Matt Cohen – Page 2 – The Transcript

Jack of all trades

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Wes Welker kicked a field goal against the New England Patriots in 2004. An NFL wide receiver has not kicked a field goal since.

The Ohio Wesleyan football team has a wide receiver of their own who, unlike Welker, has been kicking field goals all season long.

Junior wide receiver Tim Shadoan has gone six for eight this year kicking field goals, including two from more than 40 yards and a game winner.

“I enjoy kicking for the team because it’s another challenge,” Shadoan said. “It’s something that I know my teammates trust me doing.”

His biggest kick of the year came in their conference matchup against Kenyon College a week ago. He converted on a 43yard kick in second overtime to give the Bishops the win.

“I didn’t think about much during the kick against Kenyon, I didn’t want the pressure to get to me so all I thought about was doing my job and that’s what I did,” Shadoan said.

Shadoan kicked his junior year of high school, but this is the first time he has for OWU. Mile Mackenzie, OWU’s allconference kicker graduated in 2015. Head Coach Tom Watts spent the off-season looking for his replacement.

“We went through the off-season looking to see who his replacement would be,” Watts said.

“Shadoan started to kick for us when we took our team to Italy, so we were able to see what he was able to do.”

“Shadoan won the job being the most consistent,” Watts continued. “He is an extremely talented athlete and a huge competitor.”

In addition to kicking, Shadoan is leading the team with 25 catches for 206 yards. He has also tallied two touchdowns, one receiving score and one off a kick return. OWU has a current record of 24 and will play against Depauw University at Selby Stadium on Oct. 24.

Fall season brings change in staffing

During the fall season, the color of the leaves changes, the temperature changes and the flavor of your latte changes. This year, the staff at Ohio Wesleyan changed as well.

The head of Buildings and Grounds (B&G), Dennis Wall, recently quit his position.

“Dennis has been a key member of our team who can be counted on to effectively lead our skilled trades teams, manage facilities improvement projects and special events and professionally represent the buildings and grounds department in his interactions on campus,” said Peter Schantz, director of the physical plant.

Wall accepted a job with American Electric Power. The timing of the departure was due to the immediate opening of the new position.

“We have begun the search process for his replacement,” Schantz said. “Department staff will absorb his duties until the position is filled.”

Wall has worked for OWU for 20 years, has lived in Delaware for 34 years and has watched all four of his kids graduate from OWU.

“I will miss everything about OWU,” Wall said. “All of the great assets that attract students also appeal greatly to faculty and staff, and I’m no exception. Wonderful facilities, great faculty, great support staff in every department, progressive leadership, involved alumni base and Delaware is the best small town community anyone could ever hope to raise a family in.”

Wall is accepting the new position for one last challenge.

“I’m leaving OWU for one last career challenge before I retire.”

Not only will Wall miss OWU, but the Delaware community and OWU staff will miss him as well. B&G project manager Chris Chidester summed it up.

“He is a man of great character, who is very helpful and extremely knowledgeable in his field,” Chidester said. “It has been a pleasure to work with him and get to know him. He will be sorely missed in buildings and grounds and all around campus.”

OWU a great place to do business

The sign over the Jay Walk says it all. “#1 in Ohio, #17 in America!”

Shortly after being ranked No. 17 in the nation among “America’s Most Entrepreneurial Colleges 2015” by Forbes magazine, Ohio Wesleyan University announced that the department of economics will add a business administration major in fall 2016.

OWU has offered business related courses since 1921, but a business-specific major has never existed. Barbara A. MacLeod, chair of the economics department and professor of management, believes this change will make a difference.

“Prospective students don’t understand the management economics major has some business,” she said. “This business administration major is more clear, not just in the name, but in content it’s a full business major.”

According to admissions data, many prospective students show interest in having the word “business” in their major’s name.

OWU’s business administration major will encompass coursework in management theory, human resources management and behavior, marketing and strategic decision-making.

Along with the business coursework, the new major will work with other departments within OWU to establish related speakers, projects and ideas that can span across many academic fields.

“Our students will not only be taking the other distribution courses, but we hope to be doing a lot of cooperating with other departments on speakers, ideas and projects,” MacLeod said. “The key aspects of a liberal arts are ideas like critical thinking, analysis, the ability to think effectively and write effectively and those are all under the program that we have proposed.”

MacLeod sees more schools like OWU heading in the same direction in their near future.

“Since it has been approved, I have heard from other schools in our area, in the North Coast Athletic Conference and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference that they are also looking into how to expand into business,” she said. “I think in 1015 years we’re going to see a very different landscape of all the liberal arts colleges in Ohio.”

Nick Norman, a junior on the economics board, agrees with MacLeod.

“I think it will help with marketing for the school and especially help increase enrollment in the next few years,” Norman said. “I think a lot of students choose to go to schools with a business school or major.”

Freshman Anna Day was in that position not long ago.

“It was a little unclear coming in as a prospective student if there was exactly a business major,” Day said. “I know a lot of my friends are interested about business and are happy that they can focus on what they want to do.”

Gordin Classic golf tournament turns 25

It’s a cause for celebration. Named after Ohio Wesleyan’s long-time golf coach Dick Gordin, the Gordin Classic golf tournament has been a fixture of OWU athletics for a quarter century.

Gordin was coach of the men’s golf team from 1955 to 1993. In his last 25 years as coach, he led teams to the NCAA postseason tournament 22 times, including six top5 finishes. He won seven Ohio Athletic Conference titles and five North Coast Athletic Conference crowns. To top it all off, he was named NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1993.

The current coach Ian Miller still learns from Coach Gordin everyday.

“I have learned many things and still learn from him every time we speak,” Miller said. “But one things has always remained constant and will never be sacrificed in our program, we will always do things the right way, act and play like gentleman and strive to win championships.”

The players of the team are glad to have the Coach of the Year around as well, according to senior Ben Thieman.

“Although he is not as actively involved in local sports as he used to be, [Gordin] still remains active around the golf team, which is cool for the players,” Thieman said.

The Gordin Classic invites only the top teams from last year’s season to compete. This year the tournament featured eight of the top11 teams from last year’s NCAA Division III Championships.

Miller gives all the credit for the tournament’s prestige to Coach Gordin.

“It has been prestigious from the beginning because of Dr. Gordin and what he meant to the growth of Division III golf,” Miller said.

Berry College out of Georgia won the tournament by eight strokes over Pennsylvania’s Methodist University this year. Ohio Wesleyan came in 12th place in the tournament.

“Our goal was to see how the hard work that we put in prior to this event would match up against the other teams,” Thieman said. “Although we did not compete on the same level as most of the other teams, myself and the rest of my teammates gave it our all.”

Miller also commented on the results of the tournament.

“We fought hard after getting off to a bad start on day one and we improved each round,” Miller said. “That shows the team is starting to and gain valuable belief in themselves and their abilities.”

A change of schedule provides real life experience

For a number of health and human kinetics (HHK) students, Welch Gym is no longer a fitness center. It’s a classroom.

A new twist in this year’s schedule was the latest attempt to encourage students to be aware of fitness as HHK majors gather real-life experience.

The FitOWU program has been pairing students up with faculty and staff for fitness assessments for 11 years now, but student-to-student interaction is new. All HHK majors who are a part of the Welch Gym program had to complete the FitOWU program first. Nancy Knop, a HHK professor, knew the program would eventually head in this direction.

“We have always wanted to reach out to the students more and have been experimenting with ways to create and deliver programming for students,” she said. “The students are now engaged in either a less mentored apprenticeship or a work study position helping to manage, maintain, deliver programming, provide fitness education, and perform fitness assessments of students.”

Figuring out how to get students to attend the classes has been one challenge with the new program. Dance and spinning classes will be the main use of the new open space in Welch.

However, the biggest challenge Knop has noticed is that by the time students have completed the course needed to start training, their time to graduate is quickly approaching.

“By the time they are ready to program well and deliver, they are nearing the end of their OWU career, so we are constantly losing trainers and recruiting new people to step in,” Knop said.

In addition to the new fitness classes during the week, which are Monday to Thursday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., there are weekend classes on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.

“The student trainer positions are intended to support the HHK major by providing our students with an applied experience that is also proving a needed service to the university,” Knop said.

Senior Ricardo Balmaceda, who has attended a handful of classes, likes the student-to-student interaction.

“It’s cool because the instructors are students as well,” he said. “They get everything you’re going through and dealing with as a student. They can really relate to you.”

OWU’s marketing: a banquet of changes

Advertisement for OWU using its new metaphor of hunger. The student featured in the ad is Aletta Doran '17. Photo courtesy of the OWU website. — Advertisement for OWU using its new metaphor of hunger. The student featured in the ad is Aletta Doran ’17. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Are you hungry for excellence? Ravenous to learn? Have an insatiable appetite?

Ohio Wesleyan’s marketing team has chosen the theme of hunger to create a new, bold look for promotional materials, the website and campus itself.

“Everyone knows what being hungry feels like, but we’re trying to take that beyond the belly to hunger in your heart and hunger in your mind,” Will Kopp, the chief communications officer of OWU said. “It’s that passion and fire that a coach wants their players to have, that an employer wants their new hire to have. That’s hunger and that’s what we saw here with the students.”

OWU decided to make these changes in an effort to increase enrollment, a statistic that has been on the decline for the past few years.

The communications team, led by Kopp, met with focus groups, students and faculty to figure out how to present the school in a different way and to make everyone proud to be a Bishop.

“Students talked about everything they’re involved in. You come to Ohio Wesleyan and you want to do this, you want to do that,” Kopp said. “They want to do everything.”

The involvement of students in clubs, athletics and academics across campus led Kopp to the metaphor. The team even talked to prospective students who chose not to come to OWU to figure out the reasons.

“There wasn’t an emotional connection and they didn’t get a feel of what OWU was about,” Kopp said. “We weren’t the top choice for a lot of the students that came here.”

Kopp is not a fan of slogans, which is why “Opposite of Ordinary” is no longer OWU’s official tagline. Instead of having one line describe OWU, they created multiple phrases to capture student spirit. There are 33 new banners across campus, all with different sayings that line up with the theme. Kopp was careful to not overdo it. Only three of those banners use the word “hungry.”

“That’s enough to get across the metaphor,” he said.

Along with a new marketing look, OWU is changing social media, the website and mailings they send out to high school students.

Jessica Vogel, the head of social media, uses the different platforms to engage students and tell Ohio Wesleyan’s story.

“My main goal is to tell the story of the university, of the students, of the alumni in the most engaging way possible,” Vogel said.

One feature of the new website will be an Instagram feed that runs along the bottom. Students will be able to populate the feed with their own photos by using hashtags.

“The students here are so talented,” she said. “We’re really hoping they will populate that with their images.”

Students are hoping their peers will use the hashtags as well.

“It’s a good idea because Instagram is so popular right now,” senior Gunnar Bloecher said. “I just hope people actually used it.”

When starting this project, Kopp’s main objective was to be different and bold.

“No other school says anything about being ravenous.”

Delaware, OH: home of the fair

Delaware, Ohio. The Dirty D. Delaweird. The 740. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s still small town Ohio. And what seems to go hand in hand with smalltown Ohio? The county fair.

Yes, the Delaware County Fair begins this weekend with tractor pulls, hot dog eating contests, harness racing and country music.

After attending the gettogether for the first time last year, I realized there’s another side of our college town that many don’t know.

There’s a lot of history, matched with traditions and a rich community life. Everyone knows everyone. And everyone likes it, too.

Recipes have been passed down over generations just so the winner of the pie contest stays in the family.

Parents reminisce riding the ferris wheel as they watch their children go up the same ride they did (run by the same guy).

Grandparents host cookouts for 30 family members after a long day of betting, racing, gaming, riding, tasting, judging, petting, showing and much more.

The week is a celebration of the fall season and most importantly of Delaware.

The fair started in 1834 when the Delaware County Agricultural Society met for the first time.

Members had to pay 50 cents annually to be a part of the group. That’s .14 cents a day.

In 1834, Andrew Jackson was president and the Whig Party was officially named by Henry Clay.

It’s been around for a while; you get the point.

Don’t take my word for it, see it firsthand. Go hold a goat, milk a cow, taste an award-winning pie, ride the ferris wheel, bet on a longshot and most importantly, engulf yourself in the Delaware community.

Fraternity houses neglected over the summer

If your room is infested with bees and covered in a layer of dust upon your return to campus, it can make move-in difficult.

That’s exactly what happened at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house. Bill Milanick, a senior, reported that the house’s common areas, stairwells and bathrooms were grimy and caked with dust.

One of the rooms had a bee problem that “was so bad (the bees) were in my clothes and all over my room,” Milanick said. “Buildings and Grounds (B&G) attempted to take care of the problem once but did not get rid of it, and I was forced to move into a new room.”

The fraternity has tried to get B&G to return, but the problem still remains.

In Phi Delta Theta’s house, there were no initial problems with cleanliness. Jamie Litzler, a junior and the fraternity president, said the common areas were clean upon his arrival.

But it seemed if one area of the house was clean, other rooms would be ignored by the Aramark staff. Because of this, many individual rooms seemed to be untouched.

“Those rooms were not cleaned,” Litzler said. “They were definitely not as clean as a freshman dorm room would have been on the first day.”

The school informed the fraternity that they had invested $118,000 into the house to provide a new ceiling, new tile and new cement stairs.

Yet similar reports from other houses began to emerge. Even if common areas had been cleaned, individual rooms were not.

Efforts to reach B&G for comment on this issue were unsuccessful.

The new face of OWU field hockey

Head Coach Brenda Semit. Photo courtesy of the Battling Bishop website.

A good offense is the best defense. There’s a reason we hear it so much.

Field hockey head coach Brenda Semit has preached defense since her first day at Ohio Wesleyan in August.

“I always tell them ‘the first line of defense is the offense,’” Semit said. “Some of the players didn’t know much about defense or defensive positioning. Now everyone on the team knows how to play defense.”

Coach Semit, a former assistant coach at Kenyon College and former two-time All-American at the State University of New York College at Cortland, has led the Battling Bishops to a 21 record to start their season.

Her career as a player and the relationships she made along the way led her to pursue a position as head coach.

“As a player, I had some really great coaches,” she said. “They made it fun, but challenging. The culture within a team that is having fun and wanting to win is one of the best feelings.”

She served three years as an assistant coach at Kenyon. During that time the team went 4020 overall and captured one North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) crown.

Her players, including defender Lee LeBoeuf, a junior, are excited about her successful career.

“It’s really cool that she’s been so successful as a player and a coach,” LeBoeuf said. “We’re all excited about the winning culture that she’s bringing with her.”

OWU field hockey players beat Bethany on Friday. Photo courtesy of the Battling Bishops website.

Her successful background is no fluke, according to her players. They say she looks at the game a different way than most other coaches.

“She knows her stuff,” sophomore defender Paige Haenig said. “She’s a really good coach, both with strategy and technical aspects of the game.”

Two of Semit’s goals for her first season as head coach are to have a winning season and to make the NCAC tournament. She believes her team can do it.

“(The team) needs to understand that we are a good team and can do great things this year if we have confidence in ourselves and our teammates and play together,” Semit said.

New Year’s Eve in August

The first day of school is like January 1st.

Although the amount of alcohol consumed during syllabus week and the night before the new

year is eerily similar, that’s not the reason for the correlation. There’s more to it.

Go back to last New Year’s Eve. You put on your best shirt, wore your nicest dress, planned to

hit nine bars and three house parties all before midnight. The excitement mixed with over the top expectations is much the same going into the first day of school.

It’s great to see missed faces, give hugs, catch up and brag about everything you’ve done over the summer. Don’t forget to mention the summer fling that gives Danny and Sandy a run for their money.

Semester goals hide on the inside of your planner as a monster would under the bed, ready to pounce with their big, meaty claws as you hightail it to the bars. Be realistic, going to the library three hours each night will not happen. Just as going to the gym twice a day didn’t quite work out.

New Year’s Day and hangovers pass. Reality sets in and suddenly it’s the second day of school.

NYE ended up like any other night out would, and the first day of school was more or less a regular day of school. Homework is assigned, tests are scheduled and books are begging to be opened. Do not get caught up in what New Year’s Eve entails. The semester is long and college is even longer.

Enjoy the highs of New Year’s Eve and the lows of 2 a.m. library sessions. Enjoy the highs of best friends and the lows of breakups. Enjoy the highs of living away from home and the lows of living away from home. Every day cannot be New Year’s Eve.

When you reach and accept the perfect balance of highs and lows, then, and only then, will college give you the twelve o’clock kiss you’ve been looking for all night.