Katlyn and Zach take on senior Tim Kelly in this week’s Sports Challenge

by Bridget Hall

See how the men and women’s Cross Country teams fared at this past weekend’s National meet.

As Thanksgiving break waves at us, images of a scrumptious turkey dinner, pumpkin pie and talk with families and friends hover in our heads. Our motivation to go to classes, finish papers and projects wanes for the next couple of days. But we are certain that there is a real good dinner waiting for us, friends and families waiting to hug us. We are all excited to share our college anecdotes with them, over and over again. The festivities seem promising.

Back at the college, residence halls get deserted, the café and the pub go gloom. As the chill waves become severe, a few students stay back at college, some because of work, but some because of their homes that are states or countries away.

Each holiday brings gloom faces to these students at the college. Students come to Loras from as far as Texas and California and some even from Macedonia and China. Now, going back home to see their families via not-so-inexpensive 20-30 hours flight or 12-13 hours ride might be out of the question. Going to see relatives to the nearby cities is an option, but only for a very few.

Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to be thankful for the bountiful harvest God gives. It’s also about being grateful for who we are and what we have. At the same time, it’s also about making others feel good, whether it be your family, your friends, or your students. Every year, students who don’t have their homes nearby are invited for holidays by Loras community (students, faculty and staff). Such invitations give them an excellent opportunity to see the American and Midwestern culture. A student from New Jersey might not have an exact plan of playing Halo with you in your couch throughout the Thanksgiving break, but inviting him/her for the “turkey dinner,” introducing your family to him/her and making him/her little bit warmer might make him say, “Thank you for Thanksgiving.”

It’s all about easing their holiday blues, you know.

-Lorian Editorial Team

For any diehard fan of baseball, the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, has been home to great tradition and great fun. Whether it be afternoons spent relaxing in the sun surrounded by the breeze in the corn fields, or nights filled with the hum of stadium bulbs burning bright, the Field of Dreams is home to many who love the thrill and the magic of America’s favorite pastime.

Emily Full | My Duhawk

After the movie was released in 1989, many visitors began to arrive on the Lansing farm from near and far. Perhaps the travelers were searching to experience the rousing tale of an Iowan farmer called, quite literally, to build a field for the ghost of famous baseball player Shoeless Joe and his teammates, or maybe, the source of their journey comes from an inherent, profound love of the game.

The site has been a popular tourist destination ever since, for as they say in the film, “If you build it, they will come.” Owners Don and Becky Lansing recently spread the word that the acreage would be taken into the hands of Mike and Denise Stillman, owners of the company Go the Distance Baseball LLC. The land which had been in the Lansing family since 1906, will now be transformed into an ‘All-Star Ballpark Heaven,’ including different field complexes for baseball and softball alike, along with an indoor training facility where tournaments, skills competitions, and other events will be held.

Don and Becky Lansing knew that in order to sell the property, they needed to find a buyer that would continue to uphold the deep history of the site’s baseball heritage. The Stillman family couldn’t be happier to build upon that heritage and they fully intend to preserve and maintain the already existing property and its buildings in order to carry on the tradition.

The legacy of the Field of Dreams can only be described as Terence Mann (Jones) said to Ray Kinsella (Costner) in the film, “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh … people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”

Last Friday night, 21 Loras students faced a lockdown in Hoffmann Hall. Stuck inside, they were divided into four teams, assigned classrooms and restricted from going out of the building. All night long, they fidgeted and banged their heads, scrambling for ideas. They had too many things in their minds- writing, rehearsing, and performing original, short one-act plays, all within 24 hours.

The 24-hour-theater project brought by the Guild of St. Genesius Theatre Honor Society was a fundraiser for Dubuque’s St. Stephen’s Food Pantry. The audience voted for their favorite one-acts for Audience Choice Award by donating money that went to the food pantry. This was the first time the Guild did this kind of project.

Each team in the project was given a setting, line, character, and a prop. The challenge appeared to fixate on the idea while fighting the sandman at night.

“We didn’t come up with idea for a long time last night and so we started watching a soccer match online,” said sophomore Sajjan KC, a member of Stargaze Dramatists during a rehearsal on Saturday afternoon. It was his first time taking part in a play at Loras.

“Let’s not worry about the semantics,” he smiled, uttering his lines from the one-act.

Dressed up as Steven Spielberg, junior Stephen Brandt said, “I always wanted to take part in a play, but never got a chance because of time constraints. This is a great opportunity.”

KC and Brandt’s team came up with ‘E! True Hollywood Story: The Making of E.T.’

“We just wanted to have fun. This is not about winning, but about showing we can do this. We also want to provide fun to the audience,” KC added.

Meanwhile, in the other classrooms, teams comprising Loras Players, who had had experiences of doing a number of shows were hell-bent on making last minute changes to their scripts and rehearsing.

“There is an adrenaline rush in my head right now with only sporadic naps and bursts of laughter all night long. But we all know that as soon as this is done, we’ll all crash,” remarked senior Whitney Arnold from the team The Three Little Women and a Man. Their story ‘The Calamity at Feudalin’s’ had to incorporate the line ‘I’m not even sure what calamity means.’

“Theater background has certainly helped in this 24-hour project,” said first-year Anna Spoden, also a part of the team. “We had so much fun doing this and we’re enjoying every bit of this,” she added.

While the teams showed a concoction of frustration and delectation in their rehearsals, the show host Steven Dobihal said, “I’m excited to see how everything turns out.”

The teams had the freedom to use internet, phones, or laptops for their scripts. Memorizing the script wasn’t required and costumes and additional props were provided.

Loras Players director and a judge of the show Doug Donald said, “I’m amazed that everyone’s been getting along. Tonight is going to show all their hard and sleepless work.”

…And the awards go to:
Most Creative Use of Prop = Edutopia “The Bear Truth”
Most Creative Use of Character = Three Little Women and a Man “The Calamity at Feudalin’s”
Most Creative Use of Line = Stargaze Dramatists “E! True Hollywood Story:  The Making of E.T.”
Most Creative Use of Location = TGS “The Modern Woman”
People’s Choice Award = Stargaze Dramatists
Critic’s Choice Award = Edutopia

After the show, host Dobihal said, “I am absolutely surprised and amazed by the quality of all four plays. They were very well written in my opinion. I am impressed by the acting ability of both theater veterans and those who had never done anything like this before.”

The Guild of Saint Genesius has the “Magic of Christmas” lined up next for Saturday, Dec. 3. The show entails tales of the season with a recreation of a “live” radio broadcast from the 1940s. It includes many classic Christmas stories such as “A Christmas Carol,” “The Night before Christmas,” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

The show is a fundraiser for the Guild.

November 11, 2011-Veterans Day.

This is a day that many take to thank the veterans they know in their lives. I, myself took the time to reflect before saying thank you and realized that I am surrounded by a multitude of men and women who have served and are still serving. I have never been stopped in my tracks before by this thought, but for me personally, the number of servicemen and servicewomen is much higher than I had ever considered many are family, close friends, and a professor or two.

I wanted to more than just thank the veterans that I know. I wanted to honor them. Never having served, I cannot fathom the sacrifices that they bravely chose to make in their lives and often the words “Thank You” do not seem like enough.

I think that for me it hit home when I watched my newly married daughter, with her newborn daughter clutched to her chest, began sobbing at the deployment ceremony. Marco, her husband, bravely took his orders to leave for Afghanistan, leaving his new wife and weeks old daughter behind. My son-in-law wasn’t even 21 years old, and he was being sent to a war-torn country away from everything that he knew.

For me and my family that year of deployment was the longest year of our lives, sometimes going weeks without hearing from him, and then having news blackouts. Praying for that 3 a.m. call from him just to know that he was alive and alright, sending off care packages to make sure that he knew we loved him when we couldn’t talk to him, and holding my family and his together was heart-wrenching during those tough times .

The one thing that my son-in-law told me was, “We didn’t want to die and neither did they, so we did what we had to do to make sure that everyone went home when our shift was done.”

At the tender young age of 21, Marco has seen more in his life than I will ever in mine, but what he will tell you is this, “I remember being six-years-old and running around with a belt on so I had a place to put my guns, this is what I have wanted to do all of my life. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s who I am, it’s what I do.”

My soldier came back home. Some were not that lucky, however. So even though “Thank You” is all that I have to give and I hope that it is enough, it seems so empty considering all the servicemen and women sacrifice so willingly.

So to honor the men and women of the armed forces, I asked them what it meant to serve to them, and this is what they had to say.

“To me the service that I did means a lot because I can know that it was just me taking things from my country and my people throughout my life but I actually gave something back. Being a veteran signifies that you went somewhere and had opportunity to do something that many of your peers do not. And I also think it’s about remembering why you did it. I’m glad that I served my country and I wouldn’t take back that time for anything.  I’m never going to forget the sacrifices that those who came before me had to make and the ones who came or will come after me will make in the future.”
—Jamie Holz, Loras Graduate

“My Time Serving” sounds like I was in the joint (sorta was). I never really considered it “serving.” It was just my job, except it kept me away from my family months, if not years, at a time in places where people wanted to kill me, beer was cheap, the temps were hot and the women were not. The first time someone thanked me for my service, I was blown away. All I could say in response was “It’s a labor of love.” Still to this day, I adhere to that analogy. The only bad day of my navy career was the last one. I felt like I was losing a loved one.”
– Glen Gassman, Veterans Employment Specialist at Iowa Workforce Development

“What it meant to me to serve? I served and endured 22 years of a very hard life and spent three years of that time in foreign countries. I lost three close friends and three acquaintances to enemy actions and I thank God every day that I was given the honor and privilege to know these great young men. I go to bed at night knowing that I earned the right to my personal freedom and the right to be called a veteran. If I was 18 again, I would turn around and do it all over again.”
– Todd Sharkey, Iowa Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention NCO, Dubuque, Iowa

“The real reason why? It ain’t that good I was bored and wanted to be apart of something great.”
– Will Hammel, Iowa Army National Guard

“Why did I serve? My opportunity to step up and do my part for my country. The torch was passed to me from my father and to him from his father.  Being a veteran is nothing more than being one of the people who stepped up to answer the call.”
– John Crews, Former US Navy Reserve, Loras College Campus Safety Officer

“I joined at the age of 18 for three reasons. I wanted to do something bigger than myself (just going to college didn’t seem like enough at the time), I wanted to see the world, and I wanted to help myself pay for college. Why did I stay? My family, to be a strong voice for women and younger airmen, and my allegiance to my military family (all who have served, all who are currently serving, and all who will serve). I will continue to serve because I see the work that has to be done, and I’m in a position to help those who cannot help themselves. I couldn’t do that as easily as a younger airmen, but as an inspector general (a lieutenant-colonel), I can make meaningful change quickly and effectively. I get paid to challenge the status quo. I typically don’t have to dig too deep to see the potential – in our military members and their families, our military processes, our air force missions, etc.
–Dedra Tentis, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Loras College

“I am honored to be counted among those who served, not because I did anything heroic – I didn’t – but because of the company it put me in. I joined for job training and travel, and also because by that time (the end of the Vietnam War) this country had seen a lot of men forced to leave their lives at home to go to war; some of whom never returned. I did not feel that it was equitable that only males were drafted. I wanted to do my part. My fervent hope, however, is that we stop glorifying and supporting violence within our culture, and learn to work together in a global community that finds peaceful solutions to world problems.”
–Valorie Woerdehoff, Grant Writing Director, Loras College

Current Loras employees who are veterans.
Jeff Hamel, Melvin Hingtgen, James Jackson, David Koch, Roger Lowenberg, Donald Root, Paul Samples, David Shepard, Jacob Shireman, Lavern Spoerl, Matthew Saylor,  Valorie Woerdehoff, John Crews, Dedra Tentis, Donald Freyman

I leave you with this “Thank You” to all the men and women of the armed forces for honoring us with YOUR service.

Loras Moot Court team advanced to nationals after securing the third position in this past weekend’s 2011 Upper Midwest Regional Moot Court Tournament held at Loras.

In a fierce compeition of 14 teams, Arkansas State University clinched the first and second positions. Other teams represented Arkansas State University, Macalester College, Eastern Illinois University and Drake University.

The finals were judged by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Bruce Zaeger, Loras alums Mike Conmey (’02) and Matt McElligott (’04). The three judges agreed that this year featured the most “eloquent, passionate, and knowledgeable” groups they had the pleasure of seeing.

“I think this has by far been the best group I have ever seen. Many are better than current practicing lawyers that I have heard,” said Zaeger. “There was great oral advocacy; teams answered questions better than most would.”

Just before announcing the winners, Conmey said, “The devil is in the details. It wasn’t easy sitting and finding the distinctions for any of us [judges].”

“Loras College was excited to be the host of the regional moot trial event and look forward to doing it again next year,” said Christopher Budzisz, one of the Moot Court program directors and professor of politics at Loras College.

Moot Court is a competition in appellate advocacy modeled after what happens at the United States Supreme Court. Teams compete from a fictional case problem involving real areas of constitutional law and actual U.S. Supreme Court precedents. This year’s case problem involved the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Moot Court competition marks emphasis on students’ ability to create a legal argument and respond to unscripted questions from a panel of judges, not unlike the goings on in the U.S. Supreme Court. It places emphasis on their analytical abilities.