Vocalists took the micro-phone one by one as judges watched and critiqued. It was not “American Idol” and it was not “X Factor.”

Yes, the time of year had come for students across cam-pus to show off their vocal skills in front of judges and other stu-dents and faculty members dur-ing Henderson Idol.

In February, students signed up to audition for the event. They showed up on the day of tryouts to prove they were wor-thy of singing their hearts out in the Henderson Idol competi-

tion.In the end, only 10 contes-

tants were chosen to perform on the Henderson Idol stage: Maegan Estes, Caleb Conrad, Rebecca Martin, Shirley Beard, Jarrod Meyers, Morgan Hight, Kevin Williams, Kendreka Miles, Jacob Flores and Pa-tience Walker.

Sarah Williams, sophomore, was the host for the first night of the annual event in the Garri-son Lecture Hall on March 12.

The room was packed. Stu-dents were standing at all three exit doors. The fans were anx-ious to hear the singers who are enrolled on campus.

“It was an exceptional turn-

out,” Joshua Hill, sophomore, said. “A lot of energy. It was crazy as hell.”

As Williams greeted and wel-comed the crowd, people in the audience were screaming at the top of their lungs, excited to be in the Lecture Hall and wanting the singing to begin. Williams brought out and introduced the 10 finalists and the judges and got the crowd involved by se-lecting two special guest judges from the audience.

Maegan Estes went first as people were waiting to see what song she would per-form. She would sing pop artist, Carrie Underwood’s “Two Black Cadillacs.”

After getting a round of ap-plause from the crowd, Estes waved at the crowd and left for the next contestant to hit the stage, Caleb Conrad.

Conrad performed his own version of Bruno Mars’ song “When I Was Your Man.” While the lyrics were the same, he added more soul to his singing, which resulted in a positive re-sponse from the crowd.

When Conrad was done per-forming, both he and Estes were critiqued by the judges, and received mostly favorable feedback.

Up next on the stage was Re-becca Martin, who performed pop star Rihanna’s song “Stay.”

Martin was accompanied by Joshua Hill, who played piano for the performance.

Hill thinks Martin did an ex-ceptional job despite not get-ting enough practice time in.

“Rebecca did really amaz-ing,” Hill said. “We only had a couple days to practice, but she was phenomenal, and it was a privilege to work with her.”

`According to Hill, Martin works very hard, and when she informed him about audition-ing for Henderson Idol, she wanted to give a full effort.

The fourth participant of Henderson Idol was Shirley Beard. Beard did the Alicia Keys R&B ong, “Girl On Fire.”

Fans sang along with her to the popular hit.

When evaluating how Beard did, one judge commented that she was “shaky but fierce.”

Next, Jerrod Meyers went to the stage and performed “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons. Af-ter Meyers was Morgan Hight who performed Justin Bieber’s well-known song “As Long As You Love Me.”

The final four participants were Kevin Williams, who sung the number one adult R&B hit, “Adorn,” by Miguel, Kendreka Miles, who performed Adele’s Grammy winner “Set Fire to the Rain,” Jacob Flores, perform-ing Ed Sheeran’s “A-Team” and, to finish the night off, Pa-tience Walker, who performed “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson.

The judges were also judged at the event.

“The judges did a great job on their end,” Hill said, “but the judges should have the char-acteristics of Paula, Randy and Simon.”

Fans were thrilled about all the performances, but did not favor the location of the event.

“The performances were great,” Emmitt Knowles, fresh-man, said. “Next time they should have it in Arkansas Hall.”

The next time to catch Hen-derson Idol will be Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the

Henderson Idol gives talented students a spotlight

OracleThe

MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013 HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 15, ISSUE 22

CLEAN STREETS The Student Government Association asked groups on campus such as Greek organizations and FYE to clean up campus on Saturdays when janitors are off duty.

Michael DayStaff Writer

Photo by Sarah Williams

Features

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Diversions

Sports

Sports

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) An Arkansas legislative panel could soon weigh in on a plan to extend cheaper in-state tuition rates to some students who came to the U.S. illegally as children.

And the measure may now have a better chance of passing.

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said he’s not opposed to the proposal, despite concerns about it violating fed-eral law.

“He feels that the best approach to all of this is immigration re-form on the federal level,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Friday. “But if the state wants to have a debate and look to pass a DREAM Act on the state level... he’s not going to try to stop that.”

That marks a change for Beebe, who issued a legal opinion as the state’s top attorney that helped kill a similar proposal in 2005. He had said the measure violated a 1996 federal law that said no higher-education benefit could be provided to illegal immigrants’ children unless it’s also available to every U.S. citizen.

“Historically, he’s had the con-cerns about the federal law,” De-Cample said. “And while those concerns remain, you’re seeing more and more states essentially taking the risk that the feds aren’t going to be particularly interested in pursuing enforcement.”

Plus, attitudes about immi-gration seem to be changing all across the country.

A bipartisan group of senators in Washington is working to craft comprehensive immigration re-

form legislation. Lawmakers in Colorado recently approved an in-state tuition proposal akin to the one being considered in Ar-kansas. And this past week, Re-publican Sen. Rand Paul of Ken-tucky spoke at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, issuing an appeal to conservatives to get involved in the immigration de-bate and warning that the GOP risks “permanent minority status” if it doesn’t win over more His-panics.

The sponsor of the Arkansas proposal, Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, says the change in opinions at the national level is reflected here, too.

“It has taken some time for peo-ple to get to that point, but I think many, many, many more peo-ple are there now,” Elliott said. “That’s what gives me hope.”

Elliott’s proposal would grant in-state tuition rates to anyone who has attended an Arkansas high school for at least three years and has an Arkansas high school diploma or general education di-ploma in the state. Supporters say it would more fairly treat students who came to the U.S. illegally as children and attended school here, but have to pay out-of-state tuition rates that are about double the in-state rates.

Those students include 24-year-old Zessna Garcia Rios, who came to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of three and grew up in Bentonville. But since she’s not eligible for cheaper in-state tu-ition rates, she’s only taking one class per semester at the Univer-sity of Arkansas.

“It has a lot to do with what I’m able to afford and what I can’t af-

ford,” she said.She and a number of other stu-

dents hope that will change.Elliott has downplayed the im-

migration angle of the measure this session, instead focusing on it as an education bill. But the fact that Beebe has backed off oppos-ing the in-state tuition bill doesn’t mean the proposal will pass.

Elliott’s proposal failed in 2005 even though she had the backing of Republican and then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. A similar measure died in 2009, when she lacked Beebe’s support.

This time around, Beebe is not endorsing the bill and DeCample wouldn’t say whether the gover-nor would sign such a measure should it reach his desk.

But, he said, “He’s not going to be out there campaigning against it.”

Jeannie NussAssociated Press

Ark. governor doesn’t oppose in-state tuition bill

Student Government works with student organizations to keep Henderson clean

Rock climbing is gaining pop-ularity as a recreational activity across America, and it’s also sparking interest at Henderson.

“We are starting now to pro-mote what we have at our stu-dent rec,” D.J. Wibbelsman, junior natural resource man-agement major and cofounder of Bouldering Club, said. “To gather more interest in a fun sport.”

A group of students, with some help from Dr. Hoover, a professor in the recreation de-partment, have organized and are starting the Bouldering Club.

“It offers a more rich climb-ing experience,” Wibbelsman said, “and you’re surrounded by experienced climbers.”

The future club will help be-ginners learn the proper way to climb while in a fun and friendly environment. The club will also accommodate experienced climbers as well, providing them with difficult routes on the rock wall with an element of competition.

“I started last fall because of a girl,” Austin Padgett, senior aviation major and cofounder of the Bouldering Club, said.

Wibbelsman tried starting a rock-climbing club during his freshmen year. He said it had great support at the beginning but fizzled out after awhile.

Wibbelsman is eager and feels more comfortable with this club because of faculty sup-port, his best friend, Padgett, and the turnout of climbers at a rock-climbing tournament held by the Dunn Center on Feb. 24.

“Fantastic,” Padgett said of the competition. “A great turn out and a lot more people are interested.”

The competition was open to all levels of rock climbers, from the person born to climb rocks to the person who trips over cracks in the pavement. All types were present and ready to climb for prizes, making new friendships and kicking off the start of the new club.

Eighteen climbers signed up for the competition and they could choose from routes 1-25.

The harder the route, the more points each climber would get.

For example, if a climber were to climb route number 7, named “WWJD,” and the climb-er completed it on their first attempt, they would get 700 points. However, if the climber failed, they would receive mi-nus 100 points each time they failed until the climber finished the route. Many students, staff and faculty were at the event cheering on the climbers.

The Bouldering Club is cur-rently an unofficial club, but

it is searching for club status. The one way for the club to thrive is by support among the student body. If a student is not an athlete or is not very coordi-nated, they can still rock climb in this group setting.

“It’s more fun when you’re in a group,” Wibblesman said.

For more information on the Bouldering Club, talk to the staff members at the front desk in the Dunn Center or come out to the rock-climbing wall Sun-day nights at 8:30.

Be ready to climb.

The massive bronze sculp-ture is formally known as “Draped Seated Woman,” a Henry Moore creation that evoked Londoners huddled in air raid shelters during the Blitz.

To the East Enders who lived nearby, the artwork was known as “Old Flo,” a stalwart symbol of people facing oppression with dignity and grace. But now, Old Flo may have to go.

The cash-strapped London borough of Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest communities in Britain, plans to sell the statue ‚ estimated to be worth as much as 20 million pounds ($30 mil-lion).

Art lovers fear the sale of such a famous sculpture would set a worrisome precedent, trigger-ing the sell-off of hundreds of lesser works housed in parks, public buildings and little lo-cal museums as communities throughout Britain struggle to balance their budgets amid the longest and deepest economic slowdown since the Great De-pression.

“If the sale of Old Flo goes through, it can open the flood gates,” said Sally Wrampling, head of policy at the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for art and one of the groups campaigning to block the sale.

The proposal embodies a dilemma faced by many strug-gling households: Do you sell the family silver to get through tough times?

Tower Hamlets, where a re-cent study found that 42 per-cent of children live in poverty, is 100 million pounds in the red.

The sculpture hasn’t even been in the borough for 15 years. It was moved to a sculp-ture park in the north of Eng-land when authorities tore down the housing project where it had been placed.

The council says just the in-surance alone for the massive bronze would be a burden to taxpayers.

“We make this decision with a heavy heart,” said Rania Khan, a local councilor who focuses on culture issues. “We have to

make tough decisions.”Local authorities throughout

the country are being hit by funding cuts as the central gov-ernment seeks to balance the budget and reduce borrowing. Funding for local government will fall 33 percent in real terms between April 2011 and March 2015, according to the Local Government Association. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the cuts tend to hit poor, urban areas like Tower Hamlets hard-est, because their spending was higher to begin with.

Some 2,000 museums in Britain are local affairs. Bury Council sold a painting by L.S. Lowry in 2006, and Southamp-ton City Council backed down from plans to sell an Auguste Rodin bronze in the face of pub-lic protest.

The depth of the recession and the lack of hope that things will improve soon are fueling the debate.

The latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibil-ity, an independent agency cre-ated in 2010 to advise the gov-ernment, show the economy is growing more slowly than previously forecast, reducing tax revenue and prolonging the government’s austerity pro-gram.

One thing is certain: Tow-er Hamlets, a community of 254,000 people, desperately needs the money.

Khan says she believes Moore, the son of a coal miner and lifelong socialist who died in 1986, would be moved by the plight of her constituents. She knows women who will be hard hit by proposed limits on ben-efit payments, people for whom as little as five pounds can make a huge difference‚ and families living in housing with mold growing on the walls.

“If he thought the sale of the sculpture would benefit the lives of thousands in Tower Hamlets ... I think he would be in favor,” Khan said.

The statue features the grace-ful draping that Moore traced to his observation of people huddled in the Underground during the Blitz.

In a 1966 interview with the BBC, Moore talked about the

fear and exhilaration of Lon-doners sheltering against the Nazi barrage. He had concern for those he was drawing: He never sat sketching but waited until the following day and drew from memory‚ rather than cap-turing people in their makeshift bedrooms.

Alan Wilkinson, one of the foremost Moore scholars, said the artist would have been sym-pathetic about the hard times in Tower Hamlets, but would want his sculptures seen the way they were intended to be seen ‚ in public spaces.

“Public sculpture was incred-ibly important for him,” Wilkin-son said. “He was very fussy about where it was placed.”

Moore sold Old Flo at dis-count to the London County Council, a forerunner of the city’s current administration, in 1962 on condition the statue would be displayed publicly. It was placed at a public housing project.

The East End was one of the areas hardest hit by Nazi bombs, and its residents were directly connected to the work.

Now war memories have fad-ed. The median age of people in Tower Hamlets is 29, the low-est in London, and 43 percent of the population was born out-side the U.K., according to the latest census figures.

Old Flo’s story hasn’t been told to the current generation, said Patrick Brill, an artist who uses the pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith.

“If we don’t cherish these things, we lose a bit of our his-tory,” he said. “If you lose your history, you lose a bit of your-

self, really.”Still, Old Flo has a fan club.

Danny Boyle, director of films such as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Trainspotting,” signed an open letter asking the council to reverse its decision.

Critics believe money raised by the sale would quickly van-ish‚ and Old Flo would disap-pear into the private collection of a foreign hedge fund owner or Russian oligarch, taking Moore’s message into hiding

Rushanara Ali, a member of Parliament who represents part of Tower Hamlets, raised the is-sue during a December debate, suggesting the proposal was more the result of “profligacy and extraordinary waste,” than tough economic times.

“This bonfire of public art is not the answer,” Ali said. “One has to ask, where does this end? What precedents will be set for other areas that may wish to make such sales to deal with financial challenges?”

Noting Moore’s interest in the work of Pablo Picasso, Brill said Old Flo was influenced by “Guernica,” the 1937 paint-ing that shows the suffering inflicted by war. As such, she still has resonance for the peo-ple of Tower Hamlets, an area that has been home to genera-tions of immigrants, including the Bangladeshis who today account for 32 percent of the population.

“Old Flo ... is a very British ‘keep calm carry on’ image of the same thing as ‘Guernica,’” he said. “Old Flo is East Lon-don’s monument to people seeking sanctuary. She is our ‘Guernica.’”

Rock climbing gains interest at HSU PAGE 2 MARCH 25, 2013Features

Zachary NogaStaff Writer

News BriefsOn Monday, March 25,

the Henderson golf team will compete at the Jim Bishop Toyota Classic. This will be a day-long match that will take place in Florence, Ala. This event will continue until Tuesday, March 26, where it will also be an all day event.

On Tuesday, March 26, the FYE program will be hosting an event called “Hatt’s Off.” The fun will start for the freshman at 5:30 p.m. in the Wilson Room in the Garrison Activity Center.

The baseball team has an away game on Tuesday, March 26. The Reddies will be in Batesville to take on Lyon College. It will be a doubleheader and the first game will begin at noon.

Also on Tuesday, March 26, Henderson Idol will con-tinue in the Lecture Hall. The show starts at 6 p.m.

There will be a piano re-cital in the RFA on Wednes-day, March 27. The concert will be held throughout the day. The concert will be per-formed by members of the Henderson faculty as well as students.

There will be a movie play-ing in the Garrison Lecture Hall this Wednesday, March 27. The feature this week will be “The Hobbit.” The movie will start at 7:30 p.m.

There will be Miss HSU Pageant rehearsal on Wednesday, March 27. For more information regarding the time and location, contact Anna Eudy.

The official Miss HSU Pageant will be on Thursday, March 28. The pageant will begin at 7 p.m. in Arkansas Hall. Come out to watch the new Miss HSU be crowned.

There will be a home base-ball game on Friday, March 29. The Reddies will take on Southern Nazarene Univer-sity at 3 p.m. This will be a home game.

The softball team will also play at home on Friday, March 29. The Lady Reddies will take on the University of Arkansas at Monticello. It will also be a doubleheader, beginning at 1 p.m. This will be folllowed up with another doubleheader on Saturday, March 30, against UAM.

The women’s tennis team will play against Arkansas Tech University on Friday, March 29, at 3 p.m.

The National Honor Soci-ety, or Gamma Beta Phi, will hold an awards ceremony on Friday, March 29, to honor member achievements. The ceremony will begin at 5:30 p.m. It will be in the Banquet Room in the Garrison.

If you missed “The Hob-bit” on Wednesday, there will be a replay of the movie in the Lecture Hall on Friday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.

There will be one last base-ball game for the week. On Saturday, March 30, the team will play Southern Nazarene University for the last time. This game will be a double-header, with the first game starting at noon.

The women’s tennis team will play a match on Satur-day, March 30, against Hard-ing. The ladies will travel to Searcy this weekend. The match will start at 4 p.m.

The women’s golf team will also play on Saturday, March 30, in the Missouri Western Invitational. The Invitational will be held in St. Joseph, Mo.

Danica KirkaAssociated Press

Photo courtesy of Austin Padgett/Facebook

HANGING OUT Austin Padgett climbs at the Dunn Center for fun. He is the founder of the HSU rock climbing club, The Boulder Club. The club is relatively new to campus, and opens doors for rock climbing tournaments to be held at the Rec.

Art world shivers at sale of Henry Moore

For one small boy, it was more than a game. Austin Tay-lor, a 12-year-old from Gurdon, wanted to take part in some-thing major, something excit-ing, something memorable.

Approximately four years ago, Taylor was diagnosed with extreme kidney failure, and the Make-A-Wish foundation helped save his life.

On Feb. 28, Henderson’s men’s basketball team took on the Ouachita Baptist Tigers in the Southern Bancorp “Battle of the Ravine.”

The teams battled back and forth throughout the game with the Reddies taking the win, but the half-time show was what all the buzz was about.

The “Harlem Shake” is a fad going viral across the nation that many organizations are participating in. Professional sports teams, college organiza-tions, and even the crew from Duck Dynasty hopped on the bandwagon.

However, Henderson decid-ed to use the Harlem Shake not just for exposure and fun, but

for a good cause. Kale Gober, athletic director, contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Little Rock and asked if they would be able to come up with a child to send for the Hender-son/OBU game.

They gave him the contact in-

formation for Taylor, and from there the official “Henderson State Harlem Shake-A-Wish” was created.

Students and faculty began to hear about what was going to happen, so they spread the word via Facebook and Twitter,

causing a social media frenzy across campus.

“The whole process went bet-ter than I could’ve imagined,” Gober said. “I’m happy that Austin got his wish. It’s defi-nitely a blessing to be a part of something like that.”

Kevin Rodgers, quarterback for the Reddie football team, was one of the students that participated in the event. He also echoed Gober’s comments.

“I thought it was amazing how we were involved in an event like that to support Aus-tin,” he said. “So many students were there to help make his wish come true. It was a great honor to be a part of something like that.”

Rodgers also talked about how the event has affected the community.

“It’s great to see how Hen-derson has been involved in the community like this, and I hope we continue to get involved with events like this in the fu-ture,” he said.

The game between the two rival schools was definitely hyped up and quite a display of athleticism from both teams, but on that night, the show be-longed to Taylor. By passing cans around throughout the bleachers, Henderson was able to raise $1,800 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The video can be found on Youtube.com by searching “HSU Harlem Shake-A-Wish.”

On March 12 the Ladies League proudly presented De-signs of Refinement, a student fashion event.

The event was hosted by Sa-mantha Jones, and Michelle West, mentors of the Ladies League.

Ties, bow ties, unique jew-elry, African scarfs and more were worn by students on cam-pus to express the designer’s feelings or to show off swag.

West, co-host of the event, ex-press how important it was for this event to occur.

“Having ‘Designs of Refine-ment’ was very essential be-cause it was important to have a diverse event that did not include Greek life,” West ex-plained. “It was also beneficial because it helped promote the Ladies League and raise aware-ness on Autism Speaks.”

Wanda Harris, a facility advi-sor, also expressed the impor-tance of getting students out of their dorm to go to events that are held on campus.

“The Ladies League is look-ing to find things to get the uni-versity involved,” Harris said. “The idea of this event was Sa-mantha’s and Michelle’s, and they have done a phenomenal job setting this event up.”

Over 150 people attended the event, bidding on exceptional clothing and accessories and even hair-dos.

Farrest Jenkins, business management major, and Leroy James Jr., social science sec-ondary education major, were on the turn tables as they pro-vided the music for the models’ entrances.

There were 10 designers whose clothing, accessories and hair fashion was shown off: Kyra Bell, Somerlyn Mason, Erin Harris, O Onipede, Adri-enne Johnson, Shaye Coakley,

Kelsie Jackson, Hassana Tadi and Akaylah Jones.

First off, Bell displayed unique bracelets originally made bracelets in honor of her Aunt, a breast cancer survivor. Now they are known as “Kyra’s Kreations.”

Next designer was Somerlyn Mason. She had distinguished bow ties that wowed the audi-ence.

“The reason I participate in the event was to gain more exposure around campus,” Ma-son said.

Erin Harris was the next de-signer. Harris presented Hen-derson’s t-shirts.

O Onipede designed African necklaces.

Adrienne Johnson followed up Onipede. Her work was cus-tom bow ties, which she wears frequently around school.

Clothes and assessories weren’t the only thing people were looking to bid on. Shaye Coakley showed her hair doing skills.

Kelsie Jackson designed cro-cheting. She feels it has been out of style for too long.

Hassana Tadi showed off her African heritage by displaying rings, necklaces, scarfs and earrings modeled by Kayelyn Foote and Lysia Coates.

Last designer was Akaylah Jones, who’s inspiration came from African and ethnic paint-ings.

Many people feel fashion is important in today’s society.

“A lot of things are based on fashion,” Coleman said. “Some-times it’s not always the inside that counts.”

Franks also spoke highly on fashion by stating “appearance is everything.”

If you’re looking to get in-volved in programs by the La-dies League, they take applica-tions every semester, free of charge. The grade point aver-age requirement is 2.5.

MARCH 25, 2013 PAGE 3 Features

The Oracle is produced by and for Henderson State University students. Opinions expressed in personal columns do not reflect the opinions of the staff as a whole or of the university.

The editorial staff reserves the right to arbitrarily select articles, letters and ads to be published. In addition, the Oracle reserves the right to edit all letters for space, style and libel as per the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.

The Oracle, as a forum for public opinion, welcomes all signed letters. Unsigned letters cannot be published. Letters must bear the writer’s name, class standing, major and phone number.

The deadline for letters and for advertising is noon Thursday for inclusion in the following week’s publication.

The Oracle is published in Garrison L113 and printed by GateHouse Media in Hope, Ark. Two copies per student are provided free of charge. Additional copies can be purchased for 50 cents each.

Editor-in-Chief: Morgan Acuff newantiquity@gmail.com Faculty Adviser: Mike Taylor taylorm@hsu.eduNews Editor: Stephanie Hartman sh17097@reddies.hsu.edu Sports Editor: Kaitlyn Kitchens kk175413@reddies.hsu.edu

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Staff Writers

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Ladies League shows off student styles

Henderson Shake-A-Wish succeeds in fundraising

FOR GOODNESS, SHAKE Austin Taylor came to the Battle of the Ra-vine, where Henderson Athletics teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to raise money for kids like Taylor who hope to have their wishes met.

Photo by Ryan Klare

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Just submit your diversions to Oracle@hsu.edu. Be sure to include your name and the name of your diversion. It can be anything creative.

A record was broken Satur-day, but nothing in favor of the Lady Lady Reddies.

The Muleriders (15-14, 7-6 GAC) pulled out their first win against Henderson since April 25, 2009, on Saturday, March 16, in Magnolia, AR.

Although Henderson put to-gether 14 hits on the day, it was not enough to overcome the Muleriders.

The record-breaking contest was a slow one for both teams, the only runs coming from homeruns off the bat of SAU’s Sarah Higginbotham and Kelci Garza.

Henderson (15-16, 9-6 GAC) threatened in the sixth when Kayla Williams led off with sin-gle then stole second, her sixth of the season.

Sarah Gipson then singled to right, but Laura Mabary hit into a double play right afterward, clearing everyone but Wil-liams, who advanced to third.

The threat was ended when Amber Wilburn hit a shot that SAU’s first baseman was lucky to catch.

The Lady Reddies couldn’t

cross the plate and the game ended with a 3-0 score.

“It was definitely a let down losing to a team we had such a long winning streak against,” Kailey Johnson said, “We just have to keep our focus.”

Gipson, Wilburn and Wil-liams accounted for Hender-son’s three hits. Williams took the loss in the circle.

The Lady Reddies’ bats were hot in the second game but couldn’t convert enough hits into runs and took a second loss for the day.

Gipson started things off for Henderson blasting a single to centerfield, followed by an er-ror by SAU’s shortstop Kelsey Fisher putting Mabary on first and moving Gipson to second.

A fielder’s choice, flyout and strikeout by the next three batters stranded Gipson and Mabary.

“We were hitting the ball hard,” Williams said.

“Things just weren’t going our way.”

SAU went three up, three down ending the first.

Freshman Morgan South sin-gled through the left side.

Hali Kizer and Shelby Pal-more singled behind her and

thanks to another error by SAU’s defense, South scored the Lady Lady Reddies’ first run of the day.

Amy Halter struckout, then Gipson lined out to shortstop. Mabary then came up and knocked a single to right, scor-ing Kizer and Palmore. Wil-burn then grounded out to end the inning.

Senior Katey Gorsage found a gap and led off the top of the third with a hard double to right center.

South hit her second single of the day after a Katie Hulan strikeout.

A third error by SAU allowed South to take second and Gor-sage to score.

The score now 4-0, Halter used her speed to force an-other Mulerider error, which resulted in another run for Henderson.

Unfortunately that’s where the scoring stopped for the Lady Reddies.

The rest of the game was a scoring frenzy by the Mulerid-ers, putting together ten runs on seven hits.

In the bottom of the third, three hit batters loaded the bases for the Muleriders.

Garza cut the deficit to one by knocking a grandslam to clear the bases and make the score 5-4.

After a quiet forth and fifth inning, the Muleriders’ bats came alive again, producing six runs on five hits.

Enough action for an entire game was packed into one half an inning.

The Muleriders got singles from Lauren Witzke, Fisher, Courtney Hudgins and Mack-enzie Spanko, and a double by Brittany Wood to move runs across the plate.

“I’m happy for the two wins, but the losses were frustrat-

ing,” Gorsage said. “My team has so much tal-

ent. Those should have been two more wins.”

Gipson, who leads the team in batting average, had three hits on the day.

Mabary, Kizer, South and Williams had two hits each.

The Lady Reddies only had two days off this Spring Break after the SAU games and went back to work to prepare for

their four game series with Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

The games were later can-celed for march 22 and 23 against Northwestern Oklaho-ma State University.

Henderson will play Univer-sity of Arkansas at Monticello on March 29 on the Dee White Feilds in Arkadelphia Arkan-sas.

The Lady Reddies kicked off Spring Break with a four game split with the Lady Muleriders of Southern Arkansas Univer-sity.

On Friday, March 15, game one started strong for the Lady Reddies as senior Amber Wilburn knocked a three-run homerun, her third of the sea-son.

Sarah Gipson started off the inning with a walk, followed by a Laura Mabary single.

Wilburn then cleaned up the bases, putting the Lady Reddies (15-15, 9-5 GAC) up 3-0 after only one inning of work.

The game hit a standstill until the fifth inning when Wilburn decided to shake things up once more with homerun num-ber two, but over the right field fence this time.

“I just focused on hitting with my hands,” Wilburn said.

After hitting one homerun, often it’s hard to not overthink technique the following at-bats.

“I was just looking to get good solid base hits, it just hap-pened to go over the second time,” Wilburn said.

Kayla Williams held the Mul-eriders (16-14, 8-6 GAC) score-less in the circle until the bot-tom of the fifth.

Southern Arkansas’ Lauren Witzke singled to right to start off the inning, followed by a strikeout by Brittany Wood.

Darian Harris then homered, scoring Witzke making it a 4-2 ballgame.

The Lady Reddies threatened in the top of the seventh, but were unable to convert and had to rely on their defense to hold on to their slim lead.

Witzke came up with her sec-ond single of the game to start things off for SAU.

Harris doubled down the right field line, moving Witzke to third.

A hard hit to third base by Ashley Quintana resulted in a HSU error, scoring Witzke and moving two more Muleriders into scoring position.

With the game on the line, Williams got Mackenzie

Spanko to ground out, cement-ing the win for the Lady Lady Reddies.

SAU came out swinging in the second game, but Hender-son used key hits and solid de-fense to hold off the Muleriders for the second time.

Sarah Higginbotham started things off for SAU in the first inning with two outs, doubling down the right field line.

Kelci Garza followed up with an infield single, moving Hig-ginbotham to third.

Garza then advanced to sec-ond on a wild pitch right before Witzke singled, scoring Hig-ginbotham and moving Garza to third.

With runners in the corners and two outs, Witzke broke for second, drawing a throw from Lady Reddies catcher Katie Hu-lan.

Garza took off for home on the throw, scoring as Witzke slid safely into second.

The Mulerider’s 2-0 lead go-

ing into the top of the second inning wouldn’t last long.

Henderson showed off its own base running skills, while Kailey Johnson singled then ad-vanced to second on a passed ball.

Hulan singled to centerfield, scoring Johnson, then darted to second when SAU’s center-fielder hesitated.

The inning ended with a groundout by freshman Mor-gan South, but not before Hen-derson made a dent in SAU’s lead to make it 2-1.

The Lady Reddies took the lead in commanding fashion in the third inning.

After Mabary singled and Wilburn reached on a fielder’s choice, senior Katey Gorsage found her stroke and belted one over the centerfield fence putting the Lady Reddies on top 4-2.

The Muleriders responded in the bottom half with a run of their own, but Henderson

wasn’t quiet long.When the sixth rolled around

Johnson showed centerfield some more attention with a bomb of her own, the first of her college career.

“I had been struggling at the plate, so that homer felt amaz-ing,” Johnson said.

“She just put it in my power zone.”

In the top of the seventh, the score 5-3 in Henderson’s favor, the Lady Reddies added some insurance runs.

The bats of Amy Halter, Gip-son and Mabary came alive, lighting up the right side of the field with singles.

Halter used her speed to advance to third on Gipson’s single, then both scored easily on an error committed while the right fielder tried to handle Mabary’s hit.

With the score now 8-3, the Muleriders were only able to scratch up one run in the bot-tom of the seventh, falling short

for the second time Friday. “It felt good to have run sup-

port,” Kasey Carlock, senior pitcher for the Lady Reddies, said.

“That’s us playing as a team and having each other’s back. When we play on both sides of the game like that, it usually ends in our favor.”

Williams (9-6) and senior Kasey Carlock (6-8) each re-corded a win in the circle for Henderson.

Both pitched a complete game.

The Lady Reddies also racked up 16 hits through the doubleheader.

Mabary led the pack with four hits on the day while Wil-burn had three and Gipson, Johnson and Hulan had two.

The Lady Reddies will next play University of Arkansas at Monticello in Arkadelphia Ark. on March 29 at the Dee White Feild. The first pitch of the game is scheduled for 1 pm.

MARCH 25, 2013 PAGE 5Sports

Julia Schulz Staff Writer

Photo by Ryan Klare

LADY REDDIES SPLIT The Lady Reddies played Southern Arkansas University March 15 and 16 where they split four wins to SAU. Henderson walked away the first day by winning both games of the day, 4-3 and 8-4. The Muleriders came back the second day to go home with two wins of 0-3 and 5-10.

Julia Schulz Staff Writer

SAU wins two games on second day of split

Lady Reddies split four games with Muleriders

Henderson State head foot-ball coach Scott Maxfield was named Great American Confer-ence Coach of the Year, while Kevin Rodgers, Maxie Graham and Tim Llewellyn earned the league’s top individual hon-ors by garnering player of the year recognition as it was an-nounced by the conference of-fice on Tuesday.

Rodgers was the unanimous choice for Offensive Player of the Year, while Graham gar-nered Defensive Player of the Year honors. Llewellyn was tabbed as the league’s Fresh-man of the Year.

An astonishing 19 Reddies in all earned All-GAC honors with 10 being named to the All-GAC First-Team.

The All-Conference teams were voted on by the league’s 11 head coaches. Coaches were not allowed to vote on their own players.

For Maxfield, he earns his second Coach of the Year award in three years. In 2010, Maxfield led the Reddies to their first conference champi-onship in 25 years as Hender-son State claimed a share of the Gulf South Conference title.

Coaching in his eighth sea-son at Henderson, Maxfield has guided the 2012 Reddies to its first undefeated and untied season in school history.

When the Reddies play their first-ever NCAA playoff game on November 24th, Maxfield will be out to capture his 50th win as head coach at Hender-son State.

Maxfield has compiled a 49-34 record at Henderson and has led the Reddies to 12 straight victories.

Rodgers, a candidate for the Harlon Hill Award, receives Of-fensive Player of the Year hon-ors after earning GAC Player of the Week honors a record six times.

Rodgers has also been named NCAA and D2Football.com Na-tional Player of the Week dur-ing the year.

The sophomore sensation is on pace to set every passing record in Henderson State his-tory and has already set the re-cord for touchdown passes in a season (40) and in a career (49) in just 17 games played.

The Rockwall, Texas product leads the nation in passing ef-ficiency at 189.41 and ranks in the top five nationally in total offense and touchdown passes.

For the season, Rodgers has completed 234-of-344 passes for a completion percentage of 68.0. He has totaled 3,590 yards and has gone over the 300-yard mark in seven of 10 games.

Graham earns the GAC Defensive Player of the Year Award after leading the league in tackles per game, averaging 10.2 stops per contest.

The senior linebacker has totaled 102 tackles on the year while having 10 tackles for lost yardage.

A native of Jackson, Miss., Graham was named GAC De-fensive Player of the Week for his efforts against Ar-kansas-Monticello in a game where he totaled 15 tackles and had two interceptions.

Llewellyn earned GAC Fresh-man of the Year honors after turning in a productive fresh-man campaign.

In his first season as a Red-die, Llewellyn had 37 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery.

The linebacker from Dallas had seven tackles in games against UAM, Harding and Southern Arkansas.

As conference players of the year, it is no surprise that Rodg-ers and Graham were All-GAC First-Team selections.

Joining the two on the first-team from Henderson were receivers Robert Jordan and Dustin Holland, center Kelton Hays, offensive tackles RJ Tay-lor and Cherokee Streetman, defensive tackle Robbie Al-dridge, linebacker Keaton Stig-ger, and return specialist Israel Valentin.

Jordan leads the GAC in re-ceiving yards (94.9) and all-pur-pose yards (140.5) per game.

The junior from Miami, Fla. has 56 catches for 949 yards and 10 touchdowns on the sea-

son. As a punt returner, Jordan

has totaled 456 yards on 26 at-tempts and has returned two punts for touchdowns, both against Southeastern Oklaho-ma (82 and 69 yards).

Holland is known as one of the toughest receivers in the GAC with most of his recep-tions going across the middle.

The sophomore is fourth in the GAC in yards per game with a 76.1 average.

A native of Bryant, Holland has 49 receptions for 761 yards and four touchdowns this sea-son.

Hays, Taylor and Streetman have dominated the line of scrimmage all season. Hender-son State leads the nation in scoring, averaging 53.3 points per game, and ranks third in total offense, averaging 520.5 yards per game.

All of that offensive success is thanks in part to the Reddie offensive front.

Henderson’s offensive unit has also allowed just 10 sacks in nearly 370 passing attempts

on the year.Hays, a junior from Jones-

ville, La., is a candidate for the prestigious Gene Upshaw Line-man of the Year Award.  On the year, Hays has totaled 28 knockdown blocks.

Taylor is a junior from Moultrie, Ga. and has totaled 30 knockdown blocks, while Streetman, a senior from Ar-lington, Texas, has totaled 22 knockdowns for the year.

Aldridge earns first-team honors after being named to the GAC second-team a year ago. Despite playing injured, the senior from Trussville, Ala. managed to record 7.5 tackles for lost yardage and three quar-terback sacks to go along with six hurries.

Stigger earns first-team hon-ors for the second time in his career after compiling 87 tack-les. The junior from Collier-ville, Tenn. has seven tackles for lost yardage, two intercep-tions, and eight pass breakups to his credit.

Israel Valentin is one of the top kick returners in the na-

tion averaging 33.9 yards per return.

The sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas has touchdown returns of 97 yards against East Central Oklahoma and 92 yards against Arkansas Tech.

Valentin also doubles as a wide receiver and has 25 catches for 288 yards and three scores.

Second-Team All-GAC selec-tions include running back Jar-vis Smith, defensive end Glen-non Bobo, corner back Wesley Brady, and safety Jeremy Wil-liams.

Smith earned second-team honors for the second year hav-ing totaled 769 yards on 109 carries and eight touchdowns.

The senior from Drew, Miss. had a career-high 191 yards against Ouachita Baptist.

Bobo leads the Reddies in tackles for lost yardage with 12. The sophomore from Ash-down, Ark. has totaled 32 tack-les on the year and has a team-best eight quarterback hurries.

Brady has collected 33 tack-les this season including three pass breakups.

The junior from Homestead, Fla. was an honorable mention selection last season.

In Henderson’s last game against OBU, Brady intercept-ed a pass in the end zone to prevent a Tiger score.

Williams is third on the team in total tackles with 57 while having a team-leading three in-terceptions.

A senior from Raymond, Miss., Williams was named GAC Defensive Player of the Week after having eight tack-les, two stops for lost yardage and an interception against Southwestern Oklahoma.

On the GAC Honorable Men-tion list are wide receivers El-liot Hebert and Darius Davis, safety Chuck Obi and offensive guard Doug Despain.

Hebert is third on the team in receiving with 579 yards on 33 receptions.

The senior from Scott, La. has nine touchdown receptions and averages 64.3 yards per game.

Davis leads the team in aver-age yards per catch with an av-erage of 21.4.

The sophomore from Frisco, Texas has 20 receptions for 428 yards. Eight of his 20 catches have resulted in touchdowns.

On the year, Obi has been in on 53 tackles and has four pass breakups.

The senior from Roseberg, Texas was in on some big plays for the Reddies including a momentum-shifting goal-line tackle against Harding that re-sulted in a loss of downs.

Obi also had a 50-yard fumble return and a blocked punt, both for touchdowns.

Despain is the fourth offen-sive lineman to earn a spot on the All-GAC team.

The junior from Austin, Tex-as has collected 20 knockdown blocks on the season.

The 10 first-team all-confer-ence selections are the most in Henderson State history, with the total of 19 members selected to the all-conference team being the most since 1989 when Henderson had 20 play-ers selected All-Arkansas Inter-collegiate Conference.

PAGE 6 MARCH 25 , 2013Sports

Troy MitchellSports Information

Coaches and players lauded for record-breaking year

Graphic by Lauren Penick