jake marlay – The Hilltop Monitor

Senior Showcase: Monitor Editorial Staff

Madison Carroll Porth — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 13:00:26 +0000

This May, six members of the Hilltop Monitor editorial staff will graduate. Each senior shared their experience on the Monitor, memories of Jewell and plans for after graduation.

Kristen Agar, senior accounting major, has been on the Monitor for the past four years and served as Editor-in-Chief this year.

“The Monitor has taught me so much over the past four years,” Agar said. “I started out my freshman year wanting to be just a photographer. I thought my writing was awful. I owe so much to the staff members before me who encouraged me to push myself and helped cultivate my writing. They gave me the chance and helped me find my potential. I attribute all my success to them.”

For Agar, she will miss the people she has met at Jewell.

“The thing I will miss the most about Jewell is absolutely the people,” Agar said. “The friends I’ve made are incredible. There truly is a special community of achievers at Jewell, and I will miss being challenged and inspired by these people.”

Agar will use her accounting major after graduation in a position at the KPMG office in Kansas City.

“I will be working as a tax associate in their [KPMG] Global Mobility Services department to provide tax services and consulting to companies who operate internationally,” Agar said.

Erin Melton, senior Oxbridge Literature and Theory major, served as the Monitor’s Chief Copy Editor for the past year.

Melton spoke about the inspiration the Monitor provided her over the years.

“The Monitor has always been a place for me that was really inspiring,” Melton said. “This has always been a place of a lot of really powerful, strong women in leadership positions. I’ve always felt a lot of camaraderie with the other ed staff members. It’s just always been a fun place to come together with people.”

Melton plans to work and then start a masters program in London.

“I will be moving to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to do a year with their Habitat for Humanity,” Melton said. “And then in September of 2019 I’ll start at a masters program at the London School of Economics and Political Science.”

Brianna Steiert, senior Oxbridge Molecular Biology major, spent the past year serving as the Monitor’s Features Editor and Managing Editor.

“If you had asked me in high school if I would join a newspaper staff in college, I would have said no,” Steiert said. “I joined Monitor with no newspaper experience, yet it became one of my favorite activities in college. I became more confident in my writing and learned to have a stronger appreciation for news both local and international.”

Steiert will miss the people at Jewell she gets to see every day when she graduates.

“It will be weird to not sit down at a table of ten people for dinner or to walk into a building and not see anyone I know,” Steiert said.

Steiert has no definite plans for after graduation, but has applied for jobs in her field and looks to pursue a masters or doctorate in either microbiology or immunology.

Jesse Lundervold, senior chemistry and studio art major, served as Lifestyle (now Arts and Culture) Editor this year.

“I’ve been on the Monitor since first semester of freshman year,” Lundervold said. “It was a wild ride. It was the first year we had went digital and I just remember as a first year being incredibly intimidated by the ed [editorial] staff.”

Lundervold will miss the atmosphere of the Monitor, specifically, and Jewell, in general.

“Getting to know the ed staff more and having the Monitor being a very integral and incredibly positive part of my time on campus will be definitely something that I will miss,” Lundervold said. “I’ve met incredible peers and colleagues at Jewell and have such a great support system of current students, former students that I met and have since graduated, as well as outstanding and incredibly supportive faculty.”

Lundervold will attend a chemistry doctoral program at the University of California, Davis in the fall.

Drew Novak, senior political science major, served as the Monitor’s Perspectives Editor this year.

“The Monitor has helped me refine my writing skills and has taught me the virtue of writing concisely. Beyond that academic influence it has had on me, I have also learned how to give Kristen a hard time,” Novak said.

Novak will miss the professors he has had at Jewell and the close friendships he has gained.

“I will miss the professors the most at Jewell,” said Novak. “I owe them a great deal of credit for molding me into the student and individual I am today. They have instilled within me a life-long passion for learning. Furthermore, I will also [miss] my dear friends Rylan, Trey and Conner and all the wonderful memories I have made and shared with them.”

Novak plans to travel after graduation and pursue graduate work next year.

“Following graduation, I will be traveling to Oxford, England, and the Amalfi Coast in Italy,” Novak said. “After returning to the United States, I intend to take a year off to substitute teach and then I intend pursue graduate work in security studies or international relations.”

Jake Marlay, senior biology major, served as Sports Editor this year.

Marlay said he learned that, “if you attack anything with a passion and a positive attitude you can motivate not only yourself but others to accomplish their goals.”

Similar to his fellow seniors, Marlay will miss the people he has met at Jewell the most.

“I’ve met so many great people in every nook and cranny of this little school on the hill that I will remember and forever cherish my time with them,” Marlay said. “I’ve met some of my best and lifelong friends, mentors, future leaders and innovators, and inspiring people right here on this campus.”

After graduation, Marly will begin coaching football at Fort Scott Community College.

“My plans after graduation are to begin coaching football at Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas,” Marlay said. “I start in the summer and will be special teams assistant coach there. From there I hope to just climb the coaching ladder and follow my dream, be the next Bill Snyder.”

The NBA partners with “NBA 2K” producers to create an eSports league

Jake Marlay — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:00:52 +0000

With the rise in technology and popularity in video games in today’s culture, eSports have been increasingly working from a point of near obscurity to a now-stable niche in pop culture. Games played on the professional competitive level have ranged from first-person shooters like “Counter-Strike Global Offensive” and “Overwatch” to, more recently, sports video games like Electronic Arts’ “Madden NFL” series. One of the more popular sports video game series of the past decade has been Take Two’s “NBA 2K” series, an NBA basketball simulator. Similar to “Overwatch’s” the “NBA 2K” series recently started up its eSports league, known as the NBA 2K League, with professional players drafted onto city-based teams.

Teams are composed of players that were selected in the NBA 2K League draft April 4. Players were declared eligible for both the 2K League draft and the pre-draft 2K League combine, an event in which these players were allowed to showcase their “NBA 2K” skills to professional teams, if they were able to win 50 games with their personally created NBA avatar player. These 50 games could be won in one versus one games against other players or team versus team games.

Seventeen NBA franchises have partnered with the 2K League in creating teams based around their cities. The 17 teams in the inaugural 2K League season are the Dallas Mavs Gaming; Boston Celtics Crossover Gaming; Utah Jazz Gaming; Sacramento Kings Guard Gaming; Detroit Pistons GT; Portland Blazer5 Gaming; Miami Heat Check Gaming; Orlando Magic Gaming; New York Knicks Gaming; Milwaukee Bucks Gaming; Toronto Raptors Uprising GC; Washington, D.C. Wizards District Gaming; Indiana Pacers Gaming; Philadelphia 76ers GC; Memphis Grizz Gaming; Cleveland Cavs Legion GC; and the Golden State Warriors Gaming Squad.

The inaugural season will begin in May. Regular season games will be Fridays and Saturdays with teams facing off head-to-head each week. Teams will participate in 14 regular season matchups with three tournaments spaced throughout the season for teams to win prize money and increase their playoff seeding.

The playoff matchups will begin August 17, with the top seven win-loss records in the league and the final tournament winner guaranteed playoff spots. The quarterfinal round will be single-game eliminations, and the semifinals and finals will be best-of-three series with the winning team taking home over $500 thousand in winnings.

Photo courtesy of miastogier.pl

Sports Profile: Michael Bennett’s impact is beginning to be felt on and off the field

Jake Marlay — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 13:00:25 +0000

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is one of the most underrated defenders in the NFL. Bennett’s spotlight has been lost at times within a Seahawks defense that is full of big names and big personalities, but his impact on the defense has never wavered.

The 31-year-old uses his freakish wingspan, strength and violent hands to be an unblockable force for Seattle’s defense. Bennett is a player opposing teams have to scheme against offensively, as he is a force both as a pass rusher and as a run-stopping edge defender. He has averaged seven sacks per-16 games throughout his career and has eight forced-fumbles in his nine seasons in the NFL. Since he joined the team in 2013, the Seahawks have consistently had one of the top-10 scoring defenses in the NFL. This defense has helped Seattle go to two Super Bowls since the addition of Bennett, winning Super Bowl 48 in 2014.

Bennett has received much more national attention as of late, but not for his exceptional play. Before over 130 players, executives and coaches held protests during the national anthem Sept. 25, there were only around a dozen players choosing to protest police violence and racial inequality in the country.

These protests were of course started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016. Bennett was one of the first dozen this season.

He is an African American man whose interests off the field have seemed to gain more attention since an incident with the Las Vegas police Aug 27. Bennett was pulled over after officers heard gunfire in the area.

He claims the officers pointed a gun in his face and threatened him while using excessive force in his arrest for no reason other than that he is black. Bennett said the entire experience was “a traumatic experience for me and my entire family”.

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Since this incident, the Las Vegas Police Department has denied many of Bennett’s claims and has stated that race had nothing to do with the incident. This traumatizing threat to his own life, as well as the Charlottesville rallies in August, moved Bennett to make a decision scrutinized by many. He has sat on the bench during the national anthem since the Seahawks’ first game in Green Bay Sept. 10. He was joined by offensive lineman Kenny Britt, who placed his hand on Bennett’s shoulder to show support.

With Bennett being one of the initial post-Kaepernick protestors and speaking out more on issues of equality in the country, he’s become one of the NFL’s most influential figures. He is both an activist for Kaepernick and other players’ right to protest and speaks about the Israeli-Palestein conflict in many public forums. He has even landed on the Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans. With exemplary play on the field and a well-spoken, rational voice off the field, Michael Bennett is becoming more and more of a recognizable player in the NFL.

Photo courtesy of The Root.

NFL Football is Back

Jake Marlay — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 15:00:33 +0000

The 2017 National Football League (NFL) season kicked off Thursday, Sept. 7. The season started with a bang, as the Kansas City Chiefs pulled off an exciting upset over the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, with a final score of 42-27. While the rest of the opening week wasn’t as exciting, there were still many important moments and narratives beginning to take shape.

The NFL vs. Zeke

Courtesy of USA Today

It seems Roger Goodell and the NFL front office have a new target for confusing and controversial punishments. After Tom Brady finished his deflate-gate suspension season by winning his fifth Super Bowl ring, the NFL turned its attention to Dallas Cowboys superstar running-back Ezekiel Elliott.

Elliott was accused of sexual assault while at a party in his final semester at The Ohio State University in 2016. The Columbus Police investigation ended after just a few months and no charges were filed, the investigators citing “a lack of evidence.” The NFL continued to investigate the incident for an entire year, and by the summer of 2017, slapped Elliott with a six-game suspension for off-field conduct violations.

After appeals, multiple hearings and seemingly endless discussions, Elliott’s suspension went from six games to it seems no games this season. Elliott was able to lead his Cowboys to a 19-3 win over the division rival New York Giants on Sunday. Elliott had 24 carries for 104 yards, while his teammate, quarterback Dak Prescott, was arguably the most impressive Cowboy of the game. Prescott completed 61 percent of his passes for 268 yards and a single touchdown and is beginning to look like the leader of this Cowboys team, which is posed to be one of the best teams in the NFL this year. He is also starting to establish himself as one of the rare special talents at his position in the league.

As for the “G-men” Giants, their offense seemed to be lost on Sunday, possibly due to the absence of superstar receiver Odell Beckham Jr., and possibly due to the inability to run the ball, as the team as a whole had only 35 rushing yards. The Giants’ defense looked as stout as they did last year, especially up-front defensively, getting five total tackles in the backfield. B.J. Goodson was a standout for the defense, with 18 tackles.

TWO Top-Tier AFC Clashes

Courtesy of CSN Philly

The Kansas City Chiefs’ substantial upset over the Patriots was a huge game for the NFL and specifically the American Football Conference (AFC) standings. The Chiefs proved they are a top team in the conference and in the league on both sides of the football. There was another AFC matchup that featured two teams likely to be at the top of their respective divisions and make a splash in the playoffs. The Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Raiders beat the Tennessee Titans with a final score of 26-16 in Nashville Sunday. No one questions the legitimacy of the Raiders, quarterbacked by Derek Carr who had an MVP-caliber season in 2016 before a season-ending injury just before the playoffs. Carr was rewarded with a huge offseason payday, becoming another “highest paid player in the history of the NFL” for a while before getting topped by Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford only weeks later. Carr continued to roll week one, completing 69 percent of his passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns for the win.

Don’t sleep on Music City, though. The Tennessee Titans have the components to be atop the AFC South Division by the end of the year and can possibly make it deep in the conference. It all depends on how far their quarterback, Marcus Mariota, takes them. The Tennessee front office has given him all the pieces a quarterback would need to succeed, including a diverse, athletic receiving corps in veteran Eric Decker, stretch-Armstrong Rishard Matthews and the fifth-overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft, rookie Corey Davis from Western Michigan.

These weapons combined with a dependable tight-end in Delanie Walker, a tough, talented offensive line, great run support from veteran running back DeMarco Murray and Heisman trophy winner Derrick Henry mean it’s all on the shoulders of Mariota, who looked the part on Sunday. Completing 61 percent of his passes with some beautiful deep-balls for 256 yards, using his legs for 26 more and a rushing touchdown, Mariota is close to the level necessary for Tennessee to make the jump, and they may end up being the AFC’s dark horse contender by the later weeks of the season.

The NFL’s Youth Revolution

Courtesy of Detroit News

Every year techniques and technology get better, and scouting and recruitment are more refined. Athletes are forced to improve. This year was no exception, as there were several standout inexperienced players from week one.

Jaylon Smith, the Cowboys’ second-round pick in 2016 who spent all of 2016 injured, played his first regular season game Sunday against the Giants and recorded seven tackles and looked fast attacking the football.

Two rookies clashed as the Pittsburgh Steelers traveled to Cleveland to face the Browns. 2017 second-round pick DeShone Kizer seemed to be the most hopeful quarterback the Browns have had since Brandon Weeden. He completed 66 percent of his passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, while TJ Watt, 2017 first-round pick and rookie linebacker for the Steelers, finished his first game against Kizer with seven tackles, two sacks and Kizer’s only interception. Kizer may have been a spark of hope for the struggling Browns, but Watt’s Steelers ended the day with a 21-18 victory.

The Detroit Lions’ 2017 third-round pick, wide receiver Kenny Golladay was a preseason sensation after a two-touchdown performance in week one of the preseason against the Indianapolis Colts. After somewhat disappearing the rest of the preseason, Golladay bounced back in a big way Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, catching four passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns, including a diving 45-yard touchdown highlight catch. These were only two of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford’s four touchdowns of the day as the Detroit Lions beat the Arizona Cardinals 35-23.

The top two picks of the 2016 NFL draft, quarterbacks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, respectively had underachieving rookie campaigns but both came out improved and ready to play Sunday. Each threw for at least 300 yards and a touchdown and brought week one wins for their respective teams. Goff’s Los Angeles Rams shredded the Indianapolis Colts 46-9, and Wentz’s Philadelphia Eagles pulled out a 30-17 victory over the division rival Washington Redskins.

Three rookie running backs took the NFL by storm in week one. Kareem Hunt, the Chiefs’ 2017 third-round pick, was given an opportunity to start week one after teammate and Kansas City’s 2016 rushing leader Spencer Ware went down with a season-ending injury. After fumbling his first touch, Hunt lit up the defending champion Patriots with a historic debut, finishing Thursday night with 246 combined yards and three combined touchdowns.

Minnesota Vikings’ 2017 second-round pick running back Dalvin Cook also had a historic debut, rushing for 127 yards, the most ever by a Viking running back in his first game, and helped lead his team to a convincing 29-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

Leonard Fournette, the first running back taken in the 2017 NFL draft at number four overall, had an impressive debut for the Jacksonville Jaguars, with 100 rushing yards and a single rushing touchdown.

Fournette wasn’t the only young Jacksonville Jaguar standout in a big 29-7 win over the division rival Houston Texans. The Jasksonville defense was the more productive unit in the win, with second-year fourth-round pick Yannick Ngakoue continuing his impressive start to his career by posting a week-one statline with two quarterback sack-fumbles, one of which he recovered. The other was recovered by Jacksonville’s 2016 first-round pick, defensive end Dexter Fowler Jr. who was also injured his entire rookie campaign. Fowler’s fumble recovery was taken all the way back for a defensive touchdown. He also had a sack to his credit. Fellow second-year player for Jacksonville, linebacker Myles Jack, had an impressive week one, finishing the win with 14 tackles, leading his team.

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated by John W. McDonough.