Replacing a coach that has been here for 40 years would be difficult for anybody, but new Men’s Soccer Head Coach Rick Scott brings confidence and experience to the program.

“That doesn’t phase me in the least,” Scott said of following a career like former head coach Keith Butcher’s. “I coached a very successful high school program for eleven years before I got here.  I’m around the game all the time, as a player, as a coach. I don’t feel intimidated at all.”

Scott was referring to his time as men’s soccer head coach at Keene High School. Under Scott’s reign, KHS won two state championships and produced so many all Americans that he’s lost count. Combine that with a four-year KSC playing career and Scott’s long stint as Butcher’s assistant and you have someone who has devoted his life to the game.

Brian Cantore / Photo Editor:
Scott Douglas makes a cut as coach Scott looks on as the Owls play Plymouth State on September 21, 2013 at Owl Athletic Complex.

“He knows how things run here.  He’s got a pretty solid foundation and even though he wants to make a name for himself, he already has a reputation around here and with other coaches,” senior Scott Douglas said. “So he’s more comfortable instead of being at an all new school.”

Director of Athletics John Ratliff never opened the position up for outsiders to apply.  Scott, who graduated KSC in 1977, said Butcher supported him for the position.  The hiring process consisted of just two interviews before Scott got the job offer in late November.

“He’s been handling it well, I think he still refers to Butcher for guidance if he’s unsure, but for the most part I think he’s taken over the team to be his team with his style,” senior Brian Swindell said.

Swindell described that style as more “modern” than Butcher’s, and Scott agreed that his style was distinct.

“I study the game extensively in a lot different ways [than Butcher],” Scott said.  “So I’m open to different methods, different systems and different styles.”

Studying the game has brought Scott all over the world — from South America to the estimated 40 trips to Europe he said he has taken.  “He gave little bits and pieces of the modern style to Butch [while assistant], he’s a big European style influence,” Swindell said. “Butch is a lot of the American style and Rick adds elements of European style soccer.”

Scott’s approach to dealing with players is also different from Butcher’s.

“Coach Scott really helped balance out coach Butcher,” Douglas said.  “If Butch got mad at me I could go to Rick [Scott] and vice versa, but [Scott’s] always a calming and reasonable coach to talk to.”

But while Scott said the culture of the team has changed, he said the offseason workouts and recruiting transitions have gone smoothly.  The coaching staff will also remain largely unchanged under Scott.

“The attitude of the team has been very good, we’ve had some hard working sessions in the spring already,” Scott said.

“For me, they need to get a better understanding of what hard work is — we’re getting there.  They need to get a better understanding of what commitments is, were getting there too.”

Scott said one of the main goals of the year is to win the Little East Conference, something the usually-dominant team hasn’t done in three years. Swindell has confidence in the direction of the program.

“I think Rick is going to take this team to high levels,” Swindell said.  “I think they’re definitely going to do as well if not better than us next year. He’s going to bring in more talent.”

Scott offered a more modest but equally confident prediction.

“I think we’re going to provide a pretty exciting brand of soccer,” Scott said, “If we work hard we’ll be very competitive, and we’re going to look to provide an attacking brand of soccer, getting the ball forward and just going for it. I’m excited.”

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Lack of action enabled stalking

Men’s Basketball Head Coach Robert Colbert was informed of former Keene State College employee Eugene “Gino” Vallante’s reported behaviors nearly three years before Vallante’s firing on March 5, according to documents obtained by a right-to-know request by The Equinox.

Vallante, who was fired amid allegations he engaged in inappropriate behaviors toward KSC athletes and students, worked with Colbert at KSC for eight seasons over the course of two job stints.

According to Vallante’s resume, after graduating KSC in 1997, he began working with the men’s basketball team the same year.

Coach Colbert was an assistant that season. When Colbert took over as head coach in 1999, Vallante was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach and director of recruiting — two positions that did not previously exist.

After the 1999-2000 season, Vallante left KSC for the head coaching job at New England College, where he coached for two years.

A screenshot of the Silent Witness web page on the Keene State College Campus Safety website.

Four former NEC players said their time at NEC in those two seasons was fraught with habitual phone calls from Vallante, who asked them questions about their “private parts,” masturbation and pornography, among other things.  Three of those team members said playing basketball for Vallante involved being, “consistently and severely sexually harassed.”

Vallante left NEC in April of 2002 after players on the team said they reported his behavior to Athletic Director Lori Runksmeier and former President Ellen Hurwitz.

Emails provided by a former player show former NEC Vice President for Student Affairs, Joe Petrick, acknowledged Vallante’s behavior. All four former players said NEC allowed Vallante to resign.

Efforts to warn KSC officials

Nick Lowery, an NEC basketball player from 2001 to 2003, emailed coach Colbert in May of 2011, according to documents obtained by The Equinox.

By that time, Vallante had been Director of Basketball Operations and had extensively recruited for the men’s basketball team.

Vallante was also program coordinator of the Night Owl Café and ran Fast Break Broadcasting, a company that employed many KSC students.

In the May 7, 2011 email, Lowery wrote about a recent encounter with a KSC basketball player.

Lowery wrote to Colbert, “Your current player automatically agreed with everything I said about the horrific conversations my teammates and I had with [Vallante] and what he is currently still doing with your players.”

Documents show that when Lowery emailed Colbert again twelve days later, “checking in on how everything was going,” Colbert responded eight minutes later.

Colbert wrote, “I have no reason at this time to think that anything has happened here unless someone comes forward but will deal with this when the students return [from summer vacation] I guess. I would listen to anyone who has been affected by this alleged behavior at Keene.”

A former KSC basketball player, who wishes to remain unnamed, told The Equinox that he informed Colbert that Vallante was making him feel uncomfortable in 2010 — a year prior to Colbert’s May 2011 email exchange with Lowery.

The emails show that on the same day as Colbert’s response to Lowery, an NEC player whose name is also being withheld emailed Colbert.

“I am writing to confirm everything [Lowery] said… Furthermore, I can provide proof. After our meetings with the NEC administration re: Gino’s actions I had a series of e-mail exchanges with members of NEC’s administration. I still have those e-mails… These emails provide explicit details of what we were put through, along with acknowledgement that these things took place by the NEC administration.”

The emails show both former NEC players asked Colbert to take the issue “very seriously” — and they also show that Colbert’s May 19, 2011 response to Lowery was the last time he ever emailed the two former NEC players, according to right-to-know requests.

Other emails The Equinox obtained from its right-to-know request show 2011 was not the first time a former NEC player had reached out to a KSC official.

In January of 2005, more than six years before Colbert’s email exchange, the former NEC player whose name is being withheld emailed KSC Director of Athletics John Ratliff and NEC Athletic Director Lori Runksmeier.

In the January 23, 2005 email, the player wrote to Ratliff, “I am disgusted and outraged that Gino is again allowed to be involved in college athletics” and characterized the team’s seasons under Vallante as “the worst times of our lifes.”

The email, which documents indicate neither athletic director responded to, later asked, “How long until he gets another coaching job and is allowed to do what he did again?”

The answer to that question would be 2007, when Vallante began recruiting high school students on behalf of the KSC Men’s Basketball team, according to documents obtained by The Equinox.

In March 2014 when The Equinox requested a comment from Colbert and Ratliff, KSC Media Relations Manager Kelly Ricaurte responded, “Because our investigation is ongoing, John Ratliff and Rob Colbert will not be answering questions.”

Despite warnings, Vallante’s role at KSC grows

Documents also show Vallante’s recruitment payroll rose exponentially between the years of 2007 and 2010, before Vallante stopped recruiting in February of 2011.

The records show that between the years of 2007 and 2011, Vallante went on recruiting trips to 76 towns spanning six different states on behalf of the men’s basketball team.

Three of the former NEC players told The Equinox they were aware of Vallante acting inappropriately to potential NEC recruits.

So far, The Equinox has no information regarding inappropriate behavior by Vallante toward high school KSC recruits.

But Vallante’s recruitment was only part of his employment with KSC. According to KSC Director of Human Resources Kim Harkness, Vallante’s salary as program coordinator of the NOC at the time of his termination in 2014 was $40,600.

Brian Schnee, who broadcasted with Vallante until graduating KSC in 2013, told The Equinox that Vallante helped many athletes find on-campus jobs.

“How did athletes get a job in school? Well, they went to Gino. He was an advisor to a lot of these students,” Schnee said.

Nicco DeMasco, who played basketball for KSC from 2009 until 2012, said Vallante was his unofficial academic advisor when he started Facebook messaging DeMasco about sexual topics.

Documents show many KSC students reached out to Vallante for jobs at the NOC and Fast Break Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, KSC students and employees continue to assess Vallante’s behaviors over the last nine years.

In a March 13 letter, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan wrote to Todd Leach, PhD, Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, and said, “Particularly concerning [to the governor] are allegations made in media reports that Keene State College employees may have previously been alerted to potential misconduct.”

Zach Winn can be comtacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Eugene “Gino” Vallante’s behaviors at Keene State College were part of a larger pattern, according to former players’ detailed accounts of his time as head coach at New England College. 

After nine years at KSC, school officials fired Vallante on March 5 amid allegations that he engaged in inappropriate actions toward students. KSC’s internal investigation, as well as an independent review of that investigation by the McLane Law Firm, are ongoing with no set completion date, according to KSC Media Relations Manager Kelly Ricaurte.

Vallante graduated from KSC in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science, according to his resume obtained from The Equinox Right to Know request. He was Associate Head Coach of the KSC Men’s Basketball team from 1997 to 2000, also according to his resume.

Vallante was then appointed head coach of the New England College Men’s Basketball team from 2000 to 2002, according to NEC Vice President of Advancement and Communications Morgan Smith.

Four former NEC players, now in their early 30s, spoke with The Equinox and reported their time at NEC was marked by what qualifies as sexual harassment under the current NEC student handbook. According to the handbook, sexual harassment includes an unwelcome sexual advance when “conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work, academic performance or participation in co-curricular activities.”

The Equinox is awaiting information from NEC regarding whether the policy has changed since 2002.

Late-Night Phone Calls

Just like KSC students, all four former players reported receiving frequent and unwanted phone calls from Vallante.

“I remember we’re all sitting in our friends’ room and the room phone rings. They don’t want to answer it because they know it was the coach, so we’d ignore the calls most of the time because they knew it would be Gino,” said Nick Lowery, an NEC basketball player from 2001 to 2003, “But there’d always be more calls.”

All four former players reported receiving calls from Vallante late at night to discuss various explicit subjects such as masturbation, sexual positions and penis size.

“The phone call would always come in after nine o’clock at night, sometimes later. He would ask if you were seeing anybody, and then it would obviously get into masturbation and pornography and other things like that,” said a former NEC basketball player whose name is being withheld at his request.

The NEC players’ stories mirrored experiences recounted by KSC students in the April 2, 2014, edition of The Equinox. Vallante’s reported behavior at KSC would meet the criteria of stalking in the KSC student handbook, which is defined as “Repeated unwanted attention that would create fear in a reasonable person where the intent is to force him/herself into the life/consciousness of the victim through harassing, threatening or frightening behavior(s).”

Former KSC student Stephen Hopkins, who transferred to NEC at Vallante’s urging in January of 2002, said the alleged sexually explicit conversations did not start until Vallante gained his trust.  “When I first met him I thought he was really attentive and kind,” Hopkins said.

However, Hopkins said things changed quickly after Vallante completed his transfer papers.

“I had about an hour-long conversation with him and he started asking me how much I masturbate and things like that. So leading up to my first day at NEC, I’m praying that was an anomaly,” Hopkins said about a conversation he had with Vallante over winter break in 2002.

Hopkins said once he arrived at NEC, the phone calls became the norm.

“He used everything he knew about me, in hindsight he profiled me,” Hopkins alleged. “Once I got to school it became an everyday thing or every other day.”

The unnamed former NEC player said Vallante’s behavior similarly escalated once he was financially committed to NEC.

He said he didn’t know how to turn back from NEC once Vallante had helped him make his transfer official.  The former player said, “I didn’t even want to go [to NEC] but the money had been paid, everything was lined up — and how do you tell your parents now, all of a sudden, you don’t want to go when they’re already paying — how do you tell them, and you don’t want to tell them why?”

According to three of the former NEC players, Vallante’s behavior was not limited to phone calls. “He’d call me into his office after practices and we’d have to sit in this chair with no legs,” Hopkins continued, “He’d roll over to me in his chair and put his hand on my shoulder and thigh.”

Another member of the team, Jeremiah Anderson, said every player on the team had a weekly one-on-one meeting with Vallante.

“We’d go to his office and go over stuff. But towards the tail end of conversations it would turn into, ‘Are you still with that girl? How is she doing?’ and turn into sexual questions,” Anderson said.

Whistle Blowers

The unnamed NEC player said he believes  it was April of 2002 when Vallante called a freshman teammate and asked him to get a ruler and “measure himself.”

“This caused him [the student] to basically freak out. He was losing it, he called us and was like, ‘We have to do something. I can’t take this anymore.’ So we did,” the former NEC player said.

According to all four former players, the team held a meeting with Vallante, where it was decided he had to leave NEC.

“He [Vallante] started basically crying, and I told him — he was begging for a second chance — and I specifically told him that this is his second chance, that we were  going to him and not the administration,” the former player said.

But according to Hopkins, later that week he and a teammate saw Vallante on campus with a potential recruit.

Lowery and Anderson said it was the same month when they decided the alleged harassment had to stop and met with NEC Athletic Director, Lori Runksmeier.

“We gave her the overview of what was happening and told her, ‘He’s calling us at home, on our dorm phones and always trying to have sexual conversations’ and she said she’d look into it — and that was the last we heard from Lori,” Anderson said.

When contacted by The Equinox, Runksmeier, still the NEC Athletic Director, referred all questions to NEC VP of Advancement & Communications, Morgan Smith.

Lowery and Anderson also reported they  had individual meetings with former NEC President Ellen Hurwitz where Hurwitz said local authorities were going to be contacted.
Messages left with Hurwitz’s current employer were not returned by press time.

In a team meeting with former NEC Vice President for Student Affairs, Joe Petrick, all four former players reported Petrick told them counseling would be offered.

“He [Petrick] said if anyone wants to have counseling or talk to anybody, that counselors would be made available and that the local authorities were notified about it and that we should be hearing more about it shortly — and that was the last thing we ever heard about it.  No one ever contacted us,” Anderson said.

Petrick did not return any of The Equinox’s messages by press time.

Lowery also expressed anger that NEC didn’t fire Vallante.

“He should’ve been terminated so that he had a record on file, so that he wouldn’t have an opportunity to work with kids again,” Lowery said.

“That was our biggest thing, ‘It happened to us, ok, we’ll get over it at some point in our lives, but we don’t want it to happen again.’ So that’s why we spoke up,” Lowery said.

Vallante left NEC in April of 2002. According to his resume, over the next three years Vallante was an investment representative at Fleet Bank in Salem and then at Bank of America in Keene.

He began working for Keene State College again by July of 2005.

Julie Conlon contributed to this story.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Julie Conlon can be contacted at jconlon@keene-equinox.com

With Crimea transitioning towards joining Russia, tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border mounting and western economic sanctions increasing it is important to understand that this is still very much a fluid geopolitical conflict.

Things are changing everyday as western leaders condemn Russia’s actions while Russian President Vladimir Putin indignantly points to what he feels are western hypocrisies in the world of international relations.

Ukraine’s future remains largely in doubt as uncertainty surrounds the country’s upcoming May elections and loads of debt threatens to drive Ukraine toward bankruptcy. A massive loan by the International Monetary Fund should stabilize the situation to an extent, but Russia’s threat of raising Ukrainian gas prices could push the country further into dismay.

According to the New York Times, Putin has deployed at least 400,000 troops along the Russia-Ukraine border, an act of intimidation that signals the conflict is nowhere near over. Another reason to be concerned about the troops is the decisiveness with which they can act.

If this conflict has taught us anything it’s that the Russian government, with Putin calling the shots, is capable of fast, powerful decisions that require equally quick and significant responses.

Of the many perks that come with being a dictator, as Putin essentially is, the ability to set out a specific path for your country unimpeded might be most valuable.

Far from the checks and balances of most western systems of governance, Putin has the final say on all decisions, and doesn’t have to worry about political opponents slowing things down. That means he can execute complex actions without having to worry about the political landscape changing. From the successful Sochi Olympics to the calculated annex of Crimea, it is clear that Putin has a deliberate plan for Russia.

Despite the bewilderment being expressed from western leaders, the events in Crimea are actually logical extensions of a long-standing push for a renewal of Russian nationalism and anti-west sentiments not seen so strongly in the region since the Cold War.

Putin’s resentment of the west is not new, he just hasn’t shown his disregard and hatred so blatantly before. Now he is showing his hatred for western-dominated world politics, and he doesn’t need to meet with the Russian Congress, or Duma, to do it.  Putin knew economic sanctions would be inevitable, but he also knows that those sanctions can only go so far.

Russia’s oil gives it more power than European leaders are willing to admit, and we’ve already seen Germany, the economic powerhouse of the continent, hesitate to severely punish Russia. So now it is a matter of how much the west can really punish Russia for its actions.  Doing too little could encourage Russia to take other chunks of land it deems valuable.

Doing too much could trigger a Russian response (like, say, shutting off the gas to Ukraine) that would only exacerbate tensions.

The bottom line is that no one in the west can be sure of Putin’s intentions, and Obama said as much in a recent interview.

When we look back on this conflict many years from now, we may see it as an isolated incident that only temporarily hurt Russia’s relations with the west. Or it might be part of a bigger trend towards the kind of isolationism that defined communist Russia.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Russia’s actions in the Crimea peninsula of Ukraine have drawn the ire of the international community.  President Barack Obama has accused Russia of violating international law and the U.S. has moved forward with economic sanctions, which Obama said are intended to, “impose a cost on Russia and those responsible for the situation in Crimea.”

Now the Crimean parliament has moved to have citizens vote on March 16 to determine if the region will join Russia or restore its 1992 constitution, under which it would remain a part of Ukraine.  The vote has been characterized by Kiev, home of the new Ukrainian government, as unconstitutional and “totally illegitimate.”

But international conflicts are rarely black and white, and if leaders and citizens in the West do not consider every side of the Crimean crisis, then they are  demonstrating the same closed-mindedness that they claim Russia is guilty of. In one of the most serious confrontations between Russia and the west since the Cold War, Russian President Vladimir Putin has clearly made false claims aimed at avoiding international blame (the most obvious and egregious of which is his assertion that the Russian military has not yet intervened in Crimea).

AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda:
On Monday, March 10, 2014, a man pastes a poster promoting the referendum in Crimea. The poster says, “Together with Russia! March 16 – Referendum!” in Simferopol, Ukraine. Sunday, March 16, 2014, a referendum was called to see if the region should split off and become a part of Russia.

Putin’s denials and his refusal to talk with Ukrainian Interim President Oleksander Turchinov make pushes for negotiation difficult. After talking with Putin on March 2, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Obama that the Russian president was living “in another world,” according to the New York Times. But as Western leaders and media alike condemn Putin’s aggressive actions, they ignore the completely understandable logic of those actions. The Ukraine was a vital part of the former Soviet Union, representing its manufacturing base and greatly contributing to its agricultural output.

Crimea specifically is of major strategic importance, with its Black Sea ports and a major Russian naval fleet operating on a lease in Sevastopol.  With the majority of Crimeans ethnically Russian, Putin is making a calculated decision to take advantage of a vulnerable Ukrainian government and rein Crimea back in to Russia. A closer examination of the situation reveals just how little Russia has to lose.

The idea of the U.S. or any other European country committing troops to the situation is almost unthinkable, and Russia’s military is over seven times the size of Ukraine’s.  Economic sanctions are a lot easier for the U.S. to impose than Europe, because Russia supplies about a third of the continent’s gas.

Russia has shut off gas lines in the name of political conflicts before, and that threat has European countries understandably hesitant to follow in the U.S.’s footsteps.

Add it all up, and this feels more like a chess match than a war. Of all the ways to view the situation, none seem to indicate Russia is going anywhere anytime soon.

This brings us back to the March 16 election. Because Russian occupation will likely continue, Western leaders should be making it clear that they will not honor the results of the election unless it is carefully monitored by United Nations officials. No amount of Russian troops or European aid can shake the sentiments of the Crimean population.  The West’s goal for Crimea’s future should reflect the desires of the Crimean people.

Zach Winn  can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

The Athlete of the Week this week is sophomore lacrosse player, Tyler McKelvie.  The attacker was an instrumental part of the Owl’s season-opening upset over eleventh-seeded Western New England Tuesday, February 25.  The Acton, Massachusetts native started the Owls’ season off on a good foot by scoring the game’s first goal just a minute and 14 seconds into the match. McKelvie scored two more goals in the second quarter to give the Owls a solid 6-2 lead going into halftime.  McKelvie scored again in the third and broke a 9-9 tie in the fourth, with his fifth goal of the day, which gave the Owls a lead they would never  give up.  McKelvie followed that game up with a three goal performance less than a week later in a loss at Rensselaer.  As a freshman last year, McKelvie started all 17 games and led the team with 34 goals.  If the first two games are any indication, McKelvie should only build off of his stellar first year.

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Our first runner-up this week is senior runner Ryan Widzgowski. Competing at the New England Open and Masters Championships against competition from different divisions, Widzgowski came within .4 seconds of setting a new Keene State College record in the mile.  It was Widzgowski’s personal best and it was good for fourth overall. Widzgowski then teamed up with fellow KSC runners Devin Sanford, Eric Dietz and James Sturgis-Cox to break a school record in relay that was set earlier this year.  Now only one meet separates the Owls from the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, which Widzgowski will compete in.

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Our second runner-up this week is  sophomore center Nate Howard.  Howard was the lone bright spot in the team’s final game of the season—an 81-68 loss at UMass Dartmouth.  Although the team shot just 34.8 percent for the night, Howard hit half of his 12 shots and led the team with 16 points.  Howard also filled the box score with six rebounds, two steals and two blocks.  Unfortunately, the effort was not enough to avoid a first round loss in the Little Eastern Conference tournament. As the six seed, the Owls weren’t expected to make much of a splash, but the young squad will have many more chances to leave their mark on the league in coming years.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

The Cheshire Medical Center is planning a ten-month emergency room renovation that is set to begin in early May.

“The changes will allow for more comfort, more privacy, a better ability to monitor patients and more staff space, with everything located in a more logical manner,” Emergency Care Center Director, Amy Matthews, said.

According to Matthews, the city planning board approved renovations in January, which will involve changing the layout of the existing emergency room, while adding 2,400 square feet to the department. Matthews said currently, curtains are the only things separating half of the ER’s 24 treatment spaces. Matthews expanded on why this separation was a problem.

“There’s no privacy, there’s minimal infection control, there’s not very much space—which makes it loud and not very comforting to patients and family,” Matthews said.

Matthews added the new model will feature identical single-bedrooms that are designed to increase patient placement flexibility.

Contributed Graphic / Amy Matthews:
Cheshire Medical Center’s future design plans for an improved emergency room is shown.

Vice President of Clinical and Support Services, Paul Pezone, also said the increase in mental health patients being treated in the ER was a reason for the change.

“We don’t have the most ideal layout to take good care of [mental health patients] and keep them segregated but in close proximity to the rest of the emergency department,” Pezone said.

Matthews said America’s growing dependence on computer work stations were other reasons a more spacious department was necessary. “We looked at national guidelines and realized that our square footage was not going to meet our needs, so we are doing a minor expansion in terms of space,” Matthews said.

Matthews reasoned that there have been, “growing pains and concerns” about the ER for several years, but said the hospital has made only minor adjustments in an attempt to find short-term solutions.

“You can only make so many temporary changes before you’re out of options, so we’ve really maximized the space we have,” Matthews said. Although both Pezone and Matthews insisted the changes were not the result of any specific events, the Keene Sentinel cited, “several violent incidents in recent years” may have been a factor in the renovation decisions.

Matthews acknowledged working in the ER can be very stressful at times and sees a more open area as a way to alleviate some of that stress. The process of identifying problems with the ER and finding solutions has been a long one. Matthews explained various hospital staff has been meeting with a senior project management team nearly every week for the past ten months, trying to determine the best approach to the renovation.

“First we looked at, could we do it without a major renovation? Could we do something less comprehensive and less expensive?” Matthews explained, “We realized we really needed to do the right thing for our community, we had to do a major expansion.”

From there, they submitted an application detailing the renovation plans to the state, which had a committee tour the ER in January before approving. The last step is a public hearing in April that will allow citizens to scrutinize the plans and ask questions. Barring a major setback at the public hearing, construction will start less than a month later.

Director of Keene State College Health and Wellness, Christine Burke, said the school has a close relationship with Cheshire Medical Center and indicated the two communities interact nearly everyday in some form or another.

“We obviously refer students [to the ER] in any kind of emergency situation, or if they need any medical care that is beyond our scope,” Burke said.

Burke, who estimates that students are treated at Cheshire Medical Center nearly every day, said the school stands to benefit from the changes. “Anyone who stays there—that’s going to benefit them and our students are included in that,” Burke said.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

Russia’s discrimination towards the gay and lesbian community has caused much uproar in the lead up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, which start February 7.  There have even been calls to boycott the games in light of the legal and social restrictions gays and lesbians face in Russia.  But I don’t think boycotting the games would be an appropriate or effective response.

Currently, Russia has no law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, something the United Nations has openly condemned.

Some thought that awarding a Russian city the honor of hosting the Olympics would soften the country’s stance on homosexual rights, but the international spotlight has not deterred Russian President Vladimir Putin— or the Russian people—from openly opposing the prospect of treating homosexuals like equals.

In June of 2013, the Russian government passed a law banning, “homosexual propaganda.”  The vagueness of the law can be used to prevent any form of demonstration that suggests that homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals.

AP Photo / Robert Bukaty: The Olympic rings greet everyone who enters The Sochi Olympic Park.

The controversy this law inevitably stirred up led some, including German President Joachim Gauck, to push for mass boycotting of the Sochi games.  Fueling this movement was President Barack Obama’s decision not to attend.

People have speculated that President Obama’s decision is a symbolic protest, although he has repeatedly said it has nothing to do with human rights issues in Russia.

But the Olympics have never been a place for political demonstrations.  The games are all about the celebration of athleticism, sport and competition.  They put country against country and bring out nationalistic pride like no other event.

People have boycotted or demonstrated in Olympic games before, but the Olympics simply has nothing to do with politics. It is above politics.

It’s also important to consider just what good a protest would do for the gay and lesbian community in Russia.  Sure, it would send a message, but that message would quickly be forgotten once the games start and the excitement begins.

These athletes have been training their entire lives for this moment.  For some, this year’s games are the only ones that they will qualify for.  Is robbing them of a once-in -a-lifetime chance the best method for political protest?

After the games are over, the heat cools down on Russia’s human rights violations and nothing has changed, it will be hard to explain to those athletes that the boycott was worth it.

A much more effective message could be sent by winning an event and voicing your support for the gay and lesbian community while you have the attention of the world. That’s the way you get your voice heard and truly make a difference.

Because the truth is, a boycott will accomplish nothing. Much of the criticism over Russia’s anti-gay policies have been focused on Putin, and rightfully so.  He is the president and he passes legislation without challengers.

But the Russian people have made it clear they support their leader’s harsh stance on gay rights. The Russians historically have always been a very socially conservative society. In March of 2013, a Levada Public Opinion Poll reported that 85 percent of Russians were strongly opposed to a law that would legalize same-sex marriage, according to pewresearch.org.

That is an unbelievably overwhelming majority. When considering the poll data, Putin looks less like an intolerable maverick and more like a leader supporting the views of his country.

Boycotting the Sochi games won’t change any of that.  The gay and lesbian community know they have the international community on their side.  They will be better served with our supportive presence than with our absence.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

The Athlete of the Week this week is Junior swimmer, Randy Dunton.  Dunton won three events in the team’s most recent meet against Bentley to lead the team.  Keene State College held their own against their division II competition, eventually winning the meet 185-103.  Dunton, who hails from St. Cloud, Florida, is the only junior on a young team that has looked experienced beyond their years so far this season.  Dunton won the 100-meter back with a time of 54.35, the 200-meter back with a time of 2:00.7 and touched the wall first in the 200-meter individual medley at 2:04.28.  While most of his teammates probably felt out of their element on the team’s recent trip to Florida, Dunton, who grew up in central Florida, must have felt right at home.

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Our first runner-up this week is Sophomore swimmer Alison Bartlett.  Bartlett won two races for the women, who won 11 of 14 races overall on the day to beat Bentley 162-129.  Bartlett, who is from Stratham, New Hampshire, won the 50-meter free with a time of 24.53, then won the 100-meter free, clocking in at 54.49.  The sophomore was one of three girls to win multiple races for the Lady Owls.  Teammates Amber Long (sophomore) and Caitlyn Shea (junior) were the others.

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The second runner-up this week is Junior Guard Tom Doyle.  Doyle has been a gunner all year, leading the team in field goal attempts per game with 14.8.  Sometimes shooters can be stereotyped as ball-hogs or selfish, but on a young team that has sometimes struggled to score this season Doyle and his 44.6 field goal percentage are welcomed.  In a blowout loss to Eastern Connecticut State last week Doyle led the team with 23 points to go with seven rebounds and four steals.  He followed that performance up with 18 points and six rebounds in a key win against LEC rival U-Mass Boston on Saturday.  A big part of that point total came from Doyle’s four three-pointers­— Doyle has been scorching hot from long range all season, making 44 percent of his shots from downtown.  With only three upperclassmen on the team the Wallingford, Connecticut native has assumed a leadership role out of necessity.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com

I was nine-years-old when the New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams to win their first Super Bowl in 2001.

I went to my friend’s house to watch the game and we ended up spending more time outside than we did in front of the television.  The truth is, I don’t even remember watching Tom Brady and the Patriots pull off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.

If it was 15 years earlier, I may still be cursing my ambivalent attitude towards the game that night.

How could I have taken it for granted?  When would I ever get a chance to see that game again?

Erin D’Aleo / Equinox Staff

Fortunately for me and sports fans everywhere— except maybe St. Louis— it’s 2014 and the full game as it was originally broadcasted is only a couple clicks away.

Youtube allows anyone with a computer and a foggy memory to relive the classic sports moments of yesteryear.

Want to see Michael Jordan win his first championship?  Barry Bonds hit his five-hundredth home run? Mike Tyson getting knocked out? It’s all at your fingertips.

Not all sports have embraced the Youtube movement at the same speed, of course.  The NBA has turned its cheek to copyright infringement, allowing most notable basketball games to stay on Youtube in their entirety.

The line of reasoning there is pretty simple: how can increased exposure do anything but help a league trying to improve its image and build a global market?

Finding full NFL games is a little harder, but league commissioner Roger Goodell has been in talks with Youtube about a potential streaming deal that would allow fans to watch live games through Youtube as soon as 2015.

After years of being behind the curve, the MLB signed a deal with Youtube in the spring of 2013 that made hundreds of classic games available instantly.

The point that gets lost in all of this is that Youtube is fundamentally changing the way our society consumes sports.

When Lebron James throws down a monster-dunk, twitter is flooded with links to the Youtube clip. Fans can watch a replay as many times as they want without being at the mercy of the broadcasting station.

The term “Youtube sensation” is tossed around regularly now— a good example being Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s impassioned postgame rant after the NFC championship.  Sherman’s harsh words sparked controversy over the last two weeks and 1.3 million people have watched the Youtube video to decide if it was offensive for themselves.

That number should only climb in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.

With an internet juggernaut backing it up (Google bought Youtube for $1.65 billion in 2006) the possibilities are endless.

It’s hard to see any negatives to the emergence of Youtube (unless you’re on the receiving end of one of the aforementioned Lebron dunks).  The Youtube brand will continue to grow— and for sports fans, that’s a good thing.

Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com