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The modern day “Hansel and Gretel” is more than just a fairy tale; it has become a “virtual storybook.” Beginning Nov. 2, 3 and 4, Missouri Western’s art and theatre department will present it combining digital animation and live perfor- mances. “Hansel and Gretel,” di- rected by professors Susan Carter and Eric Fuson, will host three performances at Potter Hall on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., Saturday Nov. 3 at NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 32 St. JOSEPH, MO Vol 95 | Issue 32 griffonnews.com October 25, 2012 Griffon News questions who is supervising collected student fees. Page 6 Football player Shane Simpson shares his experience as an athlete and a parent. Page 8 Read about what WAC has in store for Halloween. Pages 4 & 5 Missouri Western has had revenues exceeding its bud- get by more than $7.4 million in the last three years, build- ing up reserves that had been depleted for several years prior to 2009. Interim Vice President for Financial Planning and Ad- ministration Rick Gilmore attributes the surpluses in part to being careful not to overestimate income from student fees and state reve- nue and not underestimating rising expenses. “We budgeted very con- servatively; I mean, I hate to use the word profit,” Gilm- ore said. “We did not know from time to time how much we were going to get cut.” President Dr. Robert Vart- abedian said outlook for the budget was a challenging time for Western last year. “We had cut all operating budgets at that point by 30 percent,” Vartabedian said. “We had a near hiring freeze. We had (and still have) a con- siderable amount of deferred maintenance needs. On top of all this, we were looking at a potential state appropria- tions cut of 12.5 percent.” The 12.5 percent cut pro- posed by Gov. Jay Nixon last year would have meant a $2.5 million cut. Instead, the state found money in other accounts and the appropria- tions total was a $500,000 increase. Last year’s budget- ary roller coaster left many members of the administra- tion understandably queasy. “The number one reason for the surplus in the last budget was cutting back cost wherever we could,” Gilm- ore said. “We have also left many positions open.” Many positions have been left open and that action should lower the cost of in- struction, but the cost of in- struction has gone virtually unchanged for three years, according to the Budget and Activity Report. This report is given to the CAP Board of Governors at fiscal year end. Those reports show a sur- plus of $2 million at the end of the 2010, $2.2 million at the end of 2011 and $3 mil- lion at the end of this past fis- cal year, on June 30. That $3 million surplus was a sharp turnaround from the 2008 and 2009 fiscal year endings, when Western needed to pull a $4.3 million from reserves to balance the ledgers those two years combined. Those two years of withdrawals pulled the reserves down to $4.5 million, a 10-year low. The reserves are at a 10-year high now of $8.3 million. The Board of Governors can do three basic things with reserves. They can increase them, spend them down, or maintain them. Western’s Board hasn’t decided yet what to do with these funds. “This is a conversation the Board needs to have in the future,” Board of Directors Chair Kylee Strough said. “Keep in mind, reserves should not be used for on- going expenses, but instead for one time purchases, im- provements, etc. We are glad that we have reduced depen- dency on reserves for opera- tions over the last few years.” Ellis Cross | News Editor [email protected]Western $7 million in black 2010-12 Western students create virtual storybook Michelle Cordonnier | Staff Writer [email protected]Missouri Western has decided to pick up on the craze that has followed “The Voice” by creating its own version. Director of Student Life Isaiah Collier is the man whose idea it was to have “The Voice of Western” on campus. “I was watching the show at home one night and it hit me that this might be some- thing the students would re- ally get into,” Collier said. Collier put student Justin Edwards in charge of setting up “The Voice of Western.” “Obviously we had to downscale because of our campus size to make it easier for students to participate,” Edwards said. “Other than that we tried to change as little as possible from the show.” The first auditions were on Oct. 4 and Oct. 18. The three team captains are Morgan Breckenridge, Sarah Waters and Derek Thompson. “We reached out to the music department and they recommended these three because they are advanced music students with an ex- traordinary ear for talent,” Collier said. In the first night of audi- tions they each chose six par- ticipants to be on their team. Originally there were going to be five members per team, but the number of people that showed up to audition was higher than anticipated. “There were some amaz- ingly talented people and I was so impressed with the voices he heard in the first night,” Breckenridge said. “The main thing we looked for in people, besides a good voice obviously, is confi- dence in their voice because stage presence and confi- dence can make up for a mis- take in their voice.” “The Voice of Western” has two more nights of competi- tion. The other two shows are on Thursdays Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 in Leah Spratt Hall. Morgan was very excited about the range of competi- tors there were at the first auditions. “Everybody that was cho- sen to compete has very dif- ferent and unique styles so it will be very interesting to see how they use those styles to their advantage,” she said. Two nights to go for “The Voice of Western” Nathaniel Conant | Staff Writer [email protected]Graduated student- athlete dies (Left) Sara Matthews strums her ukulele while giving it her all. (Right) Jacob Mills gets into the song as he competes to win the $1,000 prize. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor Brittany Douglas Brittany Toshene Doug- las, former Griffon softball player from 2008-2011, died on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012. She graduated from Mis- souri Western in the fall of 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in recreation sport management. Douglas came to Western from St. Louis and had an outstanding career for the Griffons as an outfielder. As a senior, she was named to the NFCA Daktronics Second Team All-South Central Region squad and was named Western soft- ball’s Female Athlete of the Year. She also earned First Team All-MIAA two times in her career. To see the video shown at the sports banquet in 2011, search “Brittany Douglas Softball gogriffs2541” on YouTube. In her final season, she helped the Griffon soft- ball team earn a share in the MIAA Regular Season Title for the first time in Western’s history. Douglas finished her career with a total of a .317 batting aver- age, 192 hits, 30 doubles, 101 runs batted in and 30 home runs; she ranks sec- ond on Western’s career home run list and ranks in the top 10 in several other categories. Douglas was also active in the community as she was named the Student- Athlete Advisory Commit- tee’s Volunteer of the Year for the 2010-2011 season and also served the organi- zation in many leadership roles. She was also viewed by her teammates as a person of respect and kindness. Former teammate Mae- gan Roemmich said she was able to play with Douglas for two years and spent time with her over the years. She said Doug- las would do anything for anyone and always had a good time. “She loved to play jokes on people,” Roemmich said. “She also had a great sense of humor.” Former teammate Keri Lorbert said Douglas made many friends both on and off the field. She said that Douglas’ death has taken a toll on the many people that she knew. “She had so much to give to the world,” Lorbert said. “Someone with so much potential left the Earth too soon.” Matthew Hunt | Opinions Editor [email protected]SEE H&G PAGE 2 SEE BUDGET PAGE 2 SEE VOICE PAGE 2 Students Truman Vasko and Danny Janovec created a lot of the play’s 3-D backgrounds, like “Moonlight,” the one shown here. *Submitted animation Matthew Hunt | Opinions Editor [email protected]4.7 5.8 7.1 7.3 7.8 5.2 4.5 4.7 6.5 8.3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2003 2004 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Chad Hammontree | Graphics Editor Millions in Reserves
Transcript
The modern day “Hansel and Gretel” is more than just a fairy tale; it has become a “virtual storybook.”
Beginning Nov. 2, 3 and 4, Missouri Western’s art and theatre department will present it combining digital animation and live perfor-mances.
“Hansel and Gretel,” di-rected by professors Susan Carter and Eric Fuson, will host three performances at Potter Hall on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., Saturday Nov. 3 at
NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE
PA I DPERMIT NO. 32St. JOSEPH, MO
Vol 95 | Issue 32 griffonnews.com October 25, 2012
Griffon News questions who is supervising collected student fees.
Page 6
Football player Shane Simpson shares his experience as an athlete and a parent.
Page 8
Read about what WAC has in store for Halloween.
Pages 4 & 5
Missouri Western has had revenues exceeding its bud-get by more than $7.4 million in the last three years, build-ing up reserves that had been depleted for several years prior to 2009.
Interim Vice President for Financial Planning and Ad-ministration Rick Gilmore attributes the surpluses in part to being careful not to overestimate income from student fees and state reve-nue and not underestimating rising expenses.
“We budgeted very con-servatively; I mean, I hate to use the word profit,” Gilm-ore said. “We did not know from time to time how much we were going to get cut.”
President Dr. Robert Vart-abedian said outlook for the budget was a challenging time for Western last year.
“We had cut all operating budgets at that point by 30 percent,” Vartabedian said.
“We had a near hiring freeze. We had (and still have) a con-siderable amount of deferred maintenance needs. On top of all this, we were looking at a potential state appropria-tions cut of 12.5 percent.”
The 12.5 percent cut pro-posed by Gov. Jay Nixon last year would have meant a $2.5 million cut. Instead, the state found money in other accounts and the appropria-
tions total was a $500,000 increase. Last year’s budget-ary roller coaster left many members of the administra-tion understandably queasy.
“The number one reason for the surplus in the last budget was cutting back cost wherever we could,” Gilm-ore said. “We have also left many positions open.”
Many positions have been left open and that action
should lower the cost of in-struction, but the cost of in-struction has gone virtually unchanged for three years, according to the Budget and Activity Report. This report is given to the CAP Board of Governors at fiscal year end.
Those reports show a sur-plus of $2 million at the end of the 2010, $2.2 million at the end of 2011 and $3 mil-lion at the end of this past fis-
cal year, on June 30. That $3 million surplus was a sharp turnaround from the 2008 and 2009 fiscal year endings, when Western needed to pull a $4.3 million from reserves to balance the ledgers those two years combined. Those two years of withdrawals pulled the reserves down to $4.5 million, a 10-year low. The reserves are at a 10-year high now of $8.3 million.
The Board of Governors can do three basic things with reserves. They can increase them, spend them down, or maintain them. Western’s Board hasn’t decided yet what to do with these funds.
“This is a conversation the Board needs to have in the future,” Board of Directors Chair Kylee Strough said. “Keep in mind, reserves should not be used for on-going expenses, but instead for one time purchases, im-provements, etc. We are glad that we have reduced depen-dency on reserves for opera-tions over the last few years.”
Western students create virtual storybookMichelle Cordonnier | Staff [email protected]
Missouri Western has decided to pick up on the craze that has followed “The Voice” by creating its own version. Director of Student Life Isaiah Collier is the man whose idea it was to have “The Voice of Western” on campus.
“I was watching the show at home one night and it hit me that this might be some-thing the students would re-ally get into,” Collier said.
Collier put student Justin Edwards in charge of setting up “The Voice of Western.”
“Obviously we had to downscale because of our campus size to make it easier for students to participate,” Edwards said. “Other than that we tried to change as little as possible from the show.”
The first auditions were on Oct. 4 and Oct. 18. The three team captains are Morgan Breckenridge, Sarah Waters and Derek Thompson.
“We reached out to the music department and they recommended these three
because they are advanced music students with an ex-traordinary ear for talent,” Collier said.
In the first night of audi-tions they each chose six par-ticipants to be on their team. Originally there were going
to be five members per team, but the number of people that showed up to audition was higher than anticipated.
“There were some amaz-ingly talented people and I was so impressed with the voices he heard in the first
night,” Breckenridge said. “The main thing we looked for in people, besides a good voice obviously, is confi-dence in their voice because stage presence and confi-dence can make up for a mis-take in their voice.”
“The Voice of Western” has two more nights of competi-tion.
The other two shows are on Thursdays Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 in Leah Spratt Hall.
Morgan was very excited about the range of competi-tors there were at the first auditions.
“Everybody that was cho-sen to compete has very dif-ferent and unique styles so it will be very interesting to see how they use those styles to their advantage,” she said.
Two nights to go for “The Voice of Western”Nathaniel Conant | Staff [email protected]
Graduated student-athlete dies
(Left) Sara Matthews strums her ukulele while giving it her all. (Right) Jacob Mills gets into the song as he competes to win the $1,000 prize. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor
Brittany Douglas
Brittany Toshene Doug-las, former Griffon softball player from 2008-2011, died on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012.
She graduated from Mis-souri Western in the fall of 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in recreation sport management.
Douglas came to Western from St. Louis and had an outstanding career for the Griffons as an outfielder. As a senior, she was named to the NFCA Daktronics Second Team All-South Central Region squad and was named Western soft-ball’s Female Athlete of the Year. She also earned First Team All-MIAA two times in her career. To see the video shown at the sports banquet in 2011, search “Brittany Douglas Softball gogriffs2541” on YouTube.
In her final season, she helped the Griffon soft-ball team earn a share in the MIAA Regular Season Title for the first time in Western’s history. Douglas finished her career with a total of a .317 batting aver-age, 192 hits, 30 doubles, 101 runs batted in and 30 home runs; she ranks sec-ond on Western’s career home run list and ranks in the top 10 in several other categories.
Douglas was also active in the community as she was named the Student-Athlete Advisory Commit-tee’s Volunteer of the Year for the 2010-2011 season and also served the organi-zation in many leadership roles.
She was also viewed by her teammates as a person of respect and kindness.
Former teammate Mae-gan Roemmich said she was able to play with Douglas for two years and spent time with her over the years. She said Doug-las would do anything for anyone and always had a good time.
“She loved to play jokes on people,” Roemmich said. “She also had a great sense of humor.”
Former teammate Keri Lorbert said Douglas made many friends both on and off the field. She said that Douglas’ death has taken a toll on the many people that she knew.
“She had so much to give to the world,” Lorbert said. “Someone with so much potential left the Earth too soon.”
The U.S. Army will be on campus recruiting in the Blum Lobby on Friday, Oct. 26. Visit them between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Want 20,000 employers to know about you? Then take the Bloomberg Assessment Test on Friday, Oct. 26, 9 a.m.-noon, in Murphy 107 or Friday, Nov. 9, 1-4 p.m., in Murphy 114. Register to-day at www.TakeTheBAT.com.
Candidate Forum Scheduled at
WesternOct. 30
The department of eco-nomics, political science and sociology at Missouri Western State University will sponsor a public fo-rum for candidates in two Buchanan County races at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30 in the Kemper Recital Hall, inside Spratt Hall. The fo-rum is free and open to the public.
If your organization would like to announce an event, e-mail the information to
1. Violent acts committed 11:50 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 14, Lot G
2. Drug Offense 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 15, Lot F
3. Stealing 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 15, Blum Union
4. Drug Offense 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 17, Logan Hall
Advisement for spring begins
Oct. 31
Advisement for the Spring 2013 semester begins Octo-ber 31, 2012. If you do not know who your advisor is please check on GoldLink, Student Academics tab un-der the Academic Profile section. Please contact this individual or the depart-ment concerning sign-up opportunities for advise-ment. Beginning at 7 a.m. on each date, the sched-ule listed below will be followed (degree-seeking students only): Seniors/Master’s (90+ hours) be-gins Nov. 5. Juniors (60-89 hours) begins Nov. 8. Sophomores (30-59 hours)begins Nov. 12. Freshman (0-29 hours) begins Nov. 14. Students who have a registration hold on their records will not be allowed to register.
The total amount of in-come exceeding the budget is not going into reserves however. Revenue exceed-ing budget for 2012 was over $3 million dollars and only $1.8 million was put into reserves. The dis-crepancy happens again in 2011 when excess revenue exceeds the budget by $2.2 million and only another $1.8 million is going into the reserves account. It gets even worse when you go to 2010 with revenue exceed-ing the budget by is over $2 million and only $200,000 is transferred to the reserves account.
So, how has Western been able to post a $3 million sur-plus this past year when the state has cut its appropria-tion by $3 million? This is how:
• An increase in enroll-ment, which has gone up 27 percent from 2003 to 2011
• Sacrifices from stu-dents, who have faced tu-ition increases of 9.5 percent within the last 5 years
• Sacrifices from stu-
dents with cuts of more than $450,000 in scholarships in the last five years
• Sacrifices from faculty and staff, which had no pay increase until the 2 percent increase last year
• No additional personnel to accommodate increasing student population every year since 2003
• Cuts of 30 percent in op-erating budgets and in other university operations
The students’ sacrifices and the increased enrollment have also been especially critical. The total revenue from the student fees jumped 39 percent from 2008 to 2012 from $20 million in 2008 to 2012’s total of $28.8 million.
Students are making even more sacrifices this year, in spite of the recent surpluses. The Board of Governors vot-ed in May to increase tuition by $100.00 per semester for 15 credit hours, although any gain in total revenues from that increase will likely be more than offset by a decline in students this fall of 3.5 percent and more important-ly, a decline in credit hours of about 5 percent.
In addition, the Student Senate voted in April to ap-prove the Student Success
Act that added another $75 for full-time students, $50 for part-time and $25 for sum-mer session students.
The new student fees gen-erated by the Sudent Senate, estimated to bring in over $700,000 for this fiscal year, have already brought in over $333,000 this fall semester. This act was passed by the SGA Student Senate and was supported by SGA President Jacob Scott.
“This Student Success Act was designed to help the university through this diffi-cult time,” Scott said. “I think if given the same situation, I would do it all over again.”
Scott says that the SGA based their decision on the budget provided by the uni-versity. Scott had no knowl-edge of the Board of Gov-ernors Budget and Activity Reports during the time that they passed the Student Suc-cess Act.
The proposed tobacco tax, if passed by a vote of the peo-ple, is expected to generate an additional $2.2 million, Gilmore said. If both these streams of revenue come in, it could increase Western’s bottom line as much as $3 million more than last year’s surplus of over $3 million.
3 p.m. and Sunday Nov. 4 at 3 p.m.
The cast and crew have been on a shortened touring production through the local elementary schools, and later will be going to other parts of Missouri, specifically the Kansas City area.
Students and instructors from Western’s art, anima-tion, music, and theatre de-partments have joined forces this fall to produce a perfor-mance combining opera, animation, arts, and perfor-mance touring.
This fall’s performance will not be the typical Broad-way musical, but the virtual re-telling of a centuries old fairy tale. The cast will bring the “Hansel and Gretel” fairy tale to life, using operatic musical numbers, the anima-tion of props, artistic scenery and a very talented cast.
“We have quite a few tal-ented students at Missouri Western, so the production of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ is great, it’s a combination of all the arts,” Carter said. “We have three national finals music students at Missouri Western.”
The 3-D animation was produced by Western stu-dents on a computer anima-tion program named Maya, which is also used in the pro-duction of Pixar films. Art in-structor Fuson was amazed by the program and the con-cept of doing an animated-touring production.
“It is a very different ex-perience for me,” Fuson said. “I am amazed at what these students can do nowa-days. The idea of touring the schools and showing the kids what kind of things that are done with art, the career choices they can have in the art world really inspires me.”
The two Western students most heavily involved in the animation process for “Han-sel and Gretel” are Truman Vasko and Danny Janovec. These students designed the “Moonlight” backdrop and all the other 3-D animations.
Animation instructor Pete Hriso guided the pair throughout the process of designing the 3-D sets using a computer animation pro-gram. Three separate screens will display the animated
affects of their bringing the story “Hansel and Gretel” to life.
“Something on stage will be moving at all times,” Cart-er said. “The art department does a great job of helping to bring the story and the music to life.”
Western’s version of “Han-sel and Gretel” offers a mul-titude of talent as many art students, music students and theatre students spent months preparing for the performance.
Western art students were involved in the design and production of backdrops and scenery. The scenery and backdrops, as well as the real projection on the animation screens will depict visions of the hovel in which Hansel and Gretel lived, that fades to a wooded area, and then moves to the evil witch’s house.
Theatre and music students make up the cast of “Hansel and Gretel;” Jacob Mills has been cast as “Hansel,” and Adrienne Collins plays the character of “Gretel.” Sarah Waters and Daniel Brooks play the roles of “Mother” and “Father,” Ian Fast is the “Sandman,” student musi-cian Kaitlyn Christian is the “Dew Fairy” and the charac-ter of the “Evil Witch” is stu-dent actor Jeremy Howe.
The vocal opera music is accompanied by Ara Ju and Donovan Jones on piano as a two-piano orchestra. Many hours of practice went into the construction of a project this big.
The combination of all the arts is a massive production that involved many people and an amazing amount of talent. The professors worked well with each other and felt that the show would be a great inspiration of cre-ativity to the children of the elementary schools they will tour, as well as the Potter Hall audience on Nov. 2, 3 and 4.
This is only the second time that Fuson has worked with a production that in-cluded digital animation. While digital animation is still a new program at West-ern, students and professors alike are already thinking of the next step -- the next pro-duction.
“This is even better than a 3-D movie,” Fuson said.
The team captains are in charge of eliminating the contestants up until the last day of competition. Then a special guest judge will come in and help to make the final decision.
“Although I won’t tell who the special guest is, I think people will be excited and enjoy his or her input,” Collier said.
After the final competi-tion, all of the students will vote for a winner. Edwards and Collier haven’t decided exactly how they will get and tally the votes. They are looking into a text line to help, but nothing is cer-tain yet. The winner of “The Voice of Western” wins $1,000 in cash.
BUDGET: CONTINUED FROM FRONT
H&G: CONTINUED FROM FRONT
VOICE: CONTINUED FROM FRONT
Drew Miller rocks out on his blue guitar as he sings one of his favorite songs. Evan Roberts | Photo Editor
Excess through sacrifice
Winner to receive $1,000 Cast will perform at elementary schools
NEWSOctober 25, 2012
The Griffon NewsPage 3
Annually, the Student Government Association allocates 20 percent of the budget to Student Affairs.
According to the SGA By-laws and Policy Guide the money allocated to Student Affairs primarily funds the Center for Multicultural Education, the Center for Student Engagement, Inter-mural programs and Stu-dent Leadership Programs. Judy Grimes, the interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students, explained the importance of the SGA allocation.
“It’s pretty normal in higher education that di-
rect student fees support Student Affairs,” Grimes said. “You’ll see it all over the country and especially in Missouri… the students in SGA wanted to provide in the constitution for a fixed allocation so that there would be some consistency in funding programming for students because it’s really focused on programming for students.”
SGA President Jacob Scott said that in years previous to the allocation to Student Affairs funding for the CSE, CME, and the Non-Tradi-tional Student Center “were funded up to the discretion of the SGA President.” Scott wants the student govern-ment to play a more active
role in the disbursement of the allocation.
“ P e r s o n a l l y, I think that it should go back to the Student Government Association. We can fund the money out to the offices,” Scott said. “I think that we can create fixed allocations within student government and that’s something I’m pursuing as SGA President now is to get that money back into the student gov-ernment’s hands.”
At the end of the fiscal year remaining allocation
funds are car-
ried forward to the next year. Last year, Student Affairs had a rollover of $95,030.48 bringing Student Affair’s beginning balance to $180,776.95.
“We have to keep some rollover there and we work with SGA to do that so in case say the [enrollment] numbers go down then we don’t collect as much mon-ey,” Grimes said.
While Grimes highlighted the importance of Student Affairs having a rollover, Scott would like to see the balance given back to the student government.
“I would like to see that roll back over to SGA. I think that we could do a lot of good things with that money and especially given the fact that Student Affairs already has their own op-erating budget,” Scott said, “I think we could use that money for a lot of good.”
Although the allocation is transferred from the SGA budget the funds are collect-ed from a student fee.
“What happens is you have a student government fee each semester… and then of that entire collec-tion of fees it creates what it known as the SGA budget,” Scott said. “Then what was written into our constitution was that 20 percent of that budget would go to Student Affairs which usually equal about $90,000 but of course if kind of depends upon en-rollment.
To date Student Affairs approximates the total costs at $122,004.75, not including spring budgets for the CSE and CME.
Most people only look at the presidential race during an election year. There are also elections and debates that are happening much closer to home.
One of these debates was on Oct. 17, at Missouri West-ern in Kemper Hall 101. Tak-ing part in this debate were candidates for sheriff Mike Strong, who is the incum-bent that is running against Pat Grove. Also there were candidates for Eastern Dis-trict County Commissioner, Ron Hooke and his oppo-nent, P.J. Kovac.
Grove and Hooke are run-ning with the Republican
party, and Strong and Kovac are the Democratic candi-dates.
Grove is an alumnus of Western, graduating with
two degrees in law enforce-ment and criminal justice.
He has been in law en-forcement for 37 years, most of which were in Kansas
City. Strong has worked as a law enforcement officer in Buchanan County for 36 years and was part of the drug strike force for 13 of those years.
Strong and Grove both agreed that Western is a great neutral site that ev-eryone interested in watch-ing the debate can find very simply. In the commissioner race, Kovac, owner of the Kovac’s Fireworks store in Savannah, Mo., has served on the city council for two and a half years.
If re-elected, Hooke plans on working even more with community expansion proj-ects.
“In preparing for a debate, I like to refresh on the budget
items and expenditures and just review everything with-in the department as best as I can,” Strong said.
Grove likes to make sure he does his research.
“Defeating an incumbent is always difficult, but you look inside their book and see what they’re doing right and wrong,” Grove said. “Also look into their budget and see how our money can be spent more adequately for our taxpayers.”
Kovac’s major initiative is to make the county more accountable for their spend-ing. His plan is to post online or in the paper anytime the county spends more than $5,000. Kovac talks about what his plans are for the fu-
ture.“I don’t like the way Ron
has hidden the town meet-ings from everyone,” Kovac said. “My plan is to have two town meetings a month, with a taxpayer friendly meeting place and time. Also the agenda for the meetings will be up online in advance of the meeting, which is an-other thing Mr. Hooke hasn’t done while in office.”
Don’t fret if you missed out on the first debate; there is a second forum with the sheriff candidates and the western commissioners on Oct. 30 in Kemper Hall.
Buchanan County candidates meet for debateNathaniel Conant | Staff [email protected]
Mike Strong - DemocratCandidate for Sheriff
Pat Grove - Republican Candidate for Sheriff
*Courtesy of stjosephpost.com
FEATURES FEATURES October 25, 2012 October 25, 2012
The Griffon NewsThe Griffon NewsPage 5Page 4
Like it or not, the film in-dustry is primarily a busi-ness dependent on profit. So every once in a while, audi-ences will have to deal with some cheap-thrill money-makers.
“Paranormal Activity 4” is the latest.
As a critic, you dread films like these. Every generation has them, and the quality is usually pretty consistent: poor.
Nonetheless, this industry is still a business, and any critic, filmmaker or actor would be doomed without projects like these. They may be cheap, unoriginal, and oc-casionally boring, but with-out these films, there would be a struggle for filling the-aters.
If you are not familiar with the “Paranormal Activity” series, they are pretty simple.
Basically, you have your typical supernatural haunt-ing story that surrounds a family inside the privacy of their own home, but the films are made using the “found-
footage” style of filmmaking.The fourth installment
deals with a preteen, Alex (Kathryn Newton), and a lot of the early moments in the story features her and her boyfriend from across the street. This actually is one of the few bright spots of the film because the relationship between them is rather en-tertaining.
There is no need to get into the full-blown story of the film, because it is pretty ir-relevant.
The film is a tad different from the rest as it deals with this strange little kid who begins hanging around with Alex’s little brother and then they start to notice that he may be a tad demonic.
No big deal.It deals with the same
idea, the protagonist is being haunted by a demon within the household and so there is a lot of sudden move-ments and strange occur-rences throughout to scare the viewers.
There are very few mo-ments within the film that are legitimately “scary” because the film is more of a tool than
an actual narrative story. It mostly consists of still shots of the characters interacting and then a random jump-scare -- one of which was just a cat jumping on Alex’s com-puter, with a sharp jump in the music.
The film does actually get pretty creepy and enter-taining near the end of the film. There are some rather strange moments that can freak an audience out, but you really long for the entire film being that way.
If the first three-fourths of the film had the feeling that the last 10 minutes did, it probably would of been one
of the creepier and more jar-ring films in recent years -- but that isn’t the case.
The two directors, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, obviously show they can scare an audience and can pull of a good cinematic ex-perience in the horror sense, but this installment in the series is just a job for them, nothing that they particular-ly care about.
The film is obviously made for the young high school crowd because of a lot of the random jumps and cheap “scares” within the film will work on them.
There are moments of en-
tertainment between Alex and her boyfriend that I mentioned before that make the film still slightly amus-ing, so this isn’t the worst sequel to a franchise an audi-ence has seen.
Again, it’s not the worst horror film ever but it really isn’t worth the time for any-one over the age of 16. It’s simply 1982 again and this is our “Season of the Witch.”
Some artsy students today may hate the film and say how it is “ruining the indus-try,” but in reality, it is keep-ing it alive with its box office numbers.
No need to spend near-ly $10 on this film, but it wouldn’t be the most regret-table decision in your life, either. So, just like any de-monic situation in life, enter at your own risk.
MOVIE TRIVIA:Katie Featherston (who plays Katie) canʼt watch any of the “Paranormal” movies by herself. www.GriffonNews.com
View our video movie review at
*Courtesy of imdb.com
HOW TO: Trick out your treat bag
Missouri Western stu-dents have a variety of pumpkin patches, hay-rides and corn mazes that they can venture out to this Halloween.
Local area orchards close to St. Joseph offer a variety of fun activities for Hal-loween. Family Fun Days are being offered at two of the nearby orchards on Saturday, Oct. 27.
Both orchards will con-duct a special event for Halloween. Hunts will have its own theatrical production, and Schweiz-ers will host a state-sanc-tioned Pedal Tractor Pull.
Hunts Orchard, located northwest of campus, will host its Family Fun Day the same Saturday, al-though its event is open on weekends throughout the month of October. Hunts offers a vari-ety of activities that are fami-ly-oriented. Hunts is located off North 129 Highway, take exit 60 near A m a z o -nia. Hunts’ hours of op-eration are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and on Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Manager Brenda Carne-al of Hunts Orchard says that Hunts has a produc-tion with a new theme ev-ery year.
“This year’s theme is ‘Snow White and The Little People,’” Carneal
said. “It will be really fun and cute, the show has ran throughout the month, our last show will be held Sunday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m.”
Hunts offers people the chance to take hayrides to and from the pumpkin
patch, a n d an op-
p o r t u -nity to pick
your own
pumpkin. Specific activi-ties are geared towards children, but it is a family event so anyone may par-ticipate.
“We offer hayrides, hay mazes, grass mazes, an ob-stacle course, pony rides, a petting farm, face-paint-
ing, there is a food tent and a bonfire where peo-ple can roast hot dogs and marshmallows,”Carneal said. “It is fun for the whole family.”
Schweizers Orchard, just minutes from the Belt Highway, is located on Junction FF, off of High-way 169. Schweizers is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and from 1-5
p.m. on Sundays. However, Hal-
loween fes-t i v i t i e s and Fam-ily Fun Day will be held on Oct. 27.
F a m -ily Fun
Day at Schweizers
will include a children’s cos-
tume parade, car-nival games, bonfires,
food concessions, and the main event of Family Fun Day will be the Pedal Trac-tor Pull for children. The Pedal Tractor Competi-tions are hosted by Myer’s Pedal Tractor Pulls.
The winners of the Pedal Tractor Pull may qualify and move onto a state
competition for Pedal Tractor Pulls. All ages are allowed to participate but only children who meet the age requirements may compete for the honor of going on to the State Pedal Tractor Pull.
A family or individuals may take a hayride out to the pumpkin patch, pick a pumpkin, and wander through the corn maze located at the top of a hill near the pumpkin patch.
Down the hill from the pumpkin patch is a store that sells Schweizers’ freshly picked and made products, such as apple butter, apple cider, pump-kin breads and all kinds of yummy treats.
Located near the store is a straw maze for young children to run through, a working train that the kiddos can take rides on,
a small playground and many other amenities for the youngsters.
Corey Schweizer, an owner and operator of Schweizers, felt that a large percentage of Fam-ily Fun Day is geared to-wards the children, but older people can have a good time, too.
“College students will have fun, taking a hayride, picking a pumpkin, and running through the corn maze,” Schweizer said. “Afterwards they can en-joy a hot cup of apple ci-der, get some food and sit by the bonfire.”
The Eagle Radio station also hosts an event for Hal-loween, “The Great Pump-kin Drop,” which will also be held Saturday, Oct. 27. People drop pumpkins off of a tall building, and some pumpkins contain
prizes. The pumpkins are donated for the event by Schweizers Orchard.
“We don’t actually have anything to do with the planning of the pumpkin drop, we just donate the pumpkins -- but I imagine it’s a good time,” Schweiz-er said.
Halloween activities around St. Joseph are geared towards safe fam-ily-friendly fun.
L o ca l o r c h a r d s o f f er family fun for Halloween
(Left) Schweizers Orchard has a wooden train display that children may play on while waiting for the hayride. (Above) Pumpkins can be found in the store at Schweizers Orchard.
You might be too old to go treat-or-treating, but you are never too old for a scary movie on the scari-est day of the year.
This Halloween, Western Ac-tivities Council will be showing the movie “Friday the 13th,” and the event is open for all students as well as the community.
However, Vice Chair of WAC Tony Dougherty wanted give students something different to participate in for the holiday. A night of screams and a scary movie is what he expects stu-dents to participate in on the night of the event.
The only twist is, in order to get to Spratt 101, you must first go through a haunted hallway where frightening Halloween characters will jump out and try to scare you before movie starts.
“It’s going to be more of a haunted hallway-type of set-up,” Dougherty said. “We felt that it was something fun to do before the movie started. We are hoping that the showing of ‘Fri-day the 13th’ entices more people to come out. Everyone should have fun.”
Dougherty also noted that there would be a door that students can walk through in order to get to the movie if they do not want to partake in the haunted hallway.
The event will not be your av-erage haunted hallway. Members of the WAC organization have worked to come up with great ideas to help the students enjoy themselves at the event.
“We tried to get opinions from all of the members,” Dougherty said. “We are getting the neces-sary materials needed to make the event scary. We will have peo-ple wear-i n g
mask to help make the haunted hall-way more realistic. It’s not going to be anything too huge, but something fun for ev-
eryone to do.”Everyone who attends is al-
lowed to dress up into the Hal-loween costumes that they picked
out and a prize will be giving to
whoever is best
dressed.The original
plan for the movie night was to show an ac-
tion movie to students but the plan was changed when Dough-
erty felt that he had an even big-ger idea that helped members of WAC think outside of the box.
Student Life Director Isaiah Collier noted that it started out as something simple but expanded to something fun.
“The original movie that we intended to play was going to be either the ‘Spiderman’ or ‘Bat-man’ movie,” Collier said. “Tony decided to push those movies and show a movie that fit with the Halloween theme.”
Members of WAC felt that it was time for Western to get in-volved with developing events like this so all students can get out and try something new.
“On most campuses, they do something special for Halloween or any holiday,” Collier said. “A lot of schools have events such as haunted hayrides and haunt-ed houses for their students to participate in. WAC wanted to do something that would get our students out of the resident halls.”
Student Gov. Brian Shewell feels that the event is something good and fresh for the campus. He thinks students should never have to constantly be in their rooms, and an event like this al-lows students to take advantage of that. Shewell hopes for all stu-dents to attend the event because a good effort has been made by all members of the organization.
“One of Western activities goals is to continue to try and keep stu-dents on campus as much as pos-sible,” Shewell said. “The thing with keeping people on campus, is keeping them entertained with fun events to attend.”
Want to go trick-or-treat-ing but you don’t have a holder for your sweets? This how to will show you how to make a do-it-your-self candy bag just in time for Halloween, and well below budget. The price to make two bags is right around $20.
The bag that I made was for my 6-year-old stepson Kirin, and as such, is kid-friendly. The possibilities, however, are as limitless as your overactive imagina-tion.
Note: All of these materi-als can be found at Hobby Lobby, or most other craft stores.
What you will need:• A black fabric bag• A sheet of white felt fab-
ric• A sheet of brown felt
fabric• A sheet of orange felt
fabric• A sheet of green felt fab-
ric• Iron on letters of your
choice• A package of assorted,
foam, adhesive skulls or other decorations
• A package of assorted size “googly eyes”
• Fabric glue• Black fabric spray paint
Step 1: Lay out the bag on a smooth dry surface.
Step 2: Design the top part of the bag, laying out everything to make sure that you will like how it looks before attaching any-thing.
Note: On my son’s, I put a small foam skull, a large foam skull and then laid out his name using the iron on letters.
Caution: Do not iron any-thing onto the bags, as often they are not iron friendly. Simply use the fabric glue for everything -- it’s much better than burning your dorm down.
Step 3: Once you are completely happy with the “banner” across the top, flip them over one by one and apply a small amount of glue to the back; then, flip them back into place and apply a small amount
of pressure.Note: Most fabric glue
dries clear, so don’t worry about the glue being vis-able.
Step 4: Carefully cut out the outlines of what you want on your bag from the felt sheets.
Note: On mine, I cut out the shape of a ghost from the white, a pumpkin from
the orange, a stem for it from the brown, a tree from the brown and some grass from the green.
Step 5: Lay out all of the pieces onto the bag to see what positioning works best for your bag. Also, note at this time any fabric that may overlap so that you will know what to glue down first.
Step 6: Apply the fabric glue to the backs of the cut-outs, keeping most of the glue near to the edges to avoid the fabric from flip-ping up.
Note: On mine, the lay-ers worked out so that I had to apply the layer of grass first, and then put the pumpkin and the tree cut-outs on top of it.
Step 7: Apply any details to the cutouts. This is where the black fabric paint and the eyes come in.
Note: On mine I used the eyes on the ghost and the pumpkin. I drew, and then cut out a stencil from print-er paper in the shape of a mouth for the ghost; and a mouth and nose for the pumpkin. I then taped the stencil in place, and sprayed the fabric paint from about 30 inches away. Allow the paint to dry before remov-ing to avoid dripping.
-Happy Halloween!
'PARANOrMAL' Fai ls ; Fou rth ti m e not th e charm
Andy Garrison | Staff Writer
All graphics done byChad Hammontree | Graphics Editor
The Griffon News is written and published by students of Missouri Western State University during the fall and spring semesters. The first copy of each issue is free; addi-tional copies are 50 cents. Content of this paper is developed independently of the facul-ty and administration, or other campus organizations or offices. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas, information and advertising to The Griffon News office, Eder 221, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, Mo. 64507, or by phoning (816) 271-4412 (advertising and news room). You may also e-mail [email protected]. Copy and advertising must be received by noon Friday, the week prior to publication.
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• Views expressed on the opinion pages are not necessarily those of The Griffon News staff or Missouri Western State University.
Managing EditorGraphics EditorStaff Illustrator
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Eboni LaceyEditor-in-Chief
Blair Stalder Chad HammontreeAndrew SetterEllis CrossEvan Roberts Tevin Harris Kyle InmanChristian MengelAlbert Shelby Matthew HuntBrian DuskeyLauren DillonHanna Greenwell Andy InmanKyler PenlandShelley RussellBob Bergland
The Griffon News Staff
Editorial:
There is a story that has hit headlines recently about a Missouri soldier who was killed by another soldier in an accidental shooting over
a case of hiccups.Both soldiers Patrick
Edward Myers of Spartanburg, S.C., and Isaac Lawrence Young of Ash Grove, Mo., were friends stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.
They were both sitting around on a Sunday night watching football, drinking a few beers and just doing the general friend thing. There was also a third unnamed individual in attendance.
Once Young started in with a case of the hiccups, Myers produced a gun in an attempt to scare the hiccups out of Young. Unfortunately for Young, Myers ended up shooting Young in the face
and killing him.Myers had stated that he
thought the gun had rubber bullet rounds in the clip and it was all a total accident.
Myers was charged on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, of manslaughter, and Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin set his bond at $1 million.
This story actually kind of harkens back to a story from last year, right here in St. Joseph.
Officer Jason Strong had shot officer Dan De Kraai in the back and killed him during a training session at an empty St. Joseph school building on Sept. 15, 2011.
Apparently De Kraai had asked to be shot in the back
so he would know what being struck by a rubber bul-let felt like.
Strong had simply said that he “did have” a special gun that fired rubber bullet rounds and hadn’t realized he had switched back to his official firearm before the incident took place.
In Young’s case, he could have just as easily asked Myers to do something about his inconvenient hic-cups, so these both are really about identical cases.
If Strong can walk free on the streets today by saying “It was an accident, I thought there were rubber bullets in the gun,” then Myers should also get to walk free for say-
ing the exact same thing. Either that, or Strong should have been charged with manslaughter and have a $1 million bond as well.
It seems as though some sort of favoritism is shown towards certain individuals. If that favoritism is shown towards people who hold certain jobs or have money is certainly debatable, but one needs not look farther than these cases to see that there is indeed a problem with the court system.
Whatever the case, it seems as though good gun safety practices seem to be a thing of the past.
Julie Barber Sophomore
“I am going as Amy Lee (musician).”
“It’s funny, ‘cause just the other day, me and my boy, we was wonderin’ why they even call ‘em ‘roofies’. Y’know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout? ... Why not ‘floories,’ right? ‘Cause when you take ‘em, you’re more likely to end up on the floor than the
roof. What about groundies? That’s a good new name fo’ ‘em.”
This is probably one of the most highly-quoted parts in the movie “The Hangover.” We joke about getting so drunk the weekend before that someone must have drugged our drink or laugh about getting blackout drunk. What if it was you that had the choice taken away from you? What if you were given roofies and don’t have any memory from the night before? The so-called “date rape drug” is no laughing matter and it is a big problem.
Typically, when I think of roofies, I would picture a date gone wrong or an out-of-control, “Project X”-like party. I would never have
thought that I would be in danger of being drugged while out at a local bar with some friends, but the life always likes to prove us wrong.
Almost two months ago, I went out on a Thursday night with the intent of hav-ing a few drinks with some friends, but not getting too crazy since I was scheduled the lunch shift the next day. I arrived at the bar around 11 p.m. and only had two mixed drinks before my last clear memory of the night at approximately 12:15 a.m.
I woke up the next morning in my friend’s living room, very confused. I attempted to make it to work, but I was so sick that I could not even stand. I just assumed that I had unintentionally become
intoxicated and that I was still feeling the effects. My friend took me back to my car that was still parked at the bar and I barely made it back to my apartment. I spent the entire day trying to recover and could not figure out how I had become so drunk when that hadn’t hap-pened in two years.
It was not until a few days later that I came to the realization that I had been drugged because no amount of sleep deprivation, empty stomach and strong drinks could have caused how I felt for two days of recuperating. The moral of the story: THIS SITUATION CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE.
Certain precautions can be taken such as keeping your drink with you at all times,
not letting someone buy you a drink without watching it the entire time, and not drinking out of other cups that you are unsure of where they came from. However, there will still be times that all the awareness in the world can’t prevent a bad situation from happening. So, always look out for your friends. I had an amazing group of them that kept an eye on me that night and took care of me so that I was not harmed in any way. The situation could have been much worse.
If you think you have been a victim or would like to know more information, please contact me at [email protected].
Rufilin: Not just ‘date-rape’ drug anymore
Over $333, 000 in student fees were brought in for the fall semester with no one overseeing the appropria-tions.
The Student Government Association put in place a Student Fee Advisory Committee, which is sup-posed to oversee the student support service fees (student fees). The reason this issue has been brought to atten-tion is the fact that the com-mittee has yet to be formed since the Student Success Act was created last spring.
The committee is a benefi-cial tool considering that it is consumed of six members; three student leaders and three others from the admin-istration. These members oversee the appropriations of the fees to the programs they plan to help fund.
They focused primar-ily on five areas which deal directly with students on
a daily basis. They include Recreation Services, Center for Academic Support, Student Success Center, Student Life and Career Services, which are all criti-cal areas in need of a profi-cient budget.
President of SGA Jacob Scott said the reason why it wasn’t formed was due to the
resignation of Vice President of Financial Planning and Administration Mel Klinker. The vice president is the administration advisor to the committee and that title has not yet been filled.
The only exception is that President Dr. Robert Vartabedian had named Richard Gilmore interim vice
president for financial plan-ning and administration, effective on July 1, 2012. This leads us to question why the committee has yet to be formed since someone was available in the position to oversee the committee.
The committee is crucial considering the act has been in place since last spring.
The passage of the act by the Student Senate showed leadership at the time when Missouri Western was in need of budgetary help. However, since the passage of the act, the executive branch and Senate of SGA have done nothing to form the committee.
This large budget is float-ing around somewhere with no management taking place by the student government. SGA first went around the students and voted not only to increase the student fees by $75, but to form this com-mittee. There has been no action taken this school year as to the handling of the money that the students paid extra for to help keep the programs afloat.
The handling of this sensi-tive issue has not been taken seriously. The SGA needs to wake up and take notice of this matter.
Double standard favors badges, public should be aware
Chad Hammontree | Graphics Editor
SPORTSOctober 25, 2012
The Griffon NewsPage 7
SGA Week Fall 2012
“Of the students, by the students, for the students.”
10/29- “Sit in on Senate” (Blum 220 @ 6:00 pm)10/30- “aSk an official”: Q& a forum (Blum loBBy @ 6:30 pm)
10/31- Wac SponSorS Haunted Spratt @ 8:30 pm
and friday 13tH SHoWing (Spratt 101 @ 9:00 pm)11/1- “cirQue de Sga” (Blum interior entrance 11:00- 2:00)11/2- Wac SponSorS Black ligHt party (10:00 pm - 2:00 am)
11/3- Sga tailgate (SoutHSide Baker @ 11:00 am)
Youth -- it’s time to grow up. Every team in every sport has had it. The teams who end up being something special are the ones who overcome it. The ones who use youth as an excuse will become veterans at making excuses.
It’s time for Missouri West-ern volleyball to take what they’ve learned from their losses this season, and use it to produce some wins. This team is too athletic, too tal-ented and too smart to be a .500 team 24 games into the season. There are eight games remaining. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that the Griffons should win six of them.
Northwest Missouri State, who is playing stagnant at 11-13, was the next game for Western, which sadly was another loss. Following the Bearcats, the Griffons will face the ass end of the MIAA when they play the winless Missouri Southern Lions, who has a record of 5-48 dat-ing back to the beginning of last season. Truman State and Central Missouri are the next two games and will be the only teams left to play who are guaranteed to have a winning season; the two have just eight combined losses on the season. The last four games are Lindenwood, Quincy, Pittsburg State and Southwest Baptist. All of which are considered aver-age on their best days.
If Western can pull out of the remaining schedule with six wins, five of them be-ing conference, the Griffons could likely make the MIAA tournament. The Griffons are
currently a depressing 3-8 in conference play. There are five very beatable conference teams remaining that could end up helping the Griffons turn their season around.
The top six teams in the MIAA pretty much have a locked spot, as long as they don’t screw anything up. The fight for the 11 and eighth seed is where things could really get quirky. Western is currently in 11, but is about three wins away from jump-ing up to seventh. All the teams occupying that area of the leader board are hugging the .500 line by just a couple games.
The Griffons need to stop playing the youth card to jus-tify an average season. They could really surprise some people if they just play their game, beat the crapper teams they know they can beat and make it to the tournament. The Griffons have proven to play their best when they play in tournaments. Nine of their 12 wins have come from tournament play.
Volleyball: Soccer gets shut out, comes back with win
Missouri Western was handed a harsh loss by Central Missouri. They re-bounded a couple days later and handed Southwest Bap-tist a shutout loss of their own. Unfortunately, due to Nebraska-Kearney winning and Missouri Southern tying in its last contests, Western was knocked out of the run-ning for a seed for the MIAA Conference Tournament. Oct 26. will be Western’s seniors’ (Kelly Voigts, Abby and Erin Widrig, Ashlyn Castillo and Ashley Grunder) last day on the Griffon soccer field.
Central Missouri -- 2 Missouri Western -- 0
On Friday, Oct. 19, West-ern hosted the No. 3 Central Missouri Jennies. The Jen-nies are undefeated on the
season, improving to 8-0-2 after shutting out Western at Spratt Stadium.
A night that was used to honor new all-time leading scorer Abby Widrig turned into a scoreless night for the Griffons. The Jennies got it started early, scoring within 14 minutes and then again just 13 minutes later. Two early goals gave Central a 2-0 lead for the remainder of the game.
Voigts had five saves on the night. The Griffons had only three shots on goal to contest with the Jennies’ sev-en. Western’s loss to Central put the Griffons at 4-9-1 and 2-7-1 in MIAA play.
“We just weren’t intense enough in the box to get the ball out,” coach Chad Ed-wards said. “The frustrat-ing part is we were hanging there with them and we let down for a few seconds and gave up a goal.”
Missouri Western -- 1Southwest Baptist -- 0
Edwards described the game against Southwest Baptist on Sunday, Oct. 21, as a “must-win.” Western came out on fire when sophomore Teddi Serna scored three minutes in off of a kick from AJ Powers, putting the Grif-fons up 1-0 early. Each team landed seven shots on goal, but neither goalie would let anything in.
The Griffons sealed their victory over the Bearcats early on. They now sit at 5-9-1 and 3-7-1 in MIAA confer-ence play.
With the win, Voigts broke the record for the most wins at Western by a goalkeeper with nine despite only being
a Griffon for two years after transferring from Johnson County Community College.
Abby Widrig and Rochelle Gillilan each attempted three shots while K.C. Ramsell at-tempted two shots. Serna scored on her only shot at-tempt.
“[I told the girls] we had to bring the intensity and the passion on Sunday,” said Edwards. “If we did that, it would be a very winnable game.”
Western will honor its five seniors at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, at Spratt Stadium on senior night as Western take on the Southern Lions.
Michael Hill rushed for 116 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries and caught two passes for 64 yards with one going for a touchdown in the Grif-fons’ blowout win at Pittsburg State. Hill ranks fourth in all of DII football with 155 yards per game.
Andy Inman and Chad Hammontree |Design Artist and Graphics Editorr
ATHLETE
A 4-foot tall, curly-haired 3-year old yells loudly from the stands of Spratt Stadium. She cheers, jumps up and down and screams as her big, brown eyes zoom in one particular football player: No. 7. She’s his biggest fan. As he quickly sprints along the field and attempts to tackle anyone who stands in his way, the little girl yells louder and louder for every-one to hear. “Go Daddy, Go!” This little girl is none other than Missouri Western safety Shane Simpson’s daughter, Juliana.
“When I’m not playing football, I like to be with her,” Simpson said. “We go out and have fun. I love be-ing a father.”
The senior Griffon foot-ball player has been play-ing for Western since 2007 and has had a daughter for over nearly half of his foot-ball career. Though people may see being a parent and student-athlete as a difficult situation, Simpson explained that his family and his good friendship with Juliana’s mother make it a lot easier for him, especially when he is in season.
“I can call my mom if I need her, like if we have an away game or something,” Simpson said. “She helps out a lot. My family makes it real easy, and I’m thankful for that.”
In addition to dealing with scheduling and being available for his daughter, Simpson had an even bigger obstacle this season with an ankle injury that kept him out for two games of his se-nior season. One of these games was Western’s only loss against Missouri South-ern at the Homecoming game. Simpson returned to the lineup this past weekend, however, to compete against season rival Pittsburg State, who the Griffons shut down with a score of 63-14. Simp-son had a standout game with four solo tackles and an interception.
“It felt good to be out there and being helpful for the team,” Simpson said re-capping Saturday’s big win. “That’s what I missed was the team atmosphere. We put a full game together, and we didn’t have any stupid pen-alties. Everybody kept their composure and just kept playing.”
Simpson, who has been playing football since he was 5 years old, grew interest in the sport when he was a kid often watching the Kansas Chiefs and players like Mar-
cus Allen and Joe Montana.“I remember all the way
back to flag football,” he said. “I’ve been playing every year since. I’ve always liked playing and had fun playing. I didn’t want to quit.”
Simpson, a Blue Springs, Mo., native who played for Blue Springs South High School, drew a lot of atten-tion from local schools and universities before he was re-cruited to Western. In his de-cision process, he explained that there was something very unique about Western that really caught his eye.
“Coach P came to my house and I came on a visit,” Simpson said. “I liked all the people here. Everybody was cool and made me feel wel-come.”
Coach Jerry Partridge also referred back to when Simpson was recruited and explains what they admire about him.
“He’s a very tough kid,” Partridge said. “He’s been a very good player for us. He’s pretty savvy and he’s got great leadership. He’s kind of a calming influence back there (on defense) and he’s a very good tackler.”
Now, six years and four and a half seasons later, Simpson has grown in speed and size and has become one of the team’s valuable assets.
“He is unbelievably ath-letic and brings experience and knowledge to the field since he’s been starting at the safety position since his freshman year,” teammate and fellow defensive back Stephen Johnson said. “Op-posing teams have to think twice about throwing balls because of his ability to re-act and make plays while the ball is in the air.”
Simpson is hoping to one day play beyond college, but he has quite a few more goals besides football. He wants to follow in his father’s foot-steps and become a railroad conductor.
“My dad’s been doing that for like 20 years,” Simpson said. “If I could get on there I would not mind doing that. Retirement is really good and the money is pretty good.”
Beyond his career and football goals, Simpson has one other goal in mind that involves being the best dad he can be for his number one fan.
“It’s just knowing that I have a purpose for her and to be here for her for whatever she needs,” Simpson said. “The greatest part is just hearing ‘I love you, Daddy.’”
(Top) Western safety Shane Simpson poses with his 3-year-old daughter Juliana. (Middle) Simpson flashes his vampire like mouthguard along with fellow defensive back Marcus Thomp-son. (Below) Juliana Simpson strikes her diva pose for the camera. (Middle) Jason Brown | Photo Contributor (Top & Below) *Submitted Photos
No. 12 Griffons didn’t have much time to enjoy last Sat-urday’s blowout victory as they travel to Emporia, Kan., to take on undefeated No. 15 Emporia State on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.
The game will be televised on the MIAA network, chan-nel 19 on Suddenlink Cable in St. Joseph.
The Hornets are a perfect 8-0, but have only faced one team with a winning record -- Lindenwood. Their clos-est game came in a 19-15 win over 1-7 Southwest Baptist three weeks ago, and in the last two games, Emporia de-feated Lindenwood 13-0 and 4-4 Truman State 52-26.
“Emporia is very, very dangerous and very confi-dent right now,” coach Jerry Partridge said. “They really believe in themselves and there will be a lot of emotion on Thursday night. We’re going to get their best shot.”
Emporia ranks first in the MIAA in total offense with 484 yards per game, while Western ranks second with 467 yards per game.
“We approach this just like any other week,” quarter-back Travis Partridge said. “We are going to do what we do offensively and distribute the ball. Our experience level is going to carry us.”
The Hornets rely heavily on the passing game to move the ball down the field. Quar-terback Tyler Eckenrode has thrown for 2,518 yards this season with 18 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
“Their offense is very good,” defensive coordina-tor Regi Trotter said. “They have a stable of good run-ning backs, but they really throw the ball well. Those guys really do a good job.”
Wide receiver Shjuan Rich-ardson has proven to be the main weapon for the Hor-nets’ offense, catching 59 passes for 973 yards and nine
touchdowns on the season. He’s averaging 121 receiv-ing yards per game. Ray Ray Davis has also heavily con-tributed to Emporia’s suc-cess through the air with 634 yards and five touchdowns.
“We just need to carry this momentum from the Pitt State-win into Thursday,” safety Shane Simpson said. “It’s not going to be easy.”
The Hornets use a balanced rushing attack to supple-ment the passing game. Der-win Hall has rushed for 393 yards and five touchdowns while gaining 4.6 yards per carry, Dozie Iwuagwa has gained 331 yards and six touchdowns with a 4.5 yards per carry average and Jordan Tice has rushed for 287 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 4.4 yards per carry.
Playing a top-20 team on the road with a short week is a challenge, but the Grif-fons feel like they are well-prepared.
“The front end is very dif-ficult,” coach Partridge said. “I’ll enjoy the back end of it if we win the game and get the weekend off, but its very difficult right now.”
Emporia’s defense ranks fourth in the MIAA in total yards per game, allowing 335 yards per game, while Western ranks fifth, giving up 348 yards per game.
The Griffons have won the last three games at Emporia.
The Griffons turned into beasts in the jungle on Sat-urday, ripping defending national champion Pittsburg State from limb-to-limb with a 64-13 blowout win in Pitts-burg, Kan. The Griffons im-prove to 7-1 on the season while the Gorillas fall to 5-2.
“Great, great win,” coach Jerry Partridge said. “I think we played very well and it was fun to watch it all come together like that and play at that level.”
The Gorillas struck first with a pass from Anthony Abenoja to John Brown that gave them a 7-0 lead. How-
ever, those would be the only points that the Griffon de-fense would allow all after-noon.
Defensive coordinator Regi Trotter wasn’t happy with the Gorillas success on their first possession, but he was proud of the way the de-fense responded.
“We really buckled down and stuck to our plan,” Trot-ter said. “We played very well.”
The Griffon offense scored 56 unanswered points, leav-ing the crowd of nearly 12,000 stunned and head-ing for the exits as Pittsburg took only its thirteeth loss in history at Carnie Smith Sta-dium.
“We were surprised be-cause we always go in ex-pecting a war,” safety Shane Simpson said. “It’s just a blessing and you love those days. Everybody just played good, we did all the little things.”
Quarterback Travis Par-tridge threw for four touch-down passes and 213 yards on only 14 passing attempts. Partridge connected for touchdowns with Derek Libby for 64 yards, Brandon Wright for 35 yards, Reggie Jordan from seven yards out, and found Michael Hill in the flat on a fake reverse play for a 48-yard score.
Partridge was happy with the way the offense played
and felt like it was a very complete performance by everybody.
Hill scored three more touchdowns on the ground as he ran the ball into the end zone from two, five and 10 yards out. Hill finished with 116 yards on the ground on 17 carries for an average of 6.8 yards per carry. Hill got to rest early after total-ing 180 all-purpose yards with the big lead as reserve backs Dominic Thomas and Raphael Spencer showed off their talents. Thomas fin-ished with 59 yards while Spencer ran for 64.
Defensive end David Bass had a huge game, coming away with 2.5 sacks and an
interception that he took back 55 yards for a touch-down. Ben Pister was also wreaking havoc from the other end position with eight tackles, 1.5 sacks. Pister re-corded 2.5 tackles for a loss, a category in which he leads the MIAA. Bass and Pister are seniors playing in their final season at Western.
“It’s been fun watching those guys grow up,” Trotter said. “When you have two seniors that care so much about this program and have been dominant forces for four years now, it’s good to watch those guys do some damage.”
Defensive back Michael Jordan led the Griffons with
nine tackles while Simpson intercepted a pass in his first game back from a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for two weeks.
“Shane Simpson is that senior leader back there and we really needed him,” Trot-ter said. “He really stepped up for us when he came back in.”
Before the game, Western was ranked No. 16 in Divi-sion II football, while Pitts-burg was ranked No. 7. Af-ter the game, the Griffons moved up four spots to No. 12 while the Gorillas fell to No. 20 in the AFCA Coaches’ Poll.
GRIFFONS CLAIM KING OF THE JUNGLE AFTER 63-14 BLOWOUT
