fatal car crash Friday evening involving six ACU students.

Schubert said part of the healing process is be-ing able to have conversa-

tions and fellowship.“Obviously, everybody’s

overwhelmed. You never expect to have a tragedy like this and we’ve had too many here over the last year and a half,” Schubert said. “I think part of the healing process is being able to come together as a community and share the feelings that we have. I’m

proud of our students and the way that they do that.”

Schubert compared Fri-day’s accident to the bus crash of November 2011 that claimed the life of Anabel Reid. He said the healing process will take time.

“I think the thing that we certainly realize from the horrible accident over a year ago is that it’s a long process. It goes well beyond the accident,” he said. “We’re still dealing with impacts from that ac-cident today and my guess it that we will continue to deal with different vary-ing degrees of impact from that unfortunate circum-stance.”

Schubert said he ap-preciates the response the university has re-ceived so far.

“Already the outpour-ing of love and support and prayers is deeply felt,” Schubert said. “None of us will ever understand we accidents like this have to happen. That’s not the journey we’re on. The jour-ney we’re on is to under-stand how God works in difficult circumstances.”

ACU Police responded to the crash shortly after it occurred. Jimmy Elli-son, ACU police chief, said their first priority was to give comfort and support

to students at Hendrick Medical Center, where the five injured students were taken, and to communi-cate with families. He said Spiritual Life and counsel-ing personnel were sent to

the hospital to help stu-dents affected.

“It’s not just a crash in-volving students. The uni-versity takes immediate steps to make sure they’re doing everything possible

for the students and their families,” Ellison said.

University Church of Christ will conduct a spe-cial devotional service at 9 p.m. Sunday. Additionally, Schubert will preside over

a memorial Chapel service in Moody Coliseum, Mon-day at 11 a.m.

wednesday 01.30.13 10accident

Oplin dancers slowly learn of crash

The Grand Ole Oplin – known simply as Oplin to most ACU students – is becoming a popular place for students to go on Fri-day nights. Based in the Oplin Community Center, the Grand Ole Oplin hosts a weekly dance open to all comers.

Located 25 miles south-east of Abilene, Oplin seems almost impossible to find, hidden down long, dark country roads. De-spite this, the dance sees about 100-150 people show up every week, and even more for their events.

This past Friday, Oplin

saw a much larger group of people than usual, with around 200 college stu-dents crowding the com-munity center. Students started to show up in large groups around 8 p.m. and gathered in the corner of the dance hall normally claimed by ACU students. Conversation revolved around Sing Song, the beginning of classes and groaning about homework.

Students showing up around and after 8:30 p.m. brought disturbing news with them: they had to de-tour around a severe car wreck just past Abilene Re-gional Airport on TX-36.

One student, Matt Bar-ber, freshman kinesiology major from Frisco, stopped

about five minutes after the wreck. A trained EMT, Bar-ber was also going to Oplin with a small group but in-stead cared for the injured students at the crash site and stayed with them in the hospital until 5:30 a.m.

Haley Conaway, junior psychology major from Plano, drove past the crash about 20 minutes after it happened, at about 8:45 p.m.

“We thought it was probably a head-on colli-sion, but a police car was blocking the view,” Con-away said.

While it was not much of a concern at the begin-ning, as the night went on more and more students started to worry about who was involved in the crash.

“It wasn’t until we left Oplin around 10:30 p.m. that people started texting

and realizing that ACU stu-dents were involved,” Con-away said.

Social media became the bridge of communica-tion between campus and Oplin. As the first news of the crash came out, more statuses and tweets were posted. By the end of the night the atmosphere was more troubled than usual. Everyone was comparing what little pieces of infor-mation they had to figure out if they knew who was involved in the crash. No names had been released by the end of the night at Oplin, leaving students with worries about their friends and classmates as they headed home.

Even before any names

were released, students were praying and check-ing on the safety of their friends. At about mid-night, the Optimist re-ported that Lindsey Smith, junior Ad/PR major from New Braunfels, died on the scene. Five other stu-dents were injured in the accident; two of them are still being treated in Hen-drick Medical Center. The six students were on their way to Oplin for a night of dancing.

Katie Greene, Cara Kra-mar and Mark Smith con-tributed to this report.

adrian patenaude Staff Photographer

Lindsey Smith dances with Michael Davis, junior accounting major from Malibu, Calif., at the Grand Ole Oplin last year. This photo ran on the front page of the Optimist on Feb. 24, 2012.

staff report

contact the optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

contact garcia atjtg10b@acu.edu

Schubert seeks prayers from communityjosh garcia

managing editor

mandy lambright chief photographer

Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, answers reporters’ questions in a press conference on Saturday afternoon in the aftermath of a

car wreck on TX-36 involving six ACU students. The accident resulted in the death of 20-year-old Lindsey Smith.

haley conawayjunior psychology major from plano

It wasn’t until we left Oplin around 10:30 p.m. that people started texting and realizing that ACU

students were involved.”“

jimmy ellisonACU police chief

The university takes immediate steps to

make sure they’re doing everything possible for the students and their

families.”

“