. Presorted Standard US Postage PAID Liberal, KS Permit NO.114 Year 41, No. 10 www.crusadernews.com Liberal, Kansas 2010 SEWARD COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE/ AREA TECHNICAL SCHOOL April 16 Crusader With finals and end of the season activities pressuring, it’s easy to feel stressed. Check out 16 ways to relieve that stress. —Page 3 Miss that bubbly feeling? Rustin Watt Crusader staff A Seward basketball player was stabbed around 2 a.m. April 11 during a fight at Love’s County Store, 188 W. Pancake. When officers ar- rived, the group of men in- volved began to scatter. Marky Nolen, a 20-year- old Saints basketball player, approached an officer saying he was stabbed. While the of- ficer was attempting to secure the area, Nolen left the scene and was transported to South- west Medical Center by a pri- vate vehicle. He was treated for a single stab wound to the abdomen. His condition is stable. This incident is still under investigation. “The investigation is ongo- ing,” Ray Petty, security su- pervisor at SCCC/ATS, said. “We’ve been talking to wit- nesses and have got a lot of solid info on suspects, but no arrests or formal charges have been made. There were 20-25 people outside the gas station when the incident oc- curred and about 10 inside the store. It was pretty chaot- ic.” Petty and head basketball coach Bryan Zollinger watched security tapes from the incident Wednesday. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Lib- eral Police Department at 626-0150 or the Crime Hot- line at 624-4000. Persons providing information lead- ing to the arrest of those re- sponsible are eligible for a re- ward. Marky Nolen stabbed during altercation SC performs ‘Beauty and the Beast’ The drama department will perform “Beauty and the Beast” at 7:30 p.m. April 22- 24 in the Showcase Theater. Tickets are available through Terri Barnes in the humanities office. Center aisle tickets are available for $8, side aisle for $6 and tickets at the door will be $10. For more information on “Beauty and the Beast,” see page 6. The Saints Bookstore needs temporary help for Book Buy- back 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. May 11-13. The bookstore has flexible hours and will work around student’s scheduled fi- nals and study time. Students interested in the job will need to pass a background check. For more information,contact Jerri Lynn Lyddon at 620- 417-1151. Bookstore needs temporary help Alfredo Anaya Crusader staff For four years, Zachary Carpenter has been writing and rewriting a novel. Now that work is about to pay off. Carpenter has been offered a contract to publish his book. But he’s already planning the trilogy and sequel. Carpenter is a Seward County stu- dent who at the age of 20 is about to join authors like Frank Peretti and Stephanie Meyer on the book shelves with “Soul Hunters.” Carpenter is a Liberal resident, born and raised, currently majoring in music at Seward County Com- muni- ty College, and is about to have his first book from the “Soul Hunters” series published. Carpenter started writing his novel when he was 16 years old. He com- pletely rewrote the first draft of the novel because he didn’t like where it was heading. “When I first wrote it, I couldn’t de- cide if I wanted to write a super hero story, or a horror story,” Carpenter said. The final copy of the novel was sent in January to Tate Publishing. Carpenter received a contract though the mail on March 20. “I have not signed it yet, because I still have to set something up with both my parents and the company to talk,” Carpenter said. The first book of the “Soul Hunters’” trilogy is basically a mix of horror, ac- tion and drama, according to Carpenter. There is also an element of religion with the book, as the characters in the book use light as a weapon in the fight against monsters from the darkness. “Because I am a Christian, my reli- gion is reflected in my writing and my music,” Carpenter said. He also wants to change people’s views on how sometimes the villains in the media are cooler than the heroes or the good guys. “I’m trying to make the good guys the cooler element in my books, be- cause in most media these days, the dark side and the bad guys are always made out to be cooler,” Carpenter said. Another element Carpenter wanted to include in his books was sense of reali- ty. He wants people to read his books and then wonder if events in his books could really be possible. “I want every aspect of my books based on some reality, even though they are fiction,” Carpenter said. Carpenter hopes to continue writing, and eventually have his three “Soul Hunters” books published. He also has another spin-off series he already has planned called “The Watchers,” which would be a four-part book series based on events that happened in the “Soul Hunters” trilogy. Student author signs publishing contract and has plans for another All Saints Day will take place April 24. There will also be other enrollment dates from May 20 through Aug. 15. All Saints Day is geared toward high school students wanting to enroll early, but it is not lim- ited. “Enrolling early comes with many benefits like having the opportunity to have a flexible schedule that allows you to work and attend school. Some classes do have a capped en- rollment, so it is better to en- roll in them early, and, finally, having your plans set early takes off the stress from later in the summer, so you can enjoy your summer,” JR Doney, director of admissions, said. All Saints Day is to help new students learn more about Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School as well as help with any questions they might have about the enrollment process. Students with questions can contact the admissions office at 620-417-1100. First All Saints Day for enrollment Dana Loewen News editor The college will welcome the community to the campus for the Spring Fiesta, which will begin at 1 p.m. April 25. The day is packed full of things to do for the whole family. “The Spring Fiesta in- cludes the car show and games and activities for the kids to get families on cam- pus.” Morgan Richmeier, ad- missions coordinator, said. Families will be able to participate in games, music, food, face painting and art displays. The cosmetology depart- ment will be doing manicures and pedicures. “The students really seem to enjoy it,” Denice Paden, cosmetology instructor, said. “It’s good experience for the students and good practice.” Campus visitors will also have an opportunity to visit the various programs on cam- pus during the open house. “It’s a way to connect with the community and for them to see the campus and enjoy a day at SCCC/ATS,” JR Doney, marketing director, said. Food, including sloppy joes, cinnamon rolls and bur- ritos, will be available for purchase. The proceeds will go to SkillsUSA, Students in Free Enterprise and the SCCC/ATS foundation. Families will also be able to attend a Saints softball game at 2 p.m. Courtesy photo At last year’s car show, rows of cars sat in the Area Technical School parking lot. Dana Loewen News editor The Area Technical School is hosting its fourth annual car show, beginning at 1 p.m. on April 25 at the Area Techni- cal School, 2215 N. Kansas Ave. Setup will begin at 9:30 a.m. The car show will be at 1-5 p.m., including the people’s choice awards at 4 p.m. People who attend the car show will be able to vote on their favorite vehicle. There will also be a sound off for par- ticipants, with a car radio contest. “The awards are all people’s choice awards, except for the president’s choice award,” Steve Merz, drafting and design technology instructor, said. The classes include pickups, motor- cycles, classic cars, muscle cars, street rods, imports, tractors, low riders and stock cars. In celebration of the college’s 40th anniversary, there will also be a special category for 1969-70 cars. The winner of this category will receive a special presidential award. “There’s a $20 registration fee; half goes to the scholarship foundation and half goes to Skills USA student organi- zation,” Merz said. “In past years, we’ve had a Pike’s Peak hill climb race car and a rail drag- ster,” Merz said. “One year we had an all-original, running, 1948 Indian mo- torcycle.” Brothers Ernie and Rick Schaffer have both entered in the car show be- fore. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to enter yet this year, but I did a couple years ago and got a third-place award,” Ernie Schaffer, who owns a Mustang con- vertable, said. His brother Rick has won the presidential award in the past with his ’65 Corvette. Technical school hosts car show Nolen Rustin Watt Crusader staff A phonathan to raise scholarship dollars for Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School’s fu- ture students has put up big numbers this year. Members of school clubs and organizations have called thousands of people and asked for scholarship donations. Donations from generous providers ranged from $5 pledges to gifts in the hundreds. The original goal to reach $20,000 in scholarship money was soon surpassed. The last night of the phonathon, students were striving to hit the $30,000 mark. Baseball and nursing battled back-and-forth raising the most money by single organizations, but baseball finished on top. Prizes were given to the student who had the most pledges for donations, the student who raised the most money, the club with the highest total of pledges, and the club with the highest number of money raised. Carpenter Spring Fiesta welcomes community to college Crusader photo/ Deisi Barboza Amy Schartz and Brianna Baron make calls to raise money for scholarships Thursday night at the phonathon. More than $6,000 was raised Thursday night, and more than $30,000 was raised over the five days students competed. SC Allied Health director retires Students raise $30,000 for scholarships • See Phonathon page 3 The director of nursing and Allied Health division chair has announced his plans to retire. Steve Hecox, who has been with the college for 29 years, will retire this year. The college board of trustees accept- ed his resignation at its regular meeting April 5. Pictured is a character from Carpenter’s book that he drew.
Transcript
.
Presorted StandardUS Postage
PAIDLiberal, KS
Permit NO.114
Year 41, No. 10 www.crusadernews.com Liberal, Kansas
2010
SEWARD COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE/ AREA TECHNICAL SCHOOL
April 16
Crusader With finals and end of the season activitiespressuring, it’s easy to feel stressed. Check
out 16 ways to relieve that stress.—Page 3
Miss that bubbly feeling?
Rustin WattCrusader staff
ASeward basketball playerwas stabbed around 2 a.m.April 11 during a fight atLove’s County Store, 188W.Pancake. When officers ar-rived, the group of men in-volved began to scatter.Marky Nolen, a 20-year-
old Saints basketball player,approached an officer sayinghe was stabbed. While the of-ficer was attempting to securethe area, Nolen left the scene
and was transported to South-west Medical Center by a pri-vate vehicle. He was treatedfor a single stab wound to theabdomen. His condition isstable.This incident is still under
investigation.“The investigation is ongo-
ing,” Ray Petty, security su-pervisor at SCCC/ATS, said.“We’ve been talking to wit-nesses and have got a lot ofsolid info on suspects, but noarrests or formal chargeshave been made. There were
20-25 people outside the gasstation when the incident oc-
curred and about 10 insidethe store. It was pretty chaot-ic.”Petty and head basketball
coach Bryan Zollingerwatched security tapes fromthe incident Wednesday.Anyone with information
is encouraged to call the Lib-eral Police Department at626-0150 or the Crime Hot-line at 624-4000. Personsproviding information lead-ing to the arrest of those re-sponsible are eligible for a re-ward.
Marky Nolen stabbed during altercation
SC performs ‘Beautyand the Beast’The drama department will
perform “Beauty and theBeast” at 7:30 p.m. April 22-24 in the Showcase Theater.Tickets are available
through Terri Barnes in thehumanities office.Center aisle tickets are
available for $8, side aisle for$6 and tickets at the door willbe $10.For more information on
“Beauty and the Beast,” seepage 6.
The Saints Bookstore needstemporary help for Book Buy-back 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. May11-13. The bookstore hasflexible hours and will workaround student’s scheduled fi-nals and study time. Studentsinterested in the job will needto pass a background check.For more information,contactJerri Lynn Lyddon at 620-417-1151.
Bookstore needstemporary help
Alfredo AnayaCrusader staff
For four years, Zachary Carpenter hasbeen writing and rewriting anovel. Now thatwork
is about to pay off. Carpenter has beenoffered a contract to publish his book.But he’s already planning the trilogyand sequel.
Carpenter is a Seward County stu-dent who at the age of 20 is aboutto join authors like Frank Perettiand Stephanie Meyer on thebook shelves with “SoulHunters.”
Carpenter is a Liberalresident, born andraised, currentlymajoring in
music atSewardCountyCom-muni-ty
College,and is about
to have his firstbook from the
“Soul Hunters” series published.Carpenter started writing his novel
when he was 16 years old. He com-pletely rewrote the first draft of thenovel because he didn’t like where itwas heading.“When I first wrote it, I couldn’t de-
cide if I wanted to write a super herostory, or a horror story,” Carpenter said.The final copy of the novel was sent
in January to Tate Publishing. Carpenterreceived a contract though the mail onMarch 20.“I have not signed it yet, because I
still have to set something up with bothmy parents and the company to talk,”Carpenter said.The first book of the “Soul Hunters’”
trilogy is basically a mix of horror, ac-tion and drama, according to Carpenter.There is also an element of religionwith the book, as the characters in thebook use light as a weapon in the fightagainst monsters from the darkness.
“Because I am a Christian, my reli-gion is reflected in my writing and mymusic,” Carpenter said.He also wants to change people’s
views on how sometimes the villains inthe media are cooler than the heroes orthe good guys.“I’m trying to make the good guys
the cooler element in my books, be-cause in most media these days, thedark side and the bad guys are alwaysmade out to be cooler,” Carpenter said.Another element Carpenter wanted to
include in his books was sense of reali-ty. He wants people to read his booksand then wonder if events in his bookscould really be possible.“I want every aspect of my books
based on some reality, even though theyare fiction,” Carpenter said.Carpenter hopes to continue writing,
and eventually have his three “SoulHunters” books published. He also hasanother spin-off series he already has
planned called “TheWatchers,” whichwould be a four-part book series basedon events that happened in the “SoulHunters” trilogy.
Student author signs publishing contract and has plans for another
All Saints Day will takeplaceApril 24. There will alsobe other enrollment dates fromMay 20 through Aug. 15. AllSaints Day is geared towardhigh school students wantingto enroll early, but it is not lim-ited.“Enrolling early comes with
many benefits like having theopportunity to have a flexibleschedule that allows you towork and attend school. Someclasses do have a capped en-rollment, so it is better to en-roll in them early, and, finally,having your plans set earlytakes off the stress from laterin the summer, so you canenjoy your summer,” JRDoney, director of admissions,said.All Saints Day is to help
new students learn more aboutSeward County CommunityCollege/ Area TechnicalSchool as well as help withany questions they might haveabout the enrollment process.Students with questions cancontact the admissions officeat 620-417-1100.
First All Saints Dayfor enrollment
Dana LoewenNews editor
The college will welcomethe community to the campusfor the Spring Fiesta, whichwill begin at 1 p.m.April 25.The day is packed full of
things to do for the wholefamily.“The Spring Fiesta in-
cludes the car show and
games and activities for thekids to get families on cam-pus.” Morgan Richmeier, ad-missions coordinator, said.Families will be able to
participate in games, music,food, face painting and artdisplays.The cosmetology depart-
ment will be doing manicuresand pedicures.“The students really seem
to enjoy it,” Denice Paden,cosmetology instructor, said.“It’s good experience for thestudents and good practice.”Campus visitors will also
have an opportunity to visitthe various programs on cam-pus during the open house.“It’s a way to connect with
the community and for themto see the campus and enjoy aday at SCCC/ATS,” JR
Doney, marketing director,said.Food, including sloppy
joes, cinnamon rolls and bur-ritos, will be available forpurchase. The proceeds willgo to SkillsUSA, Students inFree Enterprise and theSCCC/ATS foundation.Families will also be able
to attend a Saints softballgame at 2 p.m.
Courtesy photo
At last year’s car show, rows of cars satin the Area Technical School parking lot.
Dana LoewenNews editor
TheArea Technical School is hostingits fourth annual car show, beginning at1 p.m. on April 25 at the Area Techni-cal School, 2215 N. KansasAve.Setup will begin at 9:30 a.m. The car
show will be at 1-5 p.m., including thepeople’s choice awards at 4 p.m.People who attend the car show will
be able to vote on their favorite vehicle.There will also be a sound off for par-ticipants, with a car radio contest.“The awards are all people’s choice
awards, except for the president’schoice award,” Steve Merz, draftingand design technology instructor, said.The classes include pickups, motor-
cycles, classic cars, muscle cars, streetrods, imports, tractors, low riders andstock cars.In celebration of the college’s 40th
anniversary, there will also be a specialcategory for 1969-70 cars. The winnerof this category will receive a specialpresidential award.“There’s a $20 registration fee; half
goes to the scholarship foundation andhalf goes to Skills USA student organi-zation,” Merz said.“In past years, we’ve had a Pike’s
Peak hill climb race car and a rail drag-ster,” Merz said. “One year we had anall-original, running, 1948 Indian mo-torcycle.”Brothers Ernie and Rick Schaffer
have both entered in the car show be-fore.“I don’t know if I’ll be able to enter
yet this year, but I did a couple yearsago and got a third-place award,” ErnieSchaffer, who owns a Mustang con-vertable, said. His brother Rick has wonthe presidential award in the past withhis ’65 Corvette.
Technical schoolhosts car show
Nolen
Rustin WattCrusader staff
A phonathan to raise scholarship dollars for SewardCounty Community College/Area Technical School’s fu-ture students has put up big numbers this year.Members of school clubs and organizations have called
thousands of people and asked for scholarship donations.Donations from generous providers ranged from $5pledges to gifts in the hundreds.The original goal to reach $20,000 in scholarship
money was soon surpassed. The last night of thephonathon, students were striving to hit the $30,000mark.Baseball and nursing battled back-and-forth raising the
most money by single organizations, but baseball finishedon top.Prizes were given to the student who had the most
pledges for donations, the student who raised the mostmoney, the club with the highest total of pledges, and theclub with the highest number of money raised.
Carpenter
SpringFiestawelcomes community to college
Crusader photo/ Deisi Barboza
Amy Schartz and Brianna Baron make calls to raise money for scholarships Thursday night at the phonathon. More than$6,000 was raised Thursday night, and more than $30,000 was raised over the five days students competed.
SC Allied Healthdirector retires
Students raise $30,000 for scholarships
• See Phonathon page 3
The director of nursing and AlliedHealth division chair has announced hisplans to retire.Steve Hecox, who has been with the
college for 29 years, will retire this year.The college board of trustees accept-
ed his resignation at its regular meetingApril 5.
Pictured is a characterfrom Carpenter’s bookthat he drew.
NEWS2 Friday, April 16, 2010CRUSADER
The official student newspaper of Seward County Community College/AreaTechnical School is published bi-monthly by journalism students during the reg-ular college year, except on school holidays and during examination periods.One copy of each issue is distributed free to each student, faculty and staff mem-
ber, with subsequent copies available for purchase in the Crusader office at 50cents each.Letters to the editor will be considered for publication if they are signed and the
authenticity of the writer’s signature is verified. The staff reserves the right toedit for length. Opinions voiced in letters and editorials are not necessarily thoseof Seward County Community College/Area Technical School or the Crusader.Staff editorials are decided on and written by members of the editorial board:
Morgan Allaman, Dana Loewen, Rustin Watt, Jose Rodriguez, and Deisi Bar-boza.Advertising is accepted. Rates are $4 per column inch or $4.80 pci for color
ads. Insert rates are $50 per thousand. Classified ads are free to SCCC students,faculty and staff; classified rates for all others are $4 per ad, limit of 20 words.The Crusader staff reserves the right to refuse advertising.
Kansas Associated Collegiate PressCRUSADER2008 - CMABest of Show, Newspaper, 1st/ Special Section, 3rd
2003-2004 - Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist - ACP2008 First Place Certificate - ASPA
Phone:620.417.1459
editor in chiefMorgan Allamannews editorDana LoewenentertainmentJose Rodriguezonline editorDeisi Barboza
2003, 2004 - National Online PacemakerAward2008 - National Online Pacemaker Finalist - ACP
CrusaderNews.com
SCCC/ATS Security Report
Laura Cano serves as the Directorof Federal Programs for LiberalUSD 480. She has been a class-room teacher and school principal.Cano holds certification in Ele-
mentary Education, Early Child-hood, Spanish, English as a
Second Language as well asSchool and District Leadership.Cano obtained her bachelor’s
degree from Oklahoma PanhandleState University and her master’sdegree from Kansas State Univer-sity.
Cano knows education is thekey to success and strives to be anadvocate for children of underrep-resented groups.As an immigrant herself, she be-
lieves dedication and perseveranceare important.
Students pictured have earned a 3.5 or higher GPA. SSS Honors Recognition is based on student’s cumulative GPA.
Michael MagesAyaka MakishimaChris McDanielKenia MendezSugely MendozaLizuly MonarrezJustin MorganMalinda Morris
Billy NinemireJessica PalaciosBryce RuffCynthia RuizTameka SanchezRobert Sprenkle
Kari StantonTaija StegmanMiranda StevensAngela TarangoIsaiah ThawNicolas VanWyheEvette VazquezMaria Vazquez
Joseph HoffmanCrusader staff
Seward’s agriculture department saw nearly 250animals sold for its annual pig, lamb, and goat salesat the ag building April 9 and 10.“Although prices were decent on the lambs and
goats sold, demand was rather weak with some con-signments not selling. This is in stark contrast to ourFriday night pig sale, which was one of our bestsales,” said ag coordinator Evan Winchester, whoauctioneered and oversaw the three sales.Block and Bridle member Ryan Nelson has been a
part of the sale for the past four years and enjoyshelping out with them.“We had a really great turn out at the pig sale,
which was the highest grossing sale in the past cou-ple of years with an average of $317 a pig.”The eighth annual Winner’s Only club lamb sale
was Saturday with 11 consignors from four states,selling nearly 70 lambs, grossing $6,700 at an aver-age of $305 a head.“We have been coming to this sale from Sharon
Springs for the past seven years and haven’t had abad experience,” said Marty Pilger of Pilger ClubLambs. “It has always been a really good experiencefor us and our business.”FFA and 4-H students from several counties at-
tended the sale and purchased lambs for the upcom-ing school year and shows.“I am always excited to attend this sale every year
and get lambs for the upcoming show season,” saidElizabeth Hoffman, member of the Hooker FFAchapter. “I have always done well with the animals Ihave purchased and looking forward to seeing thewinner’s circle again.”Following the lamb sale, the second annual goat
sale sold close to 30 head of show goats with fiveconsignors grossing $7,150 at an average of $311 ahead..College students from the ag department and
members of Block and Bridle help set up the salebarn and also helped with calling bids.
Crusader photo/Joseph Hoffman
Block and Bridle vice president Jordan Eder helpswatch for bids as agriculture department headEvan Winchester auctioneers during Saturday’slamb sale. A club lamb is being auctioned off byShapland Club Lambs of Dighton.
Average sales amountper animal sold at
2010SCCC/ATSAg Sales
$317
$311
$305
Gross averages
70 lambs offered 150 pigs
30 goatsoffered
Office professionals Zumba the night away
Crusader photo/Alfredo Anaya
Humanities office professional Terri Barnes, along with Pam Perkins, the president of Saints Educa-tion Support Professionals, and Mike Bailey dance salsa style in a Zumba portion of a healthy livingand nutrition session for the 2010 AKCCOP Conference. Barnes, who is the state president of the As-sociation of Kansas Community College Office Professionals, helped host the conference on the cam-pus of Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School Wednesday through Friday.
Sunday, April 11 —SewardCounty Community College/Area Technical School securitydirector Ray Petty has been as-sisting the Liberal Police De-partment in the investigation ofa stabbing April 11 in Liberalinvolving an SCCC/ATS stu-dent.Marky Nolen-, a 20-year-old
Saints basketball guard, wasstabbed during an altercation at
Love’s County Store, 188WestPancake. See related story,page 1.
March 30—AKansas Inter-net sex crimes task force fromthe Wichita area was on cam-pus to interview an SCCC/ATS student. The task forcetook an Xbox for forensicexam. No one was taken intocustody and no charges havebeen filed.
Tuesday, March 30—Acci-dental damage to a college vanwas reported to SCCC/ATS se-curity. The van window wasbroken by a student Sunday,March 28, when the van wason a college trip.
Sunday, March 28 — Awindow in the Student LivingCenter was broken when a stu-dent threw a ping-pong paddle.
Ag sales seehigh numbers
NEWS CRUSADER 3Friday, April 16, 2010
By EARL WATT
• Daily Leader
en upsets were occurring throughout
est, the Saints also found themselves
hat had nothing to lose.
to the Green House 0-10 in conference
10 seconds away from a victory when
forced a turnover, sprinted to the goal,
o a wide open Robert Sigala who made
d basket while being fouled. Seward
upset in a 67-64 win and moved one game
place when Hutchinson suffered an upset
a by losing to Garden City.
w Colby would put up a fight,” Seward
n Zollinger said. “They are at a point in the
ere they have nothing to lose. They are
ose. they do what they do, they have no
so they are playing well.”
played so well in fact that despite trailing by
e first half they were able to rally to a seven
ad.Schafer keyed the Colby comeback by
ting on two three-pointers in the last minute of
t half, and the Trojan push continued in the
d half. Colby took a lead in the first tow minutes
second half, and the Saints continued to chase
y the rest of the half.
iling by six with three minutes to play, Marcus
es fouled out.
ut Latiq Agard picked up the offensive load and
ed the next three points for the Saints while the
defense continued to pressure the Trojans.
Colby’s Jose Pena-Benjamin hit a free throw to give
the Trojans a 63-60 lead with 1:27 to play, and Nolen
cut the lead to one with 1:01 to play with a basket.
Another Seward foul gave COlby a chance to rebuild
the lead, but Aireus Stephenson was only able to make
one of two shots.
After a missed Seward shot and trailing by two, the
Saints forced a Colby turnover, and Latiq Agard was
able to tie the game with 26.2 seconds to go.
Colby brought the ball up court and was looking to
hold for a final shot, but Stephenson was trapped by
Nolen and Sigala against the sideline and half court,
and Nolen was able to poke the ball free and set up
Sigala’s game-winning shot.
Colby attempted a desperation three-pointer as time
expired, but the shot sailed wide.
“I feel really good about having the character to
battle back and find a way to win the game,” Zollinger
said. “I felt like we had to keep playing aggressive. The
defense came up with several big plays down the
stretch, and that got us two transition lay-ups.”
But Zollinger didn’t think the game should have
been so close at the end.
“I am concerned we didn’t play with more energy
and poise prior to that,” he said. “Against Barton
County we were energetic, we shared the ball. Tonight
we couldn’t make perimeter threes, we were hitting
everything short, and that made us more hesitant to
shoot.”Agard led the Saints with 24 points, Nolen had 12,
and Sigala scored nine.
Isaiah Thaw takes a shot against Colby Saturday at
the Green House. Seward rallied from a seven-point
deficit in the second half to win by forcing two late
turnovers for a 67-64 win. Daily Leader photo/Earl Watt
M O N D A Y
Daily Leader
Sports ZoneSports Zone
810
Robert Sigala gets a slam dunk in the
first half Saturday against Colby. Later,
he would score the game-winning
basket on an assist from Marky Nolen
on a night that had emotion for the
Sigala family. One year ago, Robert’s
younger brother Tony lost his battle
with cancer. Daily Leader photo/Earl Watt
By EARL WATT
• Daily Leader
At some point it was going to happen.
The Lady Saints were going to go on a
run.How many points was it going to be.
This time it was a 25-0 run that ended
any thoughts of a Colby upset Saturday
at the Green House.
Seward went on to win in a rout, 91-38
to stay on top of the Jayhawk West.
The No. 9 Lady Saints already had a
26-16 lead with eight minutes to play in
the first half.
Colby wouldn’t score again for nine
minutes.Kendra Spresser started the run by
scoring a jumper, two free throws and a
three-pointer.
Seward’s defensive pressure forced the
turnovers and quick baskets while the
Lady Trojans fouled Seward out of
frustration.
Seward’s run could have been larger,
but the Lady Saints missed four straight
free throws near the end of the first half.
By the end of the run, the Lady Saints
had a 50-17 lead.
Toby Wynn substituted often during
the game, but he didn’t have to think
about which Lady Saint was going to get
a rest. He switched out five for five
throughout the game.
The second group of five played most
of the second half.
It didn’t matter. They continued to
build the lead.
With 35 seconds to play, Morgan
Skomal hit a three to give the Lady Saints
their biggest lead of the night at 55
points, 91-36.
All 10 Lady Saints scored in the game.
While the win was one of the largest
margins of victory against a Jayhawk
West opponent, Seward coach Toby
Wynn still expected higher intensity from
the tip.“Early we didn’t come out and play
locked-in defense like we needed to,” he
said. “After we forced some turnovers we
were able to score some baskets, and we
came out in second half and was able to
defend.”Spresser stepped up to lead the Lady
Saints by scoring 23 points.
“She played good,” Wynn said. “She’s
somebody that can score with the
basketball. I was glad to see her shoot it.
As long as we keep her going, that is
always a plus.”
With the lopsided score, Wynn was
concerned that his team would lose
focus.“In games like this you hope that you
don’t get sloppy or careless with the
basketball,” he said. “You want to shoot it
before you turn it over, and play solid
defensively. You don’t want to start
picking up bad habits.”
One of those moments came early
when Lady Saint standout Rachel Barnes
was whistled for two quick fouls.
“Rachel picked up a foul in the first
minute of the game because she didn’t
move her feet,” Wynn said. “You can’t
have those fouls no matter who you are
playing.”After Spresser’s 23, Morgan Skomal
scored 16, and Vaneza Junior had 12.
Former Lady Redskin Tameka Sanchez
hit two three pointers for six points.
Megan Lassley provides defensive pressure against Colby’s Danisha Cole.
Seward forced 37 Colby turnovers in a 91-38 thrashing of the Lady Trojans.
Daily Leader photo/Earl Watt
LADY SAINTS CRUSH COLBY, 91-38
e surge lifts Saints
Sigala hits
big shot on
solemn nightBy EARL WATT
• Daily Leader
Staying focused on a basketball game
might not have been the top priority for
Robert Sigala Saturday night at the Green
House.A year ago, Southwestern Heights was
preparing for a homecoming game when
the word reached the school that eighth
grade student Tony Sigala had lost his
battle with cancer.
While the games continued that night,
Homecoming festivities were moved. The
Saints basketball team went to the Corral
to watch the games and offer their support.
Saturday, one year after the tragic loss,
Robert Sigala stepped on the court to play
for his younger brother.
In a tie game with less than 20 seconds to
play, Sigala and Marky Nolen trapped
Colby’s Aireus Stephenson and forced a
turnover.Nolen took the ball and sprinted to the
goal. Sigala went with him, and Nolen
made the pass, Sigala made the shot, was
fouled, and Seward earned the win.
“Coach came out of the time out and
said we wanted to get the trap,” Sigala said.
“One of our most aggressive players is
Marky Nolen. He got the ball, and the first
thing that came to my mind was run with
him. He gave me the ball, and I had to
finish.”Before Sigala could take his free throw
Colby called a time out. But it didn’t ice the
Saints sophomore. Instead, it gave him a
chance to get a confidence booster form his
coach.“Coach put all the confidence in me,” he
said. “He said, ‘After Robert hits this free
throw and puts us up by three, let’s get a
stop.’”The Saints were able to keep Colby from
getting a clean look in the final seconds to
preserve the 67-64 win.
Sigala came out of the locker room
wearing a shirt that said “Remembering
Tony,” a clear indication that there were
emotions running during the game.
“This was the one year anniversary,”
Sigala said. “He was in my mind the whole
night. The first thing came to my mind was
do it all for him.”Hooker boys meshing together at right time
By PHIL SANDOVAL
Guymon Daily Herald
HOOKER — The pieces are starting
to fit.It comes just at the right time for the
Hooker High School boys basketball
team who begins District Tournament
play late next week.
At times, the Bulldogs looked unstop-
pable in Friday’s 63-53 scoreboard-
misleading victory over Moscow, Kan.
When Hooker wanted to fast break.
Gil Sanchez slashed his way past by the
slow-reacting Wildcats with ease. When a
outside shot was needed. Jake
Broadbent, Payton Slater and Blake
Kennedy delivered.
So did forwards Josh Faulkner,
Michael Wiebe. When a key rebound
needed to be pulled down they produced.
It turned out to be a good night for
Hooker, who struggled through most of
the first half before getting their game
together.The teams exchanged leads three times
in the second quarter after Broadbent
put Hooker on top, 13-10, with a field
goal and two free throws at the end of the
first period.
Moscow watched a six-point, second
quarter lead they build slip away in the
final minute of the half when Slater, who
had a team-high 17 points, gave Hooker
the lead with 43 seconds left on a fast
break lay-up.
Weibe doubled the Bulldogs lead to
32-28 with a bucket on the next
possession after a Wildcats miss before a
field goal from Breck Roop reduced
Hooker’s margin to two at the 10-second
mark. Roop also had 17 points.
Sanchez had a pivotal role in the
turnaround. His ability to zip past
defenders gave Hooker leads twice
before Slater’s bucket.
“We went to our dribble drive stuff,”
explained Coffman. “Sanchez is a little-
bitty guy and they had a hard time
stopping him when he wants to get
somewhere. That was big for us.”
The sophomore’s scores put life back in
Hooker’s stagnate offense.
“We were just standing around and we
weren’t rebounding at all,” said Coffman
of a stretch in the second quarter. “I
thought we were getting good looks. It’s
just that we didn’t have anybody going to
the boards. That’s not just us.”
In the second half, the Bulldogs
returned to normal.
Especially Slater.
After scoring just 6 points to then, he
awakened after intermission.
The freshman scored on his first two
possessions in the second half to give
Hooker a 37-30 lead. Then he
maintained that advantage after Moscow
retaliated with comeback scores until the
rest of the Bulldogs lineup came forward
later in the third quarter.
Broadbent drained in a 3-ball with 2:18
left to start a 7-0 run, capped by Slater’s
driving lay-in to go ahead 50-38 with 43
seconds remaining.
“In the second half we started going to
the boards a lot more and we started
getting second-chance opportunities that
we weren’t getting in the first half,” said
Coffman.Hooker’s play after a recent loss at
Beaver is a good sign, the coach added.
“From that point on we played well
against Elkhart and we played well
tonight. Hopefully, we’re playing a lot
better going into districts. We’ll find out
next Tuesday against Hugoton. There are
an athletic group and a much bigger
school.
Josh Faulkner of Hooker releases a shot over Moscow, Kan. sophomore Osvaldo
Granillo in Friday’s victory. Phil Sandoval/Guymon Daily Herald
Busy weekfor Redskins
Daily Leader staff report
The Redskins and Lady Redskins will
play three games in five days at home this
week.Liberal plays Guymon Tuesday, Hays for
homecoming Friday, and Sunrise Christian
in a make-up game Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS 31INDIANAPOLIS 17
Spencer Moore dribbles the ball against Dodge City Saturday night. The Saints
came back in the seocnd half to knock off the Conquistadors. Daily Leader
photo/Rustin Watt
M O N D A Y
Daily Leader
Sports ZoneSports Zone
Feb. 22Page 6A
‘SOCK’ ITo recognize breast cancerpink socks Saturday againstphoto/Rustin Watt
LibedropsGrea
Daily LeaGreat Bend enSaturday at Liberal’sboth the Lady RedsWestern Athletic ConThe Lady Redskinswinning the WAC disloss to the Lady PanthIt was Great Bend’sof the season.Justice Norah battlestill scored 23 pointsRedskins.
Liberal fell to 11-7 overThe night was not mucRedskins. Liberal’s offenproduce, and the RedskPanthers 52-42.Jade Cathey led the Repoints, and Justin Andrade aLiberal fell to 10-8 on theBoth teams will hostTuesday at the Big House.Liberal will need wins to iround Sub-State game at homThe girls begin at 6 p.m. withfollow.
J.D. Pugh of Texhoma High School pulls down a
rebound in front of Hooker forward Payson Slater in
Saturday’s Boys Class A regional consolation
championship game. Photo courtesy Renee Ellis
Jordan Jesko applies tight defense on a Cashion player in
Saturday’s regional consolation championship game. The Lady
Dusters fell one game short of the area tournament losing 44-36.
Courtesy photo
By RUSTINWATT•Daily LeaderDown seven with eight minutes to
play, Seward chipped away and madetough baskets in traffic to defeat DodgeCity 67-63 at the Green House Saturdaynight.
It was homecoming with a huge crowdafoot, and a close win over a conferencerival was the icing on the cake for theSaints.
This game had the makings of a battleright out of the gate. The Conquistadorsshot out to a 7-0 lead before back-to-back threes from Spencer Moore andanother by Donte McCarter erased theConqs lead in a little over a minute.
Back and forth it went the rest of thefirst half with two Saints scoring indouble figures before going into thelocker room.By the time the half time buzzer
sounded, Spencer Moore had dropped10 points and Robert Sigala 11, but theSaints still trailed 37-34.Early in the second half the Saints had
many opportunities at lay-ups off stealsand went up and drew what appeared tobe contact on four or five occasions, butno whistle sounded.Despite not being able to cash in on
those opportunities, more were to come.“Things just weren’t going our way
early on,” Saints head coach BryanZollinger said. “We got frustrated —players and coaches, too. But weadjusted to things and just continued toplay hard.”
With eight minutes to play the Saintswere down seven before Marcus Jamesreceived a pass at the top of the key andsplit the Conqs defense for a lay-up. Onthe ensuing possession, Latiq Agard wasable to convert on a circus shotsurrounded by four Conquistadordefenders. Marky Nolen capped off therun by sinking two free throws, and theSaints were back in business down one,53-52.
Dodge stretched the lead back to fourwith a little over five minutes to play
By JASON EPPDaily LeaderAfter losing four starters from last
year’s second straight statetournament team, The Beaver LadyDusters were not supposed to evenbe playing this late in the playoffs.
But when Erin Becker was fouledmaking a layup, her subsequentfree throw gave the Lady Dusters a14-3 lead with just seconds left inthe first quarter and had Beaverbelieving.
Cashion, with two state titles inthe previous decade, had facedadversity like this before and wasable to mount a comeback to win44-36, and end the Lady Dustersseason.
What had put the Lady Dustersin great position was the same thingthat all Casey Jones coached teamshave hung their hat on - great
By RUSTINWATT•Daily LeaderWhen it comes down to the end
of the season and the team atopthe conference is a game a head inthe standings they must continueto do one thing — win. That isexactly what the Lady Saints hadto do — and did — against theLady Conquistadors Saturdaynight at the Green House in a 93-50 route.
It was homecoming at theGreen House with likely thebiggest crowd of the seasonpresent. The Lady Saints came ina game ahead of the Lady BlueDragons of Hutch and are nowone game ahead with two regularseason games remaining.“The support was unbelievable,”
Lady Saints head coach TobyWynn said. “I’ve always believedthat we have the best fan base injunior college women’s basketball.No community supports theirteam like ours does, and we’re sofortunate to have that support.”The Lady Saints, sporting pink
socks and head bands for breastcancer awareness, came out in apress defense the Lady Concouldn’t ha dl
ahead 21-2 before the midp i
TOUGH D EARNSCARDS REGIONACHAMPIONSHIPBy JASON EPPDaily Leader
On a below par shooting night, theTurpin Cardinals relied on stellar defenseto win 37-26 over the Seiling Wildcats andsecure a regional championship.Turpin jumped all over Seiling, scoring
the first thirteen point of the game.Seiling’s first point came on a free throwwith three seconds left in the first quarter,and were limited to only three attemptsfrom the field in the first quarter.
Turpin opened the second quarter bypushing the lead to 17-1. Seiling finally hittheir first field goal of the game with 4:40left in the second quarter, and it started a12-0 run for the Wildcats that made thescore 17-13 at the half.“Our defense was great,” said Cardinals
coach Gary Wallace. “It helped us getbaskets in transition. We had a bad fourminute stretch, but we recTurpi
Texhomaoutlasts Hookerin ‘ugly’ 37-34regional winBy PHIL SANDOVALGuymon Daily HeraldSEILING, OKLA. — Forget about the pretty plays and
the fancy stuff. Playoff basketball is all about grit, determi-
nation and defense.Texhoma and Hooker displayed all three in Saturday’s,
Class A boys regional consolation championship game
against each other. Fittingly, it took almost the entire four
quarters to a winner to emerge.J.D. Pugh put the Red Devils ahead, 30-29, with six
minutes left in the game. The senior’s basket led to a 6-1
run where stretched the margin to 34-30 at the two-minute
mark.“That was playoff basketball right there,” said Hooker
head coach Brad Coffman. “Pugh took over. I thought we
had defended him really well. But great players make great
plays and he did.”Texhoma held serve to takcross cou t
� See SAINTS/Page 7A
� See BEAVER/Page 7A
Saints rally late forhomecoming win
Cashion ends Lady Dusters season
Spencer Moore dribbles the ball against Dodge City Saturday
night. The Saints came back in the seocnd half to knock off the
Conquistadors. Daily Leader photo/Rustin Watt
LADY SAINTS ROUT DODGE CITY, 93-50
Thanks for letting us cover your events. Look in theDaily Leader for morecoverage this summer
and next school year atSeward County
Community College.
DAILYLEADER
HIGH PLAINS
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Dana LoewenNews editor
With the spring semester almost over,college life can get a little hectic, espe-cially when it’s time for finals.Next time you feel like a juggler withtoo many balls in the air or like a torna-do is ripping through your brain, maybeyou should give one of these stress re-lieving tips a whirl.1. Laughter is the best medicine.Whether it’s watching stupid You-Tubevideos or hanging out with your crazyfriends, find a way to make yourselflaugh. After a good laugh, you can’t notfeel better.2. Take a walk. Go with a friend or twoor your dog. Not only will you feel bet-ter, but you’ll also get a bonus workout.3. Take a nap. It’s probably unneces-sary to tell a college student to nap, but ifyou’re not too stressed to nap it can be anice break. Just don’t forget to set youralarm so you don’t sleep all day!4. Pop some bubble wrap. You knowyou want to.5. Listen to music. The great thingabout this is you can work on homeworkat the same time if you’re even relativelygood at multitasking. Singing along canbe even more stress relieving.6. Draw a picture or write in a journal.You don’t have to be an art or Englishmajor. Just draw or write whatever isfloating around in your head at the mo-ment. Putting your ideas on paper can getrid of a lot of stress.7. Cook or bake something. Cookiescan be fairly easy and a delicious studysnack. If you don’t have an oven becauseyou live in the dorms, make somethingthat doesn’t require one, like puppy chowor trail mix.8. Dance like nobody’s watching. Orbetter yet, dance when nobody’s watch-ing.
9.Pa i n tor sculpt.Don’t discardthis one because you’re artistically chal-lenged. The great thing about modern artis that it really doesn’t have to look likeanything. Just tell your friends it’s ab-stract and represents some vague idea.10. Get a fish and just watch him swim.If you live in the dorms where you can’thave pets, you could download a virtualfish app. A lava lamp also gives youabout the same results, plus you don’thave to feed it.11. Plant a flower. It’ll make the roommore peaceful and cheerful, too.12. Read a book. Let your mind gosomewhere else and forget your ownworries for a while.13. Clean. Your room probably needsit anyway, so turn on some music andclean your room. It can relieve some ofyour nervous energy, and having a cleanspace helps you focus better.14. Light a candle. Lavender, jasmine,rose and vanilla are all calming scents.Use a candle warmer if you live in thedorms.15. Meditate. It sounds scary, but real-ly all it means is take a deep breath andsit still for a minute. Focus on breathingand nothing else.16. Stop procrastinating and study al-ready! Here’s a no-brainer: actuallydoing your work means you can stopworrying about it.
16stresstips for less
The board of trustees received a report onlow enrollment in various instructional pro-grams during its regular board meeting onApril 5.The administration presented a review of anumber of programs that have consistentlyhad low enrollment in their classes. Amongthe low-enrollment programs that are beingmonitored are art, journalism, criminal jus-tice, business administrative technology,agriculture, Computer Information Systems,construction trades technology, automotivebusiness management, machine tool technol-ogy, drafting and design technology andtruck driving.To help boost enrollment, many of thoseprograms are implementing new marketingstrategies, developing online courses, seek-ing 2+2 articulation agreements with four-
year colleges and universities, offering class-es at different times, or combining differentlevels of courses into one class time.The board approved a recommendationfrom the financial aid office that the collegeparticipate exclusively in the Federal DirectLoan program beginning with the 2010-11academic year.All SCCC/ATS students seek-ing federal financial aid will apply for theireducation loans through the federal financialaid programs rather than a commerciallender. Most of the community colleges inKansas have either gone to direct lending orwill for the fall 2010 semester. The move isa component of new federal regulations forstudent financial assistance.This program will be less confusing forparents and the financial aid office becauseeverything will be housed in one area, said
Donna Fisher, director of Financial Aid.The board approved a seven-year contractwith Pepsi Cola to supply the vending ma-chines on campus. The contract includes up-front cash, three scholarships per year at$1,500, a Gatorade Sideline Kit used at ath-letic events at $700 a year and a donation of100 cases of products per year.In other action, the board accepted the res-ignation of Karen Cress, financial aid officerand Steve Hecox, Allied Health Divisionchair and director of Nursing, and acceptedthe bid from Alexander Open Systems ofKansas City, Kansas, in the amount of$40,235 for a virtual server and storage hard-ware.� For full report, see CrusaderNews.com
Board reviews low enrollment programs
GCI comes to Liberal
Deisi BarbozaOnline editor
Phi Theta Kappa will host four fundraisers for the remainder of theyear: a Krispy Kreme fundraiser, quiz bowl, graduation bouquets,and honors breakfast.For the Krispy Kreme fundraiser, members will take orders fordonuts; Phi Theta Kappa adviser Debbie Stafford said that the fundsraised will go to three different causes, the American Cancer Soci-ety, the local organization Southwest Miracles, and to help a youngwoman who has cancer. Contact any Phi Theta Kappa member orcall Stafford at 417-1106 to place an order. Orders will have to bein byApril 20 and will come inApril 26.“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year. It has been successfulover the years. It’s a wonderful opportunity to help others in thecommunity,” Stafford said.Phi Theta Kappa will also host a quiz bowl tournament at 7 p.m.to 10 p.m.April 22 in SW229. There will be refreshments and prizesgiven out. Stafford also noted that a faculty team would be partici-pating.Phi Theta Kappa will also host an honors breakfast at 8 a.m. May9 in SW 229. The cost is $5.25 per person and is free for Phi ThetaKappa members. Guests must register in advance with Stafford.Rose bouquets for graduation will also be on sale by Phi ThetaKappa. The prices are $18 for half a dozen and $25 for a dozen. Al-though aimed for graduation, Stafford points out that Mother’s Dayis the day after graduation. “They make great Mother’s Day gifts aswell.”
Four more fundraisersfor Phi Theta Kappa
Baseball beat out the nursing program last night and helped raisemore than $6,000 in the evening alone. Numbers will not be final-ized for the next couple days with many people returning calls andmaking more pledges.“We push and push and push our guys,” Galen McSpadden, headbaseball coach, said. “That tells me they appreciate being pushed andour program, the school, the community, and their instructors. Thisgave us the opportunity to see it. Sometimes I wonder if they appre-ciate things and they’re competitive guys. The incentives got themfired up. The first time I they saw the TV and the $500 to the topgroup, they said they’re going for it. And they did it. I just hope theycan take that fire and passion to the field and they can do the samefor the Region VI tournament.”In the end, after five nights of students making calls, although thenumber is not finalized, the second goal of $30,000 dollars was alsosurpassed. After last night’s phonathon, $32,781 in scholarships wasraised for future students and is likely to end between $33,000 and$36,000.“What pulled us through was the number of students, faculty, andcoaches stepping up and doing their part,” Celeste Donovan, deanof student services, said.“What made this so successful was that it wasn’t one person orgroup,” Tammy Doll, director of development, said. “It was a teamof staff, faculty and students working together for a common goal.”
• continued from page 1Phonathon
Zachary CarpenterCrusader Staff
The Petroleum Industry Education committee is bringing the 58thGas Compressor Institute to Liberal on April 19-21. The activitieswill commence at the Seward County Event Center. Activities willinclude a viewing of the latest equipment and services in the exten-sive exhibit areas with more than 150 exhibitors, a meeting with spe-cialists and colleagues to share practical information and new tech-niques and a Tuesday social recognizing new recruits and their im-portance to the industry.The keynote speaker for this event will be Marita Noon, the exec-utive director of Citizens’Alliance for Responsible Energy. CAREis actively involved with the NewMexico oil and gas industry. Noonis a published author and has served as the president of a communi-cations company.Classes for the conference will include Caterpillar gas engine tech-nology; Ariel factory training; hands on training in basic electronicsand compressor panel repair; drive selection and maintenance; laseralignment; air fuel ratio; and reading and understanding engineeringdrawings. The Caterpillar and Ariel classes will begin at 1 p.m.through 4 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday. Pre-registration isrequired for the Caterpillar class and seating is limited for both class-es.Register online at www.liberalgasinstitute.com/gci.
“No, I’m not, actually.My class is gone already, soI see no point in walkingwith a class I don’t belongto.”
Our View...
Luis Rios“Yes. Since I’m in respi-
ratory therapy, I won’t begraduating until two moreyears, but I have full inten-tions of walking.”
Matthew Parks“Oh, yeah! I want to
make my parents proud.”
Jessica Palacios“Nope. I am apathetic
about walking. Besides, Ijust walked two years ago.”
Logan Maier“Yes, because my adviser
and parents wanted me to.”
Lacy Garcia
Comments collected by Lizuly Monarrez
Graduation is importantBe there, be recognized
Graduation is an opportunity, and no students whohave spent the past two or more years here at Se-ward working their butts off for their degrees shouldmiss it.
Although we all believe graduation is a big deal,there are mixed feelings even on the Crusader staffabout spending the price for attire required for walk-ing at graduation. With tax added, it costs anywherefrom $39 to $70 for the mix of buying and rentingthe graduation getup –– $22 for the cap and gown,$9 for the tassel, $11 for honor cords, $5 to rent thestole, and don’t forget the added $20 fee if youbought the Phi Theta Kappa stole. Yikes!
But here’s the deal. As a staff, we agree studentsshould think outside the box. If 40 bucks (plus) isout of your budget for a graduation cap and gown,go to www.ebay.com and get your gown there forcheap. When we checked, there were black caps andgowns for as low as $9.99.
Here’s another no-brainer. Some of you may haveforgotten about your graduation robe from high
school. Use that if it’s the right color. No expensesthere. And while you’re digging through the closetfor that graduation robe, pull out those honors cordsand use those, too. An honors cord is an honorscord. They’re no different than the ones you used inhigh school and will save you $11.
Better yet, maybe Liberal High School should justchange their graduation colors to all black insteadof black for males and red for females. That way,the majority of students at Seward will already havea third of the gear they need for graduation.
Even at this late date, you can pull off buying yourgraduation robe on eBay or using your high schoolrobe and honors cords. All you will need is that $14fee for buying your tassel and renting the stole,which the bookstore will sell and rent until the Fri-day before graduation.
The PTK stole is optional, so skip that if you’reon a budget, but don’t miss your own graduation.Go and get the recognition you deserve for graduat-ing with your associate degree from Seward.
Crusader Editor,I read the articles and cartoon
regarding the issue of concealedweapons on campus. I've alsodone some research on the exist-ing concealed carry law, includ-ing contacting the KansasAttor-ney General’s office for someclarification.
It is being assumed that if thebill is passed we should spendhundreds of thousands of dollarsfor security devices and person-nel. It is also being assumed thatwe are safer by denying licensedlaw-abiding citizens to carryconcealed than to allow law-abiding citizens who are trainedand licensed to carry concealed.Make no mistake, posting thebuildings doesn’t stop anyonefrom carrying concealed illegal-ly. What removing the signswould do is warn any potentialshooter that he's not in a“COSHA* safe zone.”
In other words, criminals withmischief on their mind wouldlikely choose another location todo their deeds (somewhere thatis posted), since they may besurrounded by armed citizenswho are trained and licensed tocarry concealed. As it is now,those law-abiding citizenswould be forced to wear theirsidearm in open-carry fashion inorder to be legal.
That would also make thempremier targets if a criminal didstrike, thus dissuading themfrom carrying at all, and elimi-nates any real security that theconcealed carry laws currentlyprovide.
I believe if more places justremoved those signs and thefalse sense of security they pro-vide (and the real sense of secu-rity for those with malice inmind), there wouldn't be muchneed for the bill currently in thestatehouse.
Which would you prefer, thelaw-abiding citizens to have tocarry open holstered while crim-inals carry concealed, or warnthe criminals off by allowingthose with licenses to carry con-cealed? Then the bill and the se-curity costs would be a mootpoint. The cheapest way to re-move the false sense of securityis to remove the signage.
Think about it, if you were acriminal, would you be morelikely to start something in a lo-cation where anyone aroundmight be carrying concealed, orin a place where that was forbid-den?
Arguing over the cost is reallybeside the point. Just remove thesigns, and allow the concealedcarry. You won’t even notice it.Right now you probably don’tknow how many are carrying atother places that aren't posted. Ifthe cost is a problem, I’ll volun-teer my time and a razor blade toremove them myself.
— Emery V. Swagerty
*COSHA - Criminal Occupa-tional Safety and Health Act:Any law which protects crimi-nals by denying rights to law-abiding citizens; laws whichcriminals will readily break any-way.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Easier solutionto concealedweapon bill
Be a hero by being a good role model
School is challenging, but don’t regret it
Success is in sight for weight loss goal
As a kid, my favorite super heros wereBatman, Zorro and, of course, my mom. Iwould always run around the house in theDark Knight’s cape, and put on a hat andmask and run around fending off evil withthe all mighty plunger.
Everyone has someone to look up to.Whether it’s someone who can fly at the rateof a speeding bullet, or someone that bakeschocolate cookies for them, our heroes havea very big influence on our outlook on life.
The truth is, sometimes we do not realize
who is looking up to us. Sometimes it maybe a kid at church or a neighbor that watch-es us outside with our friends. Whoever itmay be, our actions can affect someoneelse’s perspective even if we are unawarethat they are watching.
George Lucas, the creator of the Star Warsuniverse, had no idea that one simple moviecould explode into a phenomenon whichhas become a staple in most homes acrossthe galaxy.
As kids we are taught to dream big and letnothing stop us, and that is why we love tocling to the escapades of Spider-Man andthe Caped Crusader. They give us hope anda feeling that everything will be great in theworld; that there is always someone fight-ing for the underdogs.
As we get older some of us lose our child-like faith in the greater good. Facing the re-ality of life, our jobs, families, and other
problems weigh us down into believing thatno one cares for us, or that there is no waywe could make a difference.
The fact of the matter is that we carry theprivilege of not having to wear spandextights and crazy costumes, but we still carrythe power of change and hope in our hands.
If we all gave up hope and believed thatthe world is a cruel place and things won'tchange, then it would self-fulfill thatprophecy.
Sometimes we just need to dip back intoour childhood and have a little more of ourfaith to persevere.
We can make it through these times onegood deed at a time. It doesn’t take beingbitten by a radio active spider, or being awealthy vigilante to make a difference.
As for me, I will eat the cookies my momstill bakes for me and know that there arestill heroes among us.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve al-ways been the chubby kid. I was the onewho went back to get seconds when theywere available in the cafeteria in elementaryschool, and junk food was also my bestfriend. I got along with Cheetos, Fritos andDoritos. I never really cared about thoseextra pounds I packed on when I was littlebecause my parents always said, “you’ll gettall and even out.” Fast-forward to after 8thgrade and I stayed at a sad 5-foot-6-inches,which was taller than both of my parents, yetstill just average in real world standards.
I did start worrying about my extra pounds
the summer after middle school and startedeating more salads and exercising more. Iwas at an ideal 150 pounds that summer, andit felt good.
However, things change and I soon got ajob at sandwich store filled with lots of en-ticing bread products and free food andsoda. I also became a stressed high schoolstudent with many late nights of studyingand snacking. The weight sky-rocketed to198 pounds when I weighed myself in thebeginning of this school year. I was reallyuncomfortable, and felt like nothing I worereally looked good. I was also concernedwith the health risks that come with beingoverweight.
I wanted to do something about it, but Ijust had no motivation and figured that I did-n’t really have the time to be worrying aboutlosing weight. However, I was presentedwith an opportunity in one of my classes towrite about a goal I would like to meet. Mygoal, naturally, was to lose some weight. I
changed quite a few things in my diet, likecutting out soda and unhealthy fast foodcompletely, along with watching how manycarbohydrates I consumed. I never saw my-self working out in the past, because runningin a gym just seemed so dull, but I gave it ashot, and with a few of my favorite tunes, anhour on any machine just flies by. All ofthese little changes helped me get down toabout 160 pounds. It’s still not where I wantto be, but knowing that little things in mydiet along with exercise can make a differ-ence, I believe that anyone who sets his orher mind on doing something can accom-plish it. As far as my summer goes, I plan oncontinuing losing a few more extra poundsand staying fit by taking a kick-boxing classand get back down to 150 pounds.
I recommend that people interested in los-ing weight find activities that interest themas a means to lose weight and observe theirdiets and make small changes to become ahealthier person.
First off, if you’re reading this, there’s agood chance that you’re a student. If you’rea student, you’ve probably successfullymade it to the end of this school year.
Being that this is a community college,there’s a one in two chance that you’re grad-uating with your associate degree this May.
For that, I congratulate you. It’s some-
thing I didn’t have in me to accomplish. Inmy college experience, I’ve found that oneof the most difficult obstacles a person canhurdle is the first two years of college. Inthose first two years, most are unsure ofwhat they’re going to be when they gradu-ate. This makes it hard to find the motiva-tion to achieve when you are unsure of whatit is you’re trying to achieve.
For me, I got impatient. I’ve been inschool of some kind or other for almost 14years, and I’m ready to get things going, soI enlisted in the Marine Corps. I’m really ex-cited; it’s going to be a good fit for me.
I’m glad I gave college a shot. I don't re-gret my year at Seward County or my al-most-year and Garden City; they were great
places to start the trek towards a college ed-ucation. But it’s just not for me right now. Idon’t think I would have made it this farthrough college if it hadn’t been for the factthat I attended a community college.
Not to say that it’s any easier than a uni-versity. I don't believe that for a second, butgood luck getting one-on-one time withyour professors at K-State or KU.
That commitment by the faculty to helpstudents achieve is what makes communitycollege so great. It’s such a tight atmospherethat it’s hard not to succeed, and that kind ofmomentum will set you up to succeed wher-ever you go.
Letters to the editor will be consid-ered for publication if they are signedand authenticity is verified. We reservethe right to edit for length. Submit let-ters at [email protected],mail to Box 1137, Liberal, KS 67901,or bring by the Crusader office inAA131.
Photo Illustration/ Dana Loewen
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Clash of the Titans
Movie | Logan Green
The pros and cons of renting in Liberal
Pros:• Low fee of $1 per movie plustax. • No membership. • Return at your discretion. • Open 24/7• Can look up codes to get freerentals.
Cons• Limited selection• Currently only rents DVDs. • Certain movie companiesdon’t let Redbox use theirmovies until it has had a 24day release window giving re-tailers an edge over the Red-box.
Pros: • Wide selection • New releases available theday they come out. • Early return credit. • Have video games and BluRay for rent. • $0.99 for older movies.
Cons:• $3.99 for new releases and$5.99 for Blu-Ray. • Late fees $0.99 per day fornew releases and videogames, $0.50 for oldermovies. • Membership required
Pro:• Virtually any
movie available. • Stream movies from theinternet to your computer orother compatible devicesuch as the Wii, Playstation3 or X-Box 360. • Some online renters stillsend you physical DVDs.
Cons: • Must have a membership. • Prices and plans vary,physical DVDs and stream-ing cost extra. • iTunes charges $3.99 torent new releases and maynot have certain titles forrent.
RedboxOnline
Hastings
Q: Do you rentmovies? Why orwhy not? If sowhere do yourent?
“If I ever rent movies it’s usu-ally at the Redbox because youdon’t have to worry about latefees...or membership.”
Morgan Skomal
“I don’t rent them myself butI use Netflix. The last thing Iwant to do is go to some Block-buster in the middle of the nightand they don’t have a limit tohow long you can keep them.”
Nathan Wheeler
“Redbox first, Hastingssecond.”
Kenia MendezStephanie Jacquez
“Sometimes, because thistown is boring. I get them fromthe Redbox because it’s cheaperand on my way home.”
Mateus Cabizuca
Earlier this month Movie Gallery announced that theywould be closing down their Liberal location. Currently theyare having a major sale on their previously viewed moviesand furniture. Video rental stores are quickly becoming a thing of the past
with companies like Blockbuster and Movie Gallery closinglocations all over the country and the growth of Redbox andonline movie retailers. Are the rental stores beneficial or like countless other ob-
solete items a thing of the past? What is the best and mostconvenient way for college students to rent movies in thistown?
Ceramics artist John Mc-Cluggage will create a pot out
of more than 200 poundsof clay when he vis-its the campusApril 20. The artist is
head of ce-ramics at theWichita Cen-ter for the arts.He has stud-ied art at Se-ward CountyCommunityC o l l e g e ,
Kansas Statue University,Fort Hays State and WichitaState. He is the crew leader at the
Odiayn Buddhist Retreatwhere he built monumentalbronze statues. He is theowner of Shika StudiosThe event will be free ad-
mission April 20 in the Ce-ramic Studio H112. It willtake place from noon to 9 p.m.with periodic breaks. For more information con-
tact Dustin Farmer at 620-417-1452.
Ceramics artist to do show
Pots by John McCluggage whowill be a visiting artist from noon- 9 p.m. on the campus April 20.
By Jose Rodriguez and Deisi Barboza
Louis Leterrier has been accustomed to makingaction films in his short career, and ‘Clash of theTitans’ is no exception. The movie begins by tak-ing viewers into the history of the universe, andin a cool CGI shot portrays the story of the godsoverthrowing the Titans through nebulas in theconstellations. Zeus then makes man, who feeds Zeus’ immor-
tality through their prayers. But when man rebelsagainst the gods, Zeus sees no alternative otherthan to allow his brother, Hades, to destroy thecity Argos, the main city of the Rebellion, withthe Kraken. Perseus, who learns he is a demigod,son of Zeus, leads a campaign to find a way to de-stroy the Kraken, who is the creation of the evilgod Hades.The movie is rich with action and CGI so real-
istic that I could feel wads of spit leaping from themouth of the Kraken when he roared. Some otherhighlights are the well placed, and unexpectedslow motion shots and cool monsters throughoutthe flick. Unfortunately, the movies lacked a fewkey elements that kept it from being a box officehit.Action movies lately would do well to learn the
meaning of two words: Character Development.Perseus seemed to display one emotion; anger.
The movie triesto show a mandesperate for re-venge and rapped up insorrow from his family’sdeath, but instead viewers getto see a character with the emo-tional capacity of a rock. Secondly, there were a few
stories in which the humans weretreated badly, but there is nevermentioned a cruelty so tyrannical that the godsshould be treated with such contempt as they aregiven. In fact, the way that it was portrayed madeit seem as though it was the human’s fault that thegods brought wrath upon the humans, as verifiedby the constant reminders that Zeus loved the hu-mans, but they, for an unnamed reason haveceased to love him. The ‘Clash of the Titans’ was a real clash be-
tween awesome action, and poorly written char-acters. ‘Clash of the Titans’ would do good tolearn from ‘Remember the Titans’ that honoredaction movies are those that take time to developcharacters who the audience can identify with,but that they can also enjoy watching when it’stime to turn on the “kill switch.”
Lack of character ruins movie
FEATURE6 Friday, April 16, 2010CRUSADER
Cat WalkCat Walk
Back StageBack StageBackstage the cast, sceneryand props wait for theirchance to enter and exit thestage with a cue from thestage manager to the assistantstage manager. The backstagevolunteers, called the deckcrew, also work as runners,helping with anything thatmay have gone awry.
Upstaging jobsUpstaging jobsUpstaging jobs
Dancers
Dancers
PitPit
Assistant StageAssistant Stage
The specifieddancers of amusical aregiven moredifficult andspecialtydances. Theymay also dostunts. Thedancers for“Beauty and theBeast” includeDevon Box,Linsday Brauerand ElizabethDenoyer.
The backstage area is dominatedby the assistant stage managerJessica Bickerstaff. Bickerstaffcommunicates back-and-forththrough a headset to stage man-ager Joshua Hinton to give thecast behind-the-curtain cues.
The pit plays the background music for the cast to sing to. Or-chestra conductor Darin Workman says the job of the pit is just todo great orchestration and give good cues.
Workman is the band instructor at the college. He has beenusing the same community members in the pit for years; howev-er, there is one college student, David Rohloff.
Workman selects all of the members of the pit except the ac-companying pianist, who is selected by the director. The pianistfor “Beauty and the Beast” is Becky Robison.
CastCast
DirectorDirector
The top of themusical hierarchyis the directorAlison Cham-bers. Chambersis in charge of theartistic aspect ofthe production.The look of theshow, costumes,props, set andright down to themovements eachcharacter makesare all choicesmade by thedirector.
Second in the chain ofcommand is the stagemanager Josh Hinton.Hinton is in charge ofeverything technical in theproduction. Hinton alsooversees all other jobs onset.
Stage ManagerStage Manager
The cast is a compilation of people who tried out and were selected for a pro-duction. The cast practices extensive hours at each rehearsal, and are mentoredby the director, stage manager and assistant stage manager.
An audience only gets to see the finishedproduct of an onstage play or musical, butnot often does one stop to think about all
the different jobs and work that goes into aproduction like “Beauty and the Beast.”
ManagerManager
Photos by Miguel Campano, Logan Green and Morgan Allaman
SPORTSSection B • Page 1
Friday, April 16, 2010CrusaderSEWARD COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE/ AREA TECHNICAL SCHOOL
Saints drop two to Clarendon,still in first in Jayhawk West
Top: Pitcher ErinRoufosse winds upto throw a pitchagainst a BartonCounty hitter in gameone on Wednesday.Roufosse threw acomplete gameshutout and onlygave up one hit in thecontest.
Right: Shelby Caseyswings at a ballagainst the BartonCounty Cougars.Casey was two forthree with a runscored and two RBIsin game two of thedoubleheader.
Far Right: CoachGustafson congratu-lates center fielderBrittany Kent aftershe blasted a triple toleft field against aCougar pitcher.
Crusader photos/Will Rector
Crusader photo/Will Rector
Left fielder Luke Campbell connects on a pitch for a homerun off of a Clarendon pitcher on Wednesday.Campbell was one for three in game two of the doubleheader and his solo homerun in the fourth inning wasone of the few bright spots for the Saints.
Lady Saints keep winning, notslowing down as playoffs nearWill RectorCrusader staff
The Seward County LadySaints softball team continues toprove that they are a top team inthe nation as they rolled throughBarton, 4-0 and 3-0 onWednesday at Lady Saints Field.Erin Roufosse took the circle
for the Saints in the first game ofthe doubleheader and was lightsout from the first pitch.Roufosse took a no-hitter into
the seventh inning when KaylaBecker laced a single to left fieldto break up the no-no.Roufosse used a combination
of strikeouts and ground balls tobaffle the Barton County hittersas she had seven strikeouts and12 ground ball outs.The Lady Saints found them-
selves in a tie ball game until thefourth inning when BriannaBaron knocked a double to leftfield and two batters later, KelseaBlackstock hit a single up themiddle to plate Baron.The Lady Saints were held
scoreless in the bottom of thefifth, but found insurance runs inthe sixth when they added anoth-er three runs to the board.Marisa Coats started off the
inning by hitting a single backup the middle. Baron walked afterworking a full count.That is when Brittany Kent
stepped to the plate. Kentgrounded out in her two previousat bats, but was wasting no timein her third at-bat as she crushedthe first pitch over the left field-ers head for a two-run triple. Kentwould later score on a fielderschoice to the second baseman.Game two saw Sydney
Cicchetti step into the pitchingcircle proving to be nearly as un-hittable as Roufosse by tossing acomplete game shutout allowingonly four hits, all singles, andhad five strikeouts with onewalk.The Lady Saints threatened
early in the second inning asBaron walked to start the inning,stole a base and advanced on apassed-ball.Kent flew-out to left field and
Blackstock struckout followingBaron leaving her on third basewith two outs.Amy Schartz walked andLynda
Musick grounded into a fielder’schoice to end the inning withoutscoring Baron.The third inning started with
two quick outs for the Lady
Saints, then Shelby Caseystepped to the plate.Casey worked a full count and
fouled off two pitches before sheripped a double to left field.Coats followed suit by hitting
a single up the middle into centerfield that allowed Casey to scoreand gave the Lady Saints a 1-0lead.The Lady Saints were held
scoreless in the fourth but wereable to plate two in the fifthwhen Leah Sitter started off theinning with a single and thenstole second. Alicia Reyes sin-gled to center field to advanceSitter to third base.Reyes was able to advance to
second on a past-ball and set thestage for Casey as she ripped asingle up the middle scoring bothSitter andReyes to give the LadySaints a 3-0 lead.The next three batters were
retired in order to kill the rally bySeward.Cicchetti closed out the game
in the seventh by giving up asingle, then getting a ground ballout and struck out the final twohitters of the game to seal thevictory.The Lady Saints will travel to
Butler Community College for a
tournament this weekend.The Lady Saints go into this
weekendwith an overall record of36-7, 8-2 in conference.The Lady Saints hold the top
spot in the Jayhawk West and arecurrently ranked as the No. 10team in the nation.After this weekend the Lady
Saints will have five regular sea-son games remaining with threeof them to be played at homebefore Region VI play on May 7-8 in Wichita.The Lady Saints will be riding
their two strong arms, Roufosseand Cicchetti, as the Canadianduo continues to impress aftercombining to throw 15 shutoutson the season and 34 completegames.The two have a combinedERA
of 0.97 and have struckout 220hitters this year.Roufosse has also been named
the KJCCC Pitcher of the Weekthree out of the last four weeksand a Lady Saints player has beennamed as Player of the Week infour straight weeks as Baron tookthe honors last week.The Lady Saints next home
game will be on April 21 againstColby Community College witha start time of 3 p.m.
Will RectorCrusader staff
The Seward County Saintsbaseball team dropped two gamesto No. 19 Clarendon onWednesday 9-2 and 9-3 at BrentGould Field.A combination of poor pitch-
ing and poor at-bats proved to bedetrimental to the Saints in thedoubleheader.The Saints sent Hayden Holub
to the hill to start game one forthem and started good as he had a1-2-3 first inning.Clarendon put a run on the
board in the second inning togive the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead overthe Saints.The Saints answered in the bot-
tom of the third with a run oftheir own after Kelby Tomlinsonledoff the inning with a single toleft field and was able to get intoscoring position on an error.Josh Dawson hit a long fly
ball to left field that was deepenough to score Tomlinsonevening the score at one apiece.Clarendon blew the doors off
the Saints in the fourth inningafter they were able to score fiveruns in the inning as they battedthrough the lineup and ended
Holub’s day as he was replacedwith Bryce Ruff.Three of the five runs for
Clarendon came off of a homerunfrom Jase Morgan.Ty Jacobs lead off the fourth
inning for the Saints with ahomerun of his own, but thatwould be the last of the offensethat Seward could muster as theywere unable to score off of fivehits in the three remaininginnings.Morgan added another two-run
blast in the sixth to bring thefinal score to 9-2.Hoping for a better result in
game two, the Saints took thefield with Jared Wagner on thehill and Clarendon got to workquickly by putting up two runsin the top of the first.Wagner was able to get out of
the inning without giving up anymore runs.Clarendon would go on to add
five more runs in the next twoinnings to pull ahead to a 7-0lead.The Saints were held scoreless
through the first three inningsdespite managing three hits.After Jacobs held the Bulldogs
scoreless in the fourth, Luke
Campbell lead off the bottomhalf of the fourth for the Saintswith a solo homerun.Jordan Dallalio followed by
reaching base on a wild pitchthird strike and was able to scoreafter a walk, a hit by pitch, and afielders choice from JaredBroadbent bringing the score to7-2.Clarendon was able to plate
another run in the fifth and theSaints answered back in the bot-tom of the fifth.Quay Grant leadoff with a dou-
ble to left field and EddieWilliams would single bringingGrant across the plate to cut theClarendon lead to five with an 8-3 score.The fifth inning would mark
the end of the scoring for theSaints as Clarendon added anoth-er run to finish the scoring.The Saints are still on top of
the Jayhawk West as the double-header with Clarendon was a non-conference game.The Saints will be back in
action on Saturday and Sundaywith a conference four-gameseries against the Pratt Beavers atBrent Gould Field with 1 p.m.start times.
Jayhawk West Conference StandingsBaseball
School Conf. Seas.Seward County 17-7 21-22Butler 14-6 23-14Garden City 14-6 28-10Colby 12-8 21-16Dodge City 13-11 19-19Hutchinson 10-10 20-15Barton County 12-12 23-16Pratt 2-18 14-25Cloud County 2-18 10-25
SoftballSeward County 8-2 36-7Colby 6-6 21-15Butler 5-3 29-8Garden City 4-6 25-12Barton County 1-7 6-21
Milestone
Win No. 300
SPORTS2B Friday, April 16, 2010CRUSADER
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What value is in a number?In sports, numbers are everything. A player with a .215 career batting average in
college most likely will not be given a chance to make a Major League team oreven an Olympic team; however, a player that has a .457 career batting average incollege is one of the most sought after players.Numbers apply to coaching as well. Coaches who are winning are more likely to
retain their jobs and receive offers for better jobs than a coach who has a horriblewinning percentage.One of Seward County’s coaches has reached a positive milestone in her career.Head softball coach Andrea Gustafson coached her team against Luna Commu-
nity College on April 10. The team won 3-0 and gave Coach Gustafson the 300thwin of her collegiate coaching career.“The teams that have been the most successful are the teams who have had play-
ers that were willing to sacrifice themselves for the better of the team,” said CoachGustafson. “They have understood that it takes the entire team to accomplish goalsand have understand how they fit into making the team as successful as it can be.”Coach Gustafson did not start her coaching career in the college ranks. Gustafson
coached at two high schools before coming to Seward. Even though she had priorexperience, that did not necessarily help her after becoming the head coach.“I basically learned on my own after coming to Seward as an assistant in the fall
of 2002,” said Coach Gustafson. “I became the head coach a few months later andlearned along the way. I knew the game of softball, the hardest part was the officework and figuring out how to recruit.”Coach Gustafson led the 2009 Lady Saints to their first National Tournament ap-
pearance where they finished seventh, and Gustafson believes that is her greatestaccomplishment.“There’s no question: it was getting to the National Tournament for the first time
last year and finishing seventh,” said Coach Gustafson. “I was so proud and happyfor those kids who had worked so hard to achieve that. It meant a lot to be able tosend those sophomores out that way.”Looking past win No. 300 toward the end of the season, Coach Gustafson and
her team aim at this year’s national tournament.“It would be a great accomplishment to be able to get back to the national tour-
nament, and I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t our goal. There’s nothing more that Iwant than to be able to see the sophomores get back there.”
- Story and photos by Will Rector
Softball coach Andrea Gustafson shares a moment with two Se-ward County players as Barton changed pitchers in the gameWednesday. Gustafson recorded the 300th win of her collegiatecoaching career April 10.
Saints win over Barton givesteam confidence for regionalsDeisi BarbozaOnline editor
The men’s team won its duelagainst Barton 8-1; however, thewomen’s tennis lost against Bar-ton when both men’s andwomen’s tennis teams went toBarton Community CollegeApril 9. The men won eight of their
nine matches. All three Saintsdoubles partners, Fernando Soniand Carlos Souza, EduardoMunoz and Christian Romanzi-ni, and Laercio Lobo and NathanNelmes won their matches. The Lady Saints doubles part-
ners Antigoné Lowery andSylvia Perez, and Fanny Benin-
casa and Kauna Goncal wontheir matches as well. Lowery also won her singles
match. The Saints won all but one sin-
gles match; Souza could not playhis singles match due to knee in-jury. Despite not being able to play
his singles match at Barton,Souza is still confident about re-gionals starting in Wichita today. “If we beat them [Barton]
again, we will go to nationals.”Souza said. Souza also notedthat Cowley is the team to beatin regionals. Nationals are May 10 in Dal-
las. It has been more than fiveyears since the men have gone,
but Souza thinks the men have agood chance to go to nationalsthis year. “We did good the whole sea-
son,” Souza said. The women also start region-
als in Wichita today. “It’s going to be tough,” Low-
ery said. “I think there will bemore pressure on me since I wonmy bracket last year.”Lowery also also added that
the freshman are nervous aboutregionals. “I’m nervous but excited since
it is my first regionals,” fresh-man Lindy Kowalchuk said.“We are nervous but we are allvery supportive of each other,which helps a lot.”
The men’s and women’s ten-nis teams have made severalNJCAA National Tennis Tour-nament appearances, but neverhave both teams gone in thesame year.This season, the Saints and
Lady Saints are working hard tochange that.Head Coach Darin Workman
is currently in his 12th year atSeward County, and has guidedmany of his past teams to na-tionals, and has hopes to do thesame for the men’s andwomen’s tennis teams.“I really hope both teams
qualify for the national tourna-ment. All of the players de-serve to go to nationals,” Work-man said.In order to qualify for nation-
als, both teams must land in thetop three in the Region VI Tour-nament as a team.Even if athletes win their
draws, they cannot qualify fornationals individually.Every player is placed in an
individual bracket with playersfrom the other teams and isseeded according to how manylosses or wins they had againstthose teams during the springsemester.During the two-day tourna-
ment, players from the men’sand women’s tennis teams willeach play at least two doublesmatches and two singles match-es.Depending on how high a
players may be seeded in theirbrackets, they could potentiallyearn a bye, giving them an easyfirst round win and two fullpoints to be added to their team.Every first round doubles
match a team wins, along withevery other main draw doubleswin is worth a full point to beadded to their team’s totalscore. Every first round singles win
is worth two points and everymain draw win after that is
worth one point.If a player loses his or her
first round doubles or singlesmatch, then every match wonthereafter is only worth half apoint.In the Region VI Tournament,
every point matters to better theteam’s chances of qualifying fornationals, and every player is acontributor to the team.The sophomore veterans
know what it takes in order tomake it past the regional tour-nament to nationals, and havebecome huge motivators to thefreshman players.“The sophomores have
brought leadership and experi-ence to the teams. They are therole models for the freshmen tosee what is needed on the courtand also in the classroom,”Workman said.The Saints and Lady Saints
will be playing opponents fromHesston College, Cowley, Bar-ton, and Johnson CommunityColleges in the Region VI Tour-nament Friday and Saturday,April 16-17 in Wichita.
Crusader photo/Miguel Campano
Seward County player Gustavo Ruiz-Abad hits a forehand during practice before heading to take on BartonCommunity College.
A national berthdoesn’t come easy
Sports Column:
Antigoné LoweryCrusader staff
Athletic Banquet Friday, April 23 at 6 p.m.Green House gymnasium
Antigoné LoweryCrusader staff
Seward County CommunityCollege will hold its 25th annu-al athletic appreciation banqueton Friday, April 23 at 6 p.m. inthe Green House gymnasium.Every athlete, cheerleader,
dancer, and trainer will be rec-ognized and commended fortheir contributions to the athlet-ic programs at the college atthe banquet.In order to be recognized, all
honorees are encouraged to at-tend the athletic banquet.If circumstances should pre-
vent an honoree from attend-ing, they are asked to notifyBrandie Jones in the AthleticDepartment Office next to theAll-American room by April16.Honorees who plan on bring-
ing a guest to the banquet mustalso purchase an additionalticket for them by April 16 inthe Athletic Department Of-fice.The athletic banquet is a time
for honorees to come togetherand be recognized for theirwork during the 2009-2010school year at SCCC.
