Keene State College senior Katelyn Terry is nearing the finish line of her track and field career for the Owls and she seems to be getting faster and faster.

Terry, who joined the team as a first-year student at KSC, is having a standout season for the Owls’ track and field team and has managed to rack up a number of accolades and awards over the course of her final year. Terry earned New England All-Region Honors and was named Little East Conference Indoor Track Athlete of the Year for her performance during the indoor season according to the Owls’ website and has continued her performance thus far in the outdoor season.

Terry said she often does not pay attention to her accolades and accomplishments.

Luke Stergiou/ Senior Photographer

“I honestly don’t even really notice it,” Terry said. “A lot of times it’s a shock because I don’t think I did anything particularly special.”

While Terry might not have noticed the accomplishments that stem from her hard work, her teammates and Head Coach Tom Pickering have been watching closely.

Pickering, along with teammates, spoke about Terry’s positive attitude and willingness to put in the work necessary to improve.

“She’s just so passionate about it and whenever coach is talking to her, she always tries to keep a positive attitude. She never gets too down on herself and she’s always there to push our other teammates which is super nice,” KSC junior and teammate Melissa Wydra said.

Terry’s teammates said that her work ethic drives them to work harder as well. KSC sophomore and first-year Owl Taylor Bisaillon, who also runs as an alternate with Terry on the Owls’ relay team, said Terry’s example provides motivation for the rest of the team.

“I mean I think it’s really cool and sort of like a motivational thing because she does so well in so many different things. Like she’s fast and she jumps far. She’s overall a great athlete and I think it gives a lot of our teammates motivation to do better,” Bisaillon said.

Terry said when her teammates do well at a meet, it motivates her when getting ready for an event.

“I’ll watch other people race before me and sometimes it’ll get me hyped up,” Terry said.

Pickering said that Terry’s success can be attributed to her dedication to the sport and doing things the right way.

“She’s just a person that pursues excellence in everything that she does and she listens and always gives her best effort, and I think you can attribute her continual improvement and constantly high-performance level too,” Pickering said.

Pickering also noted Terry’s versatility as an athlete to effectively and willingly run races of varying distances. He said that her career as a cross-country athlete is partly responsible for her ability to do so. Terry also competes as a jumper, and while she hasn’t focused as much on jumping in the last couple of seasons, Pickering said he sees her improving even further.

“I think Katelyn’s best triple jumps are still ahead of her and yet she’s been all-conference in the triple jump almost every season that she’s done it,” Pickering said.

To Pickering, Terry’s performance and demeanor during the season shows that she has come into the role of a leader on the team.

“I think that she’s doing and saying all the things and carrying herself in the way that a senior leader of a team who’s had a very, very good career should be doing them,” Pickering said.

Pickering said he got a glimpse of Terry’s drive to push herself this season during the Owls’ meet hosted by American International College early in the outdoor season, where Terry won the 800 meter run. Terry won that race by a margin of over four seconds, according to the Owls’ website.

“She destroyed the field and it was just early in the season and what she showed me and what really stood out to me was that desire to just push herself to whatever she’s able to do that day and it wasn’t really just about, ‘Okay I want to win this race,’ it was about, ‘I’m going to find out what I can do today,’” Pickering said. “It stood out to me in showing that she’s really hungry now in her senior [spring season]… and she really wants to find out what she can do.”

Pickering said that Terry has already qualified to participate in the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship meet. Pickering said out of all of her accolades, Terry has yet to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship meet in track and believes this year Terry is deserving of the opportunity to compete.

“She hasn’t said that that’s going to make or break her career and I don’t think in any way will it, but I think she deserves a shot as an individual at the nationals in track.  She’s that good of a runner and I think it’s her last season, I think that would be a wonderful way to go out.”

Finally, Pickering said that Terry’s work on the track, trails and in the classroom makes her an exemplary Owl.

“She’s really just an outstanding Keene State Owl all the way across the board.”

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

The recipients of Keene State College’s honorary degree and Granite State Awards have been announced.

Thomas Porter will be receiving this year’s honorary degree and Eric Stumacher is receiving the Granite State Award.

KSC Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Kathleen Williams, who also acted as chair of the committee charged with the commencement awards, said that there were six nominations for the Honorary Degree and five for the Granite State Award.

Aside from the recipient of the Granite State Award being from New Hampshire, Williams said the criteria for the awards is broad, but that specifically the committee tries to find nominees whose work has had an impact on society and that align with the college’s mission.

She said these men are examples of that.

Contributed photo from tauny.org

“One of the things we look at is we look at the mission of the college and one aspect of that is to help our students [and] our community to find ways to become more [civically] engaged or engage citizenship. I think both of these gentlemen really exemplify that,” Williams said.

Porter was nominated by Mark Reynolds, a staff writer for the KSC marketing and communications department who said he has known Porter since the 70s.

“To me, I think he is the greatest man alive. I mean I’m not exaggerating, I really do,” Reynolds said.

Porter is a member and advocate of Mohawk Nation. He has worked for decades to help restore and preserve Indian culture in North America through lecturing, various organizations dedicated to traditional culture of Indian people and more. He touched on what he has been up to recently.

“I’m doing a lot of lecturing in different Indian communities… they call me to different parts of the country…to interpret what the tradition and the spirituality of their native people before it was interrupted by colonization… there’s only a few of us left in North America that could probably do that. So that’s why I’m always busy because they’re trying to resurrect, they’re trying to revitalize, trying to make sure that it doesn’t become extinct…” Porter said.

Reynolds commended his friend for his dedication to his beliefs and his goals for as long as he has known him. “What he was doing then, that’s what he’s always done. I’ve never seen him compromise his integrity or his goals. He’s stood up against adversity,” Reynolds said.

KSC Music Professor Jose Lezcano, who could not be reached for comment for this story, nominated Stumacher to receive the Granite State Award.

Stumacher founded the Sonad Project in 2007, which he said was created to help bridge the gaps between cultures through the arts and working with students and professionals from all around the world to achieve that goal.

“The real challenge in today’s world is how can we empathize with those who are different from ourselves and we feel blessed by the discovery that the arts, music and the other arts provide a wonderful format where people can collaborate across human differences and inspire each other to realize the common humanity in all of us,” Stumacher said.

Porter will also be giving the commencement address at graduation, where he said he will speak about the connectedness of all things and the responsibility individuals have for the safety of future generations.

Both men expressed their gratitude for their respective honors. Commencement will take place May 6 on the Fiske Quad .

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

In the Owls baseball season, which has been filled with wet fields, game cancellations and a shortage of home games, senior pitcher Michael Crimi has remained calm and focused as he is having the best season of his collegiate career.

The Owls’ ace got the top spot in the pitching rotation this season and has helped to keep the team in contention for a spot in the Little East Conference (LEC) tournament.  Crimi has three wins, one loss and two no decisions in six starts with a 2.23 earned run average and is averaging about 10 strikeouts per nine innings. He leads the LEC in total strikeouts with 45, according to the LEC website as of April 10.

Owls Associate Head Coach and Pitching Coach Marty Testo said the role as the Owls’ top starting pitcher is a role that is well-deserved after years of Crimi having to prove himself and hone his craft.

“Michael has worked extremely hard to be put in the situation that he’s in and he’s had many different roles over his years for us. It hasn’t been easy for him,” Testo said.

Testo added that Crimi initially had a hard time with aspects of his game, like throwing strikes, and had to adjust to the differences between the high school and college level of play. Now, he said that work is coming to fruition.

“I kind of see that Michael has really matured as a pitcher and puts a ton of time and effort into his craft and I think you’re starting to see it pay off for him,” Testo said.

The first-year walk-on turned senior ace said he’s trying to fill the shoes of those who came before him, like Cody Dube, who was drafted last year after completing his senior season. Still, Crimi said the role he is in now is one he’s wanted since he made the choice to join the team.

“I mean growing up, that’s always what you dream for. You always want to be the guy to go to,” Crimi said. “I think that was always the goal. When I do things, I try to do them to my best. If I’m going to do something, I’m not going to half-work the effort. I’m not going to be half in, half out. So once I decided I really wanted to play, I really wanted to be the best that I could be and thought that it would be foolish not to go out [and] work for four years, do your best, give it your all and have no regrets when you look back.”

KSC sophomore and catcher for the Owls Nate Rossi said he had heard about Crimi before coming in as a transfer from Southern New Hampshire University this year.  He added that he was quickly made aware of what Crimi was capable of after the team’s first game against Clark University. Crimi allowed just two hits and struck out seven in seven innings of work according to the Keene Owls website.

“That’s when I realized. I was like, ‘Wow, this kid is really, really good,’” Rossi said.

With a young pitching staff watching, Crimi said that he is trying to show them that it takes hard work to play at a high level.

Rookie Pitcher Andrew Houde said Crimi has set an example for him and others on the team as they try to improve.

“He’s our ace for a reason. He’s a leader on the mound. That’s what I was told when I was coming here,” Houde said. “He’s helped me tremendously. Days after I pitch, he shows me what kind of work I need to do [and] how to prepare for games.  He’s an all-around great leader for the whole team to kind of watch and get ideas from on how to go about their business.”

With just weeks left in the regular season, Crimi said he hopes to keep playing well to help the team win games. Testo said the team will lean on Crimi as it tries to make a final push for the LEC tournament and that the expectation of Crimi’s impressive play will remain the same.

“We expect Michael to go out there and be dominant every Saturday for us and that’s not pressure, that’s what we expect from him because that’s what he’s proven he can do,” Testo said.

Nonetheless, Testo showed confidence in his number one pitcher.

“I wouldn’t want anybody else on the mound for us in our league except for him at game one and I love all our pitchers, but Michael has earned a right to be the dude for us.”

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

Everyone has seen it on TV and in movies: that jock in the back of the classroom with the lettered jacket who is not paying attention to the lecture, but practicing extra for the big game once they get out.

KSC Associate Professor of Physical Education Dr. Fitni Destani, who teaches classes such as psycho-social aspects of sport, said that the stereotype of the “dumb jock syndrome” has been around since the ancient times of greek and roman civilizations.

The dumb jock syndrome, Destani explained, is a stigma surrounding athletes that says they focus the large majority of their time on physical pursuits as opposed to intellectual pursuits.

According to some KSC student-athletes, that stereotype is unfair and inaccurate.

Photo illustration by Tim Smith / Photo Editor

“It’s honestly just not 100 percent true. A lot of guys really take school seriously, especially as they get older. Obviously, you come in freshman year and try to figure it out and get your bearings under you and figure out what’s going on in college, but I mean once they do that, they usually do fine,” KSC senior and two-sport athlete Jeff Lunn said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s a fair assumption to make.”

KSC senior and volleyball player Brooke Hatanaka said that life as a student-athlete brings about challenges regarding time management, as they must participate in required activities for their sports, and while some may struggle to balance their time between sports and academics, many benefit from it.

“…I feel like student-athletes often have to work two times as hard because they have that much less time than people who don’t play sports, and while there are people who struggle to manage their time that are athletes and don’t do as well, there are a lot of athletes that do perform on and off the field very well and their sport helps them a lot,” Hatanaka said.

Destani added that athletes may feel more inclined to put more effort into their respective sports because of things like feeling the need to participate in voluntary team activities, like some off-season workouts and others, to help them be looked at in a favorable way by coaches.

Nonetheless, according to the Keene Owls website, 34 KSC varsity student-athletes earned fall 2016 Little East Conference All-Academic honors by achieving at least a 3.3 GPA through the 2016 spring semester.

KSC senior and member of the Owls’ baseball team Michael Crimi said that the unfair stereotyping and expectations of athletes extends to Division I programs.

“They essentially get free education, but they also miss classes due to their sport; they’re traveling weeks and weeks on end and then they’re asked to do that and complete their school work. So there, I think that’s pretty unfair to those athletes because they’re asked to do basically what professional athletes do and do school work and, yet, are expected to complete it at all the same level. So I think that’s where there’s a separation between Division I and other divisions,” Crimi said.

In the case of Division I and II athletes, the stakes are even higher for those who have athletic scholarships on the line and rely on their athletics to keep them in school. There are also academic checkpoints that Division I, II and III athletes need to reach in order to be eligible to take part in athletics.

“In fact,  there are more safeguards in place, but there’s stressors for the student-athlete as well based on fatigue, workload and travel, and not all faculty are as amicable to their workload,” Destani said.

Destani said there are disadvantages to being a Division III student-athlete as well because of lack of resources that could provide things like tutors that travel with teams and dedicated learning centers for the athletes that other schools may be able to provide.

“So in some ways, the Division III athletes are disadvantaged because of the lack of resources to support their education with that student-athlete model,” Destani said.

Still, he said that there is research which shows that student-athletes on average are graduating at a higher level than non-student-athletes. He said that the higher average GPA and on-time graduation rate of female athletes are driving factors as to why.

Males athletes are slightly underperforming compared to non-student-athletes on average, according to Destani.

Destani said the difference can partially be attributed in part to athletes striving for professional sports careers and declaring for professional drafts prior to graduating.  He said changing the way student-athlete graduation is looked at may be an improve ment to help with considerations like scheduling conflicts and other things.

“What most of the research is saying is that a realistic model for student-athlete graduation rates actually should be a six-year model, not a four-year model,” Destani said.

Statistics from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) show that Division I student-athletes recieving athletic financial aid had a six-year graduation success rate (GSR) of 86 percent, a 12 percent jump since 2002. In addition, research by the NCAA shows that Division I student-athletes recieving athletic financial aid had the same 66 percent six-year federal graduation rate (FGR) when comparing their numbers to those of all students at Division I schools in 2016.

FGR and GSR differ in that GSR includes student-athletes who transfer institutions in good academic standing during their collegiate career and go on to graduate into their new college’s data without penalizing the old college.  FGR counts transfers as non-graduates toward the rate of an athlete’s old and new colleges, according to information provided on the NCAA website.

Furthermore, Destani said athletics doesn’t just build physical skill.

“One of the things we always talk about in physical education is that it’s not just skill-related.  There’s knowledge, skills and attitudes, professional dispositions and leadership development that takes place in athletics. So it’s not just physical skill,” Destani said.

Lunn agreed that intelligence is an important attribute to have in order to do well in athletics.

“Once I came in here, it was a completely different level of learning through the game. You learn a bunch of new stuff through basketball and baseball, a bunch of new concepts. You have to really adapt to that,” Lunn said.

Destani said that debunking and ridding the athletic community of the stereotype will be a difficult task and first starts with awareness and distribution of information regarding the education of student-athletes.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

The Keene State College music department held its 16th annual Faculty Composers Concert on March 8.

The concert, held in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center, showcased original work composed by six faculty members from KSC’s music department.

The event began with a series of pieces composed by Jose Lezcano on guitar, with Franziska Huhn accompanying him on the harp.

The next performance was a piano piece composed by Elaine Ginsberg,and tenor Matthew McGinnis sang the English-translated words to a poem by Pablo Neruda.

KSC music professor Christopher Swist then played his piece Intermezzo on Vibraphone, for the Redfern audience.

The next four performances consisted of works which made their world premiere on a live stage. KSC professor Ted Mann played two pieces using an electric guitar and machines that were meant for a short film which he was asked to score.

Craig Sylvern joined fellow KSC professor and pianist Vladimir Odinokikh, along with two KSC students to perform Sylvern’s new “Walking into Two Worlds” piece, which, according to Sylvern, is meant to represent stepping from one environment into another.

Swist returned to the stage to play his new Simplicity for Vibraphone piece.

KSC professor watched as her piece, “Scenes from Midtown,” was premiered by other musicians including Vladamir Odinokikh and two student musicians.

Swist said that he thought the event and the showcasing of his new piece went well.

“It was pretty good, I was pretty happy with it,” Swist said.

Mann added that the yearly event gives faculty another chance to support one another while showcasing their work.

“I think it’s a great event here because a lot of the faculty are also composers… Everyone supports each other to do something creative like that,” Mann said.

Mann said that there are benefits to the faculty performers students as well.

“The one’s that come, they get to see their teachers perform. They get to see that we’re humans also and that sometimes we make mistakes and also hopefully they can look at it and see something to strive for,” Mann said.

Swist said that student-composers will have to put together performances much like the one that the faculty did, and in that way, seeing the concert may help them know what to expect.

“The process that we go through as faculty from writing a piece to getting it on the stage is the same thing the students go through so it’s important…” Swist said.

KSC senior and music performance major Carolyn Jean Cunningham was one of the students who performed pieces by Heather Gilligan and Craig Sylvern during the concert.

She said that having the opportunity to work with some of her professors for the event was helpful for her to grow as a musician.

“I know them first and foremost as my professors, but then to work with them in this collaborative project was a really great experience.”

Cunningham later continued, “I think they’re a great help because as a performance major, you want to get as much of a diverse background in music as you can so that going forward you have these experiences of working with different composers, different styles of music, different genres different techniques of playing your instrument that just kind of broaden your horizons and make you a more versatile player in the future.”

KSC music major and audience member Derek Hall also stated after the concert that he enjoyed the performance.

“It’s definitely a good reminder that your professors are writing music outside of the classroom versus doing lesson plans all day and whatnot. It’s cool to see the creativity that they have put to use and it’s fun to watch them perform,” Hall stated.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

Out of the 52 weeks in a year, there are two  weeks  each year that I have especially looked forward to ever since college began three years ago. One week contains  a camping trip during the summer months with my neighbor Christian, where we explore a new place every summer.

The other week is a mid-winter break, where I get to accompany my dad on a spring break trip. The past two years, I have been extremely lucky to travel with my dad to snowboard out west in Salt Lake City, Utah, and also to one of my favorite places, Jackson, Wyoming.

This past week, the Paquin family took on the Red Rocks of Sedona.

Jacob Paquin/ Equinox Staff

We flew out late Thursday night where we met my sister Carly, a recent graduate of James Madison University, and one of the newest nurses at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. That night, or morning since we didn’t land until 1:00 a.m. Mountain Time, was the first time my father and I had seen my sister since Thanksgiving, so it was great reunion for all of us.

The first thing we did together was drive four  hours through the night to catch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. As we were driving, all Carly and I could feel was the pain in our neck from whiplash.

What I mean by this is that when my dad rents a car, he can never adjust to the new breaks. For the entire vacation, we were reminding our dad about the breaks. By the end of the vacation, we were all laughing about it.

Sadly, we missed the sunrise by 30 minutes, arriving at around 7:00 a.m..

My first thought while arriving at the Grand Canyon was  that I could stay there for hours upon hours, sitting and enjoying the view. While driving along the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon, we stopped along the way to take in the view and to snap some much needed photos at various rest stops on the side of the road. Our original plan was to hike during the day and travel back to Sedona by sundown.

Jacob Paquin/ Equinox Staff

Instead, we headed back before noon for some much needed relaxation after traveling all day and all night. The next five days consisted of hiking the Red Rocks of Sedona, and some much needed family fun and photographing beautiful sights along the way.

The trails we hiked not only consisted of breathtaking views, but they also had a variety of difficulty along the way.

On our first day, we nearly hiked eight miles, starting from our room at the Matterhorn in Downtown Sedona, eventually exploring up to Brin’s Mesa and Soldier’s Pass trails in the Coconino National Forest. We walked along Devil’s Kitchen sinkhole, which has a 150 by 90-foot opening.

That sinkhole has collapsed three times, once in the 1880s, once in 1989 and again in 1995. The second hike was a tourist trap, but it is a view that is iconic to Sedona’s Red Rocks.

Devil’s Bridge is a photography hot spot, probably because it is also Sedona’s largest natural sandstone arches. Our third and final hike, Cathedral Rock, was my favorite out of the three.

Jacob Paquin/ Equinox Staff

The distance was short to the top, but it wasn’t easy. We were crawling on all fours to scale our way up the sandy rock surface to skyscraper-like rocks that wait for the arrivals of many hikers each day.

On our first day in Sedona, we searched for activities to do while we weren’t hiking.

These activities included off-roading with Red Rock Jeep Tours through the Diamondback Gulch, five zip-line rides over rescued bears, zebras and giraffes, and a helicopter tour of Sedona.

All in all, putting an ocean boy in the middle of the desert turned out better than believed. At least we found some type of water at Slide Rock State Park, which was a chilly 40 degrees.

Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Jacob Paquin can be contacted at jpaquin@kscequinox.com

Members of the Keene State College community got to see presentations put together by companies looking to take over control of the KSC bookstore.

This happened on Tuesday, March 21.

The two companies, Follett and Barnes & Noble College each had an hour to go over what they had to offer the students, faculty and staff of KSC.

The first of which was Follett, who set up shop in the Madison Square Longue.  Next, Barnes and Noble College talked to an audience in the Mountain View Room  The representatives from both camps went over programs they offer which help educators and students get the coursework materials they need or want to use easily and affordably.  T

hey also discussed a reworked web presence for the store as well as merchandising.

Representatives from Barnes and Noble College gave their presentation in the Mountain View Room and talked about their vision for the KSC’s bookstore.

They also put a focus on the KSC brand as one of the most important aspects of the college’s bookstore as well as lowering the cost of course materials by implementing Open Educational resources, price-match and textbook rental programs.

KSC Chief Information Officer and Laura Seraichick has been involved in a committee to try to find a new company to take over the now independently run bookstore. She said that it is becoming more and more difficult for the bookstore to stay competitive as it is now.  Seraichick said that both of the companies offered possible solutions to the concerns surrounding the needs of those who use it.

“I think they both addressed a lot of the things around affordability, access, good value for students [and] faculty, and systems and processes to help sort of make that easy and simple for all of them, and then I think they presented their side that has all the other merchandise piece of it,” Seraichick said.

Seraichick said that the committee will continue to evaluate the two candidates before making a recommendation to KSC Interim Vice President for Finance and Planning Dr. Daniel Petree.

She added that Petree will make the decision as to who will receive the contract which will last between 24 and 29 months.  She said that the college will be looking for whichever company that takes over to assume operation by no later than July 1.

After the contract expires, Seraichick said that the college and university system will look to have one company operate all bookstores on all of its campuses.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com 

Keene State College education majors gathered for a conference on campus on March 4.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

The Epsilon Pi Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi put together their fifth annual Inspiring Conversations in Education (ICE) conference. According to the conference co-chairs, KSC sophomore Michael Lamarre and KSC junior Savannah Robert, the event took a year to plan and about 100 people attended.

The event started in the Mabel Brown Room, where KSC President Anne Huot spoke about the role of a quality public education.

“…I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t have the chance to go to a public school and get a high quality education… it was determined by a community that really understood that education really is the great-equalizer,” Huot said.

After, the keynote speakers, KSC alumni David and Chantel Alcox, gave a presentation on the lasting impact teachers have on their students. The two, who married shortly after their time at KSC and work as educators in Milford, New Hampshire, said the work that educators do makes a difference for life and gave attendees advice going forward.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

“If you go into this profession, and many of you will, you will find out that it’s a way of life, it’s not a job. It’s something that you will do for you your entire life,” David said to the crowd in the Mabel Brown Room

From there, aspiring educators spent the day going to presentations in Rhodes and Morrison Halls that were put together by other Keene State alumni who became teachers after graduating.  Subjects of the sessions included how to find work as a teacher after graduation, post-undergraduate options, teaching techniques and more.

KSC alumni and conference presenters Jessica Boland and Erin Cogan said this was their fourth year presenting at the conference and it’s gotten better every year.

“Every year, I feel like there’s more and more attendees and every year it kind of has a different twist on it,” Cogan said.

Advisor for KDP and KSC elementary education professor Darrell Hucks said the conference has grown considerably since its beginnings five years ago. The reason, he said, has a lot to do with the connections that are built during a student’s time at the college, while also giving them an idea of what to expect after graduating.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

“This conference was designed to bring alumni together with current students, faculty, alumni… to bring the community together,” Hucks said.

Hucks added that the conference allows faculty to grow as educators as well, while also supporting students after they leave the college.

“Events like this are important because we need to think about and be invested in our students’ success beyond the college experience.” He continued, “Being able to tap into their newer experiences helps to refine the work we do here.”

After the day of three sets of sessions came to a close, junior Ariel Friedman provided musical entertainment, followed by revolving groups of round table discussions between students and the presenters. Prizes were raffled off to those in attendance as well.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Moving forward, both the conference co-chairs and Hucks said that they would like to see the conference expand even larger than it has in the last five years.

Students said that they got a lot out of the conference and that they hope to be able to come back for future conferences.

“I think it was really great to talk to actual teachers with experience as opposed to just kind of [being] thrown into a classroom which is good to, but it was nice to talk to other people who have done it,” first-year attendee Gerty Flagg said.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

Two of Keene State’s newest athletes are making an impact on not just one, but two Owl squads.

Sophomore Taylor Bisaillon and first-year Nicole De Almeida have come to KSC with two sports in mind: track and field and soccer. While both said that they probably could’ve attended division two schools, they said they decided to come to a division three program because they didn’t have to choose one or the other.

“I play two sports because I kind of picked going to a d[ivision] three school because I wanted to be able to play two sports,” Bisaillon said.

That desire to play two sports hasn’t caused Bisaillon or De Almeida to sell their team short, according to their two head coaches. She said that the pair has already made strides to enhance their roles on each team.

Tim Smith/ Photo Editor

De Almeida, a defender on the women’s soccer team, came to Keene State in the fall and despite being a rookie, made an impression on head coach Denise Lyons and the rest of the team. She landed a spot as a starter for the entire season and earned Little East Conference (LEC) Rookie of the Year honors, as well as was named to both the LEC first-team and the Eastern College Athletic Conference All-Star team. She was also named to the 2016 New England Women’s Intercollegiate Soccer Association (NEWISA) Division III All-New England team.

Speaking about De Almeida, “She’s a very, very smart defender.  She’s in the center back role, which is a key position and she does a great job.  She communicates well, she’s very patient and while she lacks experience in the college game, she just jumped right in and did great,” Lyons said.

Lyons sees Bisaillon has also has great value to the team in her own way.

Lyons said that Bisaillon, a sophomore transfer from Albertus Magnus came onto the team with the advantage of experience in college-level soccer and she could be effective at almost anywhere on the field.

“Taylor’s very versatile…I can play her at a number of positions. I could play her on defense, I could play her out on the wing. She brings some pace [and] some speed, so I think both of them have fit in right away which is great.”

The two of them helped the Owls reach the LEC semifinals last fall, where they fell in overtime to Western Connecticut State University (WCSU).

Now in their track and field season, the two newcomers are training their first season with the rest of their team and Coach Tom Pickering.  Pickering said that he has already noticed the two athletes showing signs of improvement.

“I’ve seen a lot of progress from the time we started working with them to now in both cases,” Pickering said.

Specifically, Pickering said that he has been working with De Almeida in preparation for short and mid-distance sprinting events, while also working with Bisaillon on becoming a multis athlete, competing in many different kinds of events including javelin and long jump.

“She can probably be developed into a heptathlete,” Pickering said.

The two will come together as a team on the track this season during for the 4X4 event, which will also include a combination of Katelyn and Lindsey Terry and Brittany Gravallese.  According to Pickering, this group has the potential to be the best 4X4 squad in the conference.

Once the track season is over, the two said that they hope to carry over the fitness they acquired during the spring to the soccer field, allowing them to outlast their opponents, something they said had cost them wins in the past, like the game against WCSU.

“We just got tired,” De Almeida said.  She later continued, “It’s sometimes whoever can outrun the other team.”

Pickering said being involved in athletics and a training program all year leads to better performance and overall conditioning when transitioning from one sport to another.

“The advantages are that they love soccer and so through the summer, they’re not as prone as a division III athlete to just taking a bunch of time off from training because they have to be ready for soccer preseason. If they want to be on the field, they have to be ready,” Pickering said.

Women’s soccer teammate Marianna Porcello said that she is glad to see her fellow Owls show such dedication to athletics.

“I think that both of them work very hard and are very athletic and they kind of have that drive to be fit and in the gym independently which is really important, so I’m really happy that they’re doing track as well,” Porcello said.

According to Lyons, the two players have set the bar high.

“I think they’ve set the tone,” Lyons said.

To De Almeida and Bisaillon, the success they’ve had so far at KSC stems from competitive drive and determination.

“I think it was just a lot of hard work that we had to put in,” De Almeida said.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at Jbarrett@kscequinox.com

Keene State Athletics hasn’t been immune to the recent budget cuts put in place across a number of departments at the college.

Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Kemal Atkins, who oversees the athletics budget along with KSC Athletic Director Kristene Kelly, said that he and other members of the athletic department have been continuously examining the athletics budget over the course of the year to look for areas to better “align” spending with needs of the different athletic programs.

So far, Atkins said that the college has trimmed about $50,000 from the athletics budget.

The areas in which those cuts were made include money for equipment and supplies, travel and transportation, peridium for meals and  others.

“We’re paying a lot of attention to [whether this] is this the best use of the resources that we have and those resources include money and…people’s time,” Atkins said.

The effects of those cuts have caused a few changes in the department, as well as in the different programs that it supports.

The cuts for travel, according Atkins, have made it more financially efficient for teams to use vans to transport them to away games at least twice throughout their seasons as opposed to the usual Coach Bus for every trip.

In addition, to cut down on travel costs, coaches have been asked to trim their schedule by at least one away game for next year’s seasons.

These games could be anything from scrimmages to invitationals to non-conference regular season games.

Furthermore, professional development for coaches and other staff members have been cut according to Atkins and Men’s Basketball Head Coach Ryan Cain  lessening the number of conferences and other professional development opportunities to learn new techniques to further their coaching abilities.

However, Cain said that there are other ways to make up for that.

“There’s so many different ways where you can enhance yourself professionally, so rather than travelling to some big conference, there’s so many other ways you can do it. With getting on the internet, to meeting with other coaches in different areas–we don’t have to spend money to do things like that,” Cain said.

To supplement the funds lost in the cuts, fundraising efforts have increased, according to both Atkins and Cain, who said that they’ve been able to raise more money than usual at their events.

Atkins stated that the college has asked each team to raise at least $1,000 to help support themselves through a number of different fundraisers.

Along with that, the Annual Golf Tournament held for the athletic department raised over $31,000 and an additional $14,000 in calendar sales.

KSC student athletes have expressed their concern and unhappiness about the changes that have been made because of the Owls’ lighter wallet.

KSC junior and women’s soccer player Marianna Porcello said because of the smaller vans that have to be used and the large size of the team, not all the players on the women’s roster could travel with the team, leaving some players out of uniform and the bench shortened. She added that this brought about some challenges for her team during the season.

“There were definitely games where it was super hot or people were injured or people got hurt during the games and we didn’t have all of the subs there that we could’ve been using, but I think we just kind of dealt with it and did what we could and people stepped up and played different positions when they needed to,” Porcello said.

Furthermore, KSC senior and softball player Aliza Guerrero said that her team will not be able to travel with an athletic trainer when it makes it travels to Florida this year, a staff member they usually share with the KSC baseball team.

“Softball doesn’t get one per say, but the baseball team usually gets a trainer and this year they don’t.  Even if we don’t play at the same complex or around the same area there’s still no one we could call in case of something serious,” Guerrero said.

The idea of a shortened season isn’t going over well with some players either.

Senior and member of the volleyball team Leslie Hearns said that it is unfair to cut the players season’s short.

“I think we come to this school to play the game that we love and we take time out of our days to be here and play the sport that we love. We should be able to play the amount of games we’re [usually] scheduled for,” Hearns said.

However, players said that the cuts haven’t directly affected their performance during competition or their overall willingness to play for the Owls.

Updates to the athletics budget will be made as new information is discovered.

Jacob Barret can be contacted at Jbarrett@kscequinox.com