SPORTS
APRIL 11, 2014
11
Tellis’ love of lacrosse was a ticket out of the projects
BY TRAY LYNCH
Staff Writer
Junior lacrosse player Juquan Tellis
volunteers regularly at The Community
Kitchen Project and is a Bonner Scholar.
Tellis has started for three years for
the lacrosse team and contributes his
leadership, experience and explosive
energy to help the Quakers. Though the
Quakers are on a five-game losing streak,
Tellis is still optimistic that the season will
have a positive turnaround. Tellis agreed
to an interview with The Guilfordian about
his upbringing, goals and influences.
Q: Can you tell The Guilfordian about
where you grew up?
A: I grew up in Birmingham, Ala.,
which has a top 10 homicide rate, top 10
poverty rate, and mostly projects.
Q: How did your upbringing influence
you as a lacrosse player?
A: You got to hustle, and you got
to grind. Ever since I was young, that
determination transferred over onto the
field.
Q: What made you to want to play
lacrosse?
A: I mean, growing up, I was never
big enough to play basketball. Most 5' 9"
people don't make it in basketball, and it
was fun to play.
Q; How did you begin playing
lacrosse?
A: Two coaches, by the names of
Damsby arid Lawley, came to my high
school to coach lacrosse. One was a judge,
and one was a defense attorney. I was
playing baseball at the time, and I was
really good at baseball. But the baseball
coach wasn't out there at the time, so I
just picked up a lacrosse stick and started
fooling around. Soon after, lacrosse turned
into a passion. Ever since then, I just stuck
with it.
Q: When did you fall in love with the
game?
. A: If you want to get out the projects,
sometimes you have to fall in love with
something to get you out People look for
a meal ticket out of a bad situation and
lacrosse was my way out.
Q: What made you come to Guilford?
A: The relationship between my
coach and me was the main reason I'm
here. He was real big on academics and
me graduating. I would say we found
Guilford. I had got the Bonner scholarship
and also got the chance to play lacrosse at
the college level.
Q: How do you prepare for games?
A: Music. It redly takes me through,
not just games, but also throughout my
daily routine.
Q: What are your top five songs on the
playlist before you take the field?
A: I listen to Lil Boosie mixtapes or
albums before games. He just gets me in
my zone.
Q: What's the most exciting part of
lacrosse?
A: The fans. There's nothing better
than when you get the ball and to hear
everyone cheering for you just makes you
go even harder.
Q: How do you feel about the team
this year?
A: We have a good team, but we are still
young. With us being yoimg, performing
at high levels consistently is a big thing
that we have to do week in and week out.
Q: Last year, the lacrosse team
finished seventh and missed the ODAC
tournament Does that impact the team
at all?
A: We don't really look at last year. We
just look to this year to create a new image
and focus on this year and out goals as a
team.
Q: Being that you have played \in
Coach Carmean's system for three years
now, how do you try and help first-years
understand the system?
A: Coach and me have a good
relationship on and off the field. It's easy
for me to instill what he would want into
the younger guys, but it's not just’telling
them. I have a big role as a Jeader to also
demonstrate what he wants in his players.
Q: What is the hardest part about
balancing your schoolwork and athletics?
A: Managing yourself and your time
would be hardest thing. Sometimes, being
a leader, you have to demonstrate athletics
as well as academics. You have to keep
your grades up too.
Q: The team is currently on a five-
game losing streak. How do you guys
bounce back?
A: Team chemistry and sticking
together is big. You can't have players
parting ways because that creates negative
vibes. You have to stay focused and keep
everyone on board. Staying focused is the
biggest thing I can say.
Q: What are your personal goals for
this season?
A: My personal goals for this season are
to stay consistent and take a more vocal
leadership role.
Q: What are your team goals for this
season?
A; We want to send a message to the
league that Guilford College is a top 10
team and we are here to compete.
UCONN^s men and women win it all
On April 7 and 8, the UConn teams both became national basketball champions for the second time, 10 years after they first made history.
BY ZACHARY KRONISCH
Chief Videographer
As you take the exit off the highway into my town, you'll see
a billboard that lists all the basketball national championships
the University of Connecticut Huskies have achieved over the
years.
There is a reason, and much proof, for why Storrs, Conn., can
be considered the College Basketball Capital of the World.
Yes, there may be some stiff competition from teams such as
UCLA with their illustrious 11 title; our most recent opposition,
Kentucky, with eight; and schools such as UNC, Duke, Louisville
and Indiana that just seem to breed basketball stars and titles.
But, no other university has such a pairing of successful men's
and women's programs as my Huskies do. Some schools may be
recognized for their football programs or being prestigiously Ivy
League, but it is becoming ever more apparent that when you
hear the name UConn, you think basketbdl.
Growing up in Storrs, my friends and I would play basketball
in our driveways, pretending to be UConn basketball players.
Our high school is literally on UConn's campus.
Off in the distance, Gampel Pavilion would loom, and we'd
know that our hometown heroes were not so far away. Many of
our parents were employees UConn and would often receive
free tickets to baSkeib^l gam*^
So, I grew up watching some of the greatest Big East basketball
games ever.
I was a witness.
We'd run into former players like Ben Gordon, Jeremy Lamb
and Emeka Okafor while walking around campus. We treated
them like celebrities, grabbing a quick autograph and bringing it
into school the next day to show it off to our classmates.
Although I chose to not attend UConn, I have blue and white
in my blood. I have the Huskies forever embedded in my heart.
Being surrounded in N.C. by Duke and UNC fans is
overwhelming at times, but I can justify having UConn pride
after having witnessed us winning two national championships
while attending Guilford.
As my high school classmate Carmine Colangelo wrote in his
blog on Wordpress.com following the big win this week:
"In 1999, Khalid El-Amin shocked the world. In 2004, Okafor
made the Huskies the 'Top Dogs.' In 2011, Kemba Walker will
team to the national championship. And in 2014, Shabazz
Napier has converted the nonbelievers."
Not to mention the women's national championship —
another undefeated women's team.
"We did it! Men and women are champions of the world yet
again!"
y^d, though I can't be horne to ;celebjrate in Stoits> I- will still
be bleeding blue down here in the Old North State.
UNC & NCAA
hand out dis
honest grades
BY JAMES SHARPE
Staff Writer
"We cheated," said Mary Willingham, the Center
for Student Academic Counseling and Advisor in
the Graduation Division at University-of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in an interview with ESPN.
"I can still see all the faces of the athletes we cheated
out of an education."
UNC-Chapel Hill is the oldest university in
North Carolina and the oldest public university in
the nation. The prestigious UNC is famous for high
standards of education and learning.
Recently multiple sources, including over 30
retired professors and former student-athletes,
have acknowledged an academic scandal. False
classes and dishonest grades have been the two
main components of a scheme to help athletes
remain eligible to participate in sports.
"Do you know how hard I worked in high
school to be here?" said UNC sophomore Maura
Hartzman in an interview with The Guilfordian. "I
am already in student debt to study here to have a
career.
"These athletes have a full ride and just go here
to play professional sports after college. Their
degree isn't worth a cent."
According to CNN, many other Division
I athletic powerhouses, such as Texas A&M
University, Oklahoma State University and many
more are known for grade scandals as well.
That does not excuse UNC.
"'Mary, stop talking,"' said Willingham in an
interview with ESPN. '"Everybody else is doing it,
who cares?' Well, I care."
UNC's department of African, African American
and Diaspora Studies offered ghost courses. The
main types of students enrolled in those courses
were football and basketball players.
Former Tar Heel football player Dexmta Williams
admitted that he and other football players were
enrolled in the classes and did not have to show up
for them.
"I discovered that athletes were taking these
paper classes," said Willingham in an interview
with The Guilfordian. "Whi A meant no attendance
necessary and very little work."
Another known source of athletes gaining
eligibility are the grades they are handed by certain
professors.
"Essentially, scandals and academic fraud are
not right," said UNC sophomore Katie Deagan in
an interview with The Guilfordian. "Handing out
free assignments isn't okay with me."
UNC and NCAA officials know the scandal is
happening right under fiieir noses and stiU give out
athletic scholarships.
Why do they allow athletes to continue this
fraud at such a highly respected university?
'The NCAA college sports model is a farce
because their promise of a real education in
exchange for talent is simply not possible,"
said Willingham. 'The scholarship contract —
agreement is false."
UNC has been exposed for this scandal, yet
•proper changes have yet to occur. Money may be
the issue. >
Hartzman said that UNC makes too much
money on athletes to make an effort to change.
"Smart kids don't nm into each other with
helmets on," said Hartzman. "UNC sports would
not exist if they kept academic integrity.
'The school is a business for sports, merchandise
and research. Our students and academics are
second or third at very best."
Unlike the athletic powerhouses, Guilford
College focuses on education and community first
and athletics second.
"At Guilford, you are not just an athlete and
not just a student," said Director of the Learning
Commons Melissa Daniel Frink. "At UNC, so much
focus is on the athlete that you lose the student.
"I feel badly for some students because in high
school their education wasn't emphasized, but
their athletics were."
Guilford's student-athletes work hard just like
non-athletes for earned grades.
"I think Guilford does a good job giving honest
grades," said senior women's lacrosse player
Celine de Perlinghi. "Requirements for students
and student-athletes are the same."
As Guilford expands, the hopes of students and
faculty are to keep strong in our values and remain
academically driven.
"If Guilford became larger, I think the pressure
would definitely be there to give grades," said
Daniel Frink. "I'd like to believe that We wotjild stand
our ground in our values and never violate them."