The Spectrum Vol. 65 No. 64

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016UBSPECTRUM.COM VOLUME 65 NO. 64

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

MAX KALNITZSENIOR ARTS EDITOR

UB students stood in line for hours waiting for this year’s highly anticipated Spring Fest lineup. Some students fell over barricades outside of Alumni Arena while others were turned away at the door for being intoxicated.

On Saturday, a crowd of 6,500 people packed Alumni Arena to see this year’s line-up, which featured The Chainsmokers, Mac Miller, Icona Pop and Coleman Hell. Satur-day’s attendance was a substantial increase compared to the 2015 and 2014 concerts and left approximately 500 students outside after the line was cut off.

According to Student Association President Minahil Khan, Alumni Arena reached legal ca-pacity, but security was allowed to let two peo-ple into the venue for every three that left.

The long line outside proved to be prob-lematic while letting students into the arena. The line to get into the show wrapped all the way around the University Police Station.

Some people who bought their tickets could not get into the show. Some who were able to enter left almost immediately upon seeing the intimidating crowd fi ling into Alumni Arena. Doors opened at 5 p.m. and the show started around 6:15 p.m.

SA moved the concert indoors due to colder predicted temperatures. Since Alum-ni Arena is a smaller venue, SA cut off tick-ets to the general public last Thursday so that students, who pay the mandatory stu-dent activity fee of $104.75 per semester, could attend the show.

Concertgoer Rick Runfola was upset to fi nd out he wouldn’t be allowed inside Alumni Arena after waiting almost an hour and a half in line. He described it as “unfair and a hectic process.”

“For a while they were letting in one kid

for every few that came out of Alumni,” Runfola said. “But some [guy] just came out and said they weren’t letting anyone else in. It’s really a bummer, I waited in line like an hour and a half and now me and a ton of people aren’t even going to get to go in.”

After many hours of waiting, The Chain-smokers took the stage. The EDM-duo and fi nal act shook Alumni, encouraging every-one to let loose and dance.

The pair played hits like “Roses,” “Un-til You Were Gone” and their newest single “Don’t Let Me Down.”

But just a few songs into the perfor-mance, the duo had electronic issues. They later tweeted, “Really sorry suny buffalo for that show. Feel like sh** didn’t go our way and made for a weird show.”

Some students left before The Chain-smokers took the stage and were pleased with the other artists’ performances.

Many concertgoers missed the fi rst act by the time they fi nally got into Alumni Arena. Coleman Hell was nowhere to be found, but instead Icona Pop had taken the stage.

For those who saw Hell perform, they sang along to his breakout single “2 Heads” and other songs like “Take Me Up” and “Northern Soul” from his EP released in 2015. Many people didn’t know who Cole-man Hell was, but enjoyed his mellow mix of rock and electro-pop.

Catherine Taun, a freshman geology major, said she really enjoyed hearing an alternative rock act to offset the rap act later in the show.

“I liked his songs a lot, I’m not very famil-iar with him but ‘2 Heads’ was really good,” Taun said. “I think SA did a really good job appealing to everyone at the show, but I hate rap. So it was nice to hear some rock before everyone went crazy for Mac.”

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ASHLEY INKUMSAHSENIOR NEWS EDITOR

Paul Tesluk has been named the dean of UB’s School of Management after a lengthy international dean search.

Tesluk has served as the interim dean of the School of Management since 2015. Former School of Management Dean Ar-jang A. Assad stepped down from the po-sition in April 2015 to become the dean of University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Grad-uate School of Business and College of Business Administration.

Charles F. Zukoski, UB provost and ex-ecutive vice president for Academic Af-fairs, announced Friday that Tesluk had been appointed as the dean of UB’s School of Management. This university’s interna-tional search for dean was narrowed down to three candidates with Tesluk ultimately being selected.

“We are very excited to have [Tesluk] on board as permanent dean,” Zukoski said. “He has great vision and leadership skills that will take the School of Management to new heights.”

Paul Tesluk named dean of UB School of Management School of Management’s interim dean earns permanent dean status

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

MICHAEL AKELSONSENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Every time Darien Johnson walked to the in-tersection of Genesee Street and Plymouth Av-enue, he knew there was a chance he would never come back. It may have just been a few blocks from his mother’s Rochester, New York home, but it was still, after all, rival territory.

“For maybe about a mile, it’s ridiculous, there’s probably a different gang on every corner,” Johnson, a senior communication major and short sprinter at UB, said.

It’s the type of place parents beg their

kids not to go. It’s dangerous. Terrifying. It was also, for an angry teenager without a male role model, the perfect place to make a name for oneself.

Johnson and his friends, a group of kids who loved to brawl that went by the name of SSG (South Side Genesee) or sometimes BSG (Barton, Seward, Genesee), were walk-ing to a friend’s house one night in the sum-mer of 2009 when their budding reputation nearly caught up to them.

“One of my friends, he was walking out in front,” Johnson said. “And we just saw a laser beam and then heard a bunch of gun-shots going toward him, and I was just like,

‘This is it.’”The fastest man in the history of UB was

that close to being nothing more than one of inner-city Rochester’s crime statistics.

According to city-data.com, Rochester had 19.9 murders per 100,000 population in 2013. The national average that year was 4.5. There were 436 robberies in Rochester that year while the U.S. average was 109. And of the 75 largest cities in the country, Rochester ranks fi fth in poverty rate, according to a U.S. Census Bureau Community Survey in 2015.

These days, Johnson’s got his mind on other statistics.

Don’t think. Just run.Darien Johnson has outrun the streets,

statistics and record books. Next up: The fastest men in America

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Spring Fest packs AlumniThis year’s Spring Fest draws in large crowd and long lines

ANGELA BARCA AND EMILY LI, THE SPECTRUM

The Chainsmokers, Icona Pop, Coleman Hell and Mac Miller performed at this year’s Spring Fest in Alumni Arena on April 23. The highly anticipated lineup brought in approximately

6,500 people.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUMDarien Johnson, a senior communication major and short sprinter at UB, is looking forward to the Olympic Trials after growing up being affi liated with gangs and violence.

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Zukoski said when Tesluk became interim dean, they discussed the possibility of ap-pointing him to permanent dean status.

He said although they had this discussion, there was no “forgone conclusion” that he would ultimately be appointed to the position.

Tesluk has been a UB faculty member since 2011. He was a chair of the Depart-ment of Organization and Human Resourc-es for two years. He also served as an ac-ademic director of the School of Man-agement’s Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness.

Tesluk’s appointment will be made effec-tive on April 25.

“My fi rst priority [as dean] is to build on the strong direction and momentum that we already have within the School of Manage-ment,” Tesluk said.

Zukoski announced that the search for dean was underway in September 2015.

Zukoski said the Search Committee, which is made up of UB faculty, staff, stu-dents and an individual from outside of the university, reviewed fi les of candidates that had been assembled. Ten to 20 candidates were selected from those fi les, he said.

Those candidates each were given an “air-port interview,” a confi dential meeting be-tween the candidates and the commit-tee. After the search was narrowed down to three candidates, each of them came to UB’s campus to meet with faculty and staff. The committee then made candidate recom-mendations to Zukoski and UB President Satish Tripathi, who made the fi nal decision.

“The search process was very competi-tive,” Zukoski said. “These three candidates we brought to campus were very competi-tive and very strong so search process end

up choosing the best, and Professor Tesluk happened to be the best.”

Tesluk said his role as interim dean al-lowed him to gain experience with working with UB faculty and professional staff.

Zukoski said Tesluk will be a “tremen-dous asset” as the Dean of the School of Management.

As Dean, Tesluk said he would like to continue the growth of several programs within the School of Management. He said

he looks to continue to grow the Hon-ors Program and Learning and Community Center for undergraduates.

He said he would also like to contin-ue the School of Management’s collabora-tions with other schools across UB. He said 30 percent of the School of Management’s full-time students are dual degree students and he would like to encourage students to combine various academic disciplines.

Tesluk said he would also like to strength-en students’ global experience.

“UB has a very strong international student base and the School of Management has one of the highest international student populations, it’s important for students to learn about man-agement from a global perspective,” Tesluk said.

email: [email protected]

COURTESY OF UB NEWS CENTER

Paul Tesluk has been named the dean of UB’s School of Management after former dean stepped down from the position in April 2015. He has served as the interim dean since July 2015

Paul Tesluk named dean of UB School of Management

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

The views expressed – both written and graphic – in the Feedback, Opinion and Perspectives sections of The Spectrum do not necessarily refl ect the views of the

editorial board. Submit contributions for these pages to The Spectrum offi ce at Suite

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For information on adverstising with The Spectrum, visit www.ubspectrum.com/ad-

vertising or call us directly at 716-645-2152

The Spectrum offi ces are located in 132 Student Union,

UB North Campus, Buffalo, NY 14260-2100

THE SPECTRUM

Editorial BoardEditorial Board

Monday, April 26, 2016Volume 65 Number 64

Circulation 4,000

OPINION 3Wednesday, September 2, 2015The Spectrum333333OPINION Monday, April 25, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

EDITOR IN CHIEFGabriela Julia

MANAGING EDITORS

Tori Roseman

COPY EDITORSSaqib HossainEmma Medina

Margaret WilhelmDan McKeon

NEWS EDITORSHannah Stein, Senior

Ashley Inkumsah, SeniorSarah Crowley, Asst.

FEATURES EDITORSKenneth Kashif Thomas, Senior

Evan Grisley

ARTS EDITORSMax Kaltnitz, Senior

Jamal AllardDavid Tunis-Garcia, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORSMichael Akelson, Senior

PHOTO EDITORSKainan Guo, Senior

Angela BarcaRashaad Holley

Troy Wachala, Asst..

CARTOONISTS Joshua Bodah

Michael Perlman

CREATIVE DIRECTORSPierce Strudler

Anthony Khoury, Asst.

Professional Staff

OFFICE ADMINISTRATORHelene Polley

ADVERTISING MANAGERSLee Stoeckel

ADVERTISING DESIGNERDerek Hosken

In the April 20 issue of The Spec-trum, Sarah Crowley provides a rundown of the arguments for and against closed and open pri-mary systems. She states that “Op-ponents of the open primary sys-tem argue that it is unconstitu-tional and violates the freedom of association by allowing outsid-ers to choose its candidate. In the past, the Supreme Court has sup-ported this conclusion.”

This last sentence is incor-rect. The Supreme Court has never supported the conclusion that an open primary system vio-lates freedom of association (in-deed, if that were the case, there would no longer be any open pri-mary systems in place). Rath-er, the SCOTUS ruled, in Cali-fornia Democratic Party v. Jones, that the blanket primary violated the fi rst amendment›s freedom of

association. While the blanket primary shares some features with the more typical open primary (e.g., all voters regardless of party affi liation can vote), they differ in that voters in the former can pick and choose candidates from both parties when casting their votes for all the positions on the ballot (e.g., vote for a Republican for Senator and vote for a Democrat for U.S. House).

In an open primary, on the other hand, voters may only select among candidates of a single party for every race on the ballot. The SCOTUS has never ruled against such a system.

Antoine YoshinakaAssociate Professor

Dept. of Political Science

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

JORDAN GROSSMANSPECIAL TO THE SPECTRUM

The Blue and White spring game was exactly what it was sup-posed to be – a chance for on-the-rise prospects to prove they have what it takes to earn a starting gig.

The Buf falo football team is a squad forced to remake a portion of its starting lineup after a mass exit of starting seniors. There are positions that are already decided no matter the results of the annu-al spring scrimmage. Jordan John-son is locked in as the starting run-ning back. Most of the offensive and defensive line is made up.

The biggest question mark that has been looming in Bulls fans’ minds is the next quarterback.

Since former QB Joe Lica-ta graduated, the search has nar-rowed down to three possibilities – a freshman, a transfer and a backup.

Freshman Tyree Jackson and Iowa State transfer Grant Rohach have been the favorites to take over the job since Licata threw his fi nal pass for Buffalo. But that’s all speculation. Head coach Lance Leipold doesn’t even know who his next quarterback will be.

The fact that Rohach got the most snaps or Jackson was the fi rst to play in the game doesn’t mean anything to Leipold. It was merely coincidence more than anything. He doesn’t have a public opinion about which players should start the season against Alba-ny this upcoming September.

But I do.From the hour-long sample size

to watch these three quarterbacks perform, I came to the conclusion that Buffalo will have no quarter-back problems for the foreseeable future. And while most of the off-season hype has revolved around the aforementioned Jackson and Rohach, it’s the dark horse can-didate that actually may have the best chance to start.

Chris Merchant, a rising sopho-more and former backup to Lica-ta, proved to the UB football com-munity that the backup should be associated as a legitimate threat to take the starting job.

With that decision also knocks out Jackson as a potential start-er for the upcoming season. It has nothing to do with how he played on Saturday, even though he made respectable throws and proved he could be a mobile threat.

He’s simply not the best candi-date to take over the team.

That will inevitably change sooner than later. He has the tools to be one of the best quarterbacks in the Mid-American Conference one day. It’s rare for a freshman, redshirt or not, to take on starting

duties. And even in the changing game today where mobile quarter-backs are hot commodities, Buffa-lo’s offense, for now, works better with a classic pocket passer who has the ability to run if necessary.

That’s what I learned about Merchant at the spring game.

I knew Merchant had talent, but Saturday’s game proved he could be much more than a backup quarter-back. It would be upsetting to see him become the next Tony Dan-iel – UB’s former quarterback who was overshadowed by Licata his entire career and, in essence, was one of Georgia’s best quarterbacks when he was recruited to Buffalo.

Merchant played like a quarter-back that sought out to prove some-thing. His pocket precision was im-pressive, but his awareness of blitz-ing linebackers was more impressive. His physical attributes don’t allow him to be a run-fi rst quarterback, but he can move if necessary – a trait that Licata deeply lacked.

Merchant is the only quarterback option that knows the offensive system as he played under Leipold and company for a year already. He learned under one of Buffalo’s best quarterbacks ever. And with a new quarterback-wide receiver tandem, there are no favorites yet.

K.J. Osborn, a rising sophomore wide receiver, caught three touch-down passes during the scrimmage, but said he didn’t have a preference as to which quarterback threw the ball best. He didn’t even know the

difference most of the time.The only person in Merchant’s

way is Rohach.Buffalo brought the Iowa State

transfer in for a reason. It was to play quarterback, not ride the bench. I know Leipold doesn’t care who the quarterback is or where they came from. He judges talent, not name recognition.

If Rohach had a bad perfor-mance during the spring game, I’d be more adamant to consider him the opening day quarterback. But the fact of the matter is Rohach had a great performance. His accu-racy is impressive and he overshad-owed his acclaimed arm strength known from his Big 10 days.

I still believe that Rohach will be the starter come opening day, mainly for experience reasons but Merchant is on the rise and will be a close contender up until the fi rst snap of the season. Jackson will have his day - most likely in 2017 or 2018.

Merchant is Buffalo’s best-kept secret. He only threw one pass in his UB career, an incompletion. He shouldn’t be judged on one throw over the course of a season.

He should be judged when he’s in the game for an extended period of time. Leipold and company may have to dissect game tape further than expected to make the right de-cision on their next quarterback.


The quarterback conundrum The UB quarterback battle should be cut to two players –

Rohach and Merchant

Earlier this March, North Caro-lina governor Pat McCrory signed the bipartisan House Bill 2, oth-erwise known as the transgender bathroom law. This bill ultimately limits which bathrooms transgen-dered individuals can legally use.

There is a history of separating the two sexes going back hundreds of years. In today’s world there should be less of a dividing line be-tween the sexes, especially with the overarching changes in perception toward transgender individuals.

In solidarity with the people across the country rising in protest of the bill, not to mention Buffa-lo’s own LGBTQ community, UB should make an attempt to reach out to its students and determine whether the consensus on our un-deniably liberal campus is to in-stall full-scale gender-neutral bath-rooms for its transgendered stu-dent body. With the university’s focus on UB 2020, we don’t ex-

pect changes to be made immedi-ately, but UB should start thinking about preliminary stages.

The university should feel a re-sponsibility to protect all of its students and make it clear that UB supports LGBTQ rights through gender-neutral bathrooms by start-ing a discussion. There are UB stu-dents who have not yet had, nor do they want, a surgical transition. But regardless of whether or not their genitalia matches the label on the bathroom door, students should feel comfortable walking into any stall on campus.

If UB were to move forward with the discussion, they would not be the fi rst school to do so.

Last week in the Los Ange-les Unifi ed school district, a fi ght erupted between students using a new unisex bathroom and West-boro Baptist Church members. UB should also be prepared for potential backlash, but shouldn’t

let it interfere with the comfort of their students.

Kaeley Triller, a rape survivor who recently wrote an article for The Federalist titled “A Rape Survi-vor Speaks Out About Transgen-der Bathrooms,” addresses the im-plementation of progressive bath-room and locker room policies.

Triller speaks on the extreme-ly delicate situation of bathroom changes, in light of her own trau-ma and says a gender-neutral bath-room can create an easier space for the potential vetting of vic-tims. There is no doubt upon read-ing her words that gender-neutral bathrooms can allow for predators to gain easier access to a victim.

This is why we suggest that if the school were to lay out plans for new gender-neutral bathrooms, it would be vital to gauge campus feelings on the subject. Switch-ing to gender-neutral bathrooms would take time to plan, consid-

ering which bathrooms would be changed and how much it would cost to add urinals in current fe-male bathrooms.

But UB should start the discus-sion to show they support their transgendered students and are willing to listen to different sides of the argument. These diffi cult conversations that make people uncomfortable are the topics that need to be discussed for the wel-fare of the student body. Not ev-eryone will be on board with a new policy, but UB should not be opposed to the possible change.


UB should stand in solidarity with LGBTQ rights and against NC’s House Bill 2

The university should start a discussion on the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms

ASHLEY INKUMSAHSENIOR NEWS EDITOR

Jimmy Corra’s primary goal as UB Coun-cil student representative is to share the stu-dent perspective.

Corra, a junior economics major and cur-rent Student Association Assembly speaker, has been elected UB Council student repre-sentative for the 2016-17 school year.

Voting for the UB Council student repre-sentative was held online through UBLink-ed from April 19 at 12 a.m. to April 21 at 5.p.m. Corra received 350 votes, which to-taled in 31.05 percent of overall votes.

The other candidates didn’t miss out on a victory by huge margins.

Rachel Stern received 296 votes, which totaled in 26.26 percent of overall votes. Mikael Holcombe-Scali received 232 votes, which totaled in 20.58 percent of overall votes. Bree Tom received 208 votes, which totaled in 18.45 percent of votes. Forty-one people, who make up 3.63 percent, ab-stained from voting for any candidate.

Corra said through his experience with student advocacy both in SA Assembly and SUNY Student Assembly, he has gained much perspective on what students are looking for in their education. He said it has also given him avenues to fi nd what stu-dents want.

“I’m really thankful that the students invest-ed their confi dence in me and voted for me, so I’m going to use that confi dence and make sure to serve them next year,” Corra said. “I really look forward to advocating for them.”

The UB Council is the primary oversight and advisory body to UB and its president and senior offi cers.

A total of 1,127 people voted in the election.SA elections have been marked with low

student voter turnouts. The recent executive board election saw only 6 percent of the student population voting.

Corra said he would like to have more stu-dents to vote in elections. He said although he hung up fl yers and heavily promoted the election on social media, the voter turnout remained below expectations.

“We need kind of a total paradigm shift, because things are promoted very well right now, elections are promoted well, I would like to see more advertising for the [Univer-sity Council student representative] position to begin with,” he said.

He said students need to fi nd more of an interest in elections themselves. He said low voter turnout is a problem in the entire country, even with presidential elections.

Corra said the UB Council student repre-sentative has been “kind of an invisible po-sition” in the past, with many students not understanding what the job entails. Corra would like to educate students on what the position is all about in the future.

Corra said holding elections online is a “double-edged sword.”

“It makes voting more accessible, how-ever not as present, not as in the faces of students,” Corra said. “When there’s vot-ing booths in the Student Union theater, ev-eryone knows where the voting is and peo-ple in the Student Union are forced to vote, however people who do not enter the Stu-dent Union don’t vote.”

Corra said he’s learned throughout the years that his most important job is to share the student voice rather than his own.

As UB Council student representative,

Corra looks to hold monthly open advoca-cy forums for students in the Student Union theater and Harriman Hall located on South Campus. He also looks to attend various meet-ings of SA clubs and organizations so he can better understand the student perspective.

Corra said he looks to continue building on the university’s WiFi Boost project, en-sure the completion of the Heart of the Campus initiative and advocate for the in-crease in the Athletics fee.

“He has a lot of specifi c plans, which is why I think he’ll be a great council rep-resentative,” said Megan Glander, a ju-

nior political science and communication major and current SISH coordinator. “He has a very well-rounded opinion and kind of gage of what the students want.”

Glander fi rst met Jimmy as a freshman in the SA Assembly. She said it’s great to see that he has grown so much.

She described Corra as a “very relatable” person who treats everyone equally.

Corra said that the elections were a “great race” and each of the candidates performed “really well.”


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EVAN CALIGOR, THE SPECTRUM

Jimmy Corra, junior economics major and current SA Assembly speaker, will serve as the UB Council student representative for the 2016-2017 school year.

Jimmy Corra elected 2016-17 UB Council student representative

Current SA Assembly speaker to serve as UB Council student representative

Icona Pop took the stage amongst a bliz-zard of fl ashing colored lights and strobes. The crowd sang and danced to songs like “Girlfriend” and their most popular hit song “I Love It.” The whole arena was energetic, jumping up and down to the beat and pump-ing their arms as the pop-duo rocked out.

As Icona Pop left the stage and Mac Mill-er was about to start, the crowd was burst-ing with excitement. For many, Mac Miller was what drove them to this year’s concert.

Blake Chen, a sophomore business major, said he couldn’t wait to hear Mac Miller per-form and he wasn’t disappointed.

“I’m really looking forward to him play-ing [music] off his new album, but also maybe ‘Donald Trump,’” Chen said. “He was just here so I think it’d be funny.”

Loud cheers from the crowd welcomed Mac Miller to the stage. He played songs like “Loud,” “Nikes On My Feet,” and a fi tting “Donald Trump” as the Republican presiden-tial candidate was in Buffalo just last week.

Despite some microphone issues during his set, the crowd still enjoyed his performance. He was very animated; his music invigorated the crowd and most importantly got them ready to rave for headliners The Chainsmokers.

Chen commented on the rapper’s perfor-mance while waiting for The Chainsmokers to make their appearance.

“It kind of sucked that he had some mic issues, but besides that I really enjoyed his performance,” Chen said.

Ben Freeman, a freshman mechanical en-gineering major, said The Chainsmokers were the best act of the night.

“I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the bands before Spring Fest,” he said. “But after see-ing The Chainsmokers play I’m probably going to go home and download all their music. I felt like I was at a popular summer music festival, the way everyone was danc-ing and getting into it, it was awesome.”

Tom Martinez, a sophomore business ma-jor, and Connor Dillon, a sophomore engi-

neering major, both left during Icona Pop’s performance, because they felt that the are-na was too crowded and they were too tired from waiting all day to stay any longer.

“It’s way too over packed in there, it should have been outside for sure, I get that SA had to make the call early, but if it was outside it would be a lot less cramped and a lot more enjoyable,” Martinez said.

Dillon agreed and noted that the length of

the wait also played into the decision to leave. “Alumni gets really hot really fast, we

waited so long in line to see Mac Miller, and honestly it’s just not worth the wait any-more,” Dillon said. “We’re tired from wait-ing and want to go back to our dorm.”

Other students were upset that Mac Mill-er didn’t go fi rst since many students came to the show to see him and didn’t care for the openers.

Although the long, hectic line steered many students away, those inside who stayed for the full show enjoyed it.

SA could not give The Spectrum the total cost of the show in time for print, but it was paid for by the mandatory student activity fee.


55ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTMonday, April 25, 2016THE SPECTRUM

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SCCC_Summer16_Buffalo_Layout 1 2/23/16 3:23 PM Page 1

Spring Fest packs Alumni

ANGELA BARCA, EMILY LI AND ALYSSA MCCLURE, THE SPECTRUM

(top) UB students put their hands up and cheer for Mac Miller as he takes the stage; (bottom left) Indie rock artist Coleman Hell performed tracks from his 2015 EP album; (bottom middle) UB students fall over barricades outside of Alumni Arena while waiting for doors to open;

(bottom right) EDM-duo The Chainsmokers were the fi nal act for this year’s Spring Fest.


He’s focused on numbers like 6.68 sec-onds – the time it took him to run the in-door 60-meter dash and break the UB re-cord for the third time this season. Or 1:25.43 – another UB record time that he led his 4x200 relay to this season. Or 10.1 or 10 fl at, which is the time he and his coach expect to see him running in the 100-meter by the end of the season, which would de-molish UB’s current record and qualify him for Olympic Trials later this year.

After three years of mediocrity to begin his college career, he’s burst onto the fringe of the national scene, raising questions about just how high the ceiling might be for a kid who talks about making a .7 second jump in the 100-meter dash without a hint of doubt in his voice.

There is an odd dissonance about Johnson. He’s ferocious, yet extremely vulnerable.

He speaks of still-occurring anger prob-lems, yet acts with absolute civility. He some-times speaks with overconfi dence, other times with insecurity, and often does both within the same train of thought. He’s closer to mas-tering his sport than he is to mastering him-self, but he knows in the fast, fl eeting world of short sprinting, you can’t have one without the other, and so he’s working on both.

Not long ago, he was nearly just anoth-er casualty to the gang life of Rochester, and things didn’t get easier after he earned a scholarship to UB. Johnson lost his confi -dence and love for the sport. His family was torn apart and separated by a house fi re.

For a kid that’s been through so much, his aspirations for what comes next are bold.

Professional track career. Indoor USA Champion. Olympian.

There is a laid back look often seen in John-son’s eyes, but it takes only four words to turn it into something much different, something simultaneously determined yet apprehensive.

“Don’t think. Just run.”Those are the four words that Walter Lar-

kin Jr. texts Johnson before every race.Larkin has always had a theory about

Johnson, the runner who calls him “dad,” and who he says is more of his “adoptive sons” than an athlete. His theory is that Johnson is a “headcase,” a word even John-son knowingly uses to describe himself.

“Very few people should be able to beat someone with his combination of size, nat-ural speed, and strength,” Larkin said.

But, as the theory goes, too often, he beats himself. His temper is too short. He overthinks things too much. He’s been through too much. For years, the “head-case” has stunted his own growth both on and off the track. But this year, he’s fl ipping the script on his career narrative. His sur-prise success this year caught many people, including Johnson, off guard.

“I didn’t expect a gear like this to kick in this year, I didn’t expect it to kick in this fast,” Johnson said. “I feel like there’s a second gear, third gear, fourth gear waiting to kick in.”

Those next gears have always been wait-ing for him. The prophecy of such success for him has long been written by those who have seen him develop and wondered just how good he might be if his mental tough-ness ever matched his talent.

He wants to fi nd out if he has what it takes to be what he thinks he can be: one of the fastest men on the planet.

He knows he must fi rst master the mis-sion Larkin reminds him of so often – to run, and to live, at peace.

The raging bull of RochesterWhat came fi rst, the boxing or the street

fi ghts? Johnson is struggling to remember.“The boxing came fi rst,” Johnson said.

“Well, no, the fi ghts outside the ring came a little fi rst.”

What really came fi rst, however, was the furious rage that for years left him punch-drunk both in and out of the ring. Before he ever stepped foot onto the track, Johnson was a boxer. He says he took up boxing to improve himself for the real fi ghts, the ones he always seemed to fi nd himself in outside of the ring and on the streets.

“When I started boxing I felt like I didn’t fear people,” Johnson said. “As soon as somebody said something to me, I was ready to swing.”

There was a time when fi ghting was John-son’s release. When he got angry, he was ready to go. Many of his fi ghts were indi-vidual, but he also formed a small-time gang with some of his friends who lived around him. They went by two names.

BSG, which stood for Barton, Seward, Gen-esee, the three streets they always hung around. And SSG, which stood for South Side Gene-see, the part of the gang-infested street many of them came from and hung out around.

Early on, all attempts by his family and teachers to turn him around were mostly futile. In his worst years, he’d throw desks at the wall, chairs at his teachers, and even once lit his own mother’s mattress on fi re.

As the years went by and he got to more con-sequential ages, Johnson’s temper put him in the same dangerous position as many angry, con-fused kids in inner-city neighborhoods without a male role model. He balanced on a tightrope between righteousness and ruin, destined to fall to whichever side nudged him harder.

“I just wanted to fi t in, I just wanted ev-eryone to think I was cool, and think I was about that life,” Johnson says in hindsight. “I thought me being a gang member would attract more people.”

Luckily, his athletic ability, fi ery temper, and edginess did attract someone. He just didn’t know it would be the coach of the locally fa-

mous Rochester high school track dynasty.

Fast, not furiousJohnson’s mother Debora was an only

child, which meant Johnson had no aunts or uncles. His biological father was never really in the picture. Johnson says he doesn’t “really hear from him.” His older brother Dekedrian was only a few years older than him, so there was no male role model for Johnson early on.

The only other person that helped raise Johnson was his grandmother, with whom he formed a close bond. He said that when he was in trouble, when the teachers would make him call home, it was always his grand-mother he would go to. She was the bearer of all his secrets, the one who let him have girls over when his mother wouldn’t. She passed away a few years ago.

Right now, in the midst of his jump toward superstardom, it’s a very delicate time for John-son’s family. Last year, a few days after Christ-mas, an electrical fi re destroyed his mother’s house. When the fi re happened, Debora was in the midst of putting herself through college while working and providing for her family.

The fi re set her back majorly, and forced her and her sons to live separately for a while as she tried to put the pieces back together.

“I basically told them, we might have to sep-

arate for a little while, but things will be alright,” Debora said. The family split between multiple houses and Johnson went back to UB.

There was a time when this stuff would have made Johnson angry. Nowadays, it mo-tivates him.

“I want to see my mom smile,” Johnson said. “I want to be able to succeed in the sport so she can stop working. It’s only right that me and my older brother let her shut it down sooner or later.”

Just like fi ghting or throwing something across the room once was, the track is now his release. It is his livelihood. No matter what happens, he knows it can and it must, be brief-ly forgotten in his pursuit of greatness.

“When I’m running, everything dispers-es,” Johnson said. “It’s not really me think-ing of the pain I’ve been through, running keeps me away from all that stuff.”

He understands now that the fi ery temper that once burned inside him will only slow him down.

“As he got older, he understood that there was more out there and life was bigger than just always getting upset,” Aubrey Sheffi eld, a former high school assistant coach of Johnson, said. “If you run happy, you’ll al-ways do more than running angry.”

6666 SPORTSWednesday,September 4, 2015The Spectrum

SPORTS66666666666666666Monday, April 25, 2016THE SPECTRUM

DON’T THINK JUST RUN


CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

COURTESY OF

DEBORA JOHNSON(bottom)Johnson and his high school relay team, they went to States in the 4x100 and 4x400, and Nationals in the 4x200.

COURTESY

OF DARIEN

JOHNSON

(top)Johnson and

some of his high

school teammates

pictured at the 2010

Empire State Games, an

Olympic style

competition for amateur

athletes held at UB

Stadium.

It is true, Johnson has come a long way. The temper he speaks of is now almost in-visible. He is no longer fast and furious, but rather just fast. His love for the sport is driv-ing him to drop all the negative weight off his back. He’s fi nding that the better person he becomes, the faster he runs.

The four horsemen According to the Schott Foundation’s

2010-11 national report on black males’ high school graduation rates, Rochester had the single lowest graduation rate for black males (21 percent) in the entire country of any dis-trict to enroll more than 10,000 students. The year before, the four-year graduation rate for black males in Rochester was just 9 percent.

But from 1998-2011, Walter Larkin Jr., the track coach at Edison Technical School, a trade high school in inner-city Rochester, was intent on defying the statistics.

Sheffi eld, one of his former assistant coaches, said he stopped counting how many Edison Tech runners went to college on scholarships years ago, when the number was well over 100.

Arthur Brooks, however, was not among the Edison runners to receive a scholarship offer, so in his senior year, he began skipping classes

and not fi lling out his college applications. “I’m gonna pick you up, and take you to

the library,” Sheffi eld told him. “And we’re gonna do applications and essays all day un-til you get it done.”

Brooks graduated from Brockport Uni-versity in 2015 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. He is among the hundreds of kids to go through the Edison Tech track program and end up going to college be-cause of it, whether it be via scholarship, or the urging of the coaching staff.

“Those coaches, they should be hoard-ed with humanitarian awards,” Brooks said. “They invested the time, money, and love to all of us, especially the kids who didn’t have a father fi gure in their life.”

One of those kids was, of course, Johnson. Larkin still remembers the fi rst time he

met Johnson, the talented troublemaker who had just transferred into Edison for his sophomore year. After fi ghts, bad grades and other troubles, his mom decided to en-roll him into a different school. He was tall, incredibly skinny and raw as could be.

As he often did, Larkin right away saw the immense potential he possessed, and every-thing that threatened to waste it.

“He was borderline, he was either gonna go in one direction with his life or the oth-

er,” Larkin said. “I do believe him coming to Edison was a blessing, because he didn’t have any male role models in his life, so he kind of looked at me as a father fi gure, and I know it changed him.”

The coaching staff at Edison would make it a point to take in kids who came from bro-ken homes. They would take kids who were headed down a bad path and put them into a winning tradition that could transform them.

If someone on the team would get caught stealing, that day at practice, everyone would be punished. Someone skipped class? Some-one didn’t do their homework? Everybody’s going to pay. Brooks recalls Larkin encour-aging kids to join the team who had been expelled for bringing guns to school. One time, a member of the team was found guilty of murder.

“They did all they could to try to help him,” Brooks said. “He just wouldn’t come to practice.”

If kids didn’t have a method of transpor-tation, one of the coaches would pick them up and drive them to practice. If they didn’t have running shoes, the coaches would buy them running shoes.

Larkin said that right away, he could see that Johnson had a “winning mentality.” He saw potential in him not just as a runner, but as a person. Although Larkin said John-son always had that winning mentality, “he didn’t start off winning.” Sheffi eld doesn’t sugarcoat it, when Johnson fi rst joined the team, he was “slow.”

He joined in the 2009-10 season, which happened to arguably be the best of the 14 Edison teams to win sectional titles. On the strength of a stacked senior class of future college runners, that ’09-10 team went all the way to States.

The glory of it all, however, was short lived. The coaches and runners at Edison Tech, for over a decade, called themselves “the dynas-ty,” and the dynasty was cyclical, it had to be. As soon as one class of runners was getting closer to college, they knew it was their job to groom the next group of runners to keep the tradition going. No one wanted to see the Edi-son reign come to an end on their accord.

When he fi rst got to Edison, Johnson says he was still “trying to live the rough life.” At prac-tice, he would outrun everybody for the fi rst 20 meters and then lose his stamina and get smoked. The upperclassmen and coaches knew if they could get Johnson, who at the time was more committed to being the quarterback on the football team, to fully commit to track, and to leave the streets behind for good, they could turn him into the next Edison great.

Larkin believes in order for a team to win in track, they need “four great boys, four leaders.” He calls them “the four horse-men.” It was their responsibility to make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to, both on and off the track.

With such a great class of seniors gradu-ating, it was time for someone new to step up. One of the top sprinters on that ’09 team, Mark Canady, was a junior and still re-turning the next season, but someone need-ed to help him out and become the horse-men in waiting.

“The upperclassmen came to talk to me ... telling me that I needed to step up,” John-son said.

Larkin recognized Johnson’s potential to be one of the next horsemen not just on the track, but also off of it.

“I liked him, he was just a nice kid,” Lar-kin said. “I could tell he had it in him, he just needed that male role model.”

Imperative to being one of the dynasty’s leaders, was making sure that everyone was doing the right thing off the track. The kids spent more time together in school than the coaches possibly could. It took a kid fully com-mitted to the track, a kid immune to the peer pressure that surrounded him and his team-mates, to take the role of a leader at Edison.

Sheffi eld remembers the full circle mo-ment when he knew Johnson could play the part. At the end of his fi rst year, Johnson, still not 100 percent indebted to the track, lost a race at City Championships.

“He couldn’t hold it in anymore, he burst out in tears,” Sheffi eld said. “He felt as if he let the team down, and after that, Johnson wasn’t gonna let anyone ever beat him again.”

That summer, the one between 10th and 11th grade, with one foot on the track, and the other in the streets, Johnson had a choice to make.

Hoodlum or horsemen?

The birth of Darien JohnsonEvery summer, Larkin had an open door

policy at his house. He had a gym in his ga-rage, and he would always encourage his runners to come over to work out, eat and hang out together.

“Kids who come from broken homes, I would often take them in and let them stay there,” Larkin said.

During the summer preceding his junior year, the one in which he was tapped to step up as one of the leaders of the Edison Tech track team, Johnson decided, with the encourage-ment of his mother, to stay at Larkin’s house.

7SPORTS Wednesday, September 4, 2015

The Spectrum77777SPORTS Monday, April 25, 2016THE SPECTRUM

“WHEN I’M RUNNING, EVERYTHING DISPERSES. IT’S NOT ME THINKING OF ALL THE PAIN I’VE BEEN THROUGH.”


CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

COURTESY OF

DARIEN JOHNSON

Johnson starred as

a dual-threat

quarterback in Edison

Tech’s triple-option offense,

and received college offers

for football in addition to

track and fi eld.

KAINAN GUO,

THE SPECTRUM

Johnson stands in

front of UB’s Athletics

Hall of Fame, where his

name should soon

stand forever.

EVAN GRISLEYASST. FEATURES EDITOR

Nick Czekaj has to bike 500 miles, run two miles a day and hit the gym whenever he gets a chance before he sets off to bike from North Carolina to San Diego.

From the middle of May to the end of July, Czekaj, a junior political science, internation-al relations and French major, will ride his bike across the country to raise awareness on af-fordable housing through the Bike & Build or-ganization. This trip requires him and 30 other people to bike seven to 10 hours a day, making stops along the way to present to volunteers and community members on affordable hous-ing.

Since Bike & Build was founded in 2003 they have had 3,000 riders participate, biked around 9.5 million miles, volunteered 200,000 hours at build sites and donated $5.8 million to affordable housing organizations.

The organization offers 10 different routes around the U.S. that bikers can sign up for.

“Biking seven to 10 hours a day, present on affordable housing, build, sleep, wake up and do it all again the next day,” Czekaj said while looking at his daily summer routine.

But this isn’t something the average per-son can just get up and do. Bike & Build has specifi c requirements for their riders before going on the trip.

Czekaj has to raise $4,500 to cover meals, housing, a bike and tools needed to present on affordable housing to different commu-nities throughout his travel.

He started a “Go Fund Me” page and is receiving donations from the Bike & Build website. He also has frequent meetings with possible investors.

He has received funds from the Rotary Club of Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC). The BNMC has also helped Cze-kaj with professional connections for both donations and his professional career.

Along with raising $4,500, Czekaj has

some homework to do before he can start his ride.

Bike & Build assigned him the affordable housing curriculum research before con-ducting presentations and interviews.

“Essentially you need to be the expert when it comes to presenting affordable housing on the trip” Czekaj said. “There is all this ground work you have to lay before going on the trip.”

The trip doesn’t only test knowledge on affordable housing, but it is also a physical challenge.

The organization requires Czekaj to ride 500 miles on the bike assigned to him to prepare for ride. Czekaj stressed the impor-tance of being physically able to ride seven to 10 miles a day.

On top of the 500 miles of training, Cze-kaj also requires himself to run two miles a

day and go to the gym during his spare time. Just like driving across the country, the per-

son driving must be familiar with their vehi-cle. Czekaj has been riding for two years, but he doesn’t consider himself an expert.

“It’s incredibly important to understand the piece of equipment you will be spending half of the summer on,” Czekaj said.

Injury is also a concern of his while go-ing on the trip. Czekaj mentioned that in the past, three people have died while on the trip.

But this won’t stop him.“I don’t like to stress this, considering the

amount of people is so small,” Czekaj said.Preparing for this trip and completing his

school work is a consuming task.Czekaj currently takes six classes and

works at the same time. He is also a part of the UB Rotaract Club. But putting Bike & Build on his resume was something he

couldn’t pass up.Czekaj mentioned that he may want to get

involved in community development for the rest of his life, and through “Bike & Build” he will be getting experience in the fi eld he has interest in.

Matt Falcone, president and co-found-er of the UB Rotaract Club, is happy to see Czekaj start his summer journey.

“Nick has been an integral member of the University at Buffalo Rotaract Club,” Falcone said. “We are proud to see him fur-thering that connection throughout the country as he travels and works to improve access to safe, affordable housing.”

Tyler Choi, another member of the UB Ro-taract club, has worked directly with Czekaj.

“I commend him for his efforts to inspire his community and share his vision on the potential impact his Bike & Build journey could have,” Choi said. “There are not many individuals as well-rounded and kind-heart-ed as Nick today in our lives, but I’m thank-ful to say that I am one of the lucky few.”

Czekaj recently traveled abroad and said his experience in another country has helped him grow.

“I don’t like feeling comfortable” Czekaj said. “When I’m in an uncomfortable situation I know I am learning and growing from it.”

Czekaj also wants to create cultural aware-ness of bike culture because it’s “so healthy and cost effective.”

Finding the motivation to do all of this is something that Czekaj thinks about every-day. Juggling school, work and Bike & Build has him working “almost every hour of the day,” he said.

“At the end of the day I am not being forced to do anything, I’m doing because I want to do it,” Czekaj said. “I ask myself everyday if this is still it and I have not said no yet.”


DAILY DELIGHTS

ADVERTISEMENTSFEATURES88Monday, April 25, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

Biking from North Carolina to San Diego

COURTESY OF NICK CZEKAJ

Nick Czekaj points to the route he will be taking starting in May when he bikes across the country and helps raise awareness on affordable housing.

UB student plans to travel across the country and raise awareness on affordable housing

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Every day that summer, sometimes twice a day, Larkin would put Johnson through tough, limit-testing drills, both on the track and in the weight room. He would feed him baked foods, fruits and vegetables. He wasn’t allowed to eat fried foods and he had to take vitamins.

Off the track, it was a summer of fi rsts for Johnson. First time being forced to clean his room. First time being forced to take out the garbage before being allowed to leave the house.

Of course, his fi rst instinct was to quit. “There was times me and my mom talk-

ed and I told her I really don’t want to do this,” Johnson said. “Because I really didn’t see that I had the talent.”

Debora would have none of it. She knew this was her son’s ticket to college, and she credits Larkin for convincing him to go to college.

“Before [Larkin], college wasn’t even a thought,” Johnson said.

Larkin knew that the summer between 10th and 11th grade was a pivotal one. Most college recruiting comes during the junior year of high school, so when it came to earning scholarships, his runners needed to be running their best by their junior year.

It was also a pivotal summer off the track. When you return to school an upperclass-men, the reality sets in that high school won’t last forever. It comes time to start thinking about who you want to be in life. Going into that summer, Johnson was still unsure, but by the end of it, he had an epiphany.

“I saw I didn’t want to live that life,” John-son said. “I saw how I was interacting with track people when I was over Walt’s house, compared to my old friends. [At Larkin’s house] I would act like myself, whereas over there, I had to act like something I wasn’t.”

By the time that summer ended, it was obvious Johnson had transcendent talent, and even he was starting to see it. He shaved a half-second off his 100-meter time in just a couple of months, although Sheffi eld says, “it may have even been more than that.”

Additionally, he was no longer a skinny, lanky kid – he was “a powerhouse.”

“If you saw the formation of his body from 9th to 11th grade, you will see that he really did put it all in that summer, to come back and be one of the best,” Larkin said.

Perhaps more transforming than any-thing though, was the development of his relationship with Larkin. He was no longer coach, he was “dad.” And to Larkin, he was no longer Darien Johnson, he was “son.”

In his last two years at Edison, he became

one of the “horsemen,” the face of the dynas-ty. He became one of the top runners in all of Section V and helped continue Edison’s run of success. He was twice named an All-American in the 60-meter dash and indoor 4x400 relay.

When it came time to think about college, he was recruited by a laundry list of schools: Syracuse, Binghamton, Penn State, Ak-ron. He even got offers for football. But he knew where he wanted to go, and it wasn’t any of those schools.

He wanted to go to UB, just like Lar-kin. Perry Jenkins, Buffalo’s head coach of sprints and relays, was a friend of Larkin’s and Larkin felt confi dent Johnson would be coached well at UB. Still, at fi rst, Johnson couldn’t “get any love” from Jenkins. He would send him e-mails and not hear back.

Jenkins came out to Rochester that win-ter break for an annual meet called the “Up-state NY Holiday Classic,” and brought with him some of his top runners from UB.

Johnson, just a 16-year old high school junior at the time, beat every single one of them in the 55-meter dash. It was no one-time fl uke, he won against college runners twice, fi rst in the prelims, then in the fi nals.

After that, Johnson proved to Jenkins he belonged at Buffalo. Jenkins fi gured Johnson would come to UB and destroy the record books by his sophomore or junior season.

But it didn’t happen that way. On and off the track, the struggles of Johnson were only beginning. He had outrun the streets and the statistics, but all along, his greatest opponent was still looming.

And before he could crush the record books, he would have to crush his own demons fi rst.

The big planTwo years before Johnson re-wrote the

record books at UB, he sat across from Jen-kins and asked him for his release to the University of Akron.

“We’re not losing you,” Jenkins told him.Just how close did it come to happening? “It was really close,” Jenkins admits.Johnson says that during his fi rst two years

at UB, he was calling Larkin “probably three times a week to say ‘I don’t like it here.’” He says in his fi rst two years at UB, he tried to get released at least two or three times.

His confi dence dropped to an all-time low during his sophomore year at UB. He didn’t feel Jenkins’ workouts were as challenging as the ones he did in high school and he made it known. Runners that he had once dominated in high school were now dominating him in col-lege. For a while, he lost his love for the sport.

For those fi rst two years at UB, the only

thing Johnson may have led the team in was disciplinary pushups. It seemed everything he did got him punished. He thought coach Jenkins hated him.

“There was a meet my freshman year, I was going into the 60 ranked third, going into the fi nals, and I came out like 7th, and I sat there and moped, and he yelled at me in front of everybody at the meet,” Johnson said. “That was a huge down time. I felt like I lost respect for him, I felt like he lost respect for me... I just didn’t feel like he liked me.”

Yet, Jenkins convinced Johnson to stay when he told him the big plans he had for him. He told him if he could get it right, de-spite his struggles, Johnson had a chance to make a run at the 2016 Olympics.

“Myself and Walter, we both sat down and made him realize this is a place you should be, just give [me] a chance and things will turn out.” Jenkins said.

His junior year, Johnson came back with a better attitude and his times improved. Still, it wasn’t quite the performance he proved capable of when he beat some of UB’s top runners as a 16-year-old. But nonethe-less, the comeback was underway. His confi -dence was rising and he was starting to have fun on the track again.

Still, he was fl ying under the radar heading into his senior season this year. And for “the headcase,” what a blessing that would be.

Unfi nished businessThe time Johnson ran this season to break

UB’s 60-meter dash record for the third time, 6.68, ranked him among the top-30 NCAA sprinters in that event in the coun-try. According to Jenkins, Johnson’s time in the 60-meter dash this season should trans-late to somewhere between 10.15 and 10.25 for the 100-meter. Johnson has personally set his goal as high as a 10 fl at.

The USA Track and Field qualifying stan-dard to make it to Olympic Trials this July in the 100-meter is 10.1. Coming into this year, his fastest time ever in the 100-meter at Buf-falo was a 10.76. Of course, it wouldn’t be the fi rst time Johnson made a leap in time that substantial in such a short period.

“This year, it’s almost like his re-birth again, just like in high school,” Larkin said.

The fi rst time Johnson found some sem-blance of mental peace and stability, as an upperclassman in high school, it resulted in an insane uptick in time that won him a col-lege scholarship. Now, the second time, as a senior in college, it’s lifted him into UB’s record books, made him a Mid-American Conference champion, and put him onto the fringe of the Olympic discussion.

Both of these leaps in miniscule amounts

of time followed years of hardship and lack of improvement. If Johnson is, as he swears, capable of another leap in time this large with the furtherance of his mental toughness and continuance of his work eth-ic, where might it take him?

“It will lead me to be a possible USA In-door Champion for the 60,” Johnson said. “Or make the World team, it will defi nitely get me on pace to make the next world team.”

After three years of college track stuck in purgatory, will the rockiness of Johnson’s rise actually turn out to be his advantage? Is there another conference-champion-ship winning sprinter in the country leaving college feeling more like they haven’t even scratched the surface of their potential yet?

“For a while, he was kind of just going through the motions,” said Tyra Forbes, a wom-en’s track and fi eld athlete and Johnson’s girl-friend. “Whereas now, he’s like ‘Wow, I’m actu-ally fast, I can do this.’ So he works harder be-cause he knows he’s capable of being the best.”

It took him 22 years to fi gure it out, but John-son now knows that he can be the best. As he approaches graduation this May, everything is seemingly starting to brighten for him. The happy endings are everywhere around him.

More than a year after the fi re, his moth-er Debora is putting the pieces of her life back together. She just recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in probation collec-tions from Brockport University, and she’s now living in an apartment in the suburbs of Rochester with Johnson’s younger broth-ers. The family is once again living together, now closer than ever.

Larkin is no longer the track coach at Ed-ison Tech, instead he has a new leadership role at the school: principal. Sheffi eld has his own head-coaching gig now at Penfi eld High School in Rochester.

As for Johnson, he refuses to believe this re-cord-breaking, conference-championship win-ning, swan-song of a senior season is his happy ending in progress. The track has always been his sanctuary, and he has unfi nished business.

“I still have a lot to do,” he says.On and off the track, Johnson knows he’s

still a work in progress. He’s got a lot behind him, a lot to run for and he’s still fi guring out how to deal with it all. But still, he knows the day is coming, when he wakes up on the day of the race, looks at his phone and feels at peace with the four words his “dad” knows hold the key to Johnson becoming who he wants to be on and off the track.

“Don’t think. Just run.”And when that moment comes, his men-

tal toughness fi nally matching his talent, there might be no stopping Darien Johnson.


DON’T THINK JUST RUN

“HE WAS BORDERLINE, HE WAS EITHER GONNA GO IN ONE DIRECTION WITH HIS LIFE OR THE OTHER.” - WALTER LARKIN JR.

“NOW, HE’S LIKE ‘WOW, I’M ACTUALLY FAST, I CAN DO THIS.’ SO HE WORKS HARDER

BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE’S CAPABLE OF BEING THE BEST.”

- TYRA FORBES


PHOTO BY KAINAN GUO

The Spectrum Vol. 65 No. 64

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