inside Page 8 page 6 page 4 Women’s basketball hopes to break losing streak this weekend Steward and Colbert news parody shows provide vital education to public Local sports league features new basketball tournament in sports expo Abilene Christian University sports opinion news acuoptimist.com Students continue rehearsals as Sing Song approaches photos vol. 100, no. 32 Friday, january 27, 2012 1 SECTION, 8 PAGES Despite downpour, students continue to prepare for February show. Page 3 accreditation The university’s efforts over the past several years to satisfy its regional accredit- ing body have succeeded. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools no- tified the university late last semester that its accredita- tion with the organization has been reaffirmed. What’s more, the reaffirma- tion comes with no required monitoring or probationary period, said Dr. Nancy Shan- kle, chair of the university’s Re- affirmation Leadership Team. Faculty members from other accredited universities represented Georgia-based SACS during a visit to cam- pus last year, and the SACS decision means no more monitoring will be necessary until the 2021 evaluation. Shankle said only seven per- cent of the institutions audit- ed by SACS last year were not required to present follow- up information regarding faculty credentials. “We demonstrated com- pliance with a whole range of requirements within that first go around,” Shankle said. Accredited institutions are required to provide two separate documents as part of the SACS reaffirmation process. The Compliance Certification is an audit of the requirements pre- scribed by the organization and the federal govern- ment. The other document is the Quality Enhance- ment Plan, which at ACU focuses on undergraduate research literacy. SACS is one of six re- gional accrediting bodies recognized by the federal government. The university achieved accreditation in 1951 and has maintained it since. Sacs Campus Visit Shankle said she knew the process was going well when members of the accredita- tion committee started can- celing meetings during their onsite visit in the fall. “They had already an- swered their questions,” Shankle said. Shankle and the rest of the Reaffirmation Leader- ship Team, Dr. Tom Winter, professor of social work and former vice provost, Dr. Tom Milholland, director of Institutional Research and Assessment, and Dr. Phyl- lis Bolin, director of Pursuit QEP, had to demonstrate that ACU’s general educa- tion program was com- prehensive and that the students are meeting the student learning outcomes through assessments. Shankle said some ques- tions remained related to the new CORE curriculum. Be- cause the SACS visit was the same year the new curricu- lum was implemented, stu- dents hadn’t finished the first semester and their learning couldn’t be assessed. “We collected evidence from the end of the fall se- mester, a year ago, and then the spring semester,” Shan- kle said. “We said, ‘Here’s the assessment we did under the old gen ed, here’s the plan for our full new gen ed and here’s what we’ve done dur- ing the first year.’ And then we crossed our fingers.” Shankle said ACU’s track record showed the accredi- tation committee that ACU would implement the plan well, so it didn’t assign any monitoring reports. Focus on Research The other document required as part of the re- affirmation process was the Quality Enhancement Plan. While the Compli- ance Certification looks at what the institution has done in the past, the QEP examines the plan the uni- versity has for enhancing future student learning, said Dr. Phyllis Bolin, di- rector of Pursuit QEP. ACU’s QEP, Pursuit, is de- signed to build a community of research, scholarship and creative expression. “Pursuit will benefit students because under- graduate research is an exciting way to engage in an academic discipline in- side and outside the class- room,” Bolin said. “It also leads to a deeper under- standing of their chosen academic discipline.” The focus of Pursuit, re- search literacy, was chosen after an intense process of conducting discussions with faculty, staff students and alumni. “It is a broad-based far- sighted vision for transfor- mative learning experiences for students,” Bolin said. The QEP group exam- ined each facet of the Pur- suit plan in detail, met with faculty and students and questioned many across campus about the plan for Pursuit and its implemen- tation during its onsite visit last April. “They were very compli- mentary and made no rec- ommendations for the QEP,” Bolin said. “That is good because a recommenda- tion means that they believe there are significant prob- lems to be addressed.” Because of the positive response, the team began to implement the QEP in earnest in fall 2011. Shankle said it is in the best interest of ACU and its students to maintain ac- creditation. To be in good standing with the federal government, a university must be accredited by one of the six regional accredit- ing bodies. jozie sands copy Editor University’s SACS accreditation reaffirmed SINGING RAIN IN THE Picture This App provides unique photography experience Leslie lewis contributing Photographer Above: The freshman class rehearse for Sing Song in Bennett Gymnasium. Right: JP Ralston and Matt Varner practice their Sing Song faces in Foster Science Building with the men of Gamma Sigma Phi. Photo illustration courtesy of Jenn tashjian destiny hagood staff photographer Dr. Phyllis bolin director of pursuit quality enhancement plan Pursuit will benefit students because undergraduate research is an exciting way to engage in an academic discipline inside and outside the classroom.” “ Arts page 5 see accreditation page 4
Transcript
inside
Page 8 page 6 page 4
Women’s basketball hopes to break losing streak this weekend
Steward and Colbert news parody shows provide vital education to public
Local sports league features new basketball tournament in sports expo
Abilene Christian University
sports opinion news
acuoptimist.com
Students continue rehearsals as Sing Song approaches
Despite downpour, students continue to prepare for February show. Page 3
accreditation
The university’s efforts over the past several years to satisfy its regional accredit-ing body have succeeded. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools no-tified the university late last semester that its accredita-tion with the organization has been reaffirmed.
What’s more, the reaffirma-tion comes with no required monitoring or probationary period, said Dr. Nancy Shan-kle, chair of the university’s Re-affirmation Leadership Team.
Faculty members from other accredited universities represented Georgia-based SACS during a visit to cam-pus last year, and the SACS decision means no more monitoring will be necessary until the 2021 evaluation. Shankle said only seven per-cent of the institutions audit-ed by SACS last year were not required to present follow-up information regarding faculty credentials.
“We demonstrated com-pliance with a whole range of requirements within that first go around,” Shankle said.
Accredited institutions are required to provide two separate documents as part of the SACS reaffirmation process. The Compliance Certification is an audit of the requirements pre-scribed by the organization and the federal govern-ment. The other document is the Quality Enhance-ment Plan, which at ACU focuses on undergraduate research literacy.
SACS is one of six re-gional accrediting bodies recognized by the federal government. The university achieved accreditation in 1951 and has maintained it since.
Sacs Campus Visit
Shankle said she knew the process was going well when members of the accredita-tion committee started can-celing meetings during their onsite visit in the fall.
“They had already an-swered their questions,” Shankle said.
Shankle and the rest of the Reaffirmation Leader-ship Team, Dr. Tom Winter, professor of social work and former vice provost, Dr. Tom Milholland, director of Institutional Research and Assessment, and Dr. Phyl-lis Bolin, director of Pursuit QEP, had to demonstrate that ACU’s general educa-tion program was com-prehensive and that the students are meeting the student learning outcomes through assessments.
Shankle said some ques-tions remained related to the new CORE curriculum. Be-cause the SACS visit was the same year the new curricu-lum was implemented, stu-dents hadn’t finished the first semester and their learning couldn’t be assessed.
“We collected evidence from the end of the fall se-mester, a year ago, and then the spring semester,” Shan-kle said. “We said, ‘Here’s the assessment we did under the
old gen ed, here’s the plan for our full new gen ed and here’s what we’ve done dur-ing the first year.’ And then we crossed our fingers.”
Shankle said ACU’s track record showed the accredi-tation committee that ACU would implement the plan well, so it didn’t assign any monitoring reports.
Focus on Research
The other document required as part of the re-affirmation process was the Quality Enhancement Plan. While the Compli-ance Certification looks at what the institution has done in the past, the QEP examines the plan the uni-versity has for enhancing
future student learning, said Dr. Phyllis Bolin, di-rector of Pursuit QEP.
ACU’s QEP, Pursuit, is de-signed to build a community of research, scholarship and creative expression.
“Pursuit will benefit students because under-graduate research is an exciting way to engage in an academic discipline in-side and outside the class-room,” Bolin said. “It also leads to a deeper under-standing of their chosen academic discipline.”
The focus of Pursuit, re-search literacy, was chosen after an intense process of conducting discussions with faculty, staff students and alumni.
“It is a broad-based far-
sighted vision for transfor-mative learning experiences for students,” Bolin said.
The QEP group exam-ined each facet of the Pur-suit plan in detail, met with faculty and students and questioned many across campus about the plan for Pursuit and its implemen-tation during its onsite visit last April.
“They were very compli-mentary and made no rec-ommendations for the QEP,” Bolin said. “That is good because a recommenda-tion means that they believe there are significant prob-lems to be addressed.”
Because of the positive response, the team began to implement the QEP in earnest in fall 2011.
Shankle said it is in the best interest of ACU and its students to maintain ac-creditation. To be in good standing with the federal government, a university must be accredited by one of the six regional accredit-ing bodies.
jozie sandscopy Editor
University’s SACS accreditation reaffirmed
SINGING
RAININ THE
Picture ThisApp provides unique
photography experience
Leslie lewis contributing Photographer
Above: The freshman class rehearse for Sing Song in Bennett Gymnasium. Right: JP Ralston and Matt Varner
practice their Sing Song faces in Foster Science Building with the men of Gamma Sigma Phi.
Photo illustration courtesy of Jenn tashjian
destiny hagood staff photographer
Dr. Phyllis bolindirector of pursuit quality enhancement plan
Pursuit will benefit students because undergraduate research is an exciting way to engage in an academic
discipline inside and outside the classroom.”“
Artspage 5
see accreditation page 4
27
09 64
28 29 30Friday Saturday Sunday Monday
All Day - Indoor Track at New Mexico Invitational in Albuquerque
2 p.m. Women’s basket-ball vs. Texas Womans in Moody Coliseum
7 p.m. Men’s basketball vs. Arlington Baptist in Moody Coliseum
All Day - Men’s tennis Team Intra Squad Match
All Day - Indoor Track @ Air Force Combined Events Meet in Colo-rado Springs
11 a.m. Praise Day in Moody Coliseum
12-7 p.m. World of Wheels Car show @ Abilene Civic Center
All Day - Last day for pass/fail and credit/non-credit
Volunteers are needed to help with the Newsboys “God’s Not Dead World Tour” Concert on Feb. 4 at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 North 6th St. The concert will also feature Anthem Lights, The City Harmonic, and Abandon. Help is needed beginning around 9:00 a.m. and throughout the day to help unload equipment from buses, set up equipment, take tickets, handle merchandise, help with take down after the concert, and any other associated tasks. Contact Susan Conwell at 325-437-1184 or e-mail [email protected].
Abilene Youth Sports Authority needs volunteers on Feb. 4 to help with the annual West Texas Sports and Fitness Expo at the Abilene Civic Center. Help is needed in 3 hour shifts from 8:30-11:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m.-2:15 p.m., and 2:00-5:00 p.m. Volun-teers will take tickets, sell concessions, and help with the various contest booths and stations. Con-tact Katie Miller at 325-692-2972 or e-mail [email protected].
Volunteers are needed to enjoy a free lunch with students at Bonham Elementary School on a week-ly basis. This would be sometime between 10:00 a.m. & 1:15 p.m., and would involve spending lunch time with students and having a positive impact on their lives. Contact Jason Shaw at 325-639-3745 or e-mail [email protected].
Meals on Wheels Plus needs volunteer drivers to deliver afternoon meals to seniors and adults with disabilities Monday-Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. Training is provided. A Cha-pel exemption is available if delivery time conflicts with Chapel. Contact Jessica Stewart at 325-672-5050 or email [email protected].
The Big Brothers Big Sisters program is looking for volunteers to participate in Lunch Buddies. Bigs and Littles will enjoy lunch together at the child’s school once a week. Students can earn Chapel credit for each visit. Big Brothers Big Sisters is also looking for volunteers for its Community Based program. Bigs are matched with Littles in a one-on-one relationship and spend four to six hours per month together in the community. To sign up or learn more visit www.bbbstx.org or call 325-674-3113.
The House That Kerry Built is looking for volunteers to assist in the day care of medically fragile children any day Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Contact Dave Kraly at 325-676-3104 or email [email protected] for more information.
Rescue The Animals is looking for volunteers any-time between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. They need help around the adoption center with general cleaning, socialization of the animals, helping poten-tial adopters and other tasks. Contact Mindi Qualls at 325-698-7722 or email [email protected]. The center is located at 5933 S. 1st St.
Child Protective Services needs volunteers for clerical work as well as volunteers who can organize a play-room. Volunteers are needed any weekday anytime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Child Protective Services are located at 3610 Vine St. Background checks are re-quired and are done at the center. Background checks usually are cleared in about two weeks. For more infor-mation call V. Danette Cummings at 325-691-8214.
Young Life Ministries needs volunteers Mondays, Tuesdays and weekends from 6-9 p.m. Volunteers will hang out with kids, experience leadership roles, serve others and introduce students to Christ. Young Life is located at 1917 S. 6th St. For more in-formation contact Chuck Rodgers at 325-676-1211 or email [email protected].
Abilene Hope Haven Inc. needs volunteers to pro-vide childcare while parents are in class, any evening Monday-Thursday from 6:45 - 8:15 p.m. Abilene Hope Haven is located at 801 S. Treadaway Blvd. For more information contact Kathy Reppart at 325-677-4673 or visit www.abilenehopehaven.com/volunteer.
Communities in Schools needs volunteers at Ortiz Elementary School on Feb. 17 from 1-3 p.m. to play board games with elementary school students who are celebrating their perfect attendance for the fourth six weeks of school. Volunteers will need to bring a photo I.D. Contact Sheila Ashford at 325-671-4945, ext. 5351 or email [email protected].
Da’ Cipher 360, a program for at risk children is looking for volunteers on Monday evenings from 5-8 p.m. at the Rose Park Activity Center, 2625 S. 7th St. Volunteers can help in a variety of ways including helping with set up, learning activities for kindergarten-3rd graders, tutoring 4th-8th graders, and assisting with clean up. Contact Alvina Scott at 847-333-7026 or e-mail [email protected].
Care Inn of Abilene is offering various opportunities for working with the elderly and is looking for volun-teers who can play a musical instrument and would be willing to perform in the evening. Care Inn is located on S. 7th Street. For more information call Sally Diaz at 325-692-2172 .
The Betty Hardwick Center needs volunteers to partici-pate in Special Olympics by helping mentally/physically challenged people play games such as basketball, track, and/or bowling Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Center is located at 801 Cypress St. Contact Angel Seca at 325-690-5235 for more information.
HERO, Hendrick Equine Rehabilitation Opportuni-ties, is looking for volunteers to help with their spring program by assisting their clients as they ride horses for therapy. No experience with horses is necessary. Help is needed Tuesdays and Thursdays from March 20 to May 3. Volunteers can help anywhere from 1 to 6 hours per week for the duration of the program. Volunteers must attend training on either March 6 or 8. Contact Beth Byerly at 325-660-3465 or e-mail [email protected].
Medical Care Mission is looking for volunteers to as-sist medical or dental staff with patients any weekday from 8:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. For more information contact Dave Kraly at 325-676-3104 or email [email protected].
Habitat for Humanity needs volunteers to help with various construction tasks including carpentry, paint-ing, cleaning up, installing cabinets and other tasks. Volunteers are needed any day Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Contact Steven Legget at 325-670-0489 or email [email protected].
ACU Treadaway Kids is looking for volunteers to work with underprivileged students Thursday evenings from 6-7:30 p.m. at the University Church of Christ. For more information contact Samantha Manski at 325-674-2828.
Access Learning Center is looking for volunteers to help elementary school students with homework, reading, computers and games. The center is located at 2102 Ambler Ave. For more information contact Bret Hines at 325-670-9727. Call ahead to schedule a time to volunteer.
The Abilene Boys and Girls Club needs help any weekday between 3:30-6 p.m. helping children of all ages with games, art, gym time, reading and computer skills. Locations are 4610 N. 10th St. or 1902 Shelton St. Contact Mark Denman at 325-672-1712 for more information.
The Abilene Zoo is looking for volunteers to help with general labor such as grounds cleanup and painting any weekday at any time between noon and 4 p.m. The Zoo is located at 2070 Zoo Ln. Contact Joy Harsh at 325-676-6487 for more information.
Weekly Stats for Jan. 17 - JAN. 24, 2012
Police Tip of the Week: ACUPD welcomes everyone back for the Spring Semes-ter and wants to remind everyone that the public is the first line of defense in fighting crime: If you see suspicious activity, call ACUPD immediately.
Announcements
01/17/12 4:30 p.m. HARASSMENT: ACUPD filed a report from an ACU student who had received harassing messages from a known person.
01/18/12 12:48 a.m. DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE: ACUPD assisted APD at a do-mestic disturbance at The Grove Apartments
01/19/12 9:24 a.m. 911 CALL: A 9 year old visitor to the Lunsford Trail activated Sikes Emergency Call Box and shouted profanity at the call taker. The child was found and instructed on the impropriety of his actions.
01/15/12 3:40 p.m. HIT & RUN: An ACU student reported that his pick up had been struck by a hit and run driver while the truck was parked in the Mabee/Edwards lot.
01/20/12 11:00 p.m. NOISE VIOLATION: An area resident reported a “loud party” in the 500 block of College. The ACU student tenants were advised to turn outside music off and take the party goers inside. Further they were advised to extinguish a fire that was burning in a trash can.
01/22/12 2:15 a.m. NOISE VIOLATION: ACUPD was advised of a loud party in the 400 block of college; Officers disbanded the party.
911 Call 1Administrative Activity 7Alarm 1Assist 4Building Lock/Unlock 9Burglary of Motor Vehicle 1Check Building 21Direct Traffic 1Disturbance 2Drag Racing 1Fight 1 Hit & Run 1Information Report 2Investigation Follow up 10Loitering 1Lost Property 1Maintenance of University Assets 1
Applications for Chapel Exemp-tions due to work schedule must be turned into the Chapel Office or the Depot today.
The 2012 Springboard Ideas Challenge is now open for registration. Students can submit a mini-business plan for a chance to win up to $10,000. Early registration deadline is March 1. Visit www.acu.edu/academics/coba/griggscenter/spring-board to learn more about the competition.
ACU Leadership Camp staff applications are now avail-able in the Campus Center basement.
IBH Sing Song is still looking for people who want to be involved in a Sing Song act. Everyone is welcome. Email [email protected] for details.
World Wide Witness is still receiving applications for Summer 2011. For more in-formation visit www.acu.edu/worldwide-witness.
Students interested in partici-pating in a Spring Break Cam-paign can sign up in the SBC office in the lower level of the Campus Center. For more in-formation on campaigns that still need members, or to sign up, contact [email protected].
Pre-sale Tickets for STOMP, coming Feb. 21, are on sale through Sunday . A portion of every pre-sale ticket will go to-wards the Red Thread Move-ment. Visit www.abilene.celeb-rityattractions.com.
The SLVR office is looking for a part-time grad student intern. The position requires a three semester commitment and may be available during this coming summer. For more information, contact [email protected] with the subject line “Interested in Grad Internship.”
Students who want to be involved in the ACU Under-graduate Research Festival may apply online at www.acu.edu/researchfest. Dead-line is Feb. 3.
friday 01.27.123 campus news
Rec Center rejuvenates healthy activity on campus
Home and exhausted from a full day of classes, Alex Sheffield, senior psychol-ogy pre-med major from Irving, tightens the hot pink laces on her black Adidas running shoes, grabs her water and iPod and is out the door.
What awaits Sheffield besides her usual regimen of 40-minute cardio and 15-minute weights is fellow psychology major and fit-ness friend, Meagan Wilcox.
“We’re perfect work-out partners because we are opposites in motiva-tion,” Sheffield said. “She’s the motivator to get us out the door and into the gym, and I’m the motivator once we’re there.”
Like Sheffield, many students are taking to the 113,000 square-foot Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center. The facility has sparked a campus-wide interest in complete well-ness, rejuvenating the entire exercise and social community alike, say fac-ulty and students at the new Rec Center.
As a “retired” softball player, Sheffield said she had lost touch with the fit-ness routine of her high school days. Lifting weights and other muscle-building workouts had taken a back-seat once she enrolled in college, and Sheffield said she was forced to look for an outside gym.
“I never did get a gym membership because I thought it waste of money, especially being a poor col-lege student,” Sheffield said.
But as “the Bank” un-veiled last September, Sheffield said she was able to tap back in to her fitness regimen.
“It’s free and close,” Sheffield said. “We’re al-ready paying top fees as a student so I feel like it’s a better use of my time and money.”
Brookelee Galle, sopho-more Ad/PR major from Eula, said even as a Rec Center employee she uses the facility regularly.
“I did not work out at all last year, and now I work out at least twice a week,” Galle said. “Work-ing out has become such a social thing.”
Stationed at the front desk, Galle said she sees more students than ever during the intramural sea-son for indoor sports like waterball and volleyball.
“And there’s always peo-ple asking if they’re hiring,” Galle said. “They like work-ing out here so they think it would be a fun place to work, too.”
As the newest and one of the largest facilities on campus, “the Bank” ri-
vals the Campus Center as ACU’s socializing hotspot. According to assessment data, the Rec Center houses hundreds and even thou-sands of students, faculty and staff members daily.
Joel Swedlund, director of facility operations, exam-ines the Rec Center’s weekly statistics to make sure the facility continues to appeal to all people and at every level of fitness.
“People work out for a
lot of different reasons but the social aspect is one of the major reasons why col-lege students do,” Swed-lund said.
He said the Rec Center is busiest from 3-7 p.m., when most students are done with classes, and is most attended on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the “week-end guilt,” he said, begins to set in. So far, the most attended day at the Rec Center has brought in over
2,400 visitors.“The health industry and
media are making us more and more aware of the chal-lenges we face as a nation when it comes to high obe-sity rates,” Swedlund said. “We don’t want our students and employees to be one of those statistics, and we are starting to do something about it.”
Dr. Kerri Hart, director of fitness and training pro-grams, said that although the facility was a long time coming, she is pleased that the university was able to create a center for students, faculty and staff.
“Our goal was to have a complete wellness facility where different types of in-dividuals would feel com-fortable doing the things they like to do,” Hart said.
She said she loves to wit-ness people using the facil-ity in a multitude of ways.
“It’s so fun to see how the building transforms throughout the day,” Hart said. “You have the early morning enthusiasts at 5:30 a.m., by mid-morning, you’ve got the kinesiology and nutrition students, and by 3 p.m., there are people in every space.”
In addition to Techno-gym fitness equipment, visitors of the Rec Center can use a Wellness System Key, which can log users’ workouts and goals. To use the Wellness System Key, visitors complete an on-line questionnaire called an Aspiration Finder. The Aspiration Finder surveys an individual to find her desired workout empha-sis on power, fun, sport, balance, move and shape. The Wellness System Key utilizes the results of the
Aspiration Finder, along with a strength and car-dio test, to compile a per-sonalized fitness plan for each user.
“Knowing the technolo-gy wizards that our students are, I know they’ll think it’s cool,” Hart said.
Hart said the prescribed plan and tracking system within the key is perfect for those who need guidance but don’t want or can’t af-ford personal training.
Like many other work-out companions, Sheffield and Wilcox repeat their Rec Center routine four to five times per week. But in addi-tion to improving her phys-icality, the center is instru-mental in strengthening her spiritual life, Sheffield said.
“As accountability part-ners, Meagan and I have that time at the gym to catch up on what hap-pened that day,” Sheffield said. “If one of us says we’re struggling with something and need to talk, we’ll go walk the track. We take that time at the gym to work out but also to be up-lifted and encouraged by one another.”
The theme verse for the Rec Center is Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Hart said she believes that in practicing physical fit-ness within a community, we can reach that goal of complete wellness.
“Picking up a weight for someone else – that’s ser-vice. Showing someone how to use a machine – that’s service,” Hart said. “It just embodies the whole idea of keeping your body in shape to allow you to serve other people. Those acts of service may not always be obvious, but they’re happening.”
Sing Song season is in full swing, bringing history-making dance numbers, unique musical arrange-ments and themes that have never been done in ACU’s Sing Song history. There will be 14 upstage acts in the Feb. 17-18 shows, and sev-eral dance numbers by the hosts and hostesses as well as on-campus groups Ome-ga, Sanctify and SHADES.
The production process of Sing Song requires a regi-mented timeline of rehearsals and prop building and cos-tume preparation. This week, the upstage acts are finishing up their lyrics so they can in-tegrate choreography.
Meredith Morgan, senior music education major from Arlington and director of Sigma Theta Chi’s Sing Song act, is surprised by how well the show is coming together this early in the process.
“Everything is going re-ally well thus far. We’ve learned our music and start-ed choreography. It’s fun to see how excited the girls are about the act.” Morgan said.
“It’s great to see all the work we did before the show fi-nally falling into place.”
Tom Craig, director of Sing Song, is excited about integrating unique aspects to the show’s arrangement.
“There is quite a bit of dance in various capacities in the downstage numbers.
We’re incorporating differ-ent styles such as tap, inter-pretive and classic samba moves.” Craig said. “It’s a much broader picture than what we’ve seen in years past, which is exciting for the participants as well as the audience.”
Every year, the song
choices and dance numbers for the hosts and hostesses are tailored to the specific strengths of the hosts and hostesses group. This year, the show includes more technically complicated vo-cals. One song will be per-formed in Portuguese with the inclusion of a percussion
ensemble, something that has not been done in recent Sing Song history.
Jocelyn Groves, junior pre-med/biology major from Lubbock and one of the Sing Song hostesses, feels honored to be a part of a pro-duction with a unique theme that will appeal to a variety of audience members.
“The show is full of old-ies our grandparents will love and a few current per-formances that speak to a younger audience,” Groves said. “The theme ‘Wild at Heart’ is very relevant to the songs that were selected and we hope to communicate that message as the show progresses.”
Carly Branscum, junior Ad/PR major from Ft.Worth and Sing Song downstage co-chair, is enjoying the evolution and progression of the different acts involved in Sing Song.
“Ever since dance groups were integrated into the show, dance has become a vital part of the flow of the production.” Branscum said. “The hosts and host-esses are practicing even more than usual to make sure the show goes smooth-
ly and is received well by the audience.”
Sing Song weekend, Feb. 17-18, is only three weeks away and participants and directors are feeling the pressure as opening night nears. One act, the IBH Sing Song act, is still accepting members.
Craig is interested to see how the acts translate their themes and ideas for the show.
“I can’t wait to see the energy that this show will bring to Moody Coliseum as a whole. We have individual numbers with a lot of power, and it will be exciting to see them all come together in one big show,” Craig said. “By the time the audience leaves, they’ll be speechless. The show is exciting and will be full of surprises this year.”
There will be three Sing Song performances. One Feb. 17 at 8 p.m., and two on Feb. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m.
To purchase tickets for Sing Song 2012: Wild at Heart, visit www.acu.edu/singsong.
The men of Galaxy social club practice their Sing Song act Wednesday night in a Ma-bee Business Building classroom.
Adrian Patenaude Staff Photographer
Erika Tanaka, sophomore advertising and public relations major from Conroe, exercises using the new equipment in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.
dr. kerri hartdirector of fit-
ness and training
Those acts of service may not always be obvious, but
they’re happening.”“
friday 01.27.12 4news
Youth sports expo to offer new basketball tournament
The West Texas Sports and Fitness Expo will feature a new basketball tourna-ment in the event’s sev-enth year in Abilene.
The last day to sign up for the expo’s first annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament was extended from Friday to Tuesday. Teams can still register to play in men, women and co-ed divisions for youth and adults.
The expo is sponsored by the Abilene Youth Sports Authority and will take place the Abilene Civic Center on Feb. 4. Other events during the expo include the Lawrence Hall Chevrolet Quarter-back Shootout, the Texas Farm Bureau Virtual Golf Long Drive Shootout and the Fast Pitch Shootout, among others.
Coordinators of the event expect the expo to be a fun family event for the entire Abilene community.
“It’s an exciting day for the community,” said Ka-tie Miller, sports informa-tion coordinator of AYSA. “There will be lots of things to do; it’s a very high-ener-gy event.”
Jon Smith, executive director of AYSA, said he’s most looking forward to the new basketball tour-nament.
“I’ve wanted to do a basketball tournament like this for a few years,” Smith said. “It’s a perfect fit for the atmosphere for the expo.”
Smith said the coordi-nators are expecting the highest turnout in the event’s history.
In addition to the sports events, the expo will also feature demonstrations from exhibitors and au-tograph signings from lo-cal athletes, including the Abilene Ruff Riders and athletes from ACU, Hardin-Simmons University and McMurry University.
The expo’s proceeds will go to benefit two causes: an AYSA scholarship fund for the youth of Abilene who can’t afford the cost of orga-nized youth sports and the Beltway Park mission.
While the Abilene Youth Sports Authority created the event and proceeds do go to benefit the youth in the Abilene area, the West Texas Sports and Fitness Expo is for the entire com-munity.
“All of our activities are available to adults as well as youth,” Smith said. “There isn’t another event like this in the area so we really want to see a good turnout.”
Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children under 12 years old. The expo will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
To find out more about the expo or the basket-ball tournament, visit wtxsports-expo.com, email [email protected] or call (325)-692-2972.
“Professors who do re-search cannot receive any grant money unless we are regionally accredited, and students can not receive any federal loans unless we are accredited,” Shan-kle said.
ACU also has a dozen or more specialized accredi-tations, which would not be possible without the re-gional accreditation. Sever-al departments and colleges
have achieved accreditation within their fields.
But the Reaffirmation Leadership team must prove the university’s worth in more than just an aca-demic realm.
The accrediting body requires that they present data concerning all aspects of the university. Student life, library and learning re-sources, the board of trust-ees and financial resources
are a few of those areas.“It covers every aspect
of the university, and all of these rules are important because when we receive this accreditation it shows other universities that we are fully accredited,” Shan-kle said. “Our students’ de-grees are more valuable be-cause they are coming from an accredited university.”
Thirty-three women plan to tap into their inner frontier woman after being chosen to compete in the Miss Frontier Texas pag-eant for a chance to win a $3,000 scholarship.
Local museum Fron-tier Texas!, along with the help of the ACU student-run Ad/PR agency, Morris & Mitchell, organized the pageant to help the muse-um become more involved with the college commu-nity. The museum was also glad to have the ability to support a local student’s education, said Jeff Salm-
on, executive director of Frontier Texas!.
The competition origi-nally called for 25 women who exhibited strength of character and resourceful-ness. However, eight more contestants than initially planned were chosen.
“With the quality of the applications and the resources available to us, there was no reason not to choose the 33 of them,” Salmon said.
Although the majority of the candidates are ACU students, they represent a variety of majors and backgrounds and local colleges.
Salmon stressed that this pageant requires well-
rounded women with aca-demic knowledge and a willingness to participate. Lyndi Trammell, freshman speech language pathol-ogy major from Santo, said she is excited to partici-pate in the competition.
“I’ve never been in anoth-er pageant, but compared to what I see on Toddlers and Tiaras, Miss Frontier Texas is way more hands on than normal pageants and isn’t about outer beauty.” Tram-mel said. “It’s about being a frontier woman which takes gumption.”
Throughout the compe-tition, the contestants will be given points for par-ticipating in and executing several activities and tests.
These points are cumula-tive and, at the end, will determine the winner.
Last Tuesday, the con-testants met and were giv-en an overview of the com-petition for the first time. They toured the museum and received notebooks that included information about Frontier Texas!.
The contestants will be given a written test on
Feb. 21 covering informa-tion they learned from the notebook and the tour. They then will receive a cooking lesson from Tom Perini, owner of Perini Ranch Steakhouse, and a lesson on the life skills necessary for a frontier woman to survive.
The candidates will take lessons on shooting a .50 buffalo gun and saddling and riding a horse and will attempt to perform what they’ve learned. Twelve semi-finalists will be cho-sen after this challenge.
The final challenge will be on March 23-24. The semi-finalists will set up a camp site and perform their frontier skills. After
camping overnight, they will take part in a fron-tier obstacle course. Six finalists will be chosen to participate in the cooking challenge. For this, final-ists will cook their food over an open fire. A panel of celebrity judges will score the food, and Miss Frontier Texas will then be crowned.
“A good number of the contestants have never rid-den a horse or shot a gun.” Salmon said. “This compe-tition doesn’t require prior knowledge, just the ability to learn.”
A young basketball fan enjoys the Harlem Globetrotters’ performance in Moody Coliseum Tuesday night.
jeff salmonexecutive director of Frontier Texas!
This competition doesn’t require prior
knowledge, just the ability to learn.”“
Documentary to highlight Argentina’s Dirty War
The documentary “Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity,” which highlights the impact of Argentina’s Dirty War, will be shown on campus Monday at 6 p.m. in Room 114 of the Onstead-Packer Bible Building.
The Department of Journalism and Mass Com-munication, the Center for Peace and Justice and ACU’s Graduate School of Theology will sponsor the screening.
Dr. Charlie Tuggle, pro-
fessor of broadcast jour-nalism at the University of North Carolina and co-producer of the film, pre-sented Dr. Cheryl Bacon, chair of the JMC depart-ment, with the opportu-nity to show the film.
“When I first looked at it, it struck me as something that would be of interest to several departments on campus,” she said. “It is important for students to see that their peers are do-ing big things.”
The documentary tells the story of the impact of Argentina’s Dirty War, which took place from 1976 to 1983. During this time, the military dicta-
torship set to wipe out the resistance. About 30,000 people were kidnapped and murdered, including 500 mothers.
“Their babies wound up with military support-ers – the real grandmoth-ers have been looking for their grandchildren ever since,” Tuggle said. “This is what our story is about: the search for the missing grandchildren.”
Tuggle began working on this two-year project after a few of his students researched and wrote their own pieces on Las Abuelas, which means “The Grand-mothers,” and Argentina’s Dirty War.
“I became very inter-ested in the culture, the country, the history of the story of Las Abuelas,” Tug-gle said. “So I went back to Argentina in 2009 with my family.”
Tuggles’ youngest daughter wrote a follow-up piece on Las Abuelas during their last stay in Argentina. After crafting
a nationally recognized piece, Tuggle and his two daughers wanted to fur-ther pursue the story.
“We decided that these little news stories that we were doing doing were only scratching the sur-face,” Tuggle said. “So we decided, ‘Why don’t we do a family documentary.’”
Tuggle was part of an accreditation review team that came to visit ACU in 2006. Because of Bacon’s relationship with the pro-ducer, ACU is the fifth uni-versity to screen the film.
“I’ve been out there for a visit and got to know Dr. Bacon,” Tuggle said. “When I started to market
the film, I wanted to go to people I was familiar with and people who were fa-miliar with me.”
Las Abuelas is sched-uled to show at 90 univer-sities, four of those being international.
Tuggle said this has been a “fun project to work on,” mainly because he is doing it with his daughters.
“It’s also an important project,” Tuggle said. “It highlights the idea that all of us have to be interested and involved in the human rights fight.”
Satirically, of course. Colbert, who recently received 5 percent of the vote in a South Carolina primary, announced in January his plan to cam-paign for “President of the United States of South Carolina.”
Many consider the sa-tirical news anchor’s campaign to be degrad-ing in that it makes light of the American political process. Many of their laughs come at the ex-pense of politicians and governing bodies.
Colbert, Jon Stewart and others like them have great importance in the political education of Americans.
Colbert and Stewart each host a 30 minute
parody news show on Comedy Central. The co-median, news anchors keep their audience watching using humor, but they are actually re-sponsible for delivering national and world news to the masses.
Stories such as cam-paign finance reform are transformed from stuffy news articles published by the mainstream me-dia into a couple minutes of educational entertain-ment complete with fog machines.
Each show features re-spectable guests ranging from President Obama to Martha Stewart. Through their humorous coverage of major events, there is a basis of substance that helps enlighten the view-
ers to our current world news. Although not in-tended to be a holistic source, these shows pro-vide daily news in a more palatable fashion.
Colbert and Stewart’s shows do not go unno-ticed. Television rat-ings from the summer revealed that The Daily Show attracts about half a million more view-ers than most Fox News prime time shows. The Daily Shows’ 2.3 million viewers are bested only by The O’Reilly Factor.
On the same day that Ron Paul struggled to draw 100 people to his rally in North Charleston, Colbert was speaking to a crowd of 3,000 less than 20 miles away.
Colbert’s most recent
escapade is his owner-ship of a super political action committee. He explained the changes in federal campaign finance laws to many who prob-ably wouldn’t have ever taken the time to educate themselves through other avenues.
He recently teamed up with Jon Stewart to show his audience how Super PACs are being used since the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC which allows corpora-tions to raise unlimited amounts of money for specific candidates.
However, candidates are not allowed to be in-volved or coordinated with their respective Su-per PACs. So when Colbert announced his candida-
cy, he passed leadership of his super PAC to Jon Stewart.
Through this, Colbert has shed light on the fact that, just as Stewart and Colbert are no strangers, many super PACs also have strong connections to the candidates despite a legal requirement ban-ning coordination.
Romney’s super PAC is run by his former lawyer and Rick Perry’s super PAC is run by his former
chief of staff. Some can-didates share a staff with the Super PAC that sup-ports them.
While this may be considered a mockery because they poke fun at politics, Colbert and Stewart help inform and enlightened many Americans about today’s news.
As I recently illustrated, Moody Colosseum looks like a flying saucer. Except it doesn’t fly, it just sits here on our campus.
But as I glance around its vast interior during Chapel, I sometimes wonder what would happen if it lifted it-self into the sky and flew off to some distant planet bear-ing its small sample of earth people. Would the alien an-thropologists be satisfied with the quality and variety of specimens?
Hopefully, we would be abducted on a Monday, when faculty rush in to fill their reserved seats. Surely our alien researchers would want some professors in their samples.
Do you ever think really strange things in Chapel? I frequently do. Every time I look at Moody’s hanging scoreboard, I vividly imag-ine it falling to the ground. What if it made a huge crack-ing noise, fell a few feet, and just hung in the air by some flimsy cables? How much time would it take for every-one on the floor to scurry out of its shadow before it finally
finished its descent and em-bedded itself into the floor?
I think it would take five seconds for everyone to be-come aware of what was hap-pening, and vacate the land-ing area. You’ll think about this next time your in moody, I guarantee it. What if you had the microphone as it hap-pened? What would you say? How would you motivate the floor sitters to quickly move in the right direction?
There are several different things you could shout into that microphone to get ev-eryone to flee for their lives, but which would be the most time efficient? After much thought, I think I would spit out, “Chapel is dismissed, have a great day!” and watch the room clear.
We all have odd day-dreams in our beloved col-iseum from time to time. If you’re ever bored in there, it’s your own fault. Just ask yourself thought-provok-ing questions about bi-zarre things, and you’ll be fascinated.
Have you ever sat at the very top and wondered how far you would get if
you jumped as far forward as you could? How many rows down would you make it?
I think it would be quite a few, even if you possessed only moderate athletic prowess. The question is, could you make yourself leap straight out from those rows? At the last second one might have second thoughts and just trip down a single seat. Maybe if there were a giant mattress five or six rows down, it would be suf-ficient motivation. I really don’t know–but that’s why it’s fun to think about.
When Mark Lewis qui-ets everyone for a serious announcement or prayer request, for a brief instant I imagine that he’s going to say “Many of you know Ben Mill-er, either as the piano player in the Bean, or as the Opti-mist. Well, I’m sure most you have heard about the injury already...” confused, I would give a strange look to whom-ever is sitting adjacent, only to realize that no one is even looking at me. Then I would realize the seat I thought I was sitting in is actually tak-en by someone else. I’m not even in a chair, I’m just there in Chapel somehow, without a physical body.
Mark would continue, “Right now Ben is still un-conscious at Hendrick Medi-cal Center...” Incredulous,
I would yell, “Hey, I’m right here!” Only to find that I couldn’t even hear myself. It’s an out of body experi-ence. “Ben was hanging around after Chapel, and the scoreboard fell and grazed his head.”
What if we all simultane-ously thew a paper plane in Chapel? How many consec-utive days could I sit behind the speaker on the sing-song stage before someone asked me to stop? Who would ask, and how? What would hap-pen if a giant lifted the ceil-ing off? Would he think that such a large number of peo-ple in one place was creepy looking, much as we are re-pulsed by a large number of ants under a rock? If you’ve read this far, I’m not alone in these strange thoughts.
Oh Dear, Christian College Ben miller
the issueStephen Colbert makes a run for the Presidency of the United States of South Carolina.
our takeColbert provides political knowledge for people who might not receive it otherwise.
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Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the uni-versity or its administration.
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The Optimist encourages reader response through let-ters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print letters containing
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Address letters to: ACU Box 27892Abilene, TX 79609
The big game as viewed through the eyes of a classic
Fascinating questions in Moody
Colbert, Stewart humorous and yet informative
The football match up of the year has been set. The New England Patriots and the New York Giants will square off in Super Bowl XLVI. It sounds exciting, but sadly we have to sit through a little more than a week before we get to witness the outcome. And don’t get me started on how pointless the Pro Bowl is.
Luckily, with today’s sim-ulation technology, we can simulate the outcome. All you need to do is pick the two teams and let the computer play out the game. Electron-ic Arts’ annual Madden NFL simulation gets a lot of buzz especially since it has cor-rectly picked the winner in 6 of the last eight Super Bowls.
Last year’s Packers/Steel-ers match up was one of those years that Madden was wrong, picking the Steelers to win in a very close game. But you wouldn’t believe what video game simulation picked the winner correctly: Tecmo Super Bowl. Yes, this 8-bit Nintendo game from 1991 was able to produce a more accurate result than EA’s ultra-detailed HD pow-erhouse.
Granted, this was a special modified version of the NES classic, with updated rosters and a few other additions to make it play more like to-day’s NFL, but it still uses the original game’s code at its core. These modifications were done by Tecmo Super Bowl’s extremely dedicated cult community, who regard the game as the greatest American football sim of all time.
I recently picked up this year’s edition, loaded it into my NES console, and set the computer to control the New England Patriots and the New York Giants in a pixelated matchup for the ages. Which team will reign supreme?
According to Tecmo, the
Patriots will come alive early in the game offensively, and the defense will back them up despite some great passes by the Giants’ Eli Manning. Both team’s quarterbacks will put up a pass comple-tion rate of 50 percent in the first half, but some costly fumbles will put the Patriots well ahead.
The Patriots will hold them down well into the sec-ond half as well. The Giants offense will attempt a come-back in the forth quarter with some superior running plays, but a botched onside kick will give the Patriots a great field advantage, allow-ing Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis to score the game winning touchdown. Final Score: Pa-triots 35, Giants 24.
Now there’s no telling if this is exactly how the game will be played. This is just one simulation, and it could easily be run again and again producing different results. If this were a truly scientific study, the match up would be run thousands of times, and the average score of both teams would be used to predict the winner. Then again, there’s no telling if that would be how the game would go either.
We really won’t know un-til it happens. It’s just fun to speculate and see how it all might play out, and if the real game matches up to the simulation, that’s even cooler. But one thing’s for sure, the game will be exciting. These are two of the greatest teams in the league, and hundreds of millions will tune in to watch them battle for the glory of the championship. And simulation technology from today and in the past will only enhance the expe-rience.
3:20 p.m. Jan. 26Why does the Dr. Pepper at Little Panda always taste different? #sketchy
Friday 01.27.127 sports Jumps
Fun: Trick shots, dunks highlight eventATHLETICS
MANDY LAMBRIGHT CHIEF Photographer
Left: “Bull” Bullard plays patty-cake with the referee. Right: Jacob “Hops” Tucker dunks despite his 5’10” frame.
were Jacob “Hops” Tucker, Big Easy Lofton, Bones Millien, Tiny Sturgess, and Stretch Middleton.
“Hops” was the 2011 college slam dunk champi-on while attending Illinois College. He is only 5’10,’’ however he has a 50-inch vertical jump. In other words, he can get his eyes horizontal with the rim.
Tiny is the tallest Har-lem Globetrotter in his-tory. He stands 7’8” and was recognized by Guin-ness World Records as the World’s Tallest Profession-al Basketball Player.
The group has been around since the late 1920’s, but weren’t known as the Harlem Globetrot-ters until a few years after the team was formed.
“The Globetrotters have appeared in their own movies and TV shows and have been seen by hun-dreds of millions of people in 120 countries,” accord-ing to the team website.
Mosley is optimistic about the possibility of the the Globetrotters return-ing in the near future.
“The group always tries to work Abilene into their schedule,” said Mosley. “I think they will still be in-terested in playing here.”
Antwine wouldn’t mind viewing another Globe-trotter exhibition.
“I would definitely go see it again if they decide to come back next year.”
Wildcats hit road for meets in Colo., N.M.
The ACU track and field program will attempt to add to the ten athletes that provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship Meet Friday and Saturday as the team travels in two separate directions.
The multievents athletes – Parker Petty, Matthew Stark and Cassie Brooks will travel northwest to Colorado Springs, Colo. to compete at the Air Force Combined Events Meet at the Air Force Academy while the remaining track and field athletes will be in Albuquerque, N.M. for the New Mexico Invitational.
“The goal for all of these meets is still to qualify as many athletes, either provisionally or automati-cally, for Nationals,” head coach Roosevelt Lofton said. “That goal and pur-pose will remain the same until the national meet is upon us. It’s all about rep-resentation.”
The ACU men’s team enters the meets ranked No. 17 by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association Poll, while the women are slated No. 24, two spots below their pre-season No. 24 ranking.
“We don’t care a whole lot about those rankings or place a lot of importance on them,” senior thrower
Nick Jones said. “All we care about is competing to the best of our ability. If we do that, we will see the results we’re shooting for as a program.”
Petty and Stark have to score 4600 points or high-er in the heptathlon to provisionally qualify, and 5,152 points to clinch a spot at the national meet.
“This is an important weekend for us,” Stark said. “We really need to
compete at a high level and leave all that we have on the track.”
Brooks, the lone repre-sentative for the women’s team in Colorado Springs, Colo., has to know 3,300 or more points in the pen-tathlon to provisionally qualify and 3,813 to join Nick Jones and Amanda Ouedraogo at the indoor national meet. She has al-ready provisionally quali-fied as a part of the 4x400
meter relay.Sprinter Jordan Geary
currently holds the na-tion’s tenth fastest time in the 400-meter run of 49 seconds last weekend in Lubbock en route to pro-visionally qualifying.
Hurdler Dennis Bain ranks in the nation’s top 20 in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.18 sec-onds, and Lexus Williams echoed Bain with her time of 8.78.
“For those who have al-ready qualified, now is the time to work on improve-ment,” Lofton said. “If we can post better times and put ourselves in bet-ter standing, that will be a positive for all of those who have already qualified.”
The ACU men’s 4x400 meter relay of senior Paris Robertson, Osei Allyene-Forte, Banjo Jayesimi and Geary recorded the sev-enth fastest NCAA DII mark at 3:18.38, while Brooks and her team, which was composed of Shennae Steele, Ayesha Rumble and Karla Hope posted a top-10 time of 3:54.61.
Steele and Robertson are also provisional quali-fiers in the 60-meter dash with respective top times of 7.72 and 6.91, both posted at the Air Force Academy in December.
Coach Shawna Lavender and the women’s basketball team look forward to facing Texas Women’s University this Saturday as a chance to redeem themselves from a tough losing streak that has become a frequent trend this season.
ACU lost two heart-breakers in the final min-utes of the second half this past week in a home-and-home series with Angelo State. After those losses, the Wildcats are looking for a win this Saturday to improve their perfor-mance in conference, and boost confidence amongst the players.
“Having two back-to-back games like that, we felt that we had a good chance to win one of them,” Lavender said. “This next
game; it’s a game we have to have.”
The Cats’ played TWU in their first conference game on the road in Den-ton, and lost a close one on the road. The Wildcats were able to regain ground as they got focused and at one point were able to cut the score by one, but it wasn’t enough to over-come the 4-point deficit, leaving the final score at 68-74 Pioneers.
But the team is confi-dent that this game is the one to pull them out of their slump.
“They are definitely beatable, it’s just a matter of us doing it,” freshman center Paige Parliament said. “We want to go into this game and mess with their record a bit. We have nothing to lose, so we’re just going for the win.”
The Wildcats will take on the Pioneers Saturday
in Abilene. Coach Lav-enders says that a home game will be good for the girls, especially if there is a good fan base.
“Being at home helps a lot,” Lavender said. “If we can get the momentum go-ing, we can get on a roll and start finishing people off.”
And with TWU’s 1-5 re-cord on the road, the ‘Cats have a very good chance.
“At this point we are just trying to end on a good note,” Parliament said. “If we can get it go-ing this weekend, I like our chances.”
ACU has nine games left in to improve their re-cord.
The Wildcats and the Pioneers will take the court Saturday Jan. 28 in Moody Coliseum. Tip off at 2 p.m.
This is an important weekend for us. We really need to compete at a high level and leave it all on the track.“
Ranks: Home stand opens 2012 season
BAseball
two top votes and 105 points.
Angelo State and ACU ended up tied for fourth with 91 points. The Wild-cats did receive one first place vote.
“My main goal is to get this team to know each other in the middle of bat-tle,” Bonneau said. “Over the last four or five months this team has bonded more than others have in the past. This team wants to be a team that people will talk about.”
ACU will begin play at home on Friday, Feb. 3 against Arkansas Tech Uni-versity. The Wildcats will play 18 straight at home before going on their first
road trip in mid-March.“It’s nice because we
will have an actual pre-season before conference play. We have time to form a team for conference, and we need these home games to come together because on the road, we will be tested.”
After their opening se-ries against Arkansas Tech the Wildcats will contin-ue their non-conference schedule.
Also during the long home stand, the ’Cats will play Colorado Christian University, Southern Ar-kansas and East Central.
Against Arkansas Tech next weekend the Cats will play four games including a double header on Feb. 4th.
The Wildcats will host the Whitton Inn Classic and will play Eastern New Mex-ico, Cameron, and Tarleton State in non-conference games against LSC teams on March 2.
The ’Cats finally go on the road March 10 to Cleve-land, Miss. to face Delta State. After a three game series with the Statesmen, the Wildcats will start con-ference play.
“This year we play three of the top four teams in the conference on the road,” Bonneau said. “We are go-ing to have to learn quickly how to play on the road.”
Last night, the ACU men’s basketball team played a nearly flawless game against Paul Quinn College, winning the game 88-70.
ACU pounded Paul Quinn on the boards from the start of the game, and the Tigers were unable to keep up with the high-powered Wildcat offense.
The ‘Cats built a eigh-teen point lead after only one half of play, scoring a season high fifty-two first half points and leaving Paul Quinn in the dust.
The Wildcats played stifling defense through-out most of the first half, leading to a plethora of Paul Quinn turnovers.
Highlights in this game included stellar three point shooting by all of the ACU guards and mon-ster dunks by seniors Eric Kibi and Zach Williams
Despite a few runs by the Tigers in the second half, Paul Quinn College was unable to ever pose a real threat, and ended up losing this game by a con-siderable margin.
Williams led the Wild-cats in scoring with twenty-one points, but he was not the only Wildcat that had a big game offensively.
The Wildcats had three more players in double fig-ures. Kendall Durant had 13 points, Dosh Simms finished with 12, and Kibi had 14 points to go along with his 10 rebounds.
If the ‘Cats are able to take care of business
on Saturday afternoon against Arlington Baptist, ACU will be in a great po-sition to make their late season surge by winning every game in their home stand.
“These three home games in a row are impor-tant for us,” point guard An-tonio Bell said. “We want to
gain some confidence and start making a statement about our team.”
Momentum is always important in college ath-letics, and putting their slow start to LoneStar Conference play in the rear view mirror and fin-ishing strong is the focus of every player in the ACU
locker room.“This game is big for us,” senior Ben Warton said. They have played well against some really good teams, so if we can get to .500 that will give us a huge confidence boost going into the last part of conference play.”
The Wildcats have 9
more games to improve their conference rankings, having fallen to 2-8.
The Wildcats will take on Arlington Baptist this Saturday, in Moody at 4 p.m.
The men’s basketball team faces Arlington Baptist on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 4:00 p.m in Moody Coliseum.
The women’s basketball team will play at home this Saturday Jan. 28 against Texas Women’s University at 2:00 p.m.
The men and women’s track and field teams will compete at the Air Force Academy meet in Colorado Jan. 26-27.
women’s basketball
standings
briefings
player profile
Upcoming
The Lone Star Football festival will take place at Cowboy’s Stadium in Arlington again next season. Abilene Christian takes on Tarleton State Saturday, Sept. 15. Kickoff at 4 p.m.
The baseball team is picked to finish fourth in the Lone Star Conference pre-season poll released on Wednesday.
ACU’s former defensive end Aston Whiteside recieved additional honors this weekend as he was added as an All-American to three more NCAA Division II football teams.
Softball is ranked sixth in the LSC pre-season poll released on Thursday. ACU received 135 votes, while No. 1 ASU had 232 votes
ACU continues to discuss the possibility of joining the Southland Conference and moving up to Division I.
men’s basketball
Mack Lankford, has been an essential player for the Wildcats this season,
leading in points scored everytime she is on the court. Lankford, sophomore guard from Weatherford, Texas, is the second leading scorer in the LSC South, averaging 19.3 points per game, including her career-high of 35 points. As the reigning Freshman of the Year, Lankton led the conference in steals, averaging nearly 2.3 a game last season. Heading into the end of conference play, Lankford will be a huge factor in improving the women’s basketball team’s 2-9 record.
ACU students and the Abilene community were treated to a night of high flying aerobatics, uncanny basketball tricks, and elec-trifying dunks on Tuesday, in a packed Moody Coli-seum.
The world famous Har-lem Globetrotters made a stop in Abilene to enter-
tain fans with numerous stunts in addition to play-ing a pickup game of bas-ketball.
Matthew Antwine, sophomore family stud-ies major from Maypearl, thoroughly enjoyed the night.
“It was entertaining,” Antwine said. “They got the audience involved which was cool. The funni-est part was when Big Easy got his pants pulled down
and he was just in his un-derwear.”
This isn’t the first time the Globetrotters have made a quick visit to the ACU campus. In 2008, the
exhibition team also put on a show in Moody.
The Globetrotters usu-ally draw large crowds during their tours across the world and this was no exception. Families and college students alike, gathered together to view both a comical and cre-ative performance.
Jared Mosley, ACU Ath-letic Direcor, thought the event was a success.
“I thought the turnout
was good considering the weather,” Mosley said. “Around 3,200 fans showed up to watch a fun perfor-mance.”
The Globetrotter’s line-up has included All-Star and Hall of Fame basket-ball players such as, Wilt Chamberlain and Magic Johnson.
Several of the players who showcased their abilities
mandy lambright CHIEF Photographer
Zach Williams, senior guard from Dallas, jumps up for the shot against Paul Quinn College Thursday night in Moody Coliseum. The win helped to boost confidence amogst the team, hoping to come back from a 2-8 LSC record.
Globetrotters fly high in MoodyAthletics
EDWARD ISAACSSports Editor
ACU fourth in LSC pre-season poll
The baseball polls are out, and according to this year’s Lone Star Conference pre-season rankings, the ACU Wildcats will start the year as the fourth best on the diamond in the LSC.
LSC coaches, sports in-formation directors and writers cast their ballots
for the conference, and the Wildcats, a perennial first place selection, will have to surprise to finish at the top.
“There is a lot of uncer-tainty with us right now,” head coach Britt Bonneau said. “We have 25 new players while other teams are coming off of strong years. That should be a motivator for us.”
Last year’s disappoint-
ing season ended without an LSC tournament ap-pearance, a first for ACU, and probably contributed to the low ranking.
Incarnate Word was ranked first after finishing last year’s regular season in first in the conference. The Cardinals received 13 of the possible 21 first place votes and 157 points.
The Cardinals also were bestowed the honor of
having the LSC’s Preseason Pitcher of the Year on their squad in Kirk Jewasco, se-nior from San Antonio. Jewasco led the league in 2011 with a 14-2 record and amassed 103 strike-outs. He was last year’s Pitcher of the Year and also garnered first team all-LSC honors.
2012’s Preseason Player of the Year is West Texas A&M infielder Jess Cooper.
Although WT is ranked near the bottom of the conference in sixth, Coo-per is bright spot in their lineup. Last spring the senior hit an astonishing .494 and had 50 RBI’s.
Behind Incarnate Word in the rankings is Tarleton State who had one first place vote and 126 points, followed by Cameron with
Austin GwinSports Director
Baseball
see RANKS page 7
see FUN page 7
Mandy lambright CHIEF Photographer
Left: “Scooter” Christensen dives down for the ball Tuesday night in Moody. Top Right: “Bull” Bullard shows off his basketball skills from a new angle. Bottom Right: Globetrotters guard “Buckets” Blakes takes some time off the game to dance with students to the Village People’s “YMCA.”
Jared MosleyDirector of Athletics
ACU sports
I thought the turnout was good considering
the weather.”“
Wildcats dominate in lopsided winMaTTHEW SLOANSPORTS REPORTER
