Coming into her first season as head coach of the women’s golf team, Kory Thompson was privy to the Lady Jaguars’ strengths and weaknesses.

Thompson, who previously coached the women’s golf team at Charleston Southern University – leading them to the Big South Championship during her first season as coach – said after playing in one or two Augusta State University-hosted tournaments, she had grown adept at gauging the team’s many strong suits.

“I already had an idea who their strong players were,” Thompson said. “I also paid attention to how they hit the ball and things like that. I kind of knew what their game was like just by looking at their stats from the past and through (Charleston Southern) playing them during tournaments.”

Thompson went on to say that one thing she immediately noticed about the Lady Jaguars was the team’s great chemistry and work ethic and how those qualities contributed to their success last year. As the NCAA Regionals approach, Thompson said she has mulled over the season frequently.
“Everyone’s been on the same page, and everyone’s been striving hard towards the same goal,” she said. “I don’t any have regrets for the season. I mean, we had that one bad instance in Texas where (we) got disqualified, but if you take that away, we’d probably rank in the top 30 (women’s golf programs) in the country.”

Senior Kirsty Rands, who turned in a respectable 3-over 75 during the team’s final round at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, described how Thompson’s coaching this season has almost guaranteed the Lady Jaguars a beeline path to regionals.

“Her coaching has been excellent,” Rands said. “She’s helped us a lot with drills – a lot with additional drills compared to last year – and a lot with our short game. There’s just a lot more focus than last year on getting it (the ball) into the hole as well as different shots to hit during tournaments.”

As the team awaits regionals, Thompson said she continues to push her players hard in practice, in addition to having them face off in match-play “tournaments” against themselves.

“It’s just kind of a way to keep the competition going since we had such a long break before regionals,” she explained. “Right now, we’re just doing that, and we’ve continued to practice three days a week and work hard on our weak areas.”

Thompson said she feels good about the team’s prospects for regionals, stating that she is “95 percent sure” the Lady Jaguars will be selected to play.

“I feel good about it,” Thompson said. “We had a great year. We won a tournament, got second in an event. We worked really hard. So, when it comes down to regionals, I think we’ll be fine.”

Rands concurred, adding insights on the past season and what she expects from both herself and her fellow teammates come regionals as far as improvements are concerned.

“We’re all playing pretty good at the moment, so I expect us to be ready by the time we get to regionals,” Rands said. “Our last tournament at(the University of) Georgia, we had a chance to play with some of the better teams in the nation, and for some reason, we didn’t play that great. So, we’re just trying to push ourselves a bit harder towards regionals and play our best.”

Rands admitted distance control was an area she felt weak in. She said focusing on smaller things like putting and missing greens was something she planned to do prior to regionals. As for the team’s overall improvements, Thompson said she agreed with Rands, saying it all boils down to fine-tuning the small things.

“We always focus on their short game,” Thompson said. “And it’s the same for any team: If you got the best short-team in the country, you’re probably going to be one of the better teams out there.”

Freshman Stephanie Bennett is one player in particular who Thompson said she feels has experienced the most growth this season. The coach said she has seen Bennett’s scores drop consistently during her stint on the Lady Jaguars’ team and has high hopes for the Appling native.

“She’s definitely heading in the right direction,” Thompson said. “It’s just a matter of learning your weaknesses and always focusing on your short game. If she keeps working hard in that area, I know she’ll be one of our top players.”

Although the season has had rough patches here and there, according to Thompson, the team has learned and grown from those experiences and will hopefully be able to draw back on them in time for regionals.

“It’s definitely been a learning experience for all of us,” Thompson said. “But these girls have had a great year, and they’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. We’re just really excited about what lies ahead of us.”

Second graders at C.T. Walker Magnet School are putting their creativity to use in an unexpected field with the help of Augusta State University.

Two of the school’s second-grade classes – consisting of 42 students total – are in the process of producing two 20-minute radio shows. Teachers Stacy Bearden and Marcie Evans have collaborated with Sea Stachura, a professor of communications at Augusta State, to help the second graders oversee the production.

After learning the magnet school had developed an interest in new avenues of education earlier in the year, Stachura and Augusta State’s communications department approached Renee Kelly, principal of C.T. Walker, with the idea of putting together a “youth radio,” something that immediately appealed to both Kelly and the faculty.

“Dr. Kelly wanted to push the school in more of a communication and tech-savvy direction,” Stachura said. “So, she asked our department to collaborate with their second graders to help do that. We (Augusta State) have a track in television and cinema, journalism, etc., and these are all areas that they thought would be really useful to their kids.”

Over the course of three weeks, Evans and Bearden’s second grade classes have worked alongside students in Stachura’s radio and podcasting class to produce the radio shows with the intention of debuting the finished product at the magnet school’s Honors Day program. Bearden said although the radio show is in its “pilot” phase, it has managed to bring about a new wave of communication studies for the school.

“We’re a magnet school, but we wanted focus more on that ‘magnet’ area,” she said. “Dr. Kelly’s really interested in technology and communications, so we’re hoping that this will be the beginning of a long-term collaboration with ASU, one that we can introduce to other grade levels.”

Having worked close with Heartsong, a well-known animal rescue group, for a service project throughout the term, the second graders decided to use their radio show to discuss the importance of animal care. Stachura said both second grade classes incorporated games that forced them to think about ways to describe their topic to someone without visuals instead using only their voices. Through simple words and sounds, the 8-year-olds created fictional tales revolving around animal care. Evans said that she has picked up on creative drives unseen from her students prior to the production.

“They’re making up stories that are extremely descriptive,” Evans said. “The other day, my kids made up one about a 1-year-old abandoned puppy that had to live out on the streets and is now looking for a home. These are the types of stories they’re coming up with, and it’s just great.”

Bearden said the overarching goal of the project was to improve the children’s communication skills by first honing their persuasive skills.

“We’ve been working on persuasive writing all year,” Bearden said. “So this (the radio show) has been a great way to teach them about how to hook their audience through persuasion. One of the ways we’ve done that is by having them create little jingles and advertisements during the show’s breaks to draw people in.”

Like the show, the advertisements are written by the students and, according to Evans, also focus on animals. In addition to the commercials, the second graders wrote skits, songs, a show opener and a full script for the actual program. Stachura said doing this has helped the children create effective messages that deliver the message of their topic.

“What we’re having them think about is how to persuade,” she said. “So, they’re taking what they’ve learned from their service project with Heartsong and applying it to their radio show in a persuasive way.”

Bearden and Evans said prospects are high for the program’s return next year, but both teachers agreed there is room for improvement.

“Scheduling this at the end of the term has been pretty intense,” Bearden said. “So, hopefully, next year, one thing we’ll work on is timing. I think getting started a little bit earlier would be more ideal. It’s a rough time of the year for the little ones; they’re excited that school’s going to be out soon, so they’re a little bit rambunctious.”

Overall, both Bearden and Evans said they consider the project a success and are eager to see what the future holds for next year’s radio show.

“Although it’s been rough trying to squeeze the project into just a few short weeks, it’s been a great experience,” Bearden said. “The kids have really enjoyed it, and they’ve learned so much. So I think their final product will be reflective of that.”

Oh, Augusta, Ga. I’m still in the process of adjusting to the city’s questionable road behavior. Perhaps it comes from not being raised in Georgia. I’ve never really acknowledged the city of Augusta as “home,” but it’s still the place where I first learned how to drive; I even received my license here. But despite having lived here for as long as I have, I continue to have trouble understanding the mindsets of drivers in the area. Is terrible driving really something I should have grown accustomed to over time? Well, I never received the memo, but I have done a little research. According to a study by GMAC Insurance in 2011, Georgia ranked ninth on a list of the country’s “Worst Driving States.”

Maybe the state’s absurd amount of tailgaters contributed to that ranking. Most likely not, but I’m convinced Augusta is much like a lion’s den when it comes to obnoxious tailgaters. They run or, rather, tailgate rampantly on expressways like Calhoun Expressway, and for the life of me, I can never figure out a reason urgent enough for someone to drive literally inches away from my bumper. What’s worse is, usually, these tailgaters have an entire lane open for them to go around. It’s almost as if they feel destined to rear-end my car. Sure, I could change lanes myself, but I shouldn’t be forced to because of some road hog who’s in a rush to nowhere.

My next complaint could be considered a shallow one – certainly one that hasn’t placed Georgia on the country’s “Worst Driving” list – but to those individuals out there with “tricked out” sound systems: Hearing music blare from your car into mine really isn’t something I’d care to endure at 7:30 a.m. My days tend to start early and end late, so the last thing I want to greet the morning to is the irritating sensation of my car shaking and ears rattling. There’s a time and place for that, and it’s definitely not during my morning commute to class.

The afternoons are worse, and, ironically enough, it’s not even due to traffic or any of rush hour’s standard annoyances but rather the ride through my own neighborhood. There’s a number of older drivers in my community, who – God bless them – just should not be sitting behind a steering wheel. My neighborhood has its share of twists and turns, bends and curves, and I always have to brace myself driving around one in particular because one of my neighbors, a man in his 70s, seems to race around it at approximately the same time every day.

It’s truly a miracle how he’s never been involved in a serious accident, but am I really supposed to sit idly by until the day arrives when he is? And I’m his victim? Augusta’s a great city, and I hate rants like this just as much as the next person, but some of our driving laws need a bit of amending, especially those regarding the elderly. Until they are, I’ll just continue counting down the days until I wave my last goodbye to the Garden City.

Although the Masters had drawn to a close, golf fans and out-of-towners alike were able to enjoy the CSRA’s next best thing.

More than 60 schools from across the country competed in the sixth annual National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships at the Hippodrome in North Augusta, S.C., this month. Allen Cain, Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) events manager and general manager of this year’s collegiate tournament, said that the event owes its success to national disc golf champion Pete May.

“Not only is he a great disc golfer, but he’s also the founder of this tournament,” Cain said. “He wanted to come up with a (collegiate) event that could be held every year; one that would draw the world of disc golf to Augusta (Ga.).”

May has served as the tournament’s chairman for the past five years, but at the age of 71, he has decided to hand the reigns over to his son Derek for this year’s championships. Cain said that May has gone out of his way to establish the sport of disc golf in Augusta.

“Augusta is quickly becoming the mecca of disc golf as whole,” Cain said of the sport. “The growth of collegiate disc golf has really taken an upswing in the last three years.”

The tournament, which, according to Cain, has seen a massive influx of registered teams since 2009, also boosts tourism and traffic into the city.

“We always run our collegiate championship the weekend after the Masters,” Cain said. “Augusta is a great place for the championships because everyone’s fueled on golf. They understand the game of golf. Disc golf is played the same way, except with different equipment.”

Cain said that being able to feed off the town’s energy from the Masters and then transmit that energy into the national collegiate championship has proven successful for both the PDGA and the world of disc golf. He also said that the collegiate event helps bring revenue into the city.

“The Masters has a huge economic impact on the city, but we’ve also seen an economic impact just as far as our event goes,” Cain said. “I mean, we’re up to 316 players on our roster, plus they bring friends and caddies. And usually, the Ramada, our host hotel this year, is mostly empty after the Masters. But now we’re filling up those rooms again with this tournament.”

Augusta State University’s leadership coordinator Elizabeth Shorts said that she was not entirely sure whether the championships benefit from the Masters Tournament directly, but more importantly, she stated that Augusta State’s disc golf team had been previously operating under the school’s name without authorization.

“They were using the Augusta State name when they weren’t supposed to be,” Shorts laughed. “We were not registered with the PDGA. We had a group of students who would go out and play games before they were chartered last spring, and they just took it upon themselves to use the name ‘Augusta State University.’ They were not recognized, they were not funded and they were not sanctioned was an official university. It wasn’t until they were officially registered last spring that they were allowed to use our name officially.”

As far as the tournament itself is concerned, Cain said that spectators were able to see the same standard of traditional rivalries this year. For instance, the 2011 champions from the University of Oregon, who finished fifth in 2012, faced off against third-place finisher Augusta State in a “rivalry round” with a doubles format where both teams will play an entire round on the same tee simultaneously. But Cain said that Oregon and Augusta State were just one of this year’s many rivalries.

“I wouldn’t say they (were) the biggest rivalry this year,” Cain divulged. “The competitive level in collegiate disc golf has really grown this year. Clemson and Georgia Tech also have a rivalry between themselves and they’ve been playing matches against each other throughout the year. The Universities of Georgia and South Carolina also have a pretty good rivalry. Basically every natural school rivalry you can think of is still apparent in disc golf and it always leads to a bit of joking and jostling amongst the teams.”

Cain also said that with the addition of new schools registering to play in this year’s qualifying round, the National Collegiate Disc Golf Union (NCDGU) has implemented a new rule to sift out low-ranking teams.

“Because we’re having so many teams come out to play this year, we’ve decided to make a cut,” Cain said. “After our (main) singles match, we (had) a round of doubles and then two more rounds of singles. After the final round of singles, the top twenty teams (continued) to play on through the tournament.”

Coinciding with the tournament was the Savannah River Spring Fling, a side event designated to entertain spectators who break away from watching the game.

“In the past, we’ve had a few spectators that come out and watch the tournament for a little bit, and they really didn’t know what else to do, so they left,” Cain said. “This year, we wanted to keep them at the course a little longer and give them something to do; some way to relax and have a good time. So we’re running the Savannah River Spring Fling to focus on sports and games for an entire family to partake in.”

Cain said the Fling was held alongside the championship at the Hippodrome and featured live music, a clogging performance, bounce houses for children to play in, and other side events to keep audiences preoccupied. Cain believed that the Fling will contribute toward the tournament’s growth, something that the events manager has also seen the Internet provide.

“We’re seeing amazing growth,” Cain said. “I did my internship at the PDGA and the whole internship was helping plan the national championship, and I was able to take the same energy and feel that Pete (May) had and take it online. We hadn’t had that in the past. So being online has really garnered us a lot of exposure to teams everywhere, and we’ve begun to see a lot of growth [for disc golf] not just in the Southeast where it’s typically been but all over the country.”

McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chic-fil-A and other chain restaurants may soon be willing to offer their services on campus following the impending consolidation.

Karl Munschy, director of business services at Augusta State University, said because the new school is poised to house over 10,000 students, large companies like Burger King may see the University as a more attractive business partner.

“We tried to get Chic-fil-A at Augusta State for a long time, but they’ve never been interested in coming here,” Munschy said. “But I think a restaurant like that would be much more interested in a 10,000-student university versus a 7,000-student university. So, I think the likelihood of that happening – having an actual franchise restaurant here on campus – is really high.”

Being a larger university, Georgia Health Sciences University already provides a variety of food service areas on its campus and is several paces ahead of Augusta State when it comes to campus dining. But Dale Hartenburg, GHSU’s director of student and auxiliary services, touched on how there is still room for improvement and how the merger may reform the medical college’s dining system.

“I think consolidation has the potential to improve the delivery we can provide to the students just by simply providing better service,” Hartenburg said. “I think our current vendors provide excellent service, but I think our services will have improved once we begin interacting with Augusta State with this consolidation.”

Aside from a more commercialized campus, students may also be able to look out for new and updated services like food trucks and snack huts, respectively.

“A food truck would be great because it could hop between the two campuses,” Munschy said. “It could hit the real peak times down here on Walton Way and the real peak times at the second campus. So, this consolidation will be a great opportunity to consider how to do things differently.”

As far as collaborating with GHSU’s work teams on food and other auxiliary services, Munschy said communication with the school’s project management office has been “fantastic and highly organized.” He also noted that the teams are currently focused on comparing the two schools’ individual services.

“We’ve been meeting to discuss all of our auxiliary services, not just food services,” Munschy pointed out. “We’re looking at things that they have that we don’t have; for instance, they have a childcare center and a wellness center. Shuttle operations are also something we have to look at.  They’ve got nine shuttles and we’ve got four. So, we’ve got to figure out how to blend all of that together and determine what’s going to be the best result.”

Hartenburg went on to discuss how students who frequent the Walton Way campus may benefit from some of GHSU’s advanced services.

“During the March SGA meeting here on the GHSU campus, Dr. Azziz explicitly stated that all services (currently at GHSU) would be available to all students,” Hartenburg ensured. “And so that goes for both our childcare facility and our wellness center.”

Housing and student enrollment, Munschy said, will prove to be major factors in judging how to disperse food services around the new university. With a consolidated school, Munschy stated there will be more
venues to support.

“If the vision for this university is that we’re going to become a more residential campus – and if we’re building a lot more housing – then that’s what will affect food services,” Munschy said. “If we have housing and two residential campuses like UGA, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, that changes food services dramatically.”

Munschy said that a full-service cafeteria would be most ideal for a school that consists of students in the thousands. However, the question of location remains unanswered.

“We’re not sure where the location would be, whether it’s going to be out at west campus or somewhere else, but if they (these 10,000 students) are all eating, we have to provide enough food for that many residents,” Munschy said.   “At the moment, we don’t have enough food service capacity to handle that kind of operation. Therefore, we’re looking at building a new food service facility, which will very likely be similar to a real, traditional kind of cafeteria that you’d see at other universities.”

But students should not expect to experience such an evolved campus any time soon. Munschy said that even in the first quarter of 2013, the JSAC food court and other campus dining services will probably look the same. Negotiating with vendors like McDonald’s or Chic-fil-A this early in the year has not been a vital priority on the work team’s agenda.

“We haven’t gotten approval yet, but both Augusta State and GHSU have decided to renew their respective contracts through June 30, 2013,” Munschy explained. “That makes the most sense because, right now, there are just too many unknowns for us to go out and ask vendors to provide food services for the school. In a sense, we’re kind of selling our campus to these vendors because we want to get the best bid back from them.”

At the end of the day, Munschy said he feels that the consolidation’s effect on food services will be a gradual change, one that has him and all involved excited.

“We’ve kind of been trying to step outside of the box that we’ve working in for a long time and say, ‘Okay, let’s wipe the slate clean and see what we can do now,’” Munschy said.  “And that’s really the exciting part of this consolidation.”

With two of its best right-handed pitchers coping with injuries, Augusta State University’s men’s baseball team has found their way into a serious rut.

According to head coach Chris Cooper, pitchers Scott Shipman and Dylan Wall have both shown signs of tendinitis throughout the season. Cooper said that although it is still unknown when the injuries that caused the pitchers’ tendinitis occurred, they have ultimately resulted in a major setback for the team, which currently stands at 12-31, including a 3-23 record in Peach Belt Conference play.

Wall, whose tendinitis first appeared at the beginning of the season, was originally penciled in as a weekend starter but sat out for several weeks following his diagnosis. As for Shipman – who has been recovering from tendinitis in his rotator cuff – Cooper said that he is not entirely sure when the pitcher first started experiencing pain.

“I think he tried to pitch through some stuff and not be completely honest with us at the beginning of the year,” Cooper said. “It may have occurred during the summer lifting weights, but I eventually just told him that he wasn’t going to pick up a ball again until he went and saw a doctor. But with that injury, he’s done for the year, so that has definitely hurt us as a team.”

Cooper, who admitted that the pitching staff’s walk numbers have been exceptionally high this year, explained that due to Shipman’s shoulder pains, the pitcher has struggled to throw strikes with the same proficiency he displayed in previous seasons.

“This year so far, his velocity has been way down,” Cooper said. “But the key thing is, you have to command the strike zone, and we haven’t done a very good job of that this year.”

Pitching out of the bullpen is senior right-handed pitcher Chase Johnston, a key player who some feel should have played a more vital role on the pitching staff this season. Cooper said that while Johnston is one of the team’s most essential pitchers, starting him during games has often proven difficult.

“You know, if you got three guys that are really good and you start them, well now you’re worried about who you’re going to bring in after them,” Cooper said. “That’s something we’ve kind of been toying with. Chase is actually four appearances away from breaking the school record in career appearances. If he gets four more appearances in the last ten games, that’ll give him 69 appearances. So we’ve used him an awful lot.”

As far as improvements are concerned, Cooper has acknowledged that the team is perhaps “one of the worst-hitting teams in the league,” making batting a priority during practices.

“The way the guys swung the bat in the fall was excellent,” Cooper said. “We had some key guys that had a great season last year at the plate that are having some trouble this year. But we have to definitely start swinging the bat a lot better. I mean, we might be averaging three runs a game. So, it doesn’t matter how great your pitching staff is when you’re scoring two or three runs a game. We have to start getting better offensively and pitching-wise and just stop walking guys.”

However, Shipman said that he felt the team should return to the basics of the game and focus on much smaller aspects.

“Right now, we’re just struggling to throw strikes and field the ball, but we’re also struggling with the basics of the game,” he said. “Things just aren’t falling our way right now, and we’re making a lot of errors, but hopefully we can turn things around.”

Cooper said the coaching staff tries to integrate the basics into practice daily, but when the time rolls around to compete in actual games, nerves run high.

“As for what happens in games, I don’t know,” Cooper said.  “That’s the million dollar question.  I’ve been grinding over that for the past two months. We’ve coached probably as hard as we can coach, and guys can go in there during batting practice and square everything up, and guys can do forty-five minutes of ground-ball a day, but when you get in the game and you don’t field them (ground balls), there’s nothing you can do about it.”

While Cooper considers this season one that the team “would like to forget,” he said that he is still adamant about finding that perfect mix of players for a starting lineup that will hopefully garner the University success in future years.

“We try to break it down each day during practices,” Cooper said. “But baseball’s very interesting. I can’t sub guys in and out during games. With basketball and volleyball, you can handle egos better because you can sub guys in and out based on how they’re playing.”

Despite the team’s lackluster performance thus far, Cooper remains hopeful about the Jaguars’ prospects for the rest of the season. He said he hopes the team can finish its season strong in order to gain some momentum heading into the 2013 campaign. Accomplishing that goal, however, will be left up to the Jaguars themselves.

“We sat down with the guys one day before a weekend series and asked them for their greatest personal highlight and their greatest team highlight,” Cooper recalled. “You know, we have 15 or 16 guys on this team that won a state championship in baseball in high school. And I try to break that down to them as, you know, those games were way more pressure-filled than a game we’re playing on Tuesday. And those are the things they have to reflect on. We try to boost their confidence and let them know, ‘Hey, you practiced, you worked your tail off. The game’s the fun part; it should come easy.’”

There are worse things than being passionate or even obsessed about the care of animals according to Barbarra Gleitsmann, co-founder and president of CSRA Happy Tails Rescue.

Happy Tails, which celebrated its ninth anniversary this past December, has become a sort of ministry for Gleitsmann. Those unaware of her charitable acts in the community may peg her as a bit “pet-obsessed,” but the pet advocate said devoting herself to the well-being of animals living under dire circumstances has become her calling.

“I was originally affiliated with another group in the community before this, which taught me a lot,” Gleitsmann said. “But eventually, several of us decided that we wanted to do things a little differently, and so we founded Happy Tails. I think it’s grown and flourished so wonderfully over the years. I’m very proud of our impact in the community.”

Despite her firm dedication, Gleitsmann said many still feel urged to raise an eyebrow at the number of pets she cares for. She owns 12 pets total: seven cats and five dogs. All were rescued and all are from her foster group. Several have been with Gleitsmann since the founding of Happy Tails, and to this day, she admits to having trouble remembering all of their names. But this never factors in to the amount of love and care distributed to each pet.

“Sometimes it can be a little difficult focusing on each one individually, but they’re all unique, and you know, you just do it,” she said. “And some people, I guess, would think I’m crazy to have all of those pets, but they all needed me, and I needed them.

As far as living is concerned, a lack of legroom is the last thing Gleitsmann’s pets have to worry about. The cats and dogs are free to roam the sprawling acreage of her country home in Appling, Ga.

Also located in Appling is Augusta Conservation Education, a non-profit rescue organization founded by fellow animal expert Tim Gress.

Trained under legendary animal caretaker Bhagavan Antle, Gress said he started the organization after witnessing the poor conditions that Lucy Lynx – mascot for the Augusta Lynx hockey team – lived under. Gress soon discovered this destitute living standard was not exclusive to Lucy; it was a widespread problem.

“We visited a lot of backyard breeders during our time caring for Lucy,” Gress recalled. “And the condition that these breeders’ animals were living in was deplorable. So, my wife and I decided to start Augusta Conservatory Education here on our property to raise awareness for people who have little knowledge about the way animals are being mistreated around the world.”

According to John C. Wright, a professor of psychology at Mercer University, the tendency of backyard breeders collecting dangerous animals comes from an appetite for thrill-seeking.

“You know, there are personality traits that deal with risk-taking,” Wright explained. “And it just may be that those who score high on risk-taking as a personality trait use [wild] pet ownership as an opportunity to implement that risk.”

However, Gress insists that the word “pet” does not apply to the animals in his compound. They include Bengal tigers Kali and Suvarna, mountain lion Coco and Tegrid, an American black bear who’s become a staple of the refuge. Gress said his interest in maintaining the health and wellness of his pack coupled with his actual job as electrical and instrument supervisor at International Paper can often take an incredible toil.

“I sleep about four hours a night,” Gress said. “I average 3,600 hours plus a year at International Paper and I average probably another 40 hours plus a week with my animals.”

In addition to managing this grueling schedule, Gress has also shelled out a considerable amount of money to support his animal family; $13,000 per year to be exact. Gress perceives what he does as, not a hobby, but a lifestyle. As such he has found that a certain amount of care and responsibility is necessary to cultivate it. Gleitsmann shares this principle and said that what separates passionate animal enthusiasts like her and Gress from those who are fixated with simply hoarding and breeding wild animals is a sense of invested care.

“I think the level of care is where I would draw the line between the pet-passionate and the pet-obsessed,” Gleitsmann noted in reference to both herself and her volunteers. “I certainly couldn’t do any of this without my wonderful volunteers, and the only reason we’re so successful is because we all share the same passion.”

Between caring for both her own brood and occasionally the foster pets she rescues on a regular basis, Gleitsmann said there are moments where she, like Gress, feels a little bogged down, but unlike obsessive pet-owners who will often collect and neglect animals, Gleitsmann sees herself as a steward for the pet community.

“I have many fosters, but I also have many great volunteers,” Gleitsmann said. “Someone referred to our group one day as a kind of ministry. And I thought about that for a moment; I don’t know what the definition of ‘ministry’ is, but I can only imagine that it involves something you’re passionate about. If you’re doing something that makes you feel good, that brings you joy – even through your fatigue – and you’re bringing about a difference in the community, then that’s passion. Many of these animals wouldn’t be living today if I hadn’t opened up my heart and my home to them.”

“I can’t see myself not being around baseball. I couldn’t stand sitting in an office all day.” - Scott Shipman

With his success derived from what some believe to be a Napoleon complex, Scott Shipman has – one way or another – become Augusta State University’s most prized pitcher.

Born in Charlotte, N.C., Shipman first developed an interest in baseball at the young age of 5 after being immersed in the sport during several outings to Atlanta Braves games. As he grew older, Shipman said he had his eye set on becoming a position player, but after discovering that he had a knack for pitching while in his junior year at Marvin Ridge High School, Shipman transitioned to the pitcher’s mound.

“Honestly, I didn’t start pitching until my junior year in high school,” Shipman said. “Me and my dad would spend hours taking batting practices. We look back at it now and see it as kind of a waste because, when I became a junior, I just quit hitting completely and focused on pitching.”

Players like Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine all inspired the rising pitcher in their own way, he said, but as far as on-field charisma is concerned, Shipman is one of a kind.

“I’m a little bit more worked up when I pitch,” Shipman admitted. “I get fired up. Jones, Maddux, Glavine, they’re a little bit more mellowed out than I am. So, I mean, if anything, I could have taken that from them.”

Head coach Chris Cooper said that while Shipman’s personality can often prove to be a double-edged sword, for the most part, it helps anchor the team during its most trying moments. The coach has experienced instances when Shipman has gotten energized to the point of aggravating opposing teams, something Cooper finds intriguing.

“Sometimes emotions get a little too high for him, but that’s what you want,” Cooper said. “You want guys who are really passionate about what they do. If Shipman strikes a guy out, he’s going to let a little roar out on the mound. We try to control that because I feel like it burns up energy, but it’s hard to slow that emotion down.”

During Shipman’s freshman year at Augusta State, Cooper said that the Marvin Ridge alum really showed the coaching staff that he could get the job done. Throwing the majority of his pitches for strikes during his first year at the university, the staff was beyond impressed, to say the least.

“He really just shut down the (opposing) team every time he pitched,” Cooper reminisced. “The last game of the season we played during his freshman year was against West Georgia and he pitched five or six solid innings. It was probably his best outing of the year, and from that point on, we kind of knew that this was going to grow into something good. He dealt with some tough times, too, but he grew from them. I think growing up that freshman year and saying ‘This isn’t going to happen again’ really helped him, and hopefully it continues to motivate him.”

Shipman said that although his freshman year on Augusta State’s pitching staff felt a little overwhelming initially, the lessons he learned from that first year helped him through many pitfalls later on.

“I had only pitched probably two years prior to coming here and I had never faced college-level hitters,” Shipman said. “So it was a little intimidating, but it taught me how to get through my ups and downs.”

In addition to the hardships suffered during that demanding first season, another aspect that has helped Shipman grow throughout the years is his competitive nature. Cooper said that before going into the spring season, Shipman and his roommate began running twenty minutes a day, adding a minute to their run every day until classes were back in session.

“That’s just the kind of person he is,” Cooper said. “He works his tail off. He wants to compete with others, and he wants to compete with himself.”

Pitching coach Augie Rodriguez – who has pegged Shipman as a “bulldog” and a leader – said the junior pitcher is renowned for his enthusiasm during practices.

“Shipman always bought into what the coaching staff had to say to him,” Rodriguez said. “He’s the kind of guy that does mechanical drills before practice even starts. During practice, he does more mechanical drills. After practice, he does more mechanical drills. When it comes to drills, sometimes you have to kick him out of the bullpen. He just takes pride in what he does and he’s always trying to master his craft.”

As for what the future has in store for Shipman, Cooper said that while minor league or even pro-ball could be in the cards, coaching is an area that the young pitcher has gravitated toward.

“Obviously he wants to play pro ball, but if that doesn’t work out, I think he really wants to become a coach,” Cooper said. “Maybe even here. If we don’t start winning some games, he might take my job.”

For Shipman, becoming a graduate assistant coach at Augusta State is a short-term goal he has his heart set on, but nothing is cemented. The pitcher said that whatever he winds up pursuing, he hopes for it to involve baseball to a degree.

“I can’t see myself not being around baseball,” Shipman said. “I couldn’t stand sitting in an office all day doing nothing. This is what I want to do.”

“After finishing it, I wished we’d gone out to the bars first, liquored up properly, headed back home, and then attempt to watch this disaster of a film.”   

Instead of hitting bars one uneventful Friday night, me, my cousin, a friend and I decided to stay in with a cheesy horror rental we picked up from a Redbox. After finishing it, I wished we’d gone out to the bars first, liquored up properly, headed back home and then attempted to watch this disaster of a film.

The Final Destination series is one I’ve never been all that crazy about. I remember sneaking into the first one as a kid and being slightly “wowed,” but I like to think I’ve matured a bit since then. The latest installment of the series is what we opted for over bar-hopping that night, and while my cousin and friend thoroughly enjoyed it – gasping then laughing hysterically through some of the movie’s most graphic death scenes – all I could manage to say was “meh” as the credits rolled.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out to rag on slasher films. I actually enjoy clever ones like “Saw” and earlier classics like “Psycho.” But there’s a point a film reaches when it’s just overwhelmingly over-the-top with its gore and violence, and “Final Destination 5” fits that quality to a “T.” Well-written dialogue, character development and an emphasis on the plot itself were forced to take a backseat to the predictable death sequences and poorly built-up suspense that the series prides itself on. I guess that’s entertaining to an extent and, sure, some audiences just want to turn their brains off during films like this, but sometimes I wish these slashers would make our minds race a little before scaring us to tears.

Even “Psycho,” king of all slashers, had that timeless “slasher moment” during the shower scene where Norman Bates, disguised as his mother, kills off the film’s leading lady; there’s even a little blood afterward. But it was all minimalistic – no ridiculous flesh-wounds, no cringe-worthy special effects. And yet, despite lacking those modern-day slasher prerequisites, it still managed to scare the pants off moviegoers.

Some classics like Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” were able to create chilling atmospheres without the use of blood at all. They achieved this by reeling in the audience with disturbing plot developments that actually advanced the story, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats until the bitter end.

These days, horror flicks like that are few and far between, and it’s a shame. When did horror become comedy? If a scene entailing a botched acupuncture is capable of sending my cousin into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, I’d say you’re doing it wrong, Hollywood. If a gruesome amount of bloodshed is making your audience roll their eyes instead of genuinely frightening them, I’d say it’s time to rethink your approach, Hollywood. The best scary movies are the ones that aren’t constantly falling back on blood and gore for cheap thrills. The sooner Hollywood realizes this, the sooner we’ll witness a return to form.

On a bitter cold morning last February, Will Adams found his face planted in asphalt, his leg gushing blood and his mind in a daze, unable to comprehend what happened only seconds earlier.

Dreams of a Pan-American bike expedition the following May were dashed. It was a trip that Adams said he had been working on for nearly a year, but any hope of setting out on such an adventure derailed the moment his knee snapped on the hood of a woman’s Honda Civic. The accident occurred on Jackson Road after the car collided with Adams’ motorized bike during a test run.

“I was by myself,” Adams said. “I was riding the bike to test things out – see what’s going to break, what’s going to wear out, things like that. And I was traveling down the road going about 30 mph in my lane of traffic, doing everything right, and by the time I realized she was pulling out, I knew what was going to happen.”

Looking right but not left, the woman decided to make a quick left turn at the intersection of Briarcliff Drive.  Adams, traveling up Jackson, said he saw the left side of the woman’s vehicle directly in front of him, but it was too late to veer. After violently sliding across the car’s hood, his body crashed into the asphalt below. Disoriented, Adams was able to make out a blur of the woman jumping out of her Civic and standing frozen in place.

“She didn’t apologize or anything; she just stared at me,” Adams said. “I couldn’t walk, so I had to literally drag myself out of the road with my arms, and she just stared at me the whole time. I think she was in shock, honestly.”

Adams said he left the accident with five severed ligaments, partial tears in his right knee, a series of nasty cuts and bruises, and a “bunch of road rash.” He underwent two surgeries, one lasting 11 hours. His surgeon said the accident was the “worst possible thing” that could have happened to his knee, and it will never be 100 percent again.

“I really can’t hope for a full recovery,” Adams said. “The most I can hope for is like a 90 (to) 95 percent recovery, and I’m hoping for that because I’ve been hitting the physical therapy really hard.”

With a degree in occupational therapy, Adams is well-equipped to tackle rehabilitation on his own. Adams said in addition to kayaking and other outdoor activities, he continues to train on a stationary bike system he built in his attic where he also does cardiovascular training.

“Luckily, I’m still able to do cardiovascular training on my stationary bike,” Adams said. “I’ve been able to keep up my endurance, and I can still kayak, too. As soon as the doctor said to start rehab I was in the kayak, not that it does a lot for my knee, but it helps keep me active.”

Adams said he also incorporates yoga and other therapeutic methods into his rehabilitation routine to increase his range of motion and recondition his knee for cycling.

“At this point in my therapy, it pretty much has to hurt to help,” Adams said. “My knee won’t physically bend past a certain point, so I’ve been trying to increase my range of motion to where I can have close to full range again. But I have to be careful and try not to re-tear any ligaments because that would mean a third surgery.”

Adams said although his knee has taken longer to heal than he expected, he is still determined to set off on his Pan-American tour in early May despite the setback. While Adams has kept busy with physical therapy, his partner, Matt Riley, a long-distance runner, endurance kayaker and anthropology major at the University of South Carolina, has stayed focused on routing the trip using online tools like Google Earth. Riley has also done extensive research on all of the countries he and Adams plan to ride through.

“I had to look up all the motor bike laws and regulations for the states and countries we’ll be going through,” Riley said. “I also had to figure out what visas we might need, any exit or entry fees to different countries, taxes on our goods, things like that. And really just basic hints about what not to do in certain countries, like don’t leave Columbia with more money than you entered with because they’ll think you’ve been selling stuff illegally.”

Both Adams and Riley are aware the trip itself is not intended for the faint of heart. The tour will take the bikers from Anchorage, Ala., to the southernmost tip of Argentina and possibly introduce them to a number of perils along the way – corrupt officials, violent paramilitary groups and ruthless drug lords to name a few. The two said they are expecting to get hustled constantly in South American countries because of their appearance and, of course, their bikes.

“No matter what, we’ll appear to be kind of wealthy in a lot of those countries,” Riley said. “Just having something with a motor on it, despite how beat up it looks, could potentially make us a target.”

Designed by bicycle-building legend, Ted Wojcik, the frames and motors of the duo’s custom-made motorized bikes are far from “beat up.”

“I had them take several measurements of their body lengths so the bikes would be customized to them specifically,” Wojcik said. “The bikes will be custom-built 29ers with long frames and laid-back geometry for a more ergonomic ride. I wanted to build super-efficient, incredibly durable frames to endure everything from frozen roads in the Yukon right down to broken up dirt paths in Peru.”

As harrowing as their journey may sound, it comes with a great cause. Adams said he has been approached by Proper Television, a Canadian television company that specializes in factual entertainment, to document not only his and Riley’s accounts down the Pan-American Highway but also the lack of clean water in developing nations.

The duo has also been working closely with Water for Life, a non-profit organization based in Hawaii, to which they intend to donate a portion of their expedition money. Eighty percent of disease in two-thirds of the world’s population can be attributed to a lack of clean water, something the cyclist said he considers a “huge deal.”

“Just the statistics are incredibly alarming,” Adams said. “This is such a bad problem but not a highly promoted one.”

Adams said for many Americans “being able to turn on a faucet and drink a quick glass of water without having to worry about getting dysentery” is something often taken for granted, much like alternative modes of transportation, another cause close to Adams’ heart.

“The oil isn’t going to last forever,” Adams said. “It’s not good for us to be breathing in all of this soot and putting out all of this carbon into the environment.  I just think it’s time for us to make a shift to a different mindset in terms of travel. You don’t have to drive your suburban everywhere; you can take your bike out every now and then. Instead of driving your truck a block down to the grocery store, just walk or hop on your bike.”

Adams and Riley said they hope to become pioneers of that cultural shift when they fly to Anchorage in May to begin their travels down the daunting but exhilarating Pan-American Highway.