april 20, 2012

Bring it on, world

BY MICHAEL DANGELO
Sports Editor

The Pioneer Log sports

17

Baseball
NWC ALL Pacific (Ore.) 14-4 17-14 Whitworth 13-5 20-13-1 Linfield 15-6 21-10 Pacific Lutheran 12-6 20-11 George Fox 11-7 15-6 Willamette 7-11 11-19 Puget Sound 5-13 9-23-1 Whitman 5-16 5-28 Lewis & Clark 4-17 7-30

While the end of May for many of us is a time of blissful indulgence in the aphrodisiac that is the summer sun, Kevin Dadik (14) will be competing in the World Jiu Jitsu championships. I hyperextended a guys elbow, said Dadik about his first place victory in this past years Revolutions competition. I had the lock and was applying pressure and he wasnt tapping. I applied more pressure and he wasnt tapping. And there we go. Dadik, a history major, has been competing in Jiu Jitsu competitions since he started in high school. Going unconscious is not uncommon from a choke, but Ive probably done it two or three times [to my oppenents].

Going once and its gone

Recruitment restrictions in the NBA cause problems at the college level
BY ANTHONY RUIZ
Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF WWW.LEAPLLC.COM.

Kevin will be competing against 130 other registered participants in the adult blue-belt lightweight division, where he has been competing for some time, which willbe moved to purple belt after worlds. Its not some mystical thing. For me it is a sport. Its something I do for recreation and for competition, but Im not expecting any enlightenment out of it.

Taking the easy way out

Confronting the stereotyped correlation between athletes and easy majors
BY GILLIAN SULLIVAN-BING
Staff Writer

Softball
NWC ALL Linfield 25-3 35-3 Pacific Lutheran 24-4 34-10 Willamette 19-9 20-13 George Fox 15-13 20-20 Whitworth 12-16 19-21 Pacific (Ore.) 11-17 13-23 Lewis & Clark 3-25 5-33 Puget Sound 3-25 3-31

Mens Tennis
NWC ALL Whitman 12-0 19-4 Pacific (Ore.) 11-1 13-5 George Fox 9-3 10-7 Whitworth 8-4 11-8 Pacific Lutheran 5-7 7-10 Willamette 3-9 3-13 Lewis & Clark 2-10 3-11 Puget Sound 2-10 2-14 Linfield 2-10 2-17

The classes that Lewis & Clark offers, the professors that teach them and the students that take them vary to such a degree that its hard to imagine that at the end of the day, all academic achievement is measured by grades and GPAs. Given this variance, it seems only natural that comparisons between majors, courses and homework loads would take place. I think that its safe to say that numerous members of the LC community have their own notions of what constitutes an easy or a difficult major based on criteria such as the grading curve, pages of reading per week, number of papers per semester or having to write a thesis, as well as a students individual skills and aptitudes. Although which majors can be labeled easy certainly varies from person to person, one correlation that I have heard since I first arrived at LC is that student-athletes tend to gravitate towards easy majors. In this case, easy is normally used to refer to Psychology and Rhetoric and Media Studies (formerly Communication). To hear this sentiment around campus brings up a lot of difficult issues, not the least of which is the idea that there is such a thing as an easy major. Regardless of how harshly a professor grades or how many lab hours are required, such criteria are not an adequate measure of how much effort a student puts into her courses and what she is able to take away from them. Another tricky issue is the idea that a majority of student athletes do not take their academics seriously and go out of their way to find the easiest major. When I brought

the issue up with Clark Jaeger, the Director of Physical Education and Athletics, he told me that the correlation between athletes and easy majors had been brought to his attention in the past but that he holds little stock in the notion. He is proud of LC varsity athletes and their wide-ranging interests, dedication and work ethic outside of sports. He put together a number of statistics for me that compare student-athlete major percentages with those of all LC undergrads. On one hand, these statistics do show a high number of student-athlete Psych majors, 24% as compared to 14.1% of the larger student body. However, student-athletes majors vary greatly, the most popular five for the Fall 2011 semester being Psychology (24.6%), Biology (10.6%), IA (9.6%), Econ (6.4%) and Bio-Chem (5.9%), compared to the five overall most popular majors at LC, which are Psychology (14.1%), SoAn (9.0%), IA (8.9%), Biology (6.8%) and English (6.5%). I dont pretend to be a whiz at statistics and I know that there are a number of problems with comparing LCs athletes to the rest of the population, for example the high number of athletes and non-athletes alike whose majors are undecided and the fact that varsity athletes only comprise about 10% of the LC population. However, from my point of view, the bare statistics show that studentathletes have a wide range of academic interests, representing both the natural and social sciences. As to the question of what constitutes an easy major, I think a more fruitful endeavor would be to explore the assumptions we make about groups on campus and whether or not there are better avenues available to us that will help us better understand our fellow students.

What do Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James and Dwight Howard all have in common? If you answered dominating their respective positions, multiple all-star appearances or being named to the All-NBAs first team, you are correct. But did you know that all of the aforementioned players were also drafted directly out of high school? Putting an end to the high school madness in 2005, the NBA decided to put a ban on players going directly from high school to the League, requiring players to be both 19 and to have been out of high school for at least one year. Problem solved, right? Think again. While players still are not allowed to enter the NBA directly after high school, many only wait around for the minimum required amount of one-year. This is leading to various problems at the college level, such as recruiting violations and creating a college environment in which players have no intention of actually finishing school. Recently, NBA commissioner David Stern and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have spoken out against the one and done rule, instead advocating for college students to remain in school longer. Stern favors a two-year requirement, while Cuban supports keeping athletes in college for three years. Requiring players to stay in the college game longer makes sense from a financiallystrapped NBA perspective. The NBA already doesnt allow rookies to negotiate their contacts, instead bracketing their pay by draft order. By forcing them to stay in college longer, the NBA will be able to outsource more of the development of its young players to colleges. This way, college teams could develop young stars and the NBA wont have to foot the bill. Remember, even Kobe sat the bench his rookie year. But from a more sincere perspective, forcing young players to take two to three years before joining the league could also be beneficial for them. For all of the LeBron Jameses who were NBA-ready from what seemed like middle school, there were dozens of players who decided to skip college and enter the draft only to go undrafted and never play a minute in the NBA.

Kickoffs... A thing of the past?

BY ANTHONY RUIZ
Staff Writer

Womens Tennis
NWC ALL Linfield 12-0 12-4 Whitman 10-2 15-4 Whitworth 9-3 13-5 Puget Sound 6-6 8-9 Pacific (Ore.) 6-6 7-10 Willamette 5-7 7-9 George Fox 3-9 8-11 Lewis & Clark 3-9 3-10 Pacific Lutheran 0-12 1-17

Whats the most electrifying play in sports? Hoop fans will argue for the alley-oop or three-point buzzer beater. Baseball fans will tell you the walk-off homerun or stealing home. But for most of us football fans, nothing is better than watching a return man cut and juke his way 108 yards for a score while making half-a-dozen grown men look silly. Theres one problem: NFL owners want to kill the kick-off. Last season the NFL decided to move the kickoff from the 30-to the 35-yard line citing safety concerns, namely concussions. While there was a lot of opposition from the fans at first, it didnt really change the overall

excitement of the game that much. Sure, a historic low 53.1% of kickoffs were returned last year, but the play wasnt removed from the game all together. Any quibbles with the decision were negated after data showed that concussions were reduced by a whopping 40 percent last season! Wow. The dramatic reduction in concussions have some, like New York Giants owner John Mora and members of the NFLs competition committee, considering downing the kickoff altogether. We had a lot of discussions about whether we should eliminate it and, if we did, what we could do in its place, said Mora. Theres no consensus on it right now, but I could see the day in the future where that play could be taken out

of the game. Football without kickoffs? It could happen as soon as the 2013 season. Before you cry personal foul on the NFL, think about how much good this could do for the NFL and its players. If kickoffs are really the biggest contributors to concussions, maybe the NFL ought to get rid of them. Concussion safety and awareness are one of the few things that have plagued the NFL as of late, and it is developing a bit of an image problem. If the NFL wants to continue to spread football around the globe and be a role model for college, high school and everyone else, it should take the lead in increasing player safety. After all, the kickoff has the chance to be replaced by something equally excitingthat doesnt lead to brain damage. What do you think?