SportsView

Feburary 17, 2014 Page 11

ZAC
OAKES
Smarts Mistake
If you have watched ESPN or been
on social media recently, you know
what happened with Marcus Smart,
one of the top college basketball
players from Oklahoma State.
You witnessed The Shove Heard
Round the World.
In the waning seconds of a game
against Texas Tech, Smart went to
defend a layup and tumbled into
the crowd.
He got up, and heard someone
behind him shout something at
him. He turned around, confronted
the man, and shoved him. Not hard
enough to knock him down, but
enough to startle him.
The video was shown everywhere
and was all over Twitter. It was
compared to the Malice at the
Palace in 2004. Those two are not
even in the same ball park. Marcus
Smart is not Ron Artest.
What did the guy say? We do not
know. What we can fairly assume
is that it was something obscene
and uncalled for. By all accounts of
people who have been around him,
Smart is a nice young man, and
has even been called a role model.
Lets get this out of the way.
Marcus Smart IS NOT a thug.
At that moment in time however,
he was not a role model. Smart lost
his cool. Immediately afterward,
Smart plead his case saying that
the man he shoved had shouted a
racist term at him, and he reacted.
The fan says that he called Smart
a piece of crap. People around
the incident heard different things,
some racist, some not.
Ill put it this way. Smart crossed
the line. Under no circumstances
should a player ever put his hands
on a fan in the stands.
That being said, since when has it
been okay for a fan to say anything
that they want to a player, just
because they pay good money for
a seat close to the foor? Security
should have immediately been
down there and promptly showed
the fan the door.
I am all for the fans getting excited
about the game. Sports, especially
at the collegiate level, thrive off
the pageantry and energy that the
fans bring to each game. It is what
makes each stadium and arena
unique. The fans are a factor.

This, however, crosses that fne
line. If the fan indeed used a racist
term against Smart, it would in-
deed be diffcult to place so much
blame on Smart for acting out. He
showed that he was human, and
I am under the conviction that
almost any one of us, given the cir-
cumstances, would have done the
same thing Smart did, if not worse.
We should get off his back. His
reputation has already taken
enough of a hit. He will long be
remembered as the guy who tried
to fght a fan. Not as the guy who
skipped going to the draft after one
year to stay in college. Not the guy
who plans on using the money he
gets when he goes pro to pay for a
kidney transplant for his mother.
Not the guy who had to support
his family from a young age after
watching his brother die.
Marcus Smart is human. He acted
out in a human way. Its time we
stop acting like these guys arent
human and can not make human
mistakes. The fact that this incident
will be forever etched into Smarts
legacy is an absolute shame.
Chris Cole
Sports Editor
raiderview@lindsey.edu
H
aving to accept the fact
that a particular sport has
wrapped up its season is
defnitely a hard time for anyone
who is the average sports fanatic.
With the conclusion of the 2013
football season, there where a
number of notable accomplish-
ments that spectators should be
aware of. Senior tailback Rome
Cotton, playing in his fnal regular
season game at the Blue Raider
Stadium, rushed for 118 yards
against Bluefeld College. He be-
came the frst Blue Raider to rush
for 1,000 yards in a single season
with an eight-yard run late in the
second quarter.
In its inaugural season, the Blue
Raiders fnished with a remarkable
5-6 record. Very few NAIA teams
fail to reach this level of success,
even a few years after their initial
season opener. The freshman ath-
letes along with a few upperclass-
men managed to build a season to
remember during the 2010 football
season.
Each year the football program
has produced all conference con-
tenders in the Mid South region.
Thirteen players from this past
season (2013) were named to the
all conference lists. Eight Lindsey
Wilson football players were All
Mid-South Conference First Team,
while fve earned Second Team
honors.
The individual awards and All-
MSC teams were voted upon by
the divisions coaches. Making
First Team All Conference was Jon
Smith, Emilio Gonzalez, Branden
Cresap, Rome Cotton, Jerry Long
II, Avery Ford, Cortez Barber and
Mark Corbett.
Billy Roberts, Matt Powers,
Chris Dobbins, Andrew Wahl and
Sam Wilson were named to the
Second Team.
Junior quarterback Brandon Cre-
sap fnished the season with 2,663
yards in the air and 31 touchdown
passes. He was also named Co-
Offensive MVP of the MSC. Avery
Ford was honored as the East De-
fensive Freshman of the Year. He
totaled fve interceptions, returning
one for a score, to lead the division
and rank 15th in the NAIA.
It takes a lot of planning,
hard work, and dedication to be
awarded season after season with
great wins and all conference
athletes. Although excelling in
athletics at the collegiate level is a
great accomplishment, achieving
this status while performing well
academically is an honor that only
few achieve. The LWC football
team produced 15 student-athletes
whom earned Academic All-Mid
South Conference honors. Corrion
Cooper, Mark Corbett, Branden
Cresap, Cory Davenport, Romell
Freeman, Collin Keen, Caleb
Keeton, Charlie Mullennex, Matt
Powers, Billy Roberts, Levi Sand-
ers, Chase Simpson, Lee Sutton,
Jacob Vulhop and Tyler Williams
were all awarded for their aca-
demic standing during the entire
season.
It takes extreme discipline and a
mentally tough individual to per-
form at a high academic standard
while balancing athletics. Three of
the 15 have earned Academic All-
MSC honors three straight years,
(Mullennex, Powers and Simpson.)
Matt Powers exceeded expecta-
tions and was selected to the Capi-
tol One Academic All- America
College Division team for the 2013
season. Powers is the frst Blue
Raider to be named to the Capital
One Academic All- America team.
Powers, a psychophysiology major
with a 3.75 G.P.A., caught 32 pass-
es for 676 yards and seven touch-
downs during this past football
season. Powers season-high in re-
ceiving yards came on September
28 against Faulkner (Ala.) when he
made fve receptions for 115 yards.
Powers caught two touchdowns on
September 14 against Kentucky
Wesleyan College.
Powers, and Dobbins came up
big on the offensive side of the
ball with over 600 yards receiving
respectively. With Dobbins versa-
tility and elusiveness, it makes it
very diffcult for opposing teams
to strategize on how to defend
his electrifying moves. Powers,
who stands at 63 and 210 lbs., is
a physical specimen and diffcult
to cover especially when there are
very few 60 and taller defensive
backs at the NAIA level.
Avery Ford, who was a red-
shirt for the 2012 season made a
tremendous impact defensively to
help the Blue Raiders achieve suc-
cess throughout the year. Big take
aways at crucial moments of the
season, gave Lindsey a momentum
shift, which led them to win a lot
games that would have had a dif-
ferent outcome otherwise.
Although starting a program
from scratch is not an easy task,
recruiting a solid core of dedicated
athletes on a consistent basis will
always help shape up a team for
the better. Players will come and
go especially after the frst season,
but once you have mounted a team
who is committed and only wants
to win at the end of the day, you
will achieve great success, which
will overshadow any negative
setbacks that might arise.
Commitment
and patience
Zac Oakes
News Editor
raiderview@lindsey.edu

W
hen most people think
of the term wrestling,
they think of the profes-
sional wrestling shown on televi-
sion or the wrestling groups that
travel, putting on performances at
county fairs, festivals, etc. How-
ever, these ideas are quite contrary
to what wrestling really is, namely
at the collegiate level.
Collegiate wrestling, while
mostly an individual sport, is just
as much a team sport, according
to Lindsey Wilson College (LWC)
Wrestling Coach, Corey Ruff.
Although they compete as in-
dividuals, each individual perfor-
mance affects the teams outcome
and image, Ruff said. You have
to be selfsh, but you also have to
fght for the guys wearing the same
uniform. You cant possibly do
this without an immense support
system. Hence, team chemistry is
critical.
Ruff took over the wrestling
program in their inaugural sea-
son in 2009-2010. Wrestling was
new to LWC, but Ruff had a vast
amount of experience in the sport.
Ruff says that when the job opened
up here, he was more than glad to
make the jump from being an as-
sistant coach to head coach.
I was an assistant for over 10
years, and it was always my goal
to start a program from scratch,
Ruff said. When the job was post-
ed for Lindsey Wilson, I pursued
the opportunity with zeal.
Ruff says that the wrestling team
has seen growth entering into their
ffth season. He says that in their
frst season, the team had about
40 wrestlers, but entering into this
season, that number is about 60.
The wrestling team has seen
tremendous success over the past
four seasons, including many no-
table accomplishments in the last
year. Ruff noted that the in last two
years their success has increased.
In the past two seasons we
have accomplished: 2x MSC
Champs, 2 MSC Wrestler of the
year award recipients, 10 All-
Americans, 5 National Finalists, 2
National Champions, 3 Academic
All-Americans, 2013 East Region
Champions, 2x top 5 team fnish
at Nationals, 6th at 2013 National
Duals, Ruff said.
This success would not be
possible without proper training,
discipline, hard work, motivation,
and strong coaching, which are all
aspects that are critical to building
a strong team. Coach Ruff says
that building a strong team is a dif-
fcult task, but he feels like he and
his assistants have been able to do
just that.
I have a great support staff,
and together we help guide every
member of our program. We work
hard to make sure our athletes are
accountable, Ruff said. Every
student-athlete needs something
different, and its my responsibility
to fgure that out. Its their re-
sponsibility to be open to making
adjustments and motivated to
evolve. Coach Cross is invaluable
to the success of our program. He
puts up with me, and is an out-
standing mentor for every young
man. We believe in the same keys
to success, and work very well to-
gether to take this program to new
heights every season.
Joseph Cozart, a junior at LWC,
wrestles in the 157 pound weight
class. Cozart fnished second in the
nation in Des Moines, Iowa last
year, and is now ranked number
one in the nation. Cozart trans-
ferred to LWC after frst wrestling
at Iowa State University in Ames,
Iowa. He says that he thought
LWC would be the right place for
him to grow.
I chose LWC because Im
convinced that the coaching staff
could provide the right situations
I needed to improve and grow as
a wrestler and a person, Cozart
said.
Cozart says that the wrestling
team has the same goals year in
and year out. He says the teams
national championship is their
most important goal every year.
The overall goal of every year
is to take home the team national
championship title. If individu-
als strive for this goal individual
accomplishments should follow,
Cozart said.
Things are looking bright this
year for the LWC Wrestling team,
as well as into the upcoming years.
Coach Ruff says that he is excited
for this season, and the seasons
ahead.
The near future looks good if
this team can get healthy, Ruff
said. We are hoping to bring
home a team trophy this year and
fnish in the top three. But we
dont have the depth to afford
injury. Recruiting is off to a great
start for next years class, and we
are well on our way to bringing in
the most talented recruiting class
ever. We plan to contend for a
team title every single season.
Takedown
Photo by LWC Public Relations
LWC plans for successful wrestling season
LWC successful 2013 season
Photo by Public Relations