Daily Archives: May 7, 2014

Photo Gallery, Sports

A year after stopping short, Desjardins crosses the Boston Marathon finish line

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Professor Linda Desjardin in her boston marathon shirt.s
Professor Linda Desjardin Photo courtesy of NECC Newsroom.

The tragedy of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings is something that hasn’t been wasted on those affected by it. Runners that day were thrown into a warzone. It was well documented that people who had just run 26.2 miles continued on to hospitals to donate blood. The City of Boston shut itself down to pursue two suspects in relation to the bombing.

NECC professor Linda Desjardins ran in both the 2013 and 2014 Boston Marathons. In fact, the 2014 race was her seventh Boston Marathon, and her 14th marathon in total. Running has always been something that Desjardins used to get away and to feel free.

“I started running in 1977. I ran four marathons in between ‘81-’83,” said Desjardins. “Then I stopped competing altogether, but I kept running.”

In fact, when she turned 60, she decided to run a half marathon just because it was a nice day out. She signed up the day of the race and surprised herself with how she did. “ I didn’t think anything of it and I ended up winning my age group,” she said.

2014 was a different environment than past Boston Marathons. Desjardins said that security made the event feel more strict and tight than it had in years past. “We couldn’t carry any kind of bags. We could only have what we were wearing,” she said. “You couldn’t check a bag with things you might want like a cell phone, a jacket, your car keys; you had to keep it on you. There were security checks to get on the bus, to get off the bus and to get in to Runner’s Village.”

What the race added in security, it more than made up for in support. Once Desjardins hit the ground running, she said the crowd was incredibly supportive. “This was my seventh Boston, and I have never, never seen so many people,” she said. “It was like being in a big parade for 26 miles because people were 10, 20, 30 deep in key areas. It was incredibly well supported.”

In 2013, Desjardins was stopped short six-tenths of a mile before the finish line. She had completed more than 25 miles before the bombing had forced her to stop short. When she got to that spot this year, Desjardins said she expected to cry.

“I thought when I got to where I was stopped last year I was going to burst out crying,” she said.

“I was thinking, ‘How can I run and cry at the same time? I don’t know if I can.’

“When I hit that spot, I was all prepared to be sad, but instead I got the biggest smile on my face and I couldn’t wipe it off,” she said. I just thought, ‘I’ve got this! I’m finishing this, and I’m finishing in style!’”

Desjardins will never forget the tragedy of the 2013 race; it would be impossible to. However, with the running of the 2014 race and all of the people there in support, it’s easier for her to look forward.

“I didn’t think it was going to provide closure, but it really did,” said Desjardins. “Like, 2013 is in the past. I’m going to remember it, but it’s not going to hang over me like a dark cloud like it has over the past year. I feel like I ran past it. I feel like we took back our marathon, I really do.”

Arts and Entertainment

Tom Stites, veteran journalist, to speak about Haverhill Matters

 

On April 30, veteran journalist Tom Stites visited NECC to talk to journalism and communications students about his newswebsite co-op project, Haverhill Matters.

Stites believes that Haverhill is a news desert. Stites coined the term. A news desert is an area lacking adequate local news coverage.

Haverhill is covered by The Eagle Tribune and The Haverhill Gazette. Both newspapers are owned by a corporation called Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. which is based out of Montgomery, Ala.
The Haverhill Gazette used to be an independently owned daily paper, but has since reduced its output to one paper a week.

There are no independently owned papers in Haverhill. There is a community access cable television program, HC Media, formerly known as Haverhill Community Television.

Stites hopes his news co-op idea will change the journalistic climate in Haverhill. Ideally, Haverhill Matters will be built by a community interested in civic engagement.

Members of the co-op will be actively engaged in deciding what should be covered in the city, and the coverage will be done by local people who care.

If Haverhill Matters succeeds, it will be the first ever co-operatively owned community news organization in the United States, according to Stites.

The organization backing the co-op is called the Banyan Project. Banyan hopes to create more journalism co-ops in different communities in order to improve the journalistic climate of the United States.
According to Banyan’s website, “[Our] purpose is to ensure that, despite failing newspapers, communities have the reliable news coverage and information they need. It is a robust response to an urgent need of our democracy.”

Stites hopes that projects like Haverhill Matters will give a voice to more people in the community, as opposed to only the wealthy having influence in the media and community.

Stites developed the Banyan Project with 27 other professionals and is using Haverhill Matters as his pilot.
Haverhill matters currently has 25 founding members. One member of NECC faculty, Professor Amy Callahan, is a consultant for the project.

“I invited Tom Stites to talk to our journalism-communication students because he is an accomplished veteran journalist and he is the force behind the pioneering, first of its kind journalism project right here in Haverhill,” said Callahan.

“I like to bring in speakers who can share interesting insight about the field of journalism so that my students can stay engaged.”

Journalism runs in the family for Stites. His father was a journalist for the Associated Press, and he worked his way through school. When Stites’s father was older, in his 50s and 60s, he told him not to be a journalist. Stites’s father had become disillusioned with the field.

Stites had no intention of becoming a journalist. However, when he was in his second year in college, he couldn’t find a summer job.

His father heard of an internship through the Managing Editor of the Kansas City Star and recommended Stites apply. From then on, Stites became a journalist, and his father supported his career.

Truth in journalism became important to Stites because, as his father used to say, “Journalism is supposed to be a school of truth,” and that “[a] journalist can become a paid conduit for a paid liar.”

So Stites wanted to work to eliminate the liars in newspapers.

Haverhill Matters is Stites’s way to bring the truth and fair coverage back to newspapers. The basic structure of the business is that there will be two full-time staff and one part time staff.

The full-time staff will be the Editor in Chief and the Executive Director. The Editor in Chief will be in charge of the journalism side of the co-op.

The Executive Director will be in charge of the business side. The part-time employee will be in charge of administrative duties. A group of freelance journalists will work under these three employees.

The co-op will be funded first by 200 people pledging $250 to the co-op as founding members. Afterwards, the goal would be raised to 500 founding members.

Additional co-op members would not be founding members, and they would pay $36 annually. The founding members would pay the same annual fee.

Haverhill Matters currently has 24 people pledging to pay the $250 when more people have signed on to be founding members of the co-op.

Stites plans to launch a Haverhill Matters-specific website soon, and he hopes to have a site up and publishing news by January 2015.

Sports

Knights head into the 2014 postseason with a 17-11 record

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The end of the semester is finally here, so brings the conclusion to the NECC baseball regular season. The end of the regular season means just one thing — playoffs. The Knights stand at 17-11.

Entering the tournament as the second seed, the Knights are mentally ready to take it as far as possible this year. “I’m really excited about the playoffs. It’s a chance to show every team what we are really about. Nothing is going to stop us from getting ours,” said outfielder Elmidio Crisostome.

The Knights started off their 2014 season with the mindset of making it back to the NCJAA Division III World Series. Under head coach Jeff Mejia, nearly nothing seems impossible for the Knights. Mejia has proven that he was the perfect fit for the program. He came it, took charge, and molded the team into a potential championship team.

“Our main goal is to get back to the World Series down in Texas,” said Crisostome. “Our short term goal is to win the playoffs.”

Not only has Mejia been a great coach for the Knights, but he has also become a very close friend, a sense of guidance for the young players. He has pushed them to their full potential on and off the field, making sure they are focusing on their studies.

Coming off a slow start this season, Crisostome has been a great contributor for the Knights. Batting at .312, Crisostome has two home runs, eight RBI and eight stolen bases. “I get up offensively and defensively and just try to help my team out in any way I possibly can,” said Crisostome.

The team as a whole feels as if they could have done better. They are happy that they are in the playoffs, but not completely proud of their 17-11 record. The Knights have the potential to go undefeated but this season just as another season took a little extra time to get into the swing of things.

Right-hand pitcher Zachary Beckwith made his return to the mound this season after missing the 2013 postseason due to an injury. Ever since Beckwith stepped foot on the mound again, he’s been nothing but a force for the Knights. Very few players come back after an injury and exert the power and strength that Beckwith has shown on the hill. Beckwith stands with a 1.31 ERA thus far, notching 26 strikeouts and has only walking five.

Pitcher Ryan McAuliffe has been in the Knights rotation. Anytime McAuliffe steps foot on the hill, he transforms himself into a strikeout machine. McAuliffe has team-high 43 strikeouts for the Knights, with only nine walks and giving up only one home run.

Holding the teams highest average, Jonathan DeLaCruz has dominated at the diamond. Batting at .357, DeLaCruz has been a great asset for the team. The NECC outfielder has had big hit after big hit in 2014. DeLaCruz leads the team with three home runs and with 15 RBI. Putting his speed to work at the bases, DeLaCruz has 11 stolen bases. “Stealing has to be one of my favorite things to do on the field,” said DeLaCruz.

Catcher Harrison Smoske has also put on a show on the bases. Leading the team with 16 stolen bases, batting .349 and recording 14 RBI.

The Knights team this season is full of go-getters. The players started working off in the off-
season and continued to work even harder once the season started. The Knights is a team full of diversity and outstanding talent, and they want nothing but a championship and that’s what they are after.

“We won’t stop [until] we get it,” said pitcher Mauricio Peralta.

Knight’s baseball players on Mejia:

“Coach Mejia is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, on and off the field. It’s been an honor to be coached by him,” said Crisostome.

“I am very grateful and have been blessed to have an amazing guy such as Mejia. I look up to him. Coach was a major contributor in the successful season that I had last year and for the team as a whole seeing that we made it to the NJCAA World Series in his first year coaching at NECC,” said DeLaCruz.

“Coach Mejia is the man! He’s a smart man and also a great baseball expert. He makes it all worth it coming here to NECC. I’ve learned so many valuable things from him, not only in regards to baseball but also in life,” said Peralta.

“It’s been a pleasure playing for Coach Mejia. He’s a guy who’s been around the game for a very long time and knows exactly what he’s doing,” said shortstop Trevor Bouvier.

“He is a great coach. Last year he turned this team around; he’s been nothing but great to me and to the team, “ said Beckwith.

It’s safe to say that the NECC squad thinks Mejia is simply great.

Sports

Knights’ Smoske catches fire

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A year ago, Harrison Smoske had caught one game in his life. Flash forward to the end of NECC’s 2014 season, and Smoske has been the Knights full time catcher. The Burlington High graduate has impressed not only his coaches this year, but his teammates as well. His offense speaks for itself, as Smoske is hitting .349 with a homerun, 14 RBI and leads the Knights with 14 stolen bases. Entering the season, though, it was a question of how he would hold up behind the plate. For that, Smoske has done just fine.

“Honestly, I think I’m doing pretty well,” said Smoske. “Definitely after Florida I gained a lot of confidence. Our pitchers can throw, I can catch, let’s do this. It got easier.”

The effort that Smoske has put in all year hasn’t been wasted on his teammates. Despite never catching, his pitchers have found him to be a natural to throw to.

“He hasn’t caught in a while and he’s been working his butt of in practice and done a good job,” said Dan Peters, one of NECC’s sophomore pitchers. “His work ethic is phenomenal.”

Smoske has been one of the most consistent players that NECC has had this season. He slumped early in the season, going hitless in five straight games. After that, though, His batting average dipped from a season-low .143 on March 18 to a blistering .384 on April 24. In the Knights’ first conference game of the season, Smoske homered against Quinsigamond for his only four-bagger of the season.

The competition difference between high school and college was something Smoske says was minimal.

“Compared to high school, honestly, it’s been the same or a little bit worse. I saw better pitching in high school. That’s about the only difference.”

The Knights catcher has been one of the most energetic pieces of the team since Florida. His electricity on the basepaths is just a taste of what he’s normally like.

“He’s very intense and has a lot of energy,” said Peters. “He brings a lot of energy to the field and it’s fun. I like that about him, it’s funny.”

Currently, NECC sits at 16-11 and enter the NJCAA Region XXI Regional Tournament on May 9. In each of the past two years, NECC has won regionals and went down to Texas to compete in the NJCAA World Series. Smoske thinks a three-peat is inevitable.

“I think Texas is a definite. I think it’s a definite,” he said. “I don’t see us losing to Massasoit. If we have McAuliffe or Beckwith on the mound, I don’t see us losing.”