The Advocate, Issue 9, November 12 2010

VOLUME 46, ISSUE 9 NOVEMBER 12, 2010

3 6 Runner � nds solace in prayer and cross country

Construction to begin on child development center 4 Theater lead brings

new features to character

By Jordan TichenorThe Advocate

A sea of red descended on the MHCC District board Wednesday evening as members of the full-time faculty association and the classifi ed employees associ-ation marched in a show of support for their contract bargaining teams.

“We are here because we want you to be clear on the fact that we understand the positions our bargain-ing team has presented and support them in all their efforts,” Jack Schommer, president of the full-time fac-ulty association, said to the board during public input.

At least 120 employees marched from the Town and Gown Room to the board room, while some esti-mates placed the number at close to 200.

Schommer said the march was to show the full-time faculty “knows what’s being bargained, and we sup-port them (the bargaining team).”

See Negotiations on page 3

NEGOTIATION BREAKDOWNS CAUSE UNIONS TO RALLY

Editors-in-ChiefJen ashenberner &Jordan tichenor

Sports EditorJon Fuccillo

Advertising ManagerCopy EditorDavid Guida

Living Arts EditorDavid Gambill

Assistant Living Arts EditorAnevay Torrez

Photo EditorDevin Courtright

Opinion EditorL. John King

Submissions

Mt. Hood Community College26000 SE Stark Street

Gresham, Oregon 97030

E-mail [email protected]

www.advocate-online.net

503-491-7250 (Main)

503-491-7413 (Offi ce)

503-591-6064 (Fax)

AdviserBob Watkins

Assistant AdviserDan Ernst

The Advocate encourages readers to share their opinion by letters to the editor and guest columns for publication. All submissions must be typed and include the writer’s name and contact information. Contact information will not be printed unless requested. Original copies will not be returned to the author. The Advocate will not print any unsigned submission.

Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and guest columns should not exceed 600. The decision to publish is at the discretion of the editorial board.

The Advocate reserves the right to edit for style, punctuation, grammar and length.

Please bring submissions to The Advocate in Room 1369, or e-mail them to [email protected]. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday the week of publication to be considered for print.

Opinions expressed in columns, letters to the editor or advertisements are the views of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of The Advocate or MHCC.

Reporters

2 OPINION THE ADVOCATENOVEMBER 12, 2010

FRONT-PAGE PHOTO BY DEVIN COURTRIGHT

Joseph Baird

Jill-Marie Gavin

Chanel Hill

Riley Hinds

Laura Knudson

Yuca Kosugi

David Lopez

Mike Mata

Jess Peterman

Kylie Rogers

Mario Rubio

Shelby Schwartz

John Tkebuchava

Jessica Winters

Editorial

Applause should be heard around the MHCC campus this quarter as several of our student groups are doing big things. The Advocate would like to dedicate recognize the forensics team, the Lady Saints volleyball team and the combined efforts of the bookstore and Associ-ated Student Government.

If you haven’t heard, the Forensics team swept the Lower Columbia College Smelt Clas-sic last weekend. We can’t be surprised though, after they fi nished fourth out of 15 community colleges in an October tournament. The Advo-cate congratulates the team in their efforts and would like to thank them for their consistency throughout the term.

And how about our amazing volleyball team? They have been unstoppable in South Region action and the crowd should be cheer-ing loud and proud for our team — “Here come the Saints, the mighty, mighty Saints” — at the NWAACC (Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges) Championship next week, Nov. 18-21, in Mt. Hood’s gymnasium.

In regional action, they are 10-0 in the South Region and 20-0 for the last two seasons since head coach Chelsie Speer took over the pro-gram. This year they are considered one of the

favorites to win the NWAACC Championship after fi nishing second a year ago. The Advo-cate encourages students and faculty to come out and support our Saints at the NWAACC Championship. Our fi rst match starts Thurs-day at 4:30 p.m.

Then there are the wonderful things the ASG and the MHCC Bookstore are doing to support Barney’s Pantry. First it was Spirit Fridays, where in exchange for a can of food for the pan-try and showing some school spirit by donning your reds and blacks, you can get 20 percent off Saint gear. Now they have a tip jar in the book-store café where students can contribute cash donations to help stock Barney’s Pantry. As of Nov. 5, they had accumulated $144.97 in four weeks, according to Julie Godat, the bookstore manager. That averages about $35 a week and when you consider how broke people are these days, that’s a pretty good average. Keep drop-ping those dollars!

In the interest of school spirit (thanks MHCC bookstore), get out your pom-poms and school colors and say a “rah-rah sis boom bah” for all of the hard work and sweat these groups have put into the year so far. They have made us all proud to be Saints.

Two to three times a week, one might fi nd me at Kohl’s de-partment store hating my life.

The cause of this deep self-depre-cation is messy and indifferent cus-tomers.

I work in the shoe department, which means I’m vulnerable to the whims of shoe-crazed women or kids

high on

sugar, both of whom leave my depart-ment a complete wreck in a matter of minutes and then give me a sugges-tive look as if to say; Well… Are you going to clean up my mess?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s part of my job and this column isn’t about me hating my job. If there’s a mess, I clean it up, simple as that. My point is, why is there a mess in the fi rst place?

When we were all kids, didn’t our parents teach us to clean up after ourselves? Mine did. My friends’ parents did. As far as I can tell, this is one of the basic tenets of good man-

ners… no?Has something changed from the years when we

had to put away all of our toys before

we could w a t c h

the

TV to now when people will pull down all of the shoe boxes on a shelf and then leave them there?

So, rather than just complaining, I am offering up a couple suggestions:

Suggestion One—Customers could fi nd an associate in the shoe depart-ment to help them. We are trained to help customers fi nd the right shoe in the right size in a timely fashion, so please, utilize us.

Suggestion Two— If a customer could not fi nd or did not want an asso-ciate, they could simply clean up after themselves. It’s really not that hard to clean up after one person; it’s when you need to clean up after 15 people, while still trying to help another fi ve to ten customers, that it gets diffi cult.

If customers cleaned up after themselves, some might say that I would be out of a job. That would be untrue. My job is to help customers and provide great customer service. Wouldn’t I be able to more effectively help customers fi nd a shoe if I wasn’t trying to rush back to the Misses or Children’s section to clean up all of

the boxes? So, dear readers and potential

customers, I ask of you: please consider my plight and pick up

your boxes.

If the shoe doesn't fit, put it back in the box

MHCC deserves praise on many fronts

By Mike MataThe Advocate

Editors note - This issue was produced Wednesday night, due to the Veterans Day school closure Thursday.

NOVEMBER 12, 2010 NEWS 3

Negotiations continued from page 1

By Devin Courtright & Kylie RogersThe Advocate

Parking lot Z and an adjacent row in parking lot Y will be permanently closed next weekend as work begins on a new MHCC Childhood Develop-ment Center, according to Director of Communications Maggie Huffman.

“We’re putting signs at the entranc-es to Z (near Mt. St. Helens Bistro and Allied Health) informing people that it will close,” said Huffman. “We’re in-forming pedestrians about the closure because we don’t want anybody to be surprised.”

Huffman said once the project be-gins, the parking lot will be fenced off, along with signs posted letting stu-dents know parking lot Z is closed.

Construction is beginning because the existing facility has been on the campus for more than 30 years and it’s “inadequate,” Huffman said. The new structure will be one story and, she said, “it will have a large footprint,” — 21,000 square feet — and will be the “fi rst new building on the Gresham campus in about three decades.”

“This new facility will be able to serve more children and will be de-signed in such a way where it will serve the children going there, which is (go-ing to be) 180 young children, and it will also have classrooms for our stu-dents, who are studying early child-hood education,” said Huffman. “This is very exciting.”

Huffman said Head Start, a federal-

ly funded program “that provides com-prehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged children and families,” will operate the new fa-cility in collaboration with MHCC. The new center, a $6 million project, will be funded through an “innovative public-private partnership,” between federal and state grants and private donations from the community.”

The new building is scheduled to be open by fall 2011. In the fi rst two weeks of the Fall 2011 term when parking is

most crowded, public safety and the public safety volunteer students will be out directing traffi c, according to Public Safety Director Gale Blessing.

Asked which parking lots she would recommend students to use, Huffman said lots M, N and P at the north side of the campus are “underutilized,” as are lots S, T and U near the Mt. Hood Gymnasium.

Larry Lovelace, a student who parks in the M-N area, said, “I’ll prob-ably (have to get to school earlier). I don’t understand why they’re doing this. Parking is already a problem and now I won’t be able to park.”

Another student, Don Schaefer, who walks to school, said, “Why don’t they build a parking garage while they’re at it? (The extra parking traffi c) could be a potential hazard (for pedestrians).”

Karie Tomlinson, who parks in the front lot, said, “It’s also a safety thing. If I have to walk through the tunnel or all across campus, there are that many chances for something to happen to

me. I’m perfectly capable of walking the distance I just want to maintain safety for myself.”

Paul Dunlap, manager of capital construction projects, is the college’s representative for the contract between the college and the construction com-pany, Walsh Construction, said Huff-man. She said Christie Plinski, dean of social sciences, also oversees the project because “she’s responsible for the early childcare program.”

Construction to begin on childhood development center

CLOSED

Z

YX

W

H G F

E

Kane Rd/257th MainEntrance

MN

P

L

K

J

Star

k S

t.

Map of Northside parking lots

All of lot Z and one row of lot Y to close soon.Students should look to lots M, N and P

and S, T and U for underutilized parking.

Forensics takes Longview tourney

The classifi ed employee association voted down the administration’s package proposal Friday.

Catherine Nichols, speaking to the board, said the vote had the “largest voter turnout in eight years,” with 211 voters. There are ap-proximately 237 classifi ed members.

The classifi ed employees association and the administration now go to a mediation ses-sion Nov. 29.

Sara Williams, the faculty’s chief negotia-tor, said Wednesday night that the adminis-tration’s proposal for the classifi ed association was “very comparable” to the administration’s proposal for the full-time faculty.

“They had a choice between a really bad contract and going to mediation and continu-ing to negotiate. I think they made a really good choice,” said Williams.

Cat Parish, fi nancial aid adviser and stu-dent employment coordinator, said to the

board, “We are your sales force, and we ask that you pay us fairly.”

Asked about the march to the board room, MHCC board chair Brian Freeman said, “Whenever there’s bargaining going on, we ex-pect them to voice concerns.”

Asked if the board believes that there is no solidarity within the faculty association, Free-man said, “I have no fi rsthand knowledge of that.”

A mediation date is scheduled for the full-time faculty on Dec. 8. The administration has stated it will not bargain with the faculty without a mediator.

If mediation fails, the administration can ultimately implement its last best offer. For their part, the associations could strike after 10 days notice.

Asked about the possibility of a full-time faculty strike, Williams said, “I don’t think it’s an appropriate time to comment on that.”

By Jessica WintersThe Advocate

The MHCC Forensics Team won the overall sweepstakes and earned top community college honors at the 38th Annual Smelt Classic Nov. 5 and 6 at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash.

The team competed against 18 schools in the event.

Shannon Valdivia, director of the forensics team, said she thought the team had a pretty good chance of fi nishing fi rst out of the community colleges.

“I knew it was going to be a horse race with Clark (Com-munity College), because they always have a good squad,” she said. But, she added, she was not expecting the team to win fi rst overall. “But . . . we’re awe-some.”

Zach Nicholas was named top speaker of the open IPDA tournament. The team won four fi rst-place awards and two gold medals. For more information about the awards, go to www.advocate-online.net.

The team will reconvene for the 2nd Greater Portland Par-liamentary League Tournament, which will be hosted by MHCC Nov. 19.

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Jack Schommer, president of the faculty association, speaks on behalf of the full-time faculty at Wednesday’s district board meeting.

MHCC facilities graphic

NOVEMBER 12, 20104 LIVING ARTS

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Students gain experience broadcasting live gamesBy Anevay TorrezThe Advocate

In East Mult-nomah County, as in many parts of the country,

high school football is a way of life.

And for those who can’t make it live to the Friday night games, there’s KMHD2.

MHCC adds to the communi-ty spirit by offering its football fi eld for use to local teams, and the campus radio station does its part by broadcasting many of the games.

Integrated Media students broadcast several sports talk shows each Friday afternoon, so it only makes sense they would broadcast live at the football games at the MHCC stadium.

MHCC students Larry Col-lins-Morgan, BJ Perkins, Leigh Oliver, David Mast, Keishan Dorsey and PJ Miller cover high school sports as part of an IM broadcasting class.

“It’s time consuming, it gets cold but there really isn’t a downside,” said Perkins. “There’s always something new to learn.”

For coverage like this to work, dif-ferent aspects of broadcasting have to work together. Perkins is the color commentator who analyzes the play after it happens and provides further guidance on what’s happening on the fi eld so listeners can understand. Collins-Morgan handles the play-by-play from the booth high above the fi eld. On the sideline, reporters gather information that can’t be seen

from the press box. Watching from the press box is a

different experience than most fans encounter. “I love how you get to talk to the future college athletes of America and see them shine when the lights are on,” said Collins-Mor-gan, who is also Associated Student Government president.

“This experience has brought a huge amount of visibility and cover-age to many of the local high school

teams and has created some buzz,” said Collins-Morgan. “This allows many of the local teams to have some media coverage that they wouldn’t get otherwise.”

KMHD2 adviser and broadcast in-structor J.D. Kiggins said, “We start-ed doing this in 2007, my second year here at MHCC. This is our fourth consecutive year doing football.”

Do the students like what they are doing? Perkins said, “Like is an

understatement. I love this. It’s rare for students to get real world experi-ence.”

Collins-Morgan said, “The main teams we focus on are Reynolds and Barlow. We cover mainly the Mount Hood Conference.”

To hear tonight’s football broad-cast, tune in to 89.1 KMHD-FM at 7 p.m. when Centennial will play For-est Grove at Centennial High School in a 6A fi rst-round playoff game.

Integrated Media major Larry Collins-Morgan broadcasts during an Oct. 22 high school football game between Barlow and Gresham.Photos by Anevay Torrez/The Advocate

Second annualSalmon Festival

held at Multnomah Falls

� ere were plenty of Coho salmon in Multnomah Creek (at the base

of Multnomah Falls) for visitors to view during the MHCC-sponsored Salmon Festival Sunday. Activities

included painting t-shirts with a rubber salmon and making bracelets to represent the life cycle of salmon. One � sh was cut open to display the

amount of eggs they carry.

NOVEMBER 12, 2010 LIVING ARTS 5

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Monday, November 15

C a l e n d a r

Tuesday, November 16

Wednesday, November 17

Thursday, November 18

Friday, November 19

Weight Watchers in the Jazz Cafe12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Nature's Wild Side art reception 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Gresham Visual Arts Gallery

Blood Drive on campus10 a.m. - 3 p.m. in college center

Wednesday and Thursday

Chakokumtux culture night in GE201 /classroom 6 p.m.- 9 p.m.

Pick up the new issue of The Advocate

Catholic Youth Organization swim meet in the Aquatic Center 7 a.m.-10 p.m

Sunday, November 14

By Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

MHCC fi rst-year theater student Quinci Daoust, whose passions

include theater, music and dance, brings to life the role of

the empress in the Children’s Theater production “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

Daoust has had several years of theater experience in high school

plays, fi rst at Portland Christian then at David Douglas. She was involved in

choir, musical theater and dancing.“My whole life was theater and choir in

high school,” Daoust said.Daoust said her high school had

about three plays a year and she would try out for all of them and usu-ally get cast.

While Daoust attended Port-land Christian, she appeared in “Once upon a Mattress.” At David Douglas, she appeared in “The Wizard of Oz,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “The Matchmaker,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “George Wash-

ington Slept Here” and various one-act plays.

Daoust also appeared in “The Importance of Being Ernest” in a small

community theater in Olympia, Wash.“I fi rst met Quinci at the auditions

for this show but she is also in my Acting 1 class,” said Jennifer Hunter, part-time

MHCC theater director. “Right off the bat, I could tell she has a lot of charisma and she has a lot of stage

experience.” In “The Emperor’s New Clothes,”

directed by Hunter, Daoust’s character, the empress, is the stereotypical Victorian queen.

“She pouts her lips and yells a lot. She is pretty much another servant to the emper-or,” Daoust said. “I added a very obnoxious uproarious laugh to her character.

“It’s fun (being one of the leads). You get to do more stuff with the kids. We ask them to come up on the stage and hold the invis-ible clothes. It’s more responsibility when you’re the lead. It gives you more time to show your talent. I feel this is the best part for me.”

As far as hobbies go, Daoust likes to at-tend anime conventions where she dresses up as anime characters from video games or other various anime-related characters. She said some of the conventions are in Seattle or Portland.

“I guess I just love dressing up,” said Daoust.

After this school year, Daoust plans to transfer to Central Washington University where she will major in musical theater. She is taking as many theater classes as she can this year including acting funda-mentals, children’s theater and ballet.

“In rehearsal, she is extremely profes-sional and she is always prepared,” Hunter said. “She takes direction quite easily but at the same time she made this character her own. I would look forward to working with her again.”

Daoust said, “I’m pretty much going to make this my lifestyle and career, somehow. I’m not sure how. Hopefully with a travel-ing group like Broadway Across America.

“That’s leaning toward fame but I’m just doing it ‘cause I love it.”

A Nov. 20 showing is the only public per-formance of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” at 2 p.m. in the College Theater. Tickets are $2. For more information, call the box offi ce 503-491-7154.

First-year empress reigns in the MHCC Studio Theater

“My whole life was theater and choir in high school.”

Quinci DaoustTheater student

Photos by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

NOVEMBER 12, 20106 SPORTS

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

Sixteen isn’t your typical age for starting high school. But for freshman cross country runner

Tahir Chakisso, that was his only op-tion after moving to Portland from the Arsi province in Ethiopia.

Change often presents challenge and it’s never easy. Imagine the transition from a poverty-infest-ed war zone to living in the United States, with no formal training of the land, language or culture.

The biggest heartache for Chakisso was leaving his mother Zetuna and one of his younger brothers Adam (18) behind in Arsi. This made high school a living hell for the Ethiopian native.

Chakisso lives in Northeast Portland and at-tended Madison High School, where he was con-stantly reminded that he didn’t fi t in.

“I wanted to go back to my country,” said Chakis-so. “I hated life so bad. It’s really hard separating from my mom. We’re trying to get them over here.”

He was fortunate enough to have family in Port-land, including his father Waritu, along with four of his fi ve siblings: brother Mustefa (23), sister Keriya (22), brother Gutame (17), sister Kume (15) and brother Risku (8).

His father, of the Oromo ethnic background, fl ed the country after a handful of run-ins with the law (government related) in Ethiopia when Tahir was just a boy. There has been a constant feud between the Oromo people and the Ethiopian government during the last 100 years. The Oromo natives have been fi ghting for their freedom.

Tahir hadn’t seen his father for a stretch of near-ly six years. His father was able to get the paper-work to be approved by the American Embassy in Ethiopia.

The reason his father settled in Portland was because he already had family here who knew the area.

In the summer of 2006 (right before Tahir moved to Portland), he remembers “gun shots and beat-ings,” that took place in his village after a political campaign season.

“(That’s) scary when you’re young,” said Chakis-so. “The soldiers came into the town and they were shooting guns. I witnessed people (Oromo) being beaten.”

How running came to be in his life.Chakisso runs with a purpose, one deeper than

seen on the surface. He said he runs for his family near and far, for the pride of his country’s people and for a higher power – “Allah”, whom he praises on high through his strong Muslim faith and which includes fi ve special daily prayers differing from month to month.

In Ethiopia, Chakisso was known for his soccer skills and agility. He gained strength in his legs from walking to and from school each day two miles away, no matter the weather.

The words “track and fi eld” did not exist in his mind until his sophomore year of high school, the same year he competed in cross country for the fi rst time.

Madison’s U.S. history teacher and cross country coach, John McNulty, was the man who convinced Chakisso to run track after seeing his ability in cross country.

His decision to run paid off with quickly in the Portland Interscholastic League. He won the 5A PIL district championship in cross country, along with the 1,500 meters and 3,000-meter races during the spring track season.

Running has helped him set new goals. He would love to compete at the highest level (Olympic trials)

and become a professional athlete.“If I become a pro athlete, I want to help my

people (in Ethiopia),” said Chakisso. “I want to help build new schools. It’s not like here where there are schools on every block. I want to contribute money to build new ones.”

He would also like to support building new hos-pitals. “In some villages you have to carry people (sick and injured) to the nearest hospitals in big cit-ies,” said Chakisso. “It breaks my heart.

As a dedicated Muslim, Chakisso prays fi ve times a day and holds a special place for God not only in his heart but in his mind and soul.

“Allah is on my side,” said Chakisso. “Everybody is my brother and sister. Color doesn’t matter. We pray for thanks and for the poor people.”

From Aug. 11 until Sept. 9, Chakis-so celebrated Ramadan, a month-long fasting period where between dawn and dusk Muslims can’t eat or drink and must refrain from sexual relations in respect to Allah. It’s a period where they dedicate more time towards prayer than normal. This can be a diffi cult time for Muslim athletes.

“You have to do it,” said Chakis-so on the importance of Ramadan. “I didn’t run at all this year during (Ramadan). Fasting is very important

during that time period.”How he found MHCC.

While sitting out all competition during his ju-nior and senior years of high school due to academic ineligibility, he focused on school and ran as an un-attached athlete in certain meets.

He had a friend going to MHCC who convinced him of the importance of education and staying in the groove.

“I didn’t plan on running here,” said Chakisso with a bright smile. “I had been feeling a little weak, hadn’t run all summer.”

Chakisso found head coach Matt Hart and asked if they had a cross country team and, of course, the answer was yes. So he decided to give it a twirl and just last week he won the Southern Region cross country championship with a time of 26 minutes, 42 seconds. He is ranked as the sixth best runner in NWAACCs.

Hart couldn’t be more pleased with accidently landing an athlete such as Chakisso.

“In sports, there is a component of luck,” said Hart. “Having Tahir join our team this year was defi nitely a stroke of luck, or what we call a gift. To tell you the truth, I don’t know a whole lot about Tahir and I hope to gain more familiarity with him by track season.”

Throughout all the adversity, Chakisso stays true to his testimony and promises with the help of Allah that he will some day be reunited with his mother and brother Adam in Portland. But for now, he plans on making strides in his overall wellbeing by taking advantage of his God-given talent — run-ning.

“Running means so much to me,” said Chakisso. “When I start thinking about her (my mother) I go on a run to clear my mind. It makes me stronger. I’m pray-ing every single day to reunite with her. She gave me a lucky ring and I wear every single time I go run-ning.”

Running helps Ethiopian fight inner pains, near and far

photo by David gambill/the advocate

Freshman Tahir Chakisso, shown last week during the Southern Region Championship in Coos Bay where he won the individual championship.

Freshman Tahir Chakisso performs one of his � ve daily ritual Muslim prayers (Asr) Wednesday at MHCC’s campus.

NOVEMBER 12, 2010 SPORTS 7

Live volleyball coverage of the NWAACC Championship - play by play at www.advocate-online.net Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. and will run through Sunday Nov. 21

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

The MHCC men’s and wom-en’s cross country teams will compete Saturday at this year’s cross-country NWAACC Cham-pionship, hosted by Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.

The Saints’ teams qualifi ed for the championships with their performance at the South-ern Region Championship meet two weeks ago in Coos Bay at Southwestern Oregon Commu-nity College.

“Spokane (Community Col-lege), year in and year out, is one of the best. Everett is real good. It’s (the meet) a really big one,” said assistant coach Keith Maneval.

Just a season ago Spokane’s men won the NWAACC Cham-pionship and the women placed second behind Everett Commu-nity College.

Spokane have four men ranked in the top eight

runners in the NWAACCs (Anthony Brown (1), Trevin Goodrick (2) Justin Yoke (4) and Joey Hart-meier (8)).

The Saints runners are hoping to excel despite the stiff competition.

Freshman Tahir Chakisso is one of the favorites from the men’s team after winning the Southern Region Championship with a time of 26 minutes, 42 seconds. He is ranked as sixth fastest runner in the NWAACC.

“We’re looking forward to him running. We’re looking for him to do well,” Maneval said.

Head coach Matt Hart said Chakisso has a strong chance of winning the championship but knows the competition is wide open.

“NWAACC has become very strong the last few years,” said Hart. “I would like to think that Tahir has an opportunity to win. However, he will need to earn it, as there are several individuals in the NWAACC who have posted faster times thus far.”

Chakisso, one of MHCC’s newest recruits from Madison High School, had just a few choice words for the meet: “I’m ready for it,” he said.

Freshman Donnie Coulson said, “We’ve been tak-ing it easy this week.” He said the men would try to “pack up” the team as much as possible, meaning they will run together to encourage each other and to boost the team score.

Sophomore Amanda Faggard is getting ready to push herself in her fi nal cross country meet of the season.

“Oh yeah, it’s going to hurt,” said Faggard, who leads the pack on the women’s side. “We’re going to run really hard.”

On the women’s side, Faggard is as pumped as ever, “I’m nervous right now,” she said, adding, “I feel like we’re all going to do very well. We know the course very well.”

The men’s 8K race begins at 11 a.m. and the women’s 5K race begins at noon.

Cross country prepares for final showdown in Oregon City

Volleyball wraps up regular season undefeated in South

Amanda Faggard

Donnie Coulson

LIVE NWAACC COVERAGE

* Coverage depends on how far the Saints advance

photo by devin courtright/the advocate

www.advocate-online.netGO TO

FOR

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COVERAGE

� e Saints, shown earlier in the season went 10-0 in conference action a� er beating the Chemeketa Storm Wednesday night on the road. � e Saints (No. 1 seed in the South) will face the Bellevue Bulldogs (Northern Region No. 4 seed) 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 18 in the � rst round of the NWAACC

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

With a win over the Chemeketa Storm Wednesday night in Salem, the Saints volleyball team fi nished the regular sea-son with a 10-0 record in the Southern Region, the second undefeated season in a row.

“I don’t think about it often,” said head coach Chelsie Speer on going undefeated in consecutive seasons. “Yeah, it’s awe-some, but I strive for perfection. I do that in everything, kind of natural.”

How has the team reacted? “I don’t think it has sunk in on them. I need to make it a bigger deal, because it is. We need to recognize when we’re doing some-thing great, especially for our sopho-mores.”

The Saints took care of the Storm in three straight games (25-10, 25-21, 25-23) to end the regular season Wednesday night thanks to the strong offense that Speer takes pride in.

Things got a big shaky when the Storm woke up after the fi rst game and gave the Saints a run for their money.

“Chemeketa started playing well after the fi rst game,” said Speer. “They were really, really scrappy. Their libero (Caley Burdon) had an awesome match. She does everything.”

The Saints only dropped one game out of 31 games possible in conference play.

Speer said it all starts with the offense and the way they’ve defended their half of the court.

“We’ve done a pretty good job being aware of beating teams in three (games) that you should,” said Speer. “Not to sound like we don’t respect our oppo-nents, because we do.”

On Thursday, the Saints will play at 4:30 p.m. against the No. 4 seed from the Northern Region, the Bellevue Bulldogs, in the fi rst round of the NWAACC Cham-pionships, which is being held in the Mt. Hood gymnasium Nov. 18-21.

The Bulldogs aren’t an unfamiliar team to the Saints who swept them twice during non-region matches earlier this season. On Oct. 15, the Saints beat them in two games (25-10, 25-14) during the Clark Crossover tournament in Vancou-ver, Wash. On Sept. 15, they won in three straight games (25-22, 25-19, 25-16).

“It all starts over,” said Speer on the postseason. “We’ve talked about the NWAACCs a few times. Come NWAACC time, anyone can win.”

If they beat the Bulldogs, they will play the winner of the Eastern Region No. 3 seed (Wenatchee Valley Knights) and the Western Region No. 2 seed (High-line Thunderbirds). That game would be 12:30 p.m. Friday.

If they lose their fi rst match, they would next play at 8:15 p.m. Thursday.

"We've talked about the NWAACCs a few times. Come NWAACC time, anyone can win."

Chelsie Speer, Saints head coach

8 THE FLIPSIDE THE ADVOCATENOVEMBER 12, 2010

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Forecast The Student Activities Board (SAB) will sponsor a blood drive Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the College Center.

The blood drive will be dependent on attracting new donors, as anyone who gave blood in September will not be eligible to do-nate this time due to pol-icy, which requires donors to wait 56 days between donations.

After a successful blood

drive in the fi rst week of classes, the SAB is hoping to attract another large turnout.

“We’re hoping to make more people aware of the importance of donating, and we’d like to get people who have never tried be-fore to donate,” said SAB member BJ Perkins.

Anyone interested in donating must be at least 17 years old and weigh 110 pounds or more.

New recruits needed for blood drive

A toy and food drive has begun in various locations on the MHCC campus. The organization, led by ASG Di-rector of Community Affairs Jonatan Lopez and ASG Vice President Jon Francis, began Nov. 9 and will con-tinue until Dec. 18. Items that will be accepted include

new, unwrapped gifts and non-perishable foods, as well as turkeys, hams and roasts. The locations where the items can be donated are the College Center (also the only location accepting turkeys, hams and roasts), library, Career Counseling Center, HPE Athletic Cen-

ter, Aquatics Center, Vista Dining Center, the front of-fi ce of the Maywood Campus and the Work Source Center East.

The drive is in partner-ship with the “Something Wonderful” program headed by MHCC program coordi-nator Rich Duval.

Toy and food drive in progress throughout campus

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