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Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020Vol. 120, No. 36
What is thON tO yOu?
In the weeks leading up to THON 2020, students who work behind the scenes discuss what
the philanthropy means to themDirectors
Business side
By Kira MohrThe Daily Collegian
Penn State THON executive board members Rebecca Aloi and Dan Her-lihy only needed one word to describe their experiences with the student-run philanthropy: home.
Aloi (senior-chemical engineering) began her journey with THON dur-ing her first year at Penn State. Af-ter continuous encouragement from her upperclassman mentor within the “Women in Engineering Orien-tation” program, Aloi dove into the world of THON – joining a Rules and Regulations committee.
What Aloi didn’t know was that her experiences within that committee would shape her life at Penn State for years to come.
“This incredible organization has also allowed me to find a passion of wanting to serve others,” Aloi said via email. “The people I have met and the bonds that I have formed with them are unparalleled to any other organization I have been a part of.”
She acts as the director of Rules and Regulations Fundraising Safety on the THON executive board. Within her role, she is responsible for numer-ous administrative and fundraising as-pects of THON, along with other vital, behind-the-scenes duties.
Within her copious amounts of THON experiences, one memory stuck out to
her above all – seeing the THON Line Dance for the first time from the upper bowl of the Bryce Jordan Center.
“It was really amazing to see every-one dancing in unison for a common cause,” Aloi said. “It truly symbolized that it doesn’t matter your background or organization, we are all dedicated to this amazing cause and there for one reason.”
As a freshman, she said she never would have pictured herself as an ex-ecutive board member for Penn State THON.
Yet her involvement with philanthro-py and dedication to its values have given her unique experiences and close friendships that Aloi said will stay with her far after her collegiate career.
“I have found my home at Penn State through THON,” Aloi said. “The incredible people and students that I have met through THON have changed my life for the better and I can’t imag-ine my Penn State experience without them.”
For Herlihy (senior-computer sci-ence), he found his love for THON through the special interest organiza-tion Springfield and has never looked back since.
As Herlihy’s freshman-year mentor inspired him to join Springfield early on in his Penn State career, Herlihy said he believes in the importance of advocating for the cause to each stu-dent because of the plethora of unique
opportunities that the philanthropy offers.
He acts as the director of tech-nology within the board. There-fore, he has had the opportunity to work with several cutting-edge pro-cesses and technologies during his THON experiences that he said he never would have been exposed to otherwise.
“From a strictly technical perspec-tive, THON does some pretty amaz-ing things,” Herlihy said via email. “I’ve had the opportunity to work on real-world challenges and solutions that are more robust than what many companies produce.”
Each group or organization that par-ticipates in THON is assigned a THON child – the reason why many students within THON fundraise, and possibly dance, at THON. Springfield’s THON child, Taiven, has a profound impact on Herlihy’s THON experiences, inspiring him to continue his journey with the philanthropy.
“When I first met Taiven, he had recently gone through several pro-cedures. It was difficult for him to run around, talk or even smile,” Herlihy said in recollection. “In the past four years, it has been amaz-ing to see him recover and become a normal, energetic, smiling kid. It’s truly incredible to me to see the changes in him and his family as they’ve become closer to Springfield and
THON.”THON
means something to everyone involved, according to Herlihy. For him, the cause means giving back whatever efforts are put in and creat-ing a sincere home for every member of the Penn State community and beyond.
“Whether you’re interested in com-munication, graphic design, logistics, development, children’s health, com-puters or anything else, there’s a place in THON for you to use your talents,” Herlihy said. “Every cent we help raise goes toward a better life for thousands of families who are currently impacted by cancer or will be in the future. There is no better feeling in the world than seeing your work make someone’s day better, and I believe everyone should experience that.”
To email reporter: [email protected] her on Twitter at @kirajessa.
By James LanganThe Daily Collegian
During all times of the year, the streets of State College are lined with community members and students sporting THON merchandise such as shirts, sweaters and hats.
Every year, the THON merchandising team comes together to discover how it can promote THON in new and creative ways. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to help THON be known and well-represented — in State College and beyond — so the 46-hour dance marathon in February can be as impactful as people have come to expect.
Alex Thomas, director of merchandise for THON, explained the process of funding, producing and promoting THON merchan-dise.
“Every year, THON allocates funds spe-cifically designed for the purchase of THON Store products and THON-wide preordered products, like the 100 Days ‘Til THON shirts,” Thomas (senior-biomedical engi-neering) said via email.
He said the THON Store selects mer-chandise that appeals to many people and will be most profitable for the organization so it can continue to shell out better mer-chandise — but more importantly, can pro-vide more funds for THON families to en-sure they never see a medical bill.
Thomas said most THON merchandise, as far as clothing, is produced by Collegiate Pride.
“Collegiate Pride offers us the unique ability to hold in-person meetings and dis-cussions to address each of the orders we place,” Thomas said. “For many years, Col-legiate Pride and their staff have gone above and beyond to show their support not just for the THON Store, but for all of THON.”
He also noted the top sellers from Colle-giate Pride are the Gildan, Comfort Colors and Sport-Tek brands. The merchandise team is constantly trying to expand its scope to other brands.
“In the past, we’ve brainstormed ways to develop meaningful large-scale commu-nication methods with our customer base, and in January of this year, we launched the official THON Store Instagram, found at @pennstatethon.store,” Thomas said.
He said even though the Instagram ac-count is still young, THON volunteers have acted as models for the products.
Speaking about THON 2020 specifically, Thomas said he has received great feed-back from the select few volunteers who had the opportunity to see the new merchandise that will be available for purchase at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21 when the Bryce Jordan Center opens.
“The THON product development cap-tains have worked tirelessly over winter break and the first weeks of the spring semester in order to brainstorm and cre-ate our THON weekend 2020 new release collection,” Thomas said.
Katelynn Powell, the merchandise mar-keting captain, also touched on the THON Store’s contribution to THON.
“The THON Store is an incredible as-set for us and truly is our home base. The majority of our sales take place in this loca-tion,” Powell (junior-corporate innovation and entrepreneurship) said via email. “The most important part of this storefront for us is the visibility and brand-association that comes with it.”
Powell added the location of the THON Store in the HUB-Robeson Center allows for engagement with Penn State students and faculty every day.
“Captains work within the store every week, handling all aspects of the selling pro-cess from organizing of the merchandise to distribution of it,” Powell Said.
Sarah Hohman, the merchandise cus-tomer relations captain for THON, said in 2019, THON Store profits accounted for over $121,000 of THON’s total.
However, Hohman (junior-health and pol-icy administration) noted the store’s impact goes far beyond its monetary contribution.
“THON merchandise allows volunteers, supporters and families to spread THON’s mission across the globe simply through the clothing that they wear,” Hohman said via email.
In addition to working on the merchandis-ing team for THON, many members spoke about why they take part in THON and what it means to them.
Hohman said in she participates THON because she has seen the pain cancer causes throughout her life and believes no one should have to suffer through it.
“For a long time, I only saw the sadness and pain associated with cancer through my family and friends who battled the disease,” Hohman said. “When I came to Penn State, I immediately recognized that the Four Dia-monds and Penn State THON do everything in their power to lessen the hurt, bring back the smiles and provide hope for the future, while dancing with so much joy along the way.”
Thomas said he believes THON is an op-portunity for children and their families to find light in their lives. He said “hope” is a defining theme of THON.
“THON is a hope that one day, we will dance in celebration,” Thomas said.
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @jameslangann.
Caitlin Lee/Collegian
The THON Store located in the HUB-Robeson Center as seen on Tuesday, Jan. 28
Cour tesy o
f Thon
local The Daily CollegianPage 2 | Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020
Ronald Filippelli looks to mayorshipThe 85-year-old discusses housing, student life and his place in Happy Valley
Caitlin Lee/Collegian
Newly-appointed interim mayor Ronald L. Filippelli poses for a portrait in his office in the Municipal Building on Friday, Jan. 24.
James Leavy/Collegian
Ronald Filippelli shakes hands with Councilman Dan Murphy after borough council meeting held at the State College Municipal Building on Monday, Dec. 16, 2019.
By Michael SneffThe Daily Collegin
Ronald Filippelli sat in his new office in the quiet administra-tion wing of the downtown State College Municipal Building.
The walls are bare and his large mahogany desk is relatively empty, save for a few stacks of pa-per. He recently moved in, as his mayoral term only began at the start of the New Year.
“Big office, right? Nothing in it though. It’s pretty bare in here,” he said, chuckling as he looked around. He said he really doesn’t need much.
Filippelli is now the mayor for the remainder of former Mayor Donald Hahn’s original term af-ter Hahn resigned to take up the magisterial judge position he was elected to in November.
The 85-year-old former Penn State professor, academic dean, borough council member and now mayor has an unlikely jour-ney that led him to Happy Valley and kept him here the majority of his adult life.
History in State CollegeFilippelli first set foot in Centre
County as a Penn State under-graduate student in spring 1957, attending the university after graduating from high school in Harrisburg. He studied history and secondary education, with the goal of becoming a history teacher.
During his collegiate career, he was the president of the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, Interfra-ternity Council and numerous other clubs that he said suited his interests.
After graduation, Filippelli worked for the federal govern-ment in the Navy in Mechanics-burg, before eventually deciding to return to Penn State in the late 1960s to get his doctorate degree in history. He worked as an archi-vist in the Pattee Library, which he said “anchored” him in State College.
“I like the fact that State Col-lege is a small city to make lots of friends, and you can be
active in the city because it’s not overwhelming,” Filippelli said.
Later, Filippelli became a pro-fessor and then the head of the department of Labor Studies and Industrializations , which is now in the College of the Liberal Arts. Eventually, he became the associ-ate dean of the College of the Lib-eral Arts, a position he held for the next two decades.
“I wanted to give back”At this point, Filippelli was
interested in local politics, but was not really involved in the lo-cal political scene, he said. He would volunteer for campaigns, but that was the extent of his responsibilities.
However, during his time at Penn State, Filippelli befriend-ed Bill Welch — who served as the mayor of State College from 1994 until his death in 2009 — who would always encourage him to run for the State College Borough Council.
“I said, ‘Bill, I’m too busy, I got this job with the university, a family with kids. I can’t run for borough council, I couldn’t do it justice,’” Filippelli said. “But I said, ‘I promise you, when I re-tire, I’ll run for borough council.’ So I did.”
After retiring in the early 2000s, Filippelli was elected to coun-cil for the first time in 2002 and served until 2010, at one point taking over as council president during his two terms.
“When I ran for borough coun-cil, I had lived in State College for a long time, so I really liked the town, I got a lot of benefits the town had to offer over all that time,” Filippelli said. “I wanted to give back. That is, in my opinion, citizenship.”
Filippelli said he prefers local government to bigger, federal governmental processes, most-ly because local issues are not “ideological.”
“The issues that local govern-ment deal with, they’re not divid-ed right and left in most cases,” Filippelli said. “Zoning, infra-structure, traffic control, secu-rity — they’re not issues that are
easily politicized. I like that about local government, we don’t get into this name calling.”
Even after his final term on borough council, he has stayed busy in the community, serving on the boards for multiple lo-cal nonprofits as well as Schlow Centre Region Library and the Centre County Airport Authority.
Filippelli said even in retirement, he likes to keep busy.
“I like to contribute as much as I can,” Filippelli said. “I like to be active.”
The road to the mayor’s officeThis same vein of trying to keep
busy eventually brought Filippelli to consider getting back into local government as the mayor posi-tion was up for interim fulfillment when Hahn announced his intent to resign.
Multiple special council meet-ings were held in the months fol-lowing Hahn’s announcement, in which council members debated the mayoral selection process. Eleven candidates were in the running for the interim posi-tion, including Filippelli, who at first didn’t even consider put-ting his name forward — much in the same hesitant way he put off running for borough council earlier.
“I had not thought about it at all. I knew Hahn was resigning, but [being mayor] didn’t even re-ally occur to me,” Filippelli said. “And then I started thinking about it, like, ‘Hmm, maybe?’ And then a number of people in govern-ment and in the community told me to put my name forward. So, by that time I sort of convinced myself that, ‘Okay, I’ll try.’”
The process took months of deliberation, with potential can-didate guidelines proposed and then tabled, finally culminating in Filippelli’s appointment by coun-cil on Dec. 17. He was nominated by Councilwoman Theresa Lafer and approved by the council with a 6-1 majority vote, with the only member dissenting being Councilman Dan Murphy.
“You know, I wasn’t shocked that I won, but again, I was very happy,” Filippelli said.
State College housingNow mayor, Filippelli said the
biggest issue facing all State College citizens — including stu-dents, permanent residents and all other parties — is very clear to him: affordable housing.
“We have to figure out a way to get more permanent residents in the borough who can live here and afford it,” Filippelli said.
He said every other prob-lem the community stems from the lack of affordable housing. Students make up two-thirds of State College’s population, but don’t pay the same kinds of taxes that everyone else does, according to Filippelli.
Students pay property tax included in their rent, but he pointed specifically to the public service and income taxes most students do not pay because they don’t make the minimum income necessary for the taxes to apply. This, in turn, affects the borough’s economy, he said.
“It’s not that the students don’t pay taxes, it’s not the fault of stu-dents, don’t get me wrong,” Filip-pelli said. “What we need to do is build up that other one-third of full-time residents who are here, who are paying all the taxes.”
Filippelli said he wants to see more affordable housing options for students so they don’t gradu-ate with “large amounts of debt.” He also said while it’s technically the borough council’s job to deal with those kinds of issues directly, it’s important the mayor plays an influencer role within the council, as well as within the community.
There are trusts and organi-zations within the community in place to tackle the issue of afford-able housing, but Filippelli said the problem is the primary issue he will focus on.
He spoke about the influ-ence of high rise and large-scale apartment complexes being con-structed in State College, specifi-cally mentioning a potential new high rise on College Avenue and Hetzel Street currently being proposed to council.
“I don’t have problems with height, I think the issue is that
they’re all student housing, and contributes to the issue I just talked about,” Filippelli said. “Some people think you can just keep State College a little college town forever, and that’s just not possible.”
The growth that State College has seen over the last few years is a positive to Filippelli, but he said he believes that there has to be a way to control it. As he and the borough council continue to tackle this problem over the next couple of years, he hopes it can be resolved.
“It’s the dilemma of ‘What do you do?’ Everything takes re-sources,” Filippelli said. “But, you just have to keep trying.”
“I’d like to be a mayor that they’re proud of”
Filippelli said that while his position is mostly ceremonial, he still hopes to be a mayor that the community can be proud of.
“I’d like to be a good commu-nicator with everybody in the community, being an ambas-sador, in a sense, to bring back the concerns of people in the community,” Filippelli said.
He plans to work closely with student groups like the Univer-sity Park Undergraduate Asso-ciation (UPUA) to be a bridge be-tween the State College and Penn State communities. State College has had so many “excellent” mayors in the past, Filippelli said, and while he hopes to continue the legacies of previous mayors, he knows that he can only do so much in two years.
Filippelli’s message to stu-dents already living in State Col-lege is to remember that they are also citizens, and that they have rights and responsibilities.
“In my mind, students are citi-zens, just like anyone else,” Filip-pelli said. “They have rights and responsibilities. Whether you’re an 85-year-old retiree or a Penn State student, you have the same rights and responsibilities.”
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @michaelsneff.
Community excited for new LGBTQ centerBy Melissa Manno
The Daily Collegin
On the front windows of the new Center for Sexual and Gen-der Diversity are 10 words writ-ten by poet June Jordan — “We are the ones that we have been waiting for.”
Penn State’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity has relo-cated to LL011 in the HUB-Robe-son Center, seeking to provide students of all identities with a more spacious and vibrant com-munity space.
Brian Patchcoski , director of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, said the reloca-
tion is a symbol of how the center has evolved over time. He said it will continue to do so in an ef-fort to promote inclusivity and diversity on campus.
“In this space, we hope to in-stall a place of belonging — a place where communities can be, regardless of how many com-munities a student may occupy,” Patchcoski said. “This new physi-cal entity is designed from feed-back of students — what did they want, what does the next gen-eration want and how does this help to foster a more inclusive community?”
From art installations with sex and gender terminology to a car-pet that integrates all colors of the rainbow, the center’s design is unique in the fact that it’s almost unrecognizable from surround-ing Penn State student spaces, according to Patchcoski.
Patchcoski said there’s some-thing symbolic about the new center being in the HUB, which he described as “the center of the student experience.”
“This entity being here is a symbol and sign of Penn State’s commitment to this community being physically present on cam-pus,” Patchcoski said. “Regard-less of who a Penn Stater may be, even if you’re cisgender identified and have never thought about sex and gender in a deeper way, these spaces are for everyone.”
Patchcoski said the design was made possible through the Penn State Campus Arts Initiative, which allowed for the center to collaborate with Tamara Gayer, a Brooklyn artist known for her vibrant images and words that visualize social change.
Gayer’s work adorns the
center’s walls with vivacious mu-rals that integrate a variety of sex and gender terms with the colors from pride flags that exist in the community.
Sonya Wilmoth, assistant di-rector of the center, said the art-work’s purpose, aside from being pleasant to the eye, is to spark conversations between students who occupy the space.
“The artwork speaks to ev-eryone,” Wilmoth said. “It adds beauty to the space, but also the story and history of the words and images that she used are so important. It’s been an opportunity for people to start conversations.”
A r c h i t e c t s worked in con-junction with Gayer to pro-vide students with the aes-thetic they had requested — flexible, in-dustrial and ur-ban, while also comfortable.
The center’s mission is to be as inclusive of all identities as possible. T h r o u g h o u t the center, there are in-stallments that allow students to easily access its resources. For instance, there is an in-ternal stair-case — with a private access point — and
benches designed to allow stu-dents to work their way into the center instead of walking right in.
Wilmoth said when she first saw the center she was amazed with the way it turned out. Her only wish, she admitted, was that she could somehow watch all the students’ faces on the first day of classes when they entered the space.
“It’s kind of like building a house,” Wilmoth said. “You pick out the carpet and the tile and ev-erything else, but you can never fully imagine what it will be like when it comes together. When I saw it, I just thought, ‘Wow this is breathtaking.’”
Perhaps one of the biggest changes is that the new space has brought with it a “co-location” of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.
“We’ve worked together for years, but I think with the co-loca-tion piece it now allows students to be in spaces they might not have been able to be in the past,” Patchcoski said.
“The intention is that someone can walk into the PRCC, come down the stairs to us for services and never be seen, and then leave from the PRCC.”
Visit collegian.psu.edu to read the full story
James Riccardo/Collegian
The Sexual and Gender Diversity has changed its location in the Hub-Robeson center to room LL011, replacing the previous gallery.
OPINIONColsen AckroydBusiness Manager
Grace Miller Opinion Page Editor
Elena RoseEditor in Chief
Australia’s fires, billion animal deaths are Earth’s SOS
The blaze from Australia is emitting a literal smoke signal for help.
Apocalyptic fires have result-ed in a cata-strophic one billion animal deaths.
Yes, one billion.
As in the equivalent of one-seventh of
the human population on Earth. We’ve all seen the photos of
parched koalas begging for drinks from a humans’ water bottles and that video of a woman rescuing a charred koala from the flames — that second one still sadly died from its injuries.
Also victims to the bush fires are insects, animals native to Australia, vegetation and potentially entire species.
Animals that are not directly killed by the fires are still at risk due to their changed environment, such as with loss of cover and less food.
I’m not making you think of suffering kangaroos and dead koalas out of cruelty.
I’m doing it because it could be a reason for people to finally care about climate change.
People are odd. I’ve written multiple pieces
on climate change already, but there are always people who don’t care about the effects on their own species.
There are the people who don’t care that my family in Houston lost their homes to Hurricane Harvey, who don’t want to act because climate change is too impersonal to them.
But you mention fluffy animals, and those people have a change of heart.
Thousands of handmade mittens for injured koalas were donated — so many that the organization collecting them asked that people stop sending them.
A Facebook fundraiser collected $13 million in 48 hours for Australia fire services, whereas it took about a month for Team Trees to raise the same amount.
Climate change is too urgent of an issue to be judgmental of the selective people who don’t care until cuteness is at stake.
All I want is for more people to care.
The more people who care, the greater the pressure on politicians to stop sucking up to big corporations and to start incorporating policy to reduce emissions, to actually try to keep the global temperature from rising.
Australia has reliably been the canary in the coal mine that is the world.
With a shrill call, it warns of disaster soon to come. It is the first to know, and its warning should be heeded.
Australia’s fires burned multiple times the amount of land affected by the 2018 California fires.
On Jan. 21, the New York Times reported that 16 mil-lion acres burned in New South Wales and Victoria in Australia.
The burned area is also largely populated, resulting in the destruction of homes and the loss of lives.
Fanning the flames, Australian media backs politi-cians’ climate denial, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison would rather enjoy vacation than acknowl-edge the extent of the fire’s devastation.
The New York Times said the unfavorable response is contributing to Australia “committing climate suicide.”
Now that the canary has sung, it’s time to stop ignor-ing what we already knew. We either take immediate action to reinforce the coal mine, or we sit idly by until it collapses on top of us.
Madeline Messa is a junior majoring in history and is a columnist for The Daily Collegian. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @madeline_messa.
MY VIEW | Madeline Messa
Messa
“Australia has reliably been the canary of the coal mine that is the world. With a shrill call, it warns of disaster soon to come.”
Madeline Messa
Penn State students and faculty have some-thing to look for in the next week — a univer-sity-wide Community Survey on Feb. 3 aiming to strengthen specific areas of everyone’s Penn State experience.
According to an article on Penn State News, the survey will cover various topics including “belonging and community, engage-ment across differences, institutional support, cultural competencies, climate and off-campus contexts.” Among other things, this survey will hopefully provide an op-portunity for Penn State to take a deeper look at issues with diversity on campus.
It’s a bit hard not to be skeptical of this survey. As Penn State students, we’ve all been emailed a survey, even if it’s just the SRTEs, and quickly moved it to the trash folder.
Even if a large per-centage of students will-ingly fill out the survey, there still need to be meaningful initiatives that come next, which is hard to imagine hap-
pening, especially when there have been reports of the SRTEs being an unfair way to evalu-ate professors. It’s also difficult to know how representative a survey of the student popula-tion is when, often times students only fill one out when they have a strong opinion.
This Community Sur-vey has the opportunity to make positive chang-es for all students –– there’s no denying that –– specifically those who may feel Penn State has some work to do in the realm of diversity. This is despite survey results not being presented until the middle of the summer, which likely means we won’t know of any resulting initiatives until sometime in the fall of 2020.
Despite what we as-sume are positive inten-tions from the university, simply administering
a survey to a school of 46,000 undergraduate students comes with its complications.
For example, stu-dents actually have to take the survey.
In a perfect world, students would want to take the surveys pro-vided by the university, even ones that don’t directly affect them. Ideally, they would jump at the chance to give feedback about their experiences at the university and would be eager to make a positive change –– but that’s not the reality.
Though it is the stu-dent’s responsibility to take these surveys and actually care about the environment at the uni-versity, perhaps there is a better way to adminis-ter a survey, rather than via email.
Sure, Penn State offers incentives to survey takers, but is a
Starbucks or Amazon gift card for every 100th person who takes the survey so compelling that a large portion of the student population would jump at the op-portunity to participate? Probably not.
Members of the Col-legian’s editorial board suggested that making the survey mandatory for all students would yield more responses. Potentially administer-ing the survey through LionPATH might be beneficial, even placing a hold on a student’s account until they com-plete it. Another idea was to put the survey on Canvas, like the SRTEs.
Obviously, the survey is a good way of gather-ing information, but it’s also important for the university to talk face-to-face to students who feel they aren’t being treated fairly at Penn State.
Though there’s no
way of knowing at this point, it’s possible that the majority white population of students will take the survey and say that from their per-spective, Penn State is diverse. But to a person of color, for example, what counts as “diverse” may be something com-pletely different.
Everyone has differ-ent experiences regard-ing diversity and inclu-sivity, but Penn State’s PULSE Diversity and Inclusion survey from 2018 showed that 26 percent of survey-takers had witnessed “hateful or biased acts or speech in the last year.” When over one fourth of those taking the survey have seen hateful, discrimi-natory acts or speech at Penn State, there is major room for improvement.
And while this survey could hint toward the direction of a solution, it is real discussions with affected students and faculty that are going to pinpoint those areas of weakness and provide a compass for mak-ing Penn State a better place.
Penn State needs more than just another survey
Though the Community Survey has positive aspirations, it’s more complicated than that
OUR VIEW
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Page 3Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020
By David PollakThe Daily Collegian
Penn State’s game at Purdue was in progress when the news broke that Kobe Bryant died.
In his post-NBA life, Bryant dedicated his time to his Mam-ba Sports Academy. However, his program focused on more than just basketball, providing training and clinics for football, volleyball, track and more.
Kamaria McDaniel, who was in the process of scoring 35 points that afternoon, stated that she was devastated when she heard of Bryant’s death.
“He means a lot to me,” Mc-Daniel said. “It’s so devastating and it put things into perspec-tive for me to not take anyone or anything for granted.
Over the years, a certain play-er defines an era of basketball. In this case, McDaniel looked up to Bryant as the star athlete of his time, among the many greats in the league.
“I think the older generation knew Michael Jordan, we knew Kobe and now the younger gen-eration knows LeBron,” Mc-Daniel said. “I know everyone would shoot something in the trash and yell ‘Kobe.’ He was it for our generation.”
Coach Carolyn Kieger heard the news after the Lady Li-ons game at Purdue and went on Twitter to address her condolences.
“Obviously, it’s tragic for not only him but for his family and Gigi and for sports,” Kieger said. “He’s meant so much to the game, not only the men’s game and the NBA, but he’s done so much for the women’s game with trying to advance what he does for his Mamba academies and AAU team. It’s a huge loss for the entire basketball com-munity.”
Kieger also noted that she admired that Bryant treated the game equal and how he just wanted the game to advance.
“In the last 10 years, he really was a big ambassador for the WNBA,” Kieger said. “He loved
to come to college games with his daughter and now he started his Mamba Academies, teaching young women how to play basket-ball from the grass-roots level. He just had a passion for the game.”
In fact, Bryant supported the progression of the women’s game to the point where he has advo-cated for including women in the NBA in the future. Bryant said via a CNN article that Diana Taura-si, Maya Moore and Elene Della Donne are a few of the players that could compete in the NBA. A prime example of his passion for women’s basketball transpired through his daughter Gianna.
In Monday night’s scrimmage between Connecticut and Team USA, the Huskies honored Gigi with a jersey on one of the seats on the bench, surrounded with flowers. Gigi aspired to attend the university and play basketball at one of the prestigious women’s basketball programs in history.
McDaniel acknowledge Kobe’s impact on the women’s game as well, and that it’s important that someone of his stature supports their game.
“To see him supporting what we do, his pay and recognition is huge,” McDaniel said. “He was just a great advocate for every-thing and was a great person. I looked up to him a lot.”
Kieger mentioned that one thing that she admired the most about Bryant was his mentality, and how he brought it every day.
“The last three days, I’ve talk-ed about what Mamba mentality means and to use his legacy to build upon and inspire us,” Kieg-er said. “He’s probably the fierc-est competitor of our generation. So, to be able to learn from him and carry on that competitive-ness and will to get better is all we can do at this point.”
But for Kieger, he was more than just a basketball figure, he symbolized sports as a whole and his mentality.
“Legacy, winner, competitor — he just raised the mark of what a fierce competitor should be,” Kieger said.
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @David_Pollak097.
Recognizing Kobe’s impact
Ken Minamoto/Collegian
Lady Lions coach Carolyn Kieger looks toward the play during the game against Indiana at the Bryce Jordan Center on Jan. 23.
Aabha Vora/Collegian
Guard Curtis Jones Jr. (4) stretches for a basket during the game against Indiana at the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Nittany Lions play lockdown defense
By Evan PatrickThe Daily Collegian
When things have gone wrong for this Penn State team, it has usually been due to a lack of three point shooting and sloppy offensive play.
On Wednesday night, the Nit-tany Lions struggled from the perimeter against Indiana, shoot-ing just 28 percent from beyond the arc, and also failed to capital-ize on their opportunities at the foul line, where they shot just 48 percent for the game.
Myreon Jones, the team’s sec-ond leading scorer, contributed just five points while Mike Wat-kins shot 1-of-7 from the field.
But in the end Penn State came out on top, and won in a comfort-able fashion thanks to another stellar defensive effort.
The Nittany Lions relied on a locked in, dominant defensive showing that had the Hoosiers searching for answers for most of the 40 minutes of action.
“We had a real hard time func-tioning, getting anything gener-ated offensively,” Indiana coach
Archie Miller said. “Over the course of the game their half court defense took away things and made us make some plays, and we had a really hard time scoring from the perimeter.”
Penn State forced 18 turn-overs from the Hoosiers, 15 of which were steals. The Nittany Lions won the turnover battle 18-7, and it never looked like Indiana was comfortable on the offensive end, especially on the outside.
The Hoosiers’ guards strug-gled against Penn State’s pres-sure, combining for a brutal 3-26 from the field and seven total turnovers.
“Penn State does a really good job with their pressure de-fense, I think with a lot of their switches, they take away a lot of stuff that you normally get,” Miller said. “They’re a very good defensive team on the season.”
Jamari Wheeler played a ma-jor role in the pressure defense on the perimeter as well as Myreon Jones.
Visit collegian.psu.edu to read the full story.
SPORTSJan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020Page 4
“KOBE!”
No. 24 Penn State rolls past IndianaAabha Vora/Collegian
By Caleb WilfingerThe Daily Collegian
The last time Penn State host-ed Indiana, the Hoosiers escaped Happy Valley with a 64-62 win and sent the Nittany Lions to 0-2 in Big Ten play.
On Wednesday, the first meet-ing in the last 13 months between these two teams seemed to be trending in a similar direction, but Penn State used a pair of sec-ond-half runs to convincingly pre-vail over a red-hot Indiana team, 64-49 at the Bryce Jordan Center.
With the win, Penn State im-proves to 15-5 on the season and 5-4 in the Big Ten. It was the third straight victory for the Nittany Li-ons, while Indiana dropped to 5-5 in the conference with the loss.
It wasn’t exactly a pretty per-formance from Lamar Stevens
and the rest of Penn State’s of-fense, but the hosts were still able to do just enough to pick up a crucial league victory.
“Obviously we’re happy with a win,” Chambers said. “I’m go-ing to watch the film and I’m sure I’ll find things that we have to improve on, but for right now I thought we did a good job [containing Indiana] tonight.”
Stevens only finished with 17 points on 7-of-20 shooting from the field on Wednesday, and the senior forward struggled for most of the contest.
However, Stevens was picked up by his teammates as the Nit-tany Lions got contributions from all aspects of their lineup in the winning effort.
Picking up where he left off against Michigan, Curtis Jones Jr. poured in 12 points and
connected on two 3-pointers, get-ting Penn State’s offense through a particularly rough patch in the opening half.
“We needed that production in the first half from Curtis,” Cham-bers said. “He made big shots for us and big plays for us in the second half tonight. We’re going to keep needing him to be that spark.”
Additionally, Myreon Jones and Myles Dread hit a couple of big shots and Mike Watkins chipped in eight points and six rebounds off the bench to aid the Nittany Lions’ attack.
A total of eight Penn State play-ers ended up scoring on Wednes-day, but the Nittany Lions pre-vailed thanks in large part to their defensive effort.
Even as their offense struggled mightily throughout the first half,
the hosts played terrific defense, particularly in the interior, hold-ing Indiana to 34 percent shoot-ing and limiting the Hoosiers to just six second chance points.
“We really defended and re-bounded well,” Chambers said. “I think you saw that, especially our speed and quickness as the game went on.”
Despite a poor first-half shoot-ing display, Penn State tied the game at 28 in the waning seconds of the half, and looked like a com-pletely different team out of the break.
The Nittany Lions tallied 11 of the first 15 points coming out of the break, capped off by a 3-point-er from Dread to give the hosts a 39-32 lead with 14:34 to play. It was an advantage that Penn State would not surrender for the remainder of the contest.
Indiana would cut the Nit-tany Lions’ lead to 41-35 shortly thereafter, but an 18-6 Penn State run quickly quelled all hope of a Hoosiers rally as the second half wore on.
The fans were heading for the exits at the game’s final media timeout, and not because the Nit-tany Lions were headed for a de-feat. Instead, Penn State’s domi-nant defensive performance kept the clock rolling as Chambers’ group coasted to its 15th victory of the season.
“I still think we can get a lot better,” Chambers said. “We still haven’t clicked yet on both sides of the ball, and that excites me a lot as we move forward into February.”
To emaril reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @caleb_wilfinger.
The Daily Collegian SPORTS Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020 | Page 5
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Nick Cardile’s plan to lead Penn StateBy Shane Connelly
The Daily Collegian
On a team defined by consistency, Nick Cardile is the one player who has been forced to
evolve the most.The senior
proved his worth on the field last year when he
made a successful transition from long-stick midfielder to defenseman.
Alongside the veteran leader Chris Sabia and his high school teammate Brayden Peck, Car-dile became Penn State’s most statistically productive defender, scooping up 40 ground balls and causing a team-high 22 turnovers over the course of 18 games.
And while Peck will once again be starting next to Cardile, Sabia has moved on — graduating and playing professionally as a mem-ber of Chrome Lacrosse Club of the Premier Lacrosse League.
The gap left by Sabia isn’t one that can be filled simply by a body in the lineup. Coach Jeff Tambroni knows that.
But he also knows that he has someone perfectly capable of filling those shoes in Cardile.
Cardile was passed down the honorary No. 16 jersey — given to the rising senior who most em-bodies the spirit of the late Penn State goaltender Connor Darcey — by Sabia. On top of that, he was made a team captain along-side attackmen Grant Ament and Mac O’Keefe as well as long-stick midfielder Tommy Wright.
It’s a lot of responsibility for one man, but becoming the leader that the team needs isn’t worrisome for Cardile.
“I’m just gonna do me,” Cardile told The Daily Collegian.
He still expects to draw from the experience of his old friend, though.
“Chris and I are really close to each other so I think that the way that he led me is kind of what I’m trying to do the younger guys right now,” Cardile said. “Just
the leadership skills that I saw in Chris like always competing in any circumstance, taking that one-on-one and actually taking it to heart as to say, ‘I’m going to shut that person down.’”
Tambroni has seen Cardile take on his role as a leader through the fall and now into the spring season.
In that time, he hasn’t seen the senior make many changes.
That, according to Tambroni, is a good thing.
“I think he’s the same and I think that’s where I will give him credit because he’s just very authentic in his personality,” Tambroni said.
“We have encouraged all of our guys, if they’re going to be
effective leaders, they’re going to have to be authentic in their per-sonality … They need to speak from the heart and be who they are, and I think that’s where Nicky is at his best.”
In a lot of ways, Cardile is similar to Sabia. For one, he is a strong proponent of keeping the mood light in the locker room and in practice.
“I personally like to be a guy who’s more relaxed and creates an environment where everyone can be successful and comfort-able, because that’s the biggest thing,” Cardile said.
“You want people to want to come to practice and have a smile on their face, joke around because, yeah, it is serious when
we’re playing, but at the same time, at the end of the day, it’s a sport that we love to play.”
At times, though, he has to flip the switch, because, as he says, it’s Penn State’s defense that is most vocal.
“I’m usually the one yelling at people,” Cardile said.
“Not like yelling at them to do something but trying to get them going.”
Tambroni, of course, has seen and experienced these qualities firsthand.
“I think that’s why [Sabia and Cardile] got along so well but at times butted heads on the field,” Tambroni said.
“I think their personalities are very similar and I think the con-
sistency of that leadership style is probably very relevant in 2020 as it was in 2019.”
That consistency is what Cardi-le believes will carry him through the upcoming year.
“Obviously you have to step into a leadership role as a captain or to wear No. 16, but at the same time, you were chosen to be No. 16 and you were chosen to be a captain because of your resume, not because of what you’re going to do,” Cardile said. “So I think you have to stick to who you are, but at the same time, enhance the levels of communication, leadership.”
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @ShaneTConnelly.
MEN’S LACROSSE
Ken Minamoto/Collegian
Defenseman Nick Cardile (43) scoops up a ground ball after a turnover forced by Brayden Peck (44) during the men’s lacrosse game against Johns Hopkins at Panzer Stadium on April 21, 2019. The Nittany Lions defeated the Blue Jays, 20-9.
The Daily CollegianSPORTSPage 6 | Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020
NERVES NOT A PROBLEMBy Gianna Galli
The Daily Collegian
Mark Hall has wrestled in plenty of big matches throughout his career at Penn State but in
only one of those matches, he felt his body go numb — his first dual-
meet appearance at Iowa a little over three years ago.
Since his debut, the senior has won a national title at 174 pounds as a freshman, and won Big Ten championships in each of the next two seasons at the same weight class. Hall is a three-time All-American, three-time NCAA finalist and his career record as a Nittany Lion is 104-5.
At this point in his career, Hall has seen it all and has overcome getting nervous before not only a dual meet, but some of the most important and pressured matches he has had to take part in.
No. 2 Penn State is only a few days away from its showdown against No. 1 Iowa, but Hall is certain that before he walks out onto the mat on Friday, the feeling in the lower half of his body will be present.
“True freshman year, my first match, I couldn’t feel my legs. From my hips down was just jello,” Hall said. “The last time I have been this sort of legit nervous was a pretty long time ago.”
According to teammate Nick Lee, the normal human sensation still exists outside of the sport and in a different envi-ronment of competition for Hall, but it hasn’t had an affect on his performance or career in years as a Nittany Lion.
“We were playing Mafia the
other night and he got a little nervous when I started figuring out that he was the mafia but that’s about it,” Lee said.
Otherwise, Lee has no idea the last time nerves have been a problem for his teammate.
The Minnesota native has com-peted in over 100 matches since coming to Penn State, and has become a leader on this team over the years.
Part of how Hall leads by ex-ample is remaining calm and focused before every match, and taking that focus onto the mat.
Some athletes can struggle with controlling their nerves and staying focused before a game or match, but Hall has not experienced that problem since his freshman year.
“I think Mark has great poise and he believes in himself,” Cael Sanderson said. “He’s obviously a great wrestler and strong in pretty much every position which gives him a reason to remain calm.”
But that’s because he realized he has no other choice but to push the nerves to the side.
“More than anything he is just confident. He knows that he is going to have seven minutes to make things the way he wants them to be and that’s a part of his growth as a wrestler,” Sanderson said.
Even when Hall wasn’t the most prepared and ready to begin his career at Penn State, it was Sanderson’s early belief in Hall that led the talented wrestler to never allow nerves to get in the way of his greatness.
“We were facing Iowa at Iowa and we pulled his redshirt and he started out great and looked really good but you can tell he got really tired and a little over-
whelmed by things,” Sanderson said.
“It was a tough place for us to do that to him but it was the opportunity that if we were going to make a change it was going to be right there and then and he committed to it.”
Hall went on to win the na-tional title that year, and what made that possible for the youthful wrestler is his comfort in the biggest matches, something
that comes with maturity and years of competition.
“It just comes with experience and being focused,” Hall said. “Knowing what I want to get out of competition and myself is helpful and has put me in the po-sition to feel more comfortable.”
This unexpected opportunity the then-true freshman took on at the time was a blessing and not only set up his rookie year as a Penn State wrestler to be a
successful one but has made this No. 1 v No. 2 matchup on Friday, a little less nerve-racking.
“I probably get more nervous for many of Mark’s matches than he does,” Lee said.
“He’s super consistent and I will pretty much expect the same Mark Hall no matter who he is wrestling.”
To email reporter: [email protected] her on Twitter at @giannagalli84.
Lily LaRegina/Collegian
Mark Hall wrestles Joe Grello during Penn State wrestling’s white-out meet against Rutgers in Rec Hall on Sun-day, Jan. 19. Penn State won 38-6.
Nick Lee: Penn State’s consistent force at 141
By Malcolm WilsonThe Daily Collegian
With eight national champi-onships in the last ten years, Penn State’s heralded wrestling
program thrives on competitive-ness and a lust for greatness.
But for 141-pound junior Nick Lee, back-to-back All-American seasons and 79 career wins aren’t great enough.
Currently ranked at No. 3 in the nation for his weight class and sitting at 12-0 on the season, Lee has been on an absolute tear in his third season with the Nittany Lions.
The native of Evansville, Indi-ana is coming off a victory against Nebraska’s Chad Red, who boasts the No. 7 national ranking in the 141-pound class.
Lee won the match by a major decision, his third such win of the season.
Lee’s success thus far in the 2020 campaign is not unprecedented, however.
Racking up back-to-back 30-plus win seasons in both his freshman and sophomore sea-sons, Lee is on pace to earn his third All-American honors in his junior year.
The secret to Lee’s dominance
lies in his constant desire to improve and his drive to be the best possible version of himself.
“I’ve definitely improved tech-nically since my sophomore season,” Lee said.
“I think the experience has helped a lot. I had a lot of ques-tions my freshman and sopho-more years for the older guys, and now I’m kind of in that po-sition of answering questions. So mentally, just having that ex-perience has been the biggest difference.”
As one of five starters on the team ranked among the top ten wrestlers in their weight class, Lee has been a cornerstone of a Nittany Lions team that has gone 7-1 through the first few months of the season.
That, however, goes far beyond just being a talented wrestler.
Now a veteran with two sea-sons under his belt, Lee has also embraced a leadership role in setting an example for some of the squad’s younger athletes.
One special newcomer is Lee’s younger brother, Joe, a 165-pound freshman who Nick has wrestled against and set an example for throughout their whole lives.
Cael Sanderson praises his 141-pounder’s ability to lead by example through his display of positivity and perseverance.
Sanderson feels that the way Lee carries himself has a valuable impact on the attitude and atmosphere of the team.
“Nick Lee is a great leader, he’s very consistent, he’s going to work really hard, and he’s got a great perspective,” the 11-year coach said.
“He’s a guy that always gets right back up. He’s just one of those guys that it’s very rare you don’t see him with a smile on his face. That’s great leadership for us, and it helps us a lot.”
Sanderson isn’t the only one who sees the positive impact Lee has on the team.
Senior Mark Hall, ranked No. 1 in the nation at 174 pounds, had high praise for the attri-butes his teammate brings to the program on and off the mat.
“Nick’s been absolutely astro-nomical to the team. He’s a re-ally good leader, and he’s some-one that I myself try to be more like,” Hall said. “I look to him to be that guy that goes and gets bonus points, wrestles hard… I really appreciate that from him. He’s growing in a lot of places outside of just wrestling, and I think that’s helping him a lot.”
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at
@Malcolm_Wilson4.
Lily LaRegina/Collegian
Nick Lee wrestles JoJo Aragona during Penn State wrestling’s white-out meet against Rutgers in Rec Hall on Sunday, Jan. 19. Penn State won 38-6.
Expect a cool and calm Mark Hall when Penn State faces No. 1 Iowa
WRESTLING
WRESTLING
Connor McMenamin comes up clutch
By Dylan JacobsThe Daily Collegian
Before winter break, Connor McMenamin had been an impor-tant factor of the bottom-six, but
he hadn’t made an impact on the scoresheet.
He has since gotten reward-
ed for his efforts, especially at critical times.
The freshman has been cred-ited with the game-winning goals in three of the past four Penn State wins, highlighted by his overtime winner at Michigan State on Saturday.
He’s not an offensive force, only scoring four goals over the course of the season.
But since coming back from winter break, he is being re-warded for his efforts away from the scoresheet.
“It seems like the hockey gods do shine on players like that,” Guy Gadowsky said. “He’s a gritty guy who plays on the defensive side of the puck, who doesn’t cheat the game, who absolutely plays for the team. It seems like guys like that score big goals.”
The Collegeville, Pennsylva-nia, native took some time to transition to the college game, but after the break, he’s picked it up.
“My first half was just an adjustment period, and I think from there I go home for break and I come back and you know what you’re facing,” McMenamin said.
“I think the second half of the season, [I’m] taking it game by game, just keeping my confi-dence and consistency.”
While he has scored some big goals over the past few weeks, some puck luck has played a part of it.
His goal against the Spar-tans happened after a shot from
Hults was blocked, and he was right there to take advantage.
“Luckily it found me in the slot. Could’ve been anyone there,” Mc-Menamin said. “[Sucese] made a good play on the wall to get it to Hults, and luckily I just went to the net and found it right there. It was a big win for our team.”
His other two game winners came in the Niagara series earlier this month, and even though he’s come up big in important situations, it’s not something that he’s actively hoping for.
“It’s just a weird coincidence,” McMenamin said. “I don’t go out there to try and score game winners.”
Even though scoring the big goals isn’t high up on his list of priorities, his work away from the puck is making it possible.
“I just try and put myself in the right spots at the right time, and the second half I’ve got-ten some bounces go my way,” McMenamin said. “I’m just trying to keep that going.”
His consistency away from the puck is what made Penn State want to McMenamin in, and so far the team is getting exactly what it wanted.
“He’s always been extremely reliable. That’s been his repu-tation for a lot of years prior to coming to Penn State. Yet he has a knack for scoring goals,” Gadowsky said. “Last year he was a captain, he was used on the penalty kill, 5-on-3, and he scored a lot of goals, and that’s what drew us to him.”
As the Nittany Lions head down the home stretch, there will be plenty of times that they will need a big goal.
Gadowsky won’t be surprised if it’s McMenamin getting it done.
“He’s a guy that could make a habit of that,” Gadowsky said.
To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @DylJacobs.
Jonah Rosen/Collegian
Penn State forward Connor McMenamin (19) skates around a defenseman during the men’s hockey game against Sacred Heart.
MEN’S HOCKEY
