PDF Edition of The Observer for Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s

NDSP offers online crime tracker

CrimeReports mapping service helps maintain safety within Notre Dame community

By SAM STRYKER News Editor

Notre Dame students now will be able to track campus crime patterns faster and more efficiently than ever before, using a digital mapping service that updates automatically.

Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) recently launched a subscription with CrimeReports, a mapping service that tracks crimes in a user-designated area.

NDSP Crime Prevention Officer Keri Kei Shibata said this new mapping service will be a valuable tool for members of the Notre Dame community.

“The more information people have, the more they are able to make good decisions about how to live safely and what kind of safeguards to take,” Shibata said. “I think it’s good for the public.”

NDSP Director Phil Johnson said the previous method of providing crime-tracking information students was done manually, and the information was released less often.

“We would send you a safety beat each month,” he said. “We plotted the crime data onto a map. Now this will happen on an automatic interface that is routinely available quickly.”

Reporter discusses Penn State scandal

By SARA FELSENSTEIN Associate News Editor

Just a few months ago, 24-year-old reporter Sara Ganim had only a handful of followers on Twitter.

Now, she has more than 13,000.

something that would lead to what it led to, I never thought it would lead to the firing of Joe Paterno, ever,” she said. “I just followed the facts, piece by piece, as they came to us.”

Shibata said one benefit of the program is students can register for free with the website and customize “neighborhoods” with geographic areas on campus they want to receive crime updates about.

“What a ‘neighborhood’ does is it lets me see alerts about the crimes that I am interested in,” she said. “So if I want to only want to know about thefts

By TORI ROECK News Writer

Undergraduates will have the chance to delve deeper into the nuances of government when the new David Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies, a part of the political science department, launches as a minor program this fall.

“For our undergraduates, we hope to offer a course of study that invites them to think deeply and broadly from a variety of perspectives and disciplines about the most fundamental questions of life and law,” Vincent Muñoz, a professor in the program, said.

Muñoz said some of these questions include, “What is the proper relationship between government and civil society, between law and moral principles?” and “What are the philosophical foundations of

Collection benefits food bank

By KEELIN McGEE News Writer

In a joint effort to help feed the hungry this winter, Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross launched the second annual Holy Cross Harvest Food Drive Jan. 23, which runs until mid-February.

where volunteers made chili and the rest of the staff donated money to eat,” she said.

“Many offices are also having ‘Jeans Days’ where people pay for the privilege to wear jeans to work.”

Students are also making a strong effort to take part in the drive this year.

student involvement, but she hopes participation this year will increase.

Ganim is a crime reporter for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Penn., where she first broke the news in March that a grand jury was investigating former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky for allegedly molesting a high school football player.

Eight months later — when Sandusky was indicted, then arrested and charged — the story exploded onto the national media scene.

But Ganim said she never expected its magnitude.

“Until the night Paterno was fired, it never even crossed my mind that this could be

Ganim spoke to journalism students at Notre Dame Monday afternoon, discussing her experience covering the Penn State scandal and emphasizing how crucial social media tools are to breaking news.

She said she could not believe how quickly the story evolved after Sandusky’s indictment.

“It was crazy, I didn’t even realize [the story] was leading The Nightly News for four days straight, I didn’t have time to watch television,” she said. “You’re running literally from place to place…and trying to squeeze interviews that will keep you one step ahead of everyone else the next day.”

Ganim, who is a 2008 graduate of Penn State, said she did receive negative responses to her reporting but had expected the backlash to be much worse.

“In November, when it be -

see GANIM/page 4

The Holy Cross Harvest collects nonperishable food items and monetary donations to benefit the Food Bank of Northern Indiana. Notre Dame is the most active institution of the drive, with donations being taken in 25 food collection barrels and multiple change jars at retail locations around campus.

Anne Kolaczyk, Notre Dame chairman of the Holy Cross Harvest and a senior technical training professional with the Office of Information Technology (OIT), said about 50 building and departmental representatives are running the drive on campus.

“The representatives are the ones that are planning events, challenging people to donate and collecting the money and watching the barrels,” she said.

Kolaczyk said the events planned by the different departments have been the best way to raise awareness and donations for the drive.

“The OIT held a chili cook-off

Junior Ellen Carroll, chair of student government’s Social Concerns Committee, said last year’s drive did not see much

“We do not have a specific set of goals we want to reach,” she said. “Our goal is more to show that the students are involved and do care about providing food for those who can’t provide for themselves rather than reaching a specific number.”

Carroll said efforts are being

FOOD/page 3

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Andrea Rosado sophomore Pangborn

“Drinking Out of Cups”

Hannah Lin sophomore Lewis

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“Baby dancing to Beyoncé”

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“Honey Badger”

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“Baby Monkey Riding Backwards on a Pig”

In BrIef

The Student Union Board February Festival Week poetry contest submission deadline is today. All poetry types are eligible and there is a two poem per person limit. Send submissions to parnassus.nd@gmail.com

The lecture, “An Empowerment Model for Sustainable Residential Reconstruction in Léogâne, Haiti, after the January 2010 Earthquake,” will be given in Room C103 of the Hesburgh Center for International Studies today from 12:30 to 2 p.m. The Kellogg Institute for International Studies is sponsoring the lecture, which is free and open to the public

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Inmate guilty of seeking $890M in bogus tax refunds

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A jury has convicted a New York prison inmate of falsely filing tax returns seeking $890 million in refunds.

Prosecutors say the man filed the bogus returns from 2006 to 2010 while at various state prisons. They say he even was issued a refund for $327,000 — but prison officials intercepted the check and returned it to the Internal Revenue Service, which led the investigation.

The man was convicted Thursday of 11 counts of filing false claims and one count of helping another inmate file bogus returns.

He was serving two to four years for possession of stolen property when he was charged last February. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count when he’s sentenced in May.

Artist plans to build tourist jetliner, tunnel BAKERSFIELD, Calif.

— A Swiss artist plans to bury an intact Boeing 727 jetliner in California’s Mojave Desert and build a tourist tunnel to give visitors a chance to view the underground project.

The Bakersfield Californian reports the project, dubbed “Terminal,” already has planning department staff approval.

The jetliner would be buried 38 feet below the surface.

Visitors will be able to experience the subterranean art project via an underground tunnel connecting the plane to a parking area. They’ll be able to use the plane’s restrooms, which will be connected to a septic system.

Information compiled from the Associated Press.

Christoph Buchel has applied for a Kern County conditional-use permit that will allow him to bury the 153-foot-long decommissioned airliner west of Boron. It’s not far from the desert’s aircraft boneyard.

The lector workshop for the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 24, will now be held today from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the Eucharistic minister workshop, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 24, will now be held today from 8 to 9 p.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart

The Career Center will hold a Career Technology Night for graduate students in the Monogram Room of the Joyce Center from 7 to 9 p.m. today

Campus Ministry will host Four:7 Catholic Fellowship in the Cavanaugh Hall chapel tonight from 8:30 to 9:45 p.m.

To submit information to be included in this section of The Observer, email detailed information about an event to obsnews.nd@gmail.com

By JILLIAN BARWICK News Writer

Lambda Pi Eta collects clothing CLC discusses GSA proposal, Morris visits

To help the South Bend homeless population combat the cold this winter, Saint Mary’s students are collecting clothing to be given to the Center for the Homeless to distribute.

Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Studies Honor Society, hosted the clothing drive, which concludes at the end of this week.

Senior Alex Davin, president of Lambda Pi Eta at Saint Mary’s, said it felt right to give back to South Bend.

“The main reason we wanted to work with the Center for the Homeless is that we can give back to the local community of South Bend,” Davin said. “Our local community is in need, and it feels right giving South Bend the attention it needs.”

Davin contacted the Center for the Homeless over winter break to see if the Center

Food

continued from page 1

taken by student government to target student involvement.

“Student volunteers will be working a table at the home hockey games on Feb. 3, 4 and 10, as a part of Lefty Fest, to accept goods and talk with people to spread awareness,” she said. “We are hoping to also set up a table in LaFortune where students can make donations and we are also encouraging students to use their extra flex points to

wanted to collaborate on the clothing drive.

“The Center for the Homeless is always looking for extra clothing, especially during the winter, to give to their guests,” Davin said. “We all know how cold South Bend winters are.”

Peter Lombardo, director of the Center for the Homeless, spoke at a meeting held by Lambda Pi Eta last semester and made some suggestions for the group of women to help out the local South Bend community. He said Lambda Pi Eta and the Center have been in contact since last semester.

“Alex and I spoke a few times about several different opportunities,” Lombardo said. “The clothing drive is the first thing lined up for this semester between Lambda Pi Eta and the Center for the Homeless. The girls of Lambda Pi Eta have done a terrific job so far.”

Davin and other members

buy food.”

The increased awareness on campus of the Holy Cross Harvest appears to have already had an immense impact. Last year, the food drive successfully collected 6,600 pounds of food and almost $2,700. Kolaczyk said the drive has already surpassed last year’s cash numbers within the first week.

“We will not measure the food donations until the very end,” she said. “But, so far, in monetary donations, we have raised just over $3,900.”

Two more weeks remain to make donations and Carroll said even a small donation

of Lambda Pi Eta decided a clothing drive on campus would be a great way to give back to the surrounding community.

The clothing collection boxes are located in all residence halls as well as Opus, and the Student Center on Saint Mary’s campus. The drive is open to all men, women and children’s clothing — particularly winter wear — as well as towels.

The Center for the Homeless is also open for weather amnesty, meaning extended hours and capacity, during the winter — another reason why the clothing drive is so important.

“People come to the Center usually with just the clothes on their backs,” Lombardo said. “This clothing drive is a great way for the Center and Saint Mary’s College to help out people in South Bend.”

Contact Jillian Barwick at jbarwi01@saintmarys.edu

can make a big difference.

“A dollar can be used to provide eight meals,” she said. “We have to remember how fortunate we are and that there are people, streets away from us, who don’t have a dining hall to go to and anything we do will be greatly appreciated by them.”

A full list of food collection barrel locations, events and building/department representatives can be found at Holy Cross Harvest’s website: http://holycrossharvest. nd.edu

Contact Keelin McGee at kmcgee01@saintmarys.edu

By NICOLE TOCZAUER News Writer

Members of Campus Life Council (CLC) discussed various viewpoints and implications surrounding the proposed Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) during their meeting Monday afternoon.

Student body chief of staff and senior Claire Sokas said Student Senate decided to reassess how students feel about forming a GSA. In response, CLC met with a representative from the 4 to 5 Movement, a student initiative in support of creating a GSA, to gain further insight on student opinion.

Alex Coccia, sophomore and co-president of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), spoke for the movement.

“I would like to clarify that PSA is not a substitute for GSA,” he said. “We are inherently an activist group and LGBT is only one of the things we work on. With that said, the 4 to 5 Movement is our initiative to get allies involved and voicing their opinion.”

Coccia said the movement is based on the statistic that four out of five people are part of a supportive majority that remains silent. The movement works to encourage allies to voice their opinion and remain in contact with the unrecognized student LGBTQ group on campus, he said.

“The unofficial group is AllianceND. Because it’s not recognized, it’s not allowed to publicize or promote itself on campus,” he said. “It meets regularly, but you have to be in tune and know who to talk to in order to know when meetings are.”

He said members of the PSA meet often with AllianceND and remain informed on student opinion. He said students advocate the creation of a GSA for several reasons.

“First, people who want to take leadership roles without publicizing their sexuality, like being on the Core Council brochure, would benefit from a GSA. Second, because it’s membership oriented, it has growth potential,” Coccia said. “Having more students involved is extremely important in promoting the campus atmosphere we want.”

Coccia said beyond these points, a student-run organization would encourage the involvement of straight allies. A club devoted to the elimination of homophobia on campus with help from classmates and dormmates is essential, he said.

Sr. Sue Dunn, assistant vice

president of Student Affairs, said the Core Council holds meetings in the Gold Room each month as an opportunity for people to come together.

“We have an educational topic to discuss and it’s confidential,” she said.

Coccia said while meetings in the Gold Room are helpful and welcome allies, they do not meet all of the needs of the community. A GSA would increase participation on a weekly basis, he said.

“My impression and what I’ve been told by people interested in GSA — the truly committed attend the Gold Room each month,” he said. “Whereas in a GSA with weekly meetings, you can come and go as you like.”

Coccia said the involvement of LGBTQ community members and allies is essential to ending homophobia on campus. The lack of a GSA makes this difficult, he said.

“In the Notre Dame family, this means including everyone,” he said.

Dunn said the strength behind this student push came from the increased organization among the LGBTQ community in the past three semesters.

“It was not clear before what direction to go in or what involvement they wanted to have with other groups,” she said. “There’s more of a presence and student energy is being put into what they want to do now.”

Student body president Pat McCormick said the discussion would continue in Senate on Wednesday in hope of deciding on a resolution.

“I think it’s a sign of hope in being creative for developing support for a community that has expressed a need. Thank you to Sr. Sue and Core Council for a transformative set of years,” he said. “Now, we need to figure out how we could get something off the ground either in Core Council or on its own.”

After closing the discussion on a GSA, McCormick added that the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend is interested in increasing student attendance at its shows. McCormick said he addressed the concern about transportation when meeting with representatives from the Center in downtown South Bend.

“The city, Morris Center and student government hope to work together on this project to get some exciting performances and spur economic growth in the city,” he said.

Contact Nicole toczauer at ntoczaue@nd.edu

NDSP

continued from page 1

in my residence hall, I can set it for the area around my residence hall and it will send me an email whenever a theft in my residence hall gets posted.”

In addition to recognizing possible particular areas on campus where certain crimes such as theft may occur often, Johnson said he hopes NDSP may receive more tips as students become more aware of criminal activity on campus.

“You may see something on here that you have information about and you contact us because you now know you have information about a reported crime,” he said.

Shibata said the program’s launch has been in the works for a year. She said information from NDSP’s reporting system is pulled directly by CrimeReports daily at midnight. This information is then plotted using Google Maps.

“I think it is more userfriendly,” she said. “Rather than going to a line of text, it is more visual.”

Shibata said an additional benefit of the program is it releases information in a timely, accurate manner.

“We may sometimes receive more information that changes

Ganim

continued from page 1

came clear that Joe Paterno was not going to come out of this looking as nice as he would have liked, and all of his [fans] were going to start to get very upset, yeah you get hate mail,” she said. “But you often get hate mail as a reporter … You’ve just got to remind yourself that somewhere between the praise and the disgust is probably where you should be.”

Ganim’s research into the scandal dates back to 2009, when she first received a tip while working at State College, Penn.’s Centre Daily Times. A source told her that a child had accused Sandusky of molesting him.

She said she approached the story just as she would “any other crime story.”

the classification of a crime, and that will update on a map,” she said.

Johnson said CrimeReports, which provides crime-plotting information for the United States and internationally, is also in the process of being launched by the South Bend Police Department. He said this would be a valuable information source for those who live off campus.

“We think an informed campus constituency is safer,” Johnson said. “In particular for our South Bend faculty, staff, and students, if you hear a rumor about something happening in your neighborhood, you can look at the map and see nothing happened.”

Rather than replacing any notification methods, Johnson said he views CrimeReports as a supplementary source of safety information. He said NDSP will continue to send out serious crime alerts as mandated by federal law through emergency messaging and ND Alert, the student notification system.

“This is just one more tool in our communications resources to help us keep the community informed of what is happening and to help the community be aware of crimes so they can take steps to protect themselves,” Johnson said.

Contact Sam Stryker at sstryke1@nd.edu

said. “He just said he didn’t do it.”

Ganim said a combination of compassion and persistence are key to a modern-day reporter’s success.

“I got a little lucky, I was in the right place at the right time,” she said. “But I really think it all goes back to local reporting.”

She advised aspiring reporters to take positions that offer hands-on experience with writing and multimedia, not just those that pay well or come with a big name.

“Your first job is never your dream job, you don’t want it to be your dream job,” Ganim said. “I had a police scanner next to my bed, because I was obsessed with not missing anything. [Mine] was a 24/7, all-consuming job.”

“I got a little lucky, I was in the right place at the right time.”

Sara

Ganim reporter

“I looked into [Sandusky,] and I found out who he was, and I thought, ‘wow if this guy really molested a child, that’s a big deal,’” she said.

But without hard facts to go on, Ganim said the story could not move forward. She said victims had spoken up and made allegations, but those allegations did not lead to charges. Eventually, Ganim moved to the Patriot-News, where she was given time to do “nothing but knock on doors.”

When she had information from five independent sources who had testified before the Grand Jury, the Patriot-News ran the story.

“We learned after the story ran that it led to more victims coming forward, and Jerry Sandusky admitted that all of the facts that we had alleged — yes, they were alleged,” she

Minor

continued from page 1

human rights and constitutional democracy?”

The minor has been in development for several years, but was proposed and accepted to the College of Arts and Letters this semester, Muñoz said. The minor will be open to all undergraduates, regardless of their college or career aspirations.

“We hope that the minor will be particularly useful to those students who might have a vocation to careers in politics, law and public policy, but we hope that we serve all students interested in fundamental questions of justice, citizenship and the common good,” he said.

Muñoz said the minor will be interdisciplinary in nature. Courses will come from the political science, philosophy, theology and history departments and even the law school, he said.

Students are required to take five courses from four different components to complete the minor, Muñoz said. These components are, “Constitutionalism: History and Philosophy, “The American Founding and American Constitutional History, “Constitutional Government and Public Policy and “Comparative Constitutionalism and International Law.

“These general categories will focus on the great political and constitutional debates in American and world history and on the underlying principles of constitutional government for example, natural and civil rights, social contract theory, the market economy, voluntary associations, separation of powers, popular sovereignty and the rule of law, Muñoz said.

Muñoz said the gateway course for the minor will be Constitutionalism, Law and Politics, which he taught for the first time last semester.

Sophomore Lizzie Helpling, who is considering the constitutional

studies minor, took the course last semester and said it shaped her interest in the field.

“I think the class itself really helped me develop a deeper understanding of constitutional thought and interpretation, especially in the American tradition,” Helpling said.

In addition to the minor, Muñoz said the David Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies will sponsor constitutional studies lectures.

For starters, the program is sponsoring a lecture from Professor Jeffrey Tulis of the University of Texas titled “The Possibility of Constitutional Statesmanship.” The lecture will take place Feb. 6 in DeBartolo Hall 131 at 4:30 p.m., he said.

“Once the minor begins, constitutional studies minors will be invited to meet with such visiting faculty members over lunch or dinner or perhaps at a faculty member’s house, Muñoz said.

Contact tori Roeck at vroeck@nd.edu

Now, in addition to reporting for the PatriotNews, Ganim is also a contributor for CNN.

Ganim’s list of Twitter followers keeps expanding, but she uses the audience largely as a sounding board for story ideas.

While her groundbreaking coverage of the Penn State scandal may open doors for her career, Ganim said she has no plans to leave Harrisburg.

“I really, honestly, am not thinking about [moving] right now,” she said. “I’m pretty focused at the moment on the next part of the story. I mean I could map out a schedule for the next three months of a story a day I want to do on this — this story has so many avenues.”

Sara Ganim can be found on Twitter at @sganim. Her personal website is www.saraganim.com.

Contact Sara Felsenstein at sfelsens@nd.edu

Santorum denounces ‘gutter politics’ of opponents

Associated Press

COTTLEVILLE, Mo. — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum denounced the “gutter politics” of his opponents Monday as he turned his campaign away from a potentially futile effort in Florida in hopes of regaining momentum in the Midwest.

After spending what he described as a stressful weekend with his sick 3-year-old daughter, Santorum resumed his campaign at a suburban St. Louis community college and later at a theater in Luverne, Minn., while forecasting a political revival in states such as Missouri and Minnesota.

In St. Louis, the former senator from Pennsylvania carefully avoided naming Republican rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — he trails them in polls heading into Tuesday’s primary in Florida — but nonetheless directed a scolding toward them for what he said is devolving into a negative campaign.

“I’m sick and tired of candidates who think they have to

do anything that’s necessary — anything — to win an election,”

Santorum told more than 300 people packed into an auditorium at St. Charles Community College. “We deserve better than the gutter politics that we’ve been seeing in this race.”

Santorum is the first Republican candidate to appear in Missouri in advance of its Feb. 7 primary, which will essentially be a statewide public opinion poll. The Republican Party plans to award its presidential delegates in Missouri through a series of caucuses that begin in mid-March. Gingrich didn’t get on Missouri’s primary ballot while others who have since dropped out of the race will be listed alongside Romney, Santorum and Ron Paul.

Santorum said he still considers Missouri’s primary to be important. Because of Gingrich’s absence, it could allow Santorum to test his political strength more directly against that of Romney, who has been building a network of prominent Republican endorsements in Missouri.

European leaders promise to stimulate growth, create jobs

Associated Press

BRUSSELS — European leaders promised Monday to stimulate growth and create jobs, in a tacit acknowledgment that their exclusive focus on austerity has had painful side effects. Heads of European state and government meeting in Brussels on Monday pledged to offer more training for young people to

ease their transition to the work force, deploy unused development funds to create jobs, reduce barriers to doing business across the EU’s 27 countries, and ensure that small businesses have access to credit. However there was no offer of any new financial stimulus.

“We must do more to get Europe out of the crisis,” the statement approved by leaders said.

The European Commission says that there are still 82 billion in development funds that have not yet been allocated, and the statement from Monday’s summit said they should be “rapidly” committed to projects focused on growth and job-creation.

Europe’s debt crisis has put the continent and its leaders in an almost impossible situation.

While they have to slash their deficits to reassure investors reluctant to lend to them, the debt crisis has also hammered the so-called “real economy,” sending unemployment soaring.

Many analysts, politicians and trade unions think that only government spending can restart growth.

Countries across Europe are struggling with high unemployment and sluggish economies: Overall, 23 million people are jobless across the EU, 10 percent of the active population.

In Spain, unemployment has soared to nearly 23 percent and closed in on 50 percent for those under age 25, leaving more than 5 million people — or almost one out of every four — out of work as the country slides toward recession.

Even countries in the so-called European “core” — which are generally better off — are suffering. The French government was forced Monday to revise down its growth forecast for the year from 1 percent to just 0.5 percent.

In fact, many now fear that Europe is on the verge of another recession, and leaders gathering in Brussels said that while austerity is important, more needs to be done for growth. Economists often note that cutting spending is just one way to slash deficits; another equally important method is to boost growth, which increases the amount of money pouring into government coffers.

“We have to have balanced budgets and at the same time focus on growth and jobs,” said Prime Minister Helle ThorningSchmidt of Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of European Council, ahead of the meeting. “It is possible to do both at the same time and it is important to understand that these are two sides of the same coin.”

While the leaders meeting in Brussels focused on walking the fine line between reining in spending and stimulating growth, the elephant in the room was Greece.

Greece and its bondholders have come closer to a deal to sig-

nificantly reduce the country’s debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed 130 billion ($170 billion) bailout.

Negotiators for Greece’s private creditors said Saturday that a debt-reduction deal could become final within the next week. If the agreement works as planned, it could help Greece avoid a catastrophic default, which would be a blow to Europe’s already weak financial system.

But European officials are afraid that even that deal may not be enough to fix Greece’s finances, with some blaming Athens for dithering on its promise to cut spending and introduce austerity measures.

German officials over the weekend proposed that Athens temporarily cede control over tax and spending decisions to a powerful eurozone budget commissioner before it can secure further bailouts.

The idea proved immediately controversial — both the European Commission and the Greek government refuted it — to the point that German Chancellor Angela Merkel pulled back on the idea when she arrived in Brussels.

She said Europe had to support Greece in implementing promised austerity and reform measures, “but all that will only work if Greece and all other states discuss this together.” Luxembourg Prime Minister, and head of the group of eurozone finance ministers, JeanClaude Juncker told reporters as he entered the summit that Greece couldn’t be singled out.

“I’m strongly against the idea of imposing the debt commissioner only to Greece, that’s just not acceptable” neither for Greece nor the rest of Europe, Juncker said.

The negotiations in Greece are crucial because it is clear that Athens will never be able to pay off all of its debts, especially as austerity measures take their toll on its anemic economy. Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, cautioned against punishing Greece too severely.

InsIde CoLumn

Confession: I don’t hate 3-D...

How Elmo and weed can make you wealthy

Since the birth of the Internet, many a person has sought to capitalize upon the web’s infinite potential. Many have succeeded, but countless more have failed, succumbing to the economic difficulties that arise from an Internet that changes ‘business as usual’ in every single respect.

Marc Anthony Rosa

Mary Claire O’Donnell Scene Writer

I never saw “Avatar.” I know, cue gasps of shock and looks of disbelief. I’ve been dealing with it since 2009 when the subject of those weird blue people, James Cameron and his possible Oscar win were on everyone’s mind. But I thought the movie looked like “Pocahontas,” which I really only enjoyed because of the soundtrack, so I wasn’t going to spend upwards of $15 to see another version of the same movie.

Everyone kept telling me that I had to see it because of the 3-D animation, but the only thing I could think of when I thought of 3-D were those shows at theme parks where giant bees would coming flying at your face in the name of entertainment. That’s not really my cup of tea, so I was more than content to let others ooh and aah over the movie.

And so 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” was my first exposure to the new 3-D animation. I was underwhelmed, both by the movie and the animation. And that’s really how I felt about every movie I saw in 3-D — the animation was just never really impressive. And I had to shell out about $5 extra to see the movie. Not worth it.

But then I went to see the 3-D re-release of “Beauty and the Beast” in theaters. And my opinion changed. Every moment I had memorized since my days as a towheaded, squeaky-voiced toddler were made even more magical by the subtle 3-D enhancements and big screen projection. When Belle and the Beast danced in the ballroom, I was there with them, spinning around with my own prince charming.

The effects were noticeable, but not obnoxious. Part of the improvement may have come from the digital remastering of the film — and the fact that I was seeing the movie on the big screen for the first time in 20 years. But either way, I was totally won over to the idea of 3-D and re-releasing old movies in the new animation.

With this new, positive outlook, I can’t wait to see what other movies will hit the theaters. I’ve already got the re-release of “Titanic,” April 6, and “Finding Nemo,” Sept. 14, down on my calendar. I will, however, be skipping the Feb. 10 re-release of “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” Jar-Jar Binx was tough to stomach in 2-D, so I can only imagine how annoying he would be in 3-D. But hopefully George Lucas will follow with the rest of the series soon.

So, sorry — I’ll still probably never see “Avatar.” But I’m ready to experience the movies that defined my childhood and adolescence return to the big screen in 3-D.

Contact Mary Claire O’Donnell at modonne5@nd.edu

The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Bro Meets World

Even up to this day, the Internet is still an extremely difficult place to make money. Sure, there are quite successful businesses, the likes of Googles, Facebooks and, as I just discovered from a short list of dot-com bubble survivors, Stamps.com. But the fact is that banner advertisement revenues only sustain companies so far, freemium models have a notoriously low revenue conversion rate and despite Average Joe’s wallet stacked next to his computer, it’s dental surgery to generate a sale from him. On any given day, we’ll take a trip to our friendly Wal-mart and smack down $18 on a NERF dart gun (a gloriously true story for me) impulsively, but we’ll be concrete resistant to spending more than a dollar on a smartphone app that we’ll use forever. We treat spending money on the Internet in the same manner that we treat talking to telemarketers.

Despite the difficulties that businesses have experienced from making money on the Internet, there is one smidgen of hope that I’d love to share. And, most impressively, the face of this beautiful financial machine that I’m about to share was represented by a picture of Elmo smoking weed.

Backstory. Remember last summer when our favorite online DVD company, Netflix, made a very real decision about how it will handle its movie streaming and DVD shipment businesses? CEO Reed Hastings took a step to separate the streaming and DVD services from each other, navigating the company

toward what he perceives as the future (online streaming) and prevent DVD shipments from slowing him down. For a while, Netflix carried forward with the streaming arm and the newly-created company Qwikster would provide DVDs via mail to users.

Less than a month later, the company completely reversed its decisions. That’s not the important part. What is important is that Netflix made another terrible decision, unrelated to the business model.

One of the most important things for companies to consider is how social media will affect their brand. And one of the most important things for companies to do before announcing branding decisions is to snag social media assets ahead of time, before some clever person comes along, picks up the Twitter user name (for example) and demands a boatload of cash for it. Or even worse, if some random kid had it all along.

But that’s exactly what happened.

Jason Castillo, the owner of the Twitter handle “@Qwikster,” went to bed one night with a handful of friends, and woke up in the morning with thousands of followers and messages in his Twitter inbox. Here’s an ordinary guy who livetweets his mundane soccer practices and thought a picture of Elmo smoking weed would be the funniest picture to put as his Twitter avatar. But, little did he know mega-corp Netflix decided to spin off a brand new company and give it the name of his beloved Twitter account. I saw this when it happened and followed Jason on Twitter, because his posts are hilarious and against everything Netflix would want to stand for.

Before Netflix reversed its decision, this dude stood to make a ton of money from owning his Twitter account, even if valuable translates to just $10,000. Qwikster wanted to own the Twitter handle @Qwikster instead of something untaken like @Qwiks592838zz, for the same exact reasons someone would

want to buy www.toast.com instead ofwww.ILikeBreadHeatedByRedHotIronRods.com. Brand is everything, especially to goliath companies like Netflix or Qwikster. With tens of millions of customers, having that domain name or, yes, the exact name of your brand on Twitter translates to professionalism and competency to consumers; not having these assets, or worse, confusing customers with a soccer-playing kid named Jason represented by a picture of Elmo smoking a blunt translates to some serious negative effects.

The signs showed that the planets were aligning for this to happen, too: Twitter has a clear policy against selling Twitter handles and will shut down anyone who shows signs of doing so. Quite coincidentally, Jason Castillo quietly removed every single Tweet about selling his account, replaced his profile picture, and had resorted to less-outrageous posts about making tacos.

Innovative and promising companies have lost billions of dollars from the Internet. But, there are people like Jason all over the world who stand to make tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands of dollars — from the very same Internet. In this case, Netflix made a premature press release decision, and Jason at one point stood to benefit tremendously because the company’s new name was then aired publically. While the venturing Internet entrepreneur you are may one day completely fail at generating a dime for a reasonably useful service, rest assured that a man with a picture of Elmo smoking weed may have gotten paid hundreds of thousands of dollars from Netflix for a Twitter account that took him 3 minutes to set up.

Marc Anthony Rosa is a senior management entrepreneurship major. He can be reached at mrosa@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Quote of the day

“There’s

Letters to the edItor

Ron Paul, the only good man

Mr. Newman and Professor Kramer, Do you two work for Fox News?

When I opened The Observer on Jan. 26, I was excited to find a couple articles discussing the Republican primaries. I was just as quickly disappointed to find that both were more of the same old thing: discussing the shortcomings of the mediapropped potential Republican presidential nominees. But just as the aforementioned Fox News — and many news sources — they neglected to discuss one of the strongest candidates the Republicans have: Ron Paul. Though he is treated like the 13th floor of a hotel (thanks, Jon Stewart, for that analogy) Ron Paul is probably the only legitimate candidate in these primaries. Newman disingenuously includes Ron Paul among the Republican hopefuls, but when he discusses their weaknesses, he forgets Ron Paul. Perhaps because Ron Paul doesn’t have the fraud and adultery in his past that the others have? More than likely, Mr. Newman’s true reason for omitting Paul from the article is his fear that Ron Paul would be a strong enough candidate to beat Obama (his favorite in the upcoming election). Ron Paul has repeated success in polls when pitted against Obama over the other Republicans.

I was more disheartened by Professor Kramer’s complete omission of Paul in his reflection of the Republican primaries. He mentions voters’ interest in hearing more about fixing the economy and less about social interests, and he’s got that right. But Kramer’s statement that “[voters are] not really finding someone who totally fits that bill” is very disappointing. Ron Paul has been talking about the economy — and acting on that talk — for the last 30 years, from preventive measures to present-day repairs. He champions the Constitution and the government’s place (or lack there of) in deciding how people can live lives.

Ron Paul is the candidate the voters are looking for. The reason so many cannot find him is because of media omissions such as these!

Elizabeth Maki junior Pangborn Hall Jan.

26

Share stories: Show Some Skin

When it comes to discussions about racial and ethnic diversity at Notre Dame, we often focus on numerical data that show progress, or lack thereof: the percentages of students and faculty of color on campus, the under-representation of minorities in fields like science and engineering, the increase in minority student clubs, etc. As a 1984 graduate, I have seen much-needed progress in diversity at Notre Dame, especially in the last 20 years.

Numbers provide only a glimpse, however. To truly understand race and ethnicity, and make meaningful progress in race relations, it’s crucial to get at the nuances of people’s experiences. Telling one’s story is an especially powerful means of unraveling stereotypes and misconceptions that we often impute upon others. At the very least, the storyteller defines the experience; he or she becomes the author/ authority of his or her own day-to-day living.

As one education researcher has found, storytelling can also “create collective transformational spaces, coconstructing knowledge about self, further deepening our understandings about the role of race ... through sharing our stories ... we can show empathy, allowing for participants to express themselves as racialized beings. Sharing these experiences not only help students cope with racism, but also provides a space to affirm the lived experiences and knowledge of others.”

Show Some Skin: The Race Monologues, a new studentorganized performance planned for March, is an exciting opportunity for Notre Dame students, faculty, staff and alumni — minority and majority — to share experiences of race and ethnicity. By telling our stories — the humorous, embarrassing, sad, exciting, frustrating, preposterous and beautiful — we can come to a better understanding of the complexity of race and hopefully affirm the experiences and knowledge of each other.

Irish hockey fans: Will you bring it?

Many thanks to the numerous members of the Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross community that have attended Fighting Irish Hockey games this season and otherwise enjoyed the Compton Family Ice Arena since it opened in October. Looking up to see 5,000 people in the stands at most games has just been tremendous. Your vocal support on so many occasions has served as a real boost to our team’s performance in the new arena and we need that enthusiasm to continue to create a true home ice advantage this year and in the future.

Five challenging home games remain in the 2011-12 regular season for your Irish and each will be critical to our overall success. This weekend when we play Bowling Green, we will also celebrate the legacy of Lefty Smith, for whom our new rink is named. Lefty’s immediate family and extended family (many mem-

bers of his teams) will be on campus for both games. What better way to honor them and Lefty than with a jam-packed, raucous student section at Compton both nights? Ferris State comes in the following Friday night (they are currently in first place in the CCHA) and earning those conference points will be critical. Will you help us do so? Lastly, Michigan State will come here at the end of February looking to spoil the class of 2012’s last two home games of the regular season. Will you have a say in that?

Your Irish icers are preparing to “bring it” the rest of the way. How about you? Go Irish!

Click with caution

In our fast-paced society, it’s important to stop for a moment and take a look at what our multi-tasking habits may be doing to us. While the Internet has numerous benefits, it has also changed the way we as humans think and process information. Our changed brains are not necessarily worse, but they are different.

Minnesota Daily Editorial Board

point. We want our news quickly. This has changed our calm, focused minds. Nicholas Carr notes in his book “The Shallows” that it’s difficult for people to sit down and read a large chunk of a book for class now because of technology. Even Carr himself said he isn’t able to concentrate on reading books anymore, and it’s because of the fast-paced Internet world.

The Minnesota Daily

Constant access to the Internet and to others has our society continuously connected. Today, we have to worry about checking Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr and text messages. People are hooked to the web, which allows easy access to other people but at the same time creates stress and anxiety — our attention is constantly strained. Students commonly multitask while studying. If the homework requires a laptop, the access to everyone else through social networking is too tempting to resist. With Facebook, YouTube, cell phones and TVs distracting students, it creates an extremely difficult atmosphere to concentrate in.

People want information fast and to the

We now think differently and have different habits because of technological advancements, and we should be wary of its consequences. It’s important to live in the real world and experience life outside of the laptop. It’s important to have real interactions with other people, without computer mediation.

This week is National Green Week — the perfect chance to take a day to unplug from your technology.

This article first ran in the Jan. 30 edition of The Minnesota Daily, the daily publication serving the University of Minnesota.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

All of you have probably heard of Rocco’s. Nearly all of you have seen it’s beautiful visage driving down South Bend Ave. Several of you have likely sat down for a meal in the cozy familyowned local establishment.

Rocco’s is a restaurant, but it is so much more.

A South Bend tradition, this local Italian restaurant appears an unassuming hole in the wall, but packs a culinary punch at the table.

February is cold in South Bend. Really cold. On occasion, it may even be so cold that the extent of your “going out” can only be a quick trip somewhere before the sun drops and the city reaches its seemingly subzero temperatures.

On nights like these, there is simply nothing better than some comfort food before settling in for a night of watching movies, playing cards and other forms of winter activities.

There are a myriad of culinary options for these occasions in South Bend, several

featuring that oh-so-special Italian delicacy, pizza. While Papa John’s might be the taste of the evening one night and Gino’s East the only option another, there is one old faithful that should always be in the list, because the pizza will never disappoint.

Rocco’s is that place. Rocco’s pizza is, quite simply, a perfect combination of delicious crust, faultless sauce and all the toppings you could need.

Put all arguments of Chicago vs. New York, crust type and

toppings aside. Even the simple cheese pizza at Rocco’s takes one back to the carefree days of middle school when happiness could be spelled with pizza, ice cream and a movie.

Ravenously hungry or not, it is nearly impossible to imagine not wanting to devour the pizza in front of you.

Rocco’s is known for Italian fare in general, and the plates floating about the room on the arms of limber servers looked and smelled as good as the pizza.

The best part of Rocco’s, after the food, is the atmosphere. The restaurant is cozy with warm lighting, comfortable booths and Notre Dame and South Bend memorabilia lining the walls. Look over one shoulder to see a painting of the Golden Dome; over the other, find an Italian-style mural to set the culinary mood. Behind the counter, photos of old community baseball teams sponsored by Rocco’s and Notre Dame paraphernalia make an impressive tribute to the South Bend community.

A night out at Rocco’s is simple — the friendly restaurant staff will lead you to a table (though don’t be surprised by a wait during peak hours), the

service will be prompt and attentive but never in-yourface and the food will, simply, please all the senses.

In the midst of a hectic schedule of classes, papers, tests and extracurriculars, sometimes it’s nice to just get away from it all for an hour and eat something that feels somehow like it popped out of kitchen oven.

Rocco’s does just that, creating a homey and relaxing atmosphere, but serving food far better than anything that ever came out of my kitchen.

That is why Rocco’s is a South Bend landmark — it is a familyowned business that has stood the test of time due

to its decidedly familial and homey atmosphere.

Be a part of South Bend tradition, and in doing so, be a part of South Bend as a whole.

The views in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer. Contact Maija Gustin at mgustin@nd.edu

Address: 537 N. St. Louis Blvd.

South Bend, Ind. 46617

Phone: 574-233-2464

Hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 5 - 11 p.m.

Friday - Saturday, 5 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Sunday - Monday, closed

Your Queue

The Best of Watch Instantly

Wading through the excessive amount of horrible films on Instant Netflix can be daunting for any subscriber. To ease the process, Scene has graciously provided a list of the best Netflix has to offer.

1. “Office Space”

“Office Space” is now on Netflix Instant! This cult comedy classic from writer/director Mike Judge is at once a hilarious satire of the day-to-day grind of office work and the story of bumbling, inept criminal enterprise. Featuring great performances and an endlessly quotable script, “Office Space” is one you donʼt want to miss.

2. “Dirty Harry”

Though not everyone has seen this 1971 classic, every film-watcher is familiar with it, whether they know it or not. Clint Eastwood, in one of his most iconic roles, established the character of the grizzled cop who plays by his own rules. Tracking a serial killer through San Francisco, “Dirty” Harry Callahan found a place in cinema history. Youʼve got to ask yourself one question: Do I

3. “Moulin Rouge!”

Itʼs a classic tale of love against the odds. Christian (Ewan McGregor), a poor poet, falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), a beautiful courtesan. Satine dreams of becoming an actress, a dream she can achieve if she sleeps with The Duke (Richard Roxburgh). But alas, she, too, falls in love with Christian, for who can resist a charming man with an incredible voice, even if he is poor? But unfortunately, more troubles await the couple. The music is one of the best parts of this film, so check it out if you are a fan of musicals. Or Ewan McGregor.

4. “Friday Night Lights”

Everyoneʼs favorite football show is on Netflix. In the wake of the series finale last year, what better way to relive all your favorite moments or watch it with fresh eyes than spending Super Bowl season hanging out with the folks of Dillon, Texas. Coach, Mrs. Coach and all your favorite team members are waiting in the Netflix archive. Clear eyes, full hearts, Netflix Watch Instantly, canʼt lose.

5. “Louie”

Possibly the most creative show on TV right now, FXʼs Louis follows a comedian, played by comedian Louis C.K., as he explores a very normal life as a single father. Written, directed and edited by star C.K., never before has so much creative control been given to one single person on television. And the results have been excellent. Equal parts hilarious and touching, “Louieʼs” very real stories of life in the 21st century are some of the truest moments on contemporary television. Not enough people are watching the always-excellent “Louie,” so get on Netflix and change that ASAP.

By NEIL MATHIESON Scene Writer

Ever since Luc Besson released “La Femme Nikita” in 1990, a film about a woman assassin trained by the French government, the female-driven action film has become a quandary of a genre. It offers a wonderfully fresh avenue to explore the usually masculine dominated world of action cinema. However, there are challenges, most prominent is believability. For instance, there are those who will watch “SALT” and scoff as Angelina Jolie swiftly punishes opponents while standing at a menacing 100 pounds and looking as if she just stepped off a plane from Milan. But often the producer’s hands are tied because if a major female actor isn’t cast, revenue and talent will be compromised.

In “Haywire,” director Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”) appears to revel in these obstacles. He constructs a sleek film while taking a minimalist approach to the action. Haywire trades in high wire acts and grand spectacles for hardboiled fight sequences and gritty roughand-tumble realism. The biggest chance was taken on “Haywire’s” star Gina Carano, who at 28 has never starred in a feature film. Where has she been? Gina has been spending time as a mixed martial arts fighter with a record of 7-1 to date.

Gina Carano plays Mallory, a coldblooded assassin working for a private company that often does contracted jobs for the government. “Haywire’s” narrative follows the usual formula: Mallory is betrayed and framed by her employers and now must exact ruthless revenge on those that double-crossed her. Like many of Soderbergh’s films (“Oceans Eleven,” “Contagion”), stars are abundant. Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum are all in the mix. But “Haywire” doesn’t waste time with characters as Soderbergh keeps our blood pumping and Mallory moving, anxious to get to get to her next victim.

If there were ever concerns when it came to Gina Carano’s believability, as a spine-breaking ex-marine, such hesitations are quickly squashed. The opening scene culminates in a fight in a small Northern town diner. Soderbergh allows the brutal blows and snapping bones to organically score the scenes as they play out in an eerie silence. No cinematic tricks are needed, either. The nauseating shaking camera and quick cuts used in order to cover up the actor’s shortcomings or speed up the action are absent. The camera is pulled back allowing us to watch Gina perform her martial craft without interruption. The sight is astounding and sets an unrelenting tone for the rest of the movie.

The fight scenes are the real highlight of “Haywire” and the film seems unapologetic for allowing its other elements to suffer. The dialogue is sparse and for the most part opaque. Little is revealed

about the characters and even less consideration is given to the plot’s structure. However, “Haywire” is not uninvolving in the least because, although it may not be particularly lucid, it does a good job of allowing us to glean just enough to understand the motivations behind the action.

Physically, Gina Carano does a tremendous job in “Haywire.” This is not meant as a slight because not much more was asked of her performance emotionally. Much like Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator,” Gina is meant to be a presence more than anything, and her presence is astounding. An intoxicating mixture of beauty and brutality, one cannot help feel Carano’s alluring quality while simultaneously being in awe of her athletic power and grace as she breaks someone’s neck with her knee.

It is rare to have character development during a fight scene, but “Haywire” is a stupendous exception.

Cinematically, the film is often too slick for its own good. Soderbergh gets a little too artistic playing with black and white photography, an array of camera angles and his infamous parallel editing to cool jazz. But, this is his style. “Haywire” is most fundamentally a film about a woman who behaves as we would expect a man to. But I believe that Soderbergh has a more thoughtful meditation on humankind at play.

In one scene, Mallory is referred to as a woman. Ewan McGregor’s character quickly responds, “You shouldn’t think of her as being a woman.” The answer is not that you should consider her a man, either, because this, too, would be a mistake. Yes, Mallory may be void of the expected feminine sensibilities, but she is no less a woman than a man could be a man in her position.

She is a killer. She is trained to take life away, not to participate in it. Her humanity has been drained and replaced with murderous efficiency and vengeful focus.

Everyone considers “The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo” to be this season’s exploration into gender expectations. But one shouldn’t discount “Haywire.” It may not be the same psychological rumination, but its physicality allows it to stand triumphantly apart.

Contact Neil Mathieson at nmathies@nd.edu

“Haywire”

Studio: Relativity Media

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Pxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas

Eliminate those silly, useless all-star games

Imagine if we took the students on the Dean’s list, packed their stuff up, sent them to another city with a college and had them take classes. Sounds reasonable enough, right? Except these classes do not count and their professors do not care.

Welcome to all-star games.

Matt DeFranks Sports Writer

All-star games, where the best players go to escape the harsh reality that they play a sport. Welcome to meaningless exhibitions, where talking heads angrily debate snubs. Welcome to pointless workouts, where nothing is to gain (except baseball, but we’ll get to that later).

If I were the ruler of sports for a week, prepare to say goodbye to all-star games.

The gameplay in all-star games is watered down to say the least. In Sunday’s Pro Bowl, Packers linebacker Clay Matthews intercepted a pass, began his return and lateraled the ball to a teammate, who lateraled it to another teammate, who, you guessed it, tried to pitch the ball again and turned the ball back over to the offense. Please reread that last sentence. I hope the ridiculousness of it successfully conveys the stupidity of all-star games.

Not convinced? That play took place in the first quarter and followed an onside kick. Dolphins receiver Brandon Marshall caught four touchdowns. Saints quarterback Drew Brees attempted a drop kick. The losing team racked up 546 yards. The final score had a combined 100 points in the game. What was the score? Who cares?

I have actually been to a Pro Bowl, and it’s a good thing the tickets were free. The sheer silliness of the game is amplified even more when you are in attendance. In fact, there are exactly four things I remember about that game: someone was wearing a J.P. Losman UFL jersey, I took a picture at the exact moment of kickoff, mascots were on the sideline sitting next to players and there was an incredible wave going around the stadium.

Don’t ask me about the score, the plays, the rosters because

CL assIfIeds

I don’t remember any of it. If the players do not care — and clearly, they do not — why should anyone else?

On Sunday, however, the NFL outdid themselves by putting computers on the sidelines so players could tweet between series. I’m so glad Chargers safety Eric Weddle tweeted to let us know he would be tweeting during the Pro Bowl. I sure was pumped when I saw Broncos linebacker Von Miller use seven exclamation points in expressing his excitement to be playing in Hawaii.

Not even creative ploys enacted by the NHL can save the all-star game. The NHL has tried to break up the teams by conference, home continent and, currently, by an old-school backyard draft. In the current format, allstars are selected and then chosen by a pair of captains until everyone is on one of the two teams. Not even the suspense of seeing the last player picked makes the game exciting. In Sunday’s newest rendition of the contest, the teams combined for 21 goals — in 60 minutes of hockey.

Major League Baseball’s all-star game is the only one that carries meaning, awarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league. But should it?

Since the MLB requires that a player from every team be selected to the all-star team, you are nearly guaranteed the fate of a championship contender will be decided by a member of a last-place team. While baseball’s allstar game is usually competitive, this is too trivial a way to decide something so important.

I understand people like to watch the best players pitted against each other and collect autographs at the events, but to try and pass off all-star games as competitive and important is ludicrous. They are superfluous and just plain silly.

If you want to watch the best players compete against each other, there’s something called the playoffs that sounds right up your alley.

The views expressed in this Sports Authority column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Contact Matt DeFranks at mdefrank@nd.edu

nasCar

Allmendinger wins at Daytona

Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — AJ Allmendinger won five races during the 2006 season in Champ Car, then walked away hoping to launch a new career in NASCAR.

He was at the top of his game when he left open-wheel, and figured he’d make a smooth and successful transition to stock cars.

Instead, he suffered through a miserable five years.

Now, in what seems like a blink of an eye, it has all turned around for Allmendinger.

No driver has had a better offseason than “The ‘Dinger,” who landed the ride of a lifetime right before Christmas when Penske Racing picked him to fill the seat left suddenly open when the team split with former NASCAR champion Kurt Busch.

Then he opened the 2012 racing season with an impressive victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Allmendinger was the anchor for Michael Shank Racing, and used a gritty final stint — he was behind the wheel almost three hours at the end — to give longtime friend Shank his first victory in nine tries in the prestigious endurance event.

It was Allmendinger’s first major racing victory since he walked away from Champ Car at the end of the 2006 season.

“It’s always cool to be me,” Allmendinger quipped when asked about the last five weeks.

Then he quickly turned serious.

“No, I’m just kidding. The last five years, it’s actually (stunk) to be me.”

It was indeed a struggle as Allmendinger went from the top of one series to the bottom of another.

On paper, a deal with upstart Red Bull Racing seemed too good to pass up. The deeppocketed team was making its entrance into NASCAR and it wanted Allmendinger to drive one of its two cars.

It was a disaster from the very beginning.

Red Bull wasn’t ready to race in the elite Sprint Cup Series, and even worse, it had no development plan for Allmendinger, who was brand new to stock cars. Most openwheel drivers have been eased into NASCAR with races in either the second-tier Nationwide Series, the Truck Series, or the non-NASCAR affiliated ARCA Series.

But Allmendinger was thrown right to the wolves, and it became obvious immediately that the team and the driver

were in very much above their heads.

Both Allmendinger and teammate Brian Vickers struggled to even qualify for races that season, and missing out on the events further slowed Allmendinger’s development. It didn’t take long for him to wonder if he’d made a huge mistake in moving to NASCAR. But the open-wheel leagues were in turmoil, and not even after the merger of Champ Car with the IndyCar Series did Allmendinger know for sure where he belonged.

He called that 2007 season, “Hell. Honestly, it was the worst year of my life when it came to my career.

“There were plenty of times in my bus on Friday, (after) missing a race, it was either, ‘Should I go back to IndyCar or slit my wrists?’” he said. “It sounds kind of over the top, but I knew I wanted to be in the Sprint Cup Series. That’s where the best of the best was. With the two series still split, I had done what I did in Champ Car, and at the point, the IRL wasn’t appealing to me. I had a great opportunity to go to the Sprint Cup Series.

“It was just a tough couple of years. The last few years have been tough.”

He was eventually tossed aside at Red Bull, and landed with Richard Petty Motorsports, where he won a pole and led 232 laps over the last two years. He also became consistent, and notched 10 top-10 finishes, winding up 13th in points when the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field was set. Even so, his future was un-

clear.

Best Buy decided to pull its sponsorship from RPM, and the team didn’t have the funding to field a car for Allmendinger. Then Busch split with Penske, and team owner Richard Petty suggested Allmendinger to Roger Penske for his suddenly open seat.

“When you part with a driver with the skills that Kurt has, you don’t just pick up the phone book and find someone who fits into his shoes,” said Penske, who was familiar with Allmendinger’s work in Champ Car.

“He was a great open-wheel driver,” Penske added. “He beat Will Power a couple of times, and you don’t beat Will Power if you’re not a pretty good shoe. We had a couple other people we were looking at, (but) knowing what we could give him and how our sponsors were very happy to have AJ, it was a whole package.”

Now Allmendinger is with a team that won five races last year and put both Busch and Brad Keselowski into the Chase. He knows it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and hopes Sunday’s win at Daytona is the first of many trips to Victory Lane.

“The last few years have been tough,” he said. “I feel like the last two years I’ve at least gotten a good rhythm, and it makes me feel good to know that a guy like Roger Penske can look at my talent and say, ‘You know what? He might not have a Cup win and you have (sponsor) Shell/ Pennzoil that’s used to winners and champions in their cars, but if we give him the right stuff he might be able to do that.’”

Email woody@southbendtoy.com

UNPLANNED PREGNANCY? Don’t go it alone. Notre Dame has many resources in place to assist you. If you or someone you love needs confidential support or assistance, please call Sr. Sue Dunn at 1-7819 or Ann Firth at 1-2685. For more information, visit ND’s website at: http://pregnancysupport@nd.edu

Seinfeld

of today I am a proud parent of a one-mile stretch of the Arthur Berkhardt Expressway.” -

continued from page 16

it moves all of us, it motivates all of us, and for me, Notre Dame wants you to be a better person,” he said. “The way you become a better person is to work very hard at what you’re doing — as hard as you can. I think what you learn almost by osmosis is it’s not about you, it’s never about you.”

Welsh has a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis on his desk at all times. The goal of living a life like Saint Francis, he said, is difficult to achieve as a coach.

“I taught English for eight years, and I know if a person comes to class, does their assignments, hands in papers, does good work, [and] that’s about all I’m entitled to know. Whether they eat, whether they sleep, whether they’re on drugs or they like their parents, or they just got in a fight — [it’s] none of my business,” he said. “Here, it’s part of the game. Our sport is so pure, and it’s all about being your best. You have to be your best at a given moment on a given day. Everything matters.”

“At the end of it, how fast you go or don’t go doesn’t matter, but how well you prepare to do what you say you’re going to do at a given time on a given day, that does matter. The discipline with which you pursue your goals, that does matter.”

Tim Welsh Irish coach

“When you go to church and you listen to people, you’re advised to care about people, to help people, to forgive people, to share, to do things together, and to trust,” he said. “Ain’t no football game like that. When you come to practice, I don’t care what the sport is, the players want direction —that’s why they came. They don’t want a hug; they want direction.”

With a passion for educating youth, Welsh said there is a major difference between teaching in the classroom and coaching a sport.

McCoy

continued from page 16

get to. Using his tremendous speed, he was able to break opponents down, as they would get frustrated that balls were always coming back. He drove people crazy.”

While the freshman’s speed was still a major advantage when he arrived on campus, he needed to make some other adjustments to get ready for college play.

“When [McCoy] got here, he came in with his juniors game,” Bayliss said. “All of a sudden, the court shrinks and everyone is bigger, stronger and faster. Some of the shots that worked at a slightly lower level are suddenly not working. He is currently working on improving the offensive side of his game and a lot of progress has already been made. His serve is much better now than it was when he arrived.

McGraw

continued from page 16

the last game.”

After the Irish beat Tennessee on Jan. 23, McGraw highlighted rebounding as an area where the Irish could improve to continue their streak.

“I thought in the last game [against St. John’s] we did a great job on boards, and we did a very good job working those things out,” McGraw said. “That is especially important going into this game. Rutgers is a very athletic team and rebounds extremely well.”

At the end of the day, Welsh said, there is a direct correlation between athletics and life.

“To some extent, what makes athletics important is because life is like that,” he said. “At the end of it, how fast you go or don’t go doesn’t matter, but how well you prepare to do what you say you’re going to do at a given time on a given day, that does matter. The discipline with which you pursue your goals, that does matter.”

Welsh and his Irish squad will compete next in the Big East Championship meet Feb. 10 in Pittsburgh.

Contact Megan Golden at mgolde01@saintmarys.edu

college game is more about the team and improving your game to help the team. You come out of high school where you were one of the best players and now, your teammates are all very good players, so improving as a team is more important than improving as an individual.”

McCoy said his game has made some significant strides from when he arrived on campus.

“My serve has gotten a lot better and my understanding of the game has improved,” he said. “I have also been able to expand my game a bit. I was used to only using one style of play to get points, so I had to make some adjustments in that area.”

“People can say that they want to be an AllAmerican, but I just wan to become the best player and the best player I can possibly be and see where that takes me.”

Wyatt McCoy Irish freshman

“It is going to be exciting to watch him continue to improve.”

The switch yielded to a different game for McCoy, as collegiate tennis is more of a team sport than he was used to.

“My high school career was a lot more about me improving as an individual,” McCoy said. “I have found that the

McCoy said he has two main goals for his tennis career at Notre Dame.

“People can say that they want to be an AllAmerican, but I just want to become the best player and best teammate that I can possibly be and see where that takes me,” he said.

McCoy and the rest of the Irish return to action this weekend as they head to Winston-Salem, N.C. to battle Wake Forest on Friday, followed by a trip to Durham, N.C. to play No. 10 Duke on Sunday.

Contact walker Carey at wcarey@nd.edu

Rutgers (17-4) has lost to Georgetown, Tennessee and St. John’s this season, three teams Notre Dame beat earlier in the year, each by at least 15 points.

The Scarlet Knights lead the series 16-11 overall, though the Irish do hold an active two-win streak. In the 2010-11 season, the Irish beat Rutgers 71-49 and both graduate student forward Devereaux Peters and junior guard Skylar Diggins scored at least 20 points for the Irish.

“Rutgers is a really good defensive team, they work extremely hard rebounding. They press, and their press is a big part of their defense.”

“Rutgers is a really good defensive team, they work extremely hard rebounding. They press, and their press

Muffet McGraw Irish coach

is a big part of their defense,” McGraw said. “They have a talented group and [senior] April Sykes is a big guard who can really play inside. They’ve got the inside and outside game and a good bench. They’re an exceptionally athletic team.”

Notre Dame announced this week Irish freshman guard Madison Ca-

ble will sit out the rest of the season and tack on another year of eligibility due to an injury.

“She has a stress fracture in her foot, and it hasn’t healed the way we expected,” McGraw said. “She’s taken quite a bit of time off. We have decided to redshirt her until she’s 100 percent healthy. We look forward to having her back next year.”

Tip-off against the Scarlet Knights is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rutgers’ Lewis Brown Athletic Center.

Contact Molly Sammon at msammon@nd.edu

Titans’ fans want Manning in Tenn.

Associaed Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Peyton Manning remains on the Colts’ roster, and the Titans have three quarterbacks already.

guys are saying he could go to Arizona and Washington and every place but Tennessee. We’ve got a young quarterback here at the Titans.

“If you could upgrade your team with the caliber of Peyton, why would you not?”

Mayo said he and his brother, Griffin, spent the weekend designing the website www.comehomepeyton. com and recorded a couple parody songs, including one to the Eminem hit “Lose Yourself.”

The site went live Monday and had generated $700 in donations by midday. A 30-second commercial is planned for an Indianapolis radio station during the Super Bowl.

“Call it fan-vertising if you will, but kind of a concept to put the power in the fans’ hands and let Peyton know how much he’s wanted in the state of Tennessee for the Titans,” Mayo said. “Of course, he played at Tennessee. I’m from Memphis, went to school at Tennessee in Knoxville and live in Nashville ... I love Tennessee, and it’s kind of one of those things you would like to affect positive change from the power of fans coming together.”

Synchronized skaters grab gold, accolades

Women’s Ice Hockey crushes Maroons, new Outing Club travels to the Dunes

Special to The Observer

The Synchronized Skating Team won the gold medal Saturday at the Midwestern Synchronized Skating Championships in Plymouth, Michigan. The first place finish is the second year in a row that Notre Dame has won its most important competition of the year, placing at the top of eight other collegiate teams from the Midwest. Miami of Ohio, previously undefeated this season, and Ohio University earned the 2nd and 3rd place medals for the division.

The Irish skaters, performing to a medley of popular Billy Joel songs, entertained the audience with their presentation and program elements.

goals, but it was not enough to hold off the Irish. Notre Dame defeated the Maroons 13-2 while receiving goals from 10 different players.

Squash

The Irish traveled to Palo Alto, Calif. this weekend for the Pac 12 Championships at Stanford, where the Irish finished 1-3.

Notre Dame dropped an 8-1 contest, and a pair of 9-0 matches to the three strongest west coast teams — Washington, California and Stanford, which is coached by Mark Talbott, former No. 1 ranked player in the world.

The shining moment for the Irish was an 8-1 victory over USC.

Still, Titans’ fans of the NFL’s only four-time MVP expecting the injured QB to be released and healthy enough to play are starting an ad campaign in Indianapolis hoping to convince Manning to return to Tennessee.

“It’s kind of evident to the sports world they’re going to let Peyton go, they’re not going to pay him the money that he’s due and he’s going to be a free agent,” Todd Mayo said Monday. “All the sports talk

Mayo works at a Nashville advertising agency and already has priced billboards and ads. He hopes to solicit enough donations to place eight digital billboards in Indianapolis along with ads on TV and radio and in the local newspaper. If enough money comes in, Mayo said billboards and ads in Houston where Titans owner Bud Adams lives are a possibility to help persuade him to make a move for Manning.

Manning remains very popular in Tennessee where many children are named Peyton after the quarterback by parents who still wear his Volunteers’ jersey or his Colts’ No. 18. Manning is due $28 million from the Colts on March 8 after missing the 2011 season following his third neck surgery.

The Titans signed veteran Matt Hasselbeck to a threeyear contract last July, and he led Tennessee to a 9-7 record. The Titans also used the eighth pick overall last April on Jake Locker.

Mayo said life and football are about risks and rewards. He sees this as a rare chance that the Titans shouldn’t pass on to team Manning with running back Chris Johnson, receiver Kenny Britt and a strong offensive line.

“He’s probably the most famous Tennessean since Davy Crockett,” Mayo said. “All of this seems to be a perfect storm, one of those Disney-type movies. I would certainly hope it would have a Disney-type ending. You never know with injuries, but why wouldn’t you do everything you can to further along as a fan ... to at least send a message.”

The squad received a standing ovation from fans at the end of the program after the skaters successfully completed a difficult intersection. The skating team has two weeks until the final competition of the season, the Tri-State Synchronized Skating Championships.

Women’s Ice Hockey

The Women’s Ice Hockey Club defeated the University of Chicago Maroons Saturday afternoon 13-2 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Irish freshman Kelsey Osinski scored an early goal to give the Irish some momentum. Sophomore Maddie Schneeman had an excellent period at center, contributing a goal and two assists in the first period alone. Suzanne Fitzpatrick played inspired with two goals in the first period. It was evident that she thrived off the support of the home crowd.

At the end of the first period, with the Irish leading 7-1, coaches junior Derek Wolf, sophomore EJ Borg and senior Tim Gannatti decided to mix up the lines and stressed fundamentals going into the latter two periods.

Sophomore Kayla Maple notched the first hat trick of her career and freshman Tori White showed her great defensive ability.

Freshman Mary Salvi saw limited action in goal, but played a solid game in her first start for Notre Dame.

Defensemen junior Mara Catlaw, sophomore Caroline Thomas and sophomore Meaghan Ayers each proved themselves on offense with a goal and several assists.

The Maroons scored two

The Notre Dame squash B team traveled to Madison, Wis. to play several new club programs. The Irish went 1-3 against the A teams, dropping matches to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northwestern and defeating Illinois-Springfield.

Ski and Snowboard

The Notre Dame Ski and Snowboard team traveled to northern Michigan over the Jan. 21-22 weekend to compete in a two-day race. Official results are released late in the week by the MCSA.

Junior Thomas Knoedler led the men’s alpine team with a first place individual finish in Jan. 21’s slalom event, and freshman Meg Bryck put up the top time for the women.

The team had to deal with challenging snow conditions in the area.

“It got a little bit wet overnight, which made it tricky to ski the next day,” senior John Delacio said.

However, the team still posted several strong finishes in the Sunday events.

The men’s snowboard team finished just outside the podium with junior Kevin Condit recording the top ND finish.

The women’s ski team finished fourth, led by senior Natalie Bartzen’s strong showing in the DFL spot.

“We look forward to being out cold next weekend and improving on our results,” senior Olivia Killian said.

Outing

One of the newest club’s at Notre Dame, the outing club traveled to the Dunes for a weekend of hiking and outdoor activities. Anyone interested in joining the club is asked to get in touch with the club at Recsports. nd.edu

continued from page 16

said.

Confidence is not the only factor that distinguishes this year’s relay team from its predecessors. The addition of Giesting, a star freshman who has already garnered recognition across the Big East, to run the team’s anchor leg has been critical, particularly down the stretch in several races.

in the 400-meter event.

“We may practice a few handoffs the day before the meet just to make sure we have it down, but we mostly just train for the open 400 event and that translates to the 4x400,” Feeney said. “But Brendan, Chris and I all do the same workouts together, which helps translate over to the relay.”

“One thing we’ve done this year is bought these bright green headbands ... We all go to our corner right before the relay and put the headbands on, which shows that it’s time to run.”

Mitch Lorenz

Irish senior

“Chris has been a huge help,” Lorenz said. “We all trust Chris and know that, if each guy does his job, Chris won’t let us down in the end.”

The quartet does not practice the relay together very often, as each member focuses on his own individual events.

But for Dougherty, Feeney and Geisting, the focus is never set far from 400 meters, as the three sprinters all specialize

Lorenz, who specializes in the half-mile event, said the transition to the 400-meter event was difficult, but the benefits to competing on a team outweigh the negatives.

“It’s definitely been tough since the sprinters always seem to blow by me at the start of my leg and I have to spend the rest of the time catching up, but it’s a lot of fun too,” Lorenz said.

“I can’t say enough about the three guys I run with, and I appreciate them taking me into their group, even though I’m not a sprinter.”

nd Women’s sWImmIng and dIvIng

Feeney agreed, citing increased camaraderie with the relay team this year. Feeney said this camaraderie comes as a bit of a surprise, as he and Geisting regularly competed against each other before in high school.

“I raced Geisting in high school a few times, and we were battling back and forth every race,” Feeney said. “Knowing that I have him on my team now is a much better feeling.”

In recent meets, the relay team’s bond manifested in the form of team spirit, as team members have taken to wearing neon green headbands specifically for the 4x400-meter relay.

“One thing we’ve done this year is bought these bright green headbands,” Lorenz said. “We all go to our corner right before the relay and put the headbands on, which shows that it’s time to run.”

Onlookers might be blinded by such a display of team spirit, but for the four members of the Irish men’s 4x400-meter relay team, it simply signifies a getting down to business — a business they have unfailingly taken care of, as reflected by their an untainted record.

Contact Brian Hartnett at bhartnet@nd.edu

Ryan’s victories guide team

By ISAAC LORTON Sports Writer

Sophomore Kelly Ryan’s four victories at Michigan State on Jan. 21 helped propel her team to a 218-82 victory to break Notre Dame’s four-match losing streak and earned her the honor of being last week’s Big East Swimmer of the Week.

“[Kelly] is coming off an outstanding training trip in Hawaii. She really stepped it up. Her focus was incredible and she was making herself stronger and her team stronger.”

“Kelly really deserved this award,” Irish Assistant Coach Kate Kovenock said. “She is coming off an outstanding training trip in Hawaii. She really stepped it up. Her focus was incredible and she was making herself stronger and her team stronger.”

Kate Kovenock Irish assistant coach

times,” Kovenock said. Ryan holds the fastest times in the Big East Conference for four individual events; the 50-yard freestyle race (23.17) the 100-yard freestyle event (49.62) the 100-yard backstroke competition (53.60) and the 200yard backstroke race (1:55.66). She set all of these conference top times on Dec. 2 at the Ohio State Invitational.

“Kelly comes through when we need her, especially in relays,” Kovenock said.

Ryan’s performance at Michigan State consisted of three individual victories in the 50yard freestyle race (23.65) the 100-yard backstroke event (56.08), the 200-yard backstroke (2:02.60), and she notched a fourth first-place as a member of the 400-freestyle relay team (3:28.64).

“As far as her performance at Michigan State, it wasn’t a big surprise to the people on the inside — the coaching staff and swimmers — that she posted some impressive

“She swims her heart out; not just for herself, but for her teammates as well.

with Prestinario, Reaney and sophomore Sarah Dotzel, is also part of the 400-yard medley relay team that holds the fastest time of 3:59.59. The relay teams posted both these record times at the Ohio State Invitational.

“She is versatile and can swim anything,” Kovenock said. “Kelly was recruited as a backstroker, but we saw something in her freestyle too.”

Kovenock said he is not sure what events they need Ryan to race for the conference event, but said she will no doubt be an important part of Notre Dame’s Big East meet roster.

“We are two and a half weeks out of the Big East meet and the coaches are having a hard time deciding where Kelly will swim,” Kovenock said. “But one thing is for sure, Kelly is going to race and post fast swims.

“She swims her heart out; not just for herself, but for her teammates as well.”

Ryan is part of two relay teams holding the Big East Conference’s fastest times. She swam the 400-freestyle relay team alongside senior Amy Prestinario, freshman Emma Reaney and freshman Hannah Bowen, which produced the fastest time to date of 3:20.93. Ryan, along

The biggest thing though, is she will provide momentum for the team.”

Kate

Kovenock

Irish assistant coach

Ryan and the Irish will return to action for a dual meet at Ball State on Saturday before they head into the Big East meet Feb. 10-12.

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nd Women’s BasketBaLL

Standing their ground

Irish put their 18-game winning streak at risk tonight against No. 12 Rutgers

By MOLLY SAMMON Sports Writer

men’s tennIs

Freshman adjusts well to team play

By WALKER CAREY Sports Writer

Freshman Wyatt McCoy’s recent transition from high school athletics to college competition has been more seamless than expected from the average first-year experience.

“[McCoy] brings an extra element of competitiveness into the building every single day,” Irish coach Bobby Bayliss said. “He really tries his hardest on every shot and as a result, he takes setbacks really hard. He learns from his mistakes and uses his setbacks to improve his game.”

The Irish are one win away from keeping January clean of losses for the first time in 10 years. A win also moves their win streak up to 19 games as they play their eighth ranked opponent this season, No. 12 Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., on Tuesday.

The second-ranked Irish (201) stand undefeated in the Big East, 7-1 against ranked teams and are on their way to break-

men’s sWImmIng and dIvIng

Coach strives to train swimmers’ bodies, spirits

By MEGAN GOLDEN Sports Writer

During his 27 years as head coach of the men’s swimming and diving team, Tim Welsh has worked to educate the mind, body and spirit of all the men he coaches at Notre Dame.

“Our philosophy is this: ‘The purpose of Notre Dame swimming and diving is to pursue and achieve athletic excellence with self-discipline and love for one another,’” Welsh said.

A graduate of Providence College’s class of 1966, Welsh went on to receive his master’s degree in English at the University of Virginia. Welsh was an English professor at thenWinthrop College and later assistant swimming coach at Syracuse.

He said University President Fr. John Jenkins’ presidential address in 2005, which said the University’s role was to seek God, studythe world and serve humanity, convinced him he was finally at the right school.

“I came away from that, say-

ing, ‘Sign me up, Father, that’s the vision I want,’” Welsh said.

Former president of the American Swimming Coaches Association, Welsh has had the chance to direct the program and teach coaches about social issues involved in athletics. He remains an active member of the Association, which is focusing specifically this year on how to coach boys.

“Boys and girls are not the same, and boys are a mess,” Welsh said. “Every educational area you want to look at, people will tell you that. Boys need to be boys. They like to compete, they like to race, they learn at a different speed than women. They don’t like to talk a lot about it, [but] they care about how they’re doing, and they even care about what kinds of suits they wear.”

Welsh said that his spiritual life definitely plays a role in educating young men on his Irish squad.

“[One thing] I’d like guys to see on our team is the spirit of Notre Dame. It’s bigger than all of us, it’s better than all of us,

ing the program-record 23 straight wins. In practice this week, McGraw said the Irish worked on offensive clarity and avoiding turnovers as they had 19 in their 71-56 win against St. John’s on Saturday.

“We’ve been working on a lot of things, we’ve been getting better defensively, so we’re concentrating a little more on our offense now,” McGraw said.

“We had lots of turnovers in

McGRAW/page 12

men’s traCk and fIeLd

Prior to coming to Notre Dame, McCoy was a highly successful high school and juniors player. Hailing from Shoreview, Minn., McCoy is the only player in Minnesota history to win a state title as an eighth grader. As a juniors player, he was ranked in the top 10 in the nation for the 12s, 16s and 18s division.

“If you watch [McCoy] play, he is faster than blazes,” Bayliss said. “There are not many balls that he cannot

McCOY/page 12

Irish relay dominates Big East

By BRIAN HARTNETT Sports Writer

The 4x400-meter relay is traditionally featured as the final event on the docket of a Track meet, showcasing the finest qualities of teamwork and often providing fans with a thrilling ending to the day. With four wins in four events this season, the Irish have consistently ended meets on a positive note.

The quartet — junior Brendan Dougherty, senior Mitch Lorenz, sophomore Patrick Feeney and freshman Chris Geisting — has closed out every meet of the indoor season with a win, most recently taking first place at the Indiana Relays on Saturday.

Their top performance of the season, a stellar mark of 3:12:61 in the Meyo Invitational, is the second fastest time in the Big East, trailing only a Pittsburgh 4x400-meter relay team that currently holds the fastest time in the nation.

Feeney, a contributor to last year’s 4x400-meter relay team that finished fourth in the Big East championships, said increased confidence helped the team’s performance.

“I think the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is that we just get more into the race and know that we can definitely put up some good times, which just makes us run even harder,”