2018-04-26 The Auburn Plainsman

              In the eye of an
epidemic
An Auburn graduate's struggle
through opioid addiction
By EDUARDO MEDINA
Community'Wiitci
' Ml | Ill , • 1 I !• i 1!, 111 I I |..11 1 M I
Thi' ba'rista at Side Track Coffee tilts his (lowing pot to
a halt as he greets Michael with an easygoing smile on
S.ffurday. They catch up on how they're doing and talk
about upcoming concerts, one of which Michael is seeing Sun
day night in Atlanta. A leaf made from milk is splashed atop his
espresso, and Michael thanks his friend, the owner of What Mi
chael calls the best cof fee shop in Qpelika.
The leaf ripples across the brim of his cup as he sits on a bench.
Around -4:30 p.m., under a warm blue sky, Michael sips his coffee
and brushes his thick black beard, pondering recent memories.
It was not long ago when such afternoons were impossible, and
friendly conversations like the one with the barista were nonex­istent.
These simple beauties in life were plundered by needles
he inserted into his veins — plundered bv injections of heroin.
Michael's story is similar to many Americans in recent years.
In 2016, opioids killed more than 42,000'Americans, according
to the Centers for Disease Control, with 30 states seeing a sta­tistically
significant increase in heroin and prescription opioid
overdose deaths from 2015. The current drug epidemic is the
deadliest in American history, accounting for 2 percent of deaths
in 2015, or roughly I in 50.
See EPIDEMIC, 2
• @TheAUPIainsman @TheAuburnPlainsman. f|2p @TheAuburnPlainsman
Board
approves
projects
South College Street deck
to add 400 parking spots
By LOREN KIMMEL
Campus Editor
campus@theplainsman.com
Auburn University's Board of Trustees met
Friday morning and approved a proposal to
build a new parking deck on South College
Street.
The new deck will be constructed in the
south parking lot of the Auburn University
Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.
The board's Property and Facility Commit­tee
heard from Dan King, assistant vice presi­dent
for facilities, about the plans for the proj ­ect.
The committee approved the plans be­fore
the full panel met to hear the proposal
later in morning at the hotel.
"An Auburn University parking structure
in this location will significantly improve the
parking situation in the northeast portion of
» See PARKING, 4
Student Activities Center
improvements
The Board of Trustees has approved a pro­posal
— pushed in large part by Student Af­fairs
and the Student Government Associa­tion
— to renovate Auburn's Student Activ­ities
Center.
The plan, proposed by Associate Vice Pres­ident
for Facilities Dan King, will modify and
renovate the existing building to create a fa­cility
with a more accommodating, mid-sized
event space equipped for hosting events too
big for the Student Center and too small for
the Auburn Arena or Beard-Eaves Collesium.
The project will create a flexible event
» See STUDENT ACT, 4
Equestrian
wins fifth
national
title
By NATHAN KING
Assistant Sports Editor
sports@theplainsman.com
Auburn equestrian is bringing another
championship home to The Plains.
After defeating Baylor and TCU Thursday
in the opening rounds of the NCEA Champi­onships
in Waco, Texas, Auburn doubled up
No. 1 seed Georgia 10-5 for its fifth national
championship in program history.
The Tigers came out of the gates hooves
blazing, racking up four points in equita­tion
on the flat. Auburn's Ashton Alexan­der
(score of 177), Taylor St. Jacques (179),
Hayley Iannotti (175) and Caitlin Boyle (181)
were the catalysts for the team's 4-0 lead after
the opening frame.
Iannotti was bested by Georgia's Emma
Mandarino in fences for the Bulldogs' first
point of the day, but Boyle, St. Jacques and
» See EQUESTRIAN, 2
Alum brings Yoda to life with CGI
By LILY JACKSON
Managing Editor
managing.editor@theplainsman.com
Look into the eyes of Yoda, Iron Man and
Davy Jones — see the way their lips curl, their
smiles form and eyes roll.
Jamy Wheless, Auburn alumus, gave them
life.
As the co-founder and president of Light-stream
Animation Studios, Wheless has em­barked
on a journey of telling stories and his
company is succeeding.
Just recently, Lightstream Animation Stu­dios
was accepted into the Annecy Interna­tional
Animation Film Festival held in France
for their production of the short film, "The Pig
on the Hill."
"When Pig's free-spirited and energetic new
neighbor Duck plunges himself into Pig's qui­et,
orderly life, Pig learns that having friends is
what he has been missing all along."
Receiving an invitation to the Annecy Film
Festival is one of the highest honors in anima­tion.
There are 3,000-4,000 applicants, and
CONTRIBUTED BY JAMY WHELESS
Alumnus Jamy Wheless is working to share his experience with animation at Auburn.
they invite 200-300 filmmakers.
Winners are Oscar qualifiers, as well.
"If we should win an award, we would be on
the Academy Award long list," Wheless said.
Wheless has been invited to a number of
other festivals, and the hope is for more name
recognition and eventually a feature film based
on the short film.
Aside from his personal career, Wheless
taught a semester-long course on animation
» See WHELESS, 4
Student newsrooms are dying, and
they need your support
The Auburn Plainsman participates in Save Student
Journalism Day Page 3
^www.theplainsman.com News 24/7 on
CEETTEI our website
Go online to theplainsman.com
SCAN ME!
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
GRADUATION ISSUE INSIDF
A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID • NEWS SINCE 1893 WM fM V • VOL 125 • ISSUE 29 • FIRST COPY FREE THEN 50<t
news 2
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2018 THEPLAINSMAN.COM NEWS
EPIDEMIC
» From 1
The history of opioid use in the United
States is a long one. Doctors prescribed soldiers
morphine during the Civil War in the 1800s,
and in 1898, Bayer began selling heroin com­mercially
in the country as a pain reliever until
Congress outlawed it in 1924. In less than 120
years time, the drug and its relatives would be­gin
to plague the lives of millions and the life of
Auburn University graduate Michael.
Michael, who requested his last name be
kept confidential, traces his addiction back to
age 11. He and his sixth-grade buddy snuck
a bottle of Absolut Vodka into the friend's
house, where they gulped it down.
"It was forbidden, and I was a mischievous
little kid, so at first it was fun," Michael said.
Michaels family growing up could be de­scribed
as upper middle class. His parents
are both attorneys, and he attended a private
school in Montgomery. While it may seem like
a picturesque American upbringing, Michael
said the spiral continued in subtle quakes at 15
years old. While panicking about something he
now forgets, he took a single Xanax pill that his
mother had left in the cabinet to calm down,
and it worked, so he did it again and again.
Like many households in America, Michael's
family did not dispose of their pills after usage.
Dr. Dave Brackett, coordinator of clinical ser­vices
for the Harrison School of Pharmacy at
Auburn, notes the tragedies that can come
from this.
"Its important people don't keep these drugs
for rainy days because one: theproducts will go
bad, two: kids will be tempted to try them and
three: they're all cheap, so there's no reason to
keep these drugs around," Brackett said.
High-voltage lights beaming onto his team's
football field and cheering from friends com­prised
Michael's Friday nights, but he really
couldn't care less about football, he said. Hang­ing
out with his friends while drinking and
taking Xanax was how he chose to have a little
fun after the games.
His first semester of college at the Universi­ty
of Alabama was lackluster, so in spring 2007,
he transferred to Auburn, where plenty of his
friends went. By then, Michael said he'd dis­covered
how to get Xanax from doctors.
"I'd go to the doctor and say, 'Sometimes I
can't concentrate' or any other buzzword I
knew would get me a prescription," Michael
said. "I went with the full intention to get my
fix."
The Xanax rid him of nerves and veiled his
underlying anxiety. Still, the college student
needed something stronger, something to
achieve a new high.
"Prescription pain medicine took off while
I was at Auburn," he said while gently placing
his espresso beside him. "I started with Lortab,
and then it quickly became OxyContin."
He purchased pills through friends that ac­quired
the drug easily, and by his last semester
at Auburn, Michael had become one of the 2
million Americans dependent on opioids.
Prescription pain medicine took of while I
was at Auburn. I started with Lortab, and
then it quickly became OxyContin."
Lee County District Attorney Brandon
Hughes has prosecuted numerous cases involv­ing
prescription opioids. He contends the stig­ma
that pills are safer or less dangerous than
other drugs resonates with people who abuse
painkillers. Educating people on the dangers
is crucial in stopping this notion and, more
importantly, hindering the epidemic, he said.
Hughes has seen that the county is not a sanc­tuary
from the opioid epidemic.
"I would say most traffic stops here, there are
pills involved," Hughes said.
The surge of opioid use is not an entirely
new phenomenon, however, and its usage his­torically
treads between miraculous and dead­ly.
Opioids' earliest reference in history, ac­cording
to the National Academy of Science,
comes from the ancient Sumerians referring to
the opium poppy cultivated in Mesopotamia as
a "joy plant," and its usefulness has been well
established since. In 1640, the father of English
medicine, Thomas Sydenham, praised the pain
reducer as "God's own medicine."
Today, physicians still prescribe opioids be­cause
of their ability to reduce severe pain for
patients in need, but according to a report from
the Institute for Human Data Science, total
prescriptions filled in online and retail phar­macies
fell nationally by 8.9 percent in 2017,
the steepest drop in 25 years.
Physicians wrote 5.8 million opioid pre­scriptions
for Alabamians in 2015 — a state in
which the population is 4.8 million. The num­bers
reflect how opioid dependency is begin­ning
to sprawl in the state as well.
Michael needed to take OxyContin every
day during his last semester atAuburnin2011.
No longer was it a weekend rendezvous but
part of a daily regimen. He got up, brushed his
teeth, made breakfast and took his pill.
In his cap and gown and surrounded by his
family, Michael at last saluted school goodbye
with a degree in media studies. He got a job at a
Montgomery television station as a photojour-nalist
and moved back in with his mother. To­ward
the end of 2011, the drug Opana intrud­ed
Michael's life.
££ He gave me a tiny little line of it, and I
thought, 'There's no way this is going to
do anything.' And it did, it absolutely did."
Opana is a drug much more powerful than
OxyContin used to treat severe pain continu­ously
and was taken off the market in 2017 be­cause
of its potential for abuse. But in 2011, it
was very much on the market, and one of Mi­chael's
friends had a pill on a night out. His
friend told him to try it, but Michael, carry­ing
his standard OxyContin, was unsure of the
new pill's potency.
"He gave me a tiny little line of it, and I
thought, There's no way this is going to do
anything,™ Michael said. "And it did, it abso­lutely
did."
In the morning, Michael was experiencing
withdrawals. He was taking OxyContin ev­ery
day and budgeting one potent Opana pill
a week, and by now, his habit was outgrow­ing
his paycheck. Michael said at this point, he
was spending close to $400 a week to retain his
high.
Drugs were a necessity for sleep, or else he
would suffer for hours in bed, and it was a ne­cessity
for waking, lest he ache in a sluggish
state of mind and throb in every muscle.
"By that time in 2012,1 was fully aware I was
an addict because that was my mission in life —
to find drugs," Michael said.
While explaining the various substitutes and
alternatives he pursued to quell his addiction,
Michael paused and looked for a second at the
sky.
"You know, I don't think I was ever suicid­al
then," Michael said. "Mostly because my best
friend committed suicide. It was my senior
year of high school. It scarred me."
His friend's initials are tattooed on Michael's
chest.
"Really, I used that as a rationale to do drugs,"
he said. "I thought, 'If you went through this,
and you lost your best friend to suicide and felt
the way I did, you'd do drugs too.'"
But that was a twisted rationalization be­cause
of its selfish outlook on death, he said.
Michael was crying himself to sleep at night
after work. It didn't matter if he had drugs or
didn't, he was exhausted, so he cried. He cried
until his streaming tears dried and all that re­mained
was a bottomless ditch for him to sink
into and wander in a haze.
He cracked open the next pill, powder
spreading across the table, and in order to es­cape
that void, put his nose to the powder. At
night he would repeat the process, and then the
'99 '05
next morning and then again the next night —
his mind lost and his senses twirling.
By this point, lawmakers had realized the
country had a problem and worked to cut
down on the prescription abuse, but it was
too late for many. Millions of Americans were
hooked on painkillers, according to the Na­tional
Institute on Drug Abuse, and their ad­dictions
had to be quenched, no matter the
guaranteed damage.
Close to 500,000 of those Americans turned
to heroin, and in spring 2013, so did the recent
Auburn graduate and son from an upper-mid-dle-
class family.
"It was all I cared about," Michael said. "Even
if I was disgusted with myself and disgusted
with the heroin, it had such a hold on me that
it didn't matter. I needed it."
There was no rationing to his use, he said.
At night, Michael would get hundreds of dol­lars
from ATMs to pay his dealer.
a It was all 1 cared about. Even if I was
disgusted with myself and disgusted with
heroin, it had such a hold on me that it
didn't matter. I needed it."
His work as a photojournalist was getting in
the way of his drug use. At one point, Michael
snuck away from work to inject another dos­age
of the drug. He put in his two weeks notice,
and it was at this point that any sense of nor­malcy
vanished, and his parents became suspi­cious.
The addiction was suffocating his life.
"A normal person's brain would say, 'You're
dying? but my brain just kept on screaming,
You need to get high, and then well deal with
you dying,1" Michael said.
His father managed to get him a job at his
firm, and Michael hesitantly accepted. On Fri­day,
Sept. 27, 2013, on his fifth day of work,
Michael sat in his father's office, injecting her­oin.
His father walked in and saw the jam-band
loving boy he raised during his downward spi­ral.
It marked the first time he'd ever seen his
father cry.
Michael convinced his parents to wait un­til
Monday until sending him to rehab. That
Sunday, he managed to sneak in one last shot
of OxyContin while on the back deck at his
mom's house. He tried fervently to get high,
but nothing happened. All the euphoria he
once felt was gone; the only thing left was pro­found
numbness, and he understood that the
end was near, that the void was closing.
"I don't remember my first month in recov­ery
honestly, my head was spinning," Michael
said. "After years of daily use, I was just hazy."
'10 '16
SOURCE: CDC GRAPHIC: TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
But recovery was working. He dove into the
recovery community in Opelika and met peo­ple
that had similar stories. While his with­drawals
were excruciating, he enjoyed the ca­maraderie,
and he enjoyed the fruitful conver­sations
about addiction with others who had
gone through it. He got a job at an entertain­ment
store and began working again in August
2014.
"I learned how to go to work, develop
friendships, become a part of my family again,"
he said. "I had to relearn how to live life with­out
the use of drugs and alcohol."
One morning he woke up and realized the
thought of doing drugs and alcohol wasn't
there for the first time in years. It forced a re­alization
upon him: recovery might actually
work.
He is now four years sober. Helping others
battling addiction is his mission and obligation,
he said.
"I imagine the feeling I get when helping
someone is the same feeling a Catholic gets
from Confession — just this overwhelming
sense that everything is going to be all right,"
Michael said.
According to Michael, an analogy that gets
used often in the recovering community is if
they're stuck in a ditch and someone walks by
and sees them, most people will throw a rope;
a person addicted to drugs will jump in with
you and say, "How are we getting out of this
together?"
In the U.S., many are still stuck in this ditch.
Alabama had 767 deaths from opioid overdos­es
in 2016, the CDC tallied. Michael's addiction
was one of many, but his survival is anoma­lous.
He was not swept or ruined by the surg­ing
storm that is the country"s opioid epidemic,
but it undoubtedly hurt his loved ones.
At the Opelika coffee shop, he rises from the
stiff bench and stretches before returning the
coffee mug back to his friend. It's 6 p.m., and
the sun hasn't set yet. Walking across the con­crete
covered in yellow and red chalk, he re­sumes
the musical conversation with the baris-ta.
Umphrey's McGee is the band Michael's
seeing in Atlanta, a nod to his favorite genre
of music.
Michael plans on getting a master's soon and
becoming a therapist, specializing in addiction.
That night, however, he said he will play
with his dog, maybe catch dinner with a friend
and simply enjoy life.
"All I ask is if you have a problem, and you
think there's no way out, start reaching out be­cause
it will get better," Michael said. "You will
be okay."
3,314
U.S. drug overdose deaths
Among the more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in
2016, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to
fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids), more than
20,000 overdose deaths.
# Methadone
Synthetic opioids, other
than methadone
Heroin
Natural and
semi-synthetic opioids
Cocaine
Methamphetamin
20,145
15,466
14,427
EQUESTRIAN
» From 1
Alexander picked up the slack
with 177-168, 171-168 and
160-163 wins, respectively.In
fences, Auburn grabbed an 8-5
lead, good for unofficial victory.
In the horsemanship set,
Auburn turned in a 2-1 ad­vantage
behind 148.5 outputs
from both Kelsey Jung and
Lauren Diaz. UGA took three
of four rides in the final cate­gory
of reining, but the singu­lar
win from Alexa Rivard was
all Auburn needed to secure the
championship.
The win avenges Auburn's
2018 SEC Championship and
last season's national champi­onship
losses to the Bulldogs.
The national champion­ship
is Auburn athletics' 21st,
with equestrian accounting
for the last four (2018, 2016,
2013,2011).
The last non-equestrian na­tional
title for the school was
football in 2010.
J
A
MERIQ
URANCE (1
CORRECTION
The picture that accompanied last week's
editorial, "Auburn should stop penalizing
interns," depicted the office of the Career
Center. The Career Center is not involved
in Auburn's policy of charging tuition for
internship credits, and by using the image, we
inappropriately associated the Career Center
with that policy. We sincerely regret the error. CONTRIBUTED BY ANTHONY HALL/AUBURN ATHLETICS
Auburn Equestrian competes at NCEA Equestrian National Championship Finals vs. UGA on Saturday, April 21,2018 in Waco, Tex.
r opinion
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018
3
THEPLAINSMAN.COM OPINION
OUR VIEW
Student newsrooms are struggling, need your support
By EDITORIAL BOARD
Spring 2018
The Auburn Plainsman has been around longer than The
Creed. Longer than the rolling of Toomer's Oaks. Longer than
the Eagle's Flight. And — depending, on who you ask — longer
than "War Eagle."
That's why we, at The Plainsman, are participating in Support
Student Journalism Day. This campaign, created at the Indepen­dent
Florida Alligator, the University of Florida student news­paper,
is intended to raise awareness of the benefits of student
media and the importance of supporting it.
You can use the hashtag #SaveStudentNewsrooms to share
your support, your thoughts, your experiences or even your
complaints. For alumni of The Plainsman, we invite you to share
how The Plainsman affected your life.
And, if able, you can support our work by making a donation
online at aub.ie/theplainsmandonate
Our newspaper has been published, in some form or another,
since 1893, making it one of the oldest continuous institutions
on Auburn's campus.
In our 125th year, our paper is largely digital-first. Thankful­ly,
forethought and our financial position has enabled us to con­tinue
publishing a print product that remains well-received on
campus.
The Plainsman has continued its tradition of excellence, too,
earning our 20th National Pacemaker, the highest honor in col­legiate
journalism, last year. At the same time, we were inducted
into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame.
While we have had our fair share of successes, we haven't
been without struggles. Like any small newspaper, The Plains­man
has struggled to adapt our revenue streams to the post-
Great Recession era of the internet and digital news.
At the end of the spring 2017 semester, we faced a large def­icit
and have been operating under deficits for years. Over the
course of a decade, we nearly obliterated a once-massive contin­gency
fund that had built up over the golden years of the news­paper
industry.
It was depleted to the point last year that our deficit would
have been too much to keep going. The Plainsman could have
shut down. Or we could have been forced to accept Universi­ty
funding.
We wanted neither. Shutting down would have meant end­ing
a 125-year tradition, and taking University funding would
put us in a compromising position when it comes to editori­al
control.
If you think neither is possible, look back to 1999, when for­mer-
Plainman editor Lee Davidson was censured and had her
job threatened by the University Communications Board for
running a series of investigative reports, editorials and a largely
blank front page. Her work in 1998 called for the resignation of
powerful Auburn Trustee Bobby Lowder.
And before that, in the 1960s, former President Ralph Brown
Draughon, the precursor to the University Communica­tions
Board and Dean of Students Jim Foy routinely censored
our publication, suspended writers and disqualified a potential
Plainsman editor candidate as retaliation for what the powers at
be considered to be opinions that were too liberal for Auburn.
Those opinions were in favor of integration.
Fortunately, we have faced neither censure nor censorship
in recent years. The University has been a great partner to The
Plainsman in many aspects, but we still fear that losing our fi­nancial
independence could infringe upon our editorial inde­pendence.
Thankfully, we haven't. With hard work and sacrifices, we
pulled ourselves out of the deficit by the start of the new fiscal
year in October, making a marginal profit for the first time in
years. We're on track to do the same this year.
We optimized our distribution, dropped student salaries and
cut extra spending. We redesigned our print edition, launched a
new website and put our feet to the pedal in advertising.
Our staff is made up of students of all ages, majors and iden­tities.
We work long hours to make sure you are informed at all
times about everything that's important — on campus and off.
Our staff balances part-time jobs, social lives, student involve­ment
and classes with our work here — just like any other strug­gling
college students.
The only difference is our job is for you and every reader who
comes across our links online or picks up one of these old things
we call newspapers.
Unlike other student organizations, we don't add to your stu­dent
fees. We don't take money sourced through taxpayer dol­lars
or your tuition. Our only operational revenue comes from
advertising, donations and your readership.
We need you, and you have been there for us. We sincerely
thank you for reading our newspaper, subscribing to our news­letter,
following us online and advertising across all of our plat­forms.
We've been lucky to have an Auburn Family that supports us.
Other student newspapers haven't been as lucky.
Many have been forced over the years to stop printing or re-affiliate
with their university. Some have been censored, oth­ers
lost control of their editorial and business processes. Their
newspapers changed forever — and not for the better.
Even though we avoided a catastrophe last year, it would only
take a small slip up or a dip in advertising revenue to put us back
in a precarious situation.
Losing our editorial control or losing The Plainsman altogeth­er
would change the face of Auburn's campus forever. It would
silence the oldest and most consistent voice for the free exchange
of ideas and the most consistent advocate for progress in Au­burn's
history.
Over the years, The Plainsman has covered the most contro­versial
issues on campus with integrity and by following our
motto, "A Spirit that is Not Afraid," a line taken from The Creed.
Our only goal is to give you — the students and the public —
the information you need to make an informed decision.
More than that, The Plainsman is an outlet for students to ex­press
their opinions and foster discussion. We highlight your
organizations, and we ensure students' voices are heard. This
newspaper is also a breeding ground and learning lab for future
journalists.
The only way we can continue to do any of that is if we re­main
financially and editorially independent.
LETTER
Prohibition didn't work, will banning hard liquor from fraternity houses?
By JACKSON FITE
Auburn Senior
In 1920 the United States wrote the "noble ex­periment"
of Prohibition into law. This ban of
alcohol aimed to reduce crime and resolve so­cial
issues of the time. Proponents of Prohibition
concluded that difficulty to access alcohol would
reduce the amount consumed. This seems log­ical,
and at first, it seemed successful. However,
after an initial decline, consumption began to
rise steadily. Underground production, speak­easies
and organized crime sprung up across the
country as acts of rebellion to this ban.
One of the most notable consequences of Pro­hibition
has been labeled the "Iron Law of Prohi­bition"
by Richard Cowan. This law states that a
direct correlation exists between intensity of law
enforcement and potency of the prohibited sub­stance
of concern. Before Prohibition, Ameri­cans
spent roughly the same amount of money
on beer as they did hard liquor. However, during
Prohibition, almost all alcohol production was of
hard liquor, mainly due to the added difficulties
of beer harboring and distribution in compari­son
to liquor.
Furthermore, demand for alcohol also rose
because Prohibition law augmented the attrac­tiveness
of alcohol consumption to young Amer­icans
by adding a fagade of thrill and glamour to
the action. According to a study of 30 major U.S.
cities, the number of crimes rose 24 percent be­tween
1920 and 1921. Arrests for drunkenness
and disorderly conduct increased 41 percent, and
arrest of drunken drivers increased 81 percent.
Prohibition, while noble, did not exhibit its
intended result. So, what makes us think that
banning hard liquor from Auburn fraternity
houses will be successful? As a former president
of a fraternity, I have seen, first-hand, the dan­gers
of misusing alcohol. It is without question
that the substance can impair judgement and of­ten
is the root cause of many behavioral prob­lems.
However, adding the obstacle of a hard li­quor
ban from fraternity houses will not success­fully
function as a means of diminishing Univer­sity
or fraternity liability or even incidents result­ing
from alcohol misuse.
1 would argue that instead of hard liquor be­coming
obsolete like administrators and the In-terfraternity
Council are intending, students
may be encouraged to consume more of it at a
faster rate before attending social events at fra­ternity
houses. Events before the official events
are dubbed "Pre-Games," where binge drinking
is often a characteristic behavior. With knowl­edge
of liquor absence at the actual fraternity
event, a student may feel an inclination to take
that extra shot or swig from a liquor handle. This
additional consumption could be what sends
a student over the edge of intoxication and out
of control. Evidence of this already exists pre­ceding
other university activities — binge drink­ing
at tailgates before football games and prior
to transportation for sorority functions, both of
which are alcohol-free environments.
The reality of excessive drinking by college
students still exists today; it is a problem that
should be addressed by the University for sever­al
prominent reasons. But rather than strict pro­hibition,
a more promising approach is establish­ing
measures that seek to promote safe and re­sponsible
drinking. Surface-level consideration
of hard liquor dismissal from fraternity proper­ty
might seem beneficial, and I acknowledge the
University's motives in this decision. Protection
of Greek Life as a whole is something we need
to continue cultivating, and diminishing liabili­ty
for these organizations is a great way to fur­ther
this. However, we are not comparing ap­ples
to apples with this new rule. The options
are not validly: a) hard liquor is present at fra­ternity
houses, or b) hard liquor is not present
at fraternity houses. Instead, the choice is be­tween:
a) controlled distribution and consump­tion
of liquor at fraternity houses through third-party,
University-approved vendors, and b) un­controlled,
unacknowledged hard liquor con­sumption
and binge drinking outside of frater­nity
houses, intensified by the absence of liquor
at actual fraternity events. In short, where Au­burn
University and the Interfraternity Council
believe they are gaining control through this li­quor
ban, they ironically might be losing it.
Fraternities at Auburn have come a long way
in terms of safety since my freshman year. Over
the past year, IFC has encouraged and promot­ed
University-approved, third-party vendors.
From my experience, they provide a safer meth­od
to partake in controlled, responsible drinking.
I would propose to continue the effort to elim­inate
hard liquor from being brought into fra­ternity
events and utilize the services that third-party
vendors provide. Why don't we give that a
chance before this radical approach is taken?
The preservation of history exists to educate
future generations on the successes and fail­ures
of their predecessors. Let Prohibition speak
into our present circumstances, and through the
American government's retrogression of conr
trol, might we as Auburn University recognize
a different route to a better Auburn.
The views expressed in columns and letters to
the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinion
of The Auburn Plainsman.
LETTER
The Plainsman is a valuable, appreciated news outlet for students
By CAROLINE SEEMAN
Auburn Senior
I am a senior journalism student at
Auburn. Although I have never been
a staff member of The Plainsman, the
student-run paper has done a great
job informing me since I was a fresh­man.
I think a lot of the paper's suc­cess
has to do with the fact that it is
produced and shared by students.
Many of my friends still use Face-book
as a way to share and read news.
I see articles from The Plainsman
shared on my feed almost every day.
Specifically, the article about the new
IFC alcohol policy has created an up­roar
in my social circle. Many people
shared the unbiased and well-written
article in your April 18 issue.
Students get upset about an issue
the closer it relates to them, and many
Auburn students are affected by this
new policy. This is not the only issue
that The Plainsman has covered that
matters to students.
The newspaper is also usually the
first to inform students of upcoming
events and changes within the com­munity
and campus. For instance,
the news organization broke the sto­ry
about the Alpha Psi Rodeo policy
changes.
I think that the paper encourag­es
students to speak with other stu­dents
on a personal level about many
topics.
The Plainsman will continue its suc­cess
because the students who run it
know what Auburn students want to
read and see.
Overall, the organization does
a great job in informing the many
communities that make up the Au­burn
Family.
The views expressed in columns
and letters to the editor do not neces­sarily
reflect the opinion of The Au­burn
Plainsman.
OPINION PAGE POLICIES THE EDITORIAL BOARD
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Auburn Plainsman welcomes letters from
students, as well as faculty, administrators,
alumni and those not affiliated with the Uni­versity.
Letters must be submitted before 4:30 p.m.
on Monday for publication.
Letters must include the author's name, ad­dress
and phone number for verification,
though the name of the author may be with­held
upon request. Submission may be edit­ed
for grammar and/or length. Please submit
no more than 500 words.
COLUMNS AND EDITORIALS
The opinions of The Auburn Plainsman
staff are restricted to these pages.
This editorial is the majority opinion of the
Editorial Board and is the official opinion of
the newspaper.
The opinions expressed in columns and
letters represent the views and opinions
of their individual authors.
These opinions do not necessarily reflect
the Auburn University student body, faculty,
administration or Board of Trustees.
CHIP BROWNLEE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LILY JACKSON
MANAGING EDITOR
JESSICA BALLARD
STANDARDS EDITOR
ANNE DAWSON
ONLINE EDITOR
LOREN KIMMEL
CAMPUS EDITOR
SAM.WILLOUGHBY
COMMUNITY EDITOR
WILL SAH LIE
SPORTS EDITOR
NATHAN KING
ASSISTANT SPORTS'
Z
8
Newsroom: news@theplainsman.com
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ALEX HOSEY
LIFESTYLE EDITOR
JEREMY NEWMAN
OPINION EDITOR
INGRID SCHNADER
PHOTO EDITOR
GANNON PADGETT
VIDEO EDITOR
334-844-9108
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campus
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018 THEPLAINSMAN.COM
GREEK LIFE
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Bria Randal smiles in front of Samford Hall on Friday, Jan. 26,2018, in Auburn, Ala.
BRIA RANDAL
Auburn's first African-American president of a Panhellenic sorority
By SAMANTHA STRUNK
Campus Writer
She didn't intend on going through recruitment.
In fact, Bria Randal, current Chi Omega president and
the first African-American president of an Auburn Panhel­lenic
sorority, did not sign up to go through recruitment
until the day the form was due. She didn't know much
about it and was wary of just jumping into it.
She was finally convinced to sign up only after she talked
with her friend's mom who discussed how much her old­er
daughter had gotten from her Panhellenic experience.
After hearing about the friendships and connections her
friend's older sister associated with Greek life, Randal de­cided
to try it.
Now, she's thankful she made the decision she did.
"1 think that rush is hard for anybody, but it was a good
way for me to step out of my shell right away so 1 wouldn't
get locked into it," Randal said.
Despite enjoying the process, Randal struggled at the
beginning of her Panhellenic experience. She didn't know
many people, and it was hard for her to find a strong friend
group.
She decided to get as involved as possible in Chi Omega
and see if that would help her find her people.
It did. In getting involved, she found the people who
cared about their organization.
"They also, in turn, care about people," Randal said. "So
they really built me up and motivated me and told me I
could do things 1 didn't really think I could."
In addition to these friends, Randal attributed much of
her success to older girls within Chi Omega who poured
into her and motivated her to challenge and believe in her­self.
Randal said as a freshman, it took her being told she
could do something before she stretched herself to do it.
"I'm growing as a self-motivator, but at least in my
younger years, I definitely had to hear it from other peo­ple,"
Randal said.
Now she is at a point where she knows both her capa­bilities
and limits, and she challenges herself rather than
needing an outside effort. She now uses that lesson to serve
as the older girls who once helped her.
"You just kind of have to make sure that you're integrat­ing
the people that are coming in," Randal said. "A lot of
people took me in a vulnerable phase and kind of formed
me into someone that can now continue to form younger
women into something."
The guidance and investment of her mentors are even­tually
what led Randal to take on the role of president, and
she strives to ensure the organization she leads focuses on
bettering and empowering women.
Randal believes that sororities should be geared toward
giving young women confidence to do what they want, not
tell them what to do. She said everyone needs a foundation
when they come to college to inspire them to grow.
"It's not just Chi O but the women within it who made
themselves my foundation and let me grow in whatever I
wanted to be that makes it so special," Randal said.
Randal believes a foundation for women is particularly
important because women are often told there are things
they can't or shouldn't do. She believes where boys are risk
takers, girls are often hesitant. Randal wants to ensure
young women do not feel limited by anything.
"Perfection used to be my main goal, but now it's more
so bravery," Randal said. "To do anything and fail at any­thing."
Randal said shell risk anything knowing she has a foun­dation
of strong women who are going to catch her in fail­ure,
and she wants to be that for others, as well.
In this sense, Chi Omega is especially important to Ran­dal
because it is the vessel she uses to impact people.
Every week, Randal includes an inspiring quote at the
end of her email announcements.
"Not the girly quotes, the motivating ones." she added.
She focuses on quotes that emphasize internal over ex­ternal
qualities. Randal said that it can be a "tough environ­ment"
for young women surrounded all hours of the day by
other young women who are attractive and extraordinary.
She employs simple tactics like using the word "brilliant"
rather than "beautiful" to inspire betterment from within.
"1 want to make it less so about what we look like and
more so who each individual person is," Randal said.
In regard to making sure Panhellenic is available to any
young woman who wants to pursue it, no matter her ra­cial,
socioeconomic or regional background, Randal thinks
the best ways for sororities to make all feel included is to
minimize distractions and keep recruitment focused on the
conversation.
"I walked into a sorority in a room of girls that didn't
look like me and might not be like me but was able to find
exactly who I needed to be," Randal said.
The conversations she had during recruitment are what
made her feel welcome, not the decorations, she said.
The conversations that have continued into her senior
year are what have made Chi Omega her home.
CAMPUS
Ombudsman
shares how
his role can
help students
By PAUL BROCK
Campus Writer
Auburn University has numerous offices
and organizations ready and willing to help
students with everything from interviews to
papers. However, not many students are aware
that there is a place they.can go for a problem
that almost everyone has to face: conflict.
"[Auburn] is a great diverse organization,
we have people from all walks of life, all sorts
of different personalities, different goals, and
people don't always see eye to eye," said Au­burn's
Ombudsman C. Kevin Coonrod.
Coonrod said his title of ombudsman is not
the most explanatory title, and therefore stu­dents
are often confused on how he can help
them.
"I'm here to help people work together well,"
Coonrod said.
Coonrod explained he often meets with stu­dents
and faculty to offer advice on how to
handle difficult situations.
» See OMBUDSMAN. 5
PARKING
» From 1
the campus core," King said. "It will yield a net
increase of roughly 400 spaces over the existing
surface parking in the south hotel lot."
The estimated $13.2 million, five-story parking
deck will have 575 spaces — an addition of 395
spaces over the existing surface parking lot to the
south of the hotel.
King announced that during construction, the
currently available 200 spaces where construc­tion
will take place will be unavailable during the
time of construction.
STUDENT ACT
» From 1
space managed by Student Affairs, King said.
"We have a lot of student events that are hav­ing
to go off campus and then they have to pay for
transportation," said Bobby Woodard, vice pres­ident
for Student Affairs. "This gives us a way to
go on campus that is a relatively cheap price over­all
and gives us an opportunity to increase our
student events and the space for student events."
In addition to the event space, the renova­tions
will include new athletic flooring in 19,600
square feet of the south portion of the building to
be used by the provost's office for physical educa­tion
and kinesiology courses as well as the wom­en's
volleyball team that uses the center as a prac­tice
facility.
"An Auburn University parking structure in
this location will significantly improve the park­ing
situation in the northeast portion of the cam­pus
core," King said. "It will yield a net increase
of roughly 400 spaces over the existing surface
parking in the south hotel lot."
The estimated $13.2 million, five-story park­ing
deck will have 575 spaces — an addition of
395 spaces over the existing surface parking lot
to the south of the hotel.
King announced that during construction, the
currently available 200 spaces where construc­tion
will take place will be unavailable during the
time of construction.
WHELESS
» From 1
and design last year at Auburn.
The online class communicat­ed
through the video chat program
Zoom. Wheless said the class learned
the basics of animation, starting with
how to make a ball bounce.
Wheless is planning to circle back
in the fall for his second course and
has a breakdown for a four-semes-ter-
long curriculum for students who
wish to continue learning animation.
The first semester will include sto­ry
development, an introduction to
digital tools, animation principles
and composition.
The final semesters will include
3D animation, one of Wheless' pas­sions.
"It's a curriculum that I am pas­sionate
about because at the end of
the day, it all comes down to putting
together a visual story," Wheless said.
"A story is an important foundation,
and that story is the character and the
character development."
Wheless said everything comes
into play when creating a story and
using the tools to do so. Animat­ing
from the heart, understanding
the forces around humans and visu­alizing
what you must say are all el­ements
of creating content one dan
hang their hat on.
The students used the program
MAYA for the curriculum. For
many, MAY A was overwhelming in
the beginning, but Wheless said they
got the hang of it over time.
"They came up around the curve
fairly quickly," Wheless said. "I total­ly
get that because I am your typical
2D animator that went to 3D. It was
a huge mountain for me to get over,
but once I did, it was easy."
When Wheless graduated from
Auburn, there were no computers
on the campus for students. He grad­uated
with a degree in illustration
and thought he was going to stay in
that realm.
He taught himself everything he
knows today.
"What I am trying to teach and the
business that we are in — the busi­ness
of creating movies and creating
games — it's a teamwork business,"
Wheless said. "You are going to work
in the highest artform where creative
and technical are thrown together,
but at the end of the day, you learn
your discipline, and you have to work
with other teams that know theirs."
Wheless compared this partic­ipation
to an orchestra; one violin
doesn't make the final sound. He said
this is one of the biggest lessons be­ginners
must Ieam.
As a CEO of a company, Wheless
said he hopes to train students on the
foundational aspects so they can go
straight into a job or internship after
receiving their degree.
The field of commercials, films,
games and virtual reality is growing
at a rapid speed, Wheless said, and
there will be a massive need for grad­uates
with the skills he is teaching.
"I always say, to be able to create
content in animation is the highest
artform one can do," Wheless said. "I
came from the pencil drawing to the
painting, into the 3D. We live in a
different world. It's only going to get
more visual."
CONTRIBUTED BY JAMY WHELESS
Alumnus Jamy Wheless' company has been invited to the Annecy Film Festival in France
for their work with "The Pig on the Hill."
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018 2Tf)t Auburn plainsman PAGE 5
Student leaders of the year named
CONTRIBUTED BY JORDAN CARR
JORDAN CARR
VIA INSTAGRAM
SYDNEY NICHOLAS
By STEPHEN LANZI
Campus Writer
In most cases, a rising junior studying me­chanical
engineering would think they had their
life all but figured out when they secured an in­ternship
with ExxonMobil. Jordan Carr found
himself in this situation a few years ago, but he
had no idea that by the end of his senior year, he
would find himself pursuing a career in invest­ment
banking.
After a friend invited him to a private infor­mation
session with a representative of Gold­man
Sachs, Carr started to reconsider what he
wanted to do. He went into the internship with
the mindset that if he didn't love engineering, he
would pursue investment banking.
Although he enjoyed the experience and peo­ple
at Exxon, Carr realized engineering wasn't
for him. On his return to Auburn, he decided to
keep the mechanical engineering major and pick
up a minor in finance.
"It was either I stick with someething that
I liked, and yes, I'd probably be happy there, or
do I risk it for something an Auburn kid hasn't
done in the past several years? And I'm engineer­ing.
I'm not the typical finance kid. And I have no
idea if I even have a shot against these Penn and
Harvard kids, but I really want to do this."
The story of Carr's transition to a radically
new career can't be told without telling a story of
his involvement on campus, which began with
as being elected president of his fraternity, Phi
Gamma Delta, his sophomore year.
The presidents of fraternities are typically
upperclassmen, so the experience taught Carr
many lessons for future endeavors.
"I grew up a lot during that and made a lot of
mistakes, but I think that's what you learn from,"
Carr said with a chuckle.
Carr's long list of involvement throughout his
time at Auburn also included serving as a trea
surer for IFC, a director of ODK, member of
SGA Elections Board and member of his frater­nity's
judicial board.
"That's when I started with the coffee," Can-said
pointing to his large iced Americano.
However, one of his prouder experiences at
Auburn has been getting involved with Finan­cial
Management Association, a growing student
organization meant to optimize finance students'
pursuit of their career.
FMA is where Carr had the realization that
finance was the career that he really wanted to
pursue. He found mentors in FMA, which Can-said
was key for him finding his feet.
FMA started at Auburn nearly three years
ago. According to Tracy Richard, faculty advi­sor
of FMA, there were many talented students
interested in a career in finance, but there was
no structure to help get them competitive in the
work force.
"Three and a half years ago, Auburn finance
grads would never really place at the top firms,"
Carr said. "Never. It was just out of the question.
And it wasn't because they couldn't. It was be­cause
they didn't have the resources, and they
didn't know what they had to do to get there. No
one was going into investment banking or pri­vate
equities, so how would they know about it?"
This past year, he decided to give back to the
organization that had given him so much, and
he was elected president of FMA. He was ecstat­ic
about being able to help form an organization
that was still in its infancy.
"That made it really fun — getting to apply
what I feel like I've learned from other things and
now getting to make such a substantial change,
hopefully, on the organization," Carr said.
Through passion and hard work and with
the aid of peers and advisors, Carr helped bring
the organization to new heights, which recently
won him the award for Male Student Leader of
the Year at the 2018 Involvement Awards.
Currently, FMA has about 75 of the top stu­dents
pursuing a career in finance. It graduates
about 20 students a year and plans to take in 20-
25 new students a year in the coming years so
that resources aren't spread too thin.
The average starting salary for graduates
of Auburn's [Harbert College of Business] is
$56,000, whereas FMA's graduates have an av­erage
starting salary of $94,600. This has risen
from $64,000 in FMA's first year.
In addition to creating a preparation program
specifically for investment banking and institut­ing
the inaugural Financial Leadership Summit,
Carr was pleased with the work of this year's ex­ecutive
board because it set the agenda as a struc­ture
that will breed success for years to come.
Carr is, of course, proud of the work he and
his team have done, but he said the buy in by the
advisors of the organization is necessary for the
success of an organization because of the conti­nuity
in the midst of transitions. He said all the
advisors he has gotten to know at Auburn have
been tremendously helpful.
"At some universities, it seems like it's a nega­tive
thing to be involved, but for me, I wouldn't
have had the entire student experience if I didn't
get involved, and I think involvement at Auburn
has radically changed my experience at Auburn,
but also what I want to do for the next for years
of my life and has taught me more than the class­room,"
Carr said.
This past summer, Carr had an internship
with an investment bank in Houston, which val­idated
his interest in his newfound career goals.
3y STEPHEN LANZI
Campus Writer.
Sydney Nicholas, a fourth-generation
Auburn student, was hesitant to come to
The Plains because she didn't want to be
seen as merely following in her family's
footsteps.
However, among other reasons, student
involvement allowed Nicholas to undoubt­edly
carve her own path.
Nicholas recently had this path recog­nized
as she was named Female Student
Leader of the Year at the 2018 Involvement
Awards for serving as the first president of
Emerge this past year.
After dropping a class in her first semes­ter
as a freshman, Nicholas began her long
relationship with involvement. She wanted
to fill her time with something that was just
as meaningful as class, so she joined Dance
Marathon.
As her involvement increased, Nicho­las
simultaneously grew as a person. As her
roles and responsibilities grew, she eventu­ally
became president of Dance Marathon
as a junior.
Nicholas said she loved her time as pres­ident
of Dance Marathon, but she decided
to step down to allow someone else to have
the same great experience she had as pres­ident.
At the time, she thought this would be
the end of her leadership in student orga­nizations,
and she would support from afar.
However, at the end of the semester,
Lady Cox, assistant vice president for Stu­dent
Affairs, approached Nicholas about a
new student organization that the Univer­sity
was developing.
Nicholas was never expecting Emerge
to be an option for her, but she decided to
pursue it because of the amazing goal be­hind
the organization.
"It was this idea that I learned so much
with Dance Marathon, and I learned so
much about Auburn leadership with oth­er
student leaders that I was like, 'How cool
would it be to set the foundation for all
these other programs if we can equip peo­ple
to be leaders," Nicholas said.
According to its website, Emerge is a
leadership journey that attempts to solve
problems on and off campus.
The mission is to create leaders on cam­pus
and for years to come outside of school.
[The organization] replaced Freshmen
Leadership Program.
Many of the lessons Nicholas learned
with Dance Marathon translated into what
she has done with Emerge. However, serv­ing
as president of a new organization pre­sented
different challenges than being pres­ident
of an already established organiza­tion.
"It seems like a natural transition from
being there and doing it to setting a cur­riculum
for how we, as Auburn men and
women, really think about leadership in the
early days," Nicholas said.
One of the most special takeaways from
the year is how the leaders of all the teams
formed the identity of an organization.
"We saw the strength of the Auburn
Family," Nicholas said. "In my memo­ry
it was like, 'We are going to beta test a
1,000-person program that nobody has
seen before.' I learned a lot about what it
means to be a part of Auburn's campus. I
think our students got to experience that
too, in terms of being on the forefront of
something that's different than what any
other university offers."
Nicholas said Emerge came about not be­cause
administration thought it would be a
good idea but because administration heard
feedback from students, which is represen­tative
of Nicholas' approach to leadership.
She said she has learned that the mark of
a good leader is to be able to listen.
The Emerge teams have seen their work
come to fruition this year with 34 individ­ual
projects. However, Nicholas is excited
to see how Emerge has given the skills to
students who will become leaders of the fu­ture.
Nicholas will be graduating next week
with a degree in global studies. As most
college graduates do, she will be continu­ing
the search for a job but will be getting
married to another Auburn graduate in the
coming summer.
She said she was thrilled with how
Emerge has developed over the year. She
is excited to see how her experiences with
student involvement wijl play a role in her
life and how other students will create their
own path.
"One day, who knows, the SGA presi­dent
could have been in Emerge," Nicholas
said. "The next founder of an on-campus
organization could have been in Emerge.
I'm really hopeful for when I come back to
Auburn in five years, I'm seeing students
who I may have not met but participated
in our program and having program alum­ni
out in the world killing it —killing the
game."
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OMBUDSMAN
» From 4
"I'm not there to tell them if they're do­ing
things wrong or right, I'm here to help
them think things through and figure out
how to do things," Coonrod said. "I'm not
a counselor, but I will do a lot of things
that a counselor does because I will listen.
I am an excellent sounding board. I can
empathize very well with people who are
going through a problem."
Coonrod not only works with people
individually but as a licensed mediator, he
often helps conflicting parties come to an
agreement.
"In mediation, you try to get people to
come together and understand each other
and gain respect for the perspectives that
they have," Coonrod said. "From there,
you can start talking about some cre­ative
ways to resolve whatever the issue
is. That's what I love about mediation —
it's up to them to et creative, but I'm there
to help them get started."
Coonrod said that everything said by
clients stays confidential if it is not deemed
threatening to the safety of others, and
even though he works for the University,
he will not inform administrators of vio­lations
a student may have committed un­less
they give him permission to do so.
"I'm here without any authority to tell
people what to do, so I don't have a dog
in the fight," Coonrod said. "I'm an objec­tive
third party, and so here is just this re­source
without any agenda. This is a place
where people can come and express them­selves
freely."
Coonrod said students are often intim­idated
about meeting a stranger in a suit
about serious matters, and he said he tries
to help them overcome this fear by getting
to know them personally.
"I can help them with anything they
have that's going on," Coonrod said. "I've
mediated roommates that aren't getting
along well, I have helped students prepare
to have a very difficult conversation with
their parents, I have worked with profes­sors
and students that aren't seeing eye to
eye."
Coonrod said that he has worked with
students who have academic dishones­ty
cases, and while he cannot represent or
speak for them during such cases, Coon­rod
said he can offer students advice on
how to handle their case.
"Be respectful, gather all of the facts,
prepare them in a cohesive succinct man­ner
that is not threatening yet will ap­peal
to the intelligence of the person that
they are speaking to," Coonrod said. "Go
there with a willingness to listen because
you might learn something. A lot of time
there are disagreements, there's confu­sion,
there's misunderstandings, and if
you can clear those things up, sometimes
the conflicts can end up evaporating."
Coonrod said there are simple steps
that anyone can take in resolving a dis­agreement
with someone else such as a
roommate.
"Take a deep breath and listen, really try
to understand the person and see if you
can see from their perspective why they
are angry," Coonrod said. "Maybe they've
got a point that you're not seeing."
"T - * - A
community 6
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018
FEATURE
THEPLAINSMAN.COM COMMUNITY
'The nose knows'
Police K- 9 Mark out-sniffs the competition, crime
By OLIVIA WILKES
Community Writer
At a command from Auburn Police K-9 Offi­cer
Luis Coreano, narcotics detection dog Mark
runs through the abandoned building from room
to room, nose inhaling furiously. Entering the clos­et
where a small pouch of powdered cocaine is hid­den
inside a boot for the training exercise, the near­ly
8-year-old Belgian Malinois slows his pace and
sniffs more carefully around the area. As his nose
passes over the boot, Mark suddenly sits and snaps
his head around to look at Coreano, alerting his
handler to the narcotic's presence.
"Good boy," Coreano praises his K-9 partner
and tosses him a tennis ball.
Mark and Coreano carry out narcotics searches
like this regularly on the streets of Auburn.
"Mark's an animal," Coreano said. "And 1 mean
animal as in, yeah, he's really high-drive. For being
his age, I've had him for three and a half years, and
he has not slowed down."
This past February, Mark and Coreano won the
Top Narcotics Dog award at the 22nd annual K-9
Seminar hosted by the Dothan Police Department,
beating out 43 other teams.
Tne seminar featured all aspects of police work,
including detection, tracking, narcotics, explosives
and trailing, and teams from many Southeastern
states competed
"They'll put on different venues, whether it be
detection, it could be warehouses, it could be cars, it
could be open area searches," Coreano said "They'll
just come up with different scenarios that are real-world
things that we would encounter or have en­countered
from experience on the street"
The seminar ended with a scramble in which
aids were hidden all over a large warehouse, and
the teams competed to find as many as possible in a
short period of time.
"It tests how good you can read your dog, how
good the team works together," Coreano said.
Being so in tune with each other was a big part
of Mark and Coreano's success.
"From the way he is, 1 can tell he's on odor be­fore
he even sits," Coreano said. "With Mark, I
could look at him, his posturing. I could also audi­bly
hear his sniffing.... Hell start sniffing, and then
hell start inhaling real hard."
This is the second time Coreano and Marie have
won the Dothan competition, the first time being
in 2016.
Coreano and Mark began their partnership in
September 2014 when the Auburn Police Divi-son
purchased the Malinois. Mark originally came
from overseas as a young dog, as many law enforce­ment
canines do, was trained at American K-9 in
Anniston and then worked as a contract dog in Af­ghanistan
for a time before coming to Aubum.
"We were real lucky to get him," Coreano said.
The breed is used by law enforcement and mili­tary
around the world. Navy SEALS utilized a Bel­gian
Malinois in the operation in which Osama bin
Laden was killed
Coreano has been with the police force since
2001. He became a K-9 officer 12 years ago and
hasn't looked back.
"Honestly, this is one of the big reasons why I
have not moved up, because I want a dog," he said.
"IU stay 25 years in patrol as long as I'm a handler."
Mark is almost always by Coreano's side, wheth­er
at home or on the streets. Their day begins ear­ly.
Coreano rises at 3:30 a.m., and lets Mark out of
his kennel where he stays at Coreano's house when
he's off duty.
"First thing do is 111 let him out, give him a
break," Coreano said. "And he comes in, and he
eats. 1 like to feed him at least an hour, hour and a
half before a shift begins."
The routine is so down pat that Mark gets ex­cited
when he sees Coreano suiting up for work
"If I'm suited up, and I leave, he gets upset,"
Coreano said.
The two begin their shift at 5 a.m. Coreano tries
to set up a training exercise for Mark at the begin­ning
of the day. After that, they'll do traffic enforce­ment
or be available for narcotics work if needed
"It's just something about having that canine
partner with you all the time," the handler said "It's
awesome.... I have no doubt in my mind that if
needed, Mark would come defend me."
Mark is trained to find narcotics through a stim­ulus,
response and reward training method
"The stimulus is the odor, the response is the
sit or the scratch and then the reward is the ball,"
Coreano said. "In their training, they pair the odor,
whatever the target odor is, with the reward, and
for my dog and many of them, it's as easy as a ten­nis
ball."
While Mark wears a choke chain for discipline
training, he sports a flat collar when he's searching.
Mark distinguishes between the two and knows
that when he's wearing the flat collar it's time to
search.
"The reason for the flat collar is it doesn't put any
stress on his neck like a choke chain would, so if he's
pulling me because he's on odor, he's not being cor­rected,"
Coreano said. "The chain's not cinching on
him.... So he knows he's not being snatched from
something, so it gives him all the drive to move for­ward."
When he's at home, Mark is restricted to a large
spacious kennel with his water bowl and no toys.
Coreano takes him out every so often to exercise,
play or do obedience training with him.
"It simulates, "You come out of the car. now it's
playtime,"' Coreano said. "They learn to pair that
stuff. So he's at rest, comes out, he knows he's go­ing
to work, he's going to get rewarded, then time
to calm down, put back inside and rest"
A police canine can't have access to toys when­ever
he wants, Coreano said, as hell have no moti­vation
to work for them.
"A lot of people, they don't understand that.
Training Fifi at home is not the same as training
a military working dog, is not the same as training
a police working dog," Coreano said. "They're not
given the freedoms that normal dogs are, so they're
not pets. And there's a good reason for that — be­cause
it kills the drive."
Mark gets to play with his favorite reward, the
tennis ball, stricdy after a search.
"We don't come to work for nothing," Coreano
said. "It's the same thing with the dog. He does his
job, he expects to be paid. And then you pay him,
and then he's going to want to do that later on."
During search exercises, Coreano typically uses
actual drugs as the aids, so Mark will be trained on
authentic odors. He also trains Mark in different
settings, such as a parking lot or warehouse. In ad­dition,
he hides the aides in a variety of locations
and at different heights, such as in the bumper, grill
and hood of a car, to train Mark for the myriad
smuggling spots drug traffickers will use.
"Just like the drug cartel, the traffickers, they
come up with all different kinds of ways of smug-
» See MARK, 7
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OLIVIA WILKES / COMMUNITY WRITER
Auburn Police Officer Luis Coreano and K;9 Mark in front of their new police vehicle on April 16,2018.
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THURSDAY, APRIL26,2018 ftfje Auburn $latnSman PAGE 7 r
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LILY JACKSON / MANAGING EDITOR
Members of the Cowboy Church greet each other on April 22,2018, iri Waverly, Ala.
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SPOTLIGHT
LILY JACKSON / MANAGING EDITOR
Members of The Cowboy ChUrch greet each other on April 22,2018, in Waverly, Ala. Roped in
Lee County's cowboy church and
its mission of acceptance
from first meeting out in a barn. Once they began
to grow, they constructed the start of what they
now worship in. With help from those abie and
willing in the congregation, the church found a
sliver of land for the church services and are cur­rently
working toward an arena addition down
the hill. Stickland said the arena will be a place for
activity and events.
At the end of the service, two young men in
faded jeans, boots and hats practice their roping
to the side of the stage. The target is a multi-col­ored,
wooden mock up of a cow.
Cain Mitchell, 19, has grown up in cowboy
church. He said his uniformed friends joke about
whether they ride their horses to church on Sun­day
morning. To Mitchell, it's a place where he
can be who he is without the expectations.
Before moving to Opelika, Mitchell's fami­ly
started a Cowboy Church in north Alabama.
The atmosphere is exactly what he has always
wanted, he said. Mitchell is a team roper, but he
said anyone can come to the church and feel wel­comed.
"We don't have Cowboy Church so we can
all dress up cowboy. It's for the people that go to
church and aren't exactly accepted for who they
are," Mitchell said. "We accept them here. We
love them here."
Ed Allen has felt the love and support. Gath­ered
up around a hay bale, Allen said they found
a home when The Cowboy Church was founded.
Seven years ago this April, the Aliens were
hit by a storm that took out their entire neigh­borhood.
They had overwhelming support
from The Cowboy Church and others, as over
250 people cameto their need and assisted in the
clean-up process.
"I was in awe and amazement of how the good
Lord worked through these people," Allen said.
"1 saw the friendship, the camaraderie and the
willingness to help and serve. I felt like it was the
place to be a part of."
Just to the left of the stage sits an off-kilter cart
and directly across is the aluminum stock tank
where baptisms take place. A ring of barbed wire
hangs directly above it and the preacher stands
smack-dab in the middle of the stage behind a
lectern adorned with a horseshoe cross.
Strickland's sermon jumps from Hebrews to
Exodus, as he moves back and forth in the pul­pit.
Pages rustle as those listening flip to find the
verses he's referencing. His handlebar mustache
dances as his voice carries to the very back of
the hall where the first member of the church,
Smith's father, sits in a cozy armchair.
Strickland is new to the Lee County church.
He was raised in the cowboy culture, and his pas­sion
rests in tearing down boundaries that keep
people from worship.
"The heart of [The Cowboy Church] is a
very simple, non-judgemental approach to try­ing
to reach a culture of people with the gospel
of Christ," Strickland said. "We let people know
that no matter who you are or where you are or
what you have been into, just come on."
MARK
» From 6
gling," said Coreano. "And when the dog
defeats that — because you can't defeat his
nose — when the dogs finds it, it's just like,
yes! Can't fool the dog. The nose knows."
For Mark, searching for drugs is like a
game. He is extremely high energy, loves
to play and be petted and typically wants
to "blow out the door" of the patrol car,
Coreano said. When he's not sniffing
for narcotics, Mark's eyes are glued to
Coreano.
"He is so affectionate," Coreano said of
Mark. "He loves the attention."
Coreano is not only a handler, but a cer­tified
trainer as well, and he has trained
both young dogs and new canine officers.
Coreano developed a greater understand­ing
of training and said he learned a lot
through teaching other people..
"When I became a trainer, I realized
how jacked up I was," Coreano said with a
laugh. "It's like, ah, that's why this is hap­pening.
I'm causing the problem."
Coreano has seen handlers get frustrated
when they can't control their dog. Coreano
said understanding a dog's nature, setting
the dog up for success and maintaining a
ritual and routine that the dog is used to
are important when training.
"It's not a rifle where you pick it up, and
you point, and you shoot," Coreano once
told a student of his. "It's an animal, so
you've got to understand that."
For Coreano, it's gratifying to see offi­cers
he trained do well.
"It's especially been rewarding to see
the students that I trained and the dogs
become successful," he said. "These guys
are sending me texts and sending me pic­tures
of the stuff they're doing. ... That's
rewarding to me."
Coreano said there's definitely a bond
within the K-9 team, and there comes
a moment when handler and dog start
clicking. It's clear that Mark and Coreano
have achieved that moment.
As Mark mouths his well-earned tennis
ball after successfully sniffing out the co­caine
aide, Coreano said again he would
be a K-9 officer his whole career and not
worry about getting promoted.
"I've done the SWAT thing, I was a
sniper, a motorcycle officer, I've worked
undercover narcotics, but being a dog
handler, it's fantastic," he said. "I just want
to supervise one person — or one being —
and that's him."
OLIVIA WILKES / COMMUNITY WRITER
K-9 Mark in the back seat of the team's police ve
hide outfitted with a special crate for him to ride in
on April 16,2018.
By LILY JACKSON
Managing Editor
The Cowboy Church of Lee County — plain
and simple — is a church for cowboys.
Sitting just off Highway 280, its congregation
leisurely makes its way from the dirt and grav­el
parking lot, through the double doors to a bar
with donuts and coffee.
Leather Bibles in-hand, smiling men tip their
hats in greeting. Each grabs one of the black fold­ing
chairs facing the unfinished pine stage and
wait for the worship to begin.
One of those men is Bo Smith, the student pas­tor.
Smith towers over most of the congregation,
tall and full of passion for his church. His father,
the first member of the church, hadn t always be­lieved.
Smith prayed for his father to be saved,
and one day, his father came to him with a prop­osition
of sorts.
"If a cowboy church ever comes around here, I
might actually go to it," he said.
Smith prayed for a cowboy church, and three
years later, Gary, the founding pastor of the
church showed up on the Smith's farm looking
for a place to stay while he founded the church.
The church started right there on the Smith's
family farm.
Smith has been to many other churches,
working with youth and fostering relationships
around the community but has found a home at
The Cowboy Church. For many members, The
Cowboy Church is the only place of worship
they'd consider stepping a boot in.
Smith said there is no unrealistic expectations
saddling the men and women who step foot in
the barn-like worship center.
They can come with their trailers still hooked
to their trucks and no one will bat an eye.
"It's acceptable," Smith said. "It's normal for
this group of people."
The stage mocks the front of an old pine
home — something out of a Lincoln Logs cata­log
— with a rigid tin awning, a faded emerald
green chair and three or four strategically placed
Stetsons. The centerpiece of the stage is the dark
shadow of a cowboy, peeking through what
would be the front door.
The pastor, Jim Strickland, opens up with an­nouncements
of the Boston-Butt sale and the La­dies'
Bible Study. Requesting another round of
applause for the worship team, Strickland leads
the congregation to crack their Bibles and jump
into the scripture.
The worship team unplugs — a young man on
bass and the lead on acoustic guitar.
"I may do an Alabama song or Randy Travis
or George Jones or something like that — some­thing
people can walk in and relate to," said Da­vid
Slocum, worship leader. "The music is differ­ent.
The atmosphere is different."
In his creme-colored cowboy hat and boots,
Slocum led the singing oPHow Great Thou Art,"
as the teen to his left picked at the bass' strings.
Slocum said the church has come a long way
THEPLAINSMAN.COM
8
SPORTS
sports
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018
BASKETBALL
Upgrades coming to Auburn Arena
The University Board of Trustees approved a $3 million renovation to the eight-year home of the Tigers
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Auburn student section during Auburn Basketball vs. Vanderbilt on Feb. 3,2018.
By NATHAN KING
Assistant Sports Editor
Auburn Arena, Auburn basketball's home court,
will be receiving a S3 million renovation, approved by
the University's Board of Trustees on Apr. 20.
The plans focus primarily on locker room enhance­ment,
intending to add a new locker room entrance,
locker room, lounge and team space for men's basket­ball.
The women's team is set to receive a new locker
room entrance.
Both squads will be beneficiaries of6,700 square feet
of general arena enhancements.
A combination of gifts and Athletic Department
funds are set to cover the budget of the project, which
is expected to be completed by October 2019 after
starting in April 2019.
"The Auburn Family is a passionate group dem­onstrated
by its generous philanthropy in support of
these capital projects," Auburn Athletic Director Allen
Greene said in a statement, "f applaud President [Ste­ven]
Leath and the Board of Trustees for their unwav­ering
commitment to invest in the holistic experience
of our student-athletes. The linchpin to sustained suc­cess
is the constant improvement of our physical foot­print,
including facility upgrades and new construc­tion.
"Broadly speaking, our student-athletes deserve to
train in world-class facilities, and our fans expect a
'best-in-class' game-day experience.
"As we raise the bar within our conference and be­yond,
our journey to create and execute a facilities
master plan that excites the Auburn fan base is un­equivocally
in motion."
A combination of gifts and Athletic Department
funds are set to cover the budget of the project, which
is expected to be completed by October 2019 after
starting in April 2019.
BASEBALL
\
12
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Steven Williams (41) celebrates his home run with his teammates at Auburn baseball vs. Samford on Tuesday, April 24,2018, in Auburn. Ala.
Win streak runs to six as Tigers down Samford
By ZACHARY PIKE
Sports Writer
Auburn's offense has been putting up some big numbers over
the past six games.
No. 22 Auburn defeated Samford 7-2 Tuesday night at Plains­man
Park. The Tigers improved to 30-12 on the season and have
won seven of their last eight games.
The Tigers offense was led by freshman outfielder Steven
Williams. Williams was honored Monday by the conference as
SEC Co-Freshman of the Week for the first time in his young
career.
Williams stayed locked in as he put together another huge
night at the plate, going 4 for 4 with a two-run home run, a dou­ble
and two singles.
He now has 10 hits in his last 14 plate appearances with two
home runs and 10 RBI.
"I'm just seeing the ball really well right now," Williams said.
"It looks like a beach ball, I just think I have my timing down
now."
Williams stayed locked in as he put together another huge
night at the plate, going 4 for 4 with a two-run home run, a dou­ble
and two singles. He now has 10 hits in his last 14 plate ap­pearances
with two home runs and 10 RBI.
"(Williams) picked up right where he left off," said Auburn
head coach Butch Thompson. "I thought every at-bat was pro­fessional
and solid. I've never seen him get too high or too low.
He just has a high level of maturity at such a young age. He has
exceeded my expectations."
Freshman pitcher Jack Owen was strong on the mound for
the Tigers, pitching a career-high 5.1 innings and giving up two
runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Owen started the first game
against Samford earlier this season and had much better results
this time out.
"Jack Owen gets the opportunity to go back out there and
pitch," Thompson said. "He's a growing, developing pitcher and
I was looking for him to put it all together. We extended him to­night
and it was the longest outing of his career."
Elliot Anderson relieved Owen in the fifth and pitched 3.2 in­nings,
earning his first career save for the Tigers.
Anderson did not allow a run, while giving up three hits and
striking out four.
"That's the second week in a row that Elliot Anderson has
pitched tremendously for us," Thompson said.
Auburn will look to continue its recent hot streak offensively
in Gainsville, Florida, on Thursday to take on No. 1 Florida for
a three-game series.
Two of the nation's best pitchers will go head-to-head Thurs­day
night as Casey Mize and Brady Singer will battle on the
mound. Thursday's game is set for 6 p.m. CST and will be tele­vised
by ESPNU.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Bruce Pearl, Auburn moving towards new contract
J
By TYLER ROUSH
Sports Reporter
Auburn is looking to keep Bruce Pearl on
The Plains.
Pearl and athletic director Allen Greene
have been moving forward with "ongoing"
contract negotiations, Auburn Undercover's
Brandon Marcello reported Tuesday eve­ning.
Currently, Pearl is the seventh-high­est
paid coach in the SEC.
"Bruce is our coach and our responsibil­ity
is to support him, his staff and his stu-dent-
athletes," Greene said. "We want to
experience what we experienced last year
on a consistent basis. I think in order to do
that we have to have consistency in the head
coaching position."
As Auburn's fourth-year head coach,
Pearl guided his team to the school's first
regular season-championship since 1999,
its third overall, and its second-most wins
with 26.
"[Pearl] and I talk all the time about the
future of the men's basketball program and
our responsibility is to be able to support
them, to make sure that what we experi­enced
this past year, we experience again,"
Greene said.
With a contract that is set to expire in
2020, Pearl's future at the University has
been speculated since associate head coach
Chuck Person's arrest on federal bribery and
fraud charges. Person, who is a former play­er
at the school, is accused of giving money
to Danjel Purifoy and Austin Wiley in order
to push them toward NBA agents.
For most of the season, Pearl maintained
his refusal to discuss the program until the
end of the season. In March, where Pearl's
squad reached the second round of the
NCAA Tournament, both university pres­ident
Steven Leath and Greene voiced their
support of the head coach.
"Again, there are so many things that go
on behind the scenes that he knows I'm here
to support him and I think that really, real­ly
helps with his ability to go out and recruit
and help build this program on a national
level," Greene said.
JOSHUA FISHER / PHOTOGRAPHER
Bruce Pearl smiles during a post-game interview on Sat, Jan. 27,2018.
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018 &t)t Auburn $latnsman PAGE 9 ,f~
FOOTBALL
Martin would be starting RB if Auburn 'played today'
By NATHAN KING
Assistant Sports Editor
Gus Malzahn's signature flywheel of tailbacks has produced
a leader at the end of spring football season.
Rising junior Kam Martin would be position coach Tim
Horton's running back of choice if Auburn's season started
today, Horton said on Apr. 19 before the Jackson County Au­burn
Club meeting in Scottsboro, Alabama.
Martin was the team's No. 3 back in 2017 behind former
Tigers Kerryon Johnson and Kamryn Pettway.
The Texan saw action in 11 of Auburn's 14 games, rushing
for 453 yards and three total touchdowns, including a 136-
yard performance in a season-opening victory over Georgia
Southern.
"(Martin) would be the first one to go out on the field,"
Horton told SEC Country's Justin Ferguson. "Obviously, we
don't play today, and so is he going to start against Washing­ton?
That kind of remains to be seen. But Kam would be first-team
if we played today."
The former four-star athlete was recruited as a speedster
who was expected to make plays running side-to-side.
Despite his 5-foot-10, 182-pound stature, Martin's 6.7
yards per carry average through two seasons displayed to Hor­ton
that he is capable of being a back that can run through the
tackles as well.
And although Horton said the running back has "probably
gained 20 to 25 pounds since arriving on campus," the coach
remains skeptical of Martin's ability to play every down.
"The one thing that I do know about the running backs
that we've had in the past is they've all been 210 pounds, 215
pounds," Horton said. "Well, Kam Martin is 195 ... As the
coach, you've got to play your best guy, and so hopefully this
will be a year we can keep people healthy and play two or
three or four guys. I sure hope so."
Johnson's departure will be the biggest void to fill for offen­sive
coordinator Chip Lindsey's offense, as the 2017 AP SEC
Offensive Player of the Year accounted for nearly 46 percent
of the Tigers' rushing output last season.
Martin is joined by just one true backup tailback from last
season: fellow junior Malik Miller, who ran for 135 yards in
Auburn's 10-4 campaign.
Sophomore Devan Barrett will be back but might not be ex­clusive
to the backfield, as Malzahn utilized the Tampa, Flori­da,
product as a wideout-running back hybrid in Auburn's A-Day
spring game.
At A-Day, Martin didn't see the field due to a hamstring in­jury,
leaving Miller as the assumed No. 1 back. He carried the
ball three times for one yard.
"About the eighth or ninth play of the scrimmage, Malik
Miller dings his knee," Horton said. "But again, that's just an­other
situation and another case of you better have depth be­cause
you can go from five to three in a hurry."
Martin's injury opened the door for increased carries from
redshirt freshman JaTarvious Whitlow and true freshman
Asa Martin, along with junior walk-on C.J. Tolbert.
The trio made the most of the spotlight.
"Boobee" Whitlow ran for 98 yards on 14 carries, and Asa
Martin racked up 66 yards on 17 attempts. Tolbert went on
to win Offensive MVP for the scrimmage behind a 137-yard,
two-touchdown performance.
When Miller returns, Horton will have a five-deep group,
all of whom have flashed potential in their brief appearances.
The unit will be rounded this summer when four-stars Shaun
Shivers and Harold Joiner arrive.
Horton has a few months to sort out the redshirts and logis­tics
of that seven-deep rotation. But if he had to lace them up
today, he would have a plan.
"If we had to play today, it would probably be situation­al
football," Horton said. "There's one guy that's probably a
better pass protector, there's one guy who is probably a bet­ter
runner, there's one guy who might be a better pass re­ceiver
out of the backfield. It would be very situational in the
sense that whatever the down and the distance and the situ­ation
dictates."
FILE PHOTO
Kam Martin (9) runs the ball,in the second half during Auburn vs. ULM on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Auburn, Ala.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2018 (Efjc Auburn $latnsman
j
PAGE 10
FACILITIES
Trustees approve upgrades for baseball, softball
By NATHAN KING
Assistant Sports Editor
Diamond sports on The Plains is set to receive some elabo­rate
upgrades soon.
The Auburn Board of Trustees Property and Facilities Com­mittee
approved final project plans on Apr. 23 for both Jane B.
Moore Field and Plainsman Park. The projects were approved
later in the morning by the University's Board of Trustees.
The facilities for softball and baseball were both approved as
10,000-square-foot, indoor buildings beyond the outfield along
the first base lines of the ball parks. Both projects hold a $4 mil­lion
budget and a completion date aimed for fall 2019.
The budget is to be funded by a combination of gifts and Ath­letic
Department funds.
The softball complex plans include an indoor infield, along
with retractable nets to create batting tunnels when the infield
is not in use. Amenities for the Plainsman Park upgrade include
indoor batting tunnels and player evaluation spaces.
Both plans contain restrooms for athletes and coaches.
"The indoor facility is going to have a huge impact," Auburn
softball head coach Mickey Dean said in a statement. "It gives
us the ability to work on things when it's cold, when it's rain­ing.
It's also a place student-athletes can go if they want to work
on their own."
Auburn softball played its first full season and dedicated the
ballpark to the Jane B. Moore name in 2003. Since then, the Ti­gers
have captured a pair of SEC titles and have been selected
to 12 NCAA Regionals, three Super Regionals and two College
World Series.
The complex has a current capacity of 2,316.
Plainsman Park has been the home field of Tiger baseball for
the past 67 years and has a current capacity of 4,096. In 1998,
renovations transformed the ballpark into an MLB-like venue,
adding the brick backstop of Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), the
dark green chairback seats of Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)
and the Green Monster of Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox).
Prior to the 2003 season, Plainsman Park was named the na­tion's
best college venue by Baseball America. Last year, a 24'0"
x 62'4" video board was added, one of the largest in the nation.
"We've been blessed in the first two years with the field ren­ovation,
the lights, scoreboard and seats," baseball head coach
Butch Thompson said in a statement. "This is our next big step,
and it's a step in the direction of player development. It will im­prove
our workspace, especially in inclement weather, allow­ing
us to hit inside.
"It's a player development investment that will benefit every
player in our program."
In 2013 and 2014, former Auburn Ail-American Tim Hudson
donated $1 million to the University to upgrade the complex's
clubhouse, locker room, equipment room and athletic training
room.
The donation also added new coach's offices, meeting rooms
and an alumni room.
Auburn renamed the stadium Samford Stadium-Hitchcock
Field at Plainsman Park in May 2003 after longtime Auburn
Trustee W.James "Jimmy" Samford, Jr.
The Tigers boast six conference titles, 20 NCAA Tournament
appearances and four College World Series seasons in their 85-
year history.
BASEBALL
How sweep it is: Tigers throttle Tide in historic fashion
By NATHAN KING
Assistant Sports Editor
Freshmen Tanner Burns and Cody Green-hill
controlled the Tide from the mound and
the Tiger bats totaled 44 runs over the weekend
as Auburn baseball completed a doubleheader
series sweep Saturday, winning two games 5-0
and 20-5, taking the series in Tuscaloosa for the
first time since 2004 and sweeping Alabama on
the road for the first time since 1976.
After failing to pick up offensive steam in re­cent
SEC play, Auburn held a 19-hit clinic in
Game 3, scoring the most points on the Crim­son
Tide in the history of the series and the
most in a series in program history.
The Tigers arrived in Tuscaloosa batting
. 199 in conference play and will leave it at .236.
"All three games, that was about as com­plete
as we've been and as business-like as I've
seen our guys on the road," Auburn head coach
Butch Thompson said. "We made a big deal
about being 1-5 on the road. Pitching wise,
our at-bats, even as things were getting out of
hand, we stayed locked in. It was a very com­plete
weekend for us. Hopefully, we can keep
competing hard and stay focused."
In Game 2 - the first game of the double-header
- Burns (3-4) struck out seven, allow­ing
just four hits. His reliever, Greenhill, struck
out four in only two innings of Auburn's first
shutout of the Tide since 1990 and the first in
T uscaloosa since 1980.
Steven Williams and Brett Wright provid­ed
just enough offense for the Tigers, turning
in two hits and two RBI each. Wright's forced
walk pushed Luke Jarvis across for the game's
first run in the third inning after Jarvis singled
for the game's first hit.
Auburn fought off a two-out jam two in­nings
later, starting with Will Holland's single
and wild-pitch move to second. Williams then
knocked in an RBI single to score the leadoff
batter.
An error by Alabama's Joe Breaux pushed
the lead to 3-0, as the centerfielder slipped try­ing
to haul in a pop-fly from Wright, scoring
Williams all the way from first. A forced walk
from freshman Eduoard Julien in the seventh
and an insurance single from Williams in the
ninth topped off the scoreboard at 5-0.
Thompson said earlier in the week that he
was planning on pulling sophomore Davis
Daniel from the Sunday starting role on the
mound, but he neglected to name a replace­ment.
Senior lefty Andrew Mitchell apparent­ly
fit the bill, as the New Orleans product start­ed
Game 3 against the Tide, pitching 4.1 in­nings
with two hits, two runs, four walks and
six strikeouts before being relieved by Calvin
Coker.
Coker was quickly yanked in favor of Daniel
after allowing a trio of quick hits from the Tide,
who cut Auburn's deficit to 8-4 in the fifth.
Daniel (3-3) closed out the series with two hits,
one run and three Ks.
"Man, that was good," Thompson said of
his closer. "He was just trying to get better this
weekend, and I thought he did."
In the third inning, Auburn opened up
Game 3 scoring with a Josh Anthony two-RBI
double, followed by a sacrifice fly from Wil­liams.
Anthony homered, Jarvis doubled and
Williams singled in the next inning to widen
the lead to 8-0.
Auburn went for the jugular in an 11-run,
statement eighth inning. Julien led off with an
RBI single, followed by a two-RBI single from
Conor Davis. Three straight forced walks from
Jarvis, Holland and Williams set the table for
Wright, who brought in two more runs with a
single to right center.
Julien came back to garnish the bloodbath
with a three-run homer, his ninth of 2018. His
hit notched 44 runs in the series for Auburn,
four more than Alabama has tallied at home in
SEC play all season.
Auburn's 15-run win broke the record for
largest margin of victory in the series' history,
which was tied in Game 1 with the team's 14-
run gap.
The Tigers will head to Gainesville, Florida,
for a three-game series with the No. 1 Gators.
Florida ace Brady Singer and top MLB prospect
Casey Mize are set to duel in Game 1 at 6 p.m.
CST Thursday.
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Edouard Julien (10) celebrates a home run with Luke Jarvis (9) during Auburn baseball vs. Missouri at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Ala. on Friday, March 30,2018.
BASEBALL
Williams named SEC
Freshman of the Week
By WILL SAHLIE
Sports Editor
After helping lead Auburn to its first sweep of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa in 1976, Steven Williams was honored by the SEC
on Monday as he was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week.
South Carolina's Logan Chapman was recognized by the con­ference
along with Williams.
In Auburn's perfect week versus UAB and Alabama, Williams
racked up a .462 batting average, while reaching base at least
twice in each game. He also tallied eight runs scored in the four
games.
In Tuscaloosa, the Albany, Georgia, native went 6-for-10 in
the three games and reached base 12 times. He scored seven of
Auburn's 44 runs in the series and racked up eight RBI in the
three-game set.
Williams, who is hitting .331 in his freshman season on The
Plains, has driven in two or more runs in a game a team-best 13
times this season. He is tied for first in the SEC with teammate
Edouard Julien in RBI among freshmen.
Williams, who leads the Tigers with 51 hits this season, has
started in 41 of Auburn's 42 games this season. He is second on
the team with eight home runs and tied for first in RBI with 40.
Auburn will begin a series at No. 1 Florida on Thursday.
•••
• •' •' ' Come Home tor the • ' W' Summer and take a
Class at NW-SCC!
How do I get started?
Appiyonlineatnwscc.edu
©Have your transient letter
to admissions@nwscc.edu
©Talk with a NW-SCC advisor
by calling 256-331-5221 or
email idvising@nwscc.edu
Northwest-Shoals
C o m m u n i t y C t l i t p Summer classes begin May 29 • 256.331.5200
lifestyle 11
THURSDAY, APRIL 26,2018 THEPLAINSMAN.COM LIFESTYLE
SPOTLIGHT
CAMERON BRASHER/PHOTOGRAPHER
Occupying what used to be an abandoned grocery store in downtown Opelika, Cyber Zone Arcade and Laser Tag serves as a hub for anyone wanting to scratch that arcade itch.
CyberZone keeps the fun of arcade gaming alive
By PRICE EVERETT
Lifestyle Writer
Neon lights, music, sound effects and laughter are what greet
people entering CyberZone.
Occupying what used to be an abandoned grocery store in down­town
Opelika, CyberZone Arcade and Laser Tag serves as a hub for
anyone wanting to scratch that arcade itch.
CyberZone features all the most modern arcade games, from
Doodle Jump, The Walking Dead and Giant Tetris to standards
like ski-ball, air hockey and arcade basketball.
They even have a separate room, which has classic arcade games
like Street Fighter II, Galega and Rampage.
Open in Opelika since June 2013, CyberZone is a corporation of
arcades that originally started in Tennessee in 2005.
"We moved to the area in 2009 and basically looked for a few
years for a location," Director Simon Bak said. "We weren't sure
whether we were going to go with Auburn or Opelika, it being a
dual city. We finally found this location. It used to be a grocery store,
and it had the square footage we needed."
"I was a Disney cast member for eight years, and I went to col­lege
in Orlando at UCF," Bak said when asked about what prompt­ed
him and his partners to start an arcade business. "Working at
Disney, I got to be an Imagineers intern working on Space Moun­tain.
Space Mountain used to have a giant arcade, Starcade Arcade,
and people would go crazy in there. I mean you're in Walt Disney
World, but you're playing Daytona USA. I realized that these small
square footage machines are quite magical, it immerses you in an
environment."
His love for arcades dates to his own childhood.
"I grew up in the '80s, and arcades were a dime a dozen when I
was younger. It all comes from there."
"We try and make sure that any time there's a new title coming
out, we go for it. We're one of the largest arcades in the area, prob­ably
in the state."
Most gaming today is done at home on either a personal com­puter
or a home console, but Bak thinks there is something differ­ent
about the arcade experience.
"You kind of lean into the cabinet, and you're kind of enclosed
in this area," Bak said. "It doesn't feel the same on the computer. It's
something about the sound and everything around you. The games
are more immersive."
Bak also mentioned how in today's world, players want some­thing
more quickly.
"Redemption style games [are] a big deal, where you win tick­ets
to get prizes," Bak said. "People are looking for a quick swipe the
card, hit a button and something happens. A lot of these games are
designed for very quick, spontaneous rewards."
The classic game section, or Retrocade, is tucked off into the right
area of the building and sees a lot of traffic from classic game enthu­siasts
and parents wanting to revel in the nostalgia of games like
Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
This section is often curated to maximize the value of trends.
Thanks to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new film adaptation of
Rampage and other nostalgia-heavy tides like Ready Player One
hitting theaters this year, there's been a large upswing in interest in
these classic titles, according to Bak.
"You see 7-year-olds playing Rampage, and you think, 'Man,
that's a game from 1983,™ Bak said. "I think this new era of retro
type of nostalgia is coming back. We're hitting the nostalgia but­tons
on people. It can be fuller than the main room on weekends.
It's all still 25 cents."
The other main service provided by CyberZone is laser tag. Fea­turing
two teams all equipped with laser rifles, the games can be
set up in a variety of ways that mirrors many modern first-person
shooters like Call of Duty and Halo.
"It's 6,200 square feet of actual play area, which is huge for laser
tag," Bak said. "Most laser tags are half that size. It's always been a
major component for us."
While the entire package itself seems fitting for both parents and
children, Bak said it's also a great destination for college students.
"We didn't know this was going to happen, but we became a date
destination," Bak said. "We don't sell alcohol, so we get a lot of col­lege
students who want to get away from the bar scene. A lot are re­ally
interested in retro tech who will just hang out in the Retrocade."
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Maja Dunes performs at the Avondale Bar and Tap Room in Auburn, Ala. on Friday, Jan. 13,2018.
Avondale supporting local
music through live shows
By ALEX HOSEY
Lifestyle Editor
Avondale has hosted live bands since
the summer of 2015 when the owner, Har­dy
Gilbert, booked The Whitey Herzogs, a
group of Gilbert's old friends, to play in the
second story cocktail bar.
In the three years since then, Avondale
has become known as the place in Auburn
that supports local musicians and features
original music.
Despite that reputation, social manager
Holly Daniel said that Avondale doesn't con­sider
itself to be a music venue.
"We're not really built for it. We don't
have a stage, and the acoustics are insane­ly
loud," Daniel said. "With that being said,
there is a particular genre of music we like,
that is led by Hardy's tastes. So we will let the
right people in at the right time."
If this last year's showings have been any
indication, the owner's tastes include lo­cal
indie rock artists either from Auburn or
from somewhere in Alabama. Recent bands
to pass through the bar include Lady Legs,
Cherry Motel, Dogwood Lung and Maja
Dunes, to name a few.
"All of the bands that come through orig­inated
in Alabama, and we have a love and
appreciation for the hard work these origi­nal
acts put into their craft," Daniel said. "By
allowing certain bands to play in our space,
we believe we're keeping a certain genre and
vibe alive. And just like with any event for
most places, hosting shows definitely brings
in more people than normally would be
there."
Though Daniel didn't go into the specifics
of profit margins on the nights bands play,
judging by the crowd that these bands gen­erate,
the relationship between the bands
and the bar is a good one.
The community turnout on these nights
can be seen clogging up the backdoor alley­way
and the throngs gathered at the cocktail
bar waiting to get a drink.
Upcoming shows at Avondale include the
return of the band that started it all.
The Whitey Herzogs, now under the
name AM Gold, are booked to play at the
upstairs bar on Saturday, April 28.
As far as the general future of music at
Avondale goes, Daniel said they plan to keep
it somewhat exclusive.
"You have to have the right sound and the
right vibe," Daniel said. "But we will always
maintain a positive relationship with these
musicians because we care about the work
they're doing."
check-out
charity
STUDENT AFFAIRS
SPOTLIGHT
Donate your items to Check-Out for Charity!
Register for an appointment April 16-27 with
one of our community partners and we'll pick it
up for you! Drop off starts April 30. Look
for the tents!
For more information please visit
aub.ie/CoFCdonations or call 334-844-4477.
AUB RN
CARES
CAMPUS KITCNCM' itMWM
UttVERSOT
Habitat lor Humanity
ReStore
&
AUBURN
U N I V E R S I T Y
STUDENT AFFAIRS
auburn.edu/StudentAffairs
H facebook.com/AuburnStudent
JJ ©AubumStudents
[pjl auburnstudents
Do you have extra food or home goods you
don't know what to do with after checking out
for the summer?
n THURSDAY,APRIL26,2018 ®i)t auburn patnsman PAGE 12
EVENT
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Aufciewdfcs the runway at The Fashion Event at Auburn Arena in Auburn. Ala on Friday, April 20,2018.
Fashion show celebrates students on the runway
By JACK WEST
Lifestyle Writer
While most students associate the Auburn Are­na
with basketball or gymnastics, last Friday night
the things being "sported" in the arena were evening
wear, clutches and all of the next big trends.
On April 20, the Auburn department of consumer
and design sciences held The Fashion Event.
According to Karla Teel, an associate professor and
coordinator in CADS, this annual event celebrates
fashion looks which have been, "designed, created and
styled by Auburn students."
Students from all across CADS participated in the
event, which included a silent auction, interior design
projects and merchandising vignettes in addition to
the main runway show.
The theme for the fashion show this year was
"mod." For those unfamiliar with the fashion world,
"mod" was a British design style that was prominent
in the '60s and features elements like hair bumps, plaid
and bright colors.
Before the runway show even started, the front
rows were packed with VIPs. The most famous
among those at the front were companies like Dil­lard's,
MAC and The Mintjulep Boutique.
The lesser-known VIPs included proud parents
and grandparents getting to watch their senior stu­dents'
final project at Auburn.
The show opened with causal evening wear de­signs,
which were then followed by the iconic mod
looks before the senior capstone projects finally closed
the night.
The capstone projects included graduating seniors
working together to create multiple outfits that com­bines
styles from two or more fashion companies.
These styles and companies ranged from Bestowal,
a proposed Calvin Klein wedding line, to Mana Mara
Hoffman, a line intended for socially conscious men.
Following the capstone presentations, three of the
senior projects were awarded by a representative of
the International Management Group as either Most
Sellable, Most Creative or Best of Show.
The winning projects in those categories were,
respectively, Betsy Bash, Gucci Street and Valenti­no
Birchbox. To add to the excitement, none of the
seniors knew they were even competing for these
awards.
"We didn't even know there was going to be that
competition," said Davis Byrd, one of the designers on
the Valentino Birchbox line. "When they came back
to interview us we thought they were just writing a
story or something."
Jacob Garcia, one of the designers on the Gucci
Street line, said that being selected for an award gave
recognition for the hard work they we put in.
As easy as it could've been for the audience to get
swept up in the flashy dresses and awards, Teel said
that, ultimately, the event was all about the creators.
"Tonight was all about the students and their cre­ative
works," she said. "We hope to continue to in­spire
our students and to work hard for them."
Amid the chic apparel and adventurous design
shown that night, all in all, the mod fashion show was
a display of the hard work put in by many talented
Auburn students.
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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WAR EAGLEII!
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS
1 Distribute, with
"out"
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cohort
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14 Street thief
15 Bullring "Bravo!"
16 Tennessee River
city
18 Luxury hotel
facility
19 Places
20 Migratory herring
21 Uni- + bi-
22 H.S. exam for
college credit
24 Longtime Bob
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character
30 Anatomical canals
31 On the ship
32 Mediterranean
peak
33 Parts
35 Actress Headey
of "Game of
Thrones"
38 Home of college
sports' Green
Wave
40 Certain tanker
41 Philatelist's pride
45 Mass
communication?
46 Final: Abbr.
47 Sounds of
disgust
48 Calming agents
53 'The Producers"
screenwriter
Brooks
54 "Shut your trap!"
... and,
graphically, what
the circled letters
do •
57 Old _
58 Becomes used
(to)
59 Sinewy
60 Common ID
61 Enclosed for
security, in a way
62 Choice word
DOWN
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may run Virtual
PC
2K-12
3 Precisely
4 Famous final
question
5 Pay attention
6 Film directors'
challenges
7 Eariier
8 "A Wrinkle in
Time" girl
9 Mme., in Madrid
10 Where to get
gefilte fish
11 Sun Bowl city
12 Bring about
14 Motherly start
17 Cheerios
20 Twinkly, skywise
22 Muchos meses
23 Links letters
24 Fr. company
25 Court fig.
26 Modern Olympic
event one shoots
for?
27 Emotional
wounds
28 Krypton escapee
29 Presidential
nickname
33 Somewhat blue
34 Artist whose
apartment
overlooks
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36 Prefix for
movement
revivals
37 Prince Valiant's
son
39 ICU staffer
40 Group of eight
41 Competitive dry
spells
42 Auburn or
Princeton athletes
43 Soothed
44 New York
Harbor's _
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48 Bern's river
49 Auld lang syne
50 Carbon
compound
51 Tears
52 Eye malady
54 Boar, e.g.
55 Spanish article
56 Tsk relative
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
04/26/18
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04/26/18
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TH£ AUBURN PLAINSMAN — LOCAL MUSIC — APRIL 19, 2018
HABANERO HONEY see story ori page 3
They love pizza arid black clothing. Performing with some of Auburn's most
well-known artists, Habanero Honey tells the story of how a night jamming
turned into a nightly affair.
BEN BRUUD see story on page 4
You hear him in Jordan-Hare stadium. You here him at Sky Bar, 17-16 Bar
and Quixotes. Ben Bruud is an Auburn go-to, and we can tell you all about
him.
THE WAVERLY BOOGIE see story on page 5
It's the 18th year of the Boogie, and the little town of Waverly is opening its
doors once more. It's coming up, and you will want to know what's up. The
Boogie will go down on April 21.
THE BROOK AND THE BLUFF see story on page 6
These Auburn students are garnering attention for their eclectic sound.
Currently on tour, the boys are sharing their passion and sound across the
Southeast.
r
Thursday, April 12,2018 The Auburn Plainsman: Local Music 3
"WE ARE ALL HE/tbED IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, BUT WE ARE ALL STILL CONNECTED."
By KAILEY BETH SMITH
Community Reporter
Laura Prestridge, Leo Smith, Ataman Billor and
Madison Lupica are the four artists that make up
Auburn's newest sound: Habanero Honey The
band formed four weeks ago and has played a show
in Auburn every weekend since. People are catch­ing
on quick to the good vibrations exuding from
the drums, guitars, and microphones that connect
these rock'n'roll souls.
The band officially formed just four weeks ago.
She said she remembered that because it was right
after her mom's baby shower that she went to the
first show.
"Ata hit me up on a Monday, and told me that we
had a show on Friday." Smith said. "This wits be­fore
we even had our first practice."
"We didn't even have any songs written," Pre­stridge
said.
The first show was at the Commune, which is the
house of another local group, Dogwood Lung. The
group has been hosting shows at their residence for
several years, and it has become a home base for
many l<x:al musicians looking to break into the un­derground
scene. The band reminisced on their first
show together.
"1 couldn't even sing into the mic," Prestridge
siad. "It kept falling over, so people had to hold it.
We had a podium with the music on it. but that also
kept falling over. 1 also kept forgetting the words
we had written, so 1 just made some up. It was
great."
Billor said the songwriting abilities across the
board foster compatibility.
Smith said he had experience playing with oth­er
people before.
"It's always a little uncomfortable when you tell
them you want them to do something different."
Smith said. "But with these guys it's easy. We are
comfortable together."
Each of the band members has been playing for
several years, but they have all only remained solo
in their music endeavors.
Lupica attended an art school and began playing
music when she was in the sixth grade. She said
she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a
performer and that the energy and the life she could
bring to other people through her music is what en­courages
her.
Billor played piano and tenor saxophone when he
was younger, and he recently picked up the guitar.
"I started jamming with people, and now we are
here," he said, referring to the band project that fell
into his lap a few weeks ago. "It was amazing, and
it's always something 1 have fallen back on."
Prestridge laughed its she told the group that she
did not actually know how to read music. She said
her parents tried to get her to play the piano when
she was younger, but she thought it was too girly.
She wanted to play the electric guitar.
Smith picked up the guitar from his brother after
his father passed away and said that it was a place of
comfort and of escape for him.
"In these last four weeks. 1 feel like 1 have grown
so much as a musician." Smith said. "It's great play­ing
with people you love and people you vibe with."
The group spoke of their dynamic and the chem­istry
within the group. They all laughed when they
described the formation of their band, as they had
not really hung out until a few weeks ago.
It all started at Shady Glenn. The group would
run across each other and say hi or mention playing
together sometime, but none of the members knew
that this would come to fruition as quickly as it did.
The band played at Avondale on Saturday night
with Dogwood Lung, Solar Fleur and The Burn­ing
Peppermints. Smith said that all the bands were
good, and Lupica added in that the dancing was
good, too.
"We had been listening to all of those
bands in Auburn for a while, and it was
The Auburn Plainsman: Local Music Thursday, April 12,2018
BEN BRUUD
Q: If you could only listen to three bands or artists for the rest
of your life, who would they be?
.4: We 'II go with Unkin Park. Man. three, that's a tough one. Dip-to
is another one. You got to pick somebody who has range. / don'/
have many favorites. I kind of just listen to everything. Let's just go
with those two because I (ant think of a third off the lop of my head
right now.
Q: What are some songs that you know are crowd pleasers. but
you don't personally like?
.4: This might he a long list. Hi? got "Get Low" by Li I Jon. I've
heard that song many times, and it loses its luster after about the mil­lionth
lime you Yt- played it. but it's still a good song. "No Hands " is
one of those ones I'm starting to gel over. I've played thai song for
many, many years, and I feel like people still feel like it came out yes­terday
whenever I play it. "Wobble" is one that I've actually retired
unless I 'm at a wedding .twill not play it at llie bars or at clubs or any­thing
like that. "God's Plan " is one of those songs that's starting to hit
its peak for me because I've heartI it so many times.
Q; What's one thing that most people who listen to you play
music wouldn't expect from you?
A: I don t party, and I've never really piirtied in my life because I
enjoy seeing everybody else have a good time. I don 't actually drink.
I've never been drunk in my life. That kind of surprises people. I don't
have anything against it. I've just never had a desire to do it. I actu­ally
enjoy when people drink when I'm DJ'ing. It makes my life a lot
easier.
Q: Is there a phase in your life that you wouldn't be proud of
the most played songs in your library ?
A: No. I'm pretty confident in my music choice. Some people might
be embarrassed by the songs I listen to, but / try to keep an open mind,
and I 're always been thai way. The most played songs m en't thai em­barrassing;
it's those like Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me Maybe." I've
had those in my library, and I 've listened to them in my own lime.
Q: How is your taste in music different from your parents'
taste? „
.4; My parents don't understand the electronic music of today.
Thai's a big thing. They say il sounds like robots, or it doesn't sound
like music • at all.l enjoy a lol of the elet tronii - genres. and my mom has
grown to like it a little bit, my dad not so much. He enjoys the James
Taylor-esc/ue type of music. My mom is more of a rocker. Shejikes llie
80s rot k and hairband-type stuff. J
BY STEPHEN LANZI / CAMPUS WRITER
HABANERO
» From 3
great to finally get the chance to play with
them," Smith said.
After a night of jamming with Billor during
a homework break, the group formed.
Smith said the indie scene sticks together
and people take turns throwing house shows
in Aubum.
Billor echoed him and pointed out there are
shows coming up nearly every weekend, and
he is excited to see what direction the local
music scene takes.
"There are so many great people here and
so much creativity," Lupica said.
Pizza holds a special place in the band's
heart, as Billor works at Little Italy down­town.
"We always have the scent of pizza in our
noses, so it's always with us," Billor said.
One of their songs is dedicated to the fact
that the food brings them together. The band
always matches when they play together,
from striped shirts to yellow pants to space
suits to denim overalls.
Smith said when there is a show, everyone
finds out about it, and the house pack out with
locals who want to be a part of the good vibes
and good times happening in Auburn.
"We definitely appreciate the support for
the local music in Auburn," Smith said.
They have nine songs at the moment and
are excited to create more together.
"We are all headed in different directions,
but we are all still connected," Smith said.
r
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