Landon Knepp Two years cancer-free...Nittany Lions ready to put their tournament hopes on ice for yet another season. “This is a role that [Robinson] has really embraced,” Michigan

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Feb. 22-25, 2018Vol. 118, No. 90

Professor on Women’s Empowerment 2

EDITORIAL: IFC on State Patty’s Day 3

James Robinson’s impact on MHKY 4

VERSUS: Weekend previews 6

INSIDE

By Thomas ShlarpTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Penn State’s chances at its first NCAA Tournament since 2011 have slimmed after a wild game that served as a metaphor for the entire Nittany Lion season.

Despite one of its worst halves of the year, Penn State pulled ahead in the second before ulti-mately falling to No. 17 Michigan, 72-63, on Senior Night in front of a sold out Bryce Jordan Center.

“I call it the ‘Purdue factor,’” coach Pat Chambers said. “Any-time you play [Purdue] on the road, you’re a little beat up.”

The loss sets up a tournament bubble-bursting match-up with Nebraska this Sunday. A Mike Watkins injury less than four minutes into the game and a hot 7-of-9 shooting start for the Wol-verines had Penn State reeling to start the night that began with a pregame ceremony for seniors Shep Garner and Julian Moore.

“Mike’s a big part of our team,” Garner said. “It’s going to be dif-ferent without him. But just like anyone else, it’s next man up.”

Chambers indicated after the game that the only information he knew of his injured forward was that it’s a right leg injury and the team is awaiting further test results come Thursday morning.

With Watkins in the training room and then hobbling about the floor for several minutes before being permanently removed from

the game, Michigan began to pull away behind the shooting prow-ess of Wolverine forward Duncan Robinson.

“[Mike’s] our rim protector,” Chambers said. “He’s our guy that loosens things up. He makes big plays for us. There’s a trust level with that starting five, and Mike kind of cleans up their mis-takes.”

Robinson had himself a half coming off the bench, shooting

5-of-7 with a pair of three’s that at one point propelled Michigan on a 14-2 run and a 30 to 17 lead that seemed to all but have the Nittany Lions ready to put their tournament hopes on ice for yet another season.

“This is a role that [Robinson] has really embraced,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “I’ve loved always having a guy who can come off the bench with no conscience. We just get him to

embrace that role. For us to have 12 wins right now, he’s a big part of those 12 wins in the league.”

Tony Carr had just one shot through the first ten minutes and Penn State resembled the team it was prior to its upset of Ohio State in Columbus.

But just as Josh Reaves came rushing onto the court in Ohio to jumpstart the Nittany Lions and save them from another sea-son of perpetual doom, Lamar

Stevens took the reins of his Penn State teammates and sparked a would-be comeback into action. The sophomore hit three-straight shots to close the first half and close the Wolverine lead to single digits at the break despite the Nit-tany Lions shooting 11 percent-age points worse than Michigan.

“The end of the first half, start of the second half, we were deal-ing with some adversity,” Cham-bers said. “I thought our guys competed and played hard. To come out, take the lead, there’s going to be some positives taken away. We’ll grow from this. We’ll get better.”

The edge Stevens provided to close the half continued with the start of the second. Stevens hit his fourth consecutive attempt to bring the lead to five before a block on Michigan star Moe Wag-ner a moment later and a dish to Carr. Carr finished the break-away while being fouled, and the Nittany Lions clawed their way back to a one-point lead.

Despite just a 2-of-7 start from Carr, with Stevens to help shoul-der the load, the Big Ten scoring leader did what he’s done all sea-son: attempt to will his team to victory.

Penn State was hot again, re-sembling the fantastic stretch that saw the Nittany Lions win six of seven and jump into the na-tional spotlight.

To read full story, visit collegian.psu.edu.

Ken Kalbach/Collegian

Guard Tony Carr (10) attempts a mid-range jumper in the game against Michigan at the Bryce Jordan Center

on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Michigan went on to win 72-63.

Navigating PSU with a disability

By Cassie KizisTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Many who come to Penn State are daunted by its campus. With so many buildings and facilities, it could be easy to get lost in the maze that is Penn State.

“It’s hard to navigate because it’s such a big campus,” Jackie Beshoory said.

More seasoned students eventually come to learn little shortcuts and alternate routes to make the campus easier to navigate.

But not all students have ac-cess to these shortcuts.

For students with physical dis-abilities, not all parts of campus are equally accessible. Because of the placement of accessible entrances, elevators and walk-ways, students with disabilities may have to spend extra time strategizing how to get to class or go to the dining hall.

“I don’t notice the presence [of disability accommodations] at all, I feel like there should be more ramps on campus,” Ethan Beckford (freshman-kinesiol-ogy) said. “There are a lot of steps and not a lot of ramps.”

Beckford and Beshoory have had these observations; howev-er, they do not live with disabili-ties themselves. For students with a disability, the presence

or absence of these accommoda-tions is far more noticeable.

“I didn’t realize I was disabled until I started using my wheel-chair more,” Sean Brame said.

Brame (senior-sociology) is an active member of the Penn State community, passionate about so-cial activism.

A quadruple amputee him-self, Brame sometimes uses a wheelchair when navigating campus, when he isn’t in his prosthetics. It is on these days Brame has noticed several as-pects of campus that could be improved, allowing students with physical disabilities to have less frustrating, more efficient school days.

“Sometimes, I feel segregat-ed,” Brame said, highlighting the fact students with disabilities must often resort to using back doors, last rows in classrooms and elevators meant for staff.

On a walk throughout campus, Brame pointed out spots on cam-pus that could be improved.

The walk took place on the west side of campus, as he said it is the least accessible part of campus in his opinion.

In Waring Commons, Brame illustrated what a student who can’t use the stairs must do to go to the dining hall.


Collegian file photo

The steps of Pattee and Paterno Library only prove accessible to some.

Two years cancer-freeBy Katie Johnston

THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

For Penn State THON child Landon Knepp, the THON Week-end celebration continued on after the $10 million total was re-vealed.

After months of undergoing treatments including chemother-apy, radiation and immunother-apy, the 8-year-old Landon rang the bell Monday at Penn State Hershey Medical Center declar-ing his treatment has come to an end.

At the age of 4, Landon was diagnosed with stage four neuro-blastoma — a diagnosis with a 30 percent cure rate.

“It meant we wouldn’t have a cure for sure,” Katie Knepp, Landon’s mom, said. “We had to treat it and hope for the best.”

Soon after Landon’s diagnosis, Knepp was contacted by a Four Diamonds social worker who said she wouldn’t have to worry about paying any medical bills.

For Knepp, this was an “incredible feeling” due to the fact she had to resign from her teaching job to take care of Land-on during his year-and-a-half

long, intense treatment.In February 2015, the Knepp

family was paired with the Zeta Psi fraternity — a moment Knepp said changed their lives for the better.

Fast forward to last summer and the sorority Sigma Kappa partnered with Zeta Psi, adding an extension to Landon’s Penn State family.

Between back-yard barbeques and visits to the Zeta Psi frater-nity house, Knepp said the members of the two organi-zations have been enthusiastic to be there for Landon and the family.

“It’s been a pretty incredible experience,” Knepp said. “We take this terrible, terrible thing of my 4-year-old child getting diagnosed with cancer, yet some of the most amazing people in our lives have come from this terrible thing. To our family, I think the relation-ships and life-long family we’ve gained is probably the biggest impact for us.”

Lauren Miller, the THON family relations chair for Sigma Kappa, said she thinks her and her sorority sisters have had such an impact on the Knepp family because they are “genu-ine friends” with them.

“I consider Katie one of my friends, not my THON family,”

Miller (junior-nutrition) said. “I consider Landon and his sister my siblings. I enjoy spending time with them, watching them grow and have a fun childhood.”

But, Landon’s Penn State fami-ly isn’t restricted

to the members of Zeta Psi and Sigma Kappa. Knepp said from the moment Landon and former Penn State football tight end Mike Gesicki met, members of the Knepp family could tell there was a connection.


Men’s basketball falls to No. 17 Michigan at home

John Stinely/Collegian

Landon Knepp leads “We Are” chant during Penn State THON at the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday, Feb. 18.

“We were able to

celebrate one more

milestone in this

journey in a place

where everybody

understands.”

Katie Knepp

Landon’s Mother

local The Daily CollegianPage 2 | Feb. 22-25, 2018

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By Laura Zaks THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

For decades now, females have marched and fought for their equal rights, yet it seems like the buzz in the media is taking the country by storm more now than it did ever before with the Time’s Up and Me Too movements, the women’s marches and cases such as Larry Nassar’s being backed by hundreds of girls coming for-ward.

A professor, a women’s studies major and two women’s studies minors had some light to shed on the topic.

“The fact that women’s march-es are gaining more attraction and the fact that more girls are willing to come forward , say ‘me too’ or stand up for each other as shown in the Larry Nassar case, it proves there is finally becom-ing strength in numbers,” Rose Tillson said. “All it takes is a few women to get things going, to cre-ate a sense of community, safety and solidarity.”

Tillson (sophomore - women’s studies) sees the celebrities of Hollywood that are now getting punished, as well as the female celebrities coming forward, as a potential source of inspiration for girls who are tied into silence by their fear to step forward.

“In Hollywood, we used to blindly idolize these people we saw as ‘gods’ — people we saw as those who can do no wrong,” she said. “Finally punishing the perpetrators is really important, as even these celebrities need to be held accountable. And if they are held accountable, then wom-en can have more confidence to speak out.”

Tillson, however, expressed

there is “still a lot more to work on.”

Brittany Krugel minors in women’s studies and said she feels the exact same way.

“There is still so much ugly out there,” Krugel (sophomore - broadcast journalism) said. “So many issues still need to be worked on — abortion, paid work leave, harassment in the work-place — these all are still preva-lent issues. And when we have people in government who don’t support us, it makes it all the more important to raise aware-ness.”

Krugel feels the most impor-tant thing to do is to keep the con-versation going.

“I took my first women’s stud-ies class as a freshman and it was not only such a great expe-rience as woman to talk about female empowerment, but also as a person to become socially ‘woke,’ socially aware,” she said. “We had men in our classes and it was so interesting to hear their perspective, too — one led our discussions into issues of not just sexism, but racism too.”

Ariane Cruz is an associate professor and director of the mi-nor in sexuality and gender stud-ies within the women’s, gender and sexuality studies department and she leads her classes to teach about what’s missing from the fe-male empowerment discussion.

“The important parts not be-ing discussed in these recent trends are the intersectional needs — people of color, sexual minorities,” Cruz said. “Many people don’t know that ‘Me Too’ wasn’t started by celebrities in Hollywood, but actually in 2006 by an African American civil rights activist, Tarana Burke. There has been a lot of writing by

feminist scholars on ways in which women of color are ne-glected in these discussions.”

Cruz agrees that the progress in society on female empower-ment is indeed progress, but there are invisible bodies and underlying issues.

“We need to reflect on how we think about power, activism and leadership — who we still aren’t representing,” she said. “I would tend to say from what I’ve seen in mainstream media and television, western white bod-ies are still much more promi-nent and we are missing other groups and bodies.”

Krugel said she learns a lot about intersectionality and rep-resenting bodies of women that often get underrepresented in her classes within the women’s studies department.

“Intersectionality — we need to talk about it more,” Krugel said. “Can you be a feminist for women of color if you’re not a woman of color? Can you be feminist for Jewish women if you’re not Jewish? I know I defi-nitely can’t speak for them, but I definitely can be a supporter.”

Krugel feels passionately that women should come together for the strength of numbers, for the strength of the overall com-munity.

“There is so much more to feminism and female empower-ment than the word ‘women,’” Krugel said. “We are African American women, we are Latin women, we are Jewish women, straight women, homosexual women — we need to work to-gether. We need to learn about each other.”


How women view various empowerment movements

By Tina LocurtoTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Growing up, Shirley Moody-Turner said her family was one of very few black families living in what was considered a “pre-dominately white” area.

Living in Orchard Park, New York, Moody-Turner said the town came with its good and bad sides.

Her father, Keith, played football for the Buffalo Bills, so she said her family had a “cer-tain kind of privi-lege,” because ev-eryone knew them. Despite this, she said it was still hard living in an area with only a few other families of color.

Originally enter-ing her time as an un-dergraduate as a business major, it wasn’t until reading Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” that Moody-Turner realized, “Yeah, this is what I want to do,” and pursued English instead.

“I saw parts of myself and parts of my story in that book,” Moody-Turner said. “It just moved me, to think that litera-ture could do this.”

Later going to University of Maryland for graduate school, Moody-Turner received a Ph.D.

before coming to Penn State for postdoctoral work in its Africana Research Center.

“I was just always really in-terested in reading and writing about literature, but also talking to people,” Moody-Turner said. “Really understanding that so much knowledge and information resides in everyday people in

their experiences.”Now, Moody-Turner is an associate pro-fessor of English

and African Ameri-can Studies at Penn State.

Teaching a range of classes such as African

American literature and folklore, Moody-Turner keeps her students busy.

“I really enjoy giving people ways into texts that

they might have a surface un-derstanding of initially,” she said. “For me, what’s been really im-portant is trying to find ways to promote and support people who work in African American Litera-ture”

While a professor at Penn State, Moody-Turner is involved with a number of other projects — such as co-founding the Anna Julia Cooper Society.


Lindsey Shuey/Collegian

Shirley Moody-Turner, associate professor of English and African

American Studies, poses on campus on Wednesday, Feb. 21.

WEE

KLY WOMEN’S EMPOWERM

ENT

Associate professor fosters community through literature

Journey through the making of a musicalBy Chelsea KunTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Many may not realize it, but Penn State is a sea of theater lov-ers, and many of them perform in productions all over campus.

When watching a production, it looks like a pretty easy thing to do.

All they have to do is say a few lines, sing some songs and take a bow, right?

Actually, it’s not that simple. Hours of rehearsals and hard work go into a production. It’s a commitment that many people underestimate.

Last semester, the Thespians, a Penn State theater company, performed its production of “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

People in the audience ap-plauded the performers for a job well done, but if they knew the amount of work the actors put it, they would have been even more energetic.

Maggie Dennis and Madelyn

Genre, who were both in the cast, were part of a demanding journey that made words on a script come to life on a stage.

The Auditions Auditions can be stressful for

actors. It was especially nerve wrack-

ing for Dennis (freshman- educa-tion), as it was her first college audition.

She said she had to prepare a monologue to perform for the panel of directors and she also had to prepare a 16-bar, or 30- to 45-second, song.

“When I walked in, I’m pretty sure I was shaking,” Dennis said. “But the entire panel of directors was really welcoming.”

She was asked her name, year and major and was told to begin when she was ready.

Genre (sophomore-nursing) said there was something spe-cific she wanted going into her audition.

She wanted the role of Janet

Van de Graaff, the lead female role in the musical.

“It’s very important, if you have a character in mind, to pick a song and monologue that clearly shows the production staff what you want,” Genre said.

She practiced for months in order to master Janet’s char-acter, and she felt she was prepared. However, it didn’t change the nerves she felt on the day of her audition.

“When you’re in the room waiting to be called in, you can feel the anxiety and stress fill the room as people pace back and forth trying to remember their lyrics and lines,” Genre said.

“I was also one of those people. Though I was ready, I still and always will have that anxiety of laying everything out there for the production staff to see,” Genre added.


Aabha Vora/Collegian

Janet van de Graaff, played by Madelyn Genre, dances in the Thespians’

production of “The Drowsy Chaperone” on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.

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Sam RulandEditor in Chief

‘He said he didn’t do it’ is not a defenseIt’s no secret the #MeToo

movement has taken the world by storm over the past couple of

months. However,

there still seems to be an issue of “he said, she said” and what happens to situ-ations in which this arises.

There’s a pat-tern: When men

admit to committing sexual assault or sexual harassment after being accused, they right-fully lose support, their jobs and their reputation. Then, there’s a group of men who make liars out of the victims and continue on their merry way.

This is not a new practice by any means. In fact, painting sexual harassment claims as false is one of the main reasons cases are often unreported.

This is where Title IX comes into play at universities like Penn State. In 2011, former President Barack Obama’s De-partment of Education issued a statement regarding Title IX that explained that every stu-dent who has a case of sexual harassment or assault should be heard and action should be taken immediately.

Unfortunately in September 2017, President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rolled back much of the guidance the Obama adminis-tration put in place for sexual assault on college campuses.

There was no reason to doubt that DeVos felt this way based on her questioning in front of the Senate prior to her confir-mation. Pennsylvania Sena-

tor Bob Casey, a Democrat, pressed her on the subject.

In her department’s explana-tion, DeVos reasoned the Title IX changes made by the Obama administration did not offer proper due process to the ac-cused assaulters or harassers. However, this was the whole point of the changes.

Before, campuses would of-ten say to accusers they would look into the case, but nothing would happen. But with the Obama changes, there had to be immediate action to ensure justice.

Sexual assault is a major problem on college campuses. At Penn State, there have been four reported sexual assaults this semester and 20 since the beginning of the school year.

Title IX makes sure students are held accountable no matter the student being accused. According to the Washington Post, sex offender and former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner was convicted in 2016 of “assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman and sexu-ally penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.”

Turner was sentenced to six months of prison time and three years of probation, which was met with public outrage due to the low amount of time in prison.

His father famously appealed to the judge and jury saying, “His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”

This is an ignorant statement because it’s for good reason

his life will never be the same when his 20 minute action was assault. If he wasn’t stopped by two bystanders, that 20 minutes could have been much longer.

The victim’s life will never be the same because of his son.

Nobody is excused from sexual assault, but people often try just to write it off as a misunderstanding or a small mistake. This is why guidance on how to handle sexual assault is needed as a part of Title IX.

It’s not just college campuses where this occurs. In work-places — including Congress and movie sets — it has become a problem, too.

The changes to Title IX all seem a bit ironic coming from the Trump administration considering Trump himself is possibly the most notable figure for denying sexual harassment and assault allegations.

For many years, women have come forward with allegations against the president. Accord-ing to CNBC, most recently, Rachel Crooks accused the president of forcibly kissing her in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago, which brings the total number of women coming forward to 19.

In the president’s response to the Washington Post’s reporting on it, he called it “fake news” and said on Twitter: “Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras run-ning?” He went on to accuse the women of taking money for making up stories about him.

What’s a bit weird about his response — other than his normal yelling of fake news and denial — is his statement about it being absurd he would

do something like that in public, almost implying so long as nobody sees, anyone can deny allegations and move on with their lives. Sadly, he’s not wrong. As the president, he has mastered this sick act of denial and has supported those who have done the same.

Famously, Trump endorsed Roy Moore after he was ac-cused of being a child molester. Trump’s reasoning was because Moore denied it, so it must not have happened.

More recently, the president came to the defense of his former aide, Rob Porter, after two of his ex-wives stated they were assaulted by Porter and were victims of his abuse. Like Moore, Porter denied the al-legations and Trump was sure to point that out.

This is an extremely danger-ous precedent to set. As long as there is no concrete evidence against someone and the ha-rassment or assault was done in private, predators can deny, deny, deny and get away with it.

As society took steps forward to rectifying systemic prob-lems regarding sexual assault, those who allow harassers and assaulters in powerful posi-tions and call victims liars are leading a countermovement. We need to stop that. “It was a misunderstanding,” or “He said he didn’t do it,” is not enough to let people off the hook.

Kara Fesolovich is a junior major-ing in History, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, and Political Science and is a columnist for The Daily Collegian. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @karafesolovich.

MY VIEW | Kara Fesolovich

Fesolovich

The Penn State IFC announced on Wednesday that no fraternities registered any social events for Saturday’s State Patty’s Day celebration.

“We are extremely proud of chapter presidents for making the decision to not register any socials for ‘[State Patty’s Day],’” Vice President of IFC Commu-nications Daniel Lee said. “We commend the maturity and leadership that they displayed with their collective decision.”

Interestingly, nowhere in his statement did Lee say the fra-ternities would abstain from hosting parties at their houses.

Instead, all he said was the

decision was for none of the chapters to register any socials on Saturday.

Therefore, the only thing the IFC is saying is it cannot be held responsible for anything that could go wrong on the annual, self-declared Penn State drinking holiday.

This is simply a face-saving move for the Penn State IFC as it looks to reestablish its reputa-tion in the aftermath of recent tragedies, such as Timothy Piazza’s passing at the Beta Theta Bi house last February, that have left a disgraceful blemish on their organizations.

We find it hard to believe that no Penn State fraternities would take part in the university’s biggest party day of the school year.

Given the likelihood of an unregistered social event at a fra-ternity house on Sat-urday, it’s worth won-dering if the Penn State students attend-ing could engage in more dangerous drink-ing activities now that the fraternities have distanced themselves from IFC regulations, which have become stricter since the Beta Theta Pi case sur-faced.

Unregistered frater-nity parties aren’t sub-ject to the same IFC restrictions, such as

licensed bartenders serving alcohol and a new monitoring protocol, because technically, the IFC doesn’t know they are taking place.

Yes, there will be a height-ened police presence both on campus, downtown and throughout the borough on Saturday, as reported by The Daily Collegian, but the fraternities could have a bit more leeway in distributing alcohol without the IFC watch-ing over them as closely.

In response to this, we ask two things from the IFC and the overall Penn State greek life community.

First, the IFC needs to be more proactive in ensuring the safety of the Penn State students whom it is responsible for governing.

It isn’t enough for the IFC to ask the fraternities to register their parties and then turn its back when no registrations are filed.

With all we’ve seen over the past year at Beta, we know students can die from the excessive and reckless drinking that occurs at greek life social events.

It is up to the IFC to prevent another student from suffering

an alcohol-related injury or death at a fraternity event, regardless of whether the event is registered.

Still, this responsibility also falls on the Penn State students involved in greek life.

They’re the ones drinking, and in some cases, they’re the ones furnishing alcohol to underage students.

Therefore, we ask the greek community to be smart on Saturday.

We’d be foolish to expect you not to participate in the State Patty’s Day festivities, and as we said earlier in this editorial, we assume there will still be some sort of social drinking activity at fraternity houses.

Moreover, we at The Daily Collegian are not going to deny that many of us will be enjoying State Patty’s Day this weekend.

But, we understand the potential consequences that all Penn State students could face when we drink.

Our student body and greater Penn State community is under a microscope right now following all that has happened in the last year. That scrutiny will only become more focused on Saturday.

For both good and bad, State Patty’s Day has a reputation for being a rowdy drinking celebration.

We expect students will par-ticipate, and we hope everyone who participates will have a great time.

But, we all need to make sure we are responsible and safe if we choose to drink.

Registered or unregistered, we all must be smart on State Patty’s Day

We would be foolish to expect you not to participate in the State Patty’s Day festivities, but please understand the

potential consequences of drinking on Saturday.

OUR VIEW

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SPoRTSFeb. 22-25, 2018Page 4

STICKING TO ITSenior James Robinson isn’t flashy by nature, but his leadership skills

make him a potentially program-changing player

By Patrick BurnsTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Every team in the country searches tirelessly to add guys like James Robinson to its locker room.

His 10 goals and 10 assists in 90 collegiate games certainly don’t jump off the

stat sheet. He prefers to leave the flashy side of the game to his teammates.

However, Robinson’s traits as a grinder who routinely puts his body on the line to benefit the guys skating next to him are de-sired on their own.

Add in his pedigree as a born leader, and you’ve got a potential program-changing player.

There’s only one Jimmy Pucks, and he’s a Nittany Lion through and through.

“Guys like Jimmy Pucks are essential or else you can’t win,” Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said.

Gadowsky doesn’t look for play-ers that simply fit in.

Instead, he searches for play-ers — guys like Patrick Koudys, Ricky DeRosa and David Glen — that understand Penn State’s culture and have a desire to el-evate it.

From every player, though, Gadowsky demands a certain te-nacity, grit and toughness on the ice.

Off of it, he wants them to be as loose as possible, deeming team chemistry as the primary factor in the blue and white’s success.

In both areas, Gadowsky looks to Robinson as someone the rest of the team should model their approach after.

The owner of one of the cooler nicknames in all of hockey, Robin-son has earned the unconditional respect of his teammates and coaches.

“I’ve lived with him the past two years and he’s a guy I’ve looked up to and we’ve all looked up to,” junior forward Alec Marsh said. “He doesn’t always need to say something to be respected, but he kind of leads by example in the way he acts and carries himself, which is really huge and what you want to see in a captain.”

He’s become the consummate representative of Penn State hockey and it’s not just because of the “C” sewn on his blue and white jersey.

If a senior’s legacy is ultimate-ly determined by leaving a place better than they found it, then consider Robinson’s tenure a rousing success.

The Cochrane, Alberta native committed to a program enter-ing its second season in its entire existence. At the time of his com-mitment, some thought it would be years before the Nittany Lions were even respectable on a na-tional, or even Big Ten, level.

With Gadowsky — who is known for his ability to make the most out of lesser-talented teams — at the helm and a pris-tine facility in Pegula Ice Arena to call home, the foundation was in place.

Wherever Penn State went from there, was dependent on the people that followed.

One shift.That’s all it took for the course

of Robinson’s college career to change drastically.

Seconds prior to Robinson’s first shift of his sophomore year, Penn State’s 2015-16 campaign got off to a perfect start. The Nittany Lions found their open-ing goal just 1:33 into the year through Curtis Loik.

Now it was Robin-son’s job to send a

message to the Canisius Golden Griffins that they were in for a long night. These were exactly the kind of shifts that Robinson lives for.

Robinson, a left-handed for-ward, cut into the slot and started to line up a backhanded shot. He thought he had a clean look at goal, before an opposing defen-seman took him out at full-force from behind, which knocked Rob-inson to the ground.

Usually he bounces right back up, ready to hunt down whoever dis-possessed him.

This time was differ-ent. Robinson knew al-most immediately that his left collarbone was broken.

His season had ended not even a full minute af-ter his skates hit the ice for the first time.

Athletes are given an ultimatum when fac-ing a long-term injury. They can let the gloom of having to spend countless hours on the sidelines consume them.

Or, they can choose to use the injury as motivation to better themselves in other ways.

While he couldn’t work on im-proving his wrist-shot or anything on the ice, he was determined to work as hard as anyone else in the weight room, improve his grades and, more importantly, be the best teammate that he could be.

“I tried to use that season not as a season to dwell on and not to use it as a setback, but to try to promote my game,” Robinson said.

“Not having to play every week-end, it gave me an opportunity to just be the best teammate pos-sible.”

He added that his advances in the weight room aided any future success on the ice, but earning the trust of everyone on the team was as important as anything he’s ever done.

“It gave me an opportunity to, in a way, almost be a cheerleader for the team,” Robinson told the Collegian in 2016.

As a team-wide injury bug struck the blue and white to the point where forward Kenny Brooks closed the season playing as a defenseman, Robinson was

there to boost the squad’s morale.

The Nittany Li-ons faltered down the stretch and missed the NCAA

Tournament. They dropped four of their last five regular sea-son games and ex-

ited the Big Ten T o u r n a m e n t

in the sec-ond round

via a 7-2

thrashing at the hands of Michi-gan.

To those that know him, Rob-inson’s response to the adversity thrown his way wasn’t too sur-prising. The end result however, was unheard of.

The support from Robinson — who earned all-Big Ten Academic honors that season — never wa-vered. He understood what was needed from him in the locker

room and the Nittany Lions took notice of it.

Penn State players voted Rob-inson as an alternate captain the next year. In that moment, Robin-son’s “elevation” of the program’s culture was officially present to those outside of the locker room.

“That is probably single hand-edly the most proud accomplish-ment in my hockey career,” Rob-inson said.

Gadowsky isn’t caught off guard very often, but in over two decades of coaching, he hadn’t seen anything like it.

He was well aware of Robin-son’s leadership and how well-liked he was in the dressing room, but to this day, it’s pretty safe to assume that Robinson is the only player in NCAA history to be voted as an alternate cap-tain a year after playing less than one minute.

“That fact of him being nomi-nated as a captain after one shift speaks absolute volumes to how the team feels about him,” Gad-owsky said.

It wasn’t like Robinson was a superstar on the ice the year before the injury, either. He had just four goals and four assists in 32 games as a freshman, playing mostly on the fourth line.

“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” Andrew Sturtz said in 2016. “Jim Robinson, he’s a one of a kind guy and I think he was the perfect choice for assistant captain.”

And what a choice it turned out to be.

The Nittany Lions enjoyed a record-setting year, putting the puck in the back of the net more than anyone else in the nation and earning a No. 1 ranking in January.

Robinson’s leadership and will-ingness to fill the grinder role allowed skill players like Sturtz, Denis Smirnov, David Goodwin, Vince Pedrie, Chase Berger, Nate Sucese and many others to thrive.

It didn’t matter that Penn State was two

time zones and over 2,200 miles

away. Robinson and his father, Jim, fell in love with the school immediately.

At the time, the Nittany Lions were in their opening sea-son as a Division I program and hadn’t even joined the Big Ten.

The pair hadn’t been contacted by Gadowsky or assistant coach-es Keith Fisher and Matt Lindsay yet, but that didn’t deter them from hoping that the opportunity

would present itself.“Lo and behold, it was

a week later and [Keith] Fisher [reached out],” Robinson said.

Robinson committed to Penn State without ever visiting the school. He held a strong belief that Penn State was capable of becoming a national pow-erhouse far more quickly than people thought.

“I knew that I didn’t have to come down and see it just from what I had talked to with my

junior coaches and what my con-versations with Gads and Fisher,” he said. “I knew.

“By no means, I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think that it was going to be four years of just hacking away at this league and not being able to make an imprint and not having a chance of win-ning.”

Flash forward five years, and Robinson is the Nittany Lions’ captain.

Robinson has one final task at Pegula Ice Arena: to earn Penn State another weekend at home.

With a sweep over No. 8 Minne-sota this weekend, the blue and white would host the Golden Go-phers at home again the following week in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Winning that series would likely send Penn State back to the NCAA Tourna-ment.

However, any result other than a sweep this weekend and Robin-son will have to bid adieu to Pe-gula Ice Arena on Saturday.

He’ll be honored Saturday at Senior Night alongside Erik Au-tio, Trevor Hamilton and Matt Erlichman. Robinson’s family plans on making the trip.

“Especially with Autio com-ing in and being with him for four years now, we have a really special bond and we’ve seen this program come a long way in four years,” Robinson said. “It’s go-ing to be sad to see it go.”

Even with high expecta-tions coming in, Robinson said his experience sur-passed anything he could have dreamed of.

Something he probably didn’t expect, though, was becoming known as “Jimmy Pucks” throughout the college hockey world from his first se-mester on.

The famed nickname came via a friend who lived in the house next to where a group of the Nit-tany Lions’ upperclassmen lived.

He drew inspiration from Calgary Flames — Robinson’s favorite NHL team — forward

Johnny Gaudreau, aka “Johnny Hockey.”

One would think Robinson’s name by birth was Jimmy Pucks based off of how Gadowsky ex-clusively calls his captain by the nickname. It’s reached the point where Gadowsky refers to him as “Pucks” more than “James” or “Robinson.”

“It was kind of a random thing and the older guys thought it was hilarious so they brought it to the rink and as soon as [Gadowsky] heard it one time, he took off with it,” Robinson said. “He’s pretty much the only guy who calls me Jimmy Pucks at this point.”

With a 14-13-5 record, the Nit-tany Lions haven’t quite lived up to expectations this season.

But the fact that it’s reason-able for Nittany Lions’ fans to be upset at a top-20 finish, in which the blue and white were ranked almost the entire year, speaks to how far the team has come.

Robinson joined the team when a gritty, underdog style of play which was necessary for Penn State to stay in games.

“We don’t necessarily look at ourselves as the new kids on the block anymore,” he said. “I’ve liked to think that we’ve made an imprint on the Big Ten and the rest of the NCAA.”

The Nittany Lions have earned a winning record in each year since Robinson’s arrival, and as a result, have attracted NHL draft picks and United States National Team Development Program players.

As the school brings in these higher-profile recruits, the num-ber of players who have experi-ence playing a similar style to Robinson have diminished over the years.

“Him being a part of the pro-gram, that’s something I think you can follow along the line of guys like Ricky DeRosa, Patrick Koudys, David Glen, you can go on and on, but guys that are so evidently for the team,” Gad-owsky said.

Penn State might not be the underdog anymore and guys like DeRosa are gone, but that same resolute and strong-willed style of play has carried on.

Chicago Blackhawks draft pick Evan Barratt can be found fore-checking and back-checking aggressively each game. Even the speedy and diminutive line of Smirnov, Sucese and Brandon Biro isn’t afraid to get physical.

That buy-in can be attributed directly to Gadowsky and Robin-son.

With an 18 percent chance of making the NCAA Tournament according to collegehockeynews.com, it’s very unlikely that Robin-son will be on the ice for the pro-gram’s first national title.

The lasting legacy of Jimmy Pucks won’t be a plethora of goals or assists, but rather wins, tro-phies, stories and ultimately, his impact on others.

“The people. One-hundred per-cent,” Robinson said, when asked what he’ll miss most when his time is done. “Especially the guys in the locker room. The guys and the relationships that I’ve built with the guys over these four years, they’re relationships that I never thought I would be able to make here and I’m so happy that I did.

“Not just the people obviously that I’ve played with, but the peo-ple on the campus and the people in this community, I’m going to miss that for sure the most.”

To email reporter: [email protected].

Follow him on Twitter at @Patrick-Burns_.


Nate Sucese (14) hugs James Robinson (7) after Robinson scored the first goal of the night at Pegula Ice Arena

on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Ohio State defeated Penn State after a 2-1 shootout.

“Guys like Jimmy Pucks are essential or else you can’t win.”

Guy Gadowsky

Men’s hockey head coach

MEN’S HOCKEY

SPoRTSThe Daily Collegian Feb. 22-25, 2018 | Page 5

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Diving duo’s antics fuel competition By Jim KruegerTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Connor Scanlon and Jack Crow are always with each other.

If you ever find yourself in McCoy Natatorium during a practice or a meet, you’ll most likely find the duo together in some way.

They’re either by themselves exchanging jokes after a meet, or they’re yelling playful insults at each other while one is on the diving board.

They’re really hard to miss.Everybody knows that one pair

of friends that can always make you laugh, and for Penn State swimming that pair is Connor and Jack. The pair met seven years ago when they were both div-ing for the same swimming club in their home state of Maryland. It was a friendship that started right after the two met.

“He said hi to me and then we were immediately weird with each other, it just worked out re-ally well and we’ve been best friends ever since,” Scanlon said.

Throughout high school, the two became better and better div-ers and for the pair to both end up at the same college seemed only natural. As their Penn State careers began, their reputations

grew, not only as talented divers, but also as the most animated duo in and out of the pool.

“We bring out the worst in each other,” Crow said, which is in no

way an understatement.” Put the two together and

ask them about their funniest antics and you get quite a few interesting stories.

“He’s thrown darts at my hand before,” Crow said right off the bat. “I’m terrible at darts, I don’t know why he let me do that,” Scanlon replied.

The stories kept on coming. “We’ll do dives together where

I’ll jump up into his arms and we’ll backflip up off the board to-gether,” Scanlon said.

The duo said that’s an experi-ment that’s never gone poorly, but hasn’t gone well, either.

Luckily for them, the notably laid back diving coach Dennis Ceppa has no problem with it.

“Dennis kind of likes it, he thinks it’s funny,” Crow said.

But Scanlon said that other coaches “don’t trust us as much as Dennis trusts us to not kill each other.”

The duo told even more sto-ries of handstands and flips in the weight room, convincing oth-er people to try to do backflips, jousting with shopping carts in a supermarket and making “la-sagna style ice cream cakes” with ice cream sandwiches and enough candy to open their own store.

All of the antics the two get into comes from their competitive nature.

“Pretty much every story that we ever have is one of us telling the other person they can’t do something,” Scanlon said.


Aabha Vora/Collegian

Connor Scanlon finishes first place in the men’s 3M at the Penn State diving invitational at McCoy Natatorium

on Sunday, Jan 28.

Page 6 | Feb. 22-25, 2018 The Daily Collegian

Critical final series against MinnesotaBy Dylan Jacobs

THE DAILY COLLEGIAN

It’s do-or-die time for Penn State.

The Nittany Lions host No. 8 Minnesota begin-ning Friday, need-ing two wins and some help to earn home-ice for the

Big Ten Quarterfinals.At least one point from

Ohio State against Wisconsin plus the sweep by Penn State would mean the quarterfinals would be played at Pegula Ice Arena.

“We’re still in a pretty good spot in the Big Ten standings to make a push here,” forward James Robinson said. “We also have an opportunity to move up in the rankings. We know that and we just look forward for the op-portunity.”

If the Nittany Lions can earn home ice, it will most likely be against Minnesota once again.

Getting to that point would mean shutting down the Gophers high-powered offense.

Minnesota has two lines that can take over games, led by Casey Middlestadt, Rem Pitlick and Tyler Sheeny, the team’s cap-tain and leading scorer.

“They have a lot of talented

players that are skilled,” defense-man Kevin Kerr said. “It’s hard for any one person to stop them on their own, so it really is a team thing.”

Pitlick has dominated Penn State over the course of his collegiate career, record-ing nine points in five games against the Nittany Lions last season.

Middlestadt is one of the most talented players in college hock-ey and was a key piece for Team USA in this year’s World Junior Championships.

To help stop these top players, Penn State needs a strong perfor-mance from goaltender Peyton Jones.

The Nittany Lions haven’t got-ten enough from him lately, even though he is coming off his best performance in the last nine games in the win on Saturday.

They may not get the Jones that was a brick wall against the Gophers in last year’s Big Ten Tournament, but anything close to that would give Penn State a shot.

Jones is going to have to find a way to outduel Minnesota goal-tender Mat Robson, who has been one of the hottest goalies in the country.

Robson has only played in 11 games this season, but has been

named a Big Ten Star of the Week four times.

He has a 1.53 GAA and a .945 save percentage, which is good for second and third in the nation, respectively.

He is coming off a weekend where he stopped 59 of 61 shots, leading to a series win over Ohio State.

The Nittany Lions hope to have another strong weekend from their depth players to help beat Robson.

Alex Limoges and Nikita Pav-lychev will need to contribute strong performances. Limoges scored last Saturday for the first time since Dec. 1, and Pavlychev scored for the first time since Jan. 13.

Penn State cannot just rely on Andrew Sturtz and Chase Berger to lead the way. They need con-stant pressure to beat a talented goaltender.

Penn State needs two wins to make a push for an NCAA Tour-nament Berth, and they know it requires the whole team playing at its best to do it.

The series gets started Friday at 6:30 p.m. and continues Satur-day at 7 p.m. with both games on Big Ten Network.


Follow him on Twitter at @DylJacob.

MEN’S HOCKEY


Kevin Kerr (5) tries to keep the puck away from a diving Alex Kile (23)

during a game against Michigan, at Pegula Ice Arena on Jan. 28, 2016.

By Giana HanTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Three games into conference play, Penn State has maintained its hopes of going un-defeated in the EIVA, but this weekend will

bring it face-to-face with an experienced George Mason team and ever-im-proving Charleston West

Virginia team.George Mason, which is coached by for-

mer Penn State coach Jay Hosack, has a veteran line-up. Its libero, Johnny Gomez, is a graduate student and brings the most experience to a team that is also well-es-tablished at the middle.

“Jay will have them ready to play,” coach Mark Pavlik said. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

The team will have to remain consistent through the match to find success, setter Luke Braswell said.

“They’re a team that plays with high en-ergy,” Braswell said. “If you let them get on a roll, they’re going to steamroll you.”

Charleston, meanwhile, is the opposite of experienced. The team has only been around since 2014.

However, it’s rapidly improving.Under their new coach, Bren Stevens,

the Golden Eagles won their first EIVA game and are 7-1 overall.

“They’re feeling pretty good right now, so they’re going to come in here and want

to knock us off,” Braswell said.

Cal Mende’s returnThe Nittany Lions found a rhythm with

starting opposite Mende out, but his re-turn brings another level of complexity to their offense.

“They see him out there, and they know he’s a .300 to .400 hitter,” Pavlik said. “You can’t forget him. You’ve got to be aware of him.”

Pavlik has noticed that Mende draws the right side blockers’ attentions more than other opposites do, which opens up other options.

Last weekend, Mende and Braswell were still re-adjusting their timing, but it’s a very fine adjustment that needs to be made.

The defense has also benefited from the return of Mende’s block. “It was funny be-cause… I thought in games one and two against Sacred Heart, you didn’t notice he was out there,” Pavlik said. “And then, all of a sudden, he started to get a feel for what they were trying to do and was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is how you block.’”

Even if Mende is not getting a hand on the ball, Pavlik said teams are so aware of his block that they exert more effort to hit around it than to make the most effective hit.


Men’s volleyball looks to continue physicality

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Softball heads south in search of first win

By Ben FerreeTHE DAILY COLLEGIAN

Penn State plays its first 20 games away this season, but when the Nittany Lions take the diamond at the Debbie

& Fred Pruitt Softball Complex in Jacksonville, Florida this weekend for five games, two mem-

bers of Penn State’s coaching staff will be right at home.

Prior to her time at Penn State, head coach Amanda Lehotak coached for six seasons at Jacksonville. Assistant coach Sarah Sigrest pitched for the Dolphins under the coaching of Lehotak from 2009-2012.

“I will always be appreciative of Jack-sonville because they gave me my first opportunity, so in a weird way it’s like going home,” Lehotak said. “I love Jack-sonville University and I still talk to a lot of people there, so it’s great to be able to go back and remember where you came from.”

Every season under Lehotak, the Dol-phins improved their record, including making their first ever NCAA Tourna-ment in 2011.

Penn State (0-6) is still searching for its first win after a disappointing start to the season, including going 0-4 last week-end in the Big Ten/ACC challenge.

The Green and Gold Classic will open with a double header on Friday for Penn State.

In its first game, Penn State will take on UCF (6-4). This will be the second Big Ten opponent for the Golden Knights this season, as UCF defeated Illinois 3-2 in eight innings earlier this season.

The night cap for Penn State will fea-ture the return of Lehotak against Jack-sonville (6-4). The Dolphins have won three games in a row, holding their op-ponent scoreless in two of those games.

“The air is really heavy down there [in Jacksonville], it’s in a valley. I know the infield surface really well. We know how the ball plays in the air,” Lehotak said. “When you are just familiar with a place, you are more comfortable so I do think that’s an advantage.”

On Saturday, Penn State will once again take part in a double header, this time opening the day against Western Carolina (1-4). The Catamounts’ only vic-tory this season was against Western Il-linois.

Since that victory, Western Carolina has lost three straight games.

In the second game of the day, the Nit-tany Lions will play Jacksonville for the second time.

Penn State’s final game of the Green and Gold Classic will come against James Madison (5-2). The Dukes are 5-2 this season with losses to Long Beach State and Louisiana Tech.

The Nittany Lions will need Jessica Cummings, who has started four of six games for Penn State, to have a success-ful weekend in the circle for Penn State to win its first game.

Cummings has a 4.63 ERA and 13 strikeouts in her 19.2 innings pitched.

Toni Polk leads the Nittany Lions in batting average with a .350. Polk also leads the team in hits with seven.

Delaney Elling leads the team in RBI’s with three and Paige Johnson has hit the only home run of the season for Penn State.

“Obviously everybody would like a win right now, but I’m more focused on, are we getting better in the areas that we were weak,” Lehotak said. “My main goal is when I analyze the games and weekends, are we getting better and if we do that it will take care of itself.”


Follow him on Twitter at @BFerree3.


Penn State shortstop Toni Polk (42) lays down a sacrifice bunt during a game at Beard

Field on Sunday, April 23, 2017. The Scarlet Knights defeated the Nittany Lions, 6-4.

SOFTBALL

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Landon Knepp Two years cancer-free...Nittany Lions ready to put their tournament hopes on ice for yet another season. “This is a role that [Robinson] has really embraced,” Michigan