If you could bring any mythical creature to life, what would it be?
John Kelty junior off campus “h ippogriff.”
Jim Steward freshman fisher hall “basilisk.”
Joe Lemna junior o’neill hall
“Train conductor from ‘The polar e xpress.’”
Areyan Gonzales-Stocks junior Knott hall
“Joe biden.”
Abby Wagner freshman badin hall “unicorn.”
Will Chestnut freshman o’neill hall “bigfoot ( sasquatch).”
VAUGHN | The Observer
Mothers of Notre Dame hockey players accept flowers during last Saturday night’s game against Arizona State. The Irish defeated the Sun Devils, 4-2, at Compton Family Ice Arena to complete the series sweep before they travel to Minnesota Duluth this weekend.
t he next f ive D ays:
Wednesday
Transitional Justice in Columbia Eck Hall of Law 1140
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Professor discusses Columbian justice.
Richard III
Washington Hall Mainstage Auditorium
7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Five visiting actors perform Shakespeare.
Thursday
Tony Macaulay
Reading Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore
4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Author reads works.
Richard III
Washington Hall Mainstage Auditorium
7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Five visiting actors perform Shakespeare.
KELLY
Notre Dame documentary wins Irish ‘Emmy’
By KATIE GALIOTO news editor
a documentary produced by notre dame’s Keoughnaughton institute for irish studies — “1916: The irish rebellion,” a documentary featuring the story of the easter r ising in dublin — was named the “best documentary series” at the 2016 irish film and Television award (ifTa) ceremony friday.
“it’s really like the irish equivalent of the emmy’s,” christopher fox, director of the Keough-naughton institute, said.
The three-part film series portrays the events leading up to the 1916 easter r ising, when a small group of irish rebels challenged the rule of the british empire.
Though the irish lost the struggle, the subsequent executions of the conspirators aroused nationalist sentiment across the country and the easter r ising inspired a number of rebellions by oppressed groups worldwide.
a nd now, the film has been
spreading the rebels’ story across the globe, fox said.
“The Keough-naughton institute has been bringing ireland to notre dame and notre dame to ireland for over 20 years now,” he said.
The documentary utilized a combination of archival footage, new film segments and interviews with experts. it premiered in the u s. at a gala held at notre dame last march attended by students, faculty, staff, filmmakers, donors and celebrities — including irish a mbassador to the u s a nne a nderson and oscar-nominated actor l iam neeson, who narrated the film.
“we were excited just to be nominated,” he said. “To win it — that was a wonderful moment of affirmation for a lot of people’s work.”
briona nic dhiarmada, professor of irish studies and film, theater and television, wrote and created the film. she and fox were co-executive producers of the work.
They had no idea the effects the film would have — on
ireland and other parts of the world, fox said.
“The irish government was so happy with it that they — and this was an individual film, we did it ourselves — asked to use it as a centerpiece of their celebration of 1916 globally, “ he said.
fox said he met an irish couple who told him they made their teenage son watch the premiere of the first segment of the documentary on television.
“They told me they actually had to make it seem like he was under duress to make him watch it on a wednesday night,” fox said.
The first part of the film showed again on sunday in ireland, fox said. a nd the couple returned from a shopping trip to find their son watching the documentary with a group of his friends.
“There’s something about television as a medium for telling history,” fox said. “Those kids aren’t going to show the same interest in a big history textbook.”
fox said the documentary
was shown on 453 pbs channels across the u s. last spring.
“it’s hit 92 percent of u s households,” he added.
The film was also shown on five continents, fox said, and was picked up by bbc in the united Kingdom and other networks in france, v ietnam, a rgentina and many other countries.
now, the Keough-naughton institute has partnered with the irish government to launch “reframing 1916,” a series of academic events hosted at universities, museums and institutions around the world. The events consist of panel discussions led by notre dame faculty and a screening of an 86-minute feature-film version of the documentary —all designed to inform and engage people about the historical significance of the irish stand in 1916.
fox returned to south bend on Tuesday, after a weekend at a conference in monaco.
“This film has really enabled us to bring ireland to the world,” he said. “it’s education on a
global scale.”
The documentary received a 97 percent approval rating on Twitter, fox said. Though nothing is official, there is talk about nominating it for an emmy award, he said.
“it’s gone well beyond anything i ever expected,” he said.
The best part of it all, fox said, was being able to have an impact on the irish culture.
“briona was getting gas outside of dublin,” he said. “a nd somebody came up to her who knew who she was and said, ‘Thank you for giving us our history back.’”
it’s only fitting that notre dame — a school with deep ties to ireland — was the school to produce the film, fox said.
“everything was of the highest caliber, as it should be at notre dame,” he said. “w hen was the last time something based in our teaching and research has been seen by millions of people worldwide?”
Contact Katie Galioto at kgalioto@nd.edu
sisters, board of Trustees to host volleyball game
By MOLLY LIGHT news writer
To commemorate the 175th anniversary of the sisters
of the holy c ross, the s aint
m ary’s b oard of Trustees will challenge the sisters to a volleyball game Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in a ngela a thletic
paid a dverT isemen T
facility.
The sisters’ team will consist of sisters, faculty, members of f riends with sisters — an organization that connects
students with sisters living on campus — and other members of various student organizations, while the opposing team will include members of the b oard of Trustees. This event will serve as a fundraiser to assist the ministries of the sisters of the holy c ross.
mary burke, chair of the board of Trustees, said that the purpose of the game is threefold.
“[The game will] raise awareness in the s aint mary’s community of the many ministries of the sisters here in the u s. and throughout the world, raise money to support these ministries and create a fun event for the whole s aint mary’s community where we can spend time together and do good together,” burke said.
sr. suzanne brennan, who was in charge of the game, said the funds will be used for basic needs such as food, assistance with tuition, transportation and building projects that may include hostels and schools. she said planning this event has been a positive experience for her.
“my favorite part is turning a competitive sport into fun collaboration and a great opportunity to work together to address how each one of us has to use our resources to address healthcare and educational needs that will benefit our global reality,” brennan said.
s enior m aggie c arswell, a student trustee on the b oard, said the game builds a stronger sense of community on campus, which became apparent throughout the planning
process for this event.
“The sisters are a big part of the heart of our campus and have put so much faith into this school,” c arswell said. “This is sort of our chance to turn the tables and do a fundraiser for them.”
c arswell said f riends with sisters is active in planning events with the sisters, but that this an opportunity that is open to the whole community.
“There’s a lot of excitement with the b oard simply just to play, but i’m excited to see the impact we can have on [the sisters],” c arswell said.
c arswell said this game will play a substantial role in bringing the two communities together.
“This is one of the first big events to bring the two together in my time here, and it’s important for girls to come and show support.” she said. “ you see the sisters walking around, and they always say how much joy we bring to the campus. we want to show how much joy they bring to us too.” i n addition to the volleyball game, sr. e va m ary hooker will read a specially commissioned poem prior to the game. The student pep b and will play the national anthem, and other musical offerings will take place throughout the game. d inner will also be provided in a tent set up next to a ngela from 4:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., and will be open to students, sisters, players and other guests.
Contact Molly Light at mlight02@saintmarys.edu
Xfinity
to xfinityoncampus.com.”
a cross the country, m ountford said X oc is starting to become a staple of many college campuses.
“ n otre d ame is the 59th school in the u s . to roll out the [X oc ] streaming service,” m ountford said.
c onsidering the service is new and not very well known, it is still taking time to catch the attention of the student body.
“ i didn’t realize that Xfinity is a T v provider for n otre d ame or that they offer a streaming service,” Jessica h ardey, a sophomore, said in a text message.
“ i have no idea about the
Concussion
self-interest and continue playing despite sustaining head injuries.”
a dditionally, the complaint alleges the university failed to contact notre d ame football players after they left the university about their being exposed to an increased risk of long-term brain damage.
a ccording to the complaint, the ncaa did not acknowledge the dangers of concussion in its sports medicine handbook — a book produced annually outlining the ncaa’s official policies and guidelines for the treatment and prevention of sports-related injuries, as well as return-toplay guidelines — until 1994, and the treatment protocol
service or how to use it,” Jarod l uedecker, a sophomore, said. “ b ut it sounds pretty cool.”
a s for the future, m ountford said oi T hopes to continue to keep up with modern technology in order to provide students the best and most accessible entertainment experiences possible. oi T intends to re-evaluate the situation in three years when n otre d ame’s contract with Xfinity-provider c omcast is up.
“Though there is a trend to move to wireless connections, it’s too early to determine if that will be the direction we would choose to move at that time,” m ountford said.
Contact Aidan Lewis at alewis9@nd.edu
for member institutions was left up to the individual school. notre d ame did not have “adequate” concussionrelated safety measures until 2010, which the complaint alleges was a failure of the university’s obligation to help protect the health and safety of its student-athletes.
The complaint brings forth several charges against both notre d ame and the ncaa , including negligence, fraudulent concealment, breach of implied contract and unjust enrichment.
a ccording to the complaint, g ray is seeking damages.
The complaint is the latest in a series of complaints filed by e delson pc on behalf of former football players suffering from the long-lasting effects of concussions. The firm has filed 43 such suits since m ay.
Culture
normalized. it was rooted in “hookup culture,” in which students seek brief sexual encounters characterized by not having feelings for their partners.
“it hadn’t occurred to anyone that in their disregard for one another in situations of sexual intimacy and their attempts to show how little they care about their partners, they might also create circumstances in which consent goes by the wayside, that in ignoring their partner’s feelings they might not notice when their partner says no or stops actively participating in the encounter, that in other words, they might not notice the moment in which a carefree hookup turns into a sexual assault or when consent becomes very very difficult to determine,” f reitas said.
since that 2006 conversation, f reitas said, discussion of sexual assault, what it is and how to prevent it have become much more prevalent in the wake of student activism, scandals at universities, the high-profile documentary “The hunting g round” and a d epartment of e ducation directive to universities to address sexual assault under Title i X. m any universities created initiatives to teach students about the importance of consent to sexual activity.
b ut classes, guerrilla ads and lectures are useless if universities do not address the “ambivalence” of hookup culture, f reitas said.
“it renders our education around it ineffective if we fail to address the dominant framework about sex and one’s partners that we all inherit,” she said. “ we also fail to address that we are offering the generations coming up a paradox when we teach them about consent because consent is anything but ambivalent.”
c atholic universities, f reitas argued, are uniquely able to create a “culture of consent” because ideas and vocabulary related to social justice, such as community, solidarity and dignity, are at the forefront of campus discourse.
“ w hen i ask social-justicefueled questions at lectures at c atholic campuses across the u s ., a kind of peer pressure ripples across the room for people to care or at least to appear to care about subjects like human dignity and the responsibility to attend to the suffering of others,” she said.
“i can’t think of a single student over the course of a decade of speaking who shrugs at an idea like human dignity. i sn’t that the absolute best kind of peer pressure?”
f reitas said tenets of social justice are not, however, always directed to a campus’ own culture. f urther, she added c atholic colleges face a fundamental fear of addressing sexual assault because extramarital sex itself is perceived as outside of c atholic tradition.
“a prevailing sense exists, on an institutional level, that we are doing something we shouldn’t when we program around sex, that we are somehow going against the
c atholic tradition to deliver essential information to the people who need it,” f reitas said. “To talk about sex at all is often understood as a transgressive act. we fear that, by addressing it, we admit that people are having sex which publicly diminishes the c atholic reputation and identity of the college.”
a s a result, f reitas said, c atholicism is perceived as unhelpfully rigid when it comes to sex.
i nstead, she said, c atholic universities should tap into the welcoming nature of c atholic social tradition, using pope f rancis’ promotion of mercy as well as the idea of “creative attention” — recognizing another’s existence by acknowledging his or her struggles and vulnerability — to understand consent as respect for others.
“ we must admit to ourselves that social justice teaching cannot and do not stop once the kegs start flowing on a f riday, that they extend to the wee hours of the morning, to the drunkenness, to the partners with whom we want to have sex,” she said. “To teach consent is social justice work, period. it is to practice this part of our tradition in the most urgent and hidden part of our campuses. it is to ensure that members of a c atholic community learn about respect for the dignity, bodily and emotional well-being of our partners, their autonomy, their agency, the right to agree or disagree when engaging in sexual intimacy.”
Contact Emily McConville at emcconv1@nd.edu
Trump releases attacks on Republican party
Associated Press
washingTon — The “shackles” gone, donald Trump stepped up his fierce attacks on his own party leaders Tuesday, promising to teach republicans who oppose him a lesson and fight for the presidency “the way i want to.”
“i’m just tired of non-support” from leaders of the party he represents on the presidential ticket, Trump said Tuesday evening on fox news c hannel’s “The o’reilly factor.” he saved special ire for house speaker paul ryan, who told republicans monday he’ll no longer campaign for Trump with four weeks to go before e lection day.
“i don’t want his support, i don’t care about his support,” Trump said. “i wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people that i can tell you, including ryan. by the way, including ryan, especially ryan.” with his campaign floundering and little time to steady it, the businessman reverted to the
combative, divisive strategy that propelled him to victory in the gop primary: attack every critic — including fellow republicans.
Those close to Trump suggested it was “open season” on every detractor, regardless of party.
“it is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and i can now fight for a merica the way i want to,” Trump said in a tweet that brought new concern — near panic in some cases — to a party trying to stave off an all-out civil war before nov. 8. in another series of tweets, the republican nominee called ryan “weak and ineffective,” sen. John mccain “very foul-mouthed” and “disloyal” republicans “far more difficult than crooked hillary.”
“They come at you from all sides,” Trump declared. “They don’t know how to win — i will teach them!” at a night rally in florida hours later, Trump made no mention of the apparent republican civil war, instead training his fire on his democratic opponent hillary clinton.
rage against fellow republicans from the face of the 2016 gop exposed a party slipping from mere feuding into verbal warfare with advance voting already underway in roughly half the states. polls suggest Trump is headed toward a loss of historic proportions if he doesn’t turn things around.
his scorched-earth approach, days after his sexually predatory language caught on tape triggered a mass republican defection, threatened to alienate even more supporters.
“fighting for the sake of fighting is not really very helpful,” said former Trump adviser barry bennett.
Trump has acknowledged the possibility of defeat in recent days, but on Tuesday he tried to shift the blame for his struggles on republican defections and an election system that may be “rigged” against him. on monday, he warned of potential voter fraud in heavily a fricana merican philadelphia, a claim for which there is no evidence but one that could challenge
a mericans’ faith in a fair democratic process.
at the same time, Trump’s campaign is considering whether to feature bill clinton accusers at his upcoming rallies.
Trump shocked the political world before sunday’s debate by appearing with several women who had accused the former president of sexual impropriety decades earlier.
The aggressive shift is in line with the philosophy of recently hired campaign chaiman steve bannon, whose conservative website has long fueled attacks on republican leaders and perpetuated popular conservative conspiracy theories.
The approach has done little to endear Trump to anxious party leaders. at least 40 republican senators and congressmen have revoked their support for the embattled republican nominee — with nearly 30 of them urging him to quit the race altogether.
ryan, in a monday conference call with congressional republicans, said he would no longer campaign with Trump.
he said he would focus instead on ensuring clinton doesn’t get a “blank check” with a democratic-controlled congress, all but conceding that Trump would lose the presidential contest.
Trump’s running mate mike pence said in an interview with nbc Tuesday that he was “disappointed” by the defections and “respectfully” disagreed with ryan.
yet Trump’s aggressive shift is popular among his most loyal supporters, who continue to flock to his rallies by the thousands. a llison ellis, 30, deemed ryan “a traitor” and shrugged off Trump’s sexually aggressive comments in the 2005 video. she pointed at democrat hillary clinton’s shortcomings.
“i have daughters and i don’t like what he said but i also wouldn’t want to be held responsible for everything i said 11 years ago,” ellis said at Trump’s panama city beach, florida, rally. “a nd it’s nothing compared to what she did — she should be in jail.”
By JACK RIEDY scene writer
barcode images pulse in time with a lanky rapper, gesticulating wildly in front of kitchen appliances. a constant, descending melody fades in and out of prominence in the beat. The song, titled “substances,” is simple and simply infectious. The accompanying video is professional while feeling homemade, including shoddy greenscreen footage in densely layered rhythmic cuts. The polo-clad rapper rhymes about the basic functions of life like he’s bragging, saying “breathe so much that i can’t feel my face, sleep so much that i can’t even wake.” he takes ownership of his biology like Kanye does his ego, inserting a pitch-shifted voice to periodically intone that sean duck made it.
sean duck is the nom de mic of former notre dame student sean goebelbecker, an independent musician based in chicago. as he prepares to release his forthcoming “wits end” ep, the 21-year-old rapper spoke to scene about keeping it simple.
a fter abandoning youthful attempts at piano and saxophone in favor of more time for video games, goebelbecker traces his current output back to a fateful eighth-grade realization.
“i found garageband. i could just open up a computer and make beats easily,” he said. True to their digital origins, his first beats were mathematical and precise. as he started writing lyrics in high school, goebelbecker’s rapping, he said, was “technically good, but disingenuous
and inauthentic.” The early tracks were cluttered with multisyllabic rhymes, clearly mimicking influences like eminem and Kid cudi.
goebelbecker found a genuine voice and a new name when he simplified his music. “now, i don’t try to make my songs sound like anything,” he laughed. recorded over the span of a year in a friend’s chicago studio, “wits end” is the newly-christened duck’s debut. The collection is a quick five songs because “20 minutes is a lot to ask someone to listen to.” lead single “houses spouses” consists of a single g-major chord. The lyrics are more chanting than rapping, listing “mice, mouses, world wide web browsers, trousers, blouses.” a s the free association escalates, so does the intensity in duck’s voice, doubled up on itself.
despite his replications, sean duck creates alone. barring some technical studio and mixing help from friends, he estimated that “95 percent of the songs and the videos are all me.” his most recent video “Tick Tock” is the first to feature anyone else in front of the camera. duck handles the production, writing, recording, art and editing — all with a sense of humor. “i have such an easy life,” he explained. “a nd yet i am so depressed and impotent and unable to function in any meaningful way that it’s a joke.” he understands the near-futility of finding listeners among a sea of independent artists. “it’s weird for people to look at me on the internet,” duck concluded.
This ambivalence to modern technology is a recurring theme. each video blends clip art and branded imagery with outdated devices like the ipod shuffle. The jumble
of dated iconography is familiar to anyone who has been inside an a merican home. sean duck even used established brands for his marketing; he announced a new career at an existing company on his personal facebook every time he released a new song. each job tied into the song, like claiming a post at an infamous herbal supplement company to promote “substances.” “if i was going to use my personal facebook to promote my music,” he said, “i didn’t want to be boring.” it’s no surprise that duck names surreal performers a ndy Kaufman and sacha baron cohen as influences before any other musicians.
still, he wants to perform to a crowd that dances more than it thinks. his dream audience is “singing along without thinking about it.” his performances so far have been at open mics, and the audience has learned lyrics fast enough to sing along by the third or fourth repetition. duck hopes to return to south bend this fall to perform wherever he can.
sean duck plans to continue marketing efforts before releasing the complete “wits end” ep, supplementing each track with a video. even as he prepares one release, he continues to record “loosey-goosey” new tracks. “every new song is the best song, better than all the others,” he said. The experiment continues. “w hy should these people sit and listen to me?” he asks himself at one point. with a creator like sean duck, the answer is simple.
Contact Jack Riedy at jriedy@nd.edu
By AUGIE COLLINS
l ooking at m ick Jenkins’ “The healing component” from the surface, it’s easy to scoff and think of the lp as nothing more than another rapper’s take on the ever-present theme of love. Take a step back, folks. “The healing component” may not be revolutionary, but it does provide us with a fresh take that pumps new life into a classic motif.
on Jenkins’ previous ep, “wave(s)”, the tracks seemed lighter and perhaps a little less dense. however, on “The healing component,” Jenkins has a darker, more explicit theme in mind for this album, and he sticks with it throughout. The songs rumble along with jazzy keyboards and bluesy feels, making this not only a significant contribution to the 2016 rap genre cache, but to the blues category as well.
Jenkins releases his debut lp in the midst of a notable period of unrest in a merica, and he is here to share a wealth of love. on the title track, Jenkins asks us to “spread love, try to combat the sadness.” he speaks with the words of a prophet, climbing a stairway to break free from the dark forces that are tearing him to pieces. o ver the ticking of a clock that tells us time is of the essence, Jenkins whispers the lyrics to “drowning” with a hint of fear that comes with the realization of what’s really going on. we can audibly hear Jenkins struggling to keep his head above the water, flailing
and choking, saying “i can’t breathe.”
“w hen the real hold you down, you supposed to drown right? / wait, wait, that don’t sound right,” Jenkins repeats, convincing himself that a cycle of oppression can be broken and should not be accepted.
“The healing component” dabbles in scripture and religion enough to draw comparisons to c hance the rapper’s landmark “coloring book” album, released earlier this year. however, while “coloring book” was more innocent and saintly, as the title implies, “The healing component” seeks to use faith in order to combat the injustices abounding in a merica as of late. The 15 tracks delve into police brutality, institutionalized racism and everything in between. it puts into words what many have been thinking, yet may not have been able to express as clearly and potently as Jenkins does. i f anything, the album is something to rally behind.
The lp — with lyrics soaked in drug references both explicit and implicit — also provides a platform for Jenkins to explain his relationship with different chemicals. on “1000 Xans,” against a trippy beat, Jenkins tells us, “i n some circles misconceptions make ’em think my inspiration herbal, it’s not / i mean sometimes it is.” Think of it as a stoned version of appleby’s “castles.” Jenkins has been expressive about his dependency on weed, but he’s no hippie calling for a group hug: Jenkins uses drugs for inspiration, his poignant message cutting like a knife. a n unsettling amount of truth in Jenkins’ verses knocks listeners
upside the head and demands serious self-evaluation concerning our relationships with the divine and the not-so-divine.
“The healing component” is another solid piece in a quality line of works that Jenkins has put out since 2014. it provides us with tracks to groove to on the dance floor, as well as introspective beats that are layered with tiny revelations. Jenkins’ suggestion of spreading the love to cure our broken state are not a panacea. however, the rapper gets what’s going on, and his words of wisdom should not be cast aside. This lp is a gut punch to society. hopefully it garners the recognition Jenkins deserves: he may be a little new to the scene, but m ick is definitely making waves.
Contact Augie Collins at jcolli15@nd.edu
“The
Healing Component”
Mick Jenkins
Label: Cinematic
Track: “Drowning,” “1000 Xans,” “Communicate”
If you like: Vince Staples, Flatbush Zombies, Danny Brown
scene writer
There’s a hole in the side of the boat
a little over a year ago, then-news editor margaret hynds wrote a column about mental health, in which she said something that struck me at the time and has stuck with me to this day: “ … it’s okay to get help if [you] need it.”
in the stress of midterms week that year, i had asked for help on any number of things, whether it was latin or just asking my roommate to bring back coffee from lafun if she was in the area. but i had never asked anyone for any degree of help on the overwhelming sense of stress i felt that week. i soon realized the stress didn’t end when the week ended, and there was always this — sometimes false — sense of tension i felt on any given day for any variety of reasons. despite having no problems asking anyone for help on very literally anything else, for some reason, i could never ask for help on mitigating this stress.
w hile margaret’s words truly struck me, i still didn’t know who to ask for help, and i felt silly even considering doing so. To me, everyone at notre dame experienced stress, and i was not special for needing help managing it. if anything, i felt inadequate, guilty and weak because i thought i needed help. i wanted to handle this on my own, and it wasn’t until this summer that i admitted there was a strong chance help is exactly what i needed.
late may of this year, i was at the breakfast table with my family, and after a particularly petty argument with my dad — the type of argument that my sisters could attest is commonplace in the o’grady household — i broke down in tears. given the relative low gravity of the situation, my dad looked at me, almost questioning why i could possibly be crying, and said what i think is one of the most caring things his has ever said to me.
“rae, i think it would be good if maybe we got you some help.”
“help” came in the form of a therapist who i began seeing weekly over the summer, a therapist who loosely diagnosed me with a form of anxiety that i didn’t know existed. help came in the form of my mom investing herself way too much into making sure i was okay. it came in the form of realizing just how incredibly lucky i was to be surrounded by so many truly wonderful people who supported me day in and day out. it came in the form of realizing that if margaret — a 5-foot-1-inch firecracker and role model who i was scared of until about a week ago — could ask for help, so could i in the series finale of the hbo series “The newsroom,” one of the characters says “There’s a hole in the side of your boat. ... That hole is never going to be fixed, it’s never going away, and you can’t get a new boat. w hat you have to do is bail water out faster than it’s coming in.”
There are days — weeks, months, even — that, for me, feel like bailing water out of the side of boat. but on those days, i remember i’m not in the boat alone, that there are people and resources there to help me bail the water out — all i have to do is ask. i can’t speak to anyone else’s experiences, and i don’t mean to suggest that asking for help is going to fix everything. w hat i am saying is that asking for help is a start, and it’s the most important thing you can do.
Contact Rachel O’Grady at rogrady@nd.edu
The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
lEttEr tO thE EDItOr
‘Locker room talk’
a s a student, i am excited for next semester when i will be interning and taking classes in washington, d c a s a political science major, i am fascinated by the current political environment and presidential race. a s a woman, i am frustrated with the popularity of the r epublic nominee. a s someone who has experienced sexual assault, i am outright terrified.
o n s unday night, i turned on the debate and immediately felt nauseous. w hen d onald Trump stood in front of the nation and attempted to explain away his recently-released comments regarding sexual assault from 2005 as “locker room talk” and just “one of those things,” he was actively perpetuating rape culture. s exism has been an issue for the entirety of our nation’s history, so how do we expect to continue our progress under the leadership of someone that is so blind to the needs of sexual assault and rape victims? a dding to my disappointment are the responses that include phrases like “as a husband” or “if it were my daughter,” because these imply that women are only important as they relate to men. women are humans, as are all victims of sexual violence. That should be enough to make this a compelling case of disregard for human dignity.
s o why should one comment from more than 10 years ago not be dismissed with a half-hearted apology? w hy does this matter? The high school i attended committed a grave injustice by failing to teach their students about consent. i didn’t know my assault was an illegal criminal act until months after, and when i learned more, i still did not report for fear of backlash from my peers and the school administration. l ook now at the rhetoric that has been used for generations to minimize experiences of sexual violence and create a conspiracy of silence regarding the severity of these issues. This is the very same rhetoric employed by Trump not only on s unday,
but throughout his life. w hen Trump refused to acknowledge that his comments are consistent with the definition of sexual assault, he sent the message that it is not an issue worth paying attention to, let alone fixing.
e ven if you have not been personally affected by sexual violence, i ask that you look at your friends, classmates, family members and humans. a pproximately 23 percent and 5.5 percent of undergraduate females and males, respectively, have experienced sexual assault, and over 60 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are never reported. a painfully high number of lives have been and will continue to be affected by acts of sexual violence. i am tired of saying and seeing this, and i know many of you are as well, but until these figures change, it is our moral obligation to our communities to continue speaking out.
This article is not meant to be about the presidential race in a political lens as much as it is about encouraging discussion regarding why and how we have allowed an individual with such ignorant, misogynistic rhetoric to reach perhaps the highest platform with the widest reach. we must identify our society’s flaws in order to fix them. n obody will have all the solutions, but if there is no discussion, none will ever be formed. w ith that, i don’t ask for your political allegiance or your vote. w hen i was watching the debate and feeling the knots in my stomach tighten, i knew i was not the only one. There are thousands of people that felt the same way and are not in a position to speak out. f or that reason, i write this article to ask instead for your empathy and critical discussion on behalf of every individual affected by sexual violence that is equally as terrified as me.
Annabelle Goese junior o ct. 10
Rachel O’Grady a ssociate news editor
Donald Trump and political correctness
There is a severe political correctness problem in a merica. safe spaces, trigger warnings and microaggressions are constructs utilized to suppress free speech and prevent meaningful discussion. however, such absurd creations are simply tangible representations of the aggressively pervasive aura of political correctness in a merica. political correctness is not just a problem facing college campuses, but a merica as a whole. There is an absolute need to put an end to such a fascist trend. w ith that said, the solution to ending such a movement is not donald Trump. i n fact, the blatant offensiveness of Trump’s rhetoric only adds to the problem. it is imperative that all those who wish to halt political correctness and restore the sanctity of free speech in a merica reject such rudeness as the solution, and instead embrace the value of meaningful intellectual dialogue. donald Trump is often labeled “refreshing.” he seems to be the opposite of any mainstream politician. he delivers unprepared and unfiltered speeches, a spectacle unprecedented in recent political history.
however, people all too often make the mistake of associating such a lack of a filter with the virtuous qualities of authenticity and honesty. Trump has even been labeled the “anti-pc ” candidate by many, including most of the media. however, Trump is not authentic, transparent or anti-pc ; he is just a jerk.
being against political correctness is not about hurling insults or demeaning groups of people. certainly, Trump has the right to make vulgar remarks, but those who are truly against political correctness should not champion such disgusting comments. opposing political correctness is about standing up for the right to engage in honest, intellectual debate, not about opposing basic civility and respect for others.
one could argue that Trump’s rhetoric, while claimed by many to damage politically correct culture, only aids the so called “pc police.” Trump’s racist remarks against mexicans, his many sexist and lewd proclamations against women, his insults against war veterans and countless others of his verbal atrocities are essentially gifts to those in the politically correct camp. This is because every time Trump says something contemptible, he claims to be
doing so to spite the notion of political correctness. Thus, people associate such repulsive rhetoric with the anti-pc movement. This helps the politically correct tyrants tremendously. donald Trump, through insulting masses of people in the name of opposing political correctness, tarnishes the reputation of all those who are tirelessly and righteously standing up for the first amendment.
we must reject Trumpism as a viable solution to the epidemic of political correctness.
refuting political correctness should be about speaking truths, no matter how controversial, in order to foster necessary dialogue about important issues. it should not be about spouting personal attacks and hurling third-grade level insults. donald Trump is not at all representative of those who are against political correctness. l et’s not let him speak for us.
Eddie is a sophomore from Orland Park, Illinois. He is majoring in Economics and Political Science and considering pursuing law school after his time as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame. He can be reached at edamstra@nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
l et’s tell him about words
Courtney Phelan
e nglish major in the real world
i n a tape released by the washington p ost earlier this week, r epublican presidential nominee d onald Trump and T v host b illy b ush had a conversation about women. The tape’s release has caused significant backlash in the media and on social media, as well as in the r epublican party. p rominent r epublicans John m c c ain, John Kasich and p aul r yan have officially stated that they will not be voting for d onald in the general election.
d onald ( i ’m calling him “ d onald,” not “Trump,” because everyone keeps referring to h illary c linton by her first name in this campaign) has apologized in a video statement and in a response during the recent debate. w hen the moderators asked him about the tape, d onald responded, “ i t was locker room talk,” and “ … don’t tell me about words.”
s orry, d onald. i ’ll be taking a page out of your book and doing something you didn’t ask for: i ’m going to tell you about words.
The tape (which, is just over three minutes long and easily available) contains words many considered vulgar, words i ’m not allowed to write here. m any people in Trump’s camp have tried to defend these lewd words by saying that they are only “locker room talk.” i ’ve heard several assertions that all men talk like this behind closed doors.
i decided to ask a few of my close male friends if they and their friends have “locker room talk,” like the talk in the tape.
e ach one of my friends replied they absolutely did not.
They gave differing commentaries along with their negative responses. o ne friend said that he’d been “in social situations where that kind
of talk was on display in a banter-sort-of way,” but asserted that the vulgar words and boasting weren’t the big issue with the tape. a nother friend said that he talked that way in high school, but tried to avoid conversations like that as he’s grown up. a nother friend said no, and that “using the term ‘locker room talk’ to defend [ d onald’s] comments completely objectifies women and promotes rape culture.”
o f course, these are anecdotal, and i can personally vouch that the people i choose to surround myself with are of atypically sterling moral fiber. b ut it’s clear to me from those commentaries that the type of vulgar language used in the tape is considered highly immature, even amongst young men. d onald was 59 years old when he made those comments, and yet male college students and recent entrants to the professional world hold themselves to higher standards. This sentiment, that language like that is immature and disgusting, was shared by the r epublican leaders who’ve been denouncing d onald.
b ut the vulgar words aren’t really the issue here. yes, they’re immature and gross, and the leader of the free world should be better than that, but there’s no law against being immature and gross. p eople do use language like that. p eople do talk about sex and body parts and such. m en talk like that, women talk like that. i t’s not how i choose to conduct my private life, but hey, to each his own. you can say vulgar words to talk about sex. you can say whatever you want.
w hat you can’t say is that you approach women and grope their genitals.
w hat you can’t say is that you don’t even wait to kiss women.
w hat you can’t say is that when you’re a star, you can do anything.
a nd what you can’t do, d onald, is brag about committing sexual assault without
consequences.
b ecause that’s what d onald described. i n the second presidential debate, the moderators told d onald about the words that define sexual assault, and he evaded the question. p erhaps he thought the words m artha r addatz and a nderson c ooper were telling him about were incorrect, or faked or a liberal conspiracy and thus, that their assertions of d onald committing sexual assault were unfounded.
well, they’re not. i n case d onald, or anyone in his camp, cares to read them, here are the words that define sexual assault from the u s d epartment of Justice (you know, one of those pesky parts of the executive branch, which is the part of the government d onald is campaigning to run):
“ s exual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. f alling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.” f or anyone wondering, the technical word for “grab her right in the p----” is fondling. s omeone really ought to tell him about that.
This column is not a commentary on the rest of d onald’s campaign, or an endorsement of another candidate. i ’m simply analyzing what exactly is wrong with that tape. i t’s not the vulgar words he says; it’s the illegal and immoral actions those words described.
a nd that’s the final word.
Courtney Phelan is studying English writing, secondary education, and French. She wants to be an English teacher, so that she can get paid to correct people’s grammar. She is in her final year at Saint Mary’s College. Contact her at cphela01@saintmarys.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Eddie Damstra dinner Table Talks
Happy Birthday: expand your interests and socialize. interacting with others will increase your knowledge and encourage you to make life changes. d on’t allow frustrating situations to drag you down. step out of your comfort zone and find a path that will help you keep moving in a positive direction. l et go of the past and move into the future. your numbers are 3, 11, 17, 23, 26, 35, 41.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): m ake plans that include the people you trust. a networking function will result in good fortune and new opportunities. d o your best to keep the peace and to make your personal relationships work.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): c hanges can be made if undertaken for the right reasons. i f you act based on emotional instability, you won’t get very far. a calculated effort and follow-up will ensure that you get the results you are looking for.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Keep your head above water when it comes to your professional position. Take care of your responsibilities before you opt to help someone else. protect your assets and don’t offer to pay for someone else’s mistake.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): d on’t be fooled by flattery. someone will try to manipulate you to take on responsibilities that don’t belong to you. opt to get out of the house and engage in something that will add to your skills, knowledge and future prospects.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): share your thoughts and feelings, and you will establish how you plan to move forward. your interest in someone who is quite different than you is likely to end up costing you emotionally or financially.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): a physical activity or competitive game will help relieve stress, allowing you to come up with an unusual but superb solution. d on’t worry about competition. follow through with your plans before sharing them. romance is highlighted.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): g et together with your peers and collaborate with the people who are trying to reach a similar goal. playtime with children or the people you find most stimulating will be rejuvenating and instrumental in improving your personal life.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Trouble will surface at home if you let emotional situations flare up. you are best to address issues and find solutions before it’s too late. l et your intuition guide you when dealing with personal matters and affairs of the heart.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): stay focused on your professional goals. d on’t let arguments erupt due to people trying to convince you to take a path that doesn’t interest you. follow your heart and pick up the knowledge required to make your dream come true.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): l isten carefully but don’t believe everything you hear. exaggeration will lead you to believe something that is unlikely to pan out the way you want. Trust in yourself and what you are capable of doing.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): d on’t let a personal matter cost you professionally, financially or in matters of personal health. weigh the pros and cons and do what needs to be done to ensure that you make progress. a settlement or contract looks promising.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): make positive changes to your home, workplace and the way you live. you’ll get the help you need as well as some interesting suggestions that will motivate you to improve the way you look.
Birthday Baby: you are intelligent, benevolent and charming. you are progressive and convincing.
JumblE | david hoyT and Jeff KnureK
suDOku | The mepham group
Just ADD WAtEr | eric carlson & John roddy
Rebuilding teams need elite coaches
w hat’s the worst word that could possibly be associated with the team you root for? you probably guessed it: rebuilding.
a nd that’s largely because rebuilding, for many organizations, really just means, “hey, we’re going to suck pretty bad for a while, but then we’ll hopefully be back to mediocrity at some point.”
i f you’re a fan of the p hiladelphia 76ers, the c leveland b rowns, the c hicago b ears or countless other teams, you know this to be true.
b ut what if i told you it didn’t have to be this way?
w hat if i told you there was a way to make rebuilding work? That teams who fell into irrelevance didn’t have to stay there for eternity? well fear not, for i bring glad tidings.
f or you see, rebuilding — in theory — works like this: a team finds itself in a position where it has no means of competing for a championship. m aybe the team has a star that’s sucking up too much salary-cap space or maybe the team’s core group of players are nearing retirement. w hatever the case may be, that team will trade away any high-salaried players left and enter rebuilding mode. w ith no good players left, the team finishes near the bottom of it league — as it’s supposed to — and thereby accumulates draft picks.
w ith a lot of good, young players who are cheaper than veterans, the team begins to win and has the cap space to sign key veterans and voila — the team is relevant again.
a t least, that’s how it works in theory.
u nfortunately for many teams, the process doesn’t go as planned. The 76ers have had multiple top-10 draft picks in the past five years, but they’re still the nba’s bottom-feeder. The b rowns have the tools they need at most every key position except quarterback, and they, too, can’t get past the afc n orth’s other squads.
b ut there are many cases when the rebuilding process goes according to plan. g eneral manager Theo e pstein broke the “ c urse of the b ambino” by leading the b oston r ed s ox to world s eries titles in 2004
and 2007, and he is in the process of breaking the “ c urse of the b illy g oat” with the c ubs as we speak. Just four years ago, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the you the g olden s tate warriors are an nba team, but now, they are poised to have one of the best seasons ever with a historically great team.
n ow, if you’re wondering why your team doesn’t have the success of the r ed s ox, c ubs or warriors, that’s because they’re missing one key ingredient: a strong coach.
w hat’s often lost in the race for draft picks and free-agent signings is the fact that solid coaching can be just as valuable as a star player. This is true for any team, but it is especially so for rebuilding teams since they often have younger players in need of the extra guidance.
The 2004 r ed s ox had Terry f rancona, whose career postseason win percentage is .633. The c ubs right now have Joe m addon, who has the perfect personality to lead a young, talented c ubs squad. s teve Kerr played on the b ulls’ championship teams of the late 1990s, and he’s currently working wonders with the warriors and revolutionizing the nba in the process.
n ow, let’s go back and look at some of the teams who can’t seem to find their way out of a paper bag. s ince 2013, b rett b rown has been the coach of the 76ers, and if you don’t know who that is, you’re definitely not alone. w hat better way to encourage a bunch of very talented, but immature, 20 year olds to play at the highest level possible than a man with no track record or history of winning as a head coach.
a nd the b rowns are even worse: s ince 2010, the b rowns have gone through five different head coaches. That’s five coaches in seven seasons. a rebuilding team needs stability, and the b rowns just don’t have it. That’s precisely what keeps them, and many other rebuilding teams, down. s o if you’re frustrated with your front office for putting an inferior product on the field, get a coach and let the rest fall into place.
Contact Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@nd.edu
The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Nhl
crosby sidelined with concussion on eve of season
Associated Press
pi TT sburgh — sidney
c rosby collided with a p ittsburgh penguins teammate last f riday at practice and thought nothing of it. Just one of those things.
w hen the two-time mvp woke up s aturday, though, the headache he experienced felt familiar and he was hardly surprised by the concussion diagnosis that will keep the penguins captain out indefinitely.
it’s well-worn territory to be sure for a player who missed the better parts of two seasons following a blindside hit to the head in January 2011.
That doesn’t mean, however, that what c rosby’s dealing with now will linger as long — or as frustratingly — as those interminable two years when he wondered when he’d get right.
i f anything, what he endured then will only help him going forward.
“i think going through it, you understand the process and i think that progress is a good thing,” he said.
c rosby felt good enough on Tuesday to spend nearly an hour on the ice skating alongside injured teammates bryan r ust and m att murray, but he declined to set any sort of timeline on when he may return.
c all it the residue from the aftermath of the hit by washington’s d avid steckel during the 2011 w inter c lassic that forced c rosby to hit pause on his spectacular career.
“i just go day by day,” c rosby said. “ you don’t look too far ahead.”
b oth c rosby and the team declined to get into specifics about what exactly happened, though he insisted the injury is a result of getting “tangled” with a teammate at practice and not something that occurred during the recently completed world c up of hockey. c rosby was the tournament’s mvp after
leading c anada to gold.
“i’m not making this up,” c rosby said. “it was pretty clear i think.”
c rosby will remain in the concussion protocol for now, a series of procedures he knows well, ones that continue to evolve as more research comes to light.
“ we’ve learned so much in a short period of time,” c rosby said. “i think there’s a really good structure in place on how to get back and that kind of thing. i feel confident and comfortable with everything.”
The penguins open the season Thursday night at home against washington and during a pregame ceremony will raise the banner for the franchise’s fourth stanley c up title. c rosby almost certainly will be out of the lineup, but he harbors no concerns about how this latest head injury will affect him in the long term.
“( c oncussions) happen,” he said. “They happen in a lot of different sports and guys have multiple concussions and they’re fine. Just have to treat them the right way and make sure they handle it right and you’re honest. l ike i said, i’m comfortable and confident that things will be oK.”
The timing is eerie when it comes to the level of c rosby’s play. he was leading the nhl in scoring and in the middle of perhaps the best hockey of his career in 2011. This time, he’s coming off a stretch in which he captured the c onn smythe Trophy as the playoff mvp while leading the penguins to a title and backed it up with a sublime performance in the world c up.
“That’s the first thing i thought when i saw the headline,” said b uffalo s abres coach d an b ylsma, who coached c rosby in p ittsburgh from 2009-14. “i’d like to compete against him and beat him, no question. but at the same time, i hope he’s able to get back to playing, and get
back to playing the way he can.”
c rosby, a notorious workaholic, needs hockey. There’s little doubt the nhl needs him.
“ you want the top players in the game,” said washington c apitals defenseman m att niskanen, a former teammate in p ittsburgh. “That’s best for everybody. w hen everyone’s best players are in the game, that’s what everyone wants to see. b ut most importantly for the individual, you just hope that it’s nothing serious.”
The penguins have been able to survive without c rosby in the lineup, at least during the regular season. e vgeni m alkin won the h art Trophy ( mvp ) and the a rt ross Trophy (leading scorer) after the 2011-12 season, a year in which c rosby was limited to 22 games as he continued to battle concussion-like symptoms.
“ we know how we can play better with sid, but we can play better without him, too,” m alkin said. “ we have great teammates and great leadership group here.”
a nd a core that is only too aware of the toll concussions can take. d efenseman Kris l etang has dealt with multiple concussions during his career, and goaltender m arc-a ndre f leury suffered one late in the regular season that kept him out so long his job was eventually taken by rookie m att murray, who helped guide the penguins to the c up.
a s encouraging as it was to see c rosby in the dressing room on Tuesday, the penguins are taking nothing for granted.
“it makes your mind think maybe he’s close, but these types of things are on their own timeline and no one compares to somebody else,” forward c hris Kunitz said. “The good thing is he understands what he’s going through, and he’ll be the best one to be able to come back from it.”
Marek Mazurek sports e ditor
W Golf
good tournament.”
h olt also acknowledged, however, that in order to compete at the highest level, the team has to improve its play and match its performance to its talent.
“ we just have to get better,” h olt said. “ l ike i said, the tournament field was very strong — there were a lot of top-25 teams there with a lot of good individual players — and if we’re going to play in that kind of competition, we have to be ready to compete. we have the talent to do it, [so] we just have to do it all the time. i t just is what it is. … i told the girls when the tournament was over, i really didn’t feel like other teams beat us, we just beat ourselves. we made a lot of big numbers across the board — doubles, triples — and then we would hit it close, and then not capitalize and make birdies. s o we just need to be more consistent, and it’s there — we just have to do it when we need to.”
u ltimately, however, h olt said she was pleased with the invaluable experience tournaments like these provide, particularly as early in the season as it currently is for the i rish.
“a t the level that we’re playing at, we’re fortunate that we do have opportunities to play in the events that we are playing in,” she said. “ i think it’s a great experience for our players, and that’s how you get better — by playing good competition — so i think the takeaway is that we’re good, but we have to be better and we are capable of better. … w e’re in the acc , and if it’s not the most competitive conference, it’s one of the top two. s o it’s a great experience for us and something you want to take advantage of.”
The i rish will compete next at the b etsy r awls l onghorn i nvitational, hosted by the u niversity of Texas, on m onday and Tuesday.
Contact Tobias Hoonhout at thoonhou@nd.edu
m s occer
net, putting the i rish up 1-0. i rish junior midfielder blake Townes said the team’s quick change in form was the result of its regaining confidence as the game went on.
“i think we started a bit slow tonight,” Townes said. “ we couldn’t find a grip on the ball and keep possession. we couldn’t handle their pressure at first. a fter we found our confidence on the ball, we could play around them, and they couldn’t handle our ball movement, which lead to our goal. s o it was just a confidence thing, i think.”
g ormley said he knew his team would find a way to score once it gained control, and he was just the benefactor of notre dame’s team play in this case.
“o nce we got control of the ball, we began getting some chances of our own,” g ormley said. “[ gallagher’s] great shot from distance knocked off the crossbar and both posts, and i was fortunate enough to be in the right spot to put it away.”
The i rish kept up the pressure, pulling the shot count even by the end of the half. a lthough both teams took seven shots in the period, g ormley’s goal stood as the only score heading into the break.
The second half started slowly — the two teams combined for just three shots in the period’s first 15 minutes — but notre dame maintained its 1-0 lead. Townes said he thought the slow start for m ichigan was a result of notre dame’s emphasis on defensive pressure coming out of the half.
“c oming out in the second half, we just wanted to keep going forward while keeping balanced shape in the back,”
Townes said. “ we did not want to sit back and let them control the game. we wanted to come out strong and try to score on them.”
g ormley echoed Townes’ belief and added he was pleased to see the execution of their game plan lead to control throughout the half.
“because they have some dangerous players, we knew we needed to come out flying in the second half,” g ormley said. “ we talked about getting pressure on the ball early and playing in there half, and i think we did a pretty good job of controlling the game for most of the second half.”
notre dame added to its lead in the 82nd minute behind a low powerful shot from gallagher, which came off an assist by freshman midfielder Jack c asey. gallagher’s 11th goal of the season pushed the score of the game to 2-0 in favor of the i rish. Townes said he was confident notre dame was going to secure the win following that second goal.
“The second goal was just incredible,” Townes said. “it was good build-up play, where [graduate student midfielder evan panken] got it on top of the box, then played a great ball in behind to a great run of Jack c asey. i thought Jack had great patience in not shooting but found the better shot to an incoming Jon gallagher, who buried it past the keeper.”
The score remained 2-0 until the final whistle blew, marking notre dame’s fourth win in its last five games.
o ver fall break, notre dame will continue its current stretch of play on the road when it plays two acc matches in addition to its final nonconference matchup of the regular season. The i rish will first square off with no. 21 v irginia on friday before traveling to northwestern on Tuesday and finishing its
stretch at d uke on oct. 21. notre dame will look to continue its successful acc season against the c avaliers (6-2-4, 1-2-2 acc ), who are coming off an upset victory over then-no. 4 north c arolina on the road.
v irginia is led by sophomore forward e dward o poku, who, in 10 starts on the season, is tied for the lead on his team with 10 points. Junior goalkeeper Jeff c aldwell has also performed well this season in the net for the c avaliers with a .762 save percentage.
The second of opponent of the break for the i rish is the w ildcats (2-9-1, 1-3-1 big Ten).
The w ildcats have lost three of their past four games, but will have a chance to get on track with a conference game against rutgers before they host notre dame.
l eading the northwestern offense is senior midfielder brandon medina, who has five points on the season, including two goals on just three shots. however, the w ildcats have largely struggled as a team offensively and have
been outscored 21-8 on the season.
finally notre dame will square off with the blue devils (4-5-3, 1-3-1 acc ) before returning home at the end of its action over break. The blue devils as a team have outshot their opponents by 27 shots on the season, but they have still been outscored by one goal on the year. d uke has only earned three wins in its last nine appearances.
The blue devils find most of their production from a formidable duo of midfielders, junior brian w hite and freshman suniel veerakone, who have contributed 11 and 10 points to the team on the season, respectively.
notre dame plays against v irginia at Klockner stadium on friday at 7 p.m. i n the second game of break, the i rish play at northwestern at Toyota park on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The team finishes up its break travels at d uke at Koskinen stadium on o ct. 21 at 7 p.m.
Contact R.J. Stempak at rstempak@nd.edu
paid a dverT isemen T
CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer
Irish junior forward Jon Gallagher surveys the field during Notre Dame’s 4-0 win over Indiana on Oct. 4 at Alumni Stadium.
her business, s parks said, but he added that the success of the i rish will largely depend on the performance of the runners directly behind r ohrer.
“ we are really looking to close the gap from our number two through five runners,” s parks said. “[ s ophomore] a nnie h effernan was a strong number two runner for us at the n otre d ame i nvitational, and we would like to see [sophomore] r achel d a d amio, [senior] l exi p elletier, [graduate student] d anielle a ragon and [junior] s ydney f oreman run much closer to her.” o n the other side, the men’s team has had its share of injuries and poor performances this season, capped off by its finishing in last place at a home meet. h owever, s parks said there’s been a positive tone among the team members in preparation for
the b radley c lassic, which could be a good opportunity for the team to gain some confidence before the acc championships after fall break.
“They’re coming off a disappointing performance at the n otre d ame i nvitational two weeks ago, but they’ve come back to practice with positive energy and a chip on their shoulder,” s parks said. “They know they are much better than they raced last time out. n ow, they need to race with confidence, just like they have been practicing.”
b oth the women’s and men’s squads will be looking for strong bounce-back performances f riday as they begin preparation for the acc and ncaa championships. The w isconsin a didas i nvitational will kick off at noon at the Zimmer c hampionship c ourse in m adison, and the b radley c lassic will begin at 3 p.m. on the n ewman g olf c ourse in p eoria.
Contact Joe Everett at jeveret4@nd.edu
weather conditions in n orth c arolina, as well as for his fiery sideline demeanor throughout his career at n otre d ame. h owever, Kelly said his attitude on the sideline is genuine, and he has no plans to change it.
“ i ’m just coaching. i ’ve got a great relationship with my players. i ’m just coaching,” Kelly said. “ i ’m being b rian Kelly. i f people have a problem with that, then they’re not going to be friends or fans of n otre d ame football. i can’t help that. i don’t feel like i ’m crossing a line. i think i ’m being who i am. i ’m being direct. i ’m handling the situation as it hits me.”
Kelly did say, however, he has identified certain things his team can do to start winning close games, although he declined to get into specifics, and said he will rely on his past success in close games to improve this year’s squad.
“ f or me, especially with the success that i ’ve had in coaching, i ’ve won those [close] games,” Kelly said. “ i t’s not just by luck. s o it’s important to drill down deeper and to find out why we win those games. i think i have a pretty good understanding of why we won those games, and i think it goes to our preparation and what we have to do and how we prepare our football
team. a nd self-disclosure, too, to realize that when you get to the fourth quarter, you’re going to have to find a way to win.”
i n each of their losses this year, the i rish have been within one score and had a chance to win late in the game. Kelly added that while his staff needs to coach better, this year’s team is relatively inexperienced in close games, a factor that contributed to some of the losses.
“These guys don’t have a ton of those games under their belt, you know, they just don’t,” Kelly said. “ l ike i said, we were 2-2 last year in these games, and it’s not like they’ve won five of them. we only have one guy that took any reps at all, and he’s on defense coming into the season. i t’s not like there’s a bunch of guys on offense that all experience, you know, late-game comebacks, including [junior quarterback d e s hone Kizer].”
w hen asked if his young team may lose faith in their ability to play in close games, Kelly said he does not expect his players to ever lose confidence in themselves.
“a s long as their head coach believes — and i believe — in them and they know that, then they’ll never stop believing,” he said.
special teams h eading into s aturday’s matchup against s tanford, Kelly said a big area he is focused on is special teams.
a gainst the wolfpack (4-1, 1-0 acc ), the i rish special teams unit gave up a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, which proved to be the deciding score in the game, and Kelly said the unit has to eliminate such costly mistakes.
“ well, i want to eradicate the big plays that we’re giving up, because i think we’ve had dynamic plays from a special teams standpoint,” Kelly said. “ o ur coverage teams have been really good other than the mistakes that we seem to make, and they’re catastrophic. They’re big.
“ s o moving forward is to still have the athletes on that team, still get the quality players that are on that team and continue to do the things that we’re doing other than some of the crazy, big plays we’ve given up.”
Kelly also said he has tweaked the special teams’ practice routine to find better results.
“ we’ve added to our special teams,” Kelly said. “ i ’ve changed up when we run our special teams. we take more teaching time now and in pre-practice. we put all our offensive players in tackling circuit now. s o we’re doing a lot of things that i ’ve never done to better teach and coach that group. we’re on it every single day in terms of looking at how to be better in it.”
Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@nd.edu
paid a dverT isemen T
CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer Irish sophomore running back Josh Adams carries the ball during Notre Dame’s 10-3 loss to North Carolina State on Saturday. Adams rushed for 51 yards on 14 attempts to bring his season total to 391 yards.
EMMET FARNAN | The Observer
Irish sophomore Anna Rohrer competes during Notre Dame’s Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 30. Rohrer won the race.
Kelly turns focus toward winning close games squad splits for friday meets
By MAREK MAZUREK sports e ditor
a t 2-4 and heading into yet another tough matchup against s tanford, n otre d ame has seen the blame game become an increasingly popular activity amongst its fans, as they have put the onus on anything from the weather to bad snaps to the young defense.
a t his press conference Tuesday, however, i rish head coach b rian Kelly attempted to shift the blame for the poor showing versus n orth c arolina s tate onto himself.
“ i ’m not making any excuses for it,” Kelly said. “ b ut, you know, on my behalf, i probably should have done a better job of preparing them for the eventuality of close games.”
Kelly came under fire last weekend for choosing to throw the ball as often as he did in the poor
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Observer
junior quarterback DeShone Kizer looks downfield in Notre Dame’s 10-3 loss to North Carolina State on Saturday.
By JOE EVERETT sports writer
n otre d ame will compete in two separate cross country meets f riday, as the women’s team will travel to m adison, w isconsin, to compete in the w isconsin a didas i nvitational while the men’s team will head to p eoria, i llinois, to run in the b radley c lassic.
a fter two straight home meets on the b urke g olf c ourse, the i rish will compete on a national stage away from home for the first time this season. The i rish will also be looking to put some of their early-season struggles behind them, as associate head coach m att s parks called the teams’ performances at the Joe p iane i nvitational “disappointing” after the women’s team finished eighth out of 23 teams while the men’s team finished last amongst 25 teams in their respective races. The women’s team will be facing
stiff competition this weekend at the w isconsin a didas i nvitational, according to s parks, who said he believes the quality of opponents the women’s team will see should prepare them for the especially important meets up ahead on their schedule.
“The women will be competing in the most competitive regular season meet in the country at w isconsin,” s parks said. “ i t will be a great simulation for the ncaa championship meet, where we hope to be competing in late n ovember.”
The women’s team will be led by sophomore a nna r ohrer, who was recently named both the acc p erformer of the week and the us T fccca n ational a thlete of the week after winning the Joe p iane i nvitational and setting an i rish record in the process with her time of 16:11.7. r ohrer should take care of
nd places ninth at Texas state Irish start road trip with win over Wolverines
By TOBIAS HOONHOUT sports writer
l ooking to improve on their season-opening performance at the s chooner c lassic, the i rish traveled to Texas this past weekend to compete in the Texas s tate Jim west c hallenge i nvite and finished in ninth place amongst 15 teams.
n otre d ame started the event strongly and found itself in second place after the first round, but it ultimately fell down the leaderboard over the final two rounds and finished with an overall team score of 8-over-par 872 for the competition.
“ well, our goal is always to try and be competitive and win,” i rish head coach s usan h olt said on her team’s performance. “ o bviously, the first round we were six under, two shots out of the lead and certainly put ourselves in position to do that, but we just weren’t able to maintain it. a nd we were just playing in a really good tournament field [with] a lot of good
teams, and we have to learn to stay in it and get that going. There were some positives, obviously, that came out of it. w e had a lot of good individual rounds throughout the tournament. we just lacked overall consistency, so we just have to keep working on it.”
a ll five members of the i rish starting lineup finished in the top 50 of the event’s leaderboard, including senior Jordan f erreira, who led the way for the i rish by finishing in 26th with a 1-over 217.
“Jordan has a ton of experience for us,” h olt said. “ s he’s pretty much played in every single event, i think, since she’s come to campus, so it’s good that she is playing well. i think one of the strengths of our team is that we don’t have to rely on one player all the time to carry us. we have five players that at any one time can go out and play good golf, so it was nice to see Jordan have a
By R.J. STEMPAK sports writer
a fter traveling up to a nn a rbor for a mid-week rivalry game, no. 2 notre dame came away with a convincing 2-0 victory over m ichigan on Tuesday night.
The wolverines (2-7-4, 1-4-1 big Ten) opened the game aggressively, keeping i rish senior goalkeeper c hris hubbard busy early. hubbard recorded two saves in the first 15 minutes of the game, while the wolverine offense fired four more shots that were off target.
The i rish (10-1-1, 3-1-1 acc ) were without a shot on goal for the first 25 minutes of the game. but that changed just five minutes later, as i rish junior forward Jon gallagher rocketed a shot that found the top right post and bounced down in front of the goal. The ricochet was met by senior forward mark g ormley, who headed the ball into the back of the
CHRIS COLLINS
The
Irish
mEN’s sOCCEr | nd 2, michigan 0
ND WOmEN’s GOlF | Jim wesT challenge inviTe
PETER ST. JOHN | The Observer
Irish graduate student midfielder Evan Panken attempts a pass in Notre Dame’s 4-0 win over Indiana on Oct. 4 at Alumni Stadium.
