Inquirer Feb. 28- March 13

TheINQUIRER

Student Voice of diablo Valley college

• NEWS 1, 2 • OPINIONS 3 • ARTS & FEATURES 4 • EDITORIAL 3 • SPORTS 5, 6 • CAMPUS BUZZ 3 • STAFF INFORMATION 3 •

Oscar buzz: Was it worth the hype? See what Arts & features editor Troy Patton has to say. See page 4.

Volume 81 No. 2 Copyright © 2013 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, March. 13, 2013

Vikings make a splash!The Inquirer catches up with the swimming team.

See page 6.

SAMANTHA CHIU / The Inquirer

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

To bring in the Year of the Snake, DVC’s Chinese Student Association hosted its first annual Chinese New Year Festival, also called the Spring Festival or “Chun Jie” in Mandarin. in front of the Margaret Lesher Stu-dent Union on Tuesday, Feb. 26. This festival is traditionally 15 days long, where then the Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day. The new year actually began on Feb. 10.

While the festival on campus only lasted for about 4 hours, it had many entertaining activities and games. One game, which is called “Cai Deng Mi” included two long ribbons that hung Chinese riddles printed onto small pieces of paper. If you believe you can answer two in a row, you would rip off the riddle and bring it to the desk in exchange for a raffle ticket.

“Riddles are a very important part of Chinese culture where friends and family can have fun with each other. Every Chinese Festival includes a rid-dle game like this one,” said Shutian Zheng, who was coordinating the riddle game.

Other games included a ring toss called “Tao Quan,” and “Kuai Zi Dan Zhu” which is time-constrained game where you try to pick up as many beans as possible with chopsticks. All games were free and were awarded with raffle tickets upon completion. There were other activities where you were able to paint your own sign, called a “Dui Lian”, in order to bring good luck, as well as a rack of Chi-nese costumes that you could try on and get a picture taken.

The program also included a drag-on and lion costume dance, as well as as two martial arts dances called “Duan Gun” and “Da Dao.” There were also musical performances which included a flute performance called “Butterfly Love” which was performed by a CSA member named Crystal, and a wooden flute perfor-mance done by the president of the club, Miaoquan Huang.

The program also included a few traditional Chinese dances, the first of which was a dance performed with Chinese silk fans, which are meant to represent beauty, grace, and skill.

While this dance is usually per-formed on a circular stage, the danc-

ers made do with the small open space in front of the Student Union building.

Afterwards, a different dance was performed in red and gold cos-tume that included a headpiece with

a veil, which is a traditional dress worn in the Xinjiang province in China, where the veils are usually lifted only to show the face to loved

Concord Kung Fu Academy members perform the traditional Chinese lion dance for the Chinese New Year celebration outside the Margaret Lescher Student Union Building to a delighted audience.

ASDVCcopeswithpoliticalturmoil

If DVC’s Inter-Club Coun-cil — still dusting itself off in the fallout of a recent im-peachment, and ASDVC’s legislature — scrambling to fill a vacated seat — are going to effectively lead DVC’s stu-dent body, they’ll need vision and leadership from Ryan Souza and Sam Park to do it.

In an unconventional se-ries of moves, the ASDVC vice president of legislative affairs will become chair of the Inter-Club Council in the absence of any other volun-teers, automatically forfeiting his position at ASDVC.

Former Vice President of Legislative Affairs Ryan Souza’s open seat prompted a race for the spot between members Sam Park and Shy-am Maharaj— a race narrow-ly won by Park in a 9-8 vote during ASDVC’s meeting last Tuesday.

The exchange proved time-ly for ICC’s beleaguered Ways and Means committee, which has become the subject of some controversy in recent weeks.

Without consistent lead-ership, ICC’s fledgling Ways and Means committee has often failed to meet quorum and has violated procedural code, according to several ASDVC and ICC members. This encouraged some talk about merging it with ASD-VC’s Budget Oversight com-mittee.

Souza and members of both councils hope his arrival will be the difference maker.

BRIAN BUNTINGOnline editor

“We need to address the ineffiiency.”

~SHYAM MAHARAJASDVC member

HAKEEM MONTES / The Inquirer

Andrew Lengyel, member of the Concord Kung Fu Acade-my, performs Kung Fu exercises with a Chinese horse chopper.

PABLO CABALLERO / The InquirerConstruction workers overlook work on Golf Club Road.

Pleasant Hill is in the process of replacing the Golf Club Road bridge. Phase one requires the re-moval of the Contra Costa Water District 24-inch water pipeline go-ing beneath the bridge.

Pleasant Hill city workers claim the bridge on Golf Club Road is old and in the early processes of renovation. The bridge will be re-moved, section by section to allow traffic to continue without prob-lems while the bridge is renovated.

“The city is retrofitting the bridge, they are in the process of removing the waterline in order to make a new bridge,” onsite super-visor Don Gates of RJ Gordon Constriction said.

The construction on Golf Club Road had nothing to do with the blackout that occurred on Feb. 7, where the campus’s Art and Per-formance Art buildings and Caf-eteria were without power. Gates said he’s seen people on the con-struction site, they were not with the company, but they were work-ing on the city’s electrical grid.

.Phase one is to be complete by March 1, said Gates. He added that students who are walking to cam-pus should walk on the opposite side of the road while construc-tion is going on.

“The construction doesn’t af-fect me, I haven’t heard anything bad, it doesn’t affect playing Ten-nis.” said DVC student Sascha Ko when asked how her day-to-day life would change. “Nothing hin-ders me while driving on Golf Club Road.”

New footbridge changes face of Golf Club RoadPABLO CABALLERO

Staff writer

CHINESE NEW YEAR, Page 2 ASDVC, Page 2

Contact PABLO CABALLERO at [email protected]

MONA TALEB-AGHAStaff writer

CSA hosts their first Chinese New Year celebration at DVC

Low on cash? The Inquirer Editorial board discusses the pos-sibility of raising minimum wage. See page 3.

2 Thursday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, March 13, 2013The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

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calendarFriday, March 1Tennis Match vs. Si-erra College: Men’s and Women’s DVC Tennis Courts 1 p.m.

DVC Wind Bands Con-cert DVC Performing Arts Center 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday and Thursday, March 5 & 7Baseball vs. Sierra Col-legeDVC Baseball Field, 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 10Daylight Savings Begins

Wednesday, March 13Summer Jobs and In-ternships FairCafeteria 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. March 16 - April 5 DVC Drama Presents Shakespeare’s Richard IIIFridays and Saturdays 8 p.m. Sunday 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 17St. Patrick’s Day

March 18 - 24 Spring Recess School Closed

Tuesday, March 12 Softball vs. Delta College DVC Softball Field 3 p.m.

Thursday, March 14Architecture Lecture SeriesET 112 5 p.m.

Friday, March 15Big 8 Invitational Swim-ming CompetitionDVC Pool 11 a.m.

The online calendar servers on the DVC website are down and unavailable at the moment.

Police Beat

Thursday, Feb. 14DVC Parking Lot 4At 10:56 a.m., a non-injury traffic accident occurred on the south access road by Parking Lot 4.

DVC Music Building bike rack near the gymAt 12:23 p.m., a victim stopped a subject from stealing his bike from a rack by the gym. The subject was transported to Martinez Detention Facil-ity on a citizen’s arrest for attempted theft.

BFL Building on the second floorBetween 4 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., a student felt ill while in class due to a preexisting medical condition. The stu-dent declined any medical assistance.

Wednesday, Feb. 20DVC Parking Lot 8 near the Art BuildingAt 3:50 p.m., a student fell and injured herself when she stepped on a pine cone.

Thursday, Feb. 21DVC bike rack near the LibraryBetween 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., a student reported that an unknown suspect(s) had stolen the seat from his bicycle. There were no suspects or witnesses.

ASDVCFrom Page 1

“We need to address the inefficiency,” Maharaj said. “Last year there was paper pushing that was not being done. There were clubs that were be-ing brought up on agendas that should have gone through Ways and Means. There were committees that were prescribed into ICC constitution, that don’t even exist.”

A favorite for the position, Souza was welcomed by ICC with open arms to fill the vacancy, which until that point had been filled by interim head Cruz Conrad.

“We were without a chair. When we went over there to ask who wanted to be president, Ryan was the only one who said, ‘Yes, I’d like to be president,’ ” Conrad explained.

“Whenever (ICC) screw up, it reflects back on (ASDVC)“ Maharaj said. “ASDVC is the parent, as clarified in our constitution.”

The ICC budget code sets a $500 limit on the amount of funding any one club can request through the ICC. Any more than that has to be ap-proved by ASDVC. The added step created a glut of clubs consuming floor time at ASDVC meetings, so ASDVC raised the limit in the budget code. But the change was never formalized once it got to ICC.

“Even though ASDVC approved a raise in the maximum funds that could be allocated to $1,000 dollars, somehow that got lost along the way, and ICC was still only allocating $500,” Souza said. In some cases, a few clubs even failed to report they had exhausted their options through ICC’s channels before going to ASDVC for more money.

Now with stability in ICC’s leadership, the de-

mand for improved ICC budget oversight is starting to shift away from talk of an outright committee merger, trending toward a wait-and-see approach.

“Wait for Ryan to step in, actually get things go-ing, get the committees established, and then we bring this back to ASDVC. Because right now we’re talking about a lack of leadership. Ryan just got elected. Until he’s gotten a chance to do something, we can’t step in and start regulating.” Maharaj said.

With less than two months between now and stu-dent elections, goals for a legislative panacea may seem ambitious, but both Souza and Park seemed confident they could tackle inefficiencies.

“I have experience, I know how to get things done... I’m not satisfied with mediocrity. Working a lot with ASDVC, I know the process, and know what goals we need to accomplish,” Park submits.

As a matter of course, Park will get his chance as the lead student organizer of the upcoming March in March. The annual protest pits student advocates against the state’s UC and CSU system budget cut-ters.

Souza was equally confident in righting the course of the wayward committee. “There’s a big lack of communication in ICC, and between ICC and AS-DVC. As someone who’s been in ASDVC for a long time, I feel like being able to go in there, I can bring back the proper information, and relay it to both.”

ones. One of these dancers was actually DVC's math lab co-ordinator, Liling Lin.

The most popular perfor-mance by far was another dance by a woman named Yvonne, this time sporting the Chinese yo-yo. The Chinese yo-yo is one of the oldest toys known to mankind, second only to the doll, and was invented during the Ming Dynas-ty sometime between 1386-1644. The yo-yo, comprised of two discs of equal size connected by a long axle, is juggled by using two sticks which are conjoined with a string. Yvonne performed a high-ly skilled dance which included throwing the yo-yo high up in the air and catching it, and she kept it spinning during almost the entire performance. Her performance

concluded the dance perfor-mances in the program.

"The Chinese New Year Festi-val is the most widely celebrated holiday in China. It has been cel-ebrated for thousands of years, and each year belongs to one of twelve animals. It is customary to wear red during the festival, be-cause red symbolizes happiness and good luck in China. We also use the color gold because it is a sign of nobility," explained CSA Activity Coordinator, Zhuoer Wang.

While this is the first Chinese New Year celebration hosted by CSA, they plan to make this event at DVC an annual tradition.

Chinese New YearFrom Page 1

KARIN JENSEN / The InquirerSam Park, newly elected Vice President of Legislative Affairs.

Contact BRIAN BUNTING at [email protected]

KARIN JENSEN / The Inquirer

Students test their skills by attempting to put beans into a bowl with a pair of chopsticks.

Contact MONA TALEB-AGHA at mtalebagha

@TheInquirerOnline.com

A third-grader once asked me why, if I was so interested in science, I’m not taking any science classes in col-lege. The best answer I could give was that my college and I don’t agree what science is or how it should be taught.

Science isn’t defined by its body of knowledge, but by the process by which it arrives at that knowledge. To quote physicist Lawrence Krauss, “The process of asking the questions and figuring out how to answer them is what science is all about. The an-swers are not important.” And yet, our entire system of science educa-tion is based on making kids memo-rize phrases, classifications and for-mulas.

Every student who plans to trans-fer has or will have taken at least two science courses. Everyone who’s al-ready put that requirement behind them has felt what two hours of a monotonous lecture can do to the

weight of their eyelids. They’ve prob-ably asked themselves, with good rea-son, just how the hell they’re ever go-ing to need what they’re being asked to memorize.

I don’t know anyone from my ninth grade biology class who can still draw the anatomy of an animal cell. Let’s not pretend art majors need to know the zeroth law of thermodynamics.

Our current broken curriculum is structured the way it is because scan-trons are an easy way to quantify how much students are learning. But as our English departments know, mul-tiple choice questions aren’t good measure of how well students can apply concepts rather than just recite them. Assign essays in science classes. Test their ability to reason deduc-tively. Memorization is really only ap-propriate for courses like language or history.

Additionally, the net learning that we’re measuring in the status quo is practically zero. Our college and grade school students retain almost

nothing they learn. In a 2004 survey true/false question done by National Science Foundation, about 50 per-cent of Americans thought the Sun goes around the Earth rather than the Earth orbiting the Sun.

Krauss addressed this problem in a recent video posted by the BigThink Youtube channel, saying, “Most kids won’t necessarily become scientists, but the tools of science and of ex-ploring the universe, distinguish sense from nonsense and take a complicat-ed situation and simplify it enough to address it. And the fact that science addresses the most remarkable ques-tions that are in each of us, are the things that we want to instill in chil-dren.”

A friend of mine who teaches a third grade class in Oakland invited me to come in and answer her stu-dents’ space questions for a couple hours after they had just finished a unit on astronomy. Almost every question surpassed what I expected.

Why are the inner planets rocky

and the outer planets gassy? Why is there no ground on Jupiter? How do rockets turn around? What’s going to happen to Earth when the Sun dies? Every answer was followed by a col-lective “woooah,” a round of giggles, and a new scramble of hands raising to ask the next question.

Any curriculum that may turn those third-graders into glassy-eyed college students, scrawling Kepler’s laws of planetary orbit between des-perate stares at the classroom clock, can not be called “education.”

Career scientists much more closely resemble third graders than commu-nity college students. They dedicate their lives not to memorizing formu-las and terms, but figuring out how to solve mysteries. And there are plenty of mysteries.

The students we’re supposed to be training to solve these mysteries are flipping flash cards.

Opinions 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, March 13, 2012

Editorial Board Staff

• Phone: 925.685.1230 ext. 2313 • Fax: 925.681.3045 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.TheInquirerOnline.com • Printed Every Two Weeks •

What was the lowest paying job you ever had? Is minimum wage high enough?

EditorialBuzzTh

e

THE INQUIRER

Diablo Valley College321 Golf Club Road, H-102

Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

The Inquirer is published Thursday mornings during the school year by the journalism students of Diablo Valley College. All unsigned articles appearing on the opinions page are editorials and reflect a two-thirds majority opinion of the editorial staff. All signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writer or artists and not necessarily those of The Inquirer, Diablo Valley College or Contra Costa Community College District.

Interviewed and photographed by:Rachael Ann Reyes

“For all the crap I do, it’s not enough. I think $9 an hour would be good. They should definitely raise the

minimum wage.”

NOEMI SALCEDO, 18Undeclared

“Working at a men’s clothing store. I felt like I was doing so much work for pretty much nothing.”

RENEE MONTALVAN, 19Creative Writing

“Working at the girls clothing store. It was a lot of work, you do so much

work for $8 an hour.”

CHRISTINA VASCONCELLOS, 19Childhood Education

“I spent two months out of the last four summers

counseling at a scout camp in the woods at minimum wage and I loved it and

didn’t do it for the money.”

`GREG KLING, 19Speech Communication

“I worked as a nanny my senior year of high school; basically being her mom

for $7.”

CARLEY McLEVIS, 20Psychology

Letter to the editor

Opinions

SENIOR STAFF WRITER Hakeem MontesSTAFF WRITERS Gabriel Agurcia, Pablo Caballero, Matthew Emmanuel, Tharesa Marie, Lucia Nardi, Alejandro Ramos, Rachael Ann Reyes, Mona Taleb-Agha, Evan Wesley

PHOTOGRAPHERS Matthew Emmanuel, Julia Kinkela

INSTRUCTIONAL LAB COORDINATOR Julius ReaADVISER Mary Mazzocco

EDITOR IN CHIEF Josh “Grassy” KnollMANAGING EDITOR Samantha ChiuONLINE EDITOR Brian BuntingNEWS EDITOR Collin JamesSPORTS EDITOR Aaron HudsonOPINIONS EDITOR Sasan Kasravi ARTS & FEATURES EDITOR Troy Patton PHOTO CHIEF Karin JensenCOPY EDITOR Andrew O’Connor-Watts

In his Feb. 13 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama advocated a national rate hike for the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. Though nineteen states including California, “…have chosen to bump theirs even higher,” an increase of this nature could make a big difference in the lives of students and families struggling to make ends meet, in spite of full-time employment.

Not everyone is in favor of the Pres-ident’s proposal. In an interview with Fox Business following the address, research director for the Employment Policies Institute Michael Saltsman as-serted that wage increases “including the one called for by the president, lead to job loss, not job creation, as well as fail to reduce poverty or stimulate the economy.” The prevailing sentiment from this side of the issue seems to be that paying employees more would negatively impact employers’ ability to retain their current staff.

There seems to be a widely circu-lated misconception associated with this school of thought, that employ-ers hire their employees for altruistic, humanitarian reasons rather than fi-nancial ones, as if layoffs were the only cost-cutting measure available to any executive.

Not everyone agrees that paying minimum wage workers more would spell destruction for those teetering just above the poverty line.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry said that the President’s proposal would “lift up millions of families.” Many labor unions and senators, including Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. have been critical of the President’s proposed in-crease for not going far enough. “We’re encouraged, but we think the wage is too low,” one D.C. labor official told Huffington Post.

It’s difficult for the average mini-mum wage employee when they feel as though their job is being held hostage by corporate interests. It’s harder still for them to feel sympathetic towards the plight of America’s ultra-wealthy.

Almost everyone has worked at or near minimum wage, or at least knows someone who has. Others have worked multiple jobs just to keep their loved ones clothed and sheltered. With the number of billionaires in America ap-proaching an all time high and towering over our closest competitors, maybe we can stop playing the violin for these alleged job “creators,” and spare just a bit of compassion for the job “doers.”

I am writing this letter to you because I have a request to install additional street-lights around the DVC Cam-pus.

The campus only has less than ten streetlights operating in about a football field-sized parking area.

When the sun sets, the

lights are minimal around the parking area and side streets. A lot of students can be commonly seen walking past these two areas.

The lack of sufficient light sources around the DVC campus bothers students and staff who do their activities after sundown.

Students and workers are suffering because they feel insecure, threatened and in danger when walking around the long, dim areas of the campus.

The situation becomes es-pecially severe during fall and winter. During these periods, darkness comes earlier, and

students that are dismissed from the night classes around 9:55 p.m. tend to find the dark parking areas unsafe for them to walk by.

As for me personally, I often feel insecure and even scared at times when I have to walk past those areas.

I believe this has to change

because many students have made complaints about the insufficient lightning issue.

The reasons to install extra streetlights are to help pro-vide safe, pleasant and happy environments.

-Jessica Hutarso,DVC Student

It’s time for DVC to make students safer

Proposed minimum wage increase is necessary step

SASAN KASRAVIOpinions editor

Our science curriculum misses the point

Contact SASAN KASRAVI at [email protected]

Graphic Illustration by BRIAN BUNTING

4 Thursday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, March 13, 2013The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Arts & features

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Thank the great god Quetzalcoatl for spar-ing us his divine wrath last year when he decid-ed to revise his previously prophesied apoca-lyptic timetable.

Because the Mayan calendar didn’t actually usher in a new age, we all get to experience something even more amazing than divine intervention. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the Oscar train keeps on a-rolling with their lat-est show, “The 2013 Academy Awards: The Musical.”

I can only assume that was the subtitle of the show, because the entire program was packed with live musical performances, in-cluding Adele’s show-stopping “Skyfall” as well as host Seth MacFarlane’s song in which he listed whose breasts he’s gotten a glimpse of on the silver-screen over the years.

Adele went on to win the Oscar for best original song, and MacFarlane continued to

not be funny, and hate what his life has be-come since he has phoned in “Family Guy” for two years.

Keeping up with the theme of music, the show also featured a number of other musical tributes and performances including: Barbara Streisand singing “The Way We Were”; a dance number to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum; and a music tribute to James Bond which included an appearance by Halle Berry in a General Zod costume, a performance of “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey, and a montage that show-cased the only James Bond song that anyone knows. Yes, that one.

Of course the whole show couldn’t have been about music.

It was also a celebration of anyone who won an award in acting, directing, or best pic-ture. Everyone else had to keep their speeches short enough that the folks at home wouldn’t get bored.

In what could only be described as “classy,”

the folks who won best special effects, best documentary, and best sound editing got shooed off stage with the theme from “Jaws” when their acceptance speeches seemed to drag on. I can only hope that the victims of this bullying bought a real shark and mailed it to the academy’s headquarters so they could be eaten alive for being so monumentally cal-lous.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only gaffe of the evening.

Jennifer Lawrence seemed to stumble and fall over her dress as she went up on stage to accept her best actress award. She was so ador-able, bubbly and nervous that no one seemed to care though.

I could only assume that she was shuffled backstage in order to prevent her from faint-ing on live television.

The rest of the world also confirmed their status as troglodytes by thinking that Anne Hathaway’s nipples were protruding from her Prada dress and not realizing that was it due to

the seam pattern. Yet despite these setbacks, the people who we all thought would win got their just praise.

Daniel Day Lewis won his record third Academy Award for best actor; “Argo” won best picture and Ben Affleck didn’t flip off the camera because he wasn’t even nominated for best director; Hathaway won best supporting actress (and for some reason didn’t get the “Jaws” treatment for her lengthy acceptance speech); Christoph Waltz continued to be our favorite German; “Life of Pi” won a bunch of awards for being very pretty; and Quentin Tarantino might have been drunk or he might have been Quentin Tarentino.

So in this way, the 2013 Academy Awards were like every other Academy Awards: it was suprising and, at the same time wholly predict-able and it will be forgotten by everyone in about a week.

TROY PATTONArts & features editor

Contact TROY PATTON at [email protected]

When Oscar stars come out, they fall

Photos courtesy of THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

Above, the cast of “The Avengers” presents at the Academy Awards. Left, Catherine Zeta-Jones performs “All That Jazz” from “Chicago.” Center, 85th Academy Award host Seth MacFarlane. Right, Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum perform a dance number to “The Way You Look Tonight.”

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Jenn Quigley’s passion for softball began as a young girl. "I grew up watching base-ball with my dad," she said. "When I'm on the field, all my stress disappears."

Quigley started playing travel ball at about 10-years-old.

"I almost quit when I was about 12 or 13 because I didn't think I was good enough. My dad convinced me otherwise," she said.

When she reached high school, she stopped playing altogether due to those same confidence issues.

"But I finally got the cour-age to play my junior year," she said.

Quigley played for College Park's junior varsity team to gain experience at the high school level. However, Quig-ley’s coach accidently broke her finger while attempting to fix the already jammed finger. That, along with sub-par grades, kept her from the game she loved.

Quigley began attending DVC and started playing soft-ball once again. However, on

March 2, 2012, only 12 games into the season, the unthink-able happened.

"It had just rained, and the field was really muddy," she recalls. "I was at second base fielding grounders. I did a crow hop during one, planted my right leg, and it got stuck in the mud. As I turned to throw I heard a loud pop. Even people in the batting cages could hear it."

Jenn had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, or the ACL, which it’s more commonly known as.

Four months passed before surgery could be done due to swelling and scheduling con-flicts. But a successful surgery was finally completed on June 5, 2012. That was the easy part. The challenges began with recovery.

Quigley had to endure a lot of physical therapy, spend-ing the first few post-surgery weeks working on simply re-gaining motion and strength in her right knee.

"People might not know this, but you have to get your whole leg back to full health, not just the knee. My quad was really weak too, from not being used,"she said.

She started running about three months later, but pro-claimed proudly, "I was only on crutches for about five days. I'm a pretty tough girl," she said with a smile.

She remembers the two days right after surgery as the toughest more so mentally than physically. Relegated to the couch, she couldn't do the simplest of tasks alone.

"I just felt really helpless. I couldn't even brush my teeth normally. I had to sit on the toilet with my leg up and a bowl."

On top of that, she learned she was unable to redshirt that season because she had played a few games too many.

When asked why she didn't call it quits and put softball on the back burner, Jenn pointed to her teammates, and the game itself.

"I wasn't ready to give up all those playing years. I had put so much effort into this game. My love of the sport and love for my teammates are what pushed me through it,"she said.

Quigley, or "JQ" as her teammates and coaches call her, is now back to full strength and back to playing the game she holds so dearly to her heart.

With just one season left to play at DVC, she's working to-wards a scholarship to a four-year institution.

Contact GABRIEL AGURCIA at gagurcia

@TheInquirerOnlinecom

Quigley rallies back from torn ACL injury

GABRIEL AGURCIAStaff writer

JULIA KINKELA / The Inquirer

Jenn Quigley takes some practice swings in the batting cages.

Continuing a phenomenal tradition of over 68 conference title wins since 1966, the DVC swimming and diving program has set their eyes on earning even more hardware this sea-son.

Last season the women’s team won their 29th conference title and placed second at the state meet, falling two points shy of the 500 points they needed for gold.

With seven All-Americans returning to the squad, head coach Rick Millington sees ven-geance in the heart of this year’s team.

“We’ve played it over and over in our heads, how we could of won that state meet,” coach Millington said.

The key all-American returners are: Taylor Henry, Jaymee Krochka, Nadeen Nassar, Ka-tie O’Connor, Erin Ranahan, Hannah Voegtly and Shaila Yoder.

“Swimming teaches you how to put what you want in perspective and how to work toward that goal," says team captain Taylor Henry.

Last season, the men’s team finished sixth in the state. They have five key All-American re-turners: Austin Akre, Edoardo Cuomo, Blake Hollis, Taylor Martinez and Lee Ward.

“Being part of the swimming team provides

a home away from home at school. Also, apart from building friendships, you gain a sense of respect for other swimmers,” Austin Akre said who is a team captain this year.

“This year I predict, with what we have, we

will place top three in the state with both the women’s and men’s team,” Millington said.

One way the program looks to achieve their goals this season is by turning the team into more of a family atmosphere, with numerous

members leading by example and providing support.

Whether checking up on a teammate or giv-ing constructive criticism on how to get better, “we’re definitely a big family and we care about each other,” team captain, Michael Billey said,“We take the importance of working as a group serious because even though we swim individual events we win the meet together as a team."

A DVC swimmer is estimated to swim about 8,000 to 9,000 yards a day since the team has both day and night practice sessions, according to Billey.

Developing leadership skills is crucial for keeping the team together and sane through the season.

“You know, there is an important thing about athletics beyond sports that is being part of a group that focuses on a goal,” for-mer DVC all-conference swimmer and CSU Chancellor Timothy White said.

“There is a work ethic aspect to Athletics in-dependent of the sporting nature of it all that I think is a very important piece of my life”.

The team is preparing to host this year’s Big 8 Conference meet on March 15.

Vikings begin their swim to state redemption AARON HUDSON

Sports editor

KARIN JENSEN/ The Inquirer

Taylor Martinez begins his warm-up routine in the rain for DVC Swimming and Diving. His specialties are the 100 yard freestyle and fly.

Contact AARON HUDSON at [email protected]

DVC defeated Contra Costa College 7-3 Thursday, Feb.14. Center fielder Cameron Rowland led off the bottom of the first with a double, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored on a fielder's choice.

With two outs in the second inning, Tyler Basker got a single, Joe DeFazio was hit, then Rowland drove both of them in on a huge triple to right-center. DVC took a 3-0 lead, but their offense subsequently cooled down during the middle innings.

CCC threatened to catch up in the third in-ning. With a man on first and one out, Cody Ball walked the next batter to load the bases. He then composed himself, inducing a 6-4-3 double play to end the rally.

The Comets finally put a number in the run column in the fifth inning, scoring a runner from third on a groundout.

During the following at-bat, shortstop Mi-chael Brdar made the play of the game: on a ground ball right up the middle, Brdar ranged to the precipice of the infield and outfield, fielded the ball cleanly, spun around, and threw a one hop strike to first baseman Devin

Alexander. Alexander made a clean scoop for the final out of the inning.

The top of the sixth saw Marcos Marti-nez replace Ball as pitcher. CCC immediately pounced with a leadoff double and an RBI single to cut the Vikings' lead to one.

In the eighth inning Brdar led off with a sin-gle, advanced to third on consecutive passed balls, and was driven in on a Michael Mann single to make it 4-2. Mann got to third on an Alexander double, then the pinch-hitting Phil Chavez cracked a two-run single. Marquis Cox pinch ran for Chavez and promptly stole second and third. An RBI single by Athan Koutsoubinas allowed Cox to score, pushing the lead to 7-2; all with no outs.

Ricky Delgado, who had replaced Marti-nez in the eighth, looked poised to shut CCC down to close the game. After the first two outs, the third made it interesting. Back-to-back batters reached and an RBI single drove in the runner from second, making the score 7-3. An infield single loaded the bases, but Delgado got the final batter to popout to Br-dar to end the game, giving DVC a 7-3 victory.

6 Thursday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, March 13, 2013The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Sports

Late inning surge lifts DVC over CCCGABRIEL AGURCIA

Staff writer

Vikings defeat Comets in close game

KARIN JENSEN / The Inquirer

Outfielder Athan Koutsoubinas prepares to hit in DVC’s game against Contra Costa College on Thursday, Feb. 14.

DVC pitcher Cody Ball throws a strike for the Vikings in the win against the Contra Costa Comets on Feb. 14.KARIN JENSEN / The Inquirer

BASEBALL SWIMMING/ DIVING SOFTBALL M/W TENNIS Tuesday Mar. 5 vs. Sierra College Friday Mar. 15 Big 8 Invitational Friday Mar. 8 vs. Cosumnes River Friday Mar. 1 vs. Sierra CollegeThursday Mar. 7 vs. Sierra College Tuesday Mar. 12 vs. Delta Friday Mar. 8 vs. ARC Friday Mar. 15 vs. FLC

DVC SPORTS SCHEDULE AT HOME

Contact GABRIEL AGURCIA at [email protected]