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Cardinals prepare for upcoming Las Vegas Tournament
J.P. Bartmess
2/17/12
Basketball has one of the longest seasons of any sport here at William Jewell College. For four months straight, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Jewell live and breathe basketball almost every day. Now both teams are into the final two weeks of the season and looking to finish strong in conference.
“It has been important as the season has gone on to trust each other. Staying together as one team and take pride in everything you do. This [transition] year has brought some struggles, but you have to bring it every night in [NCAA] Division II and it has only gotten us better,” Nick Larson, senior, said.
Last night the men’s and women’s teams took on Drury University at the Mabee Center on Larry Holley Court. In the women’s game, runs were made by both teams back and forth throughout the game. Drury ended the game on a 30-6 run and defeated the Cardinals 62-50. Cassy Nicolay, sophomore, had 17 points and 9 rebounds for the Cardinals. After the women’s game, the men’s team took the court looking to avenge a 23 point loss to the Panthers last month. In double overtime, the Cardinals fell again to the Panthers 88-84. After one of their players made a three-pointer from half court to send the game into a second overtime, the Panthers went perfect from the free-throw line and put the Cardinals away. Larson led the way for the Cardinals with 21 points and 9 rebounds.
This past week, the men’s and women’s teams traveled to Illinois for a pair of road conference games. On Saturday, both teams fell to Quincy University. The women’s team fell 78-51 and was led by Nicolay with 17 points. On the men’s side, the Cardinals committed 20 turnovers and lost 76-65 to the Hawks. Craig Mattson, junior, and Larson each had 17 points to lead the Cardinals in scoring.
“We needed to get off to a better start. They made a huge run at the beginning of the game and we just couldn’t fight back. Everyone needs to be working on the defensive side because we feed off each other on that end, and we lost focus a lot on Saturday,” Holly Switzer, junior, said.
On Thursday, both teams were in Springfield, Ill. for some Great Lakes Valley Conference action against the University of Illinois-Springfield. The women’s team won 64-60, thanks to 19 points apiece from Chelsea Meeks, sophomore, and Switzer. However, the men’s team fell 78-63 after the women’s game. Chris Uz, senior, led the Cardinals with 13 points.
“I got into foul trouble early and that hurt us. We shot poorly, but needed to find a way to get some buckets and keep some motivation going for the team to give us a chance in the second half,” Larson said.
While the men’s team is sitting with a record of 7-15 overall and 4-12 in GLVC play, the women’s team has a shot to win the western division of the GLVC with a 13-9 overall record and 8-8 in the GLVC. They were a preseason pick to finish last in their division. However, since both teams cannot participate in the conference basketball tournaments this year, they will travel to Las Vegas next weekend to participate in the Vegas D-II Shootout.
“We went there three years ago and it was a lot of fun. It is a cool way to end our season and everybody is excited for the trip. While it will be fun, we want to go prove that we do belong in [NCAA] Division II and can play with anyone,” Switzer said.
The Cardinals can make a statement with two games left in the regular season. Both teams travel to Rolla to take on the Miners of Missouri S&T tomorrow and then finish out the season on Thursday, Feb. 24 at home.
“Our goal is to win the rest of the games we play, no matter who we are playing. That was our goal at the beginning of the season and nothing will change that. We need to get better every day between now and Vegas so we can finish what we started,” Larson said.
Softball stays strong as season gets underway
Jared Speckman
2/17/12
After one game, it appears there will be no hangover for the softball team after the most successful campaign in school history in 2011.
The women traveled to Oklahoma City last weekend for two games. The first game, which ended up being their only game because of a weather cancellation, was a blowout win over Central Christian College, from McPherson, Kan.
Maria Buckingham, senior, starting pitcher and team captain, pitched all five innings for the Lady Cardinals, giving up three hits and no earned runs.
The Lady Cardinals offense did their part, driving in 16 runs. Third basewoman Taylor Brown, senior, catcher Ashlee Nation, sophomore, and designated hitter Kelsey Teneycke, sophomore, drove in three runs each.
Fourteen of the women’s 16 runs came in the first inning of the game which forced a pitching change by Central Christian before they received their second out in the game.
“We played pretty well for our first game of the season. Our focus and intensity was really good. Maria threw really well, and we made plays defensively behind her. Offensively we got on base up and down the lineup. However, we definitely know we still have a long way to go both offensively and defensively to compete at a high level,” Dustin Combs, head softball coach, said.
The weather was not ideal for the game. The women played in wind chills of around 20 degrees and 20 miles an-hour winds, according to Combs. Their game scheduled against Hillsdale Baptist College was cancelled.
The Lady Cardinals are heading back to Weatherford, Okla. this weekend for four scheduled games. In all likelihood, these games will be much tougher.
The Lady Cardinals will face off against Southwest Oklahoma State in their first matchup. Southwest Oklahoma is the host school and comes in with a 2-1 record on the season. Jewell will also play Northwest Missouri State who will be playing their first game of the season after two games were postponed last week. Jewell will then take on both teams again.
“We still don’t know exactly where we are at this point as a team. We have a lot of competition and depth at every position and we’re still trying to put the best lineup on the field. We will have to play really well this weekend and maintain our great chemistry to have a successful weekend,” Combs said.
The weather may play a factor in this weekend’s games as well, as the forecast calls for rain during game time.
After this week’s trip to Oklahoma the Lady Cardinals will travel to Arkansas for the CBC Meltdown and their last non-conference games before entering conference play with two home games.
“Our non-conference schedule is very important for our preparation for GLVC competition. It will allow us to find out where we are as a program and what we need to improve on as a team. The next eight games on our schedule will be very competitive and critical for our development going into conference play,” Combs said.
Despite nomination for best picture, The Descendants lacks character
It must be a slow year for movies because somebody nominated The Descendants for Best Picture. It is not a particularly bad movie, but neither is it a particularly good movie. Overall, The Descendants just lacks the sparkle or grit that typically makes a movie eligible for Best Picture. I have absolutely no desire to see it again, except perhaps for the beautiful scenery: it is set in Hawaii.
George Clooney plays Matt King, a lawyer whose marriage has deteriorated because he is not an emotionally present member of his family. He goes to work and leaves the task of raising his daughters to his wife, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth is in a boating accident that leaves her in a coma, King suddenly finds himself dealing with the consequences of his absenteeism while trying to decide how to tell his family and friends that Elizabeth will not recover from her coma and juggling his cousins, all of whom have strong opinions on to whom the family’s Hawaiian land should be sold.
From there, the movie could have been a rehash of an overdone premise, or it could have been a really emotional, hard-hitting look at a typical U.S. family and the consequences of a tragically disrupted status quo. Unfortunately, it was mostly a rehash. Scottie, King’s 10-year-old daughter, has some serious behavioral problems that completely disappear halfway through the movie without any real parenting from King. Alex, the 17-year-old daughter, reportedly has a drug problem, but except for inadvertently teaching Scottie to curse—and thereby earning the film an R rating—she never causes King any significant problems. In fact, Alex and her father bond by traipsing around Hawaii trying to catch a glimpse of the man with whom Elizabeth has been having an affair.
The movie has some charming and humorous moments, but I spent most of the movie waiting for it to be over. After an hour, I used my phone to find out how long the movie was, so I would know when I could leave. Watching The Descendants seemed like a waste of time because nothing significant ever happens. The characters themselves just sit around waiting for Elizabeth to die, and I wished she would just hurry up and die. Her affair and her condition—completely comatose throughout the entire movie—make Elizabeth an extremely unsympathetic character. I kept thinking that the family was better off without her and should move on, and I do not think that was the reaction The Descendants was trying to evoke. Consequently, I do not think it deserves to win Best Picture.
Best Picture nominee The Help stays true to essence of the book
Austin Baragary
2/17/12
I would rather not sound like a pretentious jerk, but I first picked up a copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett nearly one year before the trailer for the film adaptation was making the rounds in theaters. However, it was not until I saw the trailer that I remembered that the book sat at home on my shelf, having been lent to me by a trend-setting friend.
My initial reaction to the trailer was, “I have to see that! It has so many things I love: strong female characters, triumphs over injustice, Emma Stone.” After reading the book, my reaction became that of any other bookworm when a book is plastered on the silver screen: “I wonder how they will do that,” or “I will see it, but I will not like it because nothing could be as good as the book.” Needless to say, I did see the film, and found it to be both incredibly powerful and enjoyable and, dare I say it, a very good adaptation of the novel.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the film version of The Help, it follows three distinct but interwoven stories. First, it chronicles the journey of Aibileen Clark, played by Viola Davis. Aibileen is a black maid in Jackson, Miss. Aibileen’s specialty is children. She tells the audience that she has raised 17 white children in her lifetime, her current charge being the Leefolt children.
Second, viewers are treated to the feisty ways of Minny Jackson, also a maid and Aibileen’s best friend, played by Octavia Spencer. Minny is perhaps the best cook in Mississippi, but has a sharp tongue, which gets her fired early in the film. Her being fired, though, is perhaps the best thing that could have happened, as her response reminds the audience that paybacks can be hell—or, in this case, shit.
Finally, we meet Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a spunky redhead with big ideas who dreams of one day being a writer on the east coast. One of her big ideas is to chronicle the lives of black maids and publish their stories as a book called The Help. This is where the three stories begin to intertwine.
After a very justified period of resistance to Skeeter’s idea, Aibileen eventually agrees to allow the young journalist to tell her story. Minny and almost 30 other maids agree to tell their side of the story, resulting in a book that causes quite a splash in Jackson.
Sprinkled among the three protagonists are a racist socialite, a kind, loving blonde bombshell who married the hateful socialite’s ex-boyfriend and an overbearing yet surprisingly endearing mother. Add a dash of an incredibly heart-wrenching plot point involving Skeeter’s maid, and you’ve got yourself a movie that’s almost as good as one of Minny Jackson’s legendary pies.
Without going into much detail about the plot, I can tell you that The Help deserves its nomination in the Best Picture category. Movies are stories, and this one is especially good. The players in this tale accomplish their tasks with bravura and the writers were able to capture the emotion of the novel and translate it easily onto the big screen.
This optimist cannot recommend The Help highly enough. Just remember to bring your tissues with you and be prepared to be struck with an urge to spark social change. Do not worry, just go with it.
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