Rugby is gaining attention all over the United States at a rapid rate. However, that is not trickling over to the Hamden area and Quinnipiac student body. The Quinnipiac women’s rugby team is working towards a fourth-straight national championship. New Blue Rugby is a club team for males at Quinnipiac and they have a rich history as well.
In this podcast, people who are rich in the game of rugby at Quinnipiac talk about the popularity of the game here at Quinnipiac and how we can grow it here in Hamden, Connecticut.
Voices of the Podcast
Ross Lager
Senior. Member of New Blue Rugby.
Rich Hanley
Professor of Journalism at Quinnipiac University.
Allison Koenig
Freshman. Quinnipiac Women’s Rugby.
Photo Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics
Ben Mahon
Junior. Captain of New Blue Rugby.
Becky Carlson
Head Coach of Women’s Rugby at Quinnipiac University.
Quinnipiac’s community engagement programs strive to form ethical global citizens
By Tatyana Youssef
As senior Mackenzie Keenan approaches the podium, administrators hand her a glass award. With a humble smile, Keenan accepts her recognition for “Global Citizen of the Year” at the undergraduate awards ceremony on April 20.
Mackenzie Keenan at the top of the highest catholic church in Central America, León
Keenan traveled to Nicaragua three times during her four years at Quinnipiac. As a second-time student leader, she learned something new after each Global Solidarity trip. Every year, working with the Alianza Americana Institute in the city of León opened her eyes to a new aspect of humanity and cemented her connections.
“I learned that self-reflection is essential for growth as a member of a global society,” she says. “Remembering that each and every human is worthy of a dignified life.”
The evolving engagement with host families in a community known as La Villa shaped Keenan’s values and beliefs, which she plans to carry into her future career in healthcare. More importantly, she thanks her experiences in Nicaragua for contributing to her personal growth and progressive beliefs.
“I learned that self-reflection is essential for growth as a member of a global society. Remembering that each and every human is worthy of a dignified life.”
“To me, global solidarity is understanding that no perceived difference, whether that be skin color, religion, sexual orientation, whatever nonsense you can come up with, will diminish the responsibility owed by the rest of society to that person to provide basic human respect,” she says.
However, students returning from trips in developing nations are not always like Mackenzie Keenan.
The ideal outcome of the trip is for students to expand their mind, gain equal perception of the people they met, and make connections to our society. At Quinnipiac University, dozens of students travel each year in so-called global solidarity programs.The university is still refining what those trips mean and designing curricula to guide students toward ethical engagement abroad.
Despite 11 months of pre-departure education, the outcomes are still not clearly articulated. Before the title of the trip became “Global Solidarity” it was known as “Alternative Spring Break.” The shift in title reflects the central focus, as global solidarity hints at service learning while alternative spring break is a travel option without a clear educational component.
Quinnipiac’s Department of Cultural and Global Engagement is working to improve abroad opportunities, instilling essential educational outcomes. Erin Sabato, the university’s Director of International Service and Learning, plays a major role in the program’s development.
Sabato has traveled to Nicaragua numerous times throughout the last 14 years, feeling a great connection to the resilient nation she calls home. When reflecting on the program’s format years ago, Sabato says,”There was a lot of emphasis on exposure to poverty, and while I think that is important, there needs to be context. There’s a fine line between exploitation and educating our students, and that needed to be examined and put into better context.”
Founders of Alianza Americana Institute, Eira and Oscar Aragón standing next to Erin Sabato at a celebration in honor of the partnership’s ten year anniversary. Photo courtesy of Rachel Booth.
Junior psychology major Mikaela Rooney experienced Nicaragua for the first time as a global solidarity delegate this past March.
“Erin Sabato has truly molded the global solidarity program into one that is ethical and informative,” she says.
Global solidarity promotes a horizontal mentality when collaborating with other countries, featuring an equal exchange of culture and compassion while working toward the same goal. Sabato visualizes global solidarity as people standing shoulder to shoulder.
“Equal exchange is the idea that we are not forcing our ‘help’ onto people who we perceive as needy,” Rooney said. “We go into communities in places like Nicaragua not to educate, but to learn from each other.”
Ideally, the concept moves us toward actions of collaboration and engagement, working side by side with global members despite coming from different walks of life. Coming from a higher learning institution in the United States, Sabato emphasizes the importance of checking privilege and positionality when entering developing nations.
“It’s more about this horizontal partnership as opposed to this vertical kind of global north, global south relationship,” she says. “The program needs to be community driven–the community members’ voices need to be at the forefront.”
Before entering a new country, students are trained on the culture and historical context as part of pre-departure education. Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer has an interesting take on global solidarity and how it should be facilitated.
Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer sitting outside of the department of cultural and global engagement. Photo courtesy of Quinnipiac University.
“The global solidarity piece is building the relationship – that’s what it is in title. But what it is in action still needs to be hammered out,” he says.
There is an element of inquiry that goes with pre-departure education along with readings, videos and discussions. Sawyer poses questions to make students think from a sociological perspective.
“What does it mean to travel, what does it mean to be an American citizen in another nation, what does it mean to be a white American in a nation of people of color, what does it mean to be a person of color going to that nation with a history of racial issues?” he asks.
“The global solidarity piece is building the relationship – that’s what it is in title. But what it is in action still needs to be hammered out,.jpg
Sawyer believes that challenging student thought is vital to the learning experience. Global solidarity is effective when students are able to make connections at home.
“You didn’t need to travel six hours to understand poverty, ya know?” he states.“There’s poverty around us everywhere if you were to open your eyes and take a look, so a part of these trips and the struggle in doing international work is getting students to see how the local and the national is also connected to the global.”
Sabato agrees with the significance of making connections at home after traveling. Students are impressed by the sense of community in these nations, however they seem to forget the community around them at home, according to Sabato.
“I think students need to make better connections about what’s happening here, we’re all concerned about what’s happening in Nicaragua understandably so, but why can we not make that connection about oppression here?” she asks.
Quinnipiac University’s relationship with Nicaragua’s Alianza Americana Institute is reaching its second decade in partnership. The Alianza translators teach English to students in the country and become like family to Quinnipiac students. The bond within this delegation is strong, as global solidarity is practiced when students rely on translators for understanding every interaction. Anyoleth Rizo Gutierrez, 19, has worked with Alianza for two years, after excelling in English herself when she finally broke out of her shell through the confidence she found through this second language.
Anyoleth Rizo Gutierrez, nicknamed Any, smiling during work at Alianza Americana teaching English classes. Photo courtesy of her friend, Sonia Belén Lopez.
Rizo Gutierrez sees growth within Quinnipiac students throughout each trip, especially the bonds they form with their host families in La Villa.
“You see the difference from the first day to the last day,” she says. “They are always crying when they leave because they have a family here.”
However, the closeness does not always happen so smoothly. She recalls a disheartening experience regarding a Quinnipiac student who did not understand the meaning of global solidarity.
“Last year in my first delegation, she was like, ‘Oh, this kid is dirty, I don’t want to touch him.’” Rizo Gutierrez says the child no longer had a family, taken in by the school the Quinnipiac students were working with that week.
“And then we had a beach trip and I saw her with the kid, and I was like, ya know, maybe something changed in her,” she says. “ I think maybe she realized the story he had behind him. Sometimes Quinnipiac students, they live in this bubble, like the United States.”
College is a privilege in Central America, while students in the United States are societally expected to attend an institution of higher learning after receiving their high school diploma. Growing up in Costa Rica with a single mother Rizo Gutierrez learned to be strong and to rely on steady, hard work. Rizo Gutierrez does not take her education for granted.
The delegation between Quinnipiac and Alianza shows an exchange of humanity and understanding. Despite differences in living conditions and experiences, students are able to bond with the translators when humanity and empathy are put at the forefront of the engagement.
Sabato talks about the importance of empathy through the act of continuous support.
“Solidarity, to me, means that I may not understand your struggle, I may never be in your shoes, yet I will continue to stand beside you, continue to support you and your struggle in reaching your objective,” she says.
Sawyer recalls bonding with Haitian community members in the Dominican Republic through a cultural swap of dancing.
“They were teaching us Haitian dances and then we were teaching them American dances like the electric slide and the wobble, so there was this exchange,” he says.
Granted, people’s lives aren’t going to be changed from learning the wobble, Sawyer adds, “but seeing a relationship being built that wasn’t like what they tend to see when people just come, drop off rice, and leave –- there was actual engagement.”
Sawyer and his students witnessed a group from Canada drop off rice at doors in the community without any true engagement.
“They came in, went to the doors, handed out rice and beans, lifting up these kids from behind, hugging them, kissing them, taking pictures and then they left,” he says.
The use of photography during these trips can be particularly problematic, both Sawyer and Sabato say. Today’s generation puts a large emphasis on documenting experiences through the use of social media. As more and more students travel abroad, social media feeds tend to be filled with unrealistic, staged photographs. The Canadian group inserted themselves into the community by only ‘giving’ and over-affectionately interacting with the children when the cameras came out, according to Sawyer.
“They came in, went to the doors, handed out rice and beans, lifting up these kids from behind, hugging them, kissing them, taking pictures and then they left.”
This creates harm with visual exploitation, as photographs taken during these trips often show power dynamics with white volunteers from the global north smiling, standing above the loving, brown children positioned below or around them. Parental consent is usually unavailable in these circumstances. However, the students pose with the children’s faces regardless.
“We were not picking up kids and putting them on Instagram and Twitter, that’s not what it was about,” Sawyer says. “In those pre departure meetings we talk about responsible photography so most of the trip, hopefully we got photos of the trip, but people had their phones away- they were mostly engaging.”
In November 2017, the internet reacted to a viral photo of a white European tourist holding a young child in Kenya. As the child’s head leans on top of her shoulder, Jossa Johansson captioned her image on Instagram with ignorant words, including the lack of opportunities in the child’s future.
“One of the happiest moment in your life was probably when you met me and my friends,” Johansson wrote.”I am sorry to tell you that there is a very slim chance we will ever meet again.”
The Instagram post went viral, as viewers expressed harsh, justified opinions on Facebook and Twitter.
@xtiandela @jossajohansson @Jossie_99 Your post is a disgrace. The least you can do is apologize for portraying such false. I can’t fathom what kind of a horrid person could go ahead and imagine a child selling herself. In the name of help, there’s something awfully wrong with you.
Criticism included the need for ethical boundaries and need for education when traveling to other nations.
Although an incident of this magnitude has never occurred at Quinnipiac, Sawyer still sees the need for continuing education.
“This shows with all the work we’re doing, we need to do more,” he says.
The importance of ethical boundaries regarding photographs is discussed in the pre-departure meetings through articles and videos the students watch and analyze. Sabato states that she expects students to be engaged during each meeting.
Components to the pre-departure training include knowledge on the history of the partnership and who the stakeholders are abroad.
“I expect them to want to learn about the countries they are traveling to, the community members they will be working with, the ethics behind how to engage in these programs as a university, and what our role is as a university,” she says.
Sabato hopes that going forward these pre-departure experience will help avoid ethical lapses.
“It’s important to recognize the assets and the value that our partners bring to the table in this equation.”
Through inquiry and dialogue, Sabato ensures that each student is actively reflecting during the experience. She challenges students to be critical of themselves and their preconceived ideas, setting time in the itinerary for daily discussions on privilege, equality and cultural exchange. Sabato plans to continue these efforts, encouraging students to stay active through the entire process while maintaining a sense of cultural humility.
“It’s important to recognize what we don’t know,” she says. “It’s important to recognize the assets and the value that our partners bring to the table in this equation. And then I expect students to come back, take what they’ve learned and think about how to apply it in their future.”
The campaign season for 2018 midterm elections have begun. Across the country, current and aspiring politicians are vying for positions at the national and state level, including Connecticut.
But the 2016 election is still on everyone’s minds.
The Secretary of the State’s office is preparing better cybersecurity for the election, according to The CT Post on April 16. Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates was quoted saying, “Today it’s the Russians, but tomorrow it could be others.” In many places, it has been proven that Russia had an impact, directly or indirectly, on the 2016 election cycle and its aftermath. For example, the fear of fake news led to YouTube putting a disclaimer on Russia Today’s videos, saying that they are “funded in whole or in part by the Russian government.”
From the Russian issues, to a host of other controversies, the hype around the 2016 election was real. A recent paper by Markus Prior and Lori Bougher of Princeton University, makes mention of an overall increase in campaign interest for 2016, using information from the American National Elections Studies. However, what they argued is that the hype didn’t translate into a greater turnout; the numbers for 2016 were comparable to that of other recent presidential elections.
Specifically, the paper cited data from the United States Election Project, saying that 60.2 percent of eligible voters went to the polls 2016. This is more than 2012, with 58.6 percent, but less than 2008, with 62.2 percent turnout.
More people voted in 2016 for president than 2012. However, the turnout in 2016 is less than the turnout in 2008.
As for Connecticut, the numbers are similar to the national figures. Using numbers from the Election Project for presidential votes, in 2016, 65.4 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2016 election. For 2012, 61.3 percent turned out. In 2008, 66.6 percent of eligible voters participated.
The voting trend in Connecticut is similar to the national trend.
Quinnipiac’s Chair of Philosophy and Political Science Scott McLean said that there were many ways that the 2016 election was an average election. For example, independents usually prevent the party in power from having three consecutive terms, which in 2016 would have been the Democratic party.
“Most polls make the mistake that the undecideds in the last days of the election will just break evenly. No, they always break away from the party in power,” he said.
But the perception that voters were energized to vote was because there were so many new dynamics. McLean said the 2016 election sparked interest because Trump and Hillary Clinton were two unconventional candidates. For Clinton, he noted that she was the first female candidate in the general election and had experience being the first lady when her husband Bill was in office. As for Trump, McLean said that people were drawn to him because he was an outsider who was able to get the nomination despite early resistance in the Republican party.
The news media also played a big role in the hype around the 2016 election, publicizing investigations into the candidates, and the potential of Russian meddling.
“You never know what was going to happen from one day to the next. It was drawing a lot of interest. It was also generating extremely high levels of disgust and anger, so that people were tuning in and coming away from it not really more educated about the issues, but more angry about the candidates,” McLean said.
Marjorie Bonadies, an at-large Republican councilwoman in Hamden, agrees. She calls the 2016 election cycle “the best soap opera “ in the country’s history. She blames the news media in part for stirring the pot and disenfranchising some voters.
“It was a daily barrage of who said what, who was under investigation, Hillary Clinton’s emails; you couldn’t write it any better,” Bonadies said.
Politico compiled some of that “daily barrage” in an article from Nov. 11, 2016. It showed a spectrum of stories during the course of the election. Some of the headlines included, “Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,” which ran in the Washington Post, and “Foreign Government Gifts to Clinton Foundation on the Rise,” published by The Wall Street Journal.
This article appeared in the Washington Post on Oct. 8, 2016.
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 25, 2015.
Jeffrey Foy, an assistant professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University, blames the public in part for the hysteria around the last presidential election. He said that the public finds the news boring, so they’re attracted to salacious stories. In turn, the news media are capitalizing on it.
“The real reason they’re doing this is that they need clicks, they need money. And so, they’re going to do whatever we pay for them to do. If I’m a person who’s conservative, there’s certain news stories that’ll get me to click readily, rather than ones that are maybe pro liberal,” he said,
Brad Macdowall, who is a Democratic councilman for Hamden’s 9th District, said that politicians can also be blamed for dropping the ball. He said the Democratic party “fell asleep” during the 2016 election.
“Republicans tend to, in general, have higher voting than Democrats,” he said. “They just turn out more. Which is why, when a lower turnout happens, Democrats lose. Turnout fluctuation happens with Democrats, not with Republicans.”
Foy was surprised by the Trump victory 2016, but he said that was the result of personally sticking to liberal-leaning social circles, thus being less exposed to conservative views. He said that, in the process of shaping a narrative for the election result, the right wants to emphasize a sense of exceptionalism, where the left is reflecting on their mistakes.
“There’s this thing in psychology that when something happens that is unexpected, particularly if it’s negative for a lot of people, they wanna understand why, “ Foy said. “So, if you lose something, you wanna say ‘why did we lose it’, as opposed to when you something, you’re less likely to say ‘why did we win’. You kinda just revel in the winning.”
In gearing up for the 2018 midterm Macdowall has reflected on the mistakes, as he is also a Democratic consultant. For Connecticut, Macdowall is focusing on seats in the state senate, which are currently tied 18-18 between the Democrats and the Republicans. He said that this was unheard of for Connecticut to not have a Democratic majority in recent history. Macdowall wants the Democrats to find their message again.
“Just think of where we came from in 2008, the party of ‘Yes We Can’, to 2016, where we became the party of shoving Hillary Clinton down everyone’s throats,” he said.
However, Macdowall is optimistic about the Democrats’ chances in 2018, considering that there will be opportunities for new faces, like in Connecticut’s 5th District. Kenneth Dautrich, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, also said that the Democrats have good odds.
“Democrats will be more energized [because] of Trump. But this is not uncommon. When a new president takes office the opposition party voters tend to be more motivated 2 years later,” he said in an email. “ So in a blue state like CT dems will really be at an advantage.”
Back in 2016, Bonadies ran for a state representative seat, but lost. She said that there is still some Republican momentum in Connecticut, as the final result in her race was closer than expected.
Even though Bonadies said the Republicans have merit in the Connecticut midterms due to their positions on taxes and government debt, she said they’re still “swimming in the deep blue Democrat state of Connecticut,”.
“This coming election year would be ripe for a Republican, but the machinery in place for the Democratic party is pretty powerful,” Bonadies said.
When Lyn Johnson first walked into the Almost Home Animal Rescue in Plainville, Connecticut, she saw that it wasn’t like other shelters where she had volunteered before. The smell was overwhelming and there were cages stacked on top of each other with minimal room for the animals to move.
Johnson left and didn’t want to come back.
But then she thought her previous experience could help make the place a little better. And so she went back.
“I volunteered twice a week and even after the first two or three times, I knew it was a bad place,” Johnson said. “But she [the owner] didn’t seem too concerned for the animals.”
Johnson gave Meda Talley, the shelter owner, ideas and even researched types of cages that would benefit the animals. Talley didn’t budge. But there were others trying to help, too.
An example of poor structure of animal cages in an animal shelter sent by Connecticut Humane Society.
Plainville animal control officers came in regularly and noted urine and feces in the cages, according to police documents. But because there are no state regulations on how to run a shelter properly, the officers were unable to take legal action to shut this one down. The officers first had to collect evidence proving the animals were in near-death conditions to arrest Talley under Connecticut’s animal cruelty statute.
Susan Linker and one of her dogs.
Johnson, the volunteer, also brought in a friend. Susan Linker, CEO of Our Companions Animal Rescue, told Johnson to get as much photo evidence she could.
“We started building this case and I went to the police,” Johnson said.
With the evidence Linker and Johnson provided, local police were granted a search and seizure warrant and rescued twenty dogs and twenty three cats. Talley, the owner, was arrested. See the full arrest warrant here.
“It was an extremely long process that took a year and a half before anything really happened,” Johnson said.
In the wake of these and other cases, Connecticut law makers are trying to make shelter regulations more strict.
There is no Connecticut statute that requires animal shelters to be licensed or inspected, which leaves room for them to run in unexceptional conditions –for example, with feces and urine in the cages – while giving law enforcement no recourse to take legal action.
Under a new law, officers will be able to take legal action sooner rather than later.
There are around 50 animals shelters in the Hamden and New Haven area. Shannon Rose, an animal control officer at the West Haven Animal Shelter, says the problem is that there are a lot of animal hoarders that are keeping the animals in terrible conditions and there are no rules on how people should run a shelter.
No one wants to see an animal suffer, so what is being done to help them?
Matt Spilka’s (North Haven, CT) three month old fostered German Shepard.
On July 7, 2017 Governor Dannel Malloy signed House Bill 6334, an act requiring the registration of animal shelters. The bill, which took effect October 1, requires all persons who wish to operate or maintain an animal shelter to pay a $50 fee to the commissioner for registration/license. The license can be renewed after two years.
An animal shelter can be defined as any private entity that operates a building or facility that is used solely to house homeless animals for the purpose of rescue or adoption and that is not operated within a private residence.
During this period of time, any law enforcer may inspect any shelter, kennel, pet shop or grooming and training facility and if in their judgement the place is not being maintained in a sanitary and humane manner, the officer may issue a fine of $500. If the owner of the facility fails to comply with the regulations or the orders of the officer, he or she may have the license suspended or be arrested.
“The goal is to avoid it escalating to an animal cruelty level,” Linker said. “If there’s a complaint, an officer can go in and enforce something or the owner(s) can lose their license or be arrested.”
The legislation stems from years of work by State Representatives Themis Klarides and Brenda Kupchick, who brought it forward after a number of animals died at a private animal facility that was run by a repeat animal abuser, Fred Acker. Klarides witnessed first-hand the need for the legislation after trying to adopt a cat at an animal shelter in Monroe that was run by Acker.
“We went to the shelter on a hot summer day and outside were a bunch of dogs in cages,” Klarides said. “When we got inside the owner wasn’t there but it was very dirty and disgusting, all of the conditions seemed very bad so we left.”
Connecticut State Representative Themis Klarides.
When Klarides and her sister left the shelter they decided to call the Department of Agriculture and the state representative of Monroe. They found out the owner wasn’t there because he was being sentenced on an animal cruelty charge in another town.
“Once he was sentenced we knew we needed to change the language of our statutes and make a Connecticut statute in regards to animal cruelty and who is allowed to actually maintain a commercial kennel or shelter,” Klarides added.
Klarides has been fighting to push a lot of legislation forward and, she says, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but she keeps fighting. After encountering the horrible conditions at the animal shelter, Klarides called up all of the animal advocates she knew to get this legislation pushed.
“I believe things happen for a reason and you keep fighting for them even if they don’t happen the first time,” Klarides said.
Klarides did just that and the bill was signed and put into effect on October 1, 2017.
Some are thrilled with this action and think it will help keep the animals safe. Susan Wollschanger of Connecticut Humane Society wasn’t aware of the bill until recently and thinks anything that’s going to prevent animal cruelty is a step in the right direction.
“As long as people are working together and collaborating, it’s great. It’s always great to have multiple voices,” Wollshchanger said.
Brenda Kupchick, CT State Representative, continues to be an advocate for animals. She is currently fighting for a new bill to be passed regarding the standards of shelters during weather conditions. If passed, it will establish certain requirements for what constitutes adequate shelter for a dog during different weather conditions.
In this clip you can listen to Kupchick’s opinion in favor of the animal shelter bill.
With the bill being the new law, Plainville animal control officer Donna Weinhofer is hoping it will weed out all of the shelters run by those who don’t have good intentions. She also hopes it will professionalize those who mean well and may not know how to properly run a shelter.
“I think it can only help the animals in other people’s care. I think it’ll make it easier for me to make a bust that is necessary, but I also think these rescues are going to start hiding,” Weinhofer said.
To prevent rescues from hiding or closing down information is set up on CT Humane Society’s website so people can understand what the signs of neglect or abuse are. In addition, information on how to properly treat an animal and run a shelter is provided.
The Department of Agriculture can and will inspect any shelter at anytime to check up on the standards and conditions the shelters are in.
“We have something on our website telling you what the signs are and if you think something is going to happen we want it to be a reminder to people to report anything to the officers,” Wollschanger said.
Wollschanger and Linker think it’s important to educate those who want to run shelters so they know how to take care of the animals and keep up with veterinarian exams and medication.
“No person wants to see an animal suffer so we try to empower people to do something and make a difference,” Wollshchanger said.
Noelle Esposito’s (Northford, CT) rescue dog Riley.
According to Wollschanger, the CT Humane Society have training every day on how to handle, treat and care for the animals, because not every animal has the same needs. There are specific crews during different scenarios, such as for a winter weather event.
“We have a specific crew that is trained and ready to care for the animals during a snowstorm,” Wollschanger said.
The legislation is to not shut down the shelters but to professionalize them and help the people that run them learn how to properly care for the animals.
“They mean well, they just don’t know what they’re doing. It became clear that private organizations need a set of standards,” Linker said.
Connecticut sports fans see April 13, 1997, as the day pro sports died in the state. It was the final time the NHL’s Hartford Whalers would play before heading south to North Carolina.
But that perception is wrong, Pro sports are thriving in Connecticut, just not in the way a casual sports fan may see.
So how has this passed by some fans? Pro sports evolved as a largely male activity in the United States, with the role of women restricted to sideline activities such as cheering, even though they participated in leagues of their own.
An act of the United States government was the first step in growing sports for women. In 1972, the United States Congress sought to provide steps forward in the battle for civil rights. As part of a larger bill, Title IX was given power to prevent discrimination based on sex. This law was not enacted with sports in mind, but has since grown to assist participation among women in sports.
Per the National Women’s Law Center, “There is no shortage of interest by women and girls in participating in athletics. Since 1972, when Title IX first opened up opportunities for women and girls, female participation in high school athletics has skyrocketed by almost 900%, disproving claims made by opponents of Title IX that the lower numbers of female athletes are due to lack of interest as opposed to lack of opportunities.”
Since the law was passed in 1972, female participation in high school sports has grown an astonishing 1,018 percent, compared with 23 percent for men.
However, despite the growth, women continue to look for equal footing among the sports world. The NWLC has found that “women in Division I colleges, while representing 53 percent of the student body, receive only 45 percent of the participation opportunities, 34 percent of the total money spent on athletics, 45 percent of the total athletic scholarship dollars, and 32 percent of recruiting dollars.”
That bottom line? Equality in sports is within reach, yet continues to be pushed to the side. The fault, however, is traced among many lines.
“There are very few women in leadership positions in sports organizations across all domains, from interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional or international sport. Women are really underrepresented in leadership,” Burton said. “Half your participant population is women, or girls, (so) why don’t we have an equal number of people at the leadership table?”
Burton believed the connection between sports and masculinity created stereotypes that hold women back from administrative roles.
“We don’t perceive women to be capable of and/or do we want them in leadership positions in general. In sport organizations, because we think it’s a real male domain, we don’t think that women can run a football program or an athletic department. There’s a lot of stereotyping that’s influencing women, both trying to get into those positions and how we evaluate them when they’re in it.”
The presence of women’s sports in the media also plays a role. Per the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, women’s athletics receive only about 4 percent of all sports media coverage.
Amanda Ottaway. a former college basketball player at Davidson and now a journalist, delved into that study. Her work with women’s sports has seen publication in The Washington Post and ESPNW among others. She pinned the issue solely on media portrayal.
“Other studies have put television time as low as 1 percent,” Ottaway said. “Yet, 44 years after the passage of Title IX, women and girls in the United States are playing and following sports in unprecedented numbers.”
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“40 percent of all sports participants are female, according to the Tucker Center, and roughly a third of fans of major sports are women. The evolution of women’s sports over the last four decades has been dramatic; the media coverage, not so much. All these statistics beg the question: Would we have more reporting on women’s sports if more sports reporters and editors were women? And would the quality of that coverage be better?”
Rebecca Carlson, a three-time national champion as the women’s rugby coach at Quinnipiac University, uses a trip to the ice cream parlor to best describe the issue. Picking a sport to watch on television is like picking a flavor, and every sport with men is just another bowl of strawberry ice cream.
“I have two choices for you, and I want you to try them and then you tell me which one you like more,” Carlson said. “Here’s some strawberry ice cream, and then also some strawberry ice cream. If I’m not given anything else, I guess I’ll take the strawberry.”
Carlson explained that data shows viewers prefer to watch men’s sports, but only because they are given more men’s sports than any other option, including the women.
“If you hate it you’re not going to watch it, but there’s going to be people that will be like ‘It’s what’s on, I’ll watch,’ or ‘it’s there, I’ll eat it.’ How do we change that? (Connecticut) gives us a clean slate because the airwaves aren’t cluttered with (mens sports). That opportunity is there… because of our state. What else do they talk about in Connecticut?”
Carlson joins a handful of coaches that face a unique situation in Connecticut. A lack of men’s professional sports, combined with a hungry fan base, has given women’s sports open ground to thrive. Given the state’s history with women’s sports, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Donna Lopiano 1966, 1971 and 1972. She led the 1972 Women’s Fast Pitch she led the Brakettes in hitting, 1970 (.316) and 1972 (.367) pic.twitter.com/ZC0UQ3p7Zh
In 1947, before Title IX or most of the half-hearted attempts to grow women’s sports emerged, William Simpson had an idea. The chairman of Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. founded a fast-pitch softball team, sponsored by his factory. The team, named the Raybestos Bracketts to publicize the company’s motor vehicle brake linings, set the standard for women’s sports in Connecticut. Donna Lopiano, a national champion with the Brakettes, joined in 1962 when she was only 16 years old.
“Prior to the 1970s, prior to Title IX, girls sports were relatively nonexistent,” Lopiano said. “If they existed at the high school level, a high school’s idea of a girl’s basketball team might be five or six games in the season. It might not even be head to head competition against another school. It might be four or five schools getting together and having a play date with two kids from every school on each team.”
Lopiano lamented the lack of opportunities for young female athletes.
“There were no scholarships. Postseason play was nonexistent. Those things didn’t exist. As a result, if you were good at something, you had to turn to open amateur sport, or be satisfied with terrible opportunities at the high school or college level.”
Open amateur sport was the only option for Lopiano, who wanted to prove her skill years after being kicked out of Little League baseball for being a girl.
“Fortunately, the Raybestos Brakettes were a nationally successful women’s softball team,” said Lopiano. “They had the same reputation of being at the top of the game.”
With that history in mind, Lopiano claimed Connecticut was ready for professional women’s sports.
“There was a fertile garden for (women’s sports in Connecticut) to grow, and a lot of it was whether or not there were competing plants. (There are no) weeds that will take over. It’s still true today.”
Brakettes won 3500th game in 65 yr softball team history tonight. Overall record is 3500-380 for a winning percentage of .901
In the 1970s, the Brakettes went on to form the core of the Connecticut Falcons of the international women’s pro softball league. The Falcons played in Meriden, Connecticut, and drew over 2,000 fans per home game. The team featured one of the greatest athletes of all time in pitcher Joan Joyce, who once faced Ted Williams in an exhibition game in Waterbury, Connecticut. The Falcons were owned by Joyce, Billie Jean King and Jane Blalock, and helped grow recognition of both the sport and the athletes, all women.
The Brakettes prepared the ground for an even more popular team, one that is now considered to be a dynasty in women’s sports.
— W.J. Irish Insurance (@WJ_Irish_Ins) April 9, 2014
The rise of the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team from obscurity in Storrs, Connecticut, to national prominence stands as an example of how state fans stood ready to rally behind women’s sports. The UConn men’s basketball team was earning its national reputation at the time, but the UConn women had something the men’s team did not have: local television coverage. UConn women’s basketball drew record ratings and would dominate the local market when it played, eventually leading to higher volumes of fans at the games.
“In 1989, the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team played before just 287 fans in the front half of a doubleheader shared with the men. During the 2009-10 season, UConn women set the NCAA record for invincibility by earning a 90-game winning streak, supported by a total of 357,627 fans attending Connecticut’s 39 games,” the NWLC stated.
Amber Cox, the vice president of the Connecticut Sun, has a special name for it. Her Sun play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, and find their home in the Mohegan Sun casino.
“I think what’s interesting about this state— and specifically what I would call the ‘UConn effect’— is that there is less bias when it comes to women playing basketball,” Cox said.
“You don’t get as much resistance when you call somebody up and say ‘Hey, would you like to buy a season ticket to the WNBA, (to) the Connecticut Sun.’ The resistance is never that it’s women playing basketball, and I think it’s accepted in this state, probably more so than other parts of the country.”
The WNBA attracted a record attendance of 1.5 million in 2017, with teams averaging 7,716 fans per game, the most since 2011, according to Ben York of the Connecticut Sun. The Sun’s attendance grew 15.3 percent, he said. On social media, the WNBA broke records with more than 679 million impressions, a growth of 59 percent, and over 140 million video views, which was a growth of 233 percent.
The reach of the “UConn effect” extends beyond basketball. Connecticut harbors growing amounts of women’s sports teams, at both the collegiate and professional levels. The National Women’s Hockey League features only four teams, including three in major markets such as Buffalo, Newark, and Boston. However, they also found a home for a team in Stamford, with the Connecticut Whale.
Kelly Babstock, a forward for the Whale, set a Quinnipiac record with 203 career points before joining the NWHL.
“Personally, playing professional sports in Connecticut connects with me more because I went to school at Quinnipiac,” Babstock said. “I have had fans that followed me at Quinnipiac who follow the Whale now. I think that is amazing to have their continued support.”
“Connecticut has become my home away from home and I love every minute playing in this state as it provided me with great memories. It was a perfect fit to continue my professional career.”
Babstock is prominently featured on social media with the Whale, including this gif here.
Soccer has found a way into the Constitution State as well, with growth at youth levels reaching its way into a team with United Women’s Soccer. The impact of having professional players nearby to serve as role models is not understated to JP DiTommaso, the head coach of the Connecticut Fusion in the UWS.
“This is an opportunity for girls who have worked tirelessly over the years, putting in work to perfect their trade,” DiTommaso said. “(Young female athletes can) go on to play in college and have (soccer as) an outlet in college. After college they can showcase the hard work and dedication they’ve put in (by going pro).
“It’s a great opportunity for these young girls to look up and say ‘Hey, I want to be there some day’ and it would be at this next stage. For the girls, they can say this is possible, this is achievable.”
DiTommaso also serves as a coach with youth soccer for girls, working with a club in Farmington. He sees the UConn effect growing in his backyard.
“You have people of all ages and all backgrounds coming out to support (UConn women’s basketball). I think that’s a tremendous trickle down effect to not only other schools and other programs across Connecticut, but down to all ages. It’s helped to create an environment that can foster growth in women’s athletics.”
Work remains in creating equality for women in sports. At Quinnipiac, Carlson has hurdled through media hoops repeatedly trying to get attention for her team, which has set an example across the nation for how to grow a women’s rugby program.
3-PEAT COMPLETED! QUINNIPIAC RUGBY DEFEATS DARTMOUTH 29-20 TO WIN THE 2017 NIRA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
Like many coaches in women’s sports, she has faced challenges head on. She founded TheFearlessCoach.org after dealing with Title IX issues herself, and lends support to other coaches facing discrimination or lack of administrative support.
Connecticut’s history with women’s pro sports that started with the Raybestos Brakettes in the 1940s will persist as the 21st century deepens, giving the state a unique place in modern sports history as one whose fans love a winner regardless of gender.
“You change (women’s sports) by the next generation being exposed to it where it becomes the norm,” Carlson said. “(Any) little girl has access to watch women on television. That exposure, now you see it.”
“Women’s sports” are on the way to becoming, deservedly, just “sports.” Soon, the casual sports fan will see it, too.
On Thursday, December 1, 2016, Quinnipiac women’s rugby players were celebrating their second consecutive national title in the cafeteria of Quinnipiac’s main campus. Joy filled the room-they had done it again with a victory over Central Washington to bring the title back to Hamden. Everything was good, except for one thing: John Lahey, current president of Quinnipiac, was nowhere to be seen.
“He said he shook hands with us and everything but he wasn’t actually present,” said Flora Poole, a senior at Quinnipiac who played four years of rugby. “It’s [President Lahey’s support] that is like one extra thing we haven’t gotten or accomplished yet.”
President Lahey’s office could not be reached for comment.
Hillary Haldane, an anthropology professor with a focus in gender studies, echoed this same sentiment.
“All the things that women do and get no credit for, it’s no different with sports. You hold up and value what the people in power hold up and value,” said Haldane. “The fact that our president goes to the men’s games and doesn’t go to the women’s games is appalling. Your job as the president his to simply act like you care about something.”
Other female athletes say they feel the same way – regardless of success or accomplishment, the lack of recognition for women’s athletics at Quinnipiac will continue.
“In my almost four years of being here there has definitely been a blind eye to the success of the women’s teams,” said Mackenzie Merkel, a senior member of Quinnipiac women’s indoor track and field. “There have been national champions, records broken, huge upsets, but the cycle continues as none of it gets the recognition it truly deserves.”
Despite the victories and consistent success inequality prevails when it comes to women’s athletics at Quinnipiac. There is an argument to be made that women’s rugby is the most successful sport at the school. However, the exposure the team gets and the following it attracts do not reflect that.
Image via Quinnipiacbobcats.com
“The coverage of the sports are different,” said Taylor Schussler, another senior who has played her last rugby game for Quinnipiac. “I think if you’re breaking down coverage it shouldn’t be based off of what’s the most popular sport.”
What Schussler is saying is that although the women’s rugby team is more successful than most sports here, it does not get the coverage that the others do. Lack of recognition and support for women’s athletics is not limited to Quinnipiac, it also extends to the rest of the NCAA.
This inequality stems in part from a lack of opportunity to compete in the first place. Without the opportunity to play, a lot of these women athletes do not even get the chance to earn support.
“Even though female students comprise 57 percent of college student populations, female athletes received only 43 percent of participation opportunities at NCAA schools which is 63,241 fewer participation opportunities than their male counterparts,” according to an NCAA publication cited by the Women’s Sports Foundation from 2014.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
Even with Title IX in place, there is still a vast discrepancy in the opportunities that men get in sports in comparison to women. And even when women get the opportunity to play, the amount of financial aid granted to men and women athletes remains unequal.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
“Although the gap has narrowed, male athletes still receive 55 percent of NCAA college athletic scholarship dollars (Divisions I and II), leaving only 45 percent allocated to women,” the 2014 NCAA publication stated.
Title IX implies that men’s and women’s athletics will receive the same opportunities both financially and substantially. That is not what the report reveals.
According to Attorney Felice Duffy, a New Haven attorney specializing in title 9 suits, it is not uncommon for schools to not fully comply with Title IX.
“I don’t think any school has ever had to fully comply with what Title IX needs, they just come up with some type of settlement. I mean, you’re familiar with the situation at [Quinnipiac],” said Duffy.
Back in 2009, a lawsuit was filed by members of the women’s volleyball team after Quinnipiac announced that it would eliminate the team in favor of competitive cheer, which since has been renamed acrobatics and tumbling. Quinnipiac ended up settling after the judge ruled competitive cheering to not be a sport and the school agreed to spend more money on facilities and equipment for women’s “sports of emphasis.”
Differences in finances for men’s and women’s sports, Title IX or not, have always been a problem.
“There is no clause in Title IX that says ‘except if one gender generates more revenue than the other,’” Andrew Zimbalist pointed out in a 2016 New York Times article.
A very good example of gender disparities in athletics is a comparison of the University Of Connecticut men’s and women’s basketball programs. The women’s basketball program at UCONN is one of the best, if not the best, women’s basketball team ever, winning four consecutive national titles from 2013 to 2016 and 11 altogether. The women’s program also owns the two longest win streaks, irrespective of gender, in college basketball history.
The men’s program has won four national titles total in its existence. Nevertheless, the men’s team still attracts about 2,000 more fans than the women’s program to every home game.
In the 2014-2015 season, the UCONN men’s basketball program averaged 10,687 fans at every home game. The women, on the other hand, averaged 8,216 fans per home game.
All together, in the 2016-2017 season, NCAA Division One women’s basketball had an average attendance of 1,538 per home game. NCAA Division One men’s basketball had an average of 4,633 fans in attendance per home game. The disparity is not lost on women athletes.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
“It is obvious that there is a big difference in attendance between men’s and women’s sporting events,” said Mackenzie Merkel, a senior on the women’s track and field team at Quinnipiac.
Haldane compared the difference in interest in men’s and women’s athletics to the attitude of the restaurant industry.
“I look at sports as no different. Women are good and competent.. can make a mean stew, but it doesn’t come out of that five-star restaurant,” Haldane said.
Though the difference in attendance is glaring, the female athletes here have learned to focus on the task at hand rather than dwell on the negatives.
“We get a lot of support from the people that we care about,” Schussler said. “In my time here I have learned to not put a lot of emphasis on the outside support of the people that we don’t care about.”
Attorney Duffy believes that no matter how much we worry about attendance or financial attention, the problem is deeper with women’s athletics.
“All these things you’re talking about, we don’t pay as much attention, we don’t need a new stadium because of lack of attendance, is all putting the cart before the horse because if they actually supported them the way they supported men’s, it would change the culture and people would look at them the same way,” Duffy said.
This inequality is a problem that players say still bugs them. But some players say that hope is on the horizon for their beloved sport and women’s athletics in general.
“You can see the following grow, even how small it was, incrementally over the years,” said Tricia Fabbri, head coach of the Quinnipiac women’s basketball. “With the platform that social media has, it has allowed us to grow our fanbase … At each home game it has gotten better and better.”
Even locally the support has picked up, with someone noticing this billboard on 91 this past November.
Haldane believes that journalism is a great starting point to attack this problem.
“I think student journalism can help a lot, you create the news that’s fit to print,” said Haldane. “If women’s lives and stories and women’s sports gets printed, it sets a tone for what people are going to think is normal.”
Women athletes are waiting not only for steady attendance, but also the attention and support from their school that they think they deserve. Incremental growth in both attendance and support is key for women’s athletics at Quinnipiac, according to women’s athletes and coaches. It is on it’s way, but just at it’s own pace.
“There has definitely been a great improvement this year with getting the other sports event out there via Instagram,” Merkel said. “I just think its not much of an interest to the students who come out to those things because there isn’t as much hype around it … I hope [recognition] happens sooner rather than later but I do think it will take some time.”
There was an electric buzz that amplified throughout the 600-seat theater at Hamden High School on March 25, as parents, friends, students and teachers all shuffled into the theater talking intimately, waiting for the lights to dim and the show to begin. They had gathered for a musical performance of “Beauty and the Beast,” put on by 38 teenagers, 11 staff members and the Hamden Department of Fine Arts.
The diverse and rich sounds of the clarinet, flute, violin and cello filled the room as the students took the stage and the infamous classical introduction began to bounce off the walls, mixing with the robust harmonies of the performers.
The spring musical is one of the most elaborate and talked-about performances put on by Hamden High each year – and it’s the most expensive.
Photos courtesy Robert Dauster.
The show cost around $25,000 for the four performances including $4,500 to license the Broadway material, according to drama teacher and director, Marydell Merrill.
Despite the cost, organizers say the experience is invaluable.
“We don’t expect most of our kids to be professional actors and they would be silly too because it’s very hard to make a living,” said Eric Nyquist, who is the director of fine and performing arts for the Hamden School District.
“Theater gives the confidence to speak, to stand up and connect their body and voice,” Nyquist said. “It also teaches them how to problem solve, articulate, improvise, memorize lines in a script, learning how to make a scene believable to an audience and learning how to work as a team.”
The program is also preserving despite statewide budget cuts. Other Hamden High elective classes, teachers, programs and other services are at risk for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
“As an advocate for the educational needs of our children, I have done my best to acknowledge our continued fiscal challenges while seeking to move Hamden Public Schools forward,” Superintendent Jody Goeler said in a statement.
If there is a budget crisis, the town is going to have to make some decisions.
“No one wants to see any of it go, but I’m hoping theater still continues to play a major role,” Merrill said. “This school has a large list of amazing elective classes for the kids so I don’t want theater to be cut, but I wouldn’t want some of the other amazing opportunities for the kids to be cut either.”
The Board of Education approved a budget of $88,520,334. This budget reflects a 4.76 percent budget increase from the 2017-2018 school year. Mayor Curt Leng’s recommended education budget was $86,350,000, but the shortfall between the mayor’s recommended budget is $2,170,334 less than the Board of Education’s approved budget.
“As we have done in the past four years, my budget proposal includes a significant reduction in staff in response to declining enrollment,” Goeler said. “With these strategic reductions, we are able to continue to support initiatives and programs that promote success both in school and in life after graduation.”
So how has this affected Hamden so far?
“Everyone is feeling the effects of the economy especially the state of Connecticut. (It) is a bit of a mess right now with the economy,” Nyquist said. “I can’t speak for this year yet because this is a scary budget year.”
Even though this is considered a scary budget year, Hamden High has a solid well- rounded theater program and Mr. Nyquist said he has faith that the arts won’t be asked to take more of a cut than any other program.
“If we cut the theater teacher that would be the end of the program,” Nyquist said. “They try to not cut programs. They try to figure out ways to slice the budget here and there, but at some point, we may have to make harder decisions. I hope not.”
Nyquist doesn’t see the program going anywhere, though.
“Hamden has always believed that the arts are valuable,” Nyquist said.
This is all thanks to the town’s vocal advocates and passionate students.
Photo courtesy Robert Dauster.
“(Hamden) would definitely be dry,” Ava Purdue, who played Babette in “Beauty and the Beast,” said. “(Theater) brings life not only to the department but to the school. The support and everyone feeling excited is great.”
Freshman Cristian Castro is brand new to the theater department. This was his first audition ever and first time performing on a stage. He played Lumiere and said that the musical changed his life.
“It’s a very strong program,” Castro said. “The director is amazing, Ms. Merrill, she’s amazing. Our choreographer, she’s very driven. We would have to (do the steps) a million times until we got it right.”
He said the community is also great.
“There’s so much support for this program,” Castro said. “There are certain expectations that the audience has when looking forward to our performance. Ms. Merrill pushes us and Ms. Gannon is in full support. She knew what we could do and she supports us the entire time.”
This strong foundation starts at the top and filters down from the superintendent to the mayor to the director.
“We have a very supportive superintendent whose daughter (Emily Goeler, executive assistant to the managing director) works at Long Wharf Theater and he’s a musician,” Nyquist said. “He gets it. He really gets that the arts are valuable not just as a bonus but as an integral part.”
The mayor even brought his family to see “Beauty and the Beast” for the Saturday night performance. In his eyes, the show was a success. He loved the performance so much that he texted Nyquist showing his excitement.
Look who I found at Beauty and the Beast at Hamden HS!!!! Mayor Leng and the family. pic.twitter.com/51jxMDkkGO
“Thanks for everything. The show was amazing. I want to support performances. I don’t want to miss any more shows at Hamden High. Make sure I am kept in the loop,” said Nyquist, while reading a text message between himself and Leng from his cell phone.
In order to keep producing these types of grandiose shows, the department obviously needs financial support. A few years ago, Nyquist was able to increase the production budget.
“They were still working on budgets from 25 years ago when you could do a show for $4,000,” Nyquist said. “We weren’t getting much at all. I was able to a few years ago increase that a little bit. I think it’s something like the middle school gets $7,000 to do their shows the high school gets $10,000 to put on their two shows.”
The musical gets its budget from three different sources. The Hamden Board of Directors, a ‘theater club’ checking account within the school-wide account for Hamden and different sponsors who put ads in the playbill.
One of the sponsors, for example, is Quinnipiac Internal Medicine’s Edward Ripple. Merrill said he donates $2,000 per season — $800 for play and $1,200 for the musical.
There are also some contractual stipend positions for the professional staff. These include Merrill’s directing position, choreographer, musical director, orchestra conductor, costume designer and lighting designer. These positions work one-on-one with the students after hours, mentoring and teaching them during the regular school day.
The investment is well worth it.
“Theater is very important for me now,” Castro said. “That’s what’s on my phone, musical after musical after musical. It’s all that I think about now.”
There’s also a social factor, as well.
Photo courtesy Robert Dauster.
“It has made me friendlier,” said Kevin Cathey, who played Gaston. “I’ve made more friends and I’m much more social. It’s very beneficial.”
The success from this theater department also spans far past the confines of Hamden.
Some legendary alumni include Hamden’s Blessings Offer, a songwriter and musician who graduated from Hamden High in 2007. Offer, who is blind, competed on Season 7 of NBC’s “The Voice.” He had four chair turns and ultimately chose Pharrell Williams as his mentor and coach. He now resides in Nashville.
Photo courtesy Linedy Genao’s Instagram.
There’s also 2009 graduate Linedy Genao.
Genao is a triple-threat performer who sang, acted and danced her way onto the Broadway stage.
“Here I am working at my first post-collegiate job, this bank job in New York City, and on my lunch break I went onto Broadway World and saw an open-call audition for the developmental lab for ‘On Your Feet!’ They were looking for Latino singers, dancers and actors,” Genao said.
“I thought to myself, I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else. So I went and was literally shot out of a canon.”
But in 2014, after Genao auditioned four times, she was chosen to take part in the month-long developmental lab for “On Your Feet” Oct. 27 to Nov. 22 in Chicago.
“I received a call from our casting director, it was like a week before Christmas in 2014,” Genao said. “I was outside of my bank job, on my lunch break, walking around New York City and I received that call and I just started bawling my eyes out.”
Photo courtesy Linedy Genao’s Instagram.
The director then offered Genao not just Chicago, but also New York City — as in Broadway.
“That was incredible because they could have only offered me one,” she said.
Genao was a featured member of the ensemble and served as the understudy for the lead role of Gloria Estefan, Ana Villafane. She was the first person to step into Villafane’s shoes.
Photo courtesy Linedy Genao’s Instagram.
The musical, which tells the life story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, first opened on Broadway Nov. 5, 2015 with preview performances beginning Oct. 5, 2015, at the Marquis Theater in New York City. The show closed on Aug. 20, 2017.
In total, Genao performed on Broadway as Gloria more than 70 times from March 31, 2016 to August 6, 2017 and was a part of the ensemble since day one.
Photo courtesy Linedy Genao’s Instagram.
“You don’t have to go to a fancy theater school to pursue what you love,” Genao said. “If it’s in you, meant for you and the right opportunity is there, the right doors will open for you. You can achieve your dreams with little experience.”
Even though Genao has been singing for her entire life, starting off in church, she wasn’t introduced to theater until she entered the Hamden school system, specifically in middle school, but then later in high school with Nyquist.
Before becoming the director of fine and performing arts, Nyquist was the theater teacher and director for 10 years at Hamden High School. He started in 2002 and had the opportunity to watch Genao grow as a person and performer while nurturing her raw talents along with other influential teachers she had at Hamden High.
“That was when I really discovered my love for theater.” Genao said. “Mr. Nyquist is an incredible teacher, even for kids who just do it for fun, he just sees whatever potential you have. He pulled out whatever potential he really saw in me, thank god and it really changed my life.”
Broadway changed Genao’s trajectory.
“The level and caliber of the Hamden Arts are just way higher than anyone would expect,” Genao said. “The Hamden High School theater department isn’t just a high school theater department, it’s so much more than that.”
Nyquist has inspired countless other students and also plays a big factor in the program’s success to this day.
This year for the first time, any student enrolled in Hamden public schools would be eligible to audition for “The Voice of Hamden,” a vocal competition featuring great singing in Hamden.
“We had 60 kids audition and 10 students were chosen,” Nyquist said.
Ten students from the middle and high schools took part in the Jan. 25 production in front of more than 400 audience members. The show raised $4,000 that went back to the program.
This competition was a Hamden Educational Foundation Event, which builds a brighter future for Hamden’s children. Since 2001, HEF has donated over $590,000. This money benefits Hamden’s students.
The HEF has also awarded 189 Innovative Grants totaling $117,000, which support teacher driven initiatives in all subjects.
“They fundraise all year for the sole purpose of putting it right back into the school,” Nyquist said. “It’s a great, great cause.”
Offer, the competitor from NBC’s “The Voice,” put on an intermission concert for the audience and let the kids sing on stage with him.
Eighth-grader, Mae Valerio, who attends Hamden Middle School, performed “Never Grow Up” by Taylor Swift. She played the guitar and ended up taking home the grand prize.
“Oh yeah, she’s ridiculous. I cried during her song,” said Genao, who helped judge the competition along with Stacie Morgain Lewis and T. Sean Maher.
“It was so cool and such a fun night full of love and joy!” Genao said. “I’ve been back to Hamden High a couple of times beforehand but being back here for this was just awesome. Just knowing that there are other things that Hamden is doing to encourage kids and just expose them is incredible.”
Photo courtesy Linedy Genao’s Instagram.
The students in Hamden have the rare opportunity to do what they love with full support from everyone.
Even though practicing and performing could be stressful, most students and parents are eternally grateful, especially those who were given the opportunity to perform in “Beauty and the Beast.”
“I enjoyed it being very strict and focused,” Castro said. “Sometimes it was a little much. Sometimes it was a long day. We would have a five-hour rehearsal and they would be a little hard on us, but it did push us. They did everything the right way. They knew what they were doing.”
Others say it was stressful due to the number of snow days Hamden had.
“We missed eight or so rehearsals including our final dress because of the snow,” Cathey said. “We had field trip days and missed classes to rehearse until 10 p.m. to catch up sometimes. But, it’s a positive thing because the community helps you get through the day.”
Overall, the end result always seems to be worth it.
“(Merrill) is a very serious teacher,” said Corinne Castro, mother of Cristian Castro who played Lumiere. “She demands a lot. It’s a big commitment and you can’t go halfway, but she really pulls fantastic performances out the kids.”
Castro now feels woven into the multi-faceted fabric of Hamden High.
“It’s definitely not normal to say that someone who is on an athletic team who is a guy to be doing musicals as well,” Castro, who plays soccer at Hamden High, said. “I definitely had to ignore people who were saying some stuff on my soccer team, but once I got into the theater program, it was like a whole new family. We aren’t just friends. They take you in and you can’t leave them because they are there for you. It’s truly the greatest thing.”
Click each picture to learn more about the graduates.
Purchasing a small home in Wallingford, buying a brand new luxury Audi and the tuition for a private school in Connecticut. What do these all have in common? They cost upwards of $70,000.
This year Trinity College in Hartford raised its tuition and fees to this hefty price tag and it’s not the only school that is increasing tuition.
Quinnipiac Commencement 2017, Credit: Quinnipiac University
For the 2017-18 school year, the price for both tuition and room and board at Quinnipiac University was $63,770 with tuition growing by 6.5 percent from the school year before, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. While 95 percent of students receive aid and 93 percent attain scholarships, this still means most students will be in debt of more than six figures upon graduation, according to NCES.
With the price tag of a degree so high, some students say they feel pressure to major in a field where they’ll make enough money to pay back their loans and may decide to choose a job outside their path to make enough to support themselves.
But many students say they are aware of the costs and still only put some thought into their future salaries when choosing their major, according to a survey of 59 Quinnipiac students.
In 2017, 43 students graduated from Quinnipiac with a journalism degree.
The average salary for a news reporter in the market size of 151 and higher, which are the stations with the least number of viewers per area, is $26,000 according to the Radio Television Digital News Association. Usually, entry-level reporters must start in a small market in order to build their reputations and improve their on-air presence.
Victoria Saha, who graduated in 2017, is one of these people.
As a multimedia news reporter for WAOW in Wausau, Wisconsin, Saha is an hourly employee making $12 an hour. If she signs a two-year contract after her three month “trial” when she and the station decide if she should continue, she will be making $24,000 a year.
“It’s kind of sad, no?” Saha asked. “That doesn’t really cut it, you know, with taxes and everything. I mean the cost of living here is cheap, but sometimes I feel like it’s not enough.”
Saha applied to more than 300 jobs and was without work from the time she graduated in May until she was hired seven months later.
While this salary isn’t one any student would hope to start out with, Lila Carney, the director of advising and student development for the Quinnipiac School of Communications, said this is something students in this field usually know going in.
“I think students in journalism are aware of the fact that those first jobs in no-mans-land may not pay all that great,” Carney said. “But if you do a little bit of sacrificing eventually you make it to a market where you are making OK money. So that little time that you’re sacrificing is generally a short period of time.”
From the time you are a child, you’re asked who you want to be when you grow up. You’re told to “reach for the stars” and “follow your dreams.” When you apply for college you’re told to find what you love.
But you’re never told that doing what you love could mean a salary where you could qualify for food stamps.
From one end of the communications department to another, Mike Bonavita is feeling the same struggle.
Bonavita, a senior film major, said if you want to make it in film, you know you’ll probably be starting as an assistant or in the mail room.
“It’s basically where you want to be and there’s a lot of success stories that come out of the mail room,” Bonavita said. “In film as a (production assistant) you’re not making much. The film industry is tricky that if you’re really dedicated and you really want to do it you’re going to be working the crappy hours and the crappy days.”
But the job front isn’t just an issue for communications majors.
When you think of someone starting out in acting, “struggling” is probably a word that comes to mind. It’s no secret it’s tough to break into this job.
Ryan Devaney, a senior theater arts major, knows this too.
In his first year out of college he hopes to buy a computer, purchase editing software and get a microphone to start a YouTube channel to play songs.
This stepping stone for him is just one step toward his dream of opening his own theater.
“None of that can happen unless I have a stable income,” Devaney said. “I won’t be able to create my art unless I have a job. It will happen on my off time that I deal with creating art.”
But finding that job is also something he has found issue with.
“Right now I don’t have anything set currently in my mind,” Devaney said. He also knows he has a little more leeway than other people in his major to find a job since his father is a public safety officer at the university and thus he went to school tuition free.
According to NBC News, three in every four millenials, or people born between 1981 and 1996, are in some type of debt, whether this debt be through student loans or credit card debt.
Kevin Daly, an assistant professor of theater at Quinnipiac, knows that the school comes with a hefty price tag which could keep theater majors from wanting to come to an expensive school like Quinnipiac. For this reason, he said the department will be starting a theater three-plus-one program this fall so students can follow their passion in obtaining a theater degree while also graduating with a masters in business.
But working the smaller jobs is no surprise to a theater major, and with just 16 people in the department, each student is taught that in this major, you must follow three points to succeed, according to Daly. Constantly working on your art, networking with people in your chosen industry and using “survivability skills” – like finding a job outside of film to have a stable income – Daly said are imperative to finding a job as an artist.
For this reason, Daly advises his student to double major in other specialties like communications, film or even math to help them find jobs that will pay while also working on their art and networking.
It’s not just a matter of landing a job that pays a livable wage, it may also be a matter of finding a job at all in tight markets.
Liam Kenney, a senior biomedical marketing major, is as worried as Devaney.
“It’s been quite the struggle at this point,” Kenney said. “A lot of the pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, they want experience. It’s difficult to find that experience because we’re entry level people.”
Kenney said once he does nail down a job, starting salaries in his business aren’t what he hoped they would be.
“It’s hard because when you start off in marketing and sales you start off with very low pay,” Kenney said after applying for one job at $45,000. “You don’t make commission in your first year and after your first year they cut you salary by $10,000 because you can start making commission.”
Both Bonavita and Kenney expressed their struggles with finding a job that paid the bills while also making enough to pay off Quinnipiac’s large tuition and student loans.
When students come into school, they often aren’t thinking about finding a job when they graduate because it’s so far down the line. For some majors like with Devaney, Kenney and Saha, a job is tough to find, but with others a job is everything but guaranteed when they graduate.
All majors pay the same tuition, but some have better starting opportunities than others.
In a Quinnipiac survey about majors and salaries, the majority of respondents said they felt very confident they’d attain a job after graduation with only two respondents saying they felt very uncertain about getting a job.
The poll went from one being very likely to five being very unlikely.
The Quinnipiac School of Communications and Engineering might hold classes for both majors, but once the classroom doors close and the jobs start, the majors couldn’t be more different.
Nik Griswold, a mechanical engineering major, chose to major in engineering when he arrived on campus rather than his initial choice of business because there are more opportunities.
“I wanted to get a job so I picked engineering,” Griswold said. “Demand is high, where the world is going to is very (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) based. Everybody wants to be technical.”
Janine Jay, a computer software engineering major already has a job after graduation with Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston after meeting with a representative at the Grace Hopper Celebration this year in Orlando, Florida.
She chose between three job offers. Jay said while engineering does have monetary benefits and she knew a starting salary was around $50,000 and moves up fast, she went in to engineering because for her, it was just fun.
“While everyone else was taking exams, I was building a video game,” Jay said.
Like Jay, James Studley, a computer information systems major, accepted his first job before his senior year began, accepting an offer to work as a systems engineer for Fidelity Investments in Rhode Island.
According to Studley and Payscale.com, the average salary for a CIS major coming out of Quinnipiac is about $65,000 with a $5,000 signing bonus. Studley will be starting out making $68,500 with a $5,000 signing bonus and will have $2,000 worth of his student loans paid for by Fidelity every year for five years.
“I feel like it made this year, it like took so much stress off,” Studley said. “I would be a lot more stressed right now if I was looking for a job especially with student loans starting up.”
The Connecticut Whale celebrating a goal (credit: Michael Hertzel)
By Sam Prevot
Cydney Roesler first stepped on the ice when she was 5 years old.
Her father was a former college hockey player for Colgate University and taught her how to skate along with her mother. This is normal for a kid growing up in Canada, where ice sports are a way of life. At 8 years old, she made the switch from a Canadian sport called ringette to hockey. She immediately fell in love with the game. Even at a young age, Roesler was competitive and this fast, physical game was a perfect match. However, there was one catch: Roesler had to play with boys.
“There weren’t any good, competitive girls’ leagues at that time so I felt like boys hockey was my only option,” Roesler said. “People would always ask me, ‘Did the boys try to hit you all the time?’ and to be honest some of them did.”
For Roesler and so many other girls, the opportunity to watch their role models only came once every four years.
“For me it was tough growing up because I wasn’t really exposed to female hockey players … it was really just every four years,” she said. “You watched the Olympics and that was kind of it.”
Roesler on the ice for the Connecticut Whale of the NWHL (credit: Rob Rasmussen)
Roesler started playing girls hockey in high school and then played for the Quinnipiac University women’s ice hockey team.
Since the passing of Title IX, opportunities for women in sports have increased dramatically. However, there is still a long way to go when it comes to professional women’s sports. In professional women’s sports leagues are much smaller, teams struggle to put fans in seats and media coverage is lacking.
Women’s hockey has progressed since Roesler’s childhood. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2007 and the National Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2015, during Roesler’s junior year at Quinnipiac. She now plays for the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale.
The NWHL is just three seasons old. The league’s only broadcasting deal is with Twitter, to stream a “Game of the Week”, and three out of the four teams are still league-owned.
Attendance was high in the inaugural season, with an average of 1,000 people attending each game. Now, that average is closer to 750 people. Salaries are also an issue for the league, some players have been downgraded from a set salary to now receiving payments for each game they play. Most players have other full time jobs in addition to playing NWHL games on the weekends.
The Women’s National Basketball Association is a more established league, but it faces similar questions about attendance and salaries.
The WNBA celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. The league has a television deal with ESPN and a few of its teams have partnerships with their NBA counterparts. Average attendance continued to decline, but resurged and reached its highest levels since 2011 last season.
Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA regular season and finals MVP in 2017, and was paid a salary of $109,000. The NBA minimum salary is more than $562,000.
Amber Cox, vice president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, sees the league as a growing business that needs more commitment from fans.
“There’s a patience involved when it comes to building a fan base. In this day and age you can survive and be a growing sport,” Cox said.
“I think sometimes the miss is with fans, they’re sort of casual about it. When I’m talking to potential season ticket holders, you think you’re supporting us by coming to three games and watching us on TV and reading about us in the paper, but the way that we are going to continue to have financial success and grow this thing … is by full season tickets … Take that commitment up. If you say that to people, typically the light will go on.”
There is a disconnect in our society when it comes to men’s and women’s sports. The widely held belief is that a men’s professional sport will be of higher quality and entertainment value than women’s.
Quinnipiac sociology professor Devon Gross who teaches “Sociology of Sport” says that looking at women’s and men’s sports differently is a learned behavior based on gender constructs and the way we socialize.
“We’ve always associated masculinity and sports together,” she said. “We think of sports as aggressive and violent and competitive and those are all things we associate with men more than women. We’ve been socialized and told constantly that sports and men go together. So when women are playing sports we don’t really know how to react to that.”
There is a cultural belief that women are not as good at sports as men, and to watch women’s sports is to “settle.” There is also the comparison of women to men and the idea that female athletes are less feminine because they play sports.
“Anyone who is associated with that we automatically think of as having masculine traits. That’s where there’s the stereotype that women athletes are lesbians or that they’re more masculine,” Gross said. “There seems to be a pretty strict binary in sports and you’re either doing girls sports or boys sports and if you cross the line in any way we’re pretty uncomfortable about it.”
There is also the issue of sexualization of female athletes. Scholars say that the way male and female athletes are represented in the media is designed to “uphold sport as a male preserve” and there is still embedded sexism.
Cydney Roesler believes games like the gold medal finals between the United States and Canada’s women’s hockey teams in the Winter Olympics prove that the sport can be exciting and draw audiences.
“There shouldn’t be that disconnect between the two (men’s and women’s hockey),” she said. “Even games in our league, it gets pretty fired up. It gets physical and everything like that. It’s kind of like ‘Hey, here are the aspects the men’s game has that we’re bringing to ours too,’ why aren’t people more drawn to it? A lot of people watch hockey because they think it’s so tough with the fighting and the hits. We’re not going to fight … but we’re still physical, we’re fast, we’re skilled.”
The University of Minnesota is home to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. In an article titled Playing but Losing: Women’s Sports after Title IX, Tucker Center researchers discuss the inequalities between men’s and women’s sports that still exist today after laws like Title IX were passed.
One particular issue mentioned is media coverage of women’s sports. Although broadcast coverage of women’s sports has increased and improved in quality, this change has not translated to newspapers, magazines or televised news and highlight shows.
The article cites a 2010 study by the University of Southern California that found that ESPN aired 100 segments and over three hours for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and 11 segments and just six and a half minutes for the women’s tournament. That coverage of the women’s tournament was mostly a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen.
The Hartford Courant covers the Connecticut Sun’s home games, and some away games depending on how the team’s season is going. Jeff Smith, deputy sports editor at the Courant, says that the paper’s coverage is all about which teams are successful.
“Like any other industry that’s trying to find its way through financial challenges, we have to make choices,” Smith said. “So we can’t cover everything … when the team (Connecticut Sun) was not so good, we had to make choices and spread our resources. We would always have Sun coverage in the paper but not always with a reporter. But then last year, when the team did better … clearly that shifts the way we cover them.”
When Sports Editor Sean Barker started at the New Haven Register in 2000, there were 28 sports writers on staff. Now among three of the papers owned by Hearst in the area, there are six.
Barker believes in fair coverage for men’s and women’s sports. But he admits that traditional beliefs from older journalists and a small staff can affect coverage of women’s sports. The Register’s Connecticut Whale coverage consists of one feature per season.
“Women’s sports have come a long way in media coverage, but there is still a fight for media space. I get challenged by this every day,” Barker said. “There’s some arguments that there’s more media coverage on a television level that leads to people wanting to know more about men’s sports. Then there’s the basic argument that honestly people don’t give women’s sports the respect that they deserve.”
When it comes to these coverage choices, Barker points out that the media could sometimes create more readership for the sport instead of the sport dictating the coverage.
“Does attendance rise because there’s more media coverage, or do you get more media coverage because your attendance is higher? It’s an interesting dynamic. So if we covered the National Women’s Hockey League on a consistent basis, how would that affect attendance? It would probably go up.”
For the Connecticut Sun, Cox thinks the team should take matters into their own hands and help bring attention to the sport and the players.
“There is always more opportunity (for media coverage),” Cox said. “One of the things I tell my team all the time is that we have to continue to be responsible for telling our own story. If LeBron tweets something about something political or the type of cereal he likes, everybody retweets it and the media picks it up and they talk about it. We don’t necessarily have that critical mass on a national level.”
At the end of the day, Roesler and Cox are both optimistic about the future of women’s hockey and basketball. Rising attendance, increased coverage and social media presence are all creating a loyal fanbase for the NWHL and WNBA to build a foundation on and young girls have more role models to look up to.
“You’re just now getting to the point where WNBA players grew up watching the WNBA,” Cox said. “That is creating a cycle of ‘I know I can do this for a living, I can earn a living playing in the WNBA’ and as a result are training for it.”
Roesler recognizes loyal fans at games and at the team’s postgame signings. She sees that as a sign that the future is bright for the sport.
“There’s definitely that fan loyalty,” she said. “And you start to see the same little girls coming to the games … so you see new faces but then again you see those returners who just love to be there. For little girls now they can come watch us and dream and hope they’ll be where we are.”
Most basements are dead places, where things deemed too valuable to throw out but not worth enough to keep in easy reach are stored, but not this basement-style room. It teems with 20 vibrant television screens connected to Nintendo WII video game machines. The sounds of characters from the game Mario Super Smash Bros. mix vibrantly with the often shrill voices of young people expressing surprise, frustration and the other emotions that accompany esports.
In Wallingford, Connecticut, every Thursday night the organization Hall of Gaming (HoG), hosts a Mario Super Smash Bros. event, called the “Hall of Gaming Melee Weekly.” According to Hall of Gaming employee Sean Thomas O’Connor, the weekly melee tournaments are the biggest of their kind in Connecticut.
Hall of Gaming’s Melee Weekly is held every Thursday night at 150 Center Street Wallingford, Connecticut.
“So you pay five dollars for the venue as a thank you to the owner for letting us use this space, and then five dollars to enter the singles bracket, and then I calculate all that money. Then I pay out to the top three,” said O’Connor, who is also a student at Quinnipiac University in nearby Hamden, Connecticut.
O’Conner notes that there is a range in the amount of money winners take home.
“You can walk out of here with anywhere from $50, to I’ve seen people walk out of here with $500,” said O’Connor. “Big or small we always have a good time here at HoG. We’re kind of like a tight-knit family in that sense.”
The Hall of Gaming snack bar with Hall of gaming employee and QU student Sean Thomas O’Connor
Mario Super Smash Bros. Melee was released on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2001.
So what is “esports” anyway? Well, basically “esports” is what has developed out of playing video games on a competitive level. It has turned the competitive playing of video games into a sport. Playing esports can be done on an individual level, but mostly it’s played through teams.
Free streaming services like Twitch and YouTube allow anyone with a Wi-Fi connection to watch various esports tournaments and matches. These internet services give gamers the opportunity to watch their favorite esports athletes, mostly for free.
Esports is a rapidly growing industry around the world and according to Newzoo, an esports market research firm. The esports industry is expected to have a worldwide audience of over 557 million people by 2021. In Connecticut, esports programs and teams have made their way into high schools across the state, a prime example is the esports team in the New London Public Schools.
this chart shows the current as well as projected worldwide esports audience Size
Tyler Schrodt, the founder and CEO of the Electronic Gaming Federation, said that esports have changed into something more important than the original goal. Esports isn’t just a game, he says, but it can also give players a community that they can’t find elsewhere.
“It’s evolved beyond just the idea of people playing against each other in video games, into something that really makes a real impact for a lot of people,” Schrodt said.
League of Legends, made by publisher Riot Games, is the most popular esports game. It has more 100 million monthly active users, or MAU, according to research firm SuperData. MAU is a key figure used to measure the popularity of digital applications and games. In the MOBA game League of Legends each team has to work together using strategy to destroy what’s known in the game as a nexus in the center of each team’s base. Last year’s League of Legends World Championship had a nearly $5 million prize pool.
Arguably the most successful esports athlete Lee Sang-hyeok, also known as “Faker” has earned over $900,000 in prize money playing League of Legends. It has been rumored that “Faker” was offered a $2.5 million per year contract extension to resign with his team SK Telecom T1, after they won their third League of Legends World Championship.
Dota 2, made by publisher Valve Software, is another popular MOBA esports game that has more than 12 million monthly active users, according to SuperData The Dota 2 World Championship boasts one of the biggest prize pools for an esports tournament, with nearly a $24 million prize pool.
Statistics show how much money the esports industry is making, how many people watch esports and how valuable the esports industry will be in the future, according to a Morgan Stanley report titled “Have eSports Hit the Majors?”
“Esports is on track to be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020 as it emulates the business models of major league sports, complete with sponsorships, advertising, media rights, ticket sales and merchandise,” according to the Morgan Stanley report.The report’s statistics show that the esports industry was worth approximately $700 million in 2017.
“In 2017, esports attracted an audience of more than 380 million, 20 percent increase from the year prior,” according to Newzoo, an esports market research firm, cited in the Morgan Stanley report.
this chart analyzes the number of global online esports viewers vs. us sporting event tv viewers
Vince Nairn, managing editor of DBLTAPESPORTS, a media company focused on the coverage of esports using a combination of fan generated media with traditional sports journalism elements said, “Video games have always been popular and as technology has advanced and as kids today have lived their entire lives in the digital age (and a growing one at that), that interest has gone beyond just playing games with the handful of friends who live on your block.”
Nairn went on to explain, “We have a giant mass of people in the 13-24 age range. That demographic is the most desirable for advertisers because it’s huge.” He went on, “So you have this giant mass of young people and a lot of people interested in trying to reach them, and that’s why you’ve seen so much investment and sponsorship from non-endemics. Everybody wants a part of esports because it’s young and it’s trending up.”
Professional sports teams have started to get in on the esports action as well. For example, several of the world’s biggest soccer clubs have started to sign their own EA Sports FIFA esports athletes.
In 2016 English Premier League Club Manchester City signed Kieran Brown, also known as “Kez,” to be Manchester City’s official esports FIFA pro. Since Manchester City’s first FIFA pro mostly played on the XBOX, in December 2017 Manchester City signed a second FIFA pro, Marcus Jorgensen, also known as “ExpectSporting,” becoming Manchester City’s dedicated PlayStation 4 FIFA pro.
Marcus “ExpectSporting” Jorgensen Manchester City’s EA Sports FIFA pro. Image via his Twitter @Marcuzo45
Blizzard Entertainment, creators of the First-Person-Shooter game Overwatch, this year introduced the first season of The Overwatch League, which Blizzard intends to run like a traditional sports league. The inaugural season of The Overwatch League features 12 teams from all over the world including New York, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, Seoul, London, Shanghai, and two teams in Los Angeles.
The Overwatch League Logo. Picture Via The Overwatch League
The first Overwatch League season will take place in Los Angeles, with plans for home and away games in the future. Each of the 12 teams in the Overwatch League paid $20 million for a franchise spot and some of the owners of the Overwatch League teams include traditional sports team owners like New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, who owns the Boston Overwatch League team, and Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, who owns the New York Overwatch League team. With no revenue sharing until 2021 other prospective owners will have to wait and see if owning an Overwatch League team is a profitable venture.
The Logos of All 12 Teams in The Overwatch League. Picture Via The Overwatch League
When asked if traditional sports teams will continue to invest in esports, Nairn said that, “In the short term, definitely. I expect more of that to continue in the short term.” But Nairn isn’t sure that the investment in esports will continue in the long term, “So much money has gone into esports, and not a ton of those investors have gotten money back out of it, at least to this point. That’s going to need to change for people to continue to think their investments are worthwhile.”
High School esports In Connecticut and The Electronic Gaming Federation
Organizations like the Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF) have partnered with various gaming clubs in high schools in Connecticut to help create an esports league for Connecticut high schools. The EGF also helped Connecticut’s high school esports league become an official partner with Connecticut’s state high school sports organization known as CASCIAC.
The EGF was created in 2013 and according to its founder and CEO Tyler Schrodt, EGF’s goal is, “to do what the NCAA does for traditional sports, but apply it to esports.”
The EGF oversees both a high school and a collegiate esports league and according to Schrodt, the EGF wants its league to have a similar kind of professionalism that traditional sports organizations like the NCAA have. According to Schrodt, the EGF also works with various high schools across the country to help them build their esports programs.
The EGF Logo. Picture Via The EGF Website
“We (The EGF) also spend a lot of time working with individual schools to build their programs from the ground up,” Schrodt said. “We spend a lot of time helping to educate staff. We help them figure out what their program is going to look like, establish their goals and assist them up to the point of helping them design their facilities.”
The EGF also does all of its own event production and broadcasts. They even have their own esports broadcast training program that educates people interested in producing and commentating in the esports world and about what it takes to get a job.
According to Schrodt, the EGF often faces knowledge gap challenges when it helps high schools create esports teams and programs. The EGF helps explain what esports are, to students, parents, teachers and administrators who are unsure of what it is. The EGF also helps set realistic goals for the high school esports programs, as well as helps them reach those goals. EGF is working on expanding to other states besides Connecticut, but has yet to identify the states. The main tool that EGF has used to promote its services is through word of mouth.
“We put a lot of effort into enabling our members to talk completely about what they’re doing with their programs and how we as EGF can help new programs find their feet in esports,” Schrodt said. “Beyond that, we generate as much content as we can and make sure that we’re visible at conferences and wherever else students or administrators might have an opportunity to interact with us.”
One of the school districts in Connecticut where EGF helped develop an esports program is the New London Public School District. Clint Kennedy, who holds a doctorate degree and is the director of Innovation Technology for the New London Public Schools, decided to start a gaming club for the New London Public Schools after he saw a few of his students playing League of Legends during their free time.
After Kennedy started playing League of Legends with his students, Kennedy realized that games followed a pattern common to all technological developments. It required collaboration, research and critical thinking. During the first year of New London’s gaming club, about 80 high school students showed up for every gaming club meeting. This led Kennedy to approach the New London Public School administration about starting an esports team.
After an inconsistent first season for New London’s esports team, the students of New London and Kennedy decided that they wanted to start an esports league for Eastern Connecticut. While earning his doctorate at UConn one of his professors connected him with a guy named Andrew Cutter who worked at EGF and is currently the Operations Architect for EGF. In the summer before the 2016-2017 school year, Kennedy worked side by side with EGF and 15 high school students from Eastern Connecticut for eight days over the summer to create all the rules, marketing strategies and the ins and outs of the Eastern Connecticut esports League.
“EGF did some pro bono work to really help guide us in the creation of the league,” Kennedy said. “EGF also recommended that we open it up (the league) to the entire state.” EGF helped assist Kennedy and his students at New London as they pitched the idea of making their esports an official recognized student activity by the CASCIAC. “Once CASCIAC blessed it EGF became the official organizing body of the league.”
The New London esports program is not funded by the school system. Instead, it raises money on its own with tournaments and other events. The program does its own fundraising and they have monthly tournaments The Friday night fights tournament is among the most popular,, with funds raised through a $5 or whatever gamers can afford, admissions fee and the sale of food and beverages.
Collegiate esports
Esports has also started to make waves at the collegiate level with over 50 schools having their own varsity esports programs. Robert Morris University Illinois located in Chicago, was the first school to offer a partial scholarship for esports athletes for their League of Legends team back in 2014.
Robert Morris University Illinois esports Team Logo. Photo Via Robert Morris University’s esports Team Twitter @RMUesports
Lebanon Valley College (LVC), located in Annville, Pennsylvania, started its collegiate esports program last December. According to Director of esports Operations, David Shapiro, LVC treats its esports athletes and teams the same way they treat their traditional athletes and teams.
“At LVC we look at esports as a varsity sport,” Shapiro said. “Our esports athletes are a part of our athletic department, they have specific meeting times, specific measurements they have to meet, training schedules, coaches. We really treat it as an athletic organization and we maintain it as a full varsity level team.”
LVC has a Hearthstone, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Rocket League esports team. According to Shapiro, Lebanon Valley’s esports athletes practice Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about two-three hours when they aren’t competing. When they are competing they only practice for about one-two hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Even though LVC plans to start offering partial esports scholarships in the fall of 2019, Shapiro believes divisions similar to how the NCAA has DI, DII and DIII will form after esports scholarships become more prevalent.
“I think what will end up happening as more colleges and universities join esports on the varsity level and colleges see an opportunity to offer scholarships or incentivize coming to play there, it will kind of like NCAA, it will create divisions,” Shapiro said. “Those divisions will be those who offer full rides and those who don’t. We play Boise State (a school with over 22,000 students compared to LVC’s 1,700 students) and I’m not sure if we will in the future.”
Mark Deppe the Acting Director of UC Irvine’s esports program believes that esports scholarships haven’t had that big of an impact on collegiate esports yet.
“There are only a few schools that have esports program scholarships for League of Legends or Overwatch that are good,” Deppe said. “Schools that were historically good at esports, and I would count UCI in that group, are still good at esports. Last year when Maryville won the national title for League of Legends, it was the first time a scholarship team had won the national title. In Overwatch, we were the only scholarship team that was in the finals and we ended up losing to a non-scholarship team.”
Maryville University won the college title for League of Legends in 2017
Professional, high school and collegiate esports are on the way up the and the future of esports looks very bright, but there are still some important questions for esports going forward. Mark Deppe, Acting Director of UC Irvine, raises one of the biggest questions going forward for esports, how long the current popular esports games will last.
“I’m not gonna promise that League of Legends and Overwatch and the games of today are going to be around 20 years from now,” Deppe said. “I think things will change and evolve faster, that’s just the world we live in now. Esports will be the new frontier of competition, I don’t think we are going to be playing football forever, and all the sports that we are playing right now forever, and I think esports will be in a good position to kind of take over that space in our hearts and minds.”
Shapiro, said that he believes more schools will start to have more varsity esports programs in the near future and that esports will become as commercially popular as traditional sports.
“In the next five years most colleges will have a varsity level esports program or will be in position to create one,” Shapiro said. “I think that major networks will air esports on TV seasonally, if not always. The market will continue to grow, we will one day see a Super Bowl commercial with Alienware or ASUS or Samsung or somebody that has two or three of the major players or teams in it. It’s not going away it’s only going to grow.”
When asked about the future of esports, Vince Nairn, managing editor of DBLTAPESPORTS said, “Whether that growth is sustainable or not? That’s the question that everybody is trying to answer. But the growth to this point has been undeniable.”
“I don’t think esports will ever fully be mainstream. And that’s OK. It can have its functional niche in the gaming and entertainment world, and a lot of people can be successful,” Nairn said.
Nairn went on, “But I don’t think esports needs to be seen as a traditional sport, or esports athletes being considered “real” athletes. That’s a debate going on in the industry right now about that, and it’s just pointless to me. Esports athletes are the best in the world in their profession, just as the NBA players are the best in the world at their profession and the top musical artists are the best in the world at their profession. It doesn’t matter how they’re classified, or if people believe they’re “athletes” or not.”
The rise of esports is evident in the number of participants and the growing list of schools that are fielding teams. Its future looks bright, as the buy in and financial investment from the established sports world continues to grow. It appears to be making a successful transition from the fringes of the sports world, to the sports mainstream. The development of both high school and college programs will only help in this transition.
