Eric BlaisdellEditor

Every year is a rebuilding year for theLyndon State College men’s basketballteam.

Between the 2008-09 and 2010-11seasons, the team has had 25 freshmen,according to the North Atlantic Confer-ence website. Six of them came back toplay their sophomore year.

This year was particularly bad as theschool had ten freshmen on the team theprevious season and none of them re-turned, including NAC rookie of the yearPhil Warrick. In fact, the team had onlytwo players come back from last year’sentire roster.

There are currently eight freshmenon the team now, but it is anyone’s guesshow many of them will be suiting up forthe 2012-2013 season.

“The reason I left LSC was becauseit was a little expensive and I was livingoff campus and I didn’t think it was goingto be good for me,” said former LSC bas-ketball player Antonio Mena in a phoneinterview. “I just couldn’t afford it and itwas a little far from home.”

There are many reasons, besidesmoney, why players leave. Sometimesthey do not like the area or the weatheror they transfer to a different schoolcloser to home. Even if Mena, from Cen-tral Falls, RI, could have afforded it, stay-ing at LSC for four years was not in hisplans.

“When I went to LSC I was thinkingabout going for two years and then trans-ferring to a better school for basketball,but my plans didn’t work out,” said Mena,

who now attends the Community Col-lege of Rhode Island and is taking generalcourses without playing basketball. Hesees how students who are not fromaround the area may find it difficult tostick around the Northeast Kingdom.

“It’s mainly because it is far fromhome for the other players that comefrom different states,” said Mena. “Theyare city kids and in Vermont all you see istrees and stuff like that. There is nothingaround.”

Asa Smith is a current freshman LSCbasketball player from Cheltenham, Md.who does not mind the rural atmosphereof Lyndonville. He likes the calm, peace-ful environment of Vermont.

“People who might think it’s boringdon’t make the most out of it,” saidSmith, who went on to talk about thosewho come to LSC and think it is boring.“I feel that those guys just aren’t takingadvantage of the opportunity of makingLyndonville as much fun as it could be.”

While he enjoys the atmosphere andplans on staying all four years, he has notruled out playing somewhere else.

“Don’t get me wrong, if I get an op-portunity to play somewhere for acheaper price or for a full ride I’m defi-nitely taking it,” said Smith. “If it comesto where I can go to school for a cheaperprice I would strongly consider it.”

NCAA Division III schools, likeLSC, cannot offer scholarships to ath-letes. This makes it difficult for out-of-state players to stay at LSC.

The two players who did come backthis year, Jason Gray from Thetford, Vt.and Ben Sackett from Lyndonville, are fa-miliar with the trees and location. But

the solution of keeping players is not assimple as going after more in-state stu-dents.

“In Vermont, just with the popula-tion, the amount of players is not as greatas they are in other areas so if we can geta great local player we’d love to do that,”said head coach Joe Krupinski. “It’s justfinding them.”

The problem is more than just thescarcity of local players.

“A lot of kids from Vermont want toleave Vermont for the same reason kidsfrom Maryland come up here,” he said.“They want to try something different.”

Krupinski focuses on certain areassearching for those players who wantsomething different.

“When I first got here we really fo-cused on the Springfield (Mass.)/Bostonarea and a couple urban areas in thenortheast,” he said. “We’re still focusingon those areas, but it’s changed. TheD.C. area is our new spot that we’ve beenfocusing on.”

There are currently eight freshmen

on the team.To try to keep the players he recruits,

Krupinski checks with their professors,holds study halls, and has exit interviewsat the end of the season to see what theplayer’s plans are. He says, for the mostpart, he knows when a guy is not comingback, but there have been surprises. Likethis year.

“It seemed like every time youturned around something else was goingon,” said Krupinski about losing playersfor various reasons. “This has been themost challenging I’ve ever seen in myyears coaching (at LSC). I don’t intend tobe in this situation again where we have10 or 11 guys, period.”

Even though this year highlightedthe team’s struggles with preserving itsplayers, Krupinski does not see anythingwrong with his recruitment system.

“We’re going to recruit the sameamount of players we’ve been recruitingand try to get the best guys we can getwherever they’re from,” he said. “We justmight need to get a few more of them.”

SPORTSFeb. 10, 2012 The Critic, Page 9

The Revolving Door The LSC Men’s Basketball Team is in a Constant Struggle to Keep Its Freshmen

File Photos

Above: Former LSC player Phil Warrick is just one of many freshmen players to not return.Right: Antionio Mena, another former LSC player, left the school for financial reasons.

The CriticFriday One copy free, extras 50 cents eachwww.lyndonstatecritic.com

Lyndon State College Volume 57.8November 5, 2010

Mr. Vail comes to town

Men’s cross country brings home title

SGA holds special election

Page 8Page 7Page 2

Weekend Weather Outlook: Jordan Sherman

HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

WINDS WINDS WINDS WINDS WINDS44˚-49˚ 32˚-35˚ 40˚-44˚ 26˚ 39˚

Light Light Light Light LightRain showers tapering off in the early afternoon.

Mostly cloudy with a chance of an isolated flurry. No accumulation.

Scattered rain showers. Rain and snow showers overnight. 30% chance of precipitation.

Few snow showers likely.

Friday: Friday night: Saturday: Saturday night: Sunday:

Additional weather information provided by The Weather Channel.

Hornets sting the Spartans

Men’s soccer defeats

Castleton for first time since 1998; advances

to NAC championship

Matt Browne (left) celebrates with Teague Coyle after scoring a goal in Lyndon’s playoff game against Maine Maritime last week. Lyndon will travel to Thomas College for a chance at the conference championship. Students can sign up for a fan bus in residential life. The bus will leave at 8 a.m. on Saturday. The game will also be broadbacsted on NSN sports.

Eric BlaisdellCritic Staff

The Lyndon State College men’s soccer team will face Thomas College for the North Atlantic Conference championship.

The trip to the conference title game comes after the fourth seeded Hornets defeated the number one seeded Castleton Spartans in the semi-finals last weekend. The victory was the first time the Hornets had defeated the Spartans since 1998. It was also the first loss of the season in conference play for the Spartans.

Patrice Lumumba scored twice in the second half after his team entered the half trailing 1-0. Andrew O’Brien scored the insurance goal to secure the 3-1 win and a trip to the finals.

Thomas College will

enter the title game with a record of 10-5-2 and finished the regular season with a 5-2 record in the NAC. Thomas defeated University of Maine – Farmington 3-1 on Saturday, Oct. 30 to earn the title berth.

Thomas is led by freshman Casey Castle who had two of Thomas’ three goals in the semi-final match. Castle is originally from Bermuda and currently has 11 conference goals. He was recently named First Team All-Conference in the NAC as well as Rookie of the Year for 2010. He is also on Bermuda’s U-20 World Cup Qualifier squad.

Castle is one of ten international players on the Thomas squad. Freshman goalkeeper Mikkhail Crockwell, who was named First Team All-Conference as well, also comes from Bermuda and finished the season fifth in the NAC

in saves with 73 and save percentage of .777. Another international standout is freshman Paul Rechichi from Australia, who was Second Team All-Conference in the NAC.

Thomas also has players from Wales, England, Canada, and New Zealand. They are a young team with only two juniors and the rest freshmen. The Terriers are coached by Jason Higgins, who acknowledges that his team is still trying to get all that worldwide talent to mesh.

“I would classify us as a group that has the talent to win on Saturday, but can we put that talent on one focus?” said Higgins in a phone interview.

Coach Higgins anticipated being in this position, but this game will not define his season.

“The conference finals

are not the end all for me this year,” he said. “I had hoped that we would be here, I expected us to be here, but I also understand that it’s not easy to get here.”

LSC coach Pete Kellaway knows the Thomas team his team will face on Saturday is gifted.

“They consist of a lot of international players with a lot of experience,” Kellaway says. “Typical teams on the college level, at least in Division III, are probably 13 or 14 players deep. And these guys, their whole bench can start for anyone else in the conference.”

Lyndon State College comes into the contest with an overall record of 12-3-3 and finished the regular season with a 4-2-1 record in the NAC.

The Hornets are led by sophomore Patrice Lumumba who had two goals in the

win at Castleton. Lumumba originally hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo and currently has 11 conference goals. He was named First Team All-Conference in the NAC as well as last week’s Player of the Week in the NAC and co-Offensive Player of the Week in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Coach Higgins is aware of the threat Lumumba brings.

“We need to focus on Patrice,” he said. “(He) is someone we have to watch.”

Two additional award winners for LSC are sophomore Jason Gray and junior Kyle Mecham who both received Second Team All-Conference honors.

Photo by Sam Monroe

Continued on page 6. See PREVIEW

November 5, 2010 The Critic, Page 6Sports

Tuesday all you can eat pizza 12p.m.-2p.m. $5.99

Continued from page 1Gray currently has the

most saves in the conferencewith 124 and the best savepercentage of .855. Mechamhas four goals and two assiststhis season.

Coach Kellaway has hisplayers playing what he callsa “blue collar” style of soccer.

“We bring our hard hat topractice and our lunch pail towork,” said Kellaway on thephone. “That’s how we beatother teams is we just outwork them for 90 minutes,that’s our strength.

“Our philosophy all sea-son is we’re going to play theway we’re supposed to playand capable of playing,” hesaid. “And the other team isgoing to have to adapt to us.We’re in better shape thanmost of the teams we playagainst because we workharder in practice.”

For Kellaway, identity isimportant.

“We realize who we areand where we’re from,” hesaid. “We go to school in theNortheast Kingdom. Prima-rily that’s a blue collar neigh-

borhood and consequentlythat’s the image that we liketo take with us.”

The two teams met earlierthis season on Oct. 16 withThomas winning 2-1 in over-time. From Higgins’ point ofview the win was unfounded.

“At the end of the day wereally should not have wonthat game,” said Higgins.

LSC’s Lumumba agreeswith Higgins.

“It was a pretty intensegame,” said Patrice. “Ithought we dominated thewhole game. We knew wecould have won that game.”

LSC sophomore PatrickHilton thinks the first gamewas a fluke.

“We handled them prettywell in the first game,” saidHilton in an e-mail. “As theirfirst goal came off a missedclear from the defense, andtheir goal in OT to win itshould have been called off-sides.”

Thomas coach Higgins isnot thinking about that firstmatch.

“I’m not even looking atthe last game we played

against Lyndon,” he said. “Alot has happened since thatgame, not only with Lyndon,but also with our team.”

Thomas College has arecord of 4-1 against LSC inthe previous five meetingswith Thomas taking the lastfour. That is not discouragingthe Hornets and they believethey can win Saturday.

“Our team goal this yearfrom the first day of pre-sea-son has been to win theNAC,” said Hilton. “Thathasn’t changed. I have 100percent confidence in ourteam, and I am very confidentwe will do well Saturday.”

Lumumba has faith in histeammates.

“We just have to believein each other and stay fo-cused,” said Patrice. “Comeout with the same attitude wehad against Castleton. I’mready to play and win thegame and bring the NAChome.”

The championship will beheld at Thomas College inWaterville, Maine, on Satur-day, Nov. 6. Kickoff is at 1p.m.

Men’s soccer preview (cont.)

Candice KopecCritic Staff

LSC freshman KenediHall has been given an oppor-tunity of a lifetime to trainand compete in the Olympics.

Not many can say theyhave been given this opportu-nity, but Hall can.

Driven to be a successfulathlete and reach his lifelongdream, Hall researched andresearched about what it takesto be an olympian and thepath he must follow to makeit happen.

“My father and I came up

with an idea of myself tryingout for the Ethiopian Nordicski team. We looked at the re-quirements and I met them,”Hall said.

From that point on, deter-mined to fulfill his dream, hefound a coach to start his jour-ney. Hall will start his physi-cal training when the crosscountry running season isthrough here at LSC.

“To tell you the truth, Ido not know yet what train-ing is like but I will tell you itwill be extremely hard andpainful,” said Hall. “No onesaid it was going to be easy to

go to the Olympics so I amnot expecting it to be a walkin the park.”

Not only is Hall psychedabout going to the olympics,but he is more grateful thatmaybe someday he can helpkids like himself get out ofpoverty and get a secondchance in life.

“I will make a differencein this word,” Hall said withconfidence. “I am very ex-cited, nervous, and ready.”

That’s how Hall describeshis feelings about startingtraining.

Kriston HallCritic Staff

As winter approachesskiers and snowboarders alikebegin thinking about theirgear.

From head to toe that’s alot of stuff to consider. Hel-mets, hats, goggles, scarves,bandanas, the newest head-phones, jackets, sweatshirts,gloves, base layers, snowpants, socks, boots, bindingsand a board or a pair of skis.

There always seems to besomething you need to re-place and five things youwant just because you canhave them. It can be becausesomething wore out, or it sim-ply doesn’t fit your style any-more. Like the runwaymodels of Paris or Tokyo,there’s a new style almostevery year. Lets face it, lastyear’s stuff may be cool, butthis year’s stuff is hot.

Also like the world ofhigh fashion, this stuff can getreally expensive. It’s not un-heard of to spend upwards ofa thousand dollars for a set ofgear. So when you looking forthe things you want, price isoften more of a factor than thestyling. We’d all like to getthe newest and best equip-ment but we’re all college stu-dents to.

But there is hope for allyou penny-pinching winterenthusiasts out there, the in-ternet! Sure, there are sales onevery ski and snowboardshop website, but you’re stillgoing to be paying near retail,maybe 40-50% off if yourlucky. What you need to lookfor is a wholesale site.

These companies offerone product in all its varioussizes and colors at a time,that’s it. They sell it till they’reall gone, whether it takes tenminutes or two hours. Theupside of this very selectivestore front is they can selltheir merchandise at astro-nomical prices. Skis that retailfor $600 can be bought andshipped for as little as $150.

The percentages off onthese sites can range from 50-80% and all you need to do tosave all that extra money is bediligent. Given the one itemat a time nature of these sitesit can take a few days or evenweeks to see something youwant and or need.

The time spent waitingand searching reminds me ofhunting. It’s boring and some-times aggravating, but onceyou get what you’re lookingfor in your sights it’s amaz-ing. With the click of a mouseyou can bag all your gear fora fraction of the retail coast.

Michael HowardNews Correspondent

The Lyndon Statewomen’s basketball team islooking to improve from lastyear and it starts with newplayers.

In his fifth year of coach-ing, Vinnie Maloney ispleased with what he sees atpractice.

“There’s a great attitudewith the team, everyonecomes to practice on time andworks hard,” said Maloney.

With new post players in-cluding freshmen SarahAdams, Morgan Diltz andAmanda Martin they can helpthis team improve and takeon tough opponents.

“We have a great group ofnew players with so many ofthem being post players,”said Maloney.

Naomi White will moveto the guard spot where she’smost comfortable setting upthe offense.

“Last year our offensewas good but our defense andintensity need work,” he said.

With returning conferencerookie of the year DonnaLawson, the Hornets willhave a great presence on de-fense.

With a tough out of con-ference schedule includingtheir first tournament on Nov.19 at Endicott College, coachMaloney will be more aggres-sive by having the team press

more and put pressure ontheir opponents. Their confer-ence play will be as tough aslast year, as most of the teamsare keeping their key players.Coach Maloney is excited tosee what his team can do.

“I have a great group ofplayers, they’re excited aboutbasketball and want to getbetter and will do the hardwork to get there,” he said.

New this year at theirhome games there will befundraisers that include halfcourt shots and giveaways.

The lady Hornetss firsthome game will be Dec. 3,against out-of-conference BayPath College.

New season for women’s hoop

Kenedi Hall sets sights on olympics

Where to get the goodsOlympic hopeful freshman Kenedi Hall runs toward the finish line atthe NAC championship race. Courtesy of Christopher Ummer

SPORTSApril 20, 2012 The Critic, Page 8

Eric BlaisdellEditor

Finding a place to sit has be-come a challenge at the baseballand softball fields for both theplayers and fans.

There are no bleachers at ei-ther field for spectators to use,which has caused some fans towatch the games on CollegeRoad. The baseball team playedits last home games on Thursdaywhere they were eliminatedfrom playoff contention againstthe University of Maine – Farm-ington, so the team never hadbleachers for their home games.

“It sucks,” said sophomoreenvironmental sustainability

major Ben Collins, who waswatching out for traffic whilewatching the baseball game. “It’sno fun. I'm pretty scared, youknow. I might get smoked by acar. It would be unfortunate ifthat happened to somebody.”

Fellow environmental sci-ence student Mark Emerson,who was also at the game,agrees.

“This is not a safe environ-ment,” he said.

There should be bleacherson the fields for fans, but theywere not brought over from theAthletic Field by maintenance,said Sports Information Direc-tor Bill Johnson.

“Why that didn’t get donethis year I don’t know,” he said.

Johnson says that thereshould be permanent seating forfans.

“So we don’t have to keepmoving things,” he said. “Eachvenue should have its own seat-ing, something that doesn’t needto be moved, something largerthan what we have.”

The lack of seating not onlyhurts current students Johnsonsaid, but bringing in prospectivestudents as well.

“Right now everythingabout athletics is bells and whis-tles,” he said. “The more attrac-tive your venues are the more

students you probably run thechance of getting. Athleticsplays a huge role in recruitment,retention, building a community.Let’s face it, probably outside ofyour main building what facili-ties get used and viewed more bythe public? That is your athleticfacilities.”

Not having bleachers forfans is more than just a safetyrisk. It can keep fans fromwatching the games.

“If I don’t have a place to sitor I didn’t bring anything withme I’m probably not going tostand there for three hours,”Johnson said. “If I’m coming towatch a game and enjoy a game I

want to be as comfortable aspossible.”

The baseball players arehaving their own seating issues.Players sit on folding chairs nextto the dugout instead of insideit. They use the chairs as amakeshift bullpen, but otherplayers sit outside as well.

“We do have a pretty bigteam so sometimes it is hard tofit everybody in (the dugout),”said senior pitcher and out-fielder Shane O’Donnell-Leachabout the 26-man roster. “Thissize team could definitely use abigger dugout.”

Spectate at Your Own Risk

Photos by Eric BlaisdellFans watch an LSC baseball game from the road as a car drives by. Inset: Ben Collins (L) and Mark Emerson (R) watching out for cars while watching an LSC basball game.

Kyle MechamCritic Staff

“If I don't practice for one day, Iknow it; if I don't practice for two days,the critics know it; if I don't practicefor three days, the audience knows it.”–Ignace Paderewski, famous Polish pi-anist, composer, and the second PrimeMinister of the Republic of Poland.

With their heart rates almost up togame speed, the Lyndon State Collegemen and women’s soccer teams weresharing practice toward the commongoal of successful upcoming seasons inthe North Atlantic Conference.

As the players’ touches becamemore refined, and new and old team-mates were linking together, the beautyin the sport and within human under-standing shown through the setting sunwith pastel strokes across the sky.

Suddenly, the game pace lagged,the air changed, and from across thefield, as flow and understanding crum-

bled to dust, a woman in Lyndon StateCollege Athletics uniform strutted outof the school and toward the LyndonSoccer Field.

A robust Alex Evans, who alsoserves as Lyndon’s strength and condi-tioning coach, was playing her role asAssistant Athletic Director, whichtoday meant kicking Lyndon’s soccerteams off the soccer field.

“We understand that the lacrosseteam has field priority during our off-season, but their team is at an awaygame right now,” said men’s senior cap-tain Phil Curll, “and the intramural fieldwe are supposed to practice on is un-playable.”

"A few teammates and I were play-ing on (the intramural field) the otherday,” said Michelle Wilcox, from thewomen’s team, “but we were limited towhere we could play, because of howsoft and uneven the surface of the fieldwas."

"In my opinion, the surface of therugby field is pretty rough and unsafefor soccer and running purposes."

“We are doing this for your owngood,” said Evans, Lyndon’s condition-ing coach. “The game field will be inbetter condition for your season.”

“When we can sign up to help fixthe intramural field, we are all willing,but until then, I think we should be al-lowed a place to practice,” said DustinAmeden, LSC senior.

“This field can’t take that muchabuse,” Ummer said after parking hisfour-wheeler on it. “I only get this trou-ble around this season with the soccerplayers… They are disrespectful andrude, and there’s no place for that.That’s what you should write your storyabout.”

When asked if sense could be madeof the regulations by enhancing the reg-ulations, such as the limiting of off-sea-son practices logically, taking into

consideration that the spring seasonsupports less than half as many athleteson the field as the fall over a shorter pe-riod of time, Ummer said the best betwould be to find a place off campus.

“Plans are being made to fix the in-tramural field,” Ummer said. “The planis to have it ready to play on by Sep-tember.”

“This field just can’t take theabuse,” he said again. “In the fall, if thelacrosse guys try to play out here, wetell them they can’t.”

When asked about the cementedin soccer goals at each end of the pitchregarding how they are not of regula-tion size, Ummer replied, “We are plan-ning on replacing them soon. It’s goingto take some serious excavating.”

And just like that, Lyndon’s soccerfield suffered another lonely sunset;once an easel for the prosperity ofhuman expression, now just a shadowedmemory of what could have been.

Sunny Speaks:We’re Talking About Practice