Massachusetts Sees Record-Setting Snowfall in Winter of 2015

(Photo Credit: Reuters.com)

Boston and the rest of Massachusetts have seen 62.5 inches of snow fall over the last month alone, and winter isn’t over yet.  More snow is in the forecast for this Thursday and an early forecast for next week shows snowstorms next Tuesday.  This record-setting snowfall poses a few problems for Massachusetts citizens beyond the fact that people are probably getting a little stir-crazy.

Many schools in Massachusetts haven’t had a full week of school in at least three weeks and many schools will have next Monday off as well for President’s Day, and most of the snow days this year have occurred on Mondays and Tuesdays.  For colleges, classes aren’t the only thing that are closed during snow days.  At UMass Amherst, the entire campus, besides dining halls, dorms, the library, and walk-in appointments at UHS (University Health Services), closes during snow storms.  This means student’s miss class, intramural games, other extracurricular activities, and students can’t even make a quick trip to the gym to pass the time by.  For high schools and middle schools, many are running out of snow days which means they will have to add days to the end of the year if any more snow storms occur.  Most important of all; students are falling behind on school work with each passing snow storm.

Traveling has been a mess over the last month or so.  There have been numerous driving bans and in Boston there is still a snow emergency and parking ban.  Flights from Logan Airport have been either cancelled or delayed due to the snow and the T (the Subway in Boston) has suspended all rail services through Tuesday.

Boston and many of the surrounding cities are running out of places to put the snow and with more snow to come, they are considering doing something that is normally frowned upon by environmentalists.  If snowfall keeps up, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has said that we may need to consider dumping snow in the Boston Harbor.  Cities in Canada already use the ocean as a viable place to dump snow, however after the revival of the Harbor in 1985, many have been against dumping into the Harbor.  Environmentalists are also typically against this, mainly due to the salt (used to melt snow) that would be dumped into the harbor with the snow.

Another problem these snow storms pose is the postponement of major trials such as the Aaron Hernandez trial and the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial.  While the Hernandez trial is already underway, the Tsarnaev trial is in the process of selecting a jury, but will have to wait until courts reopen after the snow stops falling.

A Peaceful Riot at UMass??

As a senior, I look back at my four years at UMass Amherst and I can truly say, in terms of my “fandom,” I’ve been blessed.  During my college years I’ve had the opportunity to see the Patriots play in two Super Bowls (2012, 2015), one being their most recent victory over the Seattle Seahawks.  I’ve seen the Bruins bring home their first Stanley Cup since 1972 (2011) and I even saw the Red Sox go from being the biggest disappointment in the MLB to World Champions once again (2011-12, 2012-13).  With each championship appearance or victory there has been a celebration that follows, the most notable being the two Super Bowls and the World Series championship.

The worst of the three was the Patriots loss to the New York Giants, which is understandable considering there is a large number of students from the New York and New Jersey area.  Alcohol and sports rivalries don’t usually mix too well especially when the fans of the losing team out number the fans of the winning team.  It also didn’t help that it was the second time in four years that Tom Brady had lost in the Super Bowl to… Eli freaking Manning.

During the Red Sox “riot” UMass and the student government basically invited students to Southwest by offering a large outdoor TV screen, inflatable slides, bouncy houses, and other attractions.  In terms of arrests, the Red Sox “riot” led to one more arrest (15), than the 14 arrested at the Patriots riot, however from experience I can say that the Patriots riot was much crazier, mainly because it was an angry riot (for most) not a joyous or celebratory gathering like the one that followed the World Series victory.

This year, UMass went with a completely new and dare I say, Communistic approach. UMass barred students in Southwest from having visitors from home on Saturday and Sunday, shut down Berkshire and Hampshire dining commons at 8:30, moved Late Night all the way to Franklin dining commons to divert crowds of students away from Southwest, didn’t allow STUDENTS to enter buildings in Southwest they were not currently residing in, and conducted room searches during the Super Bowl.  Some, like myself, thought this would only make matters worse during the post-game celebrations or riot (dependent on the outcome of the game).  However, this was the most peaceful “riot” I’ve seen during my college years.  There have been conflicting reports, but sources say between 2,000 and 3,000 gathered, chanted, and a few climbed small trees, however only two injuries and one arrest were reported by Campus spokesman, Edward F. Blaguszewski.

So maybe this “Communistic approach” worked after all.  Through my experiences at UMass “riots” a majority of the arrests are visitors that come to UMass to “go crazy” because we carry the reputation of being “ZOOmass.”  Students that go here know how to act at gatherings so that they don’t get broken up early and we’re pretty good at it; just ignore the police presence until they tell you to disperse and don’t do anything stupid like start a fight, throw cans and bottles, and don’t try to light the small trees in the Southwest quad on fire.  It’s pretty simple and we proved it last night.  Students and police officers were seen fist-bumping, taking “selfies”, and embracing after the Patriots victory, and no there were no reports of flying pigs or Hell freezing over… yet.  So is the answer to the post-game riots to not allow students to have visitors when a Boston team plays in a championship? Maybe.  Was it a better idea to keep the police in riot gear and the police mounted on horses away from the crowds until they were needed? Probably.  Did it help that the Patriots won? Absolutely.  However, overall UMass and the police did a much better job handling this “riot” than they have in the past. 

Interview with Michaela Butler

Winning your home state: Is it really that important?

Winning your home state: Is it really that important?

About two months ago now, I attended the second and third rounds of the NCAA tournament in Buffalo, New York with my dad and as we watched UConn play St. Joe’s we chatted about college basketball. A hot topic at the time was the then recent firing of Boston College head coach Steve Donahue. One of the criticisms of Donahue, other than his 54-76 record over four years, was his inability to “win his state.” In other words, he wasn’t getting Massachusetts’s prospects to stay in Massachusetts and attend BC. Similarly, UMass Amherst has had trouble landing Massachusetts prospects.

In the past four years Massachusetts has seen players a fair amount of big name players go all across the country to play Division 1 basketball, players such as; Noah Vonleh, Wayne Seldon, Georges Niang, Shabazz Napier, just to name a few. As a current student and an alum of UMass, both of us believe that, as the flagship school of Massachusetts, UMass should be able to get D1 prospects from Massachusetts to “stay home” and attend UMass.

“It’s been our goal, it just hasn’t happened,” said UMass assistant coach Adam Ginsburg, about getting Massachusetts players to come to UMass. “Fortunately we’ve been able to get kids from all over that have been able to be successful here.”

Coincidently, my dad and I were watching Shabazz Napier, a guard from Roxbury, Massachusetts, who eventually led his Huskies to an NCAA championship. St. Joseph’s led for about three quarters of the game and the last nine or so minutes of the game were back and forth before heading into overtime. During the overtime, Napier scored nine of his 24 and looked dominant as he and the Huskies closed out the game. On the cab ride back to our hotel my dad and I talked about how nice it would have been if a school in Massachusetts such as BC or UMass Amherst had gotten Napier to come to their school. So when I got back to school I set out to find out why UMass hasn’t gotten and of the D1 talent that has come out of Massachusetts in the past few years.

When I began working on this project I had my own answers to the question, why hasn’t UMass retained any players from Massachusetts, the first being; “UMass isn’t even going after these players at all, because they don’t think they can compete with more nationally recognized schools when it comes to recruiting.” When I went on ESPN’s RecruitingNation, my theory was supported. I looked at past players such as Vonleh, Niang, Connaughton, Napier, etc. and saw that UMass wasn’t among that players interests or they were but it showed no offer from UMass. I ran with it.

I made a list of players to try to interview and started contacting people. I originally thought I’d be able to talk to Pat Connaughton and Evan Smotrycz however both were too busy, leaving me with no connections to the other big name players such as Vonleh and Napier

I continued down my list and got in contact with Ryan Canty, a center from Danvers, Massachusetts who is currently playing for Fordham. Canty was able to connect me with Jared and Jake Fay, brothers from Lynn, Massachusetts who also play for Fordham. Fordham, like UMass plays in the Atlantic 10 conference, and over the years, UMass has typically been better than Fordham so it seemed weird that these three players would leave the state to play for Fordham when they could stay in Mass. and play in the same conference.

First I interviewed Canty who told me he had two unofficial visits to UMass with his AAU team and “It was number one on my list at one point.” UMass showed interest in Canty, they attended all of his games and called himself and his coaches all the time. I asked him whether head coach Derek Kellogg recruited him or if it was an assistant to which he answered, “(Adam) Ginsburg, an assistant coach.” Then I came up with my second answer to the question, why hasn’t UMass retained any players from Massachusetts?   “Derek Kellogg isn’t doing enough hands-on work to recruit these players,” is what I immediately thought when Canty told me he was recruited by Ginsburg and not Kellogg. So I asked Canty if it would have made a difference if Kellogg had recruited him himself, “Honestly, not really,” he said. “Most times Kellogg was at my games so even though Ginsburg was in contact with me I saw him as the messenger.” However, even with this answer, I still had my suspicions.

Ultimately, Canty cited two reasons for choosing Fordham over UMass, the first being that his parents had sold him on the idea that basketball would end one day and therefore “Education was a huge seller rather than the success of the basketball program.” In his mind, Fordham was one of the best schools academically that was recruiting him. His second reason for choosing Fordham he admitted was that he took too long with his decision and UMass used the scholarship to get another center instead.

Similarly, Ginsburg recruited Jake Fay, but Fay also stated that Kellogg did a lot of the recruiting as well. Fay was offered a scholarship form UMass during his freshman year of high school, but committed to Fordham a few months later. Fay, like Canty, said that the deciding factor when he chose Fordham over UMass other than it being a better fit for him was the fact that his parents were impressed with Fordham’s academics.

On the other hand, Jake’s brother Jared wasn’t offered a scholarship from UMass but they did show interest in him. According to Jared, UMass’ interest in him faded but he said, “It would have been nice playing basketball in state.” He believed UMass had found somebody at his position and that’s why their interest faded.

After talking to the three players from Fordham, I came to the conclusion that mid-level prospects weren’t coming to UMass for two reasons. The first reason I saw was that mid-level prospects knew basketball would probably end for them eventually and valued the education they would receive wherever they went rather than the success of the team they would play for. The other reason was UMass was looking elsewhere for prospects as well as in Massachusetts, and they would sign whoever would commit first. Now I had an idea of a mid-level prospects mindset, but I didn’t know whether UMass was going after top-level recruits and if they were, why didn’t the recruits want to come here?

The only way to find out without talking to the prospects themselves was to talk to somebody familiar with the UMass’ recruiting process. I tried for weeks to get an interview with Derek Kellogg, and when I failed I thought all hope was lost. Then I remembered Adam Ginsburg, the man who was so heavily involved in recruiting Ryan Canty and Jake Fay.

I spoke to Ginsburg over the phone and got an insiders look at recruiting, it’s challenges, and he was able to disprove the answers I came up with about why UMass doesn’t have any players from Massachusetts.

“Anything with recruiting is a relationship driven business,” Ginsburg said. “You try to cultivate past relationships and foster those to try to put yourselves in a position where you can have a bigger pool of people that want to try to help you.”

When you are recruiting a player, you have to develop relationships not only with the player, but with that player’s family and coaches as well because those are the people that will help the prospect decide where he wants to take his talents. This partially explains why UMass has gotten so many players from the south due to Kellogg’s ties to Memphis.

With my suspicions about Kellogg not doing enough during the recruitment process, I had to ask about the breakdown of work during recruitment. According to Ginsburg, there are four coaches, Kellogg and three assistants and all 4 have the ability to evaluate prospects and develop relationships. Who does what varies from case to case. Sometimes Kellogg finds a prospect and will assign an assistant to do the more mundane tasks that recruitment requires but Kellogg himself will still be very hands-on. Other times an assistant will find a prospect and have Kellogg look at him. After learning this, it was clear that Kellogg is doing his part, however I still had no evidence that UMass was going after the top prospects from Massachusetts. Then Ginsburg began telling me stories of when Vonleh, Niang, and Napier came to campus.

Vonleh had been to campus and was even offered a scholarship by UMass, but the Minutemen hadn’t been to the tournament since 1998. This made it hard for the coaching staff at UMass to persuade Vonleh to choose UMass over schools such as Syracuse, UConn, Kansas, Ohio State, or Indiana where he is currently playing.

While describing the challenges of recruiting Ginsburg used Napier and Niang as examples of players he says “We really liked early but didn’t go after them hard enough early.” Ginsburg continued, “Then we started to go after them really hard and a month or two later people that had more success on a national level showed them the same level of interest.”

“We had (him) up here on campus, he came to a game, he loved it,” Ginsburg said about Niang. “Georges was a kid who wanted to go to the highest level he could possibly go.”

Ginsburg described Niang as under recruited and he said that they tried to get him to commit early before other schools came into the conversation. The season prior to them recruiting Niang, the team had a so-so year and Ginsburg speculated that the prospects were thinking, “I really like you guys, but I don’t know if you’re winning enough.” If they had wanted to get Niang, they would have had to start going after him a year earlier. The problem with going after a prospect early is that these kids typically start getting recruited as sophomores in high school.

“It’s also really hard to tell a kid his sophomore year, “You’re good enough, I want you,” because that’s how you make mistakes,” Ginsburg said. “It’s a big challenge.”

If you recruit a player and get them to commit early, there’s always the chance that the player will be a bust. If you recruit the player as a sophomore and they don’t commit early, they could show interest and string you along for a year or so before signing with another school. If this happens, you may miss out on other players.

“Obviously we’d love to get the best players from the state of Massachusetts but if they’re not interested, we need to go find kids from elsewhere who fit our profile,” Ginsburg said.

After speaking to Ginsburg, I know that UMass goes after the top Massachusetts recruits and I know that Kellogg is doing his part during the recruiting process. So then why aren’t Massachusetts’s players going to UMass, and ultimately, is it really even a problem?

The first two reasons why some Massachusetts players don’t come to UMass were answered when Ginsburg told me about the recruitment of Vonleh, Napier, and Niang. Reason number one is that UMass didn’t go after prospects hard enough early enough, because they were fearful of making a mistake or missing out on another player. The second reason is that when UMass went to recruit many of the players from Massachusetts that I mentioned, they were coming off subpar years and hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1998. As if that wasn’t enough, they are usually competing for recruits with nationally recognized schools that have histories of winning and going to the NCAA tournament.

The third reason I found is a website that Ginsburg directed me to called the New England Recruiting Report. This site is owned and operated by Adam Finkelstein and it looks at all the top players in New England. Finkelstein is also a writer for ESPN and covers college basketball recruiting. This means that any player from New England that maybe wouldn’t have received national recognition is now most likely going to receive national recognition.

“History repeats itself,” Ginsburg said. He was referring to the fact that basketball players from Massachusetts have a history of leaving the state to play basketball. This is reason number four. Ginsburg explained his belief that kids from eastern Massachusetts have a perception that UMass is completely different from where they are from. “It’s a long ride (for them), it’s in the country, it’s a totally different atmosphere than the eastern part of the state,” he said. Players see kids before them leave the state and go to schools all over the country and they want to do the same. But that doesn’t mean UMass won’t continue to try to persuade Massachusetts talent to come to UMass.

“We’ll continue to recruit the area, get kids on campus and see what happens, but not feel like we have to get the state of Massachusetts, because that’s not what works at UMass, that’s not what’s historically worked at UMass,” Ginsburg said.

Finally, does it even really matter if Massachusetts’s players come to UMass? Although Ginsburg recognizes the importance of “winning your state,” he would probably say no, it doesn’t really matter. He did not say this to me, however he did emphasize during the interview that you can’t argue with results. Over six years, Kellogg and his staff have a record of 109-86, which gives them a winning percentage of .559. UMass has showed improvement over the past three years winning more than 20 games in each season. This past season the Minutemen made the NCAA tournament as a #6 seed for the first time since 1998.

During the past three years, UMass has proven that they are a stable team, while only having one player from Massachusetts on the roster throughout that span. That player was Andrew McCarthy, a center from Scituate, Mass. who walked on to the team and played sparingly during the 2011 season. When I began this project, I was under the impression that UMass was to blame for not “winning their state.” Now I’m not so sure that it is their fault and similarly, I’m not so sure that “winning your state” is as big of a deal as it’s chalked up to b

I’ve come to realize that it’s hard for a school to recruit prospects in Division 1 basketball when they aren’t a nationally recognized school. Prior to this year, UMass had two solid seasons, but a school isn’t truly recognized by recruits on a national level until they’ve made the tournament which UMass did this year. Will this be enough for UMass to start getting top prospects? Probably not, but it’s a start. Over the past three seasons, UMass has been climbing back to the level of prominence it once had when Marcus Camby roamed the paint.

This year, the Minutemen returned to that level of prominence by making the tournament after winning some nationally televised games against tough non-conference opponents. They also earned recognition on a national level through the play of two seniors on the team. Raphiael Putney appeared on Sports Center’s “Top 10” numerous times this year while Chaz Williams ranked third in the nation with seven assists per game. Williams was also recognized on ESPN numerous times throughout the year as a player to watch for. The Minutemen even made headlines after the season when Derrick Gordon came out and was recognized as the first active, gay D1 athlete.

Since recruiting of top prospects starts so early, UMass may still not have a shot at them for another year or so, and that really depends on their continued success. Another 20 plus win season could solidify their return to prominence, but another so-so season could also send them straight back into obscurity. However with Coach Kellogg at UMass through the 2016 season and nine players returning from last years team, the Minutemen seem poised for another successful season, a season that they hope will keep them on the map and make players instate and elsewhere, want to go play for UMass.

Questions for Wayne Drehs

1) What is the most challenging aspect of covering an event as large as the WInter Olympics in Sochi?

2) Obviously you’re a huge Cubs and Iowa fan, so what is your view on “cheering in the press box”?  Do you think it’s alright to write or tweet about your favorite sports teams or should journalists stay completely unbiased?

3) How do you prepare yourself for the potential chaos you may face in Brazil when covering the World Cup?  Are you nervous at all?

4) You’ve covered a wide variety of sports, which sport is your favorite to write about and which is your favorite to watch as a sports fan?  If they are different, why?

5) What do you consider to be your best piece of journalistic work and why?

Bonnie Ford and T.J. Quinn speak to a class at UMass Amherst

On March 13th, ESPN investigative journalists Bonnie Ford and T.J. Quinn were guest speakers in Jena Janovy’s “Sports Issues” class.  A group of about 13 students had the opportunity to hear about their experiences as journalists and also had the chance to ask questions regarding stories they have written or any advice they had for aspiring journalists.

One issue in sports that both reporters are very familiar with is doping or the use of PED’s.  Ford graduated from Oberlin College and covered numerous beats before she was hired by ESPN.  Since, she has covered cycling, among other things, for ESPN.  For years Ford covered Lance Armstrong and his repeated domination of the Tour de France, but she also covered Armstrong during his decent from glory.  Similarly, Quinn, a graduate of the University of Missouri, covered different beats along his journey to becoming an investigative reporter for ESPN.  Prior to working for ESPN, Quinn covered the Barry Bonds and BALCO Labs story, where he legally overheard the testimony Barry Bonds gave to the Grand Jury.  Quinn was taking a phone call and had wandered away from the pack of journalists crowding to the doors to the court.  He was standing near a door when he realized he could hear what sounded like Barry Bonds.  Sure enough, it was Bonds.  He made numerous calls to his boss, lawyers were called, and as long as Quinn didn’t touch the door, use a microphone, or physically try to hear Bonds, the burden was on them to secure the trial, not on him to not hear them, Quinn explained.  After working on the Bonds story, Quinn helped break the Ryan Braun, Biogenesis clinic story.  In one of my earlier posts I explained why I considered steroids use in the MLB to be the biggest sports issue of my generation, so getting a chance to talk and listen to Quinn’s thoughts on the MLB and PED’s in baseball was an amazing experience.

“I don’t want to call it the “steroid era” because that suggests there is an end, and there isn’t,” said Quinn regarding baseball and it’s current state.  In my previous post about steroids in baseball I asked the question, will baseball ever be able to rid itself of steroids and PED’s or are they here to stay?  My opinion on that matter was and is similar to T.J.’s; “In my opinion, steroids and PED’s are too deeply rooted in baseball culture now to ever fully rid the game of them.”  Like Quinn, I don’t believe there will be an end to the steroid era.

While we were on the topic of steroids in baseball, Quinn explained to us why he gave up his Hall of Fame vote.  His simple answer; he had been away from the sport for too long and didn’t think that journalists who don’t cover the sport constantly, should have a say on who should make the HOF and who shouldn’t.  After reading his article on the topic, “The HOF: Why I stopped voting” I learned the more complex reason for why he gave up his voting privileges.  For the last 15 years or so, hundreds of players have been accused of using steroids, and whether or not they have actually been found guilty of using, fans, coaches, and other players will still be suspicious of them.  Quinn uses players such as ARod, Clemens, Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGuire as examples of the types of players that have been or will be on the ballot in the future.  When it comes to players over the last 15 years, there are too many that have questions surrounding them, such as; “If you are going to eliminate dopers from Hall of Fame consideration by any of those standards, do you limit it to players who have been caught? And if a player did use, how do you determine the effect the drugs had on his numbers? How many extra home runs or strikeouts came from a needle or a pill?” (Quinn, The HOF).  It’s just too hard to determine who did what, how long they did it for, when did they stop, and how their usage effected their statistics.

Race and Sports

We’ve all watched sports and heard broadcasters say things like smart, explosive, fast, heady, athletic, etc. when referring to athletes.  When you hear things like this you don’t think much but theres meaning behind these words especially when you look at which words are used to describe which players.

Out of all the major sports I watch basketball the most.  I feel as though you see examples of this more in college basketball than in the NBA, however it happens in both.  Broadcasters tend to use words such as smart, heady, gritty, gutsy, fundamental, scrappy, and hard-nosed to describe white players.  They often look at a white players brain or toughness rather than their playing ability and physical attributes.  When describing a black player you never hear broadcasters refer to their brain.  Black players are never smart or heady, rather they are explosive, athletic, fast, strong, raw, or have “natural ability.”  A white player is never “raw” which is a word that has been used to describe Joel Embiid often this year.  When describing black players, broadcasters tended to use words that were related to the player’s “brawn” whereas white players were described using words that related to the player’s “brains.”

I sat down and watched two basketball games today, Maryland vs. Florida State and Kansas State vs. Iowa State.  For the most part, I didn’t notice the broadcasters using these words as much as I have in the past.  In the past i remember my father would point out these words whenever they were used, and when trying to listen for them today I felt like the broadcasters were careful to not say anything like this.  I feel as though race and sports has been a hot topic over the last few years and this may have led to broadcasters shying away from uttering these racially fueled words.

Although i didn’t see many examples of these racially fueled terms there was one point late in the Maryland vs. FSU game where one of these terms was used to describe Florida State’s Boris Bojanovsky.  On what turned out to be the final play of the game, Florida State guard Ian Miller threw an entry pass in to Okaro White, who was immediately double teamed.  White quickly passed out of the double team to Bojanovsky who finished with a wide open slam dunk which the announcer called a “smart, alert play,” referring to the dunk.  From a basketball players perspective, both the entry pass and the quick pass out of the double team were better plays than the wide open dunk by Bojanovsky but neither White or Miller, both black players, got any praise from the announcer.  This may be a bit of a stretch however, Whites ability to catch the pass in traffic while being double teamed, and then having the knowledge to know Bojanovsky should be open due to the double team seemed like the “smart” part of the play.  Bojanovsky was just in the right place at the right time, nothing really “smart” about it.

Impressions from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

Going into this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, there was a lot of speculation around the treatment of gay, lesbian, and transgender athletes after Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his feelings about homosexuals.  As we got closer to the Olympic games the stories surrounding Sochi switched from treatment of homosexuals to wether or not Sochi was actually ready to host an event this big.

In the days leading up to the games stories ranged from a shortage of pillows, to “double toilets,” and even discussed a problem with stray dogs in Sochi.  However, even with all these problems, the games went on smoothly without any major catastrophes.

The events I was most interested in were men’s and women’s ice hockey and the snowboarding events such as slopestyle and the halfpipe.

There was no surprise in Men’s Ice Hockey as Canada captured the Gold after defeating the US 1-0 in the semifinals.  The US would then go on to lose the Bronze medal game to Finland while Canada moved on to beat Sweden in the finals.  Canada and the US faced off in the Women’s Ice Hockey finals, where Canada orchestrated an incredible come from behind win.  Canada trailed the US 2-1 late in the third period.  Team USA had a chance to take a 3-1 lead on an empty net shot, however the puck hit the left post and led to a goal on the other end by team Canada.  Team Canada then went on to dominate in overtime and win the Gold medal with a final score of 3-2.

Some of the major stories from the snowboarding events revolved around US snowboarder, Shaun White.  White was originally supposed to compete in both the slopestyle and halfpipe events.  However, White pulled himself from the slopestyle competition, saying that he wanted to focus on defending his gold medal in the halfpipe event.  White later stated that the danger of the course was another reason behind pulling himself from the event.  This decision put his performance in the halfpipe event under an even larger microscope than it previously had been.  The results; White ended up finishing fourth in the halfpipe competition.  White uncharacteristically fell and slipped numerous times throughout his runs and disappointed fans even further by not defending his halfpipe gold.

Shoni Schimmel

Shoni Schimmel, a Native American, plays guard for the Louisville Cardinals Women’s basketball team.  As a senior this year, she averages 17.0 points per game, while also leading the team in assists.  After losing to UConn in last years National Championship, she looks to return to the championship this year, however she hopes the results are different.

While Schimmel’s impact on the court is important to Louisville, her impact off the court receives national attention.  Shoni and her younger sister, Jude Schimmel, a junior also a guard for Louisville, have been inspiring Native Americans across the country.  Fox News reported that Native Americans from about 40 different states came to watch Shoni and Jude in Louisville’s last regular season home game against UConn.  Some 22,000 fans filled the arena in what ended up being a 72-52 loss, however nearly all the fans waited close to four and a half hours after the game in the hopes that they would receive autographs from their favorite players.

Shoni explained how while growing up, there weren’t many Native Americans that made it off the reservation, and no both she and her sister have the opportunity to do just that.  After college Shoni plans to go to the WNBA where she will continue to inspire NAtive AMerican children who dream of one day making it off the reservation and into the world of professional sports.

Shoni and Jude’s success in college basketball has brought an entirely new demographic of fans to women’s basketball.  Once they make it to the WNBA they will bring their new fans with them which could help boost the popularity of women’s professional basketball.