WEB-SPE@K: What do you think of President Obama’s first 100 days?

April 30, 2009

Has President Obama adequately followed through with his campaign promises during his first 100 days in office?

Written by Collegian Staff · Filed Under Opinion | 14 Comments

The swine flu pandemic is nigh

April 30, 2009

Pastel masks, school cancellations, travel restrictions and fear. The H1N1 virus is here, in our backyards. No matter where you are now, the swine flu could be waiting for you. It could be lurking on the head side of a 50-cent piece handed to a hardware store cashier in Dickinson County, Kansas or it could be inhaled by some poor district attorney in Boston while he’s using the toilet.

The national media is in a rampant frenzy. Life as we know it may be coming to a nasty end.

Despite the fact that more than 20,000 people die of your everyday, run-of-the-mill influenza and millions more battle the virus every year in the United States, the swine flu is said to be far worse.

Yes, my friends, a global pandemic of epic proportions is sweeping across the face of the earth with the voracious appetite of a swarm of mutant locusts. So far, the death toll is at a suspected 150 in Mexico. In the U.S. the death toll is at a staggering one. Making the avian flu scare of 2005 look like a case of athlete’s foot.

Photo by Clem Murray / Philadelphia Inquirer /McClatchy Tribune

I am reminded every day of the new cases of the insidious swine flu by the good people at CNN, who have taken it upon themselves to be our guardian angels in this “valley of death” we all find ourselves. Brave souls like Dr. Sanjay Gupta are venturing south of the border and into the belly of the beast to find answers for the American public. After all, if we want to beat this thing, we have to be educated. This isn’t just some normal killer flu we see every year, its H1N1, the flu that pump-fakes.

109 people across the United States have sadly been infected with the life-sucking virus since it surfaced last week, and the numbers are growing. The healthcare professionals around the U.S. are not testing people as a rule, just kind of guessing as to what kind of flu the people have.

This small, parasitic animal could have found a way to outsmart humans. It seems the swine flu will become more aggressive if we seek it out through actual scientific methods, so we are forced to just keep using the speculation method of identification.

If it looks like the everyday flu, sounds like the normal flu and smells like the simple flu; it could definitely be the swine flu.

With the horrifyingly “mild” symptoms that patients are describing and the death rate at a grim one percent, it looks as though we are going to have to accept the fact that the swine flu is here.

All we can do now is keep watching CNN until we all become paranoid and stop going to baseball games, barbecues, concerts, poetry jams, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, snype hunting trips, pie-eating contests, “Save Darfur” rallies and a host of other noble endeavors.

Let’s not forget to stay away from places of business. The last thing we want to do is exchange money with proprietors of goods during this delicate state we find our country in. Yield to the fear, CNN depends on it.

Written by Joel M. Ede · Filed Under Blog | 3 Comments

Three new assistants adjust to new positions

April 29, 2009

Throughout spring football practice, three men had to learn new schemes, plays and the players around them, to ensure everyone was on the same page.

But these are not incoming freshmen, transfers from a different university or junior college players; they’re the newest members of the Fresno State coaching staff.

Micah Alba, Joe Wade and Keith Williams all joined Pat Hill’s staff on February 24.

For Micah Alba, the athleticism of the cornerbacks is what he’s been most impressed with. He is helping defensive coordinator Randy Stewart with the secondary.

“They’re very athletic,” Alba said. “They’ve been hungry before we got them to spring ball. Its been a good spring.”

Alba was a cornerback and return man for Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2001-04. He led BYU in interceptions as a senior.

Before coming to Fresno State, he was a graduate assistant under Cougar coach Bronco Mendenhall. Alba not only helped coach the defense, but also worked with the offensive line during the 2008 season.

“[BYU] have a great coaching staff over there and I learned a lot from each one of them,” Alba said. “Bringing that with me has been a huge help with getting going over here.”

Joe Wade was a former quarterback for Linfield College from 1986-1991. He first coached the running backs in 1999 at Montana State. He was previously the offensive coordinator for Eastern Washington University.

Wade gets help from a former Fresno State running back with coaching the backfield.

“I have a close friend, Kelly Skipper, who played here. He was a running back and he’s now the running backs coach for the Raiders,” Wade said. “I lean on him a lot in terms of coaching running backs.”

Wade has a running game that he’ll look forward to with the group he has. But he still wants the likes of Ryan Mathews and Lonyae Miller to produce for 2009.

“We got a lot of talent and experience coming back, but my job is to make sure they play really well this season,” Wade said. “We got to make sure we do all of the little things to continue with their success.”

For new wide receivers coach Keith Williams, spring practice started off with inconsistent hands.

The former San Diego State receiver had to preach catching the football to the Fresno State wideouts after the first spring scrimmage. Numerous drops were present and it led Williams to chastise his group.

Since then, his receivers have made better strides in hauling in receptions because of his coaching.

“We ended the spring on a positive note,” Williams said. “We started off slow, but these guys worked hard. The last week of practice has been our best, and that’s what you want. You want to finish better than you started.”

After finishing his career with the Aztecs, Williams served under former San Jose State head coach Fitz Hill during the 2001-05 seasons.

“It was a good experience [at San Jose State],” Williams said. “The wideouts over there worked hard. They were a good group much like this group here. They have a lot of similarities.”

Williams admits that after playing and coaching against the Bulldogs, it was a difficult transition for him to join Fresno State.

But he now believes that he is in a good position.

“It felt weird at first, but I’m glad to be here, because I have no wins in either one of those elements,” Williams said. “As a player, I’ve never beaten Fresno State and as a coach I’ve never beaten Fresno State. It’s good to be on the good side.”

Written by Lorenzo Reyna · Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment

Not exactly the National Champs

April 29, 2009

Bryan Cole / Collegian File Photo

The Fresno State baseball team is tied for last place with only three weekend series left in 2009

Coming off of a national championship, Fresno State baseball fans knew that anything short of a repeat this season would seem anti-climactic, no matter how unrealistic that goal may be.

But most didn’t expect to fall quite so far down.

The Bulldogs are tied for last place in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), falling to the bottom of the league, amidst getting swept by lowly Louisiana Tech two weeks ago and a four-game split with San Jose State last weekend.

The team sits at 20-22 on the season, 4-8 in the WAC, and has lost seven of its last nine, heading into last night’s game against Cal Poly.

Many of the wins came against overmatched clubs from smaller schools. The team has also experienced mild off-the-field controversy with the news of an upcoming book about supposed team unrest during the 2008 College World Series.

Bryan Cole / Collegian File Photo

Though there have been some bright sports with Tom Mendonca breaking the all-time school record for home runs and right-handed pitcher Matt Morse earning WAC Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance against San Jose State on April 24, overall, the team has underperformed since winning the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic in early March.

Mendonca is expected to leave for a professional baseball career before his senior season.

The skid started when the team was swept by Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles back in late March and it has failed to recover top form since.

Six of Fresno State’s 14 pitchers have ERAs above seven, and ten have ERAs above four.

The bats have gone cold as well, as the team scored a combined 14 runs in four games against SJSU.

Worse, the pitching staff and the offense can’t seem to sync up. They have lost low-scoring games (6-5 and 2-0 to San Jose State) and high-scoring games (11-9 and 14-12 to Louisiana Tech) by very close margins.

Last year’s team started the season 8-12, but improved significantly by this point last season. The WAC tournament is less than a month away and the team has only three WAC matchups left to improve their performance, including this weekend’s four-game series at home against Nevada.

Head coach Mike Batesole could not be reached for comment due to the game on Tuesday.

The ’Dogs can take solace in the fact that first-place Nevada has only one more overall win than they do, and that getting hot during tournament time is what really matters in college baseball.

But the team is running out of time to correct itself before that crucial period starts. If it fails, it will be an embarrassing first-to-worst blemish on the program and could hurt future recruiting efforts as Fresno State tries to ride its success to a place among college baseball’s consistent top teams.

Written by Haisten Willis · Filed Under Sports | Leave a Comment