SERVING SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1927 • WWW.STUDENTPRINTZ.COM • FEBRUARY 17, 2021 | VOLUME 106 | ISSUE 20
PAYNE CENTER F45
Photos by Charlie Luttrell and Morgan Lawrence | Printz
PG 5
HAYLEY WILLIAMS PG 6
USM V TEXAS
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Ice on the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus after the winter conditions on Feb. 15.
NEWS
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
MEET THE STAFF Executive Editor
Brian Winters brian.s.winters@usm.edu
News & Features Editor Mary Murphy mary.s.murphy@usm.edu
Sports Editor
Charlie Luttrell charles.luttrell@usm.edu
Multimedia Editor
Earl Stoudemire earl.stoudmire@usm.edu
Design Editor
Marissa Haas marissa.haas@usm.edu
The views represented in The Student Printz’s columns and editorials do not represent those of the faculty, staff or administration of The University of Southern Mississippi. We welcome letters to the editor representing similar and contrasting opinions. To be eligible for publication, all submission must include name, class distinction, major, phone number and email address. Submissions should be emailed to printzeditors@ gmail.com by 5 p.m. on the Friday before publication. Please limit them to 500 words or less. The Student Printz reserves the right to refuse publication or edit any material on the basis of clarity, space or journalistic ethics.
Opinions expressed in The Student Printz are those of the writer and not necessarily those of The Student Printz, its publication manager, USM, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning or the USM Board of Student Publications. Courtesy of Moffitt Health Center
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NEWS
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
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Students talk missed opportunities, new vaccine as COVID turns one KARA LOWE PRINTZ REPORTER ven a year after COVID-19 rocked the world, college students everywhere are still trying to adjust to a new normal. Hattiesburg got its first official COVID-19 case in March 2020. Shortly after, classes at the University of Southern Mississippi moved completely online for the rest of the semester. Back then, students were hopeful that, by August 2020, their classes would be shifted back to in-person, with COVID-19 health restrictions in place. However, many students are now still in the midst of a fully online semester. After the COVID-19 vaccine was released in December 2020, many students once again became hopeful about things returning to normal. But distribution has been slow to keep up with demand. It took another two months before the vaccine was available to Southern Miss nursing students. Senior Madison Songy was one of the first students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine because of her nursing major. “My experience getting the vaccine was a very positive one,” said Songy. “As soon as I heard that nursing students were eligible to get the vaccine, I signed
Brian Winters | Printz
up immediately.” Songy was one of many students eager to get the vaccine. She described her experiences in order for others to figure out what to expect. “Being able to get a vaccine inside my own car was a very cool experience!” said Songy. “I had some mild side effects after my second dose for a day or two[,] but felt fine other than that. I feel so much more peace knowing that I have an added layer of protection against this virus now, especially since I will be going into the hospital for my final semester of the nursing program in about a month.” Junior Elementary Education major Chandler Lersch was studying abroad when COVID-19 first flared up. For the past year, Lersch has taken many
safety precautions and has yet to get COVID-19. She, too, was thrilled about getting the vaccine. “My sub teaching job recently sent out an email asking if I wanted to get the vaccine,” Lersch explained. “I said yes and am eager to get the vaccine since my mom has gotten it and she has been fine.” Lersch also said that, although living through a pandemic has been difficult, she is grateful for the time she was given to grieve over the loss of her twin sister in quarantine. “There is a part of me that is upset that my college experience is not going as it normally does, but I still do everything I can to help slow the spread,” said Lersch.
Freshman Psychology major Ashley Martin, meanwhile, explained how the pandemic further changed what was already a hectic senior year of high school. “COVID-19 took away all of the experiences a senior in high school should get,” said Martin. “I was walking out of the door on March 13th to go to my Senior Prom when the lockdown was first announced. My graduation was a drive-thru car parade, and my diploma was mailed to me. I spent my eighteenth birthday in quarantine. I also started my freshman year of college during the middle of the pandemic.” Martin also said she is hesitant about getting the vaccine due to it being so quickly developed. So far, there have not been enough people vaccinated to figure out whether or not its efficiency. However, many are still hopeful that the vaccine will bring back some normalcy. The full effects the pandemic had on people psychologically and emotionally are still not yet entirely known, with many still grieving over lost loved ones and struggling with isolation. But Martin, like many throughout this pandemic, believes this year also gave her some positive self-reflection in the midst of intense tragedy. “I think this past year allowed a lot of people to take time to stop and think about different things life has to offer,” said Martin. “It allowed us all to ‘stop and smell the roses’ instead of going so fast and taking everything for granted.”
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NEWS
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
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New F45 studio promises a safe way to lose weight BRIAN WINTERS EXECUTIVE EDITOR he Department of Southern Miss Campus Recreation announced the opening of the new F45 Training Studio located in the Hattiesburg campus’s Payne Center. The program, mixing circuit training with HIIT (high-intensity interval training) exercises allows users to work on strength and muscle training. “Right now, we have three classes a day [and] we could have them every hour on the hour,” Mark Crager, Director of Campus Recreation, said. “We have the ability to expand[,] so it won’t take anything away from students by allowing the community to do it.” Each F45 group class is 45 minutes long. Currently, classes are offered at 6:30 a.m., at 12:15 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. A class is also offered at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Chancee Davis, the Graduate Assistant of Marketing, said she loves F45. “I was actually really scared at first because I knew it was kind of like crossfit, but it was really easy to follow [and] the trainers were awesome,” she said. “I burn 500 [to] 600 calories every time I go[,] so I’m addicted to it.” Davis, who has gone to the program since it started, said she’s since noticed a difference in her strength and has lost five pounds. “Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are our cardio conditioning days and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays are the resistance training,” Davis said. “It’s really easy because
of how organized it is and they modify [F45] to how you like it.” F45 is COVID-19 friendly, offering socially-distanced stations during all available sessions. Participants use individually sanitized workout equipment to promote a germ-free environment, and the classes have been modified in accordance to social distancing guidelines. “Normally a class would hold 27 people[,] [but] right now we are down to nine [people],” Crager said. “Each [person] has an assigned box so the center of each box is over ten feet from the other person.” Each class, there is specific equipment assigned to one person. The equipment will be set up near a person’s box before class begins. Crager said the only thing they ask each person to do after their F45 class is to clean their equipment. “We’ve had a few of our patrons who were afraid to come back [to the Payne] and work out in general because of COVID,” Crager said. “They have come back and have now signed up [for F45] because they feel safe in that type of environment.” F45’s membership is separate from the Payne Center. A membership for Southern Miss students is $40 per month and $50 per month for members of the Hattiesburg community. A payroll deduction option is also available for Southern Miss faculty and staff. Crager mentioned that allowing the community to take part in F45 now will benefit students in the future by keeping the cost down. For more information about F45, students and community members can go to https:// www.usm.edu/campus-recreation/f45.
Photos by Marissa Haas | Printz
ENTERTAINMENT
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
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Paramore’s Hayley Williams releases amazing second solo album
Photo courtesy of Pitchfork
MORGAN LAWRENCE PRINTZ REPORTER op-punk singer Hayley Williams, best known as Paramore’s high energy front woman, gets intimate with her feelings and slows things down with her second solo album. Williams’s new album ‘Flowers for Vases / descansos’, which was released on Feb. 5, demonstrates her extraordinary talent and ability to bend genres. The album was released almost exactly one year since part one of her previous studio album ‘Petals for Armor’ fans are expectantly thrilled. Williams was born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi. She moved with her mother to Nashville, Tennessee in her early teens. There, she met her future bandmates and established Paramore in 2004. Paramore is still best known for their hits like “Misery Business”, “The Only Exception” and “Still Into You”. The band’s self-titled record, released in 2013, was their first album to make it to the number one position on the US Billboard 200. They also got their first Grammy for “Best Rock Song”, thanks to chart-topping hit “Ain’t It Fun”.
Beyond Paramore, Williams was also known for her feature in songs like “Airplanes” by rapper B.o.B. and “Stay the Night” by EDM producer Zedd. With these singles, Williams showed the world that she will not be held down by one genre. Fans and alternative music lovers alike finally got a taste of Williams’s abilities with the release of her first solo album, ‘Petals for Armor’, last February. The album garnered a lot of positive reactions, with listeners loving the emotional lyrics in songs like “Simmer”. ‘Flowers for Vases / descansos’ perhaps gives her audience an even deeper emotional connection to her verses. Williams said as much in the lead up to the album’s release. “This isn’t really a follow-up to ‘Petals for Armor’. If anything, it’s a prequel, or some sort of detour between parts 1 and 2 of ‘Petals’,” Williams wrote in an Instagram story. There is no doubt that there are certain aspects that make ‘Flowers’ different from ‘Petals’. For one, ‘Petals for Armor’ was recorded and produced in a studio pre-COVID-19. ‘Flowers for Vases’, on the other hand, was
Williams’s own version of Taylor Swift’s 2020 album ‘Folklore’, with every instrument on the tracks played by Williams herself, with everything recorded in her own home. Williams admits that the pandemic forced her to focus on her inner emotions, which gave her the opportunity to write and record this record. “I may never have been offered such a kindness [or] an opportunity to tend to the seeds I’d planted, to harvest, and to weed or prune what is no longer alive, in order to make space for the living,” Williams reported to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Williams also said she took inspiration from Clarissa Pinkola Estés’s 1992 book ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’ by channeling its overall message for women’s instinctual power. Williams links stories from Estés books into her songs, as well as writing on some of her own personal experiences. In her track “Inordinary”, she gently sings about how her move from Meridian to Nashville empowered her in lines like, “Life began in seventh grade/When me and momma got away.”
Similar to ‘Petals’, this album also reflects on feelings of heartbreak and how to recover from its sting. In “Trigger”, while singing about a failed relationship, Williams sings a feeling familiar to anyone who’s dealt with heartbreak: “‘Cause I got the trigger, but you hold the gun./How come you never put the safety on?” Beyond these messages of heartbreak, she also finds self-love, acceptance, accountability and healing in songs “Find Me Here” and “No Use I Just Do”. “No Use I Just Do” in particular does a great job talking on love with lines like, “Nobody wants to be alone/ But that is not why I want you/[...]It’s no use, I just love you.” With its emotionally raw yet relaxing songs, ‘Flowers for Vases / descansos’ will shape the music industry in the post-pandemic future. Williams continues to bend genre at her will to create exactly what her songs need, easily transitioning from folk music to electric guitar-based ballads. Whether you are a long time Paramore fan, music lover, or just in need for a good cry, Williams’s new melodic adventure deserves a listen.
SPORTS
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
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Southern Miss Basketball continues losing streak against North Texas CHARLIE LUTTRELL SPORTS EDITOR outhern Miss’s recent struggles continue as the team suffered two losses against North Texas, extending its losing streak to eight games. This losing streak is the program’s longest since the 2016-17 season, when the Golden Eagles lost nine consecutive games. Southern Miss started the first game slowly, slipping to a 14-2 deficit. The Golden Eagles let the Mean Green get open shots on the perimeter, allowing three three-pointers in the first five minutes. “They’re very well-coached and I think statistically, they’re certainly one of the best defensive teams in the league,” Head Coach Jay Ladner said. “They’re old, meaning that they’re very experienced in actions and […] also with their experience, they’re able to smell things.” Ladner also said that North Texas did well in covering sophomore forward Tyler Stevenson throughout the game, making it hard for him to score. “I didn’t think Tyler quite had his game tonight[,] and I know a lot of people are making it very difficult,” Ladner said. “We
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got to have one of the other guys step up, give us some relief. [...] Tyler gives you everything he’s got but tonight, you could just tell he was laboring, and we got to find some other guys to give him some relief.” Southern Miss found its rhythm against North Texas, though, making them scoreless for over four minutes. Junior guard LaDavius Draine ended the half by making the team’s first three-pointer of the game, closing the Mean Green’s lead down to eight points. However, Southern Miss lost its chance of making a comeback as North Texas pulled away with the lead, starting the next half on a 12-2 run. Overall, the Mean Green shot with an efficient 56.5% accuracy in the second half, contributing to their eventual win. North Texas’s guard Javion Hamlet scored 12 of his 14 points in the half on four of five attempts. “It’s just very difficult to overcome those things[,] but that’s been our mode of operation, it seems for a little bit, and I can’t really put my hand on it[,] but I’m just proud of our guys for battling and coming back,” Ladner said. “As usual, I thought they played hard.” The Golden Eagles warmed up later in the second half, making five of six shots on a run, which was capitalized by a fastbreak dunk from Jaron Pierre Jr. Pierre
scored seven points and served four assists in the second half. The Golden Eagles’ efforts were not enough, though, as North Texas finished out the game 65-49. Stevenson and guard Justin Johnson tied in leading the team with nine points. Despite the loss, Ladner noted the continued improvement of players from off the bench. “I kind of think again that group that came in off the bench [...] I think they come in there and all of a sudden the game changes,” Ladner said. “It happened in both halves. […] We’ve got to try to figure out that consistency and that’s kind of where we’re struggling a bit, but that’s my job to do that and our coaching staff. Ladner and his coaching staff did change the lineup for the second game, moving Johnson and forward Tyler Morman into the starting five. Still, Southern Miss similarly got out to a slow start, trailing 9-2 early in the first half. The Golden Eagles managed to bounce back, but, again, the Mean Green pulled away with a 39-22 lead at halftime. The Golden Eagles struggled from the field, shooting with 33% accuracy in the first half. Stevenson led the Golden Eagles with eight points on three of seven shot
attempts, while the rest of the team made four out of 14 shot attempts. “We have some guys struggling a little bit,” Ladner said. “We dug ourselves into a hole and played well later, but it’s hard to overcome.” Southern Miss started the second half with more success shooting the ball, but went on another cold streak, going scoreless for nearly five minutes. Southern Miss had also problems containing Hamlet again as he scored 21 points on seven of ten shot attempts. Forward Jahmiah Simmons also scored 17 points on an efficient seven of eight shots for North Texas. The Golden Eagles eventually found a rhythm, though, putting together a 9-0 run and shot with an improved 46% accuracy in the second half. Still, the Mean Green rode on its early lead to win 68-56. “We had some chances to cut it to seven or eight in the second half, just a play or two from making a sincere run at it, but overall, I was pleased with the effort in the second half.” Ladner said. In his first start, Johnson scored ten points in the second half and finished with a career-high of 16 points. Pinckney added 13 points for Southern Miss, ten of which also came in the second half. Southern Miss will look to snap its losing streak against FIU next weekend.
SPORTS
FEBRUARY 17, 2021
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Southern Miss softball returns in Black and Gold Invitational CHARLIE LUTTRELL SPORTS EDITOR
outhern Miss softball returned to action this past weekend after a year-long hiatus, winning two of three games in its annual Black and Gold Invitational. The Golden Eagles’ season was canceled after just 22 games due to the outbreak of COVID-19 last spring. Southern Miss went 14-8 in its shortened season. “[It] feels great, I mean, we’ve waited all this time to put in all that work and then waited to play again and finally getting out there, it’s fun,” Head Coach Brian Levin said about returning to play. “I know the girls are excited about it, that’s for sure.” Southern Miss started its first game against North Dakota with a strong first inning. Tata Davis hit a double, which advanced Karley Nichols home for the first run of the year. Shortly after, Maddie Vasquez hit an RBI double, bringing Davis and Terrica Williams back home to advance 3-0. Despite a strong start hitting, the Golden Eagles relied on its defense throughout the game. Levin describes what impressed him on defense. “I was really impressed with Vasquez at third base,” Levin said. “She played it really good defensively both games. We moved Tata over to second base and I think that just gives us a little bit more versatility as far as range. It kind of worked out for us and I like what I see from Maddie.” The Fighting Hawks threatened to score in the third by loading the bases. However, pitcher Kaylan Ladner
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recorded her fifth strikeout to hold North Dakota scoreless. Levin pulled Ladner and put recent transfer Morgan Leinstock out on the field in the final innings. Leinstock, in her first outing as a Golden Eagle, closed out the game, earning a save and giving Southern Miss a 3-0 victory. The Golden Eagles played its second game against Murray State. Southern Miss ended its initial scoring drought in the second inning, as Davis made her way to home plate thanks to a fielding error. Southern Miss continued to hold the
Racers scoreless and added onto the scoreboard in the fourth inning with a run from outfielder Columbia Holeman. The Racers got one run in the sixth inning after a throwing error. Leinstock replaced freshman pitcher Karsen Pierce shortly after and closed the game out again to earn a 2-1 victory. “I’m really impressed with Morgan Leinstock coming in and closing the door in both games [and] throwing the ball hard and she really brings out a lot of energy,” Levin said. “It’s fun to watch the ballgame when she’s pitching, that’s for sure. She lifts everybody up around her
and I enjoyed seeing that.” Southern Miss’s first loss of the weekend came against the second matchup against North Dakota in a nine-inning battle. Pierce made a strong formal debut, recording 16 strikeouts through a complete game. After allowing one run in the third inning, Pierce and Southern Miss held the Fighting Hawks scoreless throughout the seventh inning. Southern Miss failed to score through six innings, but came back in the bottom of the seventh. After Brown hit a triple, she scored on a wild pitch, tying the game 1-1. The Golden Eagles had two runners on second and third base with an opportunity to walk-off, but ultimately struck out. In the eighth, the Fighting Hawks scored one run on an RBI double, leaving Southern Miss in a must-score situation. This time, Williams came up big for the Golden Eagles as she hit an RBI single to score with outfielder Caroline Casey. “She’s really just kind of carried over from what’s happened in practices and in scrimmages,” Levin said about Williams. “She’s just an unbelievably pleasant surprise. I think she’s just been injured so much over the past couple of years that just getting out there and being able to play is something she’s been looking forward to and she’s taken advantage of.” The Fighting Hawks pushed ahead in the ninth, though, with a two-run RBI single. Southern Miss loaded its bases with a chance to win, but the Fighting Hawks’ pitcher Nikki Pica struck out Vasquez and Nichols to win the game 4-2. Southern Miss will play next at Nicholls State before returning home for a doubleheader against Southern University on Sunday.