79.6 F
Coral Gables
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28 , 2024
Home Blog Page 1764

FACING CRITICISM: Scott Sadowski, SG President, assures term is running smooth

0

The Miami Hurricane was recently made aware of some criticisms regarding SG president Scott Sadowski. Sadowski agreed to meet last week with a Hurricane reporter to respond to some of these concerns, maintaining that he feels his term is running smoothly at this point in the semester.
“So far, I’d say [my term] has been real successful with the projects we were able to accomplish early in my term, as well as what we were able to get done this summer and secure for next spring.” Sadowski said. “Everything that’s come up this fall we’ve dealt with pretty appropriately.
“I basically look at as if I were the CEO of a company.”
Sadowski added that his relationship with the SG executive board and their role within SG mirrors that philosophy.
“We talk about what the top-level issues are and then where we want to direct those day-to-day operations,” Sadowski said.
However, Sadowski is not without his flaws.
In the Feb. 21 edition of the Hurricane Rodrigo Gasteazoro, a UM graduate student, was quoted as saying that he liked Sadowski’s ideas, but that a lot of them were already in progress.
“It’s difficult to say that I own ideas,” Sadowksi said.
Sadowski added that most students on campus have similar solutions to common problems on campus, and that overlap of ideas is inevitable.
Sadowski has also been criticized by student leaders and students for spending the majority of his summer at home in Wisconsin.
According to Mike Johnston, SG president last year, the summer is the best time to initiate administrative support and reduce inconvenience to students.
“When I was in the presidency my projects would be finished over the summer when people weren’t here and the volume was a lot lower,” Johnston said.
Sadowski, however, said that during the summer, he attended four different meetings and spent at least 10-15 hours per week on SG business and project- implementation from his home in Wisconsin.
“If you’re making a phone call, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Miami or Wisconsin,” Sadowski said.
However, perhaps the biggest concern regarding Sadowski’s presidency is his alleged inability to follow through on projects.
Sadowski said he was made aware of this last year and now realizes the importance of carrying out a project from beginning to end.
“It’s almost like therapy when you are able to admit one of your faults,” Sadowski said. “It really brings it to light and you’re able to address it.”
“It’s great to have a lot of ideas and get these meetings set up, but if you’re not going to take the initiative – without that follow up – you’re not going to get as many things done,” Sadowski said.
He also added that some of the perceptions that people may have had of him before his presidency could have been due to misunderstandings regarding his then-authority within SG.
“As I was chief of staff [of SG] last year, I was more or less helping work on projects, never initializing and never finishing them,” Sadowski said. “I was expected to do the research and bring the information back.”
Currently, Sadowski is working on extending Ibis Ride service to include Thursday nights to the Grove.
For more information regarding SG, or to contact Sadowski, visit the SG website at www.miami.edu/sg or call the SG office at X8-3082.

Scott Wacholtz can be contacted at s.wacholtz@umiami.edu

Join Our Staff: L&A Recruit Meeting this Friday

The Miami Hurricane’s Life & Art editors will be meeting with student feature/magazine journalists and photographers who aspire to work for the section this Friday, September 19. It will be held at the Rathskeller on campus at 5 p.m. in the 1st floor conference room.

To ensure proper and thorough consideration, please bring a portfolio with any past clips (high school paper, Rolling Stone, etc.) if you’d like to write, or one with photographs if you’d like to…take photos.

Also, bring a [typed] contact sheet with your full name, addy, cell and home #s, year at UM, and 3 favorite bands and films. Be very informed with the style and content of Life & Art beforehand – this is a must.

Do not attend if you are not serious – do not waste our time. We look forward to meeting and greeting and drinking. Feel free to contact the editors with questions/inquiries in advance.

Cheers –

Hunter Stephenson
Life & Art Editor
Huntlaed@hotmail.com

Omar Sommereyns
Life & Art Associate Editor
SOASIS@aol.com

FREEBIE: Rockstar Games + Life & Art give you free “GTA Vice City” prody!

Finally. Finally. Finally, Life & Art gets to write something about the bloody savants working at Rockstar Games. They have recreated our tropical city in their divine image, and for that we are grateful. Truly grateful. And like any awesome religious diety, they have come to us bearing little golden trinkets. And we are humble. Truly humble. And thus, we give the leftovers to you.

We have one 7-disc O.S.T. boxset (seven CDs of musical angelic dust and frankinscense-scented debauchery). We have 1 GTA Vice City T-shirt. There will be 2-winners. They will answer this question.

In deejay Tiga’s fabulous, albeit dated, video to his remake of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night,” who…umm what, starred in it?

Send all answers to Hunter, at Huntlaed@hotmail.com.

If you like the coke-out ’80s music in “Vice City,” listen to L&A writer James Hush’s show “Radio Silence” on WVUM 90.5 FM, Thursdays from 8-10 p.m. Once you try it, you can’t stop.

L&A QUALITY SMACK: “Batman V” on a roll. Hurricane Productions bringing the Rapture to campus? Fannypack smuggle Miami Bass into…Miami!

—————PATRICK BATEMAN IS THE NEW BATMAN———————

In the best bit of casting news since Christian Bale landed Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho,” Christopher Nolan has chosen Christian Bale to be the new Batman. Rumors are abound that the film is, at least partially, set in the dreary confines of London, while an un-cast Scarecrow will cameo as the secondary villain. Since this is not the homoerotic dance party that was 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” there will be no nipples on Batman’s gear. Sorry dudes.

——THE RAPTURE OR DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL? U DECIDE———

No word on whether Hurricane Productions is going to bring the Rapture, who, come late October, will quite possibly – scratch those last two words – be the only band you listen to, to our campus. Download “Killing” or “Echoes” or “Olio” or “Love Is All,” and then em pr@um-hp.com telling them that you’d rather see girls experimenting to the Rapture than skinny guys sniffling to Dashboard Confessional. Put your 2-cents in.

—–TOMMY CHONG GOING TO JAIL FOR…TAKE A GUESS——————

65-year old cult comedian Tommy Chong won’t be getting blazed for at least nine months now: the half-duo of such stoner classics as “Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams” got federal jail time and $20,000 in fines for selling bongs and herb-friendly paraphernalia online to undercover D.E.A. agents. When asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about his thoughts on the feds breaking down on stoners, he jeeringly replied: “I feel pretty bad, but it seems to be the only weapons of mass destruction they’ve found this year.” – Omar Sommereyns

———-THE RIAA SUES POOR HONORS STUDENT, A NEW LOW———–

In more music news, the people at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) visibly have no heart: currently in the process of suing 261 copyright infringers (for downloading music for free), they targeted 12-year-old Brianna LaHara, an honors student living in a fucking housing project in NYC. She was allegedly downloading TV theme songs and nursery-rhyme hits like, “If You’re Happy And You Know It.” Her mother, Sylvia Torres had to settle in the suit for $2,000 and an admission of wrongdoing-of course, since little Brianna is so, so “evil”… – Omar too

——“AEON FLUX” MOVIE SCRATCHED. JAPANESE KIDS GO BERZERK—

The R-rated live action film version of “Liquid Television” highlight “Aeon Flux” recently had its plug pulled. Not that a cinematic wet dream of such awesomeness would have happened in Hollywood anyway, but it’s worth noting. Just imagining the possibilities is probably making the minds of depressed Japanese high schoolers fold perfectly into concise origami shapes until there’s nothing left but time and space and fashion.

—JOHNNY DEPP’S EYES ARE BLEEDING FOR A REASON——————-

If you didn’t have a chance to waste $6 over the weekend, skip “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.” It’s been, what, eight years since “Desperado,” and all Robert Rodriguez could muster was to put Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas and Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke in front of a shoddy Sony digital camera as dust clouds make the plot even more nonsensical? What a piece of garbage. I’d rather rent “The Karate Dog” with Simon Rex while blasting top-40 Latin music. And back to the casting – why go to all that trouble only to erase such uber-effort by inviting Enrique Iglesias (!) to be an el mariachi? And that are-you-fucking-kidding-me (?) radio-controlled guitar-case bomb? That was lifted from “Death Wish V” – which I can’t believe I’ve seen, but Bronson sure as hell ended his only memorable franchise with more class while walking through such celluloid remnants of once-greatness. Even the locals in the audience were pissed and Salma Hayek’s in it. I’m over it.

——FANNYPACK GO LOOKING FOR CAMEL TOES IN MIAMI————–

My head almost fell off when I walked into the Hurricane’s newly painted Starbucks-meets-beauty salon-in-a-good-way-really-and-we’re-straight office and saw this flyer on the Life & Art desk. Fannypack are specialists in deluxe Miami bass by-way-of-NYC giddiness. They are coming to Soho Lounge on Saturday, September 27. And North Beach’s YoYo boutique is doing a fashion show before it. My head just fell on my keyboard.

——-REST IN PEACE JOHN RITTER AND JOHNNY CASH——————–

Rest in Peace: John Ritter and Johnny Cash.

EYE FILLER: An evening at OPIUM with ex-porn star/VJ Simon Rex

Ex-porn star and newcomer to the bigger screen, Simon Rex, played host to a convivial bash last Saturday evening at the exotic celebrity hotbed, Opium, to celebrate the release of his upcoming breakout film, Scary Movie 3.

Another sequel to the original, okay Scream-spoof, Rex plays a character named George next to a surprisingly virile cast, including Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards, Queen Latifah, and the godfather of slapstick, 79 year-old Leslie Nielsen.

“He’s my idol,” Rex said in genuine admiration as we chatted over “Rapper’s Delight” and “Gin and Juice” about how fun the movie was to make. Most of us recognize Rex from his days as a model for Boss and Levi’s and for his mid-’90s veejay stint at MTV. Now 29, he was notoriously fired from a gig at Disney due to his leafless past, and recently appeared in a Chevy Chase film called, The Karate Dog, as a detective who befriends a talking canine that studies martial arts…moving along. Currently back at the channel’s studios, he’s starring in a new boobtube show based closer to reality entitled “Channel Surfing” alongside friend Jordan Reuben.

Born in San Francisco, Rex has spent his lucrative and lavish 20s modeling, partying, and catching flights from NYC, Milan, and Los Angeles, where he’s presently dwelling. But he loves visiting Miami so much that he can’t wait to get a place here – surprisingly, one not in South Beach, but in the Grove. And yes, he’s single – which will make future Thursdays at Moe’s just a little more enticing for the ladies of UM, no?

– Rachel Cusick

Eye Filler: UM’s best band, Empirical Mile, at Tobacco Road

UM’s best band, Empirical Mile, got wild for two sets at Tobacco Road on Saturday night to a cheering, drunken crowd (groupies and locals alike), showcasing new songs that weren’t included on last semester’s EP. The band is presently working on a full-length and will participate in Churchill’s Battle of the Bands in early November.

Ooooh, la, la: M-80 does a “Striptease” with lots of heavy petting

Bombs exploded Friday and this time Bush had nothing to do with it.

Miami’s M-80 fashion boutique teamed up with the limelit scenesters of Revolver fame on Friday and into early Saturday by bringing them a fashion show like no other. Co-owners Anna Diaz-Balart and Maria Barracco, looked equally stunning as they mingled within the night’s throng of sexy models. The unique concept behind M-80 – which offers carefully selected vintage and independent labels – bring a collection to the fashion muses of Miami unlike any other. Not to mention the energetic cred and classy sociality they’ve brought via art shows, fashion nights and concerts to the surrounding Design District scene.

Before a performance by musical guests Mount Sims, hundreds of people were meshed together on the second floor of Soho Lounge, awaiting the unexpected from Diaz-Balart and Barracco. What followed was a chic exploration, delving into female sexuality, surpassing the risquE of Madonna’s prime without all the trash. Dubbed as a “Striptease,” models did it all on stage, playfully fondling one another while striking poses.

Every element of a fashion show, from the dressing to the undressing, went down on stage instead of behind, arousing the audience. Indeed, between the models getting dressed to then undressing, nothing was left to the imagination. For starters, three models appeared minimally dressed, with sheer panties and breasts exposed sans a squared piece of tape shielding their nipples. After girls’ lips intimately met they pretended to ask for redemption – a decidely outrageous dash of religion that was not quite as well-planned as it looked.

“These models were all performance artists for galleries all over the city. They are amazing people with great stage presence and weren’t picked just because they had great bodies. The concept behind the show was to take what’s normally backstage to the front- stage. You’ve never seen dressers backstage dressing models. It was the best way to show the maximum number of outfits with the least number of models, and with the least amount of time. It was just an interesting element. It was a striptease fashion show and we are the only ones doing it. Its not a theme – just an M-80 style,” says Diaz-Balart.

“The show was a good representation of the store – it was very editorial. It was the image we carry in the store. We just practiced the fitting and had no rehearsals. As time went on, it just improved. The models just went nuts – the show was entirely them.”

Of course, music also played an aphrodisiacal role – this is Revolver. With sinful electroclash cuts by Avenue D – “Do I Look Like a Slut?,” the Faint, and Electric 6’s “Danger (High Voltage),” booming over the crowd, it was only a matter of time before some heavy petting.

While M-80’s style knows its history, the preferences on display repped a new path. Borrowing from the edginess of the late ’70s and excess of the early ’80s, this isn’t just vintage, as the showcase embraced a bigger and better way of life twisted with hip modernity. Vintage denim skirts were paired with vibrant silk scarves used as tops. Clothes by independent label Liberty Phoenix were deconstructed with raw edges to form beautiful printed cotton skirts and dresses. M-80 closed with girls wearing T-shirts by Rock-It adorned with sequined appliqu

Blowin’ up like tha Challenger! L&A’s Sven Barth explores Rocket Projects

Miami’s Design District is getting pretty damn big. Galleries are popping up everywhere, which means more and more chances for people like you and me to get drunk for free (yeah, you know that’s why you go to openings if you ever do). If you have yet to discover the breadth of free liquor in your surroundings, I urge you to take another look, it’s everywhere!

No but seriously, in addition to getting sauced, you can really discover a bunch of new art downtown. Several galleries have expanded beyond (and below) 36th street to the blocks with restaurants specializing in lechon asado rather than to those with ultra-mod joints charging 20 bucks for miniature wasabi cakes nestled in a bed of arugula (see Grass). This brings us to the Wynwod area and the focus of this article: a spunked-up new art space called Rocket Projects.

There’s something about walking into a gallery that feels more like a friend’s house that is strangely comforting (granted you’d have to have a friend that has more art than furniture). I don’t think I’ve ever needed comforting while on gallery hopabouts, but if I did, I’d know where to go, and hopefully who to call to slap me. Nick Cindric, who runs the gallery with his partner Nina Arias, views Rocket Projects as a kind of “launch pad” for the younger artists of Miami and other areas, hoping to use it as a point on some kind of national network of aspiring (and hopefully talented) artists. This attitude seems to be enveloping many of the surrounding galleries, so hopefully the takeover, scheduled for the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve 2009, won’t meet the same fate as Skynet.

Even though no specific takeover is planned and the shape-shifting robots at Rocket Projects do not exist, there’s enough around to make you forget all about my make-believe scenarios and buy into someone else’s. In addition to 8 annual shows (including an upcoming expo by a former pro BMXer/Skateboarder), the space wants to get involved in special projects (that other galleries don’t necessarily participate in) such as in December’s Scope Miami 2003, an alternative art fair dedicated to showcasing emerging talent in the area’s most creative hotels.

Their current BOD (Broadway on Duane) exhibit by Doug Meyer is by far the second most inventive thing I’ve seen done with Barbie dolls, and for those amongst you that realized Silly Putty was pretty much the same color as that great Barbie plastic, it will be too. Anyway, Meyer asks us all, “Why does the past seem so much more glamorous than the present?” and meticulously arranges these Barbie dolls in a an imaginary nightclub, but it’s actually mostly meaty-hunk Kens and they’re kneeling in front of other Kens dressed like Village People police officers which, would mean… Omigod! I can’t keep writing. Obviously that’s not true, I can write all day, but these Kens are out of control. Is that what glamour was all about?

The show is displayed in a small mysterious room encircled with light boxes of photo images. Disco mixed together with tracks from Towering Inferno play in the background and, in the center, a tower with various apertures reveals glowing beams of nightlife action (acted out by the Barbie dolls of course). You could almost smell the champagne and amyl nitrate in the air. Representing an era where hot gay sex was at the top (or bottom!) of every New Yorker’s agenda, BOD, a made-up burnt-down ’80s nightclub, was the hotspot for all types of superstar personalities – from Andy Warhol to Liza Minelli. But since the place never existed (insert clever joke here)…This is fun to look at though, plus all sorts of authentic paraphernalia, like “BOD GOD” pins and invitations, are encased among the elaborate diorama and photos, making the phoniness even more authentic (does that make any sense?).

Honestly, the club and all this stuff is about AIDS destroying a whole lot of fun shit that used to go down in the Big Apple, so that makes it hard to dis. The other point of this installation is to give viewers a peak into a fictitious club night that assembled real celebrities and socialites of that era and then to muse on the consequences of the lethal fire that destroyed the place and thus the community of people that it encompassed. Aesthetically, it must be said, this work is lovely.

The main room features what look like large sheets of plastic hanging around. Actually, they are suspended polyethylene structures, complete with a moaning soundtrack from the artist Dimitry Said Chamy. A computer terminal features more pieces, best described as interactive screensavers, smaller versions of the hangings, all using the same shape which Chamy calls the “box kite.” The collection’s called In Defiance of Gravity and Other Matters and, from my talk with Chamy, its creation seems to have been a therapeutic process helping him through his partner’s death.

The perched fabrics, as they fall down from the ceiling, are supposed to represent the dynamics of the “weight” of everyday life and, as they sluggishly hang in the dark in the space, they can exude some sort of sense of torpor that one feels after losing a significant other. Then again, that sensation only lasts temporarily since…I mean, these are only sheets of plastic, you know? Wow, I could have ended this on a sad note, but I’m going to instead ponder on what the hell the title of the collection means, especially when the cables holding up the hangings aren’t defying anything but invisibility-which doesn’t exist anyway.

Given the limited spectrum of art outlets for the young new voices, it doesn’t hurt to have yet another gallery added to Wynwood’s embryonic community. Also, what’s better is when a space opens and successfully shirks the blatant posturing of the more “adult” art world. Rocket Projects seems to be doing so with a welcome-all attitude, some outr

NO LETDOWNS

0

‘Canes continue on

The East Carolina Pirates own the Miami Hurricanes like no other team in college football.
They are the only team that has beaten Miami in their last two contests in the past twenty-five years. In 1996, ECU came into the Orange Bowl and handed the ‘Canes a 31-6 defeat and then three years later, they scored 24 unanswered points to comeback from a 20 point deficit and stun the ninth-ranked Hurricanes.

So don’t think that just because the Hurricanes are ranked number two in the nation and the Pirates got blown out by a combined score of 88-10 in their first two games that the ‘Canes will take ECU lightly.
“We’ve played them twice since I’ve been here and we haven’t beaten them yet,” Head Coach Larry Coker said. “I think that’s pretty self explanatory how we feel about East Carolina.”

The Pirates have an entirely new coaching staff with ex-Florida defensive coordinator John Thompson at the helm, and despite their early struggles, Coker knows they will not fade effortlessly into the night.
“They’ve had a tough start with a new staff,” Coker said. “But they’ll get the ship corrected.”

The ‘Canes know that they too have some correcting to do if they want to cut down on the bevy of yellow flags that flew around the field last Saturday. In just two games, the team has racked up 26 penalties for 198 yards. Against Florida they had four unsportsmanlike conduct calls mixed in with 12 other penalties that cost them 134 yards and almost cost them the game.

“We addressed it pretty hard,” Coker said. “The perception is that we’re undisciplined and we’re not very smart. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. We really stress discipline and we have intelligent kids but now we’ve got to act that way and we have to play that way.”

After wide receiver Ryan Moore caught a touchdown pass to bring the ‘Canes within two points of the Gators, he bowed to the crowd and the refs called him for a 15-yard excessive celebration penalty, which caused the ‘Canes to go for one point instead of two. If the ‘Canes had failed to score again, Moore’s penalty could have ended up as the difference.

“It was a mistake,” Moore said. “I didn’t think that it was going to be that severe, that they were going to call a [penalty], or I wouldn’t have even did it.”
Senior Kevin Beard, who had the biggest game of his career with seven catches for 164 yards and one touchdown, understands how the younger players can let their emotions get out of hand.

“It was just a matter of getting caught up in the excitement. Devin Hester and Ryan Moore are young receivers and they were excited to be in the game,” Beard said. “The coaches let them know how they felt about it and it won’t happen again.”
Hester, who took his helmet off on the field after taking Saturday’s opening kickoff 97-yards for a touchdown, also injured his ankle on the first kickoff of the second half. He now has a cast up to his knee, which means he will probably not play this weekend.
Although the ‘Canes lost Hester and fullback Quad Hill (separated shoulder), they should get a couple of their previously injured players back.

Wide receiver Jason Geathers and cornerback Glenn Sharpe, who have yet to see action this season due to leg injuries, both look ready to make their 2003 debuts against ECU.

Offensive tackle Carlos Joseph, who missed the UF game with a swollen tendon in his foot, practiced on Tuesday and his return would help bolster an offensive line that got hit hard by injuries.
One good thing that stemmed from Joseph’s injury was the play of his replacement Rashad Butler.
“I’m very, very proud of what Rashad did [last game] and I am not surprised,” Coker said. “He did an outstanding job. We gave up one sack the entire day and it wasn’t Rashad that gave up the sack. He’s ready for playing time.”

Whether Joseph or Butler starts against the Pirates, it probably won’t change the outcome of the game, but then again, no one thought Rutgers would have an inkling of a chance last year and they took a 17-14 lead into the fourth quarter. Not to mention that the Pirates dominated the ‘Canes in the ’90’s. At least they have that going for them as they head into this weekend’s game.

Nate Johnson can be reached at NPJ44@aol.com

Jennings a key piece of the defensive puzzle

0

On a team with many great players, it is easy for some quality players to slip through the cracks without many people noticing. One of the least heralded but biggest contributors on the Hurricanes is cornerback Kelly Jennings.
The reason for the lack of attention could be that Jennings is not overly flashy. A sophomore from Live Oak, Florida, Jennings simply tries to be one piece of a defense with many accomplished players.
“I just try to play my role because the coach has a great scheme for us and I just feel like I am part of the puzzle,” Jennings said. “I just try to do what I am supposed to do. I try to do things that are right.”
Jennings started at cornerback for the Hurricanes last season after red shirting in 2001. He played a major role from day one and helped the ‘Canes mount a comeback last season against Rutgers with a key interception. This season, Jennings has solidified his starting spot and flourished in that role.
“Kelly has come a long way. He is coming back off his hand injury and he has been more physical, more competitive, and he is starting to play really well now,” Defensive Coordinator Randy Shannon said. “He is starting to get back in the feel of what we wanted him to do last year. He is playing great and we are confident in him.”
On the field, Jennings gets his motivation from different sources. The main influence on his life is his family. As the youngest of four children, Jennings had several people to look up to.
“My family is kind of unique in the simple aspect that my parents were 42 when I was born,” Jennings said. “I have two brothers and one sister; my brothers were 19 and 17, and my sister was 16. It is almost like I had three dads and two moms.”
As a matter of fact, it was Jennings’ family that got him into football in the first place. His older brother was a huge football fan, but it was his mother who got him into the sport.
“I used to go to games with my mother. I saw the guys playing and it was something I wanted to do, so my mother enrolled me into the recreation league,” Jennings said.
Things were not always that easy for Jennings, however. His mother lost her job when he was young, so Jennings learned hard work and dedication from his father.
“I saw my dad, when my mom lost her job, working overtime and having to do the things he needed to do to keep her from going back to work,” Jennings said. “He was providing for me and for her, and that inspires me to do the things I do now.”
Everyone who knows Jennings from the football team or his daily life speaks highly of him. In the classroom, Jennings, a finance major, takes his education very seriously.
“Academics are one of the most important things to me. I’m not relying on football to take me where I need to be,” Jennings said. “I want to get my education and get my degree because football is not going to last forever, and when it ends, I want to have something to fall back on. Even if I do make it to the NFL, I want to have a degree so that I can go work afterwards.”
There is really nothing negative one can say about Kelly Jennings. He excels on the field, in the classroom, and as a person.
“He is a great kid,” Shannon said. “He doesn’t say much, he’s quiet and just does his job. You never have to worry about academics or anything else. He is an A-1 class guy.”

James setting high goals for volleyball squad

0

In 2001, a group of freshmen led the rebirth of UM volleyball after a 19-year hiatus. An integral part of that class was junior setter Mallorey James, who all but set the Hurricane program back in motion.
James grew up in Tucson, Arizona, a cultural melting pot a few miles from the Mexican border. She gives her hometown credit for molding her into the person she is today. She began playing volleyball there as an outside hitter, learning to become a setter only after her senior season in high school.
“At first it was hard because I was used to hitting,” James said. “[But] I just put my mind to it and my coaches were determined to make me the best that I could be.”
Her initial focus on volleyball began in sixth grade after her sister and some friends, all one year her senior, sparked her interest.
“At that time I was really big into soccer and they introduced me to volleyball and I started playing…it was a lot more fun [than soccer] to me,” James said.
James began playing on a club volleyball team in the off-season, helping to fine-tune her game and ultimately leading her to the Salpointe Catholic varsity team as a freshman. James points out that her parents pushed her to take advantage of her opportunities.
“My parents are so into volleyball, and they’re very supportive,” James said. “The second I got invited to play varsity my freshman year, they said ‘do it, it’s going to be the best experience.'”
Salpointe held onto a 52-match win streak for the duration of James’ career there. She was captain during her junior and senior years. Throughout high school, James continued to play for the Zona Volleyball Club after the regular season ended, competing in tournaments throughout the west and developing her spirit and character through one of her greatest inspirations: Zona Club Coach A.J. Malis.
“He is like a second dad to me, he was always there for me, pushing me,” James said. “He knew the type of player that I could be and he pushed me all the way there. He was always behind me and helping me out.”
Although now 2,300 miles from her former club team’s base, Malis’ words often serve as a wake-up call for James when she gets down on her game.
“I’m very critical of myself because I’m a perfectionist in a lot of ways, but he always told me that ‘you’re going to make mistakes, you’re not going to be perfect,” she said. “Just do the best job that you can and that’s all you can ask of yourself.”
After arriving in Coral Gables in the fall of 2001, James took with her the spirit of Tucson but never felt uncomfortable with the transition from high school to college. With the help of teammates, she kicked into high gear and became what she calls the “quarterback” of the volleyball team.
“My job is to make the best play possible out of the pass, just run the offense and get good balls up for my attackers,” James said. “I’m basically out there to help my teammates score.”
Off the court, James is an entrepreneurship major, hoping to break into sports marketing. It was a natural choice for her to combine business with all she’s ever known.
“I’ve been involved in sports my entire life, and it’s one thing that just really excites me and motivates me,” she said.
One of James’ greatest achievements came at the end of the 2002 season, when she was honored with Big East Setter of the Year.
“I was in complete shock because I never expected something like that,” James said. “I would not have gotten that award without my hitters and my passers. It felt so good…it was a motivator to get back into the game and try to do it again.”
In the season ahead, James hopes to lead her team back to the NCAA Tournament and make even more progress there than they did last season. Letting each other down, James contends, is not an option.
Given her love of the sport and the emphasis she places on supportive teammates and coaches, James has truly found her niche as a Hurricane.
“It was a dream of mine to play at a big-name school, and here I am,” she said. “I am the luckiest person, being able to play for Nicole [Lantagne Welch] and have teammates like I do…it’s a dream come true.”
Melissa Teich can be reached at melissateich@hotmail.com

INTRAMURALS

0

This year’s Cane Craze is an all-nighter again after 2 years! The event will begin at Noon Saturday, September 27 and continue playing events throughout the Wellness Center all night until Noon Sunday, September 28. For more information on the event, go to our website at www.miami.edu/wellness/intramurals.

This space in the Hurricane will be used for Intramural scores, updates, articles on games, champions, and of course Top 10 teams in each sport! To be included in these updates, you need to sign up for any of the various events that are offered. Be sure to read the Hurricane every Tuesday and Friday to get all your information about Intramurals as well as to find out everything going on here at UM. For more information contact Jason Carroll at 284-8518.