Online Journalism Today

Designed by Katie Stout

Academic Balancing Act of Athletes

by

James A. Brown

Colleges want their students to be well rounded. In addition to academics, schools like their students to be engaged in extracurricular activities, such as community service, playing an instrument, or playing sports. Students who choose to participate in collegiate athletics face different challenges than narps (non-athletic regular people).
Athletics forces students to use their time wisely. Between practice and travel it is not uncommon for student athletes to fall behind. Freshman athletes often struggle the most because they have not been through a collegiate athletic season. They aren’t aware of the time commitment that comes with being a student athlete.
There are a number of ways for freshman athletes to ensure they do not fall behind. All freshman are required to attend at least 4 hours of study hall a week. Freshman athletes who don’t achieve a cumulative 2.3 GPA must continue going to study hall until they have met the requirements. Students believe that study hall helps give them a way to stay organized.
Madison Krauss said, “study hall has helped and I plan out when all my papers and tests are due on my calendar. I plan my work around my sport schedule”. Properly planning when you will do assignments is an essential aspect of being a student athlete.
Playing in the Middle Atlantic Conference, Hood and Stevenson are the only two teams in the conference in Maryland. Hood athletic teams regularly travel 2 hours to compete against teams in Pennsylvania such as Albright, Alvernia, and Lycoming to name a few. Game days are days that students typically plan their work around. After a game, athletes are exhausted and have little energy and motivation to get work done.

Students are responsible for asking for assistance in any courses they aren’t doing well in. Coaches want their players to do well and remain eligible to compete. Coaches are constantly inquiring about how their players are doing. Jayden Barrick, a member of the field hockey team explained that, “you have to set up personal meetings with your coach to check on your grades. They set up a tutor for you if your grades are in danger.” However, it may be difficult for an athlete to make time for a tutor because of their tight schedule. If a tutor is necessary, coaches may let the athlete miss a little bit of practice time to allow them to get the help they need.
It may be difficult for some freshman athletes to learn how to balance academics and athletics. There are numerous places that students can turn if they are having difficulties in the classroom. With the resources available, responsible student athletes will remain eligible throughout the athletic career at Hood.

Sports and Study Hall

by

James A Brown

Colleges want their students to be well rounded. In addition to academics, schools like their students to be engaged in extracurricular activities such as community service, playing an instrument, and playing sports. Students who choose to participate in collegiate athletics face different challenges than narps (non-athletic regular people). Athletics forces students to use their time wisely. Between practice and travel it is not uncommon for student athletes to fall behind. Freshman athletes often struggle the most because they have not been through a collegiate athletic season. They aren’t aware of the time commitment that comes with being a student athlete.
There are number just ways for freshman athletes to ensure they do not fall behind. All freshman are required to attend at least 4 hours of study hall a week. Freshman athletes who don’t achieve a cumulative 2.3 GPA must continue going to study hall until they have met the requirements. Students believe that study hall helps give them a way to stay organized.
Madison Krauss said “study hall has helped and I plan out when all my papers and tests are due on my calendar. I plan my work around my sport schedule”. Properly planning when you will do assignments is an essential aspect of being a student athlete.
Playing in the Middle Atlantic Conference, Hood and Stevenson are the only 2 teams in the conference in Maryland. Hood athletic teams regularly travel 2 hours to compete against teams in Pennsylvania such as Albright, Alvernia, and Lycoming to name a few. Game days are days that students typically plan their work around. After a game, athletes are exhausted and have little energy and motivation to get work done.

Students are responsible for asking for assistance in any courses they aren’t doing well in. Coaches want their players to do well and remain eligible to compete. Coaches are constantly inquiring about how their players are doing. Jayden Barrick, a member of the field hockey team explained that “you have to set up personal meetings with your coach to check on your grades. They set up a tutor for you if your grades are in danger.” However, it may be difficult for an athlete to make time for a tutor because of their tight schedule. If a tutor is necessary, coaches may let the athlete miss a little bit of practice time to allow them to get the help they that students typically plan their work around. After a game, athletes are exhausted and have little energy and motivation to get work done.

Students are responsible for asking for assistance in any courses they aren’t doing well in. Coaches want their players to do well and remain eligible to compete. Coaches are constantly inquiring about how their players are doing. Jayden Barrick, a member of the field hockey team explained that “you have to set up personal meetings with your coach to check on your grades. They set up a tutor for you if your grades are in danger.” However, it may be difficult for an athlete to make time for a tutor because of their tight schedule. If a tutor is necessary, coaches may let the athlete miss a little bit of practice time to allow them to get the help they need.

Breast Cancer Awareness at Hood College

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Amy Madert October 26, 2015

cancer

“About 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime,” according to U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics. In 2015, The American Cancer Society estimates that 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which acts as an annual campaign to help fundraise, increase awareness, and support the people who have been affected by this disease.

For years, Hood College Athletics has held games to honor, raise money for, and bring awareness to, Breast Cancer. Year after year these games have shown to bring large crowds and a good amount of fundraising.

This year, field hockey and volleyball held pink games.

“Our Breast Cancer games are always the games we look forward to,” Alysa Billeter, senior captain on the Women’s Feld Hockey team, said. “These games bring the most fans and not only do the players love being a part of these games, but I truly believe these are the games the parents look forward to most.”

Volleyball “dug pink” by wearing pink shirts, pink headbands, and pink shoelaces to show support.

“All of the girls love having these games and more fans seem to come out and support the team and the cause,” Lauren Cline, Assistant Coach for the Women’s Volleyball team, said. “However, I think the meaning has been lost for many years now. Teams are more excited to wear pink than support the cause or promote awareness.”

From fundraising, selling t-shirts, having bake sales, and collecting donations at the games, theirs no denying that the Hood community isn’t hesitant when it comes to supporting a good cause.

Cline said money was raised at the door through generous donations from families, students, and staff.

“The team raised money through a pink bake sale that we held at our game,” Billeter said. “We also raised money through Play4TheCure, which we marketed through our social media pages, word of mouth, and in any other way we could.”

In the past, Hood College’s Women’s Soccer has hosted pink games in honor of Breast Cancer, but the past two years the team has chosen to host a teal game during the month of September to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer.

“One of our teammates has an aunt who was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and our Head Coach, KristaLee Mellott, had a coach who passed away from the disease,” Sarah Marcello, a senior on the team, said. “Hosting a teal game had a more personal meaning to us the past few years and we were all glad to show our support.”

The players were all responsible for selling shirts to raise money and donations were collected at the game; part of these profits went to the local ovarian and cervical cancer coalition.

“Even though we didn’t have a specific pink game a lot of the team shows their support during our games in October by wearing pink headbands,” Marcello said.

Whatever the school is decked out in pink or teal, the Hood community is brought together by these different causes.

Field hockey hosts picnics (or tailgates) after home games and welcomes anyone. Billeter noted that the breast cancer games have always resulted in the bigger tailgates and “everyone has fun eating, hanging out, and spending time with friends, teammates, and family,” she said.

“It was the biggest crowd we’ve had this year,” Marcello proudly said. “Everyone was wearing their teal shirts in the crowd and cheering us on during the close game.”

Other organizations, schools, and sports teams, hold awareness games. “It isn’t hard to get the word out there, so why not help as much as possible,” Billeter said. “We’re just one team at one school, but if enough teams and schools get involved who says we can’t make an impact.”

This year, field hockey team got to participate in another institutions pink game where a player’s mother was honored. Hood got to wear their pink jerseys and show their respect and support.

Billeter and Marcello both are glad that Hood College supports the athletic teams in their efforts and hopes the awareness continues for years to come.

For Dickmans coaching is a family affair

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Photo credit: Jamone Davis. Tom and Chad Dickman at basketball game.

BY JAMONE DAVIS // It is one thing to play  for your father, but it’s another to get the opportunity to coach beside him.
Hood College is one of many colleges/universities to have a father and son duo coaching the same men’s basketball team. Those two men are Tom Dickman who has coached here at Hood for over 11 years and his son Chad Dickman. Now of course
one may think they are not the only father and son to ever coach on the same team. There was also Richard Pitino and Rick Pitino, but there are far more teams where the son just played for their father.

Here at Hood, Tom Dickman has ran a critical program in regards to what direction he wants to take the team. Based on Tom’s coaching, it’s obvious he’s more into a slow pace and plays to his players’ strength. He would rather slow the game down and run set plays, rather than just playing fast and unbalanced. He went from being a high school basketball coach for 29
years at Governor Thomas Jefferson, winning seven state championships to being a college basketball program college all using the same strategy. When Tom accepted the position of athletic director, a job opening became available for him to have assistant. That’s when Chad came to mind.

“I know his basketball background in recruiting and I can’t hire people exactly like me,” stated Tom
Dickman in regards to his son. He said this because he knew that Chad could bring some new ideas and talent to the program. “I trust him to do the work I do not have time to do. He’s a smart guy, well-organized, and does his research,” he added.

Tom said he feels that Chad has a lot to bring to the organization and wants to take advantage of his previous experience as an assistant head coach. Now Chad was amazed at the opportunity to work with his father. He was the associate head coach of Wheeling Jesuit University for the past nine years in West Virginia. When he heard his father had an opening for an assistant coach, he saw an opportunity to return to Frederick and wanted to challenge himself with the basketball program here at Hood.

“A pro about working with my father is that he gives me the freedom to speak my mind and put in offenses and defenses allowing the players to have suggestions on how to make the team better,” Chad said.

The Dickmans’ have some similarities in regards to identifying player’s talents, but have different mind sets on the overall game. Chad’s coaching strategy is faster paced than his fathers which is an example on how Chad is a risk taker. Chad enjoys an upbeat tempo where the players run a quick offense and take
what’s available.

Tom on the other hand has the slow-paced strategy down pact. He hates letting the other team score easy baskets. He stresses tough defense and when it comes to being on offense, he wants his player’s to run the play he gives them. Everyone knows the red face Tom makes when the team lets an easy layup or open shot happen, but Chad could live with layups. He favors a zone defense over his
father’s preference of man to man.

Coaching his first year at Hood, Chad’s main focus right now is to help the program get better every day. Chad enjoys working with his
father and stated, “I don’t think either of us would argue about more time away, but he trusts me to do my thing. He does not look over my shoulder so; we really do not see each other most of the day due to his new position as athletic director. Mainly see one another during practices and games.”

“The transition to Hood was made a lot easier because my father has been good with opening up to new input and ideas,” Chad said. They combine the best views and ideas for the best outcome for the team.

According to Cameron Cook, senior guard for men’s team, the system Chad has brought is new and improved with results of the best record since he’s been here. This system is similar to what is known as “run and gun” where players will score whether the original play falls together. He feels as though everything is paying off and they would not have the current record of 17-10 if Chad had not
input his game plan. Cook is leading the conference in three-point shots and points scored averaging almost 16 points per game. “I been leading scorer here, but it would’ve been best to play my part in the offense and help out in anyone possible,” he said when asked about his role on the team.

The team went to the semi-finals and fell short against Stevenson. Though the team did not make the tournament this year, both coaches are proud of the team’s performance and look forward to next season.

 

Thank you for reading.