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(09/06/16 6:30pm)
From an early age, Grace Korta had found her athletic calling. At 5 years old, she picked up a tennis racket with the encouragement of her dad, Jack, and she never looked back. Growing up in Tampa, Florida, Korta had ample opportunity to compete against older competition — and she took advantage of that.
“I played a lot in older age divisions when I was younger,” Korta says. “I made that decision because I knew it would help me in the long run. Playing older girls who are stronger players really forces you to rise to their level of play. I was able to translate that level of play into my matches against girls my own age.”
Fast-forward ten years, and Korta could be found competing for Mercer University. As a freshman, Korta primarily competed in the number one and two spots for Mercer, and notched some solid wins against older competition, something that she was fairly accustomed to doing.
She also played in the number one doubles position all season long with teammate Roxy Bartz. She says that during that first season, when playing became repetitive or tiresome, reminding herself of her roots brought the passion back into her game.
“Reminding myself of the little 5-year-old girl who first fell in love with the sport of tennis kept me motivated,” Korta says. “Of course, some days I had to remind myself more than others.”
During her sophomore campaign, Korta really hit her stride. Again playing primarily in the number one doubles spot, Korta and her partner Katia Stravroulaki notched a 10-10 record, beating out some sturdy competition. She also recorded a 10-12 record in singles play on the season.
“Our spring 2016 season brought a lot of learning and growth,” Korta says. “We had great moments and wins in the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, a key player in our lineup, Katie Sidor, got injured right before [the Southern Conference tournament]. In spite of that setback, our team adjusted and got stronger.”
Coming off of a 9-14 record last Spring, Korta has an optimistic outlook on her team’s potential for this upcoming season.
“Coach Hayes brought in three new additions to our team this year,” Korta says. “I know they are going to strengthen our team tremendously, from pushing each other to our max potential in practice, to heightening our team chemistry on and off the court. Every year, our goal is to take home the Southern Conference championship. I truly believe in the capability of each one of my teammates. It’s simply a matter of going out on the tennis court and doing the work.”
In addition to competing at the Division I level, Korta is an active member of Mercer’s extracurricular community. She represents her team in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, is a sister of the Chi Omega sorority and a member of the Reformed University Fellowship. In addition, Korta is the fall semester on-campus intern for the Athlete Network, an online community for athletes that helps them network and access post-graduate opportunities.
Korta is working towards a major in marketing and a minor in management.
(04/14/16 5:56am)
Imagine yourself trying to break through to a 16-year-old high school student on an emotional and spiritual level. A kid who has turned to partying, drinking and other destructive habits to handle the daily trials and tribulations of everyday life.
What would you say?
This is a challenge that Mercer University’s Young Life leaders face on a weekly basis.
When one thinks “service,” the Young Life organization most likely does not come to mind. Volunteering doesn’t involve picking up trash along the side of a highway, visiting at a senior living home, or passing out meals at a soup kitchen. Rather, the service that Young Life performs is quieter, subtler.
Young Life is an international ministry directed towards high school students, and it has a strong presence at Mercer, with approximately 30 students on the Macon campus currently acting as Young Life leaders in the program.
“The main reason I do it is because I had a young life leader in high school who was a great Christian and had a really good influence on me,” said Daniel Muldrew, a sophomore at Mercer who volunteers with the program. “I try to do the same thing for other high school students.”
Young Life’s central mission is to reach the most “out there” kids — the ones who are partying on the weekends and have turned their backs on the church for whatever reason.
Robert Brown, a junior at Mercer, is the student staff leader for the program. He devotes 15 hours to the program every week, and most of that time is simply spent hanging out with kids from nearby high schools. Each Young Life leader is assigned to a high school in the Macon area, and their task is to connect with the high school students on a personal level and bring them the gospel if they seem interested in listening. This, however, is not always easy.
“It can be really intimidating and really awkward,” Brown said. “I’m 21 years old, and I’m walking into a high school cafeteria and just sitting down. But you do build relationships with these guys. Initially it’s weird and awkward, but the more intentional you are with it, the more naturally it comes.”
Occasionally, the Young Life leaders truly break through to a high school student. Brown said he remembered an instance in which he had one of those rare encounters with a student at the First Presbyterian Day School shortly after returning from Christmas break.
“He hit rock bottom on New Years, and different mistakes that he made put him in a pretty dangerous situation,” Brown said. “He met with a pastor at his church and told me ‘I don’t want to do this anymore; I don’t want to live this party life.’”
After that conversation, it was Brown’s job to guide the young man through the next stage of his life.
“Once a kid says that they want to commit their life to Christ, the Young Life leaders walk with them through that, disciple them, connect them with a church, and get them involved with a youth group,” Brown said.
As for the young man that Brown was able to break through to, “He has grown in leaps and bounds, and his relationship with the Lord is beautiful to see.”
[pullquote speaker="Robert Brown" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]As a Young Life leader, your role then becomes to walk with that kid, pour into him and continue to love him.[/pullquote]
Brown said that reaching this point with the high schoolers is anything but easy, and sometimes it never even happens.
“High schoolers can be some of the most openly judgmental people on the planet,” Brown said.
In addition to working with high school students during the school year, Young Life leaders can volunteer at summer camps throughout the country. Last summer, Brown helped run Young Life’s summer camp in Colorado.
“The spiritual teaching is very deep and very intentional, and a lot of kids at camp say that they want to change and have Christianity be a part of their life,” Brown said. “As a Young Life leader, your role then becomes to walk with that kid, pour into him and continue to love him. Show him what your personal relationship with the Lord looks like and show him how that manifests itself on a daily basis.”
Brown said that over the past year or so, he has had the privilege of seeing seven or eight high school students choose to commit themselves to the church. However, he has to constantly remind himself that his success can’t be defined in numbers.
“My biggest struggle as a Young Life leader is understanding my success or validation doesn’t come from how many kids give their life to Christ under my watch,” Brown said. “If not a single kid says that they want to be a part of this, I can’t control that. The only person who can change someone’s heart is the Lord. The only thing I can do is present the love and the Gospel.”
(03/31/16 2:33am)
Katia Stavroulaki started playing tennis when she was just 7 years old.
She quickly figured out that the true opponent she faced out on the court was herself, and she enjoyed the independence and self-reliance that tennis required of her.
She began competing shortly after picking up a racquet and won her first tournament at 11 years old. Ever since that initial win, Stavroulaki has dedicated her life to the sport, traveling halfway around the world in order to compete at a high level.
Stavroulaki grew up on the Grecian island of Crete. As one of the only young female tennis players on the island, she dominated tournaments and was quickly identified as an athlete with the potential to play in college.
After graduating from high school in Greece, Stavroulaki departed her familiar island home for the U.S. after being offered a scholarship at the University of Texas Pan-American. At the age of 19, it was the first time she had left home for a long period of time. After her sophomore year, Stavroulaki decided to transfer to Mercer University.
“I wanted to move on and see something different,” Stavroulaki said. “I love being in a new place, meeting new people and experiencing a new culture. Of course I miss my family and friends back in Greece, but this is an opportunity that I took. And I want to take everything I can from it.”
Now, Stavroulaki, a junior, she competes at the number one singles and number one doubles positions.
She has won seven out of her last eight singles matches and led her team to a huge win over Stetson — a team that Mercer women’s tennis hasn’t beaten for the last 13 years.
Stavroulaki was also recently named the Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for the second time since the season began. She is the only player to have received this honor twice so far this season.
She has accumulated a 11-3 record playing at the number one singles position and holds a record of 8-7 with her doubles partner Grace Korta.
Although Stavroulaki loves the individuality that tennis grants her, one of her favorite aspects of the sport is playing at the net, which she does much more frequently when competing in doubles.
She recognizes the opportunity to capitalize on her aggressive playing style that playing doubles grants her.
“Seventy-five percent of doubles success is chemistry,” Stavroulaki said. “Grace and I have really good team chemistry, and we connect very well on the court.”
When Stavroulaki first came to the United States, she said she suffered from homesickness, and it impacted her play as well. She was tentative on the court and lacking in confidence. Her transformation into a self-confident and successful competitor came with time and many matches.
“Sometimes, you just need to find a way to win,” Stavroulaki said. “Even if you’re not feeling great or the conditions aren’t perfect, you need to find the will to win. You have to be alternative and flexible and simply find a way.”
Stavroulaki said that she can see the tennis team growing and improving every day. With her help, the team has gone from a record of 4-18 in 2015 to an 8-9 record so far for the 2016 season. For Stavroulaki, success hinges on the relationships she builds in the process of competing.
“When you win, you aren’t winning just for yourself but for your team. And if you lose, your team is there to pick you up and help you keep going,” she said.
(03/17/16 8:50pm)
Justis Ward is known around the campus of Mercer University for his beautiful, angelic voice. On any given day during the spring, you may hear his voice drifting through the warm air as he performs the national anthem at a lacrosse game. Or, in the winter months, you might encounter him belting out the national anthem at a Mercer basketball game.
The mastery with which he performs may seem innate and seamless, but he has not always sung in front of crowds with such ease.
As a middle school student, Ward experienced terrible stage fright.
It came to a crescendo when he was in the seventh grade.
“When I was 12, my grandmother died of colon cancer,” Ward said.
While on her deathbed, his grandmother asked him to sing for her. Although he felt comfortable singing in front of his family at that age, he still had horrible stage fright when faced with strangers.
“So, she was on her deathbed and asked me to sing for her. And I was about to do it,” Ward said. “But then the nurse walked in, and I froze. I just couldn’t do it in front of a stranger.”
Ward recalls that his grandmother asked him to sing for her twice more, but having a presence in the room that was not a family member made it impossible for him to sing.
“So I ended up passing that moment up,” he said. “She died a little bit later, and that was it. That hit home for me. She was very close to me, but I really just couldn’t sing in front of a stranger.”
Ward was torn up — both by his grandmother’s death and by his inability to heed her very last request in life.
“I cried for a long time knowing that I didn’t sing for her in that moment,” he said.
Luckily, his mother knew just what to say to him at the time. On the car ride home from the hospital, Ward recalls his mother telling him that even though his grandmother had died, she could still hear him sing.
“Now, when I’m heading out onto the stage and I get nervous, I think about that,” Ward said. “If I can’t sing for these strangers, I can at least sing for her and for God.”
Since then, Ward has given some notable performances. In February he performed at Jit Jams, an intimate performance at Jittery Joe’s coffee shop in Mercer Village.
His mother is also musically inclined. After releasing her first contemporary Christian album five years ago, she asked Ward to perform with her during a few concerts. Ward said that he relished the opportunity and now mostly sings in the same genre as his mother.
Ward said that these days, as soon as he takes hold of the microphone, his fear dissipates.
“I still get incredibly nervous, and my heart pounds like crazy,” he said. “I legitimately feel my heart beating in my throat. But I think it’s more excitement and good nerves, not bad nerves.”
After graduating from Mercer’s undergraduate program as a biochemistry and molecular biology double major on the pre-medicine track, Ward said that he knows that he will be met with a tough decision.
“As I become more and more comfortable with my voice and people tell me to tryout for American Idol and The Voice, I encounter a really big fork in the road,” he said.
His success as a student has landed him on both the President’s and the Dean’s Lists multiple times at Mercer. In addition, he is the president of Alpha Epsilon Delta, Mercer’s chapter of the pre-health honor society. Ward has also been recognized as an Outstanding Chemistry Student for his achievement in his general chemistry class, and he said that he aspires to help other people as a doctor some day.
But, he doesn’t want to give up the possibility of living his life as a full-time singer.
“You can’t really sell out to either a medical or a singing career and do both,” he said. “I could be a singing doctor and bust my guitar out to perform for a patient who’s nervous about getting a shot, but I’ve always seen my music as being worth more than that. I want to take it further than that.”
As the praise and worship leader at his church, Kingdom Life in Macon, Ward said that he feels he gets his fair share of music these days. Now, he wants to take his interest in medicine a step further.
The last few summers, Ward has been taking classes to fill the demands of both the pre-medicine track and his two majors. He has also been shadowing doctors in different fields, getting a taste of the different practices and preparing for his potential career in the medical field.
Carol Bokros, who has known Ward since his freshmen year when he was just an affiliate of Alpha Epsilon Delta, has high praise for her student.
“Justis is willing to accept his gifts and use them without fear,” Bokros said.
She also said that she admires his humility.
[pullquote speaker="Carol Bokros" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]In spite of being very intelligent, talented and capable, he is friendly and welcoming to everyone he works [and plays] with, regardless of skill level[/pullquote]
“In spite of being very intelligent, talented and capable, he is friendly and welcoming to everyone he works [and plays] with, regardless of skill level,” she said.
This summer, Ward is going to Cambodia with Mercer on Mission as an undergraduate assistant to the medical students on the trip. He said that he hopes the trip will give him a sense of what he wants to do with his future.
“I know that I love helping people and sharing my love, but I’m still not sure if medicine is the right avenue for that,” Ward said. “I’m hoping this trip gives me some insight about what I want to do with my life.”
One thing Ward is certain about, though, is that he loves meeting new people and sharing himself with others.
“When it comes to academics and my music — even though I’m passionate about those things in and of themselves — the reason I’m so passionate about them is because it allows me to share a little piece of myself through song or through meeting people in my classes,” he said.
Avery Braxton, one of Ward’s friends, had high praise for his former mentor through the Minority Mentor Program.
“Justis is a phenomenal person,” Braxton said. “Every time I see him he's always interested in what I'm up to, how I'm doing and if I need anything. I've never heard a negative word come out of his mouth about anyone, and you can tell he has a genuine heart for people and for God. Justis is a friend to any and everyone. I couldn't ask for a better mentor.”
Ward said that his proudest moment since coming to Mercer was when he first performed the national anthem at a men’s basketball game during his freshman year.
“I was definitely nervous about how it was going to be received,” Ward said. “I had sung at lacrosse games and at soccer games, but those have less people. And they’re outside, so not everyone can really see you. But in Hawkins Arena, they turn all the lights off and put a spotlight on you. And you’re broadcast to the entire crowd on the Jumbotron.”
Despite his nerves, Ward said his performance was well received by the crowd that night.
“I remember singing it, and when I finished, there was an eruption from the fans. It was fantastic. Walking off, I was trying to keep my composure and stay cool, but I couldn’t help but smile.”
Walking back through the bleachers, countless fans stopped Ward to congratulate him on his performance.
“I came to Mercer for academics, but it’s little things like that that allow you to see a different side of who you are and the community that you’re in,” Ward said.
(02/25/16 5:35am)
The Mercer men’s lacrosse team kicked off their 2016 season over the weekend against Towson. Although the Bears lost the hard-fought match, the game proved to be very instructive, showing the team what they will need to work on in order to meet future success.
“Opening the season against a top 15 team in the country is a great challenge,” said Head Coach Kyle Hannan. “The Towson game gave us 60 minutes together and the opportunity to evaluate where we are individually and as a team. Playing Towson will make us a much stronger team in the long run.”
Indeed, the lacrosse team will face other tough competitors throughout their season. Most notably, the Bears will compete against Duke (ranked 3rd nationally), Bellarmine (ranked among the top 20 programs in the nation) and Air Force. Their 13-game season will be geographically diverse as well, as they will play schools from 10 different states.
Before moving into the Southern Conference competition, the team will face four more out-of-conference teams.
Junior attackman Chris Rahill welcomes the challenge.
“We want to play good teams before heading into conference so that we can test ourselves,” said Rahill. “We’ll be ready when we head into conference play.”
Hannan, now in his fourth year of coaching the Bears, is happy with the team’s tough schedule.
“We always want to challenge the team on game day,” Hannan said. “Our schedule includes nationally recognized out-of-conference opponents, which prepares us for the second half of the season against our Southern Conference rivals. Knowing that we will face a talented team every week helps keep the team focused and competing at a high level.”
The men’s lacrosse team had a strong showing in their 2014 and 2015 seasons. Respectively, they came away with first and second place finishes in the Southern Conference regular season. Mercer is returning All-Southern Conference selections in Chris Baxa, Colin Massa, and Mike Nugent.
The team also has quite a few young players. Coach Hannan added 15 freshmen to the roster for the 2016 season, but he views this as a strength rather than a weakness.
“[Our] program is still relatively young. That being said, I feel like we are still searching for our true identity. We have won a few significant games over the past couple seasons, but we have also lost meaningful games in our conference final four. It is time for this team to take ownership and establish themselves as a championship level squad,” Hannan said. “I truly believe we are on a good path.”
Rahill agrees that despite having a young squad, the team has the athleticism and wherewithal to pull off a championship.
“We have a good enough to team to win the championship this year,” said Rahill. “But we need to compete hard every day. We have to be able to start strong and stay strong throughout all of our matches.”
Hannan said that his goals for the season are to maintain a 3.2 overall team GPA, have a positive influence in the Mercer community and win the Southern Conference Championship.
“All teams face adversity, some much more than others,” he said. “I am very proud of this team for the way they have handled themselves through difficult times. When a team is challenged, they can either rise or fall. This group of young men have become stronger through adversity and will prove to be winners academically, socially and athletically.”
(02/25/16 5:34am)
Amanda Carls grew up in a small town in rural Illinois surrounded by cornfields. Gridley, a town with a population of 1,465, offered her safety and security as a child. But as she grew older, Carls realized that she wanted more.
As an undergraduate student majoring in public relations at the University of Northern Iowa, Carls had her sights set on becoming a wedding planner.
“In my high school yearbook, I said I wanted to be a wedding planner. I wanted to be really tan, and I wanted to live in a yellow house with a white picket fence,” Carls said with a laugh.
Her professional career could not have gone in a more opposite direction. During her first year as an undergraduate, she interned with the bridal division of a local newspaper. Carls said that being surrounded by high-strung, nervous and bossy brides quickly made her rethink her dream job.
Over the next three years, she became highly involved in campus life as an orientation leader and fell in love with student affairs. After graduating from Northern Iowa, Carls was offered an intern position at Mercer in the student affairs department.
“My entire family is from the Midwest and no one has ever left. I never saw moving to Georgia as part of my plan. But somewhere along the way this door opened up for me to intern at Mercer, and I came for three months and cried the whole way home because Mercer wasn’t about the place. It was about the people,” Carls said.
After falling in love with Mercer as an intern, Carls hasn’t been able to resist the pull of the Mercer community.
“I tell my students all the time that this place has to be special for me to want to move 1,000 miles away from home to work here,” she said.
Carls has now been employed by Mercer since 2010 as the and said that she enjoys how involved with students this position allows her to be on a daily basis.
“I really enjoy academic coaching,” Carls said. “When students are having a rough time in classes I get to partner with them and help them make a plan and get them connected to resources.”
She said that although academic counseling isn’t necessarily a part of her job description, she appreciates the close relationships she can build with students at Mercer through her counseling. In fact, being a part of a small, highly interconnected community is precisely the reason Carls said she loves Mercer.
“I knew that working at a school like Mercer, students would become people with a name, a face, and a story,” she said.
Throughout her time at Mercer, Carls has built strong connections with many of her students. One of those students is Tori Tanner, a senior peer advisor that will be graduating in May with degrees in Communication Studies and Spanish.
“Amanda is one of those people who inspires everyone she comes in contact with,” Tanner said. “Her love for students is contagious and she works so hard to help every student succeed. She is passionate about her job and Mercer, and working with her has been the best experience. Not only was Amanda my supervisor, but she is also my mentor, my friend and one of my biggest fans.”
Between leading Mercer’s summer orientations and Bear Beginnings, Carls spends a significant amount of time interacting one-on-one with first year students. She is acutely aware that leading freshman orientations gives her the opportunity to impact students’ entire college experience, as well as influence the strength of the relationships and connections they build.
“What I would love to see is for every student to find an organization or an activity that allows them to plug into who they are and who they want to be,” Carls said. “Student involvement is what helps students feel as though they belong.”
Carls has noticed that within higher education, students seem to either be overly involved in campus activities or significantly under-involved. She thinks that, much like many other universities, Mercer needs more of a balance.
One way that students can get involved and leave an impact on Mercer is through the Peer Advisor and Orientation Leadership Team programs.
“One of the things I really try to instill in [the Peer Advisors and Orientation Leadership Team members] is that they are growing and developing the next generation of Mercerians, and they are showing the new students what it means to be a Mercer Bear,” Carls said. “They’re leaving a legacy as a PA or as a Leadership Team member that will live on long after they are gone, because those students will turn around and do the same thing for someone else.”
This focus on building sustainable connections, which is highly emphasized by the Mercer community, motivated Carls the minute she stepped on campus as an intern. She continues to urge first year students to carry on this Mercer tradition.
“When it comes down to it, this place isn’t special because we have a pretty Administration building,” Carls said. “This place is special because there are people who plug into your story and care to invest in you as a person.”
(02/21/16 8:11am)
As Spring Break approaches, Mercer students are looking to lose the extra pounds inevitably gained over the holidays. But finding the motivation and time to work out can be a real challenge. In response to these obstacles, Quadworks is hosting Four Days of Fit the week before Spring break.
Four Days of Fit will be held starting Monday, Feb. 29 and run through Thursday, March 3. Each day will feature a new activity led by either a Mercer student or faculty member. In addition to a variety of interactive and energizing exercises, the event will have giveaways and prizes, as well as t-shirts for students who participate in at least three out of the four days.
On Monday, Four Days of Fit will kick off with a Body Fit class. This class utilizes body weight in order to gain strength and endurance. Each class will be thirty minutes long, and three sessions will be offered. There will also be a water bottle give away for those who attend a session. Body Fit will take place on IM court 3 from 6-7:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, there will be an obstacle course challenge in Cruz Plaza if the weather holds. If it’s raining, the course will be moved indoors to IM court 3. The top three finishers of the obstacle course will win a fit bit. There will also be a smoothie give away. The obstacle course will be open from 3-6 p.m. for those who want to give it a try.
On Wednesday, Dr. Linda Hensel will share her knowledge of the martial arts and instruct two thirty-minute Tae Kwon Do classes from 3-4 p.m. Immediately following, Subin Park will lead a Zumba class from 4-6 p.m. The day’s events will be held in Cruz Plaza. If it rains, activities will be moved inside to IM court 3. There will also be a t-shirt give away on a first come, first serve basis.
On Thursday, Four Days of Fit will culminate with rock climbing, inflatables and yard games that will get your heart pumping. If the weather holds, these activities will be set up in Cruz Plaza from 3-6 p.m. If not, the event will be moved onto IM court 3.
Students who participate in at least three out of the four days will be able to pick up a t-shirt courtesy of QuadWorks on Friday at 10 a.m.
Carson Crowley, co-chair of Quadworks’ Leadership, Education, and Diversity (L.E.A.D) committee, is heading up the planning for the event. Crowley, who intends to begin Physical Therapy school next year, says that her passion for movement inspired her to take on the planning for Four Days of Fit.
“I want students to realize that exercising can be fun, and it doesn’t have to be done in the gym,” Crowley said. “It is all about getting out and moving.”
Crowley said that students who take the time out of their busy schedules will surely benefit from the activities offered by Quadworks the week before Spring break.
“It’s going to be awesome and well worth your time,” Crowley said. “Freebies, fun in the sun, and some last minute hang-out time with your friends who you might not see over Spring break!”
(02/16/16 6:54pm)
Hayden Blessing is a shoe fanatic. For years, the former college basketball player has been collecting $300 Jordans in his closet. But one day three years ago, that all changed.
Blessing, a PE teacher and basketball coach, was instructing his first grade PE class one day when a little boy came up and asked him to tie his shoe. As Blessing bent down, he noticed how beat up the kid’s shoes were.
“His shoes were clearly too small, had holes all over, and I couldn’t even tie the shoe because one lace was torn,” Blessing said. “I looked down at what I was wearing that day—a pair of $300 Jordans. I was stuck. The rest of the day I was torn. Once I got home I walked into my room and looked at my closet full of collected Jordans. I knew I had to do something.”
And so he did. Blessing sold off 25 pairs of his own shoes, and used that money to jump-start his non-profit: Witness Kicks.
Over the last three years, Witness Kicks has sent shoes to nine different countries and has given all over the United States. In total, the group has given close to 3,000 pairs of shoes.
Now a graduate assistant for the men’s basketball team, Blessing said that he wants to involve the Mercer community in his mission.
“The cornerstone of Witness Kicks is Romans 10:13-15,” Blessing said. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News!’”
Whenever Blessing gives out shoes to those in need, he shares his inspiration and message before handing out the shoes.
“It's Witness first, Kicks second,” Blessing said. “The shoes are just the piece we get to use to show a little bit of God's Love.”
On Feb. 18 at 7 p.m., Witness Kicks will be holding a shoe drive as the men’s basketball team takes on Western Carolina.
Anyone who brings gently used or new shoes to donate to Witness Kicks will be granted free admission. In addition, students who bring shoes will be entered into a raffle to win a $150 Foot Locker Gift Card.
The first 100 students to donate shoes will be given a Witness Kicks bracelet. All types of shoes are acceptable.
“The goal of this event is to raise awareness and bring in some shoes for Witness Kicks so we can give back in the Macon area,” Blessing said. “But we can’t do that without the help of Mercer students, faculty, and staff.”
(02/11/16 3:34am)
In September of 2000, Kevin Hines began hearing voices.
Those voices tormented him day and night, telling him that he had to take his own life in order to end the torment and depression that accompanied living.
So Hines heeded their call.
He caught a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, crying the entire way there. The second he jumped, he knew he had made a grave mistake.
Miraculously, Hines survived the jump. Only 33 other people have survived the 250-foot drop — less than one percent of those who attempt suicide off of the bridge.
After his astonishing survival, Hines discovered his true calling. He now holds lectures around the nation, encouraging college students to address mental health problems and attain emotional wellness.
On Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m., Hines will discuss suicide awareness and mental well-being with Mercer students, faculty and staff in Willingham Auditorium.
Carrie Ingoldsby, the director of campus life and student involvement, said that Mercer students are sure to benefit from this discussion.
“Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in students dealing with a variety of mental health issues,” Ingoldsby said. “With that, we have seen more students in crisis that have either threatened or attempted suicide. It's not an issue that is discussed openly, but it impacts a good number of students on campus and needs to be addressed more openly.”
Ingoldsby said that Kevin’s talk will prove valuable even for students who do not personally struggle with mental illness.
“It's important for students to recognize the signs associated with a friend or peer that might be struggling,” Ingoldsby said. “Kevin will likely shed light on some of these specific signs and help those going through his or her own struggle to reach out for help. Bottom line is all students will benefit from the information he provides. And it's an amazing survival story. He not only survived but has found health and happiness since his attempt.”
Following his talk, Hines will be available to talk to students that would like to meet him or ask a question that they might not have wanted to ask out loud at the lecture.
(02/11/16 2:24am)
Mercer University’s chapter of the Young Democrats is back in action this spring semester.
After the 2012 presidential election, the chapter deteriorated and ceased to exist due to a lack of student interest and involvement. In stark contrast, the Mercer chapter of the College Republicans continued to thrive and have an active presence in student life.
Desirrae Jones, the new president of the Young Democrats at Mercer, was responsible for the organization’s rebirth.
Jones said that the lack of equal representation for Democrats became highly apparent to her as the 2016 presidential election season got underway. As a political science and communications double major, Jones took on the responsibility whole-heartedly.
“I have always been interested in what is happening in our government,” said Jones, who self-identifies as a black, southern, low-income, product-of-a-teenage-mother woman. “However, I never acted on it because I was sure there was no place for someone like me in politics. But after coming to Mercer and finding myself, I realized that there is infinite room for people like me in politics because there is a lack of us there right now.”
After deciding to activate her political voice, Jones approached Chris Grant, an associate professor of political science at Mercer. Grant, who has experience advising both the College Republicans and the Young Democrats, was enthused at the idea of starting the chapter back up.
“I believe that students need to exercise a political voice,” Grant said. “I will facilitate and advise any group trying to do so.”
In addition to the two major parties, one Mercer organization, Young Americans for Liberty, also represents libertarians on campus.
Jones said that she hopes bringing back the active presence of a Young Democrats chapter will help Mercer students recognize the benefits of having multiple political organizations that speak to differing interests and political views.
“My personal vision is to dispel the myth of democrats being hippie liberals that just want to take your money,” Jones said. “We are way more than that. I want to help educate people on the democratic platform and get a discourse going.”
Jones said that in time the Young Democrats hope to host student debates, sponsor voter engagement events and compel Mercer students to become more politically engaged. But as of now, Jones acknowledged that the organization will face an uphill battle for stability in the months to come.
“Mercer doesn't seem that politically driven,” Jones said. “Those who are don't normally fall on the [liberal] side of the spectrum. I think it is because so much of Mercer is based in conservatism. From our Baptist and Southern heritage to the kind of students we enroll, we fall way more red on the spectrum.”
However, Jones hopes to reach a membership base of thirty to fifty students by the end of the semester. Drew Bryant, vice president of the Young Democrats, hopes that despite the lack of a budget, the new organization will be able to engage their members in various events on campus.
“My aspirations are to engage in thoughtful dialogue and further educate our potential members about politics,” Bryant said. “Hopefully, we will even be able to actively campaign and host speakers.”
Jones’ message for students is simple — get involved.
“There’s room for everybody in politics,” she said. “Politics doesn’t have to be cutthroat. It can be centered around the issues that speak to you. The great thing about these campus organizations, like the Young Democrats and College Republicans, is that it allows students to get involved, even if they just want to feel out the world of politics.”
“The more people that get involved, the better this can be for the entire Mercer community.”
(02/11/16 1:45am)
After graduating in 1986 from Mercer’s School of Medicine, Dr. Jean Sumner chose to stay in her home state and live out Mercer Medicine’s mission: to educate physicians to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia.
In keeping with this mission, Sumner has loyally served two of Georgia’s most rural and impoverished counties for the past 28 years.
Sumner spent a successful career in Washington and Johnson counties before being asked to serve as the new dean of Mercer’s School of Medicine. Her predecessor, Dr. William Bina, announced in 2015 that he would be relocating to Mercer’s Savannah campus to serve as the Medical School’s dean.
Although the decision to commit full time to this new position was a difficult one to make, Sumner said she knew that taking the position would give her even greater opportunities to influence rural Georgia.
“It was a very hard decision,” Sumner said. “It was an honor, [and] I was humbled by the offer. But when you enjoy your work and you’ve worked in a community for a long time, you’re part of that community. And it’s hard to give up.”
Sumner said that practicing primary care in rural Georgia has made her more flexible and creative. She believes that these lessons will carry over into her new position.
“When you’re a physician in a rural area, every day is different,” Sumner said. “You have problems that you’ve never faced before, and you have to learn to be agile and be a team player in order to solve those problems. In the same way, academic medicine is a team sport. It takes everybody in the [Medical School] and in the community to contribute to the best possible educational experience for our students. My job is to be a leader, a coach and a player at the same time.”
Caitlin Collier, a Mercer Medicine graduate and former student of Sumner’s, took over the new dean’s practice in Washington County. Collier has high praise for her mentor and friend.
“I've always seen Dr. Sumner as the embodiment of Mercer's mission to improve health in rural Georgia,” Collier said. “Everything she does is with the purpose of bringing well-trained doctors to small towns. [She] is also the hardest working physician I know. She never stops. She wakes up at night thinking of ways to improve the health of the community.”
Sumner’s dedication to improving rural health in Georgia has, indeed, been making a difference.
“Her patients absolutely idolize her and will miss her terribly,” Collier said. “We have had patients literally weeping in the office when they heard that she was going to stop seeing patients.”
Sumner said she hopes that Mercer’s School of Medicine will become a national leader of rural health during her time as Dean.
“We need to help produce physicians that are patient advocates,” Sumner said. Although she acknowledged that not every student and faculty member is meant to work in a rural area, she said she believes that “every student and every faculty member can contribute in some way to rural health; whether that be through research, technology advancements, or advocacy.
By pushing the Medical School’s focus on rural health back into the spotlight, Sumner said she hopes to repay Mercer for the opportunities it has provided her.
“Mercer gave me the opportunity to do something that I absolutely love—to return to a small town and practice medicine,” Sumner said. “It gave me the opportunity to serve my community and make a difference. I feel forever indebted to the University.”
(01/28/16 1:35am)
On a rainy Thursday night last week, the student body at Mercer University came out in full force to support the women’s basketball team in their biggest game of the season — and kept it a secret for over a week.
Tony Perella, a Mercer football player and president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, coordinated the surprise, ensuring that it ran smoothly and was kept under wraps. Earlier in the year at the Mercer basketball kick-off event, Coach Gardner mentioned that the student body rarely turned out to support her team.Perella took it to heart and decided to make a change. He successfully mobilized Mercer students, creating energy and excitement around the surprise.
“I took a lot of leaders from around the campus and put them in a GroupMe together, and we started figuring out ways that we could make the surprise happen,” said Perella.
By the time all of the students were gathered in the UC awaiting the signal to fill the basketball stadium, there was some jockeying to get to the front of the line. The students were excited.
The signal came while the Lady Bears were in their locker room, and 388 Mercer students raced into the basketball arena from the upper UC, just minutes before the tipoff. As the basketball team rushed out onto the court, they were met with a full student section, the Mercer Marching Band, the cheer and dance teams and the Mercer Maniacs, along with other screaming fans from Macon. Coach Susie Gardner and her team were shocked. That shock quickly turned into excitement and anticipation for sophomore Sydni Means, one of the team’s top scorers.
“When we ran out and saw the student section I got so hyped,” said Means. “I knew it was going to be a good game.”
She was correct. Heading into the game, both Mercer and Chattanooga were undefeated in the Southern Conference, holding 3-0 records. Chattanooga, however, hadn’t lost a conference game since 2013, and had a 52-game winning streak in Southern Conference play.
[pullquote speaker="Sydni Means" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]When something went well, the fans made it known, and that was very helpful.[/pullquote]
Although the game between the Mocs and the Bears was tight through the first quarter, the Bears held a 34-26 lead at halftime. The never looked back. The Bears cruised to a 67-44 victory.
Means says that having an energized student section throughout the game helped her team build momentum out on the court.
“The energy on the court was great,” said Means. “When something went well, the fans made it known, and that was very helpful.”
The Bears’ next home game is on Thursday, February 4th against Western Carolina. The Bears are 14-6 on the season.
(12/03/15 3:48am)
Lake Lambert has served as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mercer University for the past five years. However, when Lambert accepted the position of president at Hanover College in Indiana last spring, math professor Keith Howard stepped in to serve as the Interim Dean for CLA. In the meantime, the Dean Search Committee has been looking into who will fill Lambert’s shoes long-term.
John Scott, a professor of history and the director of the University Honors Program, is one of 13 members of the search committee. Scott said that the first step in selecting a new Dean is to decide on the qualities and characteristics needed to fill the position.
“There’s no one cookie-cutter description of a dean. Deans come in all stripes and varieties, and [our goal] is to figure out what kind of dean we want at this moment,” Scott said.
The committee is currently in the process of reviewing applications and will then run applicants through three rounds of interviews, during which the field of candidates will be narrowed significantly. Although many of the details regarding the search are confidential, Scott said that the committee has a comfortable number of applicants.
Although the committee does not have a set timeline for hiring a new dean, they are aware that the clock is running.
“In academia, there’s a calendar for hiring. However, the committee is mindful that this is a really important decision, and it’s not something we want to rush,” Scott said.
(11/22/15 8:57pm)
The end of a semester, the ushering in of a new year, contagious holiday cheer—all are completely valid reasons to celebrate the season, and Mercer has always made a point of celebrating the holidays in style. This year, Quadworks is set to sponsor a Winter Wonderland for all of Mercer’s campus to enjoy, while the Student Government Association will host the Christmas Tree Lighting.
In hosting the Winter Wonderland festivities, Quadworks has taken the reigns from the College Hill Alliance in this year’s holiday activities. In previous years, College Hill spearheaded operations, putting on the well-known Christmas in the Corridor. With this transition in leadership comes a shift in the event itself as well.[sidebar title="" align="right" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]
Christmas Tree Lighting: Thursday, December 3rd at 6pm, Historic Quad
Winter Wonderland: Thursday, December 3rd at 7pm, Med School Lawn
[/sidebar]
Rebekah Fulton, the Heritage Life committee chair for SGA, Quadworks hopes to involve the student body in this year’s event more so than in past years.
“In the past, [Mercer’s holiday celebration] has been more involved with the [Macon] community, sporting local vendors. Quadworks is looking to make Winter Wonderland a more student-centered event.”
This December, Winter Wonderland will feature interactive booths set up by various student organizations. Guests can expect to see a number of craft booths like ornament decorating, as well as free snacks and holiday music.
The annual Christmas Tree Lighting on Mercer’s Historic Quad, offers a wide variety of enjoyable holiday celebrations. This year’s service will feature Christmas Carols, a holiday-spirited message by Dr. Jody Long, a reading of “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a holiday-themed performance by Point B.L.A.N.K. Poetry, mug giveaways, and a tree decorating competition.
Then, students from different groups on campus will light up the quad together.
“Student organizations have the opportunity to decorate small Christmas trees for a prize. Towards the end of the service there is a countdown and all the trees, including the large one decorated by SGA, are lit all at once,” Fulton said.
(11/12/15 6:19am)
The indoor volleyball team has one more regular season conference match before they turn to the Southern Conference championship tournament at the end of the month.
Currently, the team holds a 9-18 record, and is 4-11 in SoCon play. Their final game is against The Citadel. The Bears have a good shot at winning, Head Coach Damian Elder said.
“We’ve beaten [The Citadel] already, so we hope to sweep them,” he said.
In order to prepare for the tournament, Elder said the volleyball team will “try to stay healthy so that all of the players are ready to play the first match of the tournament.”
“They will work on “tweaking whatever it is [they] need to work on” after each match leading up to the tournament, and mostly focus on “playing in practice, as there isn’t a lot left to do as far as drills go,” he said.
The Bears will enter the tournament ranked seventh in the Southern Conference. However, their standing does not necessarily reflect how well they have performed against top-seeded teams such as Furman and Chattanooga, which hold the first and second rankings, respectively.
When the Bears played Furman Saturday, Oct. 17, they lost by an extremely close margin. Mercer scored more points than Furman throughout the match but ended up falling 22-25, 25-15, 25-22, and 25-22 to the Paladins.
Against Chattanooga, the Bears managed to steal a single set but fell three sets to one in both match-ups against the Mocs.
Elder said this bodes will for his team.
“We have proven that we’re right up there regardless of the standings, and we’ve only lost matches to the teams in the top of the standings by a few points, so we match up really well.”
The Bears have had notably more success at home than on the road this season.
At home, the Bears are 7-4 and 1-10 in away games. Elder said he mainly attributes this disparity to the lively home crowd and the atmosphere the team experiences while playing at home.
“Our crowd and the environment at Mercer has been a huge factor in our success at home. [The girls] have an entire support system from the time they get up until the time they play, and we try to recreate that on the road as best we can. We attempt to make it as routine and easy as possible on the road, but there’s just no way to recreate our environment at home,” he said.
Although the Bears have experienced some difficulty performing to their potential on the road, they have the confidence and talent to compete — and beat — teams at the Southern Conference championship tournament, Elder said.
“Mercer indoor volleyball has never won a conference [tournament] match in either the Atlantic Sun or the Southern Conference,” Elder said. “But right now, since we’re so close to beating every team in the conference, we can reasonably have the goal of winning the entire tournament. That’s not too far out of reach.”
“But first of all, we must focus on getting the first one in the history books if we can,” he said.
(11/12/15 6:08am)
Paige Alsten, a native of Lighthouse Point, Florida, has become a dominant presence in Southern Conference volleyball.
Measuring 6 foot, 3 inches tall, Alsten is a natural at the net and plays the position of middle blocker.
Throughout the 21 games the team has played so far this season, Alsten has totaled 94 blocks — the most of any Southern Conference player and over twice as many as anyone else on the team.
Alsten has also garnered 116 kills on the season, and she has a hitting percentage of .215, the third highest among hitters on the team.
In addition, she has started in every single match that the Bears have played this season — an unusual occurrence for most Division I freshmen.
The Mercer volleyball team began the season with a string of seven losses in their first eight games, only winning the third against Southern University.
Alsten said that after this initial losing streak, the team was able to reevaluate and bounce back.
“The beginning of a season is always the time to learn,” Alsten said. “Whether through wins or losses, the team gets to see what works and what doesn’t, and I think that we are becoming stronger as a team and a program and proving that through our play.”
And prove their strength they have. The team, since then, has shown a stunning seven home-game winning streak, and their second shot at beating Samford attracted a crowd of 403 people, many of whom were parents and family members visiting for the volleyball parents’ weekend.
The energy and frenzy of the fans was contagious.
After dropping the first set, the Bears dominated Samford over the next three sets to win the match.
Alsten was hands-down the star of the match because she led the Bears in both hitting percentage (.500) and blocks (5). Alsten now has multiple blocks in 16 consecutive matches and in 19 of 21 matches on the season.
“With the Samford game, I think everyone just understood what a win like that would mean for our program,” Alsten said. “That plus how hard we had been practicing plus the amazing turnout and support all added up to our win.”
Despite being new to collegiate level volleyball, Alsten has dominated against her more experienced competitors, and maintains a positive outlook on the remainder of the season.
“I think the teams focus going forward is to never be neutral,” Alsten said.
“Whether we win or lose matches, we want to have played the hardest we could that day, practiced to the best we could that week, and be better than we were the day before,” she said.
(11/12/15 5:56am)
The Mercer University marching band was dissolved along with the football team in 1941, shortly after the tragic attack on Pearl Harbor.
But in 2013, President Underwood officially announced that Mercer would bring back the football team and with it would come the marching band.
Band Director Doug Cowden was hired in November of 2012, and he recalls that preparing for the band’s first performance in over 70 years was quite the ordeal.
“After they hired me, I basically I had nine months to start from scratch,” he said. “I didn’t have an office or a phone and was basically just told, ‘Okay, go!’”
Getting the marching band off the ground, however, was anything but easy. The logistics of buying instruments and uniforms was difficult for Cowden and those helping him.
“It was primarily a matter of getting the instruments,” Cowden said. “What we ended up doing was purchasing our instruments from the drum and bugle corps, which are professional marching bands all over the country who — every year after their world championships — sell off their horns, drums, and ensemble equipment to high school and college marching bands at reduced prices.”
After obtaining the instruments, Cowden was tasked with the responsibility of finding eye-catching and inexpensive uniforms for the entire band.
He said that after having several meetings with the athletic department, he found a uniform that everyone agreed on, and then he obtained President Underwood’s approval to make it official.
Recruiting members for the band was difficult at first for Cowden, too.
In their first season, he was able to recruit about 40 members, most of whom were already members of the music school. Now that the band is in its third season, however, they are able to travel around the state and actively recruit new members from high school bands.
“A big part of [the recruiting process] is when our marching band goes to high school marching band competitions all around the state to perform. This gives [Mercer’s] marching band students a captive audience and allows high school band members to see what we’re about,” he said.
Although the marching band does not currently offer scholarships to its members, many of the students are enrolled in the music program at Mercer and are able to secure scholarships that way.
In addition, Cowden said that, “The administration has been incredibly supportive, and they recognize the hours and hours of hard work that band members put into creating shows.”
Since their first performance in 2013, the marching band now has 100 members who are split into several different sections: the horn line, percussion, the front ensemble, and the color guard.
Ali Lambright, a senior from Marietta, Georgia, serves as the Head Drum Major in the marching band, and she has been in this position for the last three years.
“Being in the marching band is a time commitment, just the same as any other activity on campus,” Lambright said. “In order to get a good product, you have to put the time and effort into making it. For example, the football team must practice hours on end to win their games just as we have to practice to make a show that people enjoy.”
Lambright said that on a typical day, the band practices for about two hours.
“We stretch all together as a band for about five minutes, then break off into our individual captions for warm-ups. [We then] come together as a full band again and begin working on whichever part of the show is prescribed for that day,” she said. “During the last 15 minutes of practice, we do a full run-through of the show to solidify the changes from that day. At the end of practice, we all crowd into the 50-yard line and listen to announcements. Finally, at the end of every single rehearsal or performance, we sing the song “Abide with Me” together in a circle then shout our dismissal chant.”
The marching band also performs at basketball games.
Lambright said that her favorite memory during her time as Head Drum Major was performing at the Duke versus Mercer basketball game.
“Throughout this experience, we were treated like royalty. After our chartered flight, we arrived at the hotel in Raleigh with our fight song playing and the entire lobby decorated in Mercer gear. The Duke game itself was an amazing experience. All of the hundreds of Mercer fans made the night one of the most exciting games I have ever experienced,” she said.
Both Cowden and Lambright see the program growing in size and talent in the years to come.
Cowden said that he hopes to expand the band to 150 members while Lambright said she would like to leave a meaningful mark on the program.
“In the years to come, I hope to see the marching band grow to be a powerhouse in the region,” Lambright said.
“There are many great college marching bands in the South, but they are all large public schools. It is very rare for a private school to have the base of people [for] a great band, but I think Middle Georgia will be a good host for this growth. In all, the Mercer University marching band is on a path to grow and become a great place for music performance,” she said.
(10/29/15 3:48am)
In its third season, the Mercer football team competes against bigger, stronger teams in the Southern Conference. The strength and size of the Bears’ new competition has lead to a noticeable uptick in injuries this season. The increase in injuries calls into question what’s happening behind the scenes to help ailing players.
Amos Mansfield, the Director of Mercer Sports Medicine, says that the evolution of athletic training in his lifetime has been drastic.
“Twenty years ago [the world the sports medicine] didn’t have foam rolling, stem [cell] therapy, or heating,” Mansfield said. “Basically you came in the athletic training room if something was broken or you needed surgery. Now we do what we call performance treatments—making athletes feel good for practices and games.”
Athletes will spend up to an hour in the training room prior to a practice or lifting session simply to ensure that they can make it through another tough workout without sustaining an injury. Overtraining can cause athletes to plateau once their body’s capacity to recover is taxed too heavily. In football, however, there is always a push to make athletes bigger, stronger, and faster. Over-training to reach these goals is not uncommon, especially among Division I schools.
“Sometimes because [sports medicine] techniques and knowledge have gotten so much better, there’s a tendency to over-train. An example of this is the cold tank—we have athletes cold tank so that their legs will be fresh and they can practice for an extra three hours the next day. But there’s nothing better than rest and recovery.”
[pullquote speaker="Amos Mansfield" photo="" align="right" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]My job here is to take care of the student-athletes and protect the liability of the institution, but my number one job is to minimize time loss.[/pullquote]
One of Mercer football’s star running backs, Alex Lakes, was out for two weeks with a collapsed lung and a few cracked ribs after taking a big hit. During those two weeks, Lakes was encouraged to rest his body as much as possible, but continued to do low-intensity workouts. He followed that advice, but even after returning to the game, Lakes was somewhat tentative to jump into action again.
“In my first game back I was nervous for that first hit. I’m still kind of nervous because I'm not 100% yet. It’s a mental thing too. My injury probably won't heal until the season ends because I will be getting hit every week.”
This repeated trauma could certainly pose a threat to the remainder of Lakes’ season, but he is also grateful to the sports medicine staff for getting him back on the field again so quickly. In getting Lakes back out on the field, Mansfield and his athletic training staff accomplished their primary goal: minimizing time loss.
“My job here is to take care of the student-athletes and protect the liability of the institution, but my number one job is to minimize time loss,” says Mansfield. “And how we minimize time loss is by being aggressive in our diagnosis. So, if myself or one of my athletic trainers sees an injured athlete and we feel that it warrants a physician’s care, we’re going to expedite that service so we can start rehab and treatment.”
Once a student-athlete has received a diagnosis, the trainers work with the strength and conditioning staff to draft a lifting and rehabilitation plan. This plan can include stem [cell] therapy, heating, icing, mobility training and a wide variety of other exercises.
“We continue to have the student-athlete work the entire body after an injury,” explains Mansfield. “Especially with football, if you hurt your knee you’re still lifting weights and exercising, because we want to keep you as fit as possible. That way when the athlete is cleared, they quickly make the transition to full participation. In this way we are very aggressive with our rehab.”
Mansfield goes on to say that this season—the team’s second in the Southern Conference—has produced many similar injuries.
“We’ve had more injuries this year, but the majority have been week-to-week and day-to-day type injuries versus season ending injuries,” says Mansfield. “We’ve minimized a lot of the soft tissue injuries like hamstrings, quads, and muscle injuries, and in talking with our conference partners, we’re all pretty much in-line. Now that we’ve made the move from non-scholarship football to scholarship football, we’re on a faster, stronger playing field so there are going to be injuries.”
One of these such injuries happened to Wilson Heres, a 5th year senior and offensive lineman for the Bears.
“I fractured my fifth metatarsal on a quarterback sneak against Wofford,” explains Heres. “I already had a stress fracture, and the bone finally broke when I pushed off of my left foot.”
[pullquote speaker="Amos Mansfield" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]People are counting on you to perform so you’ve got to show up and be accounted for.[/pullquote]
After receiving his diagnosis, Heres was immediately put on a rehab program that took about an hour every day, and continues to weight lift to keep his strength up. Although he was already rehabbing his foot prior to the fracture, there was only so much he could do to prevent the injury.
“Football is a physical game and injuries are going to happen,” says Mansfield. “What we try to do every day is keep our athletes strong and mobile. The biggest thing that we can do as athletic trainers is have our athletes come talk to us if they have a problem. Let’s not turn something small into something big. Let us get it evaluated, let us make a diagnosis if need be, let us form a plan so that we can minimize time loss.”
Although injuries sustained in college football can have a lasting impact on these players’ lives, the lessons they learn in college athletics prove to be even more enduring.
“That’s what’s so great about college athletics,” says Mansfield. “Athletes learn how to be responsible; people are counting on you to perform so you’ve got to show up and be accounted for, and you’ve got to work hard when you’re tired and hurting.”
(10/15/15 1:14am)
Former Mercer women’s basketball players Precious Bridges and Briana Williams are finally living out their childhood dreams. The two graduates recently signed to play professional basketball internationally — Bridges with C.B. Arxil Pontevedra in Spain, and Williams with the Pepi Sport Agency, which has found her a spot with the ŽKK Budućnost Podgorica team in Montenegro.
Both Bridges and Williams led the basketball team throughout their Mercer careers. Bridges was named the 2015 Southern Conference Player of the Year as a senior and was honored as a first team all-conference selection. During her final season as a Bear, she lead the team in points-per game, minutes of playing time, assists, and steals. She was the highest scorer in the SoCon (averaging 20.5 points per game) and ranked 21st in the entire nation.
In July, Bridges was contacted to play professionally by ŽKK Budućnost Podgorica, which has won five consecutive national cups and four national championships. She is enjoying the journey so far, but notes that living abroad comes with challenges.
“Playing overseas is not home,” Bridges said. “Let me just put that out there — it’s different. Different people, different language, different food, just a different lifestyle. It has been hard to adjust to the eight-hour time difference, but other than that, I enjoy learning something new every day in and outside of the basketball world.”
Bridges said that she has “some goals to accomplish in the pro world” before she hangs up her shoes. Afterwards, she would like to try her hand at coaching college basketball.
Like Bridges, Briana Williams’ monumental success on the court during college prompted a professional contract offer to come her way June of her senior year.
“I dreamt of [playing professionally] when I was a little girl, but I honestly just didn’t think I was good enough,” Williams said. “But, so many people said they knew I could do it, and that just finally motivated me to make the decision. If they had so much confidence in me, I thought I should too. So, towards the end of my last season, I started making moves for my future. I contacted some people myself, and those connections came through. And everything … fell into place from there.”
Thus far, Williams said she is enjoying the “roller coaster ride” of playing professionally overseas.
“Overall, I am definitely starting to get a feel for everything,” she said. “As long as I’m doing what I love, I think it’s all worth it because so many people wish they could … have this opportunity. I’ll [continue] playing until God says differently. Could be tomorrow, could be 10 years from now.”
However, choosing the professional sports path does not come without sacrifices.
“First of all, it’s a whole new country which means experiencing a totally different culture,” William said. “It’s also difficult because I am so far from my friends and family for such a long time. As far as basketball [goes], I have to adjust to the different style of play and coaches and players not being able to speak English. Some do speak but not very well, so you find yourself a step behind.”
Bridges and Williams are the third and fourth Mercer women’s basketball players to play professionally, joining the ranks of Sybil Blalock and Andrea Congreaves.
(09/29/15 2:51am)
Three weeks into the 2015 Southern Conference volleyball season, three of Mercer’s volleyball players were already out with concussions. When one thinks “concussion,” volleyball is probably not the sport that immediately comes to mind. High-contact sports such as football and soccer are notorious for causing concussions, and get much more media attention as a result.
“Compared to other sports, volleyball has a fairly low occurrence of concussions typically. [However], concussion awareness and prevention should be considered a priority for all sports,” said Mercer University’s Assistant Athletic Trainer Brad Crowe. Crowe said that volleyball more commonly leads to “injuries to the shoulder, knees, and ankles;” the most common being ankle sprains.
“With the repetitive nature of swinging [and jumping] to hit, tendinitis and other overuse injuries of the shoulder and knee are also common,” Crowe said.
However, this does not mean that concussions should be ignored.
“Contact sports receive all the attention for concussions and we learn how to mitigate the risk for those, but the non-contact sports are at risk as well,” said Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer Raquel Warrick, “While it is less difficult to control concussions in football simply by changing the way you tackle, it is not as easy for volleyball so we need to be taking precautions for this.”
So far, determining how to prevent concussions in volleyball has proven tricky.
Mercer volleyball team captain Tori Penrod is one of the players who has sustained a concussion this season. Penrod would not be considered at high risk for the events leading up to a concussion. As a libero, her role on the team is limited to the back row, safe from the net action that seems more likely to cause a head injury. But during one of the team’s practices, Penrod dove for the same ball as one of her teammates. It ricocheted off of the girl’s arms and pegged Penrod in the face. After sustaining her concussion, Penrod was unable to practice with her team for the following week.
When asked if she felt comfortable admitting to her concussion, Penrod conceded that she had felt some hesitation initially.
“There is definitely a moment of hesitation because you work hard each day to win a championship. The competitor in you tries to push through injuries, but eventually it comes to the point where you have to pull yourself out of the game.”
Warrick works specifically with the volleyball team to keep athletes healthy and injury-free. Warrick believes that athletes “feel that they are letting their coach and/or team down if they report a concussion because they know they will have to sit out.” Both internal and external pressures not to report suspected injuries, especially concussions, are seen across the board in athletics. But with the media attention concussions have been receiving of late, there is hope that concussion awareness will begin to increase.
“With ongoing research regarding the long-term effects of concussions, many changes are being made to the professional level of games. Hopefully, as is usually the case, these new changes will work their way down to the NCAA and high school levels,” Crowe said.
Currently, the NCAA “requires that all student-athletes view a concussion awareness video prior to the beginning of activity,” Crowe said.
“Prior to participation in activity, all Mercer student-athletes complete baseline concussion testing to try to show how their brain functions under normal conditions.” Following a head injury, an athlete “completes the same concussion testing and is referred to the Mercer team physician for examination. Once a concussion is diagnosed, they are removed from all activity until their concussion symptoms have subsided,” Crowe said.
“Once they are cleared,” Warrick said, “they begin a gradual exertional protocol, starting with light exercise then working their way up to heavy exercise to non-contact, and then full practice.”
Despite the vigilance practiced by NCAA athletic training personnel, concussions will inevitably persist in all sports, including volleyball. After all, it is the thrill of a hard-driven hit or an impressive dig that makes the game of volleyball so enjoyable and stimulating to athletes. However, recent research has proved just how damaging concussions can be to long-term health, and the more seriously we treat them, the more likely student-athletes will be to succeed after their glory days of Division I athletics have come to an end.