The Optimist - 11.28.12

The 10-year-old son of ACU’s sports information director died this weekend after a two-year-long fight with cancer.

Rex Fleming passed away at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday night in home hos-pice care.

“He died peacefully at home, surrounded by his parents and grandparents, just the way he would have wanted it,” said his father, Lance.

Rana Travieso, Rex’s fourth-grade teacher at Taylor Elementary School, remembers Rex lighting up the classroom, even when he wasn’t feeling strong.

“He was an amazing ex-ample of faith, strength,

bravery and determina-tion,” Traviseo said. “He was kind to everyone and always had an upbeat posi-tive attitude, even when he didn’t feel well. He had a very contagious smile that would brighten every-one’s day and he loved to tell jokes and make people laugh.”

An MRI in July showed that Rex’s tumor had grown worse and was inoperable. Doctors estimated he had four-six months to live.

Four and a half months later, Rex’s parents with-drew him from school in early November as a pre-cautionary measure.

Rex was his father’s con-stant companion at ACU athletics game. He led the football team out of the locker room before their – and his – final home game

of the season a few weeks ago and represented the team as an honorary team captain at the pre-game coin toss.

“He loved playing foot-ball during recess,” Travesio said. “We would just give him a ball and let him go.”

Taylor Elementary teach-ers read a statement in each class on Monday after they learned of Rex’s death, and a letter was sent home with each student. Travesio said her students needed time to remember their best friend.

An ACU alumnus will soon be joining the state Supreme Court.

Gov. Rick Perry has ap-pointed Jeffrey S. Boyd of Austin to the Court. Boyd (‘83) will serve as justice of

the Court until the next general election.

P e r r y said Boyd’s experience and leader-ship abilities

qualified him for the posi-tion.

“Jeff is a highly-respected attorney who has consis-tently excelled throughout his years of private practice, his terms of public service, and his leadership of im-portant charitable organiza-tions,” Perry said.

Boyd currently serves as chief of staff for the Gover-nor’s Office, where he pre-

viously served as general counsel.

“He has earned my con-fidence, and the confidence of those he has worked with in all his endeavors, because he has a brilliant legal mind, he is committed to preserv-ing the rule of the law, and he strives every day to live a life of fairness, integrity and

compassion,” Perry said.Perry said Boyd will bring

this same commitment with him to the Texas Supreme Court, and that “we will all be better for it.”

Boyd is a former senior partner in the Austin office of Thompson and Knight

The Honors College faculty and students recently con-ducted a strategic planning meeting for the university. Dr. Gregory Straughn, in-terim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, contact-ed faculty and staff to help create a new strategic plan for ACU.

Those invited offered their ideas, opinions and analysis. The Honors Col-lege faculty invited 25 Hon-ors students; 17 of them were able to join faculty for the meeting. Dr. Stephen Johnson, Dr. Jason Morris, Dr. Michael Harbour, Leslie Hayes, Dr. Alison Spencer, Dr. Gregory Straughn and Dr. Stephanie Hamm were the faculty and administra-tors present at the meet-ing.

This was the first focus group the university has conducted that was com-posed of mostly students. Participants spent an hour making lists of the universi-ty’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Dr. Michael Harbour, executive administrative director for the Honors College, said the Honors students were prime candi-dates for the evaluations.

“Our Honors students are exceptional in this type of environment,” Har-bour said. “They are skilled critical thinkers. We talked about access to the library and other places to study, especially in the late eve-ning hours. We talked about the challenge of tuition and a deep appreciation for the university. We talked about the need for updates

Abilene Christian University

Rollin’ ‘round ACUJonathan Ardoyno

sees campus from a different perspective

FeaturesPage 5vol. 101, no. 25 wednesday, November 28, 2012 1 SECTION, 8 PAGES

NEWS

acuoptimist.com

Beyond31, ResLife hosts Dining Services Appreciation Dinner

VIDEO

INSIDE

acuoptimist.com

Love and Care Ministries raising donations with Mission Thanksgiving

VIDEO

Page 4

Alumni save 24 child slaves in Ghana with nonprofit

NEWS

Page 5

Christmas Slam looks to create basketball traditions

NEWS

Springboard Pitch names idea winners

Page 3

acuoptimist.com

Zumbathon to fundraise for student group with ‘80s theme

NEWS

Page 3

Students trying to start men’s lacrosse team

NEWS

ONLINE

acuoptimist.com

Cycling Club president wins national championship

VIDEO

asia todd design editor

Dining Services workers enjoy the appreciation dinner put together by ResLife and Beyond31 in the Living Room of the Campus Center.

10-year-old dies after two-year battle with brain tumor

see rex page 4

elizabeth weissstudent reporter

Planning team meets with Honors students

see planning page 4

university

ACU students turned the tables and held a potluck for Dining Services em-ployees to show students’ appreciation for their hard work on Nov. 16.

Last year, Residence

Assistants and residents of Nelson and McDonald Halls served employees desserts to show their ap-preciation.

“My hall in Nelson came up with the idea that we needed to serve the people who serve us everyday,” said Courtney Martin, junior youth and family

ministry major from New Braunfels and Nelson resi-dent assistant.

This year, the Din-ing Services Appreciation Night expanded to try and include members from ev-ery dorm and also includ-ed the Beyond31 move-ment.

As part of the Beyond31

movement, members of-ten participate in service projects. This opportunity to serve coincided with the end of the White T-shirt Revolution and many Be-yond31 members volun-teered,” Martin said.

Rebekah Perry, junior

Students switch Dining roles

see dining page 4

marissa jonesmanaging editor

page 6

Black Friday beginning to consume Thanksgiving

OPINION

Page 8

Men’s basketball team wins three straight games over break

SPORTS

Page 8

L.B. Suggs, Taylor Gabriel receive conference awards

SPORTS

Grad named to state Supreme CourtTyler salterstaff reporter

alumni

see appointment page 4

Cancer claims young Wildcatobituary

Paige otway staff photographer

Quarterback Mitchell Gale puts his arm around Rex Fleming, the team’s

honorary captain, before the last home game of the season. Rex died

Sunday night, two years after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

mark smitheditor in chief

boyd

Rana Travesio Rex fleming’s fourth grade

teacher

God added to his king-dom a most precious

angel.”“

28 29 30 1Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

10 a.m. Student Acad-emy of Nutrition and Dietetics

12 p.m. Football Quar-terfinals

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

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

10 a.m. ACU Opera - Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Para-mount

1:30 p.m. ACU Opera

7:30 p.m. ACU Opera

10 a.m. Men’s Basketball at West TX A&M U.

6 p.m. Women’s Basketball at West TX A&M U.

All Day - BCBS In-formation Session - COBA

7:30 p.m. ACU Jazz Ensemble Concert Feature Guest Artist, DJ Logic in Cullen

Police Log

91 14@acuoptimist

The Optimist

[email protected]

Wednesday 11.28.12 2

Announcements

Around Abilene

Nov. 29

9 p.m. North Texas bluegrass band the Boxcar Bandits, from Denton, TX, will play at Bar 14 in Abilene as part of their Panhandle Fall Tour 2012.

Nov. 30

6 p.m. The 17th annual Christmas parade will be on Main Street in downtown Ranger. Actor and Olympian Dean Smith will be the grand marshal. The parade will feature the Hardin-Simmons University Six White Horses, a cowboy band and floats.

Dec. 1

10 a.m. The Zombie Run will begin with a 1-mile fun run at noon at Buffalo Gap Historic Village. Timed and non-timed 5K races will begin at 1 p.m. For more info visit www.facebook.com/BuffaloGa-pHistoricVillage.

Dec. 2

5 p.m. The Cottonwood Country Musical and Tur-key Supper will be at the Cottonwood Community Center. The cost of the meal is $6. Proceeds will go to the center.

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.

SAND will be hosting the 2nd annual Zumbathon in the SRWC Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tickets will be $12 dollars (with a free t-shirt) in the Campus Center or $15 at the door.

Registration for the Dallas Marathon is open at http://www.dallasmarathon.com/register-to-run/. The marathon will be Dec. 9 in downtown Dallas.

The IRC in Abilene is collecting items such as towels and toiletries through Sigma Delta Pi on ACU campus in the Admin Building, Chambers Hall and the Campus Center throughout the month of November.

Connections Cafe is now open in the Business building. La Popular breakfast burritos and Mission Lazarus coffee are among many of the new items on their menu.

ACU Leadership Camps is accepting 2013 camp staff applications starting Dec. 10 in Room 10 in the lower level of the Campus Center. Positions include counselor, first aid staff, office assistant, worship leader, videographer and pho-tographer.

Mingle and Jingle christmas celebra-tion is Dec. 2 from 7-9 p.m. on the Bible building front lawn. This even will fea-ture country singer Aaron Watson, Santa Claus, snacks and a christmas movie. Admission is one unwrapped toy for needy Abilene children.

SAND will be hosting the 2nd annual Zumbathon in the SRWC Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tickets will be $12 dollars (with a free t-shirt) in the Campus Center or $15 at the door.

Volunteer Opp0rtunities

The Center for International Education is looking for conversation partners for international students to practice Eng-lish, conversations and cultural learning. Partners meet for one hour each week at a time and place determined by the partners. For more information contact Laura McGregor at 325-674-2821 or [email protected].

Center for Contemporary Arts needs a gallery assistant to greet patrons, an-swer phones and answer basic questions about the Center and its programs. This opportunity is open Tuesday-Friday. The Center for Contemporary Arts is located at 220 Cypress Street. For more information contact Jessica Dulle at 325-677-8389 or visit: http://www.center-arts.com/.

Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to take pictures and videos in preparation for the launching of their new website as well as maintenance of the site after the launch. This opportunity is open Mon-day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Kathy Walker at 325-677-7722 or [email protected].

The National Center For Children’s Il-lustrated Literature is looking for vol-unteers to greet patrons, assist with art activities, sell books and make visitors feel welcome. Help is also needed for special events like Artwalk and exhibit openings. The NCCIL is located at 102 Cedar St. For more information on times and dates contact Debby Lillick at 325-673-4586 or visit: http://www.nccil.org/index.htm.

The Christian Ministries of Abilene: Food Pantry is searching for volunteers to greet and interview neighbors, do computer entries, shop with neighbors, take grocer-ies to vehicles, bag, stock and pick up orders on Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. The Food Pantry is located at 701 Walnut St. For more information contact Becky Almanza at 325-673-1234 or [email protected].

The Christian Service Center is seek-ing volunteers to help assist with filling requests for items such as clothing, bed-ding, kitchen utensils, etc. from the dona-tion center, sort and organize donations and occasionally pick-up donated items. Volunteers are needed every weekday and the first Saturday of each month between 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information contact Roberta Brown at 325-673-7561 or at [email protected]. For more information on the program visit http://www.uccabilene.org/ministries/csc.htm.

The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs volunteers to help sort and stock food and other items any weekday Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The Food Bank is located at 5505 N. 1st St. For more information contact Janice Serrault at 325-695-6311 or [email protected].

Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to deliver afternoon meals to se-niors and adults with disabilities Monday-Friday between 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. Training is provided. For more information contact Samantha Barker at 352-672-5050 or visit http://mealsonwheelsplus.com.

The Salvation Army is looking for vol-unteers for a variety of needs including sorting and pricing items in the thrift store, helping in the kitchen and/or doing yard work. Times are flexible. Volunteers are needed throughout the week Monday-Saturday. The Salvation Army is located at 1726 Butternut St. For more information contact J.D. Alonzo at 325-677-1408 or visit www.satruck.com. The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Mon-day-Friday from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. or 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Contact Keith Loftin at 325-672-6061.

The International Rescue Committee is seeking volunteers to work with refugees who recently moved to the U.S., teach-ing English, helping with homework and mentoring. Contact Susanna Lubango to make an appointment at 325-675-5643.

The Covenant Place of Abilene is seek-ing volunteers to lead singing and/or play piano for residents. For more information contact Ann Erwin at 325-793-1144.

University Place is seeking volunteers to help with the resident birthday party for residents the third Wednesday of each month at 2:30 p.m. For more information contact Linda Tijerina at 325-676-9946.Breakfast on Beech Street is seeking volunteers to help set up, prepare and serve breakfast to homeless/lower income folks any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5:30 a.m. or Tuesday at 5 a.m. B.O.B.S is located at First Christian Church on 3rd St. and Beech St. Service times must be scheduled in advance. To serve on Mondays contact Jody Depriest at 325-669-3312 or [email protected]. To serve on Tuesdays contact Allen Daugherty at 325-660-6949 or [email protected]. To serve on Wednesdays contact Jane Harvey at 325-695-0092 or [email protected]. To serve on Thurs-days contact Margaret Beasley at 325-692-4149 or [email protected]. To serve on Fridays contact Rachel Brown at [email protected].

Eternal Threads is seeking volunteers to help with packing and organizing shipments, 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 [email protected].

Christian Homes & Family Services is seeking volunteers to do minor landscap-ing such as raking, trimming bushes, minor apartment repairs and general upkeep Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information contact Shay-lee Honey at 325-677-2205 or [email protected].

The Abilene Public Zoo is seeking volun-teers to help clean/feed animals, assist zookeepers and assist with educational classes any weekday any time between 12 p.m.-4 p.m. They are also seeking volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and painting any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. For more information contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487.

Hill Resources is seeking volunteers to encourage and entertain mentally de-layed individuals Monday through Friday any time between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information contact Michelle Es-pinoza at 325-673-3346 or [email protected].

The Oaks at Radford Hills is seeking vol-unteers to participate in activities, go on outings and provide social stimulation for residents any day at any time. For more information contact Michelle White or Sonia Serrato at 325-672-3236.Rescue the Animals is seeking volunteers to work at the adoption center doing a variety of tasks including cleaning, social-izing and grooming the animals Monday - Saturday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. For more information contact Mindi Qualls at 325-698-7722 or [email protected].

St. John’s Episcopal School is seeking volunteers to paint metal playground equipment anytime Monday-Friday after 3 p.m. and Saturday anytime. For more information contact Rebecca McMillon at 325-695-8870 or [email protected].

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-opportuni-ties/

Chapel checkup

wednesday 11.28.123 campus news

Students planning new men’s club lacrosse team

ACU’s lacrosse team had its first interest meeting be-fore Thanksgiving break to discuss plans for creating a men’s team and future com-petitions.

Last year an attempt to create a lacrosse team failed because of poor timing and lack of interest.

Parker Tennet, freshman nursing major from Hous-ton, decided he would like to pursue the sport outside of high school and contact-ed people to help get a club started. Tennet said he is unsure how the creation of a team will play out.

“During our first inter-est meeting about 20 guys showed up,” Tennet said. “Since then, more people have been contacting me saying they would like to join. So I would say about 20 to 30 guys are interested. Because of that we are not sure if the team will just be sign up or tryout. If the numbers keep increasing it will have to be tryout.”

The club would com-pete in the Men’s Colle-giate Lacrosse Associastion in the Lone Star Alliance conference, most likely as a Division II team for the first few years. Potential teams the club would play include: Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, St. Edwards, Austin College, University of Houston and Oklahoma State.

Aaron Johnson, junior CIND art and psychology major from Oakton, Va., is helping Tennet create the team. Johnson said he hopes the team creates a memorable experience for those who join.

“I hope the team can provide a new and exciting experience to young athlet-ic men and women,” John-son said. “The sport really is in a league of it’s own. There is nothing quite like it.”

Chad Karels, sophomore marketing major from Col-leyville, said he thinks the team is a great idea.

“Even though I don’t play lacrosse, I think it’d be a great opportunity for those who want to play and support a sport that’s relatively new to the area,” Karels said.

There is no official way to sign up yet because the team is still in the process of becoming officially rec-ognized by ACU. If students are interested, Tennet said they should contact him via either Facebook or email him at [email protected].

“I just want these guys to fall in love with the game of lacrosse like I have,” Ten-net said. “It’s such a fun and unique sport, but does not get a lot of exposure. I also want them to build a sense of team camaraderie that all sports teams have.”

organization

John martinstudent reporter

contact the optimist [email protected]

Elevator Pitch challenge selects idea winners

The Springboard Elevator Pitch announced the over-all winner of the competi-tion last week—Emineo Art Gallery and crowd favorite, Highflyer.

The Springboard El-evator Pitch is an ideas challenge for students to display their concept to a group of investors, judges, students and staff. Each presentation was restricted to two-minutes. The short time is given in order to im-itate the feeling of quickly explaining an idea to other people on an elevator ride.

Thomas Griffin, senior marketing major from Marble Falls pitched his winning idea, Emineo Art Gallery. Griffin has a lot of friends who are art majors trying to sell their art, but their most frequent pur-chasers are their friends or family. Griffin thought it would be a good idea to start a college art gallery website that endorses col-lege students’ art.

“I started a platform for students to display their art on the site while also learning about business,” Griffin said.

“I designed a dashboard that would let artists log in and track the market trends, learn about the de-mographics of the people who are visiting the site and also set and kind of change some variables, like pricing.”

A nervous Griffin pitched his winning idea in a packed Hart Auditorium, and was awarded a total of $1,500.

“It’s a safe environment I think for students to try it out; it’s not shark tank, where they are going to cut you down. The investors and some students talked with me afterwards, they had some critiques, but they also had a lot of en-couraging things to say,” Griffin said.

Matt Sanderson, senior marketing and finance major from Lubbock, and Garrett Wentz, senior biol-ogy major from Lubbock pitched their crowd favor-ite, Highflyer in a fun, pas-

sionate and comical way.Highflyer started last

spring break when a group of ACU students saw the Honduran people’s strug-gle to live a sustainable life.

The Honduran people make boots, belts and shirts but are not acquir-ing any income. Sander-son and Wentz thought it would be a good idea to create a Highflyer brand on a shirt with a little plane in the upper-right-hand cor-ner, stating that person is a, “highflyer.” You may have seen students around cam-pus wearing these shirts.

Sanderson and Wentz saw a need to give these people a passion for work-ing toward the, “three G’s” in life, (Goal, Grit and Gain), a concept in their presentation. It starts out with a goal in life to work toward, the grit to perse-vere through and the gain you attain from it.

“It’s all about encourag-ing you, inspiring you and motivating you to get out and to do something great: to stop settling for what-ever it is that you are do-ing now, and to get out and take risks,” Sanderson said.

“When you put on a Highflyer T-shirt you want to feel like you’re going to go out and accom-plish something by going through the, ‘three G’s’ and at the same time you’re go-ing to be helping the peo-ple in Honduras who can’t provide for themselves,” Wentz said.

To learn more about Emineo Art Gallery, visit h t t p : / / w w w. e m i n e o a r t .com/blogs/artistic-avenues.

To learn more about Highflyer, contact Matt Sanderson at [email protected] or Garrett Wentz at [email protected].

coba

Jimmy Isbellstudent reporter


Alum dies in local car accident

A car accident in Abilene claimed the life of 27-year-old ACU alum Jil-lian Hope Thomas early Saturday morning.

Thomas was riding in the passenger seat of the 2008 Nissan Altima driven by Spencer LaBrie, 19-year-old 2011 graduate of Wylie High School, who was also killed in the ac-cident at the intersection of South 14th and South Danville Drive.

According to the pre-liminary investigation, LaBrie’s vehicle was broad-sided by a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by Tiffany Haynes, 35. LaBrie failed to stop at

a red f lashing signal and Hayes had right-of-way because the signals on South 14th were f lashing yellow.

Haynes received minor injuries and was not tak-en to the hospital.

Thomas and LaBriew-ere taken to Hendrick Medical Center in critical condition. They were both pronounced dead around 2:15 a.m. Saturday.

LaBrie was a Texas

Tech University Air Force ROTC cadet and was for-merly an athlete at Wylie High School, playing bas-ketball and baseball.

Thomas was a speech pathologist at Coro-nado Nursing Center in Abilene and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech pathol-ogy from ACU.

Dr. Terry Baggs, as-sistant professor in the department of communi-cation sciences and dis-orders, taught Thomas during her time in the graduate program at ACU.

Baggs said Thomas had a quiet personality and could easily be over-looked in a group, but that she was a friendly and welcoming individual.

“Jillian was a smart

student and a good, solid therapist,” Baggs said.

When a student who was new to Abilene came to ACU, Thomas was the one to make him or her feel loved and welcomed from day one, Baggs said.

“She had a sweet spirit that positively impacted her colleagues,” Baggs said.

Thomas’ visitation was at Smith Family Fu-neral Homes in Haskell on Monday. The funeral took place Tuesday at the First Baptist Church in Haskell. Burial followed at Willow Cemetery in Haskell.

obituary

samantha sutherlandfeatures editor

contact sutherland [email protected]

Slam to feature dunk team, dance

ACU’s second annual Christmas Slam will take place in Moody Coliseum next Tuesday.

“Last year we had about 1,500 people at Christmas Slam, and talking to the Studens’ Association, they want to double that and get about 3,000 this year,” John Houser, assistant athlet-ic director of operations said. “This is the biggest event for basketball all year and we pull together the Student’s Associa-tion and Student Life, as well as working with our coaches to get everything planned out.”

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will face off against Texas A&M Commerce in Lone Star Conference

matchups, with halftime shows that designed to entertain students.

“We are bringing in Team Big Air, which is a national act that will come in at half time of the men’s game.” Houser said. “They are a dunk team that brings the trampolines and stuff like that.”

Last year’s Christmas Slam is remembered as the event where everyone ‘Wobbled” in Moody Col-iseum during halftime. Mark Jackson, director of Student Organiza-tions, said they are look-ing to follow that up with another popular dance move.

“We have talked to both Shades and Sanc-tify about doing some type of dance, either both groups together or indi-vidually, at halftime of the women’s game,” Jack-

son said. “We have also talked about instead of doing the Wobble, doing a Gangnam Style dance at halftime. We want stu-dent interaction not only in the stands but on the court as well.”

With the Wildcats heading for Division I basketball next season, the Christmas Slam is in-tended to build ACU tra-ditions that will extend into the future of Wildcat basketball on campus.

“College basketball is something we are trying

to get the students in-volved and get them en-ergized because these are the first steps of building a tradition,” Houser said. “This is a place to come and have fun, and there is no other place on cam-pus where you can come and yell for two hours. It is something that we need to do over the next year, start building tradi-tions.”

event

Matt sloansports reporter

contact sloan [email protected]

Curtis Christian Staff Photographer

Jake Mulder, junior marketing major from Spring, and Sam Gibbs, senior psychology major from Abilene, decorate a Christmas tree at their house to prepare for the holiday season.

Matt SandersonSenior marketing and finance

major from lubbock

It’s all about encourag-ing you, inspiring you

and motivating you t do something great.”“

John Houserassistant athletic director of operations

This is a place to come and have fun, and there is no other place on campus where you can come and yell for

two hours. It is something that we need to do over the next year, start building traditions.”“

Dr. Terry Baggsassistant professor of department

of communication sciences

She had a sweet spirit that positively im-

pacted her colleagues.”“

Wednesday 11.28.12 4News

Nonprofit rescues 24 child slaves in Ghana

Through the work of their nonprofit organization, Mercy Project, two ACU alumni were recently able to help free 24 child slaves in Ghana, West Africa.

Chris and Stacy Field (‘06) started Mercy Proj-ect to help end child slav-ery in Ghana. They met through their high school youth group and eventually ended up attending ACU together. They have been married for eight years and live in College Station with their two children, both un-der 3. Chris is the executive director of Mercy Project, while Stacy uses her skills to serve and support Chris, their kids and the children they’ve helped.

Chris said he first learned about child traf-ficking issues through Pam Cope, sister-in-law of Mike Cope, who has also worked to fight child trafficking in Ghana through her founda-tion, Touch a Life.

“I went with Pam’s group and saw everything for the first time, what was hap-pening, and that just kind of stirred in me kind of a need to do something kind of be-yond even beyond a church, mission connection. I re-ally thought we need to do something,” Chris said.

The Field’s originally began raising money for Touch a Life Foundation, but Chris said they became passionate about economic development and the role it plays in the child slavery crisis.

“We just got to where we really felt like so much of this issue of why these kids were trafficked in the first place revolved around poor economic opportunity for the fisherman, which led to the need for the men to own the children,” Chris said.

Mercy Project was

launched in September 2010 with Chris working with the organization full-time. Chris said for the past few years they have been devoting time to learning more about child trafficking in Ghana and why and how it is happening.

“How can we do that? Well, it takes time and it takes money and it takes trips to Ghana and it takes talking to other people and talking to Ghanaians and just getting as many ideas and opinions and possibili-ties as you can,” Chris said.

In Ghana there are 7,000 - 10,000 children estimated to be working as slaves for the fishing industry. Al-though the government of Ghana has outlawed child trafficking, Chris said the

government is unable to enforce the law.

Mercy Project is teach-ing the men in the fishing villages how to use aquacul-ture, or cage-fishing.

“What we’re basically doing is teaching the men this new way to fish, which basically allows them to catch more fish without having to actually use the children,” Chris said. “So it’s economically advanta-geous for them because they’re catching more fish, but it’s also really advanta-geous for the kids because it makes the labor of the chil-dren useless, because one or two men can now do the labor of five or ten kids.”

Chris described what they are doing as a “per-fect storm,” because they

are not asking the fisher-men to give up their way of life. They are asking them to change it in a way that makes more sense for them, the community and the children.

On Sept. 29, Mercy Proj-ect rescued 24 child slaves from the village of Adove-pke and took them to a re-habilitation center run by Ghanaians. The children will receive a formal edu-cation as well as medical attention and psychologi-cal counseling. They will re-main in the center for three months while a Ghanaian social worker is meeting with the children’s families to prepare them for the re-integration.

Chris and Stacy visited the shelter to check on the

kids while they were in re-habilitation. The group also visited Adovepke to follow up with the fishermen and encourage them to remain a traffic-free community. Chris also said Mercy Proj-ect is building a house in the village. They plan on sending two missionary families to Ghana to live in the village with the fisher-men and work with them on a daily basis.

Chis makes six to seven trips to Ghana each year. He said once the missionar-ies arrive next summer, he won’t have to make trips as frequently. Stacy has made two trips to Ghana. They said they intend to take their kids when they are old enough.

Stacy describes the roll she takes as a “supportive roll.”

“We have two young kids, so I stay home with them,” said Stacy. “So as far as anything formal I don’t really have time in my schedule for that, because of the kids. But we do a lot of planning for things to-gether. I feel like I’m sort of a sounding board for him. But I feel that, if I didn’t sup-port it, then we wouldn’t be doing it. We do it together, but I’m mostly the support person.”

Stacy traveled to Ghana for the first time two years ago. The trip in September was her second time to visit Ghana.

“I had never gone and seen what Chris does with Mercy Project, so it was just interesting for me to just kind of go and see what happens,” she said. “What is the village like? What are the people like? And so I was kind of an observer, but it was really neat for me to be able to see what happens and what takes place and how the negotiations work and how receptive the vil-lagers were to Chris and to Mercy Project and our other

Ghanaian employees.”Chris said Stacy down-

plays the significance of her supportive role.

“She does it without complaining, she does it without grumbling,” he said. “I think that she defi-nitely sees that, right now, the greatest gift she can give to Mercy Project is to make me feel like I’m avail-able to do whatever needs to be done, to know that I have her support. And that’s pretty significant.”

Mercy Project is the Fields’ only job. When it comes time to take a trip they raise funds and set an operating budget. One of the fundraisers includes a marathon in the Bryan/College Station area. Before Thanksgiving, 3,300 people were already registered.

The Fields said they have big things planned for the future of Mercy Project. Chris said the good news is 24 kids were rescued, but the bad news is there are thousands more left. He said they view this as the beginning of the journey and the first big victory on what they anticipate to be a long road that will take a lot of time.

Stacy said, “I think one thing that we believe is that the Lord is in this, and if He wasn’t in it we wouldn’t be successful. And it’s really not us that makes all this happen, but it’s His favor on us and on the things we do and on his children that are the reasons why we’ve been able to do the things we’ve been doing and because we feel like he’s in the middle of it and He continues to show up and be faithful and we’re just going to keep going un-til there’s some way that he’s making it clear there’s an-other direction to go.”

alumni

melany coxonline managing editor

contact cox [email protected]

photo courtesy of gretchen nickson

Executive Director of the Mercy Project, Chris Field, and his wife Stacey Field walk out of Adovepke with the 24 rescued children.

Rex: Teacher, class remember 10-year-old “We spent the day sharing memories of Rex and trying to cope with the loss of such an incredible person,” she said. “We made a memory chain to express our feel-ings and memories.”

Jared Mosley, director of athletics, has worked close-ly with Lance before and

during his son’s long battle with the disease. Mosley said he admires Rex, Lance and his wife, Jill, for the way they handled Rex’s cancer.

“Lance, Jill and Rex went into their fight with a de-termination to give it their best shot with no stopping to slow down or whine and complain or feel sorry for themselves,” Mosley

said. “I’ve been struck by how easy it would be to get bogged down, but I’ve watched the way they’ve continued to live, while at the same time encourag-ing everyone around them. I want Lance and Jill – and Rex as well – to know what an inspiration they’ve been to thousands of people.”

The family will receive

visitors from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church. A grave-side service will be at 9:30 a.m. on Friday at Elmwood memorial Park, and the me-morial service to celebrate Rex’s life will take place at Pioneer Drive an hour later.

Grant Rampy, ACU di-rector of public relations, said the family is encourag-

ing everyone who will at-tend the funeral service to wear a jersey, shirt or other apparel of their favorite team in honor of Rex’s love of sports.

Rex will be buried wear-ing the jersey of his favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations

be made to the Rex Flem-ing Endowed Scholarship at ACU.

Travesio said she will miss her student, and hero.

“God added to his king-dom a most precious an-gel,” she said.

obituary

contact smith [email protected]

Continued from page 1

Dining: Students treat employees to dinnerand missions major from San Antonio and Nelson Hall R.A., helped plan the event. Perry said vol-unteers sent out invita-tions to Dining Services employees who were also encouraged to bring their

families.Students cooked and

ate a meal with the em-ployees and their fami-lies in the Campus Living Room. Some students also told stories and expressed their gratitude directly to the employees.

“It was a great success,

and it was so awesome getting to serve them and getting to know the people who we encounter daily,” Perry said. “It’s a great way to show our appreciation for all that they do.”

Martin said Thomas Ar-rellano, Senior Food Ser-vice Director, closed the

Bean early on Friday to give employees a chance to attend the dinner.

“He was really great to work with because he re-ally wanted the workers to be honored,” Martin said.

Paula Neujahr, Food Service Director, said Din-ing Services employees

were excited and honored to be served dinner.

“For me, it spoke vol-umes,” Neujahr said. “It just goes to show you the caliber of students that ACU attracts. This is my first year at ACU and even though I’ve been in the food management busi-

ness for 20 plus years, this is the first time that the people I serve, at 120 per-cent everyday, gave back. How thoughtful and admi-rable.”

reslife

contact jones [email protected]


Planning: Honors students give feedbackto aging infrastructure on campus (Foster and Chambers).”

Dr. Stephanie Hamm, director for the school of social work, clarified that it has not yet been determined what will be changed. The strategic planning team is gathering a great deal of data from

several groups of faculty, staff, students, commu-nity, parents and others. When the data gathering is completed, it will be ana-lyzed and will determine what issues will be ad-dressed.

Hamm was impressed with how well the meeting went.

“Many of the sugges-tions were consistent with

that of the faculty and staff, but the students also make some suggestions that the faculty had not mentioned thus far, such as student-friendly hours in the library and the Bean,” Hamm said. “It was a great session.”

university



Appointment: ‘83 grad to join Texas Supreme Court

LLP, and also served as dep-uty attorney general for civil litigation under Texas Attor-ney General Greg Abbott and former Attorney General, now U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

He is past president of the board of Volunteer Legal Ser-

vices of Central Texas, past chair of the board of Good-will Industries of Central Tex-as, and a past board member of the Freedom of Informa-tion Foundation of Texas and Brentwood Christian School. Additionally, he was also a past member of the State Bar of Texas Taskforce on Court

Administration.After receiving his Bach-

elor’s degree at ACU, Boyd graduated from the Pepper-dine University School of Law.

alumni



wednesday 11.28.125 featureS

Ardoyno overcoming handicap to gain college experience

ny given school day at 11:30 a.m., the doors of Moody Coliseum swing open as thousands of students flood onto the lawns of ACU. Jonathan Ardoyno, junior education major from Abilene, is typically among them, roll-

ing through the doors in a wheelchair with a “Run For-rest Run” license plate fastened to the back.

Though not technically enrolled, Ardoyno is as much of a student as everyone else exiting Moody. He can’t take classes for credit because of his vision impairment, but he audits them. Still, he goes to class, attends Cha-pel, chats with friends, cheers at ACU football games and, if you ask, he will proudly show you his student ID. What makes Ardoyno’s experience different, however, is that he does it all on wheels.

Ardoyno was born two months premature. His fam-ily was given the devastating diagnosis that he would be blind and unable to move or speak as a result of cerebral palsy, a condition common in premature babies as a result of brain damage.

“But we are a praying family and God really answered our prayers,” said Jonathan’s mother, Janet Ardoyno. “Jonathan’s vision started returning when he was about three and he was able to start talking. We never dreamed he would be at the point he is today, and the doctors said there was no way.”

Janet said Ardoyno strives to be as normal as possible and, even though he may not be able to walk, he does not view himself as a handicapped person.

Ardoyno is heavily involved in many types of volun-teer work. He and his mother have spoken to students at schools all around Abilene on how to interact with people who are handicapped. He has also raised more than $20,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters in the past five years by making phone calls. Ardoyno works at HEB and has worked as a DJ for a radio station for 12 years.

“I know that some people think that it must be hard, but I don’t know what our life would have been like without Jonathan, probably a lot more boring,” Janet said. “If nothing else, he is a bold example of answered prayer. If you have doubts and if you question your faith, look at Jonathan and what he’s accomplished.”

Since Ardoyno was young, ACU students have been an important part of his life. When he was six, the sophomore class of ACU raised money to send him and his family to Disney World. He now has his own group of ACU students that support him, whether at school or at home. He calls these students his “on-campus angels” and “kings”.

“He loves the fact that people are willing to engage him and accept him for who he is,” Janet said. “And that says a lot to me about ACU and the type of students that go there.”

Jim Davis, senior family studies major from Ft. Worth, serves as one of Ardoyno’s caretakers.

“Working with Jonathan has made me appreciate little things a lot more,” Davis said. “Try brushing your teeth without using your hands, you can’t do it.”

Davis said, outside of having physical limitations, Ardoyno also struggles sometimes with communicat-ing his thoughts. He said Ardoyno always has a lot of great things to say but has a hard time voicing them.

“One day I asked him, ‘If you didn’t have cerebral palsy, what would you do?’ and he said he would tie his own shoes,” Davis said. “You’d think someone would naturally say go running or something like that but he said he just wanted to tie his own shoes. It makes you appreciate the little things.”

Ally Bristow, junior elementary education major from Arlington, first met Ardoyno in Hart Auditorium in Mike Cope’s Acts-Revelation class and is one of his “on-campus angels.”

“It’s been a journey and a process getting to know Jonathan,” Bristow said. “And through it I’ve realized how impatient and selfish I am. He’s very thoughtful and he values friendships so much and shows unconditional love. He’s just a very powerful influence on my life.”

Bristow said her friendship with Ardoyno inspired her to pursue special education as a career.

“It’s been a definite blessing from God,” Bristow said. “Because it’s taught me a lot of areas of weakness and it’s given me my major and what I want to do.”

Kevin Johnson, senior psychology major from Mid-land, is one of Ardoyno’s caregivers or “kings” and said he has learned a lot from working with Ardoyno.

“With Jonathan it is so hard to tell that anything is wrong with him,” Johnson said. “He’s so intelligent that you forget he has a condition.”

Johnson said Ardoyno sends a group text message out to all of the people he cares about every night to tell them how much they mean to him and is always check-ing up on people to make sure they are doing well.

“His greatest strengths are his faith and his love. He teaches us that every day is a blessing,” Johnson said. “He’s fun and intelligent and a ladies magnet. But all and all he’s a good friend.”

Ardoyno said college is not easy for people in wheel-chairs. However, he has a lot of support from his friends, caretakers, the education department and various oth-er individuals across campus.

“My greatest challenge is getting around the bumps. I got stuck one day and someone had to push me off. It was not a pretty sight,” Ardoyno said. “But people help a lot, especially the on-campus angels. If these people weren’t here, I wouldn’t be here.”

Pyper Larrick, sophomore nursing major from Ft. Worth, said Ardoyno is a hilarious guy who is great at encouraging others and is worth getting to know.

“I think that, because he’s in a wheelchair, people as-sume that he’s one to talk down to,” said Larrick. “When actually he’s almost 30 years old and knows more than we do about life and things like that.”

Larrick said she has learned the value of getting to know the people that surround her in her life.

“A lot of people, throughout the day, have the mindset of just getting done what they need to do for themselves,” Larrick said. “But it’s worth it to just stop and spend time during the day to build some kind of relationship.”


contact Sutherland [email protected]

mandy lambright chief PhotographerJonathan Ardoyno, junior education major from Abilene, hangs out at the Education Building after Chapel on Monday with a group of his ACU friends, caretakers and professors.

A

THE ACU EXPERIENCE ON

WHEELS

mandy lambright chief Photographer

Jonathan Ardoyno, junior education major from Abilene, shows off the back of his wheelchair which has a “Run Forrest Run” license plate attached to it.

Thanksgiving is a time that many look forward to. It is a time to give thanks and be happy for everything that we have been blessed with and to spend time with our loved ones. We have one spe-cial day to ref lect on our blessing but Black Friday

now takes away from that meaning.

Retailers have shifted our focus from a day to be thankful, to a day about consumerism. We have been encouraged social-ly and economically to go through an excessive amount of effort to pur-

chase a greater amount of goods.

Originally “Black Fri-day” was a reference to the amount of traffic acci-dents, congestion of traf-fic and sometimes even violence that occured the day after thanksgiving.

Now, “Black Friday” has become almost an-other holiday celebration for many. It marks the be-ginning of the Christmas shopping season. Some stores even give some of their employees the day off just to increase sales.

In 2008, more than 2,000 people trampled into a Wal-Mart store five minutes before the store

was even opened. In the process, a temporary em-ployee was trampled. It was reported that other employees tried to help but they were knocked out of the way and the man was pummeled to death.

Was the life of this man worth the money that the consumers saved? There are many reports of other injuries and deaths that are caused due to “Black Friday”, but we have to decide for ourselves if we think it’s worth it.

This Thanksgiving there were stores that opened earlier than Fri-day. Some opened on Thanksgiving morning

and did not give families time to celebrate Thanks-giving together. Perhaps this tradition will become known as “Black Thurs-day”.

In Houston, people camped out in front of Best Buy as early as Tues-day. People bought and slept in tents for days, all

to save $100 on a televi-sion.

Where will it all stop?Each year it seems as

though stores are opening earlier and earlier. People don’t have time to actual-ly celebrate Thanksgiving and spend time with their families because they are more concerned with sav-ing money.

Though we are sup-posed to be the consum-ers, it seems as though we are the ones being con-sumed.

I was a second-semester freshman, sitting in CORE 120, worried about our in-class assignment. Dr. Steven Moore had just told me and the other 70 students in the class we had 10 minutes to write a poem. The only other guideline: we had to use the phrase “blue sweater”.

The 10 minutes expired all too quickly. I didn’t like petry, had barely written poetry before and had ab-solutely no idea what to write.

Blue sweater? What was I going to write, about how I almost wore one but then didn’t?

Yup.I’d written three lines,

and they weren’t strong by any standards. In fact, they were bad by all stan-dards.

When the class’ three professors started calling on volunteers to read our poems out loud to the en-tire class, my worry grew.

Each poem read aloud grew longer and more pro-found as three or four stu-dents read very thoughtful poems I can barely believe they wrote in just 10 min-utes.

I knew others in the class were like me and had written little, nothing or something along the lines of a nursery rhyme. I de-cided to represent those of us who didn’t have the poetry-writing gene, and prepared to recite mine before the class.

Dr. Moore called on a girl I didn’t know on the other side of the large classroom. I heard her open with, “This is a true story.” And then I heard virtually nothing else from her poem while I fo-cused on mine, preparing for either a very good or very bad response.

She finished. Everyone applauded. Dr. Moore be-gan looking for another volunteer. I hesitated, then raised my hand. He called on me.

My friend Jennifer was sitting to my right. She looked over, read the three lines I was about to speak, and immediately buried her face in shame of sitting next to me.

I took a deep breath and said, “This is a true story, too.” I didn’t even know I was going to say that until I did, but I realized it would strengthen the surprise

factor of my lack-of-a-po-em to follow. Then I began.

Disclaimer: this is al-most definitely not the ex-act poem I wrote and read that day. The notebook pa-per I wrote it on has mys-teriously disappeared, so this is my best attempt at recreating the poem.

This morning I looked in my closet

And I pulled out my blue sweater

But then I put it back.The end.Silence.Then, almost immedi-

ately, laughter. A lot of it.Phew.I even found out the

next day that people in the class, people I didn’t know, were telling others about my poem.

I was becoming fa-mous.

I thought I was in the clear. But a few days later, a friend of mine in the class asked me if I had listened to the poem read before mine. I admitted no, I was working onmine instead. She then told me that the poem read before mine was a true, sad story about the girl’s friends or family and my poem might have appeared disrespectful to-ward it. She said the girl’s name was Haley (could be spelled Hailey, or Hayley).

So now I’d like to apolo-gize to Haley, Hailey or Hayley. I intended no dis-respect at all. I missed es-sentially your entire poem and didn’t know what it dealt with. I was simply trying to help show all the students who were unable to come up with a good poem that they weren’t alone, and lighten the room up a bit. I am very sorry if it offended you.

And now, more than a year and a half later, I am so glad to get that off my chest.

EVAN’s marks evan marks

6WEDNESDAY 11.28.12Opinion

Mark Smitheditor in chief

marissa jonesmanaging editor

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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.

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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

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In high school I used to lis-ten to a song called “Iden-tity.” One of the lyrucs say, “He still finds his identity in looks and cars, but if only he knew he didn’t have to look so hard. But if he looked in God.”

I think this is true for many of us today. We tend to define ourselves by the material things that we accumulate, our social status, and the way we look. Rarely do we stop to question if this is an accu-rate depiction of who we are.

This semester, Chapel

at ACU has focused on the question “Who is God? Who am I?” Through-out the semester we have studied stories in Gen-esis about who God is and heard stories of his love and plan for us.

I guess I never really thought about it before but I now realize how much the words, “In the begin-ning God created ...” have such a tremendous effect on our lives. Even if you don’t remember anything else about the creation story, those words alone have a powerful effect.

I think those five words show so much about God.

These words show us how much he loved us be-cause he cared enough to create us. He took the time out of his day and made us who we are. He made everything that we are blessed to be surrounded with.

The other thing I think is important is that it shows us some of our iden-tity. We constantly ask ourselves “who am I” and we have a list of answers. But that’s not rwho we re-ally are.

Who am I? I am God’s creation. I am someone special and not someone who is defined by all the objects I surround myself with.

The chorus of the song I mentioned earlier says,

“I’m not the shoes I wear, I’m not the clothes I buy, I’m not the house I live, I’m not the car I drive. I’m not the job I work, you can’t define my worth. My iden-

tity is found in Christ, it’s found in Christ.”

I never fully under-stood before but this se-mester, Chapel has made me think about who I truly am and what defines me as a person.


contact SMITH [email protected]

contact PALMER [email protected]

EDITORIAL

Column

‘Black Friday’ casts shadow over thanks

The apologetics of CORE poetry

the issue“Black Friday” has become somewhat of an American tradition these last few years. As shopping extends further and further before Christmas, it begins to over-shadow a holiday ironically focused on Thankfulness.

our takeWhile gifts are a great way to show appreciation for someone, an even better approach is spending quality time with them. Don’t let shopping distract from a per-fect chance to spend time with the ones you love.

COLUMN

Time to rethink what defines me

hashtagACU

@malloryming @shelbyshipley

@salvatoreangela@LizMitch17

@IamMarshall23 @hunterwatson14

@JaceAvery @the_gramble

7:32 p.m. Nov. 20

2:08 p.m. Nov. 22

12:23 p.m. Nov. 229:17 a.m. Nov. 24

1:41 p.m. Nov. 22

12:35 p.m. Nov. 20

11:12 a.m. Nov. 22 6:04 p.m. Nov. 22

Finally home with the parents #blessed

I need way more than 140 characters to tell what all I’m thankful for! #blessed

Two phone calls in one week. #thebest #blessed

Headed to the farm in temple for another thanksgiving! #blessed

Que the tryptophan induced coma.#thankful #blessed

Got my Chipotle for 4$. Maria said, “Welcome home! Have a good Thanksgiving!” #peo-plearenice #blessed

My great-grandmother lived to be 93 & was 5’2” 300 lbs. I’m about to eat Thanksgiving with the descendants of that family #un-blessed

Just think, if the pil-grims didn’t have the first thanksgiving feast, millions of Europe-ans might have died from war and disease #blessed

CALL ME, MAYBELINDSAY PALMER

WELL, THISIS AWKWARD

MARK SMITH

Each year it seems as though stores are opening

earlier and earlier. ”“

I’d written three lines,and they weren’t strong

by any standards. In fact, they were bad by

all standards.”“ Who am I? I am God’s creation.”

The lady Wildcats bas-ketball team faces off against LSC rival West Texas A&M at Canyon, TX tonight at 6 p.m.

After a close loss to Permian Basin, the Wild-cats look to reestablish their offensive game again and get back into the winning column early in the season.

“I am excited about the game, it’s the last time we will play WT at their gym and it’s a great chance to make a last impression and go out with a win,” senior Kelsey Smith said.

ACU travels to Canyon with a 1-1 record, after a season opening blowout against Texas A&M Inter-national and a hard 74-71 loss to Permian Basin.

With over two weeks since their last game, they have had a lot of time to prepare for West Texas and establish how they plan to attack them.

“The past weeks we have really focused on ourselves and have been doing some fine tuning from the games we have had,” junior Renata Mar-quez said.

“They have always been a really physical team and we need to be just as physical back. Play tougher than we think we need to be and play smart; just play basketball.”

The West Texas Lady Buffs own a 2-4 record, with a recent 82-23 win against McMurry, and a 79-51 loss from South-

western Oklahoma State. Junior Devin Griffin will be a force to be reckoned with for West Texas as she is a powerful rebounder and strong, offensive player.

“We have focused all

season on dictating what we let other teams do and playing our style so that won’t change with WT,” Smith said.

“We have really worked on correcting the big mis-takes that cost us our last

game and we don’t want to have that feeling of los-ing again.”

The Wildcats hope to find their shot from be-yond the arc again, as it was a key factor in their big win against TAMI.

“We are great shooters and we have been getting a lot of shots up these few weeks,” Smith said. “But even if our threes aren’t falling, we have other weapons that can help us get a win.”

The Wildcats will also face Eastern New Mexico University in Abilene this Saturday at 2 p.m.

wednesday 11.28.127 sports

when entering this game; they defeated the Lobos 83-66.

Freshman guard Park-er Wentz and junior Cor-nelius Cammock shared rights to be among the games high scorers with 11 points a piece.

Center Steven Werner made a statement with 21 points, nine of 15 shoot-ing at the line and 13 re-bounds.

In the rematch game against Dallas Baptist last Tuesday the 20th, the

team did just what Coach Golding was hoping, they bounced back from the disappointing season opener in which they lost to DBU, 72-79.

“We knew everything we had to do from the mistakes we made in the

first game, so we learned from that in the first half, second was a little iffy though,” Golding said.

Senior guard Des-mond Woodberry ex-pressed his thoughts about the way his team performed during this

second-chance game. Although the cats

struggled to get off to a strong start and main-tain a lead, they pulled through and came to-gether to get their third victory to date.

The Wildcat basket-ball team will match up against West Texas A&M in Canyon tonight at 8 p.m. The contest is right after the girl’s game against WT.

women’s basketball

curtis christian Staff Photographer

Freshman guard Cemetra Jenkins takes the ball down the court in Moody Coliseum. The Wildcats will face West Texas A&M on Wednesday in Canyon. The ‘Cats are currently 1-1 on the season.

Wildcats to battle rival Buffs daniel zepedasports reporter

contact zepeda [email protected]

Poised: ‘Cats win three straight over break men’s basketball

from page 8

contact johnson [email protected]

End: Mock, team finish first losing seasonfight we have in us.”

The squad was mainly comprised of freshmen and sophomores and included only one senior, right side hitter Kalynne Allen.

The younger girls were forced to play a major role on the team as soon as the year began due to a combination of injuries throughout the season and the overall youth of the ‘Cats.

“You never plan to start that many under-classmen but that’s the way our game shaped up this year,” Mock said.”

Juniors Neely Borger and Madelyn Robinett, sophomore Haley Rhoads and freshman Jennie Lo-erch all had to battle in-juries at different points in the season.

“This was by far the worst I’ve ever been bit-ten with the injury bug,” Mock said.

Despite all the road-blocks, the younger girls handled their respon-sibilities like veterans.

Loerch smashed over 200 kills this year, while middle blockers Sara Ox-ford and Corrie Reeder had 137 combined blocks to go along with 612.5 points.

Setter Sarah Siemens was named the LSC Freshman of the Year which was the only award given to a freshman in the entire conference.

She averaged 10.6 as-sists per set and ended the season with 1,123. Hoover was ranked sixth in the league in digs per set with 5.01. She put up the fourth highest single-season dig total in ACU history (541).

“It was fun to push myself and set some re-cords,” Hoover said. “I got a completely new

look at a side of volley-ball I wasn’t used to.”

Mock said Hoover’s performance f lew under

the radar this year.“Maddie Hoover was

one of the unsung heroes of this team,” she said. “She deserves one of the highest levels of recognition. She put up a very similar sea-son to what Kelsie Edwards did last year.”

volleyball

from page 8

contact isaacs [email protected]

kellen mockhead coach

acu volleyball

Madison Hoover was one of the unsung heroes of this team. She deserves one of the highest levels

of recognition.”“

renata marquezforward

acu women’s basketball

They have always been a really physical team and we need to be just

as physical back.”“


Freshman Parker Wentz guards a Dallas Baptist player.

joe goldinghead coach

acu men’s basketball

We knew everything we had to do from the mistakes we made in the first game, so we learned from that in the

first half, second was a little iffy though.”“

wednesday 11.28.12 8sports

The men’s basketball team will face rival West Texas A&M University Wednesday in Canyon at 8 p.m.

The women’s basketball team will also travel to Canyon Wednesday to take on West Texas A&M at 6 p.m.

standings

briefings

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The women’s tennis team will start the spring season ranked No. 3 by the International Tennis Association in its annual preseason poll. ACU is one of five Lone Star Conference teams nationally ranked.

Junior Hans Hach received a No. 2 national ranking in singles from the ITA in its preseason poll. The men’s tennis team is ranked No. 11 nationally by the ITA. They are the highest ranked LSC team in the poll.

Senior center Steven Werner was named the LSC’s offensive player of the week last Tuesday. He averaged a double-double of 19.0 points and 14.5 rebounds during the ACU/Whitten Inn Classic.

Senior midfielder Julie Coppedge was named to the NCAA Division II All-South Central Region second team presented by Daktronics. She has made the all-region team each of the last three seasons. Coppedge started all 19 matches for the ‘Cats and finished second on the team with 11 points.

men’s basketball

TeamWTAMUACUCameronTSUCommerceUIWMSUTAMU-KENMUASU

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Houston Texans de-fensive back Danieal Manning had nine total tackles and a forced fumble in Thursday’s 34-31 win against the Detroit Lions. Eight of his tackles were solo. Manning has 52 tack-les, two interceptions and three forced fum-bles for the season.

Rams running back Daryl Richardson rushed for 32 yards on seven carries against Arizona Sunday. St. Louis defeated the Cardinals, 31-17. Rich-ardson has 451 yards and 82 carries this season.

women’s basketball

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LSC honors Gabriel, Suggs After finishing up a suc-cessful 7-4 season, the ac-colades began rolling in for ACU Wildcat’s L.B. Suggs and Taylor Gabriel.

Suggs was named Lone Star Conference Defen-sive Back of the Year, while Gabriel was hon-ored with the LSC Receiv-er of the Year award.

For Suggs, the award caps a tremendous senior campaign in which he lead the Wildcats in tackles with 98 and forced a couple of fumbles as well.

“L.B. is a very talented

young man,” assistant coach Mark Ribaudo said. “Our defensive staff just got here in January, and L.B. was one of the guys we ear-marked early as a guy that can really play. He is very fast, can decipher plays in a hurry. He is also a hitter and a good cover man, so L.B. is the whole package.”

Suggs also brought in-tangibles to the table as one of the captains of the team and a leader on the defense.

“L.B. was a leader, he was voted captain by the team, which is a pretty big honor,” Ribaudo said. “From the Tarleton game on, he went about a month

with a severely injured thumb, and any time it got bumped he was in terrible pain, but he was able to play through that too and did a really good job.”

Gabriel just finished up his junior year, where he backed up his 10 touch-down sophomore year with nine total touchdowns for the ‘Cats in 2012 and over

900 all-purpose yards.“Nobody in our confer-

ence can stop like Taylor at the top of his routes,” wide receivers coach Kendrick Holloway said.

“He is able to maneu-ver through his route so smooth, and he catches the ball well. He is also a tough guy, he works hard in the weight room and takes football seriously, and that allows him to go across the middle and make those tough catches.”

While seniors take home most post-season awards, Gabriel is a player that was able to get to the podium a year early after back-to-back big years for the ‘Cats.

“As a sophomore I had a breakout year, and I just wanted to continue to work hard and show the confer-ence and continue to show the nation that I am a good receiver and ACU is a good program,” Gabriel said.

“To be getting an award like this feels really good because of all the hard work and practice we have put in. To see guys like Edmund Gates and Jonny Knox win these awards and to be able to do that too, it feels really good.”

football

matthew sloansports reporter

contact sloan [email protected]


Left: Wide receiver Taylor Gabriel breaks lose and runs for a big gain. Gabriel was awarded the Lone Star Conference’s Receiver of the Year. Right: Cornerback L.B. Suggs prepares to tackle an opponent. He was named the LSC Defensive Back of the Year.

Wildcats finish roller coaster season

This season was a roller coaster ride for the Wild-cats. It was full of ups and downs and included magnificent play as well as less than stellar per-formances.

“The last three matches of the season were fun,” said head coach Kellen Mock. “But there has been some frustra-tion this year with not being able to put a match away.”

“We did a good job of fighting through contro-versies this year,” said freshman libero Madison Hoover.

“The freshman got a lot of experience. We can only go up from here.”

The ‘Cats ended their final D-II and Lone Star Conference season be-fore Thanksgiving when they were swept by No. 9 West Texas A&M Uni-versity at the LSC Cham-pionship tournament in San Angelo.

Mock wanted the girls to step off the court with pride.

“I wanted the girls to step off the court for the very last time being proud of how we played,” she said. “As tough as this

season was, we felt that way when it was over. It wasn’t our best match of the year but we did some really good things. They played with confidence.”

ACU finished the year

at 12-19 overall and 8-12 in the conference. It is Coach Mock’s first los-ing season since she took over the program in the spring of 2006.

Mock and Hoover both agreed that the highlight of 2012 was the emotional upset victory over No. 8 WT in Moody Coliseum.

“That was the most fun we had together,” Hoover said. “That win showed our fans the amount of

volleyball

edward isaacssports editor

Poised men’s team closes Classic

Last week the Wildcats had three good reasons to be thankful during their chaotic holiday schedule.

The team kicked off it’s home games dur-ing the Whitten Inn Classic featuring teams from McMurry Univer-sity, York College and Sul Ross State.

Before heading into the week, head coach Joe Golding expressed one main concern.

“The biggest fear is figuring out who we are as a team…we can get better, we have plenty of room for improvement,” he said.

The cats dominated in the two games they were scheduled to play, round-ing out the week with a chance of redemption

against Dallas Baptist after being defeated by the Patriots in its season opener.

The team was in the right mindset Friday, No-vember 16th before fac-ing York College of Ne-braska in their first game of the Classic.

The upperclassmen came ready to play, scor-ing over 86 points.

Senior guard Eric Lawton had a total of 43 points, shooting 10 of 16 at the line in the first half and nine of 11 in the sec-ond. Senior center Steven Werner stood out with 17

points and 16 rebounds.More playmakers were

senior Guard Elliot Lloyd, with 12 points and junior Forward Cornelius Cam-mock with 14 points and six of eight field goal attempts.

The team defeated the York College Panthers 93-82 in the Wildcats’ tour-nament debut.

Without even taking a breath, the Wildcats closed the Whitten Inn Classic Saturday Novem-ber 17th, taking on the Sul Ross Lobos.

The team had no fear

men’s basketball

brittney johnsonsports reporter


Senior guard Eric Lawton pulls back for a jump shot.see poised page 7

see end page 7

joe golding head coach

acu men’s basketball

The biggest fear is figuring out who we are as a team... We can get better, we still have plenty

of room for improvement.”“

Kendrick hollowaywide receivers coach

acu football

Nobody in our conference can stop like Taylor at the top of his routes.”“

Madison hooverlibero

acu volleyball

We did a good job of fighting through controversies this year.”“

The Optimist - 11.28.12

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